Crafting improvement ideas

[Flailer]

Just wanted to reopen a thread dedicated to ideas on how to improve the crafting system. It's a great idea and could really add a lot of character distinction, but until the master artisian level, the items you can craft don't seem to be compelling over what you can buy in the store (side note: I haven't reached master artisian level in leather working, so I can't comment on exactly what's available there, but will reach it probably today). So, here's some ideas to improve the items you can craft:
[First 4 blatantly copied from another post I made a while back]

- They have a weight reduction property on them (50-80% weight reduction). That would seem to make sense - great care has gone into the item to make it a quality custom job that's custom made for the purchaser. This would also allow there to be some advantage to using a crafted item without giving some unbalancing combat advantage to them like elemental damage or something.

- Offer an additional point of ability scores in an appropriate area. +1 discipline for shields and weapons, +1 concentration for helms, +1 tumble (?) for boots, +1 hide for cloaks, etc.

- Perhaps just be identical to store bought items but be more visually appealing than their counterparts?

- Or, and this would probably be more difficult to implement, offer some advantage if you're dressed in a full suit of some custom gear. Say, if all your items are crafted that you have equiped, you gain a +1 in some attribute (charisma, dex,...), or you have a greater damage immunity, something. Just thinking out loud here...

- Perhaps make only crafted items dye-able. That way, even if a crafted item had the same properties as something in the store, there would still be some reason to perfer the crafted one.

- Would probably be a pain to implent, but perhaps open up crafting of items that were class specific. For instance, a ranger could craft a cloak that was better than normal that only other rangers could use.

- Allow someone else to pull an item off the crafting table and pass along the XP penalty to them...

Any other ideas from folks?

Shade

[gordfollett]

I think all those ideas are great. I was also wondering why you could not dye items. i played on another server before where you could dye items and most plays had a unique look. Also i ve played other srevers where you could change the look of your weapons or armour considerably. this would add alot of charater to the server if implemented. If we are lucky the DMs may be already planning to implement these ideas for crafting.

[ATI]

Very awesome....I like all these ideas. Please, some implementation

[JesterOI]

At master craftsman add the ability to make more specific items that require extra costs, like an extra 1d6 fire damage for the cost of a fair amount of fire opals.

[AndrewCarr]

Oh, apparently 80% base weight reduction reduces the object to 80% of its weight, not removes 80% of the weight like i'd thought for awhile. So i'd say go with 10%(master artisan) -> 80% (tailor, or whatever the heck's lowest).

The elemental dmg idea I think would be nice, along with changing the model.

[TastyTreat]

I tried crafting once and then never touched it again, here are the main reasons why:
1) The items being crafted rarely outweigh all that is needed to make them. (This includes the xp needed to gain levels in crafting)
2) Most of the lower level crafted items are not any better than ones you can buy with the same lvl req, in fact I have seen some that are worse.
3) Although restricting crafting to a certain extent (based on class) is a good thing, it is way overdone atm. Specifically, limiting builds with prestige classes is a big problem. Not that many people are willing to make a character solely based on crafting only... so with the current restrictions crafting will be very limited. I do like how only certain classes can achieve master artisan in specific crafting skills but a better way to do this is to give level requirements in specific classes in order to achive higher levels of crafting. For example: you need at least 20 levels of wizard to become a master artisan in magic crafting.

That's all that comes to mind for now.

[Qui]

Hmm, Tasty, the objects being crafted by Arcane crafters at the artisan and and i assume (not there yet) Master artisan levels, are very worth while thigns, like wands of improved invis that i can see being able to sell, problem is the exp hit for some of these items is a bit much, its like an exp sink, lol.. Maybe the exp should be lessened and the money to create GREATLY increased.. this would solve some of the problems with people complaining about money being to available..

[TastyTreat]

Well if that's the case Arcane Crafting seems to be the only worthwhile trade at this point. The main reason being that arcane crafting doesn't focus on equipment that you wear while all the other trades do. I agree with you that upping the cash needed for crafting, at least for the higher levels of crafting, would be a good way for some people to get rid of excess cash. Possibly even lowering the xp costs slightly to compensate? So far every time I craft anything (including scrolls and pots) I don't even bother considering the gold cost I always focus on the amount of xp that I'm willing to sacrifice.

[Qui]

Yup tasty.. and as far as the crafted items go i imagine the arcane crafters items are highly imbalanced because they are giving wands and rods of VERY VERY usefull spells (dismissal imp invis freedom of movement and other goodies) and thats only at artisan lvl which opens up extra spells slots for the average mage who no longert needs to memorize imp invis and the like..
The exp is a bti much, increase cash decrease exp, (GREATLY INCREASE CASH) there ive said ti again wo0 ho0

[Orsinous The Black]

I bet someone has already thought of this but I'd like to throw it out there anyway.
I would like to see crafting also use the Craft Trap components. These could be used to create some interesting and useful items. I wouldn't even mind if the component costs were higher by 5 or 10 times. There would be a reason now for anyone to pick up a quartz crystal or skeleton knuckle.

A few off the top of my head ideas:
Caltrops-Armor of Wounding with # of charges of Wounding Whispers
Tanglefoot Bag-Boots of Freedom, Freedom charges, or Boots of Retreat or Haste at varying Crafting Levels and component costs. Ooo.. a weapon like a whip that does slow.
I could keep going, but I'll stop now. Oh! OH! Ok, I'll stop.