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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6734001" data-attributes="member: 6790260">There are only three things that have overt mechanical utility for all characters: Thieves' Tools, Healer's Kits, and Herbalism Kits, in very rough order of utility. Ironically, from what I can tell, it's way easier to pick up Thieves' Tools proficiency than Healer's Kit or Herbalism Kit though.100% of all other tools are either purely fluffy, to the point of being unlikely to prove useful even in a very minimal-combat game, or extremely sensitive to DM disposition on numerous subjects. For instance, the Alchemist's Tools could be allowed to let characters make potions for themselves...but there's 0 support for that in the rules, so it would be purely the DM powering up that option. Same goes for Cook's Utensils and basically all the rest of it.Of the &quot;tool&quot; proficiencies that aren't obviously mechanically relevant, but which plausibly sound like they could be useful in a campaign, I'd say Carpenter, Mason, Alchemist, Calligrapher, and Cartographer could plausibly be made to be significant to the lives of adventurers--though, again, it would be the DM intentionally making those tools useful, rather than them being naturally useful in stuff the party would probably encounter regardless. Some, like Painter or Glassblower or Brewer, I just have a seriously tough time even imaging potential uses, let alone the tortured logic required to make them relevant to an adventurer.The Gaming Set is in a bit of an odd position because I have seen &quot;play cards, make money&quot; stuff in games before, but DMs tend to discourage it IME. Further, because it's proficiency with a single thing, like Three Dragon Ante or Chess, rather than &quot;card games&quot; or &quot;board games&quot; or the like, I feel like there's going to be lots of places where you get nickle-and-dimed out of actually benefitting. &quot;Oh, you have poker proficiency? Well these guys are playing blackjack, so you don't get squat, sorry.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 6734001, member: 6790260"] There are only three things that have overt mechanical utility for all characters: Thieves' Tools, Healer's Kits, and Herbalism Kits, in very rough order of utility. Ironically, from what I can tell, it's [I]way[/I] easier to pick up Thieves' Tools proficiency than Healer's Kit or Herbalism Kit though. 100% of all other tools are either purely fluffy, to the point of being unlikely to prove useful even in a very minimal-combat game, or extremely sensitive to DM disposition on numerous subjects. For instance, the Alchemist's Tools [I]could[/I] be allowed to let characters make potions for themselves...but there's 0 support for that in the rules, so it would be purely the DM powering up that option. Same goes for Cook's Utensils and basically all the rest of it. Of the "tool" proficiencies that aren't obviously mechanically relevant, but which plausibly sound like they could be useful in a campaign, I'd say Carpenter, Mason, Alchemist, Calligrapher, and Cartographer could plausibly be made to be significant to the lives of adventurers--though, again, it would be the DM intentionally [I]making[/I] those tools useful, rather than them being naturally useful in stuff the party would probably encounter regardless. Some, like Painter or Glassblower or Brewer, I just have a seriously tough time even imaging potential uses, let alone the tortured logic required to make them relevant to an adventurer. The Gaming Set is in a bit of an odd position because I have seen "play cards, make money" stuff in games before, but DMs tend to discourage it IME. Further, because it's proficiency with a [I]single[/I] thing, like Three Dragon Ante or Chess, rather than "card games" or "board games" or the like, I feel like there's going to be lots of places where you get nickle-and-dimed out of actually benefitting. "Oh, you have [I]poker[/I] proficiency? Well these guys are playing [I]blackjack[/I], so you don't get [I]squat[/I], sorry." [/QUOTE]

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