Apologies if this has been asked before but could not find it in a search of the forums, but what is the ruling on the homunculus servant being used to carry the eldritch canon?
Hommunculus servant has a carrying capacity of 30lbs and while the eldritch cannon does not specify a weight it does mention it can be made tiny and easily wielded one handedly (assumedly by a creature in the medium and small size categories) so I can't imagine the weight would exceed 30lbs, only thing I am not sure of is if there are rules on creatures carrying objects in the same size category of themselves?
Just curious as it would be a good way to increase the offensive capability of the servant while increasing the mobility of the cannon, and considering your bonus action is already being used to fire the canon it is not like the servant is really able to do much else in the situation.
I use this on my own Artificer in just the way you described! It's an amazing asset on the field and also great for roleplay. My Eldritch Cannon is mounted to a gauntlet on my arm and my homunculus is flavored to look like a drone if it was designed by Leonardo DaVinci with airscrews. It flies around and fires off napalm, eldritch blasts, or even zip back and forth to different allies on the grid to give them temp HP.
Another great use for this is to not just carry the cannon, but to drop it off somewhere quickly or where it wouldn't normally be able to get, giving you two versatile and mobile pets.
Roleplaywise, it's fun to ambush using that tactic.
The Homunculus Servant can act without instruction, but is perfectly obedient and has an average intelligence.
If given short movement instructions (no action) it will move as requested.
If not given movement instructions, it will move as it believes it ought to, as though it were well trained to anticipate your wishes. (Correcting incorrect movement is a non-action)
The only practical issue is in the event that you send the Homunculus Servant out of audible range, or if you can't speak to it due to hiding. In that case, I would think that the DM should then allow the player to dictate the Homunculus's movements, but be strict about information transfer between the player and the homunculus. For example, if the player sends the Servant to the end of a 1000ft hallway to collect a gold statue, but learns about a trap when the homunculus is at 800ft, the homunculus would not know to avoid the trap other than through its own observational ability.
Otherwise, the Homunculus is as smart as any normal commoner, and only cares about fulfilling the Artificer's needs, so there is no point treating their wills as different.
We homebrew it so that the artificer and the homunculus can both act simultaneously on the same turn, otherwise it becomes a lot less useful with the Channel Magic ability. You would have to position the homunculus to where you need it, then your next turn channel something like Shocking Grasp or Cure Wounds through it.
Where this combination really comes in handy is with the Protector function. Nothing in its description says the temporary HP go away after 1 round. So you give the temp HP to one group of allies, and then our little buddy can pick it up and move it along with the allies, renewing it as needed, or moving it to a different group and giving them temp hp.
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Apologies if this has been asked before but could not find it in a search of the forums, but what is the ruling on the homunculus servant being used to carry the eldritch canon?
Hommunculus servant has a carrying capacity of 30lbs and while the eldritch cannon does not specify a weight it does mention it can be made tiny and easily wielded one handedly (assumedly by a creature in the medium and small size categories) so I can't imagine the weight would exceed 30lbs, only thing I am not sure of is if there are rules on creatures carrying objects in the same size category of themselves?
Just curious as it would be a good way to increase the offensive capability of the servant while increasing the mobility of the cannon, and considering your bonus action is already being used to fire the canon it is not like the servant is really able to do much else in the situation.
I use this on my own Artificer in just the way you described! It's an amazing asset on the field and also great for roleplay. My Eldritch Cannon is mounted to a gauntlet on my arm and my homunculus is flavored to look like a drone if it was designed by Leonardo DaVinci with airscrews. It flies around and fires off napalm, eldritch blasts, or even zip back and forth to different allies on the grid to give them temp HP.
Another great use for this is to not just carry the cannon, but to drop it off somewhere quickly or where it wouldn't normally be able to get, giving you two versatile and mobile pets.
Roleplaywise, it's fun to ambush using that tactic.
The Homunculus Servant can act without instruction, but is perfectly obedient and has an average intelligence.
If given short movement instructions (no action) it will move as requested.
If not given movement instructions, it will move as it believes it ought to, as though it were well trained to anticipate your wishes. (Correcting incorrect movement is a non-action)
The only practical issue is in the event that you send the Homunculus Servant out of audible range, or if you can't speak to it due to hiding. In that case, I would think that the DM should then allow the player to dictate the Homunculus's movements, but be strict about information transfer between the player and the homunculus. For example, if the player sends the Servant to the end of a 1000ft hallway to collect a gold statue, but learns about a trap when the homunculus is at 800ft, the homunculus would not know to avoid the trap other than through its own observational ability.
Otherwise, the Homunculus is as smart as any normal commoner, and only cares about fulfilling the Artificer's needs, so there is no point treating their wills as different.
We homebrew it so that the artificer and the homunculus can both act simultaneously on the same turn, otherwise it becomes a lot less useful with the Channel Magic ability. You would have to position the homunculus to where you need it, then your next turn channel something like Shocking Grasp or Cure Wounds through it.
Where this combination really comes in handy is with the Protector function. Nothing in its description says the temporary HP go away after 1 round. So you give the temp HP to one group of allies, and then our little buddy can pick it up and move it along with the allies, renewing it as needed, or moving it to a different group and giving them temp hp.