I am under the impression that the Infusion ends when the HS dies. WHich is also what I assume occurs if an infusion is broken, or used up (say the perfume).
Also what pearl are folks talking about?
Pearl of Power? I thought tha wasn't a validi choice for infusion? or did I miss it somoewhere
Pearl worth 100gp used for the Identify Spell. The one an arcane focus can't replace.
The Homonculus is an amazing infusion. Absolutely amazing. The possibilities are pretty staggering. It really comes online at level 11 when you gain the Spell-Storing Item. Remember, that while a Homonculus is a tiny construct it can still do many things outside of combat. It can hold things for you, like.. a spell-stored dart or arcane focus lock pick. It can pick up small things or manipulate things. It's one of the best if not THE best scout in the game. It has no range restrictions. Want to scout a dark cavern. NO problem, give it the lock pick with Invisibility spell stored in it, and off it goes. It can use the spell stored item to keep itself invisible, fly around for 10 hours, scout, and return and report everything. Need to pump up your Steel defender? Have your little guy use Enlarge on him and concentrate for you while tucked safely away in your saddlebags. Need to rest? Rope trick! Want to bump the game up? Pick a Dragonmark house to expand your spells. Need a little battle medic? Goodberry and you have 10 ways to bring allies up from the ground! House Lyrander, Mark of Storms. and Levitate a bruiser during combat. I've ruled for our games that if you give a Spell-Storing item to a Homonculus, you are effectively adding that ability to it's stat block. It makes NO SENSE AT ALL for your Homonculus to be able to use a spell stored item outside of combat and not in combat.
The real test is how creative can you be as a player? That's what a Homonculus boils down to.
Having sunk game time into a (lower-level) Battlesmith at this point after Eberron Rising hit, I can say that I miss my homunculus from the 2019 UA pretty sharply. The Defender just does not compare. It may well just be the campaign I'm in, the DM favors stuff that hits less often but lands brutal blows when it does, but man...there is nothing steel about this Defender. It is almost as flimsy and fragile as my old Homunculus; the requirement for it to engage in melee range does not do the dumb thing any favors.
Strongly considering grabbing the Homunculus as a 6th-level infusion even though I'm playing a Battlesmith just to expand my options. Star uses a returning javelin as her chief weapon anyways - a thirty-foot Force Loogie option from a homunculus perched on her somewhere matches up nicely. Even if the dumb thing is much weaker than the old Alchemical Homunculus, I honestly feel like it may be more useful more often than my poor, oh-so-delicate Defender.
Having sunk game time into a (lower-level) Battlesmith at this point after Eberron Rising hit, I can say that I miss my homunculus from the 2019 UA pretty sharply. The Defender just does not compare. It may well just be the campaign I'm in, the DM favors stuff that hits less often but lands brutal blows when it does, but man...there is nothing steel about this Defender. It is almost as flimsy and fragile as my old Homunculus; the requirement for it to engage in melee range does not do the dumb thing any favors.
Strongly considering grabbing the Homunculus as a 6th-level infusion even though I'm playing a Battlesmith just to expand my options. Star uses a returning javelin as her chief weapon anyways - a thirty-foot Force Loogie option from a homunculus perched on her somewhere matches up nicely. Even if the dumb thing is much weaker than the old Alchemical Homunculus, I honestly feel like it may be more useful more often than my poor, oh-so-delicate Defender.
What would if take for the SD to be durable enough for you? As it stands it almost certainly has more HP than a Wizard and fairs pretty favourably against other PCs. That's pretty great for a companion that can heal itself multiple times a day, be healed by a cantrip, be ressurected with a 1st level slot and be completely remade every day.
D8 is the most common hit die, a level 5 d8 character with +2 Con would have 38hp, the SD has 31hp (assuming a +4 Int) and can recover far more easily than a PC can. Paired with a respectable 15AC the Steel Defender is anything but delicate.
As for Homunculus on a Battle Smith I've done it, it provided the nice option of scouting and ranged attacking whilst keeping the SD at my side for the defensive pounce (and if the SD does end up taken out you still have a construct companion available).
My particular artificer I've got game experience with is a level 4 Battlesmith/1 Wizard. This means it's down five HP from an equivalent-level single-class and I account for that when examining its performance...but it's also in a game where it's taken several different 20+-damage hits and been forced to disengage and effectively abandon the fight. 15AC is at the very bottom end of mediocre; I could theoretically fix that with a shield since my particular defender is humanoid-shaped, but I try to avoid cheesing it to that level.
Handing the thing a torch, sure. Okay. I could strap a lantern to the head of a quadrupedal defender and get much the same effect of hands-free light. But I try to avoid doing anything with my beefling-shaped defender that the typical doggo-shaped defenders categorically could not do.
Nevertheless. Even with the five extra HP from ditching the wizard level, the thing would go from being able to take one hit before having to flee to being able to take one hit before having to flee but look a little less ragged after fleeing. The fact that the defender is more durable than a typical AL-style wizard really doesn't factor in because a typical AL-style wizard does everything it can to avoid getting caught in melee. The defender does not have that luxury; it has to pretend to be a fighter, save with only a single attack, mediocre AC, and d8 skirmisher HP without any of the defenses or mobility the d8 skirmisher classes gain as they improve.
What would the defender need to feel sturdy enough? Damage resistance would be great. It is a hardened steel construct purpose-built for combat, basic weapon resistance would be lovely. Probably overpowered, mostly because Wizards despises when Companion Critters are not throwaway props that fall over and die the first time an orc clenches his buttcheeks in the critter's general direction, but given what the defender's job is, it'd be nice if it could mix up with light melee combatants without getting slobberknocked the first time a basic-ass goblin puts some effort into their swing.
Or just get the homunculus and accept the fact that the defender is there for flavor more than help. ...much like the homunculus. Ugh. ****in' overcompensating much, Wizards?...
If the issue is it can't stand up to more than one hit from a boss doing 20+ damage, then most single class characters are delicate by your reckoning as well? Even a Paladin or Ranger would be scared after taking an initial hit like that (I give Fighter some benefit fo the doubt because of Second Wind).
The Steel Defender has effectively more hp than the class variant options for the beast master's companions (similar formular but being able to be Int SAD gives the SD the edge imo) and I believe more hp than the Revised Ranger version as well. 15AC at level 5 is hardly the bottom end of mediocre, it won't age that well but at later levels the SD can just act as a bit of a hit sponge and heal itself as needed (you can also give it magic items to improve its AC if it really becoming an issue). A pet should never be comparable with a melee focused PC unless you invest resources into buffing it, otherwise you'll end up with some martial characters in your party giving the SD side way glances as you do their job with a two PC character essentially. Damage resisitance would be overpowered, not because of any bias on Wizards part, just because it's a very powerful ability that early on effectively doubles hp.
You chose to lower your SD's and your own hp by taking a dip in Wizard, in exchange you got superior slot progression so why not just use those slots and revive your SD when it goes down? The SD's hp calculation is perfectly fine for a companion creature, it can take a turn out of attacking to heal if need be and seeing as the highest CR Orc averages 14 damage on a hit, I don't think your SD will have anything to fear from the clenching of any Orc cheeks.
Heh. That's always the catch-22 of designing classes/abilities that provide companions, isn't it? A companion should never be as powerful as a PC...but when the companion is weak enough that it doesn't tread on the toes of other PCs, it becomes so weak/fragile that it's effectively meaningless. We all know the story of Trinket, i.e. The Bear That Wanted To But Couldn't.
I don't think anyone would argue that the defender should be the equal of a full-up fighter of equivalent level. But its Deflect Attack reaction is weak and keeping it sidelined, doing nothing but standing next to you and Dodging while you're in the back shooting on the off chance that something rushes you and you want to try and rely on that weak reaction to stay alive, defeats much of the purpose of having the critter in the first place. I would posit that critters such as the ranger's companion beast, the paladin's summoned steed, the Steel Defender, and other such frontline companions that many players would love to have as part of their character's core identity should be no easier to slay than their PC counterpart.
Their damage and overall versatility can and very likely should be much lower, but if you're going to ask a player to form an emotional bond with a cherished companion of their character that they can fight alongside, it'd behoove Wizards to stop making companion critters that quite literally can't take a punch to save their lives.
I'm still not seeing the "so weak/fragile that it's effectively meaningless," it has more hp than a Wizard/Sorcerer and hp not far behind fully fledged d8 hit die characters. It doesn't even have that much less hp than the Artificer that created it in tiers 1 and 2.
An unlimited use disadvantage on one attack ability is weak? It isn't even using the Artificer's reaction (which is still open for Shield etc.), other wise: Nothing says a Battle Smith is always in the back lines, the ability to use Int for weapons encourages them to be in melee with their SD. You can also use your SD for other people, park it next to the squishier Wizard or send it shoulder to shoulder with the Fighter. It's a big strength that it can act defensively still whilst healing itself, providing the help action or even Dodging. As Stoustein pointed out, any hit it takes instead of a party member is a win in and of itself.
The SD can take a hit just fine and if resurrecting it is a RP issue then you can keep it alive with Mending + its self heal reasonably well. It just seems that your expectations for a pet are unreasonably high and I'm not seeing how you'd be satisfied outside of a martial class' durability for it.
Not sure if this has been already brought up, but are there any rules to stop an eldritch cannon from riding an artificer's Homunculus servant? I'm imagining you combine the two (not literally but in favour) to look like a miniature dragon which would be able to either fly 30 ft a round and deal 1d4 damage or deal 2d8 + 1d4 damage a round. The only really limiting factor is the bonus action, meaning you can either have the homunculus move and deal a small amount of damage or have the turret go off. Find familiar would probably work better and would still allow you to use touch spells and so on, but does require a feat, meaning lower character ability scores.
Not sure if this has been already brought up, but are there any rules to stop an eldritch cannon from riding an artificer's Homunculus servant? I'm imagining you combine the two (not literally but in favour) to look like a miniature dragon which would be able to either fly 30 ft a round and deal 1d4 damage or deal 2d8 + 1d4 damage a round. The only really limiting factor is the bonus action, meaning you can either have the homunculus move and deal a small amount of damage or have the turret go off. Find familiar would probably work better and would still allow you to use touch spells and so on, but does require a feat, meaning lower character ability scores.
Well the Eldritch Cannon is classified as a "magical object" not as a creature so the rules regarding mounted combat don't really apply here.
Thus all that really matters is whether or not a Homunculus Servant can carry the Eldritch Cannon and it can be either a small or tiny object but it isn't clearly stated how much it would weigh.
A tiny creature with a strength of 4 can carry 30 lbs. So as long as the Eldritch Cannon is lighter than that (which seems pretty likely for a tiny cannon) then it can carry/wear an Eldritch Cannon no problem.
1. After you gain the Infuse Item feature at 2nd level, you can also use any item bearing one of your infusions as a spellcasting focus.
2. Spell-Storing Item: At 11th level, you learn how to store a spell in an object. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one simple or martial weapon or one item that you can use as a spellcasting focus, and you store a spell in it, choosing a 1st or 2nd-level spell from the artificer spell list that requires 1 action to cast (you needn’t have it prepared). While holding the object, a creature can take an action to produce the spell’s effect from it, using your spellcasting ability modifier.
3. And if you use your Pearl (Item: A gem worth at least 100 gp required for the infusion.) It can be used for your Identify spell.
Final: Your HS becomes a spell storing item that: can deliver touch spells, can store a spell that can be activated by any creature you send the HS to, can be used as a focus, has evasion and proficiency in stealth, and can fly away and hide if you get captured and your other items taken only to find you later and allow you to sling spells to get out of a hotspot.
The spell you store in an item using the Spell-Storing Item feature, has to have a casting time of 1 action. The identify spell has a casting time of 1 minute.
What he meant was that if you use a 100gp pearl as the "jewel worth one hundred gold pieces" required to create the Homunculus Servant, then depending on the DM you can use your Servant as the material component required for Identify as well, saving you one hundred gold pieces. As an example, simply because I have experience with it: my aforementioned-in-this-thread Battlesmith has both the Defender and Homunculus (more on that in a second). I use my 100gp Identify pearl as the Homunculus' heart jewel, which in this case shows up as the servant's 'eye', since I made good on my frequent promises to make my Homunculus Servant a flying steampunk imp-winged tophat. That jewel is the Homunculus, but it's also still a 100gp pearl; it can be argued that it still fulfills the material requirement for the Identify spell.
In Star's case, the "Identify" spell is currently fluffed as the Homunculus Servant closely examining a given item or object before using its tail to write out a list of properties it's discerned in the object on a card Star provides it. If/when she gets to the point of having Spell-Storing Item available to her, her Servant is very much an option for being her SSI. 'Holding the item' is as easy as grabbing the brim of the hat, and frankly I pity anyone who does not want to cast spells by tipping their hat at their foes. I just don't want to play with the kind of person who'd say no to that q_q.
*
ANYWAYS. Six months and three levels later, I can report that the Homunculus Servant and the Defender clash a lot less in practice than one might think. My particular battlesmith is shooty instead of stabby so the longer-distance poke is quite nice. Both critters have the same to-hit chance, so the Defender's attack is strictly better if the Defender is in reach of something worth hitting, but otherwise the Homunculus can often attack more easily than the Defender can. Especially if, as was recommended earlier in the thread, one is using the Defender primarily for Defensive Pounce.
The other thing is that the Servant has an Intelligence score of 10, while the Defender has an Intelligence score of 4. The Defender is basically a well-trained dog; the Homunculus can understand complex strategies and even adapt on its own initiative if sent to do something tricky. Obviously one's choice of form will affect what the Homunculus can do, but it's a heckin' useful boi. It can't speak, but nothing in its stat block says it can't write, and every single one of my characters carries chalk for a multitude of reasons. Provided the ink pen in its tail has run dry, anyways.
You don't ever get both critters to function in combat on the same turn short some homebrew, but I've found that having both means a much higher chance of one of them being in a position to do something active/useful, when previously my Defender alone would often end up just sitting still and staying on the defensive, 'wasting' my bonus action. it's not really "Homunculus vs. Steel Defender", it's "Humunculus and Steel Defender, Happy Friendship Bros". Especially when taking both helps solidify your artificer's inventing style.
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Pearl worth 100gp used for the Identify Spell. The one an arcane focus can't replace.
The infusion is applied to a gem worth 100gp. Pearls count. This way it can also be the material for identify.
One of the concepts I've played around with was having a Steel Defender with a hollow head where a homonculus would ride.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
The Homonculus is an amazing infusion. Absolutely amazing. The possibilities are pretty staggering. It really comes online at level 11 when you gain the Spell-Storing Item. Remember, that while a Homonculus is a tiny construct it can still do many things outside of combat. It can hold things for you, like.. a spell-stored dart or arcane focus lock pick. It can pick up small things or manipulate things. It's one of the best if not THE best scout in the game. It has no range restrictions. Want to scout a dark cavern. NO problem, give it the lock pick with Invisibility spell stored in it, and off it goes. It can use the spell stored item to keep itself invisible, fly around for 10 hours, scout, and return and report everything. Need to pump up your Steel defender? Have your little guy use Enlarge on him and concentrate for you while tucked safely away in your saddlebags. Need to rest? Rope trick! Want to bump the game up? Pick a Dragonmark house to expand your spells. Need a little battle medic? Goodberry and you have 10 ways to bring allies up from the ground! House Lyrander, Mark of Storms. and Levitate a bruiser during combat. I've ruled for our games that if you give a Spell-Storing item to a Homonculus, you are effectively adding that ability to it's stat block. It makes NO SENSE AT ALL for your Homonculus to be able to use a spell stored item outside of combat and not in combat.
The real test is how creative can you be as a player? That's what a Homonculus boils down to.
Having sunk game time into a (lower-level) Battlesmith at this point after Eberron Rising hit, I can say that I miss my homunculus from the 2019 UA pretty sharply. The Defender just does not compare. It may well just be the campaign I'm in, the DM favors stuff that hits less often but lands brutal blows when it does, but man...there is nothing steel about this Defender. It is almost as flimsy and fragile as my old Homunculus; the requirement for it to engage in melee range does not do the dumb thing any favors.
Strongly considering grabbing the Homunculus as a 6th-level infusion even though I'm playing a Battlesmith just to expand my options. Star uses a returning javelin as her chief weapon anyways - a thirty-foot Force Loogie option from a homunculus perched on her somewhere matches up nicely. Even if the dumb thing is much weaker than the old Alchemical Homunculus, I honestly feel like it may be more useful more often than my poor, oh-so-delicate Defender.
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What would if take for the SD to be durable enough for you? As it stands it almost certainly has more HP than a Wizard and fairs pretty favourably against other PCs. That's pretty great for a companion that can heal itself multiple times a day, be healed by a cantrip, be ressurected with a 1st level slot and be completely remade every day.
D8 is the most common hit die, a level 5 d8 character with +2 Con would have 38hp, the SD has 31hp (assuming a +4 Int) and can recover far more easily than a PC can. Paired with a respectable 15AC the Steel Defender is anything but delicate.
As for Homunculus on a Battle Smith I've done it, it provided the nice option of scouting and ranged attacking whilst keeping the SD at my side for the defensive pounce (and if the SD does end up taken out you still have a construct companion available).
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My particular artificer I've got game experience with is a level 4 Battlesmith/1 Wizard. This means it's down five HP from an equivalent-level single-class and I account for that when examining its performance...but it's also in a game where it's taken several different 20+-damage hits and been forced to disengage and effectively abandon the fight. 15AC is at the very bottom end of mediocre; I could theoretically fix that with a shield since my particular defender is humanoid-shaped, but I try to avoid cheesing it to that level.
Handing the thing a torch, sure. Okay. I could strap a lantern to the head of a quadrupedal defender and get much the same effect of hands-free light. But I try to avoid doing anything with my beefling-shaped defender that the typical doggo-shaped defenders categorically could not do.
Nevertheless. Even with the five extra HP from ditching the wizard level, the thing would go from being able to take one hit before having to flee to being able to take one hit before having to flee but look a little less ragged after fleeing. The fact that the defender is more durable than a typical AL-style wizard really doesn't factor in because a typical AL-style wizard does everything it can to avoid getting caught in melee. The defender does not have that luxury; it has to pretend to be a fighter, save with only a single attack, mediocre AC, and d8 skirmisher HP without any of the defenses or mobility the d8 skirmisher classes gain as they improve.
What would the defender need to feel sturdy enough? Damage resistance would be great. It is a hardened steel construct purpose-built for combat, basic weapon resistance would be lovely. Probably overpowered, mostly because Wizards despises when Companion Critters are not throwaway props that fall over and die the first time an orc clenches his buttcheeks in the critter's general direction, but given what the defender's job is, it'd be nice if it could mix up with light melee combatants without getting slobberknocked the first time a basic-ass goblin puts some effort into their swing.
Or just get the homunculus and accept the fact that the defender is there for flavor more than help. ...much like the homunculus. Ugh. ****in' overcompensating much, Wizards?...
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If the issue is it can't stand up to more than one hit from a boss doing 20+ damage, then most single class characters are delicate by your reckoning as well? Even a Paladin or Ranger would be scared after taking an initial hit like that (I give Fighter some benefit fo the doubt because of Second Wind).
The Steel Defender has effectively more hp than the class variant options for the beast master's companions (similar formular but being able to be Int SAD gives the SD the edge imo) and I believe more hp than the Revised Ranger version as well. 15AC at level 5 is hardly the bottom end of mediocre, it won't age that well but at later levels the SD can just act as a bit of a hit sponge and heal itself as needed (you can also give it magic items to improve its AC if it really becoming an issue). A pet should never be comparable with a melee focused PC unless you invest resources into buffing it, otherwise you'll end up with some martial characters in your party giving the SD side way glances as you do their job with a two PC character essentially. Damage resisitance would be overpowered, not because of any bias on Wizards part, just because it's a very powerful ability that early on effectively doubles hp.
You chose to lower your SD's and your own hp by taking a dip in Wizard, in exchange you got superior slot progression so why not just use those slots and revive your SD when it goes down? The SD's hp calculation is perfectly fine for a companion creature, it can take a turn out of attacking to heal if need be and seeing as the highest CR Orc averages 14 damage on a hit, I don't think your SD will have anything to fear from the clenching of any Orc cheeks.
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Heh. That's always the catch-22 of designing classes/abilities that provide companions, isn't it? A companion should never be as powerful as a PC...but when the companion is weak enough that it doesn't tread on the toes of other PCs, it becomes so weak/fragile that it's effectively meaningless. We all know the story of Trinket, i.e. The Bear That Wanted To But Couldn't.
I don't think anyone would argue that the defender should be the equal of a full-up fighter of equivalent level. But its Deflect Attack reaction is weak and keeping it sidelined, doing nothing but standing next to you and Dodging while you're in the back shooting on the off chance that something rushes you and you want to try and rely on that weak reaction to stay alive, defeats much of the purpose of having the critter in the first place. I would posit that critters such as the ranger's companion beast, the paladin's summoned steed, the Steel Defender, and other such frontline companions that many players would love to have as part of their character's core identity should be no easier to slay than their PC counterpart.
Their damage and overall versatility can and very likely should be much lower, but if you're going to ask a player to form an emotional bond with a cherished companion of their character that they can fight alongside, it'd behoove Wizards to stop making companion critters that quite literally can't take a punch to save their lives.
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I'm still not seeing the "so weak/fragile that it's effectively meaningless," it has more hp than a Wizard/Sorcerer and hp not far behind fully fledged d8 hit die characters. It doesn't even have that much less hp than the Artificer that created it in tiers 1 and 2.
An unlimited use disadvantage on one attack ability is weak? It isn't even using the Artificer's reaction (which is still open for Shield etc.), other wise: Nothing says a Battle Smith is always in the back lines, the ability to use Int for weapons encourages them to be in melee with their SD. You can also use your SD for other people, park it next to the squishier Wizard or send it shoulder to shoulder with the Fighter. It's a big strength that it can act defensively still whilst healing itself, providing the help action or even Dodging. As Stoustein pointed out, any hit it takes instead of a party member is a win in and of itself.
The SD can take a hit just fine and if resurrecting it is a RP issue then you can keep it alive with Mending + its self heal reasonably well. It just seems that your expectations for a pet are unreasonably high and I'm not seeing how you'd be satisfied outside of a martial class' durability for it.
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Not sure if this has been already brought up, but are there any rules to stop an eldritch cannon from riding an artificer's Homunculus servant? I'm imagining you combine the two (not literally but in favour) to look like a miniature dragon which would be able to either fly 30 ft a round and deal 1d4 damage or deal 2d8 + 1d4 damage a round. The only really limiting factor is the bonus action, meaning you can either have the homunculus move and deal a small amount of damage or have the turret go off. Find familiar would probably work better and would still allow you to use touch spells and so on, but does require a feat, meaning lower character ability scores.
They are both Tiny so that wont work
Well the Eldritch Cannon is classified as a "magical object" not as a creature so the rules regarding mounted combat don't really apply here.
Thus all that really matters is whether or not a Homunculus Servant can carry the Eldritch Cannon and it can be either a small or tiny object but it isn't clearly stated how much it would weigh.
As for what the Homunculus Servant can carry...
A tiny creature with a strength of 4 can carry 30 lbs. So as long as the Eldritch Cannon is lighter than that (which seems pretty likely for a tiny cannon) then it can carry/wear an Eldritch Cannon no problem.
Edit: Removed a broken tooltip.
Its an interesting thought, but as always, that would be a DM call for sure
The spell you store in an item using the Spell-Storing Item feature, has to have a casting time of 1 action. The identify spell has a casting time of 1 minute.
What he meant was that if you use a 100gp pearl as the "jewel worth one hundred gold pieces" required to create the Homunculus Servant, then depending on the DM you can use your Servant as the material component required for Identify as well, saving you one hundred gold pieces. As an example, simply because I have experience with it: my aforementioned-in-this-thread Battlesmith has both the Defender and Homunculus (more on that in a second). I use my 100gp Identify pearl as the Homunculus' heart jewel, which in this case shows up as the servant's 'eye', since I made good on my frequent promises to make my Homunculus Servant a flying steampunk imp-winged tophat. That jewel is the Homunculus, but it's also still a 100gp pearl; it can be argued that it still fulfills the material requirement for the Identify spell.
In Star's case, the "Identify" spell is currently fluffed as the Homunculus Servant closely examining a given item or object before using its tail to write out a list of properties it's discerned in the object on a card Star provides it. If/when she gets to the point of having Spell-Storing Item available to her, her Servant is very much an option for being her SSI. 'Holding the item' is as easy as grabbing the brim of the hat, and frankly I pity anyone who does not want to cast spells by tipping their hat at their foes. I just don't want to play with the kind of person who'd say no to that q_q.
*
ANYWAYS. Six months and three levels later, I can report that the Homunculus Servant and the Defender clash a lot less in practice than one might think. My particular battlesmith is shooty instead of stabby so the longer-distance poke is quite nice. Both critters have the same to-hit chance, so the Defender's attack is strictly better if the Defender is in reach of something worth hitting, but otherwise the Homunculus can often attack more easily than the Defender can. Especially if, as was recommended earlier in the thread, one is using the Defender primarily for Defensive Pounce.
The other thing is that the Servant has an Intelligence score of 10, while the Defender has an Intelligence score of 4. The Defender is basically a well-trained dog; the Homunculus can understand complex strategies and even adapt on its own initiative if sent to do something tricky. Obviously one's choice of form will affect what the Homunculus can do, but it's a heckin' useful boi. It can't speak, but nothing in its stat block says it can't write, and every single one of my characters carries chalk for a multitude of reasons. Provided the ink pen in its tail has run dry, anyways.
You don't ever get both critters to function in combat on the same turn short some homebrew, but I've found that having both means a much higher chance of one of them being in a position to do something active/useful, when previously my Defender alone would often end up just sitting still and staying on the defensive, 'wasting' my bonus action. it's not really "Homunculus vs. Steel Defender", it's "Humunculus and Steel Defender, Happy Friendship Bros". Especially when taking both helps solidify your artificer's inventing style.
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