A preview on DnD Beyond has revealed the new crafting rules coming in the Dungeons and Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook, and they look more rewarding and useful than ever. I’m hoping they’ll make gritty games, with slower healing and less magic, much more feasible as a DnD campaign playstyle.
Crafting has never been the sexiest part of Dungeons and Dragons, despite how much the game focuses on acquiring cool gear and how ubiquitous crafting is in digital RPGs. The different abilities available to all the DnD classes are based on what they can do during adventures, and rarely on what they can do in camp. Pre-written 5e adventures assume a constant tempo with little room for downtime activities.
The new crafting rules should make it easier to accommodate crafting into standard, non-stop adventures. Players now make progress towards crafting mundane items at the rate of 10GP per day, finishing the project once they’ve expended crafting materials worth half its purchase price. That’s twice as fast as in the 2014 edition of the rules. Crafting rules for magic items will follow in the updated Dungeon Master’s Guide.
These crafting rules will be particularly impactful when using the optional rules for slower recovery from the Dungeon Master’s guide (assuming they carry across to the new book).
Slowing down short rests to once per day and long rests to once per week is a great way to change the feel of DnD from high fantasy to low fantasy, but it often leaves players who don’t need to recover with nothing to fill their time – the old crafting rules were just too darn slow to bother with. Now players can whip up some useful items.
Each set of Artisans Tools comes with a list of useful things a proficient character can make. The DnD Beyond article gives the example of the Herbalism Kit, which can make Potions of Healing, antitoxins, candles, and healer’s kits. Again, that will pair beautifully with low-magic campaigns, ensuring that parties with fewer spell slots aren’t have basic healing options available.
Having a shopping list of useful stuff to craft with each tool will make crafting materials a more interesting option for fungible loot. Even when there isn’t a handy shop or travelling merchant, players can spend the crafting materials as they choose to make useful items – perfect for wilderness hex crawls or underdark expeditions.
Players with the new DnD feat Crafter – an Origin feat attached to a background – get proficiency with three Artisan’s Tools, a 20% discount when buying nonmagical items, and the ability to make torches, rope, nets, and grappling hooks overnight. Anyone who has played very early DnD editions, or retroclones, will know how critical those basic adventuring supplies can be when magical resources are scarce.
The Calligrapher’s Supplies seem particularly potent. Proficiency with these tools allows a magic user to craft Spell Scrolls, even if they’re not proficient in Arcana. There’s a cost in components, as there was in the expanded rules from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but that’s been reduced slightly: a level two spell now costs 100GP instead of 250.
The article suggests this is a good route to transfer new spells from the Ranger and Sorcerer to the Wizard to learn. It also mentions that the 2024 version of the Thief DnD Rogue subclass has the ability to cast spells from scrolls via the Use Magic Item class feature. Shenanigans will ensue.
Tool proficiency also grants advantage on skill checks when used in concert with a relevant, proficient skill. The article suggests that Smith’s Tools could help on a Strength (Athletics) check to pry open a locked door – and of course Thieves’ Tools and Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) go together perfectly.
When no skill seems to make sense but the DM still wants you to roll to use the tool, you can make an ability check using the tool’s specified ability modifier, whether or not you’re proficient.
So many DnD races – or species, to use the 2024 terminology – have crafting as part of their lore, particularly the Dwarfs, Elfs, and Gnomes. So it’s great to see more options for players who want to lean into that part of their background.
Slow recovery is not the version of DnD that the rules are balanced around, but it’s the one I’m most keen to try out when the 2024 Player’s Handbook hits the DnD release schedule this September.
I like DnD 5e’s simple but interesting combat, but prefer groups to have fewer supernatural resources to engage with dungeons: relying on mundane resources encourages lateral thinking and entertaining workarounds. The new crafting rules should make that style of play a lot more feasible in the new edition.
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