l have made a character and part of their backstory/my plans for their future involve smithing/modifying armour,and l am woundering lf the smiths tools are whats needed,or if its something else. the items wiki says nothing useful.
l know what it says here but this is not very useful in terms of what l can/can not do with them. also what exactly counts as smiths tools?
(the PC will need to make mods to armor for stuff like tails,wings,horns ect.)
For modifying and building armor, smith's tool's is right. With Smith's Tools, and access to a forge and an anvil, you can make armor, make simple metal weapons and devices (and by simple device I mean a door hinge, not a Gatling gun), fix horseshoes, make or repair a cast iron skillet or something like that. You could probably draw wire and cut that wire into nails or screws. If you want super fancy gold and jewels on your armor, I'd require you to have proficiency in Jeweler's tools as well. If you wanted to make a complex machine, I'd say smith's tools would help you die-cut gears, but you'd need Tinker's tools to assemble them.
I don't think you'll find an itemized list of things you can do with one tool set but not another. I think the idea is that in 5e, the player should just explain why such and such tools would work and the DM sets an appropriately high target.
Aside from the forge and anvil, which you can't carry around without without high-level magic, Smith's tools would include different kind of hammers and pliers and tongs. Generally, this kind of thing can be answered as easily by you googling "blacksmith tools" as by asking someone else to do it. There are people who use these tools out there today and sell them on line. The technology hasn't changed significantly, just the metallurgy.
XGR has some optional rules for tools here's the guidelines d'or Smith tools;
Smith’s Tools
Smith’s tools allow you to work metal, heating it to alter its shape, repair damage, or work raw ingots into useful items.
Components. Smith’s tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
Arcana and History. Your expertise lends you additional insight when examining metal objects, such as weapons.
Investigation. You can spot clues and make deductions that others might overlook when an investigation involves armor, weapons, or other metalwork.
Repair. With access to your tools and an open flame hot enough to make metal pliable, you can restore 10 hit points to a damaged metal object for each hour of work.
What if one wants to enchant a non magical sword into a +1 sword?
Per Xanathar's Guide to Everything, you would need the formula for the enchantment and an appropriate magical component from a CR 4-8 encounter, both of which are something the DM needs to award, and then you're looking at 2 weeks of downtime and 200 gp. In short, enchanting items is something you need to work out with your DM.
Just to clarify it is "smith" tools not "blacksmith" tools.
Blacksmiths are for armour and weapons.
Smithing in general is anything with metal. Blacksmithing is only one type of Smithing.
With Smith's Tools you can also make other metal things likes buckets, wheelbarrows, chains, cogs, locks, manacles, keys, hinges, nails, structural supports, and more.
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Basically proficiency with the tools grants you journeyman ability - you know how to use the tools to make decent quality items equivalent to those on the items list n the PHB. Enchanting an item calls for some significant spell casting ability as well as time. Have you talked to your DM about what you want to do and what it will take? If not that’s actually step 1.
Dump Stat Adventures has a nice guide for time/tools/DC here. It differs from RAW (time determined by item worth) by adding complexity and differing levels of quality as well as access to proper tools.
Smithing tools especially is a bit of a grab bag there are 3 broad groups of smiths: Blacksmiths - workers with iron, steel (and earlier with bronze) there are several subtypes: Armorer - makes various armours and shields Weaponers - makes maces, hammers, axes, etc Bladesmith - makes swords, daggers, etc General smiths - horse shoes etc as well as arrowheads and such. Whitesmiths - workers with nonferrous and non precious metals Tin smiths - workers of tin, pewter, etc. Coopers and bell makers - workers with copper, bronze and brass Precious metal Smiths - workers with precious metals Goldsmiths - workers with gold and platinum Silversmiths - workers with silver, electrum (&copper) Jewelers - precious metal smiths that focus on making jewelry and smaller decorative pieces. the tools they use are fairly different but the game doesn’t differentiate (any more) so the basic game assumption seems to be blacksmith/general smith ie able to sort of do all the different blacksmith roles so they can repair/fix/make armor, weapons and tools in game whitesmiths are generally ignored while precious metal smiths are dumped under jewelers even though they may never make jewelry.
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l have made a character and part of their backstory/my plans for their future involve smithing/modifying armour,and l am woundering lf the smiths tools are whats needed,or if its something else. the items wiki says nothing useful.
l know what it says here but this is not very useful in terms of what l can/can not do with them. also what exactly counts as smiths tools?
(the PC will need to make mods to armor for stuff like tails,wings,horns ect.)
For modifying and building armor, smith's tool's is right. With Smith's Tools, and access to a forge and an anvil, you can make armor, make simple metal weapons and devices (and by simple device I mean a door hinge, not a Gatling gun), fix horseshoes, make or repair a cast iron skillet or something like that. You could probably draw wire and cut that wire into nails or screws. If you want super fancy gold and jewels on your armor, I'd require you to have proficiency in Jeweler's tools as well. If you wanted to make a complex machine, I'd say smith's tools would help you die-cut gears, but you'd need Tinker's tools to assemble them.
I don't think you'll find an itemized list of things you can do with one tool set but not another. I think the idea is that in 5e, the player should just explain why such and such tools would work and the DM sets an appropriately high target.
Aside from the forge and anvil, which you can't carry around without without high-level magic, Smith's tools would include different kind of hammers and pliers and tongs. Generally, this kind of thing can be answered as easily by you googling "blacksmith tools" as by asking someone else to do it. There are people who use these tools out there today and sell them on line. The technology hasn't changed significantly, just the metallurgy.
ah,ok thank you.
What if one wants to enchant a non magical sword into a +1 sword?
XGR has some optional rules for tools here's the guidelines d'or Smith tools;
Smith’s Tools
Smith’s tools allow you to work metal, heating it to alter its shape, repair damage, or work raw ingots into useful items.
Components. Smith’s tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
Arcana and History. Your expertise lends you additional insight when examining metal objects, such as weapons.
Investigation. You can spot clues and make deductions that others might overlook when an investigation involves armor, weapons, or other metalwork.
Repair. With access to your tools and an open flame hot enough to make metal pliable, you can restore 10 hit points to a damaged metal object for each hour of work.
Smith’s Tools
it takes more than tool proficiency to create magic items.
Per Xanathar's Guide to Everything, you would need the formula for the enchantment and an appropriate magical component from a CR 4-8 encounter, both of which are something the DM needs to award, and then you're looking at 2 weeks of downtime and 200 gp. In short, enchanting items is something you need to work out with your DM.
To answer the question in the title, give them back to Mr. Smith.
Just to clarify it is "smith" tools not "blacksmith" tools.
Blacksmiths are for armour and weapons.
Smithing in general is anything with metal. Blacksmithing is only one type of Smithing.
With Smith's Tools you can also make other metal things likes buckets, wheelbarrows, chains, cogs, locks, manacles, keys, hinges, nails, structural supports, and more.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Basically proficiency with the tools grants you journeyman ability - you know how to use the tools to make decent quality items equivalent to those on the items list n the PHB. Enchanting an item calls for some significant spell casting ability as well as time. Have you talked to your DM about what you want to do and what it will take? If not that’s actually step 1.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Dump Stat Adventures has a nice guide for time/tools/DC here. It differs from RAW (time determined by item worth) by adding complexity and differing levels of quality as well as access to proper tools.
Smithing tools especially is a bit of a grab bag there are 3 broad groups of smiths:
Blacksmiths - workers with iron, steel (and earlier with bronze) there are several subtypes:
Armorer - makes various armours and shields
Weaponers - makes maces, hammers, axes, etc
Bladesmith - makes swords, daggers, etc
General smiths - horse shoes etc as well as arrowheads and such.
Whitesmiths - workers with nonferrous and non precious metals
Tin smiths - workers of tin, pewter, etc.
Coopers and bell makers - workers with copper, bronze and brass
Precious metal Smiths - workers with precious metals
Goldsmiths - workers with gold and platinum
Silversmiths - workers with silver, electrum (&copper)
Jewelers - precious metal smiths that focus on making jewelry and smaller decorative pieces.
the tools they use are fairly different but the game doesn’t differentiate (any more) so the basic game assumption seems to be blacksmith/general smith ie able to sort of do all the different blacksmith roles so they can repair/fix/make armor, weapons and tools in game whitesmiths are generally ignored while precious metal smiths are dumped under jewelers even though they may never make jewelry.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.