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One DnD wants to make crafting rules cool again

The new Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook lets you craft healing potions, and it’s much clearer how all your equipment actually works.

Wizards of the Coast art of a DnD Dwarf crafting at a forge

One DnD is revamping fifth edition’s crafting rules, and Wizards of the Coast says your ordinary adventuring gear will get a lot more useful. In a YouTube video from July 2, lead designer Jeremy Crawford explains that all tools have been redesigned for the new Player’s Handbook, and each bit of adventuring gear now has a specific purpose.

“We’ve already talked about the fact the equipment chapter has weapon mastery for weapons, but we also gave new rules for all the tools in the equipment chapter”, he says. “Every tool now has something you can do with it using the ‘utilize’ action, so the tool has a concrete function in regular play.” “

“Also, the Artisan’s tools in particular have a list of things you can craft with them”, Crawford adds. Tuesday’s One DnD video gives very few details about these new crafting mechanics. They’re apparently “more straightforward” than those found in the 2014 rules, but they also appear to be more in-depth.

What Wizards does confirm is a few of the items you’ll be able to make. “In addition to providing you a way to make DnD weapons, armor, and adventuring gear in the Player’s Handbook, also provide you an easy way to make potions of healing and spell scrolls”, Crawford says.

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There will be crafting rules for other DnD magic items, but these will apparently be in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. If you’ve been keeping up with the DnD release schedule, you’ll know that comes out in November, while the new Player’s Handbook arrives in September.

Tools, weapons, and armor aren’t the only parts of the equipment chapter getting an upgrade. “We’ve added new rules for every piece of adventuring gear in the book”, Crawford says. Will that iron pot and ink pen we’ve been carrying around finally be mechanically useful? Only time will tell.

Crawford says there will also be plenty of new pieces of equipment in the Player’s Handbook, each added thanks to plain old good common sense. “A great example of this is when working on the cartographer’s tools, I realized we don’t have a map for you to make”, he adds. “We now have maps you can buy with an actual game benefit.”

These new crafting rules aren’t quite as exciting as the changes promised for DnD classes and DnD races, but they might make the downtime addict in your party happy. For more tabletop updates, be sure to follow Wargamer on Google News.