Languid_Duck
2018-10-24, 03:47 PM
The Artificer
https://orig00.deviantart.net/fdad/f/2009/069/1/6/robot_and_engineer_by_monkey_paw.png
Art by Monkey-Paw (https://www.deviantart.com/monkey-paw)
Bringing a unique steampunk element to the realm of DnD, the Artificer was the first class introduced through Unearthed Arcana. A relatively recent class heavily associated with the popular Eberron setting, the Artificer introduces a class with unique features, combining elements of the Rogue and the Wizard, and an emphasis on the relatively underdeveloped crafting mechanics. Sadly, an updated version has, at time of writing, been teased for months without a release. The class will be released in full with the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, but in the meantime we have a preliminary version to play with. Shall we?
This guide aims to discuss the Artificer and how building it can be approached, and will be overhauled once the next iteration of the class is released. I will discuss optimization where possible, though less munchkin-y players may find helpful information for their own characters. The conventional coloration will be observed.
Gold indicates top options within their niche. These should always be, at the absolute minimum, strongly considered.
Blue indicates very strong options.
Green indicates reasonable options. They may have areas to improve, but will be a fine choice.
Purple indicates poor options that have better alternatives.
Red indicates an option that ranges anywhere from unhelpful to actively detrimental.
Class Features Hit Dice : D8 isn’t bad for a class that prefers the back lines.
Armor Proficiency : No heavy armor, but better than the full casters get. Absence of shields is unfortunate, however.
Weapon Proficiency : No martial weapons, but we don’t care .Alchemist isn’t meant to use weapons and Gunsmith gets its own personal one.
Saving Throws: Constitution is commonly called for, and it’s what you need to maintain concentration on your spells. Intelligence is the least likely saving throw to come up, but saves you from some NASTY effects [Feeblemind, Intellect Devourers…]
Skills: We get 3 from Arcana, Deception, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Religion, and Sleight of Hand. Several helpful skills with a heavy presence of intelligence.
Arcana: The most widely applicable knowledge skill, and ties in well with our whole deal.
Deception : Leave this to the people who leave the workshop, Charisma is not our forte.
History : Another knowledge skill, but less applicable than Arcana.
Investigation: Plays off a stat we will be making use of and determines our ability to find traps and loot. Those are very good things to find.
Medicine: We can already cast healing spells.
Nature: We’re likely to be decently smart, but this is a rarely called for skill that offers little in the way of valuable information.
[ Religion: See Nature, though slightly more applicable.
Sleight of Hand We have some good tools for subterfuge. You might be able to easily work this in.
Acrobatics : Helps with mobility and escaping grapples. Gunsmiths will favor this over Athletics.
Animal Handling Our construct is not an animal, and we are not Rangers. If you would like to end up riding on your construct, this may see extensive use, but ask your DM if you’ll need to.
Athletics : Much more widely applicable than Acrobatics, but tied to a worse stat. I would call it a tie for Alchemist.
Insight : Think of it as social perception. It does carry the notable perk of not requiring you to be the one engaging in the conversation, so even non:faces can see use of this.
Intimidation : Another social skill, and the most likely to worsen the situation, even if successful.
Perception: The most commonly called for skill, and one that can determine where you are the ambusher or the ambushee.
Performance : Limited in scope, even for the charismatic classes.
Persuasion: A social skill, but the most useful of the lot.
Stealth : Helps you to put yourself in advantageous situations.
Survival : Helpful enough that it makes a reasonable filler once more desirable options are spoken for.
Tools: Thieves’ Tools are the best in the game, and we get two more of our choice. Feel free to pick based on personal taste, though Herbalism Kit and Alchemist Supplies are the least unlikely to come up. Crafting is campaign depended, so this can be hit or miss.
Magical Item Analysis : Two extremely handy spells that we can cast for free, not bad at all
Tool Expertise: Double proficiency on Thieves’ tools alone is amazing. We also get it on the other two tools we picked up, which you’ll be glad for when they pop up.
Wonderous Invention: . Right off the bat we can make a Bag of Holding . A lot of good options here (goggles of night, broom of flying) and some less compelling options, making your decision making at least easier. Unfortunate that we only get a total of 5.
• Bag of Holding: One of the most iconic and helpful items in the franchise. Any campaign will want one in the party.
• Cap of Water breathing: Exceedingly situational, since the Water Breathing spell is a thing and can be ritual cast.
• Driftglobe : The ability to see in the dark is crucial sense for so much in this game. You will almost certainly have someone in your group who will need it. The only thing better than 20 feet of illumination with the option of 60 feet once a day would be 60 feet of darkvision at all times, since it doesn’t make you visible as well, but surely that kind of option won’t come up until later levels, right?
• Goggles of Night: …Oh.
• Sending Stones: A free use of Sending is nice. Being able to use it only once a day is not.
• Alchemy Jug: Unless your character is obsessed with alcohol (or mayonnaise), this will only see use in gritty survival type campaigns, where infinite water or nourishment can be great.
• Helm of Comprehending Languages: Being a polyglot is helpful is most campaigns and being an omniglot is even better. Most full casters can do this as a ritual though.
• Lantern of Revealing: The illumination is secondary to the ability to see invisibility, but we can cast See Invisibility already. At worst can save us a spell choice.
• Ring of Swimming: It’s pretty funny that this can make us faster in water than on land. A good choice if your campaign involved a lot of exploring and/or swimming.
• Robe of Useful Items: “Useful”. Some basic items you can get at character creation, a chance for a handful of less common items, and some genuinely cool ones like the pit and door. Single use of the cool ones is a genuine pity, though.
• Rope of Climbing: Stronger than your average rope, and the ability for it to help you climb is nice. It’s still situational, but a less uncommon situation.
• Wand of Magic Detection: We can already cast Detect Magic as either an action or a ritual. A poor choice for us.
• Wand of Secrets: Finding traps is already something the party will be looking for us to do and resolve. This will help us and by extension the party.
• Bag of Beans : Think of it as a safer but less enticing Deck of Many Things. Offers some helpful things, some less helpful things, some harmful things, but is always fun.
• Chime of Opening: We’re already second only to Rogues when it comes to locks. For those impossible or exceedingly important locks, there’s this
• Decanter of Endless Water: The use of infinite water is campaign dependent, but the chance to knock something prone at will as a bonus action is universally great.
• Eyes of Minute Seeing We’re likely to be called upon for Investigation, and advantage with such an important skill is pretty great. You won’t have the luxury of putting your face within 1 foot of most of the most important Investigation checks though.
• Folding Boat: A portable boat on demand will be exceedingly helpful is almost any campaign that doesn’t occur in the desert..
• Heward's Handy Haversack: The Bag of Holding’s little brother, 8 levels later. Helpful for the same reasons, but more limited in value due to smaller capacity. Better if you didn’t choose the Bag of Holding though.
• Boots of Striding and Springing: The primary benefit is the jump distance, so it’s primarily useful for melee allies.
• Bracers of Archery: ) Only applies to bows, so not us. If any ally does use bows, however, it’s easily one of the best options for them.
• Brooch of Shielding: Resistance to a rare damage type and protection from a spell you are very unlikely to come across at this level. Barely worth the attunement slot, let alone a limited number of magic item options.
• Broom of Flying: Infinite flight that doesn’t require concentration, a spell slot, or a spell choice. Anybody can benefit immensely from this and it doesn’t even require attunement. Why is this at the same level as a bush of options that offer worse mobility while requiring attunement?
• Hat of Disguise: Disguise Self is a handy spell, but the attunement requirement is a major downer.
• Slippers of Spider Climbing: While Wall Walking is cool for a ranged character, this is directly competing with flight.
• Eyes of the Eagle: Advantage on the most important skill in the game is an excellent benefit.
• Gem of Brightness: A DC 15 Constitution save will easily be met by anything you’re facing at level 20, not to mention if something manages to fail, it’ll get more chances to try again. Add in the limited use and we have a hard time justifying this.
• Gloves of Missile Snaring Since we stick to the back lines much of the damage we’ll actually be taking is from ranged weapons. We have so little opportunity to use our reaction that this will be a solid boon for survivability.
• Gloves of Swimming and Climbing: We’re better at swimming and climbing! When we can already fly! For an attunement slot!
• Ring of Jumping: It’s the Boots of Striding and Springing, but with fewer benefits and at the cost of your bonus action.
• Ring of Mind Shielding: A fine gift for your party’s face. The soul capturing aspect can actually be very interesting if you’re facing an evil sorcerer, so as to deny the capture or destruction of the soul.
• Wings of Flying: Broom of flying with higher speed that doesn’t require use of your legs or pose risk of falling. However, limited (but generous) duration, attunement, and a cooldown make it overall worse.
Spellcasting: The worst spellcasting progression in the game. We get the spellcasting progression of 1/3 casters, but not their cantrips. Still, spells > no spells. Look elsewhere for fireballs, our spells are primarily support and buffs. Both subclasses have solid attacking options, so you aren’t likely to be too reliant on spells in battle.
Ability Score Improvement: We get the standard 5.
Magic Infusion: Lets you do some fun things. The infused spell requires the activator to maintain concentration, not you, so you can provide your martial groupmates with self-buffs that they can deeply appreciate. Give your entire frontline Shield of Faith coins before a boss fight? Sure. Give your frontliners Haste coins before a boss fight? Also possible, and even better.
Superior Attunement: More attunement options lets us be more liberal in picking up utility options to do fun or unique things
Mechanical Servant: This will make us devastatingly powerful for the first couple levels we have this, and levels off as creatures and players begin to surpass it. We must choose a beast with a size of Large, which simplifies our choices somewhat. I will be looking at 2 groups of beasts: those with a CR of 2, the strongest that we can choose, and those with an Intelligence of at least 6, which are weaker in frontline combat but can use infusions (and can all fly, notably). CR 2 options are more potent in the lower levels, but the intelligent options offer more as enemies get stronger, especially with Flight.
Allosaurus: Right off the bat we have the option of a robot dinosaur. Of our options, the Allosaurus has the highest land speed at a blistering 60, and the highest damage if you can pull off a pounce. It’s also the second toughest.
Aurochs: Our squishiest option, with the lowest AC and HP. It has the second highest speed at 50 and the best knockdown ability in its DC 15 charge, giving it some of the best utility of the melee options. Go with it if you favor the option of spamming a knockdown to help your allies, but we have better options for straight combat.
Cave Bear/Polar Bear: The bears do the most consistent damage of our options due to being the only ones with multiattack. They even have a swim speed and keen smelling. The only difference between the two is that Cave Bear has Darkvision, which doesn’t matter since our constructs get 60-foot darkvision by default, meaning the distinction is purely flavor.
Giant Boar: Similar to the Aurochs. It has slightly higher HP and AC and Relentless 1/rest, but worse speed, damage, and accuracy. I personally would consider that a poor trade.
Giant Crayfish: Tales from the Yawning Portal brings this bad boy. It has the highest AC of our options. It's specialty is the ability to make 2 grappling attacks every turn, giving it tremendous utility.
Hunter Shark: The shark has no land speed, meaning that your construct would not be able to move. Might be able to earn its keep in a water campaign, since Blood Frenzy is a very strong ability, but the options below and above just as seaworthy.
Plesiosaurus: An interesting option. It has the highest bulk of all our options. The decreased land speed is offset by its 10 foot attack reach, which allows for some fun with opportunity attacks and defending its owner. Hilariously, the massive sea creature is the second stealthiest of our options.
Rhinoceros: Aurochs with less speed and slightly more HP. Speed is good for knockdown spammers, so I would consider is a downgrade.
Saber-toothed Tiger: Allosaurus with slightly worse bulk and damage as well as 20 feet less speed, but offers a better pounce DC, better stealth bonus, and Keen Smell (offset by a worse Perception bonus). I personally would consider that a poor trade, but that’s still only slightly worse than one of our best options.
Giant Eagle: The highest speed of our options, with a 80 foot flight speed. Sight is the most helpful of the senses to gain advantage on, making it a good scout and great at delivering infusions.
Giant Owl: The weakest of the useful options is the best scout, with stealth, a perception bonus, and advantage on the two most relevant senses, making it the most helpful in the long, long haul. Flyby lets you do some cute things in combat, notably flying in to Help on an enemy, and getting out of dodge without triggering opportunity attacks. This is especially potent for the Gunsmith, but runs the risk of drawing your DM’s ire because it’s that useful.
Giant Vulture: Less bulk, perception, and speed than the Eagle, but an extra sense advantage and Pack Tactics. The latter gives it the best damage of our flying options, but we have land options for damage and the other flyers are better scouts.
Soul of Artifice: A 6th attuned item is nice, but this also results in us getting a +6 to all saving throws, which is huge and stacks on top of proficiency. A worthwhile capstone, for campaigns that go this far.
Subclasses
Alchemist
The Alchemist emphasizes support, with a wide variety of concoctions to hurt, heal, hinder, and help. All its abilities key off Intelligence, making it easier for the Alchemist to avoid falling behind on spells. Some of your options scale with level and you can choose more. It doesn’t get proficiency with the alchemy kit, for whatever reason. Alchemical Acid and Fire will be your primary methods of removing hit points from angry dudes. Acid is for single targets and Fire for multiple, naturally. Unfortunately, both methods of attack involve Dexterity saves, meaning that performance will suffer against anything good in that area. Your utility tools will also provide you with some degree of control, supplemented by spells as needed
Alchemical Acid: You are given this option by default. The acid will be your primary source of damage against individual targets, scaling at the same rate as Rogue’s Sneak Attack, without the conditional requirements. Acid is a strong damage type, we could do a lot worse.
Alchemical Fire: You receive this by default as well. It scales at a slower pace than the acid, but will hit multiple targets, making it more useful in such situations. Fire is a decidedly worse damage type than Acid, but the two fill each other’s gaps nicely.
Healing Draught : A safe pick for your first option, the draught offers a solid amount of healing without expending a spell slot, but only once per creature per long rest.
Smoke Stick : A defensive option, as none of Alchemist’s damaging abilities are attack rolls you aren’t impacted by lack of visibility. As such, you can drop it on yourself and chuck acid at things at no penalty, while they have disadvantage to hit you. You can also use it to cover an escape or force ranged enemies out of position.
Swift Step Draught : A non-concentration speed boost that consumes no resources is neat, and you can keep feeding it to someone as there is no rest requirement here. Your favorite melee will appreciate you.
Tanglefoot Bag : A single square of difficult terrain? We can do better than that
Thunderstone : Most things you’d want to push around have high constitution saves, placing this on the low end of bacon-saving potential.
Gunsmith
While the Alchemist had a lot of utility, the Gunsmith is almost entirely about killing things dead. Thunder Monger inflicts damage with the same progression as a Rogue’s Sneak Attack, but without the conditional requirements. Progressing in the subclass offers AoE options, both in a line and in a sphere, giving you more flexibility in terms of damage, rather than utility. This comes as the not insignificant downside of action economy, as your bonus action will be perpetually consumed by reloading. Your special shots offer you expanded gameplay and varied choices, so that we get to make more decisions than Fighters and Barbarians at the least.
General Gameplay
Master Smith : A fitting cantrip and a new tool.
Thunder Cannon: A long range weapon that only you can use that inflicts Greatsword damage and isn’t even heavy, allowing small races to keep up. It comes at the cost of having to reload, though.
Thunder Monger : Powerful, your primary source of damage. Find ways to get advantage, so as to improve your chances of landing that wallop of an attack.
Blast Wave : Our first special shot, this is a cone attack that pushes enemies back slightly. A fine choice for when something is up in your face, allowing you to attack instead of disengaging. We get better group attacks, though
Piercing Round : …Like this. A line attack offers good opportunity to multiply your damage.
Exploding Round : A large area of effect that uses the weapon’s considerable range to do some decent hurt.
https://orig00.deviantart.net/fdad/f/2009/069/1/6/robot_and_engineer_by_monkey_paw.png
Art by Monkey-Paw (https://www.deviantart.com/monkey-paw)
Bringing a unique steampunk element to the realm of DnD, the Artificer was the first class introduced through Unearthed Arcana. A relatively recent class heavily associated with the popular Eberron setting, the Artificer introduces a class with unique features, combining elements of the Rogue and the Wizard, and an emphasis on the relatively underdeveloped crafting mechanics. Sadly, an updated version has, at time of writing, been teased for months without a release. The class will be released in full with the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, but in the meantime we have a preliminary version to play with. Shall we?
This guide aims to discuss the Artificer and how building it can be approached, and will be overhauled once the next iteration of the class is released. I will discuss optimization where possible, though less munchkin-y players may find helpful information for their own characters. The conventional coloration will be observed.
Gold indicates top options within their niche. These should always be, at the absolute minimum, strongly considered.
Blue indicates very strong options.
Green indicates reasonable options. They may have areas to improve, but will be a fine choice.
Purple indicates poor options that have better alternatives.
Red indicates an option that ranges anywhere from unhelpful to actively detrimental.
Class Features Hit Dice : D8 isn’t bad for a class that prefers the back lines.
Armor Proficiency : No heavy armor, but better than the full casters get. Absence of shields is unfortunate, however.
Weapon Proficiency : No martial weapons, but we don’t care .Alchemist isn’t meant to use weapons and Gunsmith gets its own personal one.
Saving Throws: Constitution is commonly called for, and it’s what you need to maintain concentration on your spells. Intelligence is the least likely saving throw to come up, but saves you from some NASTY effects [Feeblemind, Intellect Devourers…]
Skills: We get 3 from Arcana, Deception, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Religion, and Sleight of Hand. Several helpful skills with a heavy presence of intelligence.
Arcana: The most widely applicable knowledge skill, and ties in well with our whole deal.
Deception : Leave this to the people who leave the workshop, Charisma is not our forte.
History : Another knowledge skill, but less applicable than Arcana.
Investigation: Plays off a stat we will be making use of and determines our ability to find traps and loot. Those are very good things to find.
Medicine: We can already cast healing spells.
Nature: We’re likely to be decently smart, but this is a rarely called for skill that offers little in the way of valuable information.
[ Religion: See Nature, though slightly more applicable.
Sleight of Hand We have some good tools for subterfuge. You might be able to easily work this in.
Acrobatics : Helps with mobility and escaping grapples. Gunsmiths will favor this over Athletics.
Animal Handling Our construct is not an animal, and we are not Rangers. If you would like to end up riding on your construct, this may see extensive use, but ask your DM if you’ll need to.
Athletics : Much more widely applicable than Acrobatics, but tied to a worse stat. I would call it a tie for Alchemist.
Insight : Think of it as social perception. It does carry the notable perk of not requiring you to be the one engaging in the conversation, so even non:faces can see use of this.
Intimidation : Another social skill, and the most likely to worsen the situation, even if successful.
Perception: The most commonly called for skill, and one that can determine where you are the ambusher or the ambushee.
Performance : Limited in scope, even for the charismatic classes.
Persuasion: A social skill, but the most useful of the lot.
Stealth : Helps you to put yourself in advantageous situations.
Survival : Helpful enough that it makes a reasonable filler once more desirable options are spoken for.
Tools: Thieves’ Tools are the best in the game, and we get two more of our choice. Feel free to pick based on personal taste, though Herbalism Kit and Alchemist Supplies are the least unlikely to come up. Crafting is campaign depended, so this can be hit or miss.
Magical Item Analysis : Two extremely handy spells that we can cast for free, not bad at all
Tool Expertise: Double proficiency on Thieves’ tools alone is amazing. We also get it on the other two tools we picked up, which you’ll be glad for when they pop up.
Wonderous Invention: . Right off the bat we can make a Bag of Holding . A lot of good options here (goggles of night, broom of flying) and some less compelling options, making your decision making at least easier. Unfortunate that we only get a total of 5.
• Bag of Holding: One of the most iconic and helpful items in the franchise. Any campaign will want one in the party.
• Cap of Water breathing: Exceedingly situational, since the Water Breathing spell is a thing and can be ritual cast.
• Driftglobe : The ability to see in the dark is crucial sense for so much in this game. You will almost certainly have someone in your group who will need it. The only thing better than 20 feet of illumination with the option of 60 feet once a day would be 60 feet of darkvision at all times, since it doesn’t make you visible as well, but surely that kind of option won’t come up until later levels, right?
• Goggles of Night: …Oh.
• Sending Stones: A free use of Sending is nice. Being able to use it only once a day is not.
• Alchemy Jug: Unless your character is obsessed with alcohol (or mayonnaise), this will only see use in gritty survival type campaigns, where infinite water or nourishment can be great.
• Helm of Comprehending Languages: Being a polyglot is helpful is most campaigns and being an omniglot is even better. Most full casters can do this as a ritual though.
• Lantern of Revealing: The illumination is secondary to the ability to see invisibility, but we can cast See Invisibility already. At worst can save us a spell choice.
• Ring of Swimming: It’s pretty funny that this can make us faster in water than on land. A good choice if your campaign involved a lot of exploring and/or swimming.
• Robe of Useful Items: “Useful”. Some basic items you can get at character creation, a chance for a handful of less common items, and some genuinely cool ones like the pit and door. Single use of the cool ones is a genuine pity, though.
• Rope of Climbing: Stronger than your average rope, and the ability for it to help you climb is nice. It’s still situational, but a less uncommon situation.
• Wand of Magic Detection: We can already cast Detect Magic as either an action or a ritual. A poor choice for us.
• Wand of Secrets: Finding traps is already something the party will be looking for us to do and resolve. This will help us and by extension the party.
• Bag of Beans : Think of it as a safer but less enticing Deck of Many Things. Offers some helpful things, some less helpful things, some harmful things, but is always fun.
• Chime of Opening: We’re already second only to Rogues when it comes to locks. For those impossible or exceedingly important locks, there’s this
• Decanter of Endless Water: The use of infinite water is campaign dependent, but the chance to knock something prone at will as a bonus action is universally great.
• Eyes of Minute Seeing We’re likely to be called upon for Investigation, and advantage with such an important skill is pretty great. You won’t have the luxury of putting your face within 1 foot of most of the most important Investigation checks though.
• Folding Boat: A portable boat on demand will be exceedingly helpful is almost any campaign that doesn’t occur in the desert..
• Heward's Handy Haversack: The Bag of Holding’s little brother, 8 levels later. Helpful for the same reasons, but more limited in value due to smaller capacity. Better if you didn’t choose the Bag of Holding though.
• Boots of Striding and Springing: The primary benefit is the jump distance, so it’s primarily useful for melee allies.
• Bracers of Archery: ) Only applies to bows, so not us. If any ally does use bows, however, it’s easily one of the best options for them.
• Brooch of Shielding: Resistance to a rare damage type and protection from a spell you are very unlikely to come across at this level. Barely worth the attunement slot, let alone a limited number of magic item options.
• Broom of Flying: Infinite flight that doesn’t require concentration, a spell slot, or a spell choice. Anybody can benefit immensely from this and it doesn’t even require attunement. Why is this at the same level as a bush of options that offer worse mobility while requiring attunement?
• Hat of Disguise: Disguise Self is a handy spell, but the attunement requirement is a major downer.
• Slippers of Spider Climbing: While Wall Walking is cool for a ranged character, this is directly competing with flight.
• Eyes of the Eagle: Advantage on the most important skill in the game is an excellent benefit.
• Gem of Brightness: A DC 15 Constitution save will easily be met by anything you’re facing at level 20, not to mention if something manages to fail, it’ll get more chances to try again. Add in the limited use and we have a hard time justifying this.
• Gloves of Missile Snaring Since we stick to the back lines much of the damage we’ll actually be taking is from ranged weapons. We have so little opportunity to use our reaction that this will be a solid boon for survivability.
• Gloves of Swimming and Climbing: We’re better at swimming and climbing! When we can already fly! For an attunement slot!
• Ring of Jumping: It’s the Boots of Striding and Springing, but with fewer benefits and at the cost of your bonus action.
• Ring of Mind Shielding: A fine gift for your party’s face. The soul capturing aspect can actually be very interesting if you’re facing an evil sorcerer, so as to deny the capture or destruction of the soul.
• Wings of Flying: Broom of flying with higher speed that doesn’t require use of your legs or pose risk of falling. However, limited (but generous) duration, attunement, and a cooldown make it overall worse.
Spellcasting: The worst spellcasting progression in the game. We get the spellcasting progression of 1/3 casters, but not their cantrips. Still, spells > no spells. Look elsewhere for fireballs, our spells are primarily support and buffs. Both subclasses have solid attacking options, so you aren’t likely to be too reliant on spells in battle.
Ability Score Improvement: We get the standard 5.
Magic Infusion: Lets you do some fun things. The infused spell requires the activator to maintain concentration, not you, so you can provide your martial groupmates with self-buffs that they can deeply appreciate. Give your entire frontline Shield of Faith coins before a boss fight? Sure. Give your frontliners Haste coins before a boss fight? Also possible, and even better.
Superior Attunement: More attunement options lets us be more liberal in picking up utility options to do fun or unique things
Mechanical Servant: This will make us devastatingly powerful for the first couple levels we have this, and levels off as creatures and players begin to surpass it. We must choose a beast with a size of Large, which simplifies our choices somewhat. I will be looking at 2 groups of beasts: those with a CR of 2, the strongest that we can choose, and those with an Intelligence of at least 6, which are weaker in frontline combat but can use infusions (and can all fly, notably). CR 2 options are more potent in the lower levels, but the intelligent options offer more as enemies get stronger, especially with Flight.
Allosaurus: Right off the bat we have the option of a robot dinosaur. Of our options, the Allosaurus has the highest land speed at a blistering 60, and the highest damage if you can pull off a pounce. It’s also the second toughest.
Aurochs: Our squishiest option, with the lowest AC and HP. It has the second highest speed at 50 and the best knockdown ability in its DC 15 charge, giving it some of the best utility of the melee options. Go with it if you favor the option of spamming a knockdown to help your allies, but we have better options for straight combat.
Cave Bear/Polar Bear: The bears do the most consistent damage of our options due to being the only ones with multiattack. They even have a swim speed and keen smelling. The only difference between the two is that Cave Bear has Darkvision, which doesn’t matter since our constructs get 60-foot darkvision by default, meaning the distinction is purely flavor.
Giant Boar: Similar to the Aurochs. It has slightly higher HP and AC and Relentless 1/rest, but worse speed, damage, and accuracy. I personally would consider that a poor trade.
Giant Crayfish: Tales from the Yawning Portal brings this bad boy. It has the highest AC of our options. It's specialty is the ability to make 2 grappling attacks every turn, giving it tremendous utility.
Hunter Shark: The shark has no land speed, meaning that your construct would not be able to move. Might be able to earn its keep in a water campaign, since Blood Frenzy is a very strong ability, but the options below and above just as seaworthy.
Plesiosaurus: An interesting option. It has the highest bulk of all our options. The decreased land speed is offset by its 10 foot attack reach, which allows for some fun with opportunity attacks and defending its owner. Hilariously, the massive sea creature is the second stealthiest of our options.
Rhinoceros: Aurochs with less speed and slightly more HP. Speed is good for knockdown spammers, so I would consider is a downgrade.
Saber-toothed Tiger: Allosaurus with slightly worse bulk and damage as well as 20 feet less speed, but offers a better pounce DC, better stealth bonus, and Keen Smell (offset by a worse Perception bonus). I personally would consider that a poor trade, but that’s still only slightly worse than one of our best options.
Giant Eagle: The highest speed of our options, with a 80 foot flight speed. Sight is the most helpful of the senses to gain advantage on, making it a good scout and great at delivering infusions.
Giant Owl: The weakest of the useful options is the best scout, with stealth, a perception bonus, and advantage on the two most relevant senses, making it the most helpful in the long, long haul. Flyby lets you do some cute things in combat, notably flying in to Help on an enemy, and getting out of dodge without triggering opportunity attacks. This is especially potent for the Gunsmith, but runs the risk of drawing your DM’s ire because it’s that useful.
Giant Vulture: Less bulk, perception, and speed than the Eagle, but an extra sense advantage and Pack Tactics. The latter gives it the best damage of our flying options, but we have land options for damage and the other flyers are better scouts.
Soul of Artifice: A 6th attuned item is nice, but this also results in us getting a +6 to all saving throws, which is huge and stacks on top of proficiency. A worthwhile capstone, for campaigns that go this far.
Subclasses
Alchemist
The Alchemist emphasizes support, with a wide variety of concoctions to hurt, heal, hinder, and help. All its abilities key off Intelligence, making it easier for the Alchemist to avoid falling behind on spells. Some of your options scale with level and you can choose more. It doesn’t get proficiency with the alchemy kit, for whatever reason. Alchemical Acid and Fire will be your primary methods of removing hit points from angry dudes. Acid is for single targets and Fire for multiple, naturally. Unfortunately, both methods of attack involve Dexterity saves, meaning that performance will suffer against anything good in that area. Your utility tools will also provide you with some degree of control, supplemented by spells as needed
Alchemical Acid: You are given this option by default. The acid will be your primary source of damage against individual targets, scaling at the same rate as Rogue’s Sneak Attack, without the conditional requirements. Acid is a strong damage type, we could do a lot worse.
Alchemical Fire: You receive this by default as well. It scales at a slower pace than the acid, but will hit multiple targets, making it more useful in such situations. Fire is a decidedly worse damage type than Acid, but the two fill each other’s gaps nicely.
Healing Draught : A safe pick for your first option, the draught offers a solid amount of healing without expending a spell slot, but only once per creature per long rest.
Smoke Stick : A defensive option, as none of Alchemist’s damaging abilities are attack rolls you aren’t impacted by lack of visibility. As such, you can drop it on yourself and chuck acid at things at no penalty, while they have disadvantage to hit you. You can also use it to cover an escape or force ranged enemies out of position.
Swift Step Draught : A non-concentration speed boost that consumes no resources is neat, and you can keep feeding it to someone as there is no rest requirement here. Your favorite melee will appreciate you.
Tanglefoot Bag : A single square of difficult terrain? We can do better than that
Thunderstone : Most things you’d want to push around have high constitution saves, placing this on the low end of bacon-saving potential.
Gunsmith
While the Alchemist had a lot of utility, the Gunsmith is almost entirely about killing things dead. Thunder Monger inflicts damage with the same progression as a Rogue’s Sneak Attack, but without the conditional requirements. Progressing in the subclass offers AoE options, both in a line and in a sphere, giving you more flexibility in terms of damage, rather than utility. This comes as the not insignificant downside of action economy, as your bonus action will be perpetually consumed by reloading. Your special shots offer you expanded gameplay and varied choices, so that we get to make more decisions than Fighters and Barbarians at the least.
General Gameplay
Master Smith : A fitting cantrip and a new tool.
Thunder Cannon: A long range weapon that only you can use that inflicts Greatsword damage and isn’t even heavy, allowing small races to keep up. It comes at the cost of having to reload, though.
Thunder Monger : Powerful, your primary source of damage. Find ways to get advantage, so as to improve your chances of landing that wallop of an attack.
Blast Wave : Our first special shot, this is a cone attack that pushes enemies back slightly. A fine choice for when something is up in your face, allowing you to attack instead of disengaging. We get better group attacks, though
Piercing Round : …Like this. A line attack offers good opportunity to multiply your damage.
Exploding Round : A large area of effect that uses the weapon’s considerable range to do some decent hurt.