I have a subclass I'm looking to get feedback on. I don't want to "publish" it because I know you can't delete it after you that and it's definitely not done. I feel like I've hit the theming of the class and basic features, but I have a weakness for not being able to know how strong/weak something and I'd love to get others thoughts and opinions. I'll share screenshots of the subclass here, but if I find a better way to share it I'll do that instead (making a campaign to share it out, exporting as text instead of images).
My inspiration for this was actually trying to recreate the 4e Swordmage class in a way that didn't feel like an individualistic power fantasy. Originally this was an offensive class, but as I was referencing the old 4e class, a lot of features stood out to me that I hadn't really payed much attention to when I played it. At the time I really enjoyed the ability to teleport both yourself and other characters, that your sword was a conduit for your magic, and the ability to use reactions and forced movement to magically gain an advantage in martial combat. As I thought about it, more and more of the abilities stood out because of the way they were able to protect your allies, rather than dealing damage directly to enemies. After taking a look at what's already possible in 5e and what can be easily flavor shifted (I don't need a new spell that lets me teleport and then attack, I can just misty step and then make an attack), I realized that what I was looking for was actually a defensive class. As there's also not currently any classes that specialize in shield usage, I realized that it would make a great center for this class, and thus it became Shieldmage.
Proficiency and Spell List
My immediate concerns are if the Shield Master feat granted under Shield Proficiency is too much, with or without the Smith's Tools proficiency included. I considered offering a choice between Shield Master or a Fighting Style, mostly looking towards the Protection, Interception, Defensive, or Blindfighting options, but it seemed both too strong and Fighting Style didn't seem focused enough, since many of the options require you to have a set up different than what ends up synergizing with the subclass (One hand holding a shield and the other free for somatic components). Additionally, players are able to take feats on their own and including the feats in the subclass doesn't leave much room for players to expand. I'm content with the subclass spell list but happy to hear any thoughts. There were a number of other spells I wanted to include but were only available from material like Tasha's or Xanathar's.
An artificer who specializes as a Shieldmage has imbued their shield with arcane energy, serving as an aegis to protect and empower nearby allies. This concentration of magical power allows them to serve as a bulwark for their teammates, fighting against the endless tide of enemies.
Shield Proficiency (3rd-level Shieldmage feature) You gain the Shield Master feat. You also gain proficiency with smith’s tools. If you already have it, you gain proficiency with another type of tools of your choice.
Shieldmage Spells (3rd-level Shieldmage feature) You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Shieldmage Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Shieldmage Spells by Artificer Level
Arcane Bulwark: I'm happy with the current set up, but wonder if I could achieve the same results with less text. I used Pact of the Blade and Hexblade for templating the this section. I'm not concerned much with the balance on this section, except the fact that it doesn't allow you to use your shield as a focus for casting which means you need one hand free for somatic components. I'm worried that not being a half caster/half martial class and not being able to weird an offensive weapon AND cast spells at the same time is too much of a turn off because the player may not think of their shield as a weapon, and can't use most magic weapons they may come across in the campaign. However, my current hope is that between DM's recognizing this and providing appropriate loot, and the ability to take the War Caster feat if desired, this will not act as a deterrent. Aegis Aura: I'm really struggling to asses this section. Both in finding a balance between not enough useful options vs wall of text, and understanding if the effects of the auras are too strong/able to be exploited in a way that doesn't promote a good experience. I'm open to both decreasing the number of allies you affect at once or decreasing the strength of the effects. Extra Opportunity Attack: This part rocks. I'm way too proud of myself for thinking of it, despite all the problems I have with opportunity attacks in general. I'm certain it will almost never come up but I hope the one time it does is fun enough to justify it's inclusion, and doesn't leave the player feeling like it's too hard to use. Would consider swapping the extra attack with a different effect, like advantage or making them prone. But I'd prefer it not to overlap with Sentinel or Warcaster, since I want to leave those open as options for the player to grab.
Arcane Bulwark(3rd-level Shieldmage feature) You have infused your shield with protective magic, providing a defensive aura to those around you. You gain proficiency with shields, and can spent 10 minutes working on a shield to turn it into your Aegis. It remains your Aegis until destroyed, or until a different shield becomes your Aegis. This shield serves as a basis for your Shieldmage features. If it's not already magical it becomes magical. Additionally, you have a number of usages for your other Aegis features equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all usages after a long rest. You can use your aegis as a weapon. You are proficient with it and it uses your Intelligence modifier for attacks. It deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4+{{abilityscore:int}}
Aegis Aura (3rd-level Shieldmage feature) You're able to project a defensive aura with your shield, protecting those around you. You may switch which aura it is projecting after a long rest, or by taking a bonus action and expending one usage of your Aegis feature. or start projecting one if it is not already. The aura it projects extends 5 feet in all directions, and affects any creature not hostile to you. This aura lasts until your aegis is destroyed, or until you switch to a different aura.
Shielding Aegis: Attack rolls against allied creatures other than you in your aura made from outside of it are made with disadvantage.
Warding Aegis: Allied creatures other than you gain advantage on saving throws against spells cast from outside your aura.
Ensnaring Aegis: Hostile creatures inside your aegis provoke opportunity attacks even if they take the Disengage action, or if they attempt to teleport.
Assault Aegis" Attacks made against hostile creatures inside your aura are made with advantage.
Emergency Aegis: When you are not holding a shield, you can take an action to expend one usage of your Aegis feature to conjure one in your hand. It counts as your Arcane Bulwark. This shield lasts for a number of hours equal to your Intelligence modifier, or until dismissed. When you conjure a shield this way, you have disadvantage on saving throws to maintain concentration for the duration of its existence.
Extra Opportunity Attack(3rd-level Shieldmage feature) When you use your reaction to make an opportunity attack with your Aegis, you may make a second attack against the same creature as part of that reaction.
Level 9 and 15 Features
At 9 I provided each Aegis Aura a one time effect when you swap on to it (or choose to use a swap to reactivate it, like swapping from an aura to itself). I wanted to make using the auras feel more impactful without providing a larger ongoing buff by having it create an immediate effect. And now that they have more swaps per day, I didn't want the player to feel like they were being pushed to switch off of one of their options that was already working in the current situation, so by giving them the ability to spend one of their swaps to reactivate that one time effect, it cuts off any confusion from the player trying to figure out of they can swap from their current aura to itself (they're not actually swapping, the current aura just stops when they activate one, so they could activate an aura that's already active, but I don't want them to have to deduce that on their own), or trying to figure out the action cost of turning it off and on again. At 15 I both strengthened the effects of the auras and allowed the player to have 2 active at a time. I haven't had a chance to play a character this high in years, let alone test this subclass at it, so I am less than clueless on the balance here. Retaining both of those parts would be nice, but if it's too strong or too complicated I'd fine with dropping either of them, or replacing them with another idea completely.
Improved Aegis (9th-level Shieldmage Feature) Your Aegis auras increase in size to have a 10ft radius, and gain additional effects as described below.
Shielding Aegis: When you swap to this aura, all allied creatures in it gain temporary hitpoints equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Warding Aegis: Once after you swap to this aura, you can choose to have all allied creatures inside your aura automatically succeed on saving throws made against a spell you cast, unless they choose to fail.
Ensnaring Aegis: Once after you swap to this aura, when a creature outside your aura targets an allied creature inside your aura with an attack roll, you can expend one usage of your Aegis feature to teleport that creature to an unoccupied square adjacent to you before they roll.
Assault Aegis: The first time you move after you swap to this aura, any allies inside your aura can use their reaction to move up to your speed, as long as they end the move inside your aura.
Emergency Aegis: When you use this feature, all hostile creatures in the aura must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be pushed back until they are outside of your aura. They are pushed in a straight line away from you until they collide with terrain or are outside of your aura.
Superior Aegis (15th-level Shieldmage Feature) Your Aegis auras are even better. Additionally, you can have 2 auras active at one time. When you activate a new aura, you choose which one you swap it for.
Shielding Aegis: Non-hostile creatures in your aura gain resistance to all non-magical damage.
Warding Aegis: If an ally in your aura would take half damage from a successful saving throw against a spell, they instead take half damage if they fail and no damage if they succeed.
Ensnaring Aegis: Once per round any creature who deals damage to an ally with an attack gets teleported adjacent to you, and you can attack them with your shield.
Assault Aegis: Attacks made by allies in your aura deal an extra 1d8 of force damage.
Emergency Aegis: When you activate this aegis and have no more usages of your Aegis feature remaining, you can teleport any number of willing creatures inside the circle to anyplace you recently took a long rest, up to a number of days ago equal to your Intelligence modifier.
I've also attempted to recreate the Swordmage with an artificer subclass. I went through a similar thought process but I think went in a different direction. Check it out if you're interested, could provide some inspiration.
A couple things:
You don't need to grant shield proficiency, artificers already have it.
Shield Master for free is fine power-wise, but it feels kinda boring in a nonmagical, martial, I-could-take-this-anyway-if-I-wanted-it kind of way.
Since your shield does pretty bad damage, maybe something to boost your cantrips a bit would be interesting. Maybe based on your aura?
The base Assault Aegis might be too much. Free blanket advantage is not something the game hands out even to the most dedicated support builds. Might make more sense to allow an OA on a creature within 5 feet attacking your ally. And that OA can be a cantrip. Now you're an aggressor and not just the rogue's support.
The extra OA thing is a lot considering there are 4 other level 3 features, and it's a bit weird because at that point it only affects Ensnaring, while Assault should feel the most aggressive. I'd drop it completely and write cantrip OAs into the aura when you want an OA to have extra oomph.
It feels a bit off that you go through a bonding ritual to create your Arcane Bulwark but then you can just immediately conjure a generic one with Emergency Aegis. I think making EA instead teleport your AB into your hand would be a better thematic reinforcement of the idea that you and your shield have a special bond. Plus there are similar mechanics for this already in the game.
Ensnaring needs a clause preventing you from teleporting the target over lava or a bottomless pit or something. I grabbed my Ensnaring language from some existing game element, feel free to grab it from mine.
Superior Aegis is really strong. You and a paladin could turn your whole party into the best tanks in the game just using passive features. Either the upgrades or the two-at-a-time thing would be maybe in the right ballpark power-wise, both is too much.
Honestly.. this feels like a Paladin subclass not an Artificer. What about this class involve making stuff or tinkering with things? Paladins are the archetypal magic knights with sword + shield, which is very much the feel I get from this subclass. Making it a Paladin would also compensate for the low damage from the shield itself since that damage can be supplemented with smites of various types. Paladin would also give you a bigger hit die and much better healing which is pretty necessary for a character that wants to be taking hits for their party which is the main goal of most defensive characters. Plus Artificer already has an awesome defensive subclass: the armourer.
I've also attempted to recreate the Swordmage with an artificer subclass. I went through a similar thought process but I think went in a different direction. Check it out if you're interested, could provide some inspiration.
I just read through your class and there are some things I really like in it. Even though it's not focused on defense (but still provides durability), there's a couple things in it that I think fit parts of this well and have better templating too.
You don't need to grant shield proficiency, artificers already have it.
Shield Master for free is fine power-wise, but it feels kinda boring in a nonmagical, martial, I-could-take-this-anyway-if-I-wanted-it kind of way.
Since your shield does pretty bad damage, maybe something to boost your cantrips a bit would be interesting. Maybe based on your aura.
1. I realize now I left the name as Shield Proficiency despite it not actually providing shield Proficiency.
2., 3. I agree about the feat and the shield damage. I mean for this class to be lower damage, but I like your idea about mixing in cantrips with the attacks and linking cantrips to the auras. I think this needs to be replaced with something that fits closely with the 5th level feature that will replace extra opportunity attack. I'll list some things I'm thinking of at the end of the post.
4. The base Assault Aegis might be too much. Free blanket advantage is not something the game hands out even to the most dedicated support builds. Might make more sense to allow an OA on a creature within 5 feet attacking your ally. And that OA can be a cantrip. Now you're an aggressor and not just the rogue's support.
5. The extra OA thing is a lot considering there are 4 other level 3 features, and it's a bit weird because at that point it only affects Ensnaring, while Assault should feel the most aggressive. I'd drop it completely and write cantrip OAs into the aura when you want an OA to have extra oomph.
Now that you mention it I agree on the assault aegis. I wanted the assault aegis to be simple, granting a static bonus to offense. I think a bonus to the attack roll is too much, but a bonus to damage rolls might be better. Either a flat bonus of my proficiency/int/AB's AC, or allowing allies to reroll some amount of damage dice with some frequency (all? one? once per turn?). Whoops that extra OA was supposed to be a level 5 feature. I didn't want to give Cantrip as OA in order to not step on War Caster's toes, especially since without War Caster the Shieldmage still needs a free hand to cast. I will continue thinking of a balance between combining Cantrips with attacks, buffing the Arcane Bulwark attacks, bonus action to do something martial with the AB, and modifying opportunity attacks, without stepping on War Caster or Shield Master's toes and also having it synergize with whatever they get at level 3 (For example, "casting a cantrip as a bonus action when you make an attack with your shield" does not synergize with "make a shove with your shield as a bonus action when you cast a cantrip").
6. It feels a bit off that you go through a bonding ritual to create your Arcane Bulwark but then you can just immediately conjure a generic one with Emergency Aegis. I think making EA instead teleport your AB into your hand would be a better thematic reinforcement of the idea that you and your shield have a special bond. Plus there are similar mechanics for this already in the game.
7. Ensnaring needs a clause preventing you from teleporting the target over lava or a bottomless pit or something. I grabbed my Ensnaring language from some existing game element, feel free to grab it from mine.
8. Superior Aegis is really strong. You and a paladin could turn your whole party into the best tanks in the game just using passive features. Either the upgrades or the two-at-a-time thing would be maybe in the right ballpark power-wise, both is too much.
6. Good call. I was thinking of emergency scenarios like "what if you're out of spell slots/charges/your shield got destroyed" but who is out there destroying magic items during combat anyways? I'll drop this part for being able to summon your shield like with bonded/pact weapons. This class already has a lot of mental load and making as much as possible of it match the behavior of existing mechanics will make it feel less complex, and if you're using up all your class resources and spell slots and losing your equipment and THEN getting into a fight you should probably go home and take a long rest and think about your decisions in life.
7. Good catch, I'll do that and review all the other features for existing templating as well.
8. That's a good point, I forgot about interactions with other players auras. At level 9 I'm going to drop the radius increase to keep it at 5ft. I'll take another look at the upgrades from 9 and 15 and figure out if there's a better mix of them that's not too strong. So at 9 they will gain reactions and slightly upgraded auras, but the radius will stay at 5 ft. Then at 15 instead of providing the upgraded auras, have the radius increase to 10 ft AND allow two at a time.
This means the progression from 3 -> 9 -> 15 will go from giving
[normal -> normal + reactions -> upgraded + reactions]
[radius 5ft -> radius 10ft -> radius 15ft ]
[1 at a time -> 1 at a time -> 2 at a time ]
and instead will give
[normal -> slight upgrade + reactions -> slight upgrade + reactions] (no change from 9 to 15)
[radius 5ft -> radius 5ft -> radius 10ft]
[1 at a time -> 1 at a time -> 2 at a time]
List of things I've thought of to combine to create the level 3 and 5 features. Some of these might actually work better as the slightly improved versions of the auras for level 9 (or their single use actions).
Aura determines a cantrip that gets used by a different part of this feature
Attacking with shield gives a cantrip cast as part of the same action.
Replace the shield's d4 damage die with a larger die as you level up.
Replace the shield's d4 damage die with the effect and damage of a cantrip.
You can infuse a cantrip or spell into an (one of more?) ally's equipment to be used on next hit (bow, sword, shield (on getting hit)).
Reaction to cast cantrip against attacker on getting hit with an attack (either you or ally)
Reaction to cast cantrip on getting hit with a spell/ranged attack to reduce the damage it deals.
Shield grants "magical cover", e.g. allies have advantage on saving throws magical effects when you (holding your shield) are between them and the caster.
Honestly.. this feels like a Paladin subclass not an Artificer. What about this class involve making stuff or tinkering with things? Paladins are the archetypal magic knights with sword + shield, which is very much the feel I get from this subclass. Making it a Paladin would also compensate for the low damage from the shield itself since that damage can be supplemented with smites of various types. Paladin would also give you a bigger hit die and much better healing which is pretty necessary for a character that wants to be taking hits for their party which is the main goal of most defensive characters. Plus Artificer already has an awesome defensive subclass: the armourer.
It still has all the base artificer class features like infusions. Other artificers put magic into armor or a sword or a gun, this one puts it into a shield.
It's supposed to feel a little bit like a Paladin, because part of their theming is usually protecting someone or something, especially their allies, and they have their iconic lvl 7 auras. But Paladins are usually more focused more on offense, primarily protecting the allies by going somewhere their allies can't and removing the threat. The Shieldmage protects their allies primarily by creating a space where their allies can safely exist and increasing their defense; their offensive capabilities exist as a secondary to keep that space safe. And while they both have shields, the paladin is a knight with magic, but this artificer subclass is a wizard with a shield. Plus I realized I didn't make it immediately clear from the wording on the features, but this subclass can't effectively utilize other melee weapons because they still need a free hand to cast. (This is on purpose, artificers don't really need magic weapons as loot because they're either not using one or making their own. I wanted to keep Shieldmage in line with not needing magic weapon loot by making them not able to effectively utilize it, and increasing the damage of their shield to compensate.)
The damage is supposed to be on the lower side because of all the defensive bonuses it provides to the team, but you're right that 1d4 is just too low, even with INT modifiers and Proficiency bonus involved. I'm figuring out exactly how but I will be combining it with cantrips in some way. Their attacks need to feel effective, but not so effective that they're just running into the enemy team to start hitting them. The hit points are also supposed to be lower than expected but for this weird math reason: there's a bunch of measures of "effective health", which you can measure in a bunch of extremely complex math ways, but it basically boils down to how many times you can get attacked before you die. And you can increase it not just by increasing how much damage you can take before you die (your hit-points), but also by decreasing the attacks' chance to hit you or how much damage they deal. Just having more hit-points doesn't feel very magical or exciting, and for a class that's already not rewarding you for doing traditionally exciting things like Rogue or Paladin, I wanted to focus more on reducing damage and making attacks miss instead, because that FEELS more exciting. Plus having a higher AC and negating damage fits more with a shield than having more hitpoints.
Lastly artificer's Armorer is actually not as defensive as it looks. Half of the bonuses it gives to your armor is actually just offense and the other half only affects yourself. This is meant to be a more team-focused subclass, like Bard.
You can correct me if I'm wrong on this and I don't meant it in a derogatory way, but you seem like someone who likes playing paladin and I am specifically making this subclass for someone who does not the paladin style of play BUT enjoys the mechanics of a paladin, or at least recognizes their importance (casting buff/debuff spells, protecting nearby allies, wearing cool armor, some sort of magic infused weapon attack thingy). It's meant to fill a support role on the team. And role-play wise it's meant to support some characters who are maybe less fond of danger than their braver friends.
The story that inspired this subclass was actually as I type this out i'm realizing it's basically just Good Will Hunting but instead of the job being in town and the girl is in california, the girl is in town and the job is in california and california is the castle and the job is Royal Army Corps of Magical Engineers.
Artificers are not wizards. If you want a "Wizard with a shield" why not make it a wizard subclass and have spell slots power the auras? Artificers are tinkerers, inventors, builders, creators, nothing about this subclass gives me any feeling like that. The armourer builds cool sets of armour and has has unique abilities and which can be augmented with their infusions. The Artillerist builds a cool weapons/turrets with unique abilities that improve as they level up. The Battlesmith builds a cool robot that becomes more powerful as they level up.
This subclass... gets a shield and a bunch of auras. See how it doesn't feel like an Artificer?
Or if you want it to be bard-like why not make it a Bard subclass, then you could have the Bardic Inspiration dice powering the Auras, and you don't need any offence b/c you are an incredibly powerful buff/debuffer.
You say you want the subclass to be defensive b/c of high AC or damage reduction. Yet none of the features of the subclass increase this character's AC or their ability to reduce damage. An Armourer Artificer will have a higher AC because they can use Heavy Armour + shield for 20 baseline AC. The Battlesmith has a better ability to reduce damage because their companion can impose DisAdvantage on an attack against themselves. Meanwhile the Artillerist can give themselves temporary hp each round giving them a better ability to absorb damage. This subclass is the weakest in terms of defence of all the Artificers (the Alchemist doesn't exist, I don't know what you are talking about).
Artificers are not wizards. If you want a "Wizard with a shield" why not make it a wizard subclass and have spell slots power the auras? Artificers are tinkerers, inventors, builders, creators, nothing about this subclass gives me any feeling like that. The armourer builds cool sets of armour and has has unique abilities and which can be augmented with their infusions. The Artillerist builds a cool weapons/turrets with unique abilities that improve as they level up. The Battlesmith builds a cool robot that becomes more powerful as they level up.
This subclass... gets a shield and a bunch of auras. See how it doesn't feel like an Artificer?
Or if you want it to be bard-like why not make it a Bard subclass, then you could have the Bardic Inspiration dice powering the Auras, and you don't need any offence b/c you are an incredibly powerful buff/debuffer.
You say you want the subclass to be defensive b/c of high AC or damage reduction. Yet none of the features of the subclass increase this character's AC or their ability to reduce damage. An Armourer Artificer will have a higher AC because they can use Heavy Armour + shield for 20 baseline AC. The Battlesmith has a better ability to reduce damage because their companion can impose DisAdvantage on an attack against themselves. Meanwhile the Artillerist can give themselves temporary hp each round giving them a better ability to absorb damage. This subclass is the weakest in terms of defence of all the Artificers (the Alchemist doesn't exist, I don't know what you are talking about).
1. I would like to start out by saying that I am very embarrassed because one of the extremely important features I thought I had in here I do not have in here. I was operating under the assumption that the Arcane Bulwark section was giving proficiency with heavy armor and that the shield they built gave an additional bonus to AC equal to their 1 + proficiency bonus. After reading your reply I went to find that part to show you that they really were tanky, when I discovered it was not there. Whoops. With that I was calculating a level 1 AC of 20 with medium armor and a shield, that will increase with level. Shielding and Warding auras both give significant damage reduction and reduction in chance-to-hit as they are written right now, providing disadvantage on enemy attacks, advantage on saving throws, resistance to damage, and temporary hit points. But half of that doesn't show up until level 9. I'll revisit what defensive bonuses this is providing and how I'm sharing those bonuses with my allies.
I describe all artificers as "Wizard with a Thing" because they have arcane powers based in knowledge and also a Thing they use. It's meant to be an incomplete description, to just express the a general thematic direction to get from Wizard to Artificer without passing through another class. They're both about learning and practice, but where wizards find stronger spells, artificers find out how to put their spells into things.
This class builds a cool shield with unique abilities (auras) that improve as they level up. But the fact that the shield doesn't feel cool to you means I haven't met that goal yet. What you think if it provided some other static benefit apart from the auras? I'm thinking about it making you/the space you're in provide something similar to "cover" but from all magic effects, not just dex ones. On the other hand, I think it's losing a lot of the tinkering feeling because I built a lot of it around swapping auras during combat, instead of during rests. What would you think if each aura was actually more like a different mode, and the aura was just one of the features of being in that mode? You're right about the experimenting/tinkering part being important; I'll take a look another look at the other subclasses and the base class too find some way to bring that back. I think you're right that I'm focusing too much on the shield, and not enough on the flexibility that artificer tinkering provides or the actual ability that the shield is meant to be a conduit for: sharing magic with nearby allies. Auras are only one way of doing that, I think I need to look in to some others as well.
I want it to be Bard-like only as far as I have specific (sub)class features that I can use to buff my allies and that buff/debuff is meant to be one of my primary duties. But I think the fact that it's feeling too Bard-like and also too Paladin-like further supports your point that even if I did adjust the numbers to mechanically balance this, it's not capturing the core parts of Artificer.
Thank you for the feedback, you've given me a lot to think about. I am no longer as satisfied with my first draft as I was before, but I think you're definitely pointing me in the correct direction.
Ah that would make more sense. Yeah, I was looking at the aura that gives DisAdvantage on attack against anyone except the Artificer and thinking: "Why would I want to do that, I'm just going to die? It would be much better if the enemy attacked the Paladin, Barbarian, or Fighter rather than me."
Somethings you might want to consider is making the Shield more of an active thing, rather than just "you've got this shield so now you make auras". The auras don't really feel connected to the shield in the same way as say the Flamethrower or Heal-bot things feel connected to the Artillerist's turret.
E.g.
Shielding Aegis: Your Aegis expands protect not just you but your allies close to you. While you are holding your Aegis, weapon attack rolls against allied creatures within 5ft of you are made with disadvantage. In addition, when one of your allies within 5ft of you is targeted by an attack, you can use your reaction to interpose you and your Aegis causing the attack to target you instead of your ally.
Warding Aegis: You modify your Aegis to repel magical attacks. You gain advantage on saving throws against spells.
Ensnaring Aegis: You enchant your Aegis to ensnare nearby creatures. Hostile creatures within reach of your Aegis provoke opportunity attacks even if they take the Disengage action, or if they attempt to teleport. You must use your Aegis for opportunity attacks that are triggered this way.
Assault Aegis: You hold your shield in an offensive stance, attacks you make with your Aegis are made at advantage. When you move while in this stance you can attempt to Shove creatures out of your way as part of your movement, you can only attempt to shove each creature once as part of this feature.
Emergency Aegis: You can take an action to expend one usage of your Aegis feature to conjure your Aegis back to your hand as long as you have a free hand and you are on the same plane of existence as your Aegis.
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I have a subclass I'm looking to get feedback on. I don't want to "publish" it because I know you can't delete it after you that and it's definitely not done. I feel like I've hit the theming of the class and basic features, but I have a weakness for not being able to know how strong/weak something and I'd love to get others thoughts and opinions. I'll share screenshots of the subclass here, but if I find a better way to share it I'll do that instead (making a campaign to share it out, exporting as text instead of images).
My inspiration for this was actually trying to recreate the 4e Swordmage class in a way that didn't feel like an individualistic power fantasy. Originally this was an offensive class, but as I was referencing the old 4e class, a lot of features stood out to me that I hadn't really payed much attention to when I played it. At the time I really enjoyed the ability to teleport both yourself and other characters, that your sword was a conduit for your magic, and the ability to use reactions and forced movement to magically gain an advantage in martial combat. As I thought about it, more and more of the abilities stood out because of the way they were able to protect your allies, rather than dealing damage directly to enemies. After taking a look at what's already possible in 5e and what can be easily flavor shifted (I don't need a new spell that lets me teleport and then attack, I can just misty step and then make an attack), I realized that what I was looking for was actually a defensive class. As there's also not currently any classes that specialize in shield usage, I realized that it would make a great center for this class, and thus it became Shieldmage.
Proficiency and Spell List
My immediate concerns are if the Shield Master feat granted under Shield Proficiency is too much, with or without the Smith's Tools proficiency included. I considered offering a choice between Shield Master or a Fighting Style, mostly looking towards the Protection, Interception, Defensive, or Blindfighting options, but it seemed both too strong and Fighting Style didn't seem focused enough, since many of the options require you to have a set up different than what ends up synergizing with the subclass (One hand holding a shield and the other free for somatic components). Additionally, players are able to take feats on their own and including the feats in the subclass doesn't leave much room for players to expand.
I'm content with the subclass spell list but happy to hear any thoughts. There were a number of other spells I wanted to include but were only available from material like Tasha's or Xanathar's.
Base Subclass Features
Arcane Bulwark: I'm happy with the current set up, but wonder if I could achieve the same results with less text. I used Pact of the Blade and Hexblade for templating the this section. I'm not concerned much with the balance on this section, except the fact that it doesn't allow you to use your shield as a focus for casting which means you need one hand free for somatic components. I'm worried that not being a half caster/half martial class and not being able to weird an offensive weapon AND cast spells at the same time is too much of a turn off because the player may not think of their shield as a weapon, and can't use most magic weapons they may come across in the campaign. However, my current hope is that between DM's recognizing this and providing appropriate loot, and the ability to take the War Caster feat if desired, this will not act as a deterrent.
Aegis Aura: I'm really struggling to asses this section. Both in finding a balance between not enough useful options vs wall of text, and understanding if the effects of the auras are too strong/able to be exploited in a way that doesn't promote a good experience. I'm open to both decreasing the number of allies you affect at once or decreasing the strength of the effects.
Extra Opportunity Attack: This part rocks. I'm way too proud of myself for thinking of it, despite all the problems I have with opportunity attacks in general. I'm certain it will almost never come up but I hope the one time it does is fun enough to justify it's inclusion, and doesn't leave the player feeling like it's too hard to use. Would consider swapping the extra attack with a different effect, like advantage or making them prone. But I'd prefer it not to overlap with Sentinel or Warcaster, since I want to leave those open as options for the player to grab.
Level 9 and 15 Features
At 9 I provided each Aegis Aura a one time effect when you swap on to it (or choose to use a swap to reactivate it, like swapping from an aura to itself). I wanted to make using the auras feel more impactful without providing a larger ongoing buff by having it create an immediate effect. And now that they have more swaps per day, I didn't want the player to feel like they were being pushed to switch off of one of their options that was already working in the current situation, so by giving them the ability to spend one of their swaps to reactivate that one time effect, it cuts off any confusion from the player trying to figure out of they can swap from their current aura to itself (they're not actually swapping, the current aura just stops when they activate one, so they could activate an aura that's already active, but I don't want them to have to deduce that on their own), or trying to figure out the action cost of turning it off and on again.
At 15 I both strengthened the effects of the auras and allowed the player to have 2 active at a time. I haven't had a chance to play a character this high in years, let alone test this subclass at it, so I am less than clueless on the balance here. Retaining both of those parts would be nice, but if it's too strong or too complicated I'd fine with dropping either of them, or replacing them with another idea completely.
IMO, you’ve already done it.
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I've also attempted to recreate the Swordmage with an artificer subclass. I went through a similar thought process but I think went in a different direction. Check it out if you're interested, could provide some inspiration.
A couple things:
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Honestly.. this feels like a Paladin subclass not an Artificer. What about this class involve making stuff or tinkering with things? Paladins are the archetypal magic knights with sword + shield, which is very much the feel I get from this subclass. Making it a Paladin would also compensate for the low damage from the shield itself since that damage can be supplemented with smites of various types. Paladin would also give you a bigger hit die and much better healing which is pretty necessary for a character that wants to be taking hits for their party which is the main goal of most defensive characters. Plus Artificer already has an awesome defensive subclass: the armourer.
I just read through your class and there are some things I really like in it. Even though it's not focused on defense (but still provides durability), there's a couple things in it that I think fit parts of this well and have better templating too.
1. I realize now I left the name as Shield Proficiency despite it not actually providing shield Proficiency.
2., 3. I agree about the feat and the shield damage. I mean for this class to be lower damage, but I like your idea about mixing in cantrips with the attacks and linking cantrips to the auras. I think this needs to be replaced with something that fits closely with the 5th level feature that will replace extra opportunity attack. I'll list some things I'm thinking of at the end of the post.
Now that you mention it I agree on the assault aegis. I wanted the assault aegis to be simple, granting a static bonus to offense. I think a bonus to the attack roll is too much, but a bonus to damage rolls might be better. Either a flat bonus of my proficiency/int/AB's AC, or allowing allies to reroll some amount of damage dice with some frequency (all? one? once per turn?).
Whoops that extra OA was supposed to be a level 5 feature. I didn't want to give Cantrip as OA in order to not step on War Caster's toes, especially since without War Caster the Shieldmage still needs a free hand to cast. I will continue thinking of a balance between combining Cantrips with attacks, buffing the Arcane Bulwark attacks, bonus action to do something martial with the AB, and modifying opportunity attacks, without stepping on War Caster or Shield Master's toes and also having it synergize with whatever they get at level 3 (For example, "casting a cantrip as a bonus action when you make an attack with your shield" does not synergize with "make a shove with your shield as a bonus action when you cast a cantrip").
6. Good call. I was thinking of emergency scenarios like "what if you're out of spell slots/charges/your shield got destroyed" but who is out there destroying magic items during combat anyways? I'll drop this part for being able to summon your shield like with bonded/pact weapons. This class already has a lot of mental load and making as much as possible of it match the behavior of existing mechanics will make it feel less complex, and if you're using up all your class resources and spell slots and losing your equipment and THEN getting into a fight you should probably go home and take a long rest and think about your decisions in life.
7. Good catch, I'll do that and review all the other features for existing templating as well.
8. That's a good point, I forgot about interactions with other players auras. At level 9 I'm going to drop the radius increase to keep it at 5ft. I'll take another look at the upgrades from 9 and 15 and figure out if there's a better mix of them that's not too strong. So at 9 they will gain reactions and slightly upgraded auras, but the radius will stay at 5 ft. Then at 15 instead of providing the upgraded auras, have the radius increase to 10 ft AND allow two at a time.
This means the progression from 3 -> 9 -> 15 will go from giving
and instead will give
List of things I've thought of to combine to create the level 3 and 5 features. Some of these might actually work better as the slightly improved versions of the auras for level 9 (or their single use actions).
It still has all the base artificer class features like infusions. Other artificers put magic into armor or a sword or a gun, this one puts it into a shield.
It's supposed to feel a little bit like a Paladin, because part of their theming is usually protecting someone or something, especially their allies, and they have their iconic lvl 7 auras. But Paladins are usually more focused more on offense, primarily protecting the allies by going somewhere their allies can't and removing the threat. The Shieldmage protects their allies primarily by creating a space where their allies can safely exist and increasing their defense; their offensive capabilities exist as a secondary to keep that space safe. And while they both have shields, the paladin is a knight with magic, but this artificer subclass is a wizard with a shield. Plus I realized I didn't make it immediately clear from the wording on the features, but this subclass can't effectively utilize other melee weapons because they still need a free hand to cast. (This is on purpose, artificers don't really need magic weapons as loot because they're either not using one or making their own. I wanted to keep Shieldmage in line with not needing magic weapon loot by making them not able to effectively utilize it, and increasing the damage of their shield to compensate.)
The damage is supposed to be on the lower side because of all the defensive bonuses it provides to the team, but you're right that 1d4 is just too low, even with INT modifiers and Proficiency bonus involved. I'm figuring out exactly how but I will be combining it with cantrips in some way. Their attacks need to feel effective, but not so effective that they're just running into the enemy team to start hitting them. The hit points are also supposed to be lower than expected but for this weird math reason: there's a bunch of measures of "effective health", which you can measure in a bunch of extremely complex math ways, but it basically boils down to how many times you can get attacked before you die. And you can increase it not just by increasing how much damage you can take before you die (your hit-points), but also by decreasing the attacks' chance to hit you or how much damage they deal. Just having more hit-points doesn't feel very magical or exciting, and for a class that's already not rewarding you for doing traditionally exciting things like Rogue or Paladin, I wanted to focus more on reducing damage and making attacks miss instead, because that FEELS more exciting. Plus having a higher AC and negating damage fits more with a shield than having more hitpoints.
Lastly artificer's Armorer is actually not as defensive as it looks. Half of the bonuses it gives to your armor is actually just offense and the other half only affects yourself. This is meant to be a more team-focused subclass, like Bard.
You can correct me if I'm wrong on this and I don't meant it in a derogatory way, but you seem like someone who likes playing paladin and I am specifically making this subclass for someone who does not the paladin style of play BUT enjoys the mechanics of a paladin, or at least recognizes their importance (casting buff/debuff spells, protecting nearby allies, wearing cool armor, some sort of magic infused weapon attack thingy). It's meant to fill a support role on the team. And role-play wise it's meant to support some characters who are maybe less fond of danger than their braver friends.
The story that inspired this subclass was actually as I type this out i'm realizing it's basically just Good Will Hunting but instead of the job being in town and the girl is in california, the girl is in town and the job is in california and california is the castle and the job is Royal Army Corps of Magical Engineers.
Artificers are not wizards. If you want a "Wizard with a shield" why not make it a wizard subclass and have spell slots power the auras? Artificers are tinkerers, inventors, builders, creators, nothing about this subclass gives me any feeling like that. The armourer builds cool sets of armour and has has unique abilities and which can be augmented with their infusions. The Artillerist builds a cool weapons/turrets with unique abilities that improve as they level up. The Battlesmith builds a cool robot that becomes more powerful as they level up.
This subclass... gets a shield and a bunch of auras. See how it doesn't feel like an Artificer?
Or if you want it to be bard-like why not make it a Bard subclass, then you could have the Bardic Inspiration dice powering the Auras, and you don't need any offence b/c you are an incredibly powerful buff/debuffer.
You say you want the subclass to be defensive b/c of high AC or damage reduction. Yet none of the features of the subclass increase this character's AC or their ability to reduce damage. An Armourer Artificer will have a higher AC because they can use Heavy Armour + shield for 20 baseline AC. The Battlesmith has a better ability to reduce damage because their companion can impose DisAdvantage on an attack against themselves. Meanwhile the Artillerist can give themselves temporary hp each round giving them a better ability to absorb damage. This subclass is the weakest in terms of defence of all the Artificers (the Alchemist doesn't exist, I don't know what you are talking about).
1. I would like to start out by saying that I am very embarrassed because one of the extremely important features I thought I had in here I do not have in here. I was operating under the assumption that the Arcane Bulwark section was giving proficiency with heavy armor and that the shield they built gave an additional bonus to AC equal to their 1 + proficiency bonus. After reading your reply I went to find that part to show you that they really were tanky, when I discovered it was not there. Whoops. With that I was calculating a level 1 AC of 20 with medium armor and a shield, that will increase with level. Shielding and Warding auras both give significant damage reduction and reduction in chance-to-hit as they are written right now, providing disadvantage on enemy attacks, advantage on saving throws, resistance to damage, and temporary hit points. But half of that doesn't show up until level 9. I'll revisit what defensive bonuses this is providing and how I'm sharing those bonuses with my allies.
I describe all artificers as "Wizard with a Thing" because they have arcane powers based in knowledge and also a Thing they use. It's meant to be an incomplete description, to just express the a general thematic direction to get from Wizard to Artificer without passing through another class. They're both about learning and practice, but where wizards find stronger spells, artificers find out how to put their spells into things.
This class builds a cool shield with unique abilities (auras) that improve as they level up. But the fact that the shield doesn't feel cool to you means I haven't met that goal yet. What you think if it provided some other static benefit apart from the auras? I'm thinking about it making you/the space you're in provide something similar to "cover" but from all magic effects, not just dex ones. On the other hand, I think it's losing a lot of the tinkering feeling because I built a lot of it around swapping auras during combat, instead of during rests. What would you think if each aura was actually more like a different mode, and the aura was just one of the features of being in that mode? You're right about the experimenting/tinkering part being important; I'll take a look another look at the other subclasses and the base class too find some way to bring that back. I think you're right that I'm focusing too much on the shield, and not enough on the flexibility that artificer tinkering provides or the actual ability that the shield is meant to be a conduit for: sharing magic with nearby allies. Auras are only one way of doing that, I think I need to look in to some others as well.
I want it to be Bard-like only as far as I have specific (sub)class features that I can use to buff my allies and that buff/debuff is meant to be one of my primary duties. But I think the fact that it's feeling too Bard-like and also too Paladin-like further supports your point that even if I did adjust the numbers to mechanically balance this, it's not capturing the core parts of Artificer.
Thank you for the feedback, you've given me a lot to think about. I am no longer as satisfied with my first draft as I was before, but I think you're definitely pointing me in the correct direction.
Ah that would make more sense. Yeah, I was looking at the aura that gives DisAdvantage on attack against anyone except the Artificer and thinking: "Why would I want to do that, I'm just going to die? It would be much better if the enemy attacked the Paladin, Barbarian, or Fighter rather than me."
Somethings you might want to consider is making the Shield more of an active thing, rather than just "you've got this shield so now you make auras". The auras don't really feel connected to the shield in the same way as say the Flamethrower or Heal-bot things feel connected to the Artillerist's turret.
E.g.
Shielding Aegis: Your Aegis expands protect not just you but your allies close to you. While you are holding your Aegis, weapon attack rolls against allied creatures within 5ft of you are made with disadvantage. In addition, when one of your allies within 5ft of you is targeted by an attack, you can use your reaction to interpose you and your Aegis causing the attack to target you instead of your ally.
Warding Aegis: You modify your Aegis to repel magical attacks. You gain advantage on saving throws against spells.
Ensnaring Aegis: You enchant your Aegis to ensnare nearby creatures. Hostile creatures within reach of your Aegis provoke opportunity attacks even if they take the Disengage action, or if they attempt to teleport. You must use your Aegis for opportunity attacks that are triggered this way.
Assault Aegis: You hold your shield in an offensive stance, attacks you make with your Aegis are made at advantage. When you move while in this stance you can attempt to Shove creatures out of your way as part of your movement, you can only attempt to shove each creature once as part of this feature.
Emergency Aegis: You can take an action to expend one usage of your Aegis feature to conjure your Aegis back to your hand as long as you have a free hand and you are on the same plane of existence as your Aegis.