If you’re not against an Artificer, then I’ve had a character in mind. Still a bounty hunter cowboy type, but as a youth he was always interested in all kinds of stories about magic, and as he got older he studied and studied everything he could get his hands on about it, but eventually learned he had zero talent in any magical areas. He just couldn’t make it work. Not to be discouraged, he started learning everything he could about magical items and artifacts, and delved into learning runes and the like. He became an expert at indirectly manipulating magic through Runes and the like, not through himself but through items and gadgets and things like that.
As per the new UA, which is likely going to be officially released later this year in the Hardcover Eberron book they’ve just announced, the Artificer is a half caster who’s “Spells” are meant to be flavored as…well…anything but. Cure Wounds could be a salve, Thorn Whip could be a grappling hook, Fireball could be a flask full of some super potent fire concoction. In this case, I would fluff it all as rune based magic, and call him a Rune Master. No magic in and of himself, but he understands Runes and can do a lot with that, using them to imbue items or create magical effects.
Their main shtick is creating magical items, or imbuing mundane items with magic. They can even create “prototypes” of things like a Bag of Holding or, at higher levels, a Belt of Hill Giant Strength (lvl 16). They can even let others use them, so they’re big on support. I think starting out they can know 3 prototypes, and can create 2 of them at any one time, switching them out on a long rest.
Give them a look and let me know what you think. I’d be thinking the Artiliarist Subclass.