Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 coops72 Sep 08, 2015 3:07:39	Hey there everyone. Have my first dming session coming up in a week but I had a quick question. I'm running a bit of a homebrew story and everything seems to be in order but the thing I am still a bit stuck in is crafting materials. I know there is lists etc for crafting magical items but I'm trying to let my players be a bit imaginitive. For instance I know the drow is already planning on trying to eventually make like a sunglasses based helmet to help counteract the disadvantage in light. But I would not know where to start figuring out a cost for it or the cost for special materials other then gems etc. If anyone can lend a hand or point me to a page I might have looked over in the DMG it would be very appreciated
#2 Geoarrge Sep 08, 2015 20:41:41	Some materials are listed under Trade Goods in PHB p157, although that's mostly common materials.   I'd go with looking for something in the same general category (such as fabric or metal), and multiply the price by 10-100 for exotic versions.    You could give a material an arbitrarily high value, but I imagine it helps ground it in the world better, by capping it at a level that keeps it within the progression established by the items on the list. That is, if a square yard of canvas is 1 sp, cotton is 5 sp,  linen is 5 gp, and silk is 10 gp-- then a super-exotic fabric should probably be in the ballpark of 50-100 gp per square yard.  Set the value gap too high, and I tend to think that leads to questions like "Can we farm this material?" and "Is there really no possible less-expensive alternative?"
#3 Fimbrial Sep 09, 2015 11:57:44	Gold is tricky, and leads to awkward situations involving dozens of +5 swords. May I suggest a different strategy? Instead focusing on gold costs, focus on acquiring the crafting materials directly. Like, the one player wants sunglasses, so he will want lenses made of adventure-proof safety glass. When the party goes through the villain's lair, they notice some remarkably sturdy darkened windows. In the villain's notes (or stamped in the corner of the window or something), they find the address of a good glass-maker, who lives in a remote village.   Then when they talk to the glass-maker, he reveals that he made the glass for that guy using troll saliva, which is understandably hard to get.   Other items will generally require:   a pile of generically purchaseable stuff that's not worth mentioning unless you're doing a marketplace adventure,  a few rare items like monster parts and gemstones that are troublesome to acquire, and maybe if you're worried about magic item farming, some unique requirement that will never happen more than once. Unique mutant animal bones, alignments of the stars, that sort of thing. ​
#4 coops72 Sep 10, 2015 15:30:47	Bith really awesome suggestion think I will use a combination of both, if they make a suggestion in the wilderness might throw the "key ingredient" in the lair and see if they pick it up. While if they really want to money dump while in town then I'll go the exotic material route. Assuming its a town that would support such trade. But thankyou both heaps it kinda had me puzzled for a bit and must have kept overlooking thay section in the PHB some how.
#5 Danny_Montanny Sep 11, 2015 6:44:31	Why not just give them an item that reverses the effects with a drawback? Sunlight and bright light goes to dim light, dim goes to dark, but it filters out your Darkvision so it doesn't work.