D&D 5E [5E] Gunslinger Caster

[Voice]

So, a while back I stumbled across a photo of a fluffy black kitten staring up at the camera, where the eyes had been photo-shopped to be blue/green two-tone. It looked like a fluffy black soot-sprite.

It inspired me to create a character, where that was the familiar. Unfortunately, I'm having difficulty putting the character to paper adequately. I keep trying different combinations, and not quite coming up with what I'm looking for.

The inspiration led to the concept of a character who wields a musket (his familiar being a spirit of industry and technology, after all), and casts his spells through it.
The spell component pouch would be his ammo pouch, with a group of specially prepared paper cartridges replacing material components, the motions of loading/firing for somatic, with verbal as normal.

The initial build was a simple wizard with the Weapons Mastery feat giving him a selection of Marital weapons (to include muskets, pistols, and some hammers), but I've also tried Warlock builds, and even Eldritch Knight builds with the Magic Initiate feat to give him Find Familiar and a direct damage cantrip for his 'bread & butter' magic 'cartridge'.
I keep leaning more toward the Warlock builds, but that seems to be a common pattern with recent inspirations, so I'm wary of just falling into that pattern.

The character does need to be a spellcaster, and does need to have a familiar (it will be a visual re-skin of whatever standard familiar is most appropriate for the build).
He does *not* have to be an arcane caster, but should be Human (variant or otherwise).

I'm looking for build suggestions for a combat caster, with a familiar, whose weapon of choice is a musket.

 

[Leatherhead]

Are you OK with UA material?

Because the Artificer (Gunsmith) sounds like a fit.

Otherwise, there is the new Arcane Archer Fighter Subclass from XGtE that could be modified.

 

[Voice]

No, I'm not opposed to Unearthed Arcana material.

I wasn't aware of this particular one, but it does look promising. Especially, with Magic Initiate to get Find Familiar and a couple cantrips.
Its an Intelligence-caster, so I'd be picking the cantrips from the Wizard list. The 'Thunder Cannon' seems like a musket on steroids.
damage: 2d6 vs 1d12, range: 150/500' vs 40/120', not sure about the trade-off between the 'loading' property vs. "must be reloaded as a bonus action", but since there's no Bonus Attack on the class feature list, I think it's essentially an even trade there? The Artificer's spell list seems sort of weak for the concept, but that may be countered by the Gunsmith's specialty features. It also fits the idea of him having the Guild Artisan background that most of my builds have included so far.

I'll have to take a closer look at it and the Arcane Archer.

 

[Voice]

Ok, on further review of the Artificer/Gunsmith, it is stylistically a near-exact match for the concept. That's great, and grabbing Magical Initiate as the Variant Human feat will give me the familiar I need, along with giving me the option for a couple cantrips for different damage types/effects that will remain useful as I level up.
Any suggestions from the Wizard list?

On the down side, in its current incarnation, it's a bit low on combat options, as there are very few instances when you will be more effective in combat doing something *other* than unleashing Thunder Monger before 9th level. (Even then, unless you've got a lot of minions on the battlefield, TM will probably still be a better option most of the time.)

Changes I expect to see between this and the final product:

• Tool Proficiency: Possibly fewer? It feels like a *lot* of tool proficiencies, but there's comparatively little to do with most of them in-game. Unless, maybe, whatever source it is released in includes more rules for tools in-game.
• Arcane Magazine: A hard limit on capacity at any one time. As it is now, the magazine is effectively limitless. 40/day, + 10/short rest means that, unless you regularly have 10+ significant combat encounters per game day with just one or two short rests, you're not going to run out, even if you fire every round.
• Thunder Cannon: Shorter initial range, increasing with level.
• Restrictions on just how often you can throw out later powers. (A 1/2 fireball isn't nearly as powerful as the real deal, but being able to throw it out *every* round of *every* combat to deal with the 'softer' targets? That's different, even at 17th level.)
• Mechanical Servant: Revised into its own specialization and replaced with something else in the Alchemist and Gunsmith specializations.
• Wonderous Inventions: Not sure. If these can be replaced easily, it has just become a money source. If they can't, you have the potential to lose a *lot* of class features if the items get lost or stolen. I'm inclined to try figuring out something to replace this feature altogether. Maybe link them to the player like the Warlock's blade?

 

[Voice]

Also, what's the best familiar choice to reskin as a soot sprite? I was initially thinking about the octopus, because with its 3 intelligence, it could conceivably be trained to reload, but the whole 'only 30 minutes out of water' at a time, thing puts a 'damp'er on that idea.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don’t recommend artificer until it’s been given another pass. As it is it just doesn’t do what it needs to.

What about the Sun Soul monk, or a Kensei monk with either a multiclass (ranger has good ranged weapon spells) or magic initiate?

If not that, Ranger/Cleric can do some gnarly stuff with a ranged weapon and spells that either reflavor easily or explicitly involve arrows or bolts.

Also, there is a Pact of The Gun in the modern magic UA, and Eldritch Blast makes a really good gun.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Also, what's the best familiar choice to reskin as a soot sprite? I was initially thinking about the octopus, because with its 3 intelligence, it could conceivably be trained to reload, but the whole 'only 30 minutes out of water' at a time, thing puts a 'damp'er on that idea.

If you go warlock, and Pact of the chain, pauedodragon or imp is just better than the rest. Reflavor as far soot sprite with wings.
If not, owl reflavored. Regardless of build, owl is best Familiar. It can swoop in, use Help, swoop out with no opportunity attacks.

 

[Leatherhead]

Ok, on further review of the Artificer/Gunsmith, it is stylistically a near-exact match for the concept. That's great, and grabbing Magical Initiate as the Variant Human feat will give me the familiar I need, along with giving me the option for a couple cantrips for different damage types/effects that will remain useful as I level up.
Any suggestions from the Wizard list?

I'm a fan of Prestidigitation, and Mending would fit your theme. Though as a human you might want to pick up Light. Damage-wise it's hard to go wrong with Toll the Dead

Also, what's the best familiar choice to reskin as a soot sprite?

They normally hover around, so anything that can fly is a good start. I prefer the Bat to the Owl, if only because you can equip it with a bauble of Darkness and have mobile LoS blocking.