In my current campaign I'm playing a character with proficiency in woodcarver's tools. It's been useful a few times mechanically... repairing damaged carts or boats. Crafting simple weaponry, etc. However, what's come up far more often is just using it for RP purposes. The character regularly carves figurines, mostly with the intent of gifting them to the children of an orphanage his sister founded. But it's been useful in a lot of little ways throughout... he has a carving he made of one of the enemies the party has to deal with, and shows it to people when asking about them. Sometimes making a carving of a person is endearing to them, as they appreciate the idea that he would want to memorialize them in some way. He's also a gladiator, which in our setting is treated like being a professional wrestler, so he essentially makes his own merch to give to fans. In our latest session we were spending time with the mother of one character who's usually silly and immature, but had earlier used a very clutch use of the Hallow spell to protect the party in a major conflict... a spell which takes 24 hours to cast and costs a heavy investment in incense... So there was a carving my character made of this other character meditating deeply on the spell. It was a pretty deep bonding moment as she realized how her son had matured, even if he didn't always show it.
Anyway, that last moment was just when I realized that I initially took woodcarver's proficiency in a Background that doesn't normally include it (I took the Outlander background, but asked to replace musical instrument proficiency with a different tool), and my original intent was just to use it to make javelins for myself. But honestly, javelins cost 5 silver and eventually I just bought enough of them that I haven't needed to craft anything actually useful in about a dozen sessions. So I'm wondering if anyone else has any stories of creative uses for artisan tools that don't have any obvious mechanical benefits.
In my current campaign I'm playing a character with proficiency in woodcarver's tools. It's been useful a few times mechanically... repairing damaged carts or boats. Crafting simple weaponry, etc. However, what's come up far more often is just using it for RP purposes. The character regularly carves figurines, mostly with the intent of gifting them to the children of an orphanage his sister founded. But it's been useful in a lot of little ways throughout... he has a carving he made of one of the enemies the party has to deal with, and shows it to people when asking about them. Sometimes making a carving of a person is endearing to them, as they appreciate the idea that he would want to memorialize them in some way. He's also a gladiator, which in our setting is treated like being a professional wrestler, so he essentially makes his own merch to give to fans. In our latest session we were spending time with the mother of one character who's usually silly and immature, but had earlier used a very clutch use of the Hallow spell to protect the party in a major conflict... a spell which takes 24 hours to cast and costs a heavy investment in incense... So there was a carving my character made of this other character meditating deeply on the spell. It was a pretty deep bonding moment as she realized how her son had matured, even if he didn't always show it.
Anyway, that last moment was just when I realized that I initially took woodcarver's proficiency in a Background that doesn't normally include it (I took the Outlander background, but asked to replace musical instrument proficiency with a different tool), and my original intent was just to use it to make javelins for myself. But honestly, javelins cost 5 silver and eventually I just bought enough of them that I haven't needed to craft anything actually useful in about a dozen sessions. So I'm wondering if anyone else has any stories of creative uses for artisan tools that don't have any obvious mechanical benefits.
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