I mostly agree with IamSposta. I balanced the genade damage assuming they would be throwing less than 1/round on average until ~level 9, but giving them the option to nova with 2 bombs in one round if they want to. Remember they also have all their spells and cantrips they can use as well so 1 bomb as a bonus action per round + a cantrip still puts them ahead damage-wise of any other Artificer. Replacing the lightning grenade with something else more focused on conditions rather than damage also makes a lot of sense (Armourer is already your ranged-lightning DPR artificer) - a glue bomb that traps enemies, a cold bomb that does some damage and slows them, a flash bang that temporarily blinds them are all much more interesting options than just damage.
I also agree about the turret, I only left it in b/c I recall the character you are basing it on has turrets. TBH you could probably make a decent mimic of that character just using the Artillerist subclass that exists already just with some reflavouring.
I disagree about the distance of the launcher, I kept it relatively short range to keep the element of danger of blowing yourself up which I think is a neat thematic element, plus it gives them a more unique play style of darting around the edge of the battle rather than being another ranged blaster (plus it gave the turret a reason to exist) which I think reflects the original character (not sure I don’t pkay overwatch).
I don’t play over watch either, I can’t stand the graphics. I can see keeping the launcher shorter ranged, but I would still kill the turret and replace it with something more unique.
Lol, I don’t think I used the phrase “camel buttocks.” However, this is more how I would do it:
Arcane Explosives
3rd-level Grenadier feature
You can make special devices known as arcane explosives. Whenever you finish a short or long rest you can create a number of explosives equal to your Proficiency bonus. As an action you can create an additional arcane explosive in your empty hand by spending a spell slot of 1st-level or higher. Creating arcane explosives requires you to have either alchemist's supplies or tinker's tools on your person. Each arcane explosive is unstable, and becomes inert whenever you finish your next short or long rest.
An arcane explosive is a Tiny object with AC 10 and 1 hit point. It is a ranged weapon with the thrown property and a range of 20/60, it deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, and you use your Intelligence modifier for the attack and damage rolls. If another creature throws one of your explosives, it instead uses its own Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. Hit or mis, the explosive then detonated.
As an action you can use an arcane explosive by either throwing it or attaching it to a solid surface. When you do so, choose one type of arcane explosive from the Arcane Explosives list below. When the explosive detonates, it releases the effect associated with the type of explosive chosen. A thrown explosive detonates immediately after the attack is resolved, hit or miss. A placed explosive detonates whenever a Small or larger creature moves within 5 feet of it. An arcane explosive also detonates when it is destroyed. Each arcane explosive requires creatures within the area of effect to make a saving throw, the DC equals your Artificer spell save DC.
Arcane Explosives
Blast. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosive when it detonates must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d6 fire damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage on a success.
Poison. Creatures within 5 feet of the explosive when it detonates must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 2d8 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of your next turn on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage and is not poisoned on a success.
Smoke. Black smoke fills a 10 ft radius sphere around the point of detonation, the area is heavily obscured. and any creature within the smoke must make a Constitution saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns or be blinded until the beginning of its next turn. A strong wind (20 miles/hour) will dissipate the smoke after 1 round, otherwise the smoke lasts for 1 minute.
Glue. Creatures within 5 feet of the explosive when it detonates must succeed at a Strength saving throw or be restrained for up to 1 minute. A creature within 5 feet of a restrained creature can make a Strength check against your artificer spell save DC, freeing that creature on a success.
Flashbang. Creatures within 10 5 feet of the explosive when it detonates must succeed at a Constitution saving throw or be stunnedblindedfor 1d4 rounds until the end of your next turn. A creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Arcane Launcher
5th-level Grenadier feature
You have learned how to create a small, portable launcher for your explosives which you can carry in one-hand. You can use this launcher to hurl one of your arcane explosives, increasing its range to 30/90 feet. You can also use your Arcane Launcher as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells.
Improved Explosives
9th-level Grenadier feature
You have become much more efficient at making explosives. You can now create an arcane explosive as a bonus action by expending a spell slot of 1st-level or higher.
In addition, you have also learned how to create more potent explosives:
Improved Arcane Explosives
Blast. Creatures within 15 feet of the explosive when it detonates must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 5d6 fire damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage on a success.
Poison. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosive when it detonates must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of your next turn on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage and is not poisoned on a success.
Smoke. Black smoke fills a 20 ft radius sphere around the point of detonation, the area is heavily obscured. and any creature within the smoke must make a Constitution saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns or be blinded until the beginning of its next turn. A strong wind (20 miles/hour) will dissipate the smoke after 1 round, otherwise the smoke lasts for 1 minute.
Glue. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosive when it detonates must succeed at a Strength saving throw or be restrained for up to 1 minute. A creature within 5 feet of a restrained creature can make a Strength check against your artificer spell save DC, freeing that creature on a success.
Flashbang. Creatures within 10 feet of the explosive when it detonates must succeed at a Constitution saving throw or be stunnedblinded for 2d4 1d4 rounds. A creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Improved Launcher
15th-level Grenadier feature
You have developed improvements to your mines and launcher. Whenever you place an arcane explosive on a surface, creatures other than you must succeed at a Wisdom (Perception) check against a DC equal to your artificer spell save DC to spot the explosive. In addition, whenever you use your explosives launcher to hurl an explosive you can instead hurl two explosives at the target instead of one, they can be different explosives.
Now, you may want to tweak certain aspects of it. Like, perhaps using Agilemind‘s suggestion of having the launcher work as a bonus action at 5th level instead of my suggestion to create the explosives as a bonus action at 9th level. And you may want to put in something about being able to exclude creatures of your choice from the explosions so you don’t accidentally gib a team mate or something. And I’m sure even my language could be tighter on revision. But overall that’s👆a solid rough draft of how I would consider writing it.
My main critique of the above is that stunned is EXTREMELY powerful. AoE stunned is not a player option anywhere even for very high level spells. That 100% needs to be replaced by blinded instead, and even then blinded > poisoned so I would also limit it to 1 round, otherwise pretty much all the other grenade options are false-choices b/c the flashbang is just infinitely better than them in all circumstances. Similarly I would definitely remove the blindness from the Smoke grenade because that makes it impossible for you to use it for utility to help your party.
My main critique of the above is that stunned is EXTREMELY powerful. AoE stunned is not a player option anywhere even for very high level spells. That 100% needs to be replaced by blinded instead, and even then blinded > poisoned so I would also limit it to 1 round, otherwise pretty much all the other grenade options are false-choices b/c the flashbang is just infinitely better than them in all circumstances. Similarly I would definitely remove the blindness from the Smoke grenade because that makes it impossible for you to use it for utility to help your party.
That’s fair. Like I said, it’s just a “rough draft.” It isn’t even a fully fleshed out first draft with flavor text yet, it’s apparently not even ready for playtesting yet. But you can see what I meant about the wording, can’t you? It reads more like official conte t this way.
This is fantastic! I have a question though, how does shooting an AOE bomb have a long range, long range imposes disadvantage on the roll, but with AOE’s you normally don’t roll to hit. I am probably missing something however.
Edit: Also do you think it’s possible to have a way to plant an arcane explosive as an action and blow it up from range as a bonus action? Or is that over the top
This is fantastic! I have a question though, how does shooting an AOE bomb have a long range, long range imposes disadvantage on the roll, but with AOE’s you normally don’t roll to hit. I am probably missing something however.
Edit: Also do you think it’s possible to have a way to plant an arcane explosive as an action and blow it up from range as a bonus action? Or is that over the top
Having the bombs explode if they take damage covers this in a more flexible and IMO logical way: You plant it as an action then you or someone else hits it with an arrow or a cantrip to set it off.
This is fantastic! I have a question though, how does shooting an AOE bomb have a long range, long range imposes disadvantage on the roll, but with AOE’s you normally don’t roll to hit. I am probably missing something however.
Edit: Also do you think it’s possible to have a way to plant an arcane explosive as an action and blow it up from range as a bonus action? Or is that over the top
Thank you. I’m glad you like it.
You throw/launch the explosive and it does 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, after it hits or misses it then explodes and they have to save against the explosion. Sorry, I could have made that clearer. (See, rough draft).
That shouldn’t be OP, it would only matter if someone was within the 10 ft blast range, but not within 5 ft to set it off themself. I would probably do it as a bonus action instead of an action though. But frankly, as Agilemind pointed out, you could also always just shoot it. More cinematic that way too.
Also I found a small note on the glue bomb. If you target a single creature, they are stuck forever-
Why? The glue only lasts for up to 1 minute, and a creature is always “a creature within 5 feet” of itself, so any creature can attempt to free itself from the glue.
This is fantastic! I have a question though, how does shooting an AOE bomb have a long range, long range imposes disadvantage on the roll, but with AOE’s you normally don’t roll to hit. I am probably missing something however.
Edit: Also do you think it’s possible to have a way to plant an arcane explosive as an action and blow it up from range as a bonus action? Or is that over the top
Thank you. I’m glad you like it.
You throw/launch the explosive and it does 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, after it hits or misses it then explodes and they have to save against the explosion. Sorry, I could have made that clearer. (See, rough draft).
That shouldn’t be OP, it would only matter if someone was within the 10 ft blast range, but not within 5 ft to set it off themself. I would probably do it as a bonus action instead of an action though. But frankly, as Agilemind pointed out, you could also always just shoot it. More cinematic that way too.
Also I found a small note on the glue bomb. If you target a single creature, they are stuck forever-
Why? The glue only lasts for up to 1 minute, and a creature is always “a creature within 5 feet” of itself, so any creature can attempt to free itself from the glue.
Oops missed the 1 minute part on the glue.
so confirming. The hit or the miss basically determines whether they take an addition d4 of damage before blowing up?
I mostly agree with IamSposta. I balanced the genade damage assuming they would be throwing less than 1/round on average until ~level 9, but giving them the option to nova with 2 bombs in one round if they want to. Remember they also have all their spells and cantrips they can use as well so 1 bomb as a bonus action per round + a cantrip still puts them ahead damage-wise of any other Artificer. Replacing the lightning grenade with something else more focused on conditions rather than damage also makes a lot of sense (Armourer is already your ranged-lightning DPR artificer) - a glue bomb that traps enemies, a cold bomb that does some damage and slows them, a flash bang that temporarily blinds them are all much more interesting options than just damage.
I also agree about the turret, I only left it in b/c I recall the character you are basing it on has turrets. TBH you could probably make a decent mimic of that character just using the Artillerist subclass that exists already just with some reflavouring.
I disagree about the distance of the launcher, I kept it relatively short range to keep the element of danger of blowing yourself up which I think is a neat thematic element, plus it gives them a more unique play style of darting around the edge of the battle rather than being another ranged blaster (plus it gave the turret a reason to exist) which I think reflects the original character (not sure I don’t pkay overwatch).
I don’t play over watch either, I can’t stand the graphics. I can see keeping the launcher shorter ranged, but I would still kill the turret and replace it with something more unique.
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Lol, I don’t think I used the phrase “camel buttocks.” However, this is more how I would do it:
Now, you may want to tweak certain aspects of it. Like, perhaps using Agilemind‘s suggestion of having the launcher work as a bonus action at 5th level instead of my suggestion to create the explosives as a bonus action at 9th level. And you may want to put in something about being able to exclude creatures of your choice from the explosions so you don’t accidentally gib a team mate or something. And I’m sure even my language could be tighter on revision. But overall that’s👆a solid rough draft of how I would consider writing it.
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My main critique of the above is that stunned is EXTREMELY powerful. AoE stunned is not a player option anywhere even for very high level spells. That 100% needs to be replaced by blinded instead, and even then blinded > poisoned so I would also limit it to 1 round, otherwise pretty much all the other grenade options are false-choices b/c the flashbang is just infinitely better than them in all circumstances. Similarly I would definitely remove the blindness from the Smoke grenade because that makes it impossible for you to use it for utility to help your party.
That’s fair. Like I said, it’s just a “rough draft.” It isn’t even a fully fleshed out first draft with flavor text yet, it’s apparently not even ready for playtesting yet. But you can see what I meant about the wording, can’t you? It reads more like official conte t this way.
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This is fantastic! I have a question though, how does shooting an AOE bomb have a long range, long range imposes disadvantage on the roll, but with AOE’s you normally don’t roll to hit. I am probably missing something however.
Edit: Also do you think it’s possible to have a way to plant an arcane explosive as an action and blow it up from range as a bonus action? Or is that over the top
Yes, your wording for the explosive ability is way way better. Same for the other features. Good job!
Having the bombs explode if they take damage covers this in a more flexible and IMO logical way: You plant it as an action then you or someone else hits it with an arrow or a cantrip to set it off.
Also I found a small note on the glue bomb. If you target a single creature, they are stuck forever-
Thank you. I’m glad you like it.
You throw/launch the explosive and it does 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit, after it hits or misses it then explodes and they have to save against the explosion. Sorry, I could have made that clearer. (See, rough draft).
That shouldn’t be OP, it would only matter if someone was within the 10 ft blast range, but not within 5 ft to set it off themself. I would probably do it as a bonus action instead of an action though. But frankly, as Agilemind pointed out, you could also always just shoot it. More cinematic that way too.
Why? The glue only lasts for up to 1 minute, and a creature is always “a creature within 5 feet” of itself, so any creature can attempt to free itself from the glue.
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Thank you. 🙇♂️
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There, I made some adjustments to what I wrote for the grenadier as per your feedback. What do you think? Better?
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Oh Fantastic, I have been making changes myself in a word document but I really like what did with the flash bang.
Oops missed the 1 minute part on the glue.
so confirming. The hit or the miss basically determines whether they take an addition d4 of damage before blowing up?
Yup, 1d4+modifier, just like a dart. Only if you throw it you use Int, if someone else throws the explosive they use their own Dex.
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With all this in mind do you think it’s ready for play testing?
Probably now, yeah.
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