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

[Chaosmancer]

This is the sort of the Bastion rules can address -- the PC doesn't need to craft things if their bastion can do so), but even still, it comes online too late for most non-magical items.

The Bastion playtest attempted this... and it was REALLY BAD. Like, insultingly bad. The Smith shop option for the Bastion had a list of items that you could choose to make, and each item took one week to create. Or, if you were a blacksmith, you could yourself make the entire list, almost twice over, in the same amount of time.

They also allowed you to spend 3 weeks and 800 gold to make a masterwork martial weapon, which could then have Magic Weapon cast on it to make it a +1 weapon... with a value no higher than 500 gp.

The Bastion rules are a good place for crafting rules to be worked into the game. But they need to be majorly overhauled from what we had initially seen.

 

[Kobold Stew]

My favorite crafting mechanic in 5e (so far) was actually in Volo's Guide to Monsters, where Lizardfolk had this ability:

Cunning Artisan.

As part of a short rest, you can harvest bone and hide from a slain beast, construct, dragon, monstrosity, or plant creature of size Small or larger to create one of the following items: a shield, a club, a javelin, or 1d4 darts or blowgun needles. To use this trait, you need a blade, such as a dagger, or appropriate artisan's tools, such as leatherworker's tools.

That gave me everything I needed to have a self-sufficient live-off-the-land character; it provided means of making a non-metal shield in case he wanted to be a druid. It stipulated materials and time, and it presented no balance issues.

Of course they removed it when they revised Lizardfolk for MotM.

 

[Chaosmancer]

There's this kind of weird blind spot in the game that occurs with any timescale longer than about 24 hours. Because of the pacing of a lot of the official adventures, the game in practice doesn't actually want to pay attention to this timescale very much, but with other modes of gameplay that aren't so narratively focused, this becomes one of the key pacing metrics.

I don't quite know how they might parse this issue in 2024, though it seems like something they're thinking more about (this crafting system, bastions, whatever they do to the downtime mechanics...).

I'm at this weird spot myself where I want a reason to slow the pace down, a reason to use days of downtime, a reason to do a timeskip of a few months, but there's not much of a mechanical need for that, and there's not much of a narrative desire for that. I'd love to live in a world where what you do with three weeks of downtime is relevant. Yeah, making a longsword probably isn't, but then I'm curious about what is.

It's got me curious about how bastions might work, that's for sure.

The trick is that the pace makes sense with how the narrative is structured. It makes sense that at level 1 you go on an adventure, level up after that adventure, then travel to the next town, find a problem that triggers an adventure, then level up after that, then slow down to maybe need to deal with two or three problems whereever you are traveling.

Because, it would be a bit weird to have traveled somewhere and expect to spend three weeks in a new town... and not adventuring. But then when you string it together and count all the days, it is actually a very short amount of time, because it doesn't actually take that long to travel to twelve different towns and cities.

I don't remember the precise book series, but I remember that one book in that series dealt with like 5 years of military service... and then the next book focused on one, really really bad day for the characters. But it made perfect sense that they were both given equal narrative weight.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I don't remember the precise book series, but I remember that one book in that series dealt with like 5 years of military service... and then the next book focused on one, really really bad day for the characters. But it made perfect sense that they were both given equal narrative weight.

Please remember the series.

 

[R_J_K75]

man i hope crafting doesn't turn out to be primarily a downtime activity system, being able to craft a basic longsword over a three weeks downtime with smith's tools is not something useful or engaging to do with tools.

If it takes any more time than a few minutes to a few hours I don't see how it can be anything other than a downtime activity. They're will probably be rules for complications and setbacks or making an extremely well-crafted item. But other than that, I don't see a character being able to forge a sword while adventuring through a forest, at least not without magical aid. These are cool for people who want them (same as the bastion rules) but I have always considered them superfluous, and I don't use them anymore.

 

[Vaalingrade]

But other than that, I don't see a character being able to forge a sword while adventuring through a forest, at least not without magical aid.

I'm now imagining reforging the broken sword of a lost hero over the corpse of a recently slain fire elemental and I want it harder now.

Of a sacred Blacksmith-inspired Hexblade who reforges their pact weapon to swap spells.

 

[MarkB]

I'm now imagining reforging the broken sword of a lost hero over the corpse of a recently slain fire elemental and I want it harder now.

Of a sacred Blacksmith-inspired Hexblade who reforges their pact weapon to swap spells.

Or a genie-patron warlock who's turned his vessel's interior into a smithy.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm now imagining reforging the broken sword of a lost hero over the corpse of a recently slain fire elemental and I want it harder now.

Of a sacred Blacksmith-inspired Hexblade who reforges their pact weapon to swap spells.

I knew someone would want to find a way to do this the second I wrote that

 

[Necropolitan]

I'm now imagining reforging the broken sword of a lost hero over the corpse of a recently slain fire elemental and I want it harder now.

Of a sacred Blacksmith-inspired Hexblade who reforges their pact weapon to swap spells.

A Forge Domain Cleric calling down their god's blessing to transform their offerings into the creation they seek.

(Which is an actual mechanical ability of the Forge Domain Cleric)

 

[R_J_K75]

Or a genie-patron warlock who's turned his vessel's interior into a smithy.

That would be cool if WotC actually innovated the crafting rules to incorporate things like this, but I doubt it'll happen.