D&D (2024) D&D Beyond Article on Crafting

[Paul Farquhar]

Honestly, it sounds underwhelming.

I’ve always felt the point of adventuring was to loot enough gold that you could afford to pay someone else to do the boring jobs.

But then, lots of people like Minecraft, the appeal is totally lost on me.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

That sounds suspiciously simulationist! Can’t be doing with these things taking real world times, it should be possible to make plate armor in an hour with nothing but a crafting bench and and iron ingot!

You can still do this! Just get your blacksmith to dip 7 levels of Wizard.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Probably figured that would be too narrow.

Maybe, but they're not really any more niche than cobbler's tools.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can still do this! Just get your blacksmith to dip 7 levels of Wizard.

If we are being simulationist, a blacksmith can’t craft full plate. You would need a specialised armourer.

But, whist that takes many years to learn, you can gain 7 levels of wizard in a few days.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

If we are being simulationist, a blacksmith can’t craft full plate. You would need a specialised armourer.

But, whist that takes many years to learn, you can gain 7 levels of wizard in a few days.

The blacksmith could pick up a feat that gives Tool Proficiency(Armorer) at some point while earning those 7 wizard levels

 

[Horwath]

That fails on both counts. It’s neither realistic nor something you can do during an adventure.

more or less yes.

Chainmail is about 20+ days of full work hours, so with weekends free, it's about a month.
breastplate is 2 days of work, and probably all small plates except gauntlets and helm are 1 day work.
you would probably lose most time on gauntlets and articulation of joints.

but for time and cost, breastplate should be dirt cheap.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

but for time and cost, breastplate should be dirt cheap.

There were certainly a lot produced during the English civil war period. The limiting factor there is availability of materials rather than labour.

The weird thing about D&D is it pretty much ignores helmets, which we can deduce is by far the most important piece of armour, given that it is worn by warriors of all periods, even when they wore nothing else.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Crafter feat remains just as terrible as in the playtest, I see. Surely it should be the equivalent that Magic Initiate is for casters, if it's going to be on that list... But they're just continuing valuing tool proficiencies (and languages!) as much as regular skill proficiencies.

WotC could've given direct benefits that integrate with the standard dungeon-crawl-a-day cycle ('proficiency in Herbalist Kit? you get a free potion of your tier every adventure, decide what the potion was when you use it'), instead of trying to make an economy system out of it, just so your character can save a few gold coins.

 

[Minigiant]

Hidden in this is that Tool use is associated with Ability scores so Tools are now official lesser Skills.

So you now unlock chests with

Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) + Thieves tools
Or
Strength (Athletics) + Smith's tools

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Hidden in this is that Tool use is associated with Ability scores so Tools are now official lesser Skills.

Yep. Crafting does not sound like it needs you to make rolls, but the hard stat link does mean that people will mostly pick tool proficiencies using their class power stat.

Which I guess is still better than some GMs deciding that every tool use is clearly Int and nothing else ever.