fuindordm
Adventurer
I think there are a few places where the DM and players can tweak magic item creation to their satisfaction:
1. The DMG says that to craft an item you pay the maximum of its price range, but also says that the market value of an item is anywhere in the range. So a rare item is 5,001-50,000 gp. I think it is reasonable for the player interested in crafting and the DM to say that underpowered rare items have a crafting time based on a smaller price in that range. If you do this you are partially decoupling rarity (because no one bothers/remembers how to make them) from rarity (because they're expensive to make).
2. A single person is unlikely to make a very rare item. But a cabal or a research center could do it in a reasonable time. When I was reading that section I asked myself "How long would it take the Circle of Eight to make this item?" "How long would it take the Elves of Gondolin (say about 40 smiths=1000gp progress per day) to make this item?" and came up with reasonable numbers. The elves of Gondolin could make a bane weapon in 50 days, OK. It's probably worth it for them to churn out a couple per year.
3. If DMs want players to be able to craft powerful items individually, there is plenty of design space to support that desire. For example, a feat that adds 1 to Int and doubles the daily progress towards item creation. Or a wizard subclass. Or the artificer class, which I'm sure we'll see eventually.
I'm totally fine with individual players not creating very rare and legendary items. If they want to have a specific one, they have to go questing for it like everyone else. But the point I'm trying to make is that the default rules can still answer the question "Where do these items come from?"
1. The DMG says that to craft an item you pay the maximum of its price range, but also says that the market value of an item is anywhere in the range. So a rare item is 5,001-50,000 gp. I think it is reasonable for the player interested in crafting and the DM to say that underpowered rare items have a crafting time based on a smaller price in that range. If you do this you are partially decoupling rarity (because no one bothers/remembers how to make them) from rarity (because they're expensive to make).
2. A single person is unlikely to make a very rare item. But a cabal or a research center could do it in a reasonable time. When I was reading that section I asked myself "How long would it take the Circle of Eight to make this item?" "How long would it take the Elves of Gondolin (say about 40 smiths=1000gp progress per day) to make this item?" and came up with reasonable numbers. The elves of Gondolin could make a bane weapon in 50 days, OK. It's probably worth it for them to churn out a couple per year.
3. If DMs want players to be able to craft powerful items individually, there is plenty of design space to support that desire. For example, a feat that adds 1 to Int and doubles the daily progress towards item creation. Or a wizard subclass. Or the artificer class, which I'm sure we'll see eventually.
I'm totally fine with individual players not creating very rare and legendary items. If they want to have a specific one, they have to go questing for it like everyone else. But the point I'm trying to make is that the default rules can still answer the question "Where do these items come from?"