Artificer (Wizard Subclass)

Here's my attempt to put an artificer-like power suite into 5e, without breaking the game. Please feel free to tear it apart.

Introduction: The artificer is a wizard who specializes in the history and creation of magic items. While creating permanent magic items is very difficult, in the process of their research artificers learn several useful tricks. Artificers tend to play a support role in their groups, using their abilities to analyze magical obstacles, and protect and enhance their allies. Many artificers have the ambition to reproduce the greate works of ancient civilizations, eventually creating a permanent magical item that will live in legend long after they are dead. Others pursue a specific lost secret, such as opening the portal to a forgotten demiplane or reassembling a broken artifact.

Clarification: The Mending cantrip says that it can be used to repair objects or constructs. When used in this fashion, it restores 1d12 HP to a construct, and the number of dice increases with character level as with other cantrips. For example, this spell can be used to resore HP to an animated object or golem.

Level 2 ability: Battle Warder You learn the Blade Ward cantrip, if you don't know it already. If you have not cast another spell this turn, you can cast it as a bonus action. You can also cast it on another creature, with a range of touch. (Note: most of the level 2 abilities for other wizard subclasses are useful defensive powers.)

Level 6 ability: Infuse Spell You learn the Magic Weapon and Elemental Weapon spells; the latter is considered a Wizard spell for you.
You can imbue a carried or worn item with temporary magic using one of your prepared spells from the transmutation or abjuration schools. This requires a full round action, and you must touch the item while maintaining concentration during the entire round. You expend the spell slot immediately, and it is lost if your concentration is broken. When complete, the imbued item confers the magic of the spell to its user or wearer, and the spell continues to its maximum duration without requiring your concentration. After you have used this ability, you cannot use it again until you have taken a long rest.
Examples:

• Magic Weapon or Elemental Weapon: any weapon, lasts 1 hour.
• Protection from Energy: any armor or clothing, lasts 1 hour.
• Enhance Ability: clothing, lasts 1 hour.
• Expeditious Retreat: footwear, lasts 1 hour.
• Levitate: boots or cloak, lasts 1 minute.

Note: This power creates an exception to the Concentration limitation. But if any class could provide this exception, surely the artificer could. I hope that requiring a long rest between uses is limitation enough. I also considered making the cost 2 spell slots, and allowing the ability to be used again after a short rest.

Level 10 ability: Wand Master. You can use a magic wand or staff as your arcane focus.
When using your Arcane Recovery ability, you can imbue a single spell into a wand or staff arcane focus, giving it a number of charges equal to the number of spells placed. For example, if you can normally recover 5 spell levels, you can add five magic missile spells or two invisibility spells (4 spell levels) to the focus, but not three magic missile spells and an invisibility spell. In this case the focus cannot hold more spell levels than your Arcane Recovery limit.
You can also recharge a magical wand with the spell slots recovered, if you know the spell held by it normally.
You can expend extra charges from a wand or staff, or an imbued arcane focus, to enhance the spell cast. By spending two charges, you can enhance the spell in one of the following ways:

• Reroll a number of damage dice, up to your Int modifier
• Double the spell duration
• Double the spell range
• Add two to the spell DC. (Note: I wanted this to be weaker than imposing disadvantage on the save)

Level 14 ability: Perfect Aura. You can attune up to four magic items. Once in between short rests, you can attune an item in a single full-round action requiring concentration. You still need a short rest to deattune an item.
Note: exciting capstone feature, but probably less powerful than the transmuter's stone.

So here's what I was thinking in designing the subclass.

I have played an Artificer in 3rd edition, and DMed for an artificer PC. And to me, the original class had two features that were just too versatile to be carried over: the Spell Storing Item infusion, and the ability to make weapons into Bane weapons (even temporarily) at low level. So I didn't try to put those in. If the character wants access to non-wizard spells, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask them to gain levels in another class.

Magic item creation is very important to the class, and if PCs are able to create magic items they should probably have an advantage. But it need not be a large one, and it might be more easily relegated to the downtime rules, meaning that it takes them less time and/or money than a full wizard.

The 6th level power basically gives them the ability to hold 2 concentration spells at the same time, once a day. It's powerful but I hope not game-breaking to give 2 buffs instead of one, once per day, and it's good for a support class.

The 10th level power finally boosts their potential with attack spells, supporting the wandificer archetype with minor metamagic. I think this ability might actually be too weak, since you're basically charging two spell slots for a minor bonus.

Most artificers had a homunculus, which was about half way between a familiar and an animal companion in terms of effectiveness. I like the idea of artificers being able to work with constructs, but this is closely related to magic item creation (details pending from DMG).

Solution: the ritual caster feat lets just about anyone have a familiar, as well as adding more rituals to the book over time. Therefore, having a homunculus is probably worth a feat.

New feat: Create Homunculus
Prerequisites: Wizard 2 (Artificer or Transmuter subclass), proficiency with alchemical tools
Benefits: +1 Constitution.
With access to a fully stocked alchemical laboratory, you can create a homunculus, a small artificial life form sculpted from clay and animated by a small portion of your life force through the donation of one pint of blood. The homunculus takes 1 day to build and costs materials worth 50 gp. If the homunculus is destroyed, you take 2D10 damage immediately but can make another when you have time. You can never have more than one homunculus at a time.
Your DM may allow you to make other types of homunculus than the one found in the Monster Manual, if you research or discover the correct formulas and meet other requirements. For example, the Iron Defender is a larger, battle-ready homonculus about the size of a dog (requires smithing tools or the assistance of a smith, and 1 week to construct) and the Furtive Filcher is a fast, ectoplasmic servant (requires you or someone else to cast the Blur and Invisibility spells).
A homunculus never speaks or offers opinions, but communicates all it observes telepathically to its creator within a range of 1500 feet. If taken forcibly beyond this range, it fights to return.

Thus, the homonculus is an optional ability that Artificers and Transmuters can take, and it gives them something useful to spend their gold and time on.