I'm guessing most Artificers are like mine with Tool Proficiencies all over the place which should make me good at an awful lot of things, especially once level 6 rolls around and I get Tool Expertise. Aside from crafting things (which is usually more of a downtime activity), what do I actually do with all of them? I'd like to hear some creative uses for all the proficiencies we have, particularly ones I can use while we're actually playing.
A nifty idea is to look at all the components in a tool kit and develop individual uses for them. Take the Thieves Kit:
Lock picks are apparent, to open locks. but can be used as an alarm on a sting (keys jingling)
Small Mirror to send light signals are look around corners,
Narrow Bladed scissors I would argue could be daggers (improvised),
a file can be used to leave marks on a path by removing fine amounts of material,
and plyers can be uses for a number of grabbing tasks which are out of reach normally.
Basically it a bunch of extra gear that you can use.
With the Right tool for the Job Feature this can be a lot of extra disposable gear as well. Even if you are not skilled in the tool, the components can be useful; glass jars are glass jars.
You could also just sell them. most range from 1-50 g with 15 on average. RTftJ if you want to hustle a town shop before leaving it.
You kind of have to be looking for ways to use your tool proficiencies. Don't be afraid to ask your DM if you can use your tool proficiency for moments there that seems relevant. Like... let's say you're investigating a dead soldier and trying to determine how they were killed, and you're proficient with Smith's Tools but not with Medicine... try asking if you can use your Smith's Proficiency to examine their armor and use your knowledge of how armor is made and how it reacts to different stresses to determine what was used to kill the soldier.
if you find yourself in a vehicle of some kind in combat, you could potentially use your tool proficiencies to repair the vehicle during combat to avoid crashing. If you find crafts related to your proficiencies you could learn more from them... maybe you can tell that a mysterious chest is crafted with Elven techniques, or you might know that a piece of jewelry comes from a Halfling culture, or anything else... Are you locked in a prison? Maybe your skill with stonework will help you find a weak spot in the wall, or your familiarity with smithing will help you disassemble the actual bars.
A nifty idea is to look at all the components in a tool kit and develop individual uses for them. Take the Thieves Kit:
Lock picks are apparent, to open locks. but can be used as an alarm on a sting (keys jingling)
Small Mirror to send light signals are look around corners,
Narrow Bladed scissors I would argue could be daggers (improvised),
a file can be used to leave marks on a path by removing fine amounts of material,
and plyers can be uses for a number of grabbing tasks which are out of reach normally.
Basically it a bunch of extra gear that you can use.
With the Right tool for the Job Feature this can be a lot of extra disposable gear as well. Even if you are not skilled in the tool, the components can be useful; glass jars are glass jars.
You could also just sell them. most range from 1-50 g with 15 on average. RTftJ if you want to hustle a town shop before leaving it.
That's the tools itself, not the proficiency. You can buy those tools even without having proficiency and you can have proficiency with them without having those tools (though as Artificer less of a problem if you prepared beforehand).
A nifty idea is to look at all the components in a tool kit and develop individual uses for them. Take the Thieves Kit:
Lock picks are apparent, to open locks. but can be used as an alarm on a sting (keys jingling)
Small Mirror to send light signals are look around corners,
Narrow Bladed scissors I would argue could be daggers (improvised),
a file can be used to leave marks on a path by removing fine amounts of material,
and plyers can be uses for a number of grabbing tasks which are out of reach normally.
Basically it a bunch of extra gear that you can use.
With the Right tool for the Job Feature this can be a lot of extra disposable gear as well. Even if you are not skilled in the tool, the components can be useful; glass jars are glass jars.
You could also just sell them. most range from 1-50 g with 15 on average. RTftJ if you want to hustle a town shop before leaving it.
That's the tools itself, not the proficiency. You can buy those tools even without having proficiency and you can have proficiency with them without having those tools (though as Artificer less of a problem if you prepared beforehand).
Tools are something that the basic rules don't cover well at all, and D&D Beyond doesn't even let us roll checks for them which doesn't help.
The way 5th edition is written as well also seems to emphasise the idea that the DM always asks for a specific check, and the players then simply roll it, but this isn't how I like to play; I much prefer players to be encouraged to propose (and justify) what they want to roll, and if the DM agrees that it's reasonable the player then gets to roll that (with any bonuses/penalties the DM wishes to impose).
This style of playing massively opens up the skills used in the game, rather than Investigation and Perception being the only skills that matter for most characters, it helps with tool use when players get used to the idea that they can suggest these as well.
It means that when you need to open a door but nobody knows how to pick a lock, you can suggest carpenter's tools or smith's tools to try removing the door from the frame entirely (less stealthy, but less noisy and destructive than smashing the entire door to pieces). It means you can use Arcana to search a wizard's lab, or to read one of their books, or use Survival to check for traps (by knowing the best places to look) and so-on. I'm also a fan of the optional rule to swap the ability score used; this won't make sense for every skill or tool, but it's a good thing to get into the habit of for tools especially (since the rules don't really explain how to use them at all).
I mean, I can understand the rationale behind the "DM tells you what to roll" method, in that players should be thinking narratively, not mechanically, i.e- "I search the room", but if you do that then the obvious check is Investigation every time, as it's not the DM's job to know your entire character sheet, and that something else might be suitable. If players can think in terms of "I want to search the room for anything magical" then this can help with a kind of middle ground where you've got Arcana in mind, but aren't simply saying "I want to roll an Arcana check".
TL;DR Use tools in any way you can think of; a DM should always encourage and reward creativity.
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.
Tools are something that the basic rules don't cover well at all, and D&D Beyond doesn't even let us roll checks for them which doesn't help.
There's no default roll, but it's pretty easy to add a tools check to your DDB sheet via Custom Skills
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I don't remember the website since I did a cut and paste, but bing (down with google) ********. Found a comprehensive list of the classes that apply to each tool and things you can do with them. Quite useful for players and DM's
I don't remember the website since I did a cut and paste, but bing (down with google) ********. Found a comprehensive list of the classes that apply to each tool and things you can do with them. Quite useful for players and DM's
I'm guessing most Artificers are like mine with Tool Proficiencies all over the place which should make me good at an awful lot of things, especially once level 6 rolls around and I get Tool Expertise. Aside from crafting things (which is usually more of a downtime activity), what do I actually do with all of them? I'd like to hear some creative uses for all the proficiencies we have, particularly ones I can use while we're actually playing.
A nifty idea is to look at all the components in a tool kit and develop individual uses for them. Take the Thieves Kit:
Basically it a bunch of extra gear that you can use.
With the Right tool for the Job Feature this can be a lot of extra disposable gear as well. Even if you are not skilled in the tool, the components can be useful; glass jars are glass jars.
You could also just sell them. most range from 1-50 g with 15 on average. RTftJ if you want to hustle a town shop before leaving it.
You kind of have to be looking for ways to use your tool proficiencies. Don't be afraid to ask your DM if you can use your tool proficiency for moments there that seems relevant. Like... let's say you're investigating a dead soldier and trying to determine how they were killed, and you're proficient with Smith's Tools but not with Medicine... try asking if you can use your Smith's Proficiency to examine their armor and use your knowledge of how armor is made and how it reacts to different stresses to determine what was used to kill the soldier.
if you find yourself in a vehicle of some kind in combat, you could potentially use your tool proficiencies to repair the vehicle during combat to avoid crashing. If you find crafts related to your proficiencies you could learn more from them... maybe you can tell that a mysterious chest is crafted with Elven techniques, or you might know that a piece of jewelry comes from a Halfling culture, or anything else... Are you locked in a prison? Maybe your skill with stonework will help you find a weak spot in the wall, or your familiarity with smithing will help you disassemble the actual bars.
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Oops, my bad. still...
Oops, my bad. still...
Tools are something that the basic rules don't cover well at all, and D&D Beyond doesn't even let us roll checks for them which doesn't help.
The way 5th edition is written as well also seems to emphasise the idea that the DM always asks for a specific check, and the players then simply roll it, but this isn't how I like to play; I much prefer players to be encouraged to propose (and justify) what they want to roll, and if the DM agrees that it's reasonable the player then gets to roll that (with any bonuses/penalties the DM wishes to impose).
This style of playing massively opens up the skills used in the game, rather than Investigation and Perception being the only skills that matter for most characters, it helps with tool use when players get used to the idea that they can suggest these as well.
It means that when you need to open a door but nobody knows how to pick a lock, you can suggest carpenter's tools or smith's tools to try removing the door from the frame entirely (less stealthy, but less noisy and destructive than smashing the entire door to pieces). It means you can use Arcana to search a wizard's lab, or to read one of their books, or use Survival to check for traps (by knowing the best places to look) and so-on. I'm also a fan of the optional rule to swap the ability score used; this won't make sense for every skill or tool, but it's a good thing to get into the habit of for tools especially (since the rules don't really explain how to use them at all).
I mean, I can understand the rationale behind the "DM tells you what to roll" method, in that players should be thinking narratively, not mechanically, i.e- "I search the room", but if you do that then the obvious check is Investigation every time, as it's not the DM's job to know your entire character sheet, and that something else might be suitable. If players can think in terms of "I want to search the room for anything magical" then this can help with a kind of middle ground where you've got Arcana in mind, but aren't simply saying "I want to roll an Arcana check".
TL;DR
Use tools in any way you can think of; a DM should always encourage and reward creativity.
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.
There's no default roll, but it's pretty easy to add a tools check to your DDB sheet via Custom Skills
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I don't remember the website since I did a cut and paste, but bing (down with google) ********. Found a comprehensive list of the classes that apply to each tool and things you can do with them. Quite useful for players and DM's
Is this what you were talking about?
https://halflinghobbies.com/complete-list-of-tools-dd-5e/