Artificer

They make stuff.

Inventions

Your powers are known as "Inventions".

• They are quasi-magical in nature.
  • This means that, although they rely on quasi-magical properties (such as the energy contained within phlogiston), they are not full magical effects, and cannot be dispelled, disjoined, or suppressed by antimagic.

Inventions Known

• You gain free knowledge of one invention per level.
  • You may purchase knowledge of more invention at the going rate for scrolls.
  • Whenever you gain knowledge of an invention, it may either be one of the ones already created below, or a custom-made invention (see [[#Creating Your Own Inventions]]).

Powering Inventions

You have an attribute called "Steam", which represents the amount of power available for all of your devices. Most devices use Steam continuously, "slotting" a portion of your total during prepartion.

Preparing or re-preparing your inventions requires a short rest.

By default, each device requires 1 Steam per rank.

Assault

Tier 0

• Blunderbuss: At-will, cone 3; heavy/medium/light piercing damage (depending on distance). Fires 5 sling bullets at a time.
• Rocket Launcher: At-will (reload move), ranged, burst 2; medium explosive damage.
• Steam Pistol: At-will, ranged; medium piercing damage. Requires ammunition (sling bullets).
• Sniper Rifle: At-will, ranged; heavy piercing damage, fires special ammunition, reload is a bonus action. As a move action, you can use the scope, rendering you effectively blind to your surroundings, but granting advantage to ranged attacks, and the ability to fire at extreme range.

Tier 1

• Burning Fist: This one-handed gauntlet produces flame in various ways:
  • Dragon's Breath: Wrist-mounted, adjustable flamethrower. At-will, either cone 4, light fire damage, or line 4, medium fire damage. (Cone is a sweeping motion; always sprays in a line)
  • Finger of Flame: Single finger produces a terribly bright, hot flame, which can cut as well as an acetylene torch.
  • Fireball: Emitter in palm produces flame while closed fist contains it into a ball; ball can be thrown a ways before exploding, or can remain focused into a searing orb. Recharge 33%, ranged, burst 3, medium fire damage or single-target heavy fire damage.
• Freeze Ray: This one-handed weapon is constantly frosted over and quite cold to the touch. Fire modes:
  • Endothermic Blast: At-will, range 3; medium cold damage plus Chilled (50% movement reduction, Con ends). Against Chilled targets, causes Frozen instead (unable to take actions or move for 1 rd, Con negates, damage ends).
  • Icicle Lance: At-will, ranged; medium piercing cold damage, or heavy against chilled/frozen targets. Doesn't break Frozen.
  • Ice Wall: Recharge 25%, ranged, wall 1/level; creates a 20-ft high wall of ice that blocks line of sight and line of effect. Each 20-ft square section has HP equal to a max heavy damage roll. Lasts until end of next round.
• Lightning Gun: This heavy, two-handed weapon made of twin cast-iron rails held parallel by wooden supports offerse three fire modes:
  • Tesla Coil: At-will, range 2, chain 2/2; medium lightning damage.
  • Lightning Bolt: Recharge 33%, line 10x1; medium lightning damage.
  • Shock Bayonet: Recharge 33%, melee; medium piercing damage plus medium lightning damage.
• Stun Baton: At-will, melee; target is stunned for 1 round (Con reduces to half movement and disadvantage to attacks). Lightning resistance/immunity applies.

Tier 2

• Etherlance: A weapon capable of phasing through matter and striking etheral targets.
  • At-will, std, melee; as normal melee weapon, but phases through armor and can pass through thin walls (1 inch of stone, 3 inches of wood)
  • sniper ability tbd
• Railgun: At-will, line 50/1; inflicts heavy kinetic damage (siege capable), ignores armor and resistance.

Tier 3

• Hellfire Bomb: At-will, 5 energy, extreme range, burst 50; you launch a volatile bundle of radioactive plasma. As soon as it strikes anything, it explodes into a horrifically destructive blast inflicting heavy thermal damage, heavy EM damage, and heavy radiation damage to all in its area.

Control

Tier 1

• Transmogrifier Ray: Recharge 33%, ranged; target becomes a useless animal (Con ends, damage ends).
• Web Launcher: Recharge 33%, ranged; subject is caught in an electrified web of metal cables. Subject can attempt escape using Dex or Str vs your DC. If they fail, they are immobilized.

Tier 2

• Carbonite Blaster: At-will, std, range 3, energy 3; subject must pass a Con save or be immobilized and invulnerable (on save, they are chilled). If nothing else happens, they are free after 3 rounds. However, if you use the blaster on them again, they must pass a Con save or be permanently petrified. The effect is reversible by anyone other than the subject.
• Electrified Web Launcher: Your Web Launcher now inflicts heavy lightning damage each time they attempt a save to escape. They must pass a Con save when shocked or be stunned for 1 round.

Tier 3

Debilitation

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Defense

Tier 1

• Camouflage Cloak: Constant; grants advantage to Stealth checks. Also, as a move action, you can hunker beneath your cloak, appearing to be part of the terrain, granting invisibility until you move or take another action.
• Elemental Belt, mk1: At-will, bonus; you set the belt to grant resistance to a single energy type: fire, frost, or lightning.
• Force Shield: At-will, free (to activate or deactivate), reserves one hand; projects a barrier in the shape of a shield, granting you a +2 to AC, and allowing you to attempt proficient Strength checks vs incoming attacks to block half damage.

Tier 2

• Force Barrier: At-will, free (to activate or deactivate), concentration, reserves one hand; projects a barrier of force 3 squares wide by 2 squares tall. Barrier blocks line of effect (not sight) for all physical matter and energy, absorbing up to 10 damage per Artificer level before failing. Recharges 20 damage per round once it has not been in use for an entire round.
• TFH-13 Thought Protector: Constant; gain advantage to any saving throw against charm or compulsion, and your thoughts cannot be read.

Tier 3

• Elemental Belt, mk2: At-will, bonus; you set the belt to grant immunity to a single energy type: fire, frost, or lightning. Your body becomes made of the energy type in question, causing you to inflict medium energy damage of the chosen type with all melee attacks, and retribute the same to melee attackers.

Enhancement

Tier 1

• Aimbot 3000: At-will, bonus; you gain advantage to your next ranged attack against a chosen target, provided neither of you moves more than 30 feet before you take the shot.
• Universal Translator: Constant; this headgear combines an earpiece, a mouthpiece, and a lens, granting the ability to understand any non-archaic form of verbal or written language you perceive, and translating your own spoken language into the same via a croaking, mechanical voice. Grants advantage to Linguistics checks to interpret archaic or magical languages.

Tier 2

• Adaptive Circuits: At-will, swift, ranged, concentration; you scan a visible creature or construct your size or up to one size larger than you, then, exchanging matter in or out of Hyperspace as needed, you modify your physical attributes and appearance to match their own. You gain their physical capabilities and lose your own (including equipment), but keep your mental abilities. Damage you suffer in their form is tracked against the duplicate's HP, not your original HP, which you resume when you exit the form. Target form's CR must not exceed your own.
• Etherscope: Constant; you can see into the ethereal plane, granting the ability to see ethereal, incorporeal, and invisible creatures (though not necessarily the ability to interact with them). You can also see magical energy, detecting the spellcasting type and max level of all creatures in your line of sight.
• Threat Analyzer: At-will, bonus, ranged; you can analyze a single target, determining its level, type, current HP, movement, and AC. By passing an Artifice skill check, DC 10 + CR, you can also determine its damage resistances and immunities, and any damage vulnerabilities.

Tier 3

• Adaptive Circuits Unleashed: Your Adaptive Circuits have no size limitation, but it costs 5 Energy to use instead of 3.
• Tachyonic Lens: Constant; you see and hear a few seconds into the future, making it kind of difficult to walk or hold a conversation, but granting advantage to Initiative rolls, and enabling you to convert any bonus, free, or move action into a reaction once per round.

Mobility

Tier 1

• Goblin Glider: Recharge (short rest), reaction; while falling, you can deploy this glider to slow your falling rate to 60 ft per round (causing no damage when you hit the ground), and (optionally), each round you fall, you can move horizontally up to 5 ft per vertical foot fallen. Can be detached as a bonus action; otherwise, until detached or reset, the glider causes disadvantage to any maneuver requiring you to fit through a tight space.
• Hover Pads: Constant; you enjoy traction on any surface that can support your weight as if it were dry, smooth land. You can hover over a surface that can't support your weight normally (e.g. water), but cannot gain purchase to move horizontally.

Tier 2

• Jet Pack mk 1: Recharge 33%, move; you can jump vertically up to your walking speed, or horizontally up to twice that. Can also be used as a reaction to cancel up to 100 ft of falling damage.
• Mercurial Slippers: At-will, bonus; you "teleport" up to your normal walking speed. You're actually moving normally, but at greatly enhanced speed, so anything that would block you (e.g. walls, no floor to step on, etc) will still block you, although neither gravity nor enemies can react fast enough to hinder you.
  • Encounter, bonus; you "rewind" time, resetting your HP, Mana, position, condition, etc to the state it was in the beginning of the current round.
• Phase Shift Inducer: At-will, 3 energy, swift, concentration; you shift out of phase with the Universe, become invisible and incorporeal. You can still see the material world, but you can phase through barriers and creatures as if they weren't there. Costs 3 energy per round to maintain. When it ends, you don't want to be intersecting any physical matter. Especially dense matter costs double movement (lead, uranium, etc), and force effects block it entirely.

Tier 3

• Boots of Subjective Gravity: At-will, swift, constant; you change the orientation of gravity with respect to you. You can also increase or decrease its intensity by a factor of 10.

Shaping

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

• Catapsionic Field Generator: At-will, swift, cone 6, concentration; from a large, disc-shaped emitter comes an invisible field that jams all psychic concentration; effectively, an antimagic cone.

Summoning

Tier 1

• Drone Helmet: At-will, bonus; you launch (or retrieve, if in range) the helmet's sole drone, a flying automaton (tiny, AC 17, HP 5, fly 12 squares) which moves at your mental direction, within 1 mile, with 1 hour flight time before recharging (1-for-1). You can see and hear from the drone's perspective. If drone is destroyed, you can make a new one during a long res.
• Drone Program: Hack: Drones can use the Hacking skill. TBD

Tier 2

Tier 3

• Drone Helmet 9000: As Drone Helmet, but has 1/level drones that can be launched simultaneously. You can cycle through their camera feeds at will.

Utility

Tier 1

• Reach Extender: Worn item (one hand), at-will; telekinetically projects the force of your hand up to 30 feet within line of sight. Exactly as strong and dextrous as you are.

Tier 2

• Bullshit Detector: Constant; any false information (illusions, holograms) in your vision are scrambled into static, and overlaid upon them is a vague outline of the reality they conceal. Furthermore, any false auditory information (lies knowingly spoken, phantom sounds, etc) are similarly staticked, and the truth is audible to you, albeit a bit scratchy.
• Mirror Neuron Stimulator: Encounter, std, ranged, concentration; you may attempt to tap into subject's mind. You may read their surface thoughts and emotions freely. As a standard action, you may probe their thoughts, gaining the answer to one question (Wis negates and ends the effect; either way, subject is aware of the probe). As a standard action, you may attempt to control subject's actions (Wis ends; you are immobile and helpless while controlling them, and their actions are awkward, granting advantage to detect foul play).

Tier 3

• Chronal Shift Dial: At-will, immediate; you dial in your preference as to how time affects you. Choose one:
  • Time Dilation: you experience less subjective time than objective reality does. You can cause reality to advance faster than your experience of it, skipping forward in time any desired amount, while your body remains visible but utterly inviolate as it is locked in a sphere of unmoving time. Warning: no return trips.
  • Time Compression: you experience more subjective time than objective reality does. At a cost of 3 Energy per "round", you see the world move very slowly, giving you plenty of time to plan ahead and react to things. Gain advantage to all attack rolls, Dex saving throws, and Initiative checks. Enemies have disadvantage to hit you with attacks.
  • Time Stop: you compress your subjective time into a temporal singularity, acting in your own time stream as you please, then applying the effect of your actions in a single instant. For a cost of 5 Energy, you may take an entire round's action within your immediate action. Nothing you aren't touching moves until your "round" is over, but you yourself can move, and anything you touch (up to your own body weight) can move with you.

Paths

Path	Description
Armor Jockey	You wear a massive suit of powered armor; your inventions are integrated into it.
Ethernaut	You use a spooky power source called Ethergon to enable metaphysical devices
Gunslinger	Specialist in the Artificer's signature weapon: firearms.
Golem Lord	You are served by an automaton, which you enhance with your inventions.
Magitech	You blend magic with Artifice. (Heresy!)

Design Notes

Three School Approach

Maybe consider a three-school approach instead of slots. Works pretty well for the casters, right?

Ideas:

• Phlogiston (brute strength, enhancement, fire, goblin engineering)
• Inspiron (cleverness, complexity, lightning, gnome engineering)
• Ethertron (magicky, spiritual, weird, arcane damage)

They have a few permanent items (such as guns) and a whole bunch of powered inventions (comparable to spells), many of which modify the permanenent items.

Example:

• Steam Musket: at-will, std, ranged; medium piercing damage.
  • Incendiary Round: 1 phlogiston; adds medium fire damage ongoing 3 rds.
  • Explosive Round: 2 phlogiston; adds burst 2 of medium fire damage.
  • Unstable Round: 3 phlogiston; round sticks in target for 3 rounds, or until it bursts. Each time target takes damage, 25% chance for round to explode for heavy damage in a burst 3.
  • Seeking Round: 1 inspiron; attack gains advantage, or can neutralize advantage to cancel effect of cover, concealment, long range, or even shoot around walls (one turn up to 90 degrees).
  • Auto-Attack Module: 2 inspiron; weapon becomes a turret, attacking as you direct once per round for the next 3 rounds, while you're free to do other things.
  • Anti-Aether Shot: 1 ethergon; attack has a chance to dispel one defensive spell before striking.
  • Wall Hack: 2 ethergon; round phases through walls up to X inches thick, ignores up to Y armor.

Resources

If not the above, how about tapping the ideas to improve resources?

Instead of Energy, we'll use Phlogiston and Energists.

• Phlogiston is a depletable, daily resource. You can generate a certain amount for free each long rest, and a little bit in a short rest.
• You have a set number of Energists. They enable at-will and constant inventions. Analagous to attuned magic items.

As a rule of thumb, an invention that acts like a spell will consume Phlogiston, and an invention that acts like a permanent magic item will require a slotted Energist.

Power Reorg

Change Log

Artificer x.0 (Jul 22 2020)

• Nerfed Force Shield's max hp