(3.5e) E6/8 - Craft Gemcutting / Jewelry

[Bobur]

Hello everyone

I am the DM of a 3.5e game using the Epic 6 rules (locked on Lv8)

One of my players (a monk) wants to learn Gem cutting/jewelry (inspired by the gem-cutting skill in World of Warcraft). He is willing to retrain skill points, spend time and money, and all that. He is even retraining a feat to get extra skill points.

And I want him to be able to do it of course.
But gem cutting and making jewelry isn't something covered in the core books. I found something old from 3.0 that looked overly complicated though, including way too many rolls for random results.
I also checked Pathfinder but there doesn't seem to be something useful there either.

Overall, what my player wants to do with this, is to a) have something to do in longer downtimes and b) make some more unique additions to our items. Like a ruby for a sword hilt etc. C) Making money. In the E6 games you have to control the flow of money a lot, in our game, they also have a small castle and many money-sink projects on top to pay for, so they are always looking for income. This skill should be useful for that but it definitely should not solve it. Well, making and selling an item are 2 different things.

Gem cutting itself isn't very useful, since most gems in a hoard etc are already cut. But throwing in some raw gems should be easy enough I guess.
This is the reason why he tends more towards jewelry and combining gems into finer items.

The regular DCs from the crafting section for items like jewelry would be around 15-20 I assume. Potentially higher if he wanted to make a fine necklace with diamonds.

The value is a different matter. There is a list of gems in 3.5e and their value, but not much to give ideas for jewelry, what these things are worth and therefore how long it takes to craft them.



Right now I would just try to figure this thing out as we go, but if somebody has some useful information or references to use, it would be really handy.

[Crake]

Gems are a trade good, and so their value should be reasonably static, I wouldnt subject them to the “triple the value of the base crafting materials” rule if the PC is using them for jewelry, since they arent actually crafting the pre-cut gems, it would just be triple the cost of the base materials that they used to create the fittings, plus the value of the gems.

As for actually cutting the gems, thats relatively easy, you just triple the value of the raw gem, or, probably more accurately, you 1/3rd the value of the final product, and give that to the player as the raw gem, so when he cuts it, it comes out to the value of cut gem that you were looking at.

That being said, remember that the base DC for a masterwork item is 20, and a well cut gem, or jewelry worthy of being worn by nobility is masterwork at the very least. Add on that, if he wants to make any reasonable progress, he will need to increase that DC significantly, else he would be taking far longer to actually create them.

Finally, as you already touched on, its one thing to craft, its another to actually sell. Low value gems are generally interchangable with gold, but higher value gems, not so much. What you might want to consider, instead of using the crafting rules to try and simulate income for the players, is instead use the establishment rules in the DMG2, which include rules for running a shop, and the sort of income you would be able to generate from it. All shops use the same rules, so it could work to run the jewelry shop, including hiring npcs to run the shop while hes out adventuring, and you could use it for plot hooks as well.

[Bobur]

Finally, as you already touched on, its one thing to craft, its another to actually sell. Low value gems are generally interchangable with gold, but higher value gems, not so much. What you might want to consider, instead of using the crafting rules to try and simulate income for the players, is instead use the establishment rules in the DMG2, which include rules for running a shop, and the sort of income you would be able to generate from it. All shops use the same rules, so it could work to run the jewelry shop, including hiring npcs to run the shop while hes out adventuring, and you could use it for plot hooks as well.

Thanks, I will have a look at that.

I just checked the examples of art pieces in the random treasure area of the SRD, there are a lot of rather low value items. It might give an idea for value at least.

[ShurikVch]

FWIW, Craft (gemcutting) is also prerequisite for Runecaster, Gnome Artificer, and Crystal Master (https://web.archive.org/web/20120419162553/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625d) PrCs, Attune Gem feat (Magic of Faerûn), and crafting lens for Daoud's Wondrous Lantern (Arms and Equipment Guide)

Also, items with bonus for Craft (gemcutting): Fiendish Hand graft (+2 unholy; 8,000 gp; Dungeon #108), Gauntlet of the Deft Hand [attached component] (+5 competence; 7,500 gp; Dragon #341), and Tourmaline embedded gem (+1/gem insight; see Crystal Master PrC)

[Ramza00]

Think in challenge ratings and dcs you want

05+ CR
10+ CR
15+ CR
20+ CR

But also dcs from 5, to 35. Can a NPC at whatever level hit the DC with a 1 in 4 chance, 1 in 2, 3 in 4, or natural 20 ?

I know you say you are e6 and e8 but that is how you should be thinking about the skill check dcs if you are being sane with the different level of skill amps. (Of course throw enough splat books and feats onto it, this general rule of thumb is no longer sane)

[MornShine]

Though this doesn’t fully answer your question, there is a table for jewelry made of precious metals in Arms & Equipment Guide (p.30).


The prices on Table 2–3 are for plain and basic jewelry with no gemstones. Prices for fancier items are considerably higher, depending on the level of detail and skill of the crafter.