coming crafting system *spoilers*

[TokenOfLuck]

SO.. I'm sure you all are wondering who I am but I've been around for quite sometime, though barely ever go on forums other than to use resources to theory craft or lurk. I just find my RP to be more fun on the fly when it's generated organically as it is in game with PC interaction. Anyway, to the point of my post.

One of the biggest things I've come to see is that people tend to see crafting for what the end result can give, not for what it takes to get there. This usually can be seen in most crafting systems in which utilize crafting as a sort of "extra" every PC can do and becomes part of the general game meta. This usually has the unfortunate trend of degrading the crafting system to just another thing everyone does. Doesn't make it special or really worth while as some people have stated earlier in this thread.

So instead of making everything into a gold sink (it should still cost though), why not split it into two different parts; Item crafting, and imbuing/enchanting.

Make a component based crafting system for the general item crafting. Add in recipes that have to be learned through scrolls, quests or heck DM given. PC's would have to mine ore... copper... iron... mithril.. etc, to make base components which give special properties depending on the components being used. E.G. Crafting a mithril dagger, copper full plate, wyvern hide boots, etc.

Then have the enchantment/imbuing process which you can add different spells to add different stats. This would make items as powerful if not more powerful than the ones that could just be found.

And to top it all off, have different crafting feats that are required for each level of craftsmanship e.g. initiate, journeyman, adept, master, etc.

This could open up many different interesting RP, economy, and character build options. It also would make for a more involved and effort driven crafting system, then just the x amount of gold + x amount of XP = item i've been reading in this thread.

Granted this is a very large idea, and I don't necessarily think it would ever be made, but it's a different perspective I believe needs to be brought up if to do nothing but to perchance inspire.