A Land Far Away

Since we have numerous crafters on server, here goes the rules.

MUNDANE ITEMS

Mundane item crafting is handled through skill rolls. Armours, weapons, chemicals are represented through Craft Armour, Craft Weapon, Craft Bowyer, Craft Alchemy. The rules for crafting can be found in the Players Handbook (pages 70-71) If you intend to craft something other than what we have available as options, such as Gemcrafting, Stonemasonry, Weaving, or any other craft listed in the phb, please notify the dm team so we can determine where to put your skill points according to your class. If you need further clarification of the rules in the phb, please notify me and I will explain them. Note also, that special materials can be used in crafting, DEPENDING on the following things...
Availability of special material
Purchasing of Special Material
Knowing how to craft with Special Material - this MUST be learned IG, and not merely upon gaining a level...ie. because you hit level X, that does not automatically mean you know how to work with a special material such as mithril or iron wood. This MUST be taught IG to your pc.

When involved in the crafting of an item, ALFA standard rule is one roll is made per day on the crafting. YOU MUST be involved in the crafting of the item for that day...no making rolls and then going out to adventure that rl day. You must remain stationary where you are crafting. Crafters will need to have tools (pm me and I will supply the tools) and a place to work. For some crafting...a place can be anywhere. A stonemason can shape rock in almost anyplace, a Weaponsmith needs a forge.

Note : MW property can only be placed on an item DURING it's original making, ie. MW property can not be applied months after the original making of the item. The same applies for the Mighty property on bows...the Mighty Property MUST be done during the time of the making of the original bow, or not at all.

Crafting Magic

You must first, of coarse, have the feat neccessary for crafting magic into items. This includes brew potion, craft magic arms and armour, craft wand, craft staff, craft rod, craft wonderous item, scribe scroll, forge ring. After the appropriate feat...

You must have the appropriate spell if the item calls for a spell to be cast. This is less of a problem for wizards and clerics, and more of a problem for sorcerers, warlocks and such. If your PC does not have the spell required, he/she can instead use 1 scroll per 1,000 gold of the standard cost of the item if they pass the UMD check for the scroll. Mages/clerics knowing the needed spells must cast said spell 1 x day while crafting. Note that special rules are applied for 12th level warlocks where scrolls are no longer needed.

You must have a crafting table to do your work, ergo a place where you can do your work. Crafting tables range in prices, starting at 500 gold.

You must have the item to be enchanted. (base item)

You must be able to pay 1/2 the standard cost of the item (cost of creation)

You must be able to exend 1/25 of the standard cost of the item in experience (life force used during the crafting)

Crafting takes 1 rl day per 1,000 gp of the items standard cost. This is uninterrupted, continuous crafting. Crafting needs to be rped in game, not done while logged out. (To clarify even further, no adventuring for a day, logging out where you craft, logging back in to go adventuring and saying your pc rped the crafting in your time logged off, at least 30 minutes of rped crafting need be done per RL day, logging out after is fine, but the pc must be stationary for the rest of the day, weather logged in or out, for that 30 minutes to truely count) Crafting needs to be stationary...no leaving for adventure.

Standard cost of items can be found in the ALFA pricing guide. If you need to find out an items cost, pm me and I will be more than happy to help.

You must meet the prerequisite caster level for the item being made. Check with me before crafting so I can make sure you are at the appropriate level for crafting said item.

Update, 6/21/10 DMN
Practiced Spellcaster Feat - will affect caster level up to 4 levels as far as crafting goes. Note that the feat will only boost caster level UP TO your hit die, and no more (for instance, a level 4 wiz/level 3 fighter would have a caster level 0f 7, a level 4 wiz/level 5 fighter would have a caster level of 8 ).

Magic crafting per level.

• Lvl 1 can craft lvl 0 & 1 scrolls, +1 skill items
• Lvl 2 can craft +2 skill items
• Lvl 3 can craft lvl 2 scrolls/potions/wondrous items, +3 skill items, +1 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 4 can craft +4 skill items, +1 ability items
• Lvl 5 can craft lvl 3 scrolls/potions/wands/wondrous items, +5 skill items
• Lvl 6 can craft +6 skill items, +2 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 7 can craft lvl 4 scrolls/wands/wonderous items, +7 skill items
• Lvl 8 can craft +8 skill items, +2 ability items
• Lvl 9 can craft lvl 5 scrolls/rods/wondrous items, +9 skill items, +3 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 10 can craft +10 skill items
• Lvl 11 can craft lvl 6 scrolls/rods/wondrous items
• Lvl 12 can craft +3 ability items, lvl 6 & below staffs/rings, +4 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 13 can craft lvl 7 scrolls/rods/staffs/rings/wondrous items
• Lvl 15 can craft lvl 8 scrolls/rods/staffs/rings/wondrous items, +5 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 16 can craft +4 ability items
• Lvl 17 can craft lvl 9 scrolls/rods/staffs/rings/wondrous items
• Lvl 18 can craft +6 Enhancement weapons/armor
• Lvl 20 can craft +5 ability items

How long per RL day would you say is a good amount of time to spend RPing the crafting of the item a PC is making? baring in mind they will mostly be doing so with no one else about

1/2 hour to the question above.

Lvl 4 can craft +4 skill items, +1 Enhancement weapons/armor and +1 ability items

Lvl 5 can craft lvl 3 scrolls/potions/wands/wondrous items, +5 skill items, +1 Enhancement weapons/armor items

May I ask why the same thing is listed for two different levels if they're identical? Was this a mistake, and if so, at which level can said spellcaster produce +1 enhancement weapons/armors & ability items?

Brother Humphrey wrote:

Lvl 4 can craft +4 skill items, +1 Enhancement weapons/armor and +1 ability items

Lvl 5 can craft lvl 3 scrolls/potions/wands/wondrous items, +5 skill items, +1 Enhancement weapons/armor items

May I ask why the same thing is listed for two different levels if they're identical? Was this a mistake, and if so, at which level can said spellcaster produce +1 enhancement weapons/armors & ability items?

Probably an oversight from the Standards person who made the original table. I believe level 4 is the initial level in which one can craft a +1 magic arms/armour, and it goes in increments of 4 levels per +1. Will correct.

Just spitballing here, and thought about this time-line for crafting a bit and I think maybe it's a lilttle hard on the "player"... so for my 2 cents...

To be clear, ...to craft a 2,000 gp magic item, the crafter PC must be logged on, in a workshop (or appropriate artisan "area" for the item being crafted), for 48 real-life hours "online".

So let's say if someone could possibly stay logged on for 8 hours a day, that would be 6 days straight, logged on for 8 hours each day, standing in a workshop while in game "playing". (And as mentioned above at least 1/2 hour within each of those sessions the crafter PC should be actually RP'ing the crafting).

Considering this is a persistent world, should off-line time also be considered? I mean, if someone is offline for 2 days, there are still things going on in-game during his/her absence, so shouldn't maybe offline time be considered even partially?

Like perhaps, time offline also contributes to 25% "online" time...

In effect yes, someone can log off... for the WHOLE duration crafting... but that would mean, that same 2,000 gp value item... would need 8 days (real time) of "offline" time to complete. (player misses 8 days of play time... and loses XP when item complete)

This would just be more convenient for players since truly... it is not ALOT of "fun" to log on, and just stand there, in a workshop, ... for 8 hours, 6 days straight, to produce only a 2,000 gp item...

I understand completely that ALFA is low LOW magic, and I wouldn't want it ever to be any more magical....but...if the above stats are true... it just seems pretty harsh to have a player in RL... have to log on for so long... and not "really" adventure (i.e. play)... when, at the same time, if my suggestion was approved (25% offline time towards crafting time), would at least allow the real-life person to do other things, and wait anxiously and patiently out-of-game for that item...

I mean it is a game. AND most of all, that person would in effect be "out of game" and the PC would also be "missing adventures" for an even longer time, without having to be logged in and just waiting around doing nothing until the crafting is complete... so for an example, even if the player decided he/she would NOT log in, and wait out the time offline (to do real life stuff instead), he she would be effectively OUT of game... for 4 times the duration with respect to total crafting time... so... he/she WOULD suffer loss of game time (RP'd in-game by other PCs as "working") and then when finished, the PC him/herself would then also lose the XP for the crafting itself........ all without having to log on and just sit there, for so long.
((This example is probably impossible to see anyway, and perhaps the crafting PC SHOULD actually be required to login each day for that 1/2 hour of RP while crafting as well... i think))

Trust me please, I am NOT pro-Magic

I am all about RP'ing crafting but this is a game... it just seems like a punishment since we are real people playing a game, and it's not actually "fun" to just log on and sit in a workshop for hours and hours and hours.

My main ALFA PC years back was jailed for murder (of course, he was innocent *ahem*) and he spent 22 real days in the jail cell. I never missed a day of playing. I never altered my game playing time, I always logged in as usual each day and RP'd 2-3 hours each day in his jail cell and some days longer...just in case anyone logged on, and just in case those who logged on might have come to visit my PC while he was in his cell. I'm not trying to get anything out of this argument about off-line-time-credit crafting... I'm just letting whoever cares know that i'm not in this to gain. I just think it really seems punishing to the RL player to have to be logged in so long... when things on the server "are" moving forward even while he/she is logged out... so to allow at least some crafting time to occur even when logged out.

...another PC of mine, on another world, was a bouncer. I spent literally hours of play time each day, standing at the door of the main bar/Inn he worked at, RP-working as a bouncer. If an adventure broke out: "Watch out, kobolds are attacking the next town! To the stables yahaaa!"... 9 times out of 10, I did not go. I stood there and wished the adventurers well as they rushed to save the day...DM in tow... and probably gave away a few healing potions to help! Most DMs usually told me it's ok to make an RP excuse to come along, and sometimes [rarely] I did, ...but most of the time, I told the DM, my PC is doing exactly what he thinks he should do, so "I" (the player) must follow that. I missed out on alot. Just another example about how I am not in this post trying to change things because of my future desire to craft anything. I want the community to know i'm in it for the RP, but actual logged in time crafting being at 1 RL day per 1,000 gp just seems too long, especially if logged out time counts for nothing while the persistent world does roll on even when we are logged out.

If the goal was to severely reduce the desire for players to make magic items. I agree. And thus the low low magic item world stays very real and strong. But the quality of players on ALFA would make such a feat, to create magic items an additional boon to the RP and world, so in fact is quite possibly "better" than not.

Cheers.

Just in reply to your post Galadorn, the player only needs to spend half hour per RL day RPing the crafting of their item, the rest of crafting time each day can be spent logged off. What players cannot do is spend half hour crafting and then the rest playing as normal per day.

They can also choose not to work on the item on a given day (say if they had a weekly session and wished to play in that). Doing so would result in no progress on the item for that day but otherwise all goes as normal.

It was such a no brainer, I didn't think that I needed to spell that one out......

danielmn wrote:It was such a no brainer, I didn't think that I needed to spell that one out......

Erevain wrote:Just in reply to your post Galadorn, the player only needs to spend half hour per RL day RPing the crafting of their item, the rest of crafting time each day can be spent logged off. What players cannot do is spend half hour crafting and then the rest playing as normal per day.

They can also choose not to work on the item on a given day (say if they had a weekly session and wished to play in that). Doing so would result in no progress on the item for that day but otherwise all goes as normal.

Thanks for the solid reply Erevain.

danielmn wrote:It was such a no brainer, I didn't think that I needed to spell that one out......

I guess it wasn't. And perhaps you should have. But Erevain was nice enough to fire off a few sentences to clear it up for me.

I was just a little unclear is all, and if I was entirely wrong, which I have no problem admitting at all that I was, as I "spelled out" in my post, it would seem harsh to implement my incorrect assumption on required login time for crafting.

~G

Galadorn wrote:

Erevain wrote:Just in reply to your post Galadorn, the player only needs to spend half hour per RL day RPing the crafting of their item, the rest of crafting time each day can be spent logged off. What players cannot do is spend half hour crafting and then the rest playing as normal per day.

They can also choose not to work on the item on a given day (say if they had a weekly session and wished to play in that). Doing so would result in no progress on the item for that day but otherwise all goes as normal.

Thanks for the solid reply Erevain.

danielmn wrote:It was such a no brainer, I didn't think that I needed to spell that one out......

I guess it wasn't. And perhaps you should have. But Erevain was nice enough to fire off a few sentences to clear it up for me.

I was just a little unclear is all, and if I was entirely wrong, which I have no problem admitting at all that I was, as I "spelled out" in my post, it would seem harsh to implement my incorrect assumption on required login time for crafting.

~G

Re-reading my original post, I can see how it would not be clear so I clarified even further. Thanks for the poke for clarification.

....and, in reading your original post, I also agree that you were very detailed and made several attempts to make sure everyone understood clearly something that almost no matter how it was explained, might be taken a certain way differently by different readers - which is entirely not your fault of course. I realise it was my fault to have understood it wrongly after the fact. My super-long winded post was just to make sure in my own mind what was going on - and in case I did not understand it wrong, I wanted to give a suggestion (just a suggestion) to try to help. In my line of work, when peiople bring up things, it's highly encouraged to not just bring up issues, but to also at the same time try to help... but this just made my post that much longer, so sorry about all that.

I think the crafting rules you stated are quite fair and do encourage crafters on ALFA, and at the same time are just enough to allow the low magic policy of ALFA remain intact. yay!

~G

Keep in mind that the way crafting is handled may vary from DM to DM. Although i think the way myself and Jayde handle it is mostly the same as Daniel, you might want to read over our crafting rules, here, just to be sure you're completely informed.