5E Class - The Artisan

So, after letting ideas work their way through my head, I decided to rework the class to be a bit more broad - it now covers all the different aspects of crafting present in 5E. Furthermore, the class is being built to work with the crafting system provided by Ninja_Prawn here.

NaturalCrit link

More coming soon! Suggestions and ideas are always welcome.

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Hello,

it's me again.
It's been a while since my last homebrew, but here we go again.
What we have here is the blacksmith, who is focused on the crafts rather than combat, although I envision him pretty front-heavy combat-wise, as having worked in a forge is bound to have built up his skills at hammering things. I would love some criticism and some ideas to fill in the gaps that currently exist in his feature list.

I like the fluff. Seems fitting for the class.

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Work of Thy Hands

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Why the xp penalty, though? A smith can learn just as well as anyone else. And I would argue they learn better than some low-Int barbarians.

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Successive Strikes

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I like it, but instead of just your blacksmith's hammer, I'd say it applies to any weapon you've forged as well, to keep it in line with Work of Thy Hands.

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Originally Posted by Oramac

I like the fluff. Seems fitting for the class.


Why the xp penalty, though? A smith can learn just as well as anyone else. And I would argue they learn better than some low-Int barbarians.


I like it, but instead of just your blacksmith's hammer, I'd say it applies to any weapon you've forged as well, to keep it in line with Work of Thy Hands.

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The xp penalty is so that the blacksmith advances primarily through craftsmanship; adventuring in my opinion is more of a way to obtain rare materials, tools and methods. This will be shown especially in the Lores.

For the hammer, I guess I could change it to encompass one-handed weapons that you've crafted.

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Originally Posted by Rogem

The xp penalty is so that the blacksmith advances primarily through craftsmanship; adventuring in my opinion is more of a way to obtain rare materials, tools and methods. This will be shown especially in the Lores.

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Thematically, I can understand that. But mechanically it's not really effective.

Why would I want to play this class instead of another class with the Guild Artisan background and a set of Smith's Tools? Dwarves even have the option of free proficiency in smith's tools.

Nerfing the XP gain to force them into craftsmanship just feels wrong.

EDIT: I'm not trying to be harsh, or telling you not to do it. Just asking questions to try to get the class to be competitive with the PHB classes/backgrounds.

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Originally Posted by Oramac

Thematically, I can understand that. But mechanically it's not really effective.

Why would I want to play this class instead of another class with the Guild Artisan background and a set of Smith's Tools? Dwarves even have the option of free proficiency in smith's tools.

Nerfing the XP gain to force them into craftsmanship just feels wrong.

EDIT: I'm not trying to be harsh, or telling you not to do it. Just asking questions to try to get the class to be competitive with the PHB classes/backgrounds.

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Yeah, I get what you mean. I intend on adding features that make the class really shine when it comes to making items, so that the party will go from "how much will this sell for?" to "can this be made into something?". Include tables and what-not. Those are coming up for the Magnum Opus as well, just need to restore my Inspiration Dice with a long rest before I continue.

EDIT: The idea is that the player would have maybe a bit of a slow start, but then quickly catch up, as they start getting requests from merchants, officers and nobles. In effect, these would be quests in the same way that Paladins in previous editions had a quest for a steed and another for the holy avenger. Of course, these require more interaction with the DM, but he can also use them for adventure hooks - say a nobleman requests a dragonbone-inlaid mythril necklace, but mythril is only obtainable by delving deep into the Underdark.

Makes sense. I'm still not convinced the xp nerf is the way to do it, but I at least see your point.

Other than that, so far it does look like a fun idea for a class.

Work of thy hands, you get half xp. When you finish a commission you get a DM assigned xp amount.

Can you ever think of a scenario where the DM doesn't just put you on par with the party?

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Originally Posted by Oramac

Makes sense. I'm still not convinced the xp nerf is the way to do it, but I at least see your point.

Other than that, so far it does look like a fun idea for a class.

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very nice comment

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Originally Posted by Final Hyena

Work of thy hands, you get half xp. When you finish a commission you get a DM assigned xp amount.

Can you ever think of a scenario where the DM doesn't just put you on par with the party?

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Well, he might deem that making a horseshoe for a peasant might not be quite on par with killing the evil mage terrorizing the village.

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Originally Posted by Rogem

Well, he might deem that making a horseshoe for a peasant might not be quite on par with killing the evil mage terrorizing the village.

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But he killed the evil mage while maintaining a normal job at the same time. I mean the day you become a superhero and hold down a day job with ease I'll change my mind. This isn't even considering that not all xp is for adventuring.

But the point I was trying to get at is the DM wouldn't split the xp up much anyway, because the smith would fall behind and just get bored and give up.

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Originally Posted by Final Hyena

But he killed the evil mage while maintaining a normal job at the same time. I mean the day you become a superhero and hold down a day job with ease I'll change my mind. This isn't even considering that not all xp is for adventuring.

But the point I was trying to get at is the DM wouldn't split the xp up much anyway, because the smith would fall behind and just get bored and give up.

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I know, and that is partly a good reason to do this. Say, he makes a piece of armor from something obtained during the course of an adventure. Immediately, that piece of armor has a story behind it, how it came to be. It's not just some generic chain mail +1. Like I said before, these commissions can serve as excellent story hooks to get the party to go into more exotic areas, and since the DM is very likely to keep him close to the exp level of the rest of the party, no biggie. However, this way, the player is encouraged even further to do whatever a blacksmith does, rather than just making a single sword at level 1 and then forever keep on using that.

I've made it an optional rule, to show that "you can do this, but don't have to". In hindsight, it might be a bit of backlash towards my group never considering that you can indeed get exp from things other than combat, and that combat seems to be their first option to solving any problem...

I see no reason to play this class at all. First off blacksmiths have hammers of all shapes and sizes and those hammers are specialized for black smiting and a good blacksmith wouldn't even think about striking anything other the metal. Next I can make a human fightet with magic initiative feet form mending cantrip and the background Guild artisan. With that character I can proform the same things and still handle my self in combat. From what I read the blacksmith has a d8 hit die and no armour proficiencies he has simple weapons but discourage the use of anything other than his hammer or possibly crafted weapons. No ability to keep u alive in battle like unarmored defense, no spells. If you would like my opinion (sorry I'm a little to late into the typing) I would try and take the better features this class that are unique and turn it into a archetype for a fighter. It would be a breath of fresh air for a battle force class.

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Originally Posted by Sir cryosin

I see no reason to play this class at all. First off blacksmiths have hammers of all shapes and sizes and those hammers are specialized for black smiting and a good blacksmith wouldn't even think about striking anything other the metal. Next I can make a human fightet with magic initiative feet form mending cantrip and the background Guild artisan. With that character I can proform the same things and still handle my self in combat. From what I read the blacksmith has a d8 hit die and no armour proficiencies he has simple weapons but discourage the use of anything other than his hammer or possibly crafted weapons. No ability to keep u alive in battle like unarmored defense, no spells. If you would like my opinion (sorry I'm a little to late into the typing) I would try and take the better features this class that are unique and turn it into a archetype for a fighter. It would be a breath of fresh air for a battle force class.

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There's a reason for not making him an archetype, and that's because Fighter is so boring that I don't personally know anyone willing to play as one. If I'm going to do something for that class, it's going to be a full re-do of its features. And to be honest, this class has plenty of reason to give it a go. One being that you're not completely locked to being only useful in combat, which makes classes such as the Ranger and Rogue much more attractive than the Fighter.

I'm going to see about those armor proficiencies sooner or later, as well as give him something to make him more interesting in combat.

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Originally Posted by Rogem

There's a reason for not making him an archetype, and that's because Fighter is so boring that I don't personally know anyone willing to play as one. If I'm going to do something for that class, it's going to be a full re-do of its features. And to be honest, this class has plenty of reason to give it a go. One being that you're not completely locked to being only useful in combat, which makes classes such as the Ranger and Rogue much more attractive than the Fighter.

I'm going to see about those armor proficiencies sooner or later, as well as give him something to make him more interesting in combat.

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I don't fined the fighter boring at all I find the fighter more fun for rp to play. You have to think come up with clever ways to accomplish things because you don't have spells or other abilities to rely on.

This is an amazing concept that I've wanted to see/ try my hand on for a long time!

Props to you for being creative. My only concern is the time/cost/facilities needed to craft items of your own + the availability of mending as a cantrip.
My top of the head solution to this would be that the blacksmith would fall under a more diverse "battlecrafter" or "chantsmith" class that is magically enchanted would included smithing as one path and enchanting + potion brewing/alchemy as another at the exchange of raw power (such an archetype would be bonded to and would benefit from their creations more than other people using their crafts).

Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Goran

This is an amazing concept that I've wanted to see/ try my hand on for a long time!

Props to you for being creative. My only concern is the time/cost/facilities needed to craft items of your own + the availability of mending as a cantrip.
My top of the head solution to this would be that the blacksmith would fall under a more diverse "battlecrafter" or "chantsmith" class that is magically enchanted would included smithing as one path and enchanting + potion brewing/alchemy as another at the exchange of raw power (such an archetype would be bonded to and would benefit from their creations more than other people using their crafts).

Thoughts?

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Yes, I actually stumbled upon Ninja Prawn's advanced crafting supplement yesterday, and that got me to think about the possibility of a more "general" crafter class that gets additional things from choosing their specialty craft. In any case, I am likely to use those rules as the base of the crafting system. Maybe change the level 20 capstone to be the sentient/artifact item creation.

What if the EXP that you don't gain is directed into a pool similar to the Artificer's Crafting Reserve, which you can use to provide some sort of bonus on your crafting checks, or to give the items you craft some kind of bonus such as turning a shortsword into a +1 shortsword. (And before someone says anything I'm aware magic items are generally rare in 5e, but I needed an example)

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Originally Posted by Rogem

Yes, I actually stumbled upon Ninja Prawn's advanced crafting supplement yesterday, and that got me to think about the possibility of a more "general" crafter class that gets additional things from choosing their specialty craft. In any case, I am likely to use those rules as the base of the crafting system. Maybe change the level 20 capstone to be the sentient/artifact item creation.

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This would be the first class I see that would have their 20th level feature be something that can be used by others - aka can augment other classes as much as it can augment itself. Assuming there is a hypothetical power budget of "100 points", then said feature would boost all classes above that while keeping the smith on "100 points". In other words if your creations work the same on everyone, then you'd always have to be weaker than the rest of the classes if you are balanced around your capability to smith. There are two ways to battle this that I can think of; one would be that you are as powerful as the rest of the classes, Without your crafted items, which would then lead to having to trim a lot of power/flavour from the crafting experience. The other would be that no matter what, all crafts are better utilized by you, including your own. Option B would allow you to pump all the flavour you need in the class, and still feel good about crafting stuff.

Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Goran

This would be the first class I see that would have their 20th level feature be something that can be used by others - aka can augment other classes as much as it can augment itself. Assuming there is a hypothetical power budget of "100 points", then said feature would boost all classes above that while keeping the smith on "100 points". In other words if your creations work the same on everyone, then you'd always have to be weaker than the rest of the classes if you are balanced around your capability to smith. There are two ways to battle this that I can think of; one would be that you are as powerful as the rest of the classes, Without your crafted items, which would then lead to having to trim a lot of power/flavour from the crafting experience. The other would be that no matter what, all crafts are better utilized by you, including your own. Option B would allow you to pump all the flavour you need in the class, and still feel good about crafting stuff.

Thoughts?

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You've now made me consider the possibility of making a proper craftsman class, that lets you select your own preferred set of tools... Especially given with how I seem to be completely out of juice for finishing up the sub-classes. *shrug* Oh well, I have lots of time to do it later.

I've rebranded the class as Artisan, and made various other changes to the class, including a rather major buff to the bonus provided by The Work of Thy Hands. Only one feature and sub-classes short.

Ideas for sub-classes:
Group support (Spellcasting?)
Selfish benefits (Elemental damage)

Any thoughts?

I looked at this originally when it was a smith, and now it's looking a lot better! Now, it doesn't penalize you for adventuring (which most parties do) and it let's you be any kind of crafter you want. I suggest that one of your sub-classes give the extra attack feature or if it's the elemental damage, something like the Cleric's divine strikes. That way there is a damage choice for the class. The other should be support based like you suggest! Over all really cool!

An update, yay!

Finally added in the 17th level feature, as well as some tools that were included in Ninja_Prawn's ACP and that were previously missing. Also lined out some non-craftsman-like tools, such as the disguiser's kits and musical instruments.

Only sub-classes to go!

P.S. Anything that looks like it needs more defining or work?

I just want to share this: http://www.middlefingerofvecna.com/2...craftsman.html

I really like both of the directions in the Craftsman class, but I absolutely adore Ninja_Prawn's work with the Advanced Crafting Guide. If you could draw inspiration off of these for use with Ninja_Prawn's Crafting thingy, that'd be super awesome!

Hey man, I love the class but I am having issues accessing the Professional Lores. I am just wondering if that part is not finished or if I am just having issues with the pad.

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Originally Posted by KoyukiTei13

I just want to share this: http://www.middlefingerofvecna.com/2...craftsman.html

I really like both of the directions in the Craftsman class, but I absolutely adore Ninja_Prawn's work with the Advanced Crafting Guide. If you could draw inspiration off of these for use with Ninja_Prawn's Crafting thingy, that'd be super awesome!

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Fun fact: The Complete Craftsman is coming out in the next few months, and Prawn's Crafting guide is getting retooled and rolled into that.

Hope it going alright

I would personally roll crafting items into class features as done in the ua Artificer http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/do...r_20170109.pdf. It has the flavor of crafting without the clunky mechanics that 3.5 used making crafting impractical unless you created a demiplane with altered time laws and loopholes like that.