PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Master of Plagues: Artificer of Debilitation



sandmote
2020-12-11, 01:57 AM
This page on the homebrewery (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/9OM4wcpdsv8v)

This grew out of a controller rogue concept to include a bunch of disease effects. Not sure what else to note.

Fluff
Controllers of poison and disease, masters of plagues are spoken of in similar terms to necromancers, doing their work in hidden spaces to avoid the public ire. Some attempt to develop cures for existing diseases, but the worst among them seek to create epidemics leading to mass death.

The most common mark of master of plagues is a long, beaklike mask stuffed with herbs and medicines designed to ward off disease. Often, as they gain resistance to ailments themselves they use smaller masks or use scented materials instead.



Tool Proficiency
When you choose this specialization at 3rd level you gain proficiency with the poisoner's kit. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan's tools of your choice.

Master of Plagues Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Master of Plagues Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

Level Spells
3rd Purify Food and Drink, Ray of Sickness
5th Blindness/Deafness, Protection From Poison
9th Bestow Curse, Slow
13th Aura of Purity, Blight
17th Contagion, Hold Monster

Bestow Curse is included so you can use it with a longer duration.


Bringer of Disease
At 3rd level, you learn to summon disease-ridden miasma in your vicinity. As a bonus action, you can create a 5 foot cube of airborne or waterborne miasma within 30 feet, which lasts until the end of your next turn. Any creature in the miasma’s space must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn. A creature cannot take reactions while poisoned in this manner. A creature must also make the saving throw when it moves into the miasma’s space for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there.

You also gain immunity to disease.

A regular debuff to either combine with some infusions or provide some additional survivability to yourself.


Healthsap Weapon
At 5th level, you learn to draw vitality from your targets with your weapons. When you finish a long rest, you can use a poisoner's kit to imbue special sigils into a melee weapon and thereby turn it into your healthsap weapon. The sigils disappear from the object if you later carve them on a different item. The sigils otherwise last indefinitely.

You can use your healthsap weapon as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells. The first time on each turn that you hit with your healthsap weapon, you deal an additional 3d4 necrotic damage and regain hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt.

The necrotic damage dealt by your healthsap weapon increases to 4d4 at 9th level and 5d4 at 15th level.

This is meant to turn the class into a psuedo-rogue, given it gets slight variant of sneak attack. The effect is meant to grant you more survivability than the rogue gets, but I'm not sure how to keep it useable while passing the bag of rats test.


One With Toxins
At 9th level, you gain immunity to poison.

Bringer of Debilitation
By 15th level, you can summon a dizzying variety of miasmas, with different effects. Whenever you use your bringer of disease feature, you can choose to have the miasma cause the effects of the bestow curse spell, rather than cause creatures to be poisoned. Each time you create a cloud of miasma, it has the same effect on each creature exposed to it.

Note Bestow Curse can increase necrotic damage taken, so this does bring some synergy with Healthsap Weapon, even if its a bit late.

BerzerkerUnit
2020-12-11, 04:25 PM
I’d add a Corrosive miasma option at 3rd so you can affect undead and constructs. move Bringer of Debilitation to 5th, add Healthsap as a simple Vampiric Weapon Infusion and and make something a little more bonkers as a capstone.

OR, add extra attack at 5th and leave Healthsap as an infusion.

sandmote
2020-12-12, 02:48 PM
I’d add a Corrosive miasma option at 3rd so you can affect undead and constructs. This did not occur to me, so I'm just going to roll Bringer of Debilitation and Bringer of Disease into one 5th level feature.


add Healthsap as a simple Vampiric Weapon Infusion...

OR, add extra attack at 5th and leave Healthsap as an infusion. I'm specifically trying to channel the rogue here, so I'd rather refluff the weaker/self healing/sneak attack not requiring damage buff. I get how the current version would make sense as a weapon infusion, but I specially want to restrict it to this subclass for balance purposes.

What about this?


Deathbringer Vitality
At 3rd level, you learn to draw healing from aliments and injury. The first time on each turn that you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, your strike draws from the vitality of the creature. The attacks deals an additional 2d4 necrotic damage and you regain hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt. Additionally, whenever you end a disease or poison affecting a creature other than yourself, you regain hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier.

The necrotic damage dealt by your strikes increases to 3d4 at 5th level, 4d4 at 9th level, and 5d4 at 15th level.

This does still look a bit weak to me, so maybe I could grant 5 points of Lay on Hands at a few levels (for a total of 20 points)?


and and make something a little more bonkers as a capstone. maybe an aura effect to offset Aura of Purity, where creature of your choice must make saves against necrotic damage at the start of their turns? That would give you an AoE to use...

BerzerkerUnit
2020-12-13, 03:57 PM
This did not occur to me, so I'm just going to roll Bringer of Debilitation and Bringer of Disease into one 5th level feature.

I'm specifically trying to channel the rogue here, so I'd rather refluff the weaker/self healing/sneak attack not requiring damage buff. I get how the current version would make sense as a weapon infusion, but I specially want to restrict it to this subclass for balance purposes.

What about this?


Deathbringer Vitality
At 3rd level, you learn to draw healing from aliments and injury. The first time on each turn that you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, your strike draws from the vitality of the creature. The attacks deals an additional 2d4 necrotic damage and you regain hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt. Additionally, whenever you end a disease or poison affecting a creature other than yourself, you regain hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier.

The necrotic damage dealt by your strikes increases to 3d4 at 5th level, 4d4 at 9th level, and 5d4 at 15th level.

This does still look a bit weak to me, so maybe I could grant 5 points of Lay on Hands at a few levels (for a total of 20 points)?

maybe an aura effect to offset Aura of Purity, where creature of your choice must make saves against necrotic damage at the start of their turns? That would give you an AoE to use...

Alright, looking at the subclass as a whole, I like general concept, but I think the execution isn't making an effort to synergize with the Artificer's class design.

Take Wizard, very strong core concept, subclasses tend to flavor what you do. Same for Barbarian. Looking at Fighter, there's a little more variety in how the class plays, more options for melee vs ranged and how you do those things Battlemaster control vs Eldritch Knight Defense boosting and Blasting.

Now look at Artificer, the way subclasses influence play style is massive for Artificer, you have 2 variable features in the core class (Infusions and Spells) and generally, your subclass features interact with those. The Alchemist is considered the weakest (and it is) but it's going to cast spells rd to rd, same for Artillerist but the spells will be much stronger, while Battlemaster might be ranged off tank support or melee primary tank. Same for Armorer.

So when I look at an Artificer that wants to be rogue-esque, I'm thinking damage dealer. But if you're primary damage feature requires melee and it restores HP, then I'm thinking tank. So you could do something like this.

Artificer Specialization: Afflictionist

Tools Proficiency: Poisoner, Alchemy, or Herbalism Kit

Bringer of Pain
Beginning at 3rd level you learn a new form of Alchemy that creates potent toxins, diseases, and even rudimentary lifeforms. These unstable creations afflict targets in various ways as described below. At the end of each long rest you can touch a melee or ranged weapon of your choice and enhance it with a delivery system for these terrible mixtures. It is loaded with a number of doses of the mixture equal to your proficiency bonus. You can choose to expend a dose on a hit. Once these doses are expended you cannot create more until you complete a short or long rest or expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher. You create one additional dose for each level of the spell slot above first.

Vitriolic Vapors. Expending a charge of this concoction surrounds the target in a caustic mist that settles on their skin and burns the target for 2d6 acid damage. The target suffers half the initial damage at the end of its turn unless it uses an action to scrape off, wash off, or otherwise neutralize the substance.

Noxious Injection. Expending a charge of this concoction fills the target with a terrible venom. The target suffers 3d6 poison damage and is poisoned. A successful con save vs your spell DC reduces the damage by half and avoids the poisoned condition. The target can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.

Bloodfly Larvae. Expending a charge of this concoction injects a Bloodfly larva into its victim. The target suffers 2d6 Necrotic damage as the larvae consumes their blood before beginning a metamorphosis into a Bloodfly. At the start of your next turn the Bloodfly emerges from the wound and races toward a creature of your choosing within 15 feet whom it injects with the unused essence, restoring a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt.

The damage of your concoctions increases by 1d6 at levels 6, 10, 15, and 20.

Bloodfly Statblock
Speed Fly 40
Flyby attack

Level 5 can be limited AOEs of the above.

Level 10 maybe some new concoctions or something.

Level 15, who knows.