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Agriculture is an often overlooked tool available to DM’s inDungeons & Dragons.Given the addition of features and rules in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, there hasn’t really been a better time to try to incorporate ideas like farming, food and resource management, or even agricultural survival into your campaign. But, where’s the best place to start?
If you’re a DM looking for narrative or skill-based ways to bring agriculture into your game, this guide will give you everything you need to know. In addition, if you’re a player who wants to build an agriculture-based character, we’ve got tips on that as well. Here’s everything you need to know about Dungeons & Dragons and agriculture.
How To Build An Agricultural Character
If you’re a player looking tocraft a unique character that has agricultural skillsunder their belt, there are a couple of different options at your disposal.
If you’re not sure whether an agricultural build is for you, there are alsoa handful of optimization and narrativereasons to consider this type of character. Here are just afew options for classes, backgrounds, and speciesthat lend themselves well to an agricultural build.
Classes
Druidsare the obvious choice for an agriculturally based character with their love of nature and affinity for resource-based spells like Goodberry. Plus, they getproficiency withHerbalism Kits.
RangersandArtificersalso offer prowess with skills likeNature and Survivaland can learn to become brilliant crafters.
Backgrounds
Choosing thefarmer backgroundgrants you aHealer’s Kitand proficiency with Carpenter’s Tools, which can prove useful in crafting and working to construct farms or other agricultural facilities.
Hermitsare granted anHerbalism Kitand proficiency inMedicine, which can prove useful when using plants to crafthealing potions.
Species
Firbolgsare an ideal species choice, as they have the featureSpeech of Beast and Leaf, allowing them to communicate with plants and vegetation.
Wood Elves can learn theDruidcraftcantrip, which can help flavor your character narratively towards agriculture, while Tortle’s can gain proficiency withNature or Medicine.
In building your character, consider how agricultural heroes might have accessto a variety of different skills and toolsthat can be useful in play.Tools like Herbalism Kitscan be helpful when it comes to healing.
If you’re playing asurvival-based campaign,knowing how to grow foodmight just save your party’s life. Work with your DM to determine how these skills might manifest in your character.
How To Use Agriculture As A Player
The strongest wayto use agriculture to your advantage as a playeristhrough yourbastion,player strongholds that develop with the party. The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide has a variety of tools and resources on bastions.
Beginning at level five,players can have up to two special facilitieswhen they first gain their bastion. For agriculturally inclined characters,there are two special facilities on offer, though one requires a higher-level prerequisite.
Level Five
While a player’s garden can be purely decorative, using the harvest action on a garden can yield anything from100 days worth of rations,herbsthat can be used to createPotions of Healing, orantitoxinsandpoison.
Level Nine
Similar to the garden, greenhouses can be used to createhealing herbs for Potions of Greater Healing, and more powerful toxins and poisons likeTruth Serum. A player’s greenhouse also has aFruit of Restoration plantin it, which grants those who consume its fruit thepower of a Lesser Restoration spell.
Byissuing orders during your bastion turn, which happens once every seven days of in-game time, you may have hirelings who work in your garden or greenhousetake the harvest action. This will allow youto harvest a specialty resourcefrom your bastion for use in play.
Depending on the type of resource you gather, there are a couple of different waysyou can use the harvest action.
In Crafting
Some specialtymagical items or potionsmay require different herbs and agricultural resources inorder to craft. If your bastion has a garden or greenhouse, you shouldwork with your DM to determine what type of harvestyou can accrue to then craft things likehealing potions, poisons or toxins, or other magical substances.
If you’re crafting a unique magic item, perhaps there’s even a specialty plant or herb required in the enchantment that will allow the item to be more powerful than you previously intended.
For Selling
Running a bastion can prove expensivedepending on the number of special facilities you have. If you’re looking for ways tomake some of your money backthrough farming or agriculture, consider working with your DMto sell your food and resources.
Here are a few examples of goods you may produce in a garden or greenhouse, but it’s recommended you talk to your DM to see if there are other options at your disposal.
1 lb. of wheat
1 CP
2 lb. of flour
2 CP
1 sq. yrd. of cotton cloth
5 SP
1lb. of ginger
1 GP
1 lb. of cinnamon or pepper
2 GP
1 lb. of cloves
3 GP
1 lb. of silk
10 GP
1 lb. of saffron
15 GP
How To Incentivize Agriculture
As a DM, if you want to incorporate agriculture into your campaign but aren’t sure where to start, thefirst step is to find a way to incentivize players.
Beyond justencouraging character builds and using bastionsto this end, there are a handful of ways to get your party interested in the idea of food and agricultural resources.
Survival Campaign
Consider running asurvival-based campaign. If your players are up for the challenge, a survival-based campaign will oftenask the party to carefully track their food and resourcesor risk starvation. This will assuredly get playersinterested in making character builds that cater to this task. Consider the below campaign prompts to get a survival-based campaign started.
Bend The Rules Of Crafting
Most crafting in D&D isfocused on arcana or smithing. However, there’s nothing saying you can’tfocus the world of your campaign more on herbalism.
If you have a player interested in playing a wizard, druid, or even an artificer, consider how you might encourage these players to get more into herbalism-based craftingto make potions or other magical items.
While crafting should always have its limits, being too strict on the rules of crafting can actually shy players away from using the system. Encourage creativity and imagination above all else!
While crafting rules that focus on herbs and other agricultural resourcesare best suited for a pastoral or wilderness setting, you can also have renownedNPCs in urban settings teach players about crafting potions. No party likes losing all their gold on health potions.
Using an NPC tohelp teach the party about the world of craftingthrough herbalism will give your players their own ideas on how to use agriculture to their advantage in your campaign.
