PhoenixPhyre
2018-03-24, 01:29 PM
Creator's Note: I'd really like feedback on the subclass mechanics of this class, as it's non-standard. Other feedback is welcome as well of course. Note that the class does not get spellcasting and does get Extra Attack at level 5.
Google doc here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNH1DpxdNWDSXCmGlJ7Ks-4WD2dOQrj43mv1Ftba-pU/edit?usp=sharing)
Basically all 5e subclasses are one-time decisions--at each feature point every member of that subclass gets the same features. This didn't really fit for a non-spell-casting artificer I was thinking of--the defining feature is that every Savant is an obsessive tinkerer. Even those that share similarities would have different moving bits, different priorities.
Instead, I decided to do something different.
Each subclass (called an Obsession) has three components (plus one shared pool of options), each component has four cumulative levels (none, initial, evolved, perfected). Each time you gain a subclass feature, you can either pick a new Gadget (from the shared pool) or advance one component by a level (starting at none). Since you get 5 total features, you can max out 1 component and get to rank 2 in another, or split them up, or pick up more Gadgets. The earliest you could get a Perfected component would be level 11, level 15 if you pick up a gadget or don't specialize.
Augmented Gauntlets
Initial: when you attempt to grapple or shove another creature, you can add twice your proficiency bonus to the opposed check.
Evolved: You can grapple or shove creatures up to two size categories larger than you are. In addition, your speed is no longer reduced while grappling.
In addition, when you hit with a melee weapon attack you can choose to deal maximum damage to it. Once you use this portion of this feature you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.
Perfected: When you are grappling a creature, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to twice your proficiency bonus to the creature at the beginning of each of its turns. You can also use the maximized damage option of your Evolved Gauntlets twice per long rest.
Augmented Frame:
Initial: You count as one size larger when determining how much you can lift, carry, or drag. This is cumulative with the Powerful Build trait.
Evolved: When hit by an attack dealing bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage type (including the triggering attack) until the end of your next turn. Useable 1x/short rest.
Perfected: While you are incapacitated, you no longer incur failed death saves for taking damage. In addition, you can spend a catalyst activation to heal yourself as if injected by a health serum. The second clause can only be used once per long rest.
Augmented Greaves:
Initial: Your ground movement speed increases by 5 feet. In addition, you no longer need a running start for full jumping distance and can add your proficiency modifier to the distance you can jump.
Evolved: Your ground movement speed increases by another 5 feet. In addition, you take half damage from falling and cannot be knocked prone due to falling.
Perfected: Your ground movement speed increases by another 5 feet (to +15 feet total). You cannot be lifted off the ground or moved against your will except by teleportation effects.
Enhanced Loading
Starting when you choose this Obsession at third level, you can ignore the loading property of crossbows.
EWAF Augmentations
When you choose this obsession at 3rd level, choose one of these augmentations. You gain the effects at the basic rank. When you gain features at higher levels from this obsession, you can increase the rank of an augmentation (up to 3 ranks total) or choose a new augmentation at the basic rank. The Gadgeteer augmentation is always available as well.
Pinpoint Scope:
Initial: You gain the Archery fighting style.
Evolved: You no longer suffer disadvantage from range out to the long range of your weapon.
In addition, you can use your action to attempt to pin your target to an adjacent surface. Make a ranged weapon attack against a target within range. If your attack hits it deals an additional damage die and the target’s speed is reduced to zero until they take an action to remove the pinning ammo. This does not function against flying or swimming enemies.
Perfected: You can use your action to make an attack at disadvantage against one of the following locations:
* Head: on hit, the target takes normal damage and must make a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
* Heart: on hit, the target suffers the effect of a critical hit. If you roll less than half the maximum damage possible, you deal half the maximum damage instead.
* Hands: on hit, the target has disadvantage on all attacks and cannot cast spells with somatic or material components until the beginning of your next turn.
Ammo Storage:
Initial: You no longer need a free hand to reload your ranged weapon.
Evolved: Your ammunition now counts as silvered and/or adamantine for overcoming resistance or immunity.
Perfected: Once per short rest you can fire up to half your proficiency bonus in arrows at once, targeting different targets.
Concoction Launchers
Initial: You can launch catalyzed bombs up to the normal range of your ranged weapon.
Evolved: In addition to bombs, you can launch catalyzed elixirs as well, targeting one creature.
Perfected: When launching elixirs, you can instead choose to affect all targets within 10 feet of the targeted point. Area burst elixirs only have half the effect (lasting half the duration for those without numerical effects).
Gadgets are items you learn to create. Once created they're permanent unless destroyed. You can spend a subclass feature to learn to make a new gadget.
Adaptive goggles
Cost: 150 gp, including fine transparent gems worth 100 gp. Time: 12 hours
These goggles grant the following benefits while worn. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet; if you already had darkvision its range is increased to 90 feet. You have advantage on any saving throws against being blinded or against gaze effects (such as a basilisk or medusa’s gaze).
Motorized grappling hook
Cost: 50 gp. Time: 8 hours.
This grappling hook is attached to 50ft of fine wire and a launcher/handle. Together it weighs 6 lbs. When fired at any point as an action within the wire’s reach, it flies unerringly and attaches. At any point within the next minute you can use your reaction to activate the reel, lifting up to 400 lbs that are attached to the handle. This interrupts any ongoing actions. If you don’t use the reel within one minute, it retracts the hook.
Extendable Glider Wings
Cost: 30 gp, including a backpack. Time: 8 hours.
These wings fold into a backpack wearable by any medium or small creature. The backpack and wings weigh 10 lbs. When activated, the wings extend and provide a gliding flight speed of 30 ft for one minute. Unlike normal flight, while gliding you lose 5 ft of height per round At the end of the duration, the wings automatically retract and the contraption cannot be reused until the end of a long rest.
Mechanized Door Opening Kit
Cost: 10gp. Time: 8 hours
This kit consists of a gear-and-spring-driven pry-bar and a mounting mechanism. When placed against a locked or barred door or container and activated, it latches on and pries the latch open slowly. This effect takes one minute and can be canceled at any point. Against barred doors, roll a d100. On a roll of 20 or lower it fails to open the door and cannot be retried for 10 minutes. When used against a magically-locked door, it fails on a roll of 50 or lower and is damaged and unusable until the end of a long rest.
Collapsible Shelter
Cost: 150 gp. Time: 12 hours.
This bundle (which weighs 30 pounds) contains a comfortable, camouflaged shelter packed into a very tight space. When activated on a flat, level surface at least 10 feet cubical, it expands over 10 minutes into a hut with bedrolls and space for four medium creatures. The interior of this shelter is comfortable in temperature conditions down to -20 degrees and up to 120 degrees and is wind- and rain-proof. Creatures that complete a long rest by sleeping (or trancing, or…) inside of it gain a d6 that they can add to their next saving throw as long as it takes place before they complete a short rest. Resetting this device requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Clockwork Spiderling
Cost: 500 gp. Time: 1 workweek.
This gadget takes the shape and statistics of a spider, except with the construct type instead of the beast type. It also cannot attack. On your turn you can command it to do any the following (without using an action):
Scout: The spiderling travels stealthily up to 120 feet in the direction you point, following any curves in the corridor if needed. It then returns and relates the number of creatures it sensed along the path using taps of its foot. While it is doing this, it can also record sounds if commanded to do so.
Record: The spiderling records all audible sounds within its hearing range. Up to one minute of sound can be recorded at a time; recording more overwrites the oldest records.
Replay: The spiderling replays an accurate record of all sounds it has recorded.
Emergency Parachute
Cost: 25 gp. Time: 4 hours.
This gadget packs into a standard backpack and deploys as a reaction. While the parachute is deployed, you fall at 30 feet per round and take no falling damage and land on your feet. While falling in this way, you can move up to 10 feet per round horizontally as well. The parachute can be attacked--it has an AC of 12 and 15 HP, with invulnerability to bludgeoning damage and poison damage and vulnerability to piercing. If it is reduced to 0 hit points while deployed, the slow fall effect ends. An intact parachute can be packed and reset in one minute; a destroyed one cannot be reused until the end of a long rest.
Google doc here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNH1DpxdNWDSXCmGlJ7Ks-4WD2dOQrj43mv1Ftba-pU/edit?usp=sharing)
Basically all 5e subclasses are one-time decisions--at each feature point every member of that subclass gets the same features. This didn't really fit for a non-spell-casting artificer I was thinking of--the defining feature is that every Savant is an obsessive tinkerer. Even those that share similarities would have different moving bits, different priorities.
Instead, I decided to do something different.
Each subclass (called an Obsession) has three components (plus one shared pool of options), each component has four cumulative levels (none, initial, evolved, perfected). Each time you gain a subclass feature, you can either pick a new Gadget (from the shared pool) or advance one component by a level (starting at none). Since you get 5 total features, you can max out 1 component and get to rank 2 in another, or split them up, or pick up more Gadgets. The earliest you could get a Perfected component would be level 11, level 15 if you pick up a gadget or don't specialize.
Augmented Gauntlets
Initial: when you attempt to grapple or shove another creature, you can add twice your proficiency bonus to the opposed check.
Evolved: You can grapple or shove creatures up to two size categories larger than you are. In addition, your speed is no longer reduced while grappling.
In addition, when you hit with a melee weapon attack you can choose to deal maximum damage to it. Once you use this portion of this feature you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.
Perfected: When you are grappling a creature, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to twice your proficiency bonus to the creature at the beginning of each of its turns. You can also use the maximized damage option of your Evolved Gauntlets twice per long rest.
Augmented Frame:
Initial: You count as one size larger when determining how much you can lift, carry, or drag. This is cumulative with the Powerful Build trait.
Evolved: When hit by an attack dealing bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage type (including the triggering attack) until the end of your next turn. Useable 1x/short rest.
Perfected: While you are incapacitated, you no longer incur failed death saves for taking damage. In addition, you can spend a catalyst activation to heal yourself as if injected by a health serum. The second clause can only be used once per long rest.
Augmented Greaves:
Initial: Your ground movement speed increases by 5 feet. In addition, you no longer need a running start for full jumping distance and can add your proficiency modifier to the distance you can jump.
Evolved: Your ground movement speed increases by another 5 feet. In addition, you take half damage from falling and cannot be knocked prone due to falling.
Perfected: Your ground movement speed increases by another 5 feet (to +15 feet total). You cannot be lifted off the ground or moved against your will except by teleportation effects.
Enhanced Loading
Starting when you choose this Obsession at third level, you can ignore the loading property of crossbows.
EWAF Augmentations
When you choose this obsession at 3rd level, choose one of these augmentations. You gain the effects at the basic rank. When you gain features at higher levels from this obsession, you can increase the rank of an augmentation (up to 3 ranks total) or choose a new augmentation at the basic rank. The Gadgeteer augmentation is always available as well.
Pinpoint Scope:
Initial: You gain the Archery fighting style.
Evolved: You no longer suffer disadvantage from range out to the long range of your weapon.
In addition, you can use your action to attempt to pin your target to an adjacent surface. Make a ranged weapon attack against a target within range. If your attack hits it deals an additional damage die and the target’s speed is reduced to zero until they take an action to remove the pinning ammo. This does not function against flying or swimming enemies.
Perfected: You can use your action to make an attack at disadvantage against one of the following locations:
* Head: on hit, the target takes normal damage and must make a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
* Heart: on hit, the target suffers the effect of a critical hit. If you roll less than half the maximum damage possible, you deal half the maximum damage instead.
* Hands: on hit, the target has disadvantage on all attacks and cannot cast spells with somatic or material components until the beginning of your next turn.
Ammo Storage:
Initial: You no longer need a free hand to reload your ranged weapon.
Evolved: Your ammunition now counts as silvered and/or adamantine for overcoming resistance or immunity.
Perfected: Once per short rest you can fire up to half your proficiency bonus in arrows at once, targeting different targets.
Concoction Launchers
Initial: You can launch catalyzed bombs up to the normal range of your ranged weapon.
Evolved: In addition to bombs, you can launch catalyzed elixirs as well, targeting one creature.
Perfected: When launching elixirs, you can instead choose to affect all targets within 10 feet of the targeted point. Area burst elixirs only have half the effect (lasting half the duration for those without numerical effects).
Gadgets are items you learn to create. Once created they're permanent unless destroyed. You can spend a subclass feature to learn to make a new gadget.
Adaptive goggles
Cost: 150 gp, including fine transparent gems worth 100 gp. Time: 12 hours
These goggles grant the following benefits while worn. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet; if you already had darkvision its range is increased to 90 feet. You have advantage on any saving throws against being blinded or against gaze effects (such as a basilisk or medusa’s gaze).
Motorized grappling hook
Cost: 50 gp. Time: 8 hours.
This grappling hook is attached to 50ft of fine wire and a launcher/handle. Together it weighs 6 lbs. When fired at any point as an action within the wire’s reach, it flies unerringly and attaches. At any point within the next minute you can use your reaction to activate the reel, lifting up to 400 lbs that are attached to the handle. This interrupts any ongoing actions. If you don’t use the reel within one minute, it retracts the hook.
Extendable Glider Wings
Cost: 30 gp, including a backpack. Time: 8 hours.
These wings fold into a backpack wearable by any medium or small creature. The backpack and wings weigh 10 lbs. When activated, the wings extend and provide a gliding flight speed of 30 ft for one minute. Unlike normal flight, while gliding you lose 5 ft of height per round At the end of the duration, the wings automatically retract and the contraption cannot be reused until the end of a long rest.
Mechanized Door Opening Kit
Cost: 10gp. Time: 8 hours
This kit consists of a gear-and-spring-driven pry-bar and a mounting mechanism. When placed against a locked or barred door or container and activated, it latches on and pries the latch open slowly. This effect takes one minute and can be canceled at any point. Against barred doors, roll a d100. On a roll of 20 or lower it fails to open the door and cannot be retried for 10 minutes. When used against a magically-locked door, it fails on a roll of 50 or lower and is damaged and unusable until the end of a long rest.
Collapsible Shelter
Cost: 150 gp. Time: 12 hours.
This bundle (which weighs 30 pounds) contains a comfortable, camouflaged shelter packed into a very tight space. When activated on a flat, level surface at least 10 feet cubical, it expands over 10 minutes into a hut with bedrolls and space for four medium creatures. The interior of this shelter is comfortable in temperature conditions down to -20 degrees and up to 120 degrees and is wind- and rain-proof. Creatures that complete a long rest by sleeping (or trancing, or…) inside of it gain a d6 that they can add to their next saving throw as long as it takes place before they complete a short rest. Resetting this device requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Clockwork Spiderling
Cost: 500 gp. Time: 1 workweek.
This gadget takes the shape and statistics of a spider, except with the construct type instead of the beast type. It also cannot attack. On your turn you can command it to do any the following (without using an action):
Scout: The spiderling travels stealthily up to 120 feet in the direction you point, following any curves in the corridor if needed. It then returns and relates the number of creatures it sensed along the path using taps of its foot. While it is doing this, it can also record sounds if commanded to do so.
Record: The spiderling records all audible sounds within its hearing range. Up to one minute of sound can be recorded at a time; recording more overwrites the oldest records.
Replay: The spiderling replays an accurate record of all sounds it has recorded.
Emergency Parachute
Cost: 25 gp. Time: 4 hours.
This gadget packs into a standard backpack and deploys as a reaction. While the parachute is deployed, you fall at 30 feet per round and take no falling damage and land on your feet. While falling in this way, you can move up to 10 feet per round horizontally as well. The parachute can be attacked--it has an AC of 12 and 15 HP, with invulnerability to bludgeoning damage and poison damage and vulnerability to piercing. If it is reduced to 0 hit points while deployed, the slow fall effect ends. An intact parachute can be packed and reset in one minute; a destroyed one cannot be reused until the end of a long rest.