Forge Master

A Forge Master's skills cannot be learned. One must be born into being, and they must be a non-undead humanoid. It is a great power that allows one to create and harness their own army from the remains of their recently deceased enemies, growing stronger with them throughout their adventures. These creations are undead, their souls ripped from the very Hells themselves to serve as slaves or as companions, acting upon each and every whim of their master.

Forge Master magic is a forbidden art from a forgotten realm, which the users of were commonly hunted down and killed for; this was either to stop them from growing their army, or to chop them up and use their parts for alchemical or medicinal purposes.

Level 3: Tools of the Trade

You choose one simple weapon to use that brings meaning to your craft of creating Night Creatures. Alternatively, you may roll a d6 to determine the simple weapon along with the significance behind it.

d6	Simple Weapon	significance
1	Club	Commonly used to beat beast companions into submission
2	Dagger	Allows one to carefully sculp a creature like using a scalpel
3	Handaxe	Used to chop large portions of a body into useable pieces
4	Light Hammer	The sparks on an anvil indicate chemical reaction, or change
5	Mace	As with evangelism, it forces one to change
6	Sickle	Used to harvest crops, so why not the souls of the damned

 

Forging Focus

You choose one simple melee weapon to use as a focus for creating Night Creatures.

Level 3: Forge Master Spells

You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Forge Master Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

Forge Master Spells

Artificer Level	Spell
3rd	hellish rebuke, speak with animals
5th	borrowed knowledge, gentle repose
9th	magic circle, speak with dead
13th	death ward, locate creature,
17th	legend lore, scrying

Level 3: Night Forge

You may use an Artificer Infusion to create a “Night Creature” by performing a 1 hour ritual on a well intact, or fresh, humanoid corpse after a long rest. Each Night Creature consists of a mixture of Beast traits equal to half your Artificer level (rounded up) and must consist of at least one beast trait. You can acquire beast traits by studying a well intact beast corpse for an amount of hours equal to double their challenge rating or by studying them through written knowledge for an amount of years equal to half their challenge rating, adding that Beast to your Bestiary. Attempting to study a well intact beast corpse requires a successful Nature check with a DC equal to 12 + (4 times the challenge rating (rounded down)) to be able to add that beast to your Bestiary. E.g./ A beast with a challenge rating of 1/4 requires 30 minutes of studying the corpse with a successful DC 13 Nature check or 6 weeks of studying written knowledge about that beast. A beast with a challenge rating of 0 requires only 10 minutes of studying a well intact corpse with no skill check or 3 days of studying written knowledge about the beast. When choosing this subclass, you may add up to 3 beasts to your Bestiary up to a combined challenge rating of 1.

You may create and maintain control of a maximum number of Night Creatures equal to 1/4 your Artificer level (rounded down, minimum of 1), each requiring a fresh corpse. You can verbally command them to perform any task to the best of their ability while they can hear you and are within 300 ft. of you as a bonus action. You can command more than one Night Creature with the same bonus action. If you do not issue a command, your Night Creature(s) will defend you against hostile threats to the best of their ability. You know whether your Night Creature is alive or dead as long as they are within 1 mile, and you may release them from your service at will, causing them to roam and act freely. If you die, your Night Creatures become released.

Level 3: Trait Points

When using the trait point of a beast, it grants your Night Creature one action, one trait, or one sense of that beast, and your Night Creature adapts physical characteristics of the beast chosen. You may spend one additional trait point to add an additional action or trait of the beast chosen or to adopt an additional type of movement of the beast’s, granting 20 ft. of the chosen movement type. You may also spend trait points to increase the Night Creatures Strength score, Dexterity score, Constitution score, or Wisdom score by 2, but only once per Ability Score.

A Night Creature's stats improve based on how many trait points are used in its creation, but are more affected by how many trait points are left unused. Each used trait point grants the Night Creature an additional 3 Hit Points while unused trait points grant an additional 4 Hit Points and a +1 bonus to their Armor Class (up to 15). A Night Creature can only regain Hit Points when you cast Mending on them, which you learn when you choose this subclass. Casting Mending on a Night Creature grants them Hit Points equal to your proficiency bonus. You are also able to spend an additional trait point to make Medium sized Night Creatures. This increases their Strength score by 2 and increases all speeds by 5 ft..

Level 5: Greater Nights

At 5th level, you gain the ability to create Large sized Night Creatures by spending 2 trait points. This increases their Strength score by 4 and their Constitution score by 2. They also gain advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, as well as increase their walking speed by 10 ft.. However, large Night Creatures cannot gain additional movement types.

Level 9: Magical Night

At 9th level, you gain the ability to grant your Night Creatures innate spellcasting with Wisdom being their spellcasting ability modifier. Spending 3 trait points increases their Wisdom score by 2 and grants them either one cantrip, two 1st level spells slots and one 1st level spell, or one 2nd level spell slot and one 2nd Level spell. You may spend one additional trait point to further increase their Wisdom score by 2. You may also spend up to 3 additional trait points to either add one cantrip, one 1st level spell, or one 2nd level spell, or add one additional 1st level or 2nd level spell slot per trait point. Any spell you add must be an Artificer spell that you know. You can expend one spell slot during a long rest or a spell slot and a Hit Die during a short rest to replenish a Night Creatures spell slots. Expending a 1st level spell slot replenishes all 1st level spell slots of the Night Creature, and expending a 2nd level spell slot or higher replenishes all 1st or 2nd level spell slots of the Night Creature.

Level 15: Human Nature

At 15th level, you gain the ability to make your Night Creatures humanoid by spending 5 trait points. This increases their Intelligence score to 12, increases their Charisma score to 10 and grants them the ability to speak and understand one language of your choice that you can understand as well as proficiency with one skill. You may spend one additional trait point to increase their Intelligence score or Charisma score by 2, but only once per ability score. They also gain proficiency with simple weapons, light armor, and shields. A Night Creature wearing armor gains no bonus to their Armor Class from unused trait points. You can spend the additional trait point required to make a Night Creature Medium to gain the benefits, although it is not required to make them Medium. A Humanoid Night Creature cannot be made Large nor gain the benefits from spending the trait point to do so.