Fine Crafting

Finely Crafted Items

Finely crafted items provide a bonus to a single specific skill that is not a combat skill. For example, finely crafted Shoes of Dancing +1 would provide a bonus of +1 whenever the player rolls a Challenge using their Dancing skill, but they would provide no bonuses to rolls using the Distance Running skill, no bonuses to movement, or anything else. In other words, they are finely crafted Shoes of Dancing +1, not finely crafted Shoes +1.

There is no such thing as a finely crafted rope +2 that adds +2 to the Climbing skill and +2 to the Knots skill. The skill which is enhanced by the finely crafted item must be pre-defined. A finely crafted Rope of Climbing +2 is a different item from a finely crafted Rope of Knots +2. A finely crafted Rope of Climbing +2 and Knots +2 can exist - but this is a +4 item, not a +2 item (and is much more rare and expensive).

Note that finely crafted items can only provide bonuses to skills that require the active use of the item. There is no such thing as a finely crafted Rope of Dancing, or finely crafted Pants of Locksmithing, for example.

Futhermore, bonuses provided from finely crafted items do not stack - a finely crafted Rope of Climbing +3, combined with a finely crafted Harness of Climbing +2 and a finely crafted Hammer & Pitons of Climbing +2 do not provide +7 to challenges using the Climbing skill; only the item with the largest bonus is counted, in this case the Rope of Climbing +3.

Finely Crafted Weapons, Armour and Ammunition

Unlike finely crafted items, which provide a bonus directly to a specified skill, finely crafted weapons, armour or ammunition instead provide their bonuses to a specific property of the item in question.

For example, a long sword with a bonus of +3 does not grant +3 to Weapon (Long Sword) skill (and therefore +3 to all attacks and defenses), but instead it might grant +3 to Strong Attacks, while offering no bonuses to Fast Attacks, defenses or damage. A different long sword +3 might provide +1 to Fast Attacks, +1 to Fast Attack Damage, and +1 to Block versus Fast Attacks. Both are +3 long swords, but how they behave is very different.

Similar to finely crafted items, multiple bonuses to the same property coming from different items do not stack. For example, a long bow with +3 Ready Damage firing arrows with +2 Ready Damage does +3 Ready Damage, not +5.

The different types of bonuses that can be applied to the properties of weapons, armour and ammunition are as follows:

Bonuses to Melee Weapons (per level of bonus):
• Bulk: -1 to Bulk, to a minimum of 1
• Fast Attack: +1 to Fast attack and associated Effect attack
• Fast Damage: +1 to Fast attack damage
• Fast Block: +1 to Fast block
• Strong Attack: +1 to Strong attack and associated Effect attack
• Strong Damage: +1 to Strong attack damage
• Strong Block: +1 to Strong block
• Snap Block (shields): +1 to Snap block
• Ready Block (shields): +1 to Ready block

Bonuses to Ranged or Thrown Weapons or Ammo (per level of bonus):
• Bulk: -1 to Bulk, to a minimum of 1
• Snap Attack: +1 to Snap attack and associated Effect attack
• Snap Damage: +1 to Snap attack damage
• Snap Min Range: -1 Min Range, to a minimum of 1
• Snap Max Range (Thrown): +0.5x Phys, to Snap max range
• Snap Max Range (Ranged): +1x Skill, to Snap max range
• Ready Attack: +1 to Ready attack and associated Effect attack
• Ready Damage: +1 to Ready attack damage
• Ready Min Range: -1 Min Range, to a minimum of 1
• Ready Max Range (Thrown): +1x Phys, to Ready max range
• Ready Max Range (Ranged): +2x Skill, to Ready max range

Bonuses to Armour (per level of bonus):
• Bulk: -1 to Bulk, to a minimum of 1 (not usually a worthwhile investment)
• Protection: +1 Protection for each 2 full points of bonus
• Fast Dodge: +1 to Fast dodge
• Strong Dodge: +1 to Strong dodge
• Snap Dodge: +1 to Snap dodge
• Ready Dodge: +1 to Ready dodge

Finely Crafted Items versus Enchanted Items

Finely crafted items are not enchanted. While a given finely crafted item could offer the same bonuses as an enchanted item, they still remain ordinary objects, and there are several important distinctions:

Finely Crafted versus Enchanted
• Finely crafted items are susceptible to ordinary wear and tear and will require maintenance - enchanted items are immune to ordinary wear and tear
• Finely crafted items can be Decayed, enchanted items cannot
• Finely crafted items cannot have their bonuses Dispelled, enchanted items can
• Finely crafted items cannot be sensed using Magic Sense, enchanted items can
• Finely crafted items cannot have their properties Identified, enchanted items can
• Finely crafted item bonuses do not stack, enchanted item bonuses do stack
• Some creatures can only be damaged by enchanted weapons

Silvered Weapons

As noted above, some creatures can only be damaged by enchanted weapons. Blessed weapons are an exception to this, and for purposes of crafting, silvered weapons are another exception.

Silvered weapons are considered to be enchanted for the purpose of damaging any sort of creature that is otherwise immune to non-magical weapons. The alloy of steel and silver from which they are made grants this benefit, but unfortunately also limits the quality of weapons that can be made with them. Regardless of how much time or skill is leveraged to forge such weapons, the maximum possible bonus that can be crafted into a silvered weapon is +5.

The cost of any silvered weapon is two times the List Price.

Maximum Bonuses

The maximum bonus that can be crafted into an item, as well as the maximum bonus that can be crafted into a single individual property of that item, are limited by both the precise level of the relevent crafting skill as well as by the level of mastery the craftsperson has in the Skill Field.

Villages

In any given village, it is likely that a random tradesperson might have recently crafted a fine item and put it up for sale. The maximum bonus for such an object is +1. Such an object would likely have been created 'by accident' (a critical success while crafting some common object), but its existence will certainly be a point of pride for the craftsperson. The odds that such a random item would be something that players are specifically looking for would be vanishingly small.

Towns

In a town, players are likely to find many +1 items that fall into a high-demand category because they specifically support skills and trades that are important in the region. For example, a fishing town on an island might have many +1 items that support skills on the Transport - Sea skill field, such as Paddles of Boating +1, Ropes of Knots +1, or Nets of Fishing +1. It would also be more likely to find occassional items in this high-demand category with a +2 bonus. Additionally, there is the possibility of finding random +1 or +2 items outside of this high-demand category.

Minor Cities

Minor cities will tend to have multiple craftspeople covering every trade, and players should be able to find almost any specific +1 item or weapon they would like to purchase if they spend a day asking around and going from shop to shop. Additionally, +1 items in the high-demand category would be readily available, and +2 items would not be hard to find. +3 items in the high-demand category would be rare, as would random +2 and +3 items outside the category. In a minor city, it might also be possible to commission items from Master Craftspeople (with bonuses up to +3 per property, to a maximum of +5).

Major Cities

Major cities will have many craftspeople and vendors stocking items in the regional high-demand category in a range of qualities from +1 to +3, with prestigious craftspeople even stocking a few +4 items. Items outside the category will be readily available with bonuses of +1 and +2, and finding a specific +3 item might require up to a day of shopping around. Occasionally, random +4 items will be available. It is worth noting, however, that the requirement for a Grandmaster to create an item with more than a +3 bonus to a single property means that items with a pure +4 bonus will remain very rare; a Smoking Jacket of Diplomacy +4 will be far more rare than a Smoking Jacket of Carousing +2 and Diplomacy +2.

In major cities, as class divisions are expressed more strongly in the geography, it might also be the case that on certain high streets it will be hard to find items that are not finely crafted, and adventurers looking for ordinary gear might find themselves paying extra for bonuses they don't need. In a major city, it will always be possible to commission items from Master Craftspeople (with bonuses up to +3 per property, to a maximum of +5), and it may be possible to commission a Grandmaster (with bonuses up to +4 per property, to a maximum of +8).

Principal Cities

Principal cities, or capital cities are economically and industrially diverse and they are where finely crafted items are most readily available. These cities also attract the greatest craftspeople in the world (and often the workshops, schools and academies they run) and so are the best place to commission specific items of very high quality.

In a principal city, you will always be able to find essentially any item with a bonus of up to +3 and items with a bonus of +4 can generally be found if enough time is spent shopping around, especially if they are in the high-demand category. That said, because of the range of qualities and the fluidity of trade, it might be harder to find non-finely crafted items with no bonus, and it will be common to encounter vendors, dealers and resellers selling goods they claim are finely crafted, but are not (savvy buyers always buy from the craftspeople themselves, as these could be expelled from their guilds if they misrepresent their products).

In a principal city, it will always be possible - at least in theory - to commission items from Grandmaster craftspeople (with bonuses up to +4 per property, to a maximum of +8). Keep in mind that the work of such individuals is in high demand, and they have an interest in working for esteemed clients in order to build their reputation. Grandmaster craftspeople may not be interested in accepting long, high value commissions from unknown adventurers who happen to have recently come into great wealth - particularly if regional nobles of high repute are also seekign to commission their work.