So after watching Todd Talks on Youtube and seeing them struggle to come up with quick examples of magical tinkering I was kind of curious what you guys think of this first level artificer feat. The first thing I could think of was using it as a distraction, putting a sound in a stone and then throwing or making it seem it's filling a room full of gas. Then I remembered minor illusion and prestidigitation are cantrip spells (which oddly enough artificer does not get minor illusion). So can anyone think of good uses for this ability?
I like how it can send an exact message, in your voice and words. So you can leave breadcrumbs so to speak. i used the glow version and a mirror in a tube, to fake up some flashlights/lanterns when out of oil. in the same method, you could light up an ally's shield or weapons. Light a marble/ballbearing and roll them down a cave, etc. Yeah both are only 5-10feet buut its better than total darkness.
On the other hand I've glowed up some pebbles then used magic stone. (kind of a weird situation. You can't magic stone then MagTink because magtink can only be applied to "mundane" stuff, but it lasts indefinitely-and doesn't have a clause that its lost when magic occurs. The same pebbles can also just be tossed all at once non-attack and scatter light over a battle field.
My artificer made a little gear necklace for a goblin friend of the party that would exude the scent of flowers on being touched. So they wouldn't be so stinky~
Oh that reminds me. "A static visual effect appears on one of the object’s surfaces. This effect can be a picture, up to 25 words of text, lines and shapes, or a mixture of these elements, as you like." The "visual written words" can be used to avoid speaking things out loud. Which can be a fun way for an artificer to speak without speaking. or if they're mute (though plenty of other issues there). Leaving directions behind for folks. Recipes. Thank you letters, goodbye letters. can make maps actually. so you could instantly (an action) reproduce the map you're looking at. copy a note or letter you observe. I'm not sure if you could actually copy the hand writing.. that's a bit of a GM.. I think you can--because its basically amagical xerox. You make the picture form (not the written form). I can't think of a reason why the picture couldn't be something you're looking at. You can use it to copy portions of a puzzle, symbols and all that. Pictur and all. Could take "snap shots" polaroids of situations or things. For fun, to gift, to fake-sell artwork
And for any of the Xerox ones. as its a static image on it. Presumably you could trace them with an actual writing utinsil and transfer the image in some fashion. (Maybe netting you advantage on say caligraphy tool or whatever for forgery)
------ I wonder if the Audio Recording is "you" only? Or if you could steahtfully use it to record 6 seconds of someone.. and basically record INTx6 second worth of someone speaking. Say a passcode, for some random door knock. I mean you could just tcopy yourself speaking while listening. But it is probably less useful without their voice.
Take a crossbow and using your tinker's tools (and a willing DM) modify it to have a shiny reflective surface of polished metal in a cone shape around where bolt lies when it's pulled back. Use magical tinkering to make some of your crossbow bolts glow giving off bright light for 5 feet and dim light for 10. Load the crossbow with a glowing bolt. The reflective surface of the cone should redirect and focus the light from going out in all directions to a single cone shaped source in front of it in a similar fashion to a how a bullseye lantern works.
Thus your magical tinkering light source gives bright light in a 10 foot cone and dim light in a 20 foot cone wherever you point your crossbow, also giving you a hands free light source (assuming your don't have darkvision). Once fired the bolt will light up wherever it strikes (assuming it sticks) which would help you see enemies better. It's a crossbow bolt that naturally draws people's eyes to your opponent, and would help you know where they are even if invisible (still lights up the environment around them). For added fun state that you "cast" (a) "guiding bolt" at your foe.
Add a "static visual effect" to a wanted poster changing the appearance to look like someone else and attempt cash in on the bounty with the wrong target. Or just add some extra zeros onto the end of the bounty. Or both. By the time you end the effect by using Magical Tinkering again, the information's likely long been filed away.
Give a nonverbal creature up to INT mod prerecorded messages it can then tap a stone and have it speak one out loud.
Hide a written message of up to 25 words of text by "erasing" it from the page thus hiding the seditious information from authorities snooping through your things at a customs check.
Lots of things you can do but it is mostly pretty situational.
Enchant a few ball bearings to emit a horrendous odor, throw em into the window or door of a room with enemies, and wait for em to have to run out....where they will run right into my flamethrower turret.
Heh. I'll just throw up the list of things I wrote out for Magical Tinkering, like...six months ago in the UA forum.
Cool Things You Can Do with Magical Tinkering:
-The Pen Light: enchant a wooden dowel with minor light Tinkering effect. Use tinker’s tools to create a small metal casing for the dowel with a thumb-actuated pivoting cap, allowing you to carry a negligible-weight point light source you can tuck behind an ear (or a horn) while doing things like picking locks in the dark or trying to read secret missives while on an infiltration job. So much more effective than candles – flick-on, flick-off, one-directional light absolutely perfect for burglary. Half my party were desperately jealous of my pen light.
-The Perfume: Enchant the broach on your cloak (or the decorative cap on your horn) to emit a pleasing scent like jasmine, cinnamon, or brimstone. Enjoy being surrounded by your favorite scent whenever you happen to be. Obvious, but still worth stating.
-The Anti-Perfume: offer to enchant the armor of the stupid fighter who charged into that hobgoblin troop dick-first and nearly got you killed yesterday with your Enhanced Defense infusion “just in case we get into hot water like that again today.” Succeed on a Deception check because your party is starting to grow wise to your shit. Instead, tinker the smell of month-old curdled milk into their armor and inform them that the next time they decide to think with their halberd instead of their brain, you’ll find a way to make it permanent. Spend the day 15 or more feet away from said fighter.
-The Decoy: enchant a throwaway object like a ball bearing (if you don’t carry a bag of ball bearings on every character you’re insane and I don’t wanna play with you) with your scent. Drop near your trail somewhere difficult to access, such as between the bricks of a nearby tavern, and buy time to get more of a lead on those damned guard hounds.
-The “Legendary Avenger”: Enchant a greatsword’s blade with minor light. Enchant the guard - which is a different part of the sword and thus qualifies as its own object, as any proper artificer knows – with the sound of a magical Power Thrum. Sell this clearly potent and magnificent weapon (it even registers as a magic item to Detect Magic spells/items!) to the smith at Podunk Road Trip Village #14 at a ‘disastrous discount’ because “its power burns my impure blood, I can’t bear to hold it any longer” and everybody’s giving you the stink-eye for being a tiefling anyways. One Deception check later, walk away with a hundred gold. And then maybe don’t go back to that village later unless you have a disguise spell… Note: it was rightly pointed out in the original thread that some DMs would take offense to this, as a sword blade is long enough that it may not qualify as 'Tiny' in their minds. Legendary Avenger with caution, then.
-The Giggity: Wake up before the Lawful Prude paladin who keeps complaining about your unbecoming conduct does, put your stealth skills to work. Enchant his underoos with the scent of fresh sex, wait for the party to get up. Act all blissed-out and silly, do not stop smiling and making eyes at said paladin while he desperately tries to explain that he didn’t so much as look at you last night and he’d never sully himself with a common slattern like you. Get Insight’d by the entire party because they are definitely wise to your shit by now, consider dipping a Rogue level because Expertise in Deception is starting to look very attractive.
-The Mindscrew: Magically tinker faint, murky fiendish murmuring (no discernible words or distinct voices? Close enough to nonverbal, at least according to the DM I pulled this on) into the favorite earring of a snooty noblewoman. Enjoy watching her squirm as ‘demons’ murmur into her ear all day, offer to investigate when she grows distraught enough to be willing to hire people to find out why the noises won’t stop. Kick that damned paladin when he blabs and not only ruins your score but puts your Deception to the test trying to get out of explaining how you got close enough to the earring to enchant it in the first place.
-The Mindscrew, Pt. II: Magically tinker the phrase “Ohhhh yeah, HARDER! YES!” with a thick put-on accent into a bureaucrat’s pen. Convince the DM that writing necessarily involves tapping the pen repeatedly. Laugh as that ******* who stiffed you on payment for that owlbear bounty because ‘you didn’t fill out a bounty acceptance form first’ gets his office searched top to bottom because they keep hearing that crazy tiefling girl Having A Good Time in there.
My artificer uses his talents when describing things to NPCs or party members. For example, the group was on an information gathering, spy operation. When the group returned, the artificer used his talents to more accurately describe and report the people, sounds, and information they had uncovered.
Thus your magical tinkering light source gives bright light in a 10 foot cone and dim light in a 20 foot cone wherever you point your crossbow, also giving you a hands free light source (assuming your don't have darkvision). Once fired the bolt will light up wherever it strikes (assuming it sticks) which would help you see enemies better. It's a crossbow bolt that naturally draws people's eyes to your opponent, and would help you know where they are even if invisible (still lights up the environment around them). For added fun state that you "cast" (a) "guiding bolt" at your foe.
So you are effectively making tracer rounds for a crossbow? I like it lol
In 3.5, our group had a habit of using light crossbows to send Sunrods into unexplored rooms, The Tinkering equivalent is much dimmer, but still good for ferreting out cave dwelling critters that might attack or run from a light source.
Record and play back some of the Bard's best riffs, make a few "repeater pedals" for to enhance their one-man-show. Or make some pious chanting background speakers for the Cleric's similar one-man-show.
Get a crossbow bolt to play the recorded sound of your party's Paladin attempting to sneak around in his full plate (scientifically proven to be the least stealthy sound a human can possibly make), have the Rogue shoot it in the opposite direction of where you're going.
Enchant the eyes of a portrait to follow the viewer, the hat on a scarecrow to make a sound of heavy breathing, all kinds of spooky stuff you can do if you're in the mood for it.
Enchant a crossbow bolt with the scent of delicious cooking meat and fire it into a hobgoblin camp to get them all clustered up looking for it before the Sorcerer's ever popular "fireball ambush" plan can begin.
In one game I play an Artificer in, the party composition was:
Bugbear Fighter 1 / Rogue(assassin) 3; fights with a bow
Hobgoblin Artificer (Artillerist) 4; fights with shield and spell-focus <--- this is my character
Loxodon Fighter (Rune Knight) 4; fights with shield and weapon
... well, we went down into a dark catacomb, and guess what? Bugbears and Hobgoblins both have Darkvision. Loxodons do not, and nobody in the party had a free hand for carrying a torch of a lantern.
So, I used Magical Tinkering to make his breastplate glow. 5' of bright light, and 5' more of dim light, isn't much - it didn't help with exploration at all. But once a fight started, and he got to melee range of someone, at least he wasn't fighting literally blind. :)
(I have since cast Continual Flame on an item of his choice, giving him a much better light radius in the dark.)
I love the idea of using Magical Tinkering to make false alarm systems in order to scare intruders, but I would suggest adding some kind of countdown to the message in an effort to force the intruder to make quick/foolish decisions.
Another thing that I think most people forget or overlook, is that while in dim light (or darkness with dark vision) a character has disadvantage on ability checks that rely on sight. Intelligence (Arcana, History, and Investigation) checks you make to decipher glyphs, examine ancient artwork/architecture, and check for trap or hidden compartments are all ability checks that rely on sight. Magical Tinkering creates the perfect light source for those kind of activities.
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Bark side up, bark side down, it really, truly does not matter.
In a current campaign, I’ve done a couple things with Magical Tinkering that were useful. First, I set up a stone to provide a dripping noise to fake a change in location for interrogations. Sell the idea of a cave when you are really in a room at the inn. DM allowed the party some advantage on the Deception or Persuasion checks for those scenes. Second, I used a serving platter to make various projections of lists or static copies of an image. Again, they worked for questioning people or to compare notes with the split party.
The Lasso of Truth: Infuse a rope with light and then with recorded messages as needed. Throw it to creatures so when they touch it your message will play informing them how you really feel about them.
Of course you'd need to multiclass into warlock but use your familiar to cast light on a stud on the enemy armor, IR or UV if the DM allows so they can't see itcand use it to tracknthem
Unfortunately, Magical Tinkering doesn't count as a spell and by RAW it can't be displaced through a familiar. Especially since it has to be done with artisan's tools.
Your artificer would also probably have to discover IR or UV light, as well as a means of seeing in that spectrum. Heh, if anybody's gonna do it it'd be an artificer, but man. That's a lot of science to fight through to get to that end result.
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So after watching Todd Talks on Youtube and seeing them struggle to come up with quick examples of magical tinkering I was kind of curious what you guys think of this first level artificer feat. The first thing I could think of was using it as a distraction, putting a sound in a stone and then throwing or making it seem it's filling a room full of gas. Then I remembered minor illusion and prestidigitation are cantrip spells (which oddly enough artificer does not get minor illusion). So can anyone think of good uses for this ability?
I like how it can send an exact message, in your voice and words. So you can leave breadcrumbs so to speak.
i used the glow version and a mirror in a tube, to fake up some flashlights/lanterns when out of oil.
in the same method, you could light up an ally's shield or weapons.
Light a marble/ballbearing and roll them down a cave, etc.
Yeah both are only 5-10feet buut its better than total darkness.
On the other hand I've glowed up some pebbles then used magic stone. (kind of a weird situation. You can't magic stone then MagTink because magtink can only be applied to "mundane" stuff, but it lasts indefinitely-and doesn't have a clause that its lost when magic occurs. The same pebbles can also just be tossed all at once non-attack and scatter light over a battle field.
Light+sound+smell could help with an ambush
My artificer made a little gear necklace for a goblin friend of the party that would exude the scent of flowers on being touched. So they wouldn't be so stinky~
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Oh that reminds me. "A static visual effect appears on one of the object’s surfaces. This effect can be a picture, up to 25 words of text, lines and shapes, or a mixture of these elements, as you like."
The "visual written words" can be used to avoid speaking things out loud. Which can be a fun way for an artificer to speak without speaking. or if they're mute (though plenty of other issues there).
Leaving directions behind for folks. Recipes. Thank you letters, goodbye letters.
can make maps actually. so you could instantly (an action) reproduce the map you're looking at. copy a note or letter you observe. I'm not sure if you could actually copy the hand writing.. that's a bit of a GM.. I think you can--because its basically amagical xerox. You make the picture form (not the written form). I can't think of a reason why the picture couldn't be something you're looking at.
You can use it to copy portions of a puzzle, symbols and all that. Pictur and all.
Could take "snap shots" polaroids of situations or things. For fun, to gift, to fake-sell artwork
And for any of the Xerox ones. as its a static image on it. Presumably you could trace them with an actual writing utinsil and transfer the image in some fashion. (Maybe netting you advantage on say caligraphy tool or whatever for forgery)
------
I wonder if the Audio Recording is "you" only? Or if you could steahtfully use it to record 6 seconds of someone.. and basically record INTx6 second worth of someone speaking. Say a passcode, for some random door knock. I mean you could just tcopy yourself speaking while listening. But it is probably less useful without their voice.
Take a crossbow and using your tinker's tools (and a willing DM) modify it to have a shiny reflective surface of polished metal in a cone shape around where bolt lies when it's pulled back. Use magical tinkering to make some of your crossbow bolts glow giving off bright light for 5 feet and dim light for 10. Load the crossbow with a glowing bolt. The reflective surface of the cone should redirect and focus the light from going out in all directions to a single cone shaped source in front of it in a similar fashion to a how a bullseye lantern works.
Thus your magical tinkering light source gives bright light in a 10 foot cone and dim light in a 20 foot cone wherever you point your crossbow, also giving you a hands free light source (assuming your don't have darkvision). Once fired the bolt will light up wherever it strikes (assuming it sticks) which would help you see enemies better. It's a crossbow bolt that naturally draws people's eyes to your opponent, and would help you know where they are even if invisible (still lights up the environment around them).
For added fun state that you "cast" (a) "guiding bolt" at your foe.
Add a "static visual effect" to a wanted poster changing the appearance to look like someone else and attempt cash in on the bounty with the wrong target. Or just add some extra zeros onto the end of the bounty. Or both. By the time you end the effect by using Magical Tinkering again, the information's likely long been filed away.
Give a nonverbal creature up to INT mod prerecorded messages it can then tap a stone and have it speak one out loud.
Hide a written message of up to 25 words of text by "erasing" it from the page thus hiding the seditious information from authorities snooping through your things at a customs check.
Lots of things you can do but it is mostly pretty situational.
Enchant a few ball bearings to emit a horrendous odor, throw em into the window or door of a room with enemies, and wait for em to have to run out....where they will run right into my flamethrower turret.
Heh. I'll just throw up the list of things I wrote out for Magical Tinkering, like...six months ago in the UA forum.
Cool Things You Can Do with Magical Tinkering:
-The Pen Light: enchant a wooden dowel with minor light Tinkering effect. Use tinker’s tools to create a small metal casing for the dowel with a thumb-actuated pivoting cap, allowing you to carry a negligible-weight point light source you can tuck behind an ear (or a horn) while doing things like picking locks in the dark or trying to read secret missives while on an infiltration job. So much more effective than candles – flick-on, flick-off, one-directional light absolutely perfect for burglary. Half my party were desperately jealous of my pen light.
-The Perfume: Enchant the broach on your cloak (or the decorative cap on your horn) to emit a pleasing scent like jasmine, cinnamon, or brimstone. Enjoy being surrounded by your favorite scent whenever you happen to be. Obvious, but still worth stating.
-The Anti-Perfume: offer to enchant the armor of the stupid fighter who charged into that hobgoblin troop dick-first and nearly got you killed yesterday with your Enhanced Defense infusion “just in case we get into hot water like that again today.” Succeed on a Deception check because your party is starting to grow wise to your shit. Instead, tinker the smell of month-old curdled milk into their armor and inform them that the next time they decide to think with their halberd instead of their brain, you’ll find a way to make it permanent. Spend the day 15 or more feet away from said fighter.
-The Decoy: enchant a throwaway object like a ball bearing (if you don’t carry a bag of ball bearings on every character you’re insane and I don’t wanna play with you) with your scent. Drop near your trail somewhere difficult to access, such as between the bricks of a nearby tavern, and buy time to get more of a lead on those damned guard hounds.
-The “Legendary Avenger”: Enchant a greatsword’s blade with minor light. Enchant the guard - which is a different part of the sword and thus qualifies as its own object, as any proper artificer knows – with the sound of a magical Power Thrum. Sell this clearly potent and magnificent weapon (it even registers as a magic item to Detect Magic spells/items!) to the smith at Podunk Road Trip Village #14 at a ‘disastrous discount’ because “its power burns my impure blood, I can’t bear to hold it any longer” and everybody’s giving you the stink-eye for being a tiefling anyways. One Deception check later, walk away with a hundred gold. And then maybe don’t go back to that village later unless you have a disguise spell…
Note: it was rightly pointed out in the original thread that some DMs would take offense to this, as a sword blade is long enough that it may not qualify as 'Tiny' in their minds. Legendary Avenger with caution, then.
-The Giggity: Wake up before the Lawful Prude paladin who keeps complaining about your unbecoming conduct does, put your stealth skills to work. Enchant his underoos with the scent of fresh sex, wait for the party to get up. Act all blissed-out and silly, do not stop smiling and making eyes at said paladin while he desperately tries to explain that he didn’t so much as look at you last night and he’d never sully himself with a common slattern like you. Get Insight’d by the entire party because they are definitely wise to your shit by now, consider dipping a Rogue level because Expertise in Deception is starting to look very attractive.
-The Mindscrew: Magically tinker faint, murky fiendish murmuring (no discernible words or distinct voices? Close enough to nonverbal, at least according to the DM I pulled this on) into the favorite earring of a snooty noblewoman. Enjoy watching her squirm as ‘demons’ murmur into her ear all day, offer to investigate when she grows distraught enough to be willing to hire people to find out why the noises won’t stop. Kick that damned paladin when he blabs and not only ruins your score but puts your Deception to the test trying to get out of explaining how you got close enough to the earring to enchant it in the first place.
-The Mindscrew, Pt. II: Magically tinker the phrase “Ohhhh yeah, HARDER! YES!” with a thick put-on accent into a bureaucrat’s pen. Convince the DM that writing necessarily involves tapping the pen repeatedly. Laugh as that ******* who stiffed you on payment for that owlbear bounty because ‘you didn’t fill out a bounty acceptance form first’ gets his office searched top to bottom because they keep hearing that crazy tiefling girl Having A Good Time in there.
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It's much easier to make an image for someone than to describe it to that person.
My artificer uses his talents when describing things to NPCs or party members. For example, the group was on an information gathering, spy operation. When the group returned, the artificer used his talents to more accurately describe and report the people, sounds, and information they had uncovered.
So you are effectively making tracer rounds for a crossbow? I like it lol
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
In 3.5, our group had a habit of using light crossbows to send Sunrods into unexplored rooms, The Tinkering equivalent is much dimmer, but still good for ferreting out cave dwelling critters that might attack or run from a light source.
Record and play back some of the Bard's best riffs, make a few "repeater pedals" for to enhance their one-man-show. Or make some pious chanting background speakers for the Cleric's similar one-man-show.
Get a crossbow bolt to play the recorded sound of your party's Paladin attempting to sneak around in his full plate (scientifically proven to be the least stealthy sound a human can possibly make), have the Rogue shoot it in the opposite direction of where you're going.
Enchant the eyes of a portrait to follow the viewer, the hat on a scarecrow to make a sound of heavy breathing, all kinds of spooky stuff you can do if you're in the mood for it.
Enchant a crossbow bolt with the scent of delicious cooking meat and fire it into a hobgoblin camp to get them all clustered up looking for it before the Sorcerer's ever popular "fireball ambush" plan can begin.
Alternatively, the best possible way, no debates end of story period, to use Magical Tinkering.
Prepare four crossbow bolts with a secret message. Fire them, one at a time, into the Big Evil Dude.
First bolt: "Hello."
Second bolt: "My name is Inigo Montoya."
Third bolt: "You killed my father."
Fourth bolt: "Prepare to die."
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Fifth bolt (someone else's voice): "Stop saying that!"
In one game I play an Artificer in, the party composition was:
... well, we went down into a dark catacomb, and guess what? Bugbears and Hobgoblins both have Darkvision. Loxodons do not, and nobody in the party had a free hand for carrying a torch of a lantern.
So, I used Magical Tinkering to make his breastplate glow. 5' of bright light, and 5' more of dim light, isn't much - it didn't help with exploration at all. But once a fight started, and he got to melee range of someone, at least he wasn't fighting literally blind. :)
(I have since cast Continual Flame on an item of his choice, giving him a much better light radius in the dark.)
I love the idea of using Magical Tinkering to make false alarm systems in order to scare intruders, but I would suggest adding some kind of countdown to the message in an effort to force the intruder to make quick/foolish decisions.
Another thing that I think most people forget or overlook, is that while in dim light (or darkness with dark vision) a character has disadvantage on ability checks that rely on sight. Intelligence (Arcana, History, and Investigation) checks you make to decipher glyphs, examine ancient artwork/architecture, and check for trap or hidden compartments are all ability checks that rely on sight. Magical Tinkering creates the perfect light source for those kind of activities.
Bark side up, bark side down, it really, truly does not matter.
In a current campaign, I’ve done a couple things with Magical Tinkering that were useful. First, I set up a stone to provide a dripping noise to fake a change in location for interrogations. Sell the idea of a cave when you are really in a room at the inn. DM allowed the party some advantage on the Deception or Persuasion checks for those scenes. Second, I used a serving platter to make various projections of lists or static copies of an image. Again, they worked for questioning people or to compare notes with the split party.
The Lasso of Truth: Infuse a rope with light and then with recorded messages as needed. Throw it to creatures so when they touch it your message will play informing them how you really feel about them.
Of course you'd need to multiclass into warlock but use your familiar to cast light on a stud on the enemy armor, IR or UV if the DM allows so they can't see itcand use it to tracknthem
Unfortunately, Magical Tinkering doesn't count as a spell and by RAW it can't be displaced through a familiar. Especially since it has to be done with artisan's tools.
Your artificer would also probably have to discover IR or UV light, as well as a means of seeing in that spectrum. Heh, if anybody's gonna do it it'd be an artificer, but man. That's a lot of science to fight through to get to that end result.
Please do not contact or message me.