Behind the Screen - Skills & Crafting

One of the fun things about running a DnD campaign is how players/characters interact with the world that you as DM create. One of the things that I've found that players want in previous games and also our current Tyranny of Dragons campaign is to learn skills and create stuff outside of those skills picked during character creation. 

2 of the main things that characters can create are potions and or items such as weapons. There are rules for crafting and brewing in the DMs guide along with a whole host of 3rd party/homebrew rules available. Below is an outline that we will be using for our campaign.

Brewing & Crafting:

Character requires proficiency with the correct tools e.g herbalism kit to brew healing potions or smiths tools to craft weapons.

To brew a potion or poison the character must first obtain a recipe.

Then they must either purchase or forage/gather the rare ingredients. 

For plant based materials knowledge of plants is required and must be learnt. Same for Creatures. This knowledge can be either taught or read in books. After 40 hours of study/practise characters may add their proficiency bonus to the checks to identify plants/gain proficiency in the use of tools such as herbalism kit..

When it comes to foraging first the character must identify the plant - DC based on rarity, then they have to harvest the ingredient - DC based on rarity - see below. Rolls are made using nature skill for identifying plants and survival skill for harvesting.

Identify: Harvest/Gather:

Common - D10 DC - 5

Uncommon - DC15 DC - 10

Rare - DC20 DC - 20

Very Rare - DC25 DC - 30

Legendary - DC30 DC - 40

If a character fails to harvest the ingredient it is destroyed and cannot be harvested from this area again for a set length of time

Common - 1 Day

Uncommon - 10 Days

Rare - 30 Days

Very Rare - 180 Days

Legendary - 360 Days

Once the ingredients have been gathered the making of the potion/poison takes time to create/brew. The time and DC to actually make the potion is determined by its rarity. The Skills will be either wisdom or intelligence for general brewing or medicine for healing potions and salves.

Brewing DC Time

Common - DC8 8 Hours

Uncommon - DC12 24 Hours

Rare - DC15 48 Hours

Very Rare - DC18 72 Hours

Legendary - DC25 240 Hours

Crafting objects takes time and materials. Magic items can only be crafted through the use of casting spells (using spell slots) during the creation process - you can not just make an item magical. 

To create an item your character requires proficiency with the relevant tools e.g smiths tools to forge weapons and armour. Carpenters tools to build furniture from wood etc etc. You can become proficient through learning either by someone teaching you or by researching yourself and trial and error. 

The cost of crafting an item is the cost of the materials and any special equipment needed such as hiring a forge E.G Steel costs 4sp per lb. A typical longsword would weigh 5-6 lbs so the cost of materials would be 20-24sp + 10% for additional materials like handle wrappings and rivets etc. 

Metal. Cost per lb

Platinum. 500gp

Gold 50gp

Electrum. 25gp 

Silver. 5gp

Copper. 5sp

Steel. 4sp

Bronze. 4sp

Cold iron. 4sp

Brass. 3sp 

Tin. 3sp

Lead. 2sp

Iron. 1sp

The time taken to craft an item will depend on the size and complexity of the item being crafted. A typical basic longsword would take 2-3 days to manufacture from raw materials based on 8 hours per day.

Crafting items using rare materials such as dragon scales will take much longer and are subject to additional skills checks.

Magical Items require the following Common/uncommon E.G +1 weapon requires level 3 spell slot, Rare E.G +2 weapon requires a level 5 spell slot , very rare requires level 7 spell slots and legendary requires Level 9 spell slots.

So far in our ToD campaign our characters have been learning different skills through study and research of information found in books they have purchased. Where the information relates specifically to a skill like Dafnae in her research of plants and herbs for use in potions. We've set the bar at 40 hours after which time a characters proficiency bonus can be added to a skill check related to the task being attempted.