Dig deep into your Bag of Holding and pull out the tangled bundle of vials, files, pouches, and pliers you threw in and forgot about way back at level 1. The tools you’ve lugged across the Sword Coast are now worth their weight in gold. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, crafting rules have been updated; now your tool proficiencies help you create useful equipment that anyone in your party can use!
Take a look below to learn how you can make Potions of Healing, armor, and Spell Scrolls using something as simple as your starting equipment.
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Crafting with Tools from the 2024 Player’s Handbook

Every hardy adventurer knows that bringing the right tools is half the battle. When you create a character using the 2024 Player’s Handbook, you’ll pack up for your adventure using equipment and/or Gold Pieces (GP) granted by your background and class. Handy adventurers should turn to Chapter 6: Equipment and cast their gaze upon the tools section. There's a world of potential waiting for you there!
The new rules for crafting found in the 2024 Player’s Handbook allow any character with proficiency in a tool to craft items from that tool's crafting list. Now you can brew Potions of Healing on the fly with an Herbalism Kit or sew yourself a dragon Costume with your Disguise Kit.
Crafting a nonmagical item requires you to collect material worth half the cost of purchasing it, rounded down. For example, you’ll need 25 GP of raw materials to make Alchemist’s Fire, which is worth 50 GP. Unlike the Crafting downtime activity in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, you’ll now make progress toward completing your nonmagical item in increments of 10 GP per day instead of 5 GP. That Plate Armor will take you 150 days instead of 300 days, or 75 days with the help of a friend!
Not fast enough for you? Take a look at the Crafter Origin feat. You’ll pick up proficiency with three different Artisan’s Tools and the ability to create useful items like Torches, Rope, Nets, and Grappling Hooks overnight. Also, capitalism hack: Nonmagical items that you buy are 20 percent off. I wish knowing how to weave a basket offered that kind of perk in real life!
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything expanded on the potential uses of tools by suggesting how they could assist you with specific ability checks, like using Investigation and Cobbler’s Tools to track where someone has been based on their shoes. The optional rules for tools also came with suggested DCs for activities. The 2024 Player’s Handbook inspires DMs and players to use tools more frequently with a streamlined set of suggestions.
Tools are now tied to one ability score, which you use when making an ability check with that tool. You’ll also add your Proficiency Bonus if you’re proficient with that tool. And, my dearest Rogues who keep their well-worn set of Thieves’ Tools close at hand, locked doors and trapped chests are no match for you. The new rules on tool proficiency grant you Advantage on ability checks you make that use both a skill (like Sleight of Hand) and a tool (like Thieves’ Tools) you are proficient with.
You’ll need proficiency with a tool to craft an item on its list, but you don’t need proficiency to use it for an ability check! Each tool includes a list of things a player can use it for when they take the Utilize action, along with the DC for that action. Chisel a peephole into a secret room with your Mason’s Tools. Dissuade pursuing bandits by setting fire to the bridge behind you with your Alchemist’s Supplies.
Creative Ways to Use Tools in Your Build

Turn Your Caster into a Scroll Crafter with Calligrapher’s Supplies
I’ve got a little Message for all my fellow Wizard mains: The first step to creating the magical infinite library of scrolls you’ve always dreamed of will only cost 10 GP. And no, I’m not trying to sell you a cursed tome. At that low price, a set of Calligrapher’s Supplies are now the best friend of casters hoping to stock up before they get stomped on. The Artisan, Acolyte, Sage, and Scribe backgrounds will serve you well if you want to pick up proficiency with Calligrapher’s Supplies, which you’ll need to mass manufacture all those Spell Scrolls. You’ll still need to pay crafting costs, but who said becoming an archmage was easy?
Of course, you can still rely on Arcana to make Spell Scrolls. It's just that proficiency in Calligrapher’s Supplies can serve as an alternative route to making them. In either case, you'll still need to have the spell you’re scribing prepared each day you’re working.
Previously, the 2014 Player’s Handbook only allowed you to craft nonmagical objects with your downtime activities. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, scribing Spell Scrolls is similar to the expanded rules on Scribing a Spell Scroll found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. But it's a little cheaper, as a level 2 spell will cost you 100 GP instead of 250, and potentially more powerful, as spells cast from a homemade scroll will use the spell save DC and attack bonus of the crafter.
Possession of Calligrapher’s Supplies also allows you to craft Ink, a popular component for spells like Illusory Script, Teleportation Circle, and the spellbooks you’ve spent hours copying spells into. One little bottle holds enough for five books!
Rangers and Sorcerers can make especially good use of these tools to churn out Spell Scrolls for the party Wizard, helping them learn spells that overlap with their class spell list. (I suggest Alarm, Arcane Vigor, Banishment, Dispel Magic, and Summon Elemental.) They’re also useful for the party Rogue. In the 2024 Player's Handbook, the Thief Rogue can cast spells from scrolls using the Use Magic Item class feature.
Painter’s Supplies Aren’t Just for Artists
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the bread and butter for Wisdom-based casters: a set of Painter’s Supplies. Similar to the rules in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, the Painter’s Supplies in the 2024 Player's Handbook enable you to paint an accurate picture of something you’ve seen before. In addition, proficiency with this set of paints, brushes, and canvases allows you to craft a Druidic Focus and a Holy Symbol. Yes, DMs, you sent the player home with a box of crayons for good behavior and they showed up at school the next morning with a glowing orb that makes storms. Never underestimate an artist!
Fulfill Your Witchy Dreams with an Herbalism Kit
My next D&D campaign is going to be all about the party opening a cozy Potions and Poisons shop together and I can’t wait. The challenge? They’ll start only with Poisoner’s Kits, Cook’s Utensils, and the star of the show, Herbalism Kits.
Join in on the joy of cottagecore characters! The Herbalism Kit allows you to craft Antitoxins, Candles, Healer’s Kits, and Potions of Healing. Pick up a vial of Antitoxin, which grants Advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the Poisoned condition for an hour, which you’ll need after taste-testing the Basic Poison bubbling on the front counter. The flickering candles around the witchy room shed atmospheric light in a dim 10-foot radius. And the Healer’s Kits will help you stabilize your unconscious Bard after they forgot to use the Herbalism Kit to identify the poisonous plants growing on the bookshelves. But of course, the main draw of this shop are the shimmering bottles of healing liqueur, each carefully brewed with a full day’s work and 25 GP of raw magic goo!
Rules Change for Drinking a Potion of Healing
Previously, consuming a Potion of Healing took an action. The 2024 Player’s Handbook now allows characters on their last legs to down a Potion of Healing as a Bonus Action! Fans of Baldur's Gate 3, rejoice. You may not be able to lob a healing missile at downed allies, but you can still spend a Bonus Action administering that sweet red elixir to a friend!
Become a Portable Armory with Smith’s Tools
At level 3, the Battle Master Fighter receives the Student of War feature, which grants proficiency with a set of Artisan's Tools. When you put down the broadsword for the night, pick up a set of pliers. You’ll be surprised at what Smith’s Tools can do!
This set of Artisan’s Tools boasts a handsome list of items to craft. Picture your blacksmith-turned-hero wiping their sweaty, heroic brow by the light of a campfire as they work, day by day, on the Plate Armor they’ll one day wear to cut down the corrupt king oppressing their home. Or pushing past the Rogue to pry open any locked chest or door with tongs in hand and advantage on their Strength (Athletics) check.
Smith’s Tools allow you to craft any metal Melee weapon, Medium armor, or Heavy armor, making them an excellent birthday gift for the party plagued by Rust Monsters. They’ll help keep your ammunition stocked with Firearm Bullets, Sling Bullets, and the endlessly useful Ball Bearings. But I would rather use them to make a ton of Grappling Hooks to swing down dramatically like Spider-Man every time I make an entrance.
Weaver’s Tools and Leatherworker’s Tools are other great choices for outfitting your adventurer on the fly. Both sets will let you add a design to your homemade Hide Armor, or stitch skulls onto your Padded Armor, to commemorate each foe you’ve slain!
Go Forth and Craft!
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
The new options and revisions presented in this book are a result of a decade of lessons learned and adventures had. With updated rules and streamlined gameplay, it's never been easier to bring your stories to life.
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!

Alex Teplitz (he/they) is an LA-based writer, editor, and producer whose work spans live production and tabletop gaming. They have worked for Darrington Press, Hunters Entertainment, and Pixel Circus, on an award-winning suite of games, including Daggerheart, Kids on Bikes, and Alice is Missing: Silent Falls. He is a wizard in his spare time, of which there is not enough.
im guessing woodcarvers tools for wood things, dont know about bones though
I'm not used to interact in these sections, but I am a little annoyed with some complains about crafting rules and how it works with downtimes. The problem never was how many days you need to invest or the gold you need to spend, the problem is how modern D&D campaings are organized. Idealizing it as a narrative-focused, with railroading plots and urgent goals against time will never have a good window for downtimes activities like crafting. A open-world-focused campaing, more emergent narrative-driven would make downtime and crafting more accessible, as time is not such a problem.
PS: english isn't my first language, sorry for any mistakes.
Exactly. This is for sprawling homebrew campaigns not official campaigns that take a week to a month in in-game time.
That’s why I’m like which one is it and why? Smiths should be STR for sure and then others could be INT but that’s not just one ability so I’m pretty confused
I agree wtf is up with it taking a full night to make a torch. Maybe they’ll have more nuance in the book but based on this article it definitely raises an eyebrow.
They need a basic unit to work from and given the upper end of what we're looking at days are a more practical unit than hours. A fringe case like torches can be addressed by the DM on the off chance that anyone ever actually cares enough to craft one.
so with the ndas up, we’ve seen what this crafting system is: just shopping with a discount and a longer wait period. No rolls, no complications, no specific ingredients, no options to make anything magical other than potions or scrolls. It’s disappointingly bare bones for something that was so hyped up. Well, at least third party creators have already made good systems for this stuff.
Its worse than that because items with over 150 in value cannot be crafted in the average official campaign due to plot hooks and events instilling a sense of urgency on the PCs and no denoted downtime. Plate barding for an elephant takes 300 days to craft and it takes just as long to craft barding for a horse. Fun fact you could buy 30 elephants with the cost of buying plate barding for one of them.
Specific ingredients would be a larger impediment to crafting than what we have here, because you're depending on the campaign serving up the material you need. It's not like Skyrim or Minecraft where you can run all over the map at will to gather ingredients. And magic item crafting is never going to be easy and accessible, because the acquisition of magic items is something the DM maintains control over. If you find a 3rd party system that works for your campaigns, good for you, but there's multiple reasons why the kind of crafting a certain segment of players are looking for simply won't work for the one-size-fits-all model that official systems need to be designed for.
Not only that, but it really wouldn't take that long to make both sets of barding IRL. The cost of items in D&D has never been in touch with reality or itself; basing a crafting system on it is doubly broken and even more mind boggling. There's nothing good about this "crafting" system and I don't know why so much (or any) fuss was made about it.
Before posting this, I tried to write a comment listing the myriad problems and inconsistencies, but had to stop myself. I was writing a damn essay. Just use third party crafting rules or make up your own. This one does not enable players or their DM's to craft in any way, least of all how the design team wanted it to.
Exactly. You need three things to make a torch: something flammable, something to contain the flammable material, and something to hold the container at a safe distance from you... i.e. oil (or pitch or some other analogue), some fabric, and a stick. Wrap the fabric around one end of the stick, soak it in oil, done. Not even five minutes work, including sourcing the materials. As for tools, a knife would probably be helpful. Not sure it's even worth making a character roll for it.
And when was the last time you felt a need to craft a torch in AL?
More words in this article than in the actual book on crafting.....
Most underbaked crafting system i have ever seen
Underwhelming, imho. The rules in XGTE for using tools were actually more detailed on ways to use them... exept from the actual crafting of specific items, which at least the new book offers as an option.
So honestly the only thing I'd like to see is that crafting requires a skill check. So like doing an Arcana Check with Smith’s Tools for example. I already have a house rule for this that works fine. Gives a benefit or penalty to the GP cost based of the check. Current crafting rules are fine for me. I know many others what a more fleshed out detailed system involving ingredients and such, but I prefer a bit of ambiguity and freedom. If the Crafting Magic Items is the same as it was in XGTE I'm good with it.
wood workers tools.
As someone who uses multiple third party sources for crafting and carving outside of the official rules we have it's never like this. Instead it's usually all self contained within what you get from the specific monsters you encounter individually or in groups. Some lower level or smaller ones you'll need to harvest multiple of to make the item you're looking for whereas with others you just need time and that one piece from it in order to make it. More often than not things are pretty self contained and PCs either craft the thing or they sell the components for a lower cost if they choose not to. I suggest looking into the Monster Loot series of supplements as well as Hammund's Harvesting Handbooks; both of which are great for this.
They do seem to be adding more features to make downtime more appealing for characters to want and have fun with. Especially when the DM's guide comes out.
Yay! An update for crafting!