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Item Crafting Rules for 5e

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A complete set of rules for creating both magical and mundane items. This supplemental rule guid provides a complete guide for giving your players the opportunity to make their new armor and equipment rather than run into town to buy it. At higher levels it allows a party to prepare for comming challenges by creating magical items designed to fit their own needs and desires.

Changes:

V.1.4.2 - Minor Editing & Printer Friendly Version Added

V.1.4.1 - Minor Typos and Corrections

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Customer avatar
Stephen P April 25, 2021 4:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
I've had this in my library for awhile, but my players only recently expressed an interest in crafting magic items (gotta love that Artificer life).
I'm curious where you got the Figurine cost from in the Base Cost table, and if you have any suggestions for determining a base cost for worked gemstones needed for things like a Gem of Seeing (DMG p.172), or a Psi-crystal (IDRotFM P.315).
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Customer avatar
Charles S April 29, 2021 1:34 pm UTC
CREATOR
The base cost for all items was estimated using the values in the Players Handbook. Items without a set price was estimated based on the cost for what I considered to be similar things.

If I understand your next question I would typically assume that the process of cutting/polishing a gemstone would essentially double it's value. So a 100gp diamond was only worth 50gp before being cut/polished/finished.
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Jake B January 25, 2021 8:24 pm UTC
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Hi, Quick question about the book making itself. What program do you use to make your PDF programs?
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Charles S February 24, 2021 2:25 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Jake, I used a customized style package for LaTeX to create this document. The package I used was originally created by Evan Bergeron, with a few other people contributing in the years since.
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Andrew P July 06, 2020 12:13 am UTC
PURCHASER
Downloaded PDF three times. Each time unable to open file using Adobe Acrobat. "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired."

I found a workaround by opening the file in my browser (which works fine for some reason), then printing to PDF. Now it opens fine with Adobe.

Edit: Printer friendly version works just fine. This issue was with the primary file.
Customer avatar
Finn C June 25, 2020 6:09 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there, I think this is a really cool system that has a lot of interesting aspects I am excited to explore in game, however one issue I have is how the system scales with something as expensive as a suit of plate armor. For example a level 5 character with a 20 strength, expertise in smiths tools and a +1 set of tools would still take 125 days just to craft a set made of common materials. Is this correct and if so, do you have any suggestions of ways to make this a bit more feasible without requiring months of downtime? Especially since making it out of anything more rare could quickly cause the time requirements to skyrocket.
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Charles S June 26, 2020 2:39 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yes this does take into account that things like plate armor would have taken months to actually create. 2 solutions to this would be:

1) let your players get help - more people contributing will decrease the time required in crafting.

2) Let the help do it - You can have a hired smith make the armor and only show up for the week or two it would take to enchant it, still requires a long time, but the players can be out adventuring while it is being made.

3) DM discretion - feel free to put a cap on crafting times for your games and modify the biggest pieces so they take a more reasonable time for your games.
Customer avatar
Michael M June 01, 2020 6:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hello again, the system has turned out to be lots of fun for the whole table, keeping us invested even in downtime away from the adventure and making the players feel more in control and responsible for their own gear.

I noticed this the first time I presented this system to my new players and it's come up every now and again so I figured I might ask; From the looks of the system, when you want to enchant an item, you get the entire satisfaction when doing so as you, the enchanter, should be present for the entirety of its creation. After looking through and doing some thinking it doesn't look like there is a way to enchant a pre-existing item, a player cant take a super fancy sword they found while adventuring and make it a +1.

Do you have a way to approach this in mind or can we expect there to be a new product covering this in the (hopefully near) future? If it would be coming in a new product, would we still be right in looking for a guide to consumables as well?

Sorry...See more
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Charles S June 26, 2020 2:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
You are correct there isn't currently a way to enchant pre-existing items. I have been working on a more comprehensive system that would include consumables and enchanting pre-existing items; however that has been delayed.

Quick fixes that I have implemented for these two issues are:

1) Allow players to 'remold' existing items. Take 1/10 of the normal production time and cost for the creation of items (no reduction in enchanting time/cost). So enchanting that cool sword doesn't require to you forge the whole sword, but you do need to heat the metal, to bind the enchantment - maybe do some edge sharpening and redoing the hardening while you're at it.

2) Create some kind of 'magic-binding material' like risiduum or magic-dust. Items need this within their composition to hold enchantments (it would get added to the creation process). Items without it have temporary enchantments with only a set number of uses based on the caster's level. Once those charges are spent the item...See more
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Bálint K March 27, 2020 3:03 pm UTC
The best I can read, as far as forging goes, the base material and the quality of the outcome only effect the selling price, but do not confer any additional effects, not even the masterwork +1 (or at least it is not written)
Have you considered doing that? While I am aware that the systemic simplification makes some effects redundant (ASF failure reduction for mithril is no longer necessery), I would gladly see them included.
Also, either I am misreading something, or a longsword made years ago cannot be enchanted today?
Customer avatar
Morten S October 22, 2019 6:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How do you make spell scrolls with this system?
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Charles S October 25, 2019 4:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
Baseline rules would require a character with paper, ink, and proficiency in calligraphy, and the ability to cast the spell they're making a scroll for. Base cost for the paper and ink would probably be less than a gold piece, although you can make it more interesting by requiring specialty paper/inks that could be an adventure to acquire or at least make it more expensive to produce.

Using your base costs you can estimate the time it will take to craft, and you can use Dexterity (Calligraphy) skill checks as the crafting checks to determine the quality of the scroll. You would simultaneously have to be infusing the spell into the material using the guidelines from the Enchanting Items section.
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Dan T July 15, 2019 7:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
If crafting is your character's thing, then you need to add this to your library.
Customer avatar
Andrew G July 12, 2019 1:30 am UTC
PURCHASER
I just downloaded these rules and I really like them. A good foundation with plenty of room for DM adjustment. I wonder if you or anyone has put any more effort into developing the actual enchanting formulas? Like what spells should the enchanters use for magic items that aren't based on a specific spell? I am sure I can come up with something, just wondered if the effort had been done by you or anyone. I would have expected maybe at least a starting guideline table for maybe a couple dozen of the most common magic items and enchantments folks might want to make.
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Customer avatar
Charles S July 16, 2019 4:26 pm UTC
CREATOR
I am working on a follow up to this that handles magic item creation more specifically; however, I wont ever have a 1-to-1 list of spell + item = magic item. My rule is that the only way to make a magic item is whatever way the players first succeed. For example:

If my players are attempting to make a flame tongue, they know that they need some kind of fire enchantment. Behind the screen I'll decide that the spell needs to be >6th level since Flame Tongues are rare. From there the players will just try stuff, any item crafting/enchanting successes they have with lower level spells might result in items that have certain similar qualities, but are lacking the permanence or the damage, or some key feature. The first time my players succeed at crafting a fire-enchanted sword with a spell above 6th level, that spell then becomes the way to make them in my campaign world.

You could also decide the spells to make those items are different from normal combat spells that get used, and so...See more
Customer avatar
Michael M February 01, 2019 8:26 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have looked at this rule set and I am actively using them to create items and have some fun with it before telling my players about it. I can tell you I am very happy with what I see and I think you should be very proud.

That being said, I've got a question. It probably has a simple answer, but how did you base the price of the +1 Longsword Yurial and Dar made? Is it a standard you have or that the community shares and that I'm just missing?
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Customer avatar
Charles S February 04, 2019 7:39 pm UTC
CREATOR
The Base Price for crafting production is the price of a mundane item as found in PHB or other publication. A standard longsword costs 15gp RAW.

The final selling price of the blade should be between 200-300 which is the recommended price in the DMG for a magic item of this rarity, and represents the total cost of production (182 gp), plus labor (2 people, 2 days), plus any other mark-up they decide to add.
Customer avatar
Anthony P December 13, 2018 9:38 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any tips for printing this out? If I set to greyscale, it will still print the majority of the paper in ink and it's a bit wasteful (inkwise) to do that.
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Customer avatar
Charles S December 17, 2018 6:33 pm UTC
CREATOR
I will look into creating a printer-friendly version for you when I get the time.
Customer avatar
Matthew C July 21, 2018 2:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is awesome. Where did you get the base costs items list, and where could I find an expanded one?
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Matthew C July 21, 2018 2:46 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just realized it's grouped into categories. Do you use the grouped categories or do you take half the cost of the market value of the actual item when determining base cost for your players?
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Customer avatar
Charles S July 25, 2018 1:49 pm UTC
CREATOR
For this system, I never use half-market-costs. The values listed in the Players Handbook or other source book is the value I use for the base cost. The table that presents some baseline costs for different categories of items I made by averaging together costs for different items in that category. It was meant to be a general approximation for different types of items if you didn't want to go look up the actual cost, or if there was no official cost listed.
Customer avatar
Dyer R July 20, 2018 11:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
for some reason it wont let me review anything right now, but i wanted to stop in and say that this is a fantastic document. One of my player's came to me interested in crafting, so i looked into 14 different crafting files on DMsGuild, ALMOST all of them, and yours is by far the best one here. Cheers!

I would love to see some more suggestions for managing consumable items, but as is i think i can figure something out xD
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Customer avatar
Charles S July 25, 2018 1:45 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thanks.

I'm actually working on a follow up project to this one that is going to look at the crafting process for magical items exclusively, and will delve deeper into the mechanics of consumables, charges, recharging, etc.
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Dyer R July 25, 2018 10:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
thats awesome! i look forward to it! Also you apparently wont receive a review from me, i contacted DMsGuild and apparently they have disallowed creators from reviewing other creators content. :X
Customer avatar
Kiel M July 18, 2018 12:19 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm a little confused by the spell work segment, Right now i'm looking at the rules to figure out how long it would take a professional 3 sets of +1 studded leather armor. The armor is already created and of the required quality. I can tell it will take 90gp per day and will take at least 2 passing checks to make the item but I can't tell what the DC is

Well, that what I was starting to say. I looked at the DC chart a third time and figured it. Is there any chance that you put space between the two columns or reorder them so they go down instead of across?
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Customer avatar
Charles S July 25, 2018 1:43 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for your feedback. I see what you mean with that table. I will look at shuffling that arrangement around or putting a divider between the two sides to make it easier to read.

Thanks
Customer avatar
Edward R November 21, 2017 2:09 am UTC
PURCHASER
I haven't used these yet, but may implement something for it. I'm trying to combine Stronghold rules, and so I've got a bit of mixing.

During your second example with the spellwork it says a total of 2 successes. Was that from the first success and the final weave?

What would constitute a failure, only making 1 out of 3 of the checks? Or are you saying it only works with at least 51% (a majority of the checks are successful). Looks great! Those were my only questions.
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Customer avatar
Edward R November 21, 2017 2:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
Never mind, it helps if you read it in detail!

You have to have as many successes as the level of the spell.
Customer avatar
Ryan C November 19, 2017 3:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I love this! One question: does this system provide for multiple people working on crafting an item? I realize the enchanter can gain advantage from a second caster helping, but what about the forging? Say there are 2 people working on a set of platemail; would that grant advantage, or would each person make a separate blacksmithing check? Would that then count as 2 days worth of labor instead of 1?
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Customer avatar
Charles S November 19, 2017 8:05 pm UTC
CREATOR
I left that intentionally vague for each DM to decide. The way I run this in my games is as follows, each laborer must make their own crafting checks. An individuals contributing work rate is equal to their normal work rate divided by the crafter position. i.e. the master contributes his or her whole work rate, the 1st assistant only contributes half their work rate, the second assistant contributes a third of their work rate and so on.

This makes it so that adding people will decrease total crafting time, though there are diminishing returns, there's only so much you can get done in a day regardless of how many people contribute. It also means that the items quality can be affected by having a single poor crafter, but not by a single exceptional crafter.
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Customer avatar
Ryan C November 20, 2017 3:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I like your method. For clarification; this would imply each crafter is working on each day, meaning someone couldn't contribute for part of the build, correct?

Also, lets say for instance we have 2 people. The first has a work rate of 8; the second a work rate of 4. They are crafting a chain shirt (50gp). Day one, person 1 rolls 16+8 for 24. Person 2 rolls 14+2 (half of their work rate) for for 16. 2 days of work have progressed. Is this correct? or would it be Person 1 rolls 16+8+2, for 26, and 1 day progress is made?
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File Last Updated:
December 27, 2018
This title was added to our catalog on April 19, 2017.