Agriculture is an often overlooked tool available to DM’s in Dungeons & 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 to craft a unique character that has agricultural skills under 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 also a handful of optimization and narrative reasons to consider this type of character. Here are just a few options for classes, backgrounds, and species that lend themselves well to an agricultural build.
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Classes |
Druids are the obvious choice for an agriculturally based character with their love of nature and affinity for resource-based spells like Goodberry. Plus, they get proficiency with Herbalism Kits. Rangers and Artificers also offer prowess with skills like Nature and Survival and can learn to become brilliant crafters. |
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Backgrounds |
Choosing the farmer background grants you a Healer’s Kit and proficiency with Carpenter’s Tools, which can prove useful in crafting and working to construct farms or other agricultural facilities. Hermits are granted an Herbalism Kit and proficiency in Medicine, which can prove useful when using plants to craft healing potions. |
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Species |
Firbolgs are an ideal species choice, as they have the feature Speech of Beast and Leaf, allowing them to communicate with plants and vegetation. Wood Elves can learn the Druidcraft cantrip, which can help flavor your character narratively towards agriculture, while Tortle’s can gain proficiency with Nature or Medicine. |
In building your character, consider how agricultural heroes might have access to a variety of different skills and tools that can be useful in play. Tools like Herbalism Kits can be helpful when it comes to healing.
If you’re playing a survival-based campaign, knowing how to grow food might 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 way to use agriculture to your advantage as a player is through your bastion, 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 facilities when they first gain their bastion. For agriculturally inclined characters, there are two special facilities on offer, though one requires a higher-level prerequisite.
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Special Facility |
Prerequisite |
Example Uses |
Sample Boons |
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Garden |
Level Five |
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While a player’s garden can be purely decorative, using the harvest action on a garden can yield anything from 100 days worth of rations, herbs that can be used to create Potions of Healing, or antitoxins and poison. |
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Greenhouse |
Level Nine |
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Similar to the garden, greenhouses can be used to create healing herbs for Potions of Greater Healing, and more powerful toxins and poisons like Truth Serum. A player’s greenhouse also has a Fruit of Restoration plant in it, which grants those who consume its fruit the power of a Lesser Restoration spell. |
By issuing orders during your bastion turn, which happens once every seven days of in-game time, you can have hirelings who work in your garden or greenhouse take the harvest action. This will allow you to harvest a specialty resource from your bastion for use in play.
Depending on the type of resource you gather, there are a couple of different ways you can use the harvest action.
In Crafting
Some specialty magical items or potions may require different herbs and agricultural resources in order to craft. If your bastion has a garden or greenhouse, you should work with your DM to determine what type of harvest you can accrue to then craft things like healing 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 expensive depending on the number of special facilities you have. If you’re looking for ways to make some of your money back through farming or agriculture, consider working with your DM to sell your food and resources.
Here are a few examples of goods you can 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.
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Trade Goods |
Cost |
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1 lb. of wheat |
1 CP |
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2 lb. of flour |
2 CP |
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1 sq. yrd. of cotton cloth |
5 SP |
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1lb. of ginger |
1 GP |
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1 lb. of cinnamon or pepper |
2 GP |
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1 lb. of cloves |
3 GP |
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1 lb. of silk |
10 GP |
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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, the first step is to find a way to incentivize players.
Beyond just encouraging character builds and using bastions to 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 a survival-based campaign. If your players are up for the challenge, a survival-based campaign will often ask the party to carefully track their food and resources or risk starvation. This will assuredly get players interested in making character builds that cater to this task. Consider the below campaign prompts to get a survival-based campaign started.
- Long Winter – The world has been plunged into an unseasonably long winter, meaning that food and resources are scarce. Crafting and farming in difficult weather conditions will be necessary in order to survive.
- Magical Famine – An archmage or other powerful being has cursed a nation with magically-induced famine. Characters who can magically farm will prove to be a useful boon to nearby settlements.
- A Treacherous Journey – Between grander adventures, players must traverse an unforgiving desert or icy mountain range. Players who are agriculturally savvy will be imperative to the party’s safe passage.
Bend The Rules Of Crafting
Most crafting in D&D is focused on arcana or smithing. However, there’s nothing saying you can’t focus 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 crafting to 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 resources are best suited for a pastoral or wilderness setting, you can also have renowned NPCs in urban settings teach players about crafting potions. No party likes losing all their gold on health potions.
Using an NPC to help teach the party about the world of crafting through herbalism will give your players their own ideas on how to use agriculture to their advantage in your campaign.
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