Craft and Craftsmen

No, my services are not free. Yes, I will try to teach you a lesson with each task. No, you will probably not figure it out.
I'm surrounded by idiots.
-Ingleheimer Smith

All but the most common magic items are by their nature rather difficult for the average citizen to obtain. As magical as our adventures tend to be, most people in the realms will never see more than a few thousand gold pieces in a year. Outside of specialist societies like the gnomes of Tinkertown, people generally just don't have access to an abundance of magic or magical tools beyond what's readily available to help them get through their day-to-day lives. In other words, items worth as much or more than the average person's salary are not often things you just find in stores and inventories.
As mentioned in Using the Bazaar, player shops are the best place to look for crafting services when it comes to rare or complicated items. Just be ready - depending on what you ask for, the craftsman may need to send you on a Tale to get the materials required to make the item.
If you would rather make your own items, there are a few things you need:

• A Formula.
• An Exotic Material.
• Proficiency with and a set of appropriate Artisan's Tools.
• If you're a craftsman working in the right kind of workshop, there's some added perks and bonuses here. We'll explain workshops further down the page.

Before you get too far ahead of yourself, check the Restricted Items list. Any items on the "Partial" list are items that exist and can be crafted, but have special lore requirements managed by staff in making those items.

The Formula

A formula is the instructions needed to create a complex or magical item. It doesn't particularly matter what those instructions look like, it only really matters that they exist and you need it in order to craft the item. Maybe it's a physical sheet of paper, like a blueprint. Maybe it's an esoteric set of steps in a dance or ritual that when completed with the right materials, causes the item to magically appear. Again, the specifics are up to you, but the main premise remains the same.

Researching a Formula

To determine whether your character already knows the formula for an existing item, head over to the Scrollbinder's Institute in the Bazaar (or use your own shop, which offers more tailored options), determine the DC, and roll it. Alternatively, head over to a Scrollbinder's shop and commission them for the work - they specialize in research, and may even have the formula already available to purchase. Assuming you want to do the work yourself, continue.
Determining Research DC. All formulas use the following table for research, with difficulty based on the item's type and rarity. If you're researching the formula for a magic item, you must be proficient in Arcana checks, else it's simply impossible for you to understand the principles necessary to reproduce the desired formula. If an item would fall into more than one category, always use the higher DC of the two items. For example, uncommon items have a DC of 19; heavy armor has a DC of 21. Since adamantine armor is both an uncommon item and heavy armor, we use DC 21.

Cost. Check the Market Catalogue to figure out what the item is worth, then divide that number by 100. If the result is less than 1, round it up to 1. The cost needs paid every time you make a check, preferably before you roll and learn the result of your attempt.
Roll It. Make an Intelligence check against the Research DC, unless it's a magic item. For magic items, make an Arcana check. If you own your own workshop, you're allowed to substitute either of these checks with one of your workshop's crafting skills or tool proficiencies, though you must still at least have proficiency in Arcana checks if researching magic items. Very handy if you're not a naturally smart individual and can't afford to hire a Scrollbinder to complete the research for you.
Assuming you succeed, you "learn" the formula and are now free to craft the item provided you have the other necessary components to do so. Just make sure to log what formulas you know somewhere, like your character sheet or a thread in the they-see-me-rolling channel.

Civip decides one day that he'd like to learn how to make one of those fancy belts that make their wearer super strong. He's had some help obtaining them in the past, but those were... we'll leave it at there's better versions, and Civip wants to make the strongest one he can - a belt of storm giant strength.
Civip returns to his forge, making an initial investment of about 50,000 GP (500,000 GP ÷ 100) to gather helpful materials, recruit assistance, and experiment with combinations. He makes a check using his Smithing Tools against a DC of 30 (a legendary item), and by the miracle of setting examples, succeeds on his first try.
Civip now knows exactly what he needs to actually make the item. Now he just needs to do it.

Invention

There is a second, less commonly-known method of obtaining formulas: invention. This allows you to create formulas for items that don't necessarily exist in D&D's catalogues - in other words, it's an approved method of homebrewing your own items for use in Chromanexus. This process is explained more in Invention, but the end result is the same. You learn a formula for the item if you succeed, and are then free to craft it.

An Exotic Material

Magical and complex items often need something unusual, rare, or extraordinarily specific in order to successfully craft them. It won't always be the same thing from one craftsman to the next - you're not going to find an itemized list of exotic materials and which items they're used for, but they're still necessary to craft the item.

• A Tale. The desired material can be obtained from a relevant quest. The material can be virtually anything so long as it makes sense, including but not limited to abstract concepts like "getting a giant's heart." Maybe it's literal. Maybe it's not. You'll have to figure that part out. If you're organizing the adventure, use the Tales guide to create and submit a quest to run and play, or recruit someone via matchmaking-lfg to organize the quest for you. Remember, if this item is on the Partial Restriction list, you'll need to get a staff member's attention and work out the details.
• Chromatite. If the item is a magic item, a craftsman working out of their own shop can substitute a piece of Chromatite matching the item's rarity for the exotic material.

Once you get a hold of your exotic material, you have almost everything you need to make the item. All that's left is...

Proficiency

It's simple. You just need proficiency with the right set of tools to make the item if you have everything else. Use your best discretion here. For example, if you're proficient with smithing tools, no one's going to bat an eye if you use them to make a sword. However, if you use those smithing tools to make, say... a sail? That's a completely different conversation. If you're ever not sure, check in blame-a-gan, staff are happy to help verify.
Just remember: regardless of any other factors, if the item is magic or magical in nature, you must have proficiency in Arcana checks.

Crafting the Item

You've got your formula. You've got your materials. You've learned how to use the tools you need to use. Now to actually do the deed.
Head over to the All-Forge and set your active character if you haven't already (!char).

Figure out the Crafting Cost

Feel free to check in blame-a-gan if you need help figuring this out. This represents the cost of tools, materials, and other resources you use with every attempt, and like research, needs paid every time whether you succeed or fail.

• For non-magical items, the crafting cost is half the item's market value.
• For magical items, the base cost is 80% of its market value. If it's a compound item (like adamantine armor), don't forget to add half the compound item's value to this total. To make things easier for you, we've provided a table showing you what 80% of a magic item's market value is below. Don't forget - if you're an artificer, and you're a high enough level, it's cheaper to craft magic items than it is for everyone else because of your class abilities.

Figure out the DC

Here's the craft DC table again. Yes, it is the same table we use for research. Yes, the same rules apply if an item falls into more than one category. Always use the highest DC the item fits in.

Roll it

If you lack a workshop, you'll need to use an ability score appropriate to the item you're trying to make plus your proficiency bonus (note the tool you're using for the attempt, since Avrae doesn't let you just make tool checks without a custom setup). Admittedly, we don't scrutinize this very hard, so scout's honor you're using the best stat for the job, but there will be questions if we happen to notice something too outlandish. As a general rule:

• Constitution is used for brews and work involving hazardous materials, like elemental components.
• Strength is used for work requiring manual labor, like construction, metallurgy, etc.
• Dexterity is used in fletching and precision crafts, like woodcarving, clocks, firearms, etc.
• Intelligence is used for items involving precise knowledge to create or reproduce, like magical items and firearms.
• Wisdom is used for items relating to natural- or divine schools of thought, like focuses, alchemy, etc.
• Charisma is used for convincing yourself that whatever you just made actually works, when it most certainly doesn't. Just kidding, but it is a good stat to use for items tied to the wielder's will and sense of self, like certain conjuration items.

Make sure to note what you're attempting to craft before making the check. The check will look something like !check [score of choice] -b [proficiency bonus] -dc [craft DC]. If you're really fancy, you can even make the check display what you're trying to craft along with flavor text using the -f parameter. If none of that makes any sense to you, don't worry about it. Other players and staff can help you if you really want to know.
On a success, congratulations! You've made the item and may add it to your inventory. It's yours now. On a failure, you'll have to try again. The higher the item's DC, the more likely it becomes you'll need to attempt several times to succeed - that's why it pays to get every advantage you can get to set yourself apart from the rabble as a truly legendary craftsman. You'll need a workshop for that.