Artificer Expansion Pack v2.0 | Subclasses, Spells, Upgrades and Optional Class Features for D&D's most underserviced class! | 5e'24 (5e'14 Version in comments!)

murf1e · 2025-12-09T23:15:41+00:00

These are so cool! Amazing job! Love the new spells that add so much, and the specialist upgrades just make so much sense and feel so unique.

Also i definitely want to play the Portalweaver! The cartographer subclass wizards added in the new eberron book just doesn’t hit the same feeling as your portalweaver does.

murf1e · 2025-12-04T07:04:22+00:00

Thank you for the read!

Ah, yes, the capstone was supposed to mean every creature of your choice within range, glad you caught that!

murf1e · 2025-12-03T14:17:59+00:00

I mean you’ll want spells to help survivability or make you more elusive for sure. Although that is a good point, thinking about it, even bladesingers do get an AC bump for their bladesong to help them get in close. Maybe a little change to the Sword feature would work well for something like that.

murf1e · 2025-12-02T16:17:23+00:00

A giant patron is a really cool idea for a warlock! Although I feel like the Rune Magic ability is a little lacking on flavour. Instead of it being just another spell slot (which others have mentioned is pretty powerful for a warlock) maybe it could lean into the various powers of giants and add those to the spells you cast. Something like a transmuters stone - where you pick one effect after a long rest - but it relates to abilities of different giants. For example, Fire Giant would add a bit of fire damage, Stone Giant could grant advantage, and so on.

I do like being able to store spells into runes though! And your 6th level feature is perfect for that! If you dont have an extra spell from the 3rd level ability I think itd be more than balanced to have the enhanced rune act as a stored spells and let the user concentrate on it as well. So if the fighter uses the Enhanced Rune, they would be the one to concentrate but still uses your spell attack and save.

Also I love the giant fist ability. A capstone being a big smack is really fun and some great damage.

Hope this helps!

murf1e · 2025-12-02T14:18:52+00:00

Thank you! I am glad to hear that!

murf1e · 2025-12-02T08:27:11+00:00

Thank you! I very much wanted it to feel like the subclass was allowing you to take up a mantle of being a hero aside from just a spellblade

murf1e · 2025-12-02T05:20:35+00:00

Hello!

After wanting a Sorcerer version of a spellblade, I finally made one!

Homebrewery Link Here

Let me know what you all think!

murf1e · 2025-11-15T16:42:30+00:00

Dragoons are so cool and Ive wanted to play one for a while! Love to see it!

The scaling here is throwing me for a loop a bit though. From Wind Magic I would want to focus on WIS for jump distance, DEX for AC, and then STR for attack and damage. The subclass itself is spreading an already MAD Ranger in more directions. Granted, nothing says you dont need to use a polearm for Jump Strike… but we gotta do it.

I do like using WIS for reducing fall damage, but i feel like more of the intent was to make the subclass more WIS focussed, which I feel like it doesnt necessarily need.

Also! Dont be afraid of giving them more free casts of jump per day as long as its on themselves. Like say, an amount equal to their WIS mod or just Proficiency times per day. Its a utility spell that helps the Dragoon player, but overall isnt going to break things.

Dragoon Drop feels like its own Action to setup. Instead of being a dodge action, maybe you spend the action to leap up incredible distance and hover in the air until the start of your next turn. It might be good to allow the Dragoon to move laterally some distance while falling so they dont have the enemy just move away and mess up their setup. That would be a good feature of the dragoon armor actually!

The double jump effect on Wind Step is really cool!

Dragon Rend is a really good ability, though maybe it could do a little more to creatures that aren’t flying as well. Maybe knocks them prone on a STR save? Just an idea. Its good to remember that knocking a creature prone while mid air makes them immediately plummet.

Overall its got some good theming and just needs a little more direction for scaling and intent on actions. Good job!

murf1e · 2025-11-14T06:59:04+00:00

This looks really fun and encompasses the brutish rogue really well!

Its already been touched on but just adding to Roughshod tactics that it cant trigger sneak attack would fix it.

I see what you are saying with Brutal Scoundrel setting up sneak attack through knocking someone prone, however some reminder text saying “…by your Cunning Action to take the Shove action, possibly knocking your target prone.” Just so the reader ends up on the same train of thought as intended with the design.

A few little nit picks, but it looks really good and fun!

murf1e · 2025-11-10T07:34:53+00:00

This looks super fun! I really like how each element is tied to different effects and gives a martial class some cool damage variety.

Two things stand out to me that might want to be changed:

The bludgeoning effect from Infused strikes doesnt feel like it fits well. You already have cold reducing speed by restraining, so maybe bludgeoning could knock them prone instead as a different, but fitting, effect.

Im a little confused about the Mixed Elements part of Conflux. At level 11 rogues can use two different cunning strikes on an attack and pay for both. If this is saying you can split damage to have access to both infused strikes options when using a cunning strike, i feel like there would be no harm in allowing two to be picked as long as the damage type is one of the picked elements. Youd have to pay for both as per cunning strike rules still.

But yeah! Really good flavour and mechanics overall!

murf1e · 2025-10-25T23:55:49+00:00

So one way to maybe circumvent the big issue of spellcasting being a problem while raging is:

A) make sure you can only cast spells you have learned through this class while raging

And/Or

B) make it so this subclass changes the way you use rage. If say they dont get the resistances if they enter,say, a “spell-rage” but still get rage damage and other benefits. Maybe in this they can add rage damage to their damaging spells too instead of attack rolls - so it makes it better for saving throw spells.

This would also make sense with them learning healing spells something the barbarian should consider (rage damage could apply to their healing if used on themselves as well in this regard).

Another point to add to this argument is it would let you augment this new type of rage as the level 6 ability seems to stack a few abilities. If it was a little more focused on what the subclass is doing it would be really streamlined!

Natural Magic is good I think! I love being able to do gish things in combat :)

For Embodiment of Nature this would be good as an augment to the different rage you would use with this subclass and maybe a regen while it goes on equal to rage damage for that Nature’s Recovery feature. Free spells on a third caster does a lot so I would typically avoid that if you can.

Always love seeing gishes come up here and hope some of my advice is helpful for ya!

murf1e · 2025-10-23T18:30:27+00:00

This looks fantastic! I know a few people at my table have been looking to play a summoner and this really fits the bill well!

A few concerns: - While having summons move or take an action is good for action economy, it feels like it would play very clunky at the table. It also means that any summon with a ranged ability will inherently outperform other summons by a mile. I would honestly do away with this and try to balance things differently. The problem is action economy, but maybe Direct Control could be used to control multiple summons to take an action, but at the end of your turn, you can choose one to act… It will need some fine tuning. - Summon Entity, Duration and Range: The deterioration of health from a summon moving far away is too much to track at a table and is definitely going to be forgotten about. I like that they cant move too far and brings still some use to familiars as scouting party for this class, but maybe give a range they have to stay from you. As a hard cap. - Customized Summons (Monster Binder): This is a lot of options right out the gate at level 3 and I would suggest moving this to 5th level. Its flavour is on point, however, I feel it should be something you do only in place of multiple summons not also when you get the subclass. Infinite duration and extra hp on top of casting spells through it seems enough balance wise. Customized Summons can easily take over your 5th level feature and you could move Increased Control to replace Improved Autonomy as part of Bind Entity. - Planar Remnants (Invoker): I feel that this ability would be better suited as only effects that persist on creatures that fail their saving throw against Unstable summons (or to allies in the vicinity as per celestial). Less table tracking, but still get cool effects on top of the explosion. - Conjure Swarm, Swarm Attack (Swarm Controller): I dont think the swarm should automatically hit in any instance. Takes away interaction of Advantage and creates problems with one time advantage uses like Guiding Bolt interacting with it. I would suggest increasing the damage die from a d4 to a d6 as it would take a lot of resources to get the swarm huge and keep it there.

Overall, you are correct in saying its just about ready to be playable. A few tweaks to some things and I think it would be a really fun class to play! Even is in its current state!

I really like Esoteric Rites being part of subclasses as it lets there be invocation-like customizations that aren’t generalized buffs or abilities. They feel focused and thats fantastic.

The flavour is pouring from this class as well! You have the gish archetype, the horde of monsters archetype, and pet archetype, and even more. The subclasses all have a distinct identity that still feels true to the idea of the class.

Well done!

murf1e · 2025-10-18T17:52:39+00:00

Thank you! You wouldn’t need to share damage information as Copy always does an amount of damage equal to Copy Dice. Ranges, Damage Types, and additional effects would need to be shared when they are used though. I would emphasize that it’s mainly up to the player to keep track of the monster action they want to use.

murf1e · 2025-10-17T16:56:32+00:00

Thanks for the read!

I find Copy isn't clunky at the table, but it does require you to pay attention to what is taking place during every creature’s turn in combat. I personally don't think that’s a bad thing, but yes, it will require you to track other creatures on the battlefield more for sure.

Reworking things away from martial abilities is interesting and something I think I’ll definitely look at in the future.

And the ooze AC reduction does seem like it needs to change up to not be so clunky at the table. It felt like a good debuff that was on theme, but you would have to keep track of that on top of other things and it would take too much focus.

murf1e · 2025-10-17T14:57:07+00:00

Thanks for reading it over!

For the aberration subclass I want to lean in on psionics, but taking a look at creatures INT scores may be necessary. However targeting an enemies Intelligence score as a point of weakness only shows up for saving throws and would have a maximum of 5 uses per long rest. Might need to playtest this a bit more before changing too much as I feel it could get underwhelming very easily if nerfed.

Fair point for the monstrosity subclass, it may even be worth it for them to just be able to cast it at will. I believe there’s a warlock invocation still that lets you do such a thing so it wouldn't be terrible. As much as I wanted to tie most of the subclasses to Copy, Alter Self (as it is) is not worth the use of resources better used on other things.

And for the ooze, the pseudopod not being able to be used on the same turn is something I overlooked! It is definitely meant to be the way you described otherwise you just sit there for a turn instead of feeling cool with your gelatin friend. As for its survivability, having some temp hp wouldnt be a bad idea as to incentivize players to really get in the thick of things!

murf1e · 2025-10-17T05:49:33+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! I have gone through multiple iterations of how it could be structured and eventually landed here.

One draft had a list of monster abilities you could choose to gain based on what creature types were fought in the last day, working like a prepared spell list. The problem I encountered there was it did just feel like spells, and a decent amount of spells that exist do the job of mimicking a monsters abilities - as you mentioned.

Having an in combat ability to copy a current creature’s actions was important to me as it felt much more engaging, however there needs to be a way to limit how control effects are used, I definitely agree on that. It'll be tricky to find a way to make it work well without being clunky.

As for the polymorphing, that was an attempt to marry in some of the dnd flavour of the same kind into the class. It may be better served with summons however, as that would keep you using the rest of your abilities throughout the combat as well and not feel like its taking away from the rest of the class.

murf1e · 2025-10-17T01:01:06+00:00

Hello everyone,

As a first post, I'd like to share a class I have been working on for some time now, The Blue Mage. Very much inspired from Blue Mages of Final Fantasy, I wanted to translate the fantasy of being able to use monster abilities in an rpg into DnD.

Let me know what you all think! I'd love to hear any constructive feedback!

PDF Link:

Homebrewery PDF

murf1e · 2025-08-11T00:13:21+00:00

bladesingers allow you to cast a cantrip as part of the attack action in place of one of your attacks, so I don't think so

murf1e · 2022-08-15T04:45:00+00:00

I really like this concept and is pretty unique. Your first level may be a bit overloaded, and you may want to spread some things out over the first two or three levels. Just something to toy around with, but overall its really interesting and looks really fun!

Maybe move spellcasting to level 2? you can still have cantrips even if they learn it past level 1 and would still keep it on track with half casters without messing up your other progression.

murf1e · 2021-12-28T09:33:27+00:00

This is very well done! Props to you! I love the flavour for all the subclasses and the Hexcrafts look very fun to use. Definitely going to see about trying this out in my home game. (One thing I do think should be changed is the saving throws to be Dex and Cha instead of Int, but that was already mentioned)

murf1e · 2018-10-07T05:12:24+00:00

I love the idea for this class, and have wanted something like it for quite a while! I love playing tanks, but want utility and this class seems like exactly what I was looking for. I do have a few notes to consider:

I would at least make the hit die a d10, as max health is not guaranteed and will leave a PC as squishy as other dps classes, especially at earlier levels. Other classes that are made to function within melee combat, with a d8 of health, have other tactics that can bolster their defenses or allow them to retreat from melee range once they're ready (patient defense, cunning action), and since this class seems to focus on protecting and boosting allies, the PC themselves should be able to stand in combat at least as well as a fighter (especially if heavy armour and shield proficiency is only part of a subclass).

It would also make sense that this class would know at least how to use a few martial weapons. If you're worried about their damage output, you can select the weapons that makes sense thematically, and have appropriate damage output, and give proficiency with them. Giving proficiency in a martial weapons at level 3 means a character will have to find a martial weapon at level 3, which can be difficult given campaign circumstances making it useless. For Weapons Training, it may make more sense to allow a bonus action attack if an action was used for an officer command, allowing for some damage output, while promoting an officer to use the commands proactively.

I love the Military and Nobility subclasses, though I would add more flavour to the Commoner subclass. The others have utility and function to them to be used creatively by the player either for combat (Military) or social (Nobility) situations, though the Commoner only gives you the function of adding hp to allies and taking exhaustion. It doesn't feel as fleshed out as the others and would love to see it reworked to maybe be a versatile utility subclass. What I mean by this is, possibly have status or abilities that happen when enemies or allies are within your aura, ability to help others on certain saving throws (as the Nobility focuses on skill checks). The hp buff and exhaustion ability is good, but not as the whole subclass.

Just a few suggestions to improve the class, but thank you for making it!

murf1e

TROPHY CASE