I came up with this homebrew not long after the Armorer sub-class was released, and have been tweaking it off an on. The basic idea is that where Armorers are all about their Arcane Armor, a Weapon Smith is all about their Arcane Weapon.
In the hands of an artificer a weapon is just another tool – and every tool can be improved. With clever use of surface level enhancements, magical runes and other methods, even an already mastercrafted weapon can be significantly improved without the need to reforge it.
Those who train as weaponsmiths often learn to use a wide variety of weapons before deciding which one they wish to focus upon. While they typically do not set out to become warriors, a Weaponsmith's training and inventiveness can make them a formidable opponent all the same.
Tools of the Trade
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Weaponsmith Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you can prepare.
Your martial pursuits have led to you making your weapon a conduit for your magic. With tinker's tools to hand, you can spend one hour turning one melee weapon in your possession into your Arcane Weapon.
You gain the following benefits while wielding this weapon:
You may add your Intelligence modifier, instead of Dexterity or Strength, to your attack and damage rolls for this weapon.
You can use the arcane weapon as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells.
You can cast spells on the arcane weapon that can only normally be applied to non-magical weapons.
So long as you can see it, you can use your bonus action to cause your arcane weapon to return to one of your free hands. If another creature is holding the weapon, it must succeed on a Strength save against your spell save DC to prevent this.
The arcane weapon has a number of charges equal to your proficiency bonus, regained following a short rest.
Whenever you fail a save to maintain concentration for a spell that was cast upon your arcane weapon (such as magic weapon), you may spend one of the arcane weapon's charges to roll the save again. You must use the second result.
The weapon continues to be an Arcane Weapon until you choose another weapon, or die.
D&D Beyond Support
Unfortunately D&D Beyond lacks support for designating special weapons in homebrew – when wielding your arcane weapon using Intelligence you may need to customise it on your character sheet to set the correct modifiers.
Fighting Style
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. Whenever you gain a level in this class that grants an Ability Score Increase, you may choose to change your Fighting Style to another.
Blind Fighting
You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within range, unless the creature successfully hides.
Duelling
You gain a +2 damage bonus to a weapon held in one hand if you are holding no other weapons.
Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Interception
When a creature you can see hits a target, other than you, within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.
Thrown Weapon Fighting
You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.
Enhanced Arcane Weapon
5th-level Weapon Smith feature
You may choose one weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon from the choices below. Enhancements are transferred when a new arcane weapon is chosen, and may you change one weapon enhancement when you gain a level in this class.
Extra Attack
5th-level Weapon Smith feature
You can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Superior Arcane Weapon
9th-level Weapon Smith feature
Through experience and hard work you have crafted a weapon that even master artificers would be impressed by. You may choose one additional weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon.
Supreme Arcane Weapon
15th-level Weapon Smith feature
Your improvements to your arcane weapon have engineered it into a true masterpiece of your craft. You may choose one additional weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon.
Weapon Enhnacements
You may choose enhancements for your arcane weapon from the options below:
Arcane Channelling
Prerequisite: 15th level
While holding your arcane weapon you can maintain concentration upon one additional spell, so long as one of the two spells is cast upon the weapon itself (as for elemental weapon). If you are required to take a saving throw to maintain concentration, you must take a separate saving throw for each spell you are currently concentrating upon.
Automatic Parry
When you are hit by a melee weapon attack or a ranged projectile while holding your arcane weapon, you may spend one of your arcane weapon's charges to parry it as a reaction, reducing the damage by 1d10 + your Intelligence + your Artificer level.
Extra Infusion
Prerequisite: 9th level
You can place one additional artificer infusion upon your arcane weapon. This additional infusion ignores the normal restriction that prevents it from being placed upon an item that is already magical.
D&D Beyond Support
Unfortunately D&D Beyond does not support adding more infusions to a weapon so you may need to apply the extra infusion to a spare weapon as a reminder and/or customise the weapon to add any bonus to its modifier(s).
Keen Edge
Prerequisite: 9th level
When you make a weapon attack using your arcane weapon, you will score a critical hit on a 19 or 20.
Magically Bonded
Prerequisite: 15th level
As a bonus action during your turn you can dismiss your arcane weapon into a pocket dimension, or summon it back into your hand (no line of sight required). During any turn in which you summoned your arcane weapon into your hand, you may spend one of its charges to inflict an additional 3d6 force damage.
Rending Strike
When you roll damage for an attack made using your arcane weapon, you may spend one or more of your weapon's charges. For each charge spent you may choose one of the following options for the attack:
Choose one damage type that your target is immune to, it is instead only resistant against this attack.
Choose one damage type that your target is resistant to, it no longer has resistance against this attack.
Choose any number of damage dice to re-roll, you must use the second result for each dice.
Self-Guiding
After missing with a weapon attack using your arcane weapon, you may spend one of its charges to add your Intelligence modifier to the result, potentially turning the miss into a hit.
Sentient
Prerequisite: 9th level
Your arcane weapon gains a form of magical sentience, gaining a personality discussed between yourself and your DM. While touching your arcane weapon you are granted the following benefits:
The weapon is able to perceive the world through your senses, and can communicate telepathically with you (and only you). To reply you must speak aloud unless you also possess a form of telepathy.
You gain proficiency in one skill or tool appropriate to the weapon's personality (discuss with your DM).
Whenever you fail any ability check, or an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw, you may spend one your arcane weapon's charges to add your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) to the result, potentially causing it to succeed.
If you choose a new arcane weapon, the sentience is transferred intact to the new weapon. Whenever you gain a new level in this class however, you may discuss changes to the personality (and the proficiency it grants) with your DM.
Spell Storing Weapon
Prerequisite: 15th level
If you choose your arcane weapon to be your Spell-Storing Item then it gains the following additional benefits:
The spell remains within the item even after you run out of uses.
You may also cast the spell by spending a number of arcane weapon charges equal to twice the level you wish to cast at.
When you cast the stored spell as an action, you may also attack with the arcane weapon as a bonus action.
Vampiric Weapon
Prerequisite: 15th level
When you inflict damage upon a creature (excluding constructs or the undead) using an arcane weapon attack during your turn, you may spend one of your arcane weapon charges to heal a number of hitpoints equal to 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier.
Thoughts
Basically up front your Arcane Weapon can use INT and has a few minor bonuses (can recall it as a Bonus Action, can spend its charges to turn a near miss into a hit) plus you get a Fighting Style (limited to those that work specifically with a single weapon, so no shields, two-weapon fighting etc.). Over the course of the class you'll get Extra Attack, plus a bunch of arcane weapon enhancements.
Some of the features may be more balanced than others as they're quite varied; I haven't really had any opportunity to playtest (too much stuff to playtest, too little time to play D&D). The additional spell list was also a challenge, as public homebrew is limited to only to spells from the Basic Rules and Elemental Evil Player's Guide, which means none of the Smite spells I wanted to include, and very limited choices at some levels. So I'm interested if anyone has alternative suggestions from those sources for any levels?
I really like the concept. However, one thing that stands out is the Rending Strike requiring a charge but only allowing a reroll where the other effects that require charges seem to be much more useful IMHO.
I would either change Rending Strike so it didn't require a charge but had its own pool of charges (3 per day or whatever) or that it swapped out the lowest die roll for something else.
I think the Vampiric option should consume a charge. However, you might want to say that if you manage to heal 20 HP (or whatever) you get one charge back.
I REALLY like your Paragon Weapon options! Well done!
So I've finally made some improvements to this sub-class:
The Arcane Weapon must now be a melee weapon, and I've dropped the Archery fighting style; a ranged build could become far too strong otherwise, and we're already well covered for ranged firepower with firearms Battle Smiths or Artillerists. While Armorer and Battle Smith do arguably cover melee quite well too, I like to think this sub-class lets us play a more offensively oriented lone Artificer.
All weapon enhancements are now grouped under a single feature, with players gaining one at 5th, 9th and 15th levels. Certain enhancements are limited to 9th or 15th level. I decided to make this a bit earlier, because the early enhancements are really just new ways to spend the existing weapon charges, so it's not necessarily that much more powerful (since it's subject to the same basic limits).
Arcane Weapon no longer grants a default one charge to add a hit bonus. Instead you can spend a charge to re-roll a failed concentration save for a spell cast on the weapon.
Weapon Enhancements:
Automatic Parry now only applies to melee weapon attacks and projectiles; it's still a pretty hefty damage reduction unless you're being overwhelmed with multiple attacks (but then blur is ideal for that).
Rending Strike now allows the player to spend multiple charges for a choice of effects; they can re-roll any number of damage dice, reduce an immunity to a resistance, or ignore a resistance for the attack, making this a lot more flexible.
Self-Guiding is now spend a charge to add a bonus to potentially turn a hit into a miss, rather than advantage.
Extra Infusion allows a second weapon infusion to be applied at 9th-level as an enhancement choice (replacing the extra infusion granted at 9th in the first version). This still comes from your normal infusion limit, but can be applied to magic weapons.
Keen Edge is a new enhancement for 9th level that enables the arcane weapon to score critical hits on a 19 or 20, so doubling your critical hit chance at no additional cost.
Sentient's ability to spend a charge to add INT to an ability check now also applies to INT/WIS/CHA saves, giving it some in-combat utility.
Vampiric now uses a charge for its healing but no longer requires a bonus action. This means it isn't limited to once per turn, though it's still once per attack; this does give the potential for 1d8+INT up to a theoretical maximum of six times in a round (PAM + haste for five, or PAM + Fighter multiclass for Action Surge to do up to six) but that's quite the resource cost to burn all your weapon charges in a single round. A more sedate one or two charges per turn should keep most Weapon Smiths fighting on.
I'm generally happy with the changes, though I still haven't had much chance to playtest (been difficult enough just keeping the regular weekly sessions going what with pandemic restrictions being lifted in the UK over the last few months).
To be honest I don't quite understand the focus on weapon enhancing spells when the only two available are magic weapon and elemental weapon. Especially since you can't use those on a weapon you've infused anyway. I'd expect to find some smite spells, ensnaring strike, zephyr strike or such on a spell list for a subclass like this too. Then it would at least make sense to have a feature that helps with maintaining concentration on the weapon or to take the enhancement that lets you concentrate on two spells as long as one of those is cast on the weapon.
As for the Rending Strike enhancement, I'd be careful about treating damage immunity as just better damage resistance. It's a whole different ballpark. For example, if someone is immune to fire they can sleep in fire all day long and it'd be the same to them as not doing that, but if someone is merely resistant to fire they'd still feel pain and eventually die. Imagine casting elemental weapon on your weapon and suddenly you can hurt fire elementals, beings literally made of fire, with fire. Just makes no sense. Not even Elemental Adept allows for something like that.
Since you removed ranged weapons it'd be nice to have an enhancement that lets you use charges to shoot with your weapon (or "shoot" the weapon itself which you then could retrieve with the pseudo returning weapon you already got anyway). It'd add to the power fantasy of building a truly versatile weapon.
Honestly I'm also not quite sure why you introduce a whole new enhancement mechanic when there's already the infusion mechanic ready to use. You could just add new subclass specific infusions (might as well count them as "free" infusions like the additional two the armorer gets).
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
To be honest I don't quite understand the focus on weapon enhancing spells when the only two available are magic weapon and elemental weapon. Especially since you can't use those on a weapon you've infused anyway. I'd expect to find some smite spells, ensnaring strike, zephyr strike or such on a spell list for a subclass like this too. Then it would at least make sense to have a feature that helps with maintaining concentration on the weapon or to take the enhancement that lets you concentrate on two spells as long as one of those is cast on the weapon.
That would be because I've been assuming a rule that I've somehow managed to not include, good catch! You're supposed to be able to cast onto your arcane weapon ignoring the non-magical restriction, I'll edit that in somewhere.
Also, I do want smite spells available to the sub-class, but for public D&D Beyond homebrew we're not allowed to use spells that aren't in the Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Companion; most of the smite spells come from the Player's Handbook. I haven't thought of a workaround for this yet, as the only way I can think of that would allow them in public homebrew would be to allow access to the Paladin spell list.
I might be able to do something like give the sub-class a number of learned spell choices similar to a Bard's magical secrets, but made as narrow as I can to include the smite spells, e.g- 1st level, range Self, using a Bonus Action, which will eliminate most other Paladin spells, but it'd still include some that I wouldn't intend to.
As for the Rending Strike enhancement, I'd be careful about treating damage immunity as just better damage resistance. It's a whole different ballpark. For example, if someone is immune to fire they can sleep in fire all day long and it'd be the same to them as not doing that, but if someone is merely resistant to fire they'd still feel pain and eventually die. Imagine casting elemental weapon on your weapon and suddenly you can hurt fire elementals, beings literally made of fire, with fire. Just makes no sense. Not even Elemental Adept allows for something like that.
While you have a point, this Rending Strike consumes weapon charges so you can only treat immunity as resistance a maximum of 6 times from 17th level, or ignore it (reduce to resistance, then ignore resistance) a maximum of 3 times, and that's if you don't want to save your charges for anything else. Also it only applies to a single damage immunity/resistance, so if you have mixed damage you're only punching through with some of it.
Conceptually I don't think it's really a problem as it's a function of a magic weapon piercing through an enemy's defences, e.g- the fire isn't simply fire anymore, or it enables the blade to cut deeper or whatever.
Honestly I'm also not quite sure why you introduce a whole new enhancement mechanic when there's already the infusion mechanic ready to use.
So I had a mess around with the settings in homebrew and I think it might be possible to restructure the Weapon Smith Spells feature like so:
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Weapon Smith Spells table. In addition, you may choose a number of prepared spells from the paladin spell list as shown in the table below – these spells must be evocation spells with a range of Self, and a casting time of one Bonus Action. If you do not wish to select an additional paladin spell, you may instead prepare one additional spell from the artificer list as normal.
Spells learned from this feature count as artificer spells for you.
The problem with this is that the restrictions (Bonus Action Evocation on Self) aren't supported in the spell selection drop-downs, so in the D&D Beyond character builder it will show spells that aren't intended to be valid, meaning the player and/or DM will need to work out which ones are valid choices for themselves. But maybe it will work well enough?
So many restrictions and workarounds necessary here *sigh*. Sometimes I question why I should still bother with this place instead of just using Dungeon Master's Vault or such lol
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
So I had a mess around with the settings in homebrew and I think it might be possible to restructure the Weapon Smith Spells feature like so:
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Weapon Smith Spells table. In addition, you may choose a number of prepared spells from the paladin spell list as shown in the table below – these spells must be evocation spells with a range of Self, and a casting time of one Bonus Action. If you do not wish to select an additional paladin spell, you may instead prepare one additional spell from the artificer list as normal.
Spells learned from this feature count as artificer spells for you.
The problem with this is that the restrictions (Bonus Action Evocation on Self) aren't supported in the spell selection drop-downs, so in the D&D Beyond character builder it will show spells that aren't intended to be valid, meaning the player and/or DM will need to work out which ones are valid choices for themselves. But maybe it will work well enough?
I guess you could always just include a note of what you've intended with it and then hope people don't abuse Beyond's lackluster homebrew function.
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I've gotta say, I overall like this homebrew, and I don't necessarily have criticisms, so much as just suggestions...
For as much as the Subclass grants special rules for weapon-enhancing spells, I feel like it's kind of weird that none of them are included in the Class Spells. At first I thought it was just because those spells were already in the Artificer Spell list but, for example, Elemental Weapon is a 3rd level spell that's on the Artificer List, but so are Haste and Blink. I think overall you picked good spells for the subclass spell list... even the spells that are already Artificer spells are great ones to have for a melee-focused GISH without dipping into your spells known, but I think for such a specific feature exclusive to this subclass it would be good if those spells were baked into the subclass. I understand there are some technical limitations with DNDbeyond... like, Holy Weapon would fit in perfectly for this as well and would make for a great 5th level spell to cap off your spellcasting with one more big weapon-enchantment.
I think I would also make the Arcane Weapon something you have to assign as part of a Long or Short Rest, similar to a Warlock's Pact Weapon. I think that helps to make it feel a little more special, and not something where your character can just walk through a room, casually picking up random weapons and turning each one into an Arcane Weapon before dropping it and suddenly it stops being one. Spending at least an hour on it helps it to feel like it's something that the character has actually crafted and customized for themselves.
But like I said... if you don't do either of these ideas I don't think there's any real problem with the subclass.
For being able to publish with Smite spells, you could add an Additional Spell List to a feature of the subclass in order to add non-free spells to their available Artificer spells to choose with Manage Spells. I'm doing that for my own homebrew subclass with Mind-related spells.
The only thing is that you don't get to make them always prepared.
For as much as the Subclass grants special rules for weapon-enhancing spells, I feel like it's kind of weird that none of them are included in the Class Spells. At first I thought it was just because those spells were already in the Artificer Spell list but, for example, Elemental Weapon is a 3rd level spell that's on the Artificer List, but so are Haste and Blink. I think overall you picked good spells for the subclass spell list... even the spells that are already Artificer spells are great ones to have for a melee-focused GISH without dipping into your spells known, but I think for such a specific feature exclusive to this subclass it would be good if those spells were baked into the subclass. I understand there are some technical limitations with DNDbeyond... like, Holy Weapon would fit in perfectly for this as well and would make for a great 5th level spell to cap off your spellcasting with one more big weapon-enchantment.
I'm currently thinking about how to revise the spell list actually, if you look at my last post (inside the spoiler) I'm currently trying to address the fact that I couldn't add any of the smite spells that I really wanted due to the restrictions on public homebrew (spells must come from the Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Companion).
However I'm thinking of giving half a spell list and instead allowing limited picks from the Paladin spell list as a workaround; this still isn't fully supported, as players will need to check they're picking valid spells giving the restrictions (must be a bonus action evocation with a range of self) but it would let me get around the limitation so I can publish the homebrew on D&D Beyond. I'd be interested on what impact that list would have on your thoughts.
Holy Weapon is an interesting possibility, I could possibly expand the restriction to allow range of self or touch to include that as an option as well? It'll be supported mechanically anyway, since we can't actually set these as hard restrictions.
Update: Though I may not need to use this alternative, as naruhoodie describes. I'll mess around with it some more and find out.
I think I would also make the Arcane Weapon something you have to assign as part of a Long or Short Rest, similar to a Warlock's Pact Weapon. I think that helps to make it feel a little more special, and not something where your character can just walk through a room, casually picking up random weapons and turning each one into an Arcane Weapon before dropping it and suddenly it stops being one. Spending at least an hour on it helps it to feel like it's something that the character has actually crafted and customized for themselves.
That's a really good point actually, I just copied the basic template from Armorer to start with, and it's always struck me as weird that that's so freeform as well. I do wonder though if the intention from Wizards of the Coast was to let you decide to add on top of it for yourself (and if that might be the format for similar features in future)?
I actually have an Armorer character in a campaign at the moment, but for him I will not be using the ability to easily transfer Arcane Armor, as the suit he currently has was the work of years so there's no replacing it by simply touching another. A player using this sub-class could choose to do the same for their weapon?
You're right though that mechanically this sub-class may favour a single weapon worked on continuously, even compared to the Armorer where the armour simply upgrades and the ability to easily change its type is always there, so the time-limited option may fit better for Weapon Smith.
For being able to publish with Smite spells, you could add an Additional Spell List to a feature of the subclass in order to add non-free spells to their available Artificer spells to choose with Manage Spells. I'm doing that for my own homebrew subclass with Mind-related spells.
The only thing is that you don't get to make them always prepared.
So it only limits homebrew if they're set as always prepared? I didn't know that! If that's the case then that'll probably be cleaner, thanks!
Update: Can you give more details about how you're configuring these spells? I just tried to add Banishing Smite and it's still giving me the licensed content warning? I added it under Spells as Consumes Spell Slot (Yes), Counts as Known Spell (No) and Always Prepared (No).
I think the reason that an Armorer's Enhanced Armor is just an action is because Armor already has Donning/Doffing time as part of its very nature. Putting on a suit of heavy armor takes 10 full minutes, so you're already guaranteed a time-sink just getting the armor put on in the first place.
Sorry... you don't add them under the Spells section, but the Additional Spell List section (which comes after Creatures.)
Ah! That's my bad, I misunderstood; didn't even occur to me that that section would function differently (don't think I've ever even used it before, come to think of it). That seems to work exactly as I want actually; I've edited the first post with a new Weapon Smith Spells section detailing the added spells. Thanks!
I've also put on a preliminary tweak to Arcane Weapon so that it will now take an hour to designate the weapon.
For clarification, the Extra Infusion weapon enhancement allows a player to add two infusions to a mundane weapon or one infusion to a magical weapon? Or does the second infusion only work with a mundane weapon?
For a mundane weapon, this would be presumably be Enhanced Weapon and Radiant Weapon, since returning weapon is a level 3 feature already, and there aren’t that many weapon infusions. But there’s a potentially weird edge case with a quarterstaff as the Arcane Weapon where it could have Enhanced Arcane Focus and Radiant or Enhanced Weapon. Not sure it’s game breaking or anything - it might even be under powered for a melee oriented character - but I thought you might want to consider it in case you don’t want that.
For clarification, the Extra Infusion weapon enhancement allows a player to add two infusions to a mundane weapon or one infusion to a magical weapon?
That's right, two on a regular weapon, or one on an already magical weapon.
there’s a potentially weird edge case with a quarterstaff as the Arcane Weapon where it could have Enhanced Arcane Focus and Radiant or Enhanced Weapon. Not sure it’s game breaking or anything - it might even be under powered for a melee oriented character - but I thought you might want to consider it in case you don’t want that.
Good catch, it might be alright though as you say as I think it would just let a Weapon Smith play at mixed melee and ranged.
I'll need to check through some of the spells to see if there are any that let you make a spell attack actually using a weapon; I suspect not, so there shouldn't be any stacking as such, for example Green Flame Blade is a plain weapon attack, so wouldn't benefit from both infusions at once.
The infused weapon can be used as a focus, so ranged spell attacks (e.g. Firebolt) would be the main application for EAF ona quarterstaff, although touch melee like Shocking Grasp and Inflict Wounds could also be included.
The Weaponsmith would be trading off EAF for Enhanced or Radiant Weapon, and they would lose either +1 or +2 on the weapon as a result. They’d also be stuck with a quarterstaff, which is lower than most martial dies.
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I came up with this homebrew not long after the Armorer sub-class was released, and have been tweaking it off an on. The basic idea is that where Armorers are all about their Arcane Armor, a Weapon Smith is all about their Arcane Weapon.
In the hands of an artificer a weapon is just another tool – and every tool can be improved. With clever use of surface level enhancements, magical runes and other methods, even an already mastercrafted weapon can be significantly improved without the need to reforge it.
Those who train as weaponsmiths often learn to use a wide variety of weapons before deciding which one they wish to focus upon. While they typically do not set out to become warriors, a Weaponsmith's training and inventiveness can make them a formidable opponent all the same.
Tools of the Trade
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Weaponsmith Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you can prepare.
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd
hunter's mark, shield
5th
blur, misty step
9th
blink, haste
13th
elemental bane, resilient sphere
17th
mislead, passwall
In addition, the spells searing smite, thunderous smite, wrathful smite, branding smite, blinding smite, staggering smite and holy weapon are added to your artificer spell list.
Arcane Weapon
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
Your martial pursuits have led to you making your weapon a conduit for your magic. With tinker's tools to hand, you can spend one hour turning one melee weapon in your possession into your Arcane Weapon.
You gain the following benefits while wielding this weapon:
The weapon continues to be an Arcane Weapon until you choose another weapon, or die.
Fighting Style
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. Whenever you gain a level in this class that grants an Ability Score Increase, you may choose to change your Fighting Style to another.
Blind Fighting
You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within range, unless the creature successfully hides.
Duelling
You gain a +2 damage bonus to a weapon held in one hand if you are holding no other weapons.
Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Interception
When a creature you can see hits a target, other than you, within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.
Thrown Weapon Fighting
You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.
Enhanced Arcane Weapon
5th-level Weapon Smith feature
You may choose one weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon from the choices below. Enhancements are transferred when a new arcane weapon is chosen, and may you change one weapon enhancement when you gain a level in this class.
Extra Attack
5th-level Weapon Smith feature
You can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Superior Arcane Weapon
9th-level Weapon Smith feature
Through experience and hard work you have crafted a weapon that even master artificers would be impressed by. You may choose one additional weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon.
Supreme Arcane Weapon
15th-level Weapon Smith feature
Your improvements to your arcane weapon have engineered it into a true masterpiece of your craft. You may choose one additional weapon enhancement for your arcane weapon.
Weapon Enhnacements
You may choose enhancements for your arcane weapon from the options below:
Arcane Channelling
Prerequisite: 15th level
While holding your arcane weapon you can maintain concentration upon one additional spell, so long as one of the two spells is cast upon the weapon itself (as for elemental weapon). If you are required to take a saving throw to maintain concentration, you must take a separate saving throw for each spell you are currently concentrating upon.
Automatic Parry
When you are hit by a melee weapon attack or a ranged projectile while holding your arcane weapon, you may spend one of your arcane weapon's charges to parry it as a reaction, reducing the damage by 1d10 + your Intelligence + your Artificer level.
Extra Infusion
Prerequisite: 9th level
You can place one additional artificer infusion upon your arcane weapon. This additional infusion ignores the normal restriction that prevents it from being placed upon an item that is already magical.
Keen Edge
Prerequisite: 9th level
When you make a weapon attack using your arcane weapon, you will score a critical hit on a 19 or 20.
Magically Bonded
Prerequisite: 15th level
As a bonus action during your turn you can dismiss your arcane weapon into a pocket dimension, or summon it back into your hand (no line of sight required). During any turn in which you summoned your arcane weapon into your hand, you may spend one of its charges to inflict an additional 3d6 force damage.
Rending Strike
When you roll damage for an attack made using your arcane weapon, you may spend one or more of your weapon's charges. For each charge spent you may choose one of the following options for the attack:
Self-Guiding
After missing with a weapon attack using your arcane weapon, you may spend one of its charges to add your Intelligence modifier to the result, potentially turning the miss into a hit.
Sentient
Prerequisite: 9th level
Your arcane weapon gains a form of magical sentience, gaining a personality discussed between yourself and your DM. While touching your arcane weapon you are granted the following benefits:
If you choose a new arcane weapon, the sentience is transferred intact to the new weapon. Whenever you gain a new level in this class however, you may discuss changes to the personality (and the proficiency it grants) with your DM.
Spell Storing Weapon
Prerequisite: 15th level
If you choose your arcane weapon to be your Spell-Storing Item then it gains the following additional benefits:
Vampiric Weapon
Prerequisite: 15th level
When you inflict damage upon a creature (excluding constructs or the undead) using an arcane weapon attack during your turn, you may spend one of your arcane weapon charges to heal a number of hitpoints equal to 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
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Consider making the second and third infusions on the weapon not count toward the infusions used. Vampiric should probably require a charge also.
I really like the concept. However, one thing that stands out is the Rending Strike requiring a charge but only allowing a reroll where the other effects that require charges seem to be much more useful IMHO.
I would either change Rending Strike so it didn't require a charge but had its own pool of charges (3 per day or whatever) or that it swapped out the lowest die roll for something else.
I think the Vampiric option should consume a charge. However, you might want to say that if you manage to heal 20 HP (or whatever) you get one charge back.
I REALLY like your Paragon Weapon options! Well done!
So I've finally made some improvements to this sub-class:
I'm generally happy with the changes, though I still haven't had much chance to playtest (been difficult enough just keeping the regular weekly sessions going what with pandemic restrictions being lifted in the UK over the last few months).
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
To be honest I don't quite understand the focus on weapon enhancing spells when the only two available are magic weapon and elemental weapon. Especially since you can't use those on a weapon you've infused anyway. I'd expect to find some smite spells, ensnaring strike, zephyr strike or such on a spell list for a subclass like this too. Then it would at least make sense to have a feature that helps with maintaining concentration on the weapon or to take the enhancement that lets you concentrate on two spells as long as one of those is cast on the weapon.
As for the Rending Strike enhancement, I'd be careful about treating damage immunity as just better damage resistance. It's a whole different ballpark. For example, if someone is immune to fire they can sleep in fire all day long and it'd be the same to them as not doing that, but if someone is merely resistant to fire they'd still feel pain and eventually die. Imagine casting elemental weapon on your weapon and suddenly you can hurt fire elementals, beings literally made of fire, with fire. Just makes no sense. Not even Elemental Adept allows for something like that.
Since you removed ranged weapons it'd be nice to have an enhancement that lets you use charges to shoot with your weapon (or "shoot" the weapon itself which you then could retrieve with the pseudo returning weapon you already got anyway). It'd add to the power fantasy of building a truly versatile weapon.
Honestly I'm also not quite sure why you introduce a whole new enhancement mechanic when there's already the infusion mechanic ready to use. You could just add new subclass specific infusions (might as well count them as "free" infusions like the additional two the armorer gets).
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
That would be because I've been assuming a rule that I've somehow managed to not include, good catch! You're supposed to be able to cast onto your arcane weapon ignoring the non-magical restriction, I'll edit that in somewhere.
Also, I do want smite spells available to the sub-class, but for public D&D Beyond homebrew we're not allowed to use spells that aren't in the Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Companion; most of the smite spells come from the Player's Handbook. I haven't thought of a workaround for this yet, as the only way I can think of that would allow them in public homebrew would be to allow access to the Paladin spell list.
I might be able to do something like give the sub-class a number of learned spell choices similar to a Bard's magical secrets, but made as narrow as I can to include the smite spells, e.g- 1st level, range Self, using a Bonus Action, which will eliminate most other Paladin spells, but it'd still include some that I wouldn't intend to.
While you have a point, this Rending Strike consumes weapon charges so you can only treat immunity as resistance a maximum of 6 times from 17th level, or ignore it (reduce to resistance, then ignore resistance) a maximum of 3 times, and that's if you don't want to save your charges for anything else. Also it only applies to a single damage immunity/resistance, so if you have mixed damage you're only punching through with some of it.
Conceptually I don't think it's really a problem as it's a function of a magic weapon piercing through an enemy's defences, e.g- the fire isn't simply fire anymore, or it enables the blade to cut deeper or whatever.
Because we can't add infusions on DDB. 😉
Thanks for the feedback!
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
So I had a mess around with the settings in homebrew and I think it might be possible to restructure the Weapon Smith Spells feature like so:
Weapon Smith Spells
3rd-level Weapon Smith feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Weapon Smith Spells table. In addition, you may choose a number of prepared spells from the paladin spell list as shown in the table below – these spells must be evocation spells with a range of Self, and a casting time of one Bonus Action. If you do not wish to select an additional paladin spell, you may instead prepare one additional spell from the artificer list as normal.
Spells learned from this feature count as artificer spells for you.
Weaponsmith Spells
3rd
shield
1
5th
blur
2
9th
haste
3
13th
elemental bane
4
17th
mislead
5
The problem with this is that the restrictions (Bonus Action Evocation on Self) aren't supported in the spell selection drop-downs, so in the D&D Beyond character builder it will show spells that aren't intended to be valid, meaning the player and/or DM will need to work out which ones are valid choices for themselves. But maybe it will work well enough?
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
So many restrictions and workarounds necessary here *sigh*. Sometimes I question why I should still bother with this place instead of just using Dungeon Master's Vault or such lol
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I guess you could always just include a note of what you've intended with it and then hope people don't abuse Beyond's lackluster homebrew function.
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I've gotta say, I overall like this homebrew, and I don't necessarily have criticisms, so much as just suggestions...
For as much as the Subclass grants special rules for weapon-enhancing spells, I feel like it's kind of weird that none of them are included in the Class Spells. At first I thought it was just because those spells were already in the Artificer Spell list but, for example, Elemental Weapon is a 3rd level spell that's on the Artificer List, but so are Haste and Blink. I think overall you picked good spells for the subclass spell list... even the spells that are already Artificer spells are great ones to have for a melee-focused GISH without dipping into your spells known, but I think for such a specific feature exclusive to this subclass it would be good if those spells were baked into the subclass. I understand there are some technical limitations with DNDbeyond... like, Holy Weapon would fit in perfectly for this as well and would make for a great 5th level spell to cap off your spellcasting with one more big weapon-enchantment.
I think I would also make the Arcane Weapon something you have to assign as part of a Long or Short Rest, similar to a Warlock's Pact Weapon. I think that helps to make it feel a little more special, and not something where your character can just walk through a room, casually picking up random weapons and turning each one into an Arcane Weapon before dropping it and suddenly it stops being one. Spending at least an hour on it helps it to feel like it's something that the character has actually crafted and customized for themselves.
But like I said... if you don't do either of these ideas I don't think there's any real problem with the subclass.
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For being able to publish with Smite spells, you could add an Additional Spell List to a feature of the subclass in order to add non-free spells to their available Artificer spells to choose with Manage Spells. I'm doing that for my own homebrew subclass with Mind-related spells.
The only thing is that you don't get to make them always prepared.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
I'm currently thinking about how to revise the spell list actually, if you look at my last post (inside the spoiler) I'm currently trying to address the fact that I couldn't add any of the smite spells that I really wanted due to the restrictions on public homebrew (spells must come from the Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Companion).
However I'm thinking of giving half a spell list and instead allowing limited picks from the Paladin spell list as a workaround; this still isn't fully supported, as players will need to check they're picking valid spells giving the restrictions (must be a bonus action evocation with a range of self) but it would let me get around the limitation so I can publish the homebrew on D&D Beyond. I'd be interested on what impact that list would have on your thoughts.
Holy Weapon is an interesting possibility, I could possibly expand the restriction to allow range of self or touch to include that as an option as well? It'll be supported mechanically anyway, since we can't actually set these as hard restrictions.
Update: Though I may not need to use this alternative, as naruhoodie describes. I'll mess around with it some more and find out.
That's a really good point actually, I just copied the basic template from Armorer to start with, and it's always struck me as weird that that's so freeform as well. I do wonder though if the intention from Wizards of the Coast was to let you decide to add on top of it for yourself (and if that might be the format for similar features in future)?
I actually have an Armorer character in a campaign at the moment, but for him I will not be using the ability to easily transfer Arcane Armor, as the suit he currently has was the work of years so there's no replacing it by simply touching another. A player using this sub-class could choose to do the same for their weapon?
You're right though that mechanically this sub-class may favour a single weapon worked on continuously, even compared to the Armorer where the armour simply upgrades and the ability to easily change its type is always there, so the time-limited option may fit better for Weapon Smith.
Thanks for the feedback!
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
So it only limits homebrew if they're set as always prepared? I didn't know that! If that's the case then that'll probably be cleaner, thanks!
Update: Can you give more details about how you're configuring these spells? I just tried to add Banishing Smite and it's still giving me the licensed content warning? I added it under Spells as Consumes Spell Slot (Yes), Counts as Known Spell (No) and Always Prepared (No).
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Sorry... you don't add them under the Spells section, but the Additional Spell List section (which comes after Creatures.)
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
I think the reason that an Armorer's Enhanced Armor is just an action is because Armor already has Donning/Doffing time as part of its very nature. Putting on a suit of heavy armor takes 10 full minutes, so you're already guaranteed a time-sink just getting the armor put on in the first place.
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Ah! That's my bad, I misunderstood; didn't even occur to me that that section would function differently (don't think I've ever even used it before, come to think of it). That seems to work exactly as I want actually; I've edited the first post with a new Weapon Smith Spells section detailing the added spells. Thanks!
I've also put on a preliminary tweak to Arcane Weapon so that it will now take an hour to designate the weapon.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
It’s looking pretty solid now!
For clarification, the Extra Infusion weapon enhancement allows a player to add two infusions to a mundane weapon or one infusion to a magical weapon? Or does the second infusion only work with a mundane weapon?
For a mundane weapon, this would be presumably be Enhanced Weapon and Radiant Weapon, since returning weapon is a level 3 feature already, and there aren’t that many weapon infusions. But there’s a potentially weird edge case with a quarterstaff as the Arcane Weapon where it could have Enhanced Arcane Focus and Radiant or Enhanced Weapon. Not sure it’s game breaking or anything - it might even be under powered for a melee oriented character - but I thought you might want to consider it in case you don’t want that.
That's right, two on a regular weapon, or one on an already magical weapon.
Good catch, it might be alright though as you say as I think it would just let a Weapon Smith play at mixed melee and ranged.
I'll need to check through some of the spells to see if there are any that let you make a spell attack actually using a weapon; I suspect not, so there shouldn't be any stacking as such, for example Green Flame Blade is a plain weapon attack, so wouldn't benefit from both infusions at once.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
The infused weapon can be used as a focus, so ranged spell attacks (e.g. Firebolt) would be the main application for EAF ona quarterstaff, although touch melee like Shocking Grasp and Inflict Wounds could also be included.
The Weaponsmith would be trading off EAF for Enhanced or Radiant Weapon, and they would lose either +1 or +2 on the weapon as a result. They’d also be stuck with a quarterstaff, which is lower than most martial dies.