Crafting and Enchanting

So you want to craft and/or enchant your own items? Follow these rules and you can be your own blacksmith and/or enchanter.

Intro

For crafting and enchanting there a specific formula's you need to follow. these are very simple to begin with but can get very daunting. Always ask your DM if you are able and/or allowed to make the item you are going for. And if so make sure you know what you are going to make. Explain it as detailed as possible, and supply sketches etc.

Both Crafting and Enchanting have their specific artisans required for the task. Your DM will tell you what type of artisans are allowed to help you if needed.

Crafting

There are two ways to craft.

The first one is you do it on your own. The second is you hire the personnel to do it for you, whether you help or not is up to you.

The base cost of the item divide by 5gp will be the total days you need to work on it.

So let's say you hire a blacksmith with a +1 in proficiency to make you a long sword. The sword costs 15gp, according to the formula it will take him 3 days to complete the sword.

If you hire a blacksmith that has +3, it will take him only 1 day. An item always will take at least 8 hours to complete. So a even a blacksmith with +10 will still take 8 hours to complete your sword.

The costs for hiring artisans depend on their proficiency, am artisan will have higher or lower proficiency depending on how skilled they are. The costs to hire them reflect that.

Artisan Cost

Proficiency Cost / Day +1 5gp +2-3 10gp +4-5 20gp +6-8 35gp +9-10 50gp

Some artisans will ask extra depending how they feel towards you. And they might try to haggle more money out of you.

The formula for crafting on your own is a little more complicated :

(int modifier + proficiency) *5gp a day

Int modifier is your base intelligence modifier. Note that if you have an Intelligence lower than 8 and aren't proficient in the tools, you are in these rules "too stupid" to craft an item.

Proficiency will only be added if you are proficient in the tools that are used for the item you want to craft. If you are not proficient, this will be 0.

For example.

You have an Int modifier of +4 and you aren't proficient in the tool you are using, the formula for you will be 4+0 = 4*5 = 20. So you are able to craft 20gp a day worth of the item. So if the item costs 90gp it will take you 4.5 days to create said item.

You can also work together with hired artisans. It will follow the same rules as described earlier. So if you hire a blacksmith with a proficiency of +1 and you can craft for 20gp a day. You together can craft for a 25gp a day.

Enchanting

For enchanting the same rules apply as crafting. Except for a few adjustments listed below.

You'll need to be able to cast spells to be able to enchant.

You'll need to match the level requirements to pull off the requested enchant.

The hiring price for artisans are multiplied by 5.

The required artisan depends purely on what type of enchantment you want to do. Druids would be more useful if the enchantment is of Nature base, while Clerics / Paladins would help for the Divine. This doesn't mean a Cleric won't be of help on Nature enchants, it will just be harder for them to do. It's up to the DM to give the artisan a disadvantage or keep their proficiency where it is.

Enchanting items is very pricey to begin with. The worth of these items go up very quickly and once an item has been enchanted you can't re-enchant them. Disenchanting is an option though.

The only exception to this rule is that you can enchant a +1 item to a +2 item, or give a +1/+2 item an extra enchantment. Be careful though. Since they won't always give you the wanted effect, re-enchanting items is a dangerous business and finding people to help you with it will be a challenge in on it self. Some of these enchantments come with a level requirement.

Armor and Weapons have their own costs for enchanting (excluding the costs of hiring artisans).

These prices,rarity, and level requirement are based on the prices in the DMG (page 135).

Enchantment Cost

Rarity Level Requirement Type Cost Uncommon 1st or higher Weapon +1 500gp Rare 5th or higher Armor +1 5000gp Rare 5th or higher Weapon +2 5000gp Very Rare 11th or higher Armor +2 50000gp