Community College for Crafters...

[VoodistMonk]

Given that even NPC classes, Barbarians, and big dumb Fighters get Craft as a class skill, I find it relatively safe to assume that you could assemble a diverse group of crafters on any given day...

So, would it be too far of a stretch to have academies/colleges/forums/guilds of persons that spend time crafting spell components?

Like the marked sticks (Ogham fews) worth 25gp for casting Augury, for example. Or miniature shovels worth 10gp for casting Create Pit... Doesn't matter, really.

Could be an interesting use of Leadership. And may lessen the financial burden associated with casting some spells. Suddenly, tiny silver bells and glass spheres and platinum monocles and darkwood carvings of trees and bejeweled cold iron mirrors and silver needles and white silk gloves are readily available... and at a discount price, too!

Could probably make a pretty good profit running a magical reagent shop... all your alchemical and magical needs under one roof... join our loyalty/rewards program for a members-only discount...

[OmniMage]

Interesting idea.

I've toyed with the idea of a high Int character that picked up a bunch of crafting skills. With an Int of 20 (+5 bonus), you would only need 2 ranks in a craft skill to make masterwork items (2 ranks + 3 class skill + 5 Int). With masterwork crafting tools, you would only need 1 skill rank (cause you won't get the class skill bonus with 0 ranks). Craft alchemy seems to be the only skill that has a DC of 25. That would require 7 skill ranks.

With the fabricate spell, costly magical components can be made in an instant. Trying to fabricate the components for something expensive could take years to complete. For example, making the focus components for a secret chest spell the slow way will take years to complete (5000 gp / 40 gp per week = 125 weeks). It would take 1.25 weeks for the miniature (50 gp).

[Diego Rossi]

You can make it with the downtime rules in Ultimate Campaign. Most of the magic shops' activities will be gathering all kinds of spell components to make spell pouches to sell, and the refills for those that are half-used (PCs normally pay a monthly cost of living that includes things like refilling spell pouches, sleeping rooms and so on). Plus making inks for scribing scrolls and gathering material for enchanting magic items.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I mean, of course these places exist. They are tinkers and travelers on the road, the witch's hut with all their weird fetishes and carvings, the wizard's academy with the students paying their way by crafting, an Arcanist's guild that sells these crafted trinkets to keep their coffers full to pay ransoms, and so on.

Like, you could literally have anyone, anywhere, crafting these items for you. Since the vast majority don't need to be masterwork quality, you could even employ folks with no ranks in the Craft skill!

If you want to do this as a PC, there are Teams you can hire using the Downtime rules, or you could even make a whole Business around this; the Leadership feat allows you to supply Followers to create Teams under the same Downtime rules; there are Hirelings you can hire, rules around Contacts and getting them to loan you stuff (perhaps spell foci?), and so on.

Last but not least, you can always craft this stuff on your own. A PC with 1 rank in Craft and a 16 Int has a +7 to make an item. Appropriate crafts would be, but aren't limited to: Carpentry, Glass, Jewelry, Leather, Pottery, Sculpture, and Stonemasonry. Remember: Craft is an Untrained skill so if you don't have the right type of Craft skill you can still attempt it.

For the first couple levels of spells, foci and rare components are not overly expensive. A PC with a +7 Craft check making an average complexity item (DC 15) can take 10 with mundane tools and generate 255 SP worth of items in a week. I use a 5 day work week in my own worlds for convenient division, meaning that PC can make 51 SP or 5.1 GP worth of stuff every 8 hours.

Create Pit is a L2 Sorcerer/Wizard spell requiring a miniature shovel costing 10 GP. I would reasonably let a PC with Craft: Jewelry create that item with a DC 15 complexity. Again, it'd take about 2 days, or 16 hours worth of work. Maybe they can fit that in during 2 days of Downtime, or maybe they squeeze in a couple hours here and there over the next 8 days straight of adventuring. They just need to have spent 3.33 GP before hand on the materials.

If you're looking for ways to slip this kind of service into a campaign, the possibilities are endless and need not even be in a settlement. What about nomadic kobolds that use their own crafting skills, occasional access to arcane magic and extreme resourcefulness who traverse dungeons; they find stranded spellcasters and offer them foci or holy symbols for higher-than-normal prices; perhaps a moonlit glen leads to a group of sprites willing to whip up a commissioned item in a single night, but they require something other than gold for payment.

[Oli Ironbar]

Just started this in my Kingmaker campaign. Took a week to train one follower into a level of Medium, now I have them at a pyramid of other follower/teachers who can Seance their way into ranks into any craft, profession, or perform.

Right now the capital city is only a few hundred people, but even when its population is in the thousands there will be enough free classes to train and retrain the common laborers from 5 sp a week into a beefy average 7.5gp (assuming 1 rank, 3 class bonus, and at least a +1 on their ability bonus).