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.
So, you get your homunculus servant, make a bag of holding infusion, put as many bombs in it as will fit.
"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?
Give it a Magical Tinkering object that emits light. And another magical tinkering object that creates fire
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.
The homunculus, bag of holding and magical tinkering objects are easily replaced by the artificer. They just need to get more gunpowder, and do it all again next week.
The new rules get rid of using the "light emitting object no longer emits light" as the signal. But the latest homunculus has telepathy with the artificer out to a mile.
Oh. Infuse sending stones to talk to the homunculus beyond a mile.
"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.
"A Gunpowder (keg) must be set on fire to explode. A bomb does not automatically set fire to a Gunpowder"
Gunpowder does fire damage.
Also, if money is a problem, use lantern oil. 500 pounds of oil will cost 50 gold. Rules as written, you can pour it all on the ground and light it.
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.
I agree that the rules in place are completely silly and unrealistic, but it keeps the game playable.
the rules say one must use an "attack" to pour the oil, so i hire 500 commoners, they each get one attack, they use that to dump oil on the target and move out of the way. And the someone uses a torch to ignite. Each flask thrown in the square does 5 more damage.
Is that RAW in your interpretation?
500 people each throw one flask, and they do 2500 damage. 1 person dumps 500 flasks and it does 5 damage. Thats RAW, correct?
I agree that the rules in place are completely silly and unrealistic, but it keeps the game playable.
the rules say one must use an "attack" to pour the oil, so i hire 500 commoners, they each get one attack, they use that to dump oil on the target and move out of the way. And the someone uses a torch to ignite. Each flask thrown in the square does 5 more damage.
Is that RAW in your interpretation?
500 people each throw one flask, and they do 2500 damage. 1 person dumps 500 flasks and it does 5 damage. Thats RAW, correct?
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.
Dousing a Creature or an Object. When you take the Attack action, you can replace one of your attacks with throwing an Oil flask. Target one creature or object within 20 feet of yourself. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 plus your Dexterity modifier and Proficiency Bonus) or be covered in oil. If the target takes Fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an extra 5 Fire damage from burning oil.
Notice that it does not say per flask. A creature once doused now takes an extra 5 fire damage.
Dousing a Space. You can take the Utilize action to pour an Oil flask on level ground to cover a 5-foot-square area within 5 feet of yourself. If lit, the oil burns until the end of the turn 2 rounds from when the oil was lit (or 12 seconds) and deals 5 Fire damage to any creature that enters the area or ends its turn there. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.
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.
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...)
"Magical Tinkering cannot create fire"
Ah. I forgot the flask of alchemist fire.
"standard bag of holding RAW weighs 15 pounds"
2024 rules list it as five pounds
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.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Thank you, valiant paladin. Unfortunately we have no gold to repay you.
"A Gunpowder (keg) must be set on fire to explode. A bomb does not automatically set fire to a Gunpowder"
Gunpowder does fire damage.
Also, if money is a problem, use lantern oil. 500 pounds of oil will cost 50 gold. Rules as written, you can pour it all on the ground and light it.
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.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
I agree that the rules in place are completely silly and unrealistic, but it keeps the game playable.
the rules say one must use an "attack" to pour the oil, so i hire 500 commoners, they each get one attack, they use that to dump oil on the target and move out of the way. And the someone uses a torch to ignite. Each flask thrown in the square does 5 more damage.
Is that RAW in your interpretation?
500 people each throw one flask, and they do 2500 damage. 1 person dumps 500 flasks and it does 5 damage. Thats RAW, correct?
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.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Quote of the rule from 2024 phb or dmg that says this, and explains how it applies to oil?
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.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.