Making items made easy

When third edition came out for Dungeons and Dragons, I remember my players started making their own magic items and mundane items almost right away. As the game aged and players started looking to min max everything, craft was one of the first skills dropped in favor of advancing others like spot or diplomacy. Well last night I was thinking in my Pathfinder game, I may allow players to craft items without burning those ever so important skill points on the craft skill.

If you look at the D20 SRD for 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons the fighter has the following weapon and armor proficiency already:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency (3.5 SRD)
A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).

It is similar for the Pathfinder game:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency (Pathfinder SRD)
A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields).

I was just thinking about my time in the military and how important it was for my to understand the weapons I used and how to keep them operational. Now swords and shields and armor are fairly simple weapons compared to scud missiles, but they still required expertise to create. A fighter in an RPG game is already a hero among the masses so why can’t that hero make his own weapon?

My solution is that anything a character is proficient with is also something he can make without having ranks in the Skill, this way he can use those precious skill points for something like swim or something cross class. If he really wants to be great at it, he can spend ranks get even better.

In my home game, a Pathfinder fighter can make all simple and martial weapons and all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields). His skill check is based on his class level. If he has multiple classes, the effect does not stack, but if one class is higher than the other and they both offer the same proficiency, say in light armor, the higher level would be used to determine success. If a player really wants to, they can still take ranks in craft, but would have to specify specifically what specialty, “craft light armor” and this would stack as would any feat that improves a skill.

A 1st level fighter with an intelligence of 10 (+0) would have +4 to make light armor (3 for proficiency +1 for his level and +0 for intelligence). A 5th level fighter with an intelligence of 10 (+0) would have +8 to make light armor (3 for proficiency +5 for his level and +0 for intelligence). 5th level fighter with two ranks in Craft Armor with an intelligence of 10 (+0) would have +10 to make light armor (3 for proficiency +1 for his level and +0 for intelligence and +2 for ranks).

I explain it like this, because making mundane equipment is cheaper than buying, at least in my home game, and in some of my games, the players start with virtually no money and have to be really creative to survive. Games in the City of Alidor are like this, players start with copper pieces equivalent of starting cash. In other games, players may loose gear and I always like to have an option available when times get tough.

I see this as way to use the craft skill more efficiently within the game. Some players like to do everything others not so much. With this house rule I can let players decide more efficiently what to do with those limited skill points each level…

Plus I want to see my players make stuff, I think this is incentive enough.

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