Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting recently arrived on D&D Beyond, and along with new subclasses, species, feats, and spells, comes an incredibly detailed harvesting and crafting system. This system is perfect for those D&D campaigns where the players want to take a more hands-on approach to how magic and mundane items are made.

We're going to take a dive into how the book's harvest, crafting, and cooking rules work so you can see what they can offer your D&D game.

• Harvesting
• Crafting
• Cooking

Harvesting

Jesse Jackdaw Burns

The first step of the process is collecting those rare and wonderful components and ingredients for the crafting process. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting breaks these down into three broad categories:

• Essence as a base for magical items
• Inedible components that are only used in crafting specific magic items
• Edible components that are used in cooking

Acquiring these components follows a series of steps as detailed below.

Step 1 - Loots Back on the Menu

The first step of the harvesting process is for the Dungeon Master to determine what components are available from a defeated monster.

Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting provides a table of possible components for each creature type for the DM to pick from, grouped by Component DC, which represents the difficulty in harvesting a specific component.

Monsters can also have what's called essence, a magical substance of varying quality, which is used as the basis of magical item crafting.

The quality of essence a monster can provide is based on its Challenge Rating, so a low CR monster might only be able to offer Frail essence, while a high CR monster could offer anything up to Deific essence. The quality of essence you extract determines the maximum rarity of the item you can craft.

Once the DM has curated the list of available components and essence, they can then present that list to the players. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting provides two magic items that allow the DM to present this information in-world: The titular Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting and L'Arsène's Quadnoculars.

The characters have slain an Adult Red Dragon, which is a CR 17 Dragon. Consulting the Harvest Table for Dragons, the DM decides that based on how the characters defeated the dragon, they can harvest one eye, flesh, phials of blood, bone, fat, and pouches of claws, teeth, and scales. They can also harvest Potent essence.

Step 2 - Harvest Wish List

Once the characters know what items are on the menu from their kill, they need to create a harvesting list. Harvesting components isn't as simple as just saying “I pull out its eye.” There's a process involved, and the order in which you tackle the task matters.

This order affects the Difficulty Class (DC) for extracting each item, and what consequences there could be for failing.

The characters consult their copy of Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting and see what components the red dragon offers, as listed by the DM. They decide to harvest the following items in order;

• Potent Essence.
• Phials of Blood
• Pouch of Claws
• Pouch of Teeth
• Pouch of Scales
• Eye
• Flesh
• Bone
• Fat

Step 3 - What's the Difficulty (Class) with Harvesting?

Once the characters have determined their harvesting list, the DM can use this to generate the DCs for each step of the harvesting process. Harvesting is unique because the DC is cumulative, making the order of what the characters harvest as important as what they're actually harvesting.

The DM will look up each DC from the creature's harvest table, and the DC of the essence, if any, from the essence table.

The first item on the list will use that item's DC, while the second will use that item's DC plus that of the previous items, and so on.

This means that the DC will get progressively higher, and later items might become impossible to harvest. This is the risk the characters take.

The DM consults the various tables and notes down the associated DCs for each step of the process:

• Potent Essence - 35
• Phials of Blood - 5 + 35 = 40
• Pouch of Claws - 10 + 40 = 50
• Pouch of Teeth - 10 + 50 = 60
• Pouch of Scales - 15 + 60 = 75
• Eye - 5 + 75 = 80
• Flesh - 5 + 80 = 85
• Bone - 10 + 85 = 95
• Fat - 10 + 95 =105

Step 4 - Harvesting to the Best of Your Ability (Check)

The characters have their list, the DM has their DCs, now comes the time to put the knife to work and begin harvesting.

Assessment

Each step of the process is called a Harvesting check, which is actually composed of two separate ability checks: an Assessment check and a Carving check. It's this combination of ability checks that makes it possible to reach those higher DCs.

Much like how each creature type has an associated harvest table, they also each have an associated skill used for assessment and carving. For assessment, a player makes an Intelligence ability check, applying their Proficiency Bonus in the associated skill if they are proficient in it.

Carving

Once the creature is assessed, the carving process can begin. Using the same skill as in the previous step, the carving harvester makes a Dexterity ability check. For some special creatures, such as Celestials or Fiends, the carving harvester can use ritual carving, which allows them to use their spellcasting ability, if they have one, in place of Dexterity.

There are rules that can both help and hinder the harvesting process. Depending on the size of the creature, additional characters can help in the harvesting process. Any characters proficient in the associated skill can lend their aid and add their Proficiency Bonus to the result of the Harvesting check. Creatures without proficiency that help in this way add half their bonus.

Challenges

On the other hand, there is also harvesting time and degradation. The harvesting time depends on a creature's size and ranges from 5 minutes to 12 hours. This will affect what spells, if any, can be used to assist in the process, and also how many creatures can be reasonably harvested following a fight. This is because in order to successfully harvest a creature, you must begin the process before it degrades and not stop until you've harvested everything.

The skill associated with dragons is Survival, which Groof, Massana, and Poolie are all proficient in. Seeing as they are level 16, their Proficiency Bonus is +5.

Massana is a Wizard with +5 to Intelligence, so takes the lead on assessing, and Poolie is a Ranger with +5 to Dexterity, so she will do the carving. Groof, along with Bochu and Edwin, will be helpers. They make their assessment and then begin carving. Massana rolls a 26 and adds Groof's Proficiency bonus and half of Bochu's for a total of 33. Poolie rolls a 27 and adds Edwin's Proficiency Bonus for a total of 32.

Step 5 - The Loots of Your Labours

The results of the Assessment and Carving checks are combined, including any modifiers from helpers, and compared to the DC. The characters will receive all the loot up to and including the highest DC that their combined total exceeds.

In the above example, a combined total of 65 beats the first four DCs, meaning they harvest the Potent essence, plus the blood, claws, teeth, and scales.

These steps take you through the base process of harvesting, but there's so much more to the system thanks to a selection of optional rules. These include:

• Components are being ruined by certain damage types, making harvesting more difficult if that damage is applied in combat.
• Failing to harvest certain components can result in catastrophic effects, such as exploding dragon breath sacs or a beholder's eye ray going off unexpectedly.
• How you can store your various harvested components and how long they keep.
• Trading components with merchants, either for gold or other rare components.

The system is an adventure in its own right, and much like with any adventure, heroes beware.

But it doesn't stop here; while the characters could simply trade away these precious parts of defeated monsters, they can also take up the mantle of crafters themselves.

Crafting

Jesse Jackdaw Burns

The characters have a Bag of Holding filled to bursting with eyes, scales, essence, and blood, but what do they do with it? They could trade it; those components can fetch a pretty penny, but they could also make something with it themselves.

Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting features a crafting system as robust as its harvesting system, which allows characters to dive into fabricating their own gear and magic items.

A Manufactured Experience

Manufacturing is the process by which characters can craft mundane gear, including weapons, armor, and tools. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting provides comprehensive tables for all the mundane gear found in SRD 5.1, plus several new mundane options such as the Nunchaku, Slingshot, and Tetherhook. Each item has its material cost, tools, crafting time, value, and properties described. This provides a great quick reference guide for DMs should the characters need to whip up a quick Longsword or Padded armor.

Manufacturing requires the crafter to provide materials to the listed value, rather than simply putting up the required gold. It is up to the DM to decide what form these materials take—a Longsword might require steel ingots, whereas a batch of arrows might require wood and flint. The only requirement is that the value of the materials corresponds to the item's crafting cost.

An Enchanting Display

While self-sufficiency as an adventurer is great, and it's incredibly handy to be able to make your own equipment, having the option for player characters to craft their own magic items can help customize their skill set and devise crazy schemes. This is where those harvested materials and essences come in. Enchanting is the process by which characters can take a mundane item and imbue it with magic. This magic is sourced from the magical components harvested from monsters and their essence.

Enchanting a magic item starts with a recipe, and Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting provides one for each magic item found in SRD 5.1, plus some brand-new items found only in this book.

Each recipe details the base mundane item and the magical component required. For example, a Flame Tongue Longsword requires a Longsword and the breath sac from a dragon. The third element of any magic item is essence, which is determined by the item's rarity.

An Uncommon magic item only requires Frail essence, whereas an Artifact requires Deific essence. 

The item's recipe also details its enchanting time, which differs for consumable items as well as items with and without attunement, and the DC for enchanting the item. Like harvesting, the skill for enchanting an item depends on the creature associated with the recipe, but unlike harvesting, it is a single check made by a single creature that must have a spellcasting ability. The spellcasting ability is used with the associated skill to make the check.

Massana is readying to enchant a Flame Tongue Longsword. They have the Longsword, crafted by Groof the day before, as well as the breath sac from the red dragon they slew, along with the required Potent essence. Crafting the sword will take 40 workdays, and at the end of the process, require a DC 21 Intelligence (Survival) check. The result of their check is a 25, beating the crafting DC and successfully creating their item!

Forging Ahead

Enchanting is a fine process for crafting magic items, but what does a character do if they're not a spellcaster? That's where forging comes in, a process by which the crafter creates the mundane base item at the same time as enchanting, crafting a magic item from scratch without the need for a spellcasting ability.

Forging works a lot like combining the steps for crafting a mundane item and enchanting it, requiring the crafter to make two checks. The required raw materials and magical components are the same, as are the required tools, DCs, and skills for the various checks. There are, however, some differences:

• The time required to make the mundane item is included in the enchanting time
• Rather than requiring a spellcasting ability, the check is based on the crafter's Dexterity or Strength (their choice).

Time is Money

When crafting items, the number of hours a day a character can craft is limited by their Constitution modifier, known as their working threshold.

They can work beyond this at the risk of incurring Exhaustion for each extra hour worked. At the end of each hour, they must make a Constitution saving throw, with the DC progressively increasing the more hours they work past their threshold. Should a creature reach 5 levels of Exhaustion for any reason, not just when crafting, they are unable to continue crafting.

Rather than working all the hours in the day and burning themselves out, a character can hire craftspeople. A craftsperson can be paid an hourly rate, which increases if they work more than 8 hours, and can work up to 12 hours per day. The cost of a craftsperson depends on their role–manufacturer, enchanter, or forger–and their rank–journeyman, expert, or master. A higher rank means higher check modifiers and so a better outcome when crafting.

It's possible to form teams of crafters, meaning that while each individual crafter must stop working at some point during the day, the crafting process can continue. While one crafter might only work 8 hours a day, three could work in shifts for the full 24 hours, reducing the number of days taken to produce an item by two-thirds.

A Little Bit Quirky

The ability check for crafting is somewhat unique in that it's not a pass or fail check. Regardless of the result when making the crafting check, the item gets made, but how well–or poorly–the crafter does influences what quirks the item may have.

Quirks come in two flavours: flaws and boons. These are accumulated based on the difference between the DC of the item and the result of the crafting check. For example, failing the check by between 5 and 8 results in two flaws, whereas beating the DC by between 9 and 12 results in two boons.

Quirks can be removed by repeating the manufacturing or enchanting process, although repeating the enchanting process requires fresh essence. Optionally, the DM can also decide that boons and flaws affect the final price of the item, making items with flaws less valuable and items with boons more so.

Cooking

Luciano Javier Carreira

It was mentioned earlier that components fall into three categories, one of which is edible components. So that begs the question: what are edible components good for? The answer is cooking delicious meals! In addition to a thorough crafting system, Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting also includes a cooking system so you can live out your fantasies of the Great Faerûn Bake Off or Nine Hells Kitchen.

To cook a magical meal, a character needs a recipe, monstrous components, essence, Cook’s Utensils, and a heat source. Once a character has all these elements, they can spend an hour cooking the meal, at the end of which they make a Constitution check using the tools provided. The DC for that check is determined by the recipe, which also determines what components and essence are needed.

The cook can get help from another character, provided the character is proficient in Cook's Utensils and spends the entire time helping. Should they do so, they get to add their Proficiency Bonus to the final check. If they don't have proficiency in the tools, they instead add half their bonus rounded down.

A Recipe for Success

Cooking recipes in Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting are divided into four tiers: novice, journeyman, expert, and artisan. The tier determines the number of ingredients used as well as the DC of the final check. The number of ingredients doesn't include the essence, which is used to determine the rarity of the magical meal, which in turn determines the effect of the edible component.

Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting provides 22 different recipes across the four tiers, but the DM is encouraged to concoct original recipes or have the characters do some kitchen alchemy of their own.

Poolie wants to cook up some deviled eggs, which requires an egg and spice. It's a journeyman recipe, which means a DC of 16. Bochu is also proficient with Cook's Utensils, so she's going to help Poolie. After 1 hour of cooking, the final result is a 21, meaning a delicious meal of spicy deviled eggs is ready to eat.

Once a recipe is completed and the meal prepared, its effects when consumed can be determined by looking at each ingredient's effects, which is described below.

In addition to the four tiers of recipes provided, Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting includes five Boss Monster Recipes. These recipes provide much stronger final effects, but require much rarer ingredients, ingredients that can only be acquired by taking on the five special hunts provided within the book. Should the characters be brave enough to take on the polyhedrooze, they could make a round of Jell-O shots, or perhaps use magnetite dragon flesh to make Magnetite Curry.

Edible Effects

Each edible component has its own unique effect when consumed as part of a recipe, but does nothing when consumed raw. Not all creatures produce magically edible components, however, and the table at the start of the Edible Components Effects section lists this out for each creature type. For example, a brain from a Beast is not a magical component, whereas the brain from an Aberration is.

Some components even have varying effects based on what creature they're from–bone taken from a Beast gives Advantage on saving throws against the Blinded condition, whereas bone taken from a Giant helps against the Restrained condition. Each of these effects scales with the rarity of the essence used–an Uncommon recipe using monstrosity eye confers 30 feet of Darkvision, whereas a Legendary recipe confers 120 feet.

With so many ingredients, many of which are modified by their creature of origin, there are literally thousands of possible combinations. In fact, for a two-ingredient recipe, there are 38,290 possible combinations across all rarities!

Sharpen Your Knives

Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting is a truly comprehensive guide to harvesting, crafting, and cooking, but it doesn't stop there. In addition to the in-depth rules explored here, this mighty tome also includes mechanics for tracking monsters, trading components, and a slew of optional and variant rules. Your players will be spoiled for choice, not just in what they craft, but how they craft it, thanks to a selection of systems that provide both breadth and depth of functionality for your D&D game.

You can pick up your copy today in the D&D Beyond marketplace!

Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including partner Steph and his daughter Willow (well, one day). They live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in the south of England.