Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BeauJest 06-06-07, 05:40 PM	Ok, a dwarf wants to create adamantine fullplate and I need a sounding board on the calculations. Material cost: 15,000 gp Armor cost: 1,500 gp Craft steps Determine items price in gp: 16,500 gp and convert to sp: 165,000 sp Find DC of item: 18 Pay 1/3 of item's cost in raw materials: 5,500 gp Make checks 1/week; Progress in sp = check * DC Let's say the dwarf is 12th level, fairly smart (Int 12), has Skill Focus (Armormaking), and all the right tools. Skill check = 15 (ranks) + 1 (Int) + 3 (SkillF) + 2 (Dwarf) + 2 (mw tools) = +23 Avg roll of 10 gives a check of 33. 33 x 18 = 594. Round that to 600 sp/week and you're looking at 275 weeks! Is this for real? 5 years of uninterrupted work? Can any PC convince their DM they can craft adamantine fullplate in this way?
AAB 06-06-07, 05:47 PM	i don't really want to wade through all the calculations, but yes. crafting super-expensive equipment takes a long time. that's why you generally need to take multiples of -10 on the check to speed crafting. you could base an adventure around finding a magical Forge of Armorsmithing, though. i think it's in Races of Stone.
BeauJest 06-06-07, 05:53 PM	i don't really want to wade through all the calculations, but yes. crafting super-expensive equipment takes a long time. that's why you generally need to take multiples of -10 on the check to speed crafting. you could base an adventure around finding a magical Forge of Armorsmithing, though. i think it's in Races of Stone. Ah, missed that. So adding +10 should roughly split the time in half.
AAB 06-06-07, 06:07 PM	and once you get to higher levels/have magical forges, etc. there's no reason you can't take -20 or -30 if you wanted.
equilibrium17 06-06-07, 06:16 PM	And don't forget Aid Another. Master Smiths don't generally work alone. A couple of lower level assistants who can add a few +2s to your modifier may allow you to take another -10 to speed up the the time.
AAB 06-06-07, 06:37 PM	so say we have 12th level dwarven fighter with an int of 12 with 3 hired 1st-level assistants. his armorsmithing modifier (assuming he's maxed out the craft skill) would be +18. the five assistants (who cost a total of 10 gp per day) each aid another (and they cannot fail, as they have +13 modifiers, +15 if they are dwarves) to give him a total of +24. working at a magic forge that grants +10 to armorsmithing, he gets a nice big +38 craft (armorsmithing) modifier. since the DC for crafting adamantine fullplate is 18, we can assume that Mr. Dwarfsmith adds 20 to the DC for creation, making the craft DC 38 (he cannot fail, so he will not risk paying extra material cost). he pays 5,500gp for the raw materials getting about 1820 sp/week done it will still take him about 90 weeks, and actually cost him another 900 gold, but it'll get done a lot faster.
equilibrium17 06-06-07, 06:44 PM	Yeah, that's more like it. . . but since you can Take 10 on Craft checks to make items, if his net craft modifier is +38, he can actually safely add 30 to the DC, since his actual "roll" will always be a 48.