Base Class: Artificer
Perhaps they sought a solution to a prior injury, perhaps they were struck by a destructive need to overcome the boundaries of flesh and bone. Subject to the curiosity either of their own ingenuity or maybe that of another, the Body Smith has found such fascination in the efficiency of their creations that they’ve come to hone the humanoid body with their magically imbued creations. While their hearts and soul remain, their extremities have been sculpted by arcane steel precision engineered to serve as whole limb replacements. How far their obsession for perfection may go is only limited by the tolerance the individual possesses to put themselves through these painful procedures.
Tool Proficiency
When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with jeweler's tools. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan’s tools of your choice.
Body Smith Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Body Smith Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Body Smith Spells
| Artificer Level | Spell |
|---|---|
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3rd |
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5th |
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9th |
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13th |
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17th |
What Doesn't Kill You
When you reach 3rd level, you can show off your expertise over the clockwork precision of your body both artificial and natural. You gain the mending cantrip if you do not already know it, and throughout a day you can use this spell a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier during short rests to restore 2d6 hit points per use. A long rest will restore your number of uses to full. Regular hit dice can be used instead in the midst of battle as a bonus action. You still only recover half your total hit dice per long rest.
You’ve developed a keen eye for finding the exact piece of equipment you need to improve your physique in your quest to attain the perfect performance you seek. You gain advantage on investigation rolls when scavenging enemies after battles. If the item you find is metallic, you can also immediately attune your finds by replacing your parts with a DC 15 tinkering check, but this does cost the destruction of the item whether or not you succeed.
A Good Defense Is Your Best Offense
At 3th level, you’ve gained enough first person experience to meld finesse of form with functionality in battle.
- You’ve meticulously examined every injury and mar in your equipment after your battles to know where on your being most needs reinforcement, giving you a +1 to AC.
- Your modifications have been specialized to further service you in combat. Your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. You can use Intelligence instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls, dealing 1d6 plus your Intelligence modifier slashing damage. At 8th level, the damage dice becomes 1d8, at 12th level the damage dice become 1d10, and at 15th level the damage dice become 1d12. These strikes can count as a magical attack for Arcane Armament once at 5th level, and they can benefit from any damage bonus item or status granting alteration.
Extra Attack
Starting at 5th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Charged Up
Your modifications are fueled by arcane power.
At 9th level, you are situationally immune to magical damage (cold, fire, lightning, thunder, necrotic, radiant). Upon being hit, make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. Upon success, you take no magical damage and add 1d6 damage of the captured energy type to your next melee or unarmed strike. These charges can stack adding additional d6’s to the unleashed energy so long as you succeed on higher Constitution saving throws.
The second charge is a DC 15, the third a DC 17, the fourth a DC 19, etc. until such a time you use the energy or fail the roll. Upon failing the roll, you prove to only be resistant to magical damage. Roll the number of d6’s stored and take half damage.
Maximum Efficiency
At 15th level, you’ve become a master at streamlining the humanoid body. Precise engineering and careful augmentation have given you the extraordinary abilities the natural body sorely lacks.
- Eyes: you gain proficiency on perception checks.
- Arms: you gain advantage on strength saving throws. Your climbing speed is doubled.
- Legs: your walking speed is now 10 ft faster. So long as you land on your feet with a successful acrobatics or athletics check, you take halved fall damage.
- Body: you gain +1 AC. Your charged magical melee attacks become 2d6 per successful constitution save.
image credit to Maksym Haydar
it's my first homebrew so any and all feedback would be wonderful
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Posted Feb 5, 2020I like the concept! I actually was searching for something along the lines of this so I'll drop some feedback -
Tool Proficiency
I'm curious why Jewelers Tools were chosen rather than Smiths Tools? Building/smithing something seems more in line with the later augmentations.
Body Smith Spells
Most of them line up to be about protecting yourself/creation besides the 1st level - Inflict wounds & Bane. I wonder if this should fall more in line with the rest of the set-up with spells like Shield?
What Doesn't Kill You
I like the ability to use mending on yourself during short rests but i think the rest of the feature should be trimmed if you're aiming for balance. The portion about using hit dice in battle seems extraneous and pushes this feature a bit too far. I'd also change the latter half to just advantage on investigation when scavenging for materials, rather than after battle specifically. I'm also not completely sure what the attune portion is about, is it implied you can integrate it within yourself?
A Good Defense Is Your Best Offense
I wouldn't restrict this to just slashing damage as it hinders the fantasy. For example, someone might have an augmentation where when they make a clenched fist their hand adjusts into a hammer head dealing bludgeoning. Also, I would drop the damage die down one so as not to step on the Monk's toes. That way it's still a borrowed feature, but not outshining them. Start at 1d4 and max out at 1d10 or start at 1d6 and only increase it once to 1d8.
Lastly on this feature, I'd add the clause for unarmed strikes that, if you make an unarmed strike as a part of your action, you can make another unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Charged Up
This should likely also cost a reaction to absorb the energy - similar to the Absorb Energy spell - for the sake of action economy. I'd also word it as the following so you're not pigeon-holing yourself into purely to spells, but all energy types:
"As a reaction, when you receive fire, cold, lightning, thunder or radiant damage from a spell or spell effect such as a dragon's breath weapon, you can attempt to absorb that energy for later use. Make a Constitution saving throw DC equal to 10 or half the damage you would take, whichever is higher. On a success, you take no damage and absorb the energy gaining one charge. Your next successful melee weapon attack or unarmed strike deals an additional 1d6 per charge or the type of energy absorbed. The DC increases in difficulty by 2 for each subsequent use of this feature, until you fail a Constitution saving throw or until you complete a long rest.
If you fail a Constitution saving throw while you have a charge, you lose all charges and take damage equal to 1d6 per charge lost of the type of energy absorbed. You have resistance to damage taken in this manner."
I also wouldn't use necrotic for the same reasons acid doesn't entirely make sense (although you could make a case for the latter). The DC (taken from concentration checks) also limits you from absorbing a massive amount of energy and also keeps you in check had you failed the initial saving throw to an effect like Fireball.
Maximum Efficiency
Most of it is geared towards check improvements besides body which seems OP. If i might make a suggestion, I would replace this whole feature with some RP implications - take the following right out of the Warforged racials:
In addition, open up the RP gates in that you can start construction on a new body for yourself in the even your current one dies. Each new body you create requires some amount of workweeks gathering (expensive) materials, building it, and creating a magical mental link to yourself. If you die, you awaken in the last body you designated as your backup except your racial traits are now that of a Warforged.
Edit: Based on the paragraph above, you might even just have your character gain additional traits from warforged other than their Constructed Resilience feature (although i wouldn't give additional stat increases). If your DM allows it, your doubles might even be able to act as Simulacrums until you take them over!
But again, awesome concept, it's almost exactly what I came here looking for!