D&D 4E Crafting... can anyone make anything in 4E?

[Arravis]

In our low-magic, early stone age campaign the Crafting skills are a critical component. Unfortunately it looks like there's no way to actually craft anything in 4th. I understand that my own campaign is probably far from the norm, but what about the more typical weapon or armorsmithing dwarf? What about tinkerers and such? It seems kind of a gross oversight to me, or are the rules for it simply hidden away somewhere I haven't seen yet?

Thanks!

 

[keterys]

Everyone can craft whatever is desirable for the campaign. Or not, if desirable for the campaign. Go nuts.

 

[On Puget Sound]

There really aren't any rules needed for it, in most campaigns. If your character is an armorsmith, just say so. You can now make and repair armor. After expenses you can clear 5 to 20 gp per week if you're a good armorsmith (I made that up, but whatever works in your game is fine...define any amount that's enough to lead a boring existence that will not compete with spending time adventuring).

If it matters in your game that one character is better at crafting than another - if you have armorsmithing contests, or the characters are stranded in a land where the only armor they can have is what they make - then you'll have to make rules for it.

The easiest is probably to add back in the Craft Whatever skill and either make it a class skill available to all (because everyone did something before they started adventuring) or to none (because what you did before adventuring was apprentice to a mighty knight or sorcerer, or be raised by wolves, or whatever).

 

[Arravis]

Ok.. so, what kind of check is it? How fast does it take to craft something? How much does it cost? If a character wants to get better at crafting, what can he do about it?

If the answer is simply to "RP it", I have no idea how long a long sword takes to craft, or anything else for that matter.
At least a vague attempt by WotC at some sort of way to handle this would have been helpful.

 

[Obryn]

In our low-magic, early stone age campaign the Crafting skills are a critical component. Unfortunately it looks like there's no way to actually craft anything in 4th. I understand that my own campaign is probably far from the norm, but what about the more typical weapon or armorsmithing dwarf? What about tinkerers and such? It seems kind of a gross oversight to me, or are the rules for it simply hidden away somewhere I haven't seen yet?

Thanks!

Non-combat stuff is generally left to DM purview. Just because there's no rules for something doesn't mean you can't do it. (Or, add infinite oregano.)

A quick & dirty houserule is to give every character a "secondary skill" and use a Trained skill check for whatever attribute you think appropriate.

Alternately, you can make additional Crafting skills and make them available to the PCs.

-O

 

[Nikolai II]

I've been thinking about adding secondary skills, giving "basic stat bonus" of them for free for every stat (so seven of them for starter characters, and then probably not earning any new, I'm still largely undecided)

Skills should be basically useless outside of flavor, (craft skills, singing, dancing) but if someone comes up with a way to use the skill "usefully" it will be worth the ubiquitious +2 to whatever real skill or check is being made.

Craft skills could be there.

 

[Mezzer]

Crafting rules and such are basically handled purely through roleplaying in 4E, which is fine. Its up to the DM to decide what you can and can't do, and that's perfectly fine.

 

[Mezzer]

Crafting rules and such are basically handled purely through roleplaying in 4E. Its up to the DM to decide what you can and can't do, and that's perfectly fine.

 

[Arravis]

Maybe its just me... but it seems that the rules only seem to care about combat and combat is probably the rarest thing in our campaign. I understand having all those things falling under the DM's power, but I want my players to feel like they are in charge of their own characters and destinies, not me. Social interactions with NPCs and environmental survival situations are the most common kind of encounters I have in my campaign, and even though it wasn't perfect, 3.5 did an ok job with them. In 4.0, it seems that I'm left out to dry...

 

[Byronic]

Or let your characters choose two skills to train it that aren't represented by any of the skills already available. This is for the crafters, professionals etc.

While it's gross I wouldn't call it an oversight but rather a fixation on combat. And none of this "you don't need any rules for non-combat related tasks" stuff. If I wanted to play a game with the least amount of structure and rules I would play QAGS.

Faster combat, more imagination, less rules, less books needed. I wouldn't even need a box of miniatures, I could easily do with a bag of winegums