Part of a recent errata release from Wizards details a slew of changes to the artificer, apparently to unify the class as presented in Eberron: Rising with the class as presented in Tasha's Cauldron. To summarize the key notes:
Many of the artificer's class features no longer require "tinker's tools" specifically. Magical Tinkering and Right Tool for the Job both require "thieves' tools or artisan's tools", meaning any tools you happen to have on hand will work for both features. Heavy boost to accessibility, no more early-game gold tax in being required to obtain a set of expensive* tinker's tools early on.
The artificer now explicitly adds a (M) component to any spell it casts. This is no longer ambiguous, per the added line: “(meaning the spell has an ‘M’ component when you cast it)”. Given the bizarre interaction where an 'M' spell component makes the spell easier to cast with a focus, artificers can now essentially waive somatic components whenever they Janky-Cast a spell.
The Steel Defender and Homunculus Servant have been cleaned up to not be so freaking weird. Both critters now reference your proficiency bonus ('PB') at several places in their stat block, and each one uses your artificer spell attack bonus as the to-hit for its attack. The critters are generally stronger, much more accurate, and their scores are much easier to calculate. Each one also gets double the artificer's proficiency bonus added to their Perception, both active and passive, enabling them to act as very effective sentries and watchers for your camp. On the flip side, both critters now die when you do, so no more stories of forlorn constructs of artificers slain in the War wandering the land, slowly breaking down as they search for meaning in their empty lives. Unless the DM says otherwise, of course.
The Homunculus Servant no longer requires a sixth-level artificer, though it does still require a 100gp heartstone. That heartstone can be a gem or crystal, though, so some extra flavor choices have been unlocked
Prosthetic limbs no longer require attunement. No more attunement tax for having an awesome magic robot arm, or magic robot feet. Or even an awesome magic robot tail, if you're a tiefling that's had one too many bad encounters with doors.
ALL common magical items are now valid choices for the Replicate Magic Item infusion, regardless of their book of origin. Xanathar's Guide? Eberron: Rising? Wildemount? A crap-ass Magic sourcebook? All golden. In line with this, Prosthetic Limbs, Armblades, and Wand Sheathes have been removed from the Replicate tables since those are all common items and can now be chosen whenever. I assume this means that Wand Sheathes are also available at 2nd level, rather than 6th, so buff there as well.
If you stand down/decommission an infusion that carries stuff, like the Bag of Holding or Efficient Quiver, anything in that infusion tumbles harmlessly out into spaces in or near the decommissioned item's space. No more DM cackling maniacally when you forget to explicitly specify that you're emptying your loot sacks prior to rejiggering your infusions.
The Necklace of Adaptation was added to the 10th-level Replicate tables. It's basically the exact same thing as the Ventilating Lungs available at the same level, but without the ability to blow a man down in exchange for not squicking people who aren't transhumanists. So...not artificer players, I guess, but cool?
There's other changes, but a lot of what's left is mostly wording adjustment that doesn't really change how the artificer plays. Nevertheless. Lots of slap-patching here, enough of it that I almost question how we managed to get so lucky when the ranger and sorcerer have traditionally been told "no screw you guys we're not changing already printed books." Nevertheless. Artificers are now not at all reliant on (or even inclined to use) tinker's tools, we can tell DMs who argue the "but the book doesn't SAY your spells are all 'M' now!" to shove it, our constructs are drastically more potent and capable, we have a great many more choices for infusions, and we can Magic Robot Limb freely without impacting attunements. Hell of a suite of updates, so far as I can see.
Wow those are some great developments! I would like to add that there is no more abiguity whether the Steel Defender can do simple actions like grapple or escaping a grapple or using an item. He now can do whathever he is told to do. Also no more steel defenders standing above their maker doing nothing while they're unconcious - time to giver that steely boy a potion so he can get his maker up from the floor.
I would have wished for a clarification what happens when the stats of the homunculus change (like by giving it Gauntlets of Ogre Power) - but you can't get everything.
I am slightly sad that they left no wriggle room for sad lonely constructs left behind pining for their lost creators. I guess we can leave that to the DM if we really want it.
Homunculus servant starting at level 2 seems very appealing. Tricky to get the gold together actually at level 2 but maybe worthwhile.
I'm not sure they can. At least not 'like this'. Artificers here are benefitting mostly from the removal of nonsensical or annoying restrictions on their abilities; outside of the critters being rewritten to make sense (which should've happened before Rising went to print, but oh well), all the changes are mostly just broadening the scope of already existing artificer abilities. Less of a flat requirement for tinker's tools, more choices for infusion, less friction points overall.
The complaint concerning rangers and sorcerers has been, in the case of rangers: "We don't want the class features we DO have, we want something that's guaranteed to be useful 100% of the time across all games!", and in the case of sorcerers: "we don't HAVE any frickin' class features, and we have less than a quarter of the spellcasting potential of frickin' wizards!" I don't see errata repairing either complaint. Rangers get partial fixes in Tasha's Cauldron with the option to trade out Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy for uninteresting fighty alternatives, but no amount of "errata" can add class features that don't exist to the sorcerer. They would have to admit they ****ed up in the PHB and rerelease the class with improvements and enhancements in a new source, which they will never, ever do.
Anything dealing with Alchemist features. So while it's not 100% certain we're probably not going to see any changes to the Alchemist subclass in Tasha's. Bit of a bummer there... but I was already inured to that possibility so I'm mostly just excited the Homunculus Servant got better.
Some details Yurei didn't mention:
Potions and scrolls are explicitly excluded from the common magic items you can infuse with Replicate Magic Item. Not that there was a long list of those items... but a couple of them were pretty neat.
Both Steel Defender and Homunculus Servant now have a number of hit dice equal to your artificer level. SD has d8s, HS has d4s. So now like literally every other creature in the game they can benefit from short rests to regain HP. This makes mending slightly less necessary meaning it's less of a cantrip tax for those creatures. It's still useful but you can feel better about skipping it as one of your 2 cantrips until level 10.
The attack actions for both in their stat blocks now key off of the Artificer's spell attack modifier to hit instead of the creature's (lackluster) stats though they still count as weapon attacks. Thus both will be just as likely to hit with their attacks as their masters.
In both of their stat blocks it lists their Proficiency Bonus as equal to your own. Previously Might of the Master kind of balanced the math to fit this way for their attacks, skills, and saving throws but technically their (implied) proficiency bonus was a flat 2 that never increased. Meaning granting them proficiency in tools through training or a magic item was a somewhat pointless endeavor. It also meant that their double proficiency in perception never scaled correctly and I had thought was the intended behavior but now see that was probably an error.
This makes magic items like living gloves which grant not just proficiency but expertise a really nice choice as a magic item for your construct buddy.
Wow, I did not see this coming. These are some nice changes. It certainly doesn't fix everything, but it definitely fixes a lot of the issues and quirks with it.
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Wow, I did not see this coming. These are some nice changes. It certainly doesn't fix everything, but it definitely fixes a lot of the issues and quirks with it.
Yeah, but this is mostly correcting poor language choices, like Yurei said. They picked some bassackwords, confuzzling, ways to say stuff that just needed to go.
The Homunculus fix is super swell, I mean, 6th level...? This is a straight improvement. (Only, I think I may have used the phrase “at 6th level” when I wrote the replacement Homunculus I give specifically to Alchemist characters instead of the normal one. Now I’ma have to republish it. 🙄
But, like, outside of the AL, what DMs wouldn’t have allowed a player to pick a common item not on that list to Replicate? And of course your Steel Defender could attempt to break a grapple, or grapple something themselves. I mean, it’s a flippin’ robot mastiff!!
Yep, I am aware that it's mostly fixing language issues, which I'm fine with. They fixed the "Might of the Master" and Ioun Stone of Mastery exploit, where you could literally give it a +infinity to almost everything (no DM would allow this, but RAW, it was legal).
I think the Homunculus Servant fix is great, if only they had brought back the alchemical homunculus, or made the Homunculus Servant worth taking for Steel Defenders.
I allowed my players to make any common magic item, but this is super great. No attunement prosthetic limbs! Wand Sheaths at level 2! All of that is amazing and awesome. I love it.
(And, like Yurei said, SD can be anything. My character's steel defender was an anaconda.)
Yes, it can be any form, and both the forms you and Yurei mentioned can grapple another creature. In specific, that’s how an anaconda gets breakfast. And considering the pontzy expression on Yurie’s Character’s Defender, I’m pretty sure it’s gotten a bit handsey at least once or twice. 😉
Defenders being allowed to grapple is excellent, as pinning a creature down just *fits* with the idea of a defensive guardian construct. The Defender's actually-useful(ish) Athletics bonus helps with this. A Defender that spends one action to grapple before taking its free Dodge action every turn to make itself harder to wreck can be quite useful, especially if you're otherwise commanding your Homunculus.
I'll have you know that Platinum is, and always has been, a perfect gentleman. Primarily because it's an Intelligence 4 robit that doesn't know what a sex drive is.
Not that this has stopped people from accusing Star of getting handsy with the robit. Or asking about 'special features' with the sort of winky-face expression that just begs for a demonstration of the 'Force-Empowered Rend' special feature.
I think additionally to the SD being able to grapple RAW, the now available "Use an item" Action means if you have some kind of wand nobody is using - like a wand of magic missile etc. the defender can now have a nice ranged attack. Also especially on lower levels all the non-magical items can now be used by the defender - so you don't have to.
Also defender + Spell Storing Item will be a thing to look out for now.
The idea of a Homunculus perhaps surviving their creator and being adopted by a new Artificer was fun and did not need to be crushed but its pure RP so I suspect only the most hardcore RAW DMs would forbid it anyway. Homunculus was always better in the RP pillar of the game.
At level 2 I think it pulls its weight far better in the other pillars of the game and opening up all the actions (using a spell storing item) makes a huge difference when that matters. Not that it really replaces a swarm of Tiny Servants but its always around and they are not. I'm quite amused by the idea of a little animated medicine cabinet flying around the battlefield applying potions of healing as needed, it's a really good way for a low level Artificer to gain the beneficial effect of Healing Word (bonus action healing at range) without having to commit to Alchemist. Its either actual potions or it could be the artificer styling of casting Cure Wounds using the touch range of the Homunculus. Getting your friends back up during combat is clutch and anything that enables it is good and useful especially at lower levels where one solid hit tends to drop a character.
Does anyone know if there were any changes to the Armorer subclass from UA?
According to the leaks, Defensive Field is limited to an amount of uses equal to your Proficiency Bonus (PB) and Second Skin no longer negates the armor's disadvantage on Stealth checks, but instead gives advantage on Stealth checks while wearing the armor (basically accomplishes the same thing, except for with Mithral heavy armor). It doesn't appear as if there are any other changes that we know of so far, but yes, we do know that there will be changes to the Armorer.
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It looks like the rules changes for Steel Defenders (and I presume homonculi) do not automatically apply to current characters - if you already have an artificer in D&DB, when you click on features to read the rules associated with them, they show updates, but the statblocks listed in your Extras have not updated.
Does anyone know how to force that to update, other than just remaking the entire character?
Part of a recent errata release from Wizards details a slew of changes to the artificer, apparently to unify the class as presented in Eberron: Rising with the class as presented in Tasha's Cauldron. To summarize the key notes:
There's other changes, but a lot of what's left is mostly wording adjustment that doesn't really change how the artificer plays. Nevertheless. Lots of slap-patching here, enough of it that I almost question how we managed to get so lucky when the ranger and sorcerer have traditionally been told "no screw you guys we're not changing already printed books." Nevertheless. Artificers are now not at all reliant on (or even inclined to use) tinker's tools, we can tell DMs who argue the "but the book doesn't SAY your spells are all 'M' now!" to shove it, our constructs are drastically more potent and capable, we have a great many more choices for infusions, and we can Magic Robot Limb freely without impacting attunements. Hell of a suite of updates, so far as I can see.
Please do not contact or message me.
Wow those are some great developments! I would like to add that there is no more abiguity whether the Steel Defender can do simple actions like grapple or escaping a grapple or using an item. He now can do whathever he is told to do. Also no more steel defenders standing above their maker doing nothing while they're unconcious - time to giver that steely boy a potion so he can get his maker up from the floor.
I would have wished for a clarification what happens when the stats of the homunculus change (like by giving it Gauntlets of Ogre Power) - but you can't get everything.
Thanks for summarising that for us.
I am slightly sad that they left no wriggle room for sad lonely constructs left behind pining for their lost creators. I guess we can leave that to the DM if we really want it.
Homunculus servant starting at level 2 seems very appealing. Tricky to get the gold together actually at level 2 but maybe worthwhile.
Now if they would just overhaul Rangers and Sorcerers like this....
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I'm not sure they can. At least not 'like this'. Artificers here are benefitting mostly from the removal of nonsensical or annoying restrictions on their abilities; outside of the critters being rewritten to make sense (which should've happened before Rising went to print, but oh well), all the changes are mostly just broadening the scope of already existing artificer abilities. Less of a flat requirement for tinker's tools, more choices for infusion, less friction points overall.
The complaint concerning rangers and sorcerers has been, in the case of rangers: "We don't want the class features we DO have, we want something that's guaranteed to be useful 100% of the time across all games!", and in the case of sorcerers: "we don't HAVE any frickin' class features, and we have less than a quarter of the spellcasting potential of frickin' wizards!" I don't see errata repairing either complaint. Rangers get partial fixes in Tasha's Cauldron with the option to trade out Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy for uninteresting fighty alternatives, but no amount of "errata" can add class features that don't exist to the sorcerer. They would have to admit they ****ed up in the PHB and rerelease the class with improvements and enhancements in a new source, which they will never, ever do.
Suppose we're simply lucky, in that respect.
Please do not contact or message me.
Notably absent in the errata:
Anything dealing with Alchemist features. So while it's not 100% certain we're probably not going to see any changes to the Alchemist subclass in Tasha's.
Bit of a bummer there... but I was already inured to that possibility so I'm mostly just excited the Homunculus Servant got better.
Some details Yurei didn't mention:
Potions and scrolls are explicitly excluded from the common magic items you can infuse with Replicate Magic Item. Not that there was a long list of those items... but a couple of them were pretty neat.
Both Steel Defender and Homunculus Servant now have a number of hit dice equal to your artificer level. SD has d8s, HS has d4s. So now like literally every other creature in the game they can benefit from short rests to regain HP. This makes mending slightly less necessary meaning it's less of a cantrip tax for those creatures. It's still useful but you can feel better about skipping it as one of your 2 cantrips until level 10.
The attack actions for both in their stat blocks now key off of the Artificer's spell attack modifier to hit instead of the creature's (lackluster) stats though they still count as weapon attacks. Thus both will be just as likely to hit with their attacks as their masters.
In both of their stat blocks it lists their Proficiency Bonus as equal to your own. Previously Might of the Master kind of balanced the math to fit this way for their attacks, skills, and saving throws but technically their (implied) proficiency bonus was a flat 2 that never increased. Meaning granting them proficiency in tools through training or a magic item was a somewhat pointless endeavor. It also meant that their double proficiency in perception never scaled correctly and I had thought was the intended behavior but now see that was probably an error.
This makes magic items like living gloves which grant not just proficiency but expertise a really nice choice as a magic item for your construct buddy.
Wow, I did not see this coming. These are some nice changes. It certainly doesn't fix everything, but it definitely fixes a lot of the issues and quirks with it.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
LETS GO! I CAN FINALLY HAVE MY HOMONCULUS CAT BE USEFUL!
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Yeah, but this is mostly correcting poor language choices, like Yurei said. They picked some bassackwords, confuzzling, ways to say stuff that just needed to go.
The Homunculus fix is super swell, I mean, 6th level...? This is a straight improvement. (Only, I think I may have used the phrase “at 6th level” when I wrote the replacement Homunculus I give specifically to Alchemist characters instead of the normal one. Now I’ma have to republish it. 🙄
But, like, outside of the AL, what DMs wouldn’t have allowed a player to pick a common item not on that list to Replicate? And of course your Steel Defender could attempt to break a grapple, or grapple something themselves. I mean, it’s a flippin’ robot mastiff!!
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It's only a robot mastiff when it's not a robot tiefling Gentleman Adventurer
Please do not contact or message me.
Yep, I am aware that it's mostly fixing language issues, which I'm fine with. They fixed the "Might of the Master" and Ioun Stone of Mastery exploit, where you could literally give it a +infinity to almost everything (no DM would allow this, but RAW, it was legal).
I think the Homunculus Servant fix is great, if only they had brought back the alchemical homunculus, or made the Homunculus Servant worth taking for Steel Defenders.
I allowed my players to make any common magic item, but this is super great. No attunement prosthetic limbs! Wand Sheaths at level 2! All of that is amazing and awesome. I love it.
(And, like Yurei said, SD can be anything. My character's steel defender was an anaconda.)
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Yes, it can be any form, and both the forms you and Yurei mentioned can grapple another creature. In specific, that’s how an anaconda gets breakfast. And considering the pontzy expression on Yurie’s Character’s Defender, I’m pretty sure it’s gotten a bit handsey at least once or twice. 😉
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Defenders being allowed to grapple is excellent, as pinning a creature down just *fits* with the idea of a defensive guardian construct. The Defender's actually-useful(ish) Athletics bonus helps with this. A Defender that spends one action to grapple before taking its free Dodge action every turn to make itself harder to wreck can be quite useful, especially if you're otherwise commanding your Homunculus.
I'll have you know that Platinum is, and always has been, a perfect gentleman. Primarily because it's an Intelligence 4 robit that doesn't know what a sex drive is.
Not that this has stopped people from accusing Star of getting handsy with the robit. Or asking about 'special features' with the sort of winky-face expression that just begs for a demonstration of the 'Force-Empowered Rend' special feature.
Please do not contact or message me.
I think additionally to the SD being able to grapple RAW, the now available "Use an item" Action means if you have some kind of wand nobody is using - like a wand of magic missile etc. the defender can now have a nice ranged attack. Also especially on lower levels all the non-magical items can now be used by the defender - so you don't have to.
Also defender + Spell Storing Item will be a thing to look out for now.
The idea of a Homunculus perhaps surviving their creator and being adopted by a new Artificer was fun and did not need to be crushed but its pure RP so I suspect only the most hardcore RAW DMs would forbid it anyway. Homunculus was always better in the RP pillar of the game.
At level 2 I think it pulls its weight far better in the other pillars of the game and opening up all the actions (using a spell storing item) makes a huge difference when that matters. Not that it really replaces a swarm of Tiny Servants but its always around and they are not. I'm quite amused by the idea of a little animated medicine cabinet flying around the battlefield applying potions of healing as needed, it's a really good way for a low level Artificer to gain the beneficial effect of Healing Word (bonus action healing at range) without having to commit to Alchemist. Its either actual potions or it could be the artificer styling of casting Cure Wounds using the touch range of the Homunculus. Getting your friends back up during combat is clutch and anything that enables it is good and useful especially at lower levels where one solid hit tends to drop a character.
Does anyone know if there were any changes to the Armorer subclass from UA?
No doubt there will be
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
According to the leaks, Defensive Field is limited to an amount of uses equal to your Proficiency Bonus (PB) and Second Skin no longer negates the armor's disadvantage on Stealth checks, but instead gives advantage on Stealth checks while wearing the armor (basically accomplishes the same thing, except for with Mithral heavy armor). It doesn't appear as if there are any other changes that we know of so far, but yes, we do know that there will be changes to the Armorer.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
It looks like the rules changes for Steel Defenders (and I presume homonculi) do not automatically apply to current characters - if you already have an artificer in D&DB, when you click on features to read the rules associated with them, they show updates, but the statblocks listed in your Extras have not updated.
Does anyone know how to force that to update, other than just remaking the entire character?
If you're referring to the updates that come from Tasha's, I don't think D&DB is finished updating everything from it.