[3.5]How long is a "Day".

[Job]

Was working on a chart for fast scroll making reference (http://imgur.com/S7sQC), and it occurred to me I don't know how long a "day" is in 3.5.

Clearly a day of work is less then 24 hours so I've always assumed 8 hours of more-or-less uninterrupted work constitutes a day. Similarly to spells that contain ritual casting practices.

How granular can it be though? if the equation I use to determine the number of days needed to make an item to be, for instance, .5 can I say I complete it in 4 hours or do I always need to round up? Is this explicitly stated.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Was working on a chart for fast scroll making reference (http://imgur.com/S7sQC), and it occurred to me I don't know how long a "day" is in 3.5.

Clearly a day of work is less then 24 hours so I've always assumed 8 hours of more-or-less uninterrupted work constitutes a day. Similarly to spells that contain ritual casting practices.

How granular can it be though? if the equation I use to determine the number of days needed to make an item to be, for instance, .5 can I say I complete it in 4 hours or do I always need to round up? Is this explicitly stated.

It's explicitly stated in the DMG - it takes 1 day (working 8 hours) for each 1000gp base price. so, if it's >1000gp, it takes a day. 1000-2000 is 2 days, etc...

[Job]

So saying for instance "it takes 1 day (working 8 hours) for each 1000gp base price."

can't be seen as equivalent to "it takes 1 hour for each 125gp base price."?

[edit] or as one can argue that "for each" has an identical meaning/defined as "per" then it's a coefficient, not simply a whole number.

[Morithias]

So saying for instance "it takes 1 day (working 8 hours) for each 1000gp base price."

can't be seen as equivalent to "it takes 1 hour for each 125gp base price."?

[edit] or as one can argue that "for each" has an identical meaning/defined as "per" then it's a coefficient, not simply a whole number.

Yeah, but it's also really weird. Even if you don't have to sleep, eat, or even breathe (for example you are an outsider) you still can't do more than 8 hours of work a day.

Hell you can be a fricken CONSTRUCT and the Races of Eberron book says you can't do more than 8 hours of work with the argument that you "get bored" basically.

But a day is 24 hours, 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 8 hours doing random stuff like eating, traveling, and relaxing. There are seriously no rules for doing more than 8 hours of work.

[Flickerdart]

Nope, 1 day. I imagine that crafting magical items involves a lot of setup, and then a lot of tear-down, so that shorter craft times simply aren't practical.

[Job]

Nope, 1 day.

I'm not convinced it's that straight forward, If I told you it would take 100 joules to 'for each' meter I raised an object off the floor, then I asked you how many joules It would take to raise it half a meter you would not say 'obviously 100 joules'. Hence the original comment concerning granularity.

As for set up and take down, with scrolls specifically I would find the opposite more intuitive. A mage scribbling out the most trivial of cantrip taking less than an hour compared to a whole day for a much more complicated spell would seem more logical.

[Coidzor]

Hell you can be a fricken CONSTRUCT and the Races of Eberron book says you can't do more than 8 hours of work with the argument that you "get bored" basically.

Which makes the Eberronian dedicated wright really awkward, when you think about it.

[Jeraa]

Even if a magic item costs 1 gp to make, it takes a full day to craft.


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. Creating an item requires one day per 1,000 gp in the item’s base price, with a minimum of at least one day. Potions are an exception to this rule; they always take just one day to brew. The character must spend the gold and XP at the beginning of the construction process.

The caster works for 8 hours each day. He cannot rush the process by working longer each day. But the days need not be consecutive, and the caster can use the rest of his time as he sees fit.

A character can work on only one item at a time. If a character starts work on a new item, all materials used and XP spent on the under-construction item are wasted.


So there is a minimum of 1 day to make any magical item, and a day of crafting is considered to be 8 hours. No more, no less.

[Job]

with a minimum of at least one day.

Oh, there it is cool, thank you

[supermonkeyjoe]

Don't forget with scrolls it's possible for them to contain more than one spell according to Skip Williams (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20041214a) so a caster could scribe 40 1st level spells on a scroll in a day (assuming they had that many prepared or had the ability to use UMD for that)

[shadow_archmagi]

Yeah, for Scrolls your best bet is to tack on some lower level spells so you can get as close to that 1000 mark as possible.

As to why you can't write for more than 8 hours, assume that, I don't know, you need to align the crystal spheres in the sun with the ones inside your wizard quill and there's only a certain degree of tolerance for variation so you can't work too long in one go because the sun keeps moving.

When in doubt, assume arcanobabble, essentially.

[Person_Man]

I use the house rule that if a player has maximum ranks in the appropriate Craft Skill, then they may purchase any non-magical item created for half price and repair sundered items for free. It's much easier to follow then the actual Craft rules.