[3.5] Craft (Blacksmithing): What to do?

[Deimess]

In my new campaign group, a player entirely new to D&D made a fighter for simplicity sake, and decided he wanted ranks in craft (blacksmithing) for flavor purposes. As a DM, I like tieing player choices into the campaign, but can't seem to think of anything interesting to do with him having that skill. I want the skill to come up at least some of the time, it doesn't have to come up as much as Open Lock or Spellcraft or something like that, but I want the character's knowledge to contribute to the party in some way. Any ideas?

In the setting the most interesting think linked to blacksmithing is an entity known as the Wandering Smith. He is the avatar and mortal body for basically a deity of iron and when he is in town, people flock to him because he makes such awesome stuff with his legendary skill. I might be ableto do something with that, if it helps.

[Arbane]

First of all, I just think it's cool that you're trying to make stuff like that part of the plot. That's good for encouraging the players.

A few random thoughts, in approximate order of level-relevance:

Picking up a few coins between adventures as an assistant blacksmith. (Also, as Terry Pratchett points out, a smithy in a small town is a good place to socialize, as you always know there will be people and a fire there.)
Being able to tell that the weapons/armor you just looted are badly made/normal/masterwork _before_ using them in a fight.
Noticing that the 'random bandits' who jumped you on the road when you were on a royal mission all have Dwarf-made weaponry. Hm...
A gift from the Legendary Wandering Smith: a powerful magic weapon or piece of armor, but anyone who would use it must finish forging it themselves to get its true power.

Also, in Pathfinder, there's a Feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/master-craftsman---final) that allows non-spellcasters to take the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feats. If 3.5 doesn't have similar, it might be worth stealing, if the player's interested in that.

[Morithias]

You know how in knights of the old republic 2 you have to repair the combat robot before you can use it.

Create a sidequest where he finds the old corpse of a warforged (blacksmithing can be used to repair those) and the party can go on a quest to repair the robot . Then at the end have the robot join the party as kind of a group cohort (or just have the robot leave after giving them the location of some treasure that was stored in it's databanks).

That's what I would do at least...even though the last time I gave my group a robot it derailed the campaign (they completely ignore their character's weapons and stuff like that and upgraded the robot to the point where it was one-shoting ancient dragons and such basically making the robot death incarnate).

[Shadowleaf]

In the setting the most interesting think linked to blacksmithing is an entity known as the Wandering Smith. He is the avatar and mortal body for basically a deity of iron and when he is in town, people flock to him because he makes such awesome stuff with his legendary skill. I might be ableto do something with that, if it helps.
If you want a RAW-legal build for this, take a look at the Jumplomancer. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870138/The_Jumplomancer_-_are_you_serious)

Also, +1 to you being a good DM for incorporating this type of stuff into the plot.

I think the most obvious way you could have him use the skill is to have reforging a weapon/armor as part of the plot. This could be something classic like the broken sword needed to hurt the BBEG (LOTR/Skyrim-style), the king's broken crown, the ancient dwarven friendship armor or what not.

[Socratov]

not only that, give him a diplo bonus on haggling allowing him to get armor and weapons for alower price, ofcourse due to him kowing wha tis good and not...

[Socratov]

not only that, give him a diplo bonus on haggling allowing him to get armor and weapons for alower price, ofcourse due to him kowing what is good and not, and beïng a bro-smith :smallamused:

[Ashtagon]

imcs, I have abolished the Appraise skill. Instead, characters with appropriate Craft/Perform/Profession/Knowledge skills can appraise relevant items. For C/Blacksmith, he should be allowed to appraise any metal weapons and armour he comes across. This could be quite handy.

[Deimess]

A gift from the Legendary Wandering Smith: a powerful magic weapon or piece of armor, but anyone who would use it must finish forging it themselves to get its true power.


I like this idea, and will probably use it. Another thing I also considered is that late in the campaign he could find out that the Wandering Smith's body is no longer suitable and the dety of iron needs a new boy to hold his soul, and the player's character must prove that he is worthy somehow.



Create a sidequest where he finds the old corpse of a warforged (blacksmithing can be used to repair those) and the party can go on a quest to repair the robot . Then at the end have the robot join the party as kind of a group cohort (or just have the robot leave after giving them the location of some treasure that was stored in it's databanks).


This is also a great idea, as I've noticed party weaknesses and can help them in those areas by giving them temporary or permanaent allies that they know they can trust (my players seem utterly convinced that as soon as an NPC joins their party they are secretly plotting to kill them all, which is only true half of the time :smallamused:)


If you want a RAW-legal build for this, take a look at the Jumplomancer. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870138/The_Jumplomancer_-_are_you_serious)

Also, +1 to you being a good DM for incorporating this type of stuff into the plot.

I think the most obvious way you could have him use the skill is to have reforging a weapon/armor as part of the plot. This could be something classic like the broken sword needed to hurt the BBEG (LOTR/Skyrim-style), the king's broken crown, the ancient dwarven friendship armor or what not.

The Wandering Smith is already statted and I'm pretty convinced I'm somehow going to make something need to be fixed as part of the plot now :smallsmile:

(EDIT): Plus, check your private messages, I know who your avatar is :smallcool: (You used to offer cookies for correct guesses)


not only that, give him a diplo bonus on haggling allowing him to get armor and weapons for alower price, ofcourse due to him kowing what is good and not, and beïng a bro-smith :smallamused:

Done and


For C/Blacksmith, he should be allowed to appraise any metal weapons and armour he comes across. This could be quite handy.

Done :smallsmile:.

[Gray Mage]

I agree with Arbane about letting him be able to craft magic weapons and armors, but instead of doing that because of feats, I'd adapt and combine the magic forges from Races of Stone, so the player could make magical armor/weapons when using the forge. It could be linked to the Wandering Smith and be a plot point/dungeon.

[Salbazier]

How about this? Craft feat as a reward in a quest involving Wandering Smith. Other party members can get also get feat reward fitting to their own skill/expertise.

[Cespenar]

Instead of ordinary loot, have the party find a lump of adamantine ore. The blacksmith can then forge it into whatever equipment they need.

[GnomeGninjas]

Instead of ordinary loot, have the party find a lump of adamantine ore. The blacksmith can then forge it into whatever equipment they need.

Except not weapons or armor because by RAW those would fall under craft (weapon smithing) or craft (armor smithing)
EDIT: he could make adamantine horse shoes though

[Deimess]

I'm pretty leanient with the whole craft-as-a-skill thing. I've sortof combined weapon and armorsmithing into one skill.

[Flickerdart]

There's a PrC (Battlesmith, Races of Stone) that lets mundane craft magic gear, and gives bonuses to wielding stuff you make. It's dwarf-only in the book, but there's nothing in it that relies on dwarven racial traits, so changing it shouldn't be a problem.

[GnomeGninjas]

I'm pretty leanient with the whole craft-as-a-skill thing. I've sortof combined weapon and armorsmithing into one skill.

That's probably a good thing.

[NichG]

There are a couple things you could do. The Black Company d20 book has rules for non-magical bonuses that come about from high-end craftsmanship. Some of them are very good, and even better they stack with the magical bonuses. Allowing him to make things with that system would definitely make the skill mechanically useful, though possibly too useful (it can be equivalent to an extra +3 to the weapon in the best cases, and is a bit more versatile too.)

Another suggestion. I was in a campaign where very high Craft checks could create things so well-made that the natural magic of the world tended to enchant them. This had one really nice effect, in that they would re-enchant themselves over time if they were ever disjoined or the magic somehow destroyed. The Craft DCs were unreachably high for low level or non-optimized characters though, starting at 50 for a +1 weapon/armor and going up by 10 for each plus until +5, then going up by 20 for each plus for epic. The secondary benefits were that material-wise, you could use 1/3 value instead of 1/2 value and there was no xp cost. It doesn't really work if you use the time requirement as per the books as the guy will spend years making even one item, and won't have time for adventuring. Some adjustment might let a system like that work for him.

A third possibility is to come up with a number of sort of minor interesting quirks that can be added to weapons or armor, and encourage him to invent some of his own. These can then be added nonmagically to gear. Examples would be a wand-slot built into a sword blade for the party's rogue, or a potion sac hidden in armor to let someone quaff a single potion as a move action, or an emergency catch that causes plate to come apart into pieces in case the plate-wearer falls into a lake and can't swim. They'd be little touches, but could be very useful if he was clever about them.

A fourth possibility is to let him substitute Craft(Blacksmithing) for Disable Device and UMD specifically for metalworked traps and magic items. Probably not quite as interesting as the other options though.

Plotwise:

He can recognize alloys and perhaps even the parts of the world certain alloys come from. This could be a hint in any situation with 'mysterious enemy' or 'mysterious strange' or whatever to where they're actually from or who is supplying them. He could recognize the work of other well-known smiths, and would certainly know their makers marks. He might be able to tell the age of metal objects by their wear, or identify whether things have been reforged or repaired. Perhaps his knowledge tells him of trade secrets like the crafting of adamantine, the processing of mythril from ore, etc, that people want to obtain from him or try to get him to keep quiet. In the extreme case, maybe he knows enough about ores to tell things about a region based on its petrology (this clay contains little flecks of obdurium, so we're near the site of a magical accident!)

[JackRackham]

Some other options:

He should be able to craft all sorts of useful mundane items (if he has access to a forge). hammers, drills, saws, locks, chains, manacles, cages, etc. Make these items useful. I used to carry all sorts of this stuff around and I had to PAY for it. Maybe they need to capture some great beast. Maybe there's some beast around that could, with proper training, make a good guard animal for the party.

He should also be able to identify rare metals. Why not have some random cave or mine they end up in contain a rare ore? You could even give said ore some property rivaling magic equipment. Flavor-wise, this is more fun than simply buying a +1 Keen sword or some such.

He could develop a relationship with a blacksmith - possibly as part of a side-quest - that would give the party a base of operations in some random town (and access to his forge).

Maybe introduce rules for repairing weapons and armor. I think there are alternate rules for this somewhere (though this may be more of a pain than a blessing,).

[Phaederkiel]

hmm, with a dm that bent on making a blacksmith work, i´d play one myself...

I really like the lump o´adamantine. This would be an awesome loot.

you could also craft a situation, where his skills are directly useful:

village gets attacked by orcs. The pallisade is in awful condition, the Gate´s hinges do not work...
you could even have him repair trebuchets, or something.

and you could give him a +2 bonus on sunder rolls.