Woodworker Talent (by jaythegreenling)

*These woodworking rules were created for the Dragon Age setting and thus use setting-specific woods. Feel free to create your own woods.*

# Woodworker Talent

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Class: Any

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Requirement: You must have Dexterity 2 or higher and the Dexterity (Crafting) focus.

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*You know how to create items made of wood.*

**Novice**: You have great focus and it shows in your workmanship. If you fail a Dexterity (Crafting) test, you can re-roll it, but you must keep the result of the second roll.

**Journeyman:** You know how to use your time efficiently. When you perform an advanced Dexterity (Crafting) test, you gain a +1 bonus to the result of each Stunt Die for the purpose of reaching the Success Threshold.

**Master:** You are a master of your craft. When making items out of wood, you may now add masterwork benefits.

**Grandmaster:** You have studied the ways of creating high quality items and mistakes are less likely to ruin your entire project. The exceptional, outstanding, and kingly quality penalties for failures are all reduced by 1.

**Apex:** You know the secret ways of unlocking any wood’s inherent properties. When woodworking items, you may now use apex benefits.

### Rules

There are many things that can be made out of wood, and there are just as many people who work with it. A few example occupations that focus on working with wood:

* Arkwright: Produces wooden chests or coffers.
* Axle Tree Turner: Makes axles for coaches or wagons.
* Bodger: Uses wood turning craft to make chair legs etc.
* Bowyer: Makes bows.
* Caner: Makes walking sticks.
* Cartwright: Makes carts and wagons.
* Clogger: Maker of wooden shoes.
* Cooper: Makes barrels and tubs.
* Cratch Maker: Makes cratches, aka mangers, cribs, or frames.
* Dish Turner: Makes bowls or dishes.
* Joiner: Makes items by joining piees of wood without using metal fasteners, screws, or nails.
* Shipwright: Builds ships.
* Tool Maker: Makes wooden tools like hay forks, pitch forks, and rakes.
* Wainwright: Makes or repairs wagons.
* Wheelwright: Makes wheels for carts.

## Crafting Items

Woodworking is the act of creating items out of wood. It is a labour-intensive process that requires an immense amount of skill. To model the time and effort required, woodworking uses an advanced test. The Target Numbers and success thresholds are determined by the following factors:

* Item Quality
* Item Complexity
* Wood Tier

Each roll in the advanced test is based on these factors, as well as circumstantial bonuses and penalties.

## Target Numbers

An item’s complexity determines the basic difficulty for the advanced test as well as how long each roll in an advanced test takes. Higher tier woods increase the Target Number.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

These rules provide basic category descriptions and a few examples of the sorts of items that fit each category.

* **Very Simple:** Arrow shafts, clubs, staves, walking sticks, wands
* **Simple:** Axles, bowls, crates, crossbow tillers, dishes, paper, percussion instruments, shields
* **Moderate:** Bows, carts, chests, doors, hay forks, pitch forks, rakes, shoes, wheels. wind instruments
* **Complex:** Carriages, string instruments
* **Very Complex:** Ocean-going vessels, siege engines

### Wood Tiers

Certain woods are harder to work with than others. The wood tier increases the Target Number by the listed amount. Combining two or more different woods of the same tier is possible, but it increases the Target Number by a further 2.

* Tier 1: +0
* Tier 2: +1
* Tier 3: +2
* Tier 4: +3

### Tools

All crafts require artisan’s tools for the best chance of success. When improvised tools are used, all Strength (Smithing) tests are made with a –2 penalty. Conversely, Masterwork woodworking tools provide a +2 bonus to all Dexterity (Crafting) rolls.

## Success Thresholds

Basic items, such as the weapons listed in the Dragon AGE Core Rulebook, have a Success Threshold of 10 to create. The Success Threshold increases with the item quality. This is to show that producing quality items takes more time and thus provides more opportunities for error.

Item quality has no influence on an item’s function and provides no benefits. It solely increases its cost.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

## Failure

Working with wood means that sometimes when things go wrong, there is no way to fix it, and you must scrap your progress and start anew.

The GM may rule that a character working with substandard or improvised equipment or under chaotic conditions must roll on the Woodworking Mishaps table each time they fail a production test.

Making higher quality items is harder, and thus easier to get wrong. When you fail a test when making a Kingly item, you must always roll on the Woodworking Mishaps table.

When rolling on the Woodworking Mishaps table, add the listed numbers to the result of the D6 roll when making higher quality items:

* Outstanding Quality: +1
* Exceptional Quality: +2
* Kingly Quality: +3

If the result from the Woodworking Mishaps table would drop an item below Basic Quality, it becomes a Flawed item. The GM decides how this will affect the item.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

## Wood Requirements

Not only does a woodworker need the tools for their trade— a gimlet, a mallet, a hammer, awls, chisels, gouges, saws, various planes, at the very least—they also need wood.

Woodworkers do not have to purchase their tools or woods. They may buy or steal time at a carpentry or joinery, or go foraging in the forest for woods.

The amount of wood a woodworker needs depends on the project. For simplicity’s sake, wood is counted in units. One unit is approximately one pound.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

## Repairs

Any wooden tool or weapon might get bent or dented slightly with frequent use, and fixing this damage takes quite some time and skill.

Repairing an item requires making rolls with the same TN that it took to make the  item in the first place. The Success Threshold is 5, and each test takes 30 minutes.

Major repairs (as so determined by the GM) require 1/2 of the amount in production units, which must be at least of the same tier as the wood the item is made of.

## Masterwork Benefits

Masterworks are objects crafted by a maker of surpassing skill. Such implements are, simply put, more effective than their counterparts of common provenance.

Once you have the Master degree of the Woodworker talent, you may roll on the Masterwork Weapon Benefits table or Masterwork Tool Benefits table once you’ve successfully finished an item from that category.

### Weaponry

Masterwork weaponry generally gives a bonus to the attack and/or damage rolls of those who wield them. Most such weapons give a simple +1 bonus. A rare few give a +2 bonus. A very few legendary treasures of craft give a +3 bonus. Higher bonuses are impossible outside the realm of magic.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

### Tools

Masterwork tools provide the same mechanical benefits as weapons—ingenious construction by a master of craft can give bonuses of between +1 and +3 to the test rolls of those using them.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

## Superior Benefits

Superior items are objects made from the choicest raw materials. These accoutrements are easier to use than their counterparts that are made from inferior raw materials. Superior implements usually impose lesser burdens than common items, endure longer in use, and/or provide the benefits of focuses and/or talents that their users do not otherwise have.

When woodworking with superior woods, consult the Resources section to see which benefits certain woods grant.

### Weaponry

Superior weaponry can have several different mechanical effects. Nearly all have reduced minimum Strength requirements, even to the point of the weapon’s minimum Strength being a negative number.

Some superior weapons give those who wield them the benefits of one (or in rare cases more than one) level of increased talent with the weapon style in question. Even those without any inherent talent can gain the Novice benefits of such talents from the virtues of these weapons, as long as they meet the requirements of the talent in question. A wielder who does not meet the requirement does not gain those benefits. Those who are already masters of the talent in question do not gain additional benefit from this effect of superior weapons.

A few superior weapons constructed from exceedingly valuable materials can give those who wield them the benefits of having a focus with that type of weapon whether they actually have it or not. This type of bonus, however, does not stack with the bonus a character receives from actually possessing the focus in question.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.

### Shields

Shields are unsubtle tools. Although they can be made beautiful by the touch of a master’s hand or creation from superior raw materials (and so can provide Social Benefits), shields cannot be made physically more effective via crafting.

### Tools

Superior tools—again, like superior weapons—can give the effects of additional talent levels, as well as the (non-stacking) benefits of a focus that the user does not possess. Use the same tables for weapons when considering the statistics of superior tools. Minimum strengths do not apply to tools.

### Apex Benefits

Once you reach the Apex degree of the Smithing talent, you have studied all there is to know about the various metals of Thedas. You are able to use their inherent properties to make weapons, armour, and tools even more powerful.

Each metal’s Apex Benefit comes in two forms: as an Attack Bonus when used in the creation of weapons, and as a Defence Bonus when used for armour. This can make a weapon’s attacks deal a certain type of damage, or it can provide the wearer with a bonus to resist certain types of damage.

The Apex Benefit of every metal is automatically added to an item you smith as long as you have the Apex degree of the Smithing talent and the advanced smithing test is a success.

A detailed description of the contents of this table can be found here.