I've joined a level 1 campaign and I am playing as an artificer. My character is a rock gnome who watched as his family and friends were killed by entities of the far realm and now seeks to protect others who can not protect themselves normally showing an attitude of respect towards all things living evil or not (but may act quite chaotically outside of combat) but will not hesitate to kill an abberation. I'm struggling to choose a subclass for when I hit level 3. His infusions will be a bag of holding, spellwrought tattoo (flavoured as a prepared gadget) a homunculus servant and alchemy jug (homebrew allowed if it's been checked by the dm assume he'd give permission for nearly anything)
My homebrew is terrible and really unbalanced and does literally nothing to explain the rules please don't look at it it's stuff like instantly killing someone and making their corpse a clone of you like a simulacrum but completely normal.
If you want to go into the "protection" stuff I'd suggest Battlesmith or Armorer. As a Gnome you can ride your Iron Defender or use the Arcane Armor to defend others from attacks.
If you want to go more "healing" then Alchemist would be the right direction.
If you want to go more "killing" as a form of revenge/protection by elimination you should go Artillerist.
Alchemist is definitely the subclass most suited to support roles. If you want to keep others from dying without killing opponents yourself, it could be a great choice. At higher levels, the free healing and restoration spells would be well suited to that role, but even at low levels you’ll have Healing Word. The other subclasses aren’t especially well-suited to being a true pacifist against non-aberrations.
However, if you want to be a protector, the Guardian model of the Armorer is great for reducing attacks against others in your party. Check with your DM if they will allow your thunder damage to be non-lethal/knock out damage. You could run around being a sonic stunner, disabling opponents without killing them if that’s allowed. It would be fun to be able to set your fists on “stun” or “kill.”
The Artillerist's Protector Eldritch Cannon is amazing at protecting colleagues. It can provide 1d8+INT temp hit points once PER ROUND for a bonus action to everyone you choose within 10ft of it, and it lasts for an hour. It drastically increases the survivability of your team. So, if your goal is to be protective support, the Artillerist is the way to go in my opinion.
If you want to be more Healer Support, choose Alchemist.
If you want to be more martial, both the Armorer and the Battle Smith are excellent options with different flavor. I personally like the Battle Smith more because it gives you another creature to control, which in turn provides 3 more Attunement slots, and I really like the flexibility of the Martial Weapons. Also as a gnome you are Small and your Steel Defender is Medium so you can ride it like a mount. But the Armorer is also great since it helps focus enemies more on you, and eventually gives you extra infusion slots.
I've joined a level 1 campaign and I am playing as an artificer. My character is a rock gnome who watched as his family and friends were killed by entities of the far realm and now seeks to protect others who can not protect themselves normally showing an attitude of respect towards all things living evil or not (but may act quite chaotically outside of combat) but will not hesitate to kill an abberation. I'm struggling to choose a subclass for when I hit level 3. His infusions will be a bag of holding, spellwrought tattoo (flavoured as a prepared gadget) a homunculus servant and alchemy jug (homebrew allowed if it's been checked by the dm assume he'd give permission for nearly anything)
My homebrew is terrible and really unbalanced and does literally nothing to explain the rules please don't look at it it's stuff like instantly killing someone and making their corpse a clone of you like a simulacrum but completely normal.
If you want to go into the "protection" stuff I'd suggest Battlesmith or Armorer. As a Gnome you can ride your Iron Defender or use the Arcane Armor to defend others from attacks.
If you want to go more "healing" then Alchemist would be the right direction.
If you want to go more "killing" as a form of revenge/protection by elimination you should go Artillerist.
Alchemist is definitely the subclass most suited to support roles. If you want to keep others from dying without killing opponents yourself, it could be a great choice. At higher levels, the free healing and restoration spells would be well suited to that role, but even at low levels you’ll have Healing Word. The other subclasses aren’t especially well-suited to being a true pacifist against non-aberrations.
However, if you want to be a protector, the Guardian model of the Armorer is great for reducing attacks against others in your party. Check with your DM if they will allow your thunder damage to be non-lethal/knock out damage. You could run around being a sonic stunner, disabling opponents without killing them if that’s allowed. It would be fun to be able to set your fists on “stun” or “kill.”
The Artillerist's Protector Eldritch Cannon is amazing at protecting colleagues. It can provide 1d8+INT temp hit points once PER ROUND for a bonus action to everyone you choose within 10ft of it, and it lasts for an hour. It drastically increases the survivability of your team. So, if your goal is to be protective support, the Artillerist is the way to go in my opinion.
If you want to be more Healer Support, choose Alchemist.
If you want to be more martial, both the Armorer and the Battle Smith are excellent options with different flavor. I personally like the Battle Smith more because it gives you another creature to control, which in turn provides 3 more Attunement slots, and I really like the flexibility of the Martial Weapons. Also as a gnome you are Small and your Steel Defender is Medium so you can ride it like a mount. But the Armorer is also great since it helps focus enemies more on you, and eventually gives you extra infusion slots.