InvaderSquoosh
First Post
Cost in terms of money is one thing, but in time it is a completely different story. Recently, in a game I'm playing in, we took a close look at the Craft skill and discovered that creating expensive items, including masterwork arrows, takes a lot of time! (As compared to creating the magical item itself, which takes considerably less time.)
Let's take the batch of 50 masterwork arrows. Since the base cost of 50 arrows is negligible, let's focus on the masterwork part. To make an arrow masterwork is 7gp, so the batch would cost 350gp as noted before. Now, according to the Craft skill, the DC to create masterwork items is 20. Each week, the crafter progresses his skill check times this DC in silver pieces towards the list price, and that's only if he makes the DC check! Silver pieces folks! (If the crafter fails the check for one week, that week is wasted and no progress is made.)
I wrote a little script to help compute the time (and cost) of making items under the Craft skill algorithm. Here's what it spat out timewise:
Assumptions:
(These guys are followers of my current character, as per Leadership.)
Results: 5 weeks to create the batch! The results for just a suit of full plate (DC 18) with the same setup is 26 weeks! In terms of time, we're better off finding and buying equipment from a merchant than making them ourselves!
Let's take the batch of 50 masterwork arrows. Since the base cost of 50 arrows is negligible, let's focus on the masterwork part. To make an arrow masterwork is 7gp, so the batch would cost 350gp as noted before. Now, according to the Craft skill, the DC to create masterwork items is 20. Each week, the crafter progresses his skill check times this DC in silver pieces towards the list price, and that's only if he makes the DC check! Silver pieces folks! (If the crafter fails the check for one week, that week is wasted and no progress is made.)
I wrote a little script to help compute the time (and cost) of making items under the Craft skill algorithm. Here's what it spat out timewise:
Assumptions:
- Crafter: 3rd level expert with INT 15(+2), maxed ranks and skill focus (+2) in Craft: Weaponsmith, and masterwork tools (+2). Total bonus: +12
- Aiders: Assume 5 1st level Expert apprentices who aid another to help speed up the work. Same setup as master crafter except the tools. Total bonus: +8
- Goal is a batch of 50 Mwk arrows (DC 20), list price 350 GP.
(These guys are followers of my current character, as per Leadership.)
Results: 5 weeks to create the batch! The results for just a suit of full plate (DC 18) with the same setup is 26 weeks! In terms of time, we're better off finding and buying equipment from a merchant than making them ourselves!
