Variant Rules: C
6 variant rules, from Cathartic Magic to Critical Crafting.
Cathartic Magic · Chases · Complex Crafting · Converting Magic Items · Crafting Downtime Events · Critical Crafting
Cathartic Magic
Some spellcasters draw their magic from the gods, while others shape it by precisely manipulating unseen energy. Still others fuel their magic with raw emotion: the cathartic mages. Their emotional magic is powerful, but raw and unpredictable.
Rarity: Uncommon
Catharsis, the process of purging pent-up emotions, places a cathartic mage in a heightened emotional state much like a barbarian's rage. Magical energy pours out, often manifesting in visible displays that cascade off the mage. This can even produce a faint echo of the released emotion within those nearby. Though it seems reasonable that the caster's pent-up emotion would be one that they normally repress, this is by no means required. A cathartic mage could be a generally happy and positive person who still enters an enhanced state as a magical wave of joy overwhelms them.
The magic of emotions is as difficult to master as emotions themselves. Practitioners of this art find themselves tired, unfocused, or in physical pain after tapping into their deepest feelings. It often takes time for these users to reclaim mastery of their own minds. Most cathartic mages find a mundane activity to help settle themselves, such as reading, needlepoint, or simple meditation.
Roleplaying
Using cathartic magic in your game invites heavy use of role-playing emotional states, which can be a challenge for some game tables. Players need to check with their GMs and other players to ensure these rules are appropriate for the game. Entering an emotional fervor doesn't mean anything a character does in that state is acceptable. As always, adding new rules doesn't excuse being rude to other players.
It's also important to keep the cathartic emotion from overshadowing the other parts of your character, as it works best as part of a well-rounded personality. It's a powerful emotion, though not your only emotion. This power can be a double-edged sword, but it doesn't have to be. It could be a fun quirk, a deep struggle, or a mysterious power your character wants to investigate.
Gamemastering
One of the reasons cathartic magic is uncommon has to do with the adjustments the GM must make to incorporate it in the game. Some situations that would normally be detrimental for PCs, like becoming controlled or critically failing at a roll, can be a trigger for powering up instead! Some emotions require a PC or NPC to be an emotional focus, making the ability largely useless if the PC is separated from that person.
Unplanned Catharsis
In the right circumstances, a GM might introduce cathartic magic into the game without a player pursuing it first. For example, if a mind-controlled bodyguard is ordered to slay someone they vowed to protect, the GM might decide they can take the Catharsis reaction from the Cathartic Mage Dedication. Like any reaction, it still poses a choice—the player could choose not to take it. If the player enjoys this mechanical reveal, they might even want to invest feats into the Cathartic Mage archetype.
You can find the Cathartic Mage archetype on the archetypes page.
Secrets of Magic, page 194.
Chases
When the PCs pursue a fleeing adversary or quarry—or someone chases them instead—adding twists and turns to the pursuit builds suspense and makes the outcome more uncertain than if it were based on Speed alone. The chases subsystem helps you create cinematic scenes where the PCs must quickly overcome obstacles, from following someone through a crowded market to carrying a desperately urgent message over a dangerous mountain pass.
The Core Rulebook's Speed rules work well for short sprints through fairly clear terrain. Over longer distances through more complex environments, though, the path is rarely so straightforward. The chase subsystem shifts the emphasis from raw Speed to facing down the kinds of unpredictable obstacles that characters might encounter in a longer pursuit so you can create a thrilling chase scene.
Chases are a special type of encounter. Each round, the pursued character or characters act first, then the pursuing characters act. Typically, to reduce variance, the PCs roll checks to progress while their opponents proceed at a steady pace, but if you want to emphasize the back-and-forth nature of a particular chase, you could have both sides roll instead. Characters in the same group can act in whatever order they prefer, each taking a turn. A character must act on their turn. If they pass their turn or are unable to act, they're unable to help the group and automatically cause the group to lose 1 Chase Point.
Depending on the scale of your chase, establish at the beginning how long each round lasts so the PCs understand how much they can accomplish in that time. Is it essentially a 3-action turn, or does it take minutes, hours, or days?
Obstacles
During a chase, all the characters must overcome a series of obstacles that represent challenges—from locked doors to deceptive bogs—during the different legs of the pursuit.
These obstacles aren't separated by specific distances; the distance is narrative and can vary between obstacles as needed for the story you're telling. Travel times between obstacles can vary, too. The time scale you choose determines how PCs can act when dealing with an obstacle.
Each obstacle requires a certain number of Chase Points to overcome—typically 1 per party member for a standard obstacle, though particularly challenging obstacles might require more (listed in an obstacle's Chase Points entry)
Typically, there are multiple ways to overcome an obstacle; for example, characters could evade a guard or bribe them to look away. Each approach typically requires a skill check or Perception check, but sometimes a saving throw, an attack roll, or something even more unusual, like a casting a certain spell (listed in an obstacle's Overcome entry)
On a character's turn, they describe what they do to help the group get past the obstacle. They then attempt any required roll, or perform the required action for a choice without a check. If they attempt a roll, the result determines how many Chase Points the character gains.
Critical Success The PCs gain 2 Chase Points.Success The PCs gain 1 Chase Point.Critical Failure The PCs lose 1 Chase Point.If the means of bypassing the obstacle helps automatically without requiring a check—such as using a certain spell to assist—the PCs typically get 1 Chase Point. You can increase that to 2 if you feel the action is extremely helpful.
Chase Points represent the ability of the whole group to bypass the obstacle. A character who critically succeeds is able to help the other characters continue onward, while one who critically fails needs extra assistance. Players often have ideas for ways to overcome the obstacle beyond the choices you created for the obstacle. If their idea is applicable, you'll need to determine the DC and skill or other statistic being used for that approach. This is great as long as it's creative, but be wary of a situation where a character who is legendary at a skill tries to justify how they can bypass every obstacle with that skill, such as using Acrobatics to tumble around them all, or the like. You can determine that some tactics just won't work against certain obstacles, or would help only one character without benefiting the rest and therefore aren't all that useful.
Once the PCs accumulate enough Chase Points to overcome the obstacle, they immediately move to the next. Extra Chase Points don't carry over to the next obstacle—each requires its own number of Chase Points to overcome. However, anyone who hasn't already taken their turn that round can still take it against the new obstacle. Consequently, the characters best suited to overcoming the current obstacle might act first, since the remaining characters might be better suited against the next one. The number of Chase Points the PCs have can never fall below 0.
It might help to put your obstacles in a stat block for easy reference. Inside published adventures, chase obstacles are likely to be presented in stat block form, as follows.
Chase Points 4; Overcome DC 15 Acrobatics or Athletics to weave or push through, DC 13 Society to follow the flow
Throngs of people crowd the streets, making it difficult to continue the chase.
Building a Chase
When building a chase, first build your obstacles and then decide how far ahead the pursued character or characters begin and at what pace the NPCs will move. Having the NPCs clear one obstacle per round is a good rule of thumb, but it could vary depending on the situation, and should especially be slower against obstacles that require more than 1 Chase Point per character to overcome.
Select or build obstacles highlighting a variety of different skills and other options so everyone in the party has a moment to shine. When choosing what skills can bypass a given obstacle, ensure a variety of approaches can work. If you've already decided that an obstacle uses Stealth, selecting Thievery as the other option doesn't really offer opportunities for different types of characters, since those who are good at Thievery are very likely the same ones who are good at Stealth. On the other hand, offering Athletics as an alternative gives a champion who's terrible at Stealth a way to help. The group can help cover for a character who is less capable at a particular obstacle, but it's more fun for players to present substantially different options for each obstacle.
Use the following guidelines to determine how many obstacles you need for your chase. These numbers assume that the pursued party can reach a certain location to end the chase (as described in Ending Chases). If there's no such escape, you might need more obstacles.
Short: 6 obstacles, about 10–20 minutes of game time
Medium: 8 obstacles, about 15–25 minutes of game time
Long: 10 obstacles, about 20–30 minutes of game time.
Setting Obstacle Dcs
When you set the DCs for an obstacle, you'll typically be using simple DCs. Use a proficiency rank that's generally appropriate for the PCs' level if you want the obstacle to be a significant one. As noted earlier, you'll typically want to select a couple different ways the group can get past an obstacle. At least one check should be have an easy or very easy adjustment, while the other check should have a standard or hard DC. In some cases you might use something other than a simple DC; for example, if a specific NPC has put up a magical barrier, you would use their spell DC. This might result in some pretty tough DCs or even impassable obstacles, so use this carefully! If a PC improvises a different way to get around an obstacle from what you planned, set the DC just like you would normally when picking a DC on the fly. Don't worry about adjusting the DC of the check to be easy or very easy, because the PC is likely to be good at the skill they've chosen to use.
Shortcuts and Split Paths
You might want to build a chase with multiple paths that split and rejoin so you can have a shortcut (with easier DCs or fewer obstacles) or paths that appeal to different types of characters. For instance, one obstacle might allow a PC who critically succeeds at a Perception check to find a faster path along a canal, without the obstacles of a busy street. This can be fun, but can also split up the group. Familiarize yourself with the Solo Chases sidebar above to make similar adjustments for a divided group.
Sometimes circumstances might require you to run a chase where the PCs are each progressing individually, rather than as a group, such as if they get split up. The danger therein is that a player can easily become frustrated if their character is stuck at an obstacle where it's extremely difficult to succeed at either choice, and no allies can help them. In these chases, it's best to allow even a single success be enough for a character to progress to the next obstacle, and have a critical success give the character a +2 circumstance bonus on their first check against the next obstacle.
Ending Chases
Once you have the obstacles, decide the end conditions.
Chases often end when the pursuer reaches the same obstacle as the pursued, leading to a combat encounter or other scene. However, it's less clear when to end a chase otherwise. It's typically best to have an obstacle that ends the chase with the pursued character getting away, as long as they overcome the obstacle before being captured. This is usually better than ending the chase after a certain number of rounds, because reaching a hideaway makes more narrative sense and because you might not be able to predict how far the pursued characters move in those rounds, making you run out of obstacles. You can also end the chase in favor of the pursued characters if they ever get a certain number of obstacles ahead of the pursuers (typically three), as the pursuers simply lose the trail. You should still have an end point to the chase, though, in case that never happens.
Types of Chases
- Chase Down: The PCs pursue adversaries. The PCs go second in initiative since they're the pursuers. Start the enemies one obstacle ahead of the PCs (or at the same location for a short chase), and end the chase if the PCs catch up to the enemies, or if the enemies reach a certain location that represents their safety or escape.
- Run Away: The PCs attempt to escape. They'll go first in initiative since they're being pursued. It's usually best to start them one obstacle ahead of their foes and end the chase if they reach a certain location or are three obstacles ahead of their foes at the end of a round.
- Beat the Clock: The PCs try to get through all the obstacles before a certain number of rounds passes, such as if the PCs are trying to outrun a natural disaster or race in a timed challenge. The number of obstacles should usually be equal to the number of rounds.
- Competitive Chase: The PCs and their adversaries are both chasing the same thing or trying to reach the same location, and whoever gets there first wins. This works like chase down, except that either party could win. Because there is more than one set of pursuers, you might have the PCs and their competitors roll initiative to see who goes first each round (while still moving all NPCs at a steady rate.)
Running a Chase
When running a chase, narrate the scene and give vivid descriptions of the obstacles the PCs face, rather than just reading off a list of skills and immediately having the players start rolling dice and making checks. A chase is a framework for roleplaying, not just a dice game. Encourage the PCs to describe what they're doing, and how they're helping their comrades overcome each obstacle.
Typically, it's best to tell the players the DCs of the default options, so they can make informed decisions. At the least, you should indicate the relative difficulty of the clear paths. The PCs are adventurers, so they're experienced at assessing which path is going to be easier or harder.
Try to make it feel like the PCs are really part of a chase scene, like in a movie. As each side makes progress, describe how they pull ahead or close the gap. PCs far from their foes might hear shouts in the distance. As they get closer, they catch glimpses, and then finally see their quarry in full view once they're on the enemies' heels. Think about how the events of the chase affect the environment, as well. For instance, if a kaiju is chasing after the PCs, after the PCs overcome an obstacle consisting of a thick copse of trees, you could describe how the kaiju flattens the trees beneath its feet as it stomps after them.
Visual Aids
It can help your players visualize the chase to use a series of cards or a rough map (such as a large-scale city map rather than a 5-foot grid) to show locations. Use one miniature or token to represent each side of the chase. You might place cards with obstacle names on them face down, revealing them as PCs reach them, and letting a PC peek at an upcoming card if they scout it from a distance.
If the Pcs Get Stuck
Sometimes despite their best efforts, an obstacle will stymie the PCs over and over again. In most cases, after 3 rounds of the PCs struggling with an obstacle that requires the standard number of Chase Points, it's a good idea to just say they found another way around it. If the obstacle requires more or fewer Chase Points, you can change the number of rounds before letting them get past it. If presenting another way around the obstacle just doesn't make sense, such as if a spherical barrier completely blocks the PCs, you might introduce an NPC or other outside force that can help them bypass it, but at a high cost.
Sample Obstacles
You can use the following obstacles in your chases, which are organized by environment. The name is followed by the level of group they're best suited for, and many include both a basic version for lower levels and a higher-level version.
Gamemastery Guide, page 156.
Complex Crafting
The Craft action as presented in the Core Rulebook works at a simple rate: you can Craft any item, regardless of the item level, in exactly 4 days, spending additional time for a discount on the item's final cost. While easy to implement at the table, this system focuses on simplicity and leaves some avenues unexplored. For example, items of the highest possible level (your own level) provide you far more value for those 4 days than lower-level items. In addition, the system provides few options for players to attempt to craft an item quickly, even if doing so comes with risk of failure. This complex crafting variant is suitable for groups who view crafting items as a central part of their play experience. For most groups, the simpler crafting system is probably sufficient to complete the occasional item.
This variant adds a choice to the system of crafting, allowing characters to decide how they want to approach a job, taking a slow and methodical approach or rushing the process and risking loss of material or even the creation of a cursed item! This system also incorporates changes in time based on the item's level and whether it's a consumable item or a permanent item.
To begin, you must meet all of the requirements listed in the Craft action of the Crafting skill. At the start of the process, you must determine the setup time based on the type of item and its level compared to yours, then decide on your approach to the job, which is limited by your proficiency. The GM determines the base DC as normal based on the item's level, rarity, and other circumstances.
To determine setup time, check the item's level and whether it's a consumable or permanent item. Compare the item's level to your own and look for the number of days on Table 5–1. This setup time is the base number of days it takes to create the item. If you decide to take the slow and methodical approach, you spend that number of days, and then attempt the Crafting check to determine your success (see Finishing the Item).
You can instead rush the process, taking days off the time needed to setup the item while introducing a greater risk of failure. If you're at least an Expert in Crafting, you can reduce the setup time by 1 day by increasing the DC by 5. If you're at least a Master in Crafting, you can reduce the setup time by 2 days by increasing the DC by 10. If you're Legendary in Crafting, you can reduce the setup time by 3 days by increasing the DC by 15. If you're crafting a consumable, and this reduction would bring the number of days to 0 or less, the crafting time is instead reduced to 4 hours.
Finishing the Item
After the setup time is complete, you must attempt a Crafting check to determine the overall success of your creation. If your check is a success, you expend the raw materials and can complete the item immediately by paying the remaining portion of the item's Price in materials. Alternatively, you can spend additional downtime days working on the item.
For each additional day you spend, reduce the value of the materials you need to expend to complete the item. This value reduction is determined using Table 4–2: Income Earned, based on your proficiency rank in Crafting and using your own level instead of a task level. After any of these downtime days, you can complete the item by spending the remaining portion of its Price in materials. If the time is interrupted, you can return to finish the item later, continuing where you left off.
You can decide to speed up this process as well. If you are at least an Expert in Crafting, you can rush the finishing process, reducing the value of the materials you must expend to complete the item by twice the amount listed in Table 4–2: Income Earned on page 236 of the Core Rulebook. Doing so comes at a risk; at the end of the creation process, once the item is finished, you must attempt a flat check. The DC of this flat check is equal to 10 + the item's level – your Crafting proficiency bonus. If the check is a success or critical success, the item is complete and works perfectly. If the check is a failure, the item is still completed, but it gains a . If the check is a critical failure, the item is ruined or might become a cursed item attached to you (GM's discretion).
Crafting Items with Adjustments
Adjustments are item modifications that can provide specific special abilities to a particular type of equipment. Instead of crafting adjustments separately from a suit of armor, you can simply craft the armor with the adjustment already in place by adding the price of the adjustment to the total crafting cost of the base armor and calculating the rest of the crafting process as normal.
Skill Feats
When using this variant, consider allowing the following skill feat to enable characters to Craft exceptionally low-level items even more quickly. This skill feat is listed as rare and is never available to a character except when using this variant. This rapid form of crafting could cause your players to end up with higher treasure values or more items than an adventure expects them to have, so be careful about allowing this feat in campaigns that already provide significant amounts of downtime.
Treasure Vault, page 158.
Converting Magic Items
Many magic items found by higher-level characters never see play, destined instead to live at the bottom of a backpack, forgotten and unused. Others are quickly sold to fund the purchase of a more appropriate item. Others still are so irredeemably evil that selling them is an unconscionable act, and the item ends up being destroyed. All of these situations can make it difficult for the GM to properly calculate and balance the party's wealth, which can lead to imbalanced encounters and other problems at the table.
This variant simplifies the problem by giving the players another option for items that they don't intend to use, allowing them to break an item down and recycle its parts for the creation of another item.
When breaking down an item, you have a choice on how to proceed. You can immediately use the components to create an item with a similar theme to the one that you deconstructed, or you can save the components for use in any one item created later. If you create a similar item, such as deconstructing a magic weapon in order to create a different but similar type of magic weapon, you can harvest more of the components and residual magic for the new item, giving you more in return than you might otherwise get by simply harvesting the best parts of an item.
The GM determines whether the new item is similar enough to warrant this benefit, but the new item should be similar either in ability or in general theme. For example, deconstructing a cloak of the bat to create winged boots certainly qualifies, as does deconstructing a ring of climbing to create slippers of spider climb. Items of the same general type might qualify, but only if their abilities are thematically similar.
Generic components can be saved for later, but they can't be combined with other components from another deconstructed item. If excess value remains after making a new item, that value is lost, as the remaining parts are just the leftover bits, with the best parts being used for the new creation. The deconstructed item has the same Bulk as the original. GMs might want to put an expiration date on deconstructed items to prevent too many of them from piling up in character inventories, but unless players are breaking down items all the time, it shouldn't be a problem.
Treasure Vault, page 162.
Complex Crafting
Plenty of things can happen during downtime that might derail your efforts or complicate your plans. When crafting, it might be easy enough to put down the creation and deal with a problem, but sometimes these events can threaten the project itself. The Gamemastery Guide provides three examples of downtime events related to crafting: a delayed shipment of materials, a superlative work drawing attention from collectors, or the discovery of a new and efficient crafting technique. Even adding these to the events around earning income (which are generally applicable), a group that spends a great deal of time crafting might find these to be repetitive. The following downtime events are tied directly to the crafting process and should be used to supplement those found on page 25 of the Gamemastery Guide.
Annoying Interloper: Whether it's a nosy relative, gossipy friend, finicky safety inspector, or any other sort of guest, the crafter's workshop has attracted the attention of an annoying interloper. It's someone the crafter can't just kick out unceremoniously, either. The situation might require roleplaying, as well as Diplomacy, Intimidation, or other skills, before the crafter can get back to work.
Banned Ingredient: The crafter realizes that one of the ingredients they need for the items they're crafting is banned or heavily restricted in the local area. If they've already crafted the same item here without a problem before, maybe it's a new ban or they had to refill their stores of a tricky ingredient—or you can just reroll this event and save it for when they build something new. To deal with the banned ingredient, the crafter might have to engage in shady dealings on the black market, lobby for the ingredient's ban to be lifted (especially if the ban is suspicious or prevents the general public from crafting an important item like healing potions), travel abroad where the restriction doesn't exist, or try to devise a substitution.
Delicate Components: Whether it's just the nature of one or more components that make up this item, or the crafter just received a fragile batch, the components the crafter is dealing with are incredibly delicate. The crafter might need to use Thievery (or find someone who can) to handle the sensitive components gently, or else find some way to reinforce the ingredient or the equipment in which it is stored for later use.
Formula Contradiction: The crafter runs into an issue in their formula book. The formula includes two (or more) contradictory instructions, and as a result, they must pause their work while they try to figure out the contradiction. Which one is correct? Is neither right? Are they both functional and the crafter must refine their understanding of the process? This event might involve research or dangerous experimentation.
Infestation:: Some sort of infestation of vermin, spores, or other troublesome contaminants threatens the crafting project and perhaps other portions of the crafter's workshop. On top of protecting their in-process project from being damaged by the infestation, they'll eventually also need to find the infestation's source and put a stop to it. Was it a coincidence, or did someone use mundane or magical means to bring it here on purpose?
Instability Within: The magic or mechanics inside the item have grown increasingly powerful and unstable, and the crafter isn't sure why. The cause could be a simple mistake, an instability in the crafter's own magic, or even just a coincidence. Whatever the case, the crafter must investigate the source of the instability to fix and, potentially, take advantage of it.
Mutation:: The item has undergone a mutation and is now on its way to becoming a different item—maybe even an item of a higher level than the crafter can normally craft or that is uncommon, rare, intelligent, or otherwise outside of the crafter's normal ability to create. Be very careful when choosing this as an event; ideally, you as the GM want the mutated item to be something you specifically chose to be interesting, rather than an item at random, since presumably the crafter was choosing to create the best item they could think of. That said, the crafter can either find a way to halt the mutation process or lean into it and see what the item becomes!
Name Dependence: The item's progress is stalled due to the fact that its magic requires it to gain a name—and not just any random nickname that pops into the crafter's head! The crafter must engage in serious contemplation to select a name that suits the item, as it will be attached to it forevermore. Once chosen, if the item accepts the name, the crafting process can continue. The choice of the name might have other implications as well; for instance, if the item has a command activation, it might require shouting the item's name.
Natural Disaster: A huge natural disaster is about to hit the workshop. Whether it's a tsunami, a tornado, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or something else, it represents a huge danger to the crafting process, and potentially the crafter's life. On the other hand, it could also be an opportunity to harness the power of the natural disaster into the item! Consider allowing the crafter to attempt a Recall Knowledge check to remember some formulas that discuss special benefits for harnessing a disaster and offer them a reward (extra progress on the item, an improved item, or something else) to tempt them into staying in the path of danger.
Otherworldly Interference: Be they deities, celestials, fiends, monitors, or other extraplanar entities, Falavririak is full of a surprising number of beings from other worlds that attempt to sow mischief, cause mayhem, or offer assistance to its inhabitants. The crafter is one such lucky or unlucky mortal who now has to deal with this otherworldly interference. Even if the otherworldly creature is trying to help, it might not understand mortals well enough to do so effectively. This could possibly create even more trouble than an entity who was trying to sabotage the process, since a crafter can at least root out such a perpetrator and stop them decisively.
Overwhelming Energy: There's just too much magical or mechanical energy building up in the item. That could be a good thing, as it could eventually grant the item more power or provide additional progress, but it's also extremely dangerous, as the energy threatens to overload and cause the item to explode, wasting the crafter's initial investment. They'll have to carefully figure out a way to use the energy (or at least discharge it harmlessly) to protect the item.
Planar Convergence: Many planes of existence overlap with the Material Plane at certain points. Sometimes, those points drift as the planes move and shift, leading to planar convergences where the veil between two planes draws especially thin. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for the crafter, one such planar convergence passes over their workshop. If they're crafting a related item, they might be able to take advantage of the convergence, but otherwise, they'll need to insulate the item from the convergence or pack up and move far enough away to avoid it. Leaching out the energy from the convergence might even require them to find a location with a convergence to an opposing plane.
Resonant Magic: When multiple sources of magic cluster together, for good or ill, magical resonance builds up between them. The crafting process is interrupted by magical resonances in the workshop between the in-process item and other magic items or spells. The crafter can try to clear out or rearrange the sources of magic that led to the resonance, or they can explore the resonance to try to unlock a new power in the item that only appears when the item is affected by the other items or spells that caused the resonance; in this case, consider using the rules for item sets on page 200 or something similar.
Spirit Magnet: The item has become a magnet for minor disembodied beings, either spirits (beings formed of spiritual essence) or vitae (beings formed of nature's life force, sometimes called "spirits of nature"). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's certainly distracting, as the spirits interfere with the work and might wind up possessing or otherwise merging with the item. The crafter needs to find a way to communicate with the spirits and warn them off or work with them to make the item an even better conductor for spirits. In the worst case this could ruin the item's creation, but in the best case, the spirits could grant the item special powers or intelligence.
Suspicious Offer: A questionable figure offers the crafter special ingredients or techniques that supposedly will shave time off the item's crafting process while providing a steep discount on the necessary materials. But something about the offer—no, maybe everything about it—seems too good to be true. The crafter might dismiss or accept the offer outright, but they also might try to determine the truth of the figure's claims, either by understanding their motives or performing a test. Either way, if the crafter decides to use the mysterious figure's offer, you can decide what sorts of effects it might have. Who knows? Maybe it was genuine.
Technical Challenge: An unusual interaction during the item's creation provides a significant technical challenge. The crafter will have to pause and determine how to proceed before continuing. There might be several possible approaches to the problem, each with different benefits or drawbacks.
Unexpected Flaw: Something within the item isn't functioning properly, and the crafter needs to first figure out what went wrong and why. Were some of the components faulty? Did someone tamper with the item? Did the crafter make a small error that cascaded? Once they can hunt down the flaw and figure out how to prevent it in the future, they need to determine the most expedient way to fix it and bring the item back on track.
Treasure Vault, page 158.
Critical Crafting
The critical success and failure effects of the Craft activity are safe, reasonable effects that are appropriate any time a character wants to Craft: on a critical success, they make more money per day Crafting, and on a critical failure, they ruin 10% of the item's raw materials. However, these monetary rewards and penalties are not the only potential outcomes of crafting criticals. With this variant, you can consider rarely handing out custom critical success rewards and critical failure penalties appropriate for the situation. However, you won't want to do this too often, especially since a high-level crafter who makes a lot of low-level items will critically succeed with some frequency. If crafting is a big part of your game, consider limiting the special effects to natural 20s and 1s, and even then, only when a special item is being created.
Most often, the special critical success or failure effect will be something distinctive and appropriate to the exact situation in your campaign. For instance, if a PC Crafts a commissioned sword for a prideful ruler obsessed with their heroic ancestor, perhaps on a critical success the item manages to call forth the spirit of the ancestor, who nods gravely while acknowledging the sword. On a critical failure, the PC finishes the sword but accidentally includes a part of the heraldry of the traitorous noble family that murdered the ancestor, enraging the monarch. As you can see from this example, the critical failure effects sometimes tend towards possibilities where the item is still created despite failure, but its completion creates a serious problem that must be resolved. When using this system, consider rolling the checks to Craft the item in secret to prevent a player's knowledge from influencing their decisions.
While it's usually best to invent your own special critical success or failure effects, here are a few examples of possibilities that can be used in a variety of circumstances.
Critical Success
- The crafter's dazzling success and passion imbue a fragment of their self into the item, causing it to become an intelligent item.
- If the crafter was creating a max-level item, they can pay more to create an item above their level that they normally couldn't Craft. For instance, while trying to Craft a wand of fireball (a 7th-level item), a 7th-level wizard might be able to create a wand of 4th-level fireball (a 9th-level item).
- The item has a minor beneficial special ability beyond other items of its type. This can be whatever you choose, but it's usually another minor activation with a daily frequency. The benefit should be better than a quirk (as quirks are meant to be neutral).
- The item is so well made that it's nearly impossible to damage, doubling its Hardness or greatly increasing its total Hit Points. The item might also be resistant to grime, tarnishing, or other cosmetic changes.
- The item is so beautifully made that it grants a bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidation checks when displayed or used as part of the check. Alternatively, it could be worth more than usual just as an art object.
- The item is so finely crafted that it distracts the attention of opponents when used in battle, granting a bonus to checks made to Feint or Create a Diversion when used as part of the check.
- The crafter is in tune with the object, its powers, and its potentials, turning it into a relic. In addition to its base abilities, the crafter can designate other abilities that the object develops over time.
Critical Failure
- The crafter Crafts the item, but the item is secretly cursed.
- The crafter Crafts the item, but the item permanently drains a portion of the crafter's life force and resists attempts at destroying it, permanently reducing the crafter's Hit Points until they complete a quest to destroy the item once and for all.
- The creation process explodes or otherwise exposes the crafter to significant harm with a long-term effect that demands interesting interplay to remove. There's little point in dealing Hit Point damage during downtime, as it's usually trivial to restore it before adventuring.
- The Crafting process is so flawed that it draws a malevolent intelligence that chooses to complete the item and inhabit it. The intelligence of the item is opposed to the crafter and attempts to secretly thwart them at every turn.
- The item appears perfectly normal and fully functional, but when someone attempts to use it for its intended purpose, it fails. For example, armor might fall off, weapons might break, or a wand might simply emit an acrid, burning odor instead of the desired spell.
- The crafter is cursed by their own failure and takes a penalty to all future Crafting checks until they get a critical success or a casting of remove curse to end the effect.
- The Crafting goes so poorly that it pollutes the nearby environment. This might mean that the workshop needs extensive cleaning to be usable again, or it could be much worse, polluting the local water supply and making those who live nearby seriously ill.
Treasure Vault, page 161.