Speed up mundane crafting

[weckar]

Today for a character I realized making a single tanglefoot bag takes nearly a week of full time work (assuming all checks are made), and making plate armor (not even masterwork) the better part of a year.
While there's some savings in cost, the time just does not seem worth it for such relatively mundane items. It is also hard to justify when nobody else in the party requires significant downtime.
Is there any non-magical way to speed the process up? I realize times like these are entirely realistic, but they are not fun.

[Segev]

Today for a character I realized making a single tanglefoot bag takes nearly a week of full time work (assuming all checks are made), and making plate armor (not even masterwork) the better part of a year.
While there's some savings in cost, the time just does not seem worth it for such relatively mundane items. It is also hard to justify when nobody else in the party requires significant downtime.
Is there any non-magical way to speed the process up? I realize times like these are entirely realistic, but they are not fun.

Arguably you could do it with teams of workers. Make the product take a certain number of man-weeks, and work on parts in parallel. Can't break the project down by the standard rules, sadly, since final gp cost is the determining factor in build time, as silly as that gets when you realize that this means adjoining two nearly-complete pieces built to be joined together takes as long as it would to make the finished piece out of whole cloth, if you blindly follow the rules. But treat it instead as one project with multiple people devoting time, and it should work out okay.

[Psyren]

Pathfinder Unchained has alternate crafting rules (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/alternate-crafting-rules/) that you might be interested in. I find them simpler to use (no converting costs to silver and multiplying) and they also make it easier to craft items quickly. For example, under the core rules, making a tanglefoot bag (DC 25) takes at least a week, and your first increment to reduce that time (half time) requires you to roll a DC 40 on your crafting check, while making it in a third of the time requires beating a DC 60(!) Using the Unchained rules however, making one in half the time is only a DC 35, and a third only needs a DC 45. Most importantly however, your progress is measured by the day, so you can more easily keep track of how far along you are in making an item session by session, as well as more easily grok the effects of make use of daily resources like buffs for a burst of progress, making it easier to determine what a particularly good day of crafting does to help you.

[frogglesmash]

There's always the option of adding +10 to the craft DC in order to increase the crafting speed via the power of math, which leads me to a relevant question. Do the rules allow you to add the +10 modifier more than once? Because I've always operated under that assumption, but upon rereading the rules, I'm no longer sure if that is the case.

[Martin Greywolf]

I realize times like these are entirely realistic, but they are not fun.

Not that realistic. Non-masterwork full plate could be manufactured in a workshop in a single day. Granted, this was a large workshop where every piece would get a separate craftsman to work on it, but munitions-grade plate can probably be churned out in two weeks to a month per set by a single armorer, depending on a number of factors.

If you want it precisely fitted to you, made from scratch to exact specification? Well, that's a masterwork item then, and those did take much longer to make, about 6 months to a year, and you had to be present at least once for your measurements to be taken.

[unseenmage]

Spend money and commission things in advance.

Letting someone else do the work then predicting how long it'll take is about the simplest non magic way that getting something done can, well, be done.

[Biggus]

There's always the option of adding +10 to the craft DC in order to increase the crafting speed via the power of math, which leads me to a relevant question. Do the rules allow you to add the +10 modifier more than once? Because I've always operated under that assumption, but upon rereading the rules, I'm no longer sure if that is the case.

Yes you can, it's in the epic rules:

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#craft

[Ruethgar]

Use feat abuse to get Exceptional, Extraordinary, and Legendary Artisan, then Magical Artisan for all of those, then Enhance Item x6 and another Magical Artisan x6. Time and cost on all crafting down to 5%.

[Telonius]

Combine the Epic rule with Aid Another; a team of five people successfully using Aid Another would make the item more quickly without an effective increase in the DC. The limit there is the DM and how many people they say could Aid Another at once.

[Kalkra]

Use feat abuse to get Exceptional, Extraordinary, and Legendary Artisan, then Magical Artisan for all of those, then Enhance Item x6 and another Magical Artisan x6. Time and cost on all crafting down to 5%.

That relies on Magical Artisan stacking with itself, which feats don't normally do. Unless there's some ruling somewhere that you're using that I'm unaware of.


Combine the Epic rule with Aid Another; a team of five people successfully using Aid Another would make the item more quickly without an effective increase in the DC. The limit there is the DM and how many people they say could Aid Another at once.

With an assembly-line type thing where each piece is made separately as mentioned above, you could realistically have a lot of people contributing to making something. And when I say people, I mean unskilled craftsman, who can be hired for next to nothing. If your DM doesn't like it, point out that things are produced so quickly in real life thanks to essentially this method.

[ShurikVch]

Craft Expertise feat (Dragon #339): doubles both daily cp and weekly sp from your Craft - thus, halves time of your Craft

Also, you may try to be a creature which doesn't need to eat, drink, rest, or sleep - it would triple your available crafting time (thus, total time would be just 1/3 of usual)

Or, maybe, craft it at a timeless plane? It would take no time at all... :smallwink:

[unseenmage]

Devices from Ravenloft are non magical magic items. As are Devices from The Gnome Artificer PrC.

That said Marvelous Pigments can make mundane objects. Theres a staff of unlimited Marvelous Pigments in a Dragon Mag somewhere.


Shapesand is an alchemical item. Its borderline magical. Alchemical items are explicitly not magic items but some can be considered to contain magic effects.
Shapesand will make whatever you want comparatively quickly.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Get a masterwork item made to give a crafting bonus. Voluntarily increase your craft dc by the same bonus as said item. This creates an exponential increase in your skill check results.

Hammer of the Weaponsmith and Tongs of the Armorsmith from one of the Forgottwn Realms sourcebooks are pre-made for armor and weapon crafting if your dm wants a precedent.

[darkdragoon]

Races of Stone has several special forges for the latter. For the former both Trapsmith and Combat Trapsmith seem to be in the "ignore those, use this instead" with their own list of traps.

[frogglesmash]

Get a masterwork item made to give a crafting bonus. Voluntarily increase your craft dc by the same bonus as said item.

You can only increase the DC by multiples of 10.