Crafting

Crafting in EFU: Sands of Intrigue

There are four types of crafting in EFU:SoI. They will be familiar to everyone who enjoyed crafting in EFU:A, EFU:M and EFU:CoR, but with many changes.

They are:

• Alchemy
• Herbalism
• Cooking
• Tinkering

Summary

Crafters put items into specific crafting placeables. Those items are consumed in the process of an experiment. The results of the experiment can be good (a nice item), meh (nothing happens), or bad (monster, or spell effect). You also need to succeed on a crafting skill roll to get the nice item.

Alchemy

Alchemy is combining the study of nature with the arcane to produce semi-magical and miraculous products.

The first method is elemental alchemy. This involves extracting, combining, and empowering the four fundamental elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. As well as Positive and Negative Energy. Alchemists who engage in elemental alchemy frequently seek out items linked to these elements, as well as magical fuels which can increase the risks and rewards of their experiments.

The second method is cosmic alchemy. This involves experimenting with rare and unique items that possess unusual alchemical properties, which can lead to discoveries considered more subtle and sophisticated than those obtained through manipulation of raw elements. However, magical fuels provide little benefit in cosmic alchemy, unlike their role empowering elemental alchemy.

Sometimes you will be given the chance to cast a spell on the table after adding a reagent. The spell will be absorbed and count as an additional reagent in the recipe. You will need to uncover which visual effects indicate that this is possible.

In-game, you will find items associated with an element, or items with more complex and indefinable properties – such as troll warts, or mummy dust.

If you find something elemental, you can use magical fuels to empower your alchemy and reach into higher tiers of risk and reward.

If you find something cosmic, the rare item allows you to access an alchemy theme that already contains some nice items and maybe some dangers as well.

Herbalism

Herbalism is combining plant and animal parts to produce beneficial salves and concoctions, like antidotes and cures.

Herbalism is very much the same as it was. It has been expanded with new plants and new crafting themes. As usual, it works hand-in-hand with the gardening system.

Sometimes you will be given the chance to cast a spell on the table after adding a reagent. The spell will be absorbed and count as an additional reagent in the recipe. You will need to uncover which visual effects indicate that this is possible.

There are many plants than can be grown and harvested to become reagents in herbalism.

In the Ash Desert, there is only so much space suitable for cultivating plants. You must now plant your seeds in gardening zones. You will find some public places and some secret places to do your gardening.

Cooking

Cooking is combining edible ingredients and procedures to create food and drink – simple and exotic alike.

Cooking was Underdark themed for EFU:R. Now it has returned to a more ‘surface’ flavour. Some of the more unique and interesting cooking options are now more visible and available.

Cooking combines well with the Fishing skill, which can provide ingredients to cook rare and interesting dishes.

Tinkering

Tinkering is the newest addition to the crafting system.

Tinkering involves finding packs of materials to unlock crafting themes based on civilisations (e.g. lizardfolk, drow, etc.) or technologies (ammunition, throwables, traps, etc.). Items are found in-game from module-wide loot tables and potentially specific ruins and areas derived from a certain kind of civilization.

Tinkering allows you to make random loot items (repurposing those materials to create or repair weapons and armor and such), or to make more specific tech (grenades, contraptions, traps, siege weapons, etc). You just need to find the bundles or schematics to do this stuff.

Provided that you have enough ranks in Engineering, you can craft a free Schematic of your choice once per 24 RL hours. You can do this by using the NWN Crafting Menu and choosing the "Draw Schematic" option.

Wundy's Guide to How Crafting Works

Hello, I am Wundy, and I am writing a small primer about how the crafting system works in EFU. There are three essential things you need to keep in mind when crafting:

• You need reagents
• You need a table
• You need a lot of patience.

It's not something you can jump into and expect immediate results. Everything that is said in this guide is applied to all four crafting systems, so you don't need to worry about the minute details of "BUT WUNDY DID THIS IN THE GUIDE!"

We'll say we're an herbalist for this example:

• As a level seven wizard, with 29 Heal, 19 lore, and 10 Herbalism, I currently have 33 Herbalism score. Keep that in mind as we read on.
• To start, each recipe in all crafting systems requires three items MINIMUM. So, we do this to start off.
• We find a herbalist table. We have a lot of junk in our packs in the moment, but we'll label them Reagents A, B, C, etc, as we put these reagents in to the table to make an item.
• This leaves us with the formula: A+B+C= ?

After you put these reagents in, your Herbalism score (33) is rolled with a d20 to equal your skill check, and then that score has to beat a DC following that reagent formula we put in.

• Herbalism score (33) + 1d20 = DC of reagent formula, which is calculated off of the reagents and order of the reagents. (?)

Possible Results

Now there are four things that can happen.

• One; we make nothing. The reagents fall apart, and we get nothing as result of it. There is no DC check as well, and no monsters spawn. The formula is nothing, so there is no point to keep it, but it may be useful to write down if you wish to avoid repeating it on further herbalist research.
• Two; We make an item after successfully passing a DC. We want to write the formula down for this! (So let's say, some oil, a trashgull egg, and bread in a herbalist table made a paint base) This will help us keep in track of what we know and what we can make.
• Three: We fail to pass the DC. No monster spawns, but it seems our herbalism roll was too short of the goal we needed. Keep this formula - we can try the same formula again later!
• Four; We fail to pass the DC, and the herbalist table spawns a monster or horrible spell. This is where we flee for our lives and we never use the formula again. Write the reagents down used in this formula, so you don't make the same mistake twice.

Valid Combinations

At maximum, we can put up to eight items in our reagent table. So something like...

• Reagents A + B + C + D + E + F + G + H = ?

... Can still yield results. And then we start getting into iterations of the formulas.

Let's say we have three reagents,two labeled A, and one labeled B. These reagents can all be put in at the same time like this.

• A + A + B = ?

Now, let's shift the order.

• A + B + A = ?

If you think this would equal the same recipe, it is unfortunately not the case. The crafting system has 'iterations', or shifts in the formula that change the recipe up completely. To truly master the system is to spend time figuring out all iterations of the reagents you're mixing with, and digging deeper into different bases and TIERS. These Iterations and recipes change for every single character. Once your character has permenantly died, they cannot be used on future characters.

Tiers and Themes

TIERS aren't a new thing in EFU's crafting system, but they are now currently labeled, which is extremely useful in the system. Known basic TIER items have colored text, which is usually green for alchemy, red for alchemy and blue for Tinkering. Higher Tier items do not have colored text. To use a TIER item all, you have to do is put it in first. The formula would look something like...

• Tier 1 item + A + B + C = ?

...And you keep going on from there. I hope this clears up a lot of things when considering digging into the system, and I hope you find some unique and cool things that you crafted yourself when playing around with the system!

How crafting differs from previous incarnations

• Crafting recipes are unique to each player character. No one can use the same crafting recipes between different characters. When you share in-character lore about the system, you can do it in a flavourful way, rather than talking about specific recipes.

• Crafting stations are no longer portable. You need to find an in-game laboratory to do crafting. This eliminates exploits. It also means crafters need to travel to potentially dangerous areas. Some laboratories might be in far-flung places, but others will be more well-travelled than you might like. Some crafting stations even have very significant bonuses that will ensure you will almost always succeed in your rolls. NOTE: One minor exception to this is that Campfires (created by oil flasks) continue to offer cooking system access with a small negative modifier.

• Monsters summoned by crafting do not go away. Monsters no longer despawn after a short while when alchemy or herbalism go awry. However, crafters often consciously decide how much risk they want to take on. I hope there will be no Balors on the streets of Ephia's Well.

• Sundering is no more. Sundering items into elemental shards is no longer a feature of the crafting system.

• Color coded items. Effort has been taken to make the system very transparent, so it is friendlier to crafting noobs. Items that can be used in crafting are usually color coded according to which system they belong to. Guidance is also provided in the item description.

• Getting crafting items is part of the challenge. Crafting limitations are now based on item scarcity. You need to somehow supply yourself with the resources to do your crafting. There are module-wide systems of item distribution which we have put in place and can adjust to provide more or less items if we feel things are out of hand. In addition to these murky systems, you might find crafting items in some quests or explorables or stores as appropriate.

• No more downward spiral of nerfing. DMs have multiple ways to adjust the system to keep things in balance. It is unlikely we will return to days of week-old alchemy masters, and DMs nerfing items in the system until it’s dead.