Soulsmithing - jc1483/Cradle GitHub Wiki
Overview
A diegetic description of soulsmithing can be found on the sacred arts page.
Soulsmithing is the mechanic by which a player may craft constructs. This may occur during the light rest portion of a long or short rest, but will be accounted for time-wise at half-efficiency. The base DC for a craft is 5 when the desired construct is below your level, 10 when it is equal, and 15 when it is one level above (maximum). On a failed craft, if the roll result was 5 or less below the DC, the base materials are lost. If the roll result was 10 or less below the DC, any bindings are lost as well and the player receives a "Failed Craft" inventory item. If the roll result is lower than 10 below the DC, all materials and bindings are lost and the player does not receive a "Failed Craft" item.
Requirements
Tools
In order to soulsmith, a player must possess suitable tongs and hammers required by the desired constructs. A table of requirements is given below:
| Construct Level | Tongs | Detail Hammer | Forging Hammer | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jade or below | Halfsilver or better | none | Jade or better | none |
| Gold Realm | Goldsteel or better | LowGold or better | LowGold or better | none |
| Lord Realm | Titan's bone | Underlord or better | LowGold or better | Soulfire |
| Sage | Wintersteel | Archlord or better | Underlord or better | Soulfire, Will |
| Herald | Titan's bone | Herald or better | Archlord or better | Soulfire |
| Monarch | Wintersteel | Herald or better | Herald or better | Soulfire, Will |
| Ascendant+ | Absidian | Monarch or better | Monarch or better | Soulfire, Will, Soulforge |
Binding
A construct must have one or more bindings which determine its function. The bindings can be any type: striker, forger, enforcer, or ruler. Each binding must be a maximum one level higher than the player's current level but must be at least the level of the intended resultant construct. Using multiple bindings will drastically affect both the chance of success of the smithing as well as the required raw materials. Some combinations will not be possible. Compatible aspects are given below:
| Highly Compatible | Medium Compatibility | Low Compatibility |
|---|---|---|
| • Void and Water• Shield and Hammer• Hunger and Ice• Fire and Strength• Destruction and Force• Cloud and Crown• Death and Life• Bow and Dragon• Blood and Poison• Dream and Pure• Light and Shadow• Blade and Wind• Earth and Spatial | • Blade + Bow or Crown• Blood + Hunger or Life• Bow + Blade or Shield• Cloud + Shadow or Wind• Crown + Blade or Light• Death + Destruction or Poison• Destruction + Death or Hammer• Dragon + Hammer or Wind• Dream + Shadow or Spatial• Earth + Pure or Water• Fire + Hunger or Void• Force + Life or Shield• Hammer + Destruction or Dragon• Hunger + Blood or Fire• Ice + Poison or Strength• Life + Force or Blood• Light + Crown or Dream• Poison + Death or Ice• Pure + Earth or Light• Shadow + Cloud or Dream• Shield + Bow or Force• Spatial + Dream or Void• Strength + Ice or Water• Void + Fire or Spatial• Water + Earth or Strength• Wind + Cloud or Dragon | • Blade + Strength or Force• Blood + Dragon or Crown• Bow + Poison or Ice• Cloud + Poison or Spatial• Crown + Blood or Earth• Death + Fire or Shadow• Destruction + Blade or Pure• Dragon + Blood or Hunger• Dream + Force or Hammer• Earth + Crown or Light• Fire + Death or Wind• Force + Blade or Wind• Hammer + Dream or Water• Hunger + Dragon or Void• Ice + Bow or Water• Life + Strength or Light• Light + Life or Earth• Poison + Bow or Cloud• Pure + Destruction or Shield• Shadow + Death or Spatial• Shield + Pure or Void• Spatial + Cloud or Shadow• Strength + Blade or Life• Void + Hunger or Shield• Water + Hammer or Ice• Wind + Fire or Force |
Materials
In order to forge the construct, there must be a substructure for the binding to attach to. This substructure can be made of suitable raw materials which exude the same aspect(s) as the binding(s). Additionally, the amount of material required is a number of small items equal to the level of the desired resultant construct.
Madra
While forging a construct, a soulsmith's own madra must be used to join and mold the materials and binding together as one. As such, a soulsmith may only create constructs which are compatible with their path's madra type(s). See the compatibility table above to get an idea of how a soulsmith's madra type might affect the likelihood of a good outcome.
Time
A soulsmith must use a number of hours determined by rolling Xd4kl(X-1) where X is the level of the desired resultant construct.
Example
An Iron soulsmith wishes to craft a Jade level striker construct that sends a slash of wind in a target direction. Here is the process they would take to forge a construct:
- Check their tools
- The soulsmith possesses halfsilver tongs and a LowGold level forging hammer.
- Check their bindings
- They have just procured a Jade level striker binding from an eagle sacred beast's remnant whose path uses wind and bow aspects.
- Check their Materials
- In addition to the binding, they harvested 6 feathers (worth two small items) from the eagle (wind and bow aspects).
- They also have a bone from a fledgling cliff dragon on hand (worth one medium item). It emits dragon aspect aura which is moderately compatible with the wind aspect of their desired construct, increasing the DC of the craft by 5.
- Check their madra.
- The soulsmith follows a blade path which is highly compatible with wind and therefore does not incur a penalty.
- Roll for time.
- They rolled four d6 dice: 2, 3, 4, 6. Keeping the lowest 3, they must expend 9 hours to attempt this craft.
- Attempt the craft.
- They are about to long rest and spend their two low activity hours crafting (worth one real crafting hour). The next day, they spend an additional four hours crafting while their party has some down time. After a short rest in which they don't craft, they spend four hours during a later day finishing the craft. The soulsmith is attempting a craft one level higher than they are which means the base DC is 15. They add 5 DC due to the compatibility of their materials bringing the total to 20. On their soulsmithing check, they add their intelligence modifier of +2 and an item modifier of +1. They roll a 12, bringing their total to 15. Although the craft is unsuccessful, it is not a total waste. Their roll was high enough that only the materials are wasted. On their next attempt, they gather enough wind aspect materials to not incur a penalty. They roll a 14, adding their modifiers to make it a 17, and are rewarded with a brand new launcher construct!