You are skilled in the creation of a specific group of items, such as armor or weapons. Like Knowledge, Perform, and Profession, Craft is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Craft skills, each with its own ranks. The most common Craft skills are alchemy, armor, baskets, books, bows, calligraphy, carpentry, cloth, clothing, glass, jewelry, leather, locks, paintings, pottery, sculptures, ships, shoes, staves, stonemasonry, traps, wands, and weapons.
A Craft skill is specifically focused on creating something. If nothing is created by the endeavor, it probably falls under the heading of a Profession skill.
Uses
Appraise Item Value (Novice)
You can use the Appraise Value of Item action from the Appraise skill for an item related to the specific Craft skill, substituting the Appraise skill modifier and proficiency with those of the specific Craft skill.
Practice a Trade (Novice)
You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the craft’s daily tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. (Untrained laborers and assistants earn an average of 1 silver piece per day.)
Action One week.
Retry? No.
Craft or Repair Item (Skilled/Expert/Master/Legendary)
The basic function of the Craft skill, however, is to allow you to make a standard-quality item of the appropriate type. The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The DC, your check result, and the price of the item determine how long it takes to make a particular item. The item’s finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.
You can also repair an item of a quality up to your skill proficiency by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost of repairing an item is one-fifth of the item’s price.
To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.
- Find the item’s price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp).
- Find the item’s DC from Table: Craft Skills.
- Pay 1/3 of the item’s price for the raw material cost.
- Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week’s worth of work.
- If the check succeeds, multiply your skill modifier by the difference between your result and the DC. If the total equals or exceeds the price of the item in sp, then you have completed the item; if the total is double the price of the item in sp or more, divide the total by the item's price in sp, then divide the time spent crafting by the result, to a minimum of one hour.
- If the total doesn’t equal the price, then it represents the progress you’ve made this week. Record the total and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces.
A week of crafting represents five days consisting of 8 hours of activity each (40 hours in total). If you are immune to fatigue, do not need to sleep, or remove the fatigued condition at no cost, you can shorten the number of days in your week of crafting by working up to 3 blocks of 8 hours of activity a day (the shortest possible week would be 1 and 2/3 days).
Action: Craft checks are made by the day or week (see above).
Proficiency:
- Expert: You are able to craft and repair expert-quality items. When determining your weekly progress, double the result of your Craft check before multiplying the result by the item’s DC.
- Master: You are able to craft and repair master-quality items. You do not ruin any of your raw materials unless you fail a check by 10 or more. When you determine your progress, the result of your check is how much work you complete each day in silver pieces.
- Legendary: You are able to craft and repair legendary-quality items. You can craft magic armor, magic weapons, magic rings, and wondrous items that fall under your category of Craft using the normal Craft rules. When you determine your progress, the result of your check is how much work you complete each day in gold pieces.
Retry? Yes, but if you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week (or day, see below). If you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
Modifiers
- Accelerated Crafting—You may voluntarily add +10 to the indicated DC to craft an item. This allows you to create the item more quickly (since you’ll be multiplying this higher DC by your Craft check result to determine progress). You must decide whether to increase the DC before you make each weekly or daily check.
- Progress by the Day—You can make checks by the day instead of by the week if desired. In this case your progress (skill modifier × [check result - DC]) should be divided by the number of days in a week, typically 5.
- Race—A gnome with the Obsessive racial trait receives a bonus equal to her character level on a Craft or Profession skill of her choice.
- Spell (Fabricate)—In some cases, the fabricate spell can be used to achieve the results of a Craft check with no actual check involved. You must still make an appropriate Craft check when using the spell to make articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.
- Spell (Ironwood)—A successful Craft check related to woodworking in conjunction with the casting of the ironwood spell enables you to make wooden items that have the strength of steel.
- Spell (Minor Creation)—When casting the spell minor creation, you must succeed on an appropriate Craft check to make a complex item.
- Tools—Before crafting an item, you must have tools and an appropriate workshop or area. If you don't have access to artisan tools, you can still attempt a Craft check, but you take disadvantage when attempting a check without such tools or with improvised tools. You can add the artisan's tools' quality bonus to your check, if any.
- Tools (alchemy)—To make an item using Craft (alchemy), you must have alchemical equipment. If you are working in a city, you can buy what you need as part of the raw materials cost to make the item, but alchemical equipment is difficult or impossible to come by in some places. Purchasing and maintaining an alchemist’s lab grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks because you have the perfect tools for the job, plus the alchemist's lab's quality bonus if any, but it does not affect the cost of any items made using the skill.
Craft (alchemy) (Int)
Augmenting Alchemical Items
You can create alchemical items that are more potent in terms of damage and difficulty to resist, at the cost of increasing the difficulty to create and the amount of money needed. See Table: Alchemical Augmentations for which augmentations can be chosen and their cost and Craft DC increase. You may select one or more augmentation (if applicable to the alchemical item), and apply an augmentation multiple times.
Table: Alchemical Augmentations
| Augmentation | DC Increase | Cost Increase |
|---|---|---|
| Increase damage by 1d6 and splash damage by 1 | +2 | +base item cost |
| Increase DC by 1 | +1 | +1/2 base item cost |
| Increase duration by 1 round | +2 | +base item cost |
Example: An alchemist's fire that does 3d6 fire damage and 3 fire splash damage that requires a DC 16 Reflex save to extinguish and last for 2 extra rounds would cost 90 gp and require a DC 27 Craft (alchemy) check to create.