Troll's Crafting Slaves Party

So I decided to play TOEE again after a long break and wanted to do something new.

One of my annoyances from previous parties was that the crafters got behind the other characters in terms of XP. So this time I fixed that by making everyone a crafter. At level three, I had:

Cleric of Fharlanghn (3) - for Longstrider and 3 rounds of special Freedom of Movement ability
Cleric of Fharlanghn (3) - ditto
Cleric of Heironeous (3) - for Holy and Axiomatic crafting
Druid (3) - Barkskin, wands of longstrider and impressive crafting versatility
Wizard (3) - All the normal wizard stuff

They all took Craft Wondrous Item at Level 3, which gave me complete ability to equalize XP from there on out and also made gold a non-issue given that I made money every time I equalized XPs.

One longstriding cleric took rogue (to become spokesman) and fighter with the fighter outstripping once rogue was within 1 of the cleric in order to avoid XP penalty.

The other just went fighter and became my ranseur master with reach and tripping ability. While he was effective with enlarge person and reach, I had done that before and started thinking about whether there was anything more that could be done in the way of ridiculous reach.

So I started thinking about the Oohlgrist and Scorpp. Comparing their stats in the handy-dandy walkthrough, I decided on Oohlgrist. The physical stats are a toss up: Oohlgrist has better Str, Dex, and Con, though Scorpp has better natural armor and much better feats. Both can wield a glaive one handed with a tower shield in the other hand. The deal breaker though is that Scorpp attacks you whenever you remove him from your party. Oohlgrist stands quietly while you speak to whatever NPC you want and you can grab him back as long as you do so before leaving the map.

Getting him from large to huge was another challenge. Enlarge person doesn't work because he isn't a person. Righteous Might does, but it is a personal spell and Oohlgrist can't take cleric or druid levels. Solution? Oohlgrist becomes a barbarian/rogue and gets ranks of UMD. When the cleric hits 9th, he takes scribe scroll and scribes righteous might scrolls that Oohlgrist then reads thanks to a +6 charisma cloak and a +6 wisdom amulet. With his crafted mithral plate, glaive, and various wondrous items, Oohlgrist just looks awesome when he achieves self-realization as a huge troll.

And that is how the rest of the party became crafting slaves for a troll. Most fun I have had with this game in years.

 

Another way to equalize the XP is to never craft at all.

I've played numerous times and never crafted anything, never made a potion, and never made a scroll.

 

That works too.

 

I've been playing DnD since 2nd ed and I still don't agree with crafting stealing xp from the crafter, if anything the crafter would learn from creating magic things. I always return the xp to the crafter via the console.

 

That's another way to keep the XP equalized. I think I may do it this way.

I've not played DnD in years. I think shortly after 3.5 Ed was released was my last game before our group broke up because the DM moved out of state.

So I've not played 4th Ed and the 5th Ed at all. And I've not even looked that the rules/books, so in the latest edition is the crafting rules basically the same in that it costs XP?

 

In Pathfinder, it's just money and time.

 

From a quick look at the DMG of D&D v5, characters crafting items takes up a single column of space. The only costs seem to be gold and time. The default seems to be no crafting by PCs, but it is left up to the DM whether to allow it. I have never played or even read much of the v5 rules, so I might be missing information.

I would think in ToEE and 3rd edition generally, spending XP would be a balance issue. Of course, in the ToEE computer game, balance can be completely controlled by the player.

 

In ealier versions of D&D crafting permanent magic items did cost the crafter 1 point of Constitution, for every permanent magic item, for placing part of his power into the item he created. Without those regulating mechanics the world would overflow with an abundance of magic items and lowmagic or scarce magic settings (e.g. the Birthright setting) could not exist.

And even more important: if a magic user could create magic items without a cost in power the incentive to hunt after valuable magic items would be gone. No more "you have heard of a before unknown bandit rising to power quickly in a band of robbers due to the power of his magic sword" as an exciting way to gain a magic sword, but a calculation "sounds like sword +1, we still have enough gold to craft one so let’s ignore that sidequest".

 

Not necessarily. Gold pieces aren't a fiat currency, and the amount of treasure is just as controlled by the DM as XP.

 

As soon as crafting magical items costs only gold, gold stops being a limitation. Crafting costs only half the normal price of a magic item to produce (at least in 3E it was so), so by spending gold on crafting you essentially have an unlimited amount of gold available as you double your investment every time. That is unless the DM produces new problems like an economy that can’t buy all those magic items. Easier and much more sensible is to limit the creation of those permanent magical items before they are produced by a mechanic that costs the crafter something of himself (-1 CON or -XP).

 

I like to use a combination of 1st,2nd, and 3.5 rules. Basically, to craft /enchant an item you need a Lab/Library/Research facility(which cost MONEY) and the one thing most overlooked---TIME. Anything more then a few Potions/Scrolls/simple(common)Wands result in the Crafter retiring from adventuring.

 

Economies that can't spend an infinite amount of money aren't new. Lots of items in the rule books (and real life) have at least 100% mark ups. And those already in the business may not like competition.

 

Unfortunately the above isn't true if the crafter or his/her friend has an Appraise Skill of 19 or more. With such a high score you can buy from and sell to the appropriate trader at prices just higher and just lower than (respectively) the recommended price.

The full price is the price traders sell to PCs with no ranks in Appraise

The crafting cost is half the recommended price and this would be the price the appropriate trader would pay to a PC with no Appraise Skill