Between Adventures

Between trips to dungeons and battles against ancient evils, adventurers need time to rest, recuperate, and prepare for their next adventure. Many adventurers also use this time to perform other tasks, such as crafting arms and armor, performing research, or spending their hard-earned gold.

In some cases, the passage of time is something that occurs with little fanfare or description. When starting a new adventure, the DM might simply declare that a certain amount of time has passed and allow you to describe in general terms what your character has been doing. At other times, the DM might want to keep track of just how much time is passing as events beyond your perception stay in motion.

Downtime Activities

Between adventures, the DM might ask you what your character is doing during his or her downtime. Periods of downtime can vary in duration, but each downtime activity requires a certain number of days to complete before you gain any benefit, and at least 8 hours of each day must be spent on the downtime activity for the day to count. The days do not need to be consecutive. If you have more than the minimum amount of days to spend, you can keep doing the same thing for a longer period of time, or switch to a new downtime activity.

Downtime activities other than the ones presented below are possible. If you want your character to spend his or her downtime performing an activity not covered here, discuss it with your DM.

Crafting

The idea of crafting something is a very fundamental concept in the fantasy genre.  It is part of many stores and legends both in fantasy and reality, but how is something created?  The capability to create something new or modify something known is a basic concept used by many to give them that exact edge that they need to succeed. This chapter is here to describe a basic process for any type of crafting, whether it is spell creation, potion making, magic item creation, or just something that does not exist, but a player would like it too.  Like all rules, these are a guideline and anything that will be attempted must be reviewed by the DM and have their agreement on the costs, time, and any other options that must be accomplished before the thing in question is crafted.

Every mundane and magical item has a formula that describes the materials required to craft it. The formula describes the number of units of materials with specific descriptors. For example, a Flametongue sword might require at least five units of rare metal and at least five units of fiery material. Thus, the formulas involve some resource management and optimization on the part of the craftsman. For example, if a player’s only source of fiery material is also a very rare material, they may not want to use it to craft a rare magic item. This adds a minor mix-and-match element to the crafting system to emulate the idea of tinkering with materials to find optimal combinations and to also let players make reasonable substitutions. To further enhance this feeling and to make it a workable problem instead of simply a matter of spending resource points, each formula will also specify some materials that cannot be used in the creation of that item. For example, a magic sword could be made with metal, but it might not be able to incorporate any plant matter. Fire items couldn’t use ice materials. Such constraints add an extra dimension to the resource management and optimization game and make it feel more like crafting is working out a puzzle.

To make the crafting system more intuitive and systematic – and to simplify the design work and streamline the result – the actual recipes and constraints should primarily be based on the type of magic item being constructed. All scrolls, for example, all wands, all potions, and so on would have some common rules for their formulae. This is a particularly good place for constraints on materials that can’t be used for certain objects. In the case of weapons and armor, it might be necessary to have several different sets of requirements and constraints based on general classes of items. For example, all swords might have one set of requirements, all axes another, and all bows might have another. Armor could be divided by weight or divided between metal and nonmetal armors or some combination of both. This also makes it easier for DMs to invent recipes for new magical items they create.

Tool and skill proficiencies serve as a prerequisite for crafting specific types of items, but no roll is required. This again emphasizes the fact that crafting is a specialized skill that not anyone can do and makes the crafting system an opt-in activity at the player level. It also provides niche protection for players. The number of proficiencies that can be used to craft equipment should be relatively small for the same reasons noted above and should have substantial – but not complete – overlap with the proficiencies required to gather materials. Because crafting should be a major feature of a character concept, this requires players who want to go all-in on crafting to invest some character-building choices on it. And because the game is a team-based game and because everyone in the party can benefit from a craftsman in the group, that means that a party could work as a group to make sure they have the relevant proficiencies. Such as one player choosing to be proficient in miners’ tools to gather minerals and metals for another player who’s proficient with smiths’ tools.

There are three primary steps to any crafting projects.  First there is gathering research, second is creating the blueprint, formula, spell criteria, and such, and third is the mechanical iteration of creating the things that were being crafted. Each type of crafting is a little different in what is required, or how it would be used, so each one will be described separately.

Quick Summary

Each step will be outlined in more depth, but the following serves as a summary and reference for the process.

• Select an Item. Find the item rarity you would like to craft on a crafting table.
• Determine how much research is required.
• Check with your DM. They will confirm if that item exists and has the default rarity in their game. This system is a tool, it does not supersede worldbuilding.
• Start researching.
• Gather the materials. Materials can be looted from humanoids, harvested from more exotic creature types, purchased at stores, or gathered from the wilderness. The specifics of any material and where it can be found is covered in the materials section.
• Begin crafting! You can find the related tool and ability score on the table below. Use the related tool and skill to determine your crafting modifier using the following formula:

Work Periods

The first part that must be addressed is how often a character can work on a project.  There are three eight-hour periods in a day available.  One is always used for rest even if the character does not require sleep.  There will always be the need for at least a mental break daily. This leaves two eight-hour work periods.  Normally one would be used for travel and the second for adventuring without leaving any free time.  But the characters are not always traveling or adventuring.  If there is a complete uninterrupted work period available, it can be used for crafting.

Working Together

Many hands make light work. Multiple artisans can contribute to the same project, provided they have the prerequisites to do so, and their successes are applied to the progress.

One artisan can also choose to assist another, allowing the lead artisan to add the assistant artisan’s proficiency modifier to their roll. A lead artisan can only receive help from one assistant artisan. This is particularly helpful when working on high-quality items or items with powerful magical effects, which require great skill to make progress.

Sometimes artisans of different vocations must combine their efforts to complete an item. For example, catering a banquet for a dwarven lady and her subjects might require the services of a chef to provide the food, a brewer to serve drinks, and a glassblower to craft the glassware for the event. Required successes can be divided up between different crafting types, each requiring a different type of Artisan Check to complete.

Working for More than Eight Hours

Crafting is a physically and mentally taxing activity and doing so for more than 8 hours in a day place one at risk of exhaustion. However, circumstances sometimes necessitate a period of crunch, of pushing beyond these normal limits. Weaving a battle banner for a general who is about to march off to war, setting gems in a ring for an impatient noble, painting a landscape to submit into an art gallery before arrival can submit a similar piece – all are possible reasons why an artisan may need to extend their working day.

For every 4 hours of crafting or imbuing beyond 8 hours, make a constitution saving throw. The DC is 5 + 5 for every additional 4 hours. On a failed saving throw, you suffer one level of exhaustion at the END of your next Long Rest.

Taking 10

When you craft something, double the crafting period (from 2 hours to 4 hours per check) to “take a 10” on the crafting roll, meaning that your crafting checks are 10 + your related ability score + your related tool proficiency bonus. This provides a floor level that you can always succeed on if you choose to take your time. If someone with proficiency is aiding you for the entire duration of the crafting, the crafting check doesn’t gain any bonus, but can be completed in the standard amount of time.

Crafting Mundane Items

Majority of the items most of what would be crafted using the toolkits would be mundane items.  These are all considered common objects and each toolkit will have a list of things that they can easily make without conducting any sort of research.  If that crafter wants to stray from the norm, then some amount of research or testing will need to be done to complete their accomplishment.

Crafting a mundane item has two prerequisites: proficiency in the relevant artisan’s tools, and a formula, recipe, or blueprint. Crafting is done in three steps:

• Declare the item’s Base Value
• Declare the Item Quality
• Craft the item

Base Value

The Base Value determines the time required to craft an item and is based on the cost of materials used in its creation. While a very simplistic look at the creation process and not really situated too much, it does make the process easier to manage and track.

Items listed in the Player’s Handbook are made of standard materials, and thus their listed costs are the minimum possible Base Value. However, experienced artisans may wish to use more expensive materials, such as precious or rare metals, gemstones, or monster parts. These materials increase the Base Value of the crafted item. A gem-encrusted platinum sword is worth more and takes longer to craft than one made of iron and steel.

The material cost of crafting an item is half of the Base Value. Declare the materials from which the item will be made and determine the Base Value of the item accordingly.

Item Quality

The Item Quality determines how difficult the item is to craft, as well as the value of the item upon its completion. An artisan must decide on the level of detail with which an item will be crafted. Crafting higher-quality items requires greater skill and carries with it a greater risk of making no progress but increases the final value of the item. A well fitted suit may use the same amount of material as an ill-fitted suit, but it requires greater skill and therefore is worth more. Item Qualities and their respective Crafting DC and Value Modifier are as follows:

Mundane Item Crafting Difficulty Table

Declare the Item Quality before crafting and determine the Value Modifier accordingly.

Crafting the Item

The amount of time to craft the object in question will be measured in 10gp increments.  For each 10gp of value, one work period will be consumed for that work.  Once the total number of work periods required to complete the object have been spent, then a single roll on the Mundane Item Crafting Difficulty table is made for success or failure.  Success means the goal was achieved and the object created.  If failure is within five of the required DC, then the object’s fine quality is two less than the goal.  If the failed roll is less than that, then it is considered trash and has no value except perhaps scraps.

Multiply the Base Value by the Value Modifier to determine the final Item Value.

Example:

Frobian is attempting to make a Legendary carving.  He is carving out of an expensive wood worth 100gp.  He will take ten work periods and will then make his attempt to complete the carving of the Tabaxi.  His Dexterity modifier is +4 and his proficiency modifier is +4 giving him a total of +8 on his roll.  The DC he is attempting to reach is 30.  He rolls a 17 + 8 == 25 missing the DC, but his failure is within five, so his Legendary carving turns into a rare carving instead only doubling the price he could sell it the carving.

Research Points

The first part of any project is to understand how something will be crafted.  This will require research, which could be working in libraries, experimenting in a laboratory, or even building prototypes in a woodshop.  All of these are different types of research that then help the crafter come up with the final plan and direction that must be taken to complete their project.

For every five work periods that have been expended, the crafter is given a certain amount of research points.  These points can be considered papers, designs, or any media that would make sense for that crafter. The work periods do not need to be contiguous, and could be collected once a day, once a week, or even once a month.  The research points do not expire, although they do represent a tangible asset that could be stolen or even destroyed.  There is no limit to the amount of research points that can be collected.

It is also possible to adjust the results of the roll by spending gold.  For every 100 gold pieces that is spent, the crafter will gain an additional plus one to the roll.  This gold is expended and is not recoverable no matter the results of the final roll. This is a way to improve the possible research results through the purchase of new exotic ingredients, or papers that look interesting.  It does not matter what thematic vehicle was, it was just using gold as a shortcut to attempt to gain more research points. There is no benefit to spending more than 1000 gold pieces. All the gold must be spent in full before the first work period is used to conduct research.  Gold may be spent again at the beginning of each five work period sessions.

Research Point Collection Gold Modifier Table

Finally, after the five work periods have been spent, a roll will be made to determine how many research points are collected for those work periods.  The roll is immediately done once the fifth work period is completed.  The roll itself has been determined by what type of crafting was being worked up, even though the research points themselves are considered generic.

Crafting Skill Check Table

Once all the modifiers have been determined, the appropriate skill roll is made on the following table:

Research Points Collection Roll Results

Example:

Roughfingers is conducting arcane research and therefore makes an Arcana roll.  He has a 19 Intelligence giving him a +4 attribute modifier, and because he is sixth level, his proficiency modifier is +3 so in total giving him +7 to his d20 roll.  If he had also spent 300gp to help with the research, he would have an additional +3 for a total of +10 on his die roll.

Every time Research Points are gathered, there is always a chance at failure, and if a natural one is rolled on the Research Point Gathering Table there are consequences.  These consequences are applied immediately to the researcher.

Research Point Gathering Consequences Table

Research Assistants

Conducting any research alone can be arduous and slow, but that effort can be supplemented by hiring a research assistant.  Only one assistant may be conducting research for the character at any given time.  This research is solely for the benefit of the character.  There are different quality levels of assistant available, assuming one could be found.  The more skilled and proficient ones are more expensive and likely to have more demands for spaces, or even their own time on occasion.  There is also the possibility of an assistant running off with the research that had been done and decreasing the total amount of research points that have been generated so far.

So, keep them happy, fed, and well paid.  An assistant will require an appropriate space to work and if the location is remote, proper lodgings and sustenance. The assistant must be paid in full before each five days of work and they only work in five-day blocks.  If they are not paid, but forced to work, then they will not add to the research point collection. Each different level of assistant will generate a flat and specific amount of research points every five days.

Research Assistant Cost and Results Table

Facilities

Specially constructed facilities can assist with the crafting process.  Each facility is specific to one type of crafting, such as a Library for spell creation, a laboratory for alchemy, or a smithy for weapon making. The cost and time of creating such a facility is much more open to interpretation.  It should be easy to build a small one with few Facility Points, and very difficult to build one with many. For all the facility collections the exact cost and results are completely DM driven.

Facilities have two main functions they provide to the crafter.  First, they give assistance to any research the crafter is engaged in, but they can also assist in the production of any results of that research so that the chances of success on creating the potion, or forging that sword increases with the capacity of the facility.

These points can be used 1:1 as a replacement for Research Pints for any project. Facility points do not expire, nor are they consumed. But, no more than 25% of any project’s required Research Points can be replaced with Facility Points.

Facility Types

Each facility is different and unique and most likely will only work for the person who is building it.  There would be severely diminished returns for someone else to attempt to use that custom facility that was built.  Only 10% of the total of the Facility Points are allowed to be used by someone using the facility that is not the builder of it.

Library (Spell Creation): Finding rare books or collecting someone else’s research can be very valuable.  A book might cost 10 gold pieces, or even 1000 gold pieces, with a range of facility points being applied.  If it is a book that came from another planar resource, it might have greater value in some cases. One Facility Point might represent one book, or even 100 books. A book that is valuable to someone else might be worthless for you. 

Laboratory (Alchemy/Poison Creation): Unlike the library, the laboratory is filled with chemicals, odd tools, and many other objects that would seem odd and weird to many others.  But much like a library, these things must be collected, or even custom built for the laboratory.  You might need some exotic tool that only the drow in the Underdark make or it could be the back tooth of an ancient red dragon, or as simple as a watering can.

Smithy (Smithing): Anyone can spend some money and outfit a normal smithy, but to work that exotic metal, you might require special tools, or even need to make them yourself out of special materials.  You might need five barrels of different quenching liquids for that adamantine sword, or even a tiny silver hammer for that final tuning of a mithril shield.

Tinkering (Tinkering): Much like the smithy, a tinkerer needs his tools and parts, many small parts, most of which look like garbage to the average person, but each one of them has a place in the crooked mind of a tinkerer.

Building your Facility

While going out and finding those resources, assassinating that pesky alchemist to steal his notes, or just stealing an entire library to help your work, there are many ways to build and expand out your facility. 

The first issue will be space.  How much is required will depend on what you are collecting and why.  Work with your DM on the exact size requirements for your work. But for a rule of thumb, you can consider that for every facility point you have, you will need a 5’ by 5’ space. 

Example:

If you have 100 facility points of various rarities, you will need 100 five-foot squares for that physical location, or a 50-foot by 50-foot room. 

Now that you have your space, you need to start filling it.  It is possible to simply throw gold at the problem using the following table as a guideline.  Each purchase only gives you one facility point.

Facility Point Rarity Table

How to Use your Facility

Facilities have a separate point collection for each of the different rarities.  These points can only be spent on that level of research rarity or lower.  That means that if you have 100 Rare facility points, those can be used for Rare, Uncommon, and Common research, but not for Very Rare research.

While you do not permanently expend the facility points when used, they are temporarily consumed.  If they are used for research, they are consumed until that research has been completed.  The points must be spent when the research starts and cannot be added in later. If the facility points are used to assist in the production crafting, then they are consumed during that process.

In all cases, the facility points can only be used while at the facility.

Research Points Utilization

At the beginning of any research project facility points can be used to replace required research points on a 1:1 basis up to 25% of the total needed.

Example:

Roughfingers is researching a new spell called Phantom Doggy.  It is a 3rd level spell which will require 90 research points. Since he is using Phantom Steed as the example spell, his research cost was reduced to 45 points with the 50% reduction of the research cost for having a similar spell. Using his Uncommon facility points, Roughfingers can spend up to 11 (45 x 25% == 11) and reduce his research point requirement even down to 34.  A much better path than the original 90 he needed at the beginning.

Production Assistance

For every ten facility points of the appropriate rarity for the product being crafted, you get a +1 on the creation roll up to a maximum of 10% of the DC.

Example:

Fogo is trying to cook Dragon Turtle Soup. It is a rare recipe and to complete it he would have a DC18 to succeed, but wanting to feed everyone, he goes for the 1d8 which changes his DC to 26.  10% of that would be two, so if Fogo spent 20 Rare facility points, he would be able to add a +2 to his d20 roll to succeed in cooking that meal.

Materials

There are several ways to find materials during adventures. First, the DM can place materials like treasure in the adventure. Second, the players can salvage materials from the monsters they kill. Third, the players can salvage materials from visible sources that the DM places in the adventure. Fourth, the party can forage for materials during their wilderness travels. By connecting resource acquisition to treasure, the killing of monsters, the discovery of specific locations, and wilderness travel, it keys the gathering of resources to common adventuring tasks.

There’s a problem in that the availability of materials is entirely controlled by the DM whereas its’ the players who determine what materials they need or want based on the items they want to make. This is already a problem in the existing system wherein magic items are only available as treasure placed by the DM. Because the DM is effectively deciding what materials are available while away from the table and the players are deciding what materials they want away from the table, communication can be difficult. While the DM should ensure a good mix of useful materials turn up in the game as treasure, other methods are needed as well.

First, it should be possible for players to buy materials. So, materials need a cost. This should be useful for getting small amounts of materials needed to complete items that the party has almost all the materials for, but the cost should be set such that it does not become a substitute for searching for materials during play and therefore detract from the idea that materials are one of the fruits of adventures.

Second, players should be given the explicit option to communicate the need for a specific material to the DM so the DM can create a situation wherein they can acquire the material. An explicit downtime activity, action, or option should exist for researching materials. So, the player can say, “I need to research where I can find some rare metal or fiery materials.” This prompts the DM to create an encounter, side quest, or adventure based around acquiring that resource so the players can complete their item. This provides an increased sense of player agency and gives players a way to ask for a specific material without asking for it. It also trains players to communicate with their DM about what adventures and goals they’d like to pursue in a more general way and could improve the player-DM relationship.

Because gathering materials happens during adventures, it can involve dice rolls and action resolution. Thus, to salvage materials from monsters and resource nodes, ability checks using skill or tool proficiencies are required. In addition to providing a use for existing tool proficiencies, which are woefully underused in the base game despite the number of character backgrounds that begin play with tool proficiencies, this also makes item crafting feel like a specialized skill or ability that defines a character. It also provides a bit of niche protection, which character customizers appreciate. And it further reinforces the idea that gathering materials is something that is a part of adventuring. That said, the number of proficiencies used for gathering materials should be relatively small as players start the game with only a small number of proficiencies and it is difficult to acquire new proficiencies. It should not be difficult for an average-sized party to have the prerequisites needed to gather many of the different types of materials. And the materials found as part of placed treasure should make up the shortfall easily.

Materials have three descriptors. Materials have a rarity that mirrors the rarities of magic items already in the game. Materials have a form that describes what the material is composed of in the world. And some materials have special attributes that describe types of magic or effects they are imbued with. It is not necessary to name or keep track of specific materials. Materials can be tracked as several units of materials with descriptors. For example, three units of a very rare, fiery mineral. However, the DM can provide specific names, particularly for items that also work as treasure or trade goods. Very rare, fiery mineral might be ruby. This approach allows DMs who want to add the detail to get specific about their materials while allowing less engaged DMs to still supply materials that feel like real objects that might be discovered to the players. Too much abstraction and the crafting system feels like a matter of just earning enough points to buy the magic item you want. Too much specificity and it becomes a burden on the DM to maintain.

The material descriptors also connect directly to the game’s existing mechanics. The rarity descriptor mirrors the magic item rarities to create a parallel language between the two systems and help connect the materials directly to the crafting of magical items. Because magic item rarities are also connected to the levels at which such items should be available, this also keys the materials to specific adventure and challenge levels, thus helping DMs determine what materials should be available in specific adventures. The form descriptors also describe the general way in which the item should be obtainable. Materials such as hide, and bone would be salvaged from monsters. Plant materials would be salvaged from plant-based monsters or by foraging in the wilderness. Minerals and metals would be available from specific mining nodes. Finally, the quality descriptors should connect the materials to specific magical effects, creature types, and other pieces of the game’s mechanics and lore to provide guidance for the DM in placing the items and to provide an easy way for players to assess what a material might be useful for. Fiery materials would be found in the volcanic lairs of red dragons, for example, and would be useful for crafting flaming swords, necklaces of fireballs, and potions of fire breathing.

Without materials, there is nothing to craft from. Crafting does not make things from thin air; it makes more useful things from less useful things. Gathering the materials will be the essential first step in any job. The sources of materials are tied to the pillars of the game. Looting and Harvesting are tied into the combat pillar, Salvaging and Gathering are tied into the exploration pillar, and purchasing and rewards are tied into the social pillar. This provides a lot of routes to add these materials to your game based on what works best for your group.

Materials are generally found in three ways.

Loot & Salvaging: Nothing is useless when you have a party of crafters. One of the main sources of materials will be the things you find. Nothing is useless when you have an expert craftsman in the party.

Gathering & Harvesting: How something is gathered varies depending on the profession; in many cases, it can only be gathered when the opportunity arises. Dragon scales, for example, are a lot easier to gather when there is a dead dragon nearby. Be it harvesting rare herbs, monster parts, or minerals, gathering is an opportunity you won’t want to pass up.

Purchasing: Rarely will everything you need to craft what you want fall into your hands without the assistance of the oldest and most powerful tool of any craftsman: money. When you don’t have what you need, frequently you can buy it. For some professions, there will be a lot more materials that can be purchased, while others will rely more on the other routes.

Selling and Buying Materials: In general, the buying price of a material is its listed value, and its selling price is usually half of that to an interested property. Between negotiation, market fluctuation, and DM moods, you may get better or worse prices. Note that many materials are simply junk to a party that does not have a use for them and will only sell to interested parties that can use or resell them. Threatening to burn down a merchant’s shop because they will not offer you the listed price may result in an Intimidation check but does not change market realities and is typically not beneficial to your reputation; most merchants that have the gold to buy and sell expensive materials have dealt with adventurers before and are not easily intimidated.    

Types of Materials              

Ingredient                                        

Ingredients are a huge range of things; most often they are plants that contain some magical essence, but almost as frequently they are harvested from various magically inclined monsters. The exact source of an ingredient usually does not matter beyond defining its type, as the part of the ingredient used is the fragment of magic contained within that is distilled out.

There are many ways to make a potion. Consequently, the materials are sorted into categories. These categories include curative, reactive, and poisonous. These each come in the standard material rarities: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary. Ingredients can’t be salvaged once they have been combined into another form (such as potions, essences, or ink). ingredients can be assumed to weigh 0.2 pounds each.

Interchangeable Ingredients: All curative, reactive, and poisonous ingredients are interchangeable. This is intentional to drastically simplify the crafting process and tracking thereof. Individual names are included only to deepen the immersion of the finding and buying ingredients and can be treated as interchangeable by their label if preferred.

Magical Ink

While ink has many uses, crafting is mostly concerned with magical ink which has the power to hold the arcane words of scrolls. This is synthesized by alchemists from the magical properties of ingredients, as it is concerned with extracting their magical properties, the exact nature of the ingredients used do not affect the final ink beyond its potency.

Magical ink is not typically found or harvested on its own, though it may be found as loot, and in some instances a DM could rule that some blood collected from a fiend, celestial or dragon could be counted as such. It is generally created from ingredients or purchased from alchemists that create it from ingredients. Magical ink can’t be salvaged once they have been combined into another form (such as potions, essences, or ink). 

Magical Ink can be assumed to weigh 0.1 pounds each.

Essences

While ingredients are substances that contain a glimmer of magical power that can be harnessed through refinement, Essences are more purified forms of magical power. These come in three types: Arcane, Divine, and Primal as well as in the five normal rarities (common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary). These essences are the pure stuff of magic that makes things work.

You can get these by rendering down magical ingredients, salvaging magic items, harvesting them from magical monsters, or through the hard work of spell casters. Or you can find them as loot from people that have already done one of those harder steps. The rules for creating them yourself are under Enchanting, as it is their domain and skill set needed to do so.

While all branches occasionally use essences when extra magical power is needed, they are the primary material of Enchanters, and their pricing can be found in that section. Essences can be found as loot during the courses of your adventures, but can also be harvested (from monsters), salvaged (from magical equipment), synthesized (from ingredients), or created from the raw power of a spell caster, though the method is long and arduous.

Essences are flexible in their exact nature. There are many paths to each desired outcome, and this flexibility is represented in Essences. While the traditional way to make a belt of hill giant strength may call for a hill giant heart as its essence, an enchanter may substitute a dragon heart as their primal essences to make a belt of dragon strength that just has the same statistical effect.

Essences can be assumed to weigh 1 pound each. Each one must be gathered in an Enchanted Vial or Spirit Paper.

Synthesizing Essences: In addition to harvesting essences from magical monsters fully intact, a more approachable and incremental way is to combine several ingredients to get an essence. You must combine three ingredients of the same rarity to gain one essence of that rarity. You can combine ingredients in the following ways:

Essence Synthesizing Table

This process takes 4 hours and requires alchemist’s supplies and a heat source.

Making Essences: Another potential source of an Essence is being created by a spellcaster. This process is long and arduous, and typically only suited to downtime. A creature with the spell casting feature can create one essence during one workweek (5 days, 8 hours a day); this process can’t be completed faster and for the duration they are considered to have spent all their spell slots.

At 1st level or higher can make a common essence in this way, a caster 5th level or higher can make an uncommon essence this way, a caster at 11th level can make a rare essence in this way, and a caster at 17th level or higher can make a very rare essence this way. Legendary essences require special rituals, more casters, and take far longer; they are exceedingly hard to make.

Crafter Level Requirement Table

The type of essence produced depends on the source of the spell casting levels as per the table below:

Caster Essence Type Table

Special Cases Explained: 

Sorcerers produce a type based on their subclass; Dragon or Wild makes Primal, Divine Soul makes Divine, and Shadow makes Arcane.

Warlocks likewise produce a type based on their subclass; Archfey makes Primal, Celestial makes Divine, and all others make Arcane.

Ingots

Ingots are chunks of metal that can be used to craft things. They are assumed to be relatively pure and weigh 2 pounds each. The default ingot listed in all the crafting tables is an ingot of Steel. There are cheaper metals (such as Iron); pure Iron can’t be used to craft weapons and armor, but can be used for other items, resulting in a cheaper item. On the other end of the spectrum, more advanced metals such as Mithril and Adamantium can be used conferring special properties but being far more difficult to work with and costing more.

Ingots can be assumed to weigh 2 pounds each.

Salvaging Ingots: Metal items can be converted back to ingots quite efficiently but require a forge to do so. With a forge and 2 hours per item, a metal item can be rendered down into its component ingots. Advanced metals may require special tools to smelt.

Smelting Ore: Creating ingots from raw ore is largely out of scope for most adventurers, but you can create ingots from raw ore with a suitable facility. For more details see the Components and Materials table under Blacksmithing.

Metals

Adamantium: Said to be the strongest substance in the realms, its smokey and opalescent silver surface exhibits a greenish sheen in light. Adamantium is found in rare mineral veins deep within the world, or in meteorites that have come from other planets.

• Unit Cost: 2,000gp
• General: All Adamantium items are magical in nature, weapons gain a +1 magical bonus to attack and damage rolls, and armor gains a +1 to its AC. All Adamantium items weigh twice their normal weight, have twice the number of hit points, and are considered Indestructible – except when hit with another indestructible item, it is then counted as having an additional +5 to any Strength check made to break them.
• Weapons: When hitting a non-indestructible object, deal damage equal to max critical damage.
• Armor and Shields: Cancels any critical hit, making it anormal hit. (If an adamantine weapon was used against adamantium armor, it becomes possible to land critical hits.)

Alchemical Silver: A natural deterrent against most supernatural beings, some monsters are susceptible to silvered weapons, so cautious adventurers invest extra coins to plate their weapons with alchemical silver. Created by the process of transmuting lead into silver, this is why it maintains some form of magical properties without having to be enhanced by further magical effects.

• Unit Cost: 100gp
• Weapons: Count as a magical weapon for the purposes of overcoming resistances and immunities.
• Armor and Shields: You impose disadvantage on attack from creatures hurt by silver.

Brass:  A dull golden colored metal and is soft in comparison to most of the other metals.  It is used mostly in small components instead of weapons and armor because it is useless for either application.

• Unit Cost: 8sp.

Bronze: Appears golden in color and while hard is brittle when hitting most hard objects.  It is inexpensive and easy to work with. An alloy between copper, small amounts of tin, and other metals in small amounts. The price of it varies depending on the quality of the alloy, but it has been used since ancient times.

• Unit Cost: 8sp.
• Weapons: Is fragile and breaks on a roll of a natural one or two as well as any natural 20.  
• Armor and Shields: Is fragile and breaks when any natural 20 hit is done against the wearer and it is rendered useless, but the weight remains until removed.

Cold Iron: Appearing to be mundane iron but exhibits a faint blue sheen when exposed to magical light. Cold Iron is mundane iron worked entirely without heat, being fashioned exclusively while cold and with slight ritualistic magics, this process, however, does not make the cold iron magical – but does make it particularly effective against the Fey folk.

• Unit Cost: 250gp
• Weapons: When you hit a fey creature with a Cold iron weapon, you can reroll the damage and use either result.
• Armor and Shields: Grants a +1 bonus to any saving throws made against attacks or spells made by fey creatures. Additionally, while a creature is donned with an item of Cold Iron, they have advantage against being charmed or magically put to sleep.

Dark Steel (Fulmenar): A semi-metallic blackened blue metal with a purple sheen, Fulmenar is an energized metal that, at times, discharge static and electrical pulses. Typically found in mountain top and coastal crags where storms rage and the force of the tides and lightning push their way into the surrounding ore.

• Unit Cost: 1500gp
• Weapons: Deal an extra 1d6 Lightning damage on strike.
• Armor and Shields: Reduce the amount of damage done by sources of lightning by 1d6.

Fire Steel (Feverus): A matte bronze steel while cold, Feverus is a constantly hot metal that appears as heated iron. Always putting off heat with a faint red glow, this metal is typically found in barren magma fields, volcanoes, and other consistently hot areas; especially where lava flow is common.

• Unit Cost: 1500gp
• Weapons: Deal an extra 1d6 Fire damage on strike.
• Armor and Shields: Reduce the amount of damage done by sources of fire by 1d6.

Ice Steel (Cryrium):  Bearing the color of sky-blue silver, Cryrium is an unnaturally cold metal that consistently gathers a layer of frost on its surface. Found in the most remote and desolate cold and frozen tundra where ice and snow have fallen for centuries untouched.

• Unit Cost: 1500gp
• Weapons: Deal an extra 1d6 Cold damage on strike.
• Armor and Shields: Reduce the amount of damage done by sources of cold by 1d6.

Iron: A sturdy metal overall, iron is inferior to steel in practical regards. Any item made with iron will cost less than a steel equivalent but will be slightly less effective.

• Unit Cost: 1gp.
• General: All items made of Iron have the DC of strength checks made to break them reduced by 1. (As compared to steel items of the same make.)
• Weapons, traps, and other metallic creations: Gain -1 to their damage rolls (to a minimum of 1 damage)
• Armor and Shields: Gain -1 to their AC value.

Mithril: A beautiful silvery metal commonly used by the elves and dwarves. It is said to be as light as a feather, and stronger than steel. Mithril is a unique metal in its low weight and high ductility, making it difficult to manipulate properly if you’re not careful.

• Unit Cost: 500gp
• General: All Mithril items weigh half their normal weight. Weapons: A weapon with the Light property weighs nothing if crafted with Mithril and gains Finesse. All weapons with neither the Light nor the Heavy property gains the Light Property if crafted with Mithril A weapon with the Heavy Property loses the Heavy property if crafted with Mithril.
• Armor: Requires no Strength requirement. Heavy Armor Made from Mithril counts as Medium Armor for armor proficiencies, and Medium Armor counts as Light Armor for armor proficiencies. Additionally, medium armor made of Mithril allows the user to add a max of +3 from their Dexterity Modifier to their AC, instead of +2. While wearing Mithril armor, you don’t suffer disadvantage on Dexterity(stealth) checks, even if the armor would normally impose disadvantage.
• Shields: made from Mithril gain the light property (and therefore may be used in two-weapon fighting.) In addition, so long as the wearer is conscious and can see/hear/sense a threat, the wearer adds the AC bonus of their shield to their Dexterity saving throws.
• Other: Mithril ammunition can be fired out to the long range of the weapon it is fired from without suffering disadvantage.

Orichalcum: A Bronze orange metal with a blood red sheen, typically found in high pressure locations such as deep beneath volcanoes or deep under water in volcanic trenches. This metal exhibits a high capability to “warp” gravity and natural energies around it innately, exhibiting a forceful aura. It is highly difficult to craft due to its resistance to pressure and force.

• Unit Cost: 5,000gp
• General: All Orichalcum items are magical in nature, weapons gain a +1 magical bonus to attack and damage rolls, and armor gains a +1 to its AC.
• Weapons: An Orichalcum weapon deals an extra 1d6 Force damage on strike. Additionally, whenever you critically hit with an Orichalcum weapon, reroll the damage roll and keep the higher of the two results.
• Armor and Shields: Reduce the damage dealt to you by all sources by 1d10. Additionally, critical attacks against you re-roll the damage dice, taking the lower damage result. Reduce the amount of damage done by sources of force by1d6.

Steel: The ubiquitous choice for smiths, crafters, and handymen when arming a soldier or warrior, or even preparing tools and items. Strong and durable, smiths can always put their trust in steel.

• Unit Cost: 2gp.
• General: All items made with steel follow the same rules as their Player’s Handbook equivalent as well as any special rules granted by a Trait crafted into the item.

Hides & Leathers

Hides, scales, and carapaces all tend to be harvested from monsters. Leather is a product of hides that can be processed from what it is harvested from the monster. The DM determines if a monster provides hide, scale, or carapace. Hides do not come in different sizes, rather larger creatures simply provide more hides, and monsters that are not large enough to produce one hide provide only hide scraps.

Scales are likewise abstracted: each increment is simply an arbitrary unit of scales that the unit of scales covers. Scales can be much larger or small from different-sized creatures. The system does not attempt to say how many scales a creature provides or how many literal actual scales make up scale mail, but rather provides a number that is then consistently used.

Hide and leather materials can be assumed to be about 2 pounds each.

Processing Hides: The process of turning hide into leather takes quite a while (as per the crafting table) and is often something adventurers can delegate to NPCs (delivering hides to be processed) or do during downtime. If you would like a more expedited system, there is no balance reason for this, and you can shorten the leather crafting process to taking 2 hours, it just won’t be exceedingly realistic.

Parts

The term “parts” is used to refer to gears, wires, springs, windy bits, screws, nails, and doodads. Parts can be either found or salvaged or forged from metal scraps (or even straight from ingots by a Blacksmith for those that really want to be industrial about it). The exact nature of each item making up this collection is left abstracted.

In addition, metal scraps are collections of salvaged material that generally fall into the category of things “too small to track” which can then be used for the creations of tinkerers. In addition to all of this, occasionally tinkers will use ingots… particularly ones of tin (which is their namesake, after all). Like other crafting branches, there are also named components for more iconic pieces of gear—the stock of a crossbow, for example, or other items. The cost for these items can be found on the common component table and are generally minor.

Lastly, Tinkerers use essences when constructing things that push beyond the mundane principles of plausibility, crafting magical properties into their inventions.

Named Components: In almost all cases, named components (such as a “wooden stock” for a crossbow) can be simply abstracted out as a minor cost, but, as always, the level of abstraction is up to the DM.

Salvaging parts: The other main way to acquire parts is to salvage them. What can be salvaged is determined by the DM, but in general common items provide parts, uncommon or expensive items may provide fancy parts, and esoteric parts are found only from esoteric sources at your DM’s discretion. Tools, vehicles, and complex items generally return 1d4 metal scraps and 1d4 parts for a small or smaller item, 2d6 metal scraps for a Medium-sized item, 3d8 metal scraps for a Large-sized item, and more for larger items, though they may return less of rare types of parts.

Bone: A series of bones joined together, mostly used by shamans and wildlings.

• Unit value: Determined by the creature’s CR.
• Fragile: With any weapon any attack roll of a natural one or a natural 20 causes the weapon to shatter, and any critical hit destroys any armor made of coral.
• Weapon: Replaces the metal and wood; gain +1 to their damage rolls.
• Armor: Replaces the metal. While wearing medium or heavy armor (non-hide) made with bones, you gain a +3 bonus to Charisma (Intimidation) checks you make.

Dragon Scales: Big scales harvested from a dragon body, with a variety of colors depending on the dragon.

• Unit cost: Determined by the creature’s CR.
• Armor: While wearing dragon scale armor, you have resistance to the dragon’s damage type.

Chitin: These flexible shells of chitinous creatures such as giant crabs or remorhaz are used to craft armors, known to be lighter than metallic armors.

• Unit value: 100gp
• Armor: Replaces the metal. While wearing medium armor (non-hide) made with chitin, the armor’s dexterity bonus increases by 1. Heavy armors made with chitin reduce the Strength Requirement by 1.

Stone and Crystals

Coral: Mostly used by sea and waterborne creatures to create their weapons and armors.

• Unit value: 100gp
• Fragile: With any weapon any attack roll of a natural one or a natural 20 causes the weapon to shatter, and any critical hit destroys any armor made of coral.
• Weapons: Any melee weapon made with coral doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack rolls while underwater.
• Armor: Replaces the metal. While wearing medium or heavy armor (non-hide) made with coral, your speed while swimming increases by 10 feet.

Obsidian: Volcanic glass created from cooled magma or lava; it ranges in colors from black to deep purple shades. Well known for its durability, as well as its incredible sharpness and ability to pierce, slash, and even bludgeon with its sharp angled structure. Found exclusively in old volcanic areas where lava flow was once common.

• Unit Cost: 250gp
• Fragile: With any weapon any attack roll of a natural one or a natural 20 causes the weapon to shatter, and any critical hit destroys any armor made of obsidian.
• Weapons: Deals an extra die of damage on strike -regardless of whether it does bludgeon, piercing or slashing damage, as obsidian’s light and angled nature imposes harder strikes.
• Armor and Shields: Deals 1d6 piercing damage to any creatures that attempt to grapple, physically restrain, or grab you.

Pearl Steel: An alloy made from alchemically melted pearls and combining it with high quality steel, the result is a semi-metallic, glossy cream-like pink to yellow stone. This makes beautiful, elegant, and often pricey items that combine the strength of steel with the awe of the ocean.

• Unit Cost: 250gp
• Weapons: Gains an additional +1 to hit if the wielder had moved with their swim speed during their last turn.
• Armor and Shields: Allows the user to utilize their normal speed as their swim speed in water.

Wood

Commonly available in its lowest quality (firewood), higher quality woods are often found in rather exotic locations. Wooden branches (including wood scraps) are assumed to be of a useful wood that can be worked, while firewood covers everything else, with more useful woods falling into categories such as “quality branches” or rarer options. Wood scraps are assumed to be scraps of common branch quality wood, and consequently can’t be salvaged from firewood.

Wooden branches can be assumed to weigh 2 pounds each.

Salvaging: For the most part, wood can’t be easily salvaged. Wood carving is not necessarily a reversible process, and wood can’t be smelted down. You can render wooden crafted products into wood scraps equal to 4 x the number of branches used to create it.

Quality Branch: A quality branch refers to one that can be made into more precious objects, particularly bows. It is non magical in nature, but typically yew when dealing with bows, though ash, mulberry, elm, oak, hickory, hazel, and maple can be used under broader definitions.

Wood: The standard form of lumber ranging anywhere between ash, ebony, oak, teak, yew, and more. Each has their own regional uses, but ultimately, are all merely the husks of the trees they were once a piece of.

• Unit value: Half its normal steel cost in gold.
• Armor: Replaces the metal of any medium or heavy armor.
• Armor and Shields: Replaces the metal of any medium or heavy armor, and shields.

Kirinwood: A Supernaturally tough, resilient wood, found in remote areas, and is as strong as steel. Named after a Mythical Creature said to have gifted it to humanity.

• Unit Value: 250gp
• General: All Kirinwood items are ritualistically magical in nature – weapons, armor, and items are considered magical for overcoming resistance and immunity. All Kirinwood items are immune to dissolving from all damage types except force. This does not translate to immunity or resistance for the wielder.
• Weapons: Replaces the metal of weapons. Deals an additional 3 points of weapon damage on strike.
• Armor and Shields: Replaces the metal of any medium or heavy armor, and shields. Ignore 3 points of damage when hit.

Living wood: Living wood can be of any kind of wood but is mostly found in the Feywild. It is a magically wet-green hardwood that doesn’t die when cut down or shaped; may contain the spirits of dryads or fey. As strong as mithril.

• Unit Value: 750gp
• General: All Living wood items are magical in nature, weapons gain a +1 magical bonus to attack and damage rolls, and armor gains a +1 to its AC. All Living wood items let the user know which way is east and west, and when it is day or night – by blooming flowers during daytime and entering Nyctinasty (the process through which flowers close) during night. Additionally, all Living wood items count as spellcasting focuses, and have the capability to cast “Goodberry ” once a day.
• Weapons: Replaces the metal of weapons. Additionally, attacks against creatures who possess the Etherealness Ability, or the Incorporeal Movement ability are made with Advantage.
• Armor and Shields: Replaces the metal of any medium or heavy armor, and shields. When worn, living wood armor doesn’t impose disadvantage on stealth checks.

Spiritual Wood (Aetherwood): This deep, cyan-blue wood has a natural connection with the weave, seemingly infused with the essence of spirits that have perished near its soil.

• Unit value: 500gp
• General: All Aetherwood items are ritualistically magical in nature – weapons, armor, and items are considered magical for overcoming resistance and immunity.
• Weapons: Replaces the metal of weapons. When targeted by a spell attack or similar magical effect, you gain a +3″Parry” AC bonus to the attack.
• Armor and Shields: Replaces the metal of any medium or heavy armor. While wearing an Aetherwood armor, you gain a+3 bonus to concentration checks to maintain a spell.

Yggdraswood: The wood of the fabled world tree. This version of living wood appears as simple as wood from a distance, but upon closer inspection, its true nature is evident: The wood seems to shift and morph between several differing forms of tree wood and seems to breathe on its own.

Yggdraswood is so unbelievably rare, that just being able to locate a world tree on a world is a legendary feat (there is one world tree on every world where magic exists – it remains hidden through magical means), being able to coax the tree itself into somehow shedding a living section of it is supremely mythical. Therefore, its value is too astronomical.

Yggdraswood has all effects of living wood, with its own abilities as well:

• General: All Yggdraswood items are highly magical in nature, weapons gain a +2 magical bonus to attack and damage rolls, and armor gains a +2 to its AC. All Yggdraswood items bestow upon the wearer the constant effects of the “Tongues” spell.
• Weapons: So long as you hold the weapon, you may cast the “Green-Flame Blade” cantrip, with no material components, equal to your level of cantrip scaling.
• Armor and Shields: While donned in Yggdraswood armor, or wielding a Yggdraswood shield, it heals the wearer by 1d6per round, even stifling bleeding. Additionally, you become Immune to the diseased and poisoned conditions, as well as poison damage while donned in Yggdraswood.

Purchasing Materials by Type

Cooking

Leather and Hide

Metals

Wood

Magical Materials

Miscellaneous

Purchasing Materials by Rarity

Trivial

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Very Rare

Legendary

Harvesting

While there are also some other harvesting rules, if crafting is to be used in the campaign, then these will be added to and supplement the existing harvesting rules.

Harvesting and looting are two paths to the same place, but generally depend on what kind of foe was vanquished and you are now collecting the “stuff” of. Typically, humanoid creatures that carry stuff are candidates for the Individual Treasure tables, while Aberrations, Beasts, Dragons, Monstrosities, and Plants are harvesting candidates.

If you don’t normally provide loot equivalent to default treasure tables, you don’t need to start providing loot equivalent to them using these new tables, simply apply these tables as frequently as it makes sense for your game.

Remember that you can fully mix and match as it makes sense. You can replace coinage with gems or art pieces, you can replace crafting items that wouldn’t make sense with coinage, gems, or art pieces, etc. The tables are merely a guide and convenience for what sort of range of materials should come from what sort of creature.

Harvesting: The Harvesting tables replace the Individual Treasure for Aberration, Beast, Dragon, Monstrosity, and Plant type creatures.

Remnants: Remnants optionally replace the Individual Treasure table for creatures that do not leave behind a body on death, like Elementals, Celestials, or Fiends (ones that leave behind a body can use the Harvesting table).

Basic Harvesting

Beasts, Dragons, and Monstrosities can be harvested using Wisdom (Survival) for meat and hides. At a DM’s discretion, a Plant type creature can be harvested for food using the same DC and amount but providing common fresh ingredients instead of meat. Basic Harvesting takes 10 minutes. At your DM’s discretion, it may take longer for larger creatures.

Crafting Exotic Creature Harvesting

Applicable Targets: Aberration, Constructs, Dragons, Monstrosities, Plants, Some Undead

A random roll is performed to judge what can be harvested from the monster. For Dragons, Giants, and Monstrosities, a Wisdom (Medicine) check is required to harvest the material without destroying it, for Aberrations and Constructs, an Intelligence (Arcana) check is required, and for Plants an Intelligence (Nature) check is required. Exotic Harvesting takes 10 minutes. At your DM’s discretion, it may take longer for larger creatures.

If a beast is sufficiently magical, poisonous, or venomous, a DM can opt to use the Dragon & Monstrosity table for exotic harvesting, but this should be rare; even a poisonous beast is usually too mundane for the magical properties of harvested materials, and a beast should always be rolled on the 0–4 CR table regardless of its CR.

At a DM’s discretion, some Undead may be harvested as well if there were something that would make sense for them to provide in this manner, in which case they would use an Intelligence (Arcana) check. Undead are less likely to provide anything of use, simply having a rare chance of providing arcane essences, though some would consider the use of these essences evil.

Exotic Remnants

Applicable Targets: Celestials, Elementals, Fiends, Some Undead

Some creatures typically do not leave behind corpses. While these most often disappear without a trace, sometimes they will leave behind a fragment of the magical forces that powered them as a remnant, in the form of an ingredient or essence. These are less likely to result in a crafting item, but don’t require any check to gather it successfully. Gathering remnants is simple to do and requires only 1 minute.

Applying Material Tables

As a DM, never feel compelled to roll on a table if you feel it makes sense to do something else. The tables provide a baseline, but if you feel that it makes sense for a given monster to leave behind a given material, simply do so, requiring the check that seems most appropriate (using the tables as a guide if you wish).

Exotic Harvesting (CR 0–4)

Exotic Remnants (CR 0–4)

Exotic Harvesting (CR 5–10)

Exotic Remnants (CR 5–10)

Exotic Harvesting (CR 11–16)

Exotic Remnants (CR 11–16)

Exotic Harvesting (CR 17+)

Exotic Remnants (CR 17+)

Hide Harvesting

Special Materials

Gathering Tables

Many of the materials can simply be found growing in the wild and can be gathered by someone that knows what to look for and spends the time doing just that. When traveling at a slow pace through wilderness for 8 hours or more (i.e., not urban land or farmland), you can make a gathering check, but have disadvantage on the check to harvest anything found.

If you dedicate eight hours to gathering without traveling, you can make two checks (without disadvantage) or find one item other than an Essence of your choice that is available within that biome’s table (making the ability check from the corresponding line of the table to harvest it) or 1d12 of any trivial item (making a DC8 ability check to harvest it)

The found items then must be gathered. You can choose to gather ingredients, search for materials, or hunt wild game. Roll a d100 and consult the corresponding table below for the relevant biome to determine what is found.

Gathering Ingredients: Ingredients are harvested by making a Wisdom check. If you have an Herbalism kit and are proficient with it, you can add your proficiency bonus to the roll.

Search for Materials: Materials can be harvested with your choice of a Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom check. If you have proficiency with the Survival skill, you can add your proficiency bonus to the roll.

Hunt Game: Food can be gathered with your choice of a Dexterity or Wisdom check. If you have proficiency with the Survival skill, you can add your survival modifier to the roll.

Intentionally Slow: Gathering is a time gated system. It is not intended to be the primary source of materials. Rather than being balanced against the loot tables, it’s balanced against the down time activities (and consequently not particularly efficient).

Gathering Ingredients

Gathering Ingredients

Gathering Ingredients

Hunting Game

Hunting Game

Details on Each Crafting Skill

• Alchemy
• Blacksmithing
• Brewing
• Calligraphy
• Carpentry
• Cartography
• Cobbler
• Cooking
• Forging
• Glassblowing
• Herbalism
• Jeweler
• Leatherworking
• Masonry
• Painter
• Poisoner
• Potter
• Spell Creation
• Tinkerer
• Weaving
• Woodcarving