Fix for Craft Skill

[Spatzimaus]

(a bit long)

I was trying to overhaul Craft skills, too, because of the Fabricate power/spell (which in its written form lets you make Crafted items instantly). The problem was, well, look at swords. A masterwork one is DC 20. So, thanks to that spell, I could take a block of Adamantite and instantly make a nice sword just by Taking 10, if I had enough skill ranks to get a +10 bonus. Or Mithril, or Flowstone, or Gartine, or whatever other material you can think of, it's all DC 20.

I don't think the problem is crafting time, it's that the core rules don't handle exotic materials well. On this board about a year ago, we came up with a nice system for materials. Basically, each type of metal had its own DC modifier, cost multiplier, etc. Let's say I wanted to make a Mithril Longsword. Take the base DC for the sword (let's say 17; use the numbers in the PHB but tweak a few), add the Mithril DC modifier (+6), and it's now DC 23. Mithril might have a Cost Multiplier of 30, so now you can use the existing rules. "Masterwork" can either be just a name for anything Fine Steel or better, or you could add it as a Quality modifier (DC+3, cost higher) and say that magical items need Masterwork Quality.

But you were also talking about more complex stuff, like Shipbuilding. There, I think the solution is just a lot of synergy bonuses. Craft: Tailor? Sure, also carpenter or blacksmith. Profession: Sailor, Knowledge: Engineering, whatever you can reasonably justify as being useful. If they have 1-3 ranks give them a +1, if they have 4-9 give a +2, 10 or more gives a +3. It'll add up.

 

[Kibo]

That however is something I'm quite willing to leave to my fellow GM's... The thing I'm more concerned with is making the craft skill itself function in a more reasonable way. I've made chain mail in the past, and while forging the rings takes a while, "weaving it" is actually quite easy, and the 30-40 weeks it was taking a character to build one is insane...and seems to be the same problem with other things too.

But there we are...thanks for the input.

Well there is something of a question of starting point, and how much of a persons time is devoted to the endevour. If you're starting from ore, coke and charcoal working at most 20 hours a week, 30 weeks might not be that bad a guess (still seems a little high, but if your also making your own charcoal....). Its a lot of work for one guy to go from a bunch of ore to steel wire. A professional with 2 assistants working 12 hours a day might get a lot more done than a hobbiest, even a really good one.

Ideally it would be nice to get a man-hour formula for the amount of work, gp x DC of item to be made x fudge factor. And then to have a man hours of work completed formula of (skill + circumstance bonus or penalties) x roll x other factors.