This my first time homebrewing a subclass. I wanted to make an artificer that uses weaving tools and leaned into a Bladesinger type playstyle with a witchy flavor, since DnD seems to lack explicit witch subclasses. Open to feedback and thoughts!
Maybe it's just me but Witch's Tapestry seems really strong for level 3, with Witching Dance and especially Woven Tokens.
The progression seems off too with adding proficiency to a few martial weapons, using INT for attack and damage, adding extra psychic damage PB times a day for 1 minute. Plus 2 attacks at level 5, one can be a cantrip. Then at level 9 you add 2 to your AC PB times a day for 1 minute. To me I would swap the extra psychic damage and the AC bump where the extra damage comes in at level 9 and the AC bump comes in at level 3.
This just seems to be a combination of all the gish wetdreams, while the theme of the character doesn't seem to allude to a strong gish at all. I'm not aware of a subclass that gives all of these:
Use spellcasting modifier for weapon attacks
Add extra damage
Bump your AC
Replace 1 of 2 attacks with a cantrip
Automatic access to the Shield spell.
You won't be able to publish if you keep Wither and Bloom in your prepared spell list since it's a non-SRD spell. I haven't looked through the Secrets of the Witchweaver feature to see if any of those spells are non-SRD.
Made some aspects of the subclass clearer, as It was not intended to seem like just an amalgamation of a bunch of gish- hyper optimal traits, there was a proper inspiration behind the class so I made that more clear and took some of the balancing considerations you mentioned. The character is supposed to play like a utility/debuffer/secondary healer or primary if need be, with the ability to fight in melee. Inspired by characters like Gwen from LoR.
The original is 100% a sword-and-board AC tank. The only spells you'd bother with are Shield & Haste, with AC = 14+2(Dex)+2(shield) + 5 (Shield) + 2(Dance) = 25, and the Woven tokens to heal yourself whenever you take damage. Using Booming Blade to lock down enemies, and at level 4 taking Warcaster to punish them even more for moving away from you, and the Hex feature to impose DA on their attacks using a save that most enemies have a low bonus for.
Your new version is still a sword-and-board martial but now you are a hit-and-run skirmisher that uses those tactics to maximized BB extra damage as their version of "Smite"-ing. Though there might be a reason to occasionally use your spells rather than 100% of the time using BB. (at least until they take a 1-2 level dip into Wizard to get Shield).
Yes, I mean the intent is supposed to be the ability to fight in melee, I don't want to make the character incapable of fighting in melee. Just because the thematic is witch-y doesn't necessarily mean its leaning into an Artillerist type play style. I'm not sure if you are implying I change it or not? The subclass is intended to use their weapons, they don't have turrets or alchemical savant to commit to blasting, and I hope players would use their spells/traits to debuff enemies and heal dying allies like the class implies. I suppose I could make the tokens only usable on allies. I can change the saving thrown from INT to WIS if that feels particularly op but yeah, not quite sure if you are saying to get rid of certain things or not.
I totally get you on wanting to buff up the melee skills, who wouldn't want that. I like the weaving theme, playing up scissors or needles as inspiration for special weapons, and the tapestry/garment for some kind of protection boost.
Most of the features feel appropriate, albeit not quite in the right place. Here's what I would do:
Mind Sliver is a TCoE spell and you won't be able to publish this homebrew on dndbeyond giving that spell.
Review your choices for spells to see if there's any spells that tie in closer to the witch and weaver themes, like Hex feels totally appropriate. I'd lean on non-artificer spells to give them more variety. And pick SRD only spells so you won't run into problems publishing here if that's your end goal.
Witching Dance doesn't fit the theme of a weaver. I can see those mechanical benefits, but this needs something that ties into the overall theme better. Maybe relate it more to the arcane garment you mention in the first paragraph or the tapestry mentioned in the second paragraph. It's just that flavor of a "mirthful and whimsical dance" is the thing that is most out of place. I see you dropped the Shield spell and the AC bump. I'd add the AC bump back to a reworded Witching Dance. Something like "your flashy arcane garment/tapestry causes momentary hesitation by anyone the looks at it" or something along those lines. I'd drop the speed boost but keep the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity because that makes more sense if you go this route.
I'd move Threaded Mind to 5th level like an Improved Tapestry feature. If you really want that speed boost, add that here which would fall in line with barbarians and monks getting a speed boost at 5 too. Call it arcane slippers or something.
Weft and warp. I wouldn't limit it to these two cantrips. Just use the verbiage from the EK Fighter's War Magic "when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action."
I think Woven Hex should be an action, not a bonus action. I'd double the damage, or more, and swap this with the unnamed 2nd part of Secrets of the Witchweaver (the additional healing and advantage upgrade to the tokens). Woven Hex should be your Nuke and as such should be in the capstone.
I made an artificer subclass that is basically my interpretation of Star Wars force wielding artificer (without any of the IP conflicts) called a Weaveblade. It's a strait up artificer gish, but I didn't give it the Shield spell and only a regular 2nd attack, not cantrip and attack. Using INT for attacks on a scaling radiant weapon is powerful enough. Check the spell list and you'll see they are all SRD spells that are not artificer spells and for the most part fit the theme of a mind tricks laser sword gish character.
Yeah it been a little tough selecting spells, mostly because some spells i could see flavored nicely, like Galder's Tower being a Witch's Hut. I will certainly take another look.
I like this flavor a bit more, essentially I wanted to convey the idea of "weaving through the battle field" and "threading the needle" but your suggestion might be a more direct allusion to the class.
Agreed!
I also do like this, one issue I am having is I don't want this to be to abusable and was considering limiting certain cantrips (my considerations were Thorn Whip, Mind Sliver, Toll the Dead and Chill Touch instead of Booming Blade) to have it in the main action, cause bonus actions tend to be occupied as Artificers (Homunculus Servant. which I assume someone taking this class would want to take for the familiar-type vibes)
Thanks for the feedback , I think this will steer me into a more cohesive direction!
I also do like this, one issue I am having is I don't want this to be to abusable and was considering limiting certain cantrips (my considerations were Thorn Whip, Mind Sliver, Toll the Dead and Chill Touch instead of Booming Blade) to have it in the main action, cause bonus actions tend to be occupied as Artificers (Homunculus Servant. which I assume someone taking this class would want to take for the familiar-type vibes)
I see your point. Use the Bladesinging verbiage then:
"You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks."
Yes, I mean the intent is supposed to be the ability to fight in melee, I don't want to make the character incapable of fighting in melee. Just because the thematic is witch-y doesn't necessarily mean its leaning into an Artillerist type play style. I'm not sure if you are implying I change it or not? The subclass is intended to use their weapons, they don't have turrets or alchemical savant to commit to blasting, and I hope players would use their spells/traits to debuff enemies and heal dying allies like the class implies. I suppose I could make the tokens only usable on allies. I can change the saving thrown from INT to WIS if that feels particularly op but yeah, not quite sure if you are saying to get rid of certain things or not.
What would you recommend?
I deliberately didn't make it focused on a recommendation because I'm not sure what you want the class to "feel" like. When I imagine a witch-type character I don't imagine them using weapons at all, except to occasionally whack someone with a stick to tell them off, but otherwise being someone who can calmly walk through danger using strange magic, curses, hexes, potions, knowledge of their enemies to terrify them etc... which is not at all what the class you've designed is about. But if when you think of a witch, you envision someone who runs really fast around the battlefield hitting people with a melee martial weapon then the class is just fine.
Yes, I mean the intent is supposed to be the ability to fight in melee, I don't want to make the character incapable of fighting in melee. Just because the thematic is witch-y doesn't necessarily mean its leaning into an Artillerist type play style. I'm not sure if you are implying I change it or not? The subclass is intended to use their weapons, they don't have turrets or alchemical savant to commit to blasting, and I hope players would use their spells/traits to debuff enemies and heal dying allies like the class implies. I suppose I could make the tokens only usable on allies. I can change the saving thrown from INT to WIS if that feels particularly op but yeah, not quite sure if you are saying to get rid of certain things or not.
What would you recommend?
I deliberately didn't make it focused on a recommendation because I'm not sure what you want the class to "feel" like. When I imagine a witch-type character I don't imagine them using weapons at all, except to occasionally whack someone with a stick to tell them off, but otherwise being someone who can calmly walk through danger using strange magic, curses, hexes, potions, knowledge of their enemies to terrify them etc... which is not at all what the class you've designed is about. But if when you think of a witch, you envision someone who runs really fast around the battlefield hitting people with a melee martial weapon then the class is just fine.
That's kinda what threw me at first, thinking of the witch stereotype and then seeing all these magic melee perks. The next version ties it a little bit more together and if you take the theme from their introduction, a cutting and slashing gish makes entire sense. Having some witchy flavor sprinkled on top I feel is appropriate.
I'm taking aboard some changes that @Mairondil recommended but if you have an inherent issue with the idea of melee witch, I'm not sure that will change here. The concept is not foreign nor uncommon. Athame, Boline, Dagger and Swords are ritual blades (not typically in combat but it has been flavored as such in plenty of fantasy media) that witch's use, woven tokens are reference to a witch's ability to create hexes and blessings, and Threadded Mind is simply the mind affecting magics witches tend to employ. Melee witches exist in various other media, like Melinoe and Hecate (from Hades 2), and Gwen (from LoR). Even in DnD we have the Hexblade, which can easily be interpreted as a witch. There are also Hags in DnD that use melee attacks. There is more than one type of Witch, and there is no shortage of the type you describe in other homebrew.
Hence why I didn't say whether that play style was right or wrong, I'm not familiar with any of the things you listed. Melee-DnD hags either hug you to death or scratch your eyes out with their clawed mishapened hands which is not this proposed class. But if you want a hit-and-run sword-and-board character with some occasional buffs/debuffs with some seemstress / hag flavour that is what you have achieved with the proposed subclass.
BTW it is still probably the most powerful Artificer, particularly when it comes to raw DPR. It is much more a martial / gish than a support / debuff character. But if that's what you want go for it.
I totally get you on wanting to buff up the melee skills, who wouldn't want that. I like the weaving theme, playing up scissors or needles as inspiration for special weapons, and the tapestry/garment for some kind of protection boost.
Most of the features feel appropriate, albeit not quite in the right place. Here's what I would do:
Mind Sliver is a TCoE spell and you won't be able to publish this homebrew on dndbeyond giving that spell.
Review your choices for spells to see if there's any spells that tie in closer to the witch and weaver themes, like Hex feels totally appropriate. I'd lean on non-artificer spells to give them more variety. And pick SRD only spells so you won't run into problems publishing here if that's your end goal.
Witching Dance doesn't fit the theme of a weaver. I can see those mechanical benefits, but this needs something that ties into the overall theme better. Maybe relate it more to the arcane garment you mention in the first paragraph or the tapestry mentioned in the second paragraph. It's just that flavor of a "mirthful and whimsical dance" is the thing that is most out of place. I see you dropped the Shield spell and the AC bump. I'd add the AC bump back to a reworded Witching Dance. Something like "your flashy arcane garment/tapestry causes momentary hesitation by anyone the looks at it" or something along those lines. I'd drop the speed boost but keep the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity because that makes more sense if you go this route.
I'd move Threaded Mind to 5th level like an Improved Tapestry feature. If you really want that speed boost, add that here which would fall in line with barbarians and monks getting a speed boost at 5 too. Call it arcane slippers or something.
Weft and warp. I wouldn't limit it to these two cantrips. Just use the verbiage from the EK Fighter's War Magic "when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action."
I think Woven Hex should be an action, not a bonus action. I'd double the damage, or more, and swap this with the unnamed 2nd part of Secrets of the Witchweaver (the additional healing and advantage upgrade to the tokens). Woven Hex should be your Nuke and as such should be in the capstone.
I made an artificer subclass that is basically my interpretation of Star Wars force wielding artificer (without any of the IP conflicts) called a Weaveblade. It's a strait up artificer gish, but I didn't give it the Shield spell and only a regular 2nd attack, not cantrip and attack. Using INT for attacks on a scaling radiant weapon is powerful enough. Check the spell list and you'll see they are all SRD spells that are not artificer spells and for the most part fit the theme of a mind tricks laser sword gish character.
Made some changes based on your feedback, and made the "tokens" more integral to the class, they are called Talismans now and are resource that can be used to different affect. I've leaned more into some Witchy flavor like you recommended and switched around some features.
I totally get you on wanting to buff up the melee skills, who wouldn't want that. I like the weaving theme, playing up scissors or needles as inspiration for special weapons, and the tapestry/garment for some kind of protection boost.
Most of the features feel appropriate, albeit not quite in the right place. Here's what I would do:
Mind Sliver is a TCoE spell and you won't be able to publish this homebrew on dndbeyond giving that spell.
Review your choices for spells to see if there's any spells that tie in closer to the witch and weaver themes, like Hex feels totally appropriate. I'd lean on non-artificer spells to give them more variety. And pick SRD only spells so you won't run into problems publishing here if that's your end goal.
Witching Dance doesn't fit the theme of a weaver. I can see those mechanical benefits, but this needs something that ties into the overall theme better. Maybe relate it more to the arcane garment you mention in the first paragraph or the tapestry mentioned in the second paragraph. It's just that flavor of a "mirthful and whimsical dance" is the thing that is most out of place. I see you dropped the Shield spell and the AC bump. I'd add the AC bump back to a reworded Witching Dance. Something like "your flashy arcane garment/tapestry causes momentary hesitation by anyone the looks at it" or something along those lines. I'd drop the speed boost but keep the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity because that makes more sense if you go this route.
I'd move Threaded Mind to 5th level like an Improved Tapestry feature. If you really want that speed boost, add that here which would fall in line with barbarians and monks getting a speed boost at 5 too. Call it arcane slippers or something.
Weft and warp. I wouldn't limit it to these two cantrips. Just use the verbiage from the EK Fighter's War Magic "when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action."
I think Woven Hex should be an action, not a bonus action. I'd double the damage, or more, and swap this with the unnamed 2nd part of Secrets of the Witchweaver (the additional healing and advantage upgrade to the tokens). Woven Hex should be your Nuke and as such should be in the capstone.
I made an artificer subclass that is basically my interpretation of Star Wars force wielding artificer (without any of the IP conflicts) called a Weaveblade. It's a strait up artificer gish, but I didn't give it the Shield spell and only a regular 2nd attack, not cantrip and attack. Using INT for attacks on a scaling radiant weapon is powerful enough. Check the spell list and you'll see they are all SRD spells that are not artificer spells and for the most part fit the theme of a mind tricks laser sword gish character.
Made some changes based on your feedback, and made the "tokens" more integral to the class, they are called Talismans now and are resource that can be used to different affect. I've leaned more into some Witchy flavor like you recommended and switched around some features.
I know you want Galder’s tower as a spell. But you won't be able to publish it on dndbeyond with it. I gotta suggest making this tiny hut.
Woven Talisman: Bind - For telepathic communication, I'd say that's worth 1 talisman, not 2. It's not that big a resource cost considering Aberrant Mind or the Telepathic feat give unlimited usage of this kinda thing.
Also, Woven Talisman should be it's own feature instead of part of Witch's Tapestry.
Manifest Tapestry at 9th level looks cool AF. I really like how that fits the theme and it seems like an appropriate amalgamation of spirit guardians and spike growth that isn't overpowered but still effective. By 9th level, you should have what, 9+4 talismans, so 13 talismans? So over half that resource to cast, technically you can do it once per long rest. I'd say this should cost 6 or even 5 talisman to activate giving at most twice per long rest to use.
Secrets of the Witchweaver: Fray - The last bit says "the hex ends" but you don't refer to it as a hex earlier. This is a bit confusing.
I know you want Galder’s tower as a spell. But you won't be able to publish it on dndbeyond with it. I gotta suggest making this tiny hut.
Artificer isn't SRD so this is unpublishable anyway.
Re: Version 3 It doesn't really make sense for Fray to cause the poisoned/blinded condition... at all. Psychic damage is almost always tied to frightened, whereas poisoned and blindness are always tied to a CON save.
Agree with the above that Talisman should be an entirely separate feature, it has nothing to do with the tapestry feature.
Manifest Tapestry is very similar to Spirit Shroud, why not just give them that spell instead?
I totally get you on wanting to buff up the melee skills, who wouldn't want that. I like the weaving theme, playing up scissors or needles as inspiration for special weapons, and the tapestry/garment for some kind of protection boost.
Most of the features feel appropriate, albeit not quite in the right place. Here's what I would do:
Mind Sliver is a TCoE spell and you won't be able to publish this homebrew on dndbeyond giving that spell.
Review your choices for spells to see if there's any spells that tie in closer to the witch and weaver themes, like Hex feels totally appropriate. I'd lean on non-artificer spells to give them more variety. And pick SRD only spells so you won't run into problems publishing here if that's your end goal.
Witching Dance doesn't fit the theme of a weaver. I can see those mechanical benefits, but this needs something that ties into the overall theme better. Maybe relate it more to the arcane garment you mention in the first paragraph or the tapestry mentioned in the second paragraph. It's just that flavor of a "mirthful and whimsical dance" is the thing that is most out of place. I see you dropped the Shield spell and the AC bump. I'd add the AC bump back to a reworded Witching Dance. Something like "your flashy arcane garment/tapestry causes momentary hesitation by anyone the looks at it" or something along those lines. I'd drop the speed boost but keep the disadvantage on attacks of opportunity because that makes more sense if you go this route.
I'd move Threaded Mind to 5th level like an Improved Tapestry feature. If you really want that speed boost, add that here which would fall in line with barbarians and monks getting a speed boost at 5 too. Call it arcane slippers or something.
Weft and warp. I wouldn't limit it to these two cantrips. Just use the verbiage from the EK Fighter's War Magic "when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action."
I think Woven Hex should be an action, not a bonus action. I'd double the damage, or more, and swap this with the unnamed 2nd part of Secrets of the Witchweaver (the additional healing and advantage upgrade to the tokens). Woven Hex should be your Nuke and as such should be in the capstone.
I made an artificer subclass that is basically my interpretation of Star Wars force wielding artificer (without any of the IP conflicts) called a Weaveblade. It's a strait up artificer gish, but I didn't give it the Shield spell and only a regular 2nd attack, not cantrip and attack. Using INT for attacks on a scaling radiant weapon is powerful enough. Check the spell list and you'll see they are all SRD spells that are not artificer spells and for the most part fit the theme of a mind tricks laser sword gish character.
Made some changes based on your feedback, and made the "tokens" more integral to the class, they are called Talismans now and are resource that can be used to different affect. I've leaned more into some Witchy flavor like you recommended and switched around some features.
I know you want Galder’s tower as a spell. But you won't be able to publish it on dndbeyond with it. I gotta suggest making this tiny hut.
Woven Talisman: Bind - For telepathic communication, I'd say that's worth 1 talisman, not 2. It's not that big a resource cost considering Aberrant Mind or the Telepathic feat give unlimited usage of this kinda thing.
Also, Woven Talisman should be it's own feature instead of part of Witch's Tapestry.
Manifest Tapestry at 9th level looks cool AF. I really like how that fits the theme and it seems like an appropriate amalgamation of spirit guardians and spike growth that isn't overpowered but still effective. By 9th level, you should have what, 9+4 talismans, so 13 talismans? So over half that resource to cast, technically you can do it once per long rest. I'd say this should cost 6 or even 5 talisman to activate giving at most twice per long rest to use.
Secrets of the Witchweaver: Fray - The last bit says "the hex ends" but you don't refer to it as a hex earlier. This is a bit confusing.
Made spell changes, although I plan on publishing on DMs Guild, I figured it would be nice to be compatible with DnD Beyond as well. I lowered the Talisman costs. Woven Talismans is its own feature now. And I changed Fray -> Witchweaver's Hex, fixing some verbiage as well.
Hi all!
This my first time homebrewing a subclass. I wanted to make an artificer that uses weaving tools and leaned into a Bladesinger type playstyle with a witchy flavor, since DnD seems to lack explicit witch subclasses. Open to feedback and thoughts!
Maybe it's just me but Witch's Tapestry seems really strong for level 3, with Witching Dance and especially Woven Tokens.
The progression seems off too with adding proficiency to a few martial weapons, using INT for attack and damage, adding extra psychic damage PB times a day for 1 minute. Plus 2 attacks at level 5, one can be a cantrip. Then at level 9 you add 2 to your AC PB times a day for 1 minute. To me I would swap the extra psychic damage and the AC bump where the extra damage comes in at level 9 and the AC bump comes in at level 3.
This just seems to be a combination of all the gish wetdreams, while the theme of the character doesn't seem to allude to a strong gish at all. I'm not aware of a subclass that gives all of these:
You won't be able to publish if you keep Wither and Bloom in your prepared spell list since it's a non-SRD spell. I haven't looked through the Secrets of the Witchweaver feature to see if any of those spells are non-SRD.
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My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
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Made some aspects of the subclass clearer, as It was not intended to seem like just an amalgamation of a bunch of gish- hyper optimal traits, there was a proper inspiration behind the class so I made that more clear and took some of the balancing considerations you mentioned. The character is supposed to play like a utility/debuffer/secondary healer or primary if need be, with the ability to fight in melee. Inspired by characters like Gwen from LoR.
Witchweaver pg1
Witchweaver pg2
The original is 100% a sword-and-board AC tank. The only spells you'd bother with are Shield & Haste, with AC = 14+2(Dex)+2(shield) + 5 (Shield) + 2(Dance) = 25, and the Woven tokens to heal yourself whenever you take damage. Using Booming Blade to lock down enemies, and at level 4 taking Warcaster to punish them even more for moving away from you, and the Hex feature to impose DA on their attacks using a save that most enemies have a low bonus for.
Your new version is still a sword-and-board martial but now you are a hit-and-run skirmisher that uses those tactics to maximized BB extra damage as their version of "Smite"-ing. Though there might be a reason to occasionally use your spells rather than 100% of the time using BB. (at least until they take a 1-2 level dip into Wizard to get Shield).
Yes, I mean the intent is supposed to be the ability to fight in melee, I don't want to make the character incapable of fighting in melee. Just because the thematic is witch-y doesn't necessarily mean its leaning into an Artillerist type play style. I'm not sure if you are implying I change it or not? The subclass is intended to use their weapons, they don't have turrets or alchemical savant to commit to blasting, and I hope players would use their spells/traits to debuff enemies and heal dying allies like the class implies. I suppose I could make the tokens only usable on allies. I can change the saving thrown from INT to WIS if that feels particularly op but yeah, not quite sure if you are saying to get rid of certain things or not.
What would you recommend?
I totally get you on wanting to buff up the melee skills, who wouldn't want that. I like the weaving theme, playing up scissors or needles as inspiration for special weapons, and the tapestry/garment for some kind of protection boost.
Most of the features feel appropriate, albeit not quite in the right place. Here's what I would do:
I made an artificer subclass that is basically my interpretation of Star Wars force wielding artificer (without any of the IP conflicts) called a Weaveblade. It's a strait up artificer gish, but I didn't give it the Shield spell and only a regular 2nd attack, not cantrip and attack. Using INT for attacks on a scaling radiant weapon is powerful enough. Check the spell list and you'll see they are all SRD spells that are not artificer spells and for the most part fit the theme of a mind tricks laser sword gish character.
How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
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This is immensely helpful!
Thanks for the feedback , I think this will steer me into a more cohesive direction!
I see your point. Use the Bladesinging verbiage then:
"You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks."
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My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
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I deliberately didn't make it focused on a recommendation because I'm not sure what you want the class to "feel" like. When I imagine a witch-type character I don't imagine them using weapons at all, except to occasionally whack someone with a stick to tell them off, but otherwise being someone who can calmly walk through danger using strange magic, curses, hexes, potions, knowledge of their enemies to terrify them etc... which is not at all what the class you've designed is about. But if when you think of a witch, you envision someone who runs really fast around the battlefield hitting people with a melee martial weapon then the class is just fine.
That's kinda what threw me at first, thinking of the witch stereotype and then seeing all these magic melee perks. The next version ties it a little bit more together and if you take the theme from their introduction, a cutting and slashing gish makes entire sense. Having some witchy flavor sprinkled on top I feel is appropriate.
The wicked witch of the west, this is not.
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My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
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I'm taking aboard some changes that @Mairondil recommended but if you have an inherent issue with the idea of melee witch, I'm not sure that will change here. The concept is not foreign nor uncommon. Athame, Boline, Dagger and Swords are ritual blades (not typically in combat but it has been flavored as such in plenty of fantasy media) that witch's use, woven tokens are reference to a witch's ability to create hexes and blessings, and Threadded Mind is simply the mind affecting magics witches tend to employ. Melee witches exist in various other media, like Melinoe and Hecate (from Hades 2), and Gwen (from LoR). Even in DnD we have the Hexblade, which can easily be interpreted as a witch. There are also Hags in DnD that use melee attacks. There is more than one type of Witch, and there is no shortage of the type you describe in other homebrew.
Hence why I didn't say whether that play style was right or wrong, I'm not familiar with any of the things you listed. Melee-DnD hags either hug you to death or scratch your eyes out with their clawed mishapened hands which is not this proposed class. But if you want a hit-and-run sword-and-board character with some occasional buffs/debuffs with some seemstress / hag flavour that is what you have achieved with the proposed subclass.
BTW it is still probably the most powerful Artificer, particularly when it comes to raw DPR. It is much more a martial / gish than a support / debuff character. But if that's what you want go for it.
Made some changes based on your feedback, and made the "tokens" more integral to the class, they are called Talismans now and are resource that can be used to different affect. I've leaned more into some Witchy flavor like you recommended and switched around some features.
Witchweaver pg1 v.3
Witchweaver pg2 v.3
How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading WORKAROUND FIXED!!! (TY Jay_Lane for original instructions)
Artificer isn't SRD so this is unpublishable anyway.
Re: Version 3
It doesn't really make sense for Fray to cause the poisoned/blinded condition... at all. Psychic damage is almost always tied to frightened, whereas poisoned and blindness are always tied to a CON save.
Agree with the above that Talisman should be an entirely separate feature, it has nothing to do with the tapestry feature.
Manifest Tapestry is very similar to Spirit Shroud, why not just give them that spell instead?
I meant published on dndbeyond.
How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading WORKAROUND FIXED!!! (TY Jay_Lane for original instructions)
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Made spell changes, although I plan on publishing on DMs Guild, I figured it would be nice to be compatible with DnD Beyond as well. I lowered the Talisman costs. Woven Talismans is its own feature now. And I changed Fray -> Witchweaver's Hex, fixing some verbiage as well.
Witchweaver v4
Thanks again so much for the feeback, its been super helpful!