Crafting Magic Items

In order to craft magic items, craftsmen harness the magics of the world, in the form of magical essence. These come in many forms: gems, creature parts, rare herbs, and magical metals are but a few.

Magic item prices

Buying magic items outright from an artisan is very expensive, as they have to be crafted without knowing there is a buyer. When selling magic items, most merchants offer you half this amount of gold. As always, specific magic items may be more or less expensive, if they are even for sale at all.

Rarity	Cost (permanent)	Cost (Consumable)
Common	75 (25+2d4×10) gp	50 (25+2d4×5) gp
Uncommon	800 (100+2d6×100) gp	160 (20+2d6×20) gp
Rare	2750 (1000+2d6×250) gp	550 (200+2d6×50) gp
Very Rare	14000 (5000+2d8×1000) gp	2800 (1000+2d8×200) gp
Legendary	47500 (25000+2d8×2500) gp	9500 (5000+2d8×500) gp

Downtime: Crafting

Item Rarity	Other material costs (permanent)	Time (permanent)	Other material costs (consumable)	Time (consumable)
Common	50 (1d4×25) gp	1 workweek (makes 2 (1d4))	50 (1d4×25) gp	1 workweek (makes 10 (3d6))
Uncommon	250 (2d4×50) gp	1 workweek	250 (2d4×50) gp	1 workweek (makes 5 (2d4))
Rare	700 (2d6×100) gp	1 workweek	350 (2d6×50) gp	1 workweek (makes 2 (1d4))
Very rare	3250 (3d8×250) gp	2 (1d4) workweeks	650 (3d8×50) gp	1 workweek
Legendary	13500 (5d10×500) gp	5 (2d4) workweeks	2700 (5d10×100) gp	2 (1d4) workweeks

To fuel magic items, you need to infuse the item with magical essence. The crafting also requires mundane materials and reagents, which is abstracted into a gold cost. You can only craft items using tools you are proficient with.

The DM determines what essences are required for crafting a particular item. Most permanent items require two essences of the same rarity as the item, while consumable items generally require a single essence. Some items might require a particular essence or material to craft.

If a NPC artisan is hired to do the crafting, the gold cost is doubled, representing a fee. The artisan might waive this fee as a reward for a quest, or be haggled down to a better price.

For example, crafting a pair of Bracers of Defense, a rare item, requires a rare earth essence and a rare lawful essence. An earth elemental core and a 500gp amethyst would fulfill this. In addition, the crafting requires ~1400gp of other materials and would take one week to complete for a character that is proficient with either smith's tools or jeweler's tools.

Example recipes

The following table contains a handful of example recipes. As always, the DM will listen to well-thought out arguments for why a different essence or proficiency should apply.

Item	Essences	Tool proficiency
Arcane Octo-sphere	Lawful + Earth (obsidian)	Mason's tools
Initiate's Staff	Air + Earth + Fire + Water	Woodcarver's tools
Doss Lute	Positive + Chaotic	Woodcarver's tools
Immovable Rod	Lawful + Lawful	Smith's tools
Windsilk Leathers	Air (windsilk) + Water	Leatherworker's tools
Blink Boots	Chaotic (blink dog leather) + Air	Cobbler's tools
Bracers of Defense	Earth + Lawful	Smith's tools or Jeweler's tools
Flame Tongue	Fire + Chaotic	Smith's tools
Mindsaber	Lawful + Psionic	Tinker's tools
Illusionist's Bracers	Chaotic + Lawful	Weaver's tools
Antumbra	Lawful + Positive	Glassblower's tools
Holy Avenger	Positive + Fire + Lawful (adamantite metal)	Smith's tools
Healing Potion	Positive or Water*	Herbalism kit or Alchemist's supplies
Noxious Poison	Negative or Earth*	Poisoner's kit
Dragonscale Arrow	Any (dragon scales)**	Woodcarver's tools
Potion of Heroism	Lawful	Herbalism kit or Alchemist's supplies
Potion of Resistance	Any***	Herbalism kit or Alchemist's supplies

* - the rarity of the essence determines the magnitude.

** - if you use a higher-level essence, you can probably craft more arrows in a given timeframe.

*** - the type of the essence used determines which damage type the potion provides resistance to.

Masterwork equipment

Basic +1/+2/+3 armors and weapons are not necessarily enchanted per se, instead being masterfully crafted using processes that imbue them with subtle magical strength. These items can be crafted using any two essences of the same rarity as the resulting item.

Downtime: Disenchant item

Just as magic items can be constructed from essences, so too can essences be recovered from items. This is a destructive process, but provides a way of reusing items that are less useful to the situation at hand.

Using one workweek of downtime, you can destroy a magic item, gaining an essence of its rarity. Usually, this essence has the type of one of the essences used to craft that particular item.