The Arcane Athenæum

An updated version of this class can be found here.

The Artificer has been a well-loved class within Dungeons and Dragons, both by myself and by the community as a whole.  Artificers are individuals who combine a mastery of science with complicated arcane knowledge to invent fantastic trinkets of magical power.  In 5e, the Artificer was recently released under the Unearthed Arcana title as a playtesting class.  While a welcome surprise, public opinion so far has been that this playtest material has some great concepts, but ultimately falls flat in creativity, customization, and gameplay.

No two Artificers should be the same; that is the core of my design philosophy.  They are inventors and tinkerers, whatever their specialization, and that should reflect in the class design.  As such, my alterations to the base Unearthed Arcana try to grant Artificer players more customization options, both in general character design and gameplay.

Anything I release through The Arcane Athenæum for D&D will be available completely for free, though you can donate to any project I upload at the “pay what you want” price on DMsGuild if you’d like.  I prefer DMsGuild for one simple reason; it lets me see how many people like the product, how many have downloaded it, and gives you (the customer) easy tools to rate and critique it.  But if you dislike DMsGuild for one reason or another, feel free to download from any other provider.

Downloads

DMsGuild

Changelog

Version 5.0 29Nov2018

Overall

• The overall document has been updated, including a new title page to conform to the Arcane Athenæum’s new style.
• A few features, such as Wondrous Invention, have been re-worded in order to be more clear in how they work.  These still work the same otherwise.
• Added protection from evil and good, magic mouth, life transference, magic circle, meld into stone, nondetection, slow, elemental bane, and locate creature to the spell list, as they all fall into the general design principle of “spells which primarily deal with altering objects or creatures”.

Engineer

• The mechanics behind the mechanical servant have been altered.  The servant no longer receives its own initiative, and no longer acts completely independently of the artificer.  Instead, as a bonus action the artificer can command the servant to follow a certain command.  While this sounds extremely limiting, the mechanics are designed to allow the artificer to issue a general command (such as “attack the wraith” or “keep Helping me attack the giant”) and the servant will follow that command on all subsequent turns until it is either fulfilled or the artificer uses another bonus action to issue a new command.  This makes the servant act identically to the undead a wizard can summon through spells like Animate Dead.
• This may seem like a heavy nerf to the Engineer.  However, I feel this was an important and necessary change to the balance and playability of the class.  The Beast Master Ranger has been a thorn in WotC’s side due to its mechanics and overall lack of playability.  However, a lot of feedback for their UA “Revised Ranger” has made it clear that giving the pet too much power makes it difficult to even run the subclass, due to now having to keep track of multiple initiatives.  One of the most important design decisions I try to make is to ensure that any material put out by the Athenæum fits in with WotC’s own design decisions.  This change is thus important to try and conform to those, and I think makes the subclass work a bit better.  Making pets operate on their owner’s initiative is also a very common home ruling for these sorts of things, from ranger pets to familiars, and so baking that into the base subclass seemed to be the best decision.

Version 4.73 12Sep2018

Inventor

• Double Barrel, and some of the other modifications which allow you to make a special attack, have had their wordings slightly altered/made more consistent.  The intention of Double Barrel is that, any time you make *any* kind of attack with your Thunder Cannon, you can use your bonus action to make a “regular” attack (i.e. a non-modification attack, so no Thunder Monger for example).  So you can Piercing shot and then bonus action attack, or Explosive shot and bonus action attack, or Thunder Monger and bonus action attack.  You can even stab with your Bayonet and then bonus action attack, or use the Grappling Hook to tie someone up and bonus action attack, or unleash a volley of Repeating shots and bonus action attack.  All valid options.
• Note that, with these wording changes, you cannot use a modification’s attack as your hasted action if someone cast haste on you, because they no longer use the Attack action.

Version 4.72 11Sep2018

Inventor

• Clarified how the range for Explosive Shot works.
• Decreased the maximum range of the Short Barrel modification to 90 feet.  It’s really only designed to be a close-range weapon with that modification.  Worse maximum range than the hand crossbow even, but you also get access to the Scope modification which effectively gives it a normal range of 90 feet, without needing a feat to do so.  Granted that’s your two modifications there, so nothing fun like Blast Wave, Double Barrel, or Elemental until you hit 14th level and can make Scope permanent, but I think that’s an okay tradeoff.

Version 4.7/4.71 10Sep2018

Overall

• I’ve included a new feature at lvl 13 due to popular demand; essentially a verbatim copying of the Thief Rogue’s “Use Magic Device” feature.  Also includes a clause which points out that, once you gain that feature you no longer have to make Intelligence checks to cast spells that aren’t on your class list.  This comes online only at lvl 13 for two reasons.  1) to keep it in line with the Thief, and 2) because I do believe that the ability to use such specialized items is something that should take time for a character to “figure out.”

Alchemist

• The Alchemical Formulae feature was missing the clause about swapping out formulaes when you gain certain levels, which every other subclass gets.  That’s been fixed.

Inventor

The inspiration behind this subclass’s modifications was the idea of modern guns having various attachments which can be applied to them in order to alter their properties and make them more or less useful in given situations.  For example, if you’re going to be sniping, you’d probably want a scope, longer barrel for increased range, and something to allow you to brace your gun in some way for the increased accuracy.  By contrast, if you were going into close-quarters such as in a hallway, you’d want a gun with a shorter barrel, maybe a knife or bayonet attachment, and wouldn’t want a long-range scope.  The few changes made with this update are intended to make this intended design more of a reality.

• Now when you get Modifications at lvl 3, you get to pick 3 of them, and can apply 2 at a time right off the bat.  After some consideration, and having played the subclass, only having 1 mod to switch around was extremely limiting, while other subclasses got to have multiple upgrades/augmentations/etc. right off the bat.  So now you get three, and need to pick which two you will be using at a given time.
• At 17th level, you now get to apply 3 modifications at a time, up from 2.  For a 17th level Inventor, this means you end up with 5 active modifications total at lvl 17; Thunder Monger, one other permanent modification chosen at lvl 14, and 3 other mods that you can swap out as needed.  You will have 6 mods available to swap between (the 7th would have become a permanent one, so you can’t swap it out).  I think this is a reasonable number.
• Bayonet modification has been reworked to make it a more interesting take; now the basic blade deals 1d6 damage normally, but also has versatile (1d8) for slashing with your two-handed gun.  In addition, you can mount any shortsword or dagger you have in place of that bayonet blade.  So a Dagger of Venom, or a Flametongue Shortsword?  Affix!
• Disguise modification has been reworked a bit; mostly just to establish that only magic can identify if the item is a transformed gun, and to allow for some freedom in what it can turn into.  The items listed are not intended to be the *only ones* it can turn into; speak with your DM about other options.
• Handheld modification has had the change to range removed.  Now it’s just a damage reduction, but the ability to dual-wield (IF your DM lets you build more than one Thunder Cannon) and use it with two-weapon fighting.
• Long Barrel and Handheld modifications have removed their “does not count against your number of active modifications” clause.  With the increase to the number of mods you can have active throughout the subclass, I felt that letting you have even more through those caused some issues.  They also felt problematic in that you could stick with, say, the Long Barrel modification even as you are trying to built the gun for CQB, which didn’t feel right.  You can still do that now if you’d like, but you aren’t getting it for “free”, as it were.
• Sight modification has been renamed Scope in favor of its new intended purpose.  Now, it removes the disadvantage when attacking your target beyond your weapon’s normal range.  Intended to be for a “I’m going to be shooting from far away” playstyle.
• New modification: Short Barrel.  The antithesis of the Long Barrel.  Removes the disadvantage associated with using a ranged attack while within 5-feet of an enemy.  It’s range also changes to 30/150 to represent the shorter barrel.  Intended to be used for more close-quarters combat.
• New modification: Stock.  This is the replacement for the old Sight modification.  +2 to ranged attack rolls.  General-purpose mod.  I’m not going to make this incompatible with the Handheld mod, even though realistically it probably would be.  If you/your players take that combo, I encourage just refluffing the stock to iron sights or something to represent the increased accuracy.

A note on this class, my design ideals, and updates going forward; though I’ve said this a lot, and always end up seeming to go against my word, I am actively concerned with bloat and making this class overpowered.  Every time I add a new feature or modify something, or try to provide rules for niche situations, the class becomes far too busy and complicated, and in some ways too strong.  I’ve added a lot of changes to the class over the past year and a half or so, most/all of which I think are great improvements to it, but I simply cannot add every feature or suggestion that is submitted.  Then we start looking at 3.5-era complicated, which I really want to avoid.  Many of the features I’ve seen requested are already baked into the class; you just need to be creative.  For example, I’ve had people ask for a flamethrower upgrade for the Armorer.  If you want a flamethrower, use one of your Wondrous Inventions to copy the spell burning hands.  There’s your flamethrower.  That’s part of the intention of Wondrous Invention, which I think is a really strong feature that can do a lot if you consider its applications.

I really will be doing my best, going forward, to only look at making *balance* changes, and not adding anymore features or major alterations to the class *unless it’s to fix really big issues that have suddenly cropped up* (or to change the note on the crafting rules, since I am indeed working on new ones).

For example, I will not be making the class a half-caster.  You can see my responses below to understand why.  If you or your DM really want it to be a 1/2 caster, feel free to change the class however you want to achieve that.  Upload it to DMsGuild if you want others to have access to it; just please reference me somewhere.  I have no problem with you completely ripping the class apart to make it work better for you or your group.  If something happens in your game that isn’t covered by the pdf, talk with your DM/players and come up with a solution that works for you.  Please feel free to ask me my opinion/intention on things, but ultimately it’s your game, and you and your DM get to decide what you can do, and I can’t modify the whole class with a new version to respond to every possible circumstance.

A big thank you to everyone who has loved this class as much as I do, and has helped me make it the best it can be.  I hope no one takes these last few paragraphs as anger; I just want to firmly establish my intent going forward.  Happy crafting!

Version 4.61 06Sep2018

Alchemist

• The leveling progression for learning formulae was incorrectly listed as 6th, 9th, 14th, and 18th.  It is now properly listed as 6th, 9th, 15th, and 18th, in line with the other subclasses’ learned enhancements.

Version 4.6 05Sep2018

Overall

• Superior Attunement’s 15th level upgrade (which allows you to attune to 5 items instead of 4) has been moved to 13th level.  This is partly to make 15th level less busy, and party to fill that 13th level gap that has existed since much earlier in the class’s draft.  I think a 5th item 2 levels early is acceptable, especially since even 13th level is considered getting pretty high for most groups.

Version 4.5 28Aug2018

Overall

• Cantrips have become a valid choice for Wondrous Items, and when you choose a cantrip you can use it an unlimited number of times a day.  For the most part, the damage provided by the various subclass features does more damage than anything a cantrip can put out, and so I feel confident allowing this unlimited resource.

Armorer

• Armorer has received a massive update.  The overall format is the same; you construct a suit of power armor which you can upgrade with various changes to your playstyle, defenses, and characteristics.  The biggest changes relate to the way your power armor is created; you must build it from an existing suit instead of just getting one for free, but you can choose to build it from a magic suit of armor.  The bonuses you gain to your Str/Dex/both also work differently.  As a result of these changes, the AC-increasing and Str/Dex increasing upgrades have been removed.
• A new upgrade, Power, is automatically applied to every Power Armor you make.  This gives you 1/2 your Artificer level damage for melee attacks and attacks you make with the Force Blast upgrade.  Something was needed to give the Armorer more of a presence on the battlefield and bring its damage more in-line with other subclasses.  Armorers are meant to be tanks, and this helps ensure people will actually care to focus you because you actually *hurt* now.  Do note; this feature does work with unarmed attacks, which are in fact considered “melee weapon attacks.”
• The original 14th level feature has been moved to an upgrade slot and combined with the Heavy upgrade.  Now the upgrade is called “Reinforced,” and it makes you heavier, harder to knock down, and gives you resistance to physical damage.  You can take it starting at lvl 9.
• The new 14th level feature gives you an abjuration wizard-like form of HP; your armor now takes some damage for you; up to 2x your artificer level + your Int mod.  You can regain some of this damage every short rest as you work on fixing and repairing your suit between battles.
• The 1/long rest limit on Overdrive has been removed, in favor of the idea that you will get more exhausted whenever you use it.  Now it also gives a flat +6 to your Str and Dex, which is a +3 mod bonus, rather than being based on your Int mod.
• The Force Blast upgrade has been changed to establish that yes, you do get to add your Dex mod to the damage of the attack.
• The Integrated Weapon upgrade has, hopefully, become more clear in its wording.
• The Resistance upgrade now lets you swap out what element you are resistant to every rest.
• The Sealed upgrade has an added line establishing that yes, you are able to deep-sea dive with your armor on without suffering negative effects from a deep underwater environment.  So no, your DM can’t crush you to the size of a soda can.

Engineer

• Common question about the mechanical servant is whether or not you can select the same augmentation more than once.  The answer is yes, you can, and a new clause has been added to reflect that.  Do note that when you get to pick your first two augmentations, *these* must be different.

Version 4.4 30Jul2018

Overall

• Cleaned up the wording for the “Magic Item Analysis” feature so there would be a bit less confusion.
• The class as a whole now gains access to the Mending cantrip, rather than only a few subclasses getting it.  Thinking about it, I think it makes sense for all artificers, even alchemists, to know that one.  It’s been wrapped into the “Magic Item Analysis” feature for simplicity (and it’s still sorta relevant to the concept).

Armorer

• Established in the Force Blast upgrade that you are proficient with the weapon.  It’d be weird if you weren’t.

Engineer

• Changed the tool proficiency provided by the “Master Metallurgist” feature to be smith’s tools OR tinker’s tools, your choice.  One is focused more on constructing big things out of metal, the other is more about clockwork and fine tinkering with objects; both are relevant to the idea of building a servant, so you have the choice.
• Changed the hit die progression to every odd level again.  Originally I felt the increased hit dice was justified, but after calculating again, found this to just be too much HP even at lower levels.  Now it gains an extra hit dice at every odd artificer level (3, 5, 7, etc.).
• Changed the “Improved Chassis” feature wording a bit, just to make it more clear that the servant still follows the same rules that the lvl 1 servant does; it just gets to pick a different base body.

Inventor

• Changed some of the wording in the “Modifications” feature, altering how some modifications interact.
• The Double Barrel modification has been changed slightly in its wording.  It’s still the exact same; bonus action to make a (regular) attack with your Thunder Cannon.  But technically, the Loading property just makes it so that when you use your action OR bonus action OR reaction you can only fire once, but doesn’t mean you can’t fire multiple times in a turn.  You just need to use one of those actions for each attack.  So with an action you can fire once, and then with your bonus action you can fire again; no change to the Loading property is needed to allow this.  Essentially it just lets you use a bonus action for this purpose.
• The Handheld and Long Barrel modifications no longer count against your maximum number of modifications.  This means you can have a Long Barrel Sighted Thunder Cannon at lvl 3, or a Handheld Silenced one, or whatever.  You can still remove those modifications as desired, but this lets you have a bit more freedom in your combat style while still letting you play with other toys.
• The Handheld modification has been further altered a bit to allow you to use it with two-weapon fighting.  So you can attack with a melee weapon in one hand and then fire your Thunder Cannon with the other as a bonus action, or fire your Thunder Cannon and then use your melee weapon as a bonus action.  Do note that technically you still need a free hand to reload, much like hand crossbows.
• The Repeater modification has been changed.  It no longer imposes disadvantage on the attacks you make with it, but as a bit of a tradeoff you no longer add your Dexterity to the damage of these attacks.  In practice this makes Repeated a lower risk/low reward attack (you will likely hit with *some* of the attacks if not all, while dealing less damage for that increases chance of doing *some* damage) versus the higher risk/high reward Thunder Monger attack (which is an all-or-nothing attack which could do a lot of damage or 0 depending on if you hit).

Version 4.3 21Jun2018

Overall

• I was not originally expecting to update this so soon after getting some feedback earlier today, but since I was already going through and altering the PDF for the new site name, I thought it would be just as well that I take care of it now.
• As of today, Version 3.2 will no longer be available here or on DMsGuild.  But if you really want it, just contact me and I’ll be happy to provide it.

Armorer

• Altered the Power Armor rules to require a suit of armor to build the suit from.  This prevents 1st level characters from starting with plate armor, something that I initially was okay with but later decided broke balance too much.  So now, you gotta have the armor you want to base your Power Armor from.  I did reduce the cost of building a new suit by half to compensate for this extra expense.

Engineer

• Added the Hidden Compartment from the Armorer’s Upgrades to the Augmentation list for the servant.  Also altered the size of what can fit within based on the size of the servant.

Version 4.2 07Jun2018

Overall

• Equipment options mistakenly listed “studded leather armor” instead of “leather armor.”  No class, at least to my knowledge, should start with studded leather.

Engineer

• Added a clause to the Mechanical Servant, allowing it to use your Wondrous Items (as long as it makes sense that the servant could do so).
• Cleaned up a bit of the language for how infusing a servant with your Arcane Infusion works.

Version 4.1 23May2018

Overall

• Altered some of the wording in the “Wondrous Invention” feature to be a bit more clear about how using lower-level spells works.  To put it simply, you can always pick a lower level spell for a particular Wondrous Invention to cast, and that spell is simply upcast at the invention’s maximum level.  So you could, if you wanted to, build an invention at 20th level (with a 5th-level spell slot maximum) to cast *shield* (a 1st level spell), and it would cast *shield* at 5th level.  Not that I recommend doing so.  An invention that casts a 5th-level *fireball*, however, is also possible.
• Added Nystul’s magic aura to the class’s spell list.  Would you believe, in 4+ years of 5th edition, that I had no idea this spell existed?  And it’s so flavorful for the class I knew it had to be added.
• Cleaned up a few tenses/word choice throughout the document.

Engineer

• The mechanical servant can now use the “Unstoppable Engine” feature once per short or long rest, instead of once per long rest.  A true engineer would be fixing their servant whenever they have downtime, right?

Inventor

• Moved the second part of the “Advanced Tinkering” feature (which let you apply two modifications to your thunder cannon) to the capstone “Master Inventor” feature.  1) Because I felt that the capstone needed something a bit more and 2) because the way Advanced Tinkering worked at that point was too much of a jump too fast; you went from 1 modification at a time to suddenly having 3.  This way you start at 1, gain a permanent one + the one you can change (for 2) at 14th level, and then at 17th level gain two that you can apply at a time (for 3).

Version 4.0 11Apr2018

I’m not going to go into a fully detailed explanation of the changes made to the document with this version the way I usually do, separating into subclasses and the like, simply because so many were done.  Instead I’ll just go with a paragraph style and explain why these changes are happening.  In a way, it’s fitting that this is version 4.0 of the class, since we now have 4 specializations: Alchemist, Armorer, Engineer, and Inventor.  Alchemist and Armorer remain the same.  It’s the other two that are interesting.

One of the biggest pieces of feedback I’ve received is concern over the damage output of the Engineer class (formerly the Gunsmith in the original UA).  While I hold that the damage of the thunder cannon is nothing extraordinary, the addition of a mechanical servant when the rest of the specializations do not get it is problematic.  The servant, depending on what kind is chosen, represents an additional turn in combat, plus anywhere from 10-20 or more damage per round.

After more consideration, and having actually gotten to *play* an Engineer/Gunsmith for a while now, I decided this was a fair concern, and the class should be changed.  I didn’t want to remove the servant entirely since I think building robots is a core part of what makes some heroes artificers, and so I decided on the following changes: a specialization focused on building a mechanical servant which improves over time and helps you out in combat, and a specialization focused on building a gun and building other unique inventions.

The Engineer is now the name for the servant-based specialization.  You start with a Medium-sized servant at lvl 1, get the ability to augment its various properties starting at lvl 3, get the current Large, CR2 creature chassis at lvl 7, a half-orc-like ability at lvl 14 which helps the servant stick around longer, and a lvl 17 your servant essentially becomes a personal Shield Guardian (without the regeneration).  Yes, Artificer gets a companion at lvl 1 while the ranger doesn’t get theirs until lvl 3.  I understand this is a concern, but unless I get some helpful feedback about how to make this specialization matter in a flavorful way at lvl 1, I don’t see what else to do.  Ultimately the base ranger at lvl 1-2 is stronger than the base artificer at lvl 1-2, so I don’t think this breaks anything terribly; the servant *is* going to be the artificer’s main method of survival and damage at those low low levels.

What was once the Engineer/Gunsmith is now the Inventor (yes, I know that all artificers are “inventors,” but this specialization focuses on that aspect of the class the most, hence the name, and I really am not a fan of “tinkerer” as a name).  The thunder cannon, arcane magazine, and modifications stay the same.  What’s added is an improvement to how Wondrous Invention works (you can pick a spell from *any* class starting at lvl 7, and get an additional Invention then to boot), your cannon permanently upgrades at lvl 14 now instead of lvl 17, and you get additional uses of your Inventions (and another extra one) at lvl 17.  Honestly, I was never happy with the original capstone for this subclass; I always felt you should get a permanent modification for your cannon before that very high level, but if I had moved that to lvl 14 then the only thing you’d get for a capstone is the upgrades to your servant, which felt like more of an afterthought for the specialization.

So there you have it; now if you want a gun you can’t have a servant, and if you want a servant you can’t have a gun.  I understand some people may be very unhappy with this decision, which is why I will leave version 3.2 available for download in case you/your playgroup prefers it.  I don’t foresee updating that version of the class anymore, but we shall see what happens in the future.

Version 3.2 22Mar2018

General

• Altered Wondrous Invention a tad.  First; you now can pick a new spell if you have to craft a new invention; I found that the feature was too restrictive by locking you into one choice which you may later regret, and wanted to give players the option to “fix mistakes”, as it were.  Classes like the Sorcerer are allowed to swap spells as they level, and the Artificer can as well, so I felt this was fair.  Second; starting at 11th level you can use one of your inventions twice instead of once.  The Artificer had a gap in new abilities at 11th level, and this opens up some more play without introducing a new mechanic to the class.
• Included a clarification for the Productive Craftsman feature and how it works with our own crafting system.  Artificers are intended to be able to craft magic items faster than other classes, hence the 2x speed.  However, our crafting system already allowed them to craft items faster if they made the item from scratch, as Artificers naturally get 2x proficiency bonus with tools.  So to prevent this from becoming a 4x bonus when crafting an item from scratch, Productive Craftsman only halves the time to enchant a magic item using the Artificer’s Arcana skill.  In this way, the Artificer is equally fast at both.

Armorer

• Moved the Flight to lvl 9; as pointed out by a few people, lvl 6 is just too early to gain permanent flight.  This still puts it earlier than some classes, like the sorcerer, and so may get pushed back to lvl 15 at some point.  For now it’ll remain at 9.

Engineer

• After some calculations, I found that the HP gain for the mechanical servant was just too high as the player would level.  Now it gains a hit dice every odd-numbered artificer level (so 9, 11, 13, etc.).

Version 3.1 14Feb2018

General

• Somehow the Productive Craftsman feature got changed back to an earlier version which referenced gold cost.  It’s been changed back to a generalized “2x crafting speed.”  However, it has also been capped at 2x, as I felt making any item 4x  or even 3x as fast stretched into balance issues.  Note that the crafting rules referenced in the new note in the same section are not yet available (but will be soon).
• Added more spells to the spell list, things which I felt were justified and flavorful for the class.  Being a 1/3 caster you are still very limited by what you can bring to the table, and I’d suggest focusing on spells which can get a lot of use from Infuse Magic.

Alchemist

• Changed the name of the “Imbibed Immunity” feature to “Imbibed Tolerance.”  Seems more fitting.

Engineer

• Added a clause to the Arcane Magazine; you can’t have more than 50 rounds in it at one time.  Prevents implied stacking of ammo over the course of weeks or months.
• Slightly changed the name of some of the modifications to sound more like modifications.  “Braced” changed to “Brace”, for example, and “Grappling” changed to “Grappling Hook”.
• Added a clause to the “Brace” modification, as the granted advantage would be cancelled out by being prone.  The Brace mod now specifically does not cause you to take disadvantage on ranged attacks while you are prone, and if you never move during the turn you get the additional benefit of advantage as you hunker down for your shot.
• Changed how the “Elemental” modification functions.  Instead of adding an extra amount of damage of your chosen type, it changes the damage type of your Thunder Monger attack.  Small nerf to prevent extra damage from piling on while giving your main method of damage a new utility.
• Changed the “Telescoping” modification name to “Disguise”, which is a more fitting description of what it does.
• Changed the “Silenced” (now “Silencer”) modification to only work with normal attacks; the sounds of blast wave, explosive, piercing, and thunder monger attacks are too bombastic to be silenced, which I think is a important flavor for the class.  This still allows you to still utilize quieter attacks so you aren’t waking up the whole dungeon any time you want to contribute to a fight, just at reduced damage.  Save the big blasts for when everyone knows you’re there anyway.

Version 3.0 16Jan2018

General

• Added a single set of artisan’s tools to the starting gear, as it makes no longer sense for an artificer not to start with at least one set of tools appropriate to their craft.  Wizards get a focus, clerics get a holy symbol and shield; artificers should get the tool kit to make stuff.

Version 2.9 10Jan2018

Engineer

• Modified the way the Mechanical Servant progresses.  Originally, you basically had your CR 2 beast all the way until lvl 17, at which point it suddenly got a small boost to its usefulness.  After some deliberation, I considered that having a pet which takes so long to improve isn’t particularly fun.  At the same time, I didn’t want it to end up being too effective in combat.  With this in mind, I borrowed a few ideas from the Revised Ranger.  Now, your servant’s proficiency bonus is equal to yours.  This means it’ll slowly get better at hitting things as you level, rather than a sudden boost in usefulness.  It also gains a hit dice every artificer level after 7th.  This results in a pretty substantial HP boost by lvl 20, meaning your servant just might not die in one round any time you’re facing off against something tougher than a giant wolf.
• Because of the changes to Mechanical Servant, the Masterwork Metallurgist feature has been changed to just give the servant two upgrades.  The Thunder Cannon part of that feature remains the same, of course.
• Added a small clause to the Mechanical Servant feature, establishing that if you build a new one you can choose a different beast to base it off of.

Version 2.8 26Dec2017

Engineer

• Fixed a typo in the description of the Thunder Cannon.  It has the loading property, not the reloading property.  Loading property is identical to the one all crossbows have.  Note that, RAW, the part of the Crossbow Expert feat which lets you ignore the loading property of crossbows does not work with the Thunder Cannon.  But, your DM may allow it anyway.
• Added a line at the end of the Modification feature specifying that using a ranged attack granted by a modification, such as the Piercing or Explosive attack, does require you to expend a round of ammo.

Version 2.7 14Dec2017

Overall

• Added the following spells from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything: snare, catnap, and tiny servant.  As an aside, I wish there were some way to introduce create homunculus for the class, but as it stands the spell is just too high a level to be on the spell list and even too high a level for use with the Wondrous Invention feature.  Damn shame, WotC.  All you needed to do was make it a 5th level spell.
• Big thanks to Jared C. for pointing out that I had completely omitted the spellcasting focus feature.  Artificers were not intended to be unable to use an arcane focus, so that has been added.
• Minor text fixes throughout the document.

Armorer

• Added the Cloaked upgrade, giving the armor a pass without trace-like ability.  Originally, I was going to make this straight up invisibility, which I thought would be fun.  However, the class already gets access to invisibility in its spell list, not to mention you can choose invisibility for a Wondrous Item if you want, so I reasoned that a different kind of ability would be more interesting.
• Introduced the concept behind armor-type-specific upgrades.  Both the Expanded and Heavy upgrades now require the power armor in question to be built from heavy armor, since neither would make any logical sense with light or medium armor.  For now these are the only two upgrades that have a specific armor requirement.
• The Heavy upgrade now specifically makes your armor weigh 4x as much as normal.  However, this does *not* apply to the Artificer while being worn; your armor is designed to sit comfortably and is, remember, powered by magic or pistons or whatever you want.  Thus, you don’t feel the extra weight.  But for everyone and everything else, it’s heavier.  Though it is not directly referenced in the feature, this could likely come into play when being grappled, or in situations where you are standing on an unstable surface.
• Similarly, the Expanded upgrade has been reworded, and specifies that the armor is 8x as heavy.  However, you do *not* consider the armor’s weight against your carrying capacity, as you are not “wearing” it in a conventional sense.  Since your size category is considered one size up while in your armor, your carrying capacity changes as defined in the normal rules (so yes, you are “stronger” in your Hulkbuster suit and can can carry more).  If someone decides to cast Enlarge on you while inside your Expanded armor, well that’ll be up to your DM to decide what happens; either you and the armor both increase in size, or you remain Medium within the armor and the armor gets bigger and becomes Huge (and let’s be honest; this is the most awesome idea).  I wouldn’t recommend being Enlarged outside of your armor, though.
• Changed the speed granted by the Flight upgrade to 30 feet, down from 40.  Every other class-based flight in the game is either walking speed or 30 feet, so this falls more in line with others.  You can still increase this to higher speeds with the Speed upgrade, as normal.
• Increased the duration for the Unmanned upgrade to 1 hour, up from 10 minutes.  Decided that 10 minutes really isn’t enough time to do anything interesting.  You can still use this feature multiple times; you just get more exhausted from the strain of doing so.  As well, added a line to establish that the DM gets final say on which of your various upgrades and features can be used while using your armor like a drone.  Spellcasting, for example, I wouldn’t allow the armor to do.  Fire a Force Blast, though, or use any integrated abilities like flight or cloaking, I absolutely would.  I would even allow the armor to use your Wondrous Items, since in a way it is still *you* activating them.

Version 2.6 13Nov2017

Overall

• Slightly altered the last paragraph of Wondrous Invention, establishing that the material components for the item only have to be payed for once while repairing/making a new item, at any point during its creation.

Armorer

• Changed the cost to create a new suit of power armor to be 2x the base cost of the armor type, rather than .5 the cost.  It wouldn’t really make sense to be able to build an advanced suit of magic armor for half the cost of regular armor.
• Altered the way the Self-Destruct feature functions.  It’s still essentially the same, but now instead of a “explode in a turn OR concentrate up to 10 minutes” it’s just the concentration option (which you can, of course, just have explode at the end of your next turn anyway).  Also added the ability to cancel the self-destruct, but only if you can successfully save vs your own spell save DC.  This is a volatile ability; it’s a risk to stop it.
• Reworded the the Unmanned feature’s “psychic backlash” just to make it a bit more clear.  If your armor gets destroyed while you’re wearing it you roll your total number of hit dice as if you were rolling to regenerate HP after a short rest (so you add your Con modifier to the die rolls as well).  You don’t actually spend any hit dice when you do this, but that is the amount of damage you suffer.  This could easily knock out a character, but that’s intended; there needs to be some risk if you are going to be able to pilot your suit around a battle while in the safety of your party’s home base.

Version 2.5  30Sep2017

Overall

• Updated the wording to the Alchemical Formulae, Upgrades, and Modifications to specify that only one of each type is gained at certain levels.
• Added references in the class table to the levels where additional upgrades/formulae/modifications are acquired.
• Altered some art.

Version 2.4  11Sep2017

Overall

• Added additional rules for multiclassing related to determining spell slots.

Armorer

• Added a line to the Collapsible upgrade, making the resulting package significantly lighter (remember; it’s magic!).
• Changed the Force Blast upgrade damage to a d8. This makes its damage comparable to a crossbow but it’s range remains comparable to a hand crossbow.
• Changed the Sealed upgrade to give the wearer greater environmental sealing; you are now considered adapted to hot and cold climates, and high altitudes, while wearing the armor. The oxygen supply is also now switched off with a bonus action instead of no action at all.

Engineer

• Changed how Masterwork Metallurgist affects the mechanical servant.
  Now, all mechanical servants get a boost to their proficiency and a boost to their hit dice (which amounts to 50% additional HP), making them slightly better all around. The options that Engineers have to upgrade their servant are now also pulled directly from the Armorer subclass; Engineers can pick two of the Armorer’s Upgrades and apply them to their servant. This allows for an increase in AC, speed, flight, Strength or Dex, or other utility-based options such as being able to convert your servant into an inconspicuous carrying form. The options available are limited to anything at prerequisite level 6 or less; no making your servant explode or making it larger and wearable.

Version 2.3  30Aug2017

Overall

• Fixed typos and misspellings throughout the document.

Alchemist

• Changed Flash Ice, making it work more like a weaker version of Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere. It’s primary purpose is still to freeze bodies of water.
• Included references to certain formulae disappearing if not immediately used, falling more in line with UA formulae.

Armorer

• Armorer’s Proficiency feature now also provides proficiency with smith’s tools, falling in line with the idea of an Armorer literally forging their own armor.
• Changed the name of the Unbreakable Armor feature to Reinforced Armor, and gave it the additional ability to allow the artificer to use their reaction to mitigate the damage from a single attack. I felt the features available to Armorers were very lacking, and this addition helps to make them more durable, front-line combatants (as is the focus of the specialization).
• Added the Climbing upgrade, essentially giving the wearer Spider Climb.
• Changed the Flight upgrade, making it only able to be taken once.
• In return, added a new upgrade called Speed, allowing the artificer to increase any single speed they have by 10 feet.
• Added the Sealed upgrade, making your suit environmentally sealed.
  This gives you up to an hour of air at a time,
• Removed the Reinforced upgrade; the temporary hit points didn’t feel fluffy, and the idea of reinforcing your armor makes more sense as a damage reduction/resistance mechanic. Since this is put into the (renamed)
  Reinforced Armor feature I felt that this upgrade was unnecessary.

Engineer

• Changed the name of the Master Smith feature to the Master Tinker,
  and changed its smith’s tools proficiency to tinker’s tools. I think this properly separates the concept of the engineer into a tinkerer who works with fine, highly complex machines and the armorer into a more hardened smith (since they would be forging their armor). Despite this change, Engineer artificers can still gain proficiency with smith’s tools through the base class (and armorers can always take tinker’s tools for the same reason), meaning nothing is really lost and character concepts are not altered in any way.
• Removed the Empowered modification, since first and foremost the Thunder Monger attack was already an empowered attack which would be utilized more often, and because this helps balance out some of the other abilities (Empowered + Repeating, for example, would have the potential to give an extra 30 damage in addition to the rest of the damage). Basically, Empowered seemed to be imbalanced after looking at it again, and considering the average action economy of an artificer also seemed unnecessary.

Version 2.2  22Aug2017

Overall

• Changed the Productive Craftsman feature. Instead of a flat GP for magic item creation, it doubles/triples/quadruples the amount of gold you can use for creation at certain levels. This makes the class a bit more DM-agnostic, so almost any magic item creation system can fall under the feature now.

Version 2.1  10Aug2017

Overall

• Changed/altered artwork.

Version 2.0  10Aug2017

Overall

• Minor text fixes.

Engineer

• Changed the possibly upgrades for the mechanical servant in the Masterwork Metallurgist feature. Gave it a proficiency bonus to improve its ability to actually hit and perform other skills. Damage and HP-increasing options were also made stronger so they actually feel like they do something.

Armorer

• Added the Armorer specialization option for Artificers. Armorers are artificers who construct arcane suits of Power Armor, allowing them to be at the front lines of combat (think Iron Man or Master Chief). Armorers can upgrade their Power Armor as they gain levels, making them stronger and giving them all sort of fun abilities.

Version 1.2  10Apr2017

Engineer

• Changed the possibly upgrades for the mechanical servant in the Masterwork Metallurgist feature. Gave it a proficiency bonus to improve its ability to actually hit and perform other skills. Damage and HP-increasing options were also made stronger so they actually feel like they do something.

Overall

• Minor text fixes.

Alchemist

• Reworked Volatile Concoction. Now, formulas that have been boosted through the feature automatically deal increased damage (or increased healing), and then you can choose an additional effect on top of that. This increase to damage and healing is also different; instead of dealing +Int mod dice, the dice type you use increases by one (so d6 become d8, d8 become d10, etc.). Additionally, you now get to use Volatile Concoction a number of times equal to your Int mod daily, instead of based on your Artificer level, and additional options have been provided such as ignoring time limits for formulas. The change to damage makes the feature less powerful damage-wise, but prevents situations where players will only choose the damage-increasing option. The Int-mod daily limit remains at the same cap (5 for most people), but allows for increased usage if you are able to get your Int higher with magic items while giving lower level players more uses of the feature (assuming you ensure you have a decent Int score at character creation, of course).
• Added to the Imbibed Immunity feature, making the Alchemist logically better at dealing with their own formulas (in the possible and likely situation when a bomb goes off in their faces).
• Alchemical Acid should come before Alchemical Fire alphabetically, and now it does.
• The Alchemist can learn one more formula than before, at 6th level, and the formula gained at 17th level was changed to 18th level to prevent alchemists gaining too much at 17th level.

Engineer

• Changed the Modifications learned at 7th and 10th level to 6th and 9th level to better match the Alchemist’s progression.

Version 1.1  23Mar2017

Overall

• Altered which spells are viable for the Wondrous Item feature. I found that the rules I had provided made certain spells unavailable (by RAW) that would make perfect sense for an artificer to take, while other spells which were allowed per the same rules were more iffy. Ultimately I decided that, if you can justify it, you can use it. So all spells from level 1-5 (still dependent on artificer level) are available to use. Added a clause that allows spells which conjure creatures (such as Find Familiar and Conjure Elemental) to create a construct instead of their normal creature type, so that mechanical-focused artificers can use the spells to basically build more constructs. The creature retains its normal statistics but is now considered a construct and thus gains immunity to poison (and the poison condition; really this should just be a rule that’s in 5e for constructs in general).
• Added a section at the end of the document detailing multiclassing options as well as alternate starting equipment options.

Alchemist

• • The Flash Ice formula now deals 2d8 cold damage to any creature in the affected cube that fails a Constitution saving throw, providing some manner of slight extra utility.
  • Added the Poison Bomb formula. The Poison Bomb creates a 10-foot radius area of poisoning fog which can poison enemies within.

Version 1.0  24Jan2017

• It’s alive!  IT’S ALIVE!!