Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Muglock 12-11-07, 07:35 PM	Yeah. I haven't really ever dealt with my players taking and seriously using a craft skill. My level 5 Sohei in the Diablo campaign I'm running is in Lut Gholein right now under the jurasdiction of a blacksmith there, and he's actually using his craft armor skill to try to make full-plate. I told him it would take him a week to make it with all the proper materials, but now I'm kind of at a lose. We checked the books for the right checks, and apparently, all he needs to make is the base check plus the armor bonus the armor gives you... I'm pretty confused. He rolled a 17 right off the bat plus his 7 in craft and said hes good to go and over the course of a week his character will make the full-plate at ordinary quality... This can't be it. I saw something about price as well, how that adds to the check? I really need some help, specifically for Crafting Armor, and the armor is Full-plate.
sapient 12-11-07, 08:15 PM	The price determines how long time it takes to complete the entire project. In this case, the full plate. You take the objects price, in silver pieces. For a full plate that is 12,000 sp (1,200 gp x 10). Every week, the checkresult (as long as it is successful) multiplied by the DC is how much has been completed. If his result for the check the first week was 24 (17+7) and the DC of the check i 17 (10+7) then he finished 24x17 sp worth this week - 408 sp. He has a looong way to go before the full plate is finished. (Supposing he keeps his success in the same range and complete on average 400 sp per week, it's a 30 week work.) So what he did was perhaps one of the smaller plates of the set needed, or some similar task. Which is rather realistic, I think. But on the other hand, if he ever rolls a 5 or less, he had destoyed some of the materials he's working with. (A 17 needed for succes, he has 7 ranks. So if he rolls less then 10 he fails, and if he fails by 5 or more some of the materials are destroyed.) The way I read the rules, I limit that damage to the material he worked on that week. The SRD says "half the original raw material cost", but for such a large project were he cannot possibly complete it in one week, it seems unreasonable that he can destroy half of a bunch of materials he wouldn't even touch that week. Therefore I would go with half of what he could use if he had maximum success (459 sp, half of which is 229.5. That would be the price I would make him pay for failing by 5 or more.) If you want to, you could let him make three checks with the result in GP, for aggregated work in ten weeks instead. Then he would stand a much larger economic risk if he fails by more then five, but the number of rolls would be cut down considerably.
Muglock 12-11-07, 08:22 PM	So I was correct in calculating the base DC for crafting the plate-armor then? And if I wasn't, how exactly is the base DC calculated again? 10 + armor bonus? And then I take that base DC and make him roll it every week and if he succeeds, it tells him how much of the silver pieces of the armor hes completed, and if he fails by 5 or more he damages some of the armor?
sapient 12-11-07, 09:06 PM	Yes, your exactly right. The DC is computed as 10 + AC-bonus of the armor (or shield) to be made. It is all explained in this entry (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/craft.htm) in the Hypertext SRD. Also feel free to take a look at what in the situation that might provide circumstance modifers. There may be both good and bad. The blacksmith he stays with, may lend him some masterwork tools (+). Or he has to make due with second rate and improvised tools, because he isn't really a smith and the other smiths selfishly aren't very helpful (-). Personally I also add a +2 DC modifyer if the armor is made from any special materials (adamantine, mithril and so on) because those are more difficult to handel. There is also the added cost which makes it take longer - but I think is should also be more difficult. (Don't think that is in the rules anywhere though.) But that may not be applicable to your situation, I don't know...
Kyuketsukiouji 12-16-07, 10:00 PM	Special armor is always masterwork, so the DC is 20. Don't forget that you are allowed to add multiples of 10 to the DC to go faster.