- Dnd 5e Crafting Materials
- 5e Dnd Dmg Crafting Rules Minecraft
- 5e Crafting Time
- Dnd 5e Crafting Magic Items
For those who know me, or have been reading this blog since its inception, it comes as no surprise that I’m less than satisfied with the crafting rules of 5e. The good side of them is that even magic items don’t cost XP (because charging XP turns it into something like an in-character currency, and that’s weird), and you don’t have to spend character-build currency (skill proficiencies, feat slots, whatever) on improving a downtime action before you know if the DM will give you time to use those abilities. The bad side… well, there’s nothing to interact with in the system other than ticking one number down and another number up, for what may be an incredibly long time.
To understand where I’m coming from on this, read this post. Back when I wrote it, I had no idea that 5e was… relatively speaking… just around the corner. Well, okay, almost four years off, but whatever.
Let’s look at what’s there in the 5e crafting system, understanding that here I’m only interested in magic item crafting.
Things have changed with flanking 5E, however. In 5th edition, Flanking does make a return to form. Alongside diagonals and character facing, Flanking was included as an optional rule in the Gamemaster’s Guide. These sets of rules exist to spice combat up for people who want tactical options.
- Given their insidious and deadly nature, poisons are illegal in most societies but are a favorite tool among assassins, drow, and other evil creatures. Poisons come in the following four types: Contact: Contact poison can be smeared on an object and remains potent until it is touched or washed off.
- In fact, we disagree on so many things, it seems miraculous we can finish a fight in a four-hour session. Still, there’s one thing I think nearly all participants in a 5th edition D&D campaign can agree on: the base crafting rules provided by Wizards of The Coast need some help. Now, Now, Let’s Keep Things Positive.
- 5th Edition I wanted to encourage my players to do a bit of crafting. Since the rules are kind of spread out between the PHB and DMG, I wrote a couple pages out on Homebrewery to consolidate everything with the house rules we'd be using.
- Items have a creation cost, in gold pieces. This is incidentally the same as their sale price. Creation cost scales based on the item’s rarity.
- That’s kind of a problem, as the d100 roll to determine negotiated sale price is usually less than 100% of the sale price itself. There are World Logic issues here that the game asks you to simply ignore. The game would pay an unacceptable cost in usability and tone if they had attempted to implement a fully consistent magic item economy – 3.x tries, and the results are mixed at best.
- It isn’t explicit here, but I assume that you should halve creation costs for one-shot items like potions and scrolls. I can’t find a rule like that right now, but I think it’s somewhere in the DMG… selling price or something, I dunno.
- Items have a minimum level. Minimum level scales based on the item’s rarity. This is your minimum character level, not your minimum class level in a spellcasting class.
- A little weird, but they kind of address the spellcasting minimum with…
- If the item produces a particular spell effect, it has to come from the spellcaster(s) creating the item. You’re not going to find a lot of items producing spell effects of 6th level or above, other than spell scrolls, but that’s fine. Anyway, this produces a minimum class level requirement.
- If there are spell components for that spell, you pay those either once ever, or once per day of crafting, depending on whether the magic item produces that effect once or more regularly.
- At the DM’s discretion, the crafter may need a formula specific to the item in question.
- This is a lot more data to track, but it’s also a lot more loot to hand out. If you can make PCs happy that they’ve found a formula (along with other loot, presumably), you’re doing well – and this is one of the things that MMOs such as World of Warcraft get very right.
- At the DM’s discretion, there may be additional requirements such as crafting in a particular place.
- I recommend not doing this for the majority of items, because it results in one character’s decision to create a magic item taking over the whole story. If it’s a plot-important magic item, that’s another matter entirely… but then the rest of the magic item creation rules may not be well-suited to that situation.
- The PC(s) work their way from 0 to the item’s creation cost, at 25 gp per person per day.
- The book mentions that you could speed this up if you wanted, just like you could retune the prices for each rarity of item. If you’re at all friendly to the idea of PCs making the more powerful magic items, I’d suggest that you increase the crafting rate, lower the creation costs, or both, because spending 365 days a year for almost five and a half years of in-game time to make a Very Rare item is probably not fun for anyone who isn’t involved in that project… and it’s only fun for those who are because you can fast-forward to the end.
- Multiple characters can work together, but you can only contribute if you meet the prerequisites. If there are no specific spell requirements, the traditional four-character team has two characters who can contribute. The others need to be out there bringing in money to cover living expenses and item-creation expenses.
For this particular idea, I wanted to change as little as possible. Everything in the above breakdown remains true, but also:
- There is a list of component items, which have the same rarity levels as magic items.
- I’ve skipped Common, though, because there’s not much need to add interest to the four-or-so Common items in the game.
- Component items are not required for crafting. Instead, they alter the crafting process in one of two ways:
- by replacing gold piece cost (for example, this hanged man’s tongue – an uncommon component – replaces 150 gp of the creation cost of an amulet of proof against detection and location), or
- by accelerating the daily progress (for example, this eagle stone triples daily progress for three days on bracers of archery).
- Replacing gold piece cost does not, in itself, accelerate progress. It generally takes five to ten components to replace 100% of the cost.
- Each item has one component that replaces a large amount of cost, one component that replaces about half that amount of cost, and one component that accelerates progress by (multiplier) for (number of days).
- A component’s effect is idiosyncratic to the magic item you’re making. That is, an eagle stone might accelerate progress on one item, replace gold piece cost on another, and replace a different amount of cost on a third.
- The point of this is to muddy the waters when it comes to pricing the components. I specifically don’t want players to look at it as a molecule-thin mask on the existing creation cost – I’m trying to accomplish something else here.
- The primary way to obtain components is from the same adventuring activities you’re otherwise performing. The thing I’m changing to bring this about is the randomized treasure tables.
- If components are replacing a magic item you would otherwise receive, you get a decent number of components of the same rarity as the item you would have received. Probably 3-5 components.
- If components are in addition to receiving magic items and cash, you gain fewer of them, but they’re a pure bonus, so who cares?
- There is also a treasure table for when you’re handing out loot that isn’t otherwise randomized.
- The point here is that if the DM chooses the components PCs receive (other than times when you’ve gone out of your way to seek whatever-it-is), it influences their choices of what to make, or seems to indicate that the DM wants them to make one thing or another. This is one of the few areas of the game where I think it’s best to remove DM agency.
- You can sometimes buy components in the open market. There’s a treasure table for that, too, giving you both the specific items available for sale and what the merchants want for them. There may be some directives on how long it takes the merchants to cycle out their stock.
- Some components can be transmuted or refined into other components, to make sure that lower-grade components remain interesting and to add another layer of player influence over what they make. If at first you don’t get the right components to make what you want, you can either keep trying your luck (on adventures, traveling to distant markets, and maybe other means), or you can use a spot of alchemy.
The downside of this is that it does add a certain amount of bookkeeping – lists of components you’ve acquired, notes on what you can do with them, and notes on how where things are in consuming them to make magic items.
This is all a work in progress; the data-generation alone is about 5% complete, to say nothing of ironing out bugs. I’m hoping that when it’s done, I can publish a PDF that adds incentives to use the crafting system and gives the players intriguing pieces of treasure along the way – so that DMs can hand out rewards that feel like rewards, but aren’t ever-larger piles of currency or new magic items. Comments welcome!
You can buy my recent work, Fey Gifts & Bargains, online today.
What Would You Give For Power?Beauty, dreadful power, and solemn promises: these are the tools of the fey. Mortals seek them out to bargain for wealth, magical power, or other blessings. The foolish become ensnared in the courtly schemes of the fey, while the clever forge alliances with beings of incredible power. Here you’ll find the hierarchy of a fey court and details of what the fey want and what they offer, including fourteen new supernatural charms, four new fey NPCs, and ten new magic items. Find Fey Gifts & Bargains, on the DM's Guild, from Tribality Publishing. | Questionable Arcana Crafting System | |
|---|---|
| Item Crafting Rules | Artwork Crafting Rules |
| The Artisan's Tools | |
| Alchemist's Supplies | Brewer's Supplies |
| Calligrapher's Supplies | Carpenter's Tools |
| Cartographer's Tools | Cobbler's Tools |
| Cook's Utensils | Glassblower's Tools |
| Jeweler's Tools | Leatherworker's Tools |
| Mason's Tools | Painter's Supplies |
| Poisoner's Kit | Potter's Tools |
| Smith's Tools | Tinker's Tools |
| Weaver's Tools | Woodcarver's Tools |
| Other Homebrew Rules | |
| Critical Hit Charts | Wild Magic |
| More Martial Actions | D&D Drinking Game |
- The crafting location contribution bonus now counts as progress towards building an artisan’s tool proficiency and expertise.
- Gaining expertise now requires 15,000 GP(up from 10,000 GP) worth of crafting contributions.
- Defined who is able to imbue magical items(magic users or non-magic users who have satisfied special conditions defined by the DM)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Although this crafting system leverages many existing mechanics published under the 5e SRD and OGL, the final product is completely home-brewed. The finer details of this system are still being revised, and those changes will slowly be introduced into this document. However, the system as a whole is totally functional and ready to be used in any campaign. Furthermore, the rules and concepts discussed are intended to work in-tandem with the expanded artisan's tools rules found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. If nothing else I hope this document and its siblings can be used as a source of guidance and inspiration for whatever crafting system you decide to go with.
There are a lot of things that players and DMs disagree on when it comes to 5th edition. Should natural 1s and 20s matter on ability checks? Should we use critical hit tables in our campaign? Does Eldritch Blast need to be removed from the game?
In fact, we disagree on so many things, it seems miraculous we can finish a fight in a four-hour session. Still, there’s one thing I think nearly all participants in a 5th edition D&D campaign can agree on: the base crafting rules provided by Wizards of The Coast need some help.
Now, Now, Let’s Keep Things Positive
Dnd 5e Crafting Materials
The reason I put this system in place was to add a bit more structure and depth to the existing rules. I wanted a system that was consistent and flexible, but still true to 5th edition’s theme of keeping things simple.
As you read on, you may notice my system has some similarities to the standard crafting system. Despite the shortcomings of the existing system, I did my best to leverage the parts that did work. The end result allows players to create items faster, involves more dice rolling, gives players access to tool proficiencies, and allows them to boost these proficiencies over time.
One Last Thing
Before we dig into the nitty-gritty, I think it’s important to explain what this crafting system is not.
This system will NOT feature a matrix of tables containing crafting materials and spell effects based on item type. This system does its best to utilize RAW items and mechanics wherever possible. The intent is to improve on the existing rules without adding excessive bookkeeping.
With that out of the way, let’s break this down.
System Overview
At a basic level, crafting any item using our system has 5 requirements:
- A Lead Artisan – one artisan who is proficient with the crafting tool required to craft the item and meets the minimum level requirements to craft the item. This section has some minor differences from the original rules.
- Crafting Materials – The materials the instructions call for, mundane or otherwise. Mundane items should cost roughly 50% of the item’s market value, and magic items should cost 100%. This section is basically the same as the original rules, but I added some clarification on what the artisans are spending their money on during the crafting process for magical items.
- Means of Production – Some crafting processes only require the crafting kit, but others may require special equipment, like a forge. Magical items can also require special conditions for the item to be made. This section is similar to the original rules, but I added some structure to the mechanics around crafting locations.
- Instructions – Either memorized instructions or a written blueprint/recipe detailing the materials and the process. This section is nearly identical to the original rules.
- Labor – Once all four of the previous conditions are satisfied, the crafting process can begin. The artisans work in 8 hour increments to contribute progress measured in GP. This section is heavily modified from the original rules.
Now, each requirement in more detail.
Requirement 1: The Lead Artisan
Crafting an item requires one artisan with proficiency in the crafting tool associated with the item. The artisan also needs to meet the minimum level requirement to craft the item. This person serves as the Lead Artisan on the project, contributing to the item’s construction and enabling apprentice artisans to contribute. As long as you have a Lead Artisan, members of the party who are not proficient in the tool required, or do not meet the minimum player level, are still able to contribute to the crafting process.
The only requirement to craft mundane items (those in Chapter 5 of The Player’s Handbook) is tool proficiency. Mundane items have no level restriction.
Magic items, on the other hand, require the Lead Artisan to meet a level requirement based on the rarity of the item being created. A table detailing this information can be found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on page 129, but for your convenience I’ve included it here:
| Item Rarity | Minimum Player Level |
|---|---|
| Common | 3rd |
| Uncommon | 3rd |
| Rare | 6th |
| Very Rare | 11th |
| Legendary | 17th |
Requirement 2: Crafting Materials
For mundane items, the crafting materials can be acquired anywhere adventuring gear can be purchased. The standard price of materials is 50% of the value of the final item. Discounts to material costs can be obtained by making deals with local guilds and suppliers. These discounts are assessed at the DM’s discretion.
Magical effects are added to items by using gemstones to imbue the items with magical essence. The gemstones required and method of imbuing are determined by the crafting recipe. The spells required in the imbuing process are also determined by the crafting instructions, all of which are ultimately designed by the DM.
On top of gemstones, there may be other special materials required. For example: an Adamantium Breastplate may require the player to acquire a set amount of adamantium. The overall cost and/or difficultly of acquiring said items is also determined by the DM.
Any materials required beyond the gemstones must be crafted at full cost. The final combined cost of a magical item is set by the DM, but should be derived from the item’s rarity.
The item rarity table can be found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on page 129, but I’ve included it here as well:
| Item Rarity | Minimum Creation Cost |
|---|---|
| Common | 100 GP |
| Uncommon | 500 GP |
| Rare | 5,000 GP |
| Very Rare | 50,000 GP |
| Legendary | 500,000 GP |
Requirement 3: Means of Production
At a basic level, the means of production for any crafting process are the crafting tools (with or without proficiency) and a crafting location. Most crafting projects do not require a location, but all can benefit from the use of a crafting location. Crafting locations confer a standard bonus detailed by the table below, but at the DM’s discretion players can find, construct, or utilize inferior/superior crafting locations capable of granting a greater bonus.| Artisan’s Tools | Crafting Requirements | Ideal Crafting Location | Ideal Location Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemist’s Supplies | Access to fire | Lab | +10 GP |
| Brewer’s Supplies | Access to a brewery | Brewery | +10 GP |
| Calligrapher’s supplies | None | Studio | +10 GP |
| Carpenter’s Tools | Access to a workshop | Workshop | +10 GP |
| Cartographer’s Tools | None | Studio | +10 GP |
| Cobbler’s Tools | None | Workshop | +10 GP |
| Cook’s Utensils | Access to fire | Kitchen | +10 GP |
| Glassblower’s Tools | Access to fire | Studio | +10 GP |
| Jeweler’s Tools | None | Studio | +10 GP |
| Leatherworker’s Tools | None | Workshop | +10 GP |
| Mason’s Tools | Access to workshop | Workshop | +10 GP |
| Painter’s Supplies | None | Studio | +10 GP |
| Poisoner’s Kit | None | Lab | +10 GP |
| Potter’s Tools | Access to fire | Studio | +10 GP |
| Smith’s Tools | Access to forge | Forge | +10 GP |
| Tinker’s Tools | Access to Workshop | Workshop | +10 GP |
| Weaver’s Tools | None | Studio | +10 GP |
| Woodcarver’s Tools | None | Workshop | +10 GP |
The process of imbuing an item with magical properties requires a connection to the magical weave. All spellcasters by default are able to interface with the weave and as a result can assist with imbuing an item. At the DM’s discretion non-casters such as barbarians can eventually learn to imbue magical items, but this is typically obtained through either extensive training, or through special circumstances such as divine intervention.
Requirement 4: Instructions
For mundane items, the instructions requirement is met simply by having a Lead Artisan proficient in the tool required to construct the item.
For magical items, the instructions typically come in the form of a written recipe. Recipes can be given out as quest rewards or found in the course of exploration. An NPC with knowledge of the item could also serve as a Lead Artisan, enabling you to craft the item.
EXAMPLE: Crafting a Doss Lute
Recipe: Doss Lute
Item Rarity: Uncommon
Total Material Cost: 1035 GP
Mundane Item To Be Crafted: Lute
Gemstones/Special Materials Required: 3x Coral, 7x Pearl
Spells Required: Fly, Invisibility, Levitate, Protection From Evil and Good, Animal friendship, Protection from Energy, Protection from Poison
Crafting Instructions: A magic user must imbue each of the pearls with the 7 spells required by the recipe. The pearls are then set underneath each of the 7 bars in the lute. The 3 coral must then be imbued with magical force (no specific spell required). The coral is then set into the base of the chamber.
This example is for demonstration only; ultimately it is up to the DM to determine how to fulfill this requirement. This same item in a different campaign could have totally different crafting requirements.
Requirement 5: Labor
One crafting session lasts 8 hours. At the end of 8 hours, the progress in GP of the item(s) being crafted advances by each artisan’s individual crafting progression plus the location bonus.
The base crafting rate for mundane items is 5 GP. The base crafting rate for imbuing magical items is 25 GP.
Artisans proficient in the tools being used roll a proficiency die at the end of a crafting session and multiply the result by 5 to determine how much extra GP progress is added. The proficiency dice table used can be found on page 263 of the Dungeons Master Guide, and here:
| Character Level | Proficiency Die |
|---|---|
| 1st – 4th | 1d4 |
| 5th – 8th | 1d6 |
| 9th – 12th | 1d8 |
| 13th – 16th | 1d10 |
| 17th – 20th | 1d12 |
When crafting magical items, magic users participating in the imbuing process do not need to have proficiency in the artisan’s tools. However, if they are proficient in the tools, they may add their proficiency roll multiplied by 5 to the imbuing process at the end of an 8 hour session.
5e Dnd Dmg Crafting Rules Minecraft
An apprentice participating in the crafting process who is not proficient in the tools required can eventually gain proficiency. Once an apprentice has contributed 500 GP worth of crafting contributions using a single set of artisan’s tools, they gain proficiency in those tools. An apprentice only gains proficiency progress when assisting in the crafting of mundane items. Crafting progress gained while creating artwork is also counted, however a different set of crafting rules are used in the artwork creation process. Contributions provided by imbuing a magical item do not count towards the initial process of gaining tool proficiency.
Over time, as an artisan hones their skills, they can eventually become an expert at their craft. Once the artisan has contributed 15,000 GP worth of progress using a single set of tools, they’ve achieved expertise in those tools. Expertise allows the artisan to roll an additional proficiency die when using said tools. All crafting progress utilizing a tool the artisan is proficient with, including creating artwork and imbuing magical items, counts towards the 15,000 GP total.
5e Crafting Time
Crafting Formula Example: 4 Players Crafting Plate Mail
If four artisans were building a plate mail and there was one expert artisan(PC level 4), one proficient artisan(PC level 3), and two apprentices(PC Level 3); the daily GP progress formula would be as follows:
[5 + 2d4 * 5](Expert Artisan) + [5+1d4 * 5](Proficient Artisan) + 5(Apprentice Artisan) + 5(Apprentice Artisan) +10(Location Bonus) = 20 + 3d4 * 5(37.5 Average) + 10 = ~67.5 GP/day
Finally there is currently no defined limitation on how many artisans can contribute to a single project. It is at the DM’s discretion to decide if the number of artisans on a project is reasonable.
In Conclusion
I believe the above system does a good job of enriching the RAW crafting system. The bookkeeping and table referencing is kept to a minimum, and it’s simple enough that any DM can pick it up and immediately apply it to their campaign.
As I see the system in practice in my own campaign, I will make minor updates to the rules. However, the concepts used in the rules above should remain mostly unchanged, and I encourage DMs to tweak the system to fit their needs.
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