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Thread: 3.5 Crafting
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2010-09-21, 05:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
3.5 Crafting
Are there any crafting skills that are clearly more lucrative than the others? Does it matter which one my character specializes in?
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2010-09-21, 06:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
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- Metro Manila, Philippines
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
Craft (Woodworking). Build 10-foot ladders. Take them apart into 10-foot poles. Sell. Each 5 copper ladder will net you 4 SP (each 10-foot pole costs 2 SP)
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Sakuya Izayoi avatar by Mr. Saturn. Caella sig by Neoseph.
"I dunno, you just gave me the image of a nerd flying slow motion over a coffee table towards another nerd, dual wielding massive books. It was awesome." -- Marriclay
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2010-09-21, 06:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
Re: 3.5 Crafting
Craft skills weren't intended to be profitable, they were intended for roleplaying purposes. 1,000gp of raw materials can be turned into 3,000gp of finished product, be that iron into swords or wood into chairs. If the DM doesn't put a limit on how much you can sell your only constraint is how much time you have to craft.
Your assumption that the 10ft ladder is made from two 10ft poles is utterly false try again. Going strictly by the craft rules the raw materials to make a proper 10ft pole is 1/3 the market price period.
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2010-09-21, 06:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Xin-Shalast
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
Mathing it out.
SpoilerOriginally Posted by Crafting Rules
So, doing a daily craft check...Originally Posted by Progress by the Day
So, the minimum successful roll for very simple is 5. 5*5 = 25 cp as a daily check. That's in one fifth of the time it would take to do a craft check in one day. I'm not sure, but I think a day's work is defined as 8 hours for crafting both mundane and magical items.
If it's a typical item, DC 10*10 minimum check result = 100. 100cp/5cp = 20. So that's one twentieth of whatever time period one has to be crafting in. So that's 20 ladders out of a day's work with taking ten with no skill ranks.
20 * 2 = 40 ten foot poles.
20 * 5/3 cp = 33.3333333 cp (33 cp or 34 depending upon rounding. I'll go with 34 due to evenness)
So that's 40 ten foot poles for 34 cp. 2 sp * 40 = 80 sp market price.
So depending either 8 gp or 4 gp in exchange for a day's work and 34 cp or 3.4 sp or .34 gp.
8 / .34 = 23.5294118 (Or 2352.94118% profit if selling as a vendor)
4 / .34 = 11.7647059 (Or 1176.47059% profit if selling to a vendor)
Of course, this all hinges upon the ladders working, and is rather nebulous about how much time it actually takes. And the assumption that if one has such and such time allotted for a day during the craft check and the result of the check allows for completion in a fraction of the time that the reduction in time allows further craft checks for that day to fill up that same time slot.
AFAIK, the profit margin is going to be the same on all crafting checks without exploiting a loophole like the Ladder (10 ft.) into 2 Poles (10 ft.), even with price reducers (I believe there's some feat that reduces all crafting costs, even mundance crafting costs, by 25% or so) that just changes what the profit margin is.
Lower value goods can be created more quickly as opposed to a more valuable product that takes longer to make and gives all of the profit in one lump rather than a more constant stream.
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2010-09-21, 06:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
The best way to make money from craft skills is to form a guild and control a monopoly on one particular craft. Good guys can work with and form a guild. Bad guys can run out the competition. Just because the price of a 10 gp weapon in the PHB is 10 gp, doesn't mean that you can't run a racket and force that price up to 15 gp or more.
Then again, I don't use the stupid "everything players sell is worth half as much, even if they just bought it" rule.
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2010-09-21, 06:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
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- Metro Manila, Philippines
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
It was more a tongue-in-cheek comment against the inconsistency of the prices and not meant to be practical advice.
A ladder's construction would involve the use of two 10-foot poles. I don't see how that's "utterly false," and if anything it would either take more work to carve (thus involving an increase in cost) or have more material on it (also costing more). What would it be made of? Duct tape and cardboard?
The bottom line is that it's much cheaper.
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Sakuya Izayoi avatar by Mr. Saturn. Caella sig by Neoseph.
"I dunno, you just gave me the image of a nerd flying slow motion over a coffee table towards another nerd, dual wielding massive books. It was awesome." -- Marriclay
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2010-09-21, 06:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
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2010-09-21, 07:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Xin-Shalast
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
Well, that's adventurers for you. And you're not selling it as a ladder anyway.
With all of those ladder rungs that are left over, if there's a price for kindling (I think there's just firewood for enough for a fire), you can sell 'em as kindling. Or raw materials to the makers of tindertwigs...
And if it's a single beam with alternating rungs, you're likely crossing into post territory as opposed to a pole, anyway.
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2010-09-21, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
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- Metro Manila, Philippines
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
The alternate rungs ladder would still cost more as a 10-foot pole than a ladder, though not as much as the typical ladder.
I really wouldn't allow this if I were the DM, of course, and I wouldn't fight my DM for it if I tried it as a player. It's just the inherent silliness of the pricing that gets to me.
Lord Vukodlak's point that the crafting rules are more for RP reasons than a profiteering mechanism does stand, though. It's more of "Hey, you know, I spent a couple of years weaving baskets while I was studying magic" instead of "Let's spend some time weaving baskets; adventuring is too risky."
Eberron Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal. NOW COMPLETE!
Sakuya Izayoi avatar by Mr. Saturn. Caella sig by Neoseph.
"I dunno, you just gave me the image of a nerd flying slow motion over a coffee table towards another nerd, dual wielding massive books. It was awesome." -- Marriclay
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2010-09-21, 07:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
Re: 3.5 Crafting
A ladder is made of two ten-foot poles with holes in them for the rungs.
Holelessness is worth a lot to the discerning adventurer. Why, making your weapon Unholy costs a minimum of 16,000 GP - you're getting a bargain on those poles.
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2010-09-21, 07:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Xin-Shalast
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
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2010-09-21, 07:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
I prefer all my mundane equipment to have masterwork gemwork components. That's why I made my guy have Craft (lapidary). All the gems I find I just add to all my other gear. Ruby-studded Wineskin? Sure thing! Gold-inlaid scroll case? You got it!
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2010-09-21, 08:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2007
- Gender
Re: 3.5 Crafting
While you can triple your money with craft, the gp gained per day is obscenely low. The real answer to make money off of them is "none of the above". Or get 1000 hirelings to assist until your DM cries foul. Or asks you where they all fit, to which you reply sweat shop to which he replies time for an alignment change and/or that's an anachronism.
As for making 10 foot poles, you can't find any buyers except other adventurers. Your scheme lets you sell a grand total of 3, with a large stock of unsold inventory. Sure, 50 are purchased during the same period, but the adventurers paid more for them at other stores because they really don't care. Meanwhile the other store owners are the real economic geniuses, charging extra for items that only rich people use. They won't even buy yours for half, b/c they are getting theirs cheaper than that.Last edited by ericgrau; 2010-09-21 at 08:11 PM.
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2010-09-21, 08:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
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2010-09-21, 08:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
Weapons are usually lucrative. Clothes are probably the most in-demand aside from some kind of Craft (vintner) or (brewer) and the like.
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2010-09-21, 09:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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2010-09-21, 09:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2009
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- Maryland
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
And before that level, there's the fun of Unseen Crafter, where at level 2, you can make crafter bots that last for day/level, with your craft skills.
This requires no particular work to break. Just use the profits from the sales to purchase eternal wands or pearls of power(whatevers more efficient at the time) of the same spell, for exponentially increasing crafting capability.
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2010-09-21, 09:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
I'd rather just start a mining consortium on some of the cubes of Acheron, seems more lucrative. Where else can Profession (miner) give you your own battleship?
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2010-09-21, 09:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
Re: 3.5 Crafting
Yes.
Certain Items are treated as cash. So Craft (Linen), Craft(Silk), Craft(Flour), or similar are better for making money than are others.
Edit: Until, of course, you start having access to spells such as Fabricate, which negate (or effectively negate) the time issue.Last edited by Jack_Simth; 2010-09-21 at 09:26 PM.
Of course, by the time I finish this post, it will already be obsolete. C'est la vie.
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2010-09-21, 09:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2008
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- Maryland, USA
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Re: 3.5 Crafting
I'm not aware of ladders using poles. The long pieces are planks. Also 10' poles are more expensive due to being balanced and harder to select quality of wood.
Fabricate +craft skill is a great way to make a profit. Also, don't forget that your familiar has your skills so they can also craft items.
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2010-09-21, 09:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
i've got a drow that's making pretty good use of the Craft: Poisonmaking skill.
home brewed DC20 sleepyjus @ level 1 was pretty darn nifty. unfortunatly, the cost of raw materials is getting exponentially higher as i try and craft higher and higher DC poison.
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2010-09-21, 09:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
The trick is to get Animal handling and use the Vermin handling rules. Then you can milk pet critters for their venom. There's also the tried and true use of psionics in making materials for natural poisons.
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2010-09-21, 09:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Xin-Shalast
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2010-09-21, 09:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
yuh. once i get Arcane Archer levels (ok, i borked my build more than a little, but 'tis fun) and start abusing Imbue Arrow, the poison won't be so much of a front line offense skill like it is now.
hmm, i have a spider familiar, Lillolth. she gieb me +2 Spell Res :)
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2010-09-21, 10:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
Re: 3.5 Crafting
Well, poison-making rules actually operate at greater efficiency, they operate at gp/week and sp/day instead and cost 1/6 the cost if materials are available.
Edit: If you have a poisonous familiar, you don't need animal handling then as you can just ask it to give you some venom instead.Last edited by Hague; 2010-09-21 at 10:02 PM.