D&D 5E Crafting Magical Items vs Regular

[SilverBulletKY]

So if you craft a magical items (I'm probably not going to allow this but pulling info from the DMG), you can do it at increments of 25g per day. However to make regular items, you can do it at increments of 5g per day. Does this seem strange? So you could make a magical items in less time than it costs to make a vial of poison.

 

[TerraDave]

There are some other issues. What about 1 use items like potions? Should they cost the same amount to make as permanent items?

 

[Dausuul]

So if you craft a magical items (I'm probably not going to allow this but pulling info from the DMG), you can do it at increments of 25g per day. However to make regular items, you can do it at increments of 5g per day. Does this seem strange? So you could make a magical items in less time than it costs to make a vial of poison.

No, it doesn't seem strange at all. The per-day increment is the daily pay of the person making the item, plus the materials cost spread out over the number of days. To make a magic item, you need to be a spellcaster, and spellcasters are in high demand and can thus command much higher wages than a mundane artisan. Likewise, magic items typically require more expensive materials than their mundane equivalents.

If you want to be super-realistic, the per-day increment for both mundane and magic items should vary widely based on the skill level required and the raw materials. Making a 5,000-gp gold tiara studded with emeralds should not take a hundred times as long as making a 50-gp chain shirt; the tiara costs more because the raw materials cost more. However, crafting is a side activity in D&D and not worth simulating to that level of detail. So, in the interests of simplicity, D&D just sets a flat per-day rate for mundane items, another for magic items, and leaves it at that.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

No, it doesn't seem strange at all. The per-day increment is the daily pay of the person making the item, plus the materials cost spread out over the number of days. To make a magic item, you need to be a spellcaster, and spellcasters are in high demand and can thus command much higher wages than a mundane artisan.

The ability to cast that spell.. in which most classes have the ability to cast some spells. It takes 20 days to make a vial of poison. This has always seemed strange to me.

And if you're spending your time working on crafting an item, how are you getting wages?

 

[Dausuul]

The ability to cast that spell.. in which most classes have the ability to cast some spells.

Most artisans don't have a PC class. The local blacksmith is not a level 8 fighter with the Eldritch Knight archetype; he's just a blacksmith. If you're making mundane armor, that's the guy you're competing against. If he's willing to accept 5 gp/day for his services, then you're not going to be able to demand more for the same work.

If you're making a magic item, then your only competition is other spellcasters, and very few of them are going to accept 5 gp/day.

It takes 20 days to make a vial of poison. This has always seemed strange to me.

And if you're spending your time working on crafting an item, how are you getting wages?

If you were making the item for pay, your wages would be coming out of the selling price. If you're making it for yourself, then those are your effective wages based on the fact that when you're done, you will now own an item worth 5,000 gp or whatever.

Demand for magic items is high, and the supply of people who can make them is low. That's a recipe for much higher prices on magic items relative to the amount of time required to make them.

 

[Joe Liker]

It's not just labor costs. Creating a magic item requires rare, expensive mystical ingredients and processes that are not needed for mundane items.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

It's not just labor costs. Creating a magic item requires rare, expensive mystical ingredients and processes that are not needed for mundane items.

Maybe so but in game rules, it's easier and cheaper.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Because magic items are much more valuable than mundane items the time spent crafting magic items is worth more money. The final product is worth more, hence the time spent on it is worth more. That's the way I always thought about it.

For this reason I would consider poison magical for the purposes of crafting (just requiring a relevant proficiency instead of caster slots). In my mind it's a case similar to mithral armor. Neither are really magical, they're just made out of rare, expensive material.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

Because magic items are much more valuable than mundane items the time spent crafting magic items is worth more money. The final product is worth more, hence the time spent on it is worth more. That's the way I always thought about it.

For this reason I would consider poison magical for the purposes of crafting (just requiring a relevant proficiency instead of caster slots). In my mind it's a case similar to mithral armor. Neither are really magical, they're just made out of rare, expensive material.

I think using the same rules as magic items for poisons make sense, but the DMG specifically states in the poison section that crafting these can be done according to the rules in the PHB. I wonder why?

 

[Riley37]

Karl Marx explains this in a long-ago supplement to 1E called "Das Kapital", but he hasn't released a 5E update.