Projectionist

Wielding a magical box capable of capturing reality, a Projectionist artificer is intrigued by archiving, reproducing and manipulating visual information to aid them in their goals. Whether this be through entrapment, blackmail or revealing the truths hidden behind closed doors, the Projectionist is a master of setting-up scenes and situations through illusion magic and the imagery created through their arcane lightbox. A Projectionist who masters their craft goes beyond merely the suspension of disbelief, but dazzles and disorientates those around them as well. 

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Tools of Artifice

When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with smith's tools. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan’s tools of your choice.

In addition, you learn the minor illusion cantrip.

Projectionist Spells

Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Projectionist Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

Projectionist Spells

Arcane Lightbox

By 3rd level, you are in possession of an arcane lightbox, a specialized camera that can capture and project reality. The arcane lightbox is Tiny and must be held in two hands. You can use the arcane lightbox as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells..

The arcane lightbox has the ability to record and project still or moving images of reality:

• Recording. As an action while wielding it, you can activate your arcane lightbox to start recording in a 30 foot cone. A recording captures all non-illusory visual details including sound, color and image that are visible to you normally. You can use a bonus action on subsequent turns to oscillate the cone, and an action to end the recording.
  
  The total amount of recordings the lightbox can contain is 2, and their combined length cannot exceed 1 minute. These recordings remain inside the lightbox until you record over them or the lightbox is destroyed. A creature familiar with the lightbox must succeed on a Wisdom (Insight) check against your spell save DC to determine that the lightbox is being activated.
  
  Creatures who are within the lightbox’s recording field while it is recording have disadvantage on any Charisma checks, as they are overcome with a feeling that they are under intense scrutiny.

• Projecting. As an action, you can project a stored recording 15 feet into an unoccupied space, in a 15 foot line perpendicular to your arcane lightbox. The projection is rendered as two-dimensional, but appears three-dimensional when viewed from the lightbox's perspective. The projection becomes distorted if viewed from other angles greater than 60 degrees. The projection reproduces the visual conditions that were recorded exactly. The projection ends once the recording has played through, or if you use an action to end it.
  
  Any Charisma checks made while utilizing a projection are done with advantage, and any creatures attempting to dispute the contents of the projections have disadvantage on any checks associated with doing so.

Arcane Reels

Starting at 3rd level, you can use your smith's tools and expend a use of your Magical Tinkering to store a recording made by your arcane lightbox into a 5 lbs spool of metal sheeting, called an arcane reel. An arcane reel can only store one such recording at a time. The crafting process takes 1 hour.

If you try to exceed your maximum Magical Tinkering uses, the new reel replaces one older reel of your choice.

As an action, you can activate an arcane reel through your arcane lightbox. The arcane reel projects its contents in the same fashion as the arcane lightbox would.

Camera Obscura

At 5th level, your illusions become a source of constant intrigue and distraction for your foes. Creatures that start their turn within 15 feet of any illusions you are concentrating on have a penalty to spell and attack rolls equal to your Intelligence modifier. A creature that has truesight or that has successfully determined an illusion to be false is not affected by this.

Arcane Catalogue

At 9th level, your arcane lightbox's functions improve:

• You no longer need to wield your arcane lightbox when recording or projecting, and you can activate and deactivate these functions while within 30 feet of it. If you are ever more than 30 feet from your lightbox, any recording or projecting functions are ended.
• You can double your proficiency bonus to calculate your spell save DC whenever a creature makes a check to determine illusions cast through your arcane lightbox.
• During a long rest, you can store one of your Projectionist spells in your arcane lightbox, which can then be cast once without expending a spell slot and only while the lightbox is within 30 feet of you. You can specify a trigger that will activate the spell, such as a command word, approaching the lightbox within a certain distance, physical characteristics (such as height or weight), creature type (for example, Abberations or drow), or alignment. You can also set conditions for creatures that don’t trigger the lightbox, such as those who say a certain password.

In addition, at 9th level, you have learned to manipulate the contents of your arcane reels. Over the course of an hour, you can use your smith's tools to manipulate a detail of an arcane reel, as determined by a d20 roll:

ROLL	MANIPULATION
1-10	You can remove or rearrange a single continuous section (up to a 6 seconds) of the reel's contents
11-15	You can add, remove, or replace up to 6 seconds of a visual element within a 5-foot cube, such as a color, expression or gesture, text, or tiny object
16-19	You can add, remove, or replace a 6-second sound, including spoken words
20	You can perform one of each of the manipulations listed above

At the end of completing the manipulation, make a smithing (Intelligence) check against the number you rolled on the manipulation table. On a success, the manipulation is virtually seamless. On a fail, the manipulation is incongruous enough to arouse suspicions. If the DM determines the manipulation to be inherently jarring, such as the removal of a key object in the middle of an interaction, they may set the DC higher. 

Silver Screen

At 15th level, your arcane lightbox can interact with reality. When you use an action to project with your arcane lightbox, or a bonus action to move the projection, you can force a number of creatures equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of one) within the 15-foot projection cone to make a Constitution saving throw. On a fail, you can choose one of the following effects:

• The target takes 2d8 force damage.
• The target is shoved up to the projection’s 15-foot range.
• The target’s movement speed is halved until the end of its next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once).