I've been thinking about the Mech/battle armor idea and don't think it would be useful unless you have your own arms sticking out.
"unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or the Dash, Disengage, Help, Hide, or Search action."
You can't have the battle armor pick up anything or get something out of a backpack, or take out money to pay for food, etc.
Which has led me to two ideas, with the whole Gnome/Steel Defender Mount. What would be better?
1- Gnome Centaur. Basically your Steel Defender is a Donkey(which is medium size) but without the neck and head where you would have a custom compartment which you can't fall out of. I see this as pretty powerful, you can still use a sword and shield, as a mount it would move on your turn. If someone tries to attack you, you can use Deflect Attack to give them disadvantage and as a bonus action, you can have it Force-Empowered Rend . At 5th level, you could attack twice and bonus attack action of 1d8+2 force damage.
2- Ape Piggy Back. Basically Master Blaster from Mad Max. You ride piggy back/shoulder ride on an Ape (Which is Medium size) in a harness so you don't fall out and I think the DM should be able to give you at least Partial Cover if anyone tries to attack you from the front.
My question for any of these build is. Does the Steel Defender only take verbal instructions? Once it is a mount can you control it with subtle movements with your feet? Also if someone cast Silence, does that mean you can't command your Steel Defender?
actually, the defender can be anything you want it to be, it can be a dragon or a bear, it looks like one, but no matter what it is medium sized. and another thing is it needs to be a 4 legged animal, no bipeds. And I came up with a mecha design/stat block for it
By 3rd level, your tinkering has borne you a faithful companion, a steel defender. It is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the steel defender stat block. You determine the creature’s appearance and whether it has two legs or four; your choice has no effect on its game statistics.
Your Steel Defender can be 2 or 4 legged.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Watch your back, conserve your ammo, and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
I've been thinking about the Mech/battle armor idea and don't think it would be useful unless you have your own arms sticking out.
"unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or the Dash, Disengage, Help, Hide, or Search action."
You can't have the battle armor pick up anything or get something out of a backpack, or take out money to pay for food, etc.
Which has led me to two ideas, with the whole Gnome/Steel Defender Mount. What would be better?
1- Gnome Centaur. Basically your Steel Defender is a Donkey(which is medium size) but without the neck and head where you would have a custom compartment which you can't fall out of. I see this as pretty powerful, you can still use a sword and shield, as a mount it would move on your turn. If someone tries to attack you, you can use Deflect Attack to give them disadvantage and as a bonus action, you can have it Force-Empowered Rend . At 5th level, you could attack twice and bonus attack action of 1d8+2 force damage.
2- Ape Piggy Back. Basically Master Blaster from Mad Max. You ride piggy back/shoulder ride on an Ape (Which is Medium size) in a harness so you don't fall out and I think the DM should be able to give you at least Partial Cover if anyone tries to attack you from the front.
My question for any of these build is. Does the Steel Defender only take verbal instructions? Once it is a mount can you control it with subtle movements with your feet? Also if someone cast Silence, does that mean you can't command your Steel Defender?
actually, the defender can be anything you want it to be, it can be a dragon or a bear, it looks like one, but no matter what it is medium sized. and another thing is it needs to be a 4 legged animal, no bipeds. And I came up with a mecha design/stat block for it
You are wrong about that.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/erftlw/character-creation-class-artificer#Chapter1CharacterCreationClassArtificer
Your Steel Defender can be 2 or 4 legged.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
ah, they updated it then, was going off the old info of Iron Defender, which only allowed them to be 4 legged creatures