D&D: The New Magic Item Crafting Rules In The New DMG Are More What You’d Call Guidelines
The new Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for Crafting Magical Items. But they’re not as strict as you might otherwise hope.
Magic items are a powerful boon to any adventurer. From the humblest +1 sword to the mighty Staff of the Archmagi, there’s no end of powerful items an adventurer might want to get their grubby little hands on.
And while the traditional method of looting magic items (either from dungeons or the corpses of monsters contained therein) is one way, an enterprising adventurer might, given half a chance, create their own. This is why the new DMG has Magic Item crafting rules. As long as you can get what you need.
The Magic Item Crafting Rules In The New DMG Are Very Broad
Here’s how it works in a nutshell. First things first, you’ll need Proficiency in Arcana. Second, you will need one or more tool proficiencies, as will any assistants you employ. We’ll get to those in a minute.
Once you have your proficiencies (and the tools), you’ll need to spend time and money. Here’s where the rules get a little more specific. As far as time goes, you’ll need to spend 8 hours per day over the span of multiple days. Common magic items take 5 days, and it rises from there. All the way to 250 days for a Legendary magic item.
You’ll also need to spend the appropriate amount of gold on “raw materials.” That is, you’ll need the appropriate magical reagents and such. Here’s where your carefully laid plans of crafting the most broken item can fall apart. The DM determines “whether appropriate raw materials are available.” And even if they are available, you might be unable to snag ’em. There’s a 75% chance you can in a city but only a 25% chance in any other settlement.
But if you can manage all that, you can then craft your own magic items. All it takes is time, money, and a DM who is into whatever you’re after. Sadly, there aren’t more specific rules or lists of kinds of ingredients that might be worth their own adventure (like finding the hair of a unicorn, given willingly).
But, you could theoretically award “raw materials” for a magic item as part of the reward for completing a quest or the like. At any rate, those are the magic item crafting rules in the new DMG.
Make your own magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide!
