What would a magic anvil do?

[Jay R]

For reasons too complex to go into, I want the PCs to find an old ruin of a smithy, which has a magic anvil.

What does a magic anvil do?

It could make masterwork items nearly automatically.
It might reduce the cost, or the needed material.
It might add +5 or +10 to the Craft roll.
When making armor, it might increase the AC, or reduce the DEX penalty.

It needs to be valuable enough to be worth carrying an anvil for a short while, but not game-warping.

The PCs are level 3 characters, without a Bag of Holding. [Part of the purpose is to make encumbrance actually matter once.] One of the PCs has a father who is a village blacksmith.

So what do you recommend?

[Tohron]

One of the main limitations on crafting in D&D is finding opportunities to craft while still adventuring. Thus, significant reductions on the time needed to craft mundane & magic arms & armor would be a valuable benefit, assuming any of the players are interested in crafting.

[Maat Mons]

Maybe just multiply the rate of progress? It's sort of handy, but there are already people making things in one round with Fabricate. Not gonna break the economy any more than it already is.

Edit: Ninja-ed.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

It's the same as a dedicated wright, only it's not limited to making items for its creator, and it only works on metal weapons and armor.


Item Creation (Su): A dedicate wright can be commanded to perform the necessary tasks related to magical item creation on behalf of its master. The master must meet or emulate all the necessary prerequisites, have the appropriate tools for the dedicated wright to use and pay item creation cost for the necessary raw materials. The wright then is able to perform the necessary tasks, spending the necessary time and leaving the master to continue with other projects. It takes 1 hour to give the dedicated wright the necessary commands to make a magical item and a dedicated wright can only work on one item at a time. Otherwise, it acts as the master, using his skill ranks, caster level, feats, spells known and all other aspects related for the magical item creation process as they are at the time the commands were given.

A dedicated wright can be commanded to abandon any progress toward a magical item, but if it starts a new project, any progress toward the original project is lost. If the magical item creation can benefit from teamwork, multiple dedicated wrights can be commanded to work together, although dedicated wrights from multiple masters must all qualify normally to assist. Lastly, dedicated wrights can be commanded to use their Craft skills for mundane projects, but they use their own Craft modifiers for these mundane projects.

[Jay R]

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately what they most old me was that I left out some crucial information.

None of these players have ever played 3.5e before. They are mostly experienced with AD&D and original D&D, in which players rarely make items, and then only at very high levels.

None of them have a Craft Item skill, or have shown any interest in one. [One of the players plans to have an Ancestral Relic. I need to provide this anvil before he has that very convenient way to dispose of a heavy magic item.]

[Maat Mons]

I was assuming they were going to bring the anvil to the one person's village-blacksmith father. If they're not going to do any crafting, any thematically-appropriate magic anvil abilities would be useless. And if they're going to sell it, it doesn't actually matter what it does. A quest to bring it to where it can be useful seems as good as anything.

[Fero]

The anvil is one of the three ancient Darkstone Anvils. No one in modern times knows how to recreate the anvils. The Darkstone Anvils are the only anvils strong enough to forge Starcopper, or to repair the broken blade Anethema.

[Jay R]

The anvil is one of the three ancient Darkstone Anvils. No one in modern times knows how to recreate the anvils. The Darkstone Anvils are the only anvils strong enough to forge Starcopper, or to repair the broken blade Anethema.

Hmmmm... In fact, the world is tearing itself apart right now, and they don't know yet how to stop it, although it was done in the distant past. This might be related to the overall quest I haven't even started designing yet.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You could always present them with The Mighty Toon Anvil Of Drop-Smiting. Two guesses as to what it does.

[Jay R]

You could always present them with The Mighty Toon Anvil Of Drop-Smiting. Two guesses as to what it does.

When hit by the falling anvil, the enemy loses all hit points and falls down with little X's in his eyes.

[Unfortunately, the enemy walks back onscreen at his next initiative, with full hit points.]

[Analytica]

I would let it provide Craft Magic Arms & Armor as a temporary bonus feat to anyone using it for as long as they are trying to make such an item.

[JNAProductions]

When hit by the falling anvil, the enemy loses all hit points and falls down with little X's in his eyes.

[Unfortunately, the enemy walks back onscreen at his next initiative, with full hit points.]

That's like Drown Healing on steroids. Use it on your friends that are low on HP!

[Particle_Man]

I think one of the oldest stories about smiths was one that posited that one gained the power to stick anything to anything else (they even stuck an antagonistic spirit to a chair!).

So perhaps something along those lines?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smith_and_the_Devil

[King of Nowhere]

None of them have a Craft Item skill, or have shown any interest in one. [One of the players plans to have an Ancestral Relic. I need to provide this anvil before he has that very convenient way to dispose of a heavy magic item.]

this makes things a lot easier.
the magic anvil is something they can sell for 1k gp. that's all you need to figure out, because that's all they're gonna do with it

[Biggus]

I would let it provide Craft Magic Arms & Armor as a temporary bonus feat to anyone using it for as long as they are trying to make such an item.

There's already an item which does that, it costs 15,000GP, a bit much for 3rd-level characters (Forge of Thautam, RoS p.167). Possibly a limited version which allows you to create one specific type of magic item might work.

[smasher0404]

It could allow the crafter to bypass requirements on a set of weapon and armor templates (described in DMG II pg 273), it'd be very useful for both a party and for an NPC (being able to craft gear that they weren't able to make before). The father could reward them with gear made from the anvil (which depending on the templates could be very hard to obtain compared to price) once he gets his hands on it.

[Robster]

In the 2008 RPG-Superstar contest, there was the Arcane Anvil - something that is not game warping but might keep the Anvil relevant to return to even at higher levels. I can't link it due to low post count but here's the text:

Arcane Anvil: This deep black anvil was forged in magical fire and carved with hundreds of arcane runes that still glow brightly.
Employed by the armies of Hell or other forces that often rely on magical weaponry, this anvil can consume the power of a magic weapon or armor and bestow it upon the next item that is placed on it.
Any magic weapon or armor positioned on the anvil and then struck by a hammer repeatedly for one hour is utterly destroyed as its magic charges the anvil, overwriting any previously consumed enhancements.
The next nonmagical masterwork weapon or armor touching anvil instantly gains all enhancements of the consumed item and discharges the anvil. Enhancements that are not compatible with the newly created item are lost forever. (For example, if the last consumed item was a keen rapier +3 and the touching item a masterwork mace, the item created is a mace +3. If the touching item is an armor of any kind instead, it does not gain any magical properties because weapon and armor enhancements aren’t compatible.)

Moderate transmutation; CL 10th; Craft Wondrous Item, [i]fabricate; Price 20,000 gp; Weight 150 lb.

[redking]

Allow use of create magical arms and armor feat, and additionally permit the creation of these items without magical spells. Thus, a non-magical magic crafter. Expensive material components and XP must be provided.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If nobody in the party is going to ever craft anything, and they're giving/selling it to a family member of one of the party, either give it an extremely small benefit to them (such as, -10% off of all armors and weapons made with it), or give it a major plot-spanning power (such as, it is the only way to repair the magic sword of magical magic that is the only way to slay the monstery monster of monsterdom).

[arkangel111]

transfer magic properties. makes randomly generated treasure not worthless. now you can give your katana wielding fighter (samurai) a flaming vorpal battleaxe and not feel bad about it.

[NichG]

Does it have to be mechanically concrete, or would something narrative work too?

I'd say that metals can be cold-worked on it without the need to heat them to the appropriate temperature. This makes working metals like adamantine much, much more convenient. But it's not really something like +X to Y.

Also yes you can use it for crafting, but you can also use it to e.g. break open a metal lockbox without destroying the contents, or to treat a metal wall as having no hardness - but only when using the anvil to hit it.

[Vaern]

On command, the anvil heats any material placed on it to the ideal temperature for forging that material. This eliminates the need for a forge and the need for a certain degree of expertise, making crafting much faster and easier. When using the anvil, treat the DC of craft checks as being 10 higher when determining how much progress is made. This does not affect the actual DC of the skill check. For example, a character who rolls an 18 when crafting a martial weapon (DC 15) succeeds on the check, but calculates his progress as 18 x 25 (450 sp) rather than 18 x 15 (270 sp).

Damaged or broken items may be repaired on the anvil so long as all pieces of the item are present, without having to pay for additional materials.

The anvil allows its user to add an enhancement bonus to an item as though they had the craft magic arms and armor feat. Characters using the anvil are treated as having an effective caster level equal to their character level for this purpose. This does not grant the character the ability to add magical properties to an item, even if the character would otherwise have access to necessary spell prerequisites.

The anvil is part of a set of tools that can be used to create an artifact, and is itself an artifact. The anvil grants no particular benefits on its own, but when paired with a specific forge, a particular hammer, and an existing magic item it may be used for its intended purpose.
You may designate that these tools can only be used to create a particular artifact - for example, a +3 returning warhammer may be enhanced on the forge to create a hammer of thunderbolts - or, you may choose to allow the players to elevate an existing magic item to the level of artifact with powers relevant to its existing magic properties.
Possible restrictions to place on the anvil's use:
These tools may be used for their intended purpose once.
Only a single artifact created by these tools may exist at any given time. If such an artifact already exists, it must be destroyed before a new one may be created. Besides more crude means of accomplishing this task such as mage's disjunction, any artifact created by this particular set of tools may be destroyed on the anvil without any particular difficulty.
A single character may only attempt to use the tools to create an artifact once. He must succeed on a relevant DC 40 craft check to enhance an item to the level of an artifact; if he fails, he may not attempt to use the tools again.
Once used, the tools become dormant for 10 years before they can be used again.

[Kol Korran]

What would a magic anvil do?
It would SIIING!

But more seriously, how about the following:
The anvil is an old magical anvil, related to old dwarven practices and rites of Moradin. (Or any similar forge-god).

One of the rites/ tests is called "The loads we bear" or "Our craft is our burden" or something similar. The idea is that the practitioner is required to carry his anvil on a journey/ quest. The quest is made harder by the anvil's weight, but in the process the anvil learns/ experiences/ absorbs/ resonate the practitioner's trials, decisions, development and character.

Once the journey is done, if the anvil is satisfied (according to the tenents and beliefs of the faith), the practitioner suddenly gets a sense that s/he should work on the anvil, possibly using a precious material, or a personal item (armor, weapon, braces, ring and such), and even gets imbued by the divine skill to forge one unique item. This crafting signifies the journey shared with the anvil, and mostly the development/ lessons/ realisations of the journey. The item isn't necessarily powerful, but symbolic, personal, and potentially useful.

That way the PCs have a real incentive to carry the item, and may get a one time personal item from it. You just need them to learn a bit about the special rite, even if not the whole details.

Aaaannnd... The anvil may actually sing! An old dwarvish working or religious song, perhaps on the journey, or upon making the special item. ("Hi ho! hi ho!" Or... "You load 16 tons, what do you get?" Or "While we travel along, singing a song") I'm kidding, but perhaps even an old dwarvish humming might add to the atmosphere...

[ericgrau]

For it to be useful for level 3 characters who don't want to spend months crafting, I think it should allow the user to make up to 3000 gp worth of metal masterwork weapons, armor or items. Only the masterwork portion counts towards the 3,000 gp: 300 gp per weapon, 150 gp per armor, 50 gp for most tools (or varies at the DM's discretion). It may make at most 1 per day. It takes 1 hour each time and either the raw materials, the ordinary version of the masterwork item, or enough weight of metal items to destroy for the materials (which are magically reshaped). After the 3,000 gp is expended it becomes an ordinary anvil. It comes with a hammer and other related tools, and the magic does not require a furnace. If someone places any materials on it, holds any of the tools, and thinks about the item he wants, he magically receives knowledge about how to operate it. Weight: 200 lbs. (an average anvil, or of course change that if you prefer).

[chaincomplex]

An artifact-level magic anvil should just support a % of the XP cost of an item. Call it a soulforge or something, because of the XP <-> innate characteristic <-> soul connection.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

What would a magic anvil do?
It would SIIING!


Aaaannnd... The anvil may actually sing! An old dwarvish working or religious song, perhaps on the journey, or upon making the special item. ("Hi ho! hi ho!" Or... "You load 16 tons, what do you get?" Or "While we travel along, singing a song") I'm kidding, but perhaps even an old dwarvish humming might add to the atmosphere...

Yes, it does!


https://youtu.be/ytWz0qVvBZ0

[OracleofWuffing]

Level three characters, with no crafting feats, and no bag of holding? Give it a command word or something that lets it Shrink Item itself, for easy transportation and storage. You might want to add some additional footnotes that the effect can't be dismissed unless the anvil is on the ground or otherwise not falling to prevent shenanigans. Or not.

[Maat Mons]

If all you want is for the PCs to spend a bit of time carrying something heavy, you don’t even need a magic item. You could just give them a chest full of silver. 1,000 gp-worth of silver weighs 200 pounds. If you don’t want the PCs to be able to split the weight up between them, you could instead make it a statue or something.

[Ashiel]

For reasons too complex to go into, I want the PCs to find an old ruin of a smithy, which has a magic anvil.

What does a magic anvil do?

It could make masterwork items nearly automatically.
It might reduce the cost, or the needed material.
It might add +5 or +10 to the Craft roll.
When making armor, it might increase the AC, or reduce the DEX penalty.

It needs to be valuable enough to be worth carrying an anvil for a short while, but not game-warping.

The PCs are level 3 characters, without a Bag of Holding. [Part of the purpose is to make encumbrance actually matter once.] One of the PCs has a father who is a village blacksmith.

So what do you recommend?
Maybe an Advanced (10 HD) small sized animated object (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/animated-object/) created with Craft Construct, with the Clunky and Slow x2 drawbacks (perma-staggered, 0 ft. movement speed) metal (4 cp version), and imbued with sentience (+250 gp, intelligent magic items) with the purpose of desiring to forge great things and communicates empathically with whomever touches it. It has 10 skill ranks in whatever craft skill you chose. It also has the feats Skill Focus (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/skill-focus/) (chosen craft skill), Prodigy (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/prodigy/), Cooperative Crafting (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/cooperative-crafting/) feat, Master Craftsman (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/master-craftsman/) feat, and Craft Magic Arms & Armor feats. If you really wanna go the extra mile, give it a 1/day crafter's fortune (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/crafter-s-fortune/) for +360 gp (allowing it to grant itself or the person it's assisting a +5 luck bonus, which is enough to offset the DC increase for crafting items at double speed).

Said Anvil would have a hardness of 15, an AC of 20, 65 hp, CL 10 (for effects relating), Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of 10, a +20 bonus to a Crafting skill of choice (whatever you put their skill ranks, Prodigy, and Skill Focus into), allowing them to take-10 for a 30, and may provide itself or another a +5 luck bonus on top of it for 1 day, each day (allowing it up to 35 alone). When someone actually uses it, it can provide the Craft Magic Arms & Armor feat benefits and the artisans can provide any of the requirements (spells, etc). Between its cooperative crafting GP/day increase and the option to increase the craft DC by +5 to double the speed you create the items (offset by the crafter's fortune buff), it would be quite a neat treasure to find (it's total value would be 14,610 gp).

[Mordante]

Scream when you hit the anvil
Have the anvil complain when something hot is put on the anvil
Comment of the player when the player roll high or low when using the anvil
The anvil demand to be cleaned before use and make it ticklish.
etc

[Jay R]

Lots of great ideas -- far more than I can use. Thanks!

I'm slowly going through every idea here. One thing that has crossed my mind, inspired by about three of the recommendations, is this:
Metal has -10 hardness when being worked on the anvil. That makes steel as easy to work as tin, mithril more-or-less as easy to work as bronze, and adamantine as easy to work as steel usually is.

In practice, that would mean that any blacksmith could work adamantine or mithril on this anvil.

Any thoughts on this idea?

Also, please keep the ideas coming!

[JNAProductions]

Lots of great ideas -- far more than I can use. Thanks!

I'm slowly going through every idea here. One thing that has crossed my mind, inspired by about three of the recommendations, is this:
Metal has -10 hardness when being worked on the anvil. That makes steel as easy to work as tin, mithril more-or-less as easy to work as bronze, and adamantine as easy to work as steel usually is.

In practice, that would mean that any blacksmith could work adamantine or mithril on this anvil.

Any thoughts on this idea?

Also, please keep the ideas coming!

Hardness has nothing to do with working materials-by RAW, at least.

However, as far as explanations go for why working metal is easier on it, that's a good one.

[Telonius]

Silly suggestions:

+5 Coyote Bane.
Acts as an Immovable Rod, but the effect immediately ends if someone walks under it and looks up.

[Crake]

Well, for starters, it would definitely count as wondrous architecture. It's not impossible to move without destroying it (like a building's foundation), so it's price is only halved, and not reduced to a quarter. I would make it enchant any weapon or armor worked on the anvil as per greater magic weapon/vestment, with a caster level equal to the user's Craft (Smithing) or Profession (Blacksmith) ranks (maybe upping the duration to a flat 24 hours?). Makes it very valuable to a fortification that is expecting to be attacked, can allow all the defenders to have improved equipment for the upcoming battle.

[Endarire]

I recall a magic anvil or forge in a 3.x sourcebook. Maybe it was Races of Stone or Arms & Equipment Guide.

Aside from that, a magic anvil can do a lot of bludgeoning damage upon impact! Hulking Hurler or super high STR form, away!

[Wintermoot]

How about it does something completely unexpected?

When activated by any magical fire effect being cast within 30' of it, the Anvil animates. It jumps down from wherever it is and burrows into the earth until only the horn is above ground like a shark fin. It then begins swimming around tracking movement with its horn ploughing the earth like a fin through the waves. The prey it is tracking is the nearest person with the heaviest, most expensive armor. When it intercepts the same square as it's prey, the prey is pulled into the earth. Chomping, slurping sounds come out from the earth for a round, then two rounds later, the naked but otherwise unharmed prey is ejected back out of the earth. The Armor is completely consumed by the anvil and unrecoverable. After five rounds per level of spell used to activate it (so a fireball (3rd level) activates it for 15 rounds) the anvil returns to the surface, sated, and depowers down.


Boom. Anvil of the Bullette.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Boom. Anvil of the Bullette.Paint a cartoon face on it with meanie-eyes and jagged teeth in its mouth.

It is now Bulette Bill.