Hammer & Anvil: Swordflight Crafting, PART XVI

Part XVI of the Swordflight Walkthrough. Continuing from Part XV: Mithral & Adamantine: Steelshaper Smithy. Swordflight (2008-2022) is a NWN Module for Neverwinter Nights 1 (2002).

Overview of cRPG Crafting

Crafting is a mechanic of cRPG Itemization which is itself a category of cRPG Design. I think crafting is an interesting aspect of cRPGs. By virtue of the D&D 3rd Edition ruleset, it's notable how NWN1 pushed crafting far beyond "BG1 Thunderhammer" and "BG2 Cromwell & Cespenar."

Allowing the player character or companions to craft items for the party -- subject to cRPG Stats -- is a big step up from having an NPC automatically do it.

Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil features great crafting mechanics, as does Obsidian's Storm of Zehir. In fact, without foreknowledge of campaign design and itemization, it is probable that we will find both ToEE and SoZ extremely difficult, or even impossible, if we fail to employ crafting (emphasis on ToEE). On the other hand, if we know exactly what we're doing then it's easy to become OP as a result of crafting as well (emphasis on SoZ).

Hordes of the Underdark was the campaign that added serious crafting mechanics to NWN; both those subject to PC skills and also Infinity Engine-style crafting which is not subject to skills, only cash-flow and itemization (Rizolvir in HotU).

Swordflight Crafting

This post is given over to one aspect of crafting in Swordflight NWN, which is sort of a hybrid of the abovementioned, in that it's subject to PC skills but also involves an NPC. It's also pretty balanced.

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As per the previous post which covered Smithy Materials, the Amateur Smithing quest is acquired through the Dwarven blacksmith, Thorik Steelshaper, whose smithy is located in the Market Disctrict of Chapter II's Calimport.

First, we must have at least one hardpoint in either the Craft Armor or Craft Weapon skills. If not, the quest and its associated crafting are locked out:

This is a forced check, and we might think that we are locked out forever. However, as progress through the campaign is made, it's possible to receive the quest and its associated crafting opportunities (providing that we have since gained hardpoints as well). 

Anyway, in the case of having hardpoints Thorik will check either our Craft Armor or Craft Weapon skill. It doesn't matter if we succeed or fail; we'll still be able to use his anvil in order to craft. Success just gives us bonus GP and XP:

Failure yields 75 GP and 62 XP. I could be wrong, but I believe the flat GP and XP rewards for success/failure were simply chosen by Rogueknight; they do not seem to be governed by our skillranks.

At any rate, Thorik's anvil can now be utilized for crafting purposes.

The main crafting menu is called up:

As well as the submenus for weapons:

(Not mentioned in the above screencap is that bows can be made Mighty. Not sure about crossbows and other ranged weapons; experiment!)

Armors:

Shields:

And ammunition:

I think it's clear from those screencaps that we can do quite a lot with crafting; not just for our conventional tanks and physical-based damage dealers, but also for our arcane spellcasters, divine spellcasters, and rogues.

Let's give an example. I'm not sure what the limit on mods/properties is (in HotU it's 3 for ranged weapons and 8 for melee ones), but let's take the Shimmering Blade which already has four...

... and add two more properties to it: Keen and Silver:

This craft was successfully completed with 10 ranks in Craft Weapon.

You will note that, in the description, it does not look like the Keen property has been applied. But on our character sheet the crit range has indeed increased to 15-20:

And, with Improved Critical: Scimitar, it is further increased to 12-20:

Which is exactly what the doctor ordered. We will now be delighted with our steady stream of crits. Of course, the Lawgiver scimitar already flaunts the Keen property, and I can Keen my scimitar by virtue of UMD (Keen scroll) or the Scabbard of Enchancement, but this was just an example.

The Silver property is also useful in that Calimport's sewers are teeming with wererats.

Note that preexisting mods/properties will not stack with crafted ones. For example, the Mithral Tower Shield +2 already flaunts the weight reduction property. Want to make it even lighter? Well, you can't. Wield the Masterwork Tower Shield instead (-80% weight). :P

There is also an interesting rune found in Chapter II. It's found on the third level of the Hidden Fortress, in the sanctum of the Cult Mage:

With such a rune, Thorik, or PCs who pass a Craft Weapon check, can enhance a weapon to +3 enchantment:

Incremental enhancements are always useful but +3 enchantment also allows us to bypass Nalfeshnee DR (though there are only two such enemies in Chapter II, as far as I know).

[cf. Paladin's Holy Rune]

[cf. Aielund Saga crafting]

As I've said (and will keep saying until I find something to the contrary), in all of its facets, Swordflight is pretty balanced but yet still interesting, and crafting does not seem to be an exception to that rule: it's not going to make us or break us; it's just there to give us a bit of a boost, as far as I can tell.

Swordflight Crafting in Chapters 4 & 5

Note that, in Swordflight Chapters 4 & 5 (whose crafting scripts appears to be the same but for enchantment level), we need very high scores in Crafting skills. To craft a melee weapon in C5, we need a Craft Weapon score in excess of 30 in order to upgrade a weapon to +5, Mass Crits 1d8, vs. undead 1d4 divine and vs. Outsider 1d4 magic. We can also craft armor, shield and ammo. Ranged weapons can be crafted with +7 Mighty mod in C5.

Take me to the next part: Bloody Blades.

Neverwinter Nights	Swordflight Chapter 3	Buried Ruins 2	Thieves' Guild	Mazar's Golems
Swordflight	Swordflight Alignment	Buried Ruins 3	Goblinoid Army	Precious Metals
Rogueknight Interview	Swordflight Walkthrough	Buried Ruins 4	Orc Army	Hammer & Anvil
Swordflight Chapter 1	Shifting Sands Inn	Calimport	Dragon Cult	Bloody Blades
Swordflight Chapter 2	Buried Ruins 1	Zataroth	Aranea Base	Zagash the Terrible