Craft
Key Ability: Int | Trained Only: No (see below) | Armor Check Penalty: No
You are skilled in the creation of a specific group of items, such as armor or weapons.
Like Knowledge, Language, Perform, and Profession, Craft is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Craft skills, each with its own ranks. The most common Craft skills are alchemy, armor, baskets, books, bows, calligraphy, carpentry, cloth, clothing, glass, jewelry, leather, locks, paintings, pottery, sculptures, ships, shoes, stonemasonry, traps, and weapons.
A Craft skill is specifically focused on creating a nonmagical item. If nothing is created by the endeavor, it probably falls under the heading of a Profession skill.
Check: You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the craft's daily tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. (Untrained laborers and assistants earn an average of 1 silver piece per day.)
The basic function of the Craft skill, however, is to allow you to make an item of the appropriate type. The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The price of the item determines how long it takes to make it. The item's finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.
In some cases, the fabricate spell can be used to achieve the results of a Craft check with no actual check involved. You must still make an appropriate Craft check when using the spell to make articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.
A successful Craft check related to woodworking in conjunction with the casting of the ironwood spell enables you to make wooden items that have the strength of steel.
When casting the spell minor creation, you must succeed on an appropriate Craft check to make a complex item.
All crafts require artisan's tools to give the best chance of success. If improvised tools are used, the check is made with a -2 penalty. On the other hand, masterwork artisan's tools provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the check.
The crafting process for player characters requires spending half the value in raw materials and making a successful Craft check.
Typical Craft check DCs are listed below.
| Item Craft | Skill | Craft DC |
|---|---|---|
| Acid | Alchemy | 15 |
| Alchemist's fire, smokestick, or tindertwig | Alchemy | 20 |
| Antitoxin, sunrod, tanglefoot bag, or thunderstone | Alchemy | 25 |
| Armor or shield | Armor | 10 + AC bonus |
| Masterwork armor or shield | Armor | 15 + AC bonus |
| Longbow, shortbow, or arrows | Bows | 12 |
| Composite longbow or composite shortbow | Bows | 15 |
| Composite longbow or composite shortbow with high strength rating | Bows | 15 + (2 × rating) |
| Mechanical trap | Traps | Varies* |
| Crossbow, or bolts | Weapons | 15 |
| Simple melee or thrown weapon | Weapons | 10 |
| Martial melee or thrown weapon or masterwork simple weapon | Weapons | 15 |
| Exotic melee or thrown weapon or masterwork martial weapon | Weapons | 20 |
| Masterwork exotic weapon | Weapons | 25 |
| Very simple item (wooden spoon) | Varies | 5 |
| Typical item or tool (iron pot) | Varies | 10 |
| High-quality item or masterwork tool (bell, musical instrument) | Varies | 15 |
| Complex or superior item (lock, masterwork musical instrument) | Varies | 20 |
| * Traps have their own rules for construction (see Traps). | ||
Repair Items: You can repair an item by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost and time needed to repair an item that is damaged but not broken is one-quarter of the time and cost to make it. The cost and time needed to repair an item with the broken condition (but more than zero hit points) is one-half that needed to make it brand new. After a successful repair check, all damage is removed.
Action: For a trained player character using the craft skill, use these guidelines for making things:
- An item with a value of up to one gold piece takes an hour to make.
- An item with a value of 100 gold pieces takes a day to make.
- An item with a value of 1,000 gold pieces or higher takes a week per 1,000 gp value to make.
An untrained (non-proficient) player character or a non-player character who is a trained crafter generally takes more time to craft items, given the constraints of lack of expertise on one hand or on running a business, dealing with customers and merchants, training apprentices, and sourcing the least expensive materials, on the other hand. This extra time is set by the game master, but a range of total gold piece value in days is not unreasonable.
Try Again: Yes, you can try again if you fail a crafting check. However, on a failed check, half the raw materials are wasted. Thus, you can take 10 on crafting, but you cannot take 20.
To make an item using Craft (alchemy), you must have alchemical equipment. If you are working in a city, you can buy what you need as part of the raw materials cost to make the item, but alchemical equipment is difficult or impossible to come by in some places. Purchasing and maintaining an alchemist's lab grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks because you have the perfect tools for the job, but it does not affect the cost of any items made using the skill.
Special: Dwarves gain a +3 racial bonus on Craft checks.