I've seen complaints from artificers that their campaign has no downtime, therefore they have no time to make magic items and do cool inventing stuff that is part of the point of artificers (especially after level 10 when we get a bonus for making magic items). I think there is downtime some groups have but don't notice, because they've never had a use for it before.
RAW you can travel for 8 hours a day - any more and you have to start rolling for exhaustion. A long rest takes 8 hours a day, max. And having more than one long rest per 24 hours is nonsense, because most people couldn't sleep 12-16 hours a day even if they wanted to. You get in a few fights, but that burns less than 10 minutes. Because of the fights you take 2 1 hour short rests. That leaves nearly 6 hours unaccounted for in a standard adventuring day. Maybe some of that gets used eating meals and getting cleaned up. Mostly that extra time gets glossed over.
You should easily be able to find at least 4 hours a day (half a standard crafting workday) for portable crafting in a standard adventuring day. You won't be forging a sword without a forge, but you can whittle a wand anywhere. If your traveling involves sitting in the back of a cart you could easily get a full 8 hour crafting day as long as you stick to things that can reasonably be done while in a cart.
Crafting on the road isn't a house rule either. According to XGtE someone proficient with woodcarver's tools can make 5 arrows as part of a short rest or 20 arrows as part of a long rest. That means that RAW some kinds of crafting counts as the 'light activity' that can be done while resting, like reading or standing watch.
If your an artificer ( especially an alchemist) with the herbalism skill you can be making healing potions at least as well as what ever other potions your DM is willing to allyou to brew up during your rests. If you can get the traveling alchemy kit from acquisitions Inc. you should really be able to go to town on this. Similarly writing scrolls for latter use should also be possible during down time even when traveling potentially.
Yeah this is something that groups can be lax with; unless the stakes are really high and urgent at all times then an adventuring group should absolutely have downtime, and it's not just Artificers that need it. You have to go out of your way to end up with a character with no tool proficiencies, usually you'll have at least one, so why not use it to do things?
There are also options such as training, or just doing other jobs "off camera" for extra coin. Downtime activities are a good thing just for the variety.
On the issue of rests, the rules are fairly vague with regards to what constitutes "restful"; while inventing something new probably isn't "restful", if you're producing a few basic items that you've made before and could do in your sleep (maybe literally?) then that should count. Also worth keeping in mind that you don't actually need to sleep for the full 8 hours of a long rest; I believe the requirement is only six hours of sleep a day to avoid testing for exhaustion, so you get an hour either side for anything you'd do to unwind or get ready for the day. I could definitely see mixing up some potions and leaving them to brew before decanting them as counting.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Agreed, down time is often sorely lacking in combat oriented campaigns. Having it allows characters to grow and provides some reason for some of the strange multiclasses players experiment with. Whether it’s learning some lockpicking from the rogue, learning skills so the team always has backup. Skills like medicine and tool kits like herbalism, poisoner! Al hits are all things that can be done during down time between adventures or on the road traveling. It’s not just artificers either, every class has things they could be doing or teaching to other team members as they go..
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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I've seen complaints from artificers that their campaign has no downtime, therefore they have no time to make magic items and do cool inventing stuff that is part of the point of artificers (especially after level 10 when we get a bonus for making magic items). I think there is downtime some groups have but don't notice, because they've never had a use for it before.
RAW you can travel for 8 hours a day - any more and you have to start rolling for exhaustion. A long rest takes 8 hours a day, max. And having more than one long rest per 24 hours is nonsense, because most people couldn't sleep 12-16 hours a day even if they wanted to. You get in a few fights, but that burns less than 10 minutes. Because of the fights you take 2 1 hour short rests. That leaves nearly 6 hours unaccounted for in a standard adventuring day. Maybe some of that gets used eating meals and getting cleaned up. Mostly that extra time gets glossed over.
You should easily be able to find at least 4 hours a day (half a standard crafting workday) for portable crafting in a standard adventuring day. You won't be forging a sword without a forge, but you can whittle a wand anywhere. If your traveling involves sitting in the back of a cart you could easily get a full 8 hour crafting day as long as you stick to things that can reasonably be done while in a cart.
Crafting on the road isn't a house rule either. According to XGtE someone proficient with woodcarver's tools can make 5 arrows as part of a short rest or 20 arrows as part of a long rest. That means that RAW some kinds of crafting counts as the 'light activity' that can be done while resting, like reading or standing watch.
If your an artificer ( especially an alchemist) with the herbalism skill you can be making healing potions at least as well as what ever other potions your DM is willing to allyou to brew up during your rests. If you can get the traveling alchemy kit from acquisitions Inc. you should really be able to go to town on this. Similarly writing scrolls for latter use should also be possible during down time even when traveling potentially.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I took a 1 level dip into Genie warlock so I could have my personal workshop with me always.
Yeah this is something that groups can be lax with; unless the stakes are really high and urgent at all times then an adventuring group should absolutely have downtime, and it's not just Artificers that need it. You have to go out of your way to end up with a character with no tool proficiencies, usually you'll have at least one, so why not use it to do things?
There are also options such as training, or just doing other jobs "off camera" for extra coin. Downtime activities are a good thing just for the variety.
On the issue of rests, the rules are fairly vague with regards to what constitutes "restful"; while inventing something new probably isn't "restful", if you're producing a few basic items that you've made before and could do in your sleep (maybe literally?) then that should count. Also worth keeping in mind that you don't actually need to sleep for the full 8 hours of a long rest; I believe the requirement is only six hours of sleep a day to avoid testing for exhaustion, so you get an hour either side for anything you'd do to unwind or get ready for the day. I could definitely see mixing up some potions and leaving them to brew before decanting them as counting.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Agreed, down time is often sorely lacking in combat oriented campaigns. Having it allows characters to grow and provides some reason for some of the strange multiclasses players experiment with. Whether it’s learning some lockpicking from the rogue, learning skills so the team always has backup. Skills like medicine and tool kits like herbalism, poisoner! Al hits are all things that can be done during down time between adventures or on the road traveling. It’s not just artificers either, every class has things they could be doing or teaching to other team members as they go..
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.