D&D 5E What do you want out of crafting rules?

[The Old Crow]

I do not want crafting magic items to require spellcasting at all. I hated that 3e thing where one just cast spells repeatedly at an item and suddenly it turned magic.

I do want tool and skill proficiencies to be important. I like the idea of recipes, and the need for special ingredients.

I also like the idea of rolling to see if your item might end up with some weird side effect or special effect. Maybe the moons weren't aligned correctly, or the recipe works best in midsummer but you made it in winter, or a few steps were missing off that old practically illegible recipe you found.

 

[The Green Hermit]

I do not want crafting magic items to require spellcasting at all. I hated that 3e thing where one just cast spells repeatedly at an item and suddenly it turned magic.

I do want tool and skill proficiencies to be important. I like the idea of recipes, and the need for special ingredients.

I also like the idea of rolling to see if your item might end up with some weird side effect or special effect. Maybe the moons weren't aligned correctly, or the recipe works best in midsummer but you made it in winter, or a few steps were missing off that old practically illegible recipe you found.

I think some spellcasting would be necessary, even if it was just to make the enchanted ingredients. However, it could be assumed to be part of the time commitment and not extra.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I do not want crafting magic items to require spellcasting at all. I hated that 3e thing where one just cast spells repeatedly at an item and suddenly it turned magic.

I do want tool and skill proficiencies to be important. I like the idea of recipes, and the need for special ingredients.

I also like the idea of rolling to see if your item might end up with some weird side effect or special effect. Maybe the moons weren't aligned correctly, or the recipe works best in midsummer but you made it in winter, or a few steps were missing off that old practically illegible recipe you found.

Agreed. Spellcasting should, at most, be a shortcut for acquiring the ingredients.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I feel 90-95% of actual crafting should happen in downtime, in between the end of one adventure and the start of the next. Something small and portable I could see being worked on during rest time while on an adventure, but not something bulky or needing a lot of equipment. Plus, crafting skills and tool proficiencies are in the game as much to be able to identify and evaluate items that are found on an adventure. Your blacksmith skill may help you determine who made a cool sword you found and be fairly accurate in estimating it's age, etc. Or the PC with stone mason training could determine who created the previously unknown tunnels and underground fortifications the group stumbled into.

Another issue is that some of the things that various crafting skills are good for are just hand-waved in modern games. You started the adventure with 20 arrows and you still have them several weeks of use later? Cool. No need for having bowyer or fletcher skills then. No one's armor or weapons ever get damaged or dull or anything either, so no need for that skill. Everyone always has enough food and water, so no need to hunt or forage or collect fresh water. Etc. Can you tell I started playing with systems that were more detail oriented than 5E? lol

So detailed rules for small, portable crafting or repair jobs that can be done on an adventure, yes. More abstract and basic rules for the bigger projects that should only be done during downtime? Also yes.

It should be something like this. A group gets back from an adventure. The warrior with the smithing skills goes to his forge to work on projects for the next two weeks. The wizard goes off to the local arcane library to do some spell research for the same two weeks. The bard goes off to the local college to exchange information and songs and to work on some new magical lyrics. And so on. These things should not require being RPed or use up adventure time.

 

[hopeless]

I pictured this as being done during downtime and usually can't be interrupted so if the DM decides to play silly beggars and interrupt their crafting they should be told they're unavailable and should then result in that player bringing out a back up character to run in the meantime.
These things take time to complete so the complaints about such crafting are a bit much. When just taking a glance at the rules as so far indicated (if they have Xanathar's Guide) makes it clear this can be a lengthy and complicated process.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I guess I need more context, then. Because I'm thinking of a system where every magic item in the DMG (and inevitable expansions) has a list of ingredients in the PHB, and players are constantly trying to scavenge what they need to get something.

Oh, good grief, no! That would be incredibly tedious. Not only for the players, but for the DM and designers as well.

No, I'm mostly thinking of the price lists from the AD&D DMG. Add to this a requirement for one exotic component per 2000gp and an appropriate skill check and we are good. The crafter would need to know the appropriate skill / proficiency / tool set of course. Some research into appropriate times for crafting real world objects (swords, armor, catapults), and make up something reasonable for the addition of magic time wise.

The special components lower the cost or make the skill check easier. Might even influence the final abilities or special effects of the item. That's a discussion for the DM and player to have.

To reiterate

1) Figure out what you want to make.
2) Figure out skills needed, material cost, time required.
3) If magical , find out lab requirements and exotic item requirements. (These are base on the item's relative power and cost.)
4) Need stuff? Consult sage, patron, commune, whatever to pursue new adventure path.
5) Have different stuff? See what happens! But, you are probably not going to create an amulet of life protection with efreet blood. A Phoenix feather might have an interesting side effect though.
6) Right stuff? Make the roll!

All the details you need can be derived from the potency of the item and its cost. You only need to be spe ific in exotic items when you know what they are making.

 

[tetrasodium]

It might be a stretch, but having it use a secondary currency not tracked in gp(magic stones soul crystals bloodstone whatever) . You might be able rebuy them sometimes, but this way you dont wind up with 5000gp bribes with hate guards and such

 

[Mind of tempest]

I think it might help if we could agree on what makes sense to craft and what level of difficulty it takes.
like a category of magic items from stuff that is simple and common all the way to the stuff only gods make, do you lot think that might help?

 

[hopeless]

If a skill check is needed what are the DC's?

In 3.0 I assumed it would require at least a 20 for a masterwork item and then another +5 on top for each +1 so that would explain Bruenor making Aegis Fang as critical success to enchant a +5 dwarven thrower War Hammer!

How does that relate to 5e because the tool kit alone only provides that proficiency bonus so does all enchanted items require the Arcana skill in addition to the relevant craft tool kit?

 

[jmartkdr2]

I think it might help if we could agree on what makes sense to craft and what level of difficulty it takes.
like a category of magic items from stuff that is simple and common all the way to the stuff only gods make, do you lot think that might help?

Given the broad scope of ways people play DnD, the answer might need to be "stuff that can be made in-setting." So for weapons, anything short of an artifact (since those are made by gods) should be at least 'possible within the rules' even if they're not practical in most games.