D&D 5E Cookbook as equipment?

[abe ray]

Would a cookbook count as "equipment " for cooking purposes?


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[Ancalagon]

Have you ever tried cooking with a cookbook? Can you cut onions with it? Grate cheese? Boil water?

Of course a cookbook isn't cooking equipment... it's a source of information, recipies etc. That information could be in your head and be just as useful.

 

[abe ray]

What sort of bonuses would you fine people give for using a cookbook?


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[Ancalagon]

IF

1: this is a very good cookbook
2: The PCs are trying to do a recipe they don't know
3: the recipies are appropriate to the context (no leek soup for orcs...)

maybe advantage?

 

[abe ray]

Probably!


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[Ath'kethin]

You could just treat it like a tool. If cooking well is important enough to a character to sub a cookbook in as a tool proficiency, let 'em rock.

 

[aco175]

I could see several good role-playing opportunities here. A quest to find the lost recipe before the dukes ball. A secret ingredient to add that makes people who eat it have something cool like advantage to poison saves or immune to hangovers. The PC could go around town visiting inns and villas collecting ideas and trading secrets looking for the perfect whatever- soup, burger, pie etc...

I would let the player decide how much to make this a point to his character.

 

[Oofta]

If you're doing anything more complex than a shish-kebab, cooking without the proper utensils is not even possible.

A cook book on the other hand is going to be more situational. Need to prepare a special dish for the king? It may be a straight +1 or +2 or give advantage. But other things could also do it, like finding out that the king is tired of all the fancy Lamb Salad with Fregola or Scallop Sashimi with Meyer Lemon Confit. What the king really wants? Porridge that reminds him of his mother's cooking.

In other situations having access to a specific cookbook could be a requirement for success because you're trying to cook a specific dish from a far-off country to impress the ambassador of a nation that is threatening war.

So basically, I would not tie any specific bonus to a cookbook, or lack therein. That doesn't mean it won't be useful under certain circumstances.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'd give someone untrained in cooking a +2 (effectively simulating the lowest level of proficiency), and someone trained a +1. From my own experience on the kitchen, I benefit a lot more from clear instructions than my wife, who is the much more experienced cook and relies more on intuition and accumulation of overall knowledge.

 

[abe ray]

So would a BUNCH of other non-chefs!


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