Weapon Crafting

Weapons are formed through a variety of different forms and methods, because of their varied nature, most, if not all sets of weaponry given in the Spheres of Divinity system are assuming they are made for creatures of Medium size. Additionally, most weapons will have a core list of properties that improve the effectiveness of the weapon given in the weapon description. Weapons haves the following game statistics:

• Name: The name of the weapon.
• Cost: The base market cost of the weapon.
• Grade: The grade of weapon, and thus the proficiency grade required to utilize the weapon. Simple, Martial, or Exotic.
• Damage: The damage dice used when making attacks with the weapon. When determining the damage of the weapon, if a damage value can be recreated through a different dice combination, such as 1d8 using 2d4, you can choose which dice combination to use on the weapon.
• Damage Type: The type of damage dealt using the weapon.
• Critical: The value on a d20 that a critical threat will occur when attacking with the weapon, also known as Critical Threat. Additionally lists the multiplier to damage dice with the weapon when a critical hit is successfully scored. Denoted as 20/x2 for a weapon that critically threatens on a 20 and deals double dice damage. A weapons critical multiplier only applies to damage dice of the weapon itself. Sneak Attack, Hunter’s Mark, and similar features utilize the standard 2x damage dice multiplier unless otherwise noted, they are not modified by this value.
• Penetration: The amount of Damage Reduction that is ignored when attacking with the weapon. A creature with Resistance against the weapon's damage type, reduces the effectiveness of that resistance by an amount equal to the Penetration score of the weapon. For example, if you were to deal 20 Slashing damage with a Penetration 4 weapon to a creature with Slashing resistance, normally they'd suffer 10 damage, but because your weapon has Penetration 4, they reduce the amount of damage resisted by 4, for a total damge dealt of 14 instead of 10.
• Range: The melee reach, thrown or projectile range of the weapon, given in feet for melee or indicated as thrown/projectile/ammunition and feet for ranged/thrown weaponry.
• Weight: The weight of the weapon, broken down by the different materials used in the weapon itself. M refers to metal, W refers to wood, C refers to cloth or fiber, H refers to hide, and S refers to Stone.
• Properties: A list of specific weapon properties that further modify and specialize the weapon beyond these core characteristics.
• Weapon Rating: The rating of the weapon, an indication of the weapons focus on its particular weapon type. Granting the weapon additional uses when used at its higher weapon rating.
• Craft: The craft DC or Score that a creature must meet or exceed to craft the given weapon.
• Time: This is split into two different values; the first value before the | indicates the minimum amount of time required to craft the weapon, given in 1-hour increments. While the second value after the | indicates the total number of 1-hour increments that must be spent to craft the weapon. This value can be modified, reducing the actual time required to craft the given weapon, though it cannot be reduced lower than the minimum. When designing a weapon always round up the time it takes to a full 1-hour increment.
• Complexity: The complexity of the weapon. This is also used to determine the cost of lost materials and miscellaneous purchases required to craft the given weapon. This is paid regardless of if you are the crafter or not.
• Training: The training level required to craft the given weapon. This is also used to determine the market cost of the crafter’s time when selling the weapon.
• Tool: The initial tool required to craft the weapon. This will change based upon the main type of material used to craft the weapon. The tool used defaults to Smith’s Tools, or Tinker’s Tools for firearms and related weaponry, but switches to whichever tool holds at least 50 percent or more of the item’s material makeup. Your choice if tied.

When making a weapon custom through weapon crafting rules, you will first need to provide a Draft Blueprint of the design. Once a draft blueprint is made the weapon itself can be crafted by providing weapon parts and making a craft check against the DC of the given item, adjusted by the blueprint used in its creation as appropriate.
The rules presented here provide the variabilities of a weapons statistics that can be altered by the crafter. Each category has a value provided in parenthesis which adjusts the DC to Craft the item successfully with the desired variable.

Once all variables have been assigned and the weapon has received its core statistics the crafter must make an Intelligence (Artisan Tool’s) check, as appropriate to the desired weapon, with a Craft DC equal to the weapons craft DC as determined during weapon design.

Success means the weapon was successfully crafted, failure means some parts of the weapon were incorrectly designed, should this happen, the GM randomly lowers the variables of the weapon until the crafter successfully crafts the item or until there are no more variables to be removed, in which case the weapon cannot be made by the crafter at this time, they must study further to attempt this design again. Likewise, this applies to the blueprint, when failing to craft the blueprint, values of the weapon are reduced until the weapon becomes viable or ends in a ruined weapon with wasted materials.

Once the design is made, the crafter can craft all of the pieces themselves or call for others to design the individual pieces required. The crafter, or crafters roll the appropriate Craft skill for their designated pieces at the penalty set by the blueprint. Success means that the piece is properly crafted, success by a greater factor means that the piece may be of greater quality than normal, and failure means that the piece is of poor quality or the materials are ruined, if the roll is truly horrible.

Finally, when designing a weapon, each weapon is separated into three different weapon grades – Simple, Martial, and Exotic – These weapon grades help determine the skill level required to wield the weapon, but also sets up the weapons base design properties and limitations. These unique rules and design limitations are as follows:

• Simple Weapons: A simple weapon has a maximum damage die lower than normal, indicated by the first weapon design options in a given category. They cannot take a property that costs more than 2 points, and they cannot have more than one additional property beyond their initial properties.
• Martial Weapons: A martial weapon is not as limited as a simple weapon; martial weapons are able to access weapon design aspects after the > when designing the weapon. They can take any weapon properties available to them but can have no more than three additional properties beyond their initial property set.
• Exotic Weapons: An exotic weapon is unique in nature, yet difficult to use, because of this they have a greater access to the more powerful functions of weapon design. Exotic weapons are able to access weapon design aspects after the >> when designing the weapon, and they can take any weapon properties available to them, with no limit on the number of properties that can be applied. However, Exotic Weapons require proficiency in the given weapon. Exotic Weapon Proficiency is given in individual weapons rather than as a group.