Recruiting and Crafting: Artisan Info

Learn how to recruit artisans like Bokken and Dragn in Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Discover the mechanics of artisan crafting, item types, and masterpiece creation.

While the methods for obtaining the services of each artisan is different, most can be recruited by talking to them and completing a task for them - usually a fairly simple one. Many artisans can only be found in villages you found in various regions, meaning you have to meet the preconditions for claiming the region they’re in, construct a village, then actually go through the effort of visiting them. All this effectively means many artisans can only be recruited as you advance the main story, raise your Kingdom Stats and complete certain quests.

Specifics for recruiting each artisan can be found below, as well as on their own artisan page:

• Bokken: Recruit him at Oleg’s Trading Post during Chapter 2 via the Kingdom Quest The Court Alchemist. Build Bokken’s Alchemical Shop in your Outskirts village.
• Dragn: Complete the main quest Troll Trouble, claim the Southern Narlmarches, and found a village. Dragn will visit your throne room and ask for you to pay reparations on the roads his ancestors built. Build Dragn’s Armor Shop in your Southern Narlmarches village.
• Shaynih’a: Complete the main quest Troll Trouble, claim the Southern Narlmarches, and found a village. Visit this village with Linzi in your party and talk to Shaynih’a to start and finish the errand Author Wanted. Build Shaynih’a’s Shop of Exotic Curiosities in your Southern Narlmarches village.

Artisan Crafting

After you recruit an artisan and build their workshop, they’ll automatically start crafting an item for you. The first item they create is randomly chosen from all the possible items they can currently craft, and will take roughly 3-7 weeks for them to finish. When finished they’ll present the item to you when you’re in your throne room.

After receiving your first item, you can ask your artisan to craft you an item from a specific category, or just let them create another item at random. If you choose to have your artisan focus on something, they will not be able to craft their masterpiece (only a concern when your artisan is capable of crafting high-tier items), and they’ll have a higher chance of crafting lower-tier items… basically a trade-off between getting an item type that you want at the expense of having a higher chance of getting a lower-tier item.

All subsequent items crafted after the first will take between roughly 9 and 16 weeks. If a masterpiece is started, it’ll take 180 days to create.

Artisan Crafting - Item Types

Each artisan can be allowed to randomly craft an item, or you can request that they craft an item of a specific type, choosing among the item types each artisan specializes in. Sometimes these categories are a specific weapon type, while others are broader, and some categories are basically any item that doesn’t fit into other categories. Not only is there some flexibility for exact item types within some categories, but there are different tiers of items artisans can craft, depending on how developed your kingdom is and what you’ve done to appease said artisan.

When you direct an artisan to craft a specific item for you, it’ll preclude any chance of them working on their masterpiece until said item is crafted. This is only a concern if your artisan is capable of crafting high-tier items. The tier of crafted items also varies depending on whether you left it up to the artisan to craft an item at random, or directed them to craft a specific type of item.