5th Edition
Ultimate Crafting Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
Tools
Formulas
Foraging & Purchasing
Crafting Process
Essence Gems
Wonderous Items
Miscellaneaous Items & Equipment
Weapons & Armor
Scrolls
Potions
Alchemical
Poison
Repair
Feat
Magic Item
Introduction
This guide covers everything from magical swords to mundane items. It also Includes a feat and special magic items to help with your crafting.
The cost of components used to make items is based on the average price listing in the DMG. Unlike previous versions of D&D it is possible to make money crafting and selling items if you want to take the time to gather the components yourself.
This guide works off of components discussed in Xanathars Guide to Everything but like the book does not cover specifics. If you want specifics you can always make up your own and give rarity to those ingredients.
This guide explains the use of most of the tools you can get in 5th Edition. Each of these tools can be made to create magical and non-magical items. One thing to note is that there is no singular tool to create wondrous items. Instead multiple tools can make wondrous items depending on what you want to make.
This guide was made trying to keep an open mind for homebrew. There are a few tools that specify that they can create magical items and do not list what they are. This is because they do not exist in the rules. However they are stated that way in case you want to add rules into your game.
This guide also does not tell you how they work. Those rules are in the official books. What requires attunement and what does not are at the DM’s discretion.
Potions and scrolls are more defined in relation to each other. Potions are level capped since they let anyone cast magical spells while scrolls give pure casters an extra edge.
Tools
Artisan tools and tools are the equipment that you use to craft. While these tools and kits explain what they do in the official rules, there are some ambiguities that need to be clarified. This section will cover each tool and what it can be used for in terms of crafting (all other uses for these tools according to official rules remain the same).
Tools state what they craft and what type of magical items they could craft. Some of these tools state magic and non-magic for items where there are no magic counterparts in the rules for example, brewers supplies. This is done for homebrew purposes.
There is some overlap in what magic items the tools can make. This is in place because the tools themselves do not fit into neat categories. Discussion between player and DM may be needed in determining what tool creates what item. Other tools may also be required when making items. For example even though you have smith's tools you will still need a forge to make items out of metal.
Alchemist’s Supplies: These are used to create alchemical items, such as alchemist fire and all magical potions.
Brewer’s Supplies: This is used to create magical and non-magical alcohol.
Calligrapher’s Supplies: This is used when creating magical and non-magical scrolls.
Carpenter's Tools: This is used for creating objects out of wood, such as chests, wagons, ect. It is also used when creating wondrous items made from wood.
Cartographer’s Tools: This is used for creating maps and wondrous items used for navigation.
Cobbler’s Tools: This is used in creating footwear and is also used when creating wondrous items that are worn on your feet.
Cook’s Utensils: This is used in creating magical and non-magical meals.
Glassblowers’s Tools: This tool is used in creating items with glass. This tool also lets you create Essence Gems.
Herbalism Kit: This is used to create healer’s kits, alchemical items such as antitoxin and all magical potions.
Jewelers’s Tools: This is used to create jewelry along with wondrous items that are made from jewelry.
Leatherworkers’s Tools: These let you create nonmetal armor and items and out of leather. You can also create magical nonmetal armor and wondrous items made from leather.
Mason’s Tools: This lets you make magical and non magical structures, armor and weapons made of stone. These tools also let you make wondrous items that are made from stone.
Poisoner’s Kit: This kit lets your craft poisons.
Potter’s Tools: This lets you create containers from clay and wondrous items involving pots.
Smith’s Tools: these let you create magical and non-magical weapons and armor made from metal. You can also create miscellaneous and wondrous items that are made from metal.
Tinkerer’s Tools: These tools let you create magical and non-magical firearms (if the campaign allows) You can also use these tools to repair broken magical and non-magical items.
Weaver’s Tools: This is used to make items from cloth such as clothing. You can also use these tools to make wondrous items made from cloth.
Wood Carver’s Tools: This lets you create magical and non-magical weapons and armor from wood such as bows, crossbows, shields ect.
Formulas
Formulas are required when you want to make an item. Think of them as a construction blueprint telling the measurements and steps to take to make that item. These formulas can be bought from merchants or by paying someone to write it down.
In addition to buying formulas you can also try to learn the formula through experimentation. To attempt to learn the formula you need all the required components to make that item and to pass the check using the appropriate tool. If you want to increase your chance of learning the formula you can expend all the components of the highest rarity required to gain advantage.
For example, to gain advantage when learning a very rare formula you can expend an additional very rare component.
| Formula Crafting | DC | Formula Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 5 | 50gp |
| Uncommon | 10 | 100gp |
| Rare | 15 | 500gp |
| Very Rare | 20 | 5000gp |
| Legendary | 25 | 25000gp |
Foraging & Purchasing
Table 1
| Rarity | DC | Cost Per Each | Amount | CR/ Player Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 5 | 35gp | 4 | 1 |
| Uncommon | 14 | 150gp | 3 | 1-4 |
| Rare | 18 | 1375gp | 2 | 5-10 |
| Very Rare | 22 | 12625gp | 1 | 11-16 |
| Legendary | 26 | - | 1 | 17+ |
The rarity you find is based on the DC of the check. When the DC is passed, the player rolls a d4 and finds that many ingredients. The ingredients are found from the highest rarity to the lowest. The table shows the max number of each rarity you can find per check. Despite what players may be looking for as long as they pass any DC they will find the ingredients of that rarity and lower. This means that a player looking for rare components but only passes the uncommon DC will only find uncommon and common components.
For example, a level 12 character goes foraging, passes the DC 22 check, and rolls a 3 on the D4. Since you can only find 1 very rare material you go to the next rarity meaning they get 1 very rare and 2 rare components. If that player rolls a 18 instead they still pass but find 2 rare components and 1 uncommon material. If players want to look for components of a lower rarity than the highest they can find they can specify the rarity they are looking for and attempt to pass the check for that rarity. If they pass that check they find no other components of other rarities even if they exceed the DC for higher rarities.
Crafting Process
Table 2
| Rarity | Common | Uncommon | Rare | Very Rare | Legendary | Essence Gem Spell Slot Levels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 3 | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Uncommon | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 |
| Rare | 5 | 3 | 2 | - | - | 4 |
| Very Rare | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | 6 |
| Legendary | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
Table 2 above shows the components you need to make an item of a particular rarity. Essence gems are explained in detail later and are used as components when creating magic items only. You do not need to use a single essence gem spell slot level of the rarity you are trying to craft. You can instead use multiple gems together as long as the spell slots equal the amount required by that rarity.
No rolls are needed when crafting an item. It is assumed that you are trained and know what you are doing.
The time it takes to craft an item is based on what you are crafting and the rarity of that item. For simplification there is no difference in crafting time between the same item group be it magical or non-magical.
Consumable items are potions scrolls and alchemical. These are items that are destroyed when used.
Table 3 shows the number of workdays it takes to make an item. Each workday consists of working 4 hours. These days do not need to be consecutive.
Table 3
| Rarity | Weapon, Armor and Wonderous Items | Potions, Scrolls & Alchemical | Misc Items and Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Uncommon | 14 | 5 | 7 |
| Rare | 30 | 10 | 12 |
| Very Rare | 180 | 20 | 18 |
| Legendary | 365 | 40 | 25 |
Essence Gems
Essence gems range from small glass balls to priceless gems. They are designed to hold magical essence that comes from spells. Most of the time small glass gems are used however many speciality items will use gems instead for flair.
These gems are used in the process of creating a magic items. They are what supplies the magic for an item. The only exception are scrolls where you have to expend the spell slot and spell when making the scroll.
These gems can be filled by expending a spell slot of level 1,2,4,6, or 8 into the gem. You can buy these gems pre filled or empty. You can also buy the components to craft them if you are proficient in glassblower’s tools.
Table 4
| Fill | Cost |
|---|---|
| Component | 20gp |
| Empty | 65gp |
| 1st Level | 110gp |
| 2nd Level | 200gp |
| 4th level | 380gp |
| 6th level | 740gp |
| 8th level | 1460gp |
Wounderous Items
Wondrous items are various magical gear and are the counterpart to miscellaneous items and equipment. Multiple tools are used in creating wondrous items. The tool you need is dependent on what you are trying to make.
When determining what tool to use when crafting, consider what material the item is primarily made of or the tool associated with that item. For example, while many shoes may consist mostly of leather cobbler’s tools are designed to make footwear so that is the tool to use. On the other hand a handy haversack may have buckles and clasps on it but since it is made primarily of cloth you use wearvers tools.
Weapons and Armor
Weapons and armor can be made from a variety of components. The components they are made out of determine what tools you need to craft. If it is metal then you use smith tools. If it is wood you use wood carvers tools. Stone armor used to be a thing dwarves could get in previous editions and if you have homebrew that includes them then you use masons tools to make them.
If you want to craft an item that is almost equal parts of two components it is the player's choice of what to use. Spears and arrows are a good example of this.
Scrolls
Scrolls are made a little differently from the rest of the magic items. Unlike other magic items you do not use essence gems. To make a scroll you need to expend the spell you want on the scroll at the desired Spell slot level. Table 5 shows the rarity of the scroll based on spell slot levels.
If you want an upcasted spell on a scroll the rarity becomes the level of the spell slot you are casting on the scroll not the base level.
Table 5
| Scroll rarity | Spell Slot Level |
| Common | Cantrip-1st |
| Uncommon | 2nd-3rd |
| Rare | 4th-5th |
| Very Rare | 6th-7th |
| Legendary | 8th-9th |
Potions
The way potions are crafted here will conflict with the potions in the book. In these rules rarity of potions are based on the level of the spell. The potions in the official rules follow this for the most part but there are a few conflicts. You can either keep those potions the way they are or have them conform to these rules.
Healing potions work the same as they do in the core rules meaning cure wounds spells cannot be used in potions although other healing spells such as healing words can.
Because potions use essence gems and no spells are actually cast making potions, you cannot use upcasted spells. Table 6 Shows the rarity of the potion based on spell level. Potions can never be made out of spell level 5 and higher.
Table 6
| Potion Rarity | Spell Level |
| Common | Cantrip |
| Uncommon | 1st |
| Rare | 2nd |
| Very Rare | 3rd |
| Legendary | 4th |
Alchemical
This is a new group I am making for ease of understanding. Alchemical are non magical items that can be crafted. Two good examples are antitoxin and alchemist fire. They are made with the herbalism kite and alchemist kit respectively. These two kits are used to make different alchemical items based on the effects they have in the rules..
Herbalism kit: This is used to create alchemical items that affect the body. This does not include poisons which are discussed later in this guide.
Alchemical supplies: This is used to create items that affect the world outside the body.
Alchemical can be a broad term that can be hard to know what it entails. When considering what items fall under this category think about chemical reactions. Aspirin and matches are both good examples of alchemical items since they both use a chemical reaction to work, however aspirin affects the body and matches affect the outside world.
Poison
Poisons in the rules are all over the place. To make it simplified this guide does not cover the effects of poisons you can make. Poisons can have many effects but the severity of these effects can change with the DC required. Unlike the other consumable items the rarity of poisons are based on the DC check of that poison. Table 7 shows the rarity of poisons based on DC.
Table 7
| Posion Rariety | DC |
| Common | 10-11 |
| Uncommon | 12-13 |
| Rare | 14-15 |
| Very Rare | 16-17 |
| Legendary | 18-19 |
Miscellaneous Items and Equipment
This category is the catch all category for all other items and can be considered the counterpart of wondrous items. Just like with alchemical, these items are non magic. If you want one of these items to be magical they then become wondrous items
When determining what tool to use when crafting, consider what material the item is primarily made of or the tool associated with that item. For example while a wooden chest has metal straps it is primarily made out of wood therefore you would use carpenter's tools. However a steel bracelet would not be smithing but jewellery making.
Repair
To repair any non consumable item you need to have all the components of the highest rarity. For example if you want to repair a rare sword, you need 2 rare components. If the item you want to repair is magical you also need the essence gems required for that rarity.
The time required to repair the item is half the time it takes to create it shown in Table 3.
Feats
Skilled Craftsmen: You are as skilled with your trade as a swordsman with their sword. You gain the following benefits:- Non consumable items take half the time rounded up to make. Repairing items use this modified time.
- When you make a consumable item you can make you make 2 of that item at no additional cost
Magic Items
Travelers Anywhere Workshop
Wondrous item, uncommon
The need for crafting combined with the love of the open road makes this item a go to for merchants.
Item Details This is a small plain looking box that has many small compartments. This box houses an extradimensional space that can hold any amount of tools or kits. When a tool is placed into this box a compartment forms with marking to signify what tool it contains. Upon opening a compartment a 20 foot space appears with all the equipment needed to craft items with those tools.