Uses for Artisan's Blessing

[TheCleverGuy]

Forge Clerics get a Channel Divinity option called Artisan's Blessing. It allows you to create any non-magical item that contains some metal, as long as you have materials to work with and the resulting item is worth less than 100gp. You can also duplicate an existing item, if you have the original in your possession.

I'm currently playing a Forge Cleric in a CoS campaign, and while I'm only level 4, I have yet to find a good use for this ability. Looking for inspiration for creative ways to help my party. What sorts of items would you build? And where do you find raw materials to work with?

[stoutstien]

CoS is not a campaign where this sort of feature will shine but you can still have a ton of fun. Making silver seems something that can come I handy.

[Unoriginal]

Forge Clerics get a Channel Divinity option called Artisan's Blessing. It allows you to create any non-magical item that contains some metal, as long as you have materials to work with and the resulting item is worth less than 100gp. You can also duplicate an existing item, if you have the original in your possession.

I'm currently playing a Forge Cleric in a CoS campaign, and while I'm only level 4, I have yet to find a good use for this ability. Looking for inspiration for creative ways to help my party. What sorts of items would you build? And where do you find raw materials to work with?

The Forge Cleric PC in my Dragon Heist campaign used it to craft a sword and sell it, being a member of the Waterdavian guild handling such works. That allowed him to get more money from the crafting since it took him way less time than regular crafting.

A Force Cleric could also use it to do things like duplicate keys or personal seals and then put the original ones back where they were, concealing the theft. Or turn the metal chains they're chained to into a weapon of a set of Thieves' Tools when the party is captured. Heck they could turn a lock into a piece of metal with a different shape, making what it was locking open.

For CoS, I don't know the module well, but you could use it to turn 100gp worth of silver into a silvered weapon (or 10gp worth of silver into a silvered ammunition), which is nice to deal with lycanthropes and devils, especially if there is not enough magic weapons for everyone. Or you could arm mobs of villagers quickly.

As for where to find raw material, well, if you just need scraps of steel, a lot of enemies will have those of them once they've been through the blenders that fighting adventurers is. Otherwise a lot of humanoid villages trade metals.

[Kessel]

one use I've seen for early levels is collecting all armor & weapons after a battle for the scrap, broken or otherwise.

tote it around in a bag of holding, or a cart that you made with Artisan's Blessing. then the next time you make it in to a town you find out what they're needing, an hour later you sell whatever to the town folk.

it's not a windfall, up to 100gp a shot, but at early levels it's gold coming in. our DM was tight fisted with treasure so this was utilized a fair bit.

[Sparky McDibben]

So let's start with some of the more direct applications:

• Grappling hooks
• Lengths of chain
• Lock
• Ball bearings
• Caltrops
• Replacement weapons

And then let's move to the less direct applications:

• Gifts for NPCs (a shield that's got their sigil inlaid on it, for example, or a really nice piece of jewelry)
• Art (metal sculpture, etc)
• Collapsible 10' pole
• Telescoping ladder (useful for scaling Castle Ravenloft)
• Megaphone
• Portable rams
• Tool sets

Note that if you have party members who have favored tactics, you can use these in combination. For example, something like a megaphone could be used to rally allies...or it could be used with something like magic mouth or minor illusion to create a diversion.

[Kvess]

Artisan's Blessing is incredibly valuable in Curse of Strahd because it is hard to purchase items in that setting.

First cover the basics. Do your allies have the best armour that you can equip them with? That's Studded Leather for light, Scale Mail for medium, and Chail Mail for heavy. Do all your martial and ranged attackers have have silvered weapons and ammunition? Do you have a cart for hauling your equipment in or for more comfortable rests on the road?

With an hour's prep and enough raw materials, you can have something prepared for any situation. Need to cross a lake? Bless yourself a boat. Need to scale a wall? Make a ladder or a grappling hook. Need to defend a building under siege? Make fortifications. Want to trap a vampire? Make an airtight, locking coffin.

At the end of the day, you are Macgyver. Make the most of it!

[TheCleverGuy]

For CoS, I don't know the module well, but you could use it to turn 100gp worth of silver into a silvered weapon (or 10gp worth of silver into a silvered ammunition), which is nice to deal with lycanthropes and devils, especially if there is not enough magic weapons for everyone.

I'm not silver weapons are possible--IIRC, the cost of a silvered weapon is 100gp plus the base cost of the item, which would put them over the limit. Arrows or bolts might be possible though.

one use I've seen for early levels is collecting all armor & weapons after a battle for the scrap, broken or otherwise.

tote it around in a bag of holding, or a cart that you made with Artisan's Blessing. then the next time you make it in to a town you find out what they're needing, an hour later you sell whatever to the town folk.

I hadn't even considered that I could used it for a cart or boat, that's brilliant! I'll have to start keeping an eye for scrap metals and broken weapons and armor after battles.

[stoutstien]

I'm not silver weapons are possible--IIRC, the cost of a silvered weapon is 100gp plus the base cost of the item, which would put them over the limit. Arrows or bolts might be possible though.



I hadn't even considered that I could used it for a cart or boat, that's brilliant! I'll have to start keeping an eye for scrap metals and broken weapons and armor after battles.

You use the CD to make the silver and then you apply it to the weapon yourself. It's not a hard process. Also powder silver is used to make holy water with the ceremony spell.

[Keravath]

It occurred to me that an interesting application of Artisan's Blessing could be to create a real Forger cleric :)

It would be up to a DM whether a painting would be considered a "simple item" (likely not). However, if it was, most pigments appear to be made of metal oxides and the channel divinity doesn't specify how much metal it must contain only that it contain some metal. Since oil based paintings contain metal ... a forge cleric could potentially use Artisan's Blessing to forge art works :) ... sounds like a cool character idea if I could convince a DM to allow it :)

As for the 100gp limit ... art is priceless :) ... some folks wouldn't pay a copper for it :)

[MrCharlie]

You can use it to create handholds or other such objects on a wall-the language is specific enough that the item does not need to be created on the ground, and broad enough that nothing says you can't include nails imbedded in the wall or set adhesive adhering it to the wall. It also has no range limitation, although at some point the DM will probably look at the value limiter and give you a .

It's a bit of a wait to make a climbing surface, but there it is.

[Nod_Hero]

If firearms are in your campaign then making that ammo is very handy!

[MrCharlie]

If firearms are in your campaign then making that ammo is very handy!

On a similar note, you could probably use it to replicate machined objects permanently in a technological setting, as long as each piece individually isn't worth too much. Given that there aren't very many ways to replicate technological items low-tech even with magic (fabricate requires knowledge of what you are making, creation is temporary, etc.) that would make it a very useful item in a magic->tech kinduve campaign setting. It might be a life-saver in a world like Eberron, for instance, where complex artifice is a real thing.

[JackPhoenix]

You use the CD to make the silver and then you apply it to the weapon yourself. It's not a hard process. Also powder silver is used to make holy water with the ceremony spell.

It's however rather lengthy process, as silvering a single weapon takes two weeks.

On a similar note, you could probably use it to replicate machined objects permanently in a technological setting, as long as each piece individually isn't worth too much. Given that there aren't very many ways to replicate technological items low-tech even with magic (fabricate requires knowledge of what you are making, creation is temporary, etc.) that would make it a very useful item in a magic->tech kinduve campaign setting. It might be a life-saver in a world like Eberron, for instance, where complex artifice is a real thing.

Not really. "Complex artifice" in Eberron consist of magic items, which you can't make with Artisan's Blessing. In Eberron, magic is technology.

[diplomancer]

Main reason I chose a Forge Cleric in Curse of Strahd was because I imagined buying items might not be too easy on the Campaign; campaign was stillborn, but I still got some uses of it making Studded Leather for the Lightly Armored members of the party right after Death House.

[stoutstien]

It's however rather lengthy process, as silvering a single weapon takes two weeks.

Using artisans blessings for silver weapons is actually a pretty interesting question. The 100g price tag is due to the experience needed and time. If both those factors are removed what would a silvered weapon cost? How much of the cost is actually the silver?