Crafting Rules 2025

Crafting is a downtime activity that player characters can use to create items both mundane and magical. It is significantly less expensive to craft an item compared to purchasing an item, but it takes much more time.

Crafting Non-Magical Items

To craft a non-magical item, the player needs the appropriate secondary skill (tool proficiency) and access to the raw materials. To craft a breastplate, the player needs Blacksmithing. To craft hide armor, the player needs to have Leatherworking.

Crafting Magic Items

To create magic items, spellcasters invest time, money, and their own personal energy in an item’s creation. The creator also needs a fairly quiet, comfortable, and well-lit place in which to work. Any place suitable for preparing spells is suitable for making items.
To craft magical items the crafter must commonly be a spellcaster with access to spells of a certain level. Some individuals have learned to unlock magic item creation without being spellcasters, but this is a rare ability typically understood only by masters of the various crafts. This is represented by the Magical Crafter Feat (below).
Before crafting any item, check with the GM about the items base value/cost.

Crafting Instructions

Different items use different crafting instructions, herbalists use recipes, alchemists use formulas, artificers use schematics, etc. Regardless of the name crafters need crafting instructions for the item being created.
The only exception is if the crafter has an imbued material, usually gathered through adventuring. For example, if the crafter has obtained a displacer beast hide, they can begin crafting a cloak of displacement with that hide, working with the magic of the hide to craft the item without the formula.

Imbued Materials

Certain materials, often acquired from creatures with magical or semi-magical abilities carry in their fabric the magic to create items. For example, the hide of a displacer beast carries within it the magic necessary for a cloak of displacement. Using imbued materials to create appropriate items does not require crafting instructions, though all other requirements must be met to create the item. A spellcaster with a displacer beast hide can intuitively capture the magic of the hide to craft the cloak. Once the cloak is crafted, the creator can add the crafting instructions for a cloak of displacement it their formula book.

If the crafter does not have an imbued material, they can obtain crafting instructions in the following ways.

Non-Magical Items

When a player learns a secondary skill (tool proficiency), they have learned how to create common items using that skill. A leatherworker has been taught how to create most typical leather goods, etc. A blacksmith has learned the basics of forging armor, weapons, and metal items.

Purchasing a Formula

This can be done in a few ways. If the crafter has access to an individual or organization which may conceivably have the formula on hand, they can buy the formula. The cost of a formula is based on the item's rarity. Sometimes the seller may require a service from the crafter, either for the opportunity to purchase the formula, or sometimes to offset the cost of the formula.

Reverse Engineering the Formula

A crafter who has access to a magical item, and no chance to purchase the crafting instructions may reverse engineer them from a copy of the item. The table below gives the time necessary to reverse engineer the instructions. At the end of that time, the item is destroyed, but the crafter has the formula to create more.

Unique Formulas

Sometimes the crafter character would like to make a truly unique item. In that case they need to work with the GM to define the item. The most important considerations are Rarity and Base Value, which should be based on a comparison with items of similar power. The GM may assign a side-quest for an important Reagent to create the unique item, or the character may already have reagents from previous adventures that they planned on using to construct the item. Once the GM and player have written up an agreed upon description of the item and any side quests are wrapped up, the rest of the process plays out as written here.

Recording Crafting Instructions

Once the character learns a formula, it is assumed to be written down in a spellbook, formula book, or other medium. The character may craft as many of that item as needed, and even share the formula with others. A Common Formula requires 2 pages to record, and Uncommon Formula, 5 pages, a Rare Formula, 10 pages, a Very Rare Formula, 20 pages and a Legendary Formula, 50 pages (often a book unto itself).

Materials (Reagents)

The formula for a magic item will include the materials (often called reagents) needed to craft the item. Reagents can be purchased or acquired through adventuring. The crafter needs half of the item's base value in Reagents to craft the item.

Crafting Time

The time needed to craft an item is dependent on the base value or selling cost of the item, magical or mundane. More expensive items may not necessarily take more time to craft, but may require more expensive materials.

Each day, the crafter uses Reagents equal to half the daily increment. So for that Bag of Holding (50 gp progress per day), each day, the crafter uses 25 gp in Reagents. This means that the cost to create any item, magical or mundane is half the value of the item.
The days spent crafting do not have to be consecutive. A crafter could start an item, go adventuring, then return and finish the item.
Multiple characters can combine their efforts. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. Use your judgment when determining how many characters can collaborate on an item. A particularly tiny item, like a ring, might allow only one or two workers, whereas a large, complex item might allow four or more workers. A character needs to meet the requirements for crafting the item and have access to the appropriate equipment.

Resolution

At the end of the crafting time, the item is complete.

Some Examples

Breastplate

Hrun wants to craft a breastplate. He is trained in Blacksmithing. Because it is a non-magical item, he already knows how to craft the armor. A breastplate costs 400 gp. Looking at the charts above, he can make 50 gp progress per day, spending 25 gp in materials. It takes 8 days to craft the breastplate and costs Hrun 200 gp in materials.

Potion of Healing

Malakai wants to create a potion of healing. It's base value is 50 gp, and progress can be made at 25 gp per day. He works on it for two days, making 25 gp in progress and using 12.5 gp in herbal reagents each day for a total of 25 gp in reagents.

Bag of Holding (Reverse Engineering)

Elyot, a wizard who has reached the ability to cast 6th-order spells finally gets tired of her party members in the Venatore whining that they don't all have Bags of Holding. Not knowing the formula, she uses her Bag of Holding and reverse engineers the formula. It takes 5 days to deconstruct, at which point she records the Uncommon item formula into the next 5 pages of her spellbook.
As an Uncommon Item with a Base Value of 250 gp. The item will take 5 days to create at a rate of 50 gp daily increments and will cost 25 gp in reagents each day.
She works 3 days creating the bag before their fortress of Mav Mayot is attacked by local bandits. The Venatore respond in kind, flush out the bandits and trace them to their lair and wipe them out. After a week away from the lab, Elyot returns. With three days done, Elyot needs two more days to complete the Bag of Holding. At the end of that time, Elyot has used 125 gp in reagents to craft a Bag of Holding.

Glamerweave Robes (Imbued Materials)

Tired of being a pincushion in the Temple of Elemental Evil, Elyot wants to create a unique item. Elyot's Glamerweave Robes. Together, the player and GM define the item. Robes which have a base AC of 13 and can cast shield 1/day. The GM sets the rarity as Rare, these are certainly better than a Cloak of Protection (uncommon), they certainly will require attunement by an arcane caster, and sets the value at 3,000 gp. Elyot gathered handfuls of feathers from the Ironfeather Owlbear they faced in the temple dungeons and is planning on using them to make the robes. The GM agrees that the Ironfeathers count as an imbued material and can be used in place of crafting instructions. At a value of 3,000 gp, Elyot can progress at a pace of 100 gp per day, each day using 50 gp in Reagents. It takes 30 days and will require 1,500 gp in reagents to create the unique robes. At the end of that time, Elyot not only has a new set of magical robes, but she can record the crafting instructions for the glamerweave robe, using 10 pages in her formula book.

Magical Crafter Feat

Homebrewed Feat

Prerequisite: 4th level
You are able to craft magic items despite not attaining the spellcasting power that is typically necessary. You have unlocked the secrets of creating magical items. This may be through the etching of magical runes, tapping into a source of power less experienced crafters don't understand, or some other means. Work with the GM to create a reason you are able to craft items without the appropriate spell access.
This feat bypasses the spell level requirements to craft items of different rarities. Partial spellcasters (such as paladins, arcane tricksters, and the like) and non-spellcasters (fighter, monk, rogue) can craft items based on their character level, not spell access, and NPCs who are considered Masters of their craft (Master Blacksmiths, etc,) may have this feat and the ability to craft magical items, even if they are not spellcasters, You still need to obtain higher character levels to be able to craft items based on the items rarity.

Magical Crafting Required Levels