The Arcane Forge
“Old stories tell of a great forge beneath the Narandia Mountains, in the lost halls of Starkheim. Stories of artifacts forged in the heat of the very earth. But I know more than old stories. I’ve seen the forge. I know what can be made there. And if you bring me to it… I’ll show you.”
- Brogan, Blacksmith of Utopia
There’s a great deal of debate as to what makes a forge an arcane forge. Is it the material it is made of, or the place where it is built? The magic woven into it by its maker? Whatever the answer may be, all that truly matters is this: given time, coin, and the skill to use it, there is no limit to the marvels that you could create at such a forge.
| What these rules do… |
|---|
| This document is an expansion on the crafting rules in already in 5th Edition. Sections of the existing crafting rules are reprinted here alongside the expanded rules for your convenience. |
Crafting Magic Items
To create other magic items other than spell scrolls and potions, follow the rules below. In these rules, “you” refers to the character crafting the magic items.
Arcana Proficiency
To craft a magic item, you must have proficiency in Arcana.
Tools
The Magic Item Tools table lists which tool is required to make a magic item of each category. You or one of your assistants must use the required tool to make an item and have proficiency with that tool. For more information on the tools, see Equipment.
| Item Category | Required Tool |
|---|---|
| Armor | Leatherworker’s Tools, Smith’s Tools, or Weaver’s Tools depending on the kind of armor as noted in the tools’ descriptions |
| Potion | Alchemist’s Supplies or Herbalism Kit |
| Ring | Jeweler’s Tools |
| Rod | Woodcarver’s Tools |
| Scroll | Calligrapher’s Supplies |
| Staff | Woodcarver’s Tools |
| Wand | Woodcarver’s Tools |
| Weapon | Leatherworker’s Tools, Smith’s Tools, or Woodcarver’s Tools depending on the kind of weapon as noted in the tools’ descriptions |
| Wondrous Item | Tinker’s Tools or the tool required to make the nonmagical item on which the magic item is based (if any) |
Spells
If a magic item allows its user to cast any spells from it, you must have all those spells prepared every day you spend crafting the item.
Time and Cost
Crafting a magic item takes an amount of time and money based on the item’s rarity as shown in the Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost table.
- Work per Day. For each day of crafting, you must work for 8 hours. If an item requires multiple days, those days needn’t be consecutive.
- Assistants. Characters can combine their efforts to shorten the crafting time. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. Normally, only one other character can assist you, but the GM might allow more assistants. Any assistants must have proficiency with the tool required to make the item they are assisting in the creation of.
| Item Rarity | Time* | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 5 days | 50 GP |
| Uncommon | 10 days | 200 GP |
| Rare | 50 days | 2,000 GP |
| Very Rare | 125 days | 20,000 GP |
| Legendary | 250 days | 100,000 GP |
Raw Materials
To craft a magic item, you require rare crafting materials that may be difficult to find. If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in a place that sells such items, they can be bought at the prices listed in the table above. If a magic item incorporates an item that has a purchase cost (such as a weapon or a suit of armor), you must also pay that entire cost or craft that item first.
The time and cost are halved for a consumable item other than a *Spell Scrolls and *Potions of Healing.
The GM determines whether appropriate raw materials are available. Alternatively, the GM can roll 1d100 and consult the material availability table to determine available materials for each magic item being crafted.
| Settlement Size | Uncommon | Rare | Very Rare | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Village | 50% | 35% | 25% | 15% |
| Town | 80% | 70% | 60% | 50% |
| City | 90% | 90% | 80% | 70% |
| Metropolis | 99% | 95% | 95% | 90% |
Essence
The creation of a magic item can be aided by having an essence appropriate to that item. An essence is a component, usually recovered from a monster, that can be used to aid in the creation of specific magic items, as determined by the GM. If you have an essence, you can spend it while creating the associated magic item to halve the cost of raw materials required to make the item. Additionally, once an essence has been spent on a magic item’s creation, any remaining raw materials should be considered mundane enough to be available at most reasonably stocked stores.
Since there are countless magic items, there’s no definitive list of what essences correspond to what magic items, but you can use the following rules as a framework for finding and using essences in play.
Essence as Loot
Among the noxious fumes and foul reagents on the shelves, Octavia finds a jar full of petrified spider legs. With her arcana, she is able to determine that they could be used as an essence to create Slippers of Spider Climbing.
In this example, the GM gave the player character an essence: a jar full of petrified spider legs, and, after an arcana check from the player, suggested what kind of magic item that could be used to create. But it doesn’t have to end there: the player might follow up and ask if they could instead use it for something like a Cloak of Arachnida. It’ll be up to the GM to decide if that’s okay or not. In this case, since the cloak is a much higher rarity than the slippers, and the players might still be fairly low level, the GM might decide that’s too much. Alternatively, the resources required for such an expensive crafting project might seem an exciting side quest.
Essence as a Goal
“I’m in my tower studying how to craft a Carpet of Flying,” says Anna. “Other than having a carpet to enchant, and the gems and herbs you’ll need, you think you’ll need the essence of some creature that has a fly speed and can hover,” replies the GM, setting a goal for her to achieve.
In this example, the player wanted to make a specific item, and the GM offered a path towards it. If Octavia can either find or harvest the essence from an appropriate creature, she now knows that would aid her in making a Carpet of Flying.
Harvesting Essence from Monsters
When players defeat a monster in battle, they may be able to harvest an essence from it. They do this by a combination of actions:
Study the Creature. You can use the Study action to attempt to identify an essence that could be extracted from a creature. Make an arcana check with a DC of 10 + the creature’s CR. On a success, you learn what part of the creature would have to be harvested to gain that essence.
Harvest the Essence. You can use the Utilize action to attempt to harvest a specific essence from a creature that died within the last round. Make a survival check with a DC of 10 + the creature’s CR. On a success, you harvest that essence. On a failure, the essence is destroyed.
As the GM it’s up to you to take a look at the creature’s monster statblock and determine what useful parts there are and describe the player’s success or failure. Alternatively, you can ask your table to contribute any ideas.
For example, Ankhegs have Acid Spray. Altan the Wizard makes a successful arcana check, identifying that these glands could be used as an essence in the creation of a Potion of Resistance or Armor of Acid Resistance. When the Ankheg dies, he calls out to Maeve the Ranger, telling her to cut out it’s acid glands.
You can also use a creature’s CR as a guideline in determining what rarity of magic items and essence from that creature could be used to create.
| CR | Rarity |
|---|---|
| 1 or higher | Uncommon |
| 5 or higher | Rare |
| 10 or higher | Very Rare |
| 15 or higher | Legendary |
Crafting Weapons & Armor
“Humans hold such pride in the might of their armies. But the mightiest host of men could not hope to defeat even a single one of our warriors wielding a sword of the purest mithral, worked to perfection by hands of our enchanters.”
- Virsandroal, Master of the Order of Insight
The right weapon or armor can elevate a character’s abilities far beyond anything they could achieve without them. And when you’re the one crafting the item, making sure it’s the right one is entirely up to you.
Enchanting Magic Items
As part of the creation of a magic item, you may choose to imbue it with an enchantment. Any weapon or armor can be enchanted, but doing so bears a considerable time and gold investment. Enchanting a magic item follows the same time and cost rules as laid out in the Crafting Magic Items chapter at the beginning of this document. Refer to the tables below for the rarity of each enchantment.
Enchantment Limitations
Magic items with multiple enchantments have the following limitations:
Three Enchantments
No magic item can hold more than three enchantments. When you put a fourth enchantment on an item, you must chose which other enchantment you’re removing from the item.
No Stacking
You cannot put the multiple instances of the same enchantment on an item.
Attunement
If any property of a magic item requires attunement, then the item as a whole requires attunement. Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, you gain only its nonmagical benefits unless its description states otherwise.
When you enchant ammunition, it doesn’t require attunement even if the enchantment normally requires attunement.
Universal Enchantments
You can add the following enchantments on anything, be it an existing wondrous item, magic weapon, magic armor, or a mundane item.
| d10 | Enchantment | Rarity | Attunement? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damage Resistance | Rare | Yes |
| 2 | Darkvision | Uncommon | No |
| 3 | Ego | Rare | Yes |
| 4 | Expert | Rare | Yes |
| 5 | Glowing | Uncommon | No |
| 6 | Invisibility | Legendary | Yes |
| 7 | Lucky | Very Rare | Yes |
| 8 | Returning | Uncommon | Yes |
| 9 | Spell Resistance | Rare | Yes |
| 10 | True Seeing | Legendary | Yes |
Weapon Enchantments
You can enchant weapons with a property from the list below. Or a GM can roll on the table to create random loot.
| d100 | Enchantment | Rarity | Attunement? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01–05 | Binding Chains | Uncommon | No |
| 06–10 | Cruel | Uncommon | No |
| 11–15 | Marking | Uncommon | Yes |
| 16–20 | Maneuvering | Uncommon | Yes |
| 21–25 | Primordial | Uncommon | No |
| 26–30 | Stalking | Uncommon | No |
| 31–35 | Throwing | Uncommon | Yes |
| 36–40 | Transforming | Uncommon | Yes |
| 41–44 | Warning | Uncommon | Yes |
| 45–47 | Cursing | Rare | Yes |
| 48–50 | Dueling | Rare | Yes |
| 51–52 | Explosive | Rare | No |
| 53–54 | Flame Tongue | Rare | Yes |
| 55–57 | Life Stealing | Rare | Yes |
| 58–60 | Mind Breaker | Rare | Yes |
| 61–62 | Repulsive | Rare | No |
| 63–64 | Planebound | Rare | No |
| 65–66 | Skin Melter | Rare | Yes |
| 67–69 | Spellbreaker | Rare | No |
| 70–72 | Venom | Rare | No |
| 73–75 | Vicious | Rare | No |
| 76–78 | Withering | Rare | Yes |
| 79–80 | Swatting | Rare | No |
| 81–82 | Wounding | Rare | Yes |
| 83–84 | Dancing | Very Rare | Yes |
| 85–86 | Frost Brand | Very Rare | Yes |
| 87–88 | Maddening | Very Rare | No |
| 89 | Magi | Very Rare | Yes |
| 90 | Mighty Cleaving | Very Rare | No |
| 91 | Oathsworn | Very Rare | Yes |
| 92 | Parrying | Very Rare | Yes |
| 93 | Quickness | Very Rare | Yes |
| 94 | Ruin | Very Rare | Yes |
| 95 | Sharpness | Very Rare | Yes |
| 96 | Slaying | Very Rare | Yes |
| 97 | Striking | Very Rare | Yes |
| 98 | Holy Avenger | Legendary | Yes |
| 99 | Thunderbolt | Legendary | Yes |
| 100 | Vorpal | Legendary | Yes |
Armor Enchantments
You can enchant weapons with a property from the list below. Or a GM can roll on the table to create random loot.
| d100 | Enchantment | Rarity | Attunement? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01–05 | Acrobat’s Agility | Uncommon | Yes |
| 06–10 | Beastly Senses | Uncommon | Yes |
| 11–15 | Draconic Mind | Uncommon | Yes |
| 16–20 | Fish Flippers | Uncommon | Yes |
| 21–25 | Giant Endurance | Uncommon | Yes |
| 26–30 | Implacable | Uncommon | Yes |
| 31–35 | Instant Armor | Uncommon | No |
| 36–40 | Monkey’s Grip | Uncommon | Yes |
| 41–45 | Noble Speech | Uncommon | Yes |
| 46–50 | Ogre Power | Uncommon | Yes |
| 51–55 | Quiet | Uncommon | Yes |
| 56–60 | Rejuvenate | Uncommon | Yes |
| 61–65 | Water Breathing | Uncommon | No |
| 66–68 | Ambusher | Rare | Yes |
| 69–71 | Antimage | Rare | Yes |
| 72–74 | Beastform | Rare | No |
| 75–77 | Elven Make | Rare | Yes |
| 78–80 | Feathered Wings | Rare | No |
| 81–85 | Fey Step | Rare | Yes |
| 86–90 | Regenerative | Rare | Yes |
| 91–93 | Speed | Very Rare | Yes |
| 94–95 | Vengeful | Very Rare | No |
| 96–98 | Ramming | Very Rare | No |
| 99 | Thunderbolt | Legendary | Yes |
| 100 | Invulnerability | Legendary | Yes |
Rare Metal Forging
The first step in creating a magic weapon or armor is determining the material it’s made of. There are many types of rare metals, each of which confers powerful benefits to the item it’s used to create.
Crafting an item out of a rare metal, the cost and time required is determined by adding together the cost and time of the mundane item you’re making and the rarity of the magic metal by consulting the Time and Cost table above. Consult the Rare Metal table below to determine the rarity. Alternatively, the GM can roll on the table to randomly determine an item’s material.
| 2d8 | Rare Metal | Cost per Ingot | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Vertsteel | 10.000 gp | Legendary |
| 3 | Imixium | 5.000 gp | Very Rare |
| 4 | Adamantine | 2.500 gp | Very Rare |
| 5 | Cold Iron | 1.000 gp | Rare |
| 6 | Whiteforged | 500 gp | Rare |
| 7 | Silver | 100 gp | Uncommon |
| 8-10 | Masterwork | N/A | Common |
| 11 | Orichalcum | 100 gp | Uncommon |
| 12 | Blacksteel | 500 gp | Rare |
| 13 | Zarinthic | 1.000 gp | Rare |
| 14 | Mithral | 2.500 gp | Very Rare |
| 15 | Bloodmetal | 5.000 gp | Very Rare |
| 16 | Sunmetal | 10.000 gp | Legendary |
Rare Metal Ingots
To create weapons or armor from rare metal, you need ingots of that metal. The cost and rarity of each type of ingot are listed on the table above, and the number of ingots required is listed below.
| Item Being Crafted | Ingots Required |
|---|---|
| Light Weapon | 1 |
| Weapon or Light Armor | 2 |
| Heavy Weapon or Shield | 3 |
| Medium Armor | 4 |
| Heavy Armor (except Plate) | 5 |
| Plate Armor | 6 |
As a rule of thumb, rare metal ingots are at their best when they’re treated as rewards to be discovered rather than as materials to be purchased. The party could find stacks of adamantine in a dwarven ruin, or a single bar of mithral preserved in an old elvish vault. In this case, the cost of the ingot listed above is irrelevant.
Finding an Arcane Forge
To create weapons or armor out of rare metals, you must be working the metal at an arcane forge. Where you can find such a forge is up to the GM. Perhaps it’s found in a vast metropolis where magic items are more common, and access to the forge carefully controlled. Or maybe it’s deep within a dungeon where it lies dormant, waiting to be rediscovered and for its flames to be kindled once more.
Wherever it may be found, getting access to an arcane forge can be an excellent reward for players around level 5, especially in a game where crafting and downtime are a major factor.
Rare Metal Alloy
When creating a new magic weapon or armor with a rare metal, you can attempt to combine the two metals into a powerful alloy. When you do the you use the more powerful Magic Weapon or Magic Armor property and add all the properties of both metals on the weapon.
Finalizing a Weapon
When you’ve crafted the item and enchanted it, all that’s left to do is some finalization.
Determine Rarity
The rarity of the completed item is equal to the rarity of the rarest metal, enchantment, or spellcasting property on the item. Every enchantment or inclusion of a spellcasting property increases the rarity by one step. For example, a Masterwork Longsword is Uncommon Item, but once you’ve added the Maneuvering Enchantment it becomes a Rare item, if you then later reenchant the weapon to include the Vorpal enchantment, it’s now a legendary weapon.
The completed item’s rarity doesn’t affect the time and cost required to make the item.
Determine Attunement
If any part of your magic item requires attunement, the item as a whole requires attunement.
Name the Item
No magic item is complete without a name, and there are a few ways to give it a memorable name.
Using the Listed Names
You can simply use the listed enchantments as inspiration. An Adamantine Longsword with the Mighty Cleaving enchantment might be the Adamantine Sword of Mighty Cleaving, whereas a Mithral Longsword with the Luck enchantment might be the Lucky Mithral Longsword.
Creating Evocative Names
You can chose to give your weapon a name evocative of your character or of the weapon’s properties without naming them explicitly. Names like Slayer or Skewer, or Lady come to mind. Or maybe your character names it after someone they love, and their Bloodmetal Vorpal Greatsword could be called Rosie.
Bit of Both
You could also find the fun within between evocative names and listed names. A greatsword with the Swatting enchantment that is honed in on the humanoid creature type might be mostly used for killing goblins. And thus: you’ve got a Greatsword of Goblinswatting.
Example Marvels
Below are listed some example magic items.
Greatsword of Goblinswatting
Greatsword, Legendary (Requires Attunement)
This adamantine greatsword was created by Squaker the Dwarf to destroy goblinoids, but it has since found use in killing all kinds of humanoid invaders.
Adamantine Weapon
Magic Weapon. You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Adamantine. This weapon deals force damage to constructs, elementals and objects instead of its regular damage type.
Reliable. When you hit a creature with an attack using an adamantine weapon, you may reroll the weapon’s damage dice and use the higher roll.
Mighty Cleaving
If you hit a creature with a melee attack roll using this weapon, you can make a melee attack roll with the weapon against another creature within 5 feet of the first that is also within your reach. On a hit, the second creature takes the weapon’s damage. You cannot attack the same creature more than once with this property as a part of the same attack.
Humanoid Swatting
When you hit a humanoid creature with this weapon it takes an extra 2d6 damage of the weapon’s type. If that creature is reduced to 10 hit points or fewer by this damage, it dies.
Allerophon’s Spartanium Armor
Plate Armor, Very Rare (Requires Attunement)
When Sparta used her Spark of Creation to make weapons for the Chosen to kill the God of Time, she forged them from a combination of metals; both Adamantine and Orichalcum.
Adamantine Armor
Magic Armor. You have a +2 bonus to your armor class while wearing this armor.
Adamantine. While you’re wearing this armor, any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.
Damage Resistance
You have resistance to lightning damage while attuned to this item.
Altan’s Staff of Exploration
Quarterstaff, Very Rare (Requires Attunement)
Altan was never prepared to explore Loggers County, and didn’t want to find himself in close-quarters combat with the beasts within, so he created a staff designed to avoid that exact situation.
Uncommon Spellcasting
You can cast Pass Without Trace. Once this property has been used, you cannot use it again until the next dawn.
Primordial
This weapon deals an extra 1d8 thunder damage.
Striking
This weapon has 10 charges. When you hit with an attack using it, you can expend up to 3 charges. For each charge you expend, the target takes an extra 1d6 force damage. It regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn.
Credits
Credits
Creative Director: Daði Einars Lead Designer: Magnús Fr. Art Director: Brimrún Birta Production & Layout: Anna Birna
Legal Disclaimer
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.