"Made by the High Elves of the West, my kin."- Racial Craftsmanship in Pathfinder

 This weeks blog is a slight departure from our regular delve into the Reign of Winter Adventure Path. This week I would like to delve into some of my design work revolving around racial craftsmanship. Our return into the Land of Irrisen will come back shortly.

This first glimpse into Skill Techniques is my small attempt in addressing the lack of racial crafting in Pathfinder 1st Edition. I wanted to tackle two of the races that are iconic in most fantasy settings: Dwarves and Elves. My thoughts behind Skill Techniques was to create a system that would represent a small mastery within a specific skill. Any character can gain a Skill Technique by having a specified number of ranks in a skill which represents a specific  requirement in unlocking the skill. Some of these can be a specified number of ranks, or they can be themed around story elements. Only one skill technique may be selected per skill, so choose them wisely.

The below listed techniques are some of the initial concepts I had when creating this optional sub-system and I hope you enjoy using them in your games. 

Dwarven Craftsmanship (Weapons and Armor)
Matching in spirit to the hardy nature of the dwarves, their arms and armament are infamous for their durable nature and resiliency in battle. 

Skill Technique Unlock: 5 ranks in Craft: Armor, or Craft: Weapons

When crafting a weapon or suit of armor using this technique increase the skill DC of the item by 2. A successful skill check adds 2 to the hardness of the weapon or armor.For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you gain an additional +1 to the hardness of the weapon or armor.

Type of Dwarven Item	Item Cost Modifier
Light armor	+500 gp
Medium armor	+1000 gp
Heavy armor	+1500 gp
Shield	+500 gp
Weapon	+300 gp

Special: Weapons or armors fashioned in this manner are always considered masterwork items. For each additional point of hardness add 5 hit points to the item. Gaining this skill technique adds an additional +2 to craft checks when fashioning weapons and armor using adamantine.

Elven Craftmanship (Weapons and Armor)
Mastery of the arcane arts has proven beneficial in tapping into the mysteries of the arcane and its fusion with the natural world.

Skill Technique Unlock: 7 ranks in Craft: Armor, or Craft:Weapons
 
When crafting a weapon or suit of armor using this technique increase the skill DC of the item by 5. A successful skill check decreases the cost of the first enchantment bonus of the weapon or armor by 10%. If your skill check exceeds the DC by 5 or more, decrease the cost of all other numerical enchantments after the first by 2%.

Type of Elven Item	Item Cost Modifier
Light armor	+20 gp
Medium armor	+40 gp
Heavy armor	+80 gp
Shield	+20 gp
Weapon	+100 gp

Note: Decreasing the cost of a weapons enchantments only applies to numerical enchantments and does not apply to other special abilities.
Special: Weapons or armors fashioned in this manner are always considered masterwork. Gaining this skill technique adds an additional +2 to craft checks when fashioning weapons and armor using alchemical silver or mithril.

Above image courtesy of Elder Scrolls Wiki

I appreciate you taking the time each week to read over my ideas and perspectives as I hope it helps some you in your approach to running a pre-written adventure. Tune in next week as we place our focus back on the Reign of Winter Adventure Path. Thank you all for your time and stay awesome my friends!!