The shift from 5E to DnD One involving backgrounds and feats is interesting, and it’s worth noting that this can change a lot over the next couple years of play-testing and game updates, but the Crafter Feat was one of two new feats that showed up in the first Unearthed Arcana releases
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One of the most important things to take note of is the fact that DnD One (Please content creators call it what it is: DnD 6E because it’s clearly not backwards compatible and I hate the gimmicky marketing of “DnD One”) is undergoing the early years of expected play testing via Unearthed Arcana so this feat guide can and will change as more updates are released.
With that out of the way, let’s jump in!
Breaking Down the Crafter Feat
My first thoughts are this is a feat that is clearly inspired from RPG video games (and yes, you have every right to cast a weary eye at the mess that was 4E trying to be a “real life MMORPG) but let’s not judge too quickly before breaking down what this feat actually offers.
Directly from the released Unearthed Arcana:
Crafter 1st-Level Feat
- Prerequisite: None
- Repeatable: No
You are adept at crafting things and bargaining with merchants, granting you the following benefits:
- Tool Proficiency. You gain Tool Proficiency with 3 different Artisan’s Tools of your choice.
- Discount. Whenever you buy a non-magical item, you receive a 20% discount on it.
- Faster Crafting. When you craft an item using a tool with which you have Tool Proficiency, the required crafting time is reduced by 20%.
Character Origins, DnD One Unearthed Arcana 2022
So let’s break this down and see who might want to take the Crafter feat.
Benefit #1: You gain tool proficiency with 3 different Artisan’s Tools of your choice.
In the current 5E edition this basically is a non-benefit. If it’s not Thieves’ Tools, which aren’t Artisan, then players and DMs generally don’t care. Unless the new DnD One/5.5 edition does a radical overhaul of crafting and marketplace guides, this isn’t likely to move too many needles. It’s a “benefit” to a part of the game that no one generally uses.
Benefit #2: Receive a 20% discount whenever you buy a non-magical item.
Strong RPG video game vibes/influence here. You can’t argue with it being a good benefit because 20% off is rock solid when budgeting for gear. This will be most useful in early game as modern DnD editions are notorious for getting so much gold that it just stops mattering. This is the type of benefit that would work much better as a pathfinder feat than a DnD feat.
At least as currently written, but money saved is money saved, so it still remains a viable benefit as long as your DM doesn’t brush that off as “part of the haggling.”
Benefit #3: When you craft an item using a tool you’re proficient with, the required crafting time is reduced by 20%.
Again, really solid, but only if crafting is a major part of the game. While there were crafting rules in 5E, they were hard to find, impractical, and just didn’t come into play that often. This changed a bit with Artificer, but Artificers came with their own rules and infusion system, which made crafting rules fall back again.
Crafting is something that could be a major part of D&D, and 20% is a good time cut-off, but the crafting system needs more love and attention from Wizards of the Coast than it received in 5E.
Is the Crafter Feat Any Good?
If you are still under the illusion that DnD One will be backwards compatible with 5E (It won’t), then from a 5E perspective no, the Crafter feat wouldn’t be any good and it wouldn’t make sense to take.
However, if DnD One (aka 6E – because it’s forming more like 6th Ed than an extension of 5) revamps crafting and puts in a more detailed and robust market system (the lack of one for magic items was one of the most inexcusable sins of 5th Edition) then in that situation the 20% off non-magical item costs and 20% off crafting time could be a huge deal.
As the system is now, it’s going to be a loser of a feat in most campaigns unless you tend to play exclusively low level campaigns. There’s no single class from 5E rules that should have crafter on their shortlist.
What Needs to Change About the DnD One Crafter Feat?
This isn’t so much what needs to change about the feat but the system that it’s in. Crafting is a big deal in many RPG video games, Pathfinder, and other TTPG systems. Even past systems likes DnD 3.5 had some robust crafting elements.
This just doesn’t exist in an organized and detailed way in the current iteration of 5E DnD.
So the new DnD One (aka DnD 6E) would need to:
- Have a more detailed marketplace for both non-magical and magical items
- Have a more detailed economy
- Have a MUCH more detailed crafting system that is practical for use in most campaigns
If those things happened, then suddenly the crafter feat would become a much more powerful and viable player choice.
Final Feat Grade for DnD One Crafter Feat
Crafter Feat Grade: D+ current iteration, subject to change with DnD One
Is the Crafter Feat Worth It?
Not as currently written. While 20% off can be tempting, that’s about the only benefit here in the current system and how it’s run – and in most campaigns once you get a few expensive items you’re pretty much set and have an abundance of money with nothing to spend it on by campaign’s end.
Because the money savings is always decent, this isn’t an F-grade feat, but it’s a D+ moving up to a C in crafting-heavy, detail oriented long-term campaigns. Otherwise there will need to be major overhauls in DnD to make this feat something worth taking.
Crafter Feat FAQ
Is Crafter a 5E Feat?
No. Crafter was introduced as a 1st-Level feat for the new DnD One system and while it might end up a good feat for the new iteration of Dungeons & Dragons when applied to 5E, it just falls well short.
Is Crafter a 5.5 DnD Feat?
No, unless you consider the new DnD 1 as 5.5, but most players and DMs I’ve talked to see DnD One as 6E with there being a mess of small rewrites in Tasha’s and the heavily criticized Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse as the closest to a 5.5 update of 5E there is.
What classes should take the crafter feat?
As it is currently written, no one.
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Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.