Sir Percy's Streamlined crafting
Enchanting is a hard and expensive profession, but one eagerly pursued by many all the same.
Creating a magic item requires more than just time, effort, and materials. It is a long-term process that typically involves one or more adventures to track down rare materials and the lore needed to create the item.
Summary
- Determine item's Magical Formula
- For enchanting, acquire relevant Potion or Scroll
- Acquire costly Components & magical Reagents
- Gather final exotic Essence
- Craft item through a skill challenge, commission, or time; or have a Heroic Moment
Magical Formulae
To start with, a character needs a formula for a magic item in order to create it. The formula is like a recipe, listing the materials needed and steps required to make the item.
Scrolls & Potions
Scrolls are heavily featured as component of many magical items, forming templates for the powerful enchantments that imbue them with their magic.
Potions are similarly useful, as with the right tools one can imbue a potion's power into more permananent magical form.
Both of these are crafted through this same process, but without this step.
Mundane Components
There's something inherent about finely crafted, high quality components that lets the magic stick to them better. No good ring of power, for example, is made without starting with a high-quality, gem-studded ring.
Magical Reagents
Reagents are magical bits & pieces that have a value and rarity - things of innate magic, be it dragon bones, crystal roses, or fairy ink for scrolls.
While the use of these Reagents is interchangable, keep track of their source. A demon-horn-tipped spear looks much different than a unicorn-blessed one!
Reagents are typically harvested from or guarded by magical creatures, though Common and sometimes Uncommon varieties can be found growing or hidden in the wild by someone who knows what they are looking for.
Common and uncommon reagents can be bought for 10 and 40 gp, respectively, and rarer ones can be sold for much more.
Harvesting
Harvesting a magical creature requires an Intelligence check to determine valuable bits and a Dexterity check to retrieve them safely, with proficiency determined by the type of creature.
| Check Type | Creature Type |
|---|---|
| Arcana | Abberation, Elemental, Fey, Undead |
| Investigation | Construct, Ooze |
| Medicine | Giant, Humanoid |
| Nature | Beast, Dragon, Monstrosity, Plant |
| Religion | Celestial, Fiend |
Exotic Essences
Each enchanted item has at least one fundamental component that provides its magical direction - a demon's hoof for a warhammer, or a mindflayer brain for a helmet of Telepathy. The rarity of the item directly correlates with the power of the essence's source.
Like reagents, this need not come at the cost of the creature's life, though a dragon's spit will not produce as powerful a potion as its lifeblood.
Crafters
You would not ask a cobbler to make your armor, nor a blacksmith your shoes. The final crafting process uses the many tool kits - Calligraphy for scrolls, Herbalism for potions, Woodcarving for arrows, Jewelery for jewelry, Cobbler's for boots, and so on. Crafters are limited in the rarity of items they can create by their skill with the arcane and these tools. If you have not the skill yourself, you can usually find or rescue an NPC Crafter to make the item in your stead
Crafting & Rush Jobs
With all the ingredients in place, you have two options for crafting: taking the time to guarantee a perfect crafting (or commissioning it), or performing a Rush Job. Rush Jobs require about a quarter of the time, but risk failure in a skill challenge using tools, Arcana, and other skills (depending on the item).
Heroic Moments
As an alternative to a skill challenge and Essence, a Heroic Moment could be the item's final transforming moment. Powerful, dramatic moments can have a permanent effect on not just an individual, but the gear they carry.
For example, perhaps striking the killing blow on an Umber Hulk with a Magic Weapon-enhanced sword, then replacing it into a sheath carefully crafted to seal in the magic would permanently transform it into a +1 sword.