First of all, PCs should just get Primordial rather than any of the element specific languages.
Second, from a flavor perspective this feels more like something for warlocks than artificers- artificers are more mad scientists who use magic learned by years of study by channeling it through tools. They don't strike bargains with extraplanar creatures for their powers.
Beyond that, this class gains way too much of a boost at its first tier. And the Elemental Contact and Elemental Treasure abilities don't seem to actually have any benefit for you.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to have a look at the subclass. Even though Primordial is not listed in any of the elemental stat blocks, I found where the DMG says all the elemental languages are just dialects of it. I appreciate you pointing that out. This simplifies things considerably. I took another look at the flavor and you're right. I went through and made some changes to the functionality of the features to put the focus on the elemental beacon, rather than the relationship between the player and the elemental. I took out the old 5th level feature that I think gave that impression. I kept the first tier features because I felt they were very relevant to the theme of the class, but changed the level at which the character gets them. Now the character gets a language and a temporary damage resistance at level 3.
Divination and Planar Binding as spells are becoming less relevant as this concept has evolved. Originally, I had intended to work a little travel to an elemental plane into the design, but I just don't see how I can pull it off, considering the level of the spells and that the artificer is a half caster class.
My only suggestion might be to have a way of scaling the summon elemental familiar health up as you gain more levels. Ice mephit has a average of 21 hp, so thats basically a one shot on medium to high levels. You could use the same model for hp that the other artificers use for the turret and and the steel defender
Hit Points equal the steel defender’s Constitution modifier + your Intelligence modifier + five times your level in this class. Maybe not quite that much but something along those lines.
Not sure how that messes with the balance of the class but besides that i really like your idea
Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't really thought about having the familiars scaling with level. My thought was that at a certain point, you would replace them with larger and more combat-capable elementals. Nonetheless, I'll give that one some thought so see if that fills a gap in the class. In the meantime, I have been hard at work rephrasing a lot of things in the subclass to make it less about a dude who summons elementals and more about being an artificer who builds a device that can turn into the elementals you summon. See what I did there? Also, a few other minor tweaks and changes. Here is where I am at right now.
So the class feels pretty solidly filled out. Still plenty of room tweaking and making some minor changes. Unfortunately, there are several other concepts I was hoping to work into the class, but if I put all of these in, it would be WAAAAY too busy. And some of these concepts probably don't hold up to scrutiny anyway, so here they are: the weird shit I'd like to put in, but cannot (yet?) make work for the Elementalist.
Your elemental infusion idea could easily blend with/replace the elemental beacon. Artificers are all about being swiss army knives and this gives them the option to be offensive or defensive with the infusion aspect, the offensive part would need to be buffed a little more or no one would choose that over having resistance. Maybe you attack with int. and add int to the damage as well, also make the added int damage whatever element they choose. I dont know maybe its good just the way it is with a leveling elemental familiar.
Great call on the infusion merge. I broke out the construction of the elemental beacon into its own feature and then replaced the redundant stuff with the elemental infusion feature. Then I went through and revisited some old text to keep everything on theme with the current concept. It's one very full page, but it still fits on a single page :) This is teaching me the art of being concise.
I still have my doubts about letting a level 3 artificer infuse resistance into a piece of armor, but it only lasts until they build another beacon. And for damage, it allows them to add their intelligence modifier onto a weapon's damage. I'm not sure how much further I'm comfortable taking that on a level 3 feature. But I would still love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
I really it, but i dont understand the planar alignment. Whats the point of it, if you can change your beacon after a long rest. Maybe some clarity or nix that all together
You choose an element and tells you the details of how your feature works at level 5, 7, 9. It wasn't meant to change with your beacon. I have wondered if it was too limiting to lock someone into a choice at level 3 that would affect how later features worked. But at the same time, if people don't make a choice, then what's the point of separating things out into elements? I guess I could do it totem warrior style where you just choose one element at each feature, whether it's the same or a different one.
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"Not all those who wander are lost"
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Here's a link to the class. I will include screenshots for direct viewing as well.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
First of all, PCs should just get Primordial rather than any of the element specific languages.
Second, from a flavor perspective this feels more like something for warlocks than artificers- artificers are more mad scientists who use magic learned by years of study by channeling it through tools. They don't strike bargains with extraplanar creatures for their powers.
Beyond that, this class gains way too much of a boost at its first tier. And the Elemental Contact and Elemental Treasure abilities don't seem to actually have any benefit for you.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to have a look at the subclass. Even though Primordial is not listed in any of the elemental stat blocks, I found where the DMG says all the elemental languages are just dialects of it. I appreciate you pointing that out. This simplifies things considerably. I took another look at the flavor and you're right. I went through and made some changes to the functionality of the features to put the focus on the elemental beacon, rather than the relationship between the player and the elemental. I took out the old 5th level feature that I think gave that impression. I kept the first tier features because I felt they were very relevant to the theme of the class, but changed the level at which the character gets them. Now the character gets a language and a temporary damage resistance at level 3.
Divination and Planar Binding as spells are becoming less relevant as this concept has evolved. Originally, I had intended to work a little travel to an elemental plane into the design, but I just don't see how I can pull it off, considering the level of the spells and that the artificer is a half caster class.
Here's where things stand currently. Thanks again for your input.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
My only suggestion might be to have a way of scaling the summon elemental familiar health up as you gain more levels. Ice mephit has a average of 21 hp, so thats basically a one shot on medium to high levels. You could use the same model for hp that the other artificers use for the turret and and the steel defender
Hit Points equal the steel defender’s Constitution modifier + your Intelligence modifier + five times your level in this class. Maybe not quite that much but something along those lines.
Not sure how that messes with the balance of the class but besides that i really like your idea
Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't really thought about having the familiars scaling with level. My thought was that at a certain point, you would replace them with larger and more combat-capable elementals. Nonetheless, I'll give that one some thought so see if that fills a gap in the class. In the meantime, I have been hard at work rephrasing a lot of things in the subclass to make it less about a dude who summons elementals and more about being an artificer who builds a device that can turn into the elementals you summon. See what I did there? Also, a few other minor tweaks and changes. Here is where I am at right now.
So the class feels pretty solidly filled out. Still plenty of room tweaking and making some minor changes. Unfortunately, there are several other concepts I was hoping to work into the class, but if I put all of these in, it would be WAAAAY too busy. And some of these concepts probably don't hold up to scrutiny anyway, so here they are: the weird shit I'd like to put in, but cannot (yet?) make work for the Elementalist.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Your elemental infusion idea could easily blend with/replace the elemental beacon. Artificers are all about being swiss army knives and this gives them the option to be offensive or defensive with the infusion aspect, the offensive part would need to be buffed a little more or no one would choose that over having resistance. Maybe you attack with int. and add int to the damage as well, also make the added int damage whatever element they choose. I dont know maybe its good just the way it is with a leveling elemental familiar.
Great call on the infusion merge. I broke out the construction of the elemental beacon into its own feature and then replaced the redundant stuff with the elemental infusion feature. Then I went through and revisited some old text to keep everything on theme with the current concept. It's one very full page, but it still fits on a single page :) This is teaching me the art of being concise.
I still have my doubts about letting a level 3 artificer infuse resistance into a piece of armor, but it only lasts until they build another beacon. And for damage, it allows them to add their intelligence modifier onto a weapon's damage. I'm not sure how much further I'm comfortable taking that on a level 3 feature. But I would still love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I really it, but i dont understand the planar alignment. Whats the point of it, if you can change your beacon after a long rest. Maybe some clarity or nix that all together
You choose an element and tells you the details of how your feature works at level 5, 7, 9. It wasn't meant to change with your beacon. I have wondered if it was too limiting to lock someone into a choice at level 3 that would affect how later features worked. But at the same time, if people don't make a choice, then what's the point of separating things out into elements? I guess I could do it totem warrior style where you just choose one element at each feature, whether it's the same or a different one.
"Not all those who wander are lost"