D&D Character Professions and Why We Need More of Them
What 5e D&D lacks
Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons is a wonderful thing, but there is something it’s missing. Something that’s a big deal to a few of us, even as others don’t even notice it’s missing. That thing is an official crafting system. Of course, there are fan rules up on the internet for this kind of thing, and some of them are really great. That’s what I want to talk about today.
Making things is fun. There is something undeniably cool about having your character in one campaign craft an item or a weapon and then three campaigns later having a character find that item in a dungeon and you as a player getting to feel the rush of excitement that comes with remembering that thing.
I, for one, killed a stupid amount of hours customizing weapons, designing hilts and blades, deciding on materials and going on adventures to gather them. (Anybody remember Kaorti Resin from 3.5? It was super hard to get your hands on but a piercing or slashing weapon made from it would give you a x4 crit modifier.)
As my wizard in my Saturday game, one of the major things I’ve been doing is Alchemy. We’ve been using a variant of these rules to do it. We’re not using them verbatim, but it’s pretty close and it’s a solid basis.
In a nutshell, it takes a number of days equal to the spell level of the potion being brewed and costs a quarter of the market value of the potion to make. We’ll use a Potion of Speed as an example. Haste is a Level 3 spell, and the market value is 1350 gp. Therefore, it would cost 450 gp to get the reagents to make, and take three days to brew.
If you’re brewing a batch of potions, you are able to brew as many at once as you have spell slots per day for that spell level. So a level 13 wizard like Nicophel could brew a batch of three Potions of Speed at once, over the course of three days. This is important because it stops you from just making a dozen Potions of Speed at once and having infinite money. Also, the linked rules assume that cantrips can be made into potions, but we’re running as though cantrips are just not strong enough magic to be brewed into a potion and it won’t take.
We’ve also been running with a different way to get recipes for potions, where if you study a potion over a long rest you can figure out how to make it. This also consumes the potion. It also assumes you have to have access to a 1000gp alchemy lab and enough time to do your brewing and let it sit. It’s not something you want to be attempting in the middle of a dungeon or on the road for sure.
That said, this is crafting, and that’s how it should be. I highly recommend playing a character with a profession or allowing your players (if you are the DM) to have professions and actually do things with them.
The potions are fairly easy, but they’re also consumable. I’d advise more time and difficult materials for something like blacksmithing or tailoring where you’re making an item that’s going to last and not just get used up. It makes alchemy a good place to start.
Crafting for RP and adventure
Some players want a lot of role play. Some players want to kick in the door, beat the monster and take its treasure. Having a profession allows you to mix the fluff and crunch together to an extent. You have prices to keep track of, materials to collect, and a whole community of other alchemists or blacksmiths or tailors or whatever it is you are to consult about your trade. You get to talk shop. You get to invent your own equipment.
When you swing a sword you made yourself, it can feel so much more rewarding than just something you found in a dungeon somewhere. I mean, yes, you had to fight a dragon for it. It was probably a really difficult battle. You could have that same difficult battle to get ore to create your own sword, make it to the exact specifications you want, probably dump resources into it, but there would be no question that is your weapon.
You might be thinking, “Hey, my players would go way over the top with this, we don’t need everybody carrying around a vorpal sword made out of mithril, that’s ridiculous.” Bear with me. It’s not. It’s the adventure.
Think about it. If your player is a blacksmith and they want that mithril sword, or they want to make it out of some other really awesome rare material that does something cool, you have a hook to get them into a dungeon. If they want that sword enchanted, you have a hook to get them to talk to an enchanter and try to convince them to do that for them.
You may have seen this post floating around regarding forging a sword from the blood iron of your enemies. I had a dwarf try to do that once. Literally went around draining the blood out of everything we fought and collecting it in a series of barrels. No one in the party ever asked her what she was doing with all that blood, they just kind of ran with it.
It turns out the blood of 400 slain enemies is a lot. That sword is still not done yet, but believe you me I have so many plans to get back into the game playing her son and finishing collecting the reagents needed. I’ve got a name picked out for the blade and everything, and after spending this much time working on it, you can bet that’s an item I’ll treasure.
If your player wants to make an item that’s going to be crazy powerful, make it something that they’re going to have to take a lot of time to make. They’ll appreciate it more in the end, even if they end up getting it at a level where it’s more appropriate. Talk to them about scaling it down, if it’s way too over the top, and then set a series of tasks for them.
They may well level up in the dungeon they went through trying to get the materials. They might have to jump through hoops trying to acquire a sapphire exactly the right size and cut for the pommel they’ve made to hold the enchantment they want the sword to have. If they want awesome light weight armor with a high AC score and low weight that they can sneak around in, make it a dangerous process. Let them fail in the crafting a couple of times.
Spider silk, in real life, has a tensile strength several times stronger than steel. A strand of it the width of a pencil can stop a jet in mid-flight. It really does not hold up well to fire at all and it’s not going to do a thing against bludgeoning damage and that is what makes it a valid choice for something in a tabletop game. No way slashing and piercing are going to screw you up in a spider silk shirt, but if somebody decides to punch you while you’re wearing it, the damage will be real. Not to mention, you’re probably going to have to take on a spider to get it.
It’s by no means officially supported, but so many fun things aren’t. So if your game is starting to feel stale, if you feel like you’ve exhausted different ways to smack things into oblivion and you want to try something a little bit different, work something out for crafting. Let your players get creative. Crunch some numbers and decide how you want to handle materials that aren’t in the source books. And hells, let them make some money off of it, because to be honest the professions in 3.5 D&D as written weren’t super stellar in terms of making a living wage at them.
According to the 5E DMG, it takes 10gp a day at least to maintain a wealthy lifestyle. If you’re making around 700gp per potion, you’re going to be a pretty wealthy person by those standards. But if you’re going into dungeons and risking your life fighting monsters to get rare materials to make items out of, you’re going to deserve it.
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Zofi
March 2, 2017 at 10:08 amArtisan abilities is definitely one of the areas where the core rules fall short. I keep saying time and time again that I wish that WotC would release an Artisan and World Building compendium (or something) that would add onto the core rules in the DMG on crafting items.
My wizard is an alchemist, but even though I have proficiency in herbalism and alchemy, I still end up paying gold to create items, why is that? I gather all of the materials through adventuring and spend downtime brewing them, surely vials aren’t going to cost 25gp for a potion of healing… Sure there’s fluff you can throw in for reasoning on the cost, but it would just be really nice to have some additional rules and inspiration text on the type of items you can make.
It’s just that it seems that they could really expand on the crafting system in 5e, whether that comes out in a UA doc, compendium, or a full-on book for sale, I would accept any of those.
Eric P
March 2, 2017 at 3:34 pmThat is precisely what I hated about 3.5e. Crafting rules, components, special ingredients, it’s all very MMORPG to me. (Collect 25 star flowers to make….) Since everything old is new again, I can see some people wanting to go back to the complicated days of 3rd edition, but not me. Crafting rules is one of the reasons that 3e was so glut with magic items because people would spend all this time making their uber-powerful magical items because the rules allowed them to. It’s pure egotism. However, despite my obvious prejudice to all crafting of all kinds, 5th edition allows for more options and this could be one of them. Just don’t make them official.
Danjal Veskandar
November 14, 2017 at 11:31 amI would really love some more worked out rules or guidelines for crafting and customized projects like this.
I’ve always been a sucker for crafting in any game and it is a shame that alchemy and tons of other features like it are viewed almost with fear because it “might” disrupt regular game balance or decrease the special of “magic” and class abilities.
Integrating these character projects into the narrative? Hell yes! Not every adventure has to be about saving the world.
One caveat. Just because the base market value for an item is high and you can churn out many items within a relatively short amount of time doesn’t mean you’ll be selling every item you make the second it hits the shelves.
So alongside some crafting features, getting some idea on how to regulate market tendencies especially for specialized items would be a natural sibling. Depending on where you are, some items may simply not sell while others might be in higher demand. But if you’re cutting out a slice of the market as your private monopoly then local crimelords, politicians and merchants might object offering narrative potential there as well.
Minxogynist Media
January 2, 2018 at 8:40 amI personally feel crafting adds a sense of immersion. Nothing says RP like being able to churn your own butter while your party companions sit around drinking homemade wine and freshly baked bread, discussing the tales of recent adventures than going off for the evening to brew some healing potions, sharpen your blades and reading up on herbs in the wild. Crafting can add flair to a game when implemented well. Crafting can create character depth, immersion, mini adventures and memories. They also add value to downtime, too and when mixed with the ability to gather your ingredients from the wild/dungeons, it gives you more than just having to roll & pay for your lifestyle. I recommend the https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/64sv6w/wilderness_survival_guide_5th_version/ if people love gathering in the wild. 🙂