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D&D - Expansion of XGE Crafting Rules


Intro

Hello folks,

so as probably none of you noticed, I put out a couple of D&D related blog posts to mix things up on my blog. However, I was never really satisfied with them and removed them. So this is my next try and it’s just about crafting in D&D.

The Problem I try to solve

Many DM ran into the problem of crafting in their game. And when I say crafting I not only mean the process of creating an item. Crafting consist of many small activities that are not covered (or at least not sufficently) in the published materials for D&D.

The Dungeonmaster’s Guide (DMG) and Xanathar’s Guide (XGE) provide some guidelines how to approach crafting items. However, you can basically ignore the rules in the DMG as they are just awefull. No player want spent hundreds(!) of days crafting a single item.

XGE provides way better rules in my opinion. But although they are simple and more down to earth they don’t go deep enough. For example, how to characters get the materials they need to craft an item. Sure you can buy them. But what if they are not in a town? Or if they wonder what to do with the scraps they looted of a goblins body? How to handle potion ingredients? Herbalists need to get them from somewhere, so why shouldn’t a character think of harvest them for “free”? Somehow harvesting ingredients needs to translate to the gold cost mentioned in XGE.

So my goal is, to stick to the core rules of XGE but expand them just enough to make them work for me and my table.

Goals:

  1. Stay as close to the core rules as possible
  2. Hook into existing mechanics
  3. Keep it simple and easy for the players and the DM

Raw materials for mundane and magic items

In XGE items are seperated into three groups. Mundane items, Magic items and Potions. This first problem tackles the “material costs” for the groups Mundane items and Magic items.

XGE states that you need to spent x-amound of gold for raw materials in order to craft that item. In my system, raw materials is a new stackable item. It acts as a catch all term for all sorts of raw materials needed to craft any item. It’s a 1:1 conversion from raw materials to gold. Which makes it easy for the DM. A goblin might drop 25 raw materials instead of 25 gold pieces.

How do characters (PCs) get those raw materials? They can buy, find or salvage them.

Buying is easy: They just buy them somewhere. To keep things simple, the economics of a particular area won’t affect the price. It might affect the availability though.

Finding is also rather simple: A goblin might drop 25 raw materials instead of 25 gold pieces.

Salvaging: A PC might loot a body and find a sword or leather armor. Assuming that the PC has the propper proficiencys and tools he can break the item down into its raw materials however, he only get 10% of its base price worth. For example: A scimitar has a base price of 25 GP. After salvaging, the PC will get 2,5 raw materials out of it.

Since raw materials is a catch all item, we won’t care about “leather armor” provides more leather than metal. The PC could only salvages leather armor and craft some sort of metal armor, yes. I will sacrifice realism for simplicity at this point. It will even out at some point anyways.

The raw materials can also be used as the non-magical component needed to craft a magic item. Although, for magic items you need additional materials that are part of an adventure. By definition these materials are based on the campaign and need to be made up by the DM and tailored to the story. For that reason I won’t cover those in my system.

Raw ingredients for Potions

For potions things got a lot trickier for me. I tried hard to keep this system consistent. It took me days of bouncing ideas around with a friend of mine to come up with this.

First of all, for potions another stackable item will be used. Raw ingredients. Its again a catch all item for all sorts of plants, fungi or monstrous body parts. Also I didn’t seperate healing potions from other potions.

The raw ingredients PCs can buy, find or *harvest them.

Buying is easy: They just buy them somewhere. To keep things simple, the economics of a particular area won’t affect the price. It might affect the availability though.

Finding is also rather simple: A goblin-herbalist might drop 25 raw ingredients instead of 25 gold pieces.

Harvesting: Harvesting raw ingredients was by far the most difficult part. Because plants are basicaly “free” to harvest in the wild. To put a price-tag on this activity I came up with expedition costs. The costs are based of the “potion of healing creation” table in XGE on page 130. However, I extented this to all potions as described below. For each full week spend in the wild, a character needs to pay for hirelings, guards and their accomodation in order to be able to harvest the amount of raw ingredients needed for a particular potion.

Crafting Time and Cost

After spending time and/or money to get the compontents to brew or craft, the PC needs to actually do the crafting or brewing. I used the time and costs from XGE as a baseline and tweaked it just a litte bit.

Which results in the following crafting times:

Rarity Crafting Time Cost
Mundane 3 days 50% of base price
Common 1 workweek 50 gp
Uncommon 2 workweeks 200 gp
Rare 3 workweeks 2.000 gp
Very Rare 4 workweeks 20.000 gp
Legendary 5 workweeks 100.000 gp

These times and prices are halved (rounded down) for consumable items like arrows, or scrolls.

Brewing Time and Cost

To brew Potions I use the following brewing times and costs:

Rarity Brewing Time Expedition Time Expedition Cost
Common 1/2 day 1/2 day 25 gp
Uncommon 1 days 1 days 100 gp
Rare 2 days 2 days 1.000 gp
Very Rare 4 days 4 days 10.000 gp
Legendary 8 days 8 days 50.000 gp

If the party is out in the wilderness they can harvest the raw ingredients themselfs up to a limit of 100 gp. For a better output they need hirelings. Hirelings however can only be found in larger settlements. Not every region supports large expeditions. As a baseline, the population of the settlement should be roughly equal to the expedition cost. So in order to put together a expedition for 50.000 raw ingredients, in a nearby settlement should live about 50.000 people.

Restrictions

Some items are just to difficult to craft for a novice character. I tied the ability to craft certain items to the proficency bonus which can also be translated into levels.

Rarity Level Requirement Proficency Bonus
Common Level 1-4 +2
Uncommon Level 5-8 +3
Rare Level 9-12 +4
Very Rare Level 13-16 +5
Legendary Level 17-20 +6

Example 1 - Batch of 20 Arrows

Mary Jane is a Level 2 Rogue and proficient with a woodcarver tools. She wants to craft a batch of 20 arrows.

Determining the cost

Arrows are a mundane but consumable item with a base cost of 1 gp for a batch of 20.

1 gp = 10 sp. 10 sp * 0,25 = 2,5 sp.

Determining the raw materials

Since the raw materials have a 1:1 gp exchange ratio. Mary Jane need 0,25 raw materials. Since she looted a goblin blacksmith yesterday for 12 raw materials. She can use a small amount of that loot to craft the arrows.

Determining the time

Crafting a mundane item takes 3 days. Since arrows are a consumable, this is halved and rounded down to 1 day.

Example 2 - +1 Studded Leather Armor

Big Joe is a Level 4 Barbarian and proficient with a smiths tools. He wants to craft +1 Studded Leather Armor.

Determining the restrictions

Since +1 Armor is a rare item, Joe needs to be at least level 9 to craft the item. It’s to difficult for him. He then decides to craft normal studded leather armor.

Determining the cost

Studded Leather Armor is a mundane item with a base cost of 45 gp.

45 / 2 = 22,5 gp

Determining the raw materials

It’s not a consumable item, so 45 raw materials are needed.

He has 20 raw materials. He goes to the local blacksmith and buys 2,5 raw materials from him for 2,5 gp.

Determining the time

Crafting a mundane item takes 3 days. He asks the local blacksmith for help to try to half that time. The blacksmith however has too much to do right now. So, Joe has to invest 3 days into creating his armor.

Example 3 - Superior Healing Potion

Little Sue is a Level 13 Cleric and proficient with the herbalism kit. She want to craft 3 Superior Healing Potions.

Determining the restrictions

A Superior Healing Potion is a rare item. As a Level 13 Cleric she can easily craft rare items.

Determining the cost

Three Superior Healing Potion costs 3.000 gp. This price is already halved if you use the table above.

Determining the raw materials

Since she bought and found 2.000 raw ingredients she would need to put together an expedition to harvest the last 1.000 raw ingredients. This would take two days. Since she needs those potions by tomorrow she decides to craft only two potions.

Determining the time

Crafting a rare potion takes two days. Sue is getting nervous. She crafts a single Greater Healing Potion since it takes only a day to craft.

Example 4 - +2 Rod of the Pact Keeper

Dark Luis is a Level 13 Warlock and proficient in arcana. He want’s to craft a +2 Rod of the Pact Keeper.

Determining the restrictions

A +2 Rod of the Pact Keeper is a rare item. As a Level 13 Warlock he can easily craft rare items. However, he isn’t proficient with any tools to create the rod itself. But he can perform the ritual to magicaly arange the raw materials to a magical rod.

Determining the cost

A rare item costs 2.000 gp. No reductions apply here.

Determining the raw materials

Luis found 3.000 raw materials over the last couple of months. He has enough to craft the item. (He of cause needs 2.000)

However, he lacks the knowledge to craft the item. He spent’s some of his downtime (check XGE on this) to do some “research” in the capitals library. He finds notes about the ritual which state the need of a magical component. The warlock asks his patreon for guidance. The patreon gives the warlock a quest to find a specific bone devil that should have the component in question. It’s up to the warlock to figure out how to solve this quest. Let’s assume the warlock got the magical component after the quest.

Why a “bone devil”? First of all because it’s a CR 9 creature. XGE states that for rare items a creature of CR 9-12 needs to be part of the adventure. The type of creature was just my vision of a cool warlock quest. Could be anything though.

The knowledge of the ritual could also come as a reward for another quest. Either to forshadow the existence of an item the character might want in the future. Or maybe the character already found a special magical component but lacks the knowledge to craft it. A DM can play with these knobs as he sees fit.

Determining the time

Crafting a rare potion takes two days. Since Luis now has all the materials he can start the ritual and after two days of crafting he owns a magical item.

Summary

The biggest change is the representation of raw materials and raw ingredients as an item and the expedition costs.

On paper this seems to work. I will put it in place in my Curse of Strahd game and test it with my players. Let’s see how it works at the table.

Have a nice one!

x41

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x41
IT-Security consultant by day. InfoSec enthusiast and Dungeon-Master at night.