There are a few design parameters I want to clarify before I dig into this.
- This is for the E6 variant of D&D 3rd edition. This is important; I don’t know, or care to guess, how well this plan would scale. I will worry about broader level ranges and other game engines once I’ve established a model that works on a more limited scope. You could look at this as a rapid-prototyping design approach.
- This is for a sandbox style of play, not a mega-adventure on a timeline.
- I specifically reject other boundaries to what I may or may not change in the function of 3.x to make this possible.
To address my problems with crafting in D&D 3rd edition as described in Part One of this series, I am introducing informed, weighted randomness and supply management. The version I’m working with at the moment has some things in common with Dust to Dust’s Forge Magic.
In addition to their existing character class, all characters gain a secondary class. This replaces Craft, Profession, and the money-making functions of Perform and Tumble. A partial list of these classes includes Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Jewelcrafter, Noble, Guardsman, and Merchant. These classes represent ways that PCs spend their downtime. These classes range in level from 1 to 6 just as the core classes do in the E6 variant. Several of these do not make anything, because not every character should be a crafter.
Enchantments on equipment are no longer permanent. Their duration is measured in a number of 24-hour-long activations; so, for example, a newly-enchanted weapon might have a duration of four activations. While the item is not activated, it acts like a mundane object of its kind. Once it is activated (a free action), its effects persist for 24 hours, though a flaming sword does not burn through its sheath or anything like that.
Enchantments on equipment do not include bonuses to attack, AC, or saving throws. These bonuses, where necessary for balance reasons, are coded into the progressions of their core classes. Enchantments are instead just the adjectives: flaming, ghost touch, holy avenger.
Here I will lay out the function of the Weaponsmith. The Weaponsmith, in this conception, is not primarily dedicated to turning iron into swords; he instead turns mundane weapons into weapons with a temporary enchantment, as described above. He can choose the general theme of what he’ll wind up making. He can choose to put in more materials (on which more later) in hopes of a stronger outcome, and he can expect that greater skill levels will result in greater outcomes.
When he wishes to enchant a weapon, the smith selects one enchanting formula that he knows and commits the necessary items (discrete items in his character inventory) to the task. The formula also allows him to add specific additional materials, at his option. These materials improve the final outcome in a somewhat predictable way. He rolls a d6 one or more times (see below), applies modifiers, and checks the result against a table.
| Roll | Result |
| 1 | Enchantment fails; all materials are lost. |
| 2-3 | Enchantment fails; only time is lost. |
| 4-5 | Basic enchantment succeeds, and has 4 activations. |
| 6-7 | Basic enchantment succeeds, and has 6 activations. |
| 8-9 | Intermediate enchantment succeeds, and has 6 activations. |
| 10-11 | Advanced enchantment succeeds, and has 6 activations; OR Intermediate enchantment succeeds, and has 10 activations. |
Weaponsmith Class Progression
Level 1: Enchant Weapon (the basic function of the class becomes available)
Level 2: Roll twice, taking the higher of the two rolls
Level 3: Add a +1 bonus to all enchanting rolls
Level 4: Reduce the penalty for overenchanting (enchanting a weapon with a preexisting enchantment) from -3 to -1
Level 5: Roll three times, taking the highest of the three rolls
Level 6: Add a +2 bonus (not cumulative with the Level 3 benefit) to all enchanting rolls
Enchanting Formula: Burning Weapon
Minimum Materials: two pounds of kingsilver, one piece of amber, one black pearl
Optional Materials: +1 pound of kingsilver (+1 bonus), +1 sunstone (+2 bonus), +1 pound of mithral (+2 bonus). (These bonuses stack with each other, but not with themselves.)
Time to Create: 2 days
Basic Enchantment: Burning Weapon (+2 fire damage per strike)
Intermediate Enchantment: Flaming Weapon (+1d6 fire damage per strike)
Advanced Enchantment: Flaming Burst Weapon
Materials
It will be necessary to create and distribute through play a variety of different materials. For the purposes of this example, I’ve stolen names from KG and DtD. There are at least five different materials, and at least three grades of each. For example, silver/kingsilver/mithral is one material with three grades; amber/sunstone/jewel of ages is another. I haven’t given sufficient thought yet to the pricing of these goods, but they are rare enough that most merchant NPCs won’t have more than, say, ten to fifteen materials of various types. These materials turn up in some supply as part of adventure loot, with silver and its improved forms more common among the dwarves, and black pearl being (naturally) more common near the sea. In the sandbox gameplay environment mentioned above, the players might prioritize one adventure plan over several others because they like improved odds of getting one particular type of treasure.
I think I have probably done a less than ideal job of organizing my thoughts in this post, but I will attempt to clarify and edit in response to comments.
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I generally like it, though I am curious about the way you intend to build the enhancement bonuses into classes… I guess just a flat add at specific levels?
The reason I ask, is that I am wondering if there is any reason not to make enhancement bonus be a property of weapons based on their base metal, and acquired the normal, mercantile way. Though I'll admit that building it into class means that balance is kept, and kept even, across the board.
Which reminds me of another thing– are you keeping the xp cost on making stuff? I'm sure you're aware of my feelings on such (i.e., Dislike!), but…
There are a couple of minor problems I can see. Namely having an enchantment that fades is not as satisfying. I realize the reasoning in doing it that way, but it really is not as satisfying as say making an actual magic sword that is always magical. I would prefer a system with a slower progression of benefit that would be permanent to the charges system you outline here.
I like that there is no certainty of success, but I am not sure how often you will advance your crafting skill. Is it I start at level 1 and go up at level 6 to crafting level 2?
Given that the game only has a six-level range, I'd probably let players pick one of the following bonuses at every level after the first (but you only take each one once):
+1 attack bonus (this is not Base Attack Bonus)
+1 damage with all weapons
+1 to AC
+1 to all saving throws
+1 to three different skills
+1 to initiative
+3 hit points
+1 bonus to AC from shields
What you describe, with materials governing bonuses, would also be reasonable, though I question how you'd justify the materials granting bonuses to saves. (Possibly certain gemstones granting resistance.)
You could probably do away with XP cost on making stuff in this system. If for some reason you wanted to keep a source of permanent magic items, I might make those cost XP to create.
Permanent magic items end the maintenance cost, which I regard as a feature of the system I'm proposing. The changes I'm proposing also make having a magic weapon optional even for a powerful warrior, much like having a rod, staff, or wand is optional for even a powerful spellcaster. I'm regarding this dedication to low-magic as an aspect of the E6 aesthetic.
Another part of the problem with permanent magic items is that within six levels of advancement, there aren't that many things a GM can hand out if all of the items are permanent. The various degrees of enchantment you can put into a weapon are not granular enough to stretch out the progression of benefit all that much.
I envision the secondary classes advancing as your primary class advances. It doesn't have an independent experience pool. You have the option of multiclassing in secondary classes just as you do in primary.
I like it, couple comments:
As is obvious from the comments above, you have a steep education curve to explain to players why temporary items are worth the time. You'll likely need to hammer the world fiction early and often to make temporary enchants feel like the norm and reeducate the players. In a tabletop environment which allows closer tracking than a LARP environment, it might be interesting to offer "per-swing" enchant charges instead of daily activations. Some players may prefer knowing that they have, say, 100 attacks worth of fire damage (with some command that starts and stops the effect) rather than activating blind and either getting hundreds of swings or almost nothing depending on how tense the day is.
From a simulationist standpoint, dumping pounds of ultra-rare durable materials on temporary enchants feels weird. Where is all that mithral going? Though the progression does lend an interesting possibility on that: the objects aren't being consumed so much as being denatured: silvers turn into base metals, precious gems turn into common crystal, etc. If there are magic blooms in the world from time to time that transmute base materials higher on the scale, you get an interesting mystical economy.
In fact, even if you don't use that, I'm totally yoinking that thing I just said for something 🙂 .
Several of these do not make anything, because not every character should be a crafter.
Also, I heart this. I'm curious if you also feel this way about MMOs at this point 😉 .
I agree that reeducating players that "this is how the game works" is critical to making any part of the idea work, but with as many rules as this scheme overhauls, I think players would recognize that many of their expectations were going to be questioned.
My reluctance to use a per-swing mechanic comes down to feeling like I would not enjoy that bookkeeping all that much if I were a player – I would often forget if I had already spent my charge for this attack or not. My assumption is that players wandering around the countryside won't activate their gear unless they know they're in a bad neighborhood, and players will just about always have active weapons when they enter a dungeon.
I had a vague notion of how I might explain the use of durable materials for a temporary effect, but to be honest, yours is really good and I'm inclined to use it.
The other thing that moves base materials up the scale is alchemical or metallurgical refinement, which is a post for another day.
I think players are justified in believing that they're missing out in some useful bit of power if they don't pursue a production skill in MMOs – it's leaving money on the table, in a sense. If they had other options (in addition to harvesting skills) that shared opportunity cost with crafting skills, you'd see a lot fewer crafters. In the case of this crafting system, players could also choose (including multiclassing) such secondary classes as noble, guardsman, and merchant. I'll try to put together some text for how those classes might work as well.
It seems to me that in a tabletop game, a given party doesn't /need/ everyone to be a crafter– and generally, everyone in your party is pretty tight, and there's not a lot of turnover. In an MMO, there's a much higher chance of running with completely different people from one session to the next. Having a broad base on production so you can rely on yourself is important in that situation, more so, I think, than when you can count on the person sitting next to you at the table to be willing to make you goodies, so you can better concentrate on your own thing.