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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Treasure Vault / Secrets of Crafting / Crafting Alternate Rules

Critical Crafting

Source Treasure Vault pg. 161 1.1
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

Source Treasure Vault pg. 161 1.1
  • 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

Source Treasure Vault pg. 162 1.1
  • 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.