D&D (2024) 2024 Players Handbook reveal: "New Crafting Rules"

[Chaosmancer]

Sorry if I was unclear, I was talking about the second picture, the picture of armour types.

I'm fine with everything in the Eberron picture - I'm fine with some armour being fantastical too - I just don't think the "example equipment" armour pics should be more than mildly to moderately fantastical and particularly not the "dumb, bland, generic" kind.

Not agreeing or disagreeing with the point about the armor, but the chainmail on the left made me grin, because it looks almost EXACTLY like the armor of a character from a DnD webcomic/podcast

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yeah I like it though it is a bit weird that if that's a familiar, it has a prosthetic. How would that work? Familiars are spirits that reform, even after death. Aren't they? I'm fairly sure 5E established that. They can't be like, maimed, otherwise they could equally be prevented from coming back - anything that can permanently remove a limb can permanently remove a head.

They're not physical animals. A physical animal could have a prosthetic, obviously but... a familiar? Nah. Not by 5E lore. Presumably the artist was thinking in more 3E or earlier terms.

Maybe it's not a familiar but like, cat that's a wizard or something.

Or... it is her actual cat.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Fair concept but ironically I don't think it's fantastical enough for that - that would be a valid, I've seen it work in videogames (particularly K-MMOs and some JRPGs), but this is in a weird shoddy "between two stools" zone, where it doesn't seem like anything that makes any real sense, isn't novel or cool or new and indeed seems a little outdated, style-wise, but also isn't so fantastical and wild and energetic as to be awesome.

Accurately depicting an unwillingness to commit to a philosophy or aesthetic?

 

[Charlaquin]

Every tool has something to do with the Utilize action.

• "Hey, what's a Utilize action?" (a question not asked)

Yeah… Todd Kendrick really doesn’t seem to grasp how interviews are supposed to work. He rarely asks any questions, he just kind of reacts to the person he’s supposed to be interviewing saying the information he should be prompting them for… It’s weird…

 

[Chaosmancer]

Back to the actual point of crafting mechanics and the rules discussed.

1) I like that tools are getting specific actions in the PHB. Even if they are just copy-pasted from Xanathar's, so, so many DMs I have had over the years had no clue those rules existed, so it will be good for them to be front and center.

2) Collecting, combining and creating rules text for items is going to be very useful. For example, Winter Clothing had a mechanical effect, but you would only know that if you looked in the DMG under Extreme Cold. Getting all of these rules in one place, and giving us actual mechanical benefits for items will make them more integrated into the game.

3) The inclusion of the Map makes it possible we will see new items as well, which might help cover some gaps we had before in the list. I didn't even realize that I've never had player's buy a map until it was pointed out that there was no cost nor any benefit to them. Hopefully this also leads to a few things added to the list like materials. It is all well and good to say you need "half the cost of the item in materials" to craft something, but that ends up being very vague compared to being able to buy "two irong ingots, a bag of leather scraps, and X wood".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Accurately depicting an unwillingness to commit to a philosophy or aesthetic?

Okay yes I can't argue with that!

Or... it is her actual cat.

No-one who has ever owned or cared for a cat could believe a cat would look that happy whilst being made to wear a hat like that. I know this is fantasy but, sir, there are LIMITS to my credulity!

Not agreeing or disagreeing with the point about the armor, but the chainmail on the left made me grin, because it looks almost EXACTLY like the armor of a character from a DnD webcomic/podcast

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The chain is definitely the least-offensive of the three, for sure. Though that it is probably "chain mail" not "chain shirt" is a little upsetting given it offers zero leg or thigh or groin protection despite being Heavy armour.

The "stab me here pls" cut-off top on the leather is insane. Like, come on, if you're going to go that silly, just actually have a cut-off top - at least people can admire your hard-worked-for abs that way! The scale is kind of viscerally appalling to me because it's just so utterly bland and awful-looking, and the bracers are one the dumbest things I've ever seen. Like for god's sake, they'd be the same as the chain. There's no earthly reason to put a bunch of tiny scales on them when you're using PLATE to protect the fingers! Furthermore, the scales on the bracers are THE WRONG WAY UP - they will catch a weapon and pull in INTO you arm, rather than deflecting it! Truly bad. Like actually bad. Like artist didn't even care enough to Google up what real armour looked like for 30 seconds, or even think about how it worked just rationally.

 

[Charlaquin]

I really hope that the new crafting rules don't allow players to effectively freely pick the magic items they want. There's too many magic items which break things to allow players to choose items off the complete list.

With the exceptions of healing potions and spell scrolls, Magic item crafting is confirmed to be in the DMG, so easy to just not utilize if you don’t want it in your campaign.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

3) The inclusion of the Map makes it possible we will see new items as well, which might help cover some gaps we had before in the list. I didn't even realize that I've never had player's buy a map until it was pointed out that there was no cost nor any benefit to them. Hopefully this also leads to a few things added to the list like materials. It is all well and good to say you need "half the cost of the item in materials" to craft something, but that ends up being very vague compared to being able to buy "two irong ingots, a bag of leather scraps, and X wood".

But we don't really want to get to where it's Video Game Crafting systems, where you specifically need 1 X and 2 Y to craft something, and you can't use anything else because the system is very strict about what it's using.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not agreeing or disagreeing with the point about the armor, but the chainmail on the left made me grin, because it looks almost EXACTLY like the armor of a character from a DnD webcomic/podcast

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Nice design! What comic is this?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But we don't really want to get to where it's Video Game Crafting systems, where you specifically need 1 X and 2 Y to craft something, and you can't use anything else because the system is very strict about what it's using.

Agree 100%. The absolute last thing I want to see from a crafting system is videogame-style prescriptive lists of ingredients. Generally what the ingredients might be and how much they might cost, sure.

If they do costs I pray they sanity-check them so they're not either higher than just buying the item and/or so close that they effectively suggest blacksmiths etc. are selling stuff "at cost". I mean, they'll probably be fine, but I've seen a few crafting systems in TT RPGs which definitely failed that test.