The PC is stealing from the party? That's a problem that should be dealt with out of character, as that's seriously disruptive behavior on the player's part.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I kind of like Magical Tinkering; it's really more of a flavour feature than something core to how the class works (we get spellcasting with cantrips at 1st level, everything else is a bonus). But here's a quick rundown of the effects and how I've used some of them:
5 foot light: I think the classic for this is to put it on a few stones and then throw them into a dark area to test its limits, see how deep a chasm is and so-on; it's important to remember that while the area of light it creates is small, even a weak light source should still be reasonably visible from a distance. It's also an option for pulling a quick con (make something glow a bit so it seems magical); while I prefer for NPCs to not be too gullible, sometimes just getting them to consider an offer is enough of a distraction if your rogue friend is robbing them blind in the background.
Recorded message: Putting an insulting message on a rock or ammunition and then hitting someone with it is a favourite of mine, though it requires your DM to allow hitting a person to count as them "tapping" it. My new character is a gnome so has the clockwork gizmos trait which could combo nicely, as he can put a distracting message on a clockwork toy, set it off in the direction of some guards and when one of them picks it up and taps it it starts insulting their mother or whatever. Another idea I've had is if you meet someone in an office and observe them, you might pick up on things they "tap" like the edge of their desk, armrest on a chair and so-on; you can then return and put messages on these to exploit paranoia (messages in their head warning them of danger) or just try to gaslight them if they start complaining about hearing voices.
Continuous odor or sound: Unpleasant smells or sounds (or both) to annoy and distract, a pleasant smell on a mask for delving into sewers, impromptu smelling salts? I mostly just use it to spoil people's drinks (as an Artificer's limited cantrips make it harder for me to take my favourite spell, Prestidigitation to do this).
Static visual effect: I like this for leaving messages, ideal if you have an unusual language in common with one or more fellow party members, or you can teach some cryptic symbols (like shadowmarks in Skyrim and similar ideas). This is also good if you want to communicate silently, or while talking about something else (if you think you might have an eavesdropper or know the location of a scrying orb).
So yeah, it's mostly just annoyance and distraction, with a couple of utility cases I'd use Prestidigitation for if I could fit it into my spell picks (so this feature is handy in that it means I don't need to choose). It's not the most frequently used or obviously powerful feature, but it adds a bunch of flavour; which is why it's a gravy feature on top of spellcasting 😉
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Magical tinkering does require an action. You need thieves' tools or artisan's tools in hand and you need to touch an object to apply a property to it.
Magical tinkering has two ways to end a property on an object:
As an action, you can touch the object and end the property.
Try to exceed your maximum number of objects. The oldest property you have currently applied will then end, regardless of where the object bearing that property is or how far away it is from you.
Using magical tinkering to communicate across long distances uses the 2nd method of ending a property.
I have actually been wracking my brain for things that can be done with magical tinkering. This may be up to a DM but I was thinking that magical tinkering tan be added to an item that can act as it's own object but that can be inserted into something else to alter it's properties.
For example, Lets say you create an object that can shed light in 5 feet, maybe a piece of quartz. Then using artisan tools, one can spend time fashioning a cylindrical shaped lantern with a concave mirror on one end of the lantern and a fresnel lense on the other. Add shutters so that the light can be "shut off", as well as sliding shutters on the sides so that the lantern can be used in the traditional sense.
What this would achieve that depending on which shutters you have open you either have the ability to use the light with bright light for 5 feet and dim light for ten feet, or you can use it as a directional spot light that can shine directional light in one direction at a much smaller radius maybe 1 foot radius but much farther.
The main issue that I can see with that is that it could potentially bend the rule of "a single object can only bear one property at a time", as in, what's to stop an artificer to take two objects that have been tinkered with in such a way and just adhering them together into one object?
But I guess at the end of the day that's for a GM to decide and a player to come up with a convincing enough design to justify such a thing I guess.
Edit: and also with the limited number of magical tinkering uses, you are still limited in complexity of a device if you end up combining several objects into a single machine.
Edit2: come to think of it, with that lantern idea someone with a light spell could cast it on a similarly sized stone and then you got yourself one hell of a spot light
Something that came to mind after reading a different thread: using the voice record function to simulate those buttons used in the dog videos. A pet in your party is trained to tap it and they can "speak" to you.
Or i'm sure a DM would be ok with creating a drum set for a bard. That would be pretty cool.
My favorite is a static visual effect: "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."
Get a hold of any document with a signature, look at a document and then touch a blank piece of paper (tiny mundane item) and capture only the signature, seal, and name of the person who signed it (combination of picture and 25 words). Then use calligraphy tools from Right Tool for the Job class feature to write whatever you want in the body of the document and seal it is using the image of the signer's seal as a guide.
Invitations to a party like the Kings ball...
Documentation showing you have clearance to be somewhere you normally wouldn't have access to.
Provide orders to a guard that their commanding officer is reassigning them.
If your game has a banking system, you now have a blank check to cash against someone else's account and should by all rights pass a deception check as it is an exact copy of the signature and seal (if present).
Several uses from me: Odor or sound is great for confusing creatures with Advantage checks made with hearing or smell. Great for distracting tracking / guard dogs. Also, a stone that is continually screaming will make it much harder to hear the soft footfalls of an invisible character moving away. Nothing says how detailed the visual image is. So it is essentially a polaroid camera. Great for spy/infiltration missions. Static message is a great way for your homonculus to communicate- just record a litany of common phrases and when the object speaks the correct phrase, it indicates so.
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The PC is stealing from the party? That's a problem that should be dealt with out of character, as that's seriously disruptive behavior on the player's part.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Nah, he's just a thief in need of a good practical joke ;)
I kind of like Magical Tinkering; it's really more of a flavour feature than something core to how the class works (we get spellcasting with cantrips at 1st level, everything else is a bonus). But here's a quick rundown of the effects and how I've used some of them:
So yeah, it's mostly just annoyance and distraction, with a couple of utility cases I'd use Prestidigitation for if I could fit it into my spell picks (so this feature is handy in that it means I don't need to choose). It's not the most frequently used or obviously powerful feature, but it adds a bunch of flavour; which is why it's a gravy feature on top of spellcasting 😉
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Magical tinkering requires an action and the item needs to be maximum ten feet away though?
So... I think you're replying to this post?
Magical tinkering does require an action. You need thieves' tools or artisan's tools in hand and you need to touch an object to apply a property to it.
Magical tinkering has two ways to end a property on an object:
Using magical tinkering to communicate across long distances uses the 2nd method of ending a property.
I have actually been wracking my brain for things that can be done with magical tinkering. This may be up to a DM but I was thinking that magical tinkering tan be added to an item that can act as it's own object but that can be inserted into something else to alter it's properties.
For example, Lets say you create an object that can shed light in 5 feet, maybe a piece of quartz. Then using artisan tools, one can spend time fashioning a cylindrical shaped lantern with a concave mirror on one end of the lantern and a fresnel lense on the other. Add shutters so that the light can be "shut off", as well as sliding shutters on the sides so that the lantern can be used in the traditional sense.
What this would achieve that depending on which shutters you have open you either have the ability to use the light with bright light for 5 feet and dim light for ten feet, or you can use it as a directional spot light that can shine directional light in one direction at a much smaller radius maybe 1 foot radius but much farther.
The main issue that I can see with that is that it could potentially bend the rule of "a single object can only bear one property at a time", as in, what's to stop an artificer to take two objects that have been tinkered with in such a way and just adhering them together into one object?
But I guess at the end of the day that's for a GM to decide and a player to come up with a convincing enough design to justify such a thing I guess.
Edit: and also with the limited number of magical tinkering uses, you are still limited in complexity of a device if you end up combining several objects into a single machine.
Edit2: come to think of it, with that lantern idea someone with a light spell could cast it on a similarly sized stone and then you got yourself one hell of a spot light
Something that came to mind after reading a different thread: using the voice record function to simulate those buttons used in the dog videos. A pet in your party is trained to tap it and they can "speak" to you.
Or i'm sure a DM would be ok with creating a drum set for a bard. That would be pretty cool.
My favorite is a static visual effect: "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."
Get a hold of any document with a signature, look at a document and then touch a blank piece of paper (tiny mundane item) and capture only the signature, seal, and name of the person who signed it (combination of picture and 25 words). Then use calligraphy tools from Right Tool for the Job class feature to write whatever you want in the body of the document and seal it is using the image of the signer's seal as a guide.
Before MotM my kenku would use the 25 word surface as their communications slate
Several uses from me:
Odor or sound is great for confusing creatures with Advantage checks made with hearing or smell. Great for distracting tracking / guard dogs. Also, a stone that is continually screaming will make it much harder to hear the soft footfalls of an invisible character moving away.
Nothing says how detailed the visual image is. So it is essentially a polaroid camera. Great for spy/infiltration missions.
Static message is a great way for your homonculus to communicate- just record a litany of common phrases and when the object speaks the correct phrase, it indicates so.