Items and Crafting

Basics

The rules for crafting items from Xanathar's Guide to Everything are in play.

Non-magical items (and healing potions) can be made during resting hours as long as that makes sense--things that involve very detailed or complex manipulations or that require significant stationary tools (ie refining metals) may only be able to be done during stationary downtime with a properly-equipped crafting area. Value accumulates normally. Note that a work week on Quartus is 6 days, so a standard healing potion takes 3 work days (24 total work hours), which can be split across several days. Which exact tool proficiency is needed is somewhat flexible, but is bound by the fiction. No using leatherworker's tools to build a house.

Custom non-magical items require a check-in with the DM ahead of time (just as with any custom item).

Potions of healing are not considered magic items. Regular ones can be bought in limited quantities anywhere--larger, adventuring-focused shops may have (almost) unlimited quantities. Higher-grade ones require access to a Registered Company most of the time, as they're the primary customers.

Magic Items

Generally, bits of monsters and things found along the way can be incorporated into magic items as the "special component". However, access to the formula is the major sticking point. Formulae can be found/accessed

• During adventures, in forgotten tomes or as rewards
• Certain master crafters may have access to certain formulae. This represents commissioning an item from them, and doesn't require normal downtime (but does require more money, a component and coming back later)
• Very rarely, formulae can be discovered directly by players.

Availability of formulae varies by region.

Spell scrolls do not need formulae (cf Xanathar's Guide), but rarely can be purchased (except in Crisial City). Mostly, people make and sell spell stones (which function for all purposes like spell scrolls, except that anyone can use one and they cannot be scribed into a spell book). Generally only spells of levels 1-2 are available in non-specialized shops, and even then only some such spells. Players can make them using the same rules as spell scrolls, although you can substitute Jeweler's Kit proficiency for Arcana proficiency.

Magic Item Formulae in the Federated Nations region

The following items are known to be commisionable from master craftsmen in areas noted.

• Adamantine Armor: Shinevog and Fuar Uulan. : Component: half the weight of the armor in refined adamantine (twice the weight in ore). Cost: armor cost + 500 gp.
• Candle of the Deep: Rauviz City, Crisial City, and Byss : Component: a sapphire or ruby worth at least 50 gp, bathed in both magical water and fire (such as the remains of an elemental). Cost: 50 gp.
• Enduring Spellbook: Crisial City: Component: leather from a magical beast/monstrosity. Cost: normal book cost + 50 gp.
• Ersatz Eye: Rauviz: Component: a clear glass orb, blessed by either a kami or a priest of 3rd rank or above. Cost: 50 gp.
• Instrument of Scribing: Most major cities. : Component: ink from a giant squid. Can be purchased, but is costly. Cost (not counting component): 25 gp.
• Mithral armor: Most major cities other than Byss: Component: half the weight of the armor in refined mithral (the full weight in ore). Cost: armor cost + 500 gp.
• Moon-touched Sword: Byss, Crisial City, Fort Hope. Component: the blessing of a kami-priest of 3rd rank or above. Cost: weapon cost + 150 gp.
• Orb of Direction: Any major city. Component: earth-attuned iron (sliver). Cost: 30 gp.
• Potion of Water Breathing: Any major city. Component: air-touched water. Cost: 50 gp.
• Veteran's Cane: Lyodnoir and Zhapai Karmap. Cost: 150 gp.

Materials

Only a tiny fraction of all the materials that might be used to make or enhance items can be listed here. Each category contains a statement of general use, as well as some common materials, rare/magical materials, and legendary materials.

Structural Metals

Structural metals are those used to make up large, load-bearing portions of items. They tend to be chosen for strength and ease of use, as well as lightness. The more exotic materials, especially for armor, influence resistance to impact/damage, but mostly ease of wear and weight.

Structural Metals

Name	Rarity	Appearance	Properties
Iron/Steel	Common	Light grey	Ordinary steel. Iron, as such, is rarely used for most adventuring items other than pots and pans.
Bronze	Common	Varies, but mostly red-brown	Similar to iron. Harder to work, but slightly more corrosion resistant. More expensive outside of Tlalocana
Rune-steel	Uncommon	Like steel, but darker and matte	Dwarven-made special steel. Does not rust. Harder and stronger than regular steel, but not as hard or strong as adamantine. Mid-way between steel and adamantine in weight. Much harder to work than steel or bronze unless you have the dwarven secrets
Mithral	Uncommon/Magical	Silvery, iridescent sheen	Extremely light and flexible. Strong for its weight, but not quite as strong as rune-steel. Requires magical assistance to work. Due to its flexibility, it does not make metal-on-metal noises or jingle, acting more like cloth.
Adamantine	Uncommon/Magical	Dark, nearly black. Matte.	Heavy and extremely durable. Requires significant magical assistance to work, as it does not soften naturally when heated to any temperature below its melting point. Absorbs impact, making effective armor. When used in weapons or tools, those items are especially effective at breaking down objects.
Water-steel	Uncommon	Blue-grey, appears to have waves in its surface	Forged in magical foundries under the sea by the kalasaa. Very light, but not as strong as regular steel. Immune to rust.
Aelf-steel	Legendary	White, as if lacquered.	Said to have been produced by the ancient aelvar. Key to their towering, "impossible" structures. Said to have been lighter than mithral but stronger than adamantine and immune to most impacts. Some legends say it was grown, rather than forged or cast. Said to have been an excellent substrate for spell work.
Aether-steel	Rare/Magical	Varies, usually bronze or golden. Always has glittering flecks embedded throughout.	A signature of construction in the Astral plane, as it is used in all the major works (including the arms of the Great Mechanism and the Celestial City) as well as most astral-origin equipment. It can also be produced on Quartus, although the secret is lost. Impervious to corruption/rust, lighter and stronger than steel, it also makes a great conductor of astral-aspected anima.

Decorative Metals

These metals are used for non-structural parts of items, or for items that are not load bearing directly. Often as ornamentation or part of enchantments.

Name	Rarity	Appearance	Properties
Copper	Common	shiny red-brown	Soft and malleable. Excellent conductor of lightning-aspected aether, and often associated with magical workings involving protection from or creation of lightning energy, despite not being inherently magical.
Silver	Common	Silvery grey. Tarnishes.	Soft and malleable, denser than copper. Efficacious against physical forms created by spells or other such transformation magics, as it conducts aether very well. Often used in spell workings.
Gold	Common	Golden	Extremely soft and malleable. Very dense. Used primarily for decoration, it is (nearly) magically inert. Can be used as insulation, but only with difficulty.
Cavorite	Uncommon/Magical	Green, mottled.	Hard and difficult to work. Said to have the ability, when used as part of workings, to temper magical surges and dips. Energies passed through it come out only with a delay.
Necrite	Rare/Magical	Black-green, oily. Gives off aura of wrongness	Obsidian, exposed and worked via ritual in the presence of jotnari corruption. Also called "abyssal obsidian". Capable of dampening the influence of jotnar, insulating it from the outside world. Also said to be an excellent trap for spiritual entities and souls.
Igneum	Rare/Magical	Red/orange. Gives off a constant sense of heat, despite not being hot.	Forged magically in a living volcano. Attuned to fire-aspected anima.
Living Ice	Rare/Magical	Blue-white. Cold to the touch, but does not melt.	Not really a metal, but that's the closest analog. This is condensed ice-aspected anima, bound by magic.
Tekkite	???	Silvery, similar to solidified mercury. Glows with a pale silver/white light.	Found in rare veins underground, where it seemingly allows itself to be harvested in small quantities before retreating into the rock and vanishing. Lighter than iron. Aspected toward luminous air.

Crystals and Gems

All crystals and gems (including organic ones such as pearls) serve as reservoirs of strongly-aspected aether. In most, the stored aether is bound up in the crystalline structure; releasing it destroys the gem (converting it into inert dust). However, they can be used to attune other aether to the aspect that they represent without destroying the gemstone. This is the primary magical use of gemstones, and why gems form components in so many spells.

Fibers

Used to make cloth-based components. Some of these are animal products, others from plants. The rarer and more magical of them require alchemical and/or explicitly magical steps in their creation process.

Beast Parts

Bits of magically-attuned creatures can be used during the crafting of items. In general, with the exception of scales and skins, these components are used as reagents, transferring some part of the magical nature of the beast (or an analog) to the item, rather than being used directly as part of the final product.

Monster Bits (WIP)

NOTE: these are preliminary thoughts. Not intended as a final.

Each monster has a quality, drawn from the list below. They also have a drop quantity, based on their CR (tier^2?). Each quality can be transferred (if you have enough of it, depending on rarity) to an item during or after crafting. Each one has a rank (does more per rank). Humanoids, giants, and humanoid-appearing monstrosities generally do not have qualities.

Quality	Types of Monsters (examples)	Effect	Minimum quantity per level
Toxic	Venomous creatures	adds poison damage/resists poison damage or status
Brutal	Particularly strong creatures	adds weapon damage
Evasive	Monsters with defensive abilities or high ac but not armored	defensive, helps with dex saves
Armored	Creatures with high natural armor	defensive, absorbs damage
Skulking	High stealth or ambush predators	grants bonuses to stealth(?)
Arcane	Creatures with magical abilities, including extraplanars	??
Elemental (X)	Elementals	Elemental damage/resistance
Regenerative	Creatures with regeneration	increases healing received, at high ranks regenerates.