Crafting
Item Crafting
Materials
Various objects require various materials to craft. Materials are grouped by the appropriate artisan’s tool. For instance, you could collect herbalism kit materials, smith’s tool materials, and calligrapher’s kit materials.
If you are proficient with a set of artisan's tools, you can work especially quickly to make an item. You can spend 1 hour per 50 gp of an item's value to craft it (minimum 1 hour, maximum 8 hours per day). This time does not have to be consecutive but must be made in 1-hour increments.
Difficulty
At the end of your work, you make an Intelligence check (with proficiency from the appropriate tool) to see if the crafting is successful, with a DC equal to 10 + half the number of hours you've worked on it. The longer you have to work on crafting an item, the more likely you are to make a dire mistake. The DC for a longsword is only 10, but the DC for full plate is a stunning 25.
If you fail the check, the materials are mostly wasted, now worth half as much crafting-wise as they were before, rounded down to the gold piece. You need half an item's base cost in materials to craft it, which you usually can buy and sometimes can find.
Helping Hands
You can work with trained individuals to lessen the workload. Each person working on an item can contribute 50gp of progress for each hour they work on it. This also lowers the crafting DC significantly, as it reduces the crafting time - full plate made with a trained assistant goes from a DC 25 to a DC 17. With a third worker, it goes down to DC 15, and down to DC 13 with a fourth.
Hiring people in this way often costs quite a bit of change, 10 gp per hour per worker, and finding willing workers is not always possible.
Works of Art
Not all artisan’s tools are able to create useful items. Instead, items like jeweler’s kits and calligrapher’s supplies can be used to create works of art. A work of art can be sold for more than the amount of materials invested.
After you finish a work of art, roll on the table to determine its market value.
Art Market Value
| d10 | Value |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | -10% |
| 3-6 | +10% |
| 4-9 | +50% |
| 10 | +100% |
Getting Materials
Materials can be obtained in three ways: purchasing, foraging, and salvaging. The availability of materials is dependent on the DM. Materials for an herbalism kit might be available in a local forest, while poisoner’s kit materials might only be available from a black market.
Purchasing
Materials can be purchased from an NPC or store that crafts items using the appropriate artisan’s tools. They can often be purchased at-cost, but thrifty NPCs will sell materials at 10% more than their worth, i.e. 11 gp for 10 gp of materials.
Foraging
Some items may be made of materials found in the environment. For instance, poisons and potions of healing can often be made from plant materials found in the wilderness. You can spend an hour or more foraging, making a Wisdom check (with proficiency from the appropriate artisan’s tool) for every hour you spend foraging. You find an amount of materials you were searching for based on the Foraging Results table. If your Wisdom modifier is less than 1, use 1 instead.
FORAGING RESULTS
| Check Result | Materials Found in GP |
|---|---|
| 1 - 9 | Wisdom modifier |
| 10 - 14 | 1d6 + Wisdom modifier |
| 15 - 19 | 2d6 + Wisdom modifier |
| 20 - 24 | 5d6 + Wisdom modifier |
| 25 - 29 | 10d6 + Wisdom modifier |
| 30 | 15d6 + Wisdom modifier |
Salvaging
You can use your tools to deconstruct an item for its materials. You can spend 1 hour per 50 gp of the item’s worth to salvage it, gaining back 1/4th its market value in appropriate materials. For instance, an enemy longsword could be salvaged for 13 gp, 7 sp, and 5 cp of smith’s tools materials.
What Can I Craft?
While what you can craft is ultimately up to your DM. This section provides a quick guide to what can reasonably be crafted with each artisan’s tool.
- Alchemist’s Supplies: used to craft anything of rare or wild concoctions, including vials of acid, alchemist’s fire, ink, or oil.
- Brewer’s Supplies: used to craft ale, wine, and other alcoholic beverages.
- Calligrapher’s Supplies: can produce works of art.
- Carpenter’s Tools: can be used to create furniture, assist with building structures, and wooden containers such as barrels and chests.
- Cartographer’s Tools: can draw complex maps that can be sold as works of art.
- Cobbler’s Tools: can produce all manners of footwear, from boots to the finest dress shoes. They can be sold as works of art.
- Cook’s Utensils: can produce fine meals, cheese, bread, meat, and banquets. They can be sold using the guidelines for selling works of art, but perishable goods can quickly lose their value.
- Glassblower’s Tools: can produce glass vials and flasks, hourglasses, lamps, and lanterns. The more skilled can craft spyglasses and magnifying glasses.
- Jeweler’s Tools: can produce the most valuable works of art. They can also create functional necklaces and holy symbols.
- Leatherworker Tools: can produce slings, leather and studded leather armor, and hide armor. They can also craft bags and backpacks and clothes made from leather.
- Mason’s Tools: can help with building construction but can also create works of art.
- Painter’s Supplies: can produce valuable works of art.
- Potter’s Tools: can craft jugs, clay pots, and clay flasks. They can also produce works of art, fine vases and containers.
- Smith’s Tools: are the most versatile, capable of producing any metal armor, metal shields, and metal weapons. They can also craft caltrops, ball bearings, iron pots, grappling hooks, and other useful objects mostly made of metal. Smiths can also create works of art.
- Tinker’s Tools: can create smaller metal objects. They can create merchant’s scales, fishing tackle, signal whistles, and other miscellaneous small, complex objects. Tinkers can also craft crossbows and small works of art.
- Weaver’s Tools: can craft all manner of clothes, cloth sacks, robes, rope, and nets.
- Woodcarver’s Tools: can create works of art carved from wood, arrows, crossbow bolts, bows, and crossbows.
- Herbalism Kit: can be used to craft potions of healing and healer’s kits.
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Magic Items
If the DM allows, these crafting rules can be used to make magic items. If you are a spellcaster of 3rd level or higher, you can spend time enchanting a mundane item with the appropriate creation recipe. The amount of materials required and the DC for crafting magic items is based on the item's rarity, but does not include the cost of the mundane item to be enchanted (a quarterstaff for a staff, a suit of armor for magic armor, and so on).
Spellcasting Requirements
If a magic item allows the wielder to cast a spell, one of the crafters must know that spell, and any other spells that the magic item allows the wielder to cast.
Assistants
Having assistants does not decrease the crafting DC of a magic item. It decreases the time required to craft as normal and also gives you advantage on the Intelligence check to craft the item. Assistants trained in magic cost considerably more, 20 gp per hour, if they are available at all.
The sole exception to these rules are potions of healing. They can be crafted for half the creation cost listed for their given rarity.
Magic Item Recipes
The recipe for a magic item can be bought in a large town for 1/10th its creation cost: 5 gp for common, 25 gp for uncommon, and so on. Rare and rarer recipes are closely-guarded secrets of mages and researchers capable of crafting such things, so they are often as rare as the items themselves.
Crafting Magic Items
| Item Rarity | Materials | Level Required | Time | DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 50gp | 3rd | 2 hours | 10 |
| Uncommon | 250gp | 3rd | 10 hours | 15 |
| Rare | 2,500gp | 6th | 100 hours | 20 |
| Very Rare | 25,000gp | 11th | 1,000 hours | 25 |
| Legendary | 250,000gp | 17th | 10,000 hours | 30 |
Variant Rule
ADJUSTING FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN
The crafting speed these rules allow might not fit all campaigns. Luckily, they can be easily adjusted.
Lower the amount of crafting progress made per hour from 50 gp to 25 or 10 gp per hour. If you do so, do not change the crafting DCs. Instead, determine the crafting DC as follows:
Crafting DC = 10 + (item market price / 100 / number of crafters)
This way, the DC for low-cost items remain low, but assistant crafters remain useful.
Diseases and Medicine
Curing Poisons and Diseases
Once a disease or poison has been identified a creature Proficient in the Medicine skill can create remedies and potions to cure it. Some or all of the ingredients must be found or purchased from either a specialist or large market if the disease is particularly strong, or magical in nature. A successful Nature check in an appropriate area will allow the finding of the ingredient(s). Afterwards an Herbalist Kit must be used to create the cure; the difficulty of creating a cure depends on the strength of the disease itself:
Diseases, Poisons, and Ailments
| Type of Disease | DC | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 10 | 2d4g |
| Rare | 15 | 5d10g |
| Very Rare | 20 | 8d20g |
| Deadly | +5 | x2d4g |
| Magical | +5 | x3d6g |
Ingredient costs for making the cure are halved or possibly removed, up to DM discretion, if you find the ingredients yourselves.
Lesser Restoration can cure a Disease of up to DC 20 at 2st level, up to 25 at 3rd level, and up to 30 at 4th level.
Example Diseases
Gutrot - Rare, Deadly (DC 20)
This terrible diseases causes a creature to be viciously nauseous and unable to hold down any food. As such it cannot imbibe food or drink of any kind without throwing it back up shortly after. Each 12 hours the sick creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution save or else take 1d4 necrotic damage as the disease eats away at their insides, although this damage is not lethal. If a creature fails three saves, and every failed save thereafter, they take 1d8 necrotic damage which is lethal.
The disease lasts 2d4+1 days, reduced by 1 day for every 3 Constitution saving throws passed, unless cured prior.
The Trembles - Very Rare (DC 20)
This disease causes a creature's muscles to sieze and shake uncontrollably. This makes it almost impossible to rest, or do anything requiring precision. A creature affected by the Trembles has Disadvantage on all Dexterity related skills and saves, and cannot gain any benefit from short rests. In addition, they can only gain the effect of a short rest if they finish a long rest.
The disease lasts 1d4+1 weeks. Eating gold dust worth at least 5gp suppresses the effects of the disease for 12 hours, but does not remove it.
Turnovac's Terrible Tace - Very Rare, Magical (DC 25)
This disease was created by a long dead Wizard trying to create a spell to silence his enemies. While he did just that, he too caught the disease, and was killed. Creatures afflicted cannot speak loudly without suffering terrible pain in their throat, and default to a hoarse whisper that can only be heard within 15ft of the creature. Spells with verbal components cannot be cast without succeeding on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw, as vicious coughing threatens to overwhelm the incantations.
The disease lasts until cured. While many expensive ingredients can cure the disease, chewing on Yellowroot from the Yellow Fuzzock Creeper suppresses the disease. Chewing on Yellowroot worth at least 25gp for 3 days cures the disease.
Rakasha's Blinding Madness - Very Rare, Magical (DC 25)
This disease is as insane as the wizard who crafted it. Each noon, an afflicted creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or else suffer a blinding madness. For the next minute the creature loses all sense of self as well as its sight, becoming blind, and wildly attacking anything it can hear with its bare hands. If it cannot hear anything or anyone it will merely curse and rant gibberish until exactly one hour passes, after which the creature will regain its sight and senses.
Curing the disease is difficult, but the disease itself will fade should the creature hear natural thunder at any point while afflicted, or after the creature's 7th blinding madness.
Poisonmaking
Poisons can be made during downtime by a creature proficient with the Poisoner's Kit and having the available ingredients on hand, taking 1 hour to distill or refine for each 100gp of the poison's value.
While weaker poisons can be made from more common or natural ingredients, more powerful poisons may require (up to DM's discretion) finding a specific fence, organization, plant, or monster in order to source the required reagents.
Ingredient costs for making the poison are halved, or possibly removed (up to DM discretion), if you find the ingredients yourselves.
Creatures affected by a poison can make a saving throw at the end of each hour they spend affected, ending the condition early on a success.
Poisoncrafting
| Type of Poison | Base Strength | Base DC | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact | 2 dice | 12 | 100gp |
| Ingested | 4 dice | 15 | 150gp |
| Inhaled | 3 dice | 15 | 200gp |
| Injury | 1 die | 10 | 50gp |
| Additional Effects | Cost Increase |
|---|---|
| Poisoned | 0 |
| Nonlethal | +50gp |
| Blinded | +200gp |
| Frightened | +200gp |
| Fatigue 1/2/3 | +200/300/400gp |
| Paralyzed | +400gp |
| Unconcious | +500gp |
| Petrified | +1000gp |
| Strength 1 | Damage | Effect Duration (Hours) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak | d4 | 1 | +0 |
| Basic | d6 | 1d4 + 1 | +100gp |
| Strong | d8 | 2d4 + 4 | +200gp |
| Deadly | d12 | 3d4 + 10 | +400gp |
| Strength 2 | Dice | DC | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak | +0 | +0 | x1 |
| Potent | +1(0) dice | +0 | x2 |
| Dangerous | +2(1) dice | +2 | x3 |
| Terrible | +4(1) dice | +5 | x4 |
| Excessive | +5(2) dice | +10 | x6 |
Poison Notes
Contact Poisons
They are dangerous to the touch, and can be smeared on an object or surface and remains potent for up to 1 day or until washed off. Careful care must be taken to use them effectively. Specialized gloves for handling such poison can be purchased for 20gp. While most footwear will protect a creature from the poison, it is assumed to be able to get through common gloves and clothing, but not armor.
Ingested Poisons
Ingested poisons must be added to food or drink, (or forcefed or willingly imbibed for foolish reasons) and because of their specialized nature, they are difficult to detect. Detect Poison will only detect Ingested poisons at 1st level if the DC is 15 or less, 2nd level if the DC is 20 or less, 3rd level if the DC is 25 or less, and 4th level if the DC is 30 or more.
A Perception check is necessary to detect the poison otherwise, with a DC equal to the DC of the poison unless the creature is expertly trained in the subtleties of poison, such as an Assassin of sufficient level.
If only a partial dose is imbibed the poison has a reduced effect, granting advantage on the saving throw and reducing the dice strength of the poison by half.
Injury poisons double as Ingested poisons, and increase their damage die accordingly, but are much easier to detect, requiring only a 1st level Detect Poison spell or a DC10 Perception check, regardless of the poison's DC.
Inhaled Poisons
Inhaled poisons are powders or gases that take effect when inhaled. Blowing the powder or releasing the gas subjects creatures in a 5-foot cube to its effect. The resulting cloud dissipates immediately afterward. Holding one’s breath is ineffective against inhaled poisons, as they affect nasal membranes, tear ducts, and other parts of the body.
Injury Poisons
They can be applied to weapons and ammunition to add bonus poison damage to an attack that hits. An Injury poison can be used to coat a weapon or three pieces of ammunition as a bonus action. You must have a free hand to apply poison. The poison retains its potency in open air for up to 1 minute.
Injury poisons gain less damage die when used to coat weapons, which is noted in () on the table. When used to poison food or drink, they have normal die scaling as if they were an ingested poison.
Specialty Poisons
Nonlethal
Creatures reduced to 0 hit points by nonlethal poisons are Paralyzed and stable at 1 hit point until the poison wears off. They cannot make additional saving throws while Paralyzed.
Fatigue
Creatures that fail their saving throws against a Fatigue poison suffer the corresponding level of exhaustion. While the poison continues to afflict them they cannot remove that exhaustion by any means.