A brand new player chose this class .

[Pugwampy]

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mystical_Engineer_(3.5e_Class)


Any of your players make one ? I myself have never heard of it .

I see a druid with a pet but cannot caste any magic . The robot upgrade options reminds me of PF summoner .

The ironman armour suit upgrade has no information , i can only imagine one of his pets will open up and he can go into it ? I allowed him to have augment summon feat I think this player needs all the help he can get .
One upside is he took fighter lvl 1 and because he is not allowed to use magic meaning he can go into the fight fully armoured .

What do you guys think about this Mystical Engineer ?

[Biggus]

I don't have the time to do a detailed readthrough of it right now, but I would say in general that your players should be warned that all homebrew material must be approved by the DM before it can be used in a game. There's some very good homebrew out there, but some of it is horribly unbalanced.

[ciopo]

the editing of that homebrew is terrible, there's no indication if the things are an animal companion but mechanical or otherwise, it wsays "as summon's nature ally", so is it a reskinned SLA? but then there's no indication about uses per day / duration / etcetera

so, in short, I would not allow that class, unless you, as the GM, completely retool it in a way that you understand it to work.

I.E. homebrew your own around the concept your friend feels appealed about.

that one does not feel usable at all as is to me, because it's so poorly edited I'd have to homebrew almost every class feature again anyway

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

That's not a class, it's a mess of homebrew written by someone who doesn't understand game balance or 3.5 edition rules. Like 90% of everything on dandwiki. It doesn't contain enough information to even make the class playable (at 1st level it can permanently create pets if parts are available, but says nothing about what type of parts or their cost).

Scroll to the bottom to see "Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Classes → Base Classes" to confirm that it's homebrew.

Tell your players they're only allowed to use classes from official published sources, and tell them to completely stop using dandwiki, they'll be better off if they never visit that site again.

[Telonius]

Yeah, I'm digging the concept, but the editing on this is terrible. The basic features aren't described nearly well enough to figure out how this is supposed to function in play.

Lack of limits on number of clanks it can create is the biggest problem. Give a level 1 character a year; will they have a clank army set to take out a kingdom? Duration is also a serious issue. Mechanical Pet is, "As Summon Nature's Ally," but takes 3d6 hours to make? Summon Nature's Ally is Duration: rounds/lvl, so that would be a gigantic waste of time. "Creating a Mechanical Animal costs nothing if the parts are provided already," but what parts does the character need to create it if they don't already have them? Are they supposed to plunder a Radio Shack?

The "Builder" feature mentions the Mechanoid race. dandwiki has several different "Mechanoid" listings, all by the same author (ArochanoX from the Wizards boards in 2012). The racial features seem to be based on the material they're chiefly made from; with different stat adjustments for iron (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Iron_Mechanoid_(3.5e_Race)), mithral (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mithral_Mechanoid_(3.5e_Race)), and adamantine (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Adamantine_Mechanoid_(3.5e_Race)).

Potential problem for Builder: Most constructs have a listed Caster Level to create, and this class doesn't grant one. (It would be easy enough to fix - caster level equals class level for purposes of construct construction only - but this isn't spelled out).

There's probably a lot more dysfunction than that, but I'm out of time for the moment. As written, the class is unplayable. If the player wants a clank army, I'd direct them to Artificer, or do a full rewrite.

[Biggus]

Tell your players they're only allowed to use classes from official published sources, and tell them to completely stop using dandwiki, they'll be better off if they never visit that site again.

The Netbook of Feats part isn't too bad, because there at least a team of people have looked over the feats and rated them on power, fitness for purpose etc. Obviously it's not perfect but there is some good stuff in there.

But in general, yeah the vast majority of D&D Wiki content is terrible. Sturgeon's Law and all that.

[Pugwampy]

Whoa whoa whoa . DND wiki has homebrews ? I thought that was an at least semi official open license build .

I will tell my player its a homebrew and my misgivings that its weak but I wont force him to get rid of it .

Not 100 percent against homebrews I always thought the Clod was hilarious .



Lack of limits on number of clanks it can create is the biggest problem.

No i wont allow him to field an army of Terminators XD



Scroll to the bottom to see "Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Classes → Base Classes" to confirm that it's homebrew.

I kinda missed that . It explains alot .

[Inevitability]

Whoa whoa whoa . DND wiki has homebrews ? I thought that was an at least semi official open license build .

If the title of a page doesn't have "SRD:" or "UA:" (or something similar) in all caps, assume it's homebrew. And those pages can also be found on d20srd (https://www.d20srd.org/index.htm), with better presentation (imo)

[Pugwampy]

If the title of a page doesn't have "SRD:" or "UA:" (or something similar) in all caps, assume it's homebrew. And those pages can also be found on d20srd (https://www.d20srd.org/index.htm), with better presentation (imo)

Thanks bro , i will keep that in mind .

[Chronos]

If the title of a page doesn't have "SRD:" or "UA:" (or something similar) in all caps, assume it's homebrew.
Often, on dandwiki, even if it does say "SRD", it's homebrew.

[holbita]

My recommendation is if you don't know the source, don't use it.

If a player brings you something it needs to be from the original source.

[AnonJr]

Are they supposed to plunder a Radio Shack?

Thanks for reminding me that a fantasy world is the only place I'll get to raid a Radio Shack any more. :smalltongue:



If the player wants a clank army, I'd direct them to Artificer, or do a full rewrite.

I'll second this one.

[KillianHawkeye]

Pro Tip: Don't let new players play homebrew anything. Don't even let them read it. Put some kind of parental controls on their web browser if you have to! :smallwink:

[Vaern]

This class looks like it never made it past the rough draft phase. The ideas are there, but the entire class needs to be rewritten to describe the abilities in literally any degree of detail to be mechanically functional in any way.

[atemu1234]

Point your player to the Artificer class from the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting, if you're willing to allow it. It's first party, better written, and while it might not be a perfect fit to what they want, it's a better-balanced option.

[ngilop]

That class is broken. I mean that in the everyday, non gamer, use. The abilities are not defined, lack a description, or only explain half of what it does.

I think, much like you said. It supposed to be like a spell less pathfinder summoner. That gets automatons as their 'pets'.

But, how do do they work? As summon natures ally... but.. thats the extent of their main class feature description..

[Pugwampy]

But, how do do they work? As summon natures ally... but.. thats the extent of their main class feature description..

Player taking stats literally from dire rat info . The robot is supposedly slower according to the Arcane Engineer info .

I too can easily imagine myself playing a underpowered character . As long as he is happy doing his Tony Stark fantasy i dont mind .

And if he is unhappy or feels useless We make him a new character .

[JNAProductions]

Player taking stats literally from dire rat info . The robot is supposedly slower according to the Arcane Engineer info .

I too can easily imagine myself playing a underpowered character . As long as he is happy doing his Tony Stark fantasy i dont mind .

And if he is unhappy or feels useless We make him a new character .

If you want to use it, I'd recommend finishing the original maker's work. As said by Ngilop, it's not brokenly powerful, or brokenly weak, it's just broken from a "Lacks what a class needs to be used" perspective.

[Vaern]

That class is broken. I mean that in the everyday, non gamer, use. The abilities are not defined, lack a description, or only explain half of what it does.

I think, much like you said. It supposed to be like a spell less pathfinder summoner. That gets automatons as their 'pets'.

But, how do do they work? As summon natures ally... but.. thats the extent of their main class feature description..

If it says it functions as a spell, it functions as that spell except as noted. Since it lacks so much detail of its own, "as summon nature's ally" means it's a summon that takes 3d6 hours to "cast" and has a duration of 1 round/level.