fantasy crafting
 

In a fantasy setting a player wants the skill to create his own quarterstaff, with hopes of making a high quality balanced one. What is that? Blacksmith? Profession bowyer? Carpentry?

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Logically, carpentry - take an ash log of about 6ft, split it into quarters lengthwise (hence the name) and plane, turn and finish it into a staff.

Metal binding and tipping might require extra skills but was never a compulsory part of the weapon. Messing about with the balance should be interesting - logically it should balance at the centre, to do anything else would involve drilling it out and adding weights ...

Re: fantasy crafting
 

I imagine balancing would just be to do an amazing job of having the width be uniform, as well as finding an ideal piece of wood.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Armoury (Melee Weapons), but I would allow Carpentry-3 for a default.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Building a weapon always uses Armoury in GURPS. In this case, for 4e, Armoury (melee weapons)/TL.

Despite what is printed in the RAW, I wouldn't allow a default to Smith-3 for a weapon not made of metal, but I would permit another skill for working with the same material -3, and Machinist -3 should be OK, even at lower TLs.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Not quite. You ideally want a gentle taper to the ends, reducing the thickness of the staff in the last foot or so.

While a uniform thickness is perfectly adequate for a well made staff, one of Fine or Very Fine should be tapered and will be shod (or treated in some fashion to harden it).

You cannot apply Balanced to a staff.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Combat: Quarterstaff

If you know how to use one, you know enough to judge its quality.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

Reference?

Taper or no taper, perfect symmetry would be well balanced.

Re: fantasy crafting
 

The question then, is "does the extra balance to a weapon already designed to be mostly balanced offer any extra benefit?"

Re: fantasy crafting
 

I heard it was because they used to be longer than 6 feet and held at the quarter.

In GURPS, the reason a staff costs $10 is because it's got metal shodding on both ends to keep the wood from spitting and fraying. One that was just a suitably heavy, balanced stick would be $5 like a Light Club is (and conveniently a Cheap Quarterstaff is $4).