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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8996601" data-attributes="member: 6777737">I played a Rock Gnome Battle Smith Artificer in Descent to Avernus. I went with the "weird steampunk engineer" route as the theme for the character.In the campaign, whenever he "cast a spell" I described the character pulling out some bizarre contraption and using that. For example, the Mark I version of faerie fire was an inflated sheep bladder filled with glowing fungal spores. Throwing it made the bladder deflate, spreading a cloud over the area. The Mark II was a gyrogear drone that flew through the air and peppered the targets with glowing paint. The Mark III was a fire extinguisher like vessel with a spray nozzle that I just sprayed the area with. When he cast Enhance Ability Strength, he reached into his bag and took out a metal can that read "Spinach" across the front of it. I never needed to cast Revivify, but if I had it would've taken the form of a defibrilator. When he cast Invisiblity, he pulled an adhesive patch out, stuck it to his arm, and activated it which appeared to completely electrocute him for a moment... and then he vanished. When he cast Alarm, he strung trip wires all around the area.Part of the fun, and the challenge, of running the character was inventing something completely novel every time I cast a spell. I mostly succeeded. (Shield got to be too difficult.) It was important to always call things "Mark I", "Mark II", and so on, to reinforce that theme. When people would ask about the old versions, I'd just invent a reason that it was fatally flawed and not worth pursuing.For my magic items, I took a Bag of Holding, which was invaluable if only as a prop for where all my gadgets were stored. I also took a revolver (a firearm with hand crossbow stats in our game) that had the Repeating Shot infusion on it. It was named "Hollywood" because you never reloaded it. Yes, it still had a six-shot cylinder. I mean, obviously it needs that or it wouldn't be a revolver. I also took an Alchemy Jug precisely because I wanted to find creative uses for 2 gallons of mayonnaise.When I reached level 11, the "spell storing item" typically stored Invisibility. It took the form of a badge pinned to your left breast. When activated by tapping it, it specifically made the character disappear like a Romulan Cloaking Device, complete with the swooshing sound effect.With Flash of Genius, I tried to have it work by having my character say something that was both very obvious but also very incorrect. "You could pick that lock much easier if you used the key." "Just don't think about that shower of acid, and it won't hurt you. Acid isn't real anyways!" "Have you tried remembering the things you've learned about Religion?" I don't know why I decided on that, but it was fun.The Steel Defender took the form of a humanoid construct. I crafted a saddle for it and rode on it's back, raining down shots from Hollywood.  I never had any combat feats, but it was fun! I even took Land Vehicle proficiency to help solidify it, and that became important in Avernus for other reasons.The character was always in the role of support and utility. He never stood out in combat as a damage dealer, but he was always effective as a force multiplier. He was very hard to play a level 1 and 2, but once I got to level 3 and got Battle Ready, the character could easily hold his own in combat.My overall evaluation:Battle Smith has the most to offer overall and is the clear winner. Getting Int to attack rolls makes the class much easier to play, and Steel Defender is just a huge boon on top of that. You're incredibly diverse and flexible.Artillerist seems mostly fun if you assume you're going to be pulling giant guns out. I never liked the idea of spawning turrets, but the idea of pulling out a combination rocket launcher and flame thrower seems fun.Alchemist is extremely cool and you could use trappings of alchemical substances for spells. But, I think Experimental Elixir is so bad that it's difficult to justify the subclass at all. If you got 2 free elixirs every day at level 3 then I might try it, but as written it's just a feelsbad subclass.Armorer seems fun if you really want to be about being a character that climbs into a magical battle suit. I'd like to run one eventually.</blockquote>

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