Crafting via Commission or Bastion

Turning raw monster-parts into finished gear takes a pattern, the materials, and a capable pair of hands at a proper workbench. Until the party holds a bastion of their own with the right facilities built, the same items can be commissioned from crafters out in the world at the costs below. A bastion's value, when it comes, is the discount.

The five gates

To craft any item you need all of the following:

A pattern — a design from the party's pattern book (known to anyone proficient with its tool), a discoverable formula found or researched in play, or an improvised build under the general rules.
A capable crafter — someone proficient with the item's tool and skilled enough to work the target rarity (the party themselves, a hired specialist, or a bastion resident). As a rough guide: a journeyman handles Common–Uncommon, an expert handles Rare, and only a master handles Very Rare and above.
A workshop — a hired or rented bench by default; an owned bastion facility of the matching type once the party holds one (which also grants a discount — see below).
The materials — harvested parts on hand, spent as Craft Value; see the Harvested Materials ledger for what the party holds.
Cost and time — gold and downtime days below.

Facility types

Every build needs a workshop of the matching type, whether it is hired in a town, rented, or built into a bastion the party comes to hold.

Facility	Tool	Crafts
Forge	Smith's Tools	Weapons, shields, metal & scale armor
Tannery	Leatherworker's Tools	Hide armor, cloaks, membrane goods
Laboratory	Alchemist's Supplies	Potions, oils, bombs, organ processing
Arcane Study	Arcana / spell focus	Wands, foci, lenses, and any enchanted (magic) item

Cost and time by rarity

These are the baseline figures to commission a capable crafter, assuming the party supplies the harvested components. (Without the components, pay full market rate for a comparable item.)

Rarity	Cost (labor & reagents)	Time
Common	25–50 gp	1–3 days
Uncommon	100–200 gp	1–2 weeks
Rare	1,000–2,000 gp	3–6 weeks
Very Rare	10,000–20,000 gp	8–12 weeks

Bastion facility discount

Once the party holds a bastion with the matching facility, they no longer need to hire out — a resident crafter or a PC works the bench — and the facility's level cuts both cost and time.

Facility level	Cost & time
None — commissioned crafter	Full listed cost & time
Basic (I)	−25% cost & time
Improved (II)	−50% cost & time
Superior (III)	−75% cost & time

A facility can never build above the rarity its level supports (Basic up to Uncommon, Improved up to Rare, Superior up to Very Rare); beyond that, commission a master regardless of the bastion.

Component Crafting Economy

Harvested components do more than fill a recipe — each carries a Craft Value (CV) set by its rarity, and an item is built by spending CV against a threshold.

Craft Value by rarity: Scraps 1 · Common 2 · Uncommon 4 · Rare 8 · Very Rare 16 · Legendary 32 · Artifact 64. (Each tier doubles, so laddering up from cheap parts is possible but deliberately inefficient.)

Building an item. Choose an item type — potion, poison, oil, bomb, scroll, ammunition, weapon, armor, shield, wand, staff, or wondrous item. Name one primary component: it sets the item's effect and caps its rarity. Then add secondary components whose type-tag matches the item until the total CV crosses a threshold. The target rarity is the highest threshold met — never above the primary's rarity.

Output rarity	Single-use (potion, poison, oil, bomb, scroll, ammo)	Permanent / recharging (weapon, armor, shield, wand, staff, wondrous)
Common	4 CV	6 CV
Uncommon	8 CV	12 CV
Rare	16 CV	24 CV
Very Rare	32 CV	48 CV
Legendary	64 CV	96 CV

A permanent or recharging item always costs 50% more than the CV of a single-use item of the same tier. CV spent above the primary's rarity cap is wasted, or — at the DM's option — buys a minor flavor rider.

Effects by output rarity. Common components have no magic; they are pure CV and structure. Magic begins at Uncommon: Uncommon = +1, or one minor 1/day effect; Rare = +2, or a solid effect with a small rider; Very Rare = +3 / +2-with-teeth, or a strong 3/day effect; Legendary = a signature, multi-part effect. The primary component's descriptor themes the result; secondaries may add riders at the DM's discretion. For damage numbers, see the spell-level benchmarks.

The rarity cap. The primary component caps the output: a Rare primary can never yield better than a Rare item, however much CV you pour in.

Worked examples

An effect-bearing horn → staff. A Very Rare horn (16 CV; staff-stock; an elemental theme) is the primary. A staff is permanent, so Very Rare needs 48 CV. The horn alone (16) only meets the uncommon threshold → a Uncommon staff carrying part of its intended power. Add another 32 CV of matching staff parts and it completes as a full Very Rare staff.
Sense-lens + structural plates → shield. A Rare lens (8 CV; storm & divination; cap = Rare) is the primary. The lens alone (8) meets Uncommon → an Uncommon shield. Add eight Common plates (+16 CV) to reach 24 → a Rare shield, the most the lens will allow.

The crafting roll

Building an item is not automatic. With a workshop, a capable crafter, and the components in hand, make a crafting check with the item's tool (d20 + the crafter's tool bonus) at the end of the build. The same roll sets the realized quality and, for consumables, the quantity of the output. The CV you spent buys a target rarity; the roll nudges what actually comes off the bench.

Quality (all items).

Crafting roll	Quality
9 or less	Under-tuned — the effect lands half a step low (fewer charges, reduced dice, a missing rider). Still a working item.
10–19	As built — the target rarity, full effect for its tier.
20–29	Half a step high — the strong end of its tier (an extra charge, +1 die, a small bonus rider).
30+	A full rarity step higher.

A crafting roll never ruins the materials — even a low roll yields the item, only under-tuned. Quality shifts are bounded by the primary's rarity cap: a roll cannot push an item above what its primary allows. If you have already built to the cap, a 30+ instead delivers the capped item at its strongest (treat as the half-step-high result) alongside any quantity benefit.

Quantity (consumables only). A single build of a potion, poison, oil, bomb, scroll, or ammunition yields a batch; permanent items are always made one at a time.

Crafting roll	Batch size
1–9	1
10–19	2
20–29	3
30+	4

Every item in a batch is identical and carries the same quality result from the roll. The gold and time cost is paid once per build, whatever the batch size.

Bombs (thrown consumables)

A bomb is a single-use item delivered to an area — the trait that sets it apart from a potion (drunk), a poison (applied to a weapon), or an oil (coated on). It shares the single-use CV column; only the delivery differs.

Throw: an action; range 20/60 ft; bursts in a 10-ft radius (15 ft at Very Rare or better).
Save: each creature in the radius makes a Dexterity save, DC 8 + the crafter's tool bonus, for half damage or to avoid the rider.
Effect by rarity: Uncommon ≈ 2d6 of the primary's element, or a minor 1-round area condition; Rare ≈ 4d6 + a rider (difficult terrain, lightly obscured, a creature outlined for a minute); Very Rare ≈ 6–8d6 + a strong, persisting rider. These are the as-built floor — see the spell-level benchmarks for the full ranges a hot crafting roll can reach.
Primaries: offensive or condition-applying glands, spores, bile, and venom. Contributors: the inert fluids — blood, ichor, fat — as binding agent and propellant.

Bomb examples

Spore-cap → faerie fire bomb. A corrupted-myconid spore-cap (Uncommon primary; outlined as faerie fire). A single-use Uncommon item needs 8 CV, so two caps or the cap and contributing components builds it: on burst, creatures in the radius are limned in light for a minute — advantage to hit them, no benefit from invisibility — Dex save negates.
Scalding Steam Gland → steam bomb. The gland is a Very Rare primary (16 CV), and a single-use Very Rare bomb needs 32 CV — so two glands or the gland and contributing components make one: a 15-ft burst of scalding steam, fire damage with a Dex save for half, the area left lightly obscured and difficult for a round. The tradeoff: that same gland is only 2/3rds the 32 CV a permanent Very Rare wand or staff would need — one big throw, or progress toward a keepsake focus.

Example

The party wants a Rare suit of scale armor and supplies the Glacial Scales themselves. With no bastion yet, they commission a master smith in a port town: 1,500 gp and roughly 5 weeks, after which the smith's tool roll sets its quality. Once their own bastion Forge is built to Improved (II), the same job would cost about 750 gp and run 2–3 weeks.

Crafting via Commission or Bastion

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