craft as non-magic "ritual"

[HeinorNY]

The more this part of D&D aproximates from WoW, the better.

I like the idea of rituals to handle crafting.

Hot Worg Ribs
Ritual level 1
Price: 5 gp
Creating time: 1 hour
Requirements: Cooking Fire
Effect: Eating one Hot Worg Ribs keeps you well fed for one day. Your healing surges heal 1 extra hit point.

 

[FungiMuncher]

I have been plannng on giving characters a number of background options - basically stuff that 4E has removed from prior editions (or D&D never had), but which I'm still interested in dealing with in my world.

Crafting has always been one of the options I've wanted to offer. I've even considered allowing weaponsmiths/armorsmiths types to craft magic items. These would be much more limited in scope, where they would have to specialize in one type of weapon, or perhaps be more expensive, but would be a neat option for non-spellcasters.

Haven't focused too much on the mechanics beyond that, of course. However, I'm considering applying a version of the Unearthed Arcana crafting points system. Really need to see how the 4E rules handles magic item creation before I decide.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Wait a minute. You *want* to be spending endless hours guiding your PC through fishing, woodcutting, or farming?

 

[HeinorNY]

Wait a minute. You *want* to be spending endless hours guiding your PC through fishing, woodcutting, or farming?

It actually works better in a RPG than in a MMO, since you just say to the DM you are going to mine all day long, make a mining check, and you are done

 

[Rabbitbait]

One of my favourite 1st edition d&D characters was a blacksmith who really only wanted to get on with making the best weapons he could. He was a 'reluctant hero' who was drawn into adventures and wars against his wishes and better judgement.
He was a great character to play, especially as he got higher in level and his crafting skills became so good that he was considered a strategic asset by local rulers.

We had to invent most of the rules around crafting powerful items, but sometimes it took great sacrifices for my character to learn the skills needed to progress his craft.

Just saying - crafting skills can be an essential part of a good role-playing game that lead to great adventure.

 

[Crashy75]

The more this part of D&D aproximates from WoW, the better.

I like the idea of rituals to handle crafting.

Hot Worg Ribs
Ritual level 1
Price: 5 gp
Creating time: 1 hour
Requirements: Cooking Fire
Effect: Eating one Hot Worg Ribs keeps you well fed for one day. Your healing surges heal 1 extra hit point.

...
Weaponsmithing
cost: half weapon cost
time: 1 week (or varying time with weapon, whatever you like)
requirements: forge
result: produces a mundane weapon
...
Dress to Kill
cost: X gp (being fashionable is expensive)
time: 1 hour
result: grants +2 on diplomacy and bluff checks for the next day

Naturally the king has people to handle this for him every day, so your +2 and his +2 cancel out (assuming diplomacy vs diplomacy) when you get your audience with him. So maybe you need the higher level (and more expensive) version that gives +4. And if you don't have it, you're at -2 effectively. This could be a simple way to model social status without inventing a new stat to track.

Keep em' coming guys. This is great stuff!

 

[Ahglock]

Wait a minute. You *want* to be spending endless hours guiding your PC through fishing, woodcutting, or farming?

I want the option to. And I'd prefer it cost me something as well. If I can say my character is a weapon smith and bang he is one for free, being a weapon smith has no value. If you don't like these kind of skills great, don't put them on your character, but if I do like them which I do, I'd like the rules to be there to facilitate that.

 

[ruleslawyer]

IMO, allowing a *PC* to add "weaponsmith" to his list of traits for free does not somehow deprive being a weaponsmith of value... provided that you don't allow a PC to add weaponsmith plus master mariner plus 3-star Michelin pastry chef, et cetera et cetera. Hence why I suggested a "pick one trade, but only one" approach.

Moreover, as I said, I wouldn't allow a player to make his PC a *master* smith for free; that really should just be an NPC ability unless the DM wants to allow it ad hoc for that particular character. The analogy I'm using is to the 4e monster design philosophy; if a PC wants a cool power that is normally not a standard PC option but possessed by an NPC (bugbear strangler meat shield, say), then the DMG can hopefully show you how to adapt that ability for PC use.

I still think that crafter NPCs should be designed like monsters; ultimately, there's no reason for the elven master maker of cloaks to have any combat ability, magical ability, et cetera other than the ability to perform crafting "rituals" to make really good cloaks. If a PC wants that ability, it should be possible for the DM to grant it, but I see little point to placing it into the same resource pool used to allocate trained skills, feats, etc. Having a background skill adds richness; I don't want to penalize a PC's adventuring capability if he decides to add such richness.

 

[kalyptein]

I definitely prefer keeping adventuring and non-adventuring competence separate, but I tossed out the option because some people seem to prefer them mixed.

While I understand that its more realistic and suits some people's tastes to have real mastery of a craft out of reach of adventurers, i would personally prefer to let them have it. For starters, not everyone is restricted to our puny three-score-and-ten human lifespan. Surely a dwarf can master a craft before picking up his axe and heading out. Heck, he's probably not allowed to have a drivers license or graduate high school until he does. But apart from that, many fantasy heroes are skilled in arts or crafts as well as war, and that's something I'd like to allow my players.

Really I'm not worried about people "abusing" non-adventuring stuff. I'll probably let my players have anything they can weave into a good character background. Craft, music, art, etc don't get nearly the spotlight time that combat, magic, or even social prowess does, so when it crops up, it should shine.

I got another notion while reading about the different tiers of armor (plate, warplate, godplate). Cap the highest level of craft ritual the player can learn at several points. If there is a skill, cap the amount your level adds to it (say at 5, 10, and 15); if there's no skill, have there be Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master Craft feats. Again, I'm working off the assumption that the DM simply grants these feats or skills to the character based on in-game events, rather than spending character resources on them. In order to bypass the cap or gain the next level of feat you have to craft something of extraordinary for that level. This could be great adventure fodder and make the crafting more a part of the overall campaign, rather than just something to do during downtime. You might have to go mine mithril in monster-infested caves, recover lost craft secrets from a dwarven ruin, find a fallen star for meteoric iron (a la OOTS), or get dragons blood to temper your sword. Once the work is finished, the character reaches the next tier and the campaign has gained an item with some built-in background.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I think this is a great idea. And why stop at just crafting - maybe you could have Diplomacy "rituals" that are like forging treaties, or Thievery "rituals" that let you develop your thieves' guild. Depending on what the ritual system looks like, it might be easy (or at least straightforward) to extend this to other skills.