Crafting Magical Items

Crafting a magic item is a downtime project. It takes skill with the right tools, a knowledge of magic, costly materials and, in Geminaea, a steady hand with raw Aethyr. Ordinary items follow the crafting rules instead.

Some kinds of item have their own rules: runes and infusions under Enchanting, potions and elixirs under Alchemy, and spell scrolls under Spellcrafting. Magical Item Archetypes can help decide what an item does and how rare it is.

Crafting in Geminaea

These rules adjust the SRD rules below for Geminaea.

Lyrium. Lyrium, the solid crystal form of Aethyr, is what crafters use to make magical artifacts and lay enchantments. Most of an item’s raw materials are Lyrium, usually ground to powder, along with whatever rare components the item’s magic calls for. Like any material Aethyr, Lyrium that is agitated, ignited or struck can surge.
Tools. Geminaea’s tools stand in for the SRD’s, as the table below shows. An Aethyr focus is made with Aethyrcrafting Tools.
The enchanting check. On the last day of work, the crafter makes an enchanting check to bind the magic. On a success the item is finished. On a failure the item isn’t finished yet, and the crafter must spend another quarter of the crafting time before trying again. Failing by 5 or more also wastes half the raw materials and calls for a surge check with a Surge Charge equal to the item’s spell level.
Faster crafting. The Magic Item Adept feature cuts the time to a quarter and the cost to half for common and uncommon items.
Values. The table’s cost is what the materials cost the crafter. What a finished item sells for is its value in the Magic Item Compendium.

From the SRD 5.2.1: crafting magic items

To create magic items other than Potions of Healing and Spell Scrolls, follow the rules below. In these rules, “you” refers to the character crafting the magic item.

Arcana Proficiency

To craft a magic item, you and any assistants must have proficiency in the Arcana skill.

Tools

The Magic Item Tools table lists which tool is required to make a magic item of each category. You must use the required tool to make an item and have proficiency with that tool. Any assistants must also have proficiency with it. For more information on the tools, see Crafts.

Item Category	Required Tool
Armor	Leatherworker Tools, Smithing Tools, or Weaving Tools depending on the kind of armor
Potion	Alchemist Tools
Ring	Jeweler Tools
Rod	Carpentry Tools
Scroll	Calligraphy Tools
Staff	Carpentry Tools
Wand	Carpentry Tools
Weapon	Leatherworker Tools, Smithing Tools, or Carpentry Tools depending on the kind of weapon
Wondrous Item	Tinkering Tools or the tool required to make the nonmagical item on which the magic item is based

Spells

If a magic item allows its user to cast any spells from it, you must have all those spells prepared every day you spend crafting the item.

Time and Cost

Crafting a magic item takes an amount of time and money based on the item’s rarity as shown in the Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost table.

Work per Day. For each day of crafting, you must work for 8 hours. If an item requires multiple days, those days needn’t be consecutive.

Assistants. Characters can combine their efforts to shorten the crafting time. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. Normally, only one other character can assist you, but the GM might allow more assistants.

Raw Materials. The cost in the table represents the raw materials needed to make a magic item. The GM determines whether appropriate raw materials are available. In a city, there is a 75 percent chance that the materials are available, and in any other settlement, that chance is 25 percent. If materials aren’t available, you must wait at least 7 days before checking on the availability again.

If a magic item incorporates an item that has a purchase cost (such as a weapon or a suit of armor), you must also pay that entire cost or craft that item using the rules in Crafts.

Item Rarity	Time*	Cost*
Common	5 days	50 gp
Uncommon	10 days	200 gp
Rare	50 days	2,000 gp
Very Rare	125 days	20,000 gp
Legendary	250 days	100,000 gp

*The time and cost are halved for a consumable item other than a Spell Scroll, whose crafting time and cost are given under Spellcrafting.