Am I over or under thinking this?
I was planning to take heavily armored at level one. AC should be, well the best.
I thought of making the arcane firearm from a staff. Two handed is a d8.
I was going strength. I would get it to 16, but at higher level would go gauntlets of ogre power and belt of giant strength at really high level. But the point is that I would only boost attack stat to 16 and dump dex to 8 or 10.
I thought of going artillerist and using booming blade with the force ballista. My plan was to flavor it as a gauntlet that shoots like a black magic iron man.
at level 4 I would take gunner feat. So in total, variant human, two half feats and good melee opportunity with magic staff/arcane firearm as well as cannon.
often would use fairie fire for advantage. Since the cannon and blade cantrips are limitless would be free to use more utility spells.
just spitballing but with shield and false life, the best armor, I think the character could be pretty robust. Lastly, I would push con up since only worried about str to 16, intelligence otherwise.
I don’t want to play a quirky investor but a Gish like character that melees a lot, with as little quirky inventor flavor as possible.
was thinking the cannon could alternately be like a centipede that latches onto armor of character….
overpowered? No. Sturdy adventurer with good at will damage? Yes.
staff with bb and arcane firearm would be 3d8+4 (str and magic weapon infusion) and maybe more if force ballista (2d8) pushes and enemy want to come back. That’s level 5 anyway.
I could do reasonable damage in two attacks…if the creature wanted to come back at me after two hits and a push, add 2d8. Or of course have the healing going instead for regenerating “shield” hps
it’s not insane but reasonable and maybe saves some spells for utility and more roleplay (e.g. disguise self, etc).
this is all early level stuff. All the gadgets and options would no on a solid platform. I don’t see how they can ‘suck’ unless that is what you are going for.