Equipment Quality
The condition of your equipment and the equipment you find your adventures is important to their combat effectiveness. So the next time you defeat that centuries old Undying Warrior and take their breastplate, you might be disappointed to find that it's not exactly what you'd call combat ready.
Loot Quality
The equipment that you've found in your travels up to this point have strangely shown no signs of wear and were all seemingly made by the blacksmith from down the street.
This is strange considering the goblins of the Cat-Eater tribe have no blacksmiths whatsoever and rely on crudely constructed spears or scavenged scimitars. Furthermore, the ancient undead army of darkness whose bodies had lain dormant for millennia until the dark lord awakened them last Tuesday are equally as fabulous.
This is obviously nonsense, so consider modifying the equipment that your players receive with the tables below.
Equipment Crafting
In order to craft weapons and armor, you require three important components: tools, resources, and time.
- In terms of tools, it depends on if you're crafting with leather, metal, or wood; requiring leatherworker's tools, smith's tools, and woodcarver's tools respectively. For metal work, however, you will also require a functional forge in addition to your smith's tools.
- The resources cost two fifths of the end product.
- The time it takes depending on whether or not you are crafting arms or armor, as seen below.
At the end of each time step, you are required to make an Intelligence or Wisdom ability check using the required tool. Once you have finished crafting the item, you compare your average result against the DCs in the table below. The quality of the completed item is the highest whose DC it beats, you can keep working on an item to attempt to increase your average DC, but you also risk making it worse.
Regardless, of the average crafting check, if you are not proficient in the required tool, the best you can craftsmanship you can create is Crude. Furthermore, in order to make a Masterwork item, you need to have Expertise in the appropriate tool.
Armor Crafting
When crafting armor, it takes one day of work for every 50 gp in the base item's cost (rounded up). If you're crafting an item worth at least 500 gp, you can choose to make the crafting ability check once every ten days instead of every day (rounded up).
Weapon Crafting
When crafting weapons, it takes one day of work for every 10 gp in the base item's cost (rounded up).
Repairing Equipment
Over the course of your adventures, your equipment may become damaged and need repair.
Bent, blunt, dented, dull, and weathered equipment can be restored to maintained quality, anything else can only be restored to repaired quality.
To repair an item, you need the item, the appropriate tools, time, and (depending on the condition) additional materials.
Restoring an item to maintained condition takes an hour of work and a DC 10 ability check with the appropriate tool.
Restoring an item to repaired condition takes 5 hours of with, a DC 15 ability check with the appropriate tool, and materials worth a tenth of the cost of the base item. An item which has been damaged by an black pudding and the like can, likewise, only be restored to repaired status.
An item loses its masterwork craftsmanship if someone without Expertise in the appropriate tool attempts to repair it.
In an optional rule where your equipment actively degrades with use, any actively used equipment is restored from weathered to maintained over the course of a long rest at no cost, provided you have the appropriate equipment.
Magical Items
When delving into the dark dank depths of dangerous decrepit dungeons, you are surprised to find an ancient magical item untouched by the ravages of time when everything else has decayed into dust.
This is because a basic enchantment applied to almost all magical items is one that makes it either resistant or immune to the ravages of time. This does not make it pristine however, it maintains whichever condition it possessed before it was imbued with magical properties. Furthermore, magic items in the proximity of an antimagic field lose this property as well and can decay as normal.
Equipment Craftsmanship
| Equipment Craftsmanship | AC Adjustment | Attack Adjustment | Damage Adjustment | Price Adjustment | Crafting DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterwork | +1 | +1 | 0 | 200% | 18 |
| Standard | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 15 |
| Amateur | -1 | -1 | -1 | 75% | 12 |
| Crude | -2 | -2 | -1 Size | 50% | 10 |
| Shoddy | -3* | -3 | -2 Size | 10% | 8 |
Equipment Condition
| Equipment Condition | AC Adjustment | Attack Adjustment | Damage Adjustment | Price Adjustment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Conditions | ||||
| Pristine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| Maintained | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80% |
| Weathered | -1 | -1 | -1 | 50% |
| Repaired | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% |
| Fragile | 0* | 0* | 0 | 25% |
| Ramshackle | -2 | -1d6 | -1 Size | 10% |
| Broken | * | * | * | 0% |
| Specific Conditions | ||||
| Bent | — | -1d4 | 0 | 75% |
| Dull | — | 0 | -1 | 75% |
| Blunt | — | -1d4 | -1d4 | 50% |
| Dented | -1 | — | — | 25% |
| Splintered | -2 | 0 | -2 | 10% |
| Torn | -2 | — | — | 10% |
| Punctured | -2 | — | — | 10% |
Condition Descriptions
The following are descriptions of the various states you might find your gear or looted gear in:
Pristine. A pristine item, is a weapon that has never been used. It should be noted, that a basic enchantment of any magic item makes it immune to wear, so magic items are usually always in this condition.
Maintained. An item, once used is considered weathered, that said, most adventurers tend to take care of their active equipment as part of their long rest, and are typically in this state. Maintaining any additional equipment takes an additional hour, but typically stays maintained until subjected to the elements.
Weathered. Items that see a lot of use or are left unattended for long periods of time without upkeep become weathered.
Repaired. Items that have seen long use or serious damage can be repaired, but the process leaves obvious marks of what they've been through. This equipment functions perfectly, but people usually don't want it.
Fragile. Due to age or manufacturing flaws, this item is fragile. It acts as normal, but once you make a critical hit with a fragile weapon, or your fragile armor is hit by a critical hit, it breaks
Ramshackle. This equipment is barely holding on by a thread, if it had threads. This item has not been looked after to a long time, and it shows
Broken. This item has broken beyond use. It deals no damage, or gives not protection. You might be able to fix it, however.
Bent. This weapon's blade or handle has been bent. It still works, for what it's worth, but you can't hit with it worth a damn.
Dull. This piercing or slashing weapon's blade has lost it's edge but it still cuts... for now.
Blunt. This piercing or slashing weapon's blade's edge has worn smooth. If you somehow manage to cut with this thing, it's damage die has been reduced by one step, check the end of this section for more details. Due to the lack of a cutting edge whatsoever, this weapon also deals bludgeoning damage instead of its usual damage type.
Dented. This metal armor's shape has been buckled, it could be hammered back into shape, but in the meantime, it's not nearly as effective at deflecting blows.
Splintered. This wooden shield or weapon has taken a major fracture, you can still use it, but you might not want to.
Torn. A massive gash has been torn through this leather armor. It still offers protection... on the parts that it still covers. It could be patched though.
Punctured. A hole has been torn into this metal armor, giving someone skilled or lucky enough to take the shot a chance to hit you through them. It could be patched however.
Credits
Designed by d'Artagnan on DMs Guild, /u/dArtagnanDnD on reddit, or dArtagnanDnD on patreon and dArtagnanDnD on Twitter.
- Made with "GM Binder".
- Made with reference and for use with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, created by Wizards of the Coast.