Limbsmith v0.9
for Kibbles' Alternate Artificer
Limbsmith
A Limbsmith is an Artificer who has found their own body lacking in some way and began replacing parts of it through artificial ones. Maybe they had a disease they could not recover from normally, lost a limb in a tragic accident and noticed they had a knack for their newfound abilities or simply found themselves wanting physically.
Because of the alien appearance of some Limbsmiths, resembling half humanoid, half construct, they tend to keep their augmentations covered by clothes or robes.
Limbsmith's Proficiency
When you choose this specialization at 1st level, you gain proficiency with tinker’s tools and in medicine. You or anyone else who is proficient with tinker's tools and in medicine can use them to repair you for 10 hit points per hour. You must at least spend one hour doing this for it to take effect.
Augmented Body
At 1st level you have laid the framework for more upgrades to be integrated. You have augmented your body to not only be able to house a subdermal armor, but a plethora of upgrades.
To use these upgrades you have charges at your disposal equal to two times your Artificer level plus half your intelligence modifier rounded down. Temporary increases like your Hastened Nervous System feature do not increase the number of charges. Each upgrade description states if there is an active effect that consumes charges and how many.
You replenish half the maximum charges rounded up during a short rest and all of them during a long rest.
Augmented Body
Wondrous Item, Medium Armor, Attunement (creator only).
Armor Class (AC) 14 + Con (max 2)
You are always attuned to your Augmented Body and cannot end this attunement. You cannot benefit from any armor other than that provided by your Augmented Body.
In each of your arms is a compartment for tool integration. Per default you have tinker's tools and thieves' tools integrated, which do not count towards your starting equipment. You can swap each tool with any other tool weighing no more than 10 lbs and with which you are proficient during a short or long rest.
You have proficiency in intimidation (charisma) checks when your augmentations are visible or the target knows about them. When you are already proficient in intimidation you gain expertise.
Integrated Weapons
At 1st level you integrate a melee weapon in each of your lower arms. These weapons cannot have the heavy or two-handed properties and can be exchanged during a long rest. You are proficient with these weapons and can use your intelligence modifier for attack and damage rolls instead of strength or dexterity. You can deploy or retract both or one of them with a bonus action and you cannot be disarmed. You cannot hold martial weapons in your hands while the Integrated Weapons are deployed.
You can select one non-level-restricted arm upgrade. This upgrade does not count towards the total number of upgrades.
Integrating Magical Items
Your Integrated Weapons can be exchanged with magic weapons as stated in the Integrated Weapons feature. How they look once they're integrated is up to you. Arguably every weapon has to be customized to fit into your arms, but it is ultimately up to your DM if this should be instantaneous or a downtime activity.
To gain benefits of magical armor (e.g. adamantine or +3 armor) you need to customize and integrate it in a process defined by your DM. This can only be done with medium armor, since heavy armor covers too much of your body to effectively use the features of your Augmented Body. How many of those armor effects can be stacked, should be decided on a case by case basis.
Other magical Items which yield the same effects as upgrades, can be integrated in a conversion process. This counts as if you took the corresponding upgrade, but once integrated you cannot restore the item back to its original form and therefore nobody else can benefit from it anymore.
Hastened Nervous System
At 3rd level you can activate an experimental augmentation, that accelerates the flow of time for your nervous system. This makes you seem faster cognitively than everyone else, which is technically true.
You can increase your intelligence ability score and its maximum by 2 for 1 minute. At 15th level this bonus increases to 4 for 1 minute. You can do this two times per long rest.
Additionally, you take your studies of anatomy and physiology even further. You gain expertise in medicine.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the attack action on your turn.
Leg-up
At 5th level you can select one non-level-restricted leg upgrade. This upgrade does not count towards the total number of upgrades.
Arcanokinematic Recuperator
At 14th level each time you hit with a melee attack or get hit by a melee or ranged attack you regain 1 charge.
Dispelling and antimagic
In the course of upgrading your body you will reach a point where some of your vital organs are magical. Being dispelled or inside an antimagic field would therefore kill you in an instant. There's two ways you could go about this with your DM:
Either you 'never asked for this' and ignore that you're technically half humanoid and half magical item and play as a complete biological organism
or you embrace this flaw, which could simply be accepted as is, result in picking only non-vital upgrades and dealing with the resulting impairments or taking the Weave Lining upgrade, to tackle at least the life threatening effects of those spells.
Weave Lining provides immunity to the Dispel Magic spell to your Augmented Body, upgrades and integrated magical items. Regular magical effects on you can still be dispelled. An antimagic field would leave your body untouched, but keeps you from casting a spell or using an upgrade that generates a spell-like effect protruding from your body. Your Integrated Weapons and integrated magic armor count as part of your body for this feature but the active effects of skin upgrades form above the lining and can be dispelled.
Limbsmith Upgrades
Torso Upgrades
Secret Compartment
You have a built-in compartment in which you integrate a small bag of holding. Every dimensional aspect about this bag of holding is halved, so it cannot hold more than 250 pounds and increases your body weight by 8 pounds. This compartment cannot be seen by any other creature except when you interact with it in front of them. Since it is integrated it cannot be stolen. You have advantage on any sleight of hand skill checks you make while interacting with this upgrade.
Forged Heart
You magically enhance your heart to increase your endurance and to aid you in critical situations. All your non-magical movement speeds are increased by 10 ft. As an action you can expend 4 charges to hasten your Forged Heart. This increases your non-magical movement speeds by another 20 ft for 1 minute.
Synthetic Growth Accelerator
You increase your constitution ability score by 1 and it's maximum to 22. You do not age anymore and cannot be aged magically.
Infused Spleen
You gain immunity to diseases and resistance to poison damage.
Arcane Respiratory System
You implant new lungs and upgrade your chemosensors. You gain the ability to breath underwater and are immune to poison damage from toxic clouds. Furthermore you gain advantage on perception checks relying on smell.
Arcane Converter
Prerequisite: 7th level Artificer
Your charges are now calculated as if your Artificer level was increased by 1.
You can expend spell slots to regain charges equal to two times the spell slot's level. You cannot have more charges than your maximum allows.
Muscular Overdrive
Prerequisite: 11th level Artificer
As a bonus action you can spend 6 charges to gain one additional action and bonus action this turn and on your next turn. At the end of your next turn you gain one exhaustion point.
You cannot use the effects of this feature together with other features that give you additional actions or bonus actions.
Leg Upgrades
Shock Absorbers
You integrate new shock absorbers and actuators into your legs. When you use your legs for an athletics or acrobatics check, you can make them with intelligence. Additionally, you count as one size larger when determining the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Any stealth checks depending on the noise you produce are made with advantage. You gain immunity to fall damage if you succeed on an acrobatics check to land on your feet.
Jump Module
You integrate small jump jets into your feet and strengthen your calves with kinetic exhausts. You can spend 1 charge to increase your jump height and range by 10 ft for 10 seconds. When you jump a distance or from a height of 15 ft or more you can expend 1 charge to cast Thunderclap at the point of impact.
Seismic Sensor Array
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer
Since you don't like surprises very much, you enhance your legs with a set of seismic sensors, so you can circumvent traps and large numbers of hostile creatures.
As an action you can expend 2 charges to gain 30 ft tremorsense for 1 minute.
As an action you can expend 4 charges to cast Find Traps, 10 charges to cast Commune with Nature or 5 charges to cast it as a ritual.
Optimized Buoyancy
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer
You integrate buoys and pocket dimensional trim tanks into your legs.
As an action you can either expand your buoys, which allow you to walk on water or ignore flooded difficult terrain like swamps, or you fill your pocket dimensional trim tanks to submerge and gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.
As an action you can shoot water out of your tanks and expend 4 charges to cast Tidal Wave or 6 charges to cast Wall of Water or 8 charges to cast Watery Sphere.
Shadow Projector
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer
You integrate nozzles into your thighs that dispense thick magical smoke in an area around you.
As an action you can expend 4 charges to cast Darkness with a range of self.
At 15th level you can expend 14 charges as an action to cast Maddening Darkness with a range of self. Damage dealing effects of this spell do not apply to you.
Arm Upgrades
Close Combat Subroutine
You can add your ability modifier to the second attack you make with your Integrated Weapons. As a bonus action you can expend 2 charges to increase the AC of you and every friendly creature not farther than 5 ft from you by 2 until the start of your next turn while your Integrated Weapons are deployed.
T.E.S.L.A.
To keep your enemies controlled and, foremost, away from you, you install your Tactical Enhanced Self-Defense Lightning Attachment. As an action you can spend 1 charge to cast Shocking Grasp as a ranged spell attack with a range of 50 ft. When cast this way it has no verbal components. For each additional charge spent you can add 1d8 lightning damage.
You can expend 2 additional charges to let the target creature make a constitution saving throw if your spell attack hits. If it fails it is restrained until the end of its next turn. Alternatively, you can spend 6 charges to let the target creature make a constitution saving throw if your spell attack hits. If it fails it is stunned until the end of its next turn. These saving throws are made with disadvantage if the enemy is clad in metal armor or uses a metal weapon. You have to choose how many charges you expend before you know if the attack hits.
At 11th level you can cast Chain Lightning by expending 12 charges as an action.
Arcane Chisel
You can punch through a 2 ft wall made of mundane materials like wood or stone at will. You can spend 1 charge to gain a burrow speed of 10 ft for 1 minute.
Peacekeeper De-escalation System
You implant a propulsion system into your arms, which can be deployed for non-lethal means of ending a fight.
As an action you can cast Gust or spend 4 charges to cast Gust of Wind. While Gust of Wind is active you and creatures on your side of the gust have resistance to ranged weapon attacks from creatures inside the gust. You can spend 4 charges to cast Thunderous Smite on all creature affected by Gust of Wind. This ends all effects of Gust of Wind.
Entanglement Protocol
You can grapple a creature as an action or attack and gain advantage on attack rolls against creatures grappled by you. You gain advantage on saving throws against being grappled in a non-magical way. If you start your turn grappled by a creature in melee, you have advantage on attacks against that creature.
Auto-Injector
As a bonus action you can consume the potion inserted into your Auto-Injector. You can choose to spend 1 charge to shoot the Auto-Injector and attach it to a willing creature. The Auto-Injector has no effect on constructs or undead. If the Auto-Injector attaches to another creature and it has a potion preloaded, it will instantly be injected. The creature can now use the Auto-Injector for itself with a bonus action until it is handed back over to you. You or another creature can use an interaction to put a new potion into the Auto-Injector. As an action you can expend 3 charges to set a condition. If the condition is met, the potion is injected automatically.
Explosives Propulsion System
Prerequisite: 7th level Artificer
You spin in a circular motion and release small explosives from your arms. As an action you can expend 8 charges to create 4 Fireburst Mines as per the Fireburst Mine spell that seek out the nearest 4 individual enemy creatures in a 30 ft radius around you and attach to them in ascending order based on their distance to you. If there are less than 4 enemies, the remaining mines attach to the same targets as before in ascending order. You can use your reaction to telepathically detonate or defuse all mines simultaneously.
For each 2 charges spent 1 additional mine is created.
At 15th level you can expend 15 charges as an action to cast Incendiary Cloud. This version of the spell only lasts 30 seconds, is always centered on you and cannot be blown away. Damage dealing effects of this spell do not apply to you.
Cranium Upgrades
Muscle Memory
If you fight a creature that is similar to a creature you fought before, you gain +1 on attack and damage rolls made with your Integrated Weapons. You can expend 1 charge to cast True Strike, the effects of which apply to all your attacks in your next turn made with your Integrated Weapons, if the spell hasn't ended. Creatures count as similar if their statblock names, types or tags suggest that they have the same anatomy.
Cochlear Implant
You have advantage on perception checks that rely on hearing. You can spend 2 charges to gain 30 ft. blindsight for 1 minute.
Assistive Systems
You refuse to accept that you have reached your cognitive limits and decide to upgrade your prefrontal cortex. Your intelligence score increases by 1 and your maximum intelligence score increases by 2. As a bonus action you can expend 3 charges to be able two concentrate on two spells at the same time for 10 minutes. As a reaction you can expend 1 charge to gain advantage on concentration checks until the end of your next turn.
Cognitive Recalibrator
Each time you fail a saving throw against being charmed or frightened for the first time in one round, you can make an additional saving throw. If the additional die lets you succeed, you are no longer charmed or frightened but suffer 1d4 lightning damage.
iSight
You replace your eyes with finely crafted optical sensors, making it easier for you to keep an eye on things. These new eyes allow you to zoom in, so you can see things up to 100 ft away as if you held them in your hands. You have darkvision up to 60 ft. If you already have darkvision the range does not exceed 60 ft. Additionally, you have advantage on perception checks relying on eyesight.
At 11th level, as a reaction, you can expend 1 charge to double your darkvision range or 4 charges to gain 120 ft truesight for one hour.
I.C.U. Tracking System
Prerequisite: iSight
You like knowing where everything and everyone is at any time, so you install an Integrated Compass Unit.
As an action you can spend 4 charges to designate a creature up to 30 ft from you to be tracked through structures and ground in a 1 mile sphere around you. While in this sphere the creature appears as a dot with distance information in your field of vision. Leaving and re-entering this sphere will cause the creature to disappear and reappear as a dot. The creature can detect that it is under a magical effect and can dispel it or enter an antimagic field to conceal itself. This effect ends after 24 hours or if being dispelled but can be extended by 24 hours for each additional 3 charges spent while the effect is still active. You can track a maximum of three creatures this way.
Skin Upgrades
Barbed Hooks
You can change the surface of your skin to form almost invisible barbed hooks. These hooks allow you to attach yourself to a solid surface, to walk on walls or ceilings or to simply not get carried away by an enemy or a wave drowning the deck of a ship. As an action you can shoot your tethered hand at a solid surface, object or creature up to 60 ft away from you to attach to it. You can pull yourself to a solid surface, object heavier than you or a creature that is large or larger. Every object as heavy as you or lighter and any medium or smaller creature can be pulled to you.
Weave Lining
You apply a magically charged lining onto your Augmented Body and Integrated Weapons. This lining provides immunity to being dispelled to your Augmented Body, upgrades and integrated magical items. An antimagic field will not affect the aforementioned but will prevent you from casting a spell or creating magical effects that would protrude from your body.
Reactive Coating
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer
Each time you take damage from a melee attack, the attacking creature takes 1d4 of the same damage type.
Once per turn you can cast Absorb Elements as a level 1 spell as a reaction by expending 1 charge.
You can expend spell slots to cast it at a higher level.
Relocation Relay
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer
You had a friend once, who invented a device that let him fly. But why should you fly, when you can be there in an instant?
So you implant finely calibrated magical nodes beneath your skin, that allow you to teleport wherever you want. Pff, flying...
You can cast Thunder Step by expending 6 charges or Misty Step by expending 4 charges as a bonus action. At 13th level you can expend 10 charges as an action to cast Teleport only on yourself and 1 additional charge per creature you want to take with you. You can take up to 8 willing creatures with you this way.
Glass Skin
Prerequisite: 5th level Artificer; Potion of Invisibility
A magical glass skin forms on you, that steers light around you onto its original path.
As an action you can choose to make your skin semi-translucent. This lasts until deactivated. While this is active, you are considered lightly obscured and can hide from a creature even when they have a clear line of sight to you. Wisdom (Perception) checks to find you that rely on vision are made with disadvantage.
You can spend 5 charges to cast invisibility or 7 charges to cast greater invisibility on yourself.
Dragonscale Dermal Armor
Prerequisite: 15th level Artificer; Dragon Scale Mail, Potion of Diminution
You inject a dark liquid into yourself that emerges from your pores and forms dragon-like scales all over your body when you are in dire need of protection.
You can spend 10 charges to gain +5 AC and advantage on saving throws for one minute and are immune to spells or effects that would alter your form. During this time all your movement speeds are halved. After this effect ends you gain 1 point of exhaustion.
Upgrades with ingredients
Some upgrades require ingredients to be crafted and integrated. These ingredients are consumed when you integrate it and are only required once.
If you level up and meet all the other requirements for a certain upgrade, but are missing the ingredients you can still spend your upgrade point on that upgrade. However, it is implanted during the next long rest when you have accumulated all the required ingredients. Only then can you use the effects and abilities provided by this upgrade.
Some ingredients may be difficult to acquire in your setting. Talk to your DM about what other things you could use to craft the desired upgrade, while not making it trivial.
Credits
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for creating D&D and the great art and to the Deus Ex universe for the influence to the cyberpunk genre.
Additionally, this homebrew has been inspired and supported by some redditors without whom this would not have been possible.
Special thanks to:
KibblesTasty
For creating the Alternate Artificer in the first place. This Homebrew initially showed me that even in a D&D setting such feats of engineering and complex mechanics have its place. Obviously this subclass takes not only the class mechanics from him, but also so much inspiration. Also thank you for always helping with this Homebrew, doing all the heavy lifting for balancing and the general support!
Chocolate--Thunda
Whose Evolutionist class served as an inspiration and a general role model in terms of formatting and design.
Godfire14
For providing new ideas, balancing and proofreading until sunrise.