WIP Artificer 2.0: Fleshsmith, penultimate update.

So this has the Fleshsmith, but does not have the polish pass and updates to the other subclasses. So... there will be one more update, probably either tomorrow or Friday containing that.

But I did want to put out the Fleshsmith update so if there was any feedback on it, it could get updated as well.

The Fleshsmith's problem was that it didn't have a lot of clear progression on what it was doing. It had a lot of cool options, but ultimate was a grab bag of insanity. This didn't actually change that much, but it hopefully streamlined and clarified some archetypes, and gave a bit more clear progression.

Fleshsmith Changelog:

• Thesis of Flesh replaces Principle Improvement, and now is basically your methodology. At this point there is the method of Form and method of Mind; form includes most of the previous options, from Extra Arm, Tentacle, Fangs, Claws, Mind includes the Doctor Upgrade. The expanded mind upgrade is currently gone.
• The Adorable Critter may have been Adorable, but it was not Beloved. Much like with WotC stab at the Artificer, there is an (apparent minority, according to WotC) of people that do not like required pets; while that might be a minority of their audiance, it does not appear to be a minority of mine. I removed Adorable Critter as the level 3 upgrade, and replaced it with Uncanny Vitality. Uncanny Vitality is a reforged from an Upgrade to be basically 2 upgrades added together, but gives the Fleshsmith a lot of extra health via regeneration and recovery of hit dice (though not unlimited).
• The reason to convert these upgrades to the level 3 is that it is useful for all Fleshsmiths; the various mutant monstrosities need that health to for the smashing and smushing, the doctors need that as they frequently give away their life with the abilities later on.
• Extra Attack is still extra attack. This is slightly more useful for Doctor path later on now.
• Perfect Specimen. Just another "you get another upgrade" feature. In general, people like upgrades more than they like features, so who am I say no.
• Though I refer to doctor vs mutant, those the read carefully will notice there isn't actually a distinction here; I have put them into seperate methods, but nothing stops you from just taking the other method as an upgrade; it's mostly just a visual thing to make the choices more clear. You can be a three armed doctor.
• Adorable Critter. This is basically just the first step of Adorable Critter + the feature. Adorable Critter took too many upgrades in the previous version. Now people that didn't want the pet don't have to have it.
• Doctor. This has been buffed to allow you to let allies spend hit dice as an action, but is otherwise the same.
• Crushing Grip. A slightly buffed version of Iron Grip; ties to Strength now as that makes sense. Is optional now, for when you don't want to crush things to death. Not sure when that'd be.
• Extra Arm. This is the old principle improvement now as an upgrade granted via the method of form. Its functionality is changed a bit - it is no longer limited, but it no longer adds your modifier to the damage and now only works with the attack action. This may seem really good, but it's that outrageous; it's +1d6 damage when it hits, so roughly the same as adding 1d4. It's fairly hard to abuse with multiclassing; the main one that could abuse on-hit damage would be hexblade warlocks, which can't really dual wield due to the mechanics of pact weapons; low level rangers could get some mileage out of it, but not enough to really matter.
• Extra Claws - 1d8 finesse/light weapons. Basically an upgrade to step up the damage, but can be combined with Extra Arms.
• Extra Fangs; 1d10 natural weapon; again, basically a stepped up weapon.
• Extra Eyes. Same creepy bullshit as always. The idea of this upgrade makes me uncomfortable.
• Extra Tentacle. Similar to how it was - bonus action to attack or grapple; also does not add modifier on attack. Does not require the attack action like extra arm, but does require your bonus action.
• Fix Flesh; nerfed somewhat to be Intelligence modifier instead of 1/2 Artificer level. Better early, worse late.
• Forbidden Knowledge. Same as Expanded toolbox.
• Horrifiying Abomination. Same as Expanded toolbox.
• Live Dissection. An ability to allow the Doctor to use their Intelligence modifier for finesse weapons; has some extra hoops and extra perks. I didn't want to just make it int modifier for attacks, as it's not necessarily magical, but wanted to make doctors fairly good at stabbing things with sharp things.
• Massive Mutation. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Secondary Life Organs. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Subdermal Plating. Same as Expanded toolbox.
• Toxic Blood. Once per turn now.
• Unnatural Health. Part of this was pilleaged for the new level 3, so it's modified a bit; now more health and rerolling hit dice.
• Life Merchant. Moved down a bit as this fairly core to doctor playstyle.
• Mutating Mastery. Left intact. Some people say this overshadow the moon druids ability, but lets face it, the moon druids ability sort of sucks.
• Pressure Points. Same as Expanded Toolbox. Some people still tell me this is too good, but really, this requires 3 failed con saves requiring 3 bonus actions over 3 turns to even have a chance to stun, let alone paralyze; it's not terrible, but I am pretty confident no one is saying this is broken that has actually tried to use it. It is mostly a slow/restrain, which is still pretty good, but I get a lot people telling me this is better than a monk's stunning strike, and I think those people are insane.
• Reflexive Twitch. Same, but has the same tweak as the extra arm. Unlimited, but no modifier.
• Safe Revival Technique. Still the same OSHA approved upgrade.
• Unnatural Weapons. Makes natural weapons magic damage. Someone pointed out this was necessarily.
• Uncanny Strength. Wield two handed weapons in one hand for maximum fair and balanced. This only really breaks anything compared with GWM, and requires a feat to break things with GWM, and doesn't break that much more than PAM does, as it would require you to get the fighting style from somewhere to actually do more damage than PAM/GWM build for the same two feats.
• Zombie Critter?! is basically just the second Zombie Critter update. Having two was probably overkill.
• Extreme mutation. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Life Void. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Massive Hulk. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Adorable Critter?! same as expanded toolbox.
• Dark miracle. New ability to basically do more life transference once you are out of life transference, but also makes life transference better. Ways to spend all that life you have sitting around.
• Extra Arms... this is where I took the Extra Arm to the logical extreme, but I still don't think it breaks anything. Each one is just +1d6; assume you get all 4, that's your 11, 13, 15, and 17 upgrades, and only granting you roughly 2/3 of 4d6 damage on attacks; which is roughly 4d4, which is slightly better than 2d8 which is the standard 11th level boost as per Paladin Gold Standard (I'm cheating there a little as Paladins are obviously not the gold standard given they are much stronger than average, but I think it falls into rough alignment). Note that you cannot combine this with Uncanny Strength as Extra Arms attack specifically only uses light weapons. If your DM gives you 6 flametongues swords, that is not my problem anymore.
• Very Forbidden Knowledge. With the return of Extra Fangs, we have the return of life draining. Restricted to living 1/4 CR+ creatures.
• Wings. Same as Expanded Toolbox.
• Adorably Critter? A new expansion to the Adorable Critter line, it makes your adorable critter large. Get it... Expansion...? Okay. i will get to bed now.
• Flesh Shaper. Same as expanded toolbox.
• Undying Fortitude. A tweaked undead fortitude, makes Fleshsmiths even more of a pain in the ass to kill. I recommend brining Power Word Death.

Alright! That's all for now. I apologize if this was a bit flippant in parts; I'm writing this pretty late as I want to publish this out tonight as I'm not sure how much time I'll have tomorrow and didn't want delay till Friday.

Overall my goal wasn't to make a massive change - Fleshsmith is coming over because people like the Fleshsmith. My goal was to make the characters people are playing abit more playable, with clear options for creepy doctor, horrible mutant, or both.

I currently do not plan on Fleshsmith upgrades being available on cross disciplinary; it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

As noted, this does not include updates to the other subclasses or grammar fixes people have sent in, so if you sent those to me, I appreciate it, but haven't gotten there yet. I will start to do those tomorrow and Friday as I have time, and hopefully they will be include in the next version, which will be the preview of the official public 2.0 version. I still have about 1 more upgrade Infusionsmith, Potionsmith, and Warsmith to add, lots of minor fixes to grammar and consistency, some spell list tweaks, etc. Just didn't want delay this update on all that.

Happy 4th of July! To everyone; just because it's not a holiday for everyone doesn't mean you shouldn't have a happy one! :) And for those of you that have it off work, go play D&D! Or spend time with your family I guess... or both? :)