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Craftsman Final Redux
🕑 Added 2019-02-01 11:20:22 +0000 UTCCascades of sparks leapt from his hammer as it beat the unruly iron into shape. The smith was always distantly aware of the irony that the crimson sparks were but a preamble: once finished, far more red would cascade from this blade.
The final craftsman redux is here!
We've reexamined the whole of the craftsman class with an eye for making it easier to pick up and use, more dynamic, and more expressive for players that really want to tinker with things. The last iteration of this class did wonders, but the work that we've put into this new version really shows. The class has gotten a total makeover: the old "Crafting Techniques" are now "Masterwork Properties" (as they now work identically to weapon properties), and the old subclasses are now "Artisans' Guilds". You'll see new tweaks, big and small, all over the place.
The very biggest change is pretty remarkable: the new craftsman places in your hands the very same system used to create the weapons in the Player's Handbook and all the Mage Hand Press books. It's based on weapon properties and damage dice, the most intuitive parts of weapons in 5th edition, and it allows you to create any weapon in the PHB and beyond; always balanced, guaranteed! This new system really puts you in the shoes of a craftsman, as you riddle out from the properties how your weapon works, swings, and feels.
Using these properties we've crafted a truly staggering number of simple, martial, and exotic weapons -- four pages of tables, 130 in total. Moreover, we've only scratched the surface of what you can do when you apply the properties system. Some of the old staples, like the Mountain Cleaver, return, joined by new favorites, like the Doomerang and the Rocket Fist.
And, of course, exotic weapons would be no fun without exotic armor, exotic ammunition, and a supply of explosives. We've got tables of those too, all rebalanced polished to a mirror sheen. The whole ensemble works far better and demonstrates a cohesion that allows the class to work with or without all of the additional equipment included in the book.
- - -
Like the Alchemist, this book will see release in two chunks, the current release and a proper Complete version. This version contains the more-or-less final version of the properties, weapons, armor, explosives, and ammunition, but is missing a good chunk of the class's archetypes and the supplemental crafting rules previously included in the Complete Craftsman. We're still working on those additional things, and we plan to include far more archetypes than last time. For now, enjoy the single largest dump of equipment we've ever thrown into a single book.
Next month, we plan to have all (or most of) our Modern Rules supplement finished. We've made some progress on it this month, but the sheer scale of all the mechanics and number-crunching this book required took us a little by surprise, and we're a little behind from where we'd like to be. Moreover, since many of our artists have been neck-deep in commissions for Dark Matter, we're a little short on art for both the Craftsman and Modern Rules supplement, so if either of these books launch with placeholder art, just know that we will make sure they get the pieces they need in due time.
Changelog:
- 2/1/19: Weapon Properties: If a property requires a martial weapon, you can apply it to an exotic weapon.
- Aerodynamic Property: Applies to melee and ranged weapons
- Blaster: Now also removes bonuses provided by the Reload property
- Loading Property: Does not allow Reload, always increases damage die by one step
- Magazine Property: Renamed Reload property
- Reload Property: Allows for a weapon to gain the Reload (1, 2 actions) property, specifies that removing the property causes the weapon to inherit the Loading property
- Two-Handed Property: Does not allow Light or thrown
- 2/3/19: Martial property: Range increases clarified
- Two-Handed: Can't be Foregrip
- Versatile: Can't be foregrip
- Climbing property: Full climbing speed
- Explosive property: Damage die decreased by one step
- Rocket property: Damage die decreased by one step
- Grenade Launcher: Has heavy property
- Light Cannon: Damage reduced to 2d10, range increased to 120/360
- Rocket Launcher: Damage decreased to 2d8
- Demolition Bow: Damage decreased to 1d8
- Doomerang: Damage decreased to 1d4; Explosive property replaced with Rocket
- Plasma Launcher: Damage increased to 2d10
- 2/7/19: Rapid Modifications: Ability can be added to an item only once between long rests
Comments
Elijah Moore
Can you add up to your Int+Masterwork Bonus number of apprentice properties per item you create or across all items you have created?
Snowfire
For the Switch Property: can we still apply Masterwork Properties to both weapons as if they were seperate weapons, with Switch taking up one of the slots on a both or a single weapon, or does it count towrd only one weapon, with the second weapon becoming the new applied property?
Joshua Crouch
Ballistic Tuning says "This weapon retains its fortification until it hits a target.", but does that mean any hit? Or a hit in which the ability procs?
Ryan Patrick Nolan
perhaps add a little clause that states in parentheses ( if you are able to make items with apprentice properties from a different source, add half your modifier (rounded up)) or something like that.
Ryan Patrick Nolan
Question, with the feat "Gifted Artisan" at the end, does that stack with the craftsman's regular amount of apprentice properties, so lets just say variant human, level 2, with this feat, is it ok to say they can put 11 properties on an item?
Stephan Gosswiller
What does it mean by "one kit you're proficient with" ? The craftsman's tools cover all artisan tools and there are no other tool proficiencies
Mage Hand Press
Typo. Come to look at it, the shields are exotic as well.
Silver Wing
Battle plate and mountin plate are not labeled as exotic armors on the exotic armor and sheilds table, is this intentional or a typo?
Mage Hand Press
Sure thing
Grand Moff Xela
I also am having this issue.
Hallowed
A question regarding Counterweight. Is it appliable to weapons like the Titan Maul?
Articus the Tigulf
for some reason when I go to download the pdf, it appears as a strange file type just called 1. Not sure if anyone else is having this issue.
John Weston
I like the new version so far, but I do have a couple questions. First, with Massive, are the bonus die you get in place of multiple attacks the weapon's full damage die(i.e. a 2d8 Massive weapon would do 6d8), is it flat 2 die increase (2d8 weapon does 4d8), or does the damage increase by 2 steps (2d8 becomes 2d10). I'm assuming the first, but I just want to make sure. Second, am I missing something with the Grand property? Because it seems kinda horrible. If my math is correct (and Massive works the way I think), the Grand legendary property only comes to a +~6 damage per attack at the cost of only being able to attack every other turn, which is a massive downgrade in terms of overall damage output. So, am I missing something fundamental, or is my math wrong?
Mage Hand Press
Craftsmen can do crafting over a long rest while still maintaining the benefits of resting. I'll try to rephrase things to make that clear for MW properties as well
Mage Hand Press
Yes, the arcane maester (as well as a bunch of other archetypes) are coming in the second release.
Kristopher R. Hunter
So, is arcane smithing going to be addressed in the second release? It looks beautiful so far. Perfect for building an Iron Man esque character.
Jaron Mortimer
We went with a much more conservative approach. As far as the actual use of the weapon is concerned, it shouldn't be much different than a Scimitar, though we went the route of "versatile rapier" rather than "versatile scimitar". In general, though, there's no way we could make something strong enough to really justify an exorbadent cost. We could get into the daisho thing, but, mechanically, a wakazashi is just a short sword.
Jacob Freeman
Under masterwork properties it says to add MW properties it takes 8 hours which can be done over the course of a long rest. Is it safe to assume a player would not get the benefit of a long rest if they do this?
Phillip Hopper
Just wanted to mention that Katana were historically used in tandem with a side arm like a wakizashi or tanto. I've come across a lot of problems trying to balance the weapon myself, and I've come up with a few options. The first being exactly the same way as you guys did it. The second being the same, save for adding the light property and dropping the damage die by one step. The third is the same as yours, but adding light and having it cost a ludicrous amount of gold, much in the same line of thought as plate mail. The fourth is giving it light but dropping finesse, which makes sense historically too because Katana on average weighed the same, if not more than contemporary long swords.
Mage Hand Press
You say that like laser bows are a bad thing!
Mage Hand Press
Yeah, that's the unfortunate side effect of reduxes, especially those of this scale
Mage Hand Press
Grand is a Legendary property, so it's kind of too strong to throw as a normal weapon. I included the property for completeness, but it occurs to me that I should have left it off that list for clarity. I believe the Odachi ended up violating some of the property rules, namely being both finesse and two-handed. The Eastern weapon rules we included were very much a first attempt. Using this system, it should take no time at all to rework them. The whip is just underpowered in the PHB -- it should be a d6 -- so we made the photon lash underpowered as well.
Mage Hand Press
Because of the way that properties work, yes, you can apply martial properties to exotic weapons. I need to add a line in there somewhere clarifying that.
Nette
Can the techniques that require a 'masterwork martial weapon' be applied to exotic weapons? Because I cannot see a way to recreate the Carver from the exotic weapons table otherwise.
Jaron Mortimer
This is intentional. We felt that, with the system as it is, allowing exotic shields (outside of the two on the armor table) would break bounded accuracy in a way we really didnt like.
Joseph Blanc
Nice. Love it. I noticed none of the stock weapons were Grand, and also the Odachi was cut. Is there a reason for that? Also, did you notice that the whip (and by extension, the Photon Lash) were under powered? They should deal 1d6.
Braden Schroeder
I notice that there are no masterwork properties for shields. Was this done intentionally or are there plans to add those in with the final complete craftsman?
Joan Mulberry
I'm Soo gonna have to redo a bunch of work on one of my craftsman.
Medicshy
Man... it's a good thing I stopped playing the craftsman before this came out. We didn't need him running around giving people laser bows...
