To Craft a Magic Item: A Guide

Many a world builder and DM have laid their hand in creating a more robust and player-friendly version of magic item crafting. This is just my version, which I consider both narratively compelling and not too awfully onerous.

The Formula

In order to create a magic item of your own devising, first, you must have a recipe or blueprint for how to make such a thing. The formula tells you what key component(s) you need, and details how to weave the magic into the item's embellishments. High level spell crafters do have the option of attempting to make an item without a formula, but this significantly increases the odds of failure (see below).

Formulas for Common items are traded frequently enough, just like the items themselves. Formulas for Uncommon items are known by scholars and superior craftsmen, though not usually traded for mere coin - they are considered trade secrets, more or less. A Collegium of Mages or similar academic or scholarly institution might be the only place known to teach people how to make such things, and even then they might restrict their information to things deemed less dangerous. Other organizations such as clerical orders or secret societies might have their own carefully preserved crafting secrets as well, germane to their specific aims.

Formulas for Rare, Very Rare and Legendary items are not readily available. If a character wishes to create such an item, they will have to search well for a source of knowledge - consulting lost oracles, reading ancient tomes in hidden chambers, studying under a legendary master, or following the clues of a Legend Lore spell are all examples of where and how to seek such things.

The Components

An item's rarity determines the total cost of its necessary components, but it isn't as simple as dumping off a sack of coins at the nearest Artificer's. All magic items must have specific components that focus the essence of magic imbued in the item.

In many cases, this is made up of precious metal traceries and precision-cut gemstones, but other mystic ingredients, such as troll's blood, unicorn hair, and even the ethereal essence of a restless spirit are most often necessary in order to bind the magic properly. As difficult as it is to come by formulas, in many cases it is the rarity of these components that causes magic items to be so infrequently made.

It is recommended that DMs require at least one component that must be gathered through adventuring for any magic item players desire to make.

Commonly needed components

Scrolls generally require inks infused with precious metals and magic energy, and the paper incorporates crystalline powders and precious metals in the paper pulp. The inscribing process may even embed tiny gemstones in the scroll itself. Some scrolls might specifically require parchment made from the skin of a particular creature.

Potions might require any number of fluids from pure water to a particular creature's tears, blood or even acids. The ingredients tend to reflect the potion's nature - a potion of giant strength might require the namesake giant's sweat, for example.

Other items vary highly but it can be safely assumed that materials must be of the highest quality, often incorporate precious metals or gems (sometimes laboriously worked into powders, threads, or even cloth forms), and generally involve at least one ingredient that must be procured from a creature - whether as concrete as the bile of a basilisk or as esoteric as the hope of a child. The greater the power of the item, the more difficult its ingredients are to find and contain.

The Time

Suppose you have labored long in a lost tomb, bringing back the formula for a truly remarkable Armor of Resistance. Suppose also, you have scoured the world and acquired a suitable 5,000gp worth of raw materials. What then?

Eschewing the cost-based timing of the DMG, the table gives the time based on rarity and whether the item is permanent or single use. The time (but not the cost of materials) can be reduced by half (though no further) if a craftsman has capable assistants with the proper tool proficiency and/or spell casting skill.