Smith's Tools

by VaranSL

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Smith's Tools

You work with fire and steel to create deadly weapons, impenetrable armor and maybe even the occasional horseshoe. You are a master at the forge, even if you are sitting in front of a campfire.

Smith's Tools

The following text replaces the text found on pg. 84 of Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Smith's tools allow you to work metal, beating it to alter its shape, repair damage, or work raw ingots into useful items. Your tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, a 20lb block of steel and a whetstone. Your tools weigh 28 lbs and costs 40 gp.

Proficiency with this tool lets you add your proficiency bonus to any Strength checks you make for your smithing.

The Forge

While you are more at home working in a forge, sometimes you can make do with just a campfire. If an item is able to be crafted at a campfire, then it will have a small Fleuron next to the name.

Example:

Dagger ❧

Crafting

When crafting a new item, you have three different qualities to work towards, Scrap, Common, and Masterwork.


Scrap costs half the price of the item, and requires no crafting checks. Furthermore, it decreases the base effectiveness of the item. For weapons, this gives them a -1 to attack rolls, and for armor it gives them a -1 to AC.


Commmon costs half the price of the item to craft and requires a base DC13 craft check. This check varies based on the complexity of the equipment you wish to craft.


Masterwork costs three times the price of the common equipment craft and requires a base DC21 craft check. This check varies based on the complexity of the equipment you wish to craft. Furthermore, the item is far more effective. For weapons, this gives them a +1 to attack rolls, and for armor it gives them a +1 to AC. Crafting time for equipment in this category also take 25% longer to create.

Complexity

Some equipment is more complex than others to craft. There are three different levels, Simple, Moderate, and Complex.


Simple items are very easy to craft and can be created quickly, they have a base DC13 to craft (DC21 if Masterwork). Simple items are typically made out of a single piece of steel and have a simple form. To determine how long it takes to craft, take the weight of the equipment and divide by 4 and round up, minimum of 1 day.

i.e. If the equipment weighs 1lb, it takes 1 day to craft.


Moderate items can be quickly crafted and have a base DC14 to craft (DC22 if Masterwork). Moderate items are made from a few different pieces of steel and have a few complicated techniques. To determine how long it takes to craft, take the weight of the equipment and divide by 2 and round up, minimum of 1 day.

i.e. If the equipment weighs 8lbs, it takes 4 days to craft.


Complex items take a lot longer to craft and have a base DC15 to craft (DC23 if Masterwork). Complex items are made from lots of pieces and have moving parts and complicated forms. To craft the equipment, it takes a number of days equal to the weight of the equipment, minimum of 1 day.

i.e. If the equipment weighs 45lbs, it takes 45 days to craft.

 

When crafting an item, you need at least 6 hours to dedicate to your work. If you spend more time than that, your GM can determine if you speed up progress on crafting your equipment, but the number of checks required does not change.

Crafting Checks

When crafting your equipment, you will need to make the appropriate craft check to ensure that your equipment is coming out correctly. Before you begin work on your equipment, you must determine if you are crafting a Masterwork item first or not. If you are crafting Masterwork your upfront costs will increase.

For every seven days you spend crafting your equipment, you must make a Craft check with the DC determined by Quality & Complexity, any days that are in excess of the seven days but don't form another seven days still require a craft check. i.e. If your equipment takes 9 days to craft, you would make 2 craft checks.

If you are working towards Masterwork and fail any of your craft checks, it becomes Common. If you are working towards Common and fail any of your craft checks, you have one chance left to save it. On your next craft check, you have disadvantage on the check. If you fail, or have no more craft checks, than the equipment is Scrap quality.

The craft checks are assumed to happen at the end of the seven days or the end of the day when you finish crafting your equipment. If you fail the roll, you can not use those days you spent crafting an item to craft something else.

Items You Can Craft

As a blacksmith, you can create a lot of useful equipment, but it must be mostly metal. Some items may require leather or cloth, if it is an important part of the equipment you are unable to craft it. Some items, like Studded Leather, require putting metal studs in leather. If you have the leather armor available, you can craft Studded Leather, otherwise you can't.

If something requires a wooden shaft, it is assumed you have a suitable wooden shaft for it.

Certain items may have special properties and they will be addressed in the Special Properties section after the equipment chart on the next page.

Player's Handbook Equipment

Simple Weapons
Equipment Complexity Weight Days to Craft DC # of Checks Cost Special Properties
Dagger ❧ Simple 1 lb. 1 13 1 1 gp No
Handaxe ❧ Simple 2 lb. 1 13 1 2 gp 5 sp No
Light Hammer ❧ Simple 2 lb. 1 13 1 1 gp No
Mace Simple 4 lb. 1 13 1 2 gp 5 sp No
Sickle ❧ Moderate 2 lb. 1 14 1 5 sp No
Spear ❧ Simple 3 lb. 1 13 1 5 sp No
Arrows ❧ Simple - 1 13 1 5 sp Yes
Dart ❧ Simple 1/4 lb. 1 13 1 2 cp Yes
Martial Weapons
Equipment Complexity Weight Days to Craft DC # of Checks Cost Special Properties
Battleaxe Moderate 4 lb. 2 14 1 5 gp No
Flail ❧ Complex 2 lb. 2 15 1 5 gp No
Glaive Moderate 6 lb. 3 14 1 10 gp No
Greataxe Moderate 7 lb. 4 14 1 15 gp No
Greatsword Moderate 6 lb. 3 14 1 25 gp No
Halberd Moderate 6 lb. 3 14 1 10 gp No
Longsword ❧ Moderate 3 lb. 2 14 1 7 gp 5 sp No
Maul Moderate 10 lb. 5 14 1 5 gp No
Morningstar Moderate 4 lb. 2 14 1 7 gp 5 sp No
Pike ❧ Moderate 18 lb. 2 14 1 2gp 5 sp Yes
Rapier ❧ Moderate 2 lb. 1 14 1 12gp 5 sp No
Scimitar ❧ Moderate 3 lb. 2 14 1 12gp 5 sp No
Shortsword ❧ Moderate 2 lb. 1 14 1 5 gp No
Trident Moderate 4 lb. 2 14 1 2 gp 5 sp No
War Pick ❧ Moderate 2 lb. 1 14 1 2 gp 5 sp No
Warhammer ❧ Moderate 2 lb. 1 14 1 7 gp 5 sp No
Armor
Equipment Complexity Weight Days to Craft DC # of Checks Cost Special Properties
Studded Leather ❧ Simple 3 lb. 1 13 1 17 gp 5 sp Yes
Chain Shirt ❧ Complex 20 lb. 20 15 3 25 gp No
Scale Mail ❧ Moderate 45 lb. 23 14 4 25 gp No
Breastplate Simple 20 lb. 5 13 1 200 gp No
Half Plate Complex 40 lb. 40 15 6 375 gp No
Ring Mail ❧ Complex 40 lb. 40 15 6 15 gp No
Chain Mail ❧ Complex 55 lb. 55 15 8 37 gp 5 sp No
Splint ❧ Moderate 60 lb. 30 14 5 100 gp No
Plate Complex 65 lb. 65 15 10 750 gp No
Shield ❧ Simple 6 lb. 2 13 1 5 gp Yes

*For Mastercraft, increase DC by 8 and cost by 3 times.

Special Properties

Arrows & Bolts

You can craft a number of arrowheads and bolts in a single day equal to your Strength score.

Dart

You can craft a number of darts in a single day equal to your Strength score.

Pike

A pike has a long wooden shaft, and may be harder to find than a normal wooden shaft. The metal spike of the pike will only take you 2 days to craft.

Studded Leather

You must have leather armor on hand before adding studs.

Shield

Some shields are made out of metal, and others out of wood. Depending on what material you are using, you won't be able to craft a shield with your Smith's Tools. Per GM discretion.

Variant Rules

Lower DC

By lowering the DC by 3 for each item, you can allow your lower leveled players a better chance of crafting a complex item instead of waiting until they have a greater chance at higher levels.

This means that Simple items are DC 10, Moderate DC 11 and Complex DC 12.

Crafting Complex Armor

Certain armor, like Plate, can be built from multiple pieces of other types of armor. Per the DM's discretion, you might be able to separate the process of working on plate, or other types of armor, into smaller, and easier, pieces of armor.

Plate is consisted of Half Plate and Chain Mail. Half Plate is consisted of Half Plate and Scale Mail, whereas Chain Mail is a larger suit than a Chain Shirt.

By first crafting the smaller components, you can decrease the complexity of the initial job and make fewer checks for the Complex job.

Special Items

Smith's Hammers of Silence

Wondrous item, common

These hammers have been enchanted to make no sound when used to craft equipment.

Traveling Forge

Price: 800 gp

This cart has 1,200 pounds of tools, coal and supplies. These tools and supplies included a bellows attached to a fireplace, a 4-inch-wide vise, 100-pound anvil, a box containing 250 pounds of coal, 4-foot-long bundled bars of iron, and on the limber is a box containing the requisite smith's tools. All of this is placed on a convenient cart that just requires a draft horse to pull it around. This equipment will allow you to craft materials that require a forge.

 

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