Requires: Weaponsmith, Gunsmith, or Armorsmith’s Tools Proficiency
Forging weapons and armor of immense power is crucial for gaining an edge on the seas. Weaponsmithing, or blacksmithing, is a valuable skill for any crew to have or recruit. Not only does weaponsmithing allow you to create basic weapons of varying tiers, but allows you to upgrade existing weapons and armor as well. You may upgrade a weapon to the next tier at the appropriate level by meeting the crafting goal of the new tier, as well as expending the appropriate raw material.
Creating Base Weapons and Armor
Creating weapons and armor at base requires 2 DT, expending a Raw Material, and a Weaponsmith’s, Gunsmith's, or Armorsmith’s tools check to reach a threshold. 2 DT affords you one tool check towards surpassing the threshold. Certain feats or features may grant you a reduced threshold to beat. The Crafting Threshold you must pass on depends on the Tier of the Raw Material used in crafting, detailed below. Raw Material may be found as a reward for an Adventure or through plunder, and a DM may give you a different name for the material to fit the roleplaying of the Adventure you got it from.
Raw Material - Tier 1:
Source: Breaking down weapons.
Base Upgrade Limit: 0/2.
Crafting Threshold: 35 (Simple Weapons / Light Armor), 40 (Martial Weapons / Medium Armor / Shields / Foci), 45 (Firearms / Heavy Armor), 50 (Exotic Weapons).
Raw Material - Tier 2:
Source: Forging / Purchase
Base Upgrade Limit: 0/3.
Crafting Threshold: 45 (Simple Weapons / Light Armor), 50 (Martial Weapons / Medium Armor / Shields / Foci), 55 (Firearms / Heavy Armor) 60 (Exotic Weapons).
Raw Material - Tier 3:
Source: Rare, powerful material, Level 8
Base Upgrade Limit: 0/5.
Crafting Threshold: 50 (Simple Weapons / Light Armor ), 55 (Martial Weapons / Medium Armor / Shields / Foci), 60 (Firearms / Heavy Armor) 65 (Exotic Weapons).
Raw Material - Tier 4:
Source: Extremely rare, Level 12
Base Upgrade Limit: 0/7.
Crafting Threshold: 55 (Simple Weapons / Light Armor), 60 (Martial Weapons / Medium Armor / Shields / Foci), 65 (Firearms / Heavy Armor), 70 (Exotic Weapons).
Understanding Raw Materials
Raw Materials oftentimes have various traits or upgrades attached to them. These traits are the upgrades that a player can attach to a weapon while crafting it. To understand Materials, detailed below is an explanation of their description.
Material Name
Raw Material, Trait (Leather, Wood, Metal, Stone)
Upgrades: Upgrade Name
Compatibility: Armor Type, Weapon Type, Special
Tier: (Tier of Material)
Traits: Traits are essentially what the Material is physically. When crafting a weapon or armor out of material of a certain trait, the completed craft becomes that type of material. For instance, making a weapon out of a property with the “Wood” trait, creates a weapon that would be considered wooden. If a material has a "Composite" trait as well, it means that it must be used with a Tiered Material when crafting a weapon or armor itself.
Upgrades: Upgrades listed in a material allow you to either add the upgrade to a creation when crafting with it, bypassing the upgrade point cost of adding such a property to a weapon or armor, but forces you to apply all eligible properties to it. For instance, Sea Prism Stone adds the “Suppressant” upgrade to a weapon at no point cost, as opposed to upgrading a weapon with it, which allows the weapon to gain the “Suppressant” upgrade at the required point cost.
Compatibility: Compatibility denotes what the weapon can be used on, like “Medium / Heavy Armor, or Weapons” for most Metals, or various specific weapons and armor for “Wood”, etc. Material with the “Special” compatibility trait can be used outside of the Blacksmithing Downtime activity, such as in Ship Building.
Tier: The tier of the material, meaning what tier of weapon it can make or be added too for an upgrade. Some Materials denote a tier of “--”, which means that it can be used to upgrade any tier weapon. All Tier "--" materials have the "Composite" trait attached.
Smithing with Upgrade Materials
Upgrade materials that you may find in the world, such as Mournsteel or Wapometal, have upgrades attached to them. When forging a base weapon of a desired tier, you may expend a Upgrade Material alongside the required Raw Material to create a weapon that includes the Upgrade listed in the raw material. The upgrade granted in this way does not count against the number of upgrade slots your weapon has upon completing the weapon and matches the tier of the weapon when finished. You can only use one base upgrade material when crafting a weapon. You can add more later on using mod slots.
Upgrades
Using either a weapon you crafted yourself, or a weapon you found or purchased, you can upgrade your weapons or armor using 2DT, requiring the base weapon and materials for the desired upgrade. Each upgrade uses a number of upgrade slots equal to twice its tier, you can only add upgrades to weapons or armor of the same tier or lower. Depending on the tier of the upgrade you want to add, you must succeed a number of Weaponsmith's Tools (for weapons) and Armorsmith’s Tool (for armor) checks determined by the upgrade tier detailed below. You must surpass the DC as many times as required, spending DT for each roll. To remove a property you added, make the same number of rolls with the same DC, and then the slots will be freed up.
Upgrade DC:
Tier 1: DC: 15 Two Times
Tier 2: DC: 20 Three Times
Tier 3: DC: 25 Four Times
Tier 4: DC: 35 Five Times
Slots per Mod Slots
Apprentice: 1 Mod Slot
Journeyman: 2 Mod Slots
Master: 3 Mod Slots
An item's base properties do not count against its upgrade slots. You may be granted additional upgrade points, as well as a reduced DC, through feats or features.
Scrapping Weapons
Acquiring raw materials can be a costly business that is why scrapping is extremely important to crafters. If you Spend 1 DT you can scrap up to your Intelligence modifier of weapons or armor you have collected over the course of your adventure. To scrap an item you simply place the item you wish to scrap in the forge and make a Weapon/Armorsmithing roll. 10x the number of items you are scraping is the total number needed during your DT activity to gain Tier 1 Raw Material (Scrap Metal). When the activity is completed you will gain 1 Tier 1 Raw Material per item you have placed in the forge.
Scrapping a crafted weapon gives you an amount of scrap equal to its tier. You cannot regain special materials this way.
Converting Material
When converting material together the process is relative simple you take two scrap materials together to create a new material. This only works up to tier 3 Raw Material.
If you spend 1 DT point you can perform a DT activity to feed your scrap metal to the local forge for every 2 Tier 1 Raw Material you feed (Max Intelligence modifier) you gain 1 Tier 2 Raw Material.
If your ship has a forge and an engine room, you can use 1 DT to turn 2 T2 Steel into 1 T3 Compressed steel up to your intelligence modifier.
Downtime Activity (Forging)
When Forging Material together the process is relative simple you take two scrap materials together to create a new material this only works up to tier 2 (Steel Material) if you spend 1 DT point you can perform a DT activity to feed your scrap metal to the local forge for every 2 scrap metal you feed (Max Intelligence modifier) you gain 1 steel
If you roll a nat 20 for upgrading or adding weapon properties it gives you advantage on the next roll.