Craft Skills Math

[Tvtyrant]

Okay I am a little confused about the system for crafting an item. Each item you want to craft you take the cost and multiple by either 10 if you want to work on it for a week, or 100 if you want to work on it for a day. Now you roll your craft skill check (I don't think you can take 20?) and if you beat the DC of the item you multiply your check by the DC and compare it to the multiplied cost.

So a tanglefoot bag (a basic alchemical item) has a multiplied cost of 500 for one week. The DC to beat is 25. A level 1 character has a maximum check of +8 (3 from skills, skill focus, masterwork alchemical item.) The average check result would be 18.5, and it would take at least a 17 to hit the DC. I suppose you could add +2/+4 from aid another checks, but it seems extremely unlikely you will ever make that check. Assuming just skill increases and the masterwork item we cannot make a mundane item consistently until level 10.

Also to make it in a day would take a check of +200. :/

Am I getting something wrong? Who is supposedly making these things and selling them at the local apothecary?

[Vhaidara]

Well, first off, a level 1 character using elite array would have 4 ranks, +2 Int, Skill Focus, and Masterwork tools. That's +13..

So you need 12+, and if you make it (let's assume you roll a 12), you multiply by the DC. So, 25x25=625sp in progress. 1 Tanglefoot bag costs 50gp, or 500sp. In one week, you make 1 Tanglefoot bag with 125sp progress towards a second one.

EDIT: bear in mind, you can live comfortably on gold pieces/day. Only adventurers need to be hitting the hundreds of thousands.

[Doc_Maynot]

Not to mention you are allowed to voluntarily increase the DC by intervals of 10 to try and speed the process up.

Now since we have to assume base case for NPC craftsmen (Expert NPC class) and not the more preferred case (In my setting, most high quality craftsmen are Factotums).

Lets take it a step further. We all know that high level NPCs exist due to the town generation rules in the... DMG IIRC

So lets assume at least a Expert 6 NPC Craftsman.
Now lets assume he's a smart guy and is expanding his operation (taking leadership)

He has 9 ranks, +3 from Int, Skill focus, Masterwork item and his new team of one level 4 expert, and six level 1 experts assisting.
That is a total of +31
With this you could up the DC to 35 and still be able to take 10
Which would be 41*35 for 1435 allowing you to make 2.87 tanglefoot bags/week
For 66-99gp per week, split between the craftsmen is quite the sum for NPCs

Follow up: It has now occurred to me WHY I make Factotums the craftsmen in my setting. With out a caster level you can't make alchemical items.

So lets do that math, shall we?
Since level 1 Factotums don't have a CL they can't help in this venture so they can make mundane things for the remainder of this exercise. (We'll get back to them in JUST a moment.)

So the Level 6 Factotum has 9 ranks, +3 from Int, Skill Focus, a Masterwork Item, +6 from Cunning Knowledge, +5 from casting Magecraft 1/day and his level 4 Factotum assistant.
For a total of +30
With that they can still add 10 to the DC and take a 10
Which would result in 40*35 for 1400 allowing you to make 2.8 tangle foot bags/week
Resulting in about the same amount of profit per week.

Now! Back to the six level 1 Factotums.
For a place that sells primarily Tanglefoot Bags, it would make sense to also make torches, no?
So now each of them is tasked with making as many Torches as they can.
Now, they have 4 ranks, +2 from Int, +1 from Cunning Knowledge, and a Masterwork Tool (Remember, these guys have Skill Focus (Craft [Alchemy]) not Carpentry
Now with a +9 to bonuses we check to the Craft Table which says simple items are a DC of 5
We up that to 15 and take a 10 on the check
This results in a 150, and a torch requires 1 per day.
So from that venture the novices bring in 1 gold per day each
So the operation makes 6 gold per day, 108-141 gold per week

[Tvtyrant]

Only casters can use alchemy. Another irritation of mine...

Seems like the aid another checks are the best way to do this. Thanks!

[DeltaEmil]

Only casters can use alchemy. Another irritation of mine...

Seems like the aid another checks are the best way to do this. Thanks!To be more precise, only spellcasters are allowed to create alchemical items listed in the Craft skill description in the Player's Handbook 1. You do not need to be a spellcaster to create other alchemical items like blend cream, flash pellets, free glide, healer's balm and more as described in Complete Adventurer and other books.

[Doc_Maynot]

Only casters can use alchemy. Another irritation of mine...

Seems like the aid another checks are the best way to do this. Thanks!

I realized this after I posted and made a follow up for it.