Advanced & Magical Crafting

Advanced crafting is used when a project requires more than ordinary tools, materials, and Crafting Time. This can include transforming a Special Material, following a learned Formula, applying a Treatment, building a Component, or constructing a magic item through a particular method.

These rules do not replace ordinary crafting. If a project can be completed through the normal crafting rules, no additional advanced steps are required.

When Advanced Crafting Applies

Advanced crafting is used when a Recipe, Formula, or Plan calls for something beyond ordinary construction.

This might include:

• a specific Special Material

• a processed or refined material

• a Treatment

• a Manufactured Component

• a learned Formula

• a specialized facility

• a required spell

• magical construction

• an engineering Plan

A project only uses the parts of the system that its own crafting entry requires.

Formulae

A Formula represents specialized knowledge needed to perform a particular crafting procedure.

Formulae can cover alchemical techniques, unusual material preparation, magical construction, transmutation, Component assembly, reclamation, and other methods that ordinary tool proficiency does not fully represent.

When a Formula is required, the crafting entry lists it by name.

Knowing the Formula does not replace the other requirements of the project. The crafter must still provide the required tools, materials, proficiencies, time, facilities, Components, or spells.

Formulae are not required for every craft, and they are not required for every magic item.

Learning Formulae

Formulae can be learned from people, institutions, written records, technical manuals, recovered notes, or other appropriate sources.

Some Formulae are widely known within a trade or profession. Others may belong to a particular culture, guild, institution, or specialist tradition.

Having the correct materials does not automatically mean a character knows how to perform a Formula.

Transforming Materials

Some projects require a material to be prepared or changed before it can be used.

Several forms of transformation appear in Eldareth's crafting system.

Processing

Processing turns a raw material into a more practical or standardized form without fundamentally changing what the material is.

Examples include preparing fibers, making specialist paper, or concentrating a botanical material.

Refinement

Refinement develops or directs useful qualities already present in a material.

Galarium Refinement is one of the most important examples.

Compound Materials

A Compound Material is created by combining several inputs into a new material with its own lasting identity.

Transmutation

Transmutation magically changes a material into a new persistent state or substance.

A finished material only has the Properties, Affinities, and other qualities established for that material. It does not automatically inherit every quality of the substances used to make it.

Treatments

A Treatment modifies an existing object without replacing the object's underlying identity.

Treatments can be physical, alchemical, magical, or preparatory. They may protect an item, alter how it interacts with another material, or prepare it for later construction.

A Treatment only provides the effect described by its crafting entry.

Applying a Treatment does not automatically make an item magical.

Manufactured Components

A Manufactured Component is a constructed part designed to perform a particular function inside a larger project.

A Component may contain Conventional Materials, Special Materials, Treatments, or other prepared inputs. Once completed, the Component is treated as its own finished input.

If a later project requires a specific Component, the finished Component must be provided. Its individual ingredients do not replace the completed assembly.

Assembly and Engineering

Some projects combine completed materials, Components, and structures into a larger construction.

This is handled through Assembly.

Large or technically complex magical constructions fall under Arcane Engineering. These can include portable devices, fixed installations, and larger systems.

Engineering projects may require:

• specific Components

• specialist materials

• particular facilities

• an external source of magical power

• site preparation

• calibration

• an engineering Plan

The individual Plan lists the requirements for the project.

Magic-Item Crafting

Most magic-item crafting uses the D&D 2024 rules as its foundation.

Unless a specific crafting entry says otherwise, a character crafting a magic item normally needs:

• proficiency in Arcana

• proficiency with the appropriate crafting tool

• access to that tool

• the required magical materials

• the required Crafting Time

• any required Base Item

• any required spells

An Eldareth Formula can add further requirements when a particular construction method needs them.

Official magic items do not automatically require Galarium, Special Materials, Components, or an Eldareth Formula.

Magical Raw-Material Budget

Magic-item crafting uses a rarity-based requirement for magical materials. In Eldareth, this is called the Magical Raw-Material Budget.

The Magical Raw-Material Budget is the normal magical-material requirement for the project. It is not an additional fee.

For a consumable magic item other than a Spell Scroll, the Magical Raw-Material Budget and Crafting Time are both halved.

Potion of Healing and Spell Scrolls use their own dedicated crafting procedures.

Base Items

Some magic items are built from an already completed object.

That object is the Base Item.

A magical sword, for example, can use a completed Longsword as its Base Item. The Longsword must already exist before the enchantment project begins, whether it was purchased, commissioned, or crafted separately.

The cost of the Base Item is separate from the Magical Raw-Material Budget.

Not every magic item requires a separately priced Base Item. The crafting entry will say when one is needed.

Special Base Materials

A Base Item can sometimes be made from a Special Material.

For example, a weapon might be forged from a Special Metal before it is later enchanted.

Using a Special Material does not automatically make the Base Item magical or reduce the cost of enchantment.

It only contributes to the later magical project when the Formula specifically recognizes that material.

Special Materials and Magical Construction

Some Formulae allow Special Materials, Treatments, Components, or other advanced inputs to satisfy part of the Magical Raw-Material Budget.

Their accepted Value then contributes toward the project's required magical materials.

A named requirement still has to be supplied even when its Value contributes toward the budget.

If a Formula requires a particular Galarium Shard, for example, an equal value of another magical material does not replace it.

Required Spells

Some magic items require the crafter to have particular spells prepared during construction.

A Formula can also require a spell because that spell is part of the construction method.

These are separate requirements.

A spell is not required simply because the finished item produces a similar effect. If the project requires a spell, the crafting entry states that requirement.

Routine Magical Crafting

Known magical construction is normally reliable when all of its requirements are satisfied.

An ability check is not required simply because a project is magical, expensive, rare, or time-consuming.

Checks are used when something introduces genuine uncertainty, such as damaged materials, experimental substitutions, unstable magic, inadequate facilities, or unfamiliar interference.

Galarium

Galarium is important to many advanced magical traditions in Eldareth, but it is not required for every magical craft.

Some Formulae use Galarium because its refined Properties make it useful for conducting, retaining, regulating, or supporting the amplification of magical energy.

When a project requires Galarium, its crafting entry identifies the form and characteristics needed.

The full player-facing rules for Galarium are found in Special Materials of Eldareth.

Using Advanced Crafting

Advanced crafting is modular.

One project might require only a Formula and a specific material. Another might use a processed material, a Treatment, and a Component. A large engineering project might combine several completed Components with Conventional construction and a specialized Plan.

Only use the stages required by the project.

Special Recipes & Formulae contains the exact procedures for established advanced crafts, while Crafting with Special Materials explains how their material requirements are read.