Proficiency with alchemist's supplies allows you to unlock more information on Arcana checks involving potions and similar materials. Alchemist's supplies include two glass beakers, a metal frame to hold a beaker in place over an open flame, a glass stirring rod, a small mortar and pestle, and a pouch of common alchemical ingredients, including salt, powdered iron, and purified water.Īrcana. A table at the end of each section lists activities that a tool can be used to perform, and suggested DCs for the necessary ability checks.Īlchemist's supplies enable a character to produce useful concoctions, such as acid or alchemist's fire.Ĭomponents. Proficiency with a tool usually brings with it a particular benefit in the form of a special use, as described in this paragraph. The text provides some examples and ideas when this opportunity is relevant. In addition, you can consider giving a character extra information or an added benefit on a skill check. With respect to skills, the system is mildly abstract in terms of what a tool proficiency represents essentially, it assumes that a character who has proficiency with a tool also has learned about facets of the trade or profession that are not necessarily associated with the use of the tool. In each of these paragraphs, the benefits apply only to someone who has proficiency with the tool, not someone who simply owns it. Paragraphs that begin with skill names discuss these possibilities. As DM, you can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. Every tool potentially provides advantage on a check when used in conjunction with certain skills, provided a character is proficient with the tool and the skill. A character who is proficient with a tool knows how to use all of its component parts. The first paragraph in each description gives details on what a set of supplies or tools is made up of. The following sections go into detail about the tools presented in the Player's Handbook, offering advice on how to use them in a campaign.Ĭomponents. Not only does the character notice the door's presence, but you decide that the tool proficiency entitles the character to an automatic success on an Intelligence (Investigation) check to determine how to open the door.
For example, a character proficient with mason's tools makes a successful Wisdom (Perception) check to find a secret door in a stone wall. This benefit might be in the form of more detailed information or could simulate the effect of a different sort of successful check. In addition, consider giving characters who have both a relevant skill and a relevant tool proficiency an added benefit on a successful check. In the tool descriptions that follow, this bene fit is often expressed as additional insight (or something similar), which translates into an increased chance that the check will be a success.Īdded Benefit. This simple benefit can go a long way toward encouraging players to pick up tool proficiencies. If the use of a tool and the use of a skill both apply to a check, and a character is proficient with the tool and the skill, consider allowing the character to make the check with advantage. To make tool proficiencies more attractive choices for the characters, you can use the methods outlined below.Īdvantage. Thus, why would a character who has the opportunity to acquire one or the other want to gain a tool proficiency instead of proficiency in a skill? A tool such as a forgery kit is used to make fake objects and little else. The History skill applies to any event in the past. Tools have more specific applications than skills. This section offers various ways that tools can be used in the game.
At the game table, though, the use of tools sometimes overlaps with the use of skills, and it can be unclear how to use them together in certain situations. Tool proficiencies are a useful way to highlight a character's background and talents. Proficiency with these tools lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to disarm traps or open locks. This set of tools includes a small file, a set of lock picks, a small mirror mounted on a metal handle, a set of narrow-bladed scissors, and a pair of pliers. For example, the DM might ask you to make a Dexterity check to carve a fine detail with your woodcarver's tools, or a Strength check to make something out of particularly hard wood.
Tool use is not tied to a single ability, since proficiency with a tool represents broader knowledge of its use. Proficiency with a tool allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using that tool. Your race, class, background, or feats give you proficiency with certain tools. A tool helps you to do something you couldn't otherwise do, such as craft or repair an item, forge a document, or pick a lock.