Make money via crafting or profession skills?

[karnalsyn]

Curious if anyone has had experience using the craft and/or profession skills to make money in their campaigns? And by craft I'm referring to the skill not the feats.

So things like crafting simple armor or alchemical items, of professions like cook or woodcutter or blacksmith.

I am becoming interested in jumping into such options on future characters...however its a road I've not yet traveled and I wanted some personal experiences from people willing to share them.

Thanks!

[shadzar]

If you want to include secondary skills or NWPs from previous editions then yes. I had made a nice business while we waited on our party cleric to heal up from near death and at the same time make a few connections in a bigger city to find out information as i made a little money on the side.

Now it wasn't a get rich kind of thing, but as would be any craftsmen it was enough to live on in the area, to supplant any expenses used for the adventure, and make a bit more than was needed to live on to get additional supplies.

This was mostly just fletching skills and bow-making in a heavily forested area.

One of the best things to make using crafts are things that are consumed or need replacing often, and bow making or arrow head/fletching making it always needed where hunting provides food.

Wasn't able to spend enough time to get any tanning and such skills worked up to actually do anything else other than the occasional hunting party help for nighttime hunts when bows and arrows couldn't be made or repaired under lantern light.

~~~~~

Also did have a fighter that excelled in cooking and made a few dishes and went into partnership for a local tavern for the recipe and just sat back and enjoyed the money and free room and board from there once.

[Faleldir]

By RAW, you can Craft three gold coins out of one, but that's probably not what you meant.

[Farlion]

I don't know a rule for it, so I homebrew my own. You can buy the materials to make an item for half of the listed price of that item. Depending on the difficulty of the item you want to make, you can then make a DC 15/20/25/30 craft check to make the item.
(Making arrows would be 15, making a fullplate 30)

The time it takes to make such an item varies alot, but just take what you think is apropriate. You can make 40 arrows a day but it will take you atleast one week to make a fullplate.

Cheers,
Farlion

[snoopy13a]

Actually, it is very simple:


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.)



Selling items straight up isn't that accurate as it doesn't take into account the overhead costs that are built into the craft or profession check. You many sell 300 gold worth of products in a week but your costs could be 290 gold, meaning you bring home 10 gold a week. Additionally, the DM should impose some sort of "initial investment" for craft skills. For example, if you want to open a blacksmith shop, you're going to need a shop, supplies, tools, and perhaps employees. A straight 25-50 gold (or whatever the DM thinks) should be invested.

[Doug Lampert]

I don't know a rule for it, so I homebrew my own. You can buy the materials to make an item for half of the listed price of that item. Depending on the difficulty of the item you want to make, you can then make a DC 15/20/25/30 craft check to make the item.
(Making arrows would be 15, making a fullplate 30)

The time it takes to make such an item varies alot, but just take what you think is apropriate. You can make 40 arrows a day but it will take you atleast one week to make a fullplate.

If playing 3.5 then try reading the "craft" skill section in the SRD or your PHB.

That gives how much the materials cost (1/3rd base price), how much time it takes (in terms of GP progress per week), and what the DC is. Remember when selling for money, that PCs only get half price in 3.5. Since materials cost 1/3rd full price your markup is rather modest but a mid level PC can still make a nice living, especially with masterwork tools, a couple of assistants, and the +10 to DC to work faster rule (which may be in the Epic skill rules, but since the epic skill rules can be used by non-epic characters that's fine).

OTOH working for someone else you get half your craft check in GP per week. Which is interesting given that Craft can be used unskilled, there is no requirement in the rule for use for pay that you actually have the skill, and unskilled labor is universally worse than taking 10 on an untrained craft. Which might imply that those writing the rules weren't really thinking things through all that well.

[The Glyphstone]

Which might imply that those writing the rules weren't really thinking things through all that well.


Naaaaah....what evidence could be out there that suggests WotC doesn't think things through when designing commerce/business related material?
DMGII...

[Jack_Simth]

Curious if anyone has had experience using the craft and/or profession skills to make money in their campaigns? And by craft I'm referring to the skill not the feats.

So things like crafting simple armor or alchemical items, of professions like cook or woodcutter or blacksmith.

I am becoming interested in jumping into such options on future characters...however its a road I've not yet traveled and I wanted some personal experiences from people willing to share them.

Thanks!
Well... it's useful during downtime if you've got nothing better to do. If you've got more skill points than you know what to do with, it helps as a flavor option (when anyone asks what you are, you can say "I'm a blacksmith" or "I'm a banker" or "I'm a merchant" or whatever, and be very honest, and totally vexing to the other player who asks.

If you actually invest ranks, Crafting specific items is eventually better than getting half your check result. If you're playing something that eventually gets Fabricate, go with Craft if you want to do some semi-infinite-wealth tricks.

See, while Crafting a specific item costs you 1/3rd in materials, and most items sell for half value, the result of crafting you do has a "market value" of your craft check * the target DC in sp/week (quadratic, if you do it right) vs. 1/2 your check result in GP (linear). Basically, you get back the difference between 1/2 the value of the item and 1/3rd the value of the item, with your craft check * your chosen item's craft DC determining the rate. So for Crafting an item (assuming you take 10), you earn money at the rate of (1/6)*(10+your Craft modifier)*(DC of item chosen). Let's assume we can arrange for arbitrary DC's - that is, we can find, say, armors from AC 1-10, and we can apply the voluntary +10 DC more than once.
{table=Head]Craft modifier|Take 10 result|specific item per week net|"general crafting" amount
+1|11|20 sp|55 sp
+2|12|24 sp|60 sp
+3|13|28 sp|65 sp
+4|14|32 sp|70 sp
+5|15|37 sp|75 sp
+6|16|42 sp|80 sp
+7|17|48 sp|85 sp
+8|18|54 sp|90 sp
+9|19|60 sp|95 sp
+10|20|66 sp|100 sp
+11|21|73 sp|105 sp
+12|22|80 sp|110 sp
+13|23|88 sp|115 sp
+14|24|96 sp|120 sp
+15|25|104 sp|125 sp
+16|26|112 sp|130 sp
+17|27|121 sp|135 sp
+18|28|130 sp|140 sp
+19|29|140 sp|145 sp
+20|30|150 sp|150 sp
+21|31|160 sp|155 sp
[/table]
(+20 modifier at DC 30 is the break-even point)

Now, that's assuming the item you're making is one you're going to immediately sell for half. If the item you're making is a trade good (usable as cash), or one that you'd purchase if you didn't craft it, then the specific item equation isn't looking at the difference between 1/2 and 1/3; it's looking at the difference between 1 and 1/3 (a profit margin based on 2/3rds, rather than 1/6th - your profit is four times what it is for the above table on specific-item crafting).

{table=Head]Craft modifier|Take 10 result|specific item per week net|"general crafting" amount
-5|5|16 sp|25 sp
-4|6|24 sp|30 sp
-3|7|32 sp|35 sp
-2|8|42 sp|40 sp
-1|9|54 sp|45 sp
+0|10|66 sp|50 sp
[/table]
Here, the break-even point is a negative craft modifier between -3 and -2, using a DC somewhere between 7 and 8. That is to say, Craft(Linens) (as Linen is explicitly listed as a trade good) means that so long as you can make the Craft DC taking 10, it is universally better than using the "generic" money making method of Craft or Profession.

A private room and good meals at an inn cost 25 sp/day, or 175 sp/week. If you're Crafting a trade good, you need a mere +7 modifier (that's 4 ranks on a Wizard-1 with an Int of 16; that's 4 ranks and a +1 Int modifier, with Masterwork Artisan's tools on a Rogue-1, although the Masterwork Tools cost 55 gp, rather than the 5 gp for the Wizard's set) and a DC 17 item to make money while living relatively high on the hog. You do, however, need a little investment capital, and 5 gp worth of tools to make this work.

[karnalsyn]

quite the analysis, thanks for the write up!

[Yuki Akuma]

If you want to include secondary skills or NWPs from previous editions then yes.

Shadzar, I have a serious question. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, but... why do you keep going on about twenty-year-old and older editions of D&D when the basic assumption on this board is "the edition released in 2003, or possibly the one released in 2008"?

The OP even used skill names from third edition in the thread title.

[shadzar]

Shadzar, I have a serious question. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, but... why do you keep going on about twenty-year-old and older editions of D&D when the basic assumption on this board is "the edition released in 2003, or possibly the one released in 2008"?

The OP even used skill names from third edition in the thread title.

Because while some may see things as just as presented by the newest edition, there is only a few things that are edition specific. The idea of making money outside of adventuring, but using skills in some fashion is not for only a single edition. Each may have a different way of doing it, but few will not allow it to be done at all.

So since many of the ideas in D&D trascend editions, I like to come up front and let people know what framework I am working in with these things, ssuch as that of an older ruleset, that if I may add even though being 20+ years old, is still played by many.

So if you read any D&D novels, you will likely find it hard to know what edition it is for in many instances, and just note that it is D&D, and editions will matter less than you think with them.

So for this thread, I presented that the ways my character earned money were as presented, and under are formerly printed edition that is no longer in circulation. Of course that would also consider any D&D edition prior to 2008 at this time, as only 4th edition is in print, and widely in circulation. :smallwink:

If you were not able to play older editions, or somehow feel the need to start an edition war because you feel edition superiority over others and need to point out how old other editions are all the time, then there is nothing I can do for you. But in the interest of good communication it is best to give people an idea of where you are pulling your information from if there is a potential for miscommunication or misunderstanding of the editions.