Alternative Crafting

Question

I'm using the Alternative Crafting rules for a game that I'm in as an Alchemist. This introduces a number of uncertainties with regards to things that affect crafting speed.

Skill Unlocks

5 Ranks: When determining your weekly progress, double the result of your Craft check before multiplying the result by the item's DC.

I believe for this, I would just double the crafting result, before checking to see how much I multiply the base progress by.

15 Ranks: When you determine your progress, the result of your check is how much work you complete each day in silver pieces.

Multiple base/total progress by 7?

Master Alchemist

In addition, whenever you make alchemical items or poisons using Craft (alchemy), use the item’s gp value as its sp value when determining your progress (do not multiply the item’s gp cost by 10 to determine its sp cost).

Multiple base/total progress by 10?

This is how I would handle it, but I am looking to see if there have been any clarifications as to how it works.

Answer 1

Yes, you would create items at a truly insane speed, but you're also a 15th-level character by the time you can pull this off.

Basic overview of the "standard" Craft workflow:

1. Calculate the item's cost in sp. That's your target value.
2. Multiply your Craft check by the item's DC (assuming success). That's your weekly progress. Keep a running total of that value.
3. When you reach or exceed your target value, you're done. If a single check doubles/triples/etc the target value, you finish in that fraction of the time.

Looking at the Skill Unlocks portion of Pathfinder Unchained, you'd get the following benefits:

At 5 ranks, the progress you make in Step 2 is doubled. It's still your weekly progress, though.

At 15 ranks, the progress you make in step 2 is daily, not weekly. Don't multiply your check result, just reduce your time scale.

When you take the Master Alchemist feat, your target number in Step 1 is just the gp cost and is not multiplied by 10. Don't multiply your check result, just adjust your target. You're still taking an entire week to craft an alchemical item, however. The general assumption is a 5-day workweek with 2 days off, much like modern life. As such, you can divide your progress by 5 to determine your daily progress instead. Since your target is much lower, this can eliminate extra crafting time.

Keep in mind that, as an Alchemist, after 3rd level, the time to craft alchemical items (but not poisons) is halved. As we're about to see, that makes all the difference.

To take an example, suppose you're crafting alchemical glue (20 gp, DC 20). At 5 ranks (total +17 on the check [5 ranks, +5 from Alchemist, +3 for class skill, +3 Int bonus, +1 portable lab], taking 10), the process would be as follows:

1. Target number is 200 (20 gp x 10)
2. Progress per half-week would be 27 x 20, or 540, doubled to 1080. Progress per half-day would be 1/5 that, or 216.
3. It would take you a single day to craft a flask of alchemical glue. It only takes 4 hours if you're an Alchemist, so you could make 2 per day.

At 5 ranks and the Master Alchemist feat, the process would be as follows:

1. Target number is 20 (20 gp, no conversion).
2. Progress per week would be 27 x 20, or 540, doubled to 1080. Progress per day would be 1/5 that, or 216.
3. Since your result is 10x the target, you finish in 1/10th the time, or 48 minutes (8 hours is 480 minutes). An Alchemist would need only 24 minutes. You could make 10 or 20 per day, respectively.

At 15 ranks and the Master Alchemist feat, the process would be as follows:

1. Your target number is 20.
2. Progress per day would be (15 ranks, +15 from Alchemist, +7 Int bonus, +1 portable lab, taking 10) 1920.
3. Since your result is 96x the target, you finish in 5 minutes (480 minutes / 96). An Alchemist finishes in 2.5 minutes. You could make 96 or 192 per day.