Template: Crafter (the Mule)

Unverified community build

Classic-era crafting builds (Stratics / UO Outlands wiki / UO forums) adapted to this shard’s caps, not yet field-verified here. Exact recipes and BOD reward tables await in-game confirmation; file discrepancies per wiki conventions.

A mule is a dedicated non-combat character whose whole job is to produce — tools, armor, potions, deeds, repairs — for everyone else. Crafters don’t fight; they’re the backbone of the economy. Every dexxer’s suit, every mage’s instrument, every tamer’s bandage-budget ultimately traces back to a crafter somewhere.

Why crafters specialize (the 700-cap problem)

On this shard skills cap at 100.0 each and 700.0 total (Config/PlayerCaps.cfg) — seven Grandmaster skills, no more. You cannot fit every craft on one character: Blacksmithy, Tailoring, Carpentry, Tinkering, Alchemy, Inscription, Cooking, plus the support skills (Mining, Lumberjacking, Arms Lore, Magery for recall) add up to far more than 700.

So crafters specialize, and players keep several mules — one for metal and cloth, another for potions and tools — and shuttle materials between them. The two builds below are the classic pair.

Power scrolls go past 100 here

On modern OSI crafting skills run to 120 via power scrolls from champion spawns and treasure chests, which improves success and quality. Power scrolls raise a skill’s cap past 100.0 on this shard too, but they don’t add slots — the 700 total still forces specialization. Treat the GM (100) builds below as the default.

Build A — Smith / Tailor mule (the suit factory)

The armorer. Makes metal armor and weapons, cloth and leather suits, and the tools to do it.

Skill	At	Role
Blacksmithy	100	Metal armor and weapons; the big BOD earner
Tailoring	100	Cloth + leather armor; its own BOD system
Tinkering	100	Makes the tools every crafter needs (see below)
Arms Lore	100	Quality bonus to smith/tailor output
Carpentry	100	Furniture, bows, house add-ons, instruments
Mining	100	Self-supply ore for the forge
Magery	100	Recall — move between forge, bank, and mine

Total: 700.0. Drop Mining for Lumberjacking if you lean carpentry/bowyer, or drop Magery (use Recall scrolls from a mule with the runebook) to fit a seventh craft. See Blacksmith for the smith-focused storyline.

Build B — Alchemy / Tinkering mule (the supply line)

The supplier. Brews the potions fighters buy by the hundred and makes the tools every other crafter consumes.

Skill	At	Role
Alchemy	100	Heal/cure/refresh/explosion potions — fighters buy these endlessly
Tinkering	100	Tools (tongs, sewing kits, etc.), traps, clocks, kegs hardware
Magery	100	Recall; some reagent/utility synergy
Taste Identification	100	The alchemy support skill (poison/potion ID)
Cooking	100	Food, kegs-adjacent supply; cheap to GM
Inscription	100	Spell scrolls and runebooks — the scribe’s trade
Mining	100	Ingots for Tinkering tools, or swap for a gathering skill

Total: 700.0. This is a flexible block — swap Cooking or Mining for whatever supply gap your shard’s market has. The two anchors are Alchemy (potions everyone consumes) and Tinkering (the tools everyone needs).

Why Tinkering is on both builds: Tinkering makes the tools every other crafter needs — tongs for smithing, sewing kits and scissors for tailoring, and the like — so it’s the craft that bootstraps all the others. A shard with no tinker is a shard buying tools from NPCs at a markup. See Tinker and tools.

BODs — the crafter’s quest system

Bulk Order Deeds are the crafter’s grind and gold sink. An NPC hands you a deed asking for N of an item at a given quality/material; fill it, turn it in, and earn gold plus reward items (rare materials, deco, and the runic/special tools that let you craft magic gear). Smithing and Tailoring each have their own BOD chain — see Blacksmith and Tailor. BODs are why crafters keep grinding long past GM: the rewards, not the base items, are the prize.

Repairs and the economy

• Repairs. A GM crafter repairs gear for players and NPCs — a steady trickle of gold and goodwill, and the reason a smith mule is welcome at every bank.
• The supply chain. Miners feed smiths; lumberjacks feed carpenters; alchemists feed fighters; tinkers feed everyone. A crafter sits at the center of it. See crafting for the production loop and scribe / alchemist for the consumable trades.
• Vendors. Most crafters sell from a player vendor at a house rather than spamming the bank — passive income while you mine or BOD.

Stages and playstyle

• Early: pick ONE anchor craft and a way to feed it (Mining for a smith, reagent buying for an alchemist). Grind it toward GM on cheap materials; sell or recycle the output.
• Mid: add the support skills (Arms Lore, Tinkering, Taste ID) and start filling BODs for reward tools. Set up a vendor.
• Endgame: GM specialist with runic/reward tools, a stocked vendor, and a second mule for the crafts you couldn’t fit. You are now the person other players come to.

Decision points

• If you’re trying to fit every craft on one character, stop — the 700 cap won’t allow it. Build two mules instead (A and B above).
• If you have no way to make tools, put Tinkering on the build — it’s the craft that supplies the others.
• If income is flat, lean into BODs and repairs, and sell consumables (Alchemy potions, Inscription scrolls) that players burn through.
• If you don’t want to gather, drop Mining/Lumberjacking and buy materials — but you’ll trade margin for convenience.
• Mistake: spreading thin across many half-trained crafts. A GM specialist out-earns a jack-of-all-trades every time.