D&D 5E Crafting / Magical Item sales in 5e

[Dragonsbane]

I have been wanting to convert my campaign over from Pathfinder to 5e but I am having an issue with crafting and items. In my gameworld, different parts of the world have different amounts of magic. The Merchant Nations are mid-level magic, the Lands of Chaos are somewhat primitive and one would never find a magical item for sale, while in the Inner Kingdoms the richest nobles have indoor fonts of water and large boxes for food that are magically chilled.

I am thinking in the most magical of metropolis cities one might be able to by a few rare items for huge sums and a few uncommon items in stores (+1 weapons, etc), and in most normal parts of the world be able to pick up a few scrolls, potions, and perhaps a single uncommon item here and there. Where else will mid-level and higher PCs spend their wealth? Besides, I give the players aggressive buy-back rates to they don't make a fortune on items no matter how powerful. Additionally, other than potions and scrolls, nothing would be allowed to be crafted except stuff in the DMG (or variants of them) so no new bonuses will be getting added to numbers everywhere. As a final backstop, the amount of gold in a campaign can easily limit the number of items players can craft or buy.

I really don't want to rewrite my setting to suddenly have few items anywhere, or to say "NPCs can make stuff, you all can't" I don't think will go over too well. Feats seemed to be powerful and allow many options in 5e so I figured that they might be a good place to inject crafting since anyone can take feats.

Will all this unbalance the numbers in 5e? I have played a bunch of games now but nothing high level, so I am not really sure and would like opinions!

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[h=3]Crafting[/h]Not presented in any detail in the core rulebooks, spellcasters do make items in Mazariim. Crafting has a number of requirements:

Caster Level
The minimum caster level required depends on the item's rarity and the spells used in its creation. Use whichever requirement is higher. Some items without a specific spell can reference caster levels in from Pathfinder item creation if necessary.

• Common / Uncommon - 4th level
• Rare - 8th level
• Very Rare - 12th level
• Legendary - 16th level

For example, although an amulet of the planes is a very rare item which needs a minimum of caster level 12, the item needs the spell plane shift as a requirement which has a caster level of 13th, since it is a 7th level spell and available to casters at that level 13. A dragon slayer weapon functions as a bane weapon against dragons, ao the bane property would be considered CL 8 on any weapon. Wounding is a rare frequency, but is listed as CL 10 in Pathfinder and seems a little more powerful than a bane weapon, so CL 10 is appropriate.


Item Cost
Costs for items vary, but depend mainly on rarity and caster level. Use whichever cost is higher.

• CL 1: 100gp
• Common / CL 2: 200gp
• CL 3: 500gp
• Uncommon / CL 4 - 1000gp
• CL 5: 2,000gp
• CL 6: 3,000gp
• CL 7: 4,000gp
• Rare / CL 8 - 5,000gp
• CL 9: 10,000gp
• CL 10: 15,000gp
• CL 11: 20,000gp
• Very Rare / CL 12 - 25,000gp
• CL 13: 35,000gp
• CL 14: 50,000gp
• CL 15: 75,000gp
• Legendary / CL 16 - 100,000gp
• CL 17: 125,500gp
• CL 18: 150,000gp
• CL 19: 200,000gp
• CL 20: 250,000gp

Spells / Feats / Class Abilities
Crafters must have any spells, feats, or class powers the item uses or emulates on their class lists or as spells known.

Time
All items take 1 day per 250gp in value to create. The crafter must spend 8 hours of uninterrupted quiet to work on the magical item.

Place
The caster needs a laboratory/library, shrine, or grove to create the item, a value no less than 1000gp per caster level of the item in question to reflect books, apparatus, forges, furnaces, shrines, consecrated altars, groves, rare herbs, and so on.

Item Creation Feat
Crafters must take an Item Creation feat to make magical items.

Artisan Crafter
You have learned the art of forging magical rings and wondrous items.
You can forge rings and create wondrous items found in the DMG. Minimum costs and time to craft are as shown above, but may be higher because of caster level as the DM decides. The DM may allow the powers of some items to be applied to a different type of item. For example, a belt of swimming and climbing could be made rather than a set of gloves.

Martial Crafter
You have learned the art of forging magical armor and weapons using a variety of materials, spells, and exotic tools.
You can create weapons and armor found in the DMG. Minimum costs and time to craft are as shown above, but may be higher because of caster level as the DM allows. Magical powers found on weapons and armor in the DMG can be placed on any type of weapon or armor and can have variants based around the same power level. For example, a Flame Tongue weapon quality could be placed on any type of weapon and be a different elemental damage type and it would be of the same rarity, and would have a minimum caster level and a minimum cost as listed above.

Practical Crafter
You have learned the art of making disposable magical items, namely alchemy and scroll-making, and can create potions, oils, and scrolls.
You can brew potions and oils found in the DMG or by using spells on your spell list. Minimum caster level is the level of the spell, or by rarity as above. Costs for brewing potions are 25 gp × the level of the spell × the caster level, or by rarity as above. Potions not listed in the DMG cannot have spells above 3rd level. Potions must have a range of self, touch, or be able to affect a target within sight. The spell cannot require concentration. Spells that require attack rolls, saving throws, or otherwise harm others cannot be made into potions. Any costs incurred in casting the spell need to be added to the cost of the potion during creation.
You can scribe scrolls using spells on your spell list. Minimum caster level is the level of the spell, or by rarity as above. Costs for scribing scrolls are 12.5 gp × the level of the spell × the caster level. Any costs incurred in casting the spell need to be added to the cost of the scroll during creation.

Scepter Crafter
You have learned the art of making rods, staffs, and wands.
You can create rods, staffs, and wands found in the DMG. Minimum costs are as shown above, but may be considerably higher because of caster level as the DM decides. The DM may allow the powers of some items to be unique and in line with other similar items. For example, a wand of acid might use spells of a similar level to those in a wand of fire and thereby be of similar cost and caster level.

 

[77IM]

Have you seen the item crafting rules in the DMG? These are similar -- more detailed in some ways, although also more powerful (these rules craft items 10x faster than the DMG rule).

I like your use of Caster Level and how you relate it to rarity and to the spells involved. That's kind of brilliant actually, in the way that it gives finer granularity to item pricing without introducing a new power scale. You might consider using Spell Level instead, since "caster level" isn't really a thing in 5E. This won't give you as fine-grained a price as Caster Level but is still better than the five vague categories of item rarity.

Also check out the idea of "recipes" in the DMG. It's not really very deeply explained but it means each item needs certain special ingredients, or possible has to be crafted at a special time or place. In your campaign, I would use recipes as an additional factor in the magical economy and a way to regulate PC item creation. Like, if the PCs want to make a cloak of invisibility and this requires liquid starlight and the elves of the Gloomwood have a monopoly on liquid starlight and also have a fire giant problem, well now I think you have an adventure hook.

You can also go with a half-way solution: if you have the ingredients, making the item is much cheaper/faster than without. This makes ingredients kind of a treasure option. For example, if the party slays a red dragon, maybe they can cut out its tongue and use it to make a flame tongue. (betcha didn't see that one coming.) I think we've all seen PCs eager to carve up monsters for parts. One easy way to do this is to say that the monster part counts as X gp worth of magic item raw materials if it's used to make the right sort of item, or you can sell the parts for half that price.

A feat is a REALLY steep cost in 5e. If you require a feat for crafting, I'd make only a single feat allow the crafting of ALL items. What I like better, is to make "artificer's tools" a tool set that you can be proficient in. The lab setup you describe would basically be that tool set. (See alchemist's tools for an example.) Tool proficiencies are cheap. THEN, provide a feat that makes you much better at using the artificer's tools. Basically so people just the tool proficiency can feasibly make low-level items (and this would include all the people brewing potions, scribing scrolls, and making +1 longswords on commission), and people with the feat would be true masters, capable of making higher-level items within a reasonable cost and time-frame.

 

[Dragonsbane]

I love the recipe idea, it's in! I think if someone has the feat, they can learn a new recipe every other level or something, so people who have the feat early on can learn more things without finding them.

A feat is steep, but I hate the idea of people crafting on the side and not having a cost. It might be a good idea for the proficiency idea, maybe to make a few common or uncommon things.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Erik42]

I believe that creation of a magic item should be an undertaking. I'll allow lower level characters to craft single use items, such as potions and scrolls. But any permanent item, I'm requiring a minimum 16th level. Additionally, the items needed are rare and might require a quest to obtain. I rather like the idea of a feat to be able to imbue an item with permanent enchantments. For potions, I'm using recipes. Potions are primarily created by alchemists, which I'm using as an NPC class. If a PC wants to learn to make potions, some training is required. Basically, I don't want most PCs to be able to just craft anything. Only characters who have achieved top levels should be able to do so.

 

[SkidAce]

Pg 129 of the DMG has a chart of required level for creation of magical items.

Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, Legendary are 3rd, 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 17th, respectively.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Indeed. I used that as a baseline. Since I am using feats, I changed the 3rd to 4th, and made the rest even numbers that coincide with feats and they are still fairly close.

I also lowered the price for a legendary item which was 500,000 lol. TBH the prices were made to coincide with the gold amounts I would be handing out.

Mostly I am wondering, does the above homebrew rules give the players the chance to break or damage the numbers in the game.

 

[77IM]

I love the recipe idea, it's in! I think if someone has the feat, they can learn a new recipe every other level or something, so people who have the feat early on can learn more things without finding them.

A feat is steep, but I hate the idea of people crafting on the side and not having a cost. It might be a good idea for the proficiency idea, maybe to make a few common or uncommon things.

I like the idea of allowing Common items to be made without the feat and just with proficiency. That seems like a good compromise so that PCs who want to scribe scrolls or brew potions can do so. I'd allow crafting of certain Uncommon items too (potions, scrolls, wands and wondrous items) with just proficiency. Those things are so expensive I think the gold and time required are the bigger limiting factor.

Actually you could make recipes the limiting factor. Maybe without the feat, you NEED a recipe to craft anything, and then you only make it easy to find recipes for Common items and much harder to find recipes for other items. With the feat, you can craft anything, it's just easier with recipes.

A feat is steep, but I hate the idea of people crafting on the side and not having a cost.

Well, the cost is time, gold, having an artificer's tools, having artificer's tools proficiency (which is not free, but is pretty easy to get), having the right recipe, having high enough caster level, and knowing the right spells. A feat costs two ability score points -- spending ability score points for the option to ALSO spend copious gold and time sounds like a really bad investment to me. You could soften this cost by making it one of those feats that also gives +1 to an ability score (maybe a choice of Int, Wis, or Cha).

I really like the idea that having the feat give you free recipes. I'd go so far as to give out one per level of the player's choice (provided it is an item they have the caster level and spell prerequisites for). Since you have full control over the recipe and the amount of gold the PCs have, to me it seems better to hand out more opportunities for crafting rather than less.

This is the kind of thing you might run past your players. If nobody wants to take those feats (because they could be taking +2 to the ability score that sets their spell save DCs and spell attack rolls) then you might want to power them up.

Mostly I am wondering, does the above homebrew rules give the players the chance to break or damage the numbers in the game.

That's an interesting question. My gut says, you've put way more thought into this than me, so you'll probably be fine.

Items I would watch out for are:

1. Items that set your ability score to a number. Look out for a physically weak cleric who intends to buy gauntlets of ogre strength for example. They can dump Str and put those points elsewhere and come out way ahead even though they needed to buy the feat.

Attunement puts a limit on this sort of abuse but it could still be min-maxed.

2. I forget, do wands require attunement? If not, that could be an easy way to radically increase the number of spells the group is slinging.

In addition, I think wands can be used by any character now. So this could increase the number of Concentration spells in play during a given encounter, if non-casters are able to start concentrating on things.

3. Consumable items with powerful effects, such as elemental gems or certain potions. If PCs are crafting them, they may be more willing to use them. These items tend to be cheap, and highly situational, so you may find that those situations are no longer as much of a challenge.

4. I actually wouldn't worry too much about +1, +2, or +3 weapons and armor. You should be able to compensate by just making the encounters harder. The exception is if it creates intra-party imbalance. For example maybe the wizard outfits the fighter with +3 great sword, and now the party monk feels inadequate. You can compensate by handing out magic items (maybe the monk gets +3 "handwraps" or something) but you may find yourself in an arms race against the item crafters.

If you have solid gold-by-level guidelines it should cure most of this, but still be wary of, say, peer pressure causing the group to sell the +3 handwraps and use the proceeds to craft the fighter +3 plate armor.

5. Custom items. If you let players invent new items they may (intentionally or not) ask for permission to create things that are subtly overpowered. There's no general solution to this problem, but, it sounds like you've got a really good handle on magic item power levels, so I'm guessing this won't be a huge problem for you.

 

[CapnZapp]

I apply a test to all item creation rules proposals:

Do they work for groups playing almost every published adventure ever? Specifically, do they work for a character that goes from level 3 to level 15 in a few months time?

 

[77IM]

That is a really interesting guideline. Can you give examples of rules that do or do not work for such groups?

 

[CapnZapp]

That is a really interesting guideline. Can you give examples of rules that do or do not work for such groups?

The official 5E rules certainly don't