Rules Update - Core Smithing Rules

The following changes are being made to the Smithing rules. After hearing some of the concerns, we realized that in the series of changes that a pending rules change goes through, some things got lost in translation.

The overall goal of the Smithing overhaul was to reduce crafting times, simplify the math and numbers used in Smithing, and increase the costs of some of the skills to bring them in line with other effects. For example, the prayer Prowess grants +1 damage for 5 minutes, while Honing a weapon grants +1 damage for an entire period. Because of this, the cost of Honing has been increased to be more in line with the benefit it gives.

Superior and Exalted weapons have increased in price significantly, as the benefit they offer is substantial. A Superior weapon that is honed keeps its +1 bonus over three additional periods at no cost to the person doing the honing. Similarly, Exalted items grant the equivalent of a +1 Damage or Soak rune. The cost of making items Superior or Exalted in nature has been increased to reflect this benefit properly.

Materials have changed how they are found, and counted. Formerly, 5 units of material made up a Bar / Bundle / Stack / Shard. This has been dropped - all units are now a single Bar / Bundle / Stack Shard, for simplicity's sake. Prices will be adjusted appropriately, and updated online and in the rulebook. This is essential to how the revised numbers work, below.

If you have item cards for materials that are a fraction of a whole unit, you may combine them with other such cards and trade them into Logistics for a single full unit. If you cannot make a full unit, or have a remainder left over, you may trade them into Logistics for market value, and the gold will be deposited directly to your bank. (In the case of Silver or Copper, it will be returned to you in coin, since it will be less than 1 GP.)

And now, on to the actual changes...




Forge / Repair Armament has been updated as follows:
A smith can create a weapon, shield, or piece/suit of armor. Each item is assigned a value. This value represents the Units of material, the time in minutes, and the amount of CP required creating that item.

Balance Armor has been updated as follows:
This ability allows a smith to increase the Armor Ratio of a character’s armor by +1. It requires one CP and one minute to balance one torso location and one non-torso location, or four non-torso locations. Damage sustained by armor is subtracted from the Balanced bonus before the rest of the armor, and loses its Balanced state once this bonus is depleted. Armor must be fully repaired to be balanced, and the armor must be being worn during the balancing. Removing the armor removes the Balanced status. This ability cannot be used on armor that has been bound. This skill may only be used on physical, worn armor.

The cost of the skill Gird Shield has been changed to 1 CP, and 1 minute of work.

The cost of the skill Weapon Guard has been changed to 3 CP, and 1 minute of work. The restriction of once per period has been dropped.

The cost of the skill Reinforce Armament has been changed to 2 CP, and one minute of work. This skill can no longer be stacked (There are spells and prayers that do the same function, these can be layered).

The cost of the skill Hone Weapon has been changed top 5 CP, and one minute of work.

The cost of the skill Temper Armament has been changed to 10 CP, and one minute of work. The restriction of once per event has been dropped.

The cost of making an Armament Superior or Exalted has been changed to +10 CP.

The cost of making a location of Armor Superior or Exalted has been changed to +5 CP.

Forging Armor has been updated as follows:
For the rules on wearing and using armor, please read the Armor section of the rulebook.

A single piece of armor is often made up of multiple locations, such as a breastplate consisting of both an upper and lower torso. For the purposes of construction and enhancement, a piece of armor that covers more than one location is considered a single piece if the physrep for the armor's areas cannot be detached from each other by intent and design. For example, a set of pauldrons (shoulders) riveted onto a breastplate make them a part of that piece of armor, while a set of pauldrons that can be unbuckled are considered separate pieces.

Any time a piece of armor is created, enhanced, or imbued, the entire piece must be done at the same time, with the same enhancements, and from the same materials. For example, if you want to make a chainmail shirt from mithril, you cannot choose to make the torso from mithril, and the shoulders and arms from steel. Similarly, one could not choose to make just the torso Superior, or balance just the arms - all locations from that piece need to be of the same quality, and have the same enhancement applied to all locations. The combined locations are treated as one smithing project for purposes of combining CP and time, and for effects that reduce CP and time.

Are we allowed to, upon creation, request that a several-piece element of armor be created with multiple cards, so that it can be balanced piece by piece at a later point? If you do, can you wear a set of professional grade armor on more than one card and still receive the soak benefit?

I will have a new Cheat Sheet, and hopefully the new Core Rulebook, up in a day or two.

EDIT: Cheat Sheet is posted in Files & Downloads, attaching here. If you play a Smith, use their services, or wear armor a lot - take a look at this, and things will make a LOT of sense. This set of updates makes things very, very simple and easy to remember.