When you are granted a tool proficiency, which type of tools can you choose?

Question

At various places in the books it is mentioned that you gain proficiency in:

• a type of tool (eg. Skilled feat; p.170 PHB) and
• a type of artisan's tool (eg. Folk Hero background; p.131 PHB)

Which tools proficiencies fall under the definition of "a tool", for the purposes of proficiency, when no further distinction is made?

I have always assumed these were the tools on p.154 of the PHB that have no category such as Thieves Tools, Herbalism Kit, Vehicles etc. but at the same time have always wondered if that is actually correct...

Answer 1

The Tools table does indeed list your tool proficiency options

The list of tools on page 154 of the Player's Handbook (or here in the basic rules; p. 52 of the Basic Rules PDF) outlines the set of items under the category of "tools". As such, any tool from the section can be selected when a feat, class feature, etc. allows you to choose a tool proficiency without specifying that it must be a particular kind of tool (e.g. artisan's tools).

However, it should also be noted that you do not always get to pick just any tool. While some abilities (such as the aforementioned Skilled feat) allow you to pick any tool, certain other abilities (such as the also aforementioned Folk Hero background) specify a category of tools, such as Artisan's Tools, Gaming Sets, and Instruments; for these choices, you can only select an item from the specified category.