One of those situations are rules covering the crafting of arrows in the wilds by a player character.
A fletcher may either be a Skilled Artisan or Unskilled Craftsman.
A Skilled Artisan is a player character with a Proficiency in Woodcarving, Cooper, or Bowyer; an Unskilled Craftsman is a player character that doesn't have the required Proficiency but has a reasonable background or ability that would allow them to craft arrows.
A reasonable background or ability would be defined by the player and DM; example: a Ranger with an Outlander Background may have a reasonable talent for crafting arrows having survived in the wild. It's entirely up to the player to convince the DM that their character would be an unskilled craftsman.
Skilled Artisan
- An Artisan may have a background of a Guild Artisan or have a relevant Proficiency (PH 132).
- Such Proficiencies would be a Woodcarver, Cooper, or Bowyer (PH 132).
- It's presumed this PC would have the appropriate Artisan Tools (Woodcarver Tools) (PH 154).
- Use of the Artisan Tools lets the PC add their Proficiency Bonus to ability checks (PH 154).
- With suitable materials, the Skilled Artisan can craft up to 5 GP of non-magical finished goods in a work day (presumed 8 hours) as a downtime activity (PH 187).
- A quiver of 20 arrows costs 1 GP (PH 150); the Skilled Artisan can craft up to 100 arrows in a day as a downtime activity with a successful DC 10 ability check (INT), adding their proficiency bonus (PH 154).
Unskilled Craftsman
- A Player Character with a reasonable background or ability relevant to crafting arrows.
- It's presumed that this PC doesn't have a Proficiency in Woodcarver, Cooper, or Bowyer.
- It's presumed that this PC wouldn't have the appropriate tools but is improvising.
- It's presumed that this PC can source/find suitable materials based on their surroundings.
- In a 24-hour period, the PC can spend 1 hour finding these materials and 3 hours to craft 1d10 arrows; these arrows receive a -1 attack mod; all contingent on a DC 10 INT check.
- On a failed check, the necessary supplies couldn't be found or the craftsmanship was simply too poor to be useful.
The reasoning here is that an Unskilled Craftsman could fashion 20-percent of the quantity a pro could. Also, the downtime it takes to make sub-par arrows provides a reasonable preference for purchasing arrows from a Skilled Artisan (a fletcher).
Obtaining the Proficiency
In downtime, player characters can spend time between adventures learning a new proficiency and training with a set of tools. The DM determines how long it takes and if ability checks are required; it takes 250 days and costs 1 GP per day (PH 187). In this case, the PC can learn the required proficiency and purchase the required tools.
Another way to acquire the proficiency is when the PC has an ability to acquire a Feat. The Skilled Feat allows the PC to gain a proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of their choice (PH 170). A reminder here that Human PC's gain an extra Feat if Feat Rules are played.
If the character is a Bard, the Bardic ability in the College of Lore allows the PC to learn three more skills at third level (PH 54).
Finally, Bards, Rangers, and Rogues can multi-class to gain proficiencies.
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