Base Class: Artificer
A young seemingly unarmed Gnomish artificer steps out from behind a nervous group of soldiers heading by himself towards the lines of the orcish hoard that are rapidly approaching. Moving nimbly despite his heavy armour he confidently strides forward. In a brilliant crackle of blue light a translucent blade extends from a small wooden handle quivering slightly like a captured bolt of lightning.
Elemental Warlords masterfully bend the elements to give themselves prowess as melee fighters. Extending weapons of pure elemental power from self made arcane cores to devastating effect in close quarters combat.
You may find inspiration for a character of this subclass by considering sources such as a Jedi and their lightsaber, The Doom Slayer and his Crucible or even the Energy Sword from Halo.
Elemental Warlord Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Elemental Warlord Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
(These spells are from licenced material and as such cannot be submitted alongside homebrew subclasses. Please homebrew a magic item to give yourself access.)
Elemental Warlord Spells
| Artificer Level | Spell |
|---|---|
|
3rd |
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|
5th |
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|
9th |
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13th |
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|
17th |
Wrath and Ruin
When you reach 3rd level, your combat training and your experiments with elemental magic have paid off in two ways:
- You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
- You gain proficiency with heavy armour.
Furthermore, when donning armour that is benefiting from one of your artificer infusions you may ignore the strength requirement of the armour. If the infusion is removed and you lack the strength required to wear the armour proficiently you suffer all the penalties as normal.
Elemental Arsenal
At 3rd level you have gained the ability to condense elemental energy into cores. These cores are a shape of your choosing and can serve as a spellcasting focus for your Artificer spells.
You can create a core by means of an 8 hour ritual in which you imbue a nonmagical object that can fit into your hand or hands with the power of the elements. Once the core has been created it is indistinguishable from a nonmagical item unless targeted by a detect magic spell wherein it heavily indicates the presence of evocation magic.
Cores are only usable by their creator and if lost lose their magic after a period of 7 days.
As a bonus action on your turn you may ignite your core and extend a weapon of pure elemental magic using the core as the hilt. When you call this weapon, choose an elemental type from the following: Cold, Fire or Lightning.
A core may be the target of one of your artificer infusions such as enhanced weapon, when infused in this way the Elemental Arsenal weapon gain the effects of the chosen infusion.
The summoned weapon deals magical damage of the selected type and lasts until you use another bonus action to deactivate the core, when making attacks with these weapons you may use your intelligence modifier when calculating attack and damage rolls.
Furthermore, the weapon takes on asthetic qualities of your choice and glows faintly with a colour corresponding to the chosen element (these qualities do not affect damage or performance in any way). (For example a one handed warhammer made entirely of shimmering flames or a rapier glowing white with cold energy)
At 3rd level you choose one of 3 core types, each core type lends itself to a different style of fighting. You may only have one core active unless stated in the core's description. You may change your Elemental Arsenal core type when you gain a level in the Artificer class.
Defender Core
A core designed to fit into one hand, the damage die for a Defender Core is a d8.
When you ignite a weapon from a Defender Core, the weapon gains the finesse property.
Additionally, whilst you have a core of this type with you, you gain a +2 to Armour Class as part of your Elemental energy adheres to your armour.
Dual Core
When you choose this core type at 3rd level you gain the ability to channel your Elemental Arsenal into two smaller cores.
The damage die for each core is a d6 and when you ignite your Elemental Arsenal weapons you can ignite both cores with the same bonus action. Weapons generated from dual cores gain the light and finesse properties.
When you ignite both cores in this way you can choose whether the damage type of each weapon is the same or different, it must be a damage type that you are capable of using. Furthermore when attacking with the core that you hold in your off hand you may add your ability modifier to the damage roll.
Heavy Core
At 3rd level when you select this core type you gain the ability to imbue a larger nonmagical item with your Elemental Arsenal. When you ignite this core it produces a larger elemental weapon, this weapon uses a d12 as its damage die and gains the heavy and two handed properties.
Extra Attack
Starting at 5th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Extended Strike
As a bonus action on your turn you can separate your Elemental Arsenal weapon from its core shooting it towards a distant foe.
Until the end of your turn you may use the attack action against a single target you can see within 30ft as if they were adjacent to you. Your weapon then dissapates, reforming from it's core.
Additionally you may expend a spell slot to increase the effective range by 30ft per level of the spent spell slot.
You may use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of once) and regain all uses when you finish a long rest.
Exotic Damage Specialist
Your ability to manipulate the elements grants you insight into the mechanics of more exotic types of energy. Starting at 5th level you can select one damage type from the options below.
When you ignite your Elemental Arsenal weapons, you may now deal damage of the selected type instead of the core elemental types described in the Elemental Arsenal class feature.
You learn to one additional damage type at the 9th and 15th levels of this class.
Acid
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Acid damage.
Force
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Force damage.
Necrotic
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Necrotic damage.
Poison
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Poison damage.
Psychic
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Psychic damage.
Radiant
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Radiant damage.
Thunder
Your Elemental Arsenal weapons can now deal Thunder damage.
Overcharge
At 9th level you are able to redirect your magical energies into your Elemental Arsenal weapons at overwhelming levels
As a bonus action on your turn, you may expend a spell slot of 3rd level or higher to bolster your Elemental Arsenal Weapon attacks. When Overcharge is activated you deal an extra 1d6 per attack for a number of rounds equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of one).
When using a spell slot of a level above 3rd the damage increases by 1d6 per spell level to a maximum of 3d6.
This additional damage can be any damage type that you are able to wield with your Elemental Arsenal Weapons.
You gain two uses of this ability at 9th level and regain all expended uses when you complete a long rest.
Additionally you may choose to use this ability more than twice between long rests resulting in gaining a level of exhaustion once the Overcharge effect wears off.
Elemental Mastery
At 15th level, you may choose to use a reaction to absorb incoming damage from a hostile target and repurpose it to bolster your prowess in battle.
The incoming damage must be a type that you are able to use to generate Elemental Weapons with.
When you absorb the elemental attack, the damage pertaining to that element is nullified and you may choose two of the following options.
- You gain a swirling field of elemental energy that increases your armour class by 3 for one minute.
- At the start of your next turn you gain the effects of a fourth level Overcharge, the extra damage must be the same type as the triggering damage. This effect is in addition to any Overcharge abilities already in effect.
- You erupt in a flash of positive energy, creatures of your choice in a 30ft radius sphere regain hitpoints equal to your artificer level plus your intelligence modifier.
- For one minute, when you take the attack action on your turn you may make one additional weapon attack as the incoming energy powers faster strikes.
- You gain resistance to the triggering damage for one minute.
- You end one negative effect imposed upon you and up to two levels of exhaustion.
Once you use this feature, you may not use it again until you have finished a long rest.
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