Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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The All-Purpose Tool is a great addition to artificers that Tasha gave us. It gives you an extra cantrip from any spell list for eight hours. It increases spell attack and saving throw DC depending on the item’s rarity. But the one that really excites me is that you gain proficiency in any artisan tool with an action. Tools have a lot of uses since Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Each tool give advantage on a skill roll if you have proficiency with both the skill and the tool. The skill check has to related to the tool but you get more details if it does. With the All-Purpose Tool you have proficiency (and expertise at level 6) with seventeen artisan tools and thieves tool. Each artisan tool has a couple of skills that they enhance. The most common of theses skills are history, investigation, arcana, and perception. If you want to be really good at your skill checks I suggest choosing these four skills and getting the All-Purpose Tool. Even the uncommon version helps.
I’ve considered APT as my third infusion after a weapon and an armor infusion. It’s pretty great for an Artificer, though perhaps not as useful for others.
I don't know how exactly you are making an infused item become an All-Purpose Tool, as that is not on the replicate item list that you can do and there is no common version of it.
You’re correct that it’s uncommon and not a listed magic item, so you’d have to get DM approval. It’s not RAW. But there are similarly powered items that can be replicated (e.g. Goggles of Night, which are uncommon) even at 2nd level. So it’s not going to throw off game balance if your DM approves it.
Those are two very different things, Goggles of Night/Darkvision is more for RP purposes, an All Purpose Tool gives you a lot of proficiencies and advantage on a lot of things. It’s like comparing Fire Bolt to Fireball.
You can replicate an Uncommon Wondrous Item such as a +1 All Purpose Tool at level 10. Before then, it is definitely not RAW as a replicated item. You might have as much luck asking your DM to give you/sell you one in world that is not replicated before then. (By level 10 you might be able to talk them into a +2.) It is definitely an excellent use of one of your attunement slots regardless of how you obtain one.
It is probably worth pointing out that the people in this thread from five years ago were probably talking about the 5e Artificer, which did not have any way to replicate an All-Purpose Tool at any level.
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FWIW - Rather than buying multiple sets of artisans tools, it is cheaper to craft an All Purpose Tool +1 (or even cheaper to craft a Manifold Tool).
See if you DM will let you craft a Manifold tool as part of your starting equipment...
Question on the All Purpose Tool... Are you casting the Cantrip via the All Purpose Tool or just loading it up into memory via the All Purpose Tool and getting access to it for 8 hours?
For example, can you still cast the Cantrip in the afternoon if you used the APT after a long rest to get the Cantrip but then attuned to something else later that morning?
On the other hand, can an Artificer-Thief cast the cantrip from the APT as a Bonus Action?
"As an action, you can focus on the tool to channel your creative forces. Choose a cantrip that you don't know from any class list. For 8 hours, you can cast that cantrip, and it counts as an artificer cantrip for you. Once this property is used, it can't be used again until the next dawn."
It's the latter, though since Artificers always need to use a tool to cast any spell and the All-Purpose Tool can be any artisan tool, you can cast the cantrip through it if it has material components.
I'd say yes; it says you can cast the cantrip for the next 8 hours, not the next 8 hours while attuned.
No, because casting the cantrip isn't "activating a magic item". Again, you're not casting the cantrip from the item, because the item doesn't say you're doing that.
However, the action you've quoted there — which is the action that grants you knowledge of the cantrip, not an action to actually cast the cantrip — is something a Thief could do as a bonus action instead of an action.
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Thank you. Makes sense and that was my read of it as well but wanted to confirm.
I am working on an Artificer-Thief build and it would have been nice to be able to use the APT to cast Eldritch Blast. Currently I need to attune to a Dagger of the Ogre Mage to cast EB via a Magic Item as a Bonus Action. Running out of attunement slots.
Well, one thing to keep in mind is that both the Artificer class and the Thief subclass do eventually give you more magic item attunement slots, though it takes a while to get there and they don't stack with each other.
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So just to clarify, does the +1 bonus from an all-purpose tool stack with, say, a +1 Wand of the War Mage? I can hold the APT in my left hand, cast firebolt with my wand in my right hand, and the bonus is then +2?
Yes, as long as you're attuned to both and are holding both.
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