A fresh perspective on the RC crafting cost formulas
by HightechartistI have a lot of experience DMing D&D over the years, as well as some professional design experience to boot, but I hadn't really looked at BECMI for over 25 years and so I'm coming at it with fresh eyes.
I want to run a BECMI game while changing as few rules as possible, but reading over the Rules Compendium I am just not satisfied with the balance of the magic item crafting equations. I thought I'd organize my thoughts on it here, what my problems with them are, and what I might do differently. Any input from veterans is appreciated.
For perspective, let's compare and contrast some different-yet-similar magic items and price them according to the RC rules:
Weapons: 5 (nonmagical price [gp] * enc [cn]) * enchantment bonus
Daggers: +1 = 5 (3 * 10) * 1 = 150 gp; +3 = 5 (3 * 10) * 3 = 450 gp; +5 = 5 (3 * 10) * 5 = 750 gp
Handaxe: +1 = 5 (4 * 30) * 1 = 600 gp; +3 =5 (4 * 30) * 3 = 1800 gp; +5 =5 (4 * 30) * 5 = 3000 gp
Warhammer: +1 =5 (5 * 50) * 1 = 1250 gp; +3 =5 (5 * 50) * 3 = 3750 gp; +5 = 5 (5 * 50) * 5 = 6250 gp
1H Sword: +1 =5 (10 * 60) * 1 = 3000 gp; +3 =5 (10 * 60) * 3 = 9000 gp; +5 =5 (10 * 60) * 5 = 15,000 gp
2H Sword: +1 =5 (15 * 100) * 1 = 7500 gp; +1 =5 (15 * 100) * 3 = 22,500 gp; +1 =5 (15 * 100) * 5 = 37,500 gp
As we can see, there is a huge range of crafting prices just for weapons. A +5 dagger costs less to craft than a +2 handaxe, and less than any other +1 weapon on the list. If you were a fighter paying the party magic user or cleric to make you a new weapon, it'd be smarter for you to commission a +5 dagger over even a +1 2-handed sword! The +5 dagger would do more damage on average (7.5 vs 6.5), would hit 20% more often, would cost 1/10 the price and would take a lot less time for the magic user to make! (It is worth noting that the crafter is 12% more likely to fail when making a +5 item over a +1, but a 12% chance of having to scrap it and have to start over when it's 1/10 the price for a better weapon is still an easy choice.).
This is not good design. I get why the weight of the item is included into the equation for thematic reasons, but balance wise it just makes no sense for weight to impact the equation THAT much.
Armor: enchantment bonus * (nonmagical price [gp] * enc [cn]) / 3 ; minimum 3000
Leather Armor: +1 = 1 * (10 * 100) / 3 = 333; +3 = 3 * (10 * 100) / 3 = 999; +5 = 5 * (10 * 100) / 3 = 1666
Scale Mail: +1 = 1 * (20 * 200) / 3 = 1333; +3 = 3 * (20 * 200) / 3 = 4000; +5 = 5 * (20 * 200) / 3 = 6666
Ok, so only two armors in, and already some weirdness to note here. Because of the min of 3000, +1 Leather Armor costs exactly as much to make as +5 Leather Armor! Again, I'm aware that the crafter is 12% more likely to fail when trying to make +5 Leather over +1, but that 12% is not much of a penalty when we're talking about 4 better AC! Likewise, +5 Leather is the same price as +2 scale mail and cheaper than +3 scale mail, despite offering a superior AC bonus to either.
Plate Armor: +1 = 1 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 10,000; +3 = 3 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 30,000; +5 = 3 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 50,000
Suit Armor: +1 = 1 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 62,500; +3 = 3 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 187,500; +5 = 3 * (60 * 500) / 3 = 312,500
On the upper end of the armor scale, the absurdity continues. +1 Plate Armor and +5 Leather Armor provide the same AC bonus, yet the Leather Armor costs 70% less, encumbers the wearer less, and can be worn by more classes, and is thus the better of the two armors from a mechanical standpoint. +5 Plate Armor costs 12,500 less than +1 Suit Armor, yet offers better AC and weighs less.
I could keep going but I think I've made my point.
Let's look at Limited-Use Items:
Equation: Spell level * 1000 + 10% per charge ; 20% discount if not rechargeable.1 Potion (level 1 spell): (1 * 1000 +100).8 = 880
1 Scroll (level 1 spell): (1 * 1000 +100).8 = 88010 Potions (level 1 spell): (1 * 1000 +100).8 = 880*10 = 8800
1 Scroll (10 level 1 spells): (1 * 1000 +100*10).8 = 1600
Single-use items are so price inefficient compared to other items, I honestly don't know why any crafter would ever bother, other than maybe the first time for the gold-to-xp exchange.
There is a lot of good stuff in the RC, but I think these equations were written during a period of TSR's history where the designers weren't given the proper time to test or even fully think these things out. I know most of the treasure should be found, not made, but why even bother having these equations at all if they are so imbalanced?
This is what I think I'll do in my game when crafting comes up:
REVISED WEAPONS: (original cost of item * weight * enchantment bonus)+(500 * enchantment bonus^2)
With this equation, crafting a +1 dagger would cost 530 and a +1 2H sword would cost 2000
Crafting a +5 dagger would cost 12,650, and a +5 2H sword would cost 20,000.
REVISED ARMOR: (0.2*original cost of item * weight * enchantment bonus)+(500 * enchantment bonus^2)
Crafting +1 Leather Armor would cost 1200 and +1 Suit Armor would cost 7000
Crafting +5 Leather Armor would cost 26,000 and +5 Suit Armor would cost 55,000
These new equations aren't perfect, but I think they are an improvement over the RC equations while still maintaining the BECMI flavor of taking the original cost and weight of the item into account.
REVISED LIMITED-USE, NON-RECHARGEABLE ITEMS:
So, I think for these items, the only change needed to balance things out is to break the crafting down into two phases: research and development.
The "initial enchantment cost" is the research phase. Once you succeed at it, you don't pay it again. That's the expensive part.
After that you can develop as many of that item as you want at the cost of charges.
You get xp for research, but not development. The 20% discount for non-rechargeables is removed.
Time is likewise split. The research phase takes the normal week + 1 day per 1000 gp, but after that it is just 1 day per 1000 gp.
So, for example, your first potion of cure light wounds would cost 1100 and require 8 days of work (assuming you succeeded on the first try).
Every cure light wounds potion you create after that would cost you 100 a pop and a day (8 hours) of work.
(It's worth noting that Alchemist NPCs can craft potions at half cost after they learn how to make one, so an optional rule is to allow characters trained in the alchemy skill to halve the development cost on a successful alchemy check, one check per potion).
If you later wanted to make a potion of remove fear, you'd pay 1100, and then from then on you can make cure or courage potions for 100 a pop.
And so on.
NOTE THAT THIS ONLY APPLIES TO NON-RECHARGEABLE ITEMS. This simply makes the crafting costs of potions, scrolls, etc, comparable to the existing costs of rechargeable items (For example, under the current rules it'd cost you 100 gp to recharge a rechargeable item of remove fear.) It should be noted that rechargeable items are still somewhat superior as it is faster to recharge an item than it is to make a new item.