D&D 5E Revising Artificer lore to be unmagical
Making a construct talk just by using pipe, steam, gear and the like is fantasy thus magic.
Grabing some rocks, flowers or root, and using a kit, that hold in your backpack to make potion is also mere fantasy, thus magic.
You can have many ways to handle and flavor magic in a fantasy world, but if you want to keep a realistic view on those things magic is magic.
My favorite is the healer kit, which is presented as a mundane item, what a wonderful magic item, that can make any dying person go back to stable condition in six seconds, even modern para medic or even an modern hospital cannot do that! Some may argue that healer kit is not tag as a magic item, is effect is still magical compare to real life point of view.
So yes an artificer is handling magic, not using spell won’t change that.
I like the idea of making the Artificer Vancian. I'd go further, and make it short rest Vancian.
They get gizmos. A gizmo is a device that casts an artificer "spell", once. Gizmos require constant monitoring and tweaking, and you can maintain at most a few of them at once.
At level 1, building a gizmo is something you can do over a long rest, but by level 5 you can build Gizmos over a short rest. Maybe eventually they can build a Gizmo in 10 minutes. The time it takes to build a gizmo is the "rest" refresh time.
The number of gizmos you can maintain ends up looking like Warlock spell slot progression, and the max level of the Gizmo you can build scales similarly.
You prepare your gizmo (build it) over the rest, and maintain it the rest of the day.
Now just have some fun with subclasses. For example:
The Alchemist gizmos are special in that you can hand them to someone else, and if the casting time is 1 action or 1 bonus action and the target is one creature or self the other person can drink it to get the effect.
They cannot build a gizmo that 'self maintains' like this -- all of the improvised stuff they build break down and needs constant repair and maintenance. Crafting a non-prototype is a process more similar to building a magical item than the above.
This artificer isn't ever casting spells. Their gizmos may use magic as part of physics (because that is what a technologist in a magical world would do), but they themselves have no magical abilities. They just activate gizmos.
They get gizmos. A gizmo is a device that casts an artificer "spell", once. Gizmos require constant monitoring and tweaking, and you can maintain at most a few of them at once.
At level 1, building a gizmo is something you can do over a long rest, but by level 5 you can build Gizmos over a short rest. Maybe eventually they can build a Gizmo in 10 minutes. The time it takes to build a gizmo is the "rest" refresh time.
The number of gizmos you can maintain ends up looking like Warlock spell slot progression, and the max level of the Gizmo you can build scales similarly.
You prepare your gizmo (build it) over the rest, and maintain it the rest of the day.
Now just have some fun with subclasses. For example:
The Alchemist gizmos are special in that you can hand them to someone else, and if the casting time is 1 action or 1 bonus action and the target is one creature or self the other person can drink it to get the effect.
They cannot build a gizmo that 'self maintains' like this -- all of the improvised stuff they build break down and needs constant repair and maintenance. Crafting a non-prototype is a process more similar to building a magical item than the above.
This artificer isn't ever casting spells. Their gizmos may use magic as part of physics (because that is what a technologist in a magical world would do), but they themselves have no magical abilities. They just activate gizmos.
There are points where lore and mechanics meet, and you may have hit one. It might give the class a bit of a balance issue, in that making the results non-magical would make them immune to things like Detect Magic, Dispel Magic, and Counterspell.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
While you are correct about the base assumptions of D&D this thread is specifically about my homebrew world and how to create a teknician, which shares similar story space to an artificer, but without magic.
The question at hand is can the artificer represent that with significant lore reworking, or should it be a new class.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
What you've described is kind of where I'm heading if I decide to do the full class rather than just a lore rewrite. It's a larger undertaking. I think I have about 50 or different items that can be created (just a list so far).
It is similar to the old Tinker Gnome concepts.
Oh, I am saying the gizmos list is the artificer spell list.
Like, that is it.
You could also restrict artificers to a book of blueprints (like a wizard spellbook) so you don't have to invent what each spells gizmo is, just the blueprints they have.
If an Atrificer can maintain 2 gizmos and it takes them 10 minutes to build one (which they can do during a short rest), and they are level 2 gizmos, that is a short rest artificer right there.
They basically can ritual cast every artificer spell, and can have 2 prepared.
You could even go for spell points, I mean gizmo points.
Lore is not realy important, and coming from other fantasy it should be squeeze and twisted to achieve a playable class.
Here is a stab at Gadgeteer artificer.
It is not perfectly balanced against the baseline artificer.
You get level/2 (rounded up) levels of "prepared spells" (gizmos), plus gadgets (cantrips). How you spend those points is mostly up to you.
At level 1 it takes an hour to recover or switch out; at level 5, this reduces to 10 minutes, then further at level 11 and 17. Shenanigans are encouraged.
Balance wise, your spell load is similar to a half-level short-rest warlock. At level 20, you can have 2 level 5 gizmos active, much like a level 10 warlock can. You have more flexibility than such a warlock, because you could have 10 level 1 gizmos instead of 2 level 5 gizmos.
Your spells known is replaced with a book of blueprints. This is a nerf, honestly.
I gave each subclass a unique way to interact with their gizmos and gadgets. Alchemists can make gizmo potions, artillerists arcane firearm is actually a gun that you can attack with (note: it intentionally uses dex to attack with, because I'm evil; but, missing doesn't stop you from casting a spell with the action; hitting is treated as a bonus, not a requirement to be effective), armorors can have an "supercharge" in their armor that casts a "real" spell as well as make an attack, and battle smiths can mount a gizmo on their steel defender which they can either cast through their defender (like a touch spell), or for free on a steel defender crit.
There is an explicit requirement to describe how each of your blueprints work.
For the fun of it, Gizmos are by default single-use, but when you use them you roll 1d20+proficiency; if the result is OVER 20, it amazingly doesn't break!
Artificer: Gadgeteer variant
Gadgeteer (Replaces Spellcasting)
You've studied how Gizmos and Gadgets work in this magical
world you belong to. While you have no ability to cast
spells, you can build marvelous inventions that use magic
and technology to create amazing effects.
Your Gizmos and Gadgets do not, unless otherwise noted, work
when someone else tries to use them. These Gizmos and Gadgets
require constant tweaking, repair and maintenance, so you can
only maintain a limited number of them at any one time.
When your Gizmo or Gadgets cause a spell attack to be used, use
your Gadget attack bonus of your intelligence modifier plus your
proficiency bonus. If they impose a DC, use 8 plus your
proficiency bonus plus your intelligence modifier.
The effects of Gizmos and Gadgets are often magical, but they do
not count as spells nor are you casting. If the effect requires
concentration, you must perform active maintenance on the effect
or it ends, and that requires concentration (as if concentrating
on a spell).
Supplies
Gadgets require components to build. These are usually abstracted
away by a Gadgeteers kit, which contains a myriad of components
specific to how you manifest Gadgeteering, be it clockwork, alchemy
or biological frankenstien creations.
If you do not have access to your Gadgeteers kit, you may have to
scrounge for parts. But so long as you have access to your
Gadgeteers kit you are assumed to recycle used Gadgets and scrounge
for new parts as you adventure.
Gadgets
At 1st level you know how to build and maintain two Gadgets. At
level 5, 11 and 17 you learn how to build and maintain one additional
Gadget.
Gadgets are devices you have perfected and can get to work reliably.
Each Gadget can be used to cause the effect of a specific artificer cantrip.
The action cost to activate your Gadget is the same as casting that
Cantrip.
If you lose your Gadget, building a new Gadget requires 1 hour.
Gizmos
Gizmos create more advanced effects than Gadgets, but tend to break
down after doing so.
At 1st level, you start with a book of 1st level blueprints (or formulas)
equal to your intelligence modifier (minimium of one). These are sometimes
stored in a book, but not all artificers are that organized. If you lose them,
rewriting these blueprints from scratch requires 12 hours per level of the
blueprint that you have mastered in the past, plus 4 hours for every interruption
(sleep, combat, meals).
For each Gizmo blueprint, select a spell from the artificer spell list, and
describe how your mad science manages to produce that effect when you use the
Gizmo. Using the Gizmo requires the same action cost as casting the spell, and
almost always only the creating Artificer can manage to pull it off.
You can find additional blueprints and add them to your collection. It is possible
that the blueprints you find include effects not on the Artificer spell list.
If the emulated spell has a material component, that (or something equivalent) is required
to construct the Gizmo. If the emulatedspell consumes the material component, using
the Gizmo destroys the component. If the component is not destroyed, has no cost, and is
not specific to a creature or location, then the Gadgeteers kit contains an
equivalent subsitute.
Every time you gain an artificer level, your ongoing research and tinkering means you
can produce 1 additional "functional" blueprint for a new Gizmo of a level you can build
from your working notes. This additional blueprint does not require the usual time
to write out.
At 1st level you can only build 1st level Gizmos. At level 5 you can
build 2nd level Gizmos, level 9 3rd level Gizmos, level 13 4th level
Gizmos, and 17 5th level Gizmos.
If you have non-artificier class levels, add 1/3 of them to your artificer level
to determine what level of Gizmos you can build. This can no more than double your
artificer level.
Building a Gizmo at level 1 requires 1 hour of work and access to the blueprint
(or formula) and a Gadgeteers kit. This is reduced to 10 minutes at
level 5, 2 minutes at level 11, and 1 minute at level 17.
You are constantly, and I mean constantly, maintaining your Gizmos. You have Gizmo
maintenance points (GMPs) equal half your artificer level (round up). Maintaining a level
X Gizmo costs X maintenance points; Gizmos that you do not maintain fall apart
and stop working in a matter of minutes. You have to invest these points while
building the Gizmo.
You can upgrade a Gizmos effect when you build it above its level by spending
extra GMPs, up to the highest level Gizmo you can build. This causes the effect to
have the "at higher level" clause of the emulated spell.
Once a Gizmo is used, it pretty much always fails and needs to be rebuilt. When you
use a Gizmo and its ongoing effect ends, make a Gizmo recovery roll; Roll 1d20
plus your proficiency modifier; if the result is greater than 20, the Gizmo manages
not to destroy itself and can be reused. (This is not an attack roll, saving throw or
ability check). If the Gizmo consumes components, those components must be
supplied again in order to use the Gizmo again. If a Gizmo causes an ongoing effect,
check for it being reusable when the ongoing effect ends.
Gizmos for spells with the ritual tag can be built and used immediately without
spending maintenance points on them. This takes the usual time to build the Gizmo;
if you don't use it immediately after building it, you have to invest GMPs or the new
Gizmo falls apart.
You can choose to neglect a Gizmo at any point and get back the GMPs. That Gizmo fails
almost immediately.
Alchemist
Starting at level 3, your Gizmos in the form of potions can sometimes be used by someone
else. If the spell has a casting time of 1 action or 1 bonus action, and targets exactly
1 creature or self, then the resulting Gizmo potion can be drunk by another creature as an action.
You still have to maintain that potion using your Gizmo maintenance points, or it becomes
unstable and you really, really don't want to drink it.
At level 5, you add your intelligence modifier to Gizmos and Gadgets effects, not spells.
Armorer
You can build a single special Gadget into your armor as a Gizmo. It requires 1 GMP to do so.
When you make an attack you can choose to instead use that special Gizmo once per turn
(until it breaks), and you add your intelligence bonus to the Gizmo Recovery Roll.
Artillerist
Your arcane firearm is a 1d8 damage ranged weapon that deals piercing, fire, cold or
lighting damage (your choice when you build it, which takes 8 hours) and has a 50' short and
200' long range that only you are proficient in. You can only maintain one arcane firearm
at a time. Your Gizmos with an action casting time can be ammunition for this weapon, and
your Gadgets can be a large supply of ammunition for it (dozens of shots). When you attack
with your arcane firearm, you can load such ammunition. Make an attack as normal. Then,
hit or miss, you can cast the spell so long as the creature you attacked is targeted by
the spell. If you hit, the creature has disadvantage on the first save, and you have
advantage on any spell attack rolls you make as part of the Gizmo or Gadget activation.
Battle Smith
You can build a single Gizmo into your steel defender. If the Gizmo is functioning when
your defender scores a critical hit, and the Gizmo requires a standard action or bonus action
to use, then your defender can activate the Gizmo as part of the attack. In addition, as an
action you can order your Steel Defender to use the Gizmo built into it.
Gadgeteer (Replaces Spellcasting)
You've studied how Gizmos and Gadgets work in this magical
world you belong to. While you have no ability to cast
spells, you can build marvelous inventions that use magic
and technology to create amazing effects.
Your Gizmos and Gadgets do not, unless otherwise noted, work
when someone else tries to use them. These Gizmos and Gadgets
require constant tweaking, repair and maintenance, so you can
only maintain a limited number of them at any one time.
When your Gizmo or Gadgets cause a spell attack to be used, use
your Gadget attack bonus of your intelligence modifier plus your
proficiency bonus. If they impose a DC, use 8 plus your
proficiency bonus plus your intelligence modifier.
The effects of Gizmos and Gadgets are often magical, but they do
not count as spells nor are you casting. If the effect requires
concentration, you must perform active maintenance on the effect
or it ends, and that requires concentration (as if concentrating
on a spell).
Supplies
Gadgets require components to build. These are usually abstracted
away by a Gadgeteers kit, which contains a myriad of components
specific to how you manifest Gadgeteering, be it clockwork, alchemy
or biological frankenstien creations.
If you do not have access to your Gadgeteers kit, you may have to
scrounge for parts. But so long as you have access to your
Gadgeteers kit you are assumed to recycle used Gadgets and scrounge
for new parts as you adventure.
Gadgets
At 1st level you know how to build and maintain two Gadgets. At
level 5, 11 and 17 you learn how to build and maintain one additional
Gadget.
Gadgets are devices you have perfected and can get to work reliably.
Each Gadget can be used to cause the effect of a specific artificer cantrip.
The action cost to activate your Gadget is the same as casting that
Cantrip.
If you lose your Gadget, building a new Gadget requires 1 hour.
Gizmos
Gizmos create more advanced effects than Gadgets, but tend to break
down after doing so.
At 1st level, you start with a book of 1st level blueprints (or formulas)
equal to your intelligence modifier (minimium of one). These are sometimes
stored in a book, but not all artificers are that organized. If you lose them,
rewriting these blueprints from scratch requires 12 hours per level of the
blueprint that you have mastered in the past, plus 4 hours for every interruption
(sleep, combat, meals).
For each Gizmo blueprint, select a spell from the artificer spell list, and
describe how your mad science manages to produce that effect when you use the
Gizmo. Using the Gizmo requires the same action cost as casting the spell, and
almost always only the creating Artificer can manage to pull it off.
You can find additional blueprints and add them to your collection. It is possible
that the blueprints you find include effects not on the Artificer spell list.
If the emulated spell has a material component, that (or something equivalent) is required
to construct the Gizmo. If the emulatedspell consumes the material component, using
the Gizmo destroys the component. If the component is not destroyed, has no cost, and is
not specific to a creature or location, then the Gadgeteers kit contains an
equivalent subsitute.
Every time you gain an artificer level, your ongoing research and tinkering means you
can produce 1 additional "functional" blueprint for a new Gizmo of a level you can build
from your working notes. This additional blueprint does not require the usual time
to write out.
At 1st level you can only build 1st level Gizmos. At level 5 you can
build 2nd level Gizmos, level 9 3rd level Gizmos, level 13 4th level
Gizmos, and 17 5th level Gizmos.
If you have non-artificier class levels, add 1/3 of them to your artificer level
to determine what level of Gizmos you can build. This can no more than double your
artificer level.
Building a Gizmo at level 1 requires 1 hour of work and access to the blueprint
(or formula) and a Gadgeteers kit. This is reduced to 10 minutes at
level 5, 2 minutes at level 11, and 1 minute at level 17.
You are constantly, and I mean constantly, maintaining your Gizmos. You have Gizmo
maintenance points (GMPs) equal half your artificer level (round up). Maintaining a level
X Gizmo costs X maintenance points; Gizmos that you do not maintain fall apart
and stop working in a matter of minutes. You have to invest these points while
building the Gizmo.
You can upgrade a Gizmos effect when you build it above its level by spending
extra GMPs, up to the highest level Gizmo you can build. This causes the effect to
have the "at higher level" clause of the emulated spell.
Once a Gizmo is used, it pretty much always fails and needs to be rebuilt. When you
use a Gizmo and its ongoing effect ends, make a Gizmo recovery roll; Roll 1d20
plus your proficiency modifier; if the result is greater than 20, the Gizmo manages
not to destroy itself and can be reused. (This is not an attack roll, saving throw or
ability check). If the Gizmo consumes components, those components must be
supplied again in order to use the Gizmo again. If a Gizmo causes an ongoing effect,
check for it being reusable when the ongoing effect ends.
Gizmos for spells with the ritual tag can be built and used immediately without
spending maintenance points on them. This takes the usual time to build the Gizmo;
if you don't use it immediately after building it, you have to invest GMPs or the new
Gizmo falls apart.
You can choose to neglect a Gizmo at any point and get back the GMPs. That Gizmo fails
almost immediately.
Alchemist
Starting at level 3, your Gizmos in the form of potions can sometimes be used by someone
else. If the spell has a casting time of 1 action or 1 bonus action, and targets exactly
1 creature or self, then the resulting Gizmo potion can be drunk by another creature as an action.
You still have to maintain that potion using your Gizmo maintenance points, or it becomes
unstable and you really, really don't want to drink it.
At level 5, you add your intelligence modifier to Gizmos and Gadgets effects, not spells.
Armorer
You can build a single special Gadget into your armor as a Gizmo. It requires 1 GMP to do so.
When you make an attack you can choose to instead use that special Gizmo once per turn
(until it breaks), and you add your intelligence bonus to the Gizmo Recovery Roll.
Artillerist
Your arcane firearm is a 1d8 damage ranged weapon that deals piercing, fire, cold or
lighting damage (your choice when you build it, which takes 8 hours) and has a 50' short and
200' long range that only you are proficient in. You can only maintain one arcane firearm
at a time. Your Gizmos with an action casting time can be ammunition for this weapon, and
your Gadgets can be a large supply of ammunition for it (dozens of shots). When you attack
with your arcane firearm, you can load such ammunition. Make an attack as normal. Then,
hit or miss, you can cast the spell so long as the creature you attacked is targeted by
the spell. If you hit, the creature has disadvantage on the first save, and you have
advantage on any spell attack rolls you make as part of the Gizmo or Gadget activation.
Battle Smith
You can build a single Gizmo into your steel defender. If the Gizmo is functioning when
your defender scores a critical hit, and the Gizmo requires a standard action or bonus action
to use, then your defender can activate the Gizmo as part of the attack. In addition, as an
action you can order your Steel Defender to use the Gizmo built into it.
It is not perfectly balanced against the baseline artificer.
You get level/2 (rounded up) levels of "prepared spells" (gizmos), plus gadgets (cantrips). How you spend those points is mostly up to you.
At level 1 it takes an hour to recover or switch out; at level 5, this reduces to 10 minutes, then further at level 11 and 17. Shenanigans are encouraged.
Balance wise, your spell load is similar to a half-level short-rest warlock. At level 20, you can have 2 level 5 gizmos active, much like a level 10 warlock can. You have more flexibility than such a warlock, because you could have 10 level 1 gizmos instead of 2 level 5 gizmos.
Your spells known is replaced with a book of blueprints. This is a nerf, honestly.
I gave each subclass a unique way to interact with their gizmos and gadgets. Alchemists can make gizmo potions, artillerists arcane firearm is actually a gun that you can attack with (note: it intentionally uses dex to attack with, because I'm evil; but, missing doesn't stop you from casting a spell with the action; hitting is treated as a bonus, not a requirement to be effective), armorors can have an "supercharge" in their armor that casts a "real" spell as well as make an attack, and battle smiths can mount a gizmo on their steel defender which they can either cast through their defender (like a touch spell), or for free on a steel defender crit.
There is an explicit requirement to describe how each of your blueprints work.
For the fun of it, Gizmos are by default single-use, but when you use them you roll 1d20+proficiency; if the result is OVER 20, it amazingly doesn't break!
Last edited:
Generic American Child
Villager
I'd love a link to that, it sounds amazing
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