Cartographer's Tools
The creation of maps to convey visual information is indispensable in a situation where one's position is ambiguous but essential. Many worlds have maps based on the topographic or political aspects of a region, but mapmakers can design a map based on any features they deem necessary to navigate within a certain region.
Why Cartography?
Cartography is the use of geographic knowledge to create a guide to exploring a particular area, usually by way of mapmaking. Players who enjoy venturing into unknown parts of the world may get enjoyment out of mapping uncharted regions of the world, or acquiring and fixing maps of ancient civilizations to plunder.
Insider Cartographer's Tools
Xanathar's Guide to Everything (p. 83) presents a list of materials that are included in a set of Cartographer's Tools.
- A quill, ink, and parchment
- A pair of compasses
- Calipers
- A ruler
There are no changes to the provided tools in this module.
Proficiency in Cartographer's Tools
Being proficienct in cartographer's tools extends beyond the ability to make maps. It also describes the capability to read maps designed by others, regardless of the amount of hidden messages they constructed. More than that, a cartographer can estimate trade routes, roads, and other long-term migratory patterns by calculating optimal routes, which can come in handy when repairing a map of a forgotten world.
Tools as Separate from Skills
In Xanathar's Guide to Everything, there is an alternative ruling to skill checks with tools (p. 78). Instead of making the Tool Kit a skill by itself, proficiency simply adds an extra proficiency bonus (or advantage, if the player making the check has double proficiency) to the check. For example, creating a map based on political borders may require an Intelligence (History) check. Players making the check, however, could add their proficiency if they were proficient in Cartographer's Tools, or gain advantage on the skill check if proficient in both History and Cartographer's Tools.
Alternatively, using the same rules, you may grant a special bonus if a player with proficiency in both the skill and the relevant tools upon passing the skill check.
What can a Cartographer Do?
A cartographer specializes in creating, interpreting, and repairing maps. These skills, then, can be put to the test if a cartographer wants to receive special benefits with them.
Mapping
Making a map simple enough for anyone to read is no simple task. Taking scale, readability, and proper topography in mind, it takes a highly skilled cartographer to create an understandable map.
Reading
While some maps are simple to read, others are designed to be more cryptic, riddled with notes and edits that might make it difficult to interpret without advanced experience in map-reading.
Repairing
Paper is seldom designed to last forever. As such, a mapmaker can benefit from using tools to repair a map. It could also need to be updated due to some mistakes or a dramatic shift in the material environment occurring after its creation.
Skill Checks
Cartography is a discipline that requires a great amount of knowledge in mathematics and design. Skill checks that use the Cartographer's Tools are done so by using the Cartography skill. Cartography checks are made using proficiency in Cartographer's Tools; being proficient in Cartographer's Tools allows a player to add their proficiency bonus to their Cartography checks like any skill. Likewise, an attribute is added to modify the check. For example, trying to design a map by political borders would call upon one's ability to imagine historical context when drafting contested border, and so would require an Intelligence (Cartography) check. On the other hand, drawing out a map requires a steady hand, therefore requiring a Dexterity (Cartography) check.
Optional Rule: Tools as Separate from Skills
In Xanathar's Guide to Everything, there is an alternative ruling to skill checks with tools (p. 78) . Instead of making the tool kit a skill by itself, proficiency simply adds an extra proficiency bonus (or advantage, if the player making the check has double proficiency) to the check. Players making the check, however, could add their proficiency if they were proficient in Cartographer's Tools, or gain advantage on the skill check if proficient in both Sleight of Hand and Cartographer's Tools.
Alternatively, using the same rules, you may grant a special bonus if a player with proficiency in both the skill and the relevant tools upon passing the skill check.
Optional Rule: A Helping Hand
Sometimes, a friend can assist with the completion of a task. If two players have proficiency in the same toolkit, they can work together on the same project. If they do, they may choose one of the following benefits:
- All skill checks are made with advantage.
- If a skill check fails, it may instead succeed. This may only be done once per project.
- The total time to finish the project is halved.
What happens on a failed check?
A failed check often causes some sort of issue to occur while producing a result. If the task is a binary action, such as attempting to recall the appearance of a previously-seen amulet, then a failed roll can be a simple "no". Some skill checks, however, are made to determine if any setbacks occur while performing a gradual process, such as fashioning a weapon. As such, failing these skill checks does not cease the process entirely. Instead, it incurs one of the following setbacks.
Possible Setbacks
| d6 | Setback |
|---|---|
| 1 | The cost of creating the map increases by one-half (x1.5) |
| 2 | The time it takes to finish the project doubles |
| 3 | The map grants disadvantage on Navigation checks while in use |
| 4 | The map cannot be interpreted without a skill check |
| 5 | The map is of one less type (min. 1) |
| 6 | The cartographer has disadvantage on the project's remaining skill checks |
Types of Skill Checks
Dexterity
A cartographer needs a steady hand while drawing a map. Flaws in the design can cause serious issues to readability and accuracy, and mistakes made with repairing a map could render the repaired product more difficult to read.
Dexterity Checks
| Action | DC Check |
|---|---|
| Making a rough sketch of a simple map | 10 |
| Drawing topography of a hilled region | 15 |
| Carefully gluing together torn pieces of an old map | 20 |
Intelligence
The ability to create a map based on one's surroundings requires knowledge on how those surroundings affect travel. Therefore, the creation of a map requires an understanding of nature, history, and other disciplines that draw upon the forces that affect the mapped landscape.
Intelligence Checks
| Action | DC Check |
|---|---|
| Knowing static qualities of a well-known region | 10 |
| Knowing modern features of a place | 15 |
| Estimating the less known features of antiquity | 20 |
Wisdom
Interpreting a map requires both education and intuition. Often times, the emotions of a writer bleed deeper into the page than they imagine, allowing an insightful reader to gaze into the secrets buried within a seemingly cryptic map.
Wisdom Checks
| Action | DC Check |
|---|---|
| Determining who wrote a certain note | 10 |
| Deciphering a note written in a cryptic language | 15 |
| Noticing a clue written in invisible ink | 20 |
Making a Map
A map is an abstract item that rests in the players' inventory like any other item that gives benefits. There is no obligation to draw out a real map of a physical location to gain the map's benefits just as there is no obligation to kill real, living ogres to progress in a dungeon. However, to simulate the difficulty of drawing a map, it takes time and skill to craft one. When a cartographer is making a map, they must spend the time they are making the map within the area they are mapping, but can be traveling, resting, or taking downtime while doing so.
The range of a map can be up to 100 square miles, which accounts for about 4 days of travel, with the center of the map being where the mapmaker is at the time of creation.
Map types
There are three types of maps: Simple, Complete, and Atlas. Simple maps are easy to make but give few benefits. Completed maps are harder to make, and take longer to finish, but provide more information about a surrounding location. Atlases give a lot of information, but are difficult to transport.
Maps Table
| Map | Cost to make | Time | Checks needed | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | 3 gp | 3 days | 2 | 1 lb. |
| Complete | 5 gp | 1 week | 3 | 1 lb. |
| Atlas | 20 gp | 4 weeks (1 month) | 5 | 30 lb. |
Simple Maps
A simple map is designed to convey information about only one feature. Whether it is solely a physical map or a political map, it can only display one mode of information by design. The information, and therefore the bonuses given, is based on the type of map. A simple map can have up to 2 benefits based on its distinct features.
Complete Maps
A complete map details multiple parts of a particular area in great detail. The information, and therefore the bonuses given, is based on the type of map. A simple map can have up to 3 benefits based on its distinct features.
Atlas
An atlas describes a series of books that act as an exhaustive list of details regarding a geographical location. It contains no features listed below, save for the Atlas Map, which is exclusive to Atlases. Due to the size and complexity of an atlas, it is difficult to carry around if not in a large transport such as a boat or a caravan.
Map Benefits
A map acts as a guide to travel from place to place. As such, navigating while in possession of a map can give all sorts of benefits. A simple map can have two benefits, while a complete map may have three.
- Political Map: You have advantage on Navigation checks made to find roads and settlements.
- Road Map: You know the direction to the nearest known settlement when traveling by road, and do not need to make Navigation checks when traveling by road if you have a method of knowing your direction.
- Climate Map: You know what weather is going to be present in a certain area before traveling there.
- Topography Map: While in a mapped region, you and your nearby allies can travel uninhibited by nonmagical rough terrain.
- Treasure Map: Select one point of interest on the map. When traveling towards that point on the map, you make Navigation checks with advantage.
- Atlas Map: Exclusive to an Atlas. While traveling in the mapped area with a method of tracking one’s location, you do not need to make Navigation checks to travel to a known point. Navigation checks to an unknown point are made with advantage, as long as it remains within the Atlas Map’s range.
Reading a Map
Reading a map is a simple procedure if the author is on hand to interpret the map. As such, a cartographer does not need to make a skill check to interpret a map they created. Maps that are purchased from a fellow cartographer share this quality, as published maps tend to be more user-friendly due to the established formalities of the trade. If the map was found in a lost ruin, or perhaps acquired from a less proficient mapmaker, it will be more difficult to interpret.
Reading as a Check
Making a check to read a map can be done at the end of a long rest, reflecting the time spent to study the map. Only one success is necessary to interpret a map in its entirety.
Searching for Hints and Clues
Sometimes, the original owner of a map makes a note that seems understandable enough to themselves, but difficult to interpret by others. As such, attempting to discern these notes may require a Cartography check. The nature of the check is typically Intelligence when explicitly written out, but a note that is well-hidden (such as with invisible ink or with a special style of writing) can require a Wisdom check. Searching for clues requires a cartographer to spend a short rest studying the map.
Repairing a Map
For a cartographer, an unfinished map is simply an opportunity to test their skills. The amount of a map that needs to be repaired can be split into quarters. That is, each map has four parts and making a repair restores up to a quarter of the map. Naturally, this is adjustable as per the DM.
Repairs are performed over the course of 8 hours each skill check. That is, a quarter of a map can be restored using 8 hours and 1 skill check.
Repairing as a Check
Making repairs to an old map can include physical or geographical repairs. Physical repairs that are a simple matter of gluing pieces of a torn map back together is typically a Dexterity (Cartography) check.
When updating a map that is misinformed, an Intelligence (Cartography) check is used to determine success.