Base Class: Artificer
Artificer Specialist
With an imagination as deranged as Hughe Percival Lockcross’s can be, similarly twisted minds gravitate toward his genius. Artificers eager to tap into the infinite potential of profane, potentially unethical practices hang on to his tales of Simic splicing, Izzit creativity, and Golgari necromancy with macabre wonder. Inspired by these stories, the necrowrights of the Dark Carnival become fanatical in their research as they seek to manufacture an unholy union of technology and dead flesh. Their grim creations are quite often displayed in freak shows across the carnival grounds, although to call their undead abominations such would be a mistake. These nightmare constructs of flesh, bone, and alloy are as much their children as their craft projects, and woe to any who would mock or harm their gibbering, mindless, rotting babies.
Fellow Darklings do not tend to dismiss the eccentric devotion of their necrowright siblings to their craft, although even dread saints admit to feeling a tinge of unease at their presence when the creative juices are following. To avoid contention and the possibility of scaring too many guests away, the Dark Ringmaster allowed the necrowrights to establish a sub-faction within the Dark Carnival known as the Guild of Undeath Technologies to work out of sight and uninterrupted. Necrowrights are still expected to socialize when possible if only to ensure they do not forget they are a part of a larger family that cares for them despite their warped interests.
When at war, the necrowrights whip themselves into a frenzy of inventiveness to both fuel the Dark Carnival Warhost and please their crazed father figure. Often they will craft and set aside undead monstrosities specifically for the purpose of combat, more eager to throw such creations into the fray for research purposes than those they have developed a parental fondness for. Whether for show or woe, a necrowright’s mastery over the dead is a sight to see when inspiration takes hold.
Eccentric Quirks
It is impossible for artificers who take up the practice of a necrowright to be entirely sane, and some quirks have become especially prominent among their numbers.
Eccentric Quirks
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | I often wonder aloud how people I meet would look when (or if) they become a corpse. |
| 2 | Animals are people. Constructs are people. Corpses are people. Everyone is people! |
| 3 | Sometimes a little spark is needed for inspiration to strike – literally. |
| 4 | I cannot help but find the most grotesque creatures to be impossibly adorable. |
| 5 | My love language involves gifting friends dead critters or limbs. |
| 6 | The joys of the living no longer comfort me; only the cold touch of flesh, bone, and metal. |
Tool Proficiency
At 3rd level, your grim work begins with equally macabre implements. You gain proficiency with leatherworker’s tools. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan’s tools of your choice.
Necrowright Spells
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Necrowright Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Necrowright Spells
| Artificer Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 3rd | inflict wounds, protection from evil and good |
| 5th | blindness/deafness, gentle repose |
| 9th | animate dead, vampiric touch |
| 13th | blight, polymorph |
| 17th | contagion, raise dead |
Stitched Minion
A great genius requires a loyal assistant, so you have taken it upon yourself to craft a lackey of your very own. At 3rd level, you create a stitched minion. It’s friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the Stitched Minion stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You determine the creature’s appearance; your choice has no effect on its game statistics.
In combat, the stitched minion 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 another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the stitched minion can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
The stitched minion can only be healed by spells, items, or other effects you use on it. If the stitched minion has died within the last hour, you can use your leatherworker’s tools as an action to revive it, provided you are within 5 feet of it and you expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. The stitched minion returns to life after 1 minute with all of its hit points restored.
At the end of a long rest, you can create a new stitched minion if you have your leatherworker’s tools with you. If you already have a stitched minion from this feature, the first one immediately perishes and dissolves into nothing. The stitched minion also perishes if you die.
Stitched Minion
Small undead
- Armor Class 11 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 3 + your Intelligence modifier + six times your artificer level (the stitched minion has a number of Hit Dice [d10s] equal to your artificer level) [This is shown as limited use on your sheet!]
- Speed 25 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 16 (+3) | 3 (-4) | 12 (+1) | 6 (-2) |
- Saving Throws Str +1 plus PB, Con +3 plus PB
- Skills Athletics +1 plus PB, Medicine +1 plus PB x 2
- Damage Immunities poison
- Condition Immunities poisoned
- Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
- Languages understands the languages you speak
- Challenge — Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus
Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the stitched minion to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the stitched minion drops to 1 hit point instead.
Actions (Requires Your Bonus Action)
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d6 + PB bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Macabre Toss. Ranged Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, range 10/50 ft., one target. Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage. The stitched minion either pulls off one of its limbs and throws it or throws an item it is holding at a creature within 50 feet it can see that has damaged you, imposing disadvantage on the next saving throw or ability check of the target.
Macabre Creation
Starting at 5th level, your inventiveness takes form in truly profane ways. As part of a short rest, you can harvest bone and flesh from a slain beast, construct, dragon, humanoid, monstrosity, or plant creature of size Small or larger to collect one of the following preserved parts: left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso, and head. These items are protected from decay. To use this feature, you need a blade, such as a dagger, or leatherworker’s tools.
When you have one of each preserved part, you can then graft them together as part of a long rest to create either a zombie or skeleton (your choice, the DM has the creature’s game statistics). You determine its appearance; your choice has no effect on its game statistics. It is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands.
On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any creature made with this feature as well as those you made with animate dead if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, including your stitched minion, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its turn, or you can issue a general command. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.
Unlike the animate dead spell, you retain indefinite control of your Macabre Creations until they are destroyed, you die, or you dismiss control over one or more of them as an action at which point they are no longer friendly to you and your companions. You can have a number of Macabre Creations equal to your proficiency bonus.
Augmented Dead
At 9th level, your beautiful monstrosities can be perfected with further feats of twisted ingenuity. Your stitched minion and Macabre Creations can bear one of your infusions by grafting the item onto its body. In addition, the maximum number of items you can infuse at once increases by 2, but those extra items must be grafted onto your stitched minion or Macabre Creations.
It's Alive!
Your mastery over the corporeal dead can no longer be denied, and surely the Dark Ringmaster will recognize your brilliance with the exaltation it deserves! As an action, you can command all Macabre Creations (not including those created from animate dead) under your control to use their movement and Dash action to enter the space of your stitched minion. Any Macabre Creation that succeeds in doing so becomes fused with the stitched minion for 1 minute.
For each Macabre Creation fused in this way, the stitched minion gains a number of benefits:
- Its size category increases to Medium when fused with one Macabre Creation and Large if fused with three or more Macabre Creations.
- Its current and maximum hit points are multiplied by a number equal to the number of successfully fused Macabre Creations.
- Its Slam attack and damage rolls are increased by a number equal to the number of successfully fused Macabre Creations +1.
- It gains additional Slam attacks each turn equal to half the number of successfully fused Macabre Creations (rounded down).
When 1 minute has passed since the first Macabre Creation fused with your stitched minion, the structural integrity of the newly formed undead destabilizes and each Macabre Creation falls from your stitched minion with half of their current hit points from before they fused (rounded down).
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
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