Like Knowledge, Perform, and Profession, Craft is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Craft skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.
A Craft skill is specifically focused on creating something. If nothing is created by the endeavor, it probably falls under the heading of a Profession skill.
You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the craft’s daily tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. (Untrained laborers and assistants earn an average of 1 silver piece per day.)
The basic function of the Craft skill, however, is to allow you to make an item of the appropriate type. The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The DC, your check results, and the price of the item determine how long it takes to make a particular item. The item’s finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.
In some cases, the fabricate spell can be used to achieve the results of a Craft check with no actual check involved. However, you must make an appropriate Craft check when using the spell to make articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.
A successful Craft check related to woodworking in conjunction with the casting of the ironwood spell enables you to make wooden items that have the strength of steel.
When casting the spell minor creation, you must succeed on an appropriate Craft check to make a complex item.
All crafts require artisan’s tools to give the best chance of success. If improvised tools are used, the check is made with a -2 circumstance penalty. On the other hand, masterwork artisan’s tools provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the check.
To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.
If you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this day.
If you fail by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
You can make checks by the week instead of by the day. In this case your progress (check result × DC) is in gold pieces instead of silver pieces.
You can make a masterwork item—a weapon, suit of armor, shield, or tool that conveys a bonus on its use through its exceptional craftsmanship, not through being magical. To create a masterwork item, you create the masterwork component as if it were a separate item in addition to the standard item. The masterwork component has its own price (300 gp for a weapon or 150 gp for a suit of armor or a shield) and a Craft DC of 20. Once both the standard component and the masterwork component are completed, the masterwork item is finished. Note: The cost you pay for the masterwork component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.
Generally, you can repair an item by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost of repairing an item is one-fifth of the item’s price.
When you use the Craft skill to make a particular sort of item, the DC for checks involving the creation of that item are typically as given on the following table.
| Item | Craft Skill | Craft DC* |
|---|---|---|
| Acid | Alchemy | 15 |
| Alchemist’s fire, smokestick, or tindertwig | Alchemy | 20 |
| Antitoxin, sunrod, tanglefoot bag, or thunderstone | Alchemy | 25 |
| Armor or shield | Armorsmithing | 10 + AC bonus |
| Longbow or shortbow | Bowmaking | 12 |
| Composite longbow or composite shortbow | Bowmaking | 15 |
| Composite longbow or composite shortbow with high strength rating | Bowmaking | 15 + (2 × rating) |
| Crossbow Weaponsmithing | 15 | |
| Simple melee or thrown weapon | Weaponsmithing | 12 |
| Martial melee or thrown weapon | Weaponsmithing | 15 |
| Exotic melee or thrown weapon | Weaponsmithing | 18 |
| Mechanical trap | Trapmaking | Varies† |
| Very simple item (wooden spoon) | Varies | 5 |
| Typical item (iron pot) | Varies | 10 |
| High-quality item (bell) | Varies | 15 |
| Complex or superior item (lock) | Varies | 20 |
*You may voluntarily add +10 (or any multiple of 10) to the indicated DC to craft an item. This allows you to create the item more quickly (since you’ll be multiplying this higher DC by your Craft check result to determine progress). You must decide whether to increase the DC before you make each weekly or daily check. †Trapmaking has its own crafting rules.
Does not apply. Craft checks are made by the day or week (see above).
Yes, but each time you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
A dwarf has a +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal, because dwarves are especially capable with stonework and metalwork.
A gnome has a +2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks because gnomes have sensitive noses.
If you have 5 ranks in a Craft skill, you get a +2 bonus on Appraise checks related to items made with that Craft skill.
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