Races That Are Well Known for Crafting

[Deth Muncher]

I've employed a team of experts to tackle this problem, with only limited results, so I must present this to you. (By which I mean, me and a friend are perusing various books, but there's a lot of them, so I'd like to see what you guys have as input.)

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what races are historically known for crafting really awesome stuff. Or even moderately awesome stuff, I guess. So far, I've come up with:

-The Githyanki seem to be well known for crafting weapons

-The Kaorti also have specific ways of making weapons with resin

-I know that Dwarves are renowned for their underground strongholds, and that there is the stereotype of the crazy Gnome tinkerer

But past that, I got nothin'. All Wizards 3.X is up for perusal here, regardless of campaign setting or book, though if you go out of core, if you left a citation I'd appreciate it.

[Madara]

Goblins can sometimes have been master crafters[PGtE]
I enjoy that view of them, since it gives them some form of cultural skill
Kobolds are well-known Trapcrafters[RotD]

[GreenSerpent]

Midgard Dwarf (Frostburn). Gets 3 bonus craft feats, and the ability to create items as if the spells needed were on their spell list (even if they don't possess a spell list at all).

The fabled dwarf crafters of legend!

[Starbuck_II]

I've employed a team of experts to tackle this problem, with only limited results, so I must present this to you. (By which I mean, me and a friend are perusing various books, but there's a lot of them, so I'd like to see what you guys have as input.)

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what races are historically known for crafting really awesome stuff. Or even moderately awesome stuff, I guess. So far, I've come up with:

-The Githyanki seem to be well known for crafting weapons

-The Kaorti also have specific ways of making weapons with resin

-I know that Dwarves are renowned for their underground strongholds, and that there is the stereotype of the crazy Gnome tinkerer

But past that, I got nothin'. All Wizards 3.X is up for perusal here, regardless of campaign setting or book, though if you go out of core, if you left a citation I'd appreciate it.
In PF:
Ettercaps are natural trap builders (they make traps for free)
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/ettercap

[Coidzor]

Elves are known for fine craftsmanship of weird hippy stuff made from impossible materials like leaves of all things, and mithril chain armor is known as elven chain in D&D, IIRC.

[shadow_archmagi]

Elf and Dwarf craftsmanship are classics. Gnome engineers are a staple as well.

[Coidzor]

The drow, IIRC, are known for creating really oddball things but never keeping notes so anything they develop dies with the creator in the inevitable assassination/lack of support when adventurers come for them.

[Rixx]

Dwarves are the archetypal master craftsman race. They have their origin in Germanic mythology as such, and it's been an element of their depiction that has survived nearly every popular fantasy work containing dwarves as an essential trait.

[Madara]

Mindflayers are masters of biological crafting, its likely their fault that the owlbear even exists
:smallwink:

[Morithias]

The Tinker Gnome Engineers. Also the warforged. Warforged sounds weird but there IS a warforged artificer alternate class feature. Also the whole "doesn't need to sleep" thing helps.

[Coidzor]

There's another aberration from Lords of Madness that specializes in grafting, Silthilar?

Supposed to be masters of fleshweaving and such.

[Telonius]

Not one you normally think of, but I'd suppose Halflings are famous for Craft (Cooking).

[Jeff the Green]

There's another aberration from Lords of Madness that specializes in grafting, Silthilar?

Supposed to be masters of fleshweaving and such.

There are a few, actually. Silthilar are the masters, but Yuan-ti, beholders, maugs, and aboleths all have their own grafts. Yuan-ti are particularly known for it.

[Deth Muncher]

The drow, IIRC, are known for creating really oddball things but never keeping notes so anything they develop dies with the creator in the inevitable assassination/lack of support when adventurers come for them.

On that note, I actually forgot that there's a drow tribe in Eberron known as the Sulatar, and they're supposed to be awesome at binding elementals and making fun things that way.

[Madara]

On that note, I actually forgot that there's a drow tribe in Eberron known as the Sulatar, and they're supposed to be awesome at binding elementals and making fun things that way.

I thought that only the gnomes knew the secrets of Elemental Binding :smallconfused:

[Deathkeeper]

Salamanders are considered master craftsman and get a bonus to Crafting, although you'd need Planar Binding spells to get them to do so.

[Deth Muncher]

I thought that only the gnomes knew the secrets of Elemental Binding :smallconfused:

Nope! The process of firebinding is a technique handed down through the Armstrong Sulatar family tribe for generations. But they specifically deal with fire elemental binding. Check out Secrets of Xendrik (page 51) for more.

[Iamyourking]

Hiermagons are probably the best overall for smithing, as in addition to the +4 racial bonus that they share with Salamanders they also get to determine their progress per day in silver and per week in gold and have an effective caster level of 12 for the purposes of making magic items. Unfortunately they only have one more to Craft (Smithing) than Noble Salamanders and require the same Planar Binding to get, but they are also slightly less dangerous to the summoner (CR 9 vs. 10 for the Salamander). Plus, since he isn't a Cosmic entity, Master Hepharion is avaliable with Gate; and I think his +62 to Smithing, caster level of 36 for making magic items, and ability to make Epic gear outstrips anything you can get without epic magic.

Unfortunately, you're out of luck either way if you want anything other than arms and armor (Mundane or magical) and wondrous items; but with the exception of Midgard Dwarves none of the other suggested creatures can even do that.

Edit: Also, they have just enough Hit Dice that you can use regular Planar Binding to get them, while Noble Salamanders need Greater or Gate.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I thought that only the gnomes knew the secrets of Elemental Binding :smallconfused:

Magic of Eberron also heavily implies that the gnomes stole the techniques of elemental binding from the drow of Xen'drik.

[avr]

Most times flying castles are mentioned it's humans that made them. Or pyramids, though sometimes it's lizardy things that build those.

Magic items with weird drawbacks often have fey origins.

[Morithias]

Hiermagons are probably the best overall for smithing, as in addition to the +4 racial bonus that they share with Salamanders they also get to determine their progress per day in silver and per week in gold and have an effective caster level of 12 for the purposes of making magic items. Unfortunately they only have one more to Craft (Smithing) than Noble Salamanders and require the same Planar Binding to get, but they are also slightly less dangerous to the summoner (CR 9 vs. 10 for the Salamander). Plus, since he isn't a Cosmic entity, Master Hepharion is avaliable with Gate; and I think his +62 to Smithing, caster level of 36 for making magic items, and ability to make Epic gear outstrips anything you can get without epic magic.

Unfortunately, you're out of luck either way if you want anything other than arms and armor (Mundane or magical) and wondrous items; but with the exception of Midgard Dwarves none of the other suggested creatures can even do that.

Edit: Also, they have just enough Hit Dice that you can use regular Planar Binding to get them, while Noble Salamanders need Greater or Gate.

What book are these in?

[Madara]

Magic of Eberron also heavily implies that the gnomes stole the techniques of elemental binding from the drow of Xen'drik.

No way. They gnomes of zilargo would never do that kind of thing, and there is absolutely no such thing as the Trust. Go back to your work citizen.

:smallwink:

[Deth Muncher]

No way. They gnomes of zilargo would never do that kind of thing, and there is absolutely no such thing as the Trust. Go back to your work citizen.

:smallwink:

Y'know, if I didn't know better, that sounds almost like the cons- there is no conspiracy on the Giant in the Playground forums. I will go back to my fun, citizen.

Well. That was weird. Anyway, yeah, gnomes are really GOOD at it, but it's pretty well pointed out that they got this information somehow and have just been tinkering with it. Though, that being said, of course, they use all the elements, as opposed to the Sulatar drow.

Also is it just me, or are some of the best crafting races just horribly, horribly evil?

[Iamyourking]

What book are these in?

You can find them in GOH; chapter 4, page 95-96.

[Coidzor]

You can find them in GOH; chapter 4, page 95-96.

GOH? I'm not familiar with that one.

[Saintheart]

The Midgard Dwarf, out of Frostburn, which I got trounced over in this thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245526)

Of course, there's the whole "you wear a curse if you misuse my weapons," but anyway, you wanted a race capable of crafting awesome stuff.

[Iamyourking]

GOH? I'm not familiar with that one.

:smallsigh: Gates of Hell. I really need to put a mention in my signature that if I'm talking about Devils I'm almost certainly referring to it; since assuming that it's self-evident clearly isn't working.

[Dr.Epic]

I think elves are good at crafting chocolate.:smallwink::smalltongue:

[ThiagoMartell]

:smallsigh: Gates of Hell. I really need to put a mention in my signature that if I'm talking about Devils I'm almost certainly referring to it; since assuming that it's self-evident clearly isn't working.

That's not a 3.5 WotC book, is it?

[Iamyourking]

No, it's not. It's still better than 90% of the stuff Wizards wrote, and free to boot, and up until this point I assumed that everyone used it (And the errata for Tyrants of the Nine Hells to make said text fit with it). However, it is somewhat beyond the scope of this thread; so now that I have clarified the origins of the Hiermagon it should be placed back on topic.

[ThiagoMartell]

No, it's not. It's still better than 90% of the stuff Wizards wrote, and free to boot, and up until this point I assumed that everyone used it (And the errata for Tyrants of the Nine Hells to make said text fit with it). However, it is somewhat beyond the scope of this thread; so now that I have clarified the origins of the Hiermagon it should be placed back on topic.

Yeah, I just mentioned it because the OP specifically requested WotC material.

[Starbuck_II]

:smallsigh: Gates of Hell. I really need to put a mention in my signature that if I'm talking about Devils I'm almost certainly referring to it; since assuming that it's self-evident clearly isn't working.

No, since most people haven't heard of it.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Fire Giants are masters of both the forge and engineering, their engineering tends to be practical. Not sure if this has been presented in 3rd, first read it in the 2nd ed book Giantcraft.

Gold and Shield Dwarves are masters of weapon and armor crafting respectively. In Races of Faerun they each get a feat, Gold Dwarf Dweamercrafting and Shield Dwarf Warder that grant +1 cl on spells enhancing weapons/armor and uncaps their level based effects it also reduces the gold cost of crafting by 5%.

According to the Hellforged template, Chain Devils are good at making extra heavy, tanky type armor.

According to the PitSpawned Template, Mariliths are good at making armor for stealthy Mcstealthers and weapons for critfishers.

Drow combine the Elven knack for making stuff for sissy types with their cultural lust for murder to make some of the best tools for assasination.