What? Another crafting system? Yes, and this one is far more extensive with 350+ totally new recipes and is easier to use than either of the systems employed in the Original Campaign or the Mask of the Betrayer expansion. So how exactly does the new system work? Note: The crafting system in Storm of Zehir is NOT retroactive to either the Original Campaign or Mask of the Betrayer.
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How is crafting different in Storm of Zehir?
Proximity to various Crafting benches is needed for crafting or enchanting items. (exception: traps).
Crafting ingredients do NOT have to be placed inside the benches.
Item and trap molds are no longer needed.
Raw monster pieces parts are now key ingredients in recipes.
No more distillation, combining, dividing or conversions of essences is required.
Recipes are now required components of crafting and enchanting.
Recipes are stored in Recipe Tomes in your inventory.
Gems are used in numerous recipes.
Ranged and thrown weapons can be enchanted
Ammo for Ranged weapons can be crafted from exotic materials and enchanted
Creating magical and some crafted items is NOT free.
In the Original Campaign and Mask of the Betrayer, it was simply necessary to "know" what the recipes were even if you hadn't found the appropriate recipe book. In Storm of Zehir, you actually must have the appropriate recipe in one of the recipe books in your inventory in order to create or enchant an item. These recipes are stored in different recipe books in your inventory for easy access. Recipes for most items can be purchased through vendors, while some of the more powerful ones need to be found while adventuring. DO NOT LOSE OR SELL THEM. Without these tomes and the recipes they contain, crafting is NOT possible. (click here to jump to a list with links to the various SoZ recipes)
In addition, ANY character in your party can create or enchant magical items (yes even that Dwarven fighter with an Intelligence of 6) PROVIDED you have all of the necessary ingredients and at least ONE of the characters in the party meets the necessary skill, spell and/or feat requirements. All skills, feats, and spells are checked party-wide and the ingredients are deducted automatically from the party's inventory.
In addition to the new recipes in the SoZ crafting system, it is also possible to utilize the recipes from the Original Campaign. These recipes do require essences which can be found as drops from the various elementals which spawn in Samarach and on the Sword Coast. All of the magical benches found in your trading posts (EXCEPT for the one in your merchant headquarters) can be used with the Crafting Recipes from the Original Campaign. For details on the Original Campaign recipes and the enchantment process, please refer to the Original Campaign Crafting Guide for more details.
Crafting Non-magical Items
Crafting certainly is not a required activity but it will save you money in the long run, as crafting items is simply cheaper than buying them! As an example, a set of regular full plate armor was priced at 1800 gp (with no appraisal adjustment) at the Openpalm bazaar. Crafting that same set of armor will cost you 750 gp plus two ingots of ore.
Skill Rank Requirements
Any attempt to craft a non-magical weapon, armor, shield, grenade, or trap requires that the craft possess a minimum number of skill ranks in one of the appropriate crafting skill (craft weapon, craft armor, craft alchemy or craft trap) and in a rare number of cases, a second related crafting skill as well. Skill rank requirements should NOT be confused with Caster Level requirements which are required for enchanting or creating magical items. For more details on the skill ranks required to craft various items, please check the SOZ skill rank requirement page. Skill rank requirements for weapons and armor are lower in Storm of Zehir than in either the OC or MotB. The skill rank requirement for a set of adamantine full is now 15, as compared to requirement of 23 in the previous two games. The highest skill rank requirement in the game is a rank of 16 in Craft Alchemy for a fire or acid bomb.
Craft Armor
This skill allows the character to craft armor and shields from a variety of materials and requires proximity to a blacksmith’s workbench and the appropriate recipe. Armor and shields can be crafted from normal iron, adamantine, and mithral, or from leather but NOT from darksteel, cold iron or alchemical silver.
The Armor crafting (smithing) process works as follows: Open the Armor Recipe book in your inventory, and right click on a recipe to examine it to see what ingredients and skill level are needed to craft the armor. If all requirements for crafting the item are met, the player must be in close proximity to a blacksmith’s workbench to activate the recipe. Once all the conditions are met, simply LEFT CLICK on the recipe and the armor will be crafted. Weapons can be crafted from basic materials (iron or wood), or from more exotic components, such as mithral or zalantar.
Exotic materials increase both the cost and skill requirements to craft a weapon, but also provide additional benefits. Please refer to the SOZ skill rank requirement page and the Exotic Materials property guide for details on the skill levels required to craft various items and the modifiers for using exotic materials.
Craft Weapon
This skill allows the character to create weapons from a variety of materials and requires proximity to a blacksmith’s workbench and the appropriate recipe. Weapons can be crafted from raw iron, adamantine, cold iron, darksteel, achemical silver and mithral.
The Weapon crafting (smithing) process works exactly the same as the Armor crafting process except that a Weapon recipe is used instead of an Armor recipe. Otherwise the process is identical including the higher cost and skill requirements from using exotic materials in the crafting process.
Craft Alchemy
This skill allows the character to create a variety of alchemical items: alchemist’s fire, acid flasks, choking powder, holy water, tanglefoot bags, and thunderstones. Most trap recipes exclusively use ingredients created with this skill. Crafting grenade weapons comes ONLY with a gp cost, NO ingredients are required.
The alchemical crafting process works as follows: Open the Alchemical Recipe book in your inventory, and right click on a recipe to examine it to see what skill level is needed to craft the item. If the skill rank requirement for crafting the item is met, the player must be in close proximity to an Alchemical workbench to activate the recipe. Once all the conditions are met, simply LEFT CLICK on the recipe and the item will be crafted.
Craft Traps
The alchemical items described in the previous section are also used as ingredients in traps. The process for making traps works as follows: Open the Trap Recipe book in your inventory, and right click on a recipe to examine it to see what ingredients you need. If you have all of the needed ingredients, simply LEFT CLICK on the recipe and the trap will be crafted. Proximity to an Alchemical workbench is NOT required. Except for Spike traps, there is NO gp cost for crafting traps (the cost is borne by crafting the alchemical reagants required to fabricate the trap).
Creating or Enchanting Magical Items
Recipes can vary widely in terms of the ingredients required, but all magical recipes do have caster level requirements in addition to requiring either the Create Magical Arms and Armor feat, the Create Wondrous Item feat, or the Imbue Item feat.
Enchanting Items
To add an enchantment to an item, select the Enchantment recipe books in your inventory, and open it. Select the recipe you wish to use and right click to open it. Examine the recipe to make sure you have the appropriate ingredients. Note the enchantment recipes for weapons and armor do NOT require spells. If all of the requirements are met, simply LEFT CLICK on the appropriate enchantment. Then target the item in your inventory that you wish to enchant, apply the enchantment and presto, the item gains the property.
In addition to the appropriate ingredients, there is also a gp cost associated with enchanting items which can range from 500 to 9000 gp. This process requires the Create Magical Arms and Armor feat. Recipes for enchantments will also have Caster level requirements.
Note: It's unclear whether the developers intended this or not, but the armor enchantments can be added to ANY item not just armor and shields. In addition, the AC enchantments actually take the form appropriate to the item being enchanted. Add an AC enchantment to a nymph cloak and you get a Deflection bonus. Add it to a pair of boots, and you get a Dodge bonus. Add it to an amulet and you get a Natural Armor bonus. The elemental resistance bonuses can also be applied to any item. These enchantments are still restricted by the 3 enchantment limit.
Creating Wondrous Items
The process for creating a wondrous item is nearly identical to the enchantment process except that it uses a different set of recipes and requires the Create Wondrous Items feat. Creating wondrous items is significantly more expensive than enchanting items. with costs ranging up to 27,000 gp for some items. Otherwise the processes are identical.
Creating Disposable Magic items (Potion, Wand or Scroll)
Details on this process are not yet available. We will update this section at a later date. By all appearances however, the process for creating potions, wands or scrolls is unchanged from the OC.
To repeat from an early part of this guide, it is not necessary that the person creating the item have the appropriate skill level, spell, and/or feat. All the skills, feats, and spells are checked party-wide and as long as any ONE member of the party has the appropriate skill level, memorized spell, and/or feat, the process will succeed. Ingredients required for the process are deducted automatically from the party's inventory.
Enchantment Limitations
Items are restricted to a maximum of three enchantments as in the original campaign. Existing enchantments may be upgraded except as noted in the next section.
Spell-like abilities and Racial spells can NOT be used to create magic items. This applies to the Blackguard and Assassin spell books. Warlocks can NOT create disposable magical items (wands, scrolls and potions).
Upgrading Enchantments
Enchanting an item with a property it already has will replace the item's existing property, whether or not the new property is better than the existing one provided the item has not already reached the limit on the number of enchantments. Once the enchantment limit is reached, it is NOT possible to upgrade existing enchantments. If you plan on upgrading an enchantment later on, KEEP A SLOT OPEN! Magical items found during adventuring can be upgraded as well subject to the restrictions on the number of enchantments.
Magical Properties of Exotic Materials
Some exotic materials including (but not restricted to) mithral, adamantine and darksteel have special magical properties. These special properties do count against enchantment limit in almost all cases. Weight reduction and reduced Arcane Spell Failure on armor do not count against the enchantment limit, but those properties do on shields. The abilities of alchemical silver and cold iron weapons to bypass the damage resistance of certain creatures do not count against the enchantment limits. See the Exotic Materials Property Guide for more details on the special properties of exotic materials. (Note: These properties may have changed in SOZ)
Recipes
There are over 350+ new recipes in Storm of Zehir. Recipes are separated into several types - alchemical, armor, enchanting, traps, wondrous items and weaponry and are contained in individual recipe tomes for ease of organization. For a full list of Recipes, click on the appropriate cateogry from the list below. In addition, many of the recipes from the Original Campaign will ALSO work in Storm of Zehir. Those recipes can be found in the section on Recipes in Original Campaign Crafting guide. (Note: Recipes and CLs are based on in-game recipe descriptions and data from the appropriate .2DA files.)
There are only 20 spells required to encompass the entire range of crafting recipes in Storm of Zehir. For a complete breakdown of the spells, the classes that have access to them and the items that be created using them, click the link below:
If you simply can't find the ingredients you need to craft a special item, or the recipe itself, here's some suggestions. Creature parts required for recipes are almost always available from encounters. Even drider silk is available from an overland map encounter. The lone exception in my games have been the panther pelts. If you can't find one, then try the following merchants:
Neal Sheafrustle at the Lantanese Lumber Camp on Sammarach
Bounty Hunter Kwesi in the Open Palm Bazzaar in Samargol
Zhiir the Mind Flayer in the Underdark Black Market
Candril at the Adventurer's Guild in Crossroad Keep
Similiary gems are available from encounters and dungeons. Pazeeche and Nya in Port Llast sell most of the high end gems.
Recipes are found in some dungeons and are available for purchase from merchants. Check out the following merchants:
Vadiny'a in the Open Palm Bazzaar in Samargol
Osi Tchaluka in the Open Palm Bazzaar in Samargol
Zhiir in the Underdark Black Market
Thayan Merchant in the Thayan Enclave at Neverwinter
Jacoby in the courtyard of Crossroad Keep
Goodwife Aruna in West Harbor
Tarmas in West Harbor
Parzeeche in Port Llast (darksteel recipes)
Jacoby's inventory will update when you encounter certain rare resource nodes such as Cold Iron or when you build a trading post that in a city that sells certain rare resources such as Adamantine and Mithral.
Cheat Codes
If all else fails, then you can always resort to the Console to spawn in the ingredients(s) or recipe that you need. You can find a complete list of crafting item codes and recipe codes by clicking on the following links:
Craft Armor
Craft Weapon 
Craft Alchemy
Enchanting Items
Creating Wondrous Items
Creating Disposable Magic items (Potion, Wand or Scroll)
