Artisan Crafting in Er Dor

WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT FINISHED

What is an Artisan?

For our purposes, an artisan is someone who can use a specific set of tools as part of a crafting profession. Artisan’s Tools are predefined sets of items that relate to a player character’s profession as an artisan craftsperson. There are seventeen of these tool sets defined in D&D 5e, but we are currently only be considering the following for player characters in Er Dor.

1. Alchemist’s Supplies (covered extensively in Alchemy, Herbology and Poison Making)
2. Cartographer’s Tools (covered extensively in Cartography in Er Dor)
3. Cook’s Utensils (covered extensively in Cooking in ER DÓR)
4. Jeweler’s Tools
5. Smith’s Tools
6. Carpenter's Tools
7. Glassblower's Tools
8. Leatherworker's Tools
9. Brewer's Supplies
10. Cobbler's Tools

Not all tools are Artisan’s Tools! There are many tool sets that don’t count as Artisan’s Tools, such as ana Herbalist Kit, Poisoner's Kit, Fishing Kit or Mining Gear.

What can an artisan do?

Crafting Mundane Items
To craft a mundane item with Artisan’s Tools, you need to have:

1. The relevant tool proficiency or proficiencies. If multiple kinds of tools are required, you can collaborate on the project with your fellow party members.
2. Access to all the tools you’ll need. In some cases, this is just the tool set itself. In other cases though, other tools may be required. For example, if you want to smith a sword or a piece of armor, you’ll probably need access to a forge.
3. The raw materials.
4. Time. The amount of time required is based on the cost of the mundane item. (one short rest for anything less than 5 gold, one day for anything between 5 and 100 gold, one day per hundred gold for anything between 100 and 1000 gold, and an additional three days for every 1000 gold above this. A 2000 gp mundane item would therefore take 13 days to craft.

Some great mundane items to craft include non-magical weapons you can't find at a local merchant and inexpensive supplies.

Level. Common items are available at all levels. Uncommon recipes become available at crafting level 3. Rare recipes become available at crafting level 5. Very rare recipes become available at crafting level 7. Legendary recipes are available at level 9.

Crafting Magical Items

Crafting a magical item with Artisan’s Tools has all the same requirements as crafting a mundane item, with a few extra steps. To craft a magic item, you also need:

1. A recipe for the specific magic item. This could come from anywhere. The recipe for a magic item of Legendary quality is likely to be a reward for completing a dungeon while you might get lucky searching the local library for recipes to create Common or Uncommon magic items. This recipe might have all kinds of mystical stipulations for how the item must be made. Your anvil might need to face southeast. A cleric of Mielikki might need to play the pan flute during the entire crafting process.
2. An exotic ingredient. This is something you can’t generally just buy in town. You’ve got to go adventuring for it. The difficulty of the adventure, and the challenge rating of the creatures you encounter, should scale with the rarity of the magic item you’re creating.
   
Refer to Crafting Magical Items for details
3. Time and money equal to half the sale price, based on the rarity of the item (Common: 50 gp 2 workdays, Uncommon: 100 gp 5 workdays and you must be at least level 4, Rare: 2 tendays 500gp and you must be at least level 9, Very Rare: 5,000 gp 6 tendays and you must be at least level 13, Legendary: 50,000 gp 12 tendays and you must be at least level 17). Note that this for Alchemy, Cooking and Cartography, which are covered separately.

Unique and Specific Uses

In addition to these universal rules for crafting, each set of Artisan’s Tools has its own set of unique uses. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything provides a few uses for each but you shouldn’t let this limit your creativity:

1. Alchemist’s Supplies can be used to identify substances, start fires, and neutralize acid.
2. Brewer’s Supplies allow you to purify water, identify poison in a drink, or use alcohol to mellow the mood of an NPC
3. Carpenter’s Tools give you insights about wooden buildings and structures. You can spot trapdoors and other irregularities in wooden floor and you can move stealthily across creaky wooden floorboards. You can also construct temporary wooden shelters for your party.
4. Cobbler’s Tools allow you to garner information about a person by examining their shoes. Cobblers allow their party to walk further each day by keeping their shoes well maintained and craft small hidden compartments in shoes.
5. Cook’s Utensils grant you insight into cultural eating habits which can prove a useful diplomatic tool.
6. Mason’s Tools allow you to spot weaknesses in brick walls and more effectively deal damage to them.
7. Smith’s Tools can be used to sharpen blades and repair metal objects if you have access to a hot enough flame.
8. Jeweler’s Tools give you the ability to identify and price gems. They also allow you to refine uncut gems to increase their value. An uncut gem sells for 10% of the sale price for a cut/polished gem. A jeweler can add 15% to this for every level, up to 100% as a level 6 Jeweler. (50gp/day)
9. Glassblower’s Tools and Leatherworking Tools allow you to gain greater insight when investigating specific kinds of objects.

Gaining Proficiency with Crafters' Tools and levelling your skill

The most common way to gain proficiency with Artisan’s Tools is in character creation. Various race, class, and background choices will grant you proficiency with a set of Artisan’s Tools. Dwarves and Rock Gnomes notably gain proficiencies in Artisan’s Tools. For example, Dwarves can choose between Smith’s Tools, Brewer’s Supplies, and Mason’s Tools. Several backgrounds grant proficiencies with Artisan’s Tools, including Guild Artisan, Shipwright, and Folk Hero. For most characters, their background is where they’re most likely to gain one of these proficiencies. Failing any of these methods, you can spend 1d4 tendays with an artisan of at least level 6. This will cost you 1 gold per day, at the end of which you will have achieved level 1 with the tools. Gaining additional experience occurs:

• Harvesting Ingredients for recipe - Common 2, Uncommon 8, Rare 12, Very Rare 20, Legendary 40

• Creating items using the recipe - Common 80, Uncommon 200, Rare 750, Very Rare 2000, Legendary 3000

• Learning New Recipes - Common 60, Uncommon 150, Rare 500, Very Rare 1500, Legendary 2250

Potion making modifier

Once the player has reached a certain Exp. value, they level up their potion making abilities to a maximum of level 10. Each level above level 1 provides a cumulative +1 to check made to determine if a potion was made successfully.

• Lvl. 1 (Common Items) - Requires 0 experience +0 Bonus

• Lvl. 2 (Common Items) - Requires 150 experience +1Bonus

• Lvl. 3 (Uncommon Items) - Requires 450 experience +2 Bonus

• Lvl. 4 (Uncommon Items) - Requires 900 experience +3 Bonus

• Lvl. 5 (Rare Items) - Requires 1500 experience +4 Bonus

• Lvl. 6 (Rare Items) - Requires 2250 experience +5 Bonus

• Lvl. 7 (Very Rare Items) - Requires 3150 experience +6 Bonus

• Lvl. 8 (Very Rare Items) - Requires 4200 experience +7 Bonus

• Lvl. 9 (Very Rare Items) - Requires 5400 experience +8 Bonus

• Lvl. 10 (Legendary Items) - Requires 6750 experience +9 Bonus

Obtaining Recipes

Upon learning the craft, you may pick any 3 common recipes. After this you must find, purchase, or create them.