D&D 5E Artificer Homunculus and Uses

[Warpiglet-7]

I have been participating and learning from others here about artificers.

I have been looking at the homunculus and it’s use and wondered how it might interface with the artillerist.

it can fly. Would it be able to fly with the artillerists cannon? If so, it could open up some options.

i was thinking about a cannon that looks like a gauntlet which wraps around the wearers forearm and hand. That led me to think about a homunculus doing the same—arcane air strikes with napalm or pushing people around either the force ballista.

 

[Stoutstien]

It's a fairly hotly debated topic but as presented nothing prevents it. You do need to talk to your DM to find out how they would rule certain interactions like the homunculus being invisible and you activating the cannon.

There's a neat combos you can pull off like using be ready action to take advantage of your homunculus placing the EC nda exploding Cannon feature

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

There is no RAW answer. The weight of the eldritch cannon isn't specified. It can be "tiny" and "handheld". A heavy crossbow, which is definitely not handheld, is 18 lb. I'd say that the artillerist's toy fits well under the 60 pounds limit on what a STR 4 homunculus can lift.

Especially if you explain your DM it's modelled after an African swallow.

 

[Umbran]

There's a solid argument that the homonculus could carry a tiny cannon. However, it seems like it'd usually be a bad idea to have your cannon's mobility dependent on something with so few hit points. Making the homonculus such a tempting target may not pay off.

 

[Stoutstien]

There's a solid argument that the homonculus could carry a tiny cannon. However, it seems like it'd usually be a bad idea to have your cannon's mobility dependent on something with so few hit points. Making the homonculus such a tempting target may not pay off.

Since it's basically dodging all the time and has evasion it's fairly hearty as drone platform for the EC. Like I mentioned before you could always make it invisible to boot.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Well it’s funny how the idea came to me. I was going for less “quirky inventor” and more technology from lower planes.

so I was imagining a cannon with many small legs like a centipede that wrapped around the arm when desired.

Then I thought an imp-like homunculus would be fun and further that the “centipede” could sort of wrap around it like an exoskeleton. Whether “held” by the character or “worn” by the homunculus the bearer would a appear to throw energy spears or tridents. Just flavor—-not for advantage.

but then it occurred that the homunculus flies and is faster than the cannon.

was not sure if this might help position the flamethrower or shove to the side vs “back.”

if the homunculus drops (very possible) I assume the cannon could still skitter away.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It seems that one major RAW limitation would be that the homunculus' turn comes right after yours (although you use your own bonus action to power it taking actions other than dodge), whereas the Eldritch Cannon acts on your turn. Thus the cannon laden homunculus would have to get to places a full round before the cannon acts at that location.

Actually playing with this rule it seems like a fair tradeoff to me, given that the cannons can already walk 15 feet per round on their own. Instead (at the cost of an infusion) you've given it a bit more range and flying, but in another way limited its mobility by giving the battlefield a whole round to change between it getting somewhere and it acting, and made it dependent on a homoculus that has fairly low AC and fairly low hit points (albeit with near constant Dodge and Evasion), and which still only gets 30 feet of flight unless you use your bonus action (which you could be activating the Eldritch Cannon with) to make it Dash.

Since it's basically dodging all the time and has evasion it's fairly hearty as drone platform for the EC. Like I mentioned before you could always make it invisible to boot.

Invisibility is only useful if the enemies don't figure out that they are fighting an invisible widget carrying the eldritch cannon around. If they actually know what roughly where their target is and to attack it invisibility only gives them disadvantage which they already have from the Dodge action. In other words, pre-battle casting of invisibility is probably pretty clutch against the right enemy, but mid-battle invisibility may have no mechanical impact.

Even with disadvantage something with an AC 13 isn't exactly hard to hit. But there are plenty of enemies who just have no way of attacking a flying thing that stays above their reach. And any pot shots they take at a homoculus that don't kill it are a net win for the group since you can heal it with the Mending cantrip as soon as you have a few minutes, whereas healing the teammates the enemy could have been attacking takes valuable resources.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

It seems that one major RAW limitation would be that the homunculus' turn comes right after yours (although you use your own bonus action to power it taking actions other than dodge), whereas the Eldritch Cannon acts on your turn. Thus the cannon laden homunculus would have to get to places a full round before the cannon acts at that location.

Actually playing with this rule it seems like a fair tradeoff to me, given that the cannons can already walk 15 feet per round on their own. Instead (at the cost of an infusion) you've given it a bit more range and flying, but in another way limited its mobility by giving the battlefield a whole round to change between it getting somewhere and it acting, and made it dependent on a homoculus that has fairly low AC and fairly low hit points (albeit with near constant Dodge and Evasion), and which still only gets 30 feet of flight unless you use your bonus action (which you could be activating the Eldritch Cannon with) to make it Dash.



Invisibility is only useful if the enemies don't figure out that they are fighting an invisible widget carrying the eldritch cannon around. If they actually know what roughly where their target is and to attack it invisibility only gives them disadvantage which they already have from the Dodge action. In other words, pre-battle casting of invisibility is probably pretty clutch against the right enemy, but mid-battle invisibility may have no mechanical impact.

Even with disadvantage something with an AC 13 isn't exactly hard to hit. But there are plenty of enemies who just have no way of attacking a flying thing that stays above their reach. And any pot shots they take at a homoculus that don't kill it are a net win for the group since you can heal it with the Mending cantrip as soon as you have a few minutes, whereas healing the teammates the enemy could have been attacking takes valuable resources.

Honestly? I like advantages and competence but am actually a bit more about my vision/flavor.

all of those complications, though I had not yet thought of them, would be acceptable.

I like the abilities of artificer but am twisting myself in knots to not be a tinker gnome or have talking pots and pans a la Disney’s beauty and the beast!

 

[Stoutstien]

It seems that one major RAW limitation would be that the homunculus' turn comes right after yours (although you use your own bonus action to power it taking actions other than dodge), whereas the Eldritch Cannon acts on your turn. Thus the cannon laden homunculus would have to get to places a full round before the cannon acts at that location.

Actually playing with this rule it seems like a fair tradeoff to me, given that the cannons can already walk 15 feet per round on their own. Instead (at the cost of an infusion) you've given it a bit more range and flying, but in another way limited its mobility by giving the battlefield a whole round to change between it getting somewhere and it acting, and made it dependent on a homoculus that has fairly low AC and fairly low hit points (albeit with near constant Dodge and Evasion), and which still only gets 30 feet of flight unless you use your bonus action (which you could be activating the Eldritch Cannon with) to make it Dash.



Invisibility is only useful if the enemies don't figure out that they are fighting an invisible widget carrying the eldritch cannon around. If they actually know what roughly where their target is and to attack it invisibility only gives them disadvantage which they already have from the Dodge action. In other words, pre-battle casting of invisibility is probably pretty clutch against the right enemy, but mid-battle invisibility may have no mechanical impact.

Even with disadvantage something with an AC 13 isn't exactly hard to hit. But there are plenty of enemies who just have no way of attacking a flying thing that stays above their reach. And any pot shots they take at a homoculus that don't kill it are a net win for the group since you can heal it with the Mending cantrip as soon as you have a few minutes, whereas healing the teammates the enemy could have been attacking takes valuable resources.

Mage armor is pretty handy for the homunculus to push it up to 15 AC which is respectable. I personally prefer just use a familiar as a way to place the EC in a good position to avoid action economy issues but it's softer but worse case your EC is now on the ground. Once you get winged boots it's a whole new game for the class.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

mid-battle invisibility may have no mechanical impact.

IME the game has a lot of “target you can see” stuff.