Harvesting Tools

"Harvesting is a holistic art. It is not simply the physical act of cutting and slicing through a carcass, it is the tools you use, the rules you live by and the skills you have; in short it is an entire lifestyle! Once you have assumed the life of a harvester, you will see the world in a different way, and find the new possibilities and options open to you. However, in the case that you haven't, I've listed them down here for you anyway."
- Hamund

This guide introduces a few new concepts into the base game of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, and as part of that, a few slight alterations and/or additions need to be made to existing concepts and features in the game to accommodate them. While some of these changes are not strictly necessary for this guide to be used, they are advised in order to get the maximum value out of this book.

A few new pieces of adventuring gear have been added in this book to accommodate the act of harvesting. Their functions are described below:

Enchanted Vial

Some creature parts have powerful, yet fleeting, magical energies within them. The motes from elementals for example hold traces of their former essences in them but disperse rapidly upon the destruction of their original form.

An enchanted vial is inlaid with several runes designed to keep any magical resource within from dissipating while the lid is closed and is often the only way of transporting certain parts back to a workshop for crafting.

Items that require an enchanted vial to be harvested are fragile by nature and must be stored inside an enchanted vial quickly to prevent degradation.

Any attempt to harvest a material that has an enchanted vial as a requirement must be initiated within 1 minute of the death of its creature.

Hamund's Harvesting Handbook

"Yes, you can own a copy of this very book in any plane you visit! Due to my travels, I have visited almost every world in the multiverse, dropping manuscripts in publishers' hands as I go. No matter where you are, or where you come from, this handy book is sure to help you get the most out of whatever your local fauna has to offer."
- Hamund

This book is filled with all sorts of useful information on the creatures that inhabit the multiverse, specifically, which parts of them are useful for harvesting. Using this book grants you advantage on any Appraise ability check.

Harvesting Kit

This kit contains everything the average harvester needs to prepare and harvest a carcass for usable parts including a skinning knife, a bonesaw, 2 glass vials, pouches of salt, and tweezers. Proficiency with this kit lets you add your proficiency to any check made to harvest a creature.

Spirit Paper

Spirit paper is a versatile tool that resembles a square of bleached papyrus. The secrets of its production were only recently discovered, and reverse engineered from secrets brought back from distant necromantic cults. By performing a small ritual with the spirit paper shortly after slaying certain creatures, a copy of that creature's soul is bound to the spirit paper for later use. These copies are not a true soul and are more akin to an echo. These echoes do retain all of the memories from its original body, and a few crafting techniques utilize these echoes to grant an item a low level of sentience or to mimic the abilities of their incorporeal reflections.

Using spirit paper is often the only way to harvest anything useful from creatures with incorporeal forms. Any harvesting attempt made for a creature part that has spirit paper as a requirement is done using a Wisdom (Religion) check rather than the usual check and is rolled separately for each item. Once a sheet of spirit paper has been used successfully to harvest an item, it cannot be reused, even if the item it contained is released.

Unlike most harvestable materials, materials that require spirit paper to be harvested dissipate very quickly after the death of its creature. Any attempt to harvest a material that has spirit paper as a requirement must be initiated within 1 minute of the death of the creature and takes 10 minutes to successfully complete.

Special Tools Prices

Additions and Changes

The following are a few balance changes to accommodate the harvesting and crafting rules in this guide, as well as a background and feat to incorporate harvesting into your game.

New Proficiency: Harvesting Kit

This guide adds in the new tool: the harvesting kit. Players may have proficiency in this like any other tool, and it is highly advised for them to have it as it provides a valuable bonus when making the checks outlined in this book. In order to accommodate this additional tool, the following classes and backgrounds have been slightly altered to give them the option to gain proficiency in the Harvesting Kit.

• Rangers may have proficiency with the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
• Druids may have the option to choose between proficiency in the herbalism kit or the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
• The Hermit background may choose between the herbalism kit and the harvesting kit as its starting tool proficiency and gains the appropriate kit as part of its starting equipment.
• The Outlander background may choose between a musical instrument or the harvesting kit as its initial tool proficiency. They may also choose between a hunting trap, and the harvesting kit in its initial starting equipment.

Harvester Background

Like a miner in their cave or a farmer in their field, you too make your living through reaping the riches of the natural world. Your resources, however, are the monsters and creatures that populate the multiverse. Although there are some who would scoff and call you a mere butcher, you understand the subtle complexities in the fantastical anatomies you find in your adventures, and only you are qualified enough to harvest them.

Starting Information

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival
Tool Proficiencies: Harvesting Kit
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment:

• A set of traveler's clothes,
• a hunting trap,
• harvesting kit,
• a cloak made from a creature you harvested, and
• a belt pouch containing 5 gp.

FEATURE: CONNECTED

You have been harvesting creatures for a long time and as part of that, you have become deeply acquainted with the large industry of crafters and merchants that rely on the wares you bring. Whenever you enter a place of civilization, you have no trouble finding merchants willing to buy your materials or crafters that can work with your wares. You are also savvy in the bargaining techniques used when haggling over prices and are not easily tricked during negotiations. You often find yourself able to secure a good price, or even a discount on services relating to harvested materials.

SUGGESTED CHARACTERISTICS

Harvesters are an odd bunch; half outdoorsman, half entrepreneur. As someone who spends most of their time in the hunting and being elbow deep in dead bodies, you probably have a different worldview compared to most.

Resourceful Feat

You've always hated leaving anything to waste and have always made sure you get the most out of any situation.

• You gain proficiency in the harvesting kit and the herbalism kit.
• You ignore any penalties for harvesting a creature that died a particularly violent death.
• Both appraising and harvesting a creature take half the time than it normally would.

Tags

• #System
• #Stub

References

• 5e - Supplemental - Hamunds Harvesting Handbook Volume 1.pdf