When he mentioned how "everyone keeps track of their rations." It reminded me of the time I used the salt in my rations to kill a bunch of giant snail enemies.

My party always specifies that their rations do NOT contain dried fruits. That way, if you're tracking a runaway NPC (who can be presumed to be carrying default rations) you can "Locate Plant or Animal" on the fruit in their rations to figure out what direction they went or where they're hiding

My friend once DMed this cute little one-shot with a few clever puzzles... that my Paladin ruined by walking around and bonking wall and floor segments with a crowbar until she heard a different noise and then used said crowbar to yank said wall and floor segments away with ease.

50' of hempen rope? Oh, there's a good, arson-adjacent use for that. See, it's fairly common for rope to be treated to make it waterproof and easier to grip (historically, that might be with tar, or occasionally a mix of beeswax and lampblack/soot. Both of those options will leave it dark-coloured and slightly tacky to the touch, perfect for helping you climb unseen to castle windows at night). That does unfortunately make it fairly flammable. If you deliberately unpick a length of rope into its component fibres, you wind up with a mass of tarry/waxy strands, known as oakum. Oakum burns fairly well, and produces a thick cloud of smoke while doing so, ideal for a distraction, or cover while you make your escape.

All i know is the next time i head to my local Walmart, im going to ask a clerk for a burgar's pack...road flares, duct tape, rope and of course..ball barrings...everything an inspiring, modern adventurer needs...;)

Lamps can be used alongside some kind of tube (e.g. a blowgun) to create a "blown lamp", as you blow into the tube, the stream of air invigorates the exposed flame and creating what is effectively a medieval blowtorch. This can be great for blacksmithing and glassblowing, since the tools require a fire hot enough to make metal/glass pliable, which wouldn't be readily available outside a town. Blown lamps have been a thing since the 13th century, so it should fit into dnd fairly well.

1000 ball bearings and a sling. my Rouge is a menace to society.

Mirror, sack flour, soring, sacks, wire, needle, glue, chalk, prn, ink: all the basic tools

Best use of rope? I can't think of anything great. But you can use honey to quietly break a window. Slather it on, press on a strip of cloth, and break the glass. The honey should somewhat muffle the sound and stop shards from flying everywhere.

I’ve been playing as a first time rogue player and I love the burglars pack. I tend to horde a bunch of mundane items and come of with creative ways to use the items I have/find. I recently set up a trip wire with pitons and hamper rope to trip up animated armors which gave my party a chance to attack probed enemies. My DM also let me make Molotov Cocktails with oil flasks and cloths/rags. Thats been fun. I’m currently searching for gunpowder so I can put those ball bearings to a more entertaining and explosive use.

In 3.5, my duskblade used a combination of animate rope and shocking grasp to single-handedly entangle a black dragon and kill it. And that was at low level. By level 13, I figured out how to create a permanent magic item based off of the animated rope that could unweave itself into thousands of "threads". By using the full attack ability of the duskblade in combination with the shocking grasp spell, I could make thousands of touch attacks in a single turn, and pretty much kill anything instantly. I did the math, and could do more base damage than Tiamat had hit points.

Dude this video Is fantastic! Super helpful and love to see these creative ideas. hope to see more! 🤟

I also like saving the oil for other uses by casting continual flame in lanterns. It's the same as a torch but you have to dispell it to put it out and you can cover it in the lantern to hide it.

I mean, the piton thing into a pressure plate is probably literally a thing you do as part of the "disarm a trap action". Using tools to climb is what you do when using the "climb" movement option. There is no need to go into the minutiae of how does your character do stuff they can do. It's great for roleplaying, yes, but if someone argues that they should get a mechanical bonus to disarm because of the piton trick, then imma just say no, because their character probably already uses the tools he has to achieve his goals. It's like someone arguing he should get bonus damage due to some specific fencing trick he uses. Your character already does that when appropriate, thats why he deals the damage he deals.

Ive gotten SO MUCH use out of pitons, they are insanely versatile. Also, I now buy hooded lanterns and oil for any character without a burglar's (and im pretty sure dungeneer has it too?) pack. It's nice to just have such an easy bright, dim and extinguished posibility compared to your average old torch

Another use for the crowbar, my dnd group used it to scrape runes of the floor. We named it, the innbar because of a miss translation between danish and english. This is now the tool we use for removal of runes xD

with the candle as well if your characters were trapped underground. You could use the way that the flame travels to determine if there is wind blowing in a certain direction. This could be used by the DM to say Lure them towards a dragon/large sleeping beast or by the players to find the exit.

A few flasks of oil pairs nicely with the Crate Bonfire cantrip (which buy itself is useful) of you have time to prepare the battle field ahead of time.

I've used pitons to secure a door when camping in a dangerous dungeon. Monsters couldn't open the door without breaking it down.

As DM I (typically)either have my players design any new characters *prior* to the gaming session & send me the info via different digital means. And either we wait to role stats in person OR do so over a video call or using various apps/sites that produce a random number between 2 set values. THEN I either *custom design* each player’s starting gear based on class, species, social class, etc OR I give each player a set amount of funds they *HAVE* to use all of on their starting gear or any remaining funds are forfeit. I custom base the amount of starting funds based on class, race, area, social class, primary & secondary skills & the characters’ backstories my players invent(with limitations). ALSO the items they can purchase for their starter gear *IS LIMITED* to items I have listed in a document so that veteran players aren’t able to make their characters insanely powerful. Which players CAN ask to add something not included on the limited supply list I provided & I may allow it if it makes sense. ALSO for players who put points in stats/skills increasing their chance to haggle for lower prices I let them roll once for a percentage of the original amount to be additionally added to their own or a party member whom they already knew’s total available amount for starter gear. Rather than having to spend the time for *each player* to haggle prices at *every type* of shop required to realistically obtain starter gear. -Custom making each player’s starting gear adds an additional method for guiding/steering the party in specific directions & somewhat control/predict the outcomes of VERY early story building encounters. - While allowing *each player+ to create their own entirely individualized starting gear from within the limitations of the provided master supply list…adds some to *A TON* of *unexpected & highly unpredictable* actions, reactions & encounter outcomes! So BEEARE of doing the same for your players if as a DM you aren’t good at altering senecio aspects on the fly! Alternatively a way Ive found to still give players the sense of controlling the gear they start with is to have them get the standard basic set of gear per their class & race. But then ALSO either give them a set amount of funds & a *FAR* smaller list of additional items they can purchase. Or to limit it even further…as DM you can pick 10, 20, etc items to assign to each possible number possible to be rolled on the dice & allow players a limited number of rolls based on whatever value/stat u as DM or as a group chooses. Again adding a degree unpredictability into the game…but to a much lesser degree. - The following is a brief example of unexpected consequences from allowing players to 200% choose their own starting supplies. I had a player who completely neglected to purchase *ANU+ form of food rations. Meaning that due to the fact the adventure *DID NOT* include encountering any friendly villages/towns…eventually the player + the players they borrowed food from were *forced* to spend time to scavenge, hunt & cook food. Thus causing them to *not only* give away their location when they decided to kill a larger animal & spend the time to smoke it To take with them…but *ALSO angered* the spirits/protectors of the forest. Leading to *MULTIPLE* NPC & battle encounters as well as a quest required by the spirits/protectors of the forest. *NONE* of which was in the original scenario I’d already heavily modified from a pre-written scenario! All caused by a player forgetting to purchase travel rations! So like I said…if you are not yet capable &/or comfortable altering the campaign on the fly…stick with the standard ration per class! - While I custom write MOST of my own campaigns/one offs using/combining aspects of multiple different D&D “style” RPGs including items, creatures, character classes/races, locations, etc & my players love it…its a *TON* of work! *ESPECIALLY* since I have a couple players who generally play as TRUE chaotic neutral characters $ LOVE to derail my campaigns into chaos. Generals fun & EXTREMELY entertaining chaos…but still chaos. Chaos I then have to figure out how to guide the party out of & back on track!

And, using the candle to, after burning a while, burn the string, dropping the bell. Here you have a timed alarm system with kinda ok 15 mins interval. 😊

I used the rope to tie to the crowbar to make a makeshift grappling hook in one campaign to ascend a really big castle wall.

I love ball bearings as targets for spells. My personal favorite is darkness and a bullseye lantern close the shutter it is off open it and it is on. If you want to get cheesey with it have the caster and another ranged character next to each other in initiative caster free action opens the shutter casts their spell the other person does their attacks/action then free action open the shutter and now they are in darkness. Repeat at the start of your turn.

My old-guard ass remembers when Resting in a dungeon, always use pitons to wedge the doors shut so you won't be ambushed while you rest or at least get some alarm and time to prep while they force the door.

Speaking so much about light made me think of that time when one of my buddies (Wizard Goliath) pinned down a bandit (first encounter of the campaign), poked his fingers into their eyes and cast light on their eyeballs, blinding them forever. After the encounter we proceeded to torture the poor soul to reveal who sent them to ambush us.

When GM'ing I generally use two different methods for party ration tracking based on the game. 1. I the GM do it, and tell the party how many rations they have left. It's as easy as setting a counter down by one each long rest. 2. I occasionally tell the party to spend however much they think is fair on food when they're in a town.

On the point of string and _unseen servant:_ the string will last as long as it isn’t used for other things, since spells do not consume their components unless they are specifically stated to do so.

Thank you!🙂

I always specified my thief carried his ball bearings in a leather bag with a wood handle...a sap for knocking out distracted guards

As I am about to start my Scarlet Citadel campaign, this stuff is great.

Your puns are great!

not an item on that list, but i found a similar use for the light cantrip in a recent session, we were in a tunnel facing some giant spiders and half the party didn't have darkvision. So i had the cleric cast light on the arrow and shot it into one of the spiders, suddenly visibility wasn't an issue

Zippy the thief used 50' of rope to critically succeed in a maneuver running circles around a giant binding him at the ankles, inspiring us all.

Very clever

I've seen people actually do fieldwork with a ridiculously small backpack with many things strapped to the outside.

Do you have a vid on the explorer's pack? That's the one I go for most at the start.

I'd put the BBs into the oil. Going prone in a fire gotta amount to something!

Caltrops, Hunting Trap, Glass Bottles just to name a few items. But then soap, merchant scales, abacus, or sealing wax?

How every player doesn't carry some of these things, I'll never understand. I always have plenty of pitons/iron spikes for wedging things open or closed. And don't even get me started on ball bearings...used in combination with a fireball...yes, please. 😀

Ball bearings can be used to distract rust monsters who would rather eat something that does not run away or fight. Always keep rashers of bacon in your rations.

What about low magic dungeon delving like you'd find in the OSR or early D&D. What are some creative uses of common items to circumvent hazards for weaker characters?

Have an idea for a new magic item bag of copying only works on Monday items produces exact copies and is a rather ordinary, looking backpack or travelers pack. Can hold like a bag of holding her up to a bag of holdings only copies one item per day. Anything you take out is automatically copied.

waterskin filled with oil + candle = flamethrower >:)

I once used pitons to nails someone down in the floor xD Don't worry, i just nailed the hands... Now that i think of it, it's basically a crucifi- I mean floorifixion, right?

Cant believe you didn’t chapter this as 4 - candles…

Hey just saw your perception check short. I just wanted to ask about your cat. What's his name? How old is he? He looks like one of the kittens I gave away awhile ago. I doubt it's him just curious.

Candle clocks are and were a thing nothing meta about it light on a bullet, arrow or bolt greek fire jugs with fire trap pack animal

I would like to state that for a non-combat npc, don't they have a standard HP of 4? So while you SAY that an extra flat 5 damage from being covered in oil doesn't seem like a lot, it's enough to kill an ordinary npc with a non-damaging ignite spell. I would say that doing 1 more damage than the average person has total HP is an understandable amount for being lit on fire with a flask of oil tossed onto you. Kinda like how rogue sneak attack prettymuch guarantees a clean kill on a non-combat npc, since even a lvl 1 would likely have the damage be 1d4(dagger)+1d6(sneak attack)+dex mod(should be character's focus stat so atleast +2) so even on double 1s for dice rolls with only 14 dex it does 4 damage. It doesn't sound like a lot, but a guaranteed kill on a regular person at lvl 1 shows just what a step up even a lvl 1 adventurer is from regular people.

Haven’t been getting my arcane almanac anyone else have this issue?

Knowing a candle takes an hour to burn out absolutely isn't "meta". This is a setting where they've used candles all of their lives, of course they'd know how long it takes for the average candle to burn out.

My real pack has a rock hammer in it, when I'm not carrying it in my pack.

it's time to talk about hammers? subtly check passed. 8)

Like #666!

Good content but Were all the puns completely necessary?

i must say the pun transitions are deplorable

I track rations. I usually carry a bag of holding with about 120% of the contents of a Walmart. My team mates need not worry about those menial things. They can do their praying or spell casting or whatever. I one case I had a character carry an extradimensional tent and a large carriage. With chickens an herbs to eat properly and have cake when we defeated a Boss