D&D 5E Spelless Artificer

[Filthy Lucre]

I'm planning on running a Steampunk campaign where my player's will not have access to magic. Classes like fighter, rogue, spelless ranger, and even barbarian are very easy to reflavor for that setting, (unchanged, unchanged, gentleman explorer, noble savage; these would replace the aforementioned classes). However finding a fit for a technologist type class is proving difficult. Since I don't want to create a whole new class from scratch I wanted to borrow as much work as I possibly could from work WotC has already done. This makes the Artificer class the natural go-to for my needs. The only problem is I don't really know what to give it to replace it's lost spells. Here are some of my analysis and thoughts:

The artificer spell list is actually pretty weak - especially early on. So it doesn't seem like the spells they get are hugely important to the class over all - which is good. This makes it easier to replace. What I was thinking about was allowing them to essentially double up on the wondrous invention: give them a piece of gear and also a "wand". By "wand" I mean an item that reproduces the effect of a spell. Right now you might be thinking "Why cut their spells just to give them spells"? Having a single item that reproduces a spell in game terms multiple times a day feels more like a tangible invention than just re-fluffing the way their magic already works. Essentially, I'd vastly limit their "spells known" in exchange for being able to cast the ones they do know a lot more often.

I'm really interested in your feed back not just on this idea but on any others that would make a "spelless" artificer.

 

[jaelis]

Could you let them keep their spells, but reflavor them all to be wondrous inventions? So they can cast, say, cure wounds, but you describe it as using an elixir they had prepared. Most of the artificer spells look like they would be pretty easy to describe that way.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

Could you let them keep their spells, but reflavor them all to be wondrous inventions? So they can cast, say, cure wounds, but you describe it as using an elixir they had prepared. Most of the artificer spells look like they would be pretty easy to describe that way.

Short answer is... ya. That's not ideal for me just because I pine for the simulationism of 3.5 but it's definitely a workable solution. However the subclasses would also need some work because the "gun" that the gunsmith subclass gets is laughable compared to a regular ol pistol or rifle (2d6/2d8 respectively).

To me it also seems weird that an invention would work like... 2 times a day. My steampunk is very gritty and "fantasy realism" - not super science so a lot of magic spells would be flattly impossible to port over as technology and I want my technologist creating static utility items.

 

[jaelis]

To me it also seems weird that an invention would work like... 2 times a day. My steampunk is very gritty and "fantasy realism" - not super science so a lot of magic spells would be flattly impossible to port over as technology and I want my technologist creating static utility items.

If you're going for gritty realism then I don't see that the traditional artificer is in line with that. Spells or not, they do sort of supernatural things.

As for the 2 times per day, figure the devices they use take time to prep, and they get out of tune if they sit around for too long. The artificer is basically spending all his free time during the day working on his devices, and the limit on spell per day just represents how many items they can keep functional at a time.

I work in research, that's pretty much how all our stuff goes

 

[Xeviat]

Artificer's spell casting is on the same order as Arcane Trickster, so compare what the AT gets compared to other Rogue subclasses and give something similar to them.


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