Refining

The first step in creating an item out of Monster Parts and other specialized materials is refining the item. At its most basic level, refining monster parts into an item allows you to create a mundane Weapon, Armor, or Shield out of those parts, as well as the basis for an item that will become a Perception item or skill item, like goggles or an anklet. This costs the normal amount for an item of that type. For instance, it would take 1 gp worth of parts to make a Longsword , so you could slay a Bulette and build a longsword out of its claws with plenty of materials to spare.
Beyond the basics, refining upgrades an item’s basic functionality and allows the item to be Imbued  with additional powers. To refine an item, you first gather monster parts that meet the requirements listed in the item’s refining entry and combine them into the item. you can’t use this process on a magic item. A refined shield normally uses the statistics for a steel shield. Because items refined out of monster parts usually aren’t metal, it bypasses a druid’s restriction against wearing metal armor and shields, which offers a small but noticeable improvement for druids’ survivability.

Refining Details

The five main categories of items you can refine are weapons, armor, shields, Perception items, and skill items. You can refine an item with monster parts, causing the item to increase in value. Refined items level up when the total value of monster parts used to refine them reaches set thresholds, and as you keep refining and leveling up your items, they grant additional benefits.  In addition to these specific benefits, increasing an item’s level also increases your options when imbuing the item. You can’t refine an item to a level above your character’s level. 

Salvaging

Sometimes you’ll come across refined items during your travels. When you do, you typically have a decision to make: do you salvage the item, or decide to keep it and refine it further? Salvaging an item deconstructs the item into monster parts that can be used for refining or imbuing. However, salvaging can retrieve parts worth at most 50% of the cost of the item’s refinement and imbued properties, similarly to selling an item but without the need to return to town and find a shop to use as an intermediary. For example, an axe with 100 gp of parts spent to refine it and 100 gp of parts spent to imbue a fire property has a total cost of 200 gp of parts. Salvaging would recover 100 gp of parts, 50 from each. These salvaged parts can be used for refinement or imbuing as normal.

Utility

Weapon Refinement by Level

Item Level	Refinement Bonuses
2	item bonus to attack rolls (+1), imbuing (1)
4	additional damage dice (2 dice, striking)
10	item bonus to attack rolls (+2), imbuing (2)
12	additional damage dice (3 dice, greater striking)
16	item bonus to attack rolls (+3), imbuing (3)
19	additional damage dice (4 dice, major striking)

Armor Refinement by Level

Item Level	Refinement Bonuses
5	increased item bonus to AC (+1), imbuing (1)
8	item bonus to saving throws (+1, resilient)
11	increased item bonus to AC (+2), imbuing (2)
14	item bonus to saving throws (+2, greater resilient)
18	increased item bonus to AC (+3), imbuing (3)
20	item bonus to saving throws (+3, major resilient)

Shield Refinement by Level

Item Level	Refinement Bonuses
3	Hardness 5, HP 30, BT 15
4	imbuing
5	Hardness 6, HP 36, BT 18
7	Hardness 7, HP 42, BT 21
8	Hardness 8, HP 48, BT 24
9	Hardness 9, HP 54, BT 27
10	Hardness 10, HP 60, BT 30
12	Hardness 11, HP 66, BT 33
13	Hardness 12, HP 72, BT 36
15	Hardness 13, HP 78, BT 39
16	Hardness 14, HP 84, BT 42
17	Hardness 15, HP 90, BT 45
18	Hardness 16, HP 96, BT 48
19	Hardness 17, HP 102, BT 51
20	Hardness 18, HP 108, BT 54

Item Refinement by Level

Item Level	Refinement Bonuses
3	item bonus (+1), imbuing
9	item bonus (+2)
17	item bonus (+3)

Refine

Downtime

You integrate material components you have acquired as part of your adventuring into your gear. Make a Crafting check at the DC for the level you are upgrading to. This represents using your craftsmanship to improve your gear.

• Critical Success: You upgrade the item to the desired level and recover half of the materials planned for the upgrade through extraordinary effeciency
• Success: You upgrade the item to the desired level
• Failure: Your upgrade does not take to your item but you recover half of the materials planned for the upgrade.
• Critical Failure: Your upgrade does not take to your item and you lose the materials set aside for it

— Taming the West

Parent Technologies

• Harvest

Children Technologies

• Imbuing

Refining and Imbuing vs Runes

An item is either built and upgraded using this system or the normal rules for magic items with precious materials, fundamental runes, and property runes. A single item can’t use both at once.

Variant: Precious Materials and Refining

Normally a refined item is made out of various monster parts, and so it can’t be made out of a precious item. However, it’s possible that you might have a situation where you want to mimic the rules of a special material, perhaps for an item made entirely out of dragon scales, or for something made of extremely light monster parts that mimic the effects of mithral. In this case, choose which types of monsters provide parts that can create a special material item, for instance, dragons are a natural choice for the effects of dragonhide. A character can contribute monster parts towards the special material’s effects in the same way as refining monster parts into a mundane item. Just like normal for items made out of precious materials, a lowgrade precious material item can only be refined up to level 8, and a standard-grade precious material item can be refined up to level 15. A character can improve the grade of a precious material item from low to standard to high by providing an appropriate monster equal to the difference in price.

Refinement by Item Level (Weapons and Armor)

Item Level	Parts Cost	Refine DC
1	20 gp	14
2	35 gp	15
3	60 gp	17
4	100 gp	18
5	160 gp	19
6	250 gp	21
7	360 gp	22
8	500 gp	23
9	700 gp	25
10	1000 gp	26
11	1440 gp	27
12	2060 gp	29
13	3120 gp	30
14	4,600 gp	31
15	6,800 gp	33
16	10,300 gp	34
17	16,000 gp	35
18	26,000 gp	37
19	45,000 gp	38
20	60,000 gp	39

Refinement by Item Level (Shields, Perception Items, and Skill Items)

Item Level	Parts Cost	Refine DC
1	10 gp	14
2	20 gp	15
3	35 gp	17
4	60 gp	18
5	100 gp	19
6	160 gp	21
7	240 gp	22
8	340 gp	23
9	470 gp	25
10	670 gp	26
11	950 gp	27
12	1350 gp	29
13	2000 gp	30
14	3,000 gp	31
15	4,300 gp	33
16	6,500 gp	34
17	10,000 gp	35
18	16,000 gp	37
19	25,000 gp	38
20	45,000 gp	39