Markmancer

Markmancers are Artificers whose particular specialty lies in their Mark, a special form of magical tattoos that are irremovable and ordinarily come about as side effects of great arcane workings.

Through their mark, these Markmancers achieve great martial prowess, and are able to control the battlefield with their reach, strike enemies with their magical mark, and unleash the power of the magical artifacts embedded in their skin - for better or worse.

Magical Mark

At 3rd level, you gain a Mark - a Mark and its origin differ widely depending on the magic of which had a hand in its creation. A Mark which possesses the soul of another may whisper to its user or tell it information that soul knew in its lifetime, a Mark coming from Abjuration magic may act with the priority to protect its user, a Mark coming from Evocation magic may be violent and prefer to attack, so on and so forth. This has no mechanical bearing on the Mark or its abilities - but it is worth considering for RP purposes. 

The Mark absorbs and strengthens magical tattoos that you attune to. These tattoos gain the following benefits:

• Spellwrought Tattoo. The spells you cast through this tattoo use your spell attack modifier and save DC, instead of the attack/save DC determined by its rarity.
• Barrier Tattoo. The armor class from this tattoo's Barrier feature increases by a number equal to the amount of tattoos you're currently attuned to.
• Coiling Grasp Tattoo. You may use Grasping Tendrils in place of a weapon attack, instead of as an action. Additionally, if the creature succeeds the saving throw, it takes half damage, and if it fails, you may choose to Restrain them instead of Grappling them. If you do, they repeat their save at the end of their turn, instead of as their Action.
• Eldritch Claw Tattoo. You may use your Intelligence for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes, which now deal 1d6 force damage instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Additionally, you may activate Eldritch Maul as part of the bonus action for Mark Surge.

If a magical tattoo makes an attack or requires a saving throw, you use your Artificer Spell Attack Modifier and Spell Save DC respectively, instead of the attack modifier or spell saving throw DC provided.

Mark Surge

Your Mark is a magical artifact, which naturally accumulates magical energy. As a bonus action, you can unleash this energy to cause your Mark to surge and take a life of its own, attacking and fighting alongside you. See its game statistics in the Magical Mark stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) and number of attuned tattoos (AT) in several places. You determine the mark's appearance and the nature of its independence; your choice has no effect on its game statistics.

In combat, the Mark 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 command it to take another action (no action required by you). That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the Mark is incapacitated with you, and your Mark Surge ends.

The Mark, whatever its form, is physically bound to you. As such, it occupies your space and cannot be separated from you, but it is still considered a separate creature for all other purposes while the Surge is active.

Once the Mark Surge ends, the Mark retracts back to your body and disappears. You cannot activate your Mark Surge again until your next long rest, or until you spend a spell slot of the highest level you can cast to use it again.

Extra Attack

Starting at 5th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Additionally, your Mark gains the Multiattack action during Mark Surge, using Rend twice instead of once.

The number of attacks and Rend actions increase to three at 15th level.

Improved Magical Tattoos

Your Mark now grants additional benefits to more magical tattoos while you're attuned to them. To gain this additional benefit, however, you must meet a minimum Artificer level requirement depending on the rarity of the tattoo. The requirements are as follows: 5th level (Rare), 9th level (Very Rare), 17th level (Legendary+).

While attuned to a tattoo you meet the level requirement for, you gain the following benefits for that tattoo:

• Shadowfell Brand Tattoo. You gain a bonus to Stealth checks equal to your Intelligence modifier, and when you activate Shadowy Defense, you gain resistance to all damage until the end of your next turn.
• Absorbing Tattoo. As a bonus action, you may expend a spell slot of any level to change the color and damage type of the tattoo to any other option in the list. Additionally, when you regain hit points from Damage Absorption, it equals all of the damage you would have taken instead of only half of it.
• Ghost Step Tattoo. As part of the bonus action you use to activate Mark Surge, you may expend one of this tattoo's charges to activate Ghostly Form as part of the same Bonus Action. Additionally, while Mark Surge is active, you may spend another charge activate Ghostly Form again at the end of each turn without using a Bonus Action.
• Lifewell Tattoo. When Life Ward is activated, you instead return to an amount of hit points equal to 5 * the amount of tattoos you're currently attuned to.
• Blood Fury Tattoo. The necrotic damage you deal from Bloodthirsty Strikes increases by the amount of tattoos you're currently attuned to. When you make the reaction attack at advantage, you deal an amount of force damage equal to the amount of tattoos you're currently attuned to, whether you miss or hit.

Enhanced Markmancy

You have become increasingly adept with utilizing the magical energy of your Mark, gaining the following benefits.

When you would otherwise spend a spell slot, you may draw on your Mark's reservoir of magical energy instead of your own. Instead of expending a spell slot, you choose a number of magical tattoos you are attuned to equal to the spell's level. After the tattoos are spent, you become unattuned to them - while unattuned in this way, the tattoos disappear into a pocket dimension within your Mark. They only reappear at the end of your next long rest, at which point they reattune to you automatically.

 

Extra Attack (x2)

Starting at 5th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Additionally, your Mark gains the Multiattack action during Mark Surge, using Rend twice instead of once.

The number of attacks and Rend actions increases to three at 15th level.