I'm trying to build a halfling/goblin/gnome artificer who rides around in a Medium sized mecha, and I'm have a hard time deciding between these two subclasses for which would be the best to accomplish this goal. Either way, I'm going to have to do some convincing with my DM, so I'm looking for the strongest argument I can possibly make here.
Armorer - This initially seemed like a shoe-in, and in fact, I wasn't even considering the Battle Smith at first. Turn some heavy armor into Arcane Armor and done; it's a spellcasting focus, I can swap between close-range brawler or long-range artillery each day, and I can hop in or out of it (don and doff) at a moment's notice. I'm also properly inside the armor, which means I get the full benefit of the AC inside it. Except without using Enlarge/Reduce (which might not even fix the problem), I'm more of an Iron Man than a MechWarrior, which is totally awesome but not the fantasy I'm going for here.
Battle Smith - As a Small creature, I can easily ride the Medium sized Steel Defender into battle and dedicate my bonus actions to it's combat abilities, and as a separate creature with stats and abilities, it feels more like a mech than magical armor does. On the con side though, "riding" is not the same as "piloting," and even if this is viable, my character being separate from the armor means that I'm just as squishy inside as I am outside of it. Mounting and dismounting takes longer and I wouldn't necessarily be able to cast spells through it, but I feel like those can probably be worked around over time.
There's plenty of threads about riding a Steel Defender, though I've not seen anything about it being used specifically like this. And for the Armorer, it might best to just argue that I'd count as a Medium creature while in the Arcane Armor, but what are the consequences of that if any?
Why would you count as a medium creature while in arcane armor? You are a small creature so would wear small armor. Also, I don't see the advantage of hopping in and out of your armor.
I run an Armorer and it is a ton of fun, but your dm would have to completely houserule it to make it feel like a mech rider.
Because you can "shape" your Steel Defender as a Battle Smith, you could totally make it look/feel like mech armor with most DMs. No, you wouldn't get bonus AC from it, but you do get the benefit of it's special ability which feels similar. Getting out of it would just take movement. In quickly might take an acrobatics check. It shouldn't interfere with your ability to cast spells.
Steel defender can look like a mecha and being medium sized a small pc riding/mounting it can still be flavored as you being inside of it. Take mounted combatant feat. Flavor your artificer spells and build your character abilities outside the mech accordingly to synergize your partnership. Think titanfall titan and pilot. Flavor your homunculus servant infusion as a ghost from destiny. It's pretty rad. However If you take Armourer use reborn pc race and be a semi sentient mecha suit and flavor your homunculus servant as the pilot and just roleplay it as your "character" that gets in and out of the suit during non combat or roll the dice and fight alongside your mecha. It will be squishy outside the suit but isn't that the point of piloting a big mech so the suit makes them not squishy.
Armorer would work better only if your DM allows you to homebrew allowing you to have your armor be medium sized. It's something I've seen before... but it's still homebrew.
I feel like Battlesmith doesn't quite work as well, because you're more or less riding on top of your Steel Defender. You can't really give a Steel Defender a cockpit without getting into even more homebrew than just having larger armor.
Technically since the armorer’s arcane armor can include or create artificial limbs if needed there is really no reason your armor couldn’t be designed as medium or even large with you encased in it and your limbs controlling the actions of the suit giving you the mecha you want without a problem. But you will need your DM’s agreement but I see nothing in the rules prohibiting it.
My favorite build for this is actually armorer. I make my race reborn/construct flavoring my homonculus servant as the mecha's pilot and roleplay them as a symbiotic pair. I flavored my homonculus to appear like a short halfling in shape but wearing a suit that hides the fact that it is also a construct. Having fly speed reflavored as wall running double jumping etc... My PC looks like a 7'8" mech. Armorer allows your pc/mecha to have both a ranged weapon and melee weapon and the homonculus ranged attack can be flavored as a rifle or hand gun etc ....Its basically titanfall and pilot. Its basically how you want to roleplay as a mech, pilot or a pilot and mech
I have a goblin armorer with the same concept and it's probably my favorite character. Having his armor be medium sized for flavor only doesn't change anything. He's not running around wielding a great weapon anyway.
Could you go one step further and be a tiny creature like a fairy or something? so it feels more like a jaeger or gundom… I just like the idea of like a whole scene of you synchronizing putting the attachment to your spine it all powers on and it’s like a medium sized mech in a tavern with the part bard chilling
Rune Knight Fighter fits perfectly in my opinion with the Mech User type character with Giant's Might. The runes could be mech modifications, and Giant's Might a mech.
After level 3 in rune knight, you could multiclass into Artificer and take Booming Blade (booming blade is so you don't lag too much behind when classes reach level 5 for Extra Attack) if you want to be an artificer, then a subclass like Armorer or Artillerist could work well
I can see either one of the Armorer/Battle Smith, but I really love the idea of starting 1st level as fighter then 3 Artificer and another 2 fighter, it seems like a really cool synergy and the fighter (rune knight) ability’s in conjunction with a mech seems cool af.
Since the armor can function in stead of limbs, I don’t see why it cannot be medium while you are small. If you don’t have to manually move part of the armor and you can control it like a limb, it works! Also, it just seems the most like a mech suit to me in regard to you being inside of it
If you wear you mech suit like an open-faced sandwich, then you can use the steel defender.
The size issue is pretty much the same for both.
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Hey all!
I'm trying to build a halfling/goblin/gnome artificer who rides around in a Medium sized mecha, and I'm have a hard time deciding between these two subclasses for which would be the best to accomplish this goal. Either way, I'm going to have to do some convincing with my DM, so I'm looking for the strongest argument I can possibly make here.
Armorer - This initially seemed like a shoe-in, and in fact, I wasn't even considering the Battle Smith at first. Turn some heavy armor into Arcane Armor and done; it's a spellcasting focus, I can swap between close-range brawler or long-range artillery each day, and I can hop in or out of it (don and doff) at a moment's notice. I'm also properly inside the armor, which means I get the full benefit of the AC inside it. Except without using Enlarge/Reduce (which might not even fix the problem), I'm more of an Iron Man than a MechWarrior, which is totally awesome but not the fantasy I'm going for here.
Battle Smith - As a Small creature, I can easily ride the Medium sized Steel Defender into battle and dedicate my bonus actions to it's combat abilities, and as a separate creature with stats and abilities, it feels more like a mech than magical armor does. On the con side though, "riding" is not the same as "piloting," and even if this is viable, my character being separate from the armor means that I'm just as squishy inside as I am outside of it. Mounting and dismounting takes longer and I wouldn't necessarily be able to cast spells through it, but I feel like those can probably be worked around over time.
There's plenty of threads about riding a Steel Defender, though I've not seen anything about it being used specifically like this. And for the Armorer, it might best to just argue that I'd count as a Medium creature while in the Arcane Armor, but what are the consequences of that if any?
Why would you count as a medium creature while in arcane armor? You are a small creature so would wear small armor. Also, I don't see the advantage of hopping in and out of your armor.
I run an Armorer and it is a ton of fun, but your dm would have to completely houserule it to make it feel like a mech rider.
Because you can "shape" your Steel Defender as a Battle Smith, you could totally make it look/feel like mech armor with most DMs. No, you wouldn't get bonus AC from it, but you do get the benefit of it's special ability which feels similar. Getting out of it would just take movement. In quickly might take an acrobatics check. It shouldn't interfere with your ability to cast spells.
Steel defender can look like a mecha and being medium sized a small pc riding/mounting it can still be flavored as you being inside of it. Take mounted combatant feat. Flavor your artificer spells and build your character abilities outside the mech accordingly to synergize your partnership. Think titanfall titan and pilot. Flavor your homunculus servant infusion as a ghost from destiny. It's pretty rad. However If you take Armourer use reborn pc race and be a semi sentient mecha suit and flavor your homunculus servant as the pilot and just roleplay it as your "character" that gets in and out of the suit during non combat or roll the dice and fight alongside your mecha. It will be squishy outside the suit but isn't that the point of piloting a big mech so the suit makes them not squishy.
Armorer would work better only if your DM allows you to homebrew allowing you to have your armor be medium sized. It's something I've seen before... but it's still homebrew.
I feel like Battlesmith doesn't quite work as well, because you're more or less riding on top of your Steel Defender. You can't really give a Steel Defender a cockpit without getting into even more homebrew than just having larger armor.
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Technically since the armorer’s arcane armor can include or create artificial limbs if needed there is really no reason your armor couldn’t be designed as medium or even large with you encased in it and your limbs controlling the actions of the suit giving you the mecha you want without a problem. But you will need your DM’s agreement but I see nothing in the rules prohibiting it.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
My favorite build for this is actually armorer. I make my race reborn/construct flavoring my homonculus servant as the mecha's pilot and roleplay them as a symbiotic pair. I flavored my homonculus to appear like a short halfling in shape but wearing a suit that hides the fact that it is also a construct. Having fly speed reflavored as wall running double jumping etc... My PC looks like a 7'8" mech. Armorer allows your pc/mecha to have both a ranged weapon and melee weapon and the homonculus ranged attack can be flavored as a rifle or hand gun etc ....Its basically titanfall and pilot. Its basically how you want to roleplay as a mech, pilot or a pilot and mech
I have a goblin armorer with the same concept and it's probably my favorite character. Having his armor be medium sized for flavor only doesn't change anything. He's not running around wielding a great weapon anyway.
Could you go one step further and be a tiny creature like a fairy or something? so it feels more like a jaeger or gundom… I just like the idea of like a whole scene of you synchronizing putting the attachment to your spine it all powers on and it’s like a medium sized mech in a tavern with the part bard chilling
Alright hot take time... Rune Knight.
Rune Knight Fighter fits perfectly in my opinion with the Mech User type character with Giant's Might. The runes could be mech modifications, and Giant's Might a mech.
After level 3 in rune knight, you could multiclass into Artificer and take Booming Blade (booming blade is so you don't lag too much behind when classes reach level 5 for Extra Attack) if you want to be an artificer, then a subclass like Armorer or Artillerist could work well
Rune Knight + Armorer.
*Power Ranger guitars intensify*
I kinda agree with _nano but there isn't enough runes to make this as viable as an artificer
'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.'
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn’t stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.'-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Stay sharp, always carry a dagger and never deal with a devil (except for me, of course).
I can see either one of the Armorer/Battle Smith, but I really love the idea of starting 1st level as fighter then 3 Artificer and another 2 fighter, it seems like a really cool synergy and the fighter (rune knight) ability’s in conjunction with a mech seems cool af.
Do you mind if go build this character myself?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTo1fodv8VM
'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.'
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn’t stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.'-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Stay sharp, always carry a dagger and never deal with a devil (except for me, of course).
Since the armor can function in stead of limbs, I don’t see why it cannot be medium while you are small. If you don’t have to manually move part of the armor and you can control it like a limb, it works! Also, it just seems the most like a mech suit to me in regard to you being inside of it
If you wear you mech suit like an open-faced sandwich, then you can use the steel defender.
The size issue is pretty much the same for both.