good point on putting plate armor and shield on the steel defender and not suffering much drawbacks. for those who dont want the drawbacks (like those with grappling steel defenders), plate barding can be put on for a 3 AC boost. its 4x costly but at least proficiency isn't needed and no drawbacks are suffered. personally, i'd still multiclass this build but not right away unless there's a specific tactic in mind. after level 11 i think is fine as the artificer/battlesmith dont gain anything as powerful (with a few exception at the level 14 infusion choices) as lets say action surge between levels 12-19. so if reaching level 20 isnt assured, all the more reason to dip elsewhere. my own battlesmith ended up as an arcane archer 3, battlesmith 13.
Loved the video! Can you do a deep dive on using tools? I've found that if your DM respects the guidelines from xanathar's it can be helpful. Especially carpenter tools for having stealth over wood surfaces. Some tools are outright better than others and def interested in your take for optimizing!
I also like this style of video way more. Interesting concept, important highlights and reasoning. Spreadsheets of level by level DPR wasn’t necessary for me (though having it at a few levels might be interesting)
I did however think of a ridiculous combo with the auto gnome though, if you take literally one level in peace cleric you’ll have a possibility of 3d4 to one check or attack roll or whatever you want. So that insane
RAW the steel defender doesn't die when dropped to 0, it just falls unconscious and starts making death saves like any creature. So most of the time you won't need slots to revive it just mending, even if it drops
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons I'm not so sure. PHB says it's "creature": "You can use your Action to administer first aid to an Unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check. A stable creature doesn’t make death Saving Throws, even though it has 0 Hit Points, but it does remain Unconscious. The creature stops being stable, and must start making death Saving Throws again, if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours" Then it says: "Most DMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 Hit Points, rather than having it fall Unconscious and make death Saving Throws." Also, the entries on other pets like drakewarden's have a "until drops to zero" language...
Very nice RP concept! Love how this works perfectly with the Steel Defender. And excellent catch re. plate armor for the Defender. Does Atreities actually have it don plate? And speaking of Intelligence-based attacks: could the Autognome don plate as well and still be viable in combat, given that their attacks are Intelligence-based, too? I'd assume so. Could mean lowering DEX would be possible - for higher WIS? And lastly on infusions: I'd take the Pipes of Haunting (with the right proficiency) on almost any Artificer. They are just very good for the level.
Splint+Shield at the moment for the SD, plate is out of my budget. Gold on NDC is a bit tight. Inabilty to cast spells is too restrictive for the PC, I'd say.
@@MrAtreties That makes sense. And plus 1 AC is indeed not worth giving up spellcasting. I hope Bilbron will make a battle report on his Psi Warrior venturing out together with Francis and Steinbolt 😊
I love the steel defender healing PC construct mechanic...good eye finding that one...being humanoid and having hands, can it walk in front and oopen doors (acting a lot like a Slaad from summon abberation) ?
"You determine the creature's appearance" , it being medium sized, and it having 2 or 4 legs is the only guidance or rules around this. Nothing prevents it from having hands. I have gotten 0 pushback with my SD opening doors or administering healing potions. Even if it were animal shaped, i doubt i would recieve any pushback on those.
1. I like that build. It's very strong in tier 1 and the interactions are really creative, but i'm not sure it retains power and usefulness thereafter, when compared to the other two half-casters. E.g., the closest comparison would be drakewarden ranger, and DW really blows Battlesmith out of the water with better damage, stronger pet, better spells, etc. Still a very nice build with which I'll be happy to play alongside (I mean it's still better than most arti builds i experienced) 2. I'm intreagued with your "i think multiclassing isn't worth it" comment. Do you feel that applies to the regular "power combos" of sorloks, armored wizards, reaction clerics PaliSorLocks? If so, then why?
I disagree that the best returning weapon is a javelin. It may be good on this build in that it is versitile in terms of melee vs range. However, I've had success with dart + sharpshooter (the only thrown weapon you can use with sharpshooter I think) for returning weapon.
The build is not using sharpshooter. If your goal is sharpshooter with this build, using Repeating Shot with a Hand Crossbow does more damage at more range. Also, the reason why Javellin is the best for this build is that it does the same damage and has the same range as a hand crossbow, but is also a melee weapon, so you can take opportunity attacks and are not at disadvantage when an enemy is within 5ft.
@@MrAtreties I'm not debating the point on this build. I’m saying that in general there is more potential with the dart as there are other builds where for example a Str based ranged sharpshooter option is nice. ...and yes, of course XBE hand crossbow, etc. is good on like 20 builds...
ב"ה A battlesmith artificer with neither sharpshooter nor great weapon master? I mean, greatweapon master isn't very usefull on an autognomes because they are small, but sharpshooter is huge for damage.
Tough to squeeze in before Level 12, as bumping INT results in almost as much damage increase but also bumps Steel Defender, Casting stat, and Flash of Genius. Then at 12 we preferred to add Extended AoV instead of a bit more damage... and who really cares about 16+, lol?
ב"ה I guess it depend on the table, but I think that a round after round buff to damage from sharpshooter is overall more usefull than 2 metamagic points per day. I guess it depend a lot on how many rounds of combat you have each day.
Sharpshooter isn't that good on a character without archery fighting style or anything besides basic extra attack to call themselves a martial. Sharpshooter is doing work on fighters and rangers because they have multiple abilities that modify extra attack. And Extended AoV has a huge impact on team survivability in a wargame driven westmarch server. Not every character needs to be a damage king to contribute in big ways to a team.
@@maxcoto9061 At level 12, with the enhanced weapon infusion and bracers of archery infusion on a shortbow and INT of 20 you have a base of +11 to attack for 1d6+9 or +6 to attack for 1d6+19. Sharpshooter boost your damage output up to AC of 20 (without bracers of archery it is up to AC of 21). If your concentration spell for the combat is Web or Faerie Fire then your hitting chance is increased even further due to advantage. If someone cast bless it is even bigger. If most of the time the melee characters in party are standing between you and your target (and probably your steel defender as well) , then the ignoring cover property of sharpshooter is usefull most of the time. In the campaign I run, one of the character is a pact of the blade warlock archer with sharpshooter (as a mark of healing halfling she also know the Aura of Vitality spell), and having sharpshooter is huge on that character (even though sharpshooter and greatweapon master are nerfed to -4 attack/+8 damage). The battlesmith that joined the party for a short while had great weapon master and made great use of that feat (though he was custom lineage and not autognome). His primary concentration spell was bless (once per day from fey touched and other times upcast to level 2). We were level 9 so with only 2 spell slots of 3rd level he cast aura of vitality or haste once and saved the second slot for revivify. When it is extending a spell twice per day VS increasing damage most rounds, most of the times increasing the damage is the better call. The only case where I would see the merits of extending spells twice per day as better than just better damage is if the party (or in this case the server) have a shortage of healers and an overflow of damage dealers.
