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View Full Version : Crafting concept, advice requested



Typewriter
2009-09-21, 01:48 PM
In a conversation I was in recently here on these forums the concept of wealth by level was being heavily discussed. In most campaigns I've played in or DMed WBL has been something of a vague maybe, with crafting unheard of, and very little choice on the players part. Hopefully something you want is in the randomly rolled loot, and if not then hopefully you find something decent in the next village/city/etc.

Tomes were something pretty much unheard of with even the +1s incredibly unlikely to ever drop, and NEVER found in a shop.

Because of the conversation I was in, I was curious as to how much difference I would notice if the players were able to go crazy. To limit the bizareness of the city the campaign takes place in having everything possible for sale, I've constructed a crafting system for the players to use.

They just got to the cave, and at the end of the cave is a forge. All through the cave the players notice strange black rocks, and if they interact with it then it makes them feel strange, but nothing happens. When they get to the end they find the forge. After they go through the initial introduction to the forge the players each receive a mark. If they focus on the mark on their hand for 10 minutes they teleport to the forge (which now has no way in or out other than focusing for another 10 minutes which teleports you to where you were). If you fall asleep you instantly get popped out back where you were(I'm not trying to give the players a hiding spot after all).

If the above paragraph didn't make a lot of sense, I apologize - it makes sense in the overall plot, I just wanted to explain the backdrop of the system.

The Crafting System

Normally crafting takes a great deal of time and resources in order to make anything of use. It normally costs ½ the base cost of an item in gold to craft an item for yourself. The cost of creation is calculated using the same methods, but the expenditure is handled differently.

The black matter that is found throughout the caves can be used to create 'blank' items that serve to utilize Crafting Points(CP). As long as you have the appropriate skill/feat/spell, and the appropriate CP, you can forego having to gather materials to craft as well as most of the time required.

Instead of excess experience you’ve been earning CP, which is what you use to manipulate the black matter.

So if you have 10,000 CP you could:

Craft a ring of invisibility which normally has a 20,000 gold cost and have nothing left over

Make a +3 Greatsword which normally has a cost of 18,175(175 is for the base masterwork item) and have 825 left over.

Etc. etc.

RULES:

You must have access to any required spells that are normally used in the enchanting process or the CP cost increases by 10% for each spell that is unavailable. Having a potion/wand/scroll fulfills this need even if neither you or anyone else in your party is capable of using that scroll/wand.

It takes 8 hours to craft 20,000 gold worth of items(10,000 CP). If you are making something worth 110,000 gold then it will take you six eight-hour time periods.

Masterwork or magical items acquired elsewhere can be upgraded with black matter, but doing so is permanent and cannot be undone. You cannot perform a single upgrade half naturally and half with CP. If you have a +1 weapon that you want to make +3 you can:
A. Do so naturally(pay the cost to have it enchanted, or pay half the cost to enchant it yourself)
B. Do so with CP(pay half the cost of going +1 - +3 in CP(8000 CP))
C. Upgrade to +2 with gold(3000 Gold if crafted/6000 if ‘purchased), and then to +3 with CP(5000 CP)
D. Upgrade to +2 with CP(3000 CP), and then to +3 with Gold(5000 Gold if crafted/10000 if ‘purchased’)

Crafting the blank to hold enchantments requires sufficient skill checks, but is completed in considerably less time(the DC is the cost in gold, not in silver - makes it 10x faster)

No single item can be imbued with more than 5,000 CP per character level. This means that you could build a level 4 greatsword at level 5 because it only takes 16,175(normal price 32,350) and you can spend up to 25,000. You couldn’t have a +5 until next level because the cost would be 25,175(Because of the cost of the masterwork weapon).

Items made with the black matter can only be used by people who have the seal.

If you choose to downgrade a blank you get half the invested points back.

Further Examples:
Bob, Joe, and Mike each have 25,000 CP

Bob creates a blank greatsword, and infuses it with a total of +4 enchantments. Bob has spent 16,350 CP (50 for greatsword, 300 for masterwork, 16,000 for +4)

Joe used his normal craft skill to create a masterwork weapon, but infused it with a total of +5 enhancements. Joe has spent all 25,000 of his CP(The cost of the +5 enhancement(25,000) is all that he had to worry about since the sword was made naturally and made masterwork through natural skill)

Mike has a naturally made +5 greatsword, and he uses CP to add a total of +2 enhancements. Mike has spent 24,000 CP(the cost of going from +5 to +7 is normally 48,000, but is halved while crafting, so 24,000)


Joe and Mike have lost their points, and if they ever wish to start over on new weapons, then the weapon they’ve already invested in is useless(though they could sell it for half of what the price would be without the invested CP). The upside is that they were gaining benefit from being able to combine their wealth with their crafting to greater effect, and they were also able to bypass the normal limitations set upon crafting with CP(a level 5 person with a +5 ‘normal’ greatsword’ would have been able to upgrade it to +7, whereas someone crafting a blank would only have been able to make it +4 because of the CP maximum for their level. The upside for the person using the blank is that they decide they want to start over and they get half their points back.


What I'd like are any thoughts or advice on how to tweak this to make it more refined, or simplified without losing the customization that I'm trying to invoke. I'm hoping to get the players to make whatever kind of cool, crazy looking things they can imagine, all the while getting all kinds of items(hopefully stuff they really want, and think is useful).

EDIT:

Maybe an important note - the players are all the same level, and always level at the same time. The experience that they normally earn via encounters has been being withheld and will be given to them as their starting CP. In addition to that, the players each get to designate another player as having done something entertaining, and that person gets bonus XP(or in this campaigns case - CP).

Tyndmyr
2009-09-22, 03:07 PM
This sounds a bit like the UA crafting point system...did you start off that, or come up with this seperately?

IMO, there is little reason to restrict crafting. It tends not to be used much, due to the feat investments, and the fact that the items are still not terribly cheap.