Crafting armor and requesting items

Hey mike did you get a chance to check up on the crafting if i can take a 10 on it or have to make individual rolls each week? And about the mithril being ordered after we had first set up the kingdom to make a breastplate? thanks

To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.

1. Find the item's price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp).

2. Find the item's DC from Table: Craft Skills.

3. Pay 1/3 of the item's price for the raw material cost.

4. Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week's worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result × the DC equals the price of the item in sp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in silver pieces, then you've completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the DC doesn't equal the price, then it represents the progress you've made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces.

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The cost for raw materials is 1/3 of the item's price.

It's implied, but never actually stated that the special materials cost is related to both the scarcity of the material and the extra time necessary to work the material.

As for a balance issue, the cost for a mithral chain shirt (Elven Chain) is 5150gp. The raw materials are about 1700gp. However...

According to the rules, you make one craft check per week to determine how many silver pieces worth of work you get done.

The DC to create Elven Chain is 14 for the armor, but 20 for the masterwork component (the mithral special material is part of the masterwork component).

So, assuming you roll something reasonable like 25 each week. You succeed on the check, and then multiply your roll by the DC to see how many silver pieces worth of work you've gotten done. 25 (roll) x (20 dc) = 500 sp. That's 50gp, or about 1% of the total work necessary.

Which means that the average elven chain shirt represents about 100 weeks worth of work.

Crafting sucks man....

There is a shortcut: the 5th level wizard spell Fabricate will allow you to simply make one craft check and create items up to 10 cu. ft. of material per level. You still need to pay the raw material cost (which would probably be the ~1700gp).

Elven Chain you're describing is a masterwork, mithral version of the medium chainmail armor - AC +6. There is also a mithral shirt which is a version of a chain shirt AC+4 and costs 1100gp.

There is also a masterwork spell that converts normal items into masterwork items (material costs = difference in cost of masterwork). If somebody crafts non-masterwork mithril chainmail this spell can make it masterwork. No sure that's possible though...

A good use for that spell would be if we find a non-masterwork weapons made out of a special material that one of us wants to use. This spell will make it master work and eligible for enchantment.

Specs wants to make Mitheral breastplate, though. He does not want a chain shirt.

The spell is fine, but it only knocks off 150 from the price of the Mitheral breastplate. That would still be paid, it just would not add to the crafting time.

I hope no one is planning to craft wonderous items... Crafting tends to break the game as now the players can get everything to cheap and the character wealth to level ratio goes out of balance.

could we comission one of the shops to work on crafting items part of the time? pay x amount of gold for someone else to work on the shirt as well in shifts? basically the craft represents working at it for 8 hours a day so you could shorten the time by having other people work on it for you as well. would it be allowed to request work from the town smiths for a commission?

So, could I have sent away for a mithral shirt? It costs 1100 GP and should be masterwork.

Yes to William.

To Specs questions, here is how I see it, and the other players can see if I am being too logical in my thought process.

To the idea of hiring out people to aid you in crafting the armor:

1. You would need to pay a person or group to first find enough of the VERY rare metal Mithril for your breastplate.

2. That person will have to purchase the amount of Mithril from a vendor on your behalf. I don’t see a merchant selling 4K work of Mithril for the 1/3 cost of the crafting amount (1325 GP instead of 4000GP)

3. You would need to pay to have someone bring it down to you.

4. You have to pay the people who are working on it with you.

This adds up. I would feel comfortable saying that the armor costs 2/3 the cost instead of 1/3 the cost, and then we do not have to worry about making the 100’s of crafting roles for you and all the hired labor . It would also be finished in time for you to adventure.

Does this sound fair to everyone?

Sounds good to me. Specs can get a discount on his armor he makes for himself, without having to make lots of rolls. I would add that he would spend his free time making the armor, and would not have time to make any for anyone else. He wouldn't grow rich, but he gets his armor at a discount.

I would be quite alright with that setup