Creating projects, polishing gems and restoring tarnished jewelry are important parts of a jeweler and require exact motions and precision. Your creations turn drab metals into beautiful pieces of art.
Jeweler's tools consist of a small saw and hammer, files, pliers, and tweezers. Depending on the project, you may need a small cauldron, tongs, molds and more, not included in the stock Jeweler's Tools. Jeweler's Tools weigh 2 lbs and cost 25 gp.
Crafting jewelry requires that you have access to materials you wish to make your jewelry out of. While most jewelry doesn't require a massive quantity of materials, some unique pieces may require you to scavenge for the legendary skymetals, like noqual, or gather bones from an ancient dragon all to create a single ring.
When crafting jewelry, you must succeed on a Dexterity (Jeweler's Tools) check, and you can add your proficiency bonus if applicable.
Jewelry crafting is a long process that requires precise movements and purposeful decisions. To create a piece of jewelry, you must spend at least 8 hours, or more depending on the size of the piece, on crafting it. A simple wooden ring may only take you 8 hours to create, while a crown fitted with jewels and fit for a king may require you to take several weeks to craft.
Most simple projects that weigh one pound or less requires 8 hours of uninterrupted work. The more elaborate the designs the longer it takes to complete a piece of work, per the DM's discretion - examples given below.
Jewelry can be defined into 2 broad categories, size and complexity.
The size of your project effects the length of time to craft a piece of jewelry. There are three categories for the size of your project: Small, Medium or Large.
Small projects require at least 4 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the complexity of the project. A small project could be a ring, a pendant or anything that can fit easily in a medium sized creature's palm.
Medium projects require at least 12 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the complexity of the project. A medium project could be a headband, a necklace, or anything that can easily fit around medium sized creature's head or around an arm.
Large projects require at least 28 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the complexity of the project. A large project could be a crown for a giant, a long necklace or anything that could fit on a giant or is oversized.
All times represent the minimum time to craft an item of its size, and at the DM's discretion may take longer.
The complexity of your project effects the length of time to craft a piece of jewelry. There are three categories for the complexity of your project: Simple, Moderate, Intricate.
Simple projects require at least 4 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the size of the project. A simple project could be a bare ring, a simple pair of earrings or anything that is a basic shape.
Moderate projects require at least 12 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the size of the project. A moderate project could be a signet ring with a simple sigil, a simple wire necklace with beads or gems or anything that morphs from simple shapes or requires carving or adding onto simple shapes.
Intricate projects require at least 28 hours to create plus the amount of time it requires for the size of the project. An intricate project could be a ring made of multiple materials, a signet ring with a complex sigil, a crown with a variety of jewels and metals, a necklace made out of small chains or anything that requires great skill and ability.
All times represent the minimum time to craft an item of its complexity, and at the DM's discretion may take longer.
After every 8 hours of work on a piece of jewelry, the crafter must succeed on a Dexterity (Jeweler's Tools) check, adding their proficiency bonus if they are proficient in the tool. If they succeed, they make progress on their creation, on a fail they make no progress on their creation.
The DC for creating a piece of jewelry is dependent on the Size and Complexity of the project. The DC starts at 8 plus the size and complexity bonuses. A Small project adds +1, Medium +3, and Large +6. A Simple project adds +1, Moderate +3, and Intricate +6. The DM may decide that crafting certain materials or designs may raise or lower the DC.
Jewelry can be crafted in a variety of materials, and they each feature their own costs. To create a piece of jewelry, you must have the required materials on hand. Certain exotic materials may not be available in your location and may require you to go to strange locales or to hunt for specific monsters, per the DM's discretion. The following materials represent examples of common crafting base materials and an average cost.
| Material | Cost | Quantity | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adamantine | 100 gp | 1 lb | Very Rare |
| Gold | 50 gp | 1 lb | Uncommon |
| Mithral | 100 gp | 1 lb | Very Rare |
| Silver | 5 gp | 1 lb | Common |
| Skymetal | 1,000 gp | 1 lb | Legendary |
| Wood | 1 gp | 1 lb | Common |
| Type | Material | Complexity | Size | Weight | Material Cost | Time to Craft | DC | Number of Checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring | Gold | Simple | Small | 1/4 lb | 12.5 gp | 8 hours | 10 | 1 |
| Ring | Wood | Simple | Small | 1/50 lb | 1 cp | 8 hours | 10 | 1 |
| Ring, Signet | Gold Intricate Small | 1/25 lb | 2 gp | 32 hours | 15 | 4 | ||
| Necklace | Silver | Intricate | Small | 2 lbs | 10 gp | 16 hours | 12 | 2 |
| Necklace, 10 Glass Beads | Silver | Moderate | Medium | 1 lb | 6 gp 5 gp for 1 lb of silver, 1 gp for 10 glass beads | 24 hours | 14 | 3 |
| Earrings, 2 Pearls (50 gp each) | Skymetal | Moderate | Small | 1/16 lb | 162.5 gp | 16 hours | 12 | 2 |
| Choker, 1 Diamond (300 gp) | Mithral | Intricate | Small | 1/2 lb | 350 gp | 32 hours | 15 | 2 |
| Giant Crown, 5 Diamonds (100 gp each), 10 Rubies (50 gp each) | Gold, Silver | Intricate | Large | 20 lbs | 1,550 gp 500 gp for 10 lbs of gold, 50 gp for 10 lbs of silver, 500 gp for 5 Diamonds, 500 for 10 Rubies | 56 hours | 20 | 7 |
When creating jewelry, you may wish to add in gems or beads to increase the beauty of your creations. This increases your material cost based on the quality and quantity of gems and beads you wish to add.
A project can never be Simple if you are including gems or beads, and depending on the quantity you are adding it may make the project Intricate.
Typically, beads will only be 1 cp per wooden bead or 1 sp per glass bead, pearls can range in price from 1 gp to 100 gp.
The Fabricate spell can help you create your pieces of jewelry, though you must be proficient with Jeweler's Tools in order to use the spell. When you cast the spell, you can only affect one type of material per casting of the spell and can be used to create golden rings, silver earrings or other projects with a single source of material.
If you wish to add beads or gems to your projects, you must put those in and depending on the quantity of gems may only require an hour to multiple days of work, per the DM's discretion. When adding in gems or beads, you must make a check for every 8 hours of work against the DC of the project.
During your adventures you may find tarnished jewelry or jewelry missing gems, beads or other decorations. You must determine how much needs to be repaired, no check required, and it will take you up to half the time it would normally take to create the jewelry depending on the condition of the jewelry. If the item is missing gems or jewels, you must provide gems to fill in those empty slots, and if there is missing silver inlays, you must be able to procure the required silver.
The above examples do not take into account that the project weighs 10 lbs, but some of that might come from the jewels that are set into it. The idea being towards simplicity and not getting bogged down in exact weights for jewels, gems and beads. Per the DM's discretion, the weight of a jewel may be great enough to offset the cost of the base materials.
The above examples require that a weight is provided to determine the material cost for a piece of jewelry. Most jewelry is not going to weigh a large amount and will likely fall under the 1 lb or less area. All weights are abstractions and depends on the quality and type of the material being used.