This is an idea I've been having fun with for a more-villainous option for the artificer. Yes, it's basically an undead-flavored reskin of the current version of the Alchemist subclass with your own personal Frankenstein's monster. Also planning a golem-crafter version of this subclass in the future.
The Mad Scientist
3rd Level: Tools of the Trade
Gain Proficiency with Alchemist’s Supplies & Herbalism Kit.
Gain Proficiency with Leatherworker's Tools and Weaver’s Tools. You’ve learned how to sew and stitch limbs & body parts together.
Gain Alchemist’s Supplies, Herbalism Kit,Leatherworker's Tools, Weaver’s Tools, and a Shovel (you shovel well, you shovel VERY well) for free.
Crafting: MAYBE potions? Cloaks? Robes? Generic clothing? Still working on ideas for this part.
3rd Level: The Mad Scientist Spells
Artificer Level
Spell
3rd
Detect evil and good, inflict wounds
5th
Crown of madness, gentle repose
9th
Animate dead, call lightning
13th
Blight, death ward
17th
Destructive wave, raise dead
3rd Level: Bonus Cantrips
At 3rd level, you learn the chill touch and shocking grasp cantrips. They count as artificer cantrips for you, but they don’t count against your number of cantrips known.
3rd Level: Slippery Little Eel
While you are wearing light or no armor and not wielding a shield, you gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).
You have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.
You have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check you make to escape from being grappled.
3rd Level: Mad Scientist’s Creation
Battle Smith’s Iron Defender as base, stats modified to reflect stats of a flesh golem
In combat, your mad scientist’s creation shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or the Dash, Disengage, or Help action.
If the mending spell is cast on your mad scientist’s creation, it regains 2d6 hit points.
If the chill touch or shocking grasp spell is cast on your mad scientist’s creation, the spell automatically hits. Your mad scientist’s creation takes no damage from the spell and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Your mad scientist’s creation can still regain hit points even if it’s hit by chill touch.
If your mad scientist’s creation has died within the last hour, you can use a healer’s kit, weaver’s tools, or tinker’s tools and a nearby small- or medium-sized humanoid corpse as an action to revive it and you expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher; it returns to life with all of its hit points restored.
6th Level: The Spark of Life
When you cast a spell using your alchemist’s suppliesleatherworker's tools or tinker’sweaver's tools as the spellcasting focus, you gain a bonus to one roll of the spell. That roll must restore hit points or be a damage roll that deals lightning or necrotic damage, and the bonus equals your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).
You can cast animate dead using alchemist’s supplies leatherworker's tools, weaver’s tools, or tinker’s tools as the spellcasting focus without expending a spell slot a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). You may only use this version of casting animate dead on your mad scientist's creation.
Animate dead can target the corpse of your mad scientist’s creation. Casting animate dead on your dead mad scientist’s creation returns it to life with all of its hit points restored.
Casting animate dead using a spell slot of 4th level or higher to return your dead mad scientist’s creation back to life brings it back with 10 temporary hit points and an increase to each of the numbers listed in your mad scientist’s creation’s Might of the Master feature by 1 for each level above 3rd.
Your mad scientist’s creation gains lightning and necrotic absorptionimmunity and motivation: whenever your mad scientist’s creation is subjected to lightning or necrotic damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt rounded up.
Your mad scientist’s creation is “properly motivated” while it has these temporary hit points, increasing its walk speed by 10 ft and gaining +2 to its melee attack rolls.
Your mad scientist’s creation gains necrotic resistance and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks not made with adamantine weapons.
Your mad scientist’s creation’s attacks are considered magical.
14th Level: Mastery Over Life and Death
Gain lightning resistance. You’ve worked with A LOT of electricity by now.
Immune to paralyzed and MAYBE stunned(?) condition.
Gain necrotic resistance; hit points maximum cannot be reduced. You understand the nature of undeath by now.
MAYBE Immune to exhaustion?
Whenever you cast a necromancy spell, that spell can affect undead even if the text of the spell says otherwise.
Your mad scientist’s creation gains Multiattack (can make two slam attacks) and magic resistance (advantage on saving throws vs. spells/other magical effects)
You can use your bonus action to order your mad scientist’s creation to make a multiattack on its next turn.
Your mad scientist’s creation can be affected by necromancy spells, even if the text of the spell says otherwise.
Whenever your mad scientist’s creation is the target of a spell attack that would deal lightning or necrotic damage, that spell automatically hits or succeeds.
Whenever your mad scientist’s creation has advantage on a saving throw against a spell or magical effect that deals lightning or necrotic damage, it may instead automatically fail that saving throw and suffer no negative effects of the spell or magical effect other than damage.
You can cast raise dead once without expending a spell slot and without providing the material component, using a healer’s kit or alchemist’s supplies as a spellcasting focus. After you use this ability, you cannot use it again for ten days.
Notes about spell selections:
I sincerely wanted chaos bolt as one of the options because I felt it was in line with the madness I wanted out of the mad scientist. But it’s from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and subclass spell lists need to come from the Basic Rules and Player’s Handbook.
Honestly, how do I homebrew a subclass called “The Mad Scientist” and NOT include a spell that actually has the word ‘mad’ in it? Welcome, crown of madness. Also, there are literally no second-level spells in the Player’s Handbook that deal lightning or necrotic damage.
I’m sure many people would prefer lightning bolt instead of call lightning, myself included. I went with call lightning because the imagery that it evokes is more fitting to the subclass’s lore.
Fourth Level was influenced by death clerics, grave clerics, and the lack of other fourth-level spells in the Player’s Handbook that deal lightning or necrotic damage.
I was tickled seeing so many paladin spells on the Battle Smith list, I wanted to show destructive wave some love as well. It was also the only fifth-level spell in the Player’s Handbook that did either lightning or necrotic damage.
I’m considering using reincarnate instead of raise dead for both the capstone ability and the spell list. Would that reflect the chaotic nature of the mad scientist better?
MAD SCIENTIST’S CREATION
Medium construct, neutral
Armor class 10
Hit Points equal to five times your level in this class + your Intelligence modifier + your mad scientist’s creation’s Constitution modifier
Languages understands the languages you speak but cannot speak
Berserk. Whenever your mad scientist’s creation starts its turn with less than half its maximum hit points, roll a d6. On a 6, your mad scientist’s creation goes berserk. On each of its turns while berserk, your mad scientist’s creation attacks the nearest creature it can see. If no creature is near enough to move to and attack, your mad scientist’s creation attacks an object, with preference to an object smaller than itself. Once your mad scientist’s creation goes berserk, it continues to do so until it is destroyed or regains all of its hit points.
The mad scientist, if within 60 feet of the berserk mad scientist’s creation, can use a bonus action to try to calm it down by speaking firmly and persuasively. Your mad scientist’s creation must be able to hear your mad scientist, who must make a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check. If the check succeeds, your mad scientist’s creation ceases being berserk. If it takes damage while still at less than half its maximum hit points, your mad scientist’s creation might go berserk again.
Aversion of Fire: If your mad scientist’s creation takes fire damage, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the end of its next turn.
Immutable Form: Your mad scientist’s creation is immune to any spell effect that would alter its form.
Might of the Master. The following numbers increase by 1 when your proficiency bonus increases by 1: your mad scientist’s creation’s skill bonuses and the bonuses to hit and damage with its slam attack.
Actions (Requires Your Bonus Action)
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d8 + 2 bludgeoning damage.
Let's see... sewing corpses would be a combination of weaver's tools and leatherworker's tools (which deal with creature parts), as such I'd recommend these two be the artisan tools for this subclass instead of alchemist's supplies. A third additional proficiency with the healer's kit seems out of place in comparison to the *released* artificer subclasses.
The preferred crafting item... cloaks I guess? It's thematic with mad scientists and can be made from certain monster parts.
The flesh golem is cool but a couple of things may make it overpowered. Specifically healing using those damaging cantrips and even absorbing lightning and necrotic damage as health. The cantrips allow level-scaling FREE-healing which may very well make the golem impossible to defeat. Furthermore the absorption is something that pretty much invalidates the existance of said damage types in the game. A DM would be hard-pressed to give this character any challenge and the game will become stale without it.
Pretty much the only thing to actually endanger the player is something that can consistently one-shot the flesh golem or send it away, otherwise the party can leave the battle exclusively to the Flesh Golem. Not like he's gonna die and if by some miracle he does die he's pretty easy to revive.
As a power fantasy, its a very awesome but quite broken subclass. Love the berserk feature though.
Final note would be: where did the immutable form come from? It seems to be completely unrelated to the rest of the subclass and frankly unnecessary.
PS: I think I may sound like I don't like the idea, so I'll reiterate. I'd LOVE to play a mad scientist which is why I was so critical.
Let's see... sewing corpses would be a combination of weaver's tools and leatherworker's tools (which deal with creature parts), as such I'd recommend these two be the artisan tools for this subclass instead of alchemist's supplies. A third additional proficiency with the healer's kit seems out of place in comparison to the *released* artificer subclasses.
The preferred crafting item... cloaks I guess? It's thematic with mad scientists and can be made from certain monster parts.
The flesh golem is cool but a couple of things may make it overpowered. Specifically healing using those damaging cantrips and even absorbing lightning and necrotic damage as health. The cantrips allow level-scaling FREE-healing which may very well make the golem impossible to defeat. Furthermore the absorption is something that pretty much invalidates the existance of said damage types in the game. A DM would be hard-pressed to give this character any challenge and the game will become stale without it.
Pretty much the only thing to actually endanger the player is something that can consistently one-shot the flesh golem or send it away, otherwise the party can leave the battle exclusively to the Flesh Golem. Not like he's gonna die and if by some miracle he does die he's pretty easy to revive.
As a power fantasy, its a very awesome but quite broken subclass. Love the berserk feature though.
Final note would be: where did the immutable form come from? It seems to be completely unrelated to the rest of the subclass and frankly unnecessary.
PS: I think I may sound like I don't like the idea, so I'll reiterate. I'd LOVE to play a mad scientist which is why I was so critical.
I shouldn't be on a forum like this presenting the number of ideas that I have if I couldn't handle criticism. I know that doesn't stop other people from doing it, I'm just saying don't worry about hurting my feelings if you think you're being too critical, especially when I think you're right with your critiques. Hell, with the number of interactions you and I have had on this forum, I think it's only thematically appropriate to say we're artificer rivals now :P
Leatherworker's tools do make sense. Same with your suggestion on cloaks as their crafted item expertise.
The immutable form, aversion to fire, berserk, and lightning absorption features are the exact same features from the flesh golem stat block in the Monster Manual, hence why they're all there.
Admittedly, I know I run away hard and fast with the lightning absorption exploitation. I was enamored with the idea of using mending to heal your artificer pet when I first read about the ability. Like, I thought it was such an elegantly designed rules mechanic that made so much sense to me, I didn't even realize until much later that mending has a one-minute casting time. Naturally, I wanted to emulate that with another cantrip and somehow also tie it into the lightning absorption mechanic. And then I remembered shocking grasp. And the design intent just snowballed from there because lightning absorption easily becomes necrotic absorption with just one word change, and then on top of that remembering that there's a cantrip already in the game that deals necrotic damage of the same die type that shocking grasp uses called chill touch. It eventually evolved into the strategy of the mad scientist having its creation act as both damage dealer and damage sponge while the mad scientist floods the field with as much lightning and necrotic damage as they can. Hence why I loaded the slippery little eel feature with so many defensive features to make it that much harder to hit or pin down the mad scientist while their creation runs amok.
If nothing else, this was fun and amusing to develop and hopefully others reading it feel the same. But yeah, it's pretty OP and most certainly not balanced XD
Let's see... sewing corpses would be a combination of weaver's tools and leatherworker's tools (which deal with creature parts), as such I'd recommend these two be the artisan tools for this subclass instead of alchemist's supplies. A third additional proficiency with the healer's kit seems out of place in comparison to the *released* artificer subclasses.
The preferred crafting item... cloaks I guess? It's thematic with mad scientists and can be made from certain monster parts.
The flesh golem is cool but a couple of things may make it overpowered. Specifically healing using those damaging cantrips and even absorbing lightning and necrotic damage as health. The cantrips allow level-scaling FREE-healing which may very well make the golem impossible to defeat. Furthermore the absorption is something that pretty much invalidates the existance of said damage types in the game. A DM would be hard-pressed to give this character any challenge and the game will become stale without it.
Pretty much the only thing to actually endanger the player is something that can consistently one-shot the flesh golem or send it away, otherwise the party can leave the battle exclusively to the Flesh Golem. Not like he's gonna die and if by some miracle he does die he's pretty easy to revive.
As a power fantasy, its a very awesome but quite broken subclass. Love the berserk feature though.
Final note would be: where did the immutable form come from? It seems to be completely unrelated to the rest of the subclass and frankly unnecessary.
PS: I think I may sound like I don't like the idea, so I'll reiterate. I'd LOVE to play a mad scientist which is why I was so critical.
I shouldn't be on a forum like this presenting the number of ideas that I have if I couldn't handle criticism. I know that doesn't stop other people from doing it, I'm just saying don't worry about hurting my feelings if you think you're being too critical, especially when I think you're right with your critiques. Hell, with the number of interactions you and I have had on this forum, I think it's only thematically appropriate to say we're artificer rivals now :P
Leatherworker's tools do make sense. Same with your suggestion on cloaks as their crafted item expertise.
The immutable form, aversion to fire, berserk, and lightning absorption features are the exact same features from the flesh golem stat block in the Monster Manual, hence why they're all there.
Admittedly, I know I run away hard and fast with the lightning absorption exploitation. I was enamored with the idea of using mending to heal your artificer pet when I first read about the ability. Like, I thought it was such an elegantly designed rules mechanic that made so much sense to me, I didn't even realize until much later that mending has a one-minute casting time. Naturally, I wanted to emulate that with another cantrip and somehow also tie it into the lightning absorption mechanic. And then I remembered shocking grasp. And the design intent just snowballed from there because lightning absorption easily becomes necrotic absorption with just one word change, and then on top of that remembering that there's a cantrip already in the game that deals necrotic damage of the same die type that shocking grasp uses called chill touch. It eventually evolved into the strategy of the mad scientist having its creation act as both damage dealer and damage sponge while the mad scientist floods the field with as much lightning and necrotic damage as they can. Hence why I loaded the slippery little eel feature with so many defensive features to make it that much harder to hit or pin down the mad scientist while their creation runs amok.
If nothing else, this was fun and amusing to develop and hopefully others reading it feel the same. But yeah, it's pretty OP and most certainly not balanced XD
Hahahaha... friendly rivals then!
I see! If this is the case I'd recommend to use full immunity to lightning damage and gaining Temporary hitpoints which scale with the mad scientist's level instead of absorption. You know, like a supercharge of energy letting the flesh golem act for longer, maybe even get a (+10 to speed) or (+2 to melee attack rolls) while it has the temporary hit points. As for necrotic, its best as resistance to the damage type.
This will make it thematically correct so as your vision of the subclass but more balanced.
Admittedly, I know I run away hard and fast with the lightning absorption exploitation. I was enamored with the idea of using mending to heal your artificer pet when I first read about the ability. Like, I thought it was such an elegantly designed rules mechanic that made so much sense to me, I didn't even realize until much later that mending has a one-minute casting time. Naturally, I wanted to emulate that with another cantrip and somehow also tie it into the lightning absorption mechanic. And then I remembered shocking grasp. And the design intent just snowballed from there because lightning absorption easily becomes necrotic absorption with just one word change, and then on top of that remembering that there's a cantrip already in the game that deals necrotic damage of the same die type that shocking grasp uses called chill touch. It eventually evolved into the strategy of the mad scientist having its creation act as both damage dealer and damage sponge while the mad scientist floods the field with as much lightning and necrotic damage as they can. Hence why I loaded the slippery little eel feature with so many defensive features to make it that much harder to hit or pin down the mad scientist while their creation runs amok.
The reason mending works without breaking the game is the 1 minute casting time prevents it from being used within combat.
I'd remove Lightning and Necrotic Absorbtion from the Mad Scientist's Creation and instead, grant it Lightning Immunity and Necrotic Resistance at level 6. Then merely provide it with the Mending-Healing from the get-go (level 3). Even as a Flesh Golem it is still a Construct, so flavor wise mending healing would work.
So I just watched the Dragon+ with Jeremy Crawford, and he seemed to heavily hint that the ability to use Mending for healing was going away precisely because of the long casting time. My bet is that there will be a new Artificer-Only cantrip that can heal constructs and objects, scales with cantrip progressions and takes an action.
So I just watched the Dragon+ with Jeremy Crawford, and he seemed to heavily hint that the ability to use Mending for healing was going away precisely because of the long casting time. My bet is that there will be a new Artificer-Only cantrip that can heal constructs and objects, scales with cantrip progressions and takes an action.
I feel like they could just as easily include a feature, either baseline or subclass-specific, where the casting time of mending is changed from 1 minute to 1 action. But perhaps that's just me wanting to justify having raved so highly about the "thematic elegance" of the mechanic in the first place XD
Well they have said they want to have alchemist unique spells for each level, and there would be something elegant about artificers being the only class in the game to be able to heal objects and constructs. And I do think it would lose that elegance if they added details to shorten the casting time.
You're right, the ability to heal objects and constructs does sound distinctly more the artificer than any of the other classes in game (MAYBE the wizard, too). It's more logical to give a spell/cantrip specific to their class alone that facilitates this rather than making several rules exceptions to how an existing spell functions just because it thematically fits the intent just barely.
This is an idea I've been having fun with for a more-villainous option for the artificer. Yes, it's basically an undead-flavored reskin of the current version of the Alchemist subclass with your own personal Frankenstein's monster. Also planning a golem-crafter version of this subclass in the future.
The Mad Scientist
3rd Level: Tools of the Trade
Gain Proficiency with Alchemist’s Supplies & Herbalism Kit.Alchemist’s Supplies, Herbalism Kit,Leatherworker's Tools, Weaver’s Tools, and a Shovel (you shovel well, you shovel VERY well) for free.potions?Cloaks?Robes? Generic clothing? Still working on ideas for this part.3rd Level: The Mad Scientist Spells
Artificer Level
Spell
3rd
Detect evil and good, inflict wounds
5th
Crown of madness, gentle repose
9th
Animate dead, call lightning
13th
Blight, death ward
17th
Destructive wave, raise dead
3rd Level: Bonus Cantrips
3rd Level: Slippery Little Eel
3rd Level: Mad Scientist’s Creation
6th Level: The Spark of Life
alchemist’s suppliesleatherworker's tools ortinker’sweaver's tools as the spellcasting focus, you gain a bonus to one roll of the spell. That roll must restore hit points or be a damage roll that deals lightning or necrotic damage, and the bonus equals your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).alchemist’s suppliesleatherworker's tools, weaver’s tools, or tinker’s tools as the spellcasting focus without expending a spell slot a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). You may only use this version of casting animate dead on your mad scientist's creation.and necrotic absorptionimmunity and motivation: whenever your mad scientist’s creation is subjected to lightningor necroticdamage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt rounded up.14th Level: Mastery Over Life and Death
or succeeds.Notes about spell selections:
I’m considering using reincarnate instead of raise dead for both the capstone ability and the spell list. Would that reflect the chaotic nature of the mad scientist better?MAD SCIENTIST’S CREATION
Medium construct, neutral
Armor class 10
Hit Points equal to five times your level in this class + your Intelligence modifier + your mad scientist’s creation’s Constitution modifier
Speed 30 ft.
Strength 14 (+2)
Dexterity 10 (+0)
Constitution 14 (+2)
Intelligence 6 (-2)
Wisdom 10 (+0)
Charisma 6 (-2)
Skills Perception +4
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages understands the languages you speak but cannot speak
Berserk. Whenever your mad scientist’s creation starts its turn with less than half its maximum hit points, roll a d6. On a 6, your mad scientist’s creation goes berserk. On each of its turns while berserk, your mad scientist’s creation attacks the nearest creature it can see. If no creature is near enough to move to and attack, your mad scientist’s creation attacks an object, with preference to an object smaller than itself. Once your mad scientist’s creation goes berserk, it continues to do so until it is destroyed or regains all of its hit points.
The mad scientist, if within 60 feet of the berserk mad scientist’s creation, can use a bonus action to try to calm it down by speaking firmly and persuasively. Your mad scientist’s creation must be able to hear your mad scientist, who must make a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check. If the check succeeds, your mad scientist’s creation ceases being berserk. If it takes damage while still at less than half its maximum hit points, your mad scientist’s creation might go berserk again.
Aversion of Fire: If your mad scientist’s creation takes fire damage, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the end of its next turn.
Immutable Form: Your mad scientist’s creation is immune to any spell effect that would alter its form.
Might of the Master. The following numbers increase by 1 when your proficiency bonus increases by 1: your mad scientist’s creation’s skill bonuses and the bonuses to hit and damage with its slam attack.
Actions (Requires Your Bonus Action)
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d8 + 2 bludgeoning damage.
Edited to include revision updates.
Let's see... sewing corpses would be a combination of weaver's tools and leatherworker's tools (which deal with creature parts), as such I'd recommend these two be the artisan tools for this subclass instead of alchemist's supplies. A third additional proficiency with the healer's kit seems out of place in comparison to the *released* artificer subclasses.
The preferred crafting item... cloaks I guess? It's thematic with mad scientists and can be made from certain monster parts.
The flesh golem is cool but a couple of things may make it overpowered. Specifically healing using those damaging cantrips and even absorbing lightning and necrotic damage as health. The cantrips allow level-scaling FREE-healing which may very well make the golem impossible to defeat. Furthermore the absorption is something that pretty much invalidates the existance of said damage types in the game. A DM would be hard-pressed to give this character any challenge and the game will become stale without it.
Pretty much the only thing to actually endanger the player is something that can consistently one-shot the flesh golem or send it away, otherwise the party can leave the battle exclusively to the Flesh Golem. Not like he's gonna die and if by some miracle he does die he's pretty easy to revive.
As a power fantasy, its a very awesome but quite broken subclass. Love the berserk feature though.
Final note would be: where did the immutable form come from? It seems to be completely unrelated to the rest of the subclass and frankly unnecessary.
PS: I think I may sound like I don't like the idea, so I'll reiterate. I'd LOVE to play a mad scientist which is why I was so critical.
I shouldn't be on a forum like this presenting the number of ideas that I have if I couldn't handle criticism. I know that doesn't stop other people from doing it, I'm just saying don't worry about hurting my feelings if you think you're being too critical, especially when I think you're right with your critiques. Hell, with the number of interactions you and I have had on this forum, I think it's only thematically appropriate to say we're artificer rivals now :P
Leatherworker's tools do make sense. Same with your suggestion on cloaks as their crafted item expertise.
The immutable form, aversion to fire, berserk, and lightning absorption features are the exact same features from the flesh golem stat block in the Monster Manual, hence why they're all there.
Admittedly, I know I run away hard and fast with the lightning absorption exploitation. I was enamored with the idea of using mending to heal your artificer pet when I first read about the ability. Like, I thought it was such an elegantly designed rules mechanic that made so much sense to me, I didn't even realize until much later that mending has a one-minute casting time. Naturally, I wanted to emulate that with another cantrip and somehow also tie it into the lightning absorption mechanic. And then I remembered shocking grasp. And the design intent just snowballed from there because lightning absorption easily becomes necrotic absorption with just one word change, and then on top of that remembering that there's a cantrip already in the game that deals necrotic damage of the same die type that shocking grasp uses called chill touch. It eventually evolved into the strategy of the mad scientist having its creation act as both damage dealer and damage sponge while the mad scientist floods the field with as much lightning and necrotic damage as they can. Hence why I loaded the slippery little eel feature with so many defensive features to make it that much harder to hit or pin down the mad scientist while their creation runs amok.
If nothing else, this was fun and amusing to develop and hopefully others reading it feel the same. But yeah, it's pretty OP and most certainly not balanced XD
Hahahaha... friendly rivals then!
I see! If this is the case I'd recommend to use full immunity to lightning damage and gaining Temporary hitpoints which scale with the mad scientist's level instead of absorption. You know, like a supercharge of energy letting the flesh golem act for longer, maybe even get a (+10 to speed) or (+2 to melee attack rolls) while it has the temporary hit points. As for necrotic, its best as resistance to the damage type.
This will make it thematically correct so as your vision of the subclass but more balanced.
The reason mending works without breaking the game is the 1 minute casting time prevents it from being used within combat.
I'd remove Lightning and Necrotic Absorbtion from the Mad Scientist's Creation and instead, grant it Lightning Immunity and Necrotic Resistance at level 6. Then merely provide it with the Mending-Healing from the get-go (level 3). Even as a Flesh Golem it is still a Construct, so flavor wise mending healing would work.
So I just watched the Dragon+ with Jeremy Crawford, and he seemed to heavily hint that the ability to use Mending for healing was going away precisely because of the long casting time. My bet is that there will be a new Artificer-Only cantrip that can heal constructs and objects, scales with cantrip progressions and takes an action.
Oh? Nice!
I feel like they could just as easily include a feature, either baseline or subclass-specific, where the casting time of mending is changed from 1 minute to 1 action. But perhaps that's just me wanting to justify having raved so highly about the "thematic elegance" of the mechanic in the first place XD
Well they have said they want to have alchemist unique spells for each level, and there would be something elegant about artificers being the only class in the game to be able to heal objects and constructs. And I do think it would lose that elegance if they added details to shorten the casting time.
You're right, the ability to heal objects and constructs does sound distinctly more the artificer than any of the other classes in game (MAYBE the wizard, too). It's more logical to give a spell/cantrip specific to their class alone that facilitates this rather than making several rules exceptions to how an existing spell functions just because it thematically fits the intent just barely.
Updated the OP to reflect the latest revision updates to my homebrew.
"Motivated"
Lol, perfect!