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<blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 3952005" data-attributes="member: 9789"><p>Another quick comment I have about this process is that one of the biggest consolidations I've made so far hasn't received any direct comments, and that is Craft. I originally pared it down from an infinite number of skills to 7: alchemy, armor, art, exotic, mundane, structure, and weapon. These seemed to fit nicely and cover anything you'd want to do. However, in the end, I realized that this was still too many craft skills. For one, you have some skills - like Craft(Art) - that no one would likely take (at least, no one in most campaigns). Others are very useful, and others are still rather specialized. And no one without a large Int is going to really bother with them anyway. So, I changed it to just three: easy, medium, and hard. This absolutely destroys the original Craft mechanic, beyond all recognition - I mean, "armor" was just one thing, and now it's three, but at the same time you can make both heavy armor and BOATS with "exotic" crafting. It makes no sense at all from a "what do people learn to do in real life" sort of way. But at the same time, it's - at least in my opinion - an extremely good <em>game</em> mechanic. And it's one that I've been thinking of consolidating further, along these same lines:</p><p></p><p>Craft (Int)</p><p>Special: The Craft skill allows you to create any type of item. The more complicated the item, the higher the check will be. Certain items require a minimum skill level in order to even attempt. These generally fall into three categories:</p><p>• Mundane: Simple trade items, tools, weapons, and light armors. Examples include clothing, leather armor, morning stars, healing kits, or masterwork thieves' tools. In order to make any Mundane item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 1.</p><p>• Advanced: Complex items, tools, weapons, and medium armors. Examples include poisons, sunrods, longswords, chainmail, or some forms of artistic expression. In order to make any Advanced item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 10.</p><p>• Exotic: Anything especially unusual or complex in nature, or exotic weapons and heavy armor. Examples include steam engines, construct bodies, sculptures, houses, bastard swords, or full plate. In order to make any exotic item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 18.</p><p>The DCs for crafting checks can generally be described as: simple or ordinary - DC 10; moderately difficult or masterwork - DC 15; complex - DC 20; advanced - DC 25. Exotic checks are typically more difficult on average, and normally the DCs are 5 higher. However, all of these are only typical DCs and individual items may vary in DC based on the DM’s discretion. The DM determines which items fall into which categories. Special tools or equipment (for example: an alchemist’s lab, a forge, or a paintbrush) may be also required for certain checks. Advanced or greater crafting may also be used for Forgery checks.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The bad thing about this is obvious: it's level-dependant. The poor level 1 paladin with EWP(Bastard Sword) can't make himself another sword until he's level 15. It's true: this is a problem. However, it both consolidates the skill nicely, and reflects at least a modicum of how someone might "get better" at crafting over time. It also fixes a few things that didn't make sense before, like how someone could craft expert-quality construct bodies but can't make a clay pot worth a crap. And best of all: 1 skill.</p><p></p><p>More thoughts?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="evilbob, post: 3952005, member: 9789"] Another quick comment I have about this process is that one of the biggest consolidations I've made so far hasn't received any direct comments, and that is Craft. I originally pared it down from an infinite number of skills to 7: alchemy, armor, art, exotic, mundane, structure, and weapon. These seemed to fit nicely and cover anything you'd want to do. However, in the end, I realized that this was still too many craft skills. For one, you have some skills - like Craft(Art) - that no one would likely take (at least, no one in most campaigns). Others are very useful, and others are still rather specialized. And no one without a large Int is going to really bother with them anyway. So, I changed it to just three: easy, medium, and hard. This absolutely destroys the original Craft mechanic, beyond all recognition - I mean, "armor" was just one thing, and now it's three, but at the same time you can make both heavy armor and BOATS with "exotic" crafting. It makes no sense at all from a "what do people learn to do in real life" sort of way. But at the same time, it's - at least in my opinion - an extremely good [I]game[/I] mechanic. And it's one that I've been thinking of consolidating further, along these same lines: Craft (Int) Special: The Craft skill allows you to create any type of item. The more complicated the item, the higher the check will be. Certain items require a minimum skill level in order to even attempt. These generally fall into three categories: • Mundane: Simple trade items, tools, weapons, and light armors. Examples include clothing, leather armor, morning stars, healing kits, or masterwork thieves' tools. In order to make any Mundane item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 1. • Advanced: Complex items, tools, weapons, and medium armors. Examples include poisons, sunrods, longswords, chainmail, or some forms of artistic expression. In order to make any Advanced item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 10. • Exotic: Anything especially unusual or complex in nature, or exotic weapons and heavy armor. Examples include steam engines, construct bodies, sculptures, houses, bastard swords, or full plate. In order to make any exotic item, you must have a minimum Craft skill of 18. The DCs for crafting checks can generally be described as: simple or ordinary - DC 10; moderately difficult or masterwork - DC 15; complex - DC 20; advanced - DC 25. Exotic checks are typically more difficult on average, and normally the DCs are 5 higher. However, all of these are only typical DCs and individual items may vary in DC based on the DM’s discretion. The DM determines which items fall into which categories. Special tools or equipment (for example: an alchemist’s lab, a forge, or a paintbrush) may be also required for certain checks. Advanced or greater crafting may also be used for Forgery checks. The bad thing about this is obvious: it's level-dependant. The poor level 1 paladin with EWP(Bastard Sword) can't make himself another sword until he's level 15. It's true: this is a problem. However, it both consolidates the skill nicely, and reflects at least a modicum of how someone might "get better" at crafting over time. It also fixes a few things that didn't make sense before, like how someone could craft expert-quality construct bodies but can't make a clay pot worth a crap. And best of all: 1 skill. More thoughts? [/QUOTE]
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