Downtime Activity: Crafting a Magic Item

D&D 2024 rule: Downtime Activity: Crafting a Magic Item. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide (2014). rule type Optional Magic items are the DM's purview, so you decide how they fall into the party's possession. As an option, you can allow player characters to craft magic items. The creation of a magic item is a lengthy, expensive task. To start, a character must have a formula that describes the construction of the item. The character must also be a spellcaster with spell slots and must be able to cast any spells that the item can produce. Moreover, the character must meet a level minimum determined by the item's rarity, as shown in the Crafting Magic Items table. For example, a 3rd-level character could create a wand of magic missiles (an uncommon item), as long as the character has spell slots and can cast magic missile. That same character could make a +1 weapon (another uncommon item), no particular spell required. You can decide that certain items also require special materials or locations to be created. For example, a character might need alchemist's supplies to brew a particular potion, or the formula for a flame tongue might require that the weapon be forged with lava. Common 100 gp 3rd Uncommon 500 gp 3rd Rare 5,000 gp 6th Very rare 50,000 gp 11th Legendary 500,000 gp 17th Crafting Magic Items An item has a creation cost specified in the Crafting Magic Items table. A character engaged in the crafting of a magic item makes progress in 25 gp increments, spending that amount for each day of work until the total cost is paid. The character is assumed to work for 8 hours each of those days. Thus, creating an uncommon magic item takes 20 days and 500 gp. You are free to adjust the costs to better suit your campaign. If a spell will be produced by the item being created, the creator must expend one spell slot of the spell's level for each day of the creation process. The spell's material components must also be at hand throughout the process. If the spell normally...