I've been going over a lot of stuff, giving the GM a hard time with questions. After checking into a lot of rules and stuff on my down time while waiting on my friend to get everything ready for our sessions, I was wondering about the crafting system.
The best I can find is that for crafting it is limited to downtime of only 5GP per day of what the item would normally cost on the market. Which is all well and good, but it doesn't really list a whole lot in the way of what would be needed for poisons and potions. I can understand direct poisons coming from monsters or the black market, but for stuff like Torpor or Truth Serum it doesn't really give much in the way of that. Especially since the Sessions are going to be more RP focused then combat focused, so us as players can get creative with solutions to the problems that ale us. (During a background solo campaign with the GM it was basically 1 fight over the course of 4 hours, with most time spent in towns and trying to solve the problems the Gm sent my way).
Another thing I have a question about, why is it limited in the rule book to only 5GP per day? A lot of stuff is fairly expensive, and looking at it from a realistic stand point, I can understand a lot of the cheaper items making sense for how long it takes, but for other things like poison or even potions..., I can't think of anything other then balancing reasons for why it would take 40 days to make serpent venom when all it is is venom extracted from a snake. I could see a couple of days for a lot of this stuff, but not months like the base rule would make. Same as the higher end weapons and armor if you can craft stuff with an anvil. I could understand a week, maybe a month or two for a more high end piece, but not 300 days for a single work of Plate Armor.
Consider the alternate crafting rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Basically, 1 workweek for every 50 gp of base item cost, and you spend half the base cost overall in materials/etc.
So a potion with a base cost of 100 gp base cost will require 2 weeks and 50 gp to make. While a plate armour (1,500 gp) would take 750 gp and 30 weeks. The time is things like: finding sources, studying, measuring, analysing, acquisition of materials, and so on. Full plate armour does actually take a long time: it's not just a sheet of metal banged into shape: it's thin layers of steel molded and melted into separate sections and pieces with the holes/etc for weaving fabric into it along with use of leathers and cloth, for linking the pieces together, filing down edges, re-sealing parts, and more. Some of it requires very precise use of tools that take much longer because it is a slow process made slower by the need to constantly re-heat for working and cooling to avoid full melting.
The higher classes of swords - like expert katanas - actually take years in real life to make. So, actually, this is process in Xanathar's (and some cases the PHB) is faster than real-life crafting in some cases.
Consider the alternate crafting rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Basically, 1 workweek for every 50 gp of base item cost, and you spend half the base cost overall in materials/etc.
So a potion with a base cost of 100 gp base cost will require 2 weeks and 50 gp to make. While a plate armour (1,500 gp) would take 750 gp and 30 weeks. The time is things like: finding sources, studying, measuring, analysing, acquisition of materials, and so on. Full plate armour does actually take a long time: it's not just a sheet of metal banged into shape: it's thin layers of steel molded and melted into separate sections and pieces with the holes/etc for weaving fabric into it along with use of leathers and cloth, for linking the pieces together, filing down edges, re-sealing parts, and more. Some of it requires very precise use of tools that take much longer because it is a slow process made slower by the need to constantly re-heat for working and cooling to avoid full melting.
The higher classes of swords - like expert katanas - actually take years in real life to make. So, actually, this is process in Xanathar's (and some cases the PHB) is faster than real-life crafting in some cases.
Thank you very much for the response. I do much prefer the alternative method you are talking about for crafting.
And Huh, that is good to know about IRL full plate armor. I expected a few months at most for that. And yeah, swords are a little different story when it comes to IRL crafting. Depending upon the type it can take years, as you mentioned, or only a few weeks. Katanas are an espescally rare case which typically get forged and reforged over and over again in order to create the perfect edge. That sort of more high end stuff I can certainly see taking that amount of time.
I now want to spend some time looking up typical crafting times in the middle ages for different items and objects, get a much better understanding of the whole crafting process involved.
As a side note, my character for the RP is a Changeling Assassin, main reason I was asking about potions and poisons since a lot of that would be in line with who she is and how she can get the job done.
I've been going over a lot of stuff, giving the GM a hard time with questions. After checking into a lot of rules and stuff on my down time while waiting on my friend to get everything ready for our sessions, I was wondering about the crafting system.
The best I can find is that for crafting it is limited to downtime of only 5GP per day of what the item would normally cost on the market. Which is all well and good, but it doesn't really list a whole lot in the way of what would be needed for poisons and potions. I can understand direct poisons coming from monsters or the black market, but for stuff like Torpor or Truth Serum it doesn't really give much in the way of that. Especially since the Sessions are going to be more RP focused then combat focused, so us as players can get creative with solutions to the problems that ale us. (During a background solo campaign with the GM it was basically 1 fight over the course of 4 hours, with most time spent in towns and trying to solve the problems the Gm sent my way).
Another thing I have a question about, why is it limited in the rule book to only 5GP per day? A lot of stuff is fairly expensive, and looking at it from a realistic stand point, I can understand a lot of the cheaper items making sense for how long it takes, but for other things like poison or even potions..., I can't think of anything other then balancing reasons for why it would take 40 days to make serpent venom when all it is is venom extracted from a snake. I could see a couple of days for a lot of this stuff, but not months like the base rule would make. Same as the higher end weapons and armor if you can craft stuff with an anvil. I could understand a week, maybe a month or two for a more high end piece, but not 300 days for a single work of Plate Armor.
Consider the alternate crafting rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Basically, 1 workweek for every 50 gp of base item cost, and you spend half the base cost overall in materials/etc.
So a potion with a base cost of 100 gp base cost will require 2 weeks and 50 gp to make. While a plate armour (1,500 gp) would take 750 gp and 30 weeks. The time is things like: finding sources, studying, measuring, analysing, acquisition of materials, and so on. Full plate armour does actually take a long time: it's not just a sheet of metal banged into shape: it's thin layers of steel molded and melted into separate sections and pieces with the holes/etc for weaving fabric into it along with use of leathers and cloth, for linking the pieces together, filing down edges, re-sealing parts, and more. Some of it requires very precise use of tools that take much longer because it is a slow process made slower by the need to constantly re-heat for working and cooling to avoid full melting.
The higher classes of swords - like expert katanas - actually take years in real life to make. So, actually, this is process in Xanathar's (and some cases the PHB) is faster than real-life crafting in some cases.
My Homebrew: Races | Subclasses | Backgrounds | Spells | Magic Items | Feats
Need help with Homebrew? Check out this FAQ/Guide thread by IamSposta
See My Youtube Videos for Tips & Tricks using D&D Beyond
Thank you very much for the response. I do much prefer the alternative method you are talking about for crafting.
And Huh, that is good to know about IRL full plate armor. I expected a few months at most for that. And yeah, swords are a little different story when it comes to IRL crafting. Depending upon the type it can take years, as you mentioned, or only a few weeks. Katanas are an espescally rare case which typically get forged and reforged over and over again in order to create the perfect edge. That sort of more high end stuff I can certainly see taking that amount of time.
I now want to spend some time looking up typical crafting times in the middle ages for different items and objects, get a much better understanding of the whole crafting process involved.
As a side note, my character for the RP is a Changeling Assassin, main reason I was asking about potions and poisons since a lot of that would be in line with who she is and how she can get the job done.
Crafting is one of those things you need to talk to your DM about.