Once upon a time, these artificers specialized in an art of entertainment involving small theaters in which they would present vivid stories using their little friends. However, with the last war they were forcefully recruited to fill in ranks. It was at this point that their skills bared unexpected results, as their puppets allowed armies to make up numbers against large groups of enemies. Many puppets perished as fodder during that dark time… Though the office of puppetry gained a new boom as battlefield controllers, tactical commanders of expendable squadrons.
Tools of the Trade
By the time you adopt this specialty at 3rd level, you’re deeply familiar with employing its tools.
Proficiencies. You gain proficiency with carpenter’s tools and woodcarver’s tools, assuming you don’t already have them. You also gain carpenter’s tools and woodcarver’s tools for free—the result of tinkering you’ve done as you’ve prepared for this specialization.
Crafting. If you craft an item in the wondrous item category, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much of the usual gold.
Puppeteer Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Puppeteer Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Puppeteer Spells
Artificer Level Spell
3rd Charm Person, Command
5th Crown of Madness, Hold Person
9th Fear, Animate Dead
13th Dominate Beast, Compulsion
17th Dominate Person, Hold Monster
Magical Marionette
At 3rd level, you create a tiny marionette and imbue it with a modicum of sentience. During a short rest or a long rest, you attune to this marionette. While attuned, it develops its own consciousness, knows one language that you know of your choice and can speak directly into the minds of creatures that understand the specified language. It has 1d6 plus your intelligence modifier in hit points and an AC of 15. The marionette also has a flying speed of 30 and truesight 60. It is immune to poison damage and the all conditions. If forced to make an ability check or a saving throw, treat all its ability scores as 10 (+0). If the mending spell is cast on it, it regains 2d6 hit points. If it has been destroyed, you can create a new one at the end of a long rest. If you already have a magical marionette from this feature, the first one will turn into dust.
Alternate Rule: the DM may choose to turn the replaced marionette into a cursed magic item and use it as an antagonist to the player.
As an action, you can see through the marionette’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of the special senses of the marionette has. You are deaf and blind in regard to your own senses.
If you cast a spell with a range of touch, your marionette can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. The marionette must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, use your own attack modifier for the roll.
Magical Marionette
Tiny construct
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 1d6 plus your intelligence modifier
Speed flying 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities all
Senses Truesight 60
Puppeteering
By 3rd level, you have completed your first masterpiece. A simple humanoid wooden puppet of medium size of your own design. The puppet is a magical object that occupies its space and has two arms and legs. It has a natural AC of 10 and a number of hit points equal to five times your artificer level. It is immune to poison damage, psychic damage, and all conditions. If it is forced to make an ability check or a saving throw, treat all its ability scores as 10 (+0). If the mending spell is cast on it, it regains 2d6 hit points. If it has been destroyed, at the end of a long rest, you can repair a damaged puppet orcreate a new puppet if you have your Carpenter’s Tools with you. If you already have a puppet from this feature, the first one will break down into its material components.
Puppets created by you are quite special, capable of being equipped with items and manipulating them expertly. They may equip and use any simple weapon and equip up to medium armor. They may equip simple magic weapons such as radiant weapons and returning weapons, however they are unable to activate complex magic items such as wands or scrolls and are unable to attune to magic items themselves. All equipment rules as dictated in The Player’s Handbook still apply.
On each of your turns, you can take a bonus action to control any and all puppets you might have, as long as you are within 120 feet of it and it is within your sight. You can command a puppet to attack another creature or object within its reach with whatever weapon it currently wields dealing damage equal to the weapon’s damage die plus your proficiency bonus. As part of the same action, you can direct your puppet to move 30 feet to an unoccupied space within your sight. If you do not order the puppet to take the attack action, it will take the dodge action at the end of your turn instead.
Puppet
Medium construct, neutral
Armor Class 10
Hit Points equal to five times your level in this class
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities all
Might of the Master. The following numbers increase by 1 when your proficiency bonus increases by 1: the puppet’s skill bonuses, the bonuses to hit and damage of its weapon attacks.
Actions (Requires Your Bonus Action)
Weapon Attack. Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, one target you can see. Hit: ?d? + 2 damage.
Move. The puppet moves up to 30 feet within your sight.
Ventriloquist’s Dummy
At 6th level, you’ve bonded with your puppet enough to learn to speak through your puppet at will. As long as the puppet is within 10 feet of you, you may speak through the puppet. Furthermore, should a spell require verbal or somatic components you may have the puppet supply the required verbal and somatic components in your stead.
Additionally, as long as the puppet is within 30 feet of you, you may use your puppet as a spellcasting focus for any spells you cast. In said case, spells whose target is self will target the puppet instead.
Maneuverer
At 6th level, your skills as a puppeteer have greatly advanced allowing you to control two puppets simultaneously. Each individual puppet may be equipped with any simple weapon, any martial weapon with the light property, shields and up to medium armor. The items equipped by each puppet need not be the same.
Puppet Master
At 14th level, your control skills have evolved to their greatest extent possible. You can now control up to three individual puppets simultaneously and each one may be equipped with any weapon, armor or shield.
Furthermore, your magical marionette will be able to equip and activate complex magic weapons such as wands, staves, and wondrous items using its own action at the end of your turn. Note that the marionette is unable to attune to magic items because it is an object itself.
AUTHOR NOTES:
At best scenario, the subclass allows the player to cast a spell and attack three times with melee or ranged weapons by 14th level. This may have adverse effects on the action economy, so care must be held when testing out this subclass.
Spell selection was focused towards spells which would allow the Puppeteer to control a creature’s movements, hold it in place or attack its allies. Originally planned to give it a feature to control others with strings, but the same effect was achieved through the spell list which in turn can be fluffed into being strings controlling others.
The fact that each of the three dummies can be remarkably unique (while still being humanoid) can intrigue many players, but beware the fact that you will have to equip not just yourself but also your puppets. This may result in very, very poor players, not to mention how fragile the puppets may be on their own.
Due note, puppets are not considered creatures, they are magical objects. As per rules as intended, spells that target creatures, but not objects have no effect on them.
CHANGELOG:
0.02
Added a single line to make the backstory not as dark and more in line with the function of the subclass during the war.
Changed the name of the Magic Doll to Magical Marionette.
Specified that neither the puppets nor the marionette may attune magic items.
Changed scrolls for wondrous items in the 14th level feature for the marionette, also replaced trinkets with wondrous items in the Tools of the Trade feature.
Reduced the maximum distance for the first effect of Ventriloquist’s Dummy to 10 feet. The ability to basically ignore verbal and somatic components with a puppet just out of view was too powerful, thus the puppet must be nearby. Also makes senses thematically.
0.01
Added Magic Doll Feature.
Removed the named puppet in favor of giving the feature to the magic doll at the same level.
Added alternate rule when replacing an existing doll.
Fixed some incomplete or incorrect text within various features.
0.00
Decided to create an archetype with humanoid puppets instead of just giant mecha-beasts or blasters.
Rather than thinking up a story as was done with the previous subclass, I decided to simply write and see what I came up with.
Write basic frame of features based around the ability to control more puppets later on.
Wrote a basic backstory with emphasis on cannon fodder for the war.
Random Ideas:
Strings to control others. REJECTED: spells already achieve this.
Different types of puppets with different ability scores: wooden, porcelain or thread. REJECTED: requires proficiency in additional tools in order to create different types of puppets with one character.
My biggest concern is the inclusion of the magic doll; to me, it throws off the flow of the progression of the subclass because the majority of the features pertain to puppets only. I suggest bringing in the magic doll as one of the 14th-level features.
Then again, I can also see it as a variety of puppet similar to how the current artillerist has more than one type of arcane turret they can summon as options. I suppose in this case, "puppet" could be used as the general term for the subclass's "pet" and "magic doll" could be one of the options of "puppets" you could create/summon. Up to you what other variety of puppets you wanna homebrew, if any. Though right now, "magic doll" and "ventriloquist dummy" are probably enough options to start off with. Maybe throw in giant mecha-beasts, your call.
Also, if you're a fan of Jonathan Coulton, you should change the name from "magic doll" to "creepy doll".
The maximum number of puppets you can control should be two at level 14, to be more in line with the other artificer subclasses (artillerists can summon two turrets, archivists have another spell level to smite with, and the damage bonus to the alchemist's and battle smith's pet attacks is +5 at level 14).
I think the equipment options for the puppets should be either one melee weapon and one shield, or one ranged weapon and light armor, to better emulate the weight limitations of the puppets and better balance their damage output and intake.
I do like the idea of the magic doll being like the spellcaster of the puppets, able to use wands and staffs and scrolls and all that. But expect criticisms about it throwing off game balance because you would effectively be able to cast more than one 1st-level-or-higher spell with your turn basically. I'm not sure how else to balance this other than maybe restrict the puppeteer's spellcasting ability to just cantrips on the turn you order your magic doll to cast a spell via an item, effectively emulating the already existing rules about bonus actions and spellcasting.
That's all my notes for now, I'll add more replies if I think of any others.
Yes to most of that, though since the theme is for the puppets to be cannon fodder... While there are three, they have some massive drawbacks by comparison:
1] they must be crafted on a long rest, so they can't be spam summoned unlike the Turrets. Note that a puppet can be repaired only on a long rest while the doll needs to be created anew.
2] their damage is just the base damage of weapons without any ability score modifiers, only proficiency bonus. This means their individual damage output is much lesser than a turrets force cannon.
3] their AC is tied to the equipped armor (which must be first obtained) unlike the turret and defender who each have innate armor.
4] the weapon and armor selection is limited and tied to current level. Ranged weapons and shields already cannot be wielded together because (other than the hand crossbow and guns) all ranged weapons use both hands. Furthermore, heavy armor penalties apply to the puppet which has STR 10, thus a speed reduction of 10 if the player equips heavier armor than what they can handle. [PHB p.144] They will also have penalties to stealth checks which are already bad with DEX 10 (+0).
5] lower total maximum hit points (though negligible) also make the puppets fragile.
All that makes the (1) extra puppet slightly more balanced.
I will agree that the magic doll's wand-wielding will cause issues... Your suggestion to have the player unable to cast spells when she uses magic and be limited to cantrips might be the way to go on that front. Though I think I might have to revise that feature entirely.
The reason the doll is so different from the puppets is because its meant to be the "eye in the sky" for the Puppeteer since to control his puppets they NEED to be within sight. The combination of a doll and puppet allows you to send a puppet forwards to scout within sight of the doll even if not yours. The doll can go up to 100 feet of you and still share its senses while the puppet can be manipulated within 120 feet so long as its within sight. They are seemingly unrelated, but are in fact very much so related.
Oh, I use "Doll" because I'd rather call it that than Hand Puppet. Deliberated long and hard about that one. Creepy Doll is too specific, the player might complain why the doll can't be cute, ugly, premium, or just a barbie (yes, i imagine at least one person using a barbie for this). "Magic" seemed like a word which fit any design the player might desire.
I also don't want the doll on the same level as the puppet because players might then want to have multiple dolls instead. Now THAT is too much magic.
I did not take their fragility and once-per-LR usage into account, my apologies. Your equipment options are more than valid, in that case.
How about "marionette" instead of "doll"? I believe in terms of scale that a marionette is roughly a size category bigger than an average puppet is, thus having access to more magic items and its exclusivity among the puppets is fitting. Also, "magical marionette" sounds more elegant than "magic doll", no? Also, with your "eye in the sky" role in mind, it's almost a poetic role reversal as normally with marionettes, the puppeteer would be their "eye in the sky" looking on them from above while controlling them.
Also, if haven't heard Jonathan Coulton's song "Creepy Doll", please do. It's such a fun song that kinda reminds me of this subclass idea, now that I'm thinking about it.
I do see the similarities in some of their utilities. But I wouldn't worry too much about infringing on the archivist's schtick. I feel like given the response to the archivist so far already, your features are far more palatable than their's are since yours can actually be physically countered, whereas the archivist effectively summons a mental ghost to do their work for them.
Worst case scenario, you get asked you redesign the feature allover again. No harm in that, as long as you keep putting in the same level of work that you have been already.
Maybe figure out how you wanna address the interaction between the puppets and magic items that require attunement. I think it would be easiest to just declare that they cannot wield any magic item that requires attunement as they themselves are considered objects and not living creatures. Conversely, you could also say that since these puppets are like an extension of the puppeteer themselves, it makes sense for the puppeteer to be able to attune to a magic item and then hand it off to one of their puppets to use.
Also, not sure how much you really need to specify that the puppet can move up to 30 ft as part of the command the puppeteer uses their bonus action on to issue to the puppet. The alchemist's homunculus and the battle smith's iron defender have no such requirements in their rules; I think it's just assumed that they can and do move the necessary amount of feet that they have available in order to carry out their given commands. Like if the battle smith orders their iron defender to use the Help action and assist their party's rogue perform a sneak attack, the iron defender would have to move into melee range of the target creature they want to help pull the sneak attack on, rather than just standing beside the battle smith faffing about.
The reason for the command is because they are objects, not creatures. The defender and homonculus are classified as creatures and have their own turn, but the turrets do not.
Looking at the available magic items, just saying the marionette cannot attune to magic items seems to be enough. After all, the wands that don't require attunement are stuff like detection, secrets, smiles and birds. The most powerful would be scrolls which are consumable, rare and costly to make if at all. It might be better to replace scrolls with wondrous items even.
Oof, I am just dropping the ball left and right lately. I forgot about the arcane turrets being objects and not creatures. Of course your wording about their movement is necessary because it's true for the turrets. I never should have doubted you. As expected of my rival ;)
Idea where the doll can only be attuned to a weapon if the weapon was included in its design since it is essentially a part of itself. Either that or a form of pseudo-attunement where it is only able to return the object back to them, but only because you physically tethered the weapon to the doll.
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Puppeteer V. 0.02
Once upon a time, these artificers specialized in an art of entertainment involving small theaters in which they would present vivid stories using their little friends. However, with the last war they were forcefully recruited to fill in ranks. It was at this point that their skills bared unexpected results, as their puppets allowed armies to make up numbers against large groups of enemies. Many puppets perished as fodder during that dark time… Though the office of puppetry gained a new boom as battlefield controllers, tactical commanders of expendable squadrons.
Tools of the Trade
By the time you adopt this specialty at 3rd level, you’re deeply familiar with employing its tools.
Proficiencies. You gain proficiency with carpenter’s tools and woodcarver’s tools, assuming you don’t already have them. You also gain carpenter’s tools and woodcarver’s tools for free—the result of tinkering you’ve done as you’ve prepared for this specialization.
Crafting. If you craft an item in the wondrous item category, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much of the usual gold.
Puppeteer Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Puppeteer Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Puppeteer Spells
Artificer Level Spell
3rd Charm Person, Command
5th Crown of Madness, Hold Person
9th Fear, Animate Dead
13th Dominate Beast, Compulsion
17th Dominate Person, Hold Monster
Magical Marionette
At 3rd level, you create a tiny marionette and imbue it with a modicum of sentience. During a short rest or a long rest, you attune to this marionette. While attuned, it develops its own consciousness, knows one language that you know of your choice and can speak directly into the minds of creatures that understand the specified language. It has 1d6 plus your intelligence modifier in hit points and an AC of 15. The marionette also has a flying speed of 30 and truesight 60. It is immune to poison damage and the all conditions. If forced to make an ability check or a saving throw, treat all its ability scores as 10 (+0). If the mending spell is cast on it, it regains 2d6 hit points. If it has been destroyed, you can create a new one at the end of a long rest. If you already have a magical marionette from this feature, the first one will turn into dust.
Alternate Rule: the DM may choose to turn the replaced marionette into a cursed magic item and use it as an antagonist to the player.
As an action, you can see through the marionette’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of the special senses of the marionette has. You are deaf and blind in regard to your own senses.
If you cast a spell with a range of touch, your marionette can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. The marionette must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, use your own attack modifier for the roll.
Magical Marionette
Tiny construct
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 1d6 plus your intelligence modifier
Speed flying 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities all
Senses Truesight 60
Puppeteering
By 3rd level, you have completed your first masterpiece. A simple humanoid wooden puppet of medium size of your own design. The puppet is a magical object that occupies its space and has two arms and legs. It has a natural AC of 10 and a number of hit points equal to five times your artificer level. It is immune to poison damage, psychic damage, and all conditions. If it is forced to make an ability check or a saving throw, treat all its ability scores as 10 (+0). If the mending spell is cast on it, it regains 2d6 hit points. If it has been destroyed, at the end of a long rest, you can repair a damaged puppet orcreate a new puppet if you have your Carpenter’s Tools with you. If you already have a puppet from this feature, the first one will break down into its material components.
Puppets created by you are quite special, capable of being equipped with items and manipulating them expertly. They may equip and use any simple weapon and equip up to medium armor. They may equip simple magic weapons such as radiant weapons and returning weapons, however they are unable to activate complex magic items such as wands or scrolls and are unable to attune to magic items themselves. All equipment rules as dictated in The Player’s Handbook still apply.
On each of your turns, you can take a bonus action to control any and all puppets you might have, as long as you are within 120 feet of it and it is within your sight. You can command a puppet to attack another creature or object within its reach with whatever weapon it currently wields dealing damage equal to the weapon’s damage die plus your proficiency bonus. As part of the same action, you can direct your puppet to move 30 feet to an unoccupied space within your sight. If you do not order the puppet to take the attack action, it will take the dodge action at the end of your turn instead.
Puppet
Medium construct, neutral
Armor Class 10
Hit Points equal to five times your level in this class
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities all
Might of the Master. The following numbers increase by 1 when your proficiency bonus increases by 1: the puppet’s skill bonuses, the bonuses to hit and damage of its weapon attacks.
Actions (Requires Your Bonus Action)
Weapon Attack. Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, one target you can see. Hit: ?d? + 2 damage.
Move. The puppet moves up to 30 feet within your sight.
Ventriloquist’s Dummy
At 6th level, you’ve bonded with your puppet enough to learn to speak through your puppet at will. As long as the puppet is within 10 feet of you, you may speak through the puppet. Furthermore, should a spell require verbal or somatic components you may have the puppet supply the required verbal and somatic components in your stead.
Additionally, as long as the puppet is within 30 feet of you, you may use your puppet as a spellcasting focus for any spells you cast. In said case, spells whose target is self will target the puppet instead.
Maneuverer
At 6th level, your skills as a puppeteer have greatly advanced allowing you to control two puppets simultaneously. Each individual puppet may be equipped with any simple weapon, any martial weapon with the light property, shields and up to medium armor. The items equipped by each puppet need not be the same.
Puppet Master
At 14th level, your control skills have evolved to their greatest extent possible. You can now control up to three individual puppets simultaneously and each one may be equipped with any weapon, armor or shield.
Furthermore, your magical marionette will be able to equip and activate complex magic weapons such as wands, staves, and wondrous items using its own action at the end of your turn. Note that the marionette is unable to attune to magic items because it is an object itself.
AUTHOR NOTES:
At best scenario, the subclass allows the player to cast a spell and attack three times with melee or ranged weapons by 14th level. This may have adverse effects on the action economy, so care must be held when testing out this subclass.
Spell selection was focused towards spells which would allow the Puppeteer to control a creature’s movements, hold it in place or attack its allies. Originally planned to give it a feature to control others with strings, but the same effect was achieved through the spell list which in turn can be fluffed into being strings controlling others.
The fact that each of the three dummies can be remarkably unique (while still being humanoid) can intrigue many players, but beware the fact that you will have to equip not just yourself but also your puppets. This may result in very, very poor players, not to mention how fragile the puppets may be on their own.
Due note, puppets are not considered creatures, they are magical objects. As per rules as intended, spells that target creatures, but not objects have no effect on them.
CHANGELOG:
Random Ideas:
This is a terrifying concept, I love it! :P
My biggest concern is the inclusion of the magic doll; to me, it throws off the flow of the progression of the subclass because the majority of the features pertain to puppets only. I suggest bringing in the magic doll as one of the 14th-level features.
Then again, I can also see it as a variety of puppet similar to how the current artillerist has more than one type of arcane turret they can summon as options. I suppose in this case, "puppet" could be used as the general term for the subclass's "pet" and "magic doll" could be one of the options of "puppets" you could create/summon. Up to you what other variety of puppets you wanna homebrew, if any. Though right now, "magic doll" and "ventriloquist dummy" are probably enough options to start off with. Maybe throw in giant mecha-beasts, your call.
Also, if you're a fan of Jonathan Coulton, you should change the name from "magic doll" to "creepy doll".
The maximum number of puppets you can control should be two at level 14, to be more in line with the other artificer subclasses (artillerists can summon two turrets, archivists have another spell level to smite with, and the damage bonus to the alchemist's and battle smith's pet attacks is +5 at level 14).
I think the equipment options for the puppets should be either one melee weapon and one shield, or one ranged weapon and light armor, to better emulate the weight limitations of the puppets and better balance their damage output and intake.
I do like the idea of the magic doll being like the spellcaster of the puppets, able to use wands and staffs and scrolls and all that. But expect criticisms about it throwing off game balance because you would effectively be able to cast more than one 1st-level-or-higher spell with your turn basically. I'm not sure how else to balance this other than maybe restrict the puppeteer's spellcasting ability to just cantrips on the turn you order your magic doll to cast a spell via an item, effectively emulating the already existing rules about bonus actions and spellcasting.
That's all my notes for now, I'll add more replies if I think of any others.
Yes to most of that, though since the theme is for the puppets to be cannon fodder... While there are three, they have some massive drawbacks by comparison:
1] they must be crafted on a long rest, so they can't be spam summoned unlike the Turrets. Note that a puppet can be repaired only on a long rest while the doll needs to be created anew.
2] their damage is just the base damage of weapons without any ability score modifiers, only proficiency bonus. This means their individual damage output is much lesser than a turrets force cannon.
3] their AC is tied to the equipped armor (which must be first obtained) unlike the turret and defender who each have innate armor.
4] the weapon and armor selection is limited and tied to current level. Ranged weapons and shields already cannot be wielded together because (other than the hand crossbow and guns) all ranged weapons use both hands. Furthermore, heavy armor penalties apply to the puppet which has STR 10, thus a speed reduction of 10 if the player equips heavier armor than what they can handle. [PHB p.144] They will also have penalties to stealth checks which are already bad with DEX 10 (+0).
5] lower total maximum hit points (though negligible) also make the puppets fragile.
All that makes the (1) extra puppet slightly more balanced.
I will agree that the magic doll's wand-wielding will cause issues... Your suggestion to have the player unable to cast spells when she uses magic and be limited to cantrips might be the way to go on that front. Though I think I might have to revise that feature entirely.
The reason the doll is so different from the puppets is because its meant to be the "eye in the sky" for the Puppeteer since to control his puppets they NEED to be within sight. The combination of a doll and puppet allows you to send a puppet forwards to scout within sight of the doll even if not yours. The doll can go up to 100 feet of you and still share its senses while the puppet can be manipulated within 120 feet so long as its within sight. They are seemingly unrelated, but are in fact very much so related.
Oh, I use "Doll" because I'd rather call it that than Hand Puppet. Deliberated long and hard about that one. Creepy Doll is too specific, the player might complain why the doll can't be cute, ugly, premium, or just a barbie (yes, i imagine at least one person using a barbie for this). "Magic" seemed like a word which fit any design the player might desire.
I also don't want the doll on the same level as the puppet because players might then want to have multiple dolls instead. Now THAT is too much magic.
I did not take their fragility and once-per-LR usage into account, my apologies. Your equipment options are more than valid, in that case.
How about "marionette" instead of "doll"? I believe in terms of scale that a marionette is roughly a size category bigger than an average puppet is, thus having access to more magic items and its exclusivity among the puppets is fitting. Also, "magical marionette" sounds more elegant than "magic doll", no? Also, with your "eye in the sky" role in mind, it's almost a poetic role reversal as normally with marionettes, the puppeteer would be their "eye in the sky" looking on them from above while controlling them.
Also, if haven't heard Jonathan Coulton's song "Creepy Doll", please do. It's such a fun song that kinda reminds me of this subclass idea, now that I'm thinking about it.
That is definitely one creepy tune! Lol
Magical Marionette, huh...? That would do very nicely indeed!
Wait a moment... it dipped into the Archivist's stick didn't it?
Or maybe not...?
I do see the similarities in some of their utilities. But I wouldn't worry too much about infringing on the archivist's schtick. I feel like given the response to the archivist so far already, your features are far more palatable than their's are since yours can actually be physically countered, whereas the archivist effectively summons a mental ghost to do their work for them.
Worst case scenario, you get asked you redesign the feature allover again. No harm in that, as long as you keep putting in the same level of work that you have been already.
Maybe figure out how you wanna address the interaction between the puppets and magic items that require attunement. I think it would be easiest to just declare that they cannot wield any magic item that requires attunement as they themselves are considered objects and not living creatures. Conversely, you could also say that since these puppets are like an extension of the puppeteer themselves, it makes sense for the puppeteer to be able to attune to a magic item and then hand it off to one of their puppets to use.
Also, not sure how much you really need to specify that the puppet can move up to 30 ft as part of the command the puppeteer uses their bonus action on to issue to the puppet. The alchemist's homunculus and the battle smith's iron defender have no such requirements in their rules; I think it's just assumed that they can and do move the necessary amount of feet that they have available in order to carry out their given commands. Like if the battle smith orders their iron defender to use the Help action and assist their party's rogue perform a sneak attack, the iron defender would have to move into melee range of the target creature they want to help pull the sneak attack on, rather than just standing beside the battle smith faffing about.
The reason for the command is because they are objects, not creatures. The defender and homonculus are classified as creatures and have their own turn, but the turrets do not.
Looking at the available magic items, just saying the marionette cannot attune to magic items seems to be enough. After all, the wands that don't require attunement are stuff like detection, secrets, smiles and birds. The most powerful would be scrolls which are consumable, rare and costly to make if at all. It might be better to replace scrolls with wondrous items even.
Updated with various changes as per changelog.
Oof, I am just dropping the ball left and right lately. I forgot about the arcane turrets being objects and not creatures. Of course your wording about their movement is necessary because it's true for the turrets. I never should have doubted you. As expected of my rival ;)
Hahaha!
Idea where the doll can only be attuned to a weapon if the weapon was included in its design since it is essentially a part of itself. Either that or a form of pseudo-attunement where it is only able to return the object back to them, but only because you physically tethered the weapon to the doll.