Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I'm truly at a loss as to why they changed Magic Tinkering to this. At least they fixed the one hour bedroll. Just glad my current DM feels the same way and is letting me keep the old Magic Tinkering ability.
I agree - the 2014 magical tinkering is very cool and interesting and creates a lot of creative opportunity. The UA one is not really interesting at all.
It's not just UA anymore. The final published version has become available in some stores and it's essentially the same as the version from the second UA (from February 2025) but with a few more items added to the list. It's very disappointing.
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The article on the Artificer changes says "Reduced crafting time/cost benefit enveloped into Tinker's Magic feature." Is this true at all?
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I’m not really sure what that’s referring to. The final Tinker’s Magic feature is mechanically the same as the one from the second UA (the “Eberron Updates” one). The only difference I see is that there are several more items added to the list of things that can be created with it.
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It seems the reduced crafting time is tied to the subclass:
Alchemist - Potion Crafting. When you brew a potion using the crafting rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the amount of time required to craft it is halved.
Armorer - Armor Crafting. When you craft nonmagical or magic armor, the amount of time required to craft it is halved
Artillerist - Wand Crafting. When you craft a magic Wand, the amount of time required to craft it is halved.
Battlesmith - Weapon Crafting. When you craft a nonmagical or magic weapon, the amount of time required to craft it is halved.
Cartographer - Scroll Crafting. When you scribe a Spell Scroll using the crafting rules in the Player’s Handbook, the amount of time required to craft it is halved.
That's how it was in Unearthed Arcana but that's not folding it into Tinker's Magic. Thanks for confirming though.
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It would also increase the shenanigans opportunities if you could dismiss the items at will instead of them just poofing at the end of a long rest. If I can make a rope, get it in place somewhere, and then poof it at will, it's way more fun. Small change, big opportunity.
I kinda liked the way the old version worked in this regard, where they lasted forever unless you tried to create one over the limit, and then the oldest one went away. One of my groups once used this to send an instant and silent signal over a long distance.
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Agree, this was an extremely useful and interesting strategy that was very fun. I've used it by making a ball bearing glow, handing it off, and then having extra ball bearings in my pocket that can be made glowy.
This is why we'll be keeping the old version plus the free Mending cantrip.
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Yeah, the free Mending is the only thing I like about the new version of that feature.
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That would still be Tinker's Magic not producing magical effects. Magical Tinkering not only has a superior name grammatically but every aspect of it was magical. The only drawback of Magical Tinkering was that its utility was not overtly apparent. I saw a page somewhere that had how to use multiple objects to create magical relays and such. I can't find it right now. I understand the desire to make the class ability simpler, but this is just a garbage ability that will be forgotten about after a level or 2.
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Magical Tinkering doesn't create objects so the comparison is inaccurate. You don't create a torch that gives off a small amount of light. You touch an existing torch and for an indefinite amount of time, it gives off light (much less than a lit torch). Infuse Item involved touching an object and making the object magical indefinitely, so Magical Tinkering was very much in line with as lesser version of their level 2 class feature.
No, not really. If you could create a bomb (provide the rules for that) that was triggered (again, no rules for this) by a light, image, sound, or odor ceasing, the issue would be with the bomb rules that don't exist in any currently publish official WotC book. It's not a valid argument to say that it is OP in combination with rules that don't exist.
You have the right idea though as you can invest a new item with magic to end an effect on an object to send a signal to a companion. What the signal means has to be determined ahead of time as the signal is either sent or not. You can use it to leave secret messages, telling your companions ahead of time to tap on a certain object hidden in a predetermined location to retrieve it. Perhaps even spreading a message across two or three objects that must be tapped in sequence to get the full message (giving you 75 words instead of 25). The versatility of it was very thematic for the pulp setting of Eberron but was useful in many others.
The effects themselves were weak versions of Light, Prestidigitation, and Minor Illusion, Cantrips, which you can bop all day long.
Nothing about it scales with level.
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I mean, I'm all in favor of wacky shenanigans! To me that's the best of DnD.
To be clear, though, Magical Tinkering cannot create fire. Your homunculus would have to carry a torch or some other mundane fire item, and hang out and not be noticed all that time. And when it dies, if you aren't going back, you lose your 100 gp gem. Gunpowder isn't that easy to come by and is easily restricted by the DM. Until level 6 this is both your infusions sidelined on this task, a big piece of your power budget.
A standard bag of holding RAW weighs 15 pounds. The homunculus can just manage this - but I don't think it would be stealthy.
As you say, the new version has telepathy with the Homunculus (but you have to be level 5 to have one at all) which is way more powerful than magical tinkering.
All that said, sounds like a great plan that requires a lot of thinking out of the box. (Though in DnD, I've rarely needed an alibi...)
Bombs and other explosives are optional rules and not automatically available in any particular game. Bombs and Gunpowder Kegs have no defined crafting rules. If allowed, a DM would have to assign tools to allow for crafting them. I did not state it, but I did mean rules for explosives in a core, no optional rules, no house rules. Let's roll with this anyway.
Each bomb only deals damage when a creature takes an action per bomb to light it and throw it. It is 100 GP per bomb. Detonating one bomb does not detonate any other bombs. That's a significant investment in a consumable item to try to make Magical Tinkering appear broken.
A Gunpowder (keg) must be set on fire to explode. A bomb does not automatically set fire to a Gunpowder (keg). 250 GP is an even heftier investment in another consumable item.
"As many 100 GP bombs as you can afford." As many bombs as can fit is 500. 50,000 GP, the same as a Very Rare magical item, since it is effectively a consumable item, this might actually be on par with Legendary consumable magic items. What level are you in this thought exercise? How much of your party wealth are you blowing here?
No Magical Tinkering object creates fire.
A Tinderbox does. If you think a Magical Tinkering object that creates fire is OP, you proved that a Tinker's Magic is OP instead of Magical Tinkering.
"If you use 3 infusions, a level 2 spell, blow all the resources of a Tier 3 to Tier 4 character, and ignore the rules on two particular items and the class feature, you can make this level 1 class feature appear overpowered."
Yeah. There's nothing wrong of the power level of Magical Tinkering if the scariest thing it can do most it can do is replicate a very tiny portion of Sending Stones (an Uncommon Magic Item), we're good. The issue with the feature is how convoluted and obtuse the feature was.
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Fire damage doesn't set things on fire unless the source of the fire damage says that it sets things on fire. However, in any case, Magic Tinkering cannot deal Fire damage or light something on fire.
Oil is a better option since it has rules regarding taking fire damage instead of just being set on fire. A creature doused in oil takes 5 extra Fire damage. Dousing a creature costs one of your attacks (if you have more than one, a Homunculus does not), so we still need 500 actions to use all of the 500 pounds of oil. If you can somehow successfully douse a creature with all 500 pounds of oil and deal Fire damage in under a minute (before the first oil douse wears off), the creature takes 5 extra Fire damage. That's it. 5 extra Fire damage whether you are talking about 1 pound of Oil or 500. With 500 pounds of Oil, you can douse 500 squares (with 500 Utilize actions) and it does not appear to expire, but you still need to light all 500 squares on fire ... to do 5 Fire damage to creatures within it.
It still doesn't work the way you think and it's still not broken.
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No.
No matter how many flasks of oil are in a square, they collectively deal a total of 5 fire damage according to RAW. The only way to deal more damage via Oil is to douse a creature, douse the creature's square, and then light the oil in the square. Then you deal 10 Fire damage if the doused creature stays in the square. This could be a tactic for preventing a Troll from regenerating but there are better options.
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Oil.
Notice that it does not say per flask. A creature once doused now takes an extra 5 fire damage.
Again, this is not per flask. Once doused and lit, the area deals a flat 5 Fire damage.
The item does not need a rule to say that you can't stack the effects. It needs a rule to say that you can. Oil does not have a rule saying you can stack the effects with multiple flasks so you cannot per RAW.
Anything beyond that is a house rule. You may consider it a reasonable one, but it is not RAW, and any issues that arise from that ruling are issues with that ruling and not Magical Tinkering.
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This is a completely different mechanic. Oil douses a creature or a square. A doused creature takes an extra 5 Fire damage. A space with oil deals 5 Fire damage. Two oil flasks does not make the creature more doused. It is still only doused. The way to deal extra damage with multiple oil flasks would be to douse a creature with oil (and it fails its save) douse multiple squares with oil and light them on fire and force that creature to run through the spaces (fear and a hallway would work well for this). The creature would take 10 total Fire damage per square that they entered (not including the starting square but including their last square).
Alchemist's Fire does not impose a doused state. It deals damage directly. This is completely different.
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