Does anything stop me from getting infinitely many steel defenders?

[Anymage]

By the wording of Steel Defender, I can bring back a dead one with a bit of work and a spell slot. The steel defender dies if I make a new one after a long rest, but I don't see anything preventing me from just spending a spell slot to get the old one back up on its feet again. Rinse and repeat until you have as many as you like, since only the first one perishes whenever you make a new one. By comparison the pets for drakewardens and new beastmasters explicitly disappear if you try to summon a new one, which makes them harder to bring back through whatever effect.

This feels awfully against RAI so I don't plan on using it, but I'm wondering if there's anything official either in favor of or against the idea.

[Kane0]

Lol, defenderswarm. Sounds like he would work well paired up with a warforged coffeelock.

[stoutstien]

No you can't. The wording could be better but basically if you have one, dead or alive, and you create a new one the old one ceases to exist. It's worded that way so if it does happen to die and you can't recover the corpse you're not stuck without the feature.

[Zhorn]

The steel defender dies if I make a new one after a long rest, but I don't see anything preventing me from just spending a spell slot to get the old one back up on its feet again. Rinse and repeat until you have as many as you like, since only the first one perishes whenever you make a new one.
I get where you are coming from really trying to lean into the specific wording, but first is just meaning the one that existed before the one you are more recently trying to create, not only the first ever steel defender when you got this subclass feature.

At the end of a long rest, you can create a new steel defender if you have your smith's tools with you. If you already have a steel defender from this feature, the first one immediately perishes.
The feature's text is referencing what happens when you attempt to create a second steel defender, so in this context, the first steel defender is the older of the two.
If existed before the other one, it existed 'first'.

[kingcheesepants]

Looking at the line about it perishing if you make a new one I think that may apply in the case of reviving a defender when you have another one as well. So basically you have a defender then make a new one and the first dies and then you bring it back with a spell slot which would make it a new defender again and therefore the other one dies.

I think that's kind of a weird way to read the wording but it's definitely possible. Aside from that though I think you're right, you can make a new defender every day and just bring back the old ones with your spell slots. Although that's clearly against RAI and you can only have one at a time unless your DM is particularly literal minded about following RAW as close as possible.

[Bobthewizard]

I got excited reading this but I don't think it works. In Merriam Webster, the first definition for perish is "to become destroyed or ruined : cease to exist" so I think they used "perished" instead of "died" in order to say that the first one ceases to exist. Therefore you couldn't revive it with a spell slot.

Also, the line "If you already have a defender from this feature, the first one immediately perishes. The defender also perishes if you die." doesn't make any sense if you can have more than one at a time. The phrases "a defender", "the first one", and "The defender" all support a limit of one defender at a time.

[Jak]

OP, you are technically correct. The best kind of correct.
There's a difference between creating a new one and raising an old one from the dead.


Although, I think you would only be able to have one of them attack per turn anyway. Then again, having multiples of them to swarm you and use their reactions to deflect attacks would be a great defensive exploit.

[Mastikator]

Perish has multiple meanings and is not defined in D&D5e, therefore what's stopping you is the DM choosing to understand perish as cease to exist. It's never the player's job- and always the DM's to make a ruling based on ambiguous texts.

[Valmark]

According to the feature if you have two steel defenders the first one dies, so you can never have more then one in practice.

If you had two steel defenders from two different features it'd be possible, but I don't think that's doable.

[BrelishBard]

You can revive a steel defender within an hour of it dying. If you can long rest within an hour, i'd allow it. But I assume you cannot so, no.

[Segev]

You can revive a steel defender within an hour of it dying. If you can long rest within an hour, i'd allow it. But I assume you cannot so, no.

Not to encourage cheese, but doesn't the old steel defender not die until the end of the long rest, when you get the new one?