So I have a player who's started leaning into their character as the Camp Dad or such - making the fires, cooking any foods the party harvests from fishing, foraging, or harvesting. All well and good; we're playing a resource-scarce game where things like ration management is supposed to be important. He doesn't have the Chef feat or a background that inherently lends itself to being a chef or trained cook, but I'm willing to give his character the benefit of the doubt that they were a hobbyist or amateur cook and can maybe make an interesting character growth arc out of this skill exercise. Basically, as a downtime activity, his character can cook a meal that grants a small boon when consumed (temp HP, for example). I'm trying to make it so that it's not a free replacement for the Chef's feat or a background filled with cooking, but is rewarding for his character to undertake as an activity that benefits the party.
Anyway, the question I have is how to best approach cooking. The rules from Tasha's and Xanathar's are pretty scant on this - I looked to the Thieves Guild materials to get a ratio of raw foods to rations - and I think it'd be fair that if the player wants to make better-than-ration meals (but still short of a 6th-level heroes feast) there should be a resource investment to that. Thieves Guild says it's 4 lbs of raw ingredients (say, meat) to make 1 ration; if making a hearty stew for the party at camp, would that then mean 4 lbs per player for one full meal? Seems like quite a lot (we play with 6, so 24 lbs to make a stew!). I came here thinking it might need to be more than that since a full meal would mean more input than dried rations, but I dunno.
My own bushcraft and campcraft experiences are pretty limited to what the Boy Scouts and car camping teach you, which is to say not much when it comes to processing hunted/foraged food.
I'd give 0 benefit from the start, but after a few months of doing it give them the cooking tool proficiency. With that I'd treat it like crafting where you can make any food item for 1/2 cost when the players are gathering their materials id treat 1/2 cost as 1/2 the needed materials. a cook can stretch materials to make more meals, they will waste less of the animal, will use scraps for stock etc.
Honestly, in terms of feats you could give away for free, Chef isn't that game breaking (provided you remove the ASI, of course). If you wanted to give this character just the ability to make treats that grant temporary HP equal to their proficiency bonus, and restrict that ability behind "high quality materials", I think from a balance perspective that's going to be fine. Just understand that your other players may expect similar low-power, high-flavor goodies like this if you give it to one.
As far as how much food goes into a ration; the 5e basic rules say a 2lbs ration can sustain a character for a day. I understand there's some waste in the cooking process, but requiring raw materials equal to double the weight of the final product seems a bit extreme. I would say maybe start out with 3 lbs raw food per finished 2 lbs ration, and reduce that to 2.5 lbs and eventually 2 lbs as the character gets more skilled and therefore more efficient.
You could also make it more interesting as he gets better at cooking. Maybe they fight a monster that is immune to poison, and eating it gives them resistance to poison damage or advantage to save against poison.
Maybe they cook and eat a Bulette and get a +1 to AC for the day? You could have some fun with that!
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So I have a player who's started leaning into their character as the Camp Dad or such - making the fires, cooking any foods the party harvests from fishing, foraging, or harvesting. All well and good; we're playing a resource-scarce game where things like ration management is supposed to be important. He doesn't have the Chef feat or a background that inherently lends itself to being a chef or trained cook, but I'm willing to give his character the benefit of the doubt that they were a hobbyist or amateur cook and can maybe make an interesting character growth arc out of this skill exercise. Basically, as a downtime activity, his character can cook a meal that grants a small boon when consumed (temp HP, for example). I'm trying to make it so that it's not a free replacement for the Chef's feat or a background filled with cooking, but is rewarding for his character to undertake as an activity that benefits the party.
Anyway, the question I have is how to best approach cooking. The rules from Tasha's and Xanathar's are pretty scant on this - I looked to the Thieves Guild materials to get a ratio of raw foods to rations - and I think it'd be fair that if the player wants to make better-than-ration meals (but still short of a 6th-level heroes feast) there should be a resource investment to that. Thieves Guild says it's 4 lbs of raw ingredients (say, meat) to make 1 ration; if making a hearty stew for the party at camp, would that then mean 4 lbs per player for one full meal? Seems like quite a lot (we play with 6, so 24 lbs to make a stew!). I came here thinking it might need to be more than that since a full meal would mean more input than dried rations, but I dunno.
My own bushcraft and campcraft experiences are pretty limited to what the Boy Scouts and car camping teach you, which is to say not much when it comes to processing hunted/foraged food.
I'd give 0 benefit from the start, but after a few months of doing it give them the cooking tool proficiency. With that I'd treat it like crafting where you can make any food item for 1/2 cost when the players are gathering their materials id treat 1/2 cost as 1/2 the needed materials. a cook can stretch materials to make more meals, they will waste less of the animal, will use scraps for stock etc.
Honestly, in terms of feats you could give away for free, Chef isn't that game breaking (provided you remove the ASI, of course). If you wanted to give this character just the ability to make treats that grant temporary HP equal to their proficiency bonus, and restrict that ability behind "high quality materials", I think from a balance perspective that's going to be fine. Just understand that your other players may expect similar low-power, high-flavor goodies like this if you give it to one.
As far as how much food goes into a ration; the 5e basic rules say a 2lbs ration can sustain a character for a day. I understand there's some waste in the cooking process, but requiring raw materials equal to double the weight of the final product seems a bit extreme. I would say maybe start out with 3 lbs raw food per finished 2 lbs ration, and reduce that to 2.5 lbs and eventually 2 lbs as the character gets more skilled and therefore more efficient.
You could also make it more interesting as he gets better at cooking. Maybe they fight a monster that is immune to poison, and eating it gives them resistance to poison damage or advantage to save against poison.
Maybe they cook and eat a Bulette and get a +1 to AC for the day? You could have some fun with that!