Crafting Update!
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:00 am
This isn't quite in-game yet; the DM team is in the process of doing a bit of playtesting and dealing with the loot tables to bring this in-game. But I felt it was time to give more than nebulous hints of what's to come...
This update is to the crafting system only, for armor and weapons. There will be no changes to existing enchantments, nor does this include the alchemy and trap crafting updates Agony Aunt is working on.
The update will introduce many new materials, none of which will be for sale by merchants (at least at the start). Instead, ingots of these materials will appear as rare drops in the medium- and high-level adventuring areas. The recipes, however, will all be for sale at the Foundry when this goes live. So you can have your recipe ready and know what's required for that special project... but you'll have to either find or barter with other players to get the material to craft.
Another new feature will be the introduction of the SoZ-style recipe books. Unlike SoZ, however, these books will allow for recipes to be moved in and out of them, allowing for organization however the player wants it. What makes these books better than the current system, however, is that recipes can be used directly from the books, rather than needing to pull out the recipe, use it, then put it back. There will be special books for armor crafting, weapon crafting, enchantment, alchemy, and wondrous items. Note, however, that only that particular type of recipe will be able to be placed in each book.
One other change is that crafting these new materials will cost jink. Not a lot, but not an insignificant amount either. This is considered the cost for special equipment needed to perform the crafting, ranging from 1500 to 6000, depending upon the material being crafted.
The new materials will all offer abilities not currently available through the enchantment system; however, all will only have a single slot taken up by the ability, so an additional two enchantments to any of these special materials is possible. On the side of weapons, some will be considered (for game rules) to be equivalent to alchemic silver, cold iron, mithral, and adamantine (and yes, plans are in the work to have creatures with DR that it will require Mithral to bypass).
One final change is that more than simply crafting skill will be necessary to work these materials. Skill Focus in Craft Weapon and Craft Armor are a must for the aspiring planar crafter, while certain materials also require ranks in Lore or Craft Alchemy, and others require additional components.
Many of the materials have names you will know of in canon; however, they are all significantly better than their rulebook counterparts, namely because most special materials in the rulebooks either have something lame (oooh, it's naturally masterwork or does one point of damage!) or things unimplementable under NWN2 rules (if it's sundered, it can be put back together!). All material properties are on a par with upper-tier enchantments (such as +5 or 1d6 damage). However, I'm not going to list the properties here, or have the recipe more than hint at what those properties are. Don't want to spoil the surprise for the first person to craft them, after all!
New weapon materials include Abyssal Bloodiron, Dragonbone, Meteoric Iron, Solanian Truesteel (far superior to the truesteel sold by Jezebel), Axiomatic Brass, Pandmonic Silver, Gehennan Morguth-Iron, Byeshk, Blood Glass, Tantulhor, Formic Amber, Regulan Gearsprings, and Neumannic Flywheels.
New armor materials include Twelvetrees Bark, Arboreal Oak, Mindsilver, Dragonhide, Demonscale, Devilscale, Celestial Plumage, Glassteel, Alchemic Platinum, Riverine, Oerthblood, Aurorum, and Ophidian Hide.
This update is to the crafting system only, for armor and weapons. There will be no changes to existing enchantments, nor does this include the alchemy and trap crafting updates Agony Aunt is working on.
The update will introduce many new materials, none of which will be for sale by merchants (at least at the start). Instead, ingots of these materials will appear as rare drops in the medium- and high-level adventuring areas. The recipes, however, will all be for sale at the Foundry when this goes live. So you can have your recipe ready and know what's required for that special project... but you'll have to either find or barter with other players to get the material to craft.
Another new feature will be the introduction of the SoZ-style recipe books. Unlike SoZ, however, these books will allow for recipes to be moved in and out of them, allowing for organization however the player wants it. What makes these books better than the current system, however, is that recipes can be used directly from the books, rather than needing to pull out the recipe, use it, then put it back. There will be special books for armor crafting, weapon crafting, enchantment, alchemy, and wondrous items. Note, however, that only that particular type of recipe will be able to be placed in each book.
One other change is that crafting these new materials will cost jink. Not a lot, but not an insignificant amount either. This is considered the cost for special equipment needed to perform the crafting, ranging from 1500 to 6000, depending upon the material being crafted.
The new materials will all offer abilities not currently available through the enchantment system; however, all will only have a single slot taken up by the ability, so an additional two enchantments to any of these special materials is possible. On the side of weapons, some will be considered (for game rules) to be equivalent to alchemic silver, cold iron, mithral, and adamantine (and yes, plans are in the work to have creatures with DR that it will require Mithral to bypass).
One final change is that more than simply crafting skill will be necessary to work these materials. Skill Focus in Craft Weapon and Craft Armor are a must for the aspiring planar crafter, while certain materials also require ranks in Lore or Craft Alchemy, and others require additional components.
Many of the materials have names you will know of in canon; however, they are all significantly better than their rulebook counterparts, namely because most special materials in the rulebooks either have something lame (oooh, it's naturally masterwork or does one point of damage!) or things unimplementable under NWN2 rules (if it's sundered, it can be put back together!). All material properties are on a par with upper-tier enchantments (such as +5 or 1d6 damage). However, I'm not going to list the properties here, or have the recipe more than hint at what those properties are. Don't want to spoil the surprise for the first person to craft them, after all!
New weapon materials include Abyssal Bloodiron, Dragonbone, Meteoric Iron, Solanian Truesteel (far superior to the truesteel sold by Jezebel), Axiomatic Brass, Pandmonic Silver, Gehennan Morguth-Iron, Byeshk, Blood Glass, Tantulhor, Formic Amber, Regulan Gearsprings, and Neumannic Flywheels.
New armor materials include Twelvetrees Bark, Arboreal Oak, Mindsilver, Dragonhide, Demonscale, Devilscale, Celestial Plumage, Glassteel, Alchemic Platinum, Riverine, Oerthblood, Aurorum, and Ophidian Hide.