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

[CapnZapp]

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.

True.

How about:

Magic Item Creator Feat
You have the ability to create magic items. You routinely create consumables, but you also have the potential for a select few permanent items – your masterpieces.

* Each level, you gain a number of consumables equal to your level for free
* You may craft one permanent magic item per tier over the course of your career, plus one bonus item (at any tier) if you take this feat no later than level four.

Your level restricts the rarity of the items (consumables and permanent items) you create, as per the DMG. Permanent items (but not consumables) cost gold as per the DMG.


Note how each player is expected to add atmosphere him- or herself. This rule does not place any additional requirements whatsoever. In one campaign, it is okay if it takes a year and a day to create your Battlehammer, if it requires you to put a skill slot in Smithing, if you need to bathe the weapon in the blood of virgins or procure an Eye of Beholder as an ingredient. In another campaign, Tiamat will destroy the world the day after tomorrow, so here you are, no questions asked: you just say you create your Battlehammer and there it is for you to use.

 

[77IM]

I see -- you're saying to tie item creation to character level, rather than time, to account for campaigns with different pacing requirements? And then make the time requirement (if any) more of a fluff thing?

...I like it. I like it a lot.

 

[Goemoe]

Hm... no, the feat is too restricted. Especially in Eberron common and many uncommon items will be available in great numbers. So there has to be the possibility to craft greater numbers. You might restrict rare and very rare items and make a single legendary item a quest for the whole group, but commons and uncommons should be craftable without restrictions other than money and resources.

 

[Jester David]

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?

To me, that's a feature not a bug.
Anything that lengthens the duration of a campaign so the party doesn't hit level camp after a summer vacation is a huge perk. And anything that encourages DMs to expand the length of their campaign is great.

 

[Jester David]

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.

Feats are a heavy requirement in 5e. You really only get 2-3 feats for your character, so each feat has to be your character's "thing". Magic item crafting feats work if you want your character to be "the crafter", as one of his major hooks. Which means the benefits have to be big.

Rather than a feat requirement, recipes might be the way to go. Possibly tied to spellcasting ability, so you need to expend some magical energy while making the item. But that can be covered by subclasses or multiclassing or the spellcasting feats. Where you need to spend X number of slots to enchant an item, making high level casters just more efficient at enchanting.

 

[77IM]

Instead of a feat, you could also just require tool proficiencies: Potion Brewing Tools, Scroll Scribing Tools, Wondrous Artificing Tools, Ring Forging Tools, Magic Weapon Forging Tools, etc. Or you could go a lot more granular and just say Artificer's Tools, PLUS tools to make the mundane item (Alchemist's Tools for potions; Scribe's Tools for scrolls; Smith's tools for weapons, armors and rings; Woodcarver's Tools for staffs and wands; and a variety of things for wondrous items).

Tool proficiencies aren't as expensive as a feat but they are not free either, so not every spellcaster will have them, but people who want them don't have to pay a whole feat. People who do take the feat could just gain proficiency in all the item crafting tools (so more powerful than the feat that gives you three skill/tool proficiencies, but also less flexible because it only gives you item-crafting proficiencies).

 

[S'mon]

To me, that's a feature not a bug.
Anything that lengthens the duration of a campaign so the party doesn't hit level camp after a summer vacation is a huge perk. And anything that encourages DMs to expand the length of their campaign is great.

Yes, for me it normally works a lot better if crafting has lengthy time requirements, and high level requirement. It feels real, it embeds PCs in the world, it gives a naturalistic passing of time at high level. BECM D&D rules seem right to me (AD&D feels too harsh with the need for Permanency and Wish on most stuff) - you need to be a true Wizard or Patriarch (9th level+) and be spending a lot of time and cash. So adventuring for items tends to remain attractive.

PCs shuttling through an Adventure Path campaign in a few weeks or months shouldn't be doing a lot of crafting IMO, too-quick crafting is something I dislike about 3e/PF when it comes to cheaper items (at 1 day per 1000gp). But if you like that sort of thing then it should be ok to port it into 5e I think.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Having crafting be available by feats was a deliberate thing for me. Crafting should be be something any PC can just do on the side, at least in my opinion, for a number of reasons.

1) Game balance. Although the three item attunement rule and recipes can prevent too many items, having a PC take a feat means that a crafter must have crafting as his specialty. Not a side thing, a main PC point. Every campaign should not have every PC with the exact items they want with one PC training in a skill (250 days and 250gp? if I recall in the PHB the cost in time/gold).

2) Realism. Sounds strange, but think about it. If everyone in the world who could cast a few 1st level or 2nd level spells could make items, the world would be flooded with items. If this is something your gameworld has, then more power to you. For me though, the change to 5th edition and the vanishing of the Pathfinder Christmas Tree has been refreshing.

I have DMed a whole lot of campaigns over the last 25 years, and when things get high level and crafters can get jiggy, they do. Beware!