Craft (Alchemy) Questions

[Telas]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is this a correct interpretation of Craft (Alchemy)?

To make a Thunderstone (300SP), I need a DC25 roll. If I roll a 25 and multiply it by the DC, I get a minimum of 625, which allows me to make the stone in roughly three days.

So I can either fail the check entirely (potentially destroying some of my raw materials), or succeed by a factor of more than 2...?

According to the rules, if I make the roll, but don't get enough to immediately succeed, I Craft a portion of the item, and can try again next week. I don't see any items in the book (aside from the Masterwork aspect) where this rule applies at all. I've gone through most of the other items you can Craft, and it's the same story: Failure or phenomenal succeess.

Am I missing something here? Thanks for any clarification.

Telas

 

[Crothian]

No, that's about right. My dwarf has a hobby of carving strone holy symbols. On a successful rool he beats the SP of them by like a factor of 10. It is a bit silly but it seems to wotrk as crafting is never a really big part of the game.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I don't see any items in the book (aside from the Masterwork aspect) where this rule applies at all.

Have you tried looking at crafting armor or weapons?

Those tend to take a fairly long time - and a ridiculously long time if you want to make them mithral or adamantine.

 

[Telas]

Have you tried looking at crafting armor or weapons?

Those tend to take a fairly long time - and a ridiculously long time if you want to make them mithral or adamantine.

I had a long analysis of the Craft skill written, but it basically boils down to this: Craft (Alchemy) DCs are really high compared on a per-price basis with the other Craft skills. The only thing on there with near the DCs are Masterwork quality and "complex or superior items (locks)", both at DC20.

Example: Sunrods are a DC25, and cost 2GP. Nothing else on the chart is a DC25 (except other alchemical goods).

Sounds like a House Rule on the way....

Telas

 

[Crothian]

The more difficult the item, the higher the DC. THe Higher the DC the faster one crafts it. No it doesn't make sense but its not that big o deal.

 

[Demoquin]

Its not just automatic success or failure. If you roll high enough and dont beat the DC you record the amount of coin that you 'made' in your item. Next week, add the amount of coin to the new amount of coin. If that beats the Dc subtract Total coin with item price. The left over gets transferred for next weeks attempts


failure by 5 or more means losing 50% material
failure by 4 means no progress for the week

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Uh, no, Demoquin.

You make no progress at all unless you beat the DC.

For some items, beating the DC means you complete the item in less than one week.

 

[Telas]

The more difficult the item, the higher the DC. THe Higher the DC the faster one crafts it. No it doesn't make sense but its not that big o deal.

Bingo.

If we were to discard all the rules that don't make sense, we'd have to write a new system so complicated that ... well, it'd be like having a life-sized map. :\

I'll keep it for now, as the party's Gnome Sorcerer is going to occasionally try to create Thunderstones and such. However, I'll probably either end up raising the prices on alchemical goods, or lowering the DCs for Craft (alchemy).

Thanks to everyone for the info.

Telas

 

[Staffan]

I don't see this as a problem. Basically, the process of making a thunderstone doesn't take more than half a week, assuming you know how to do it correctly.

 

[Telas]

I don't see this as a problem. Basically, the process of making a thunderstone doesn't take more than half a week, assuming you know how to do it correctly.

Or you blow a whole week doing nothing but running the risk of destroying a chunk of your investment and (critical fumbles are in my campaign) ending up with a D6 of damage and a soot-stained face a la Wile E. Coyote.

With a DC25, you'd need 13 ranks of Craft (alchemy) and a 500GP lab to have a 50% success rate. In other words, each Thunderstone takes on average over a week's labor* from a very highly trained specialist (9th level Expert?). You'd think that this would raise the prices of the Thunderstone and the Sunrod a bit.

(* Calculated by assuming every other T'stone fails, since you've got a 50% success rate.)

It makes sense that once you get the formula right, you get a bonus to the roll, but I'm already spending way too much time on this little facet of the rules.

To