D&D 5E Artificers, Vehicles, and Vehicle Infusions

[doctorbadwolf]

I made a similar thread a long time ago, but this one is not quite the same set of questions.

What I'm curious about is what y'all think of :

• An Artificer specialization focused on a personal vehicles
  • said vehicle starting with a hover speed of 40ft and altitude limit 10ft, speed affected by wind and/or terrain?
  • Eventually being able to have a vehicle that can also serve as a home base, basically a small airship
  • Vehicles with specific upgrade traits listed in the subclass vs bonus infusions that have to be used on the vehicle
• regardless of above, a set of vehicle specific infusions, and maybe a "infusion limit by vehicle size" table?
• What do you give a subclass with a vehicle, assuming the vehicle is large and can't go some places. Also it just feels better to have some of your subclass be about the character directly. Maybe a special weapon or other device? Oh! Maybe it's the main weapon on the vehicle, and you can detach it to use personally?
• How punny or silly can you stand a subclass to be?
  • eg, in the draft of an aeronaut i'm working on, the two attack actions are named weaponized abjurant beam (WAM) and ballistic accelerated attack manuever (BAAM), and the vehicle itself is a Dynamic Accelerated Aetherlocution Machine (DAAM)
• what sort of customizations would you expect from such a thing? I figure 2 at level 3, with the base stats being similar to a steel defender except it trades having it's own actions for having a hover speed and a ranged attack. Those number could drop a little more in some places, subject to a "prototype trait", which opens up room for roughly 3 offensive, 3 defensive, and 3 movement/utility, traits to choose from.
  • I'd love to hear ideas for vehicle traits, infusions, customizations, that don't assume an artificer subclass, and thoughts that do
  • My basic ideas are a SLAM module that increases base speed or speed when you dash significantly, a Force Multiplier that increases weapons damage, an abjuration based shielding, level 5 could have an option that gives full flight, advanced manuevering side repulsors that let you "juke" as a reaction when attacked, a silent engine system and obscuring paint job that helps with stealth

I also have vague ideas for vehicle infusions, including custom vehicle statblocks with infusion limits basically based on Star Wars Saga Edition, maybe even including ditching cargo space to fit some of the bigger upgrades to airships and the like. Stuff like the items in Ghosts of Saltmarsh for upgrading ships, plus stuff like magic shields and automaton crew.

Anyway, I hope im not the ony weirdo around here in love with fantasy crystal and aether powered vehicles!

 

[Stormonu]

I'd riff from "modern" customized vehicles - The Millenium Falcon, The General Lee, James Bond's Austin Martin, KITT, Back to the Future's DeLorean, Firefly, The Enterprise NCC-1701, etc. Mecha suits too would let you pull from Battletech, Robotech, Gundam and a host of other anime.

For D&D, for maximum cross-compatibility, I'd consider carts, carriages, coaches, wagons, rickshaws, "automated" palanquins, figurines of wondrous power, swan boat feather tokens, folding boats, gliders, kites, balloon airships, Eberron skyships, Spelljamming ships, seaborne vessels (and possible submersibles*, considering the number of undersea races) and so on.


Mecha suits might be out there for most D&D campaigns, but there is precedents with the Mighty Servant of Luke-O and the Wicker Juggernauts of the Knorric of Jakandor.

Personally, I wouldn't limit on size. If the group is playing Spelljammer and they're given a vessel of their own, as a player I'd want my Vehicular Artificer to be able to personalize and/or modify the ship to some degree even at low levels. In such a case, a special "Attuning" slot would be acceptable, and a representation of the "customized to hell" and "that's my ship!" trope seen in various fiction.

* Including Apparatus of Kwalish

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd riff from "modern" customized vehicles - The Millenium Falcon, The General Lee, James Bond's Austin Martin, KITT, Back to the Future's DeLorean, Firefly, The Enterprise NCC-1701, etc. Mecha suits too would let you pull from Battletech, Robotech, Gundam and a host of other anime.

Solid idea.

For D&D, for maximum cross-compatibility, I'd consider carts, carriages, coaches, wagons, rickshaws, "automated" palanquins, figurines of wondrous power, swan boat feather tokens, folding boats, gliders, kites, balloon airships, Eberron skyships, Spelljamming ships, seaborne vessels (and possible submersibles*, considering the number of undersea races) and so on.

Hell yeah, and spells related to vehicles (and mounts!) should be a thing.

Mecha suits might be out there for most D&D campaigns, but there is precedents with the Mighty Servant of Luke-O and the Wicker Juggernauts of the Knorric of Jakandor.

Yeah and in a space opera game, they’d fit right in. In my homebrew space opera setting, there is a Borderworlds region between the The Promised Dominion of Humanity (evil empire) and the Commonwealth of Free Worlds (Federation). In these Borderworlds, there are knights in mech suits. The big beefy hard hitters are called Angels, and the smaller and more nimble and stealthy mechs are called Night Hawks. Very anime.

Personally, I wouldn't limit on size. If the group is playing Spelljammer and they're given a vessel of their own, as a player I'd want my Vehicular Artificer to be able to personalize and/or modify the ship to some degree even at low levels. In such a case, a special "Attuning" slot would be acceptable, and a representation of the "customized to hell" and "that's my ship!" trope seen in various fiction.

* Including Apparatus of Kwalish

Excellent points. Yeah you’d want to be able to make a few modifications yourself, as it were.

Hmmm. Much to think about, I have…

 

[doctorbadwolf]

@Stormonu One thing you touched on is really making me think about the general topic and my aeronaut artificer subclass.

The current build gets basically a magitech speederbike (Star Wars), and can customize it a bit, and can upgrade it at later levels. But, focusing on that makes it hard to put things in that are focused on the artficer themselves.

One idea I had was that you could detach the main gun and use it as a personal power rifle.

What other stuff should the “airship artificer” be able to do? Repair airships faster, give ship systems a boost or THP, cast “self” spells on the ship, like absorb elements?

I feel like I’m just plain overlooking obvious stuff. Perhaps I need to refamiliarise myself with the wotc Star Wars games and how they handled outlaw tech/engineer characters, and think about how to simplify and make it more fantasy.

 

[bedir than]

@Stormonu One thing you touched on is really making me think about the general topic and my aeronaut artificer subclass.

The current build gets basically a magitech speederbike (Star Wars), and can customize it a bit, and can upgrade it at later levels. But, focusing on that makes it hard to put things in that are focused on the artficer themselves.

One idea I had was that you could detach the main gun and use it as a personal power rifle.

What other stuff should the “airship artificer” be able to do? Repair airships faster, give ship systems a boost or THP, cast “self” spells on the ship, like absorb elements?

I feel like I’m just plain overlooking obvious stuff. Perhaps I need to refamiliarise myself with the wotc Star Wars games and how they handled outlaw tech/engineer characters, and think about how to simplify and make it more fantasy.

A detachable scout (find familiar ish) that they can send out.

 

[Parmandur]

Sounds interesting.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A detachable scout (find familiar ish) that they can send out.

Dude. Yes. Also, wouldn’t that imply some degree of intelligence in the vehicle?

Sounds interesting.
View attachment 282494

I’ve been thinking about having different choices of movement, rather than just “you have a fly speed with an altitude limit of 10ft”, each with benefits and opportunity cost, bc the above image is rad as hell. That’s the master cycle, yeah?

 

[Parmandur]

Dude. Yes. Also, wouldn’t that imply some degree of intelligence in the vehicle?

I’ve been thinking about having different choices of movement, rather than just “you have a fly speed with an altitude limit of 10ft”, each with benefits and opportunity cost, bc the above image is rad as hell. That’s the master cycle, yeah?

Correct.

 

[bedir than]

Dude. Yes. Also, wouldn’t that imply some degree of intelligence in the vehicle?

Like an INT 3 kind of thing, maybe.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Like an INT 3 kind of thing, maybe.

I see no reason it should be dumber than a wolf. Still, and advanced [dumb name for vehicle ai] unit could be an upgrade option, rather than baseline.

 

[Stormonu]

@Stormonu One thing you touched on is really making me think about the general topic and my aeronaut artificer subclass.

The current build gets basically a magitech speederbike (Star Wars), and can customize it a bit, and can upgrade it at later levels. But, focusing on that makes it hard to put things in that are focused on the artficer themselves.

One idea I had was that you could detach the main gun and use it as a personal power rifle.

What other stuff should the “airship artificer” be able to do? Repair airships faster, give ship systems a boost or THP, cast “self” spells on the ship, like absorb elements?

I feel like I’m just plain overlooking obvious stuff. Perhaps I need to refamiliarise myself with the wotc Star Wars games and how they handled outlaw tech/engineer characters, and think about how to simplify and make it more fantasy.

Scotty/La Forge/Trip Tucker III/Han would be good models for abilities - faster repair, defensive or offensive boosts ("moar power to shields!"). A lot of tropes this come from has the one-shot modification; some "I'm not sure it'll work or blow us up" super power-up (read: spell) gimmick. Think cloaking device (invisibility), Yamato gun (disintegration), Hyperjump (Teleport) and the like. Hell, a sailing ship that can use a modified animate dead to create drones that act as crewmembers, gun crew or boarding marines sounds like a cool ability I'd consider for an Artificer.

I'm not too hot on the idea of a detachable gun (can't think of a vehicle off the top of my head that does it, primarily), but it would work on things like transformable mecha (thinking like the VF-1 Valkyrie from Robotech), battlesuits or possibly a "back-up weapon". Toting around a vehicle's main weapon, to me, is on the order of giving out a Buster Sword (or portable Ballista...) to someone in D&D. I think it should be an option/power/slot, but not necessarily an automatic ability.

I think a personal conveyance is a great ability that fits right along the steel defender and battle turret. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it - treat it like the Paladin's mount for the most part so that the class can still operate in those places where a mount/vehicle wouldn't be prudent. Don't forget that a personal conveyance could be quite small - like a Segway, unicycle, Tenser's Floating Disc (the 4E version), iron man's battlesuit (even it's just the hand repulsors or a rocket pack like mandolarian or rocketeer) and the like.

On Intelligence, KITT was pretty freakin' intelligent, no reason not to allow the vehicle sidekick to not have access to it, even if an average/high intelligence costs a perk/slot. That could bring it up to a sort of sidekick/henchman level.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Scotty/La Forge/Trip Tucker III/Han would be good models for abilities - faster repair, defensive or offensive boosts ("moar power to shields!"). A lot of tropes this come from has the one-shot modification; some "I'm not sure it'll work or blow us up" super power-up (read: spell) gimmick. Think cloaking device (invisibility), Yamato gun (disintegration), Hyperjump (Teleport) and the like. Hell, a sailing ship that can use a modified animate dead to create drones that act as crewmembers, gun crew or boarding marines sounds like a cool ability I'd consider for an Artificer.

Yeah I do think that the ability to cast spells through the vehicle, and perhaps cast self spells on the vehicle instead of yourself, is a big must.

Current build gets a teleportation spell at almost every “extra spells” level, absorb elements, haste, freedom of movement, etc.

I’m gonna try polishing up the personal vehicle to be like a steel defender but more customizable, and figure out where to fit in an Improvisational Engineering feature, and other ideas from this thread.

I'm not too hot on the idea of a detachable gun (can't think of a vehicle off the top of my head that does it, primarily), but it would work on things like transformable mecha (thinking like the VF-1 Valkyrie from Robotech), battlesuits or possibly a "back-up weapon". Toting around a vehicle's main weapon, to me, is on the order of giving out a Buster Sword (or portable Ballista...) to someone in D&D. I think it should be an option/power/slot, but not necessarily an automatic ability.

I’ll give it more thought.

I think a personal conveyance is a great ability that fits right along the steel defender and battle turret. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it - treat it like the Paladin's mount for the most part so that the class can still operate in those places where a mount/vehicle wouldn't be prudent.

Makes sense. In a setting where magitech vehicles are a thing, the archetype should be able to tune and repair and upgrade any vehicle, not just their own.

KDon't forget that a personal conveyance could be quite small - like a Segway, unicycle, Tenser's Floating Disc (the 4E version), iron man's battlesuit (even it's just the hand repulsors or a rocket pack like mandolarian or rocketeer) and the like.

On Intelligence, KITT was pretty freakin' intelligent, no reason not to allow the vehicle sidekick to not have access to it, even if an average/high intelligence costs a perk/slot. That could bring it up to a sort of sidekick/henchman level.

Definitely agree. It allows for a vehicle that can’t be taken in some places, the artificer is still able to benefit from the subclass, by having a sidekick. And the vehicle can be messaged and told to move to a different place.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What do y’all like in sci-fantasy/magitech vehicles, tho?

Do you want customization, or just simple rules?

 

[Parmandur]

What do y’all like in sci-fantasy/magitech vehicles, tho?

Do you want customization, or just simple rules?

Keep it simple is probably best.

 

[Stormonu]

Up front it should be simple to use, but there should be enough customization under the hood to really dig into the guts and do some wild stuff if you want to. Something akin to a Warlock. You can throw a basic Warlock together fairly quickly and it be easy to use at the table, but between spells and invocations, you've got a lot of ways to customize and personalize the character.

 

[Umbran]

Mecha suits might be out there for most D&D campaigns, but there is precedents with the Mighty Servant of Luke-O and the Wicker Juggernauts of the Knorric of Jakandor.

There is already the Armorer subclass. A mecha-suit is just that armorer writ large.

 

[Pedantic]

You could probably steal from the subclass for the A5E artificer built for this, the Machinist.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Up front it should be simple to use, but there should be enough customization under the hood to really dig into the guts and do some wild stuff if you want to. Something akin to a Warlock. You can throw a basic Warlock together fairly quickly and it be easy to use at the table, but between spells and invocations, you've got a lot of ways to customize and personalize the character.

Yeah I think having different weapon load outs, different speed setups (high speed va middle speed with boost, maybe land cycle is faster than hover bike) things like that.

By making it a thing you cast spells through, it becomes easier to give a decent power budget without it dominating the entire subclass.

I’m thinking a long range arcane canon type attack (action to fire, damage similar to an Artillerist using thier canon or I guess it could “shoot” a cantrip, but I dislike that), mount level speed, decent armor (HP), higher AC when you move at least 30ft, reaction ability to “juke”.

I’ll have to dig into the Battlesmith again, to see if there is room for a detachable familiar at level 3 or if that needs to be an upgrade.

As for the ship “infusions”, I think that I’ll go with “modules” instead, and they will mostly live outside the artificer, but the artificer can have things to be extra good with them. Maybe by the simple method of having them require checks with tools, crafting times, and maybe language that you can spend a charge or a use of a spell to power up modules, which would make the art’s spell storing item into a booster.

Also I think general rule is helm or engineering can cast spells through a vehicle, as if it were a Spellcasting focus they were “wielding”, and gunners can cast through their weapons. It’s not a big boost but it combines ship and PCs in a way that hopefully makes ship combat fun for everyone.

 

[Starfox]

I wrote a sketch for a Conveyor subclass of the artificer, but it is a cluttered mess and needs several design passes.

Conveyor (5A) - Action

hastur.net

 

[Starfox]

I wrote a sketch for a Conveyor subclass of the artificer, but it is a cluttered mess and needs several design passes.

Conveyor (5A) - Action

hastur.net

Edit: Looking at the Aeronaut artificer thread, this might or might not work better as several different subclasses for different kinds of vehicles.