so I was making a new Battle Smith Artificer character but when I added the Steel Defender as an extra some of it's Proficiency Bonus-influenced statistics seemed to be wrong compared to the subclass' description;
My character is currently level 5 (Prof. Bon. equals +3) so for example the Steel Defender's Passive Perception should be 10 + (3 x 2) = 16, however:
Among others its Passive Perception is 2 points too low than it should be according to the subclass description
If anybody has an explanation if either I'm doing something wrong or if D&D Beyond is calculating it the wrong way, please do tell. Thanks in advance.
Another thing I would mention are the HitDice. They should be the amount of your Artificer-Level, but it seems 3d8 is hardcoded in the statblock, as 3 is the Level where you unlock the Specialisation.
Looks like to hit and damage modifier calculations are incorrect too. Not sure why the to hit modifier is incorrect as it goes off of your spell attack modifier and not proficiency bonus. As is the Steel Defender is almost unworkable with a VTT.
The steel defender available in the extras menu is from an older version of that artificer feature. When the steel defender stats changed to use proficiency bonus for some stats (among, perhaps, other changes), DDB was no longer (or not yet) able to model that in extras; the info can be found by tapping on the feature in the feature list. What I have done with similar “pet” features that use proficiency bonus in the statblock is to homebrew a “monster” with the correct statblock and then add it via the “extras” menu (probably via miscellaneous). The “monster” would have to be edited everytime the stats would change.
This is what I've done as well; tinker with a Homebrew version of the Defender so any modifiers changed by adding it as an Extra are the correct value.
Hi there,
so I was making a new Battle Smith Artificer character but when I added the Steel Defender as an extra some of it's Proficiency Bonus-influenced statistics seemed to be wrong compared to the subclass' description;
My character is currently level 5 (Prof. Bon. equals +3) so for example the Steel Defender's Passive Perception should be 10 + (3 x 2) = 16, however:
Among others its Passive Perception is 2 points too low than it should be according to the subclass description
If anybody has an explanation if either I'm doing something wrong or if D&D Beyond is calculating it the wrong way, please do tell.
Thanks in advance.
-M
DDB is currently unable to account for a character's Proficiency Bonus in stat block calculations for Extras. It's working off a PB of 2 by default.
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Yeah, I believe that will be part of the major update they are doing.
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Another thing I would mention are the HitDice. They should be the amount of your Artificer-Level, but it seems 3d8 is hardcoded in the statblock, as 3 is the Level where you unlock the Specialisation.
Looks like to hit and damage modifier calculations are incorrect too. Not sure why the to hit modifier is incorrect as it goes off of your spell attack modifier and not proficiency bonus. As is the Steel Defender is almost unworkable with a VTT.
The steel defender available in the extras menu is from an older version of that artificer feature. When the steel defender stats changed to use proficiency bonus for some stats (among, perhaps, other changes), DDB was no longer (or not yet) able to model that in extras; the info can be found by tapping on the feature in the feature list. What I have done with similar “pet” features that use proficiency bonus in the statblock is to homebrew a “monster” with the correct statblock and then add it via the “extras” menu (probably via miscellaneous). The “monster” would have to be edited everytime the stats would change.
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This is what I've done as well; tinker with a Homebrew version of the Defender so any modifiers changed by adding it as an Extra are the correct value.
Anyone have a link to a template to start with for making our own leveled up defenders?
Found it. Didn't realise it was in the monster section. Now to get the saving throws to level some how.