D&D 2024 is trying to remind you of those craftsman tools you were handed at 1st level that you always forget about

A month ago we were given a peek at the changes coming to crafting in the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook. As a dungeon master with a table full of players mostly raised on roleplaying video games, I bellyached about how I'll never get my players to adopt crafting in D&D. Mainly because: Ain't nobody got time for that.

Crafting takes entirely too long in D&D 5e, and D&D 2024 knows that. So D&D 2024 is cutting costs and crafting time by half or more in some cases. The 300 days it was going to take that suit of plate armor? Now it's 150 days. I mean, that's still the equivalent of starting on New Year's Day and not being done until five months later on May 31.

I still don't know what D&D table out there is going to have five months of downtime. Not mine. My players just hit 6th level in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. We're halfway to the 11th level ending. Things keep moving along at such a heroic pace that I doubt more than five or six weeks have even passed since they showed up in squeaky-clean 1st level characters. That's just how relentless the pacing is in D&D 5e, and it goes to show how capable players are of keeping up with that pace. This isn't Basic D&D where you lay in a sick bed all day and recover maybe one or two hit points. This is 5e. You regenerate hit points like it's your shield in Halo. You could be half dead and be back to 100 percent over your lunch break. You could be almost completely dead and wake up the next morning, health bar topped up, remembering yesterday's near total-party wipe like it was just a bad dream.

Which is to say, D&D 2024's crafting is still going to take too long, unless your dungeon master takes great pains to install lengthy periods of downtime between side quests. But the new crafting rules are still going to try.

First of all by indicating (somehow) next to every piece of equipment in the 2024 Player's Handbook just which items can be crafted with what set of tools. There are 37 sets of tools, my friend. Thirty-seven. From Alchemist's Supplies to Woodcarver's Tools, from Three Dragon Ante gaming sets to musical instruments like the dulcimer and bagpipes. Now, I'm not sure what you can make from a shawm besides a Kenny G cover of "My Heart Will Go On." But I'm listening, if a player gets particularly creative. There's a story in the Bible about the city of Jericho whose walls came tumbling down because musical instruments were used to besiege the city.

Crafting potions of healing will be a particular draw for my players. I employ such tight-fisted merchants in every shop my players visit, you'd think the last thing that store wants to do is actually sell something. The Crafter Origin Feat will cut your manufacturing times down even more. Working with allies to craft something will reduce those times even more. 

Plus, D&D 2024 wants you to get even more use out of your tool kits besides crafting. Chisel a peephole into a secret room with Mason's Tools. Burn that bridge behind you with Alchemist's Tools. Just use these tool kits, D&D 2024 is begging you. Don't just forget you have them after 1st level.

If you aren't at Gen Con 2024 to pick up a copy, and you haven't pre-ordered it from D&D Beyond, then the new Player's Handbook will be out on September 17. Start work on that plate armor immediately and you just might have it done in time for Valentine's Day.