I really want a good design for a homunculus that fits an my lawful good alchemist character. Really it could be almost anything, and I really just need something to kickstart my imagination at the very least, so you don't need to be too specific, but you can. I don't really want a "Mutilated creature, a Frankensteined mess of various bits of flesh" sort of thing, like I said he is a lawful good character, but I do like the uncanniness alchemist constructs can provide, so an aesthetic akin to the big daddies from Bioshock, just much smaller and with a lighter chassis, what matters to me is the bizarre shapes of their bodies, steampunk-inspired armor, and usually having various pipes, valves, or tanks at various places around their armor, it's all very welcome. Just not exactly sure how to make something like that because it's so variable.
EDIT: I came up with a better example of what I'm looking for. A wingmould from Hollow Knight, it's found in a late game area so without spoiling anything, I'll just say this: It's just a flying construct that consist of a mysterious black liquid encased in a shell. That's it. Except the wingmould in game is a glorified jumping platform, and I'm being serious. If you can come up with some creative idea to make it interesting, that be amazing.
For an alchemist, my idea is to have a blob of floating potion surrounding the gem material component. It would probably end up looking a bit like Morph from Treasure Planet. I’d use him as a spell focus by treating him like a component pouch/minor bag of holding exclusively for alchemist ingredients. To cast a spell, I’d ask him for certain ingredients, and they’d pop out of his body, then I’d mix them together in a vial to produce the effect.
Idk if this one will be akin to the armor construct you’re talking about, but for my artillerist I’m planning on having it be a sphere made of metal and wood that lets off steam and you can hear the mechanics whirring inside. It would use the gem as a sort of lens or eye to see things and record our findings (character is an archaeologist.)
for both characters I’d have the potion color and lens match the color of the gem I’d be using.
These idea's aren't original but they fit your criteria:
1. robotic flying butler, fallout style (if your note familiar with that search for a pic of Cogsworth, fallout)
2. animated items: Winged cauldron (its in the picture in Tasha's book)
Animated Broom (Disneys Fantasia style)
3. Something from your campaign, that you pick up.
I'm in the Curse of Strahd campaign at the moment, and I animated the child's discarded stuffed bear from the Dead House. Not the vibe your going for, but an example of using something from the story to more fully set your character in that narrative. Made for a nice bit of theater arranging with the DM to narrate the doll waking up and crawling out from a teammates backpack.
I play an Alchemist and I had my Hom Serv simply as a replica of my childhood doggo, except made of animated green goo. It has a little constructed skeletal frame with an encasing clasp for the gem heart, some outer plates on the unbending, greater surface areas (belly, thighs, brow and ears, bottom jaw, tail tip, etc.) and the rest was bubbling alchemical ooze with tight surface tension. Their tail spun like a 'copter to hover, they licked to heal, they sneezed their temp HP and they pee'ed their acid damage. They were like a little armoured Flubber. Haven't revisited since Artificer became official/since the homunculus took up an infusion slot, but still remember him fondly.
Hjalmar Gunderson, Vuman Alchemist Plague Doctor in a HB Campaign, Post Netherese Invasion Cormyr (lvl20 retired) Godfrey, Autognome Butler in Ghosts of Saltmarsh into Spelljammer Grímr Skeggisson, Goliath Rune Knight in Rime of the Frostmaiden DM of two HB campaigns set in the same world.
My own homunculus is a steampunk tophat, built on an intricately inlaid pearl. The pearl sits in a broach at the front of the hatband, serving as a jeweled eye (and the emitter for the homunculus' Force Blast), while a set of stitched metal-and-fabric impike wings protrude from either side of the hat, and a long, whippy tail with an inkpen nub hangs off the back. There's a bunch of skittering little spidery legs inside the hat, which normally tuck away unseen while it's being worn but which let it grip a head it's on or walk around otherwise. It's both classy ay-eff and quite horrifying.
I've seen other folks set their homunculus servants as the little flying hand-ghost doohickuses from Destiny.
Similarly to Treestrider's notion, one could have their homunculus shrouded by a veil of smoke or hazy darkness, its form never quite fully visible. All one sees are hints of pistons, gears, fluttering insectile wings, and the occasional flash of a silent, staring gem.
Theoretically, one could animate a plague doctor's mask. Have the gem inset into one eye socket in place of a lens, have the rear of the mask sealed with a shell-like plug. The critter flies around and does its thing, extruding insectoid arms and tendrils from its shell whenever it needs to act.
Really depends on how creepy you want vs. how cool you want.
Maybe you could try some creature made up of liquid glass like Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest. Or a steampunk-y mechanical version of any animal like an Octopus
My Noble Knight Golden Dragonborn Magic-user [Soc-wiz-war-Art].. LG Simply folded colorful origami paper around a heartshaped legendary trade ruby and made a tiny paper dragon "Draka" that could fly and hunt bugs with his bat familiar "Bug-eater".
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Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
For the mushroom-based Alchemist I plan to play at some point, mine is a miniature myconid that floats around by using its mushroom head in a jellyfish-like motion (I found the image that presented to be very amusing).
For the mushroom-based Alchemist I plan to play at some point, mine is a miniature myconid that floats around by using its mushroom head in a jellyfish-like motion (I found the image that presented to be very amusing).
I play a Ratfolk (Custom Origin) who is Rogue (Thief) / Artificer (2) and went for a mutated lab rat as a humo... plot twist, my Ratfolk's backstory is that he himself is a mutated experiment!
My battle smith blade singer has a mechanical gauntlet for a homunculus. It flies off of their hand and floats around during combat or scouting. They do finger guns for their force attack.
Playing as an Gnome Artificer... I have a steel defender and a humunclus servant...my steel defender stays in my bag of holdings until needed and my humunclus stays in my hat doing the help action... they are extensions of me with enough intelligence to perform tasks(they assist me in building, tinkering ect.. )...my humunclus is a small flying multi purpose spider like drone... Im hoping my gm will allow It to have bat/blind vision.. my sd is shaped like a Steel Werewolf (sharp teeth and can be a mount)
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I really want a good design for a homunculus that fits an my lawful good alchemist character. Really it could be almost anything, and I really just need something to kickstart my imagination at the very least, so you don't need to be too specific, but you can.
I don't really want a "Mutilated creature, a Frankensteined mess of various bits of flesh" sort of thing, like I said he is a lawful good character, but I do like the uncanniness alchemist constructs can provide, so an aesthetic akin to the big daddies from Bioshock, just much smaller and with a lighter chassis, what matters to me is the bizarre shapes of their bodies, steampunk-inspired armor, and usually having various pipes, valves, or tanks at various places around their armor, it's all very welcome. Just not exactly sure how to make something like that because it's so variable.
EDIT: I came up with a better example of what I'm looking for. A wingmould from Hollow Knight, it's found in a late game area so without spoiling anything, I'll just say this: It's just a flying construct that consist of a mysterious black liquid encased in a shell. That's it. Except the wingmould in game is a glorified jumping platform, and I'm being serious. If you can come up with some creative idea to make it interesting, that be amazing.
Thank you and I'm anxious to hear your ideas.
For an alchemist, my idea is to have a blob of floating potion surrounding the gem material component. It would probably end up looking a bit like Morph from Treasure Planet. I’d use him as a spell focus by treating him like a component pouch/minor bag of holding exclusively for alchemist ingredients. To cast a spell, I’d ask him for certain ingredients, and they’d pop out of his body, then I’d mix them together in a vial to produce the effect.
Idk if this one will be akin to the armor construct you’re talking about, but for my artillerist I’m planning on having it be a sphere made of metal and wood that lets off steam and you can hear the mechanics whirring inside. It would use the gem as a sort of lens or eye to see things and record our findings (character is an archaeologist.)
for both characters I’d have the potion color and lens match the color of the gem I’d be using.
These idea's aren't original but they fit your criteria:
1. robotic flying butler, fallout style (if your note familiar with that search for a pic of Cogsworth, fallout)
2. animated items: Winged cauldron (its in the picture in Tasha's book)
Animated Broom (Disneys Fantasia style)
3. Something from your campaign, that you pick up.
I'm in the Curse of Strahd campaign at the moment, and I animated the child's discarded stuffed bear from the Dead House. Not the vibe your going for, but an example of using something from the story to more fully set your character in that narrative. Made for a nice bit of theater arranging with the DM to narrate the doll waking up and crawling out from a teammates backpack.
I play an Alchemist and I had my Hom Serv simply as a replica of my childhood doggo, except made of animated green goo. It has a little constructed skeletal frame with an encasing clasp for the gem heart, some outer plates on the unbending, greater surface areas (belly, thighs, brow and ears, bottom jaw, tail tip, etc.) and the rest was bubbling alchemical ooze with tight surface tension. Their tail spun like a 'copter to hover, they licked to heal, they sneezed their temp HP and they pee'ed their acid damage. They were like a little armoured Flubber. Haven't revisited since Artificer became official/since the homunculus took up an infusion slot, but still remember him fondly.
Hjalmar Gunderson, Vuman Alchemist Plague Doctor in a HB Campaign, Post Netherese Invasion Cormyr (lvl20 retired)
Godfrey, Autognome Butler in Ghosts of Saltmarsh into Spelljammer
Grímr Skeggisson, Goliath Rune Knight in Rime of the Frostmaiden
DM of two HB campaigns set in the same world.
My own homunculus is a steampunk tophat, built on an intricately inlaid pearl. The pearl sits in a broach at the front of the hatband, serving as a jeweled eye (and the emitter for the homunculus' Force Blast), while a set of stitched metal-and-fabric impike wings protrude from either side of the hat, and a long, whippy tail with an inkpen nub hangs off the back. There's a bunch of skittering little spidery legs inside the hat, which normally tuck away unseen while it's being worn but which let it grip a head it's on or walk around otherwise. It's both classy ay-eff and quite horrifying.
I've seen other folks set their homunculus servants as the little flying hand-ghost doohickuses from Destiny.
Similarly to Treestrider's notion, one could have their homunculus shrouded by a veil of smoke or hazy darkness, its form never quite fully visible. All one sees are hints of pistons, gears, fluttering insectile wings, and the occasional flash of a silent, staring gem.
Theoretically, one could animate a plague doctor's mask. Have the gem inset into one eye socket in place of a lens, have the rear of the mask sealed with a shell-like plug. The critter flies around and does its thing, extruding insectoid arms and tendrils from its shell whenever it needs to act.
Really depends on how creepy you want vs. how cool you want.
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Maybe you could try some creature made up of liquid glass like Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest. Or a steampunk-y mechanical version of any animal like an Octopus
Perhaps a steampunk version of an animal that uses some sort of liquid for defense? (Octopus, skunk, scorpion, etc).
My Noble Knight Golden Dragonborn Magic-user [Soc-wiz-war-Art].. LG Simply folded colorful origami paper around a heartshaped legendary trade ruby and made a tiny paper dragon "Draka" that could fly and hunt bugs with his bat familiar "Bug-eater".
Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
For the mushroom-based Alchemist I plan to play at some point, mine is a miniature myconid that floats around by using its mushroom head in a jellyfish-like motion (I found the image that presented to be very amusing).
I have these links saved for my Steel Defender. No reason it can't inspire a homunculus, too:
https://www.andrewchase.com
http://nozomu-shibata.com
Do you remember the movie Flubber? It could be that. A sentient blob
I have a spore druid who has that.
I play a Ratfolk (Custom Origin) who is Rogue (Thief) / Artificer (2) and went for a mutated lab rat as a humo... plot twist, my Ratfolk's backstory is that he himself is a mutated experiment!
My Battlesmith Artificer’s homunculus is a feywild inspired tinkered metallic moth the size of his forearm with an energy beam for its force attack.
My battle smith blade singer has a mechanical gauntlet for a homunculus. It flies off of their hand and floats around during combat or scouting. They do finger guns for their force attack.
I'm starting a campaign tomorrow with an armorer. My homunculus is going to be a mechanical wasp. I'll cast various spells through it's stinger.
Playing as an Gnome Artificer... I have a steel defender and a humunclus servant...my steel defender stays in my bag of holdings until needed and my humunclus stays in my hat doing the help action... they are extensions of me with enough intelligence to perform tasks(they assist me in building, tinkering ect.. )...my humunclus is a small flying multi purpose spider like drone... Im hoping my gm will allow It to have bat/blind vision.. my sd is shaped like a Steel Werewolf (sharp teeth and can be a mount)