The Clank - Steampunk Core Class

So I've been trying to get a Steampunk themed D&D game set up for a while now, but I usually find my players reluctant to go and learn a whole bunch of new rules necessary to bring it in. Like many of the reviews out there, I bought Sorcery and Steam but didn't think the Artificer was any good in an ongoing adventure - too many of his abilities were tied to having a ready laboratory. So the following is my attempt at fixing both of these problems - a combat-balanced core class with steampunk themed abilities that don't bend the rules too much. It's mostly complete, but I was hoping to get feedback on some parts of the class.

CLANK
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills
The clank’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (INT), Concentration (CON), Craft (INT), Decipher Script (INT), Disable Device (INT), Heal (WIS), Knowledge (All) (INT), Open Lock (DEX), Pilot (INT), Profession (WIS), Search (INT), Speak Language (None), Use Steamcraft Device (INT), Use Rope (DEX).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Jury-rig I, Craft Gadgets, Technical Lore
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Improvised tools
3rd +2 +1 +1 +3 Skill Mastery
4th +3 +1 +1 +4 Jury-rig II
5th +3 +1 +1 +4 Bonus Feat
6th +4 +2 +2 +5 Defect Sense I
7th +5 +2 +2 +5 Sabotage, Skill Mastery
8th +6/+1 +2 +2 +6 Jury-rig III
9th +6/+1 +3 +3 +6 Salvage
10th +7/+2 +3 +3 +7 Bonus Feat
11th +8/+3 +3 +3 +7 Skill Mastery
12th +9/+4 +4 +4 +8 Jury-rig IV
13th +9/+4 +4 +4 +8 Defect Sense II
14th +10/+5 +4 +4 +9
15th +11/+6/+1 +5 +5 +9 Bonus Feat, Skill Mastery
16th +12/+7/+2 +5 +5 +10 Jury-rig V
17th +12/+7/+2 +5 +5 +10
18th +13/+8/+3 +6 +6 +11
19th +14/+9/+4 +6 +6 +11 Skill Mastery
20th +15/+10/+5 +6 +6 +12

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the clank.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A clank is proficient with all simple weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).

Bonus Feats: At 1st level, a clank gets a bonus technology-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets and the bonus feat granted to a human character. The clank gains an additional bonus feat at 5th level and every five clank levels thereafter [numbers]. These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as clank bonus feats. A clank must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat. These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A clank is not limited to the list of clank bonus feats when choosing these feats.
Bonus Feat List:
Craft Mechanika (clockwork, steamcrafts), Craft Electric Device, Craft Compounds (Chemistry), Craft Biografts, Skill Focus (any craft skill), Materials Miser (reduce gold cost - not XP - of crafted items by 10%)

Improvised Tools: The clank can use a skill that requires tools without such tools being present, with no resulting penalty. The DM may restrict the use of this skill in especially spartan environments.
Technical Lore: A clank may make a special technical lore check with a bonus equal to his clank level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about a technical item or piece of machinery. A successful technical lore check may reveal the function of the item and how to use it (eliminating the Use Steamcraft Device check). It may also reveal useful background information regarding its method and place of manufacture. A clank may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random.
Defect Sense I: The clank may perform critical hits on constructs.
Defect Sense II: The clank may ignore the first 5 points of hardness when attacking an inanimate object.
Sabotage: Upon a successful technical lore check, a clank may use his disable device skill to determine a way to deactivate a complex machine such as an automaton or steam ironclad.
Salvage: The clank may dismantle any non-magical item in ¼ of the time it would take to construct, to salvage 25% of the raw materials.
Skill Mastery: The clank becomes so certain in the use of certain skills that he can use them reliably even under adverse conditions.
Upon gaining this ability, he selects a skill. When making a skill check with this skill, he may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent him from doing so.
Lesser Trapfinding: The clank may find and disable traps with DCs of 20 or higher. The clank may not disable magical traps.

Jury-Rig: The Clank has the ability to take an existing item and use scrap materials on-hand to enhance it temporarily. To be specific, at level 1, a clank could take an ordinary longsword and temporarily make it a MW longsword. At a higher level, the clank could take a set of chainmail armor and temporarily give it the 'Silent Moves' ability.
To jury-rig a device, a Clank must make a successful craft check, with DC=10+3*jlvl. Thus a level one rig would have a DC of 13, while a level 5 rig would have a DC of 25. A clank may take-ten on this check when circumstances permit. A rapid-rig takes a full round action for every level the rig is (i.e. a level 3 rig would take 3 rounds).
These enhancements are in effect until: (a) a full day has elapsed, (b) for a weapon, the player rolls a critical fumble, (c) for armor, the player takes a critical hit.
As the clank improves in skill, he gains access to more complicated 'rigs', as shown below:
Jury-Rig I:
Masterwork weapon
Masterwork armor
Silent Moves, Minor
Distance
Bashing (shields only)
Alarm (non-equipment)
Jury-Rig II:
Silent Moves, Medium
Shadowed, Minor
Slick, Minor
Lit (acts as light source)
Elemental Resistance, Minor
Jury-Rig III:
Shadow, Medium
Silent Moves, Major
Slick, Medium
Elemental Damage, Minor (1d2)
Charged (armor does elec damage)
Fortification, Minor
Jury-Rig IV:
Shadowed, Major
Slick, Major
Fortification, Medium
Elemental Damage, Medium (1d4)
Elemental Resistance, Major
Stunning
Lesser Antimagic (SR8)
Jury-Rig V:
Fortification, Major
Elemental Damage, Major (1d6)
Keen
Greater Antimagic (SR14)

Additional Craft Skills:
Firearms
Automata
Therapeutics


Notes:
- The flavour is decidely "wacky technician who's replete with crazy gadgets, and can change them on the fly".
- As the more observant will see, I've borrowed liberally from everywhere possible. I've tried to paste together good ideas from everywhere possible.
- The Craft Gadgets/Mechanica etc. skills act like Craft Magical Item feats. I have specifics for my campaign world, but they're not really core to the class. The Use Steamcraft Device skill is used like Use Magical Device w.r.t. these gadgets.
- The Pilot skills is essentially a Ride skills for mechanical vehicles.
- The Jury-Rig list is a work-in-progress, and included mostly as an idea of what would be implemented. If it seems sparse, it would be filled out later on.

So any comments as to balance, flavour, or the name even is appreciated. But I have some specific questions to pose:

- Regarding the Jury-Rig skill, what's the best way to limit the # of uses per day? A 'spells-per-day'-type system, or a 'psionic powerpoint'-type system (maintenance points, or some more clever name)?

- Again RE Jury-Rig, what craft times would keep the class balanced but not make it useless except for when it has significant downtime? Also, should I require a craft skill? I was leaning towards a quick job of crafting requiring 1 round per jury-rig level (i.e. minor fortification requires 3 rounds) and a craft check of 20+jlvl.

- You can see things get kinda sparse in terms of abilities at higher levels. Any suggestions for high-level abilities?

Wow this ended up being long. If you made it this far thanks for reading! And I appreciate any comments you can provide.

(edited to fix some things I left out)

Well, in the hope that this fell off the front page before enough people got a chance to read it (and comment), I'll give it a big ****BUMP****

Really - any feedback at all is appreciated.

- Regarding the Jury-Rig skill, what's the best way to limit the # of uses per day? A 'spells-per-day'-type system, or a 'psionic powerpoint'-type system (maintenance points, or some more clever name)?

- Again RE Jury-Rig, what craft times would keep the class balanced but not make it useless except for when it has significant downtime? Also, should I require a craft skill? I was leaning towards a quick job of crafting requiring 1 round per jury-rig level (i.e. minor fortification requires 3 rounds) and a craft check of 20+jlvl.

Click to expand...

If it's an extraordinary ability, it's kind of hard to justify limited uses.

I don't get the jury rig idea... Are those the items you enhance? If so how do they change, or do they change to that? Maybe you should say that or say what type of equipment it changes from.

It looks good, but most of it is for games with steamcraft stuff, so I can't critisize that kind of stuff.

The Jury-Rig ability essentially allows the Clank to temporarily make an ordinary item have specific enhancements, many of which I essentially lifted from the magical enhancements from the tables in the DMG. (I should note that the clanks enhancements are specifically non-magical in my world, but that would depend on the flavour of your campaign)
The main point of th skill is that the clank can add flexible enhancements to the party's equipment without requiring a lot of time and a fixed forge/lab. They're not permanent, and they're kinda fragile (see updated text below), but they allow for a lot of customization.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've updated the original post to explain this better. The revised text is shown below:
Jury-Rig
The Clank has the ability to take an existing item and use scrap materials on-hand to enhance it temporarily. To be specific, at level 1, a clank could take an ordinary longsword and temporarily make it a MW longsword. At a higher level, the clank could take a set of chainmail armor and temporarily give it the 'Silent Moves' ability.
These enhancements are in effect until: (a) a full day has elapsed, (b) for a weapon, the player rolls a critical fumble, (c) for armor, the player takes a critical hit.

Much clearer.

Maybe also don't just restrict it to that list, some guidelines to stop it being over powered but still allow it to be varied.

How about you rename the class "Spark" and call all their constructs "clanks"?

(Heh).

http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius.html

Dogbrain said:

How about you rename the class "Spark" and call all their constructs "clanks"?

(Heh).

http://www.studiofoglio.com/girlgenius.html

Click to expand...

Yeah that's where I got the name from. What can I say? I'm a steampunk junkie. And not especially good at coming up with creative names.

I've updated a bit of jury-rig details, with time and craft checks required. I'll hopefully have a way to fix the maximum uses/day sometime this week. As has been mentioned, it's tough to put a max on the number of uses for an extraordinary ability per day. That said, I think it's necessary for balance reasons, so I expect I'll implement some limit based on parts availability or something like that. Any ideas?

I like it, though I think the good/bad save choice might be better off if it was a tad different. If he's around all those machines, he'll be dead or have good lungs if they run on coal or some such, and he has to be able to dodge when his latest creation explodes in a cloud of gears (and that one wheel rolls out). Just seems more appropriate to me, flavorwise.

Nice to see some Steampunk stuff being bandied about. I wish there was such a game I could get in on.

Revisions

I've updated the class a little bit. Rather than try and get it in a format compatible with the boards again, I'll just post the word doc. Hope that's alright.

The major difference is in the treatment of the Jury-Rig skill. I've tried to make it similar to the spells-per-day of the spellcasting classes, just to keep the mechanics familiar to my players. We were originally looking at using a 'maintenance point' system which was derived from the psionics powerpoint system, but after much trying it was dismissed as unworkable.

As always, I'm much obliged for any feedback.

Edit: Oops. As you can see our in-campaign name for the class is brazenly stolen from Iron Kingdoms (or somewhere like that... I've lost track). My apologies - it just sounds so much better than "Clank".