LOTR The Third Age Crafting
In the first part of the game, Eregion, you're given an Elfstone of Nimble Crafting. This item when equipped onto one of your characters will allow them to craft items during battle via a battle command. This isn't really a command you'll be using during intense fights; but rather something you spam while grinding.
It's important to note too that you don't need the Elfstone to always be equipped to craft. Once you learn the items you wish to craft you can unequip the Elfstone and still craft them. You're only required to use the Elfstone to skill up your crafting skill and learn new recipes.
Also in this game you don't need any materials to craft - just AP. This makes exploiting the crafting system extremely easy to do... Something else worth noting is that every single time you craft an item you'll get a skill up - no matter what item it is you always get +1. That means grinding Kingsfoil is the best way to max.
I will get into how to level crafting extremely fast later. First, let's look at all the different items you can make through crafting in The Third Age!
Kingsfoil - Restores some health
1 SP to learn this ability.
Lembas - Restores some AP
50 SP to learn this ability.
Old Toby - Restores both health and AP
65 SP to learn this ability.
Elf Medicine - Ressurects a dead party member
125 SP to learn this ability.
Valar Guidance - An item that temporarily increases initiative
30 SP to learn this ability.
Orthanc Fire - An item that causes Fire Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Bruinen Waters - An item that causes Water Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Rhudaur Roots - An item that causes Earth Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Nimrodel Air - An item that causes Air Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Sauron Blood - An item that causes Shadow Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Maiar Embers - An item that causes Light Spirit damage
20 SP to learn this ability.
Thengal Stone - An item that increases slashing damage
30 SP to learn this ability.
Shelob Slime - An item that increases piercing damage
30 SP to learn this ability.
Haunted Dust - Increases blunt damage for the entire battle
30 SP to learn this ability.
Simbelmyne Petals - Doubles your health for the entirety of the battle.
150 SP to learn this ability.
Mushrooms - Doubles your Action Points for the entirety of the battle.
180 SP to learn this ability.
As aforementioned it's very easy to exploit the crafting system in this game since it's combat based. If you haven't read the start of my SP Farming Guide I recommend you do so now as that will cover all the information leading up to what I am about to say.
Once you're in a fight with a Lesser Orc Captain I highly recommend you flee the battle on every character except the one you want to craft on. Or if you have two characters you'd like to skill up at once, have one be Berethor and use Fellowship Grace every 5 rounds for unlimited AP. This will save you a lot of Lembas.
Berethor is a great choice for any crafting skills because as long as you're in Perfect Mode he'll spend 25% less AP.
Craft mostly Kingsfoil as it's useful to use between battles later in the game as a substitue for grinding!
From here what you need to do is fairly straight forward, each round you have available to you you're gonna wanna scroll down to Craft Item and choose whichever item you want to craft. I recommend you mostly do Kingsfoil, Lembas, Old Toby and Elf Medicine. In my experience those are the most used items so having hundreds would come in handy!
That's really all there is to it! In my picture above you can see I have both Berethor and Elegost in the battle where I am raising crafting. That's because Berethor has Fellowship Grace going which gives him unlimited AP for crafting Kingsfoil and Lembas. Elegost is also learning Shadowcraft which is an Elfstone you acquire at the end of Moria.