Hello all! Although the new Artificer class is still in the playtesting phase, I had some fun coming up with a homebrew subclass for it. It is mostly inspired by the idea of powered suits and armor. The main idea is to give the artificer a customization suit of armor that is unique to their interests and skill. I certainly can't say that its terribly well balanced, but take a look and let me know what you think. All input and criticism is welcome (civility is greatly appreciated).
The strength of a person is defined by how hard one strives for self-improvement. For a mechanist, self-improvement can be achieved with a little elbow grease, some careful thinking, and creativity.
Mechanists are known for crafting, maintaining, and modifying special suits of armor, allowing them sustainability and versatility on the battle field. The world is what you make of it, and Mechanists have just the tools for the job.
Mechanist Spells:
Artificer Level
Spells
3rd
Magic Missile, Shield
5th
Darkvision, Locate Object
9th
Nondetection, Lightning Bolt
14th
Fire Shield, Locate Creature
17th
Passwall, Rary’s Telepathic Bond
Body Armor:
At 3rd level, you learn to craft a suit of armor using magical adhesion and enhancement which covers your entire body with a mixture of leather, clothe, and metal pieces to allow for flexibility and durability. This armor counts as medium armor, with the AC = 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Intelligence Modifier. If anyone else wears this armor, the AC = 10 + that creature’s Dexterity Modifier, as you are the only one that can benefit from its particular magical enhancement.
Additionally, if you expand a spell slot of 1st level or higher, you can Don or Doff this armor using a bonus action so long as the suit is within 30ft of you.
You gain your first suit when you choose this specialization at 3rd level. After that, crafting additional or replacement suits requires 100 GP and 24 hours dedicated solely to creating the new suit.
Artificer Armaments:
At 6th level, you have begun to experiment with customizing your Body Armor to suit your needs. You can now add an item as an additional piece for your body armor, from the list below. You can choose to switch out different items during your long rest if you have the prerequisite item (and level if listed) and do not utilize the Infuse Item feature. Attached items are considered part of the armor itself and cannot be infused separately. The prerequisite items are consumed when adding an attachment and lose any temporary properties granted to them by spells or infusions. Armaments can be forcibly removed from the suit by another creature with a successful DC 20 Strength check, but these attachments cannot otherwise be dropped, stolen, or removed without taking the rest of the armor with it.
At 14th level, you can add up to two armaments to your armor when using this feature if you meet the necessary requirements.
Armaments:
Chain Hook-Prerequisite items: Chain and Spear; Prerequisite Level: 10- Connected along one of your arms is 5ft of Chain attached to a spearhead. You can use this item to make melee weapon attacks, with the damage for it being 1d6 piercing and using your Strength modifier for attack and damage rolls. You are considered proficient with this weapon. Additionally, if you hit a creature with a weapon attack from this item, before rolling damage you can elect to deal only half damage. If you do, the creature is grappled by the chain (no contest required), with the DC to break the grapple on future turns being equal to you spell save DC.
Concealed Blade - Prerequisite Item: Dagger- attached under one of your wrists is a concealed blade, which you can bring forth or sheath using a Free action. On your turn, you can make a weapon attack with the dagger as a bonus action. If you use the Thrown property of the dagger to make a ranged weapon attack, you use your spellcasting modifier in place of your strength modifier for the attack and damage. Once you do so you cannot utilize this attachment until you reattach a dagger to the suit using your action.
Hook Belt-Prerequisite item: Grappling Hook; Prerequisite level: 10- you now have a small grappling hook attached to your belt. On your turn, you can use the grappling hook as bonus action or reaction. If you successfully use it to grapple a structure, you can walk on that the side of that surface using your normal movement speed. The grappling hook has a 20ft rope attachment which retracts back to your belt as soon as you reach the hook. While hooked to a surface, you can use your reaction to retract some length of rope, pulling you that distance towards the hook. If you use this reaction in response to an attack or spell effect, treat it as if you had the benefit of half-cover.
Lock-breaker-Prerequisite item: Portable Ram- a smaller version of the portable ram is attached to one of your arms. You gain +2 to Strength checks to break down doors. You can also utilize this attachment as a weapon which you are proficient in (using the same stats and modifiers as a Warhammer for the attack).
Magical Enhancement-Prerequisite item: A magical item of at least “uncommon” rarity; Prerequisite level: 10- You improve your Body Armor’s magical defenses. You gain resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage while wearing your Body Armor. If the rarity of the prerequisite magic item is “very rare” or “legendary”, you gain immunity to the previously mentioned damage types instead of resistance.
Shoulder Turret- Prerequisite items: Dart and Crossbow- attached to one of your shoulders is a small turret, like a crossbow. The turret has the loading property and uses darts as ammunition. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with the shoulder turret, making a ranged weapon attack as you would for a dart, but using your spellcasting modifier for your attack and damage rolls in place of Dexterity or Strength.
Spiked Boots-Prerequisite item: 10 Iron Spikes and a pair of boots- the boots are reinforced and attached to your Body Armor, granting you better footing. You can move across difficult terrain at your normal speed and have advantage on Athletics checks and Strength saving throws to contest being shoved or displaced against your will.
Small Shield-Prerequisite item: Shield- attached to one of your forearms is a shield which you have reduced in size to fit the suit without weighing you down. This shield grants +1 to the AC of your Body Armor.
Syringe- Prerequisite item: Healer’s kit (or a potion of any kind);Prerequisite level: 10- a small syringe is attached under one of your wrists. As a bonus action on your turn, you can stabilize a creature you can touch. Alternatively, if you used a potion, you can use your bonus action to apply the potion to a creature you can touch. Once you use this attachment, you must refill it with another potion during a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use this attachment to stabilize a creature (healer’s kit) up to three times before needing to refill during a short or long rest.
Tool Attachment- Prerequisite item: Thieves’ tools or Artisan tools you use as your spellcasting focus- While these tools are integrated into your body armor, you do not need to be holding your tools in your hand to utilize them as a spellcasting focus.
Inspired Engineering
You have a mastery over your armor and its inner workings. At 14th level, you can choose one of the following permanent enhancements to be made to your Body Armor. These enhancements only take effect when you are the one wearing it. For each additional suit of Body Armor you create, you can choose an enhancement.
Adamantine Alloy: While wearing your Body Armor, critical hits made against you count as normal hits. Additionally, your armor cannot be physically broken or damaged.
Illusionary Plating: While wearing your Body Armor, you can cast Greater Invisibility as an action. Once you do so, you must complete a rest before you can cast the spell again in this way.
Destructive Core: While wearing your Body Armor, you can cast the Disintegrate spell as an action (using your spell save DC). Once you do so, you must complete a long rest before casting this spell again in this way.
I've played this in my own campaigns a few times after seeing this a month ago, and decided to send a reply with a question.
I absolutely love this class and how it is armor focused, and I've had DM's throw whatever they wanted at my characters at various levels and we've decided that it can be balanced out with the right encounters, but boy it takes a heck of a lot. It brings the character up alongside the Monk and Barbarian if you play your cards right, but I am wondering about how it counts as Medium Armor if its base armor rating is only 10. Artificer Infusions, exotic materials, and magical item crafting can boost it up to supremely high levels, but I wonder: if it counts as medium armor and allows full dexterity modifier and intelligence modifier, should it not have a base armor rating of a medium armor such as chain shirt or half plate? the lowest armor rating seen on dnd armor is 11(padded leather armor), and the highest being 18(platemail)
I've had my players, and in some cases, my DM, ask me questions like this. Again, this is a fantastic class and I enjoy playing it, I simply want clarification from the author about Medium armor and it starting at a base armor rating of 10 plus additional modifiers.
Thank you so much for your response. I am glad you are enjoying it. I honestly did not expect to hear back on this anytime soon.
To answer your question, looking back at when I first wrote this up I think the reason I set the base AC at 10 instead of 11 or 12 is because of all of the attachments the body armor can have put on it. Because your character can make multiple suits of armor and can lend them to other players, I was trying to make sure that it wasn't too OP compared to standard medium armor options. In retrospect, this may not be necessary considering the work that goes into each suit and the fact that there should be a benefit to having an Artificer of this type on your team.
I could also fix this by simply making the body armor "light" instead of "medium" so any player looking to borrow a suit knows that they might be risking a dip in total AC that comes with the gadgets.
I am not sure which approach I would prefer to do at this point (raising the base AC or simply rebranding it as "light")
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
If I might make a suggestion for going forward with this:
Allow the Artificer in question to decide what type of armor it is to be between Light, Medium, and Heavy. Have them describe, briefly, what went into the armor for materials and how it might have been constructed. IE: Cloth > Leather > Cloth > Chainmail (which is how traditional medieval chainmail was originally constructed. a cloth layer for clothing, the leather for some minor added protection and warmth in cold places, the 2nd layer of cloth so the chainmail rings don't bite into the leather, and make slightly less noise than usual.)
If the artificer in question, at the time of the armor's creation or receiving (they receive one for free at level 3) is proficient with the armor type they choose (light, medium, heavy) then they can wear that armor without penalty.
Light Armor would give 12 + Dexterity Modifier + Intelligence Modifier (the range of light is 11 12 and 13, so the middle ground would be preferred)
Medium Armor might give 13 or 14 depending on DM's preference at the time of creation
Heavy Armor might give 15 to 16, again depending on your GM.
we do not want to give the Artificer a full 16-18 range of AC based on platemail designs. If a player achieves maximum stats on their dexterity and intelligence (as is often the case on very lengthy campaigns and continual level ups) he could have an armor class that would take a demigod or a dragon to surpass. hence the average of the class for each armor rating. Besides, a -1 here or a -2 there isn't going to screw them up especially since they can add their full dexterity modifier to it as well as their magical prowess as an Artificer via their intelligence bonus as well.
Thank you for your feedback. I think the route I would prefer to take would be to start the armor as either light or medium and then allow the player to build up the AC using armaments if what they desire is a really strong set of armor.
I adapted this subclass to fit the fully released version of the Artificer, which you can find here if youre interested.
As it stands at this point in my new version, the armor starts as light with an AC of 10+Dex+Int; however I also changed it where you can get three armaments as you level up, which means that you could potentially have a suit of armor which is 13+Dex+Int if you take the "small shield" armament each time.
After your comments, I am considering coming up with a new armament that might allow you to boost the AC by more than +1 per armament, but am not sure how I would want to balance it (since potentially that armament could also be stacked three times in a row)
While a base of 10+Dex is kind of crappy for other players who are wearing your armor (since thats just standard AC), the benefits come from them having access to your armaments. Admittedly, though, it might be worth changing the base to 11 or 12 + modifiers. I just want to be careful so that it does not too greatly outshine the Unarmored Defense features of other classes, even without armaments.
Hello all! Although the new Artificer class is still in the playtesting phase, I had some fun coming up with a homebrew subclass for it. It is mostly inspired by the idea of powered suits and armor. The main idea is to give the artificer a customization suit of armor that is unique to their interests and skill. I certainly can't say that its terribly well balanced, but take a look and let me know what you think. All input and criticism is welcome (civility is greatly appreciated).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mechanist
The strength of a person is defined by how hard one strives for self-improvement. For a mechanist, self-improvement can be achieved with a little elbow grease, some careful thinking, and creativity.
Mechanists are known for crafting, maintaining, and modifying special suits of armor, allowing them sustainability and versatility on the battle field. The world is what you make of it, and Mechanists have just the tools for the job.
Mechanist Spells:
Artificer Level
Spells
3rd
Magic Missile, Shield
5th
Darkvision, Locate Object
9th
Nondetection, Lightning Bolt
14th
Fire Shield, Locate Creature
17th
Passwall, Rary’s Telepathic Bond
Body Armor:
At 3rd level, you learn to craft a suit of armor using magical adhesion and enhancement which covers your entire body with a mixture of leather, clothe, and metal pieces to allow for flexibility and durability. This armor counts as medium armor, with the AC = 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Intelligence Modifier. If anyone else wears this armor, the AC = 10 + that creature’s Dexterity Modifier, as you are the only one that can benefit from its particular magical enhancement.
Additionally, if you expand a spell slot of 1st level or higher, you can Don or Doff this armor using a bonus action so long as the suit is within 30ft of you.
You gain your first suit when you choose this specialization at 3rd level. After that, crafting additional or replacement suits requires 100 GP and 24 hours dedicated solely to creating the new suit.
Artificer Armaments:
At 6th level, you have begun to experiment with customizing your Body Armor to suit your needs. You can now add an item as an additional piece for your body armor, from the list below. You can choose to switch out different items during your long rest if you have the prerequisite item (and level if listed) and do not utilize the Infuse Item feature. Attached items are considered part of the armor itself and cannot be infused separately. The prerequisite items are consumed when adding an attachment and lose any temporary properties granted to them by spells or infusions. Armaments can be forcibly removed from the suit by another creature with a successful DC 20 Strength check, but these attachments cannot otherwise be dropped, stolen, or removed without taking the rest of the armor with it.
At 14th level, you can add up to two armaments to your armor when using this feature if you meet the necessary requirements.
Armaments:
Chain Hook-Prerequisite items: Chain and Spear; Prerequisite Level: 10- Connected along one of your arms is 5ft of Chain attached to a spearhead. You can use this item to make melee weapon attacks, with the damage for it being 1d6 piercing and using your Strength modifier for attack and damage rolls. You are considered proficient with this weapon. Additionally, if you hit a creature with a weapon attack from this item, before rolling damage you can elect to deal only half damage. If you do, the creature is grappled by the chain (no contest required), with the DC to break the grapple on future turns being equal to you spell save DC.
Concealed Blade - Prerequisite Item: Dagger- attached under one of your wrists is a concealed blade, which you can bring forth or sheath using a Free action. On your turn, you can make a weapon attack with the dagger as a bonus action. If you use the Thrown property of the dagger to make a ranged weapon attack, you use your spellcasting modifier in place of your strength modifier for the attack and damage. Once you do so you cannot utilize this attachment until you reattach a dagger to the suit using your action.
Hook Belt- Prerequisite item: Grappling Hook; Prerequisite level: 10- you now have a small grappling hook attached to your belt. On your turn, you can use the grappling hook as bonus action or reaction. If you successfully use it to grapple a structure, you can walk on that the side of that surface using your normal movement speed. The grappling hook has a 20ft rope attachment which retracts back to your belt as soon as you reach the hook. While hooked to a surface, you can use your reaction to retract some length of rope, pulling you that distance towards the hook. If you use this reaction in response to an attack or spell effect, treat it as if you had the benefit of half-cover.
Lock-breaker-Prerequisite item: Portable Ram- a smaller version of the portable ram is attached to one of your arms. You gain +2 to Strength checks to break down doors. You can also utilize this attachment as a weapon which you are proficient in (using the same stats and modifiers as a Warhammer for the attack).
Magical Enhancement-Prerequisite item: A magical item of at least “uncommon” rarity; Prerequisite level: 10- You improve your Body Armor’s magical defenses. You gain resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage while wearing your Body Armor. If the rarity of the prerequisite magic item is “very rare” or “legendary”, you gain immunity to the previously mentioned damage types instead of resistance.
Shoulder Turret- Prerequisite items: Dart and Crossbow- attached to one of your shoulders is a small turret, like a crossbow. The turret has the loading property and uses darts as ammunition. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with the shoulder turret, making a ranged weapon attack as you would for a dart, but using your spellcasting modifier for your attack and damage rolls in place of Dexterity or Strength.
Spiked Boots-Prerequisite item: 10 Iron Spikes and a pair of boots- the boots are reinforced and attached to your Body Armor, granting you better footing. You can move across difficult terrain at your normal speed and have advantage on Athletics checks and Strength saving throws to contest being shoved or displaced against your will.
Small Shield-Prerequisite item: Shield- attached to one of your forearms is a shield which you have reduced in size to fit the suit without weighing you down. This shield grants +1 to the AC of your Body Armor.
Syringe- Prerequisite item: Healer’s kit (or a potion of any kind); Prerequisite level: 10- a small syringe is attached under one of your wrists. As a bonus action on your turn, you can stabilize a creature you can touch. Alternatively, if you used a potion, you can use your bonus action to apply the potion to a creature you can touch. Once you use this attachment, you must refill it with another potion during a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use this attachment to stabilize a creature (healer’s kit) up to three times before needing to refill during a short or long rest.
Tool Attachment- Prerequisite item: Thieves’ tools or Artisan tools you use as your spellcasting focus- While these tools are integrated into your body armor, you do not need to be holding your tools in your hand to utilize them as a spellcasting focus.
Inspired Engineering
You have a mastery over your armor and its inner workings. At 14th level, you can choose one of the following permanent enhancements to be made to your Body Armor. These enhancements only take effect when you are the one wearing it. For each additional suit of Body Armor you create, you can choose an enhancement.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
For the 6th level feature, if my wording wasn't clear it is meant that only one armament can be attached at a time (until you reach level 14)
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I've played this in my own campaigns a few times after seeing this a month ago, and decided to send a reply with a question.
I absolutely love this class and how it is armor focused, and I've had DM's throw whatever they wanted at my characters at various levels and we've decided that it can be balanced out with the right encounters, but boy it takes a heck of a lot. It brings the character up alongside the Monk and Barbarian if you play your cards right, but I am wondering about how it counts as Medium Armor if its base armor rating is only 10. Artificer Infusions, exotic materials, and magical item crafting can boost it up to supremely high levels, but I wonder: if it counts as medium armor and allows full dexterity modifier and intelligence modifier, should it not have a base armor rating of a medium armor such as chain shirt or half plate? the lowest armor rating seen on dnd armor is 11(padded leather armor), and the highest being 18(platemail)
I've had my players, and in some cases, my DM, ask me questions like this. Again, this is a fantastic class and I enjoy playing it, I simply want clarification from the author about Medium armor and it starting at a base armor rating of 10 plus additional modifiers.
Thank you so much for your response. I am glad you are enjoying it. I honestly did not expect to hear back on this anytime soon.
To answer your question, looking back at when I first wrote this up I think the reason I set the base AC at 10 instead of 11 or 12 is because of all of the attachments the body armor can have put on it. Because your character can make multiple suits of armor and can lend them to other players, I was trying to make sure that it wasn't too OP compared to standard medium armor options. In retrospect, this may not be necessary considering the work that goes into each suit and the fact that there should be a benefit to having an Artificer of this type on your team.
I could also fix this by simply making the body armor "light" instead of "medium" so any player looking to borrow a suit knows that they might be risking a dip in total AC that comes with the gadgets.
I am not sure which approach I would prefer to do at this point (raising the base AC or simply rebranding it as "light")
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
If I might make a suggestion for going forward with this:
Allow the Artificer in question to decide what type of armor it is to be between Light, Medium, and Heavy. Have them describe, briefly, what went into the armor for materials and how it might have been constructed. IE: Cloth > Leather > Cloth > Chainmail (which is how traditional medieval chainmail was originally constructed. a cloth layer for clothing, the leather for some minor added protection and warmth in cold places, the 2nd layer of cloth so the chainmail rings don't bite into the leather, and make slightly less noise than usual.)
If the artificer in question, at the time of the armor's creation or receiving (they receive one for free at level 3) is proficient with the armor type they choose (light, medium, heavy) then they can wear that armor without penalty.
Light Armor would give 12 + Dexterity Modifier + Intelligence Modifier (the range of light is 11 12 and 13, so the middle ground would be preferred)
Medium Armor might give 13 or 14 depending on DM's preference at the time of creation
Heavy Armor might give 15 to 16, again depending on your GM.
we do not want to give the Artificer a full 16-18 range of AC based on platemail designs. If a player achieves maximum stats on their dexterity and intelligence (as is often the case on very lengthy campaigns and continual level ups) he could have an armor class that would take a demigod or a dragon to surpass. hence the average of the class for each armor rating. Besides, a -1 here or a -2 there isn't going to screw them up especially since they can add their full dexterity modifier to it as well as their magical prowess as an Artificer via their intelligence bonus as well.
A tinkerer's 2 cents worth.
Thank you for your feedback. I think the route I would prefer to take would be to start the armor as either light or medium and then allow the player to build up the AC using armaments if what they desire is a really strong set of armor.
I adapted this subclass to fit the fully released version of the Artificer, which you can find here if youre interested.
As it stands at this point in my new version, the armor starts as light with an AC of 10+Dex+Int; however I also changed it where you can get three armaments as you level up, which means that you could potentially have a suit of armor which is 13+Dex+Int if you take the "small shield" armament each time.
After your comments, I am considering coming up with a new armament that might allow you to boost the AC by more than +1 per armament, but am not sure how I would want to balance it (since potentially that armament could also be stacked three times in a row)
While a base of 10+Dex is kind of crappy for other players who are wearing your armor (since thats just standard AC), the benefits come from them having access to your armaments. Admittedly, though, it might be worth changing the base to 11 or 12 + modifiers. I just want to be careful so that it does not too greatly outshine the Unarmored Defense features of other classes, even without armaments.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on that.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!