Artificer
Base Class: Artificer

Gadgeteer: Artificer Specialist

The Gadgeteer is a specialized path within the Artificer class, designed for those who excel at precision engineering and tactical problem-solving. As a Gadgeteer, you are not just an inventor; you are a strategist, capable of turning even the most mundane objects into lethal tools or clever devices. Your primary focus is on efficiency, both in combat and in overcoming obstacles. Whether you need to neutralize a threat, disarm a trap, or mislead your enemies, you always have the right tool for the job.

Role and Identity

Gadgeteers are the ultimate pragmatists, combining their natural ingenuity with an arsenal of specially crafted devices to handle any situation. Unlike other Artificers who may focus on broader inventions or large-scale creations, Gadgeteers hone their skills on the fine details, crafting tools that are as subtle as they are deadly. You might be an agent, an assassin, or a mercenary, but regardless of your background, you are known for your ability to get the job done without leaving a trace. In the hands of a Gadgeteer, even a simple wrench can become a weapon of unparalleled precision.

Core Abilities and Features

At the heart of the Gadgeteer's abilities is the concept of Efficient Tools. These tools, infused with your magical prowess, allow you to disable, disarm, and dismantle with unmatched precision. With your Dismantler’s Kit, traps and mechanical devices become little more than puzzles for you to solve, and your Silent Strike Module ensures that your attacks remain undetected, allowing you to take down targets without drawing attention.

As you advance, your Tactical Precision gives you the edge in combat, enabling you to strike quickly and decisively. You can attack twice when taking the Attack action, reflecting your ability to deploy your gadgets or weapons in rapid succession. This precision extends beyond mere physical attacks; you can also remotely activate your devices, setting off traps or causing distractions at just the right moment.

By the time you reach mid-levels, your ability to neutralize threats has become second nature. Silent Efficiency not only expands your critical hit range when striking from the shadows, but it also introduces the Decoy Device—a mechanical double that can confuse and mislead your enemies, giving you the upper hand in both stealth and combat situations.

As a master of improvisation, you can create powerful devices on the fly with Cunning Improvisation. Whether it’s an Explosive Charge, an EMP Pulse, or a Smoke Bomb, you always have a trick up your sleeve to turn the tide of battle or make a quick escape. Your devices are crafted quickly but with precision, ensuring they are as effective as they are inventive.

Finally, your experience and quick thinking culminate in the Problem Solver ability. When the chips are down, you have the skill to reroll failed checks, ensuring that nothing stands in your way. You can also respond to threats with incredible speed, activating devices as a reaction to outmaneuver your foes.

Personality and Playstyle

Gadgeteers are thinkers and planners, always a step ahead of their adversaries. You excel in situations where you can prepare or manipulate the environment to your advantage. Your strength lies in your versatility—you can disable traps, bypass security, and take down enemies with silent precision. In combat, you are not about brute force; instead, you rely on quick, calculated strikes and the element of surprise. You often find yourself in roles where subtlety and efficiency are valued, such as espionage, infiltration, or sabotage.

When playing a Gadgeteer, you’ll want to think ahead and use your environment to your advantage. The tools at your disposal are designed to solve problems creatively, so be ready to improvise and adapt as situations unfold. Whether setting traps, creating diversions, or executing a silent takedown, you are the ultimate problem-solver on the battlefield.

In the World

Gadgeteers are rare specialists who are often sought after for their unique skills. Whether employed by a clandestine organization, a royal court, or operating as a lone wolf, a Gadgeteer's presence is always felt—if only because of the precision and cleanliness of their work. Your reputation might be as a ghost, a figure known only by the results of your actions, leaving no trace behind but the absence of those who opposed you.

In a world where problems need solving, and threats need neutralizing, the Gadgeteer stands as the ultimate engineer of efficiency, a master of tools and tactics whose ingenuity is rivaled only by their precision.

Efficient Tools

At 3rd level, your expertise in crafting and utilizing specialized tools enhances your ability to deal with threats quietly and effectively. You gain proficiency with thieves’ tools, if you don’t already have it, and you can add your Intelligence modifier to any attack roll you make with a weapon you have infused.

Additionally, you learn to infuse the following special tools, which don’t count against your number of Infusions Known:

  • Dismantler’s Kit: This set of tools allows you to swiftly disarm traps, disable devices, or sabotage mechanisms. When using these tools, you can add your Intelligence modifier to checks made to disarm traps or disable devices. Additionally, when you successfully disarm a trap, you can repurpose it into a new trap, placing it within 10 feet of you. The repurposed trap uses the same trigger and effects as the original.

  • Silent Strike Module: This infusion can be applied to a weapon, making it extraordinarily silent. While wielding this infused weapon, your attacks do not create noise, and you gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. When you score a critical hit with this weapon, you can force the target to make a Constitution saving throw (DC equal to your spell save DC) or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

Tactical Precision

Starting at 5th level, your efficiency in neutralizing threats allows you to strike with greater accuracy and speed. You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. This reflects your ability to deploy your tools or weapons in rapid succession, catching enemies off guard with your mechanical precision.

Additionally, you can use a bonus action to activate a stored device or trap that you have created within 30 feet of you, provided you have line of sight to it. This can include triggering a delayed explosion or activating a mechanical snare. Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Silent Efficiency

At 9th level, your ability to neutralize targets without drawing attention reaches new heights. When you use your Silent Strike Module to attack an unaware or surprised target, your critical hit range expands to 19-20.

Additionally, you gain the ability to create a Decoy Device. As an action, you can expend a spell slot to create a decoy that mimics your appearance, sounds, and movements. The decoy can move up to 30 feet per turn, and it lasts for 1 minute or until destroyed (AC 10 + your proficiency bonus; hit points equal to twice your Artificer level). Creatures that attack the decoy have disadvantage on their attacks, as it moves erratically and unpredictably. You can command the decoy to move as part of your bonus action. This represents your mastery in misdirection and tactical maneuvering.

 

Decoy Device

Medium Construct, Unaligned

Armor Class: 10 + your proficiency bonus
Hit Points: 2 × your Artificer level
Speed: 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 3 (-4)

Saving Throws: Dexterity +2 (plus proficiency bonus), Constitution +1 (plus proficiency bonus)
Damage Immunities: Poison, Psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned
Senses: Passive Perception 10
Languages: Understands the languages of its creator but can't speak
Challenge: — (The Decoy Device has no inherent combat capabilities)

False Appearance. While the Decoy Device remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from you, including any clothing or equipment you were wearing when you created it.

Erratic Movement. The Decoy Device moves unpredictably. Attacks made against it have disadvantage.

Command Interface. You can command the Decoy Device to move up to 30 feet as a bonus action. It obeys your commands to the best of its ability, but it cannot attack, cast spells, or perform any actions other than movement.

Explosive Deactivation (Optional). When the Decoy Device is reduced to 0 hit points, it self-destructs in a small explosion, dealing 5d6 fire damage to all creatures within 10 feet of it. (This is an optional feature you can add if you want the decoy to have some offensive utility.)

Actions

Dash. The Decoy Device can take the Dash action to double its movement speed until the end of its turn.

Disengage. The Decoy Device can take the Disengage action, allowing it to move without provoking opportunity attacks.

Cunning Improvisation

At 15th level, you’ve mastered the art of on-the-fly problem-solving. You can create and deploy devices with remarkable speed and ingenuity, using your surroundings to your advantage. You can now use an action to create one of the following improvised devices:

  • Explosive Charge: You quickly assemble a small explosive and place it within 10 feet of you. As a bonus action, you can detonate the charge, dealing 6d6 fire damage to all creatures within 10 feet of the explosion (Dexterity saving throw for half damage, DC equal to your spell save DC). The explosion also has a 50% chance to destroy non-magical objects within the radius.

  • EMP Pulse: You fashion an electromagnetic pulse device that can disable or disrupt mechanical devices and magical items and equipment. When activated, it sends out a pulse in a 20-foot radius centered on you. All non-magical and magical devices within the radius are disabled for 1 minute, and any creature with resistance or immunity to lightning damage must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC equal to your spell save DC) or have their resistance or immunity suppressed for 1 minute.

  • Smoke Bomb: You deploy a smoke bomb that fills a 20-foot radius with thick smoke, heavily obscuring the area for 1 minute. The smoke grants advantage on all Dexterity (Stealth) checks and provides total cover to any creature within it. The smoke dissipates early if a strong wind (20 miles per hour or more) blows through the area.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Problem Solver

At 15th level, you have become a consummate problem-solver, capable of outsmarting and outmaneuvering your foes with ease. When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw and fail, you can choose to reroll the dice. You must use the new roll.

Additionally, when you use your Tactical Precision feature to activate a stored device or trap, you can now do so as a reaction, even outside of your turn. This allows you to respond to threats with lightning speed. Once you use this reaction, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

BearinSmoke

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