Tinkerer

A tinkerer is a master crafter, creator, and manipulator of both the most current developments of engineering and forgotten techniques lost in the fall of ancient civilizations.

Many tinkerers explore how magic and engineering mix, developing complex powers of item imbuement and mastering crafting- and mechanics-related spells. Others eschew magic as a cheap trick that ignores the brilliance of pure engineering and crafting, or focus on constructs and clockwork or alchemical weaponry, or train to get more out of their tools and magical devices, or kitbash and juryrig what they need when they need it. Of course whatever direction a tinkerer takes when they first start, most branch out into a few different fields of crafting as they grow, learn, and experiment.

Tinkerers in Your Campaign

There are a lot of different ways you can add tinkerers to your campaign, ranging from just making them a choice that is no different from (and no less common than) fighters and rogues, to allowing just a single tinkerer PC or NPC to represent a special

Da Vinci-like genius who can accomplish things no one else can (while still being balanced with other classes in total effectiveness). There are pros and cons to each approach, discussed below.

A Dime A Dozen

This is usually the default assumption when a campaign adds a class. There are no special requirements or limitations, and as a result it’s fair to assume that the class is no more or less common than any other. There are absolutely advantages to this method, not the least of which are that it’s simple and doesn’t require any extra work. The only real drawback is that if a noteworthy percentage of the population are tinkerers, it may seem odd that the campaign’s general level of craft and technology isn’t higher (and constantly improving). On the other hand, most campaigns don’t place any special restrictions on spellcasters, and rarely account for an ever-growing level of magical proficiency and competence in their socio-economic designs, so for most groups this likely isn’t a major issue.

Rare as NPCs, Unrestricted as PCs

This scheme works on the assumption that while any PC can take levels in tinkerer as desired, they are fairly uncommon among NPCs. Without being explicit about it, this assumption is actually often already in place in campaigns when discussing spellcasters—groups of skilled combatants as guards and mercenaries are generally presented as more common, and with larger memberships, than similar groups of spells-for-hire or sergeants-at-arcana.

As with spellcasters, their overall rarity may be a result of natural aptitude (tinkerers may simply require a kind of spark of genius not everyone has, just as some campaign settings assume spellcasting requires some mote of innate eldritch potential), or could be more about the training needed to take the role being extensive, time-consuming, and difficult to arrange for (in which case PCs are just assumed to have done so before the campaign begins). This has the advantage of helping to make tinkerers characters feel rare and special, and minimize the assumption hordes of them they should be impacting the campaign’s infrastructure.

It has the drawback of often seeming fairly ad hoc, and possibly creating some weird results if other PCs later decide to pick up some tinkerer abilities through multiclassing, without ever having shown any sign of a special genius or having taken years to acquire special training.

Tied to a Campaign Element

This is similar to being rare as NPCs, except the rarity is specifically connected to some specific element within the campaign, For example tinkerers might only be common among dwarves, or only found in the Verresh Imperium, or normally only be taught in the religious academies of Kytbahz the Crafter God. This can be a great way to add some flavor to both the campaign element in question, and to the tinkerer class. And since there’s a cultural or other rational reason for their numbers to be limited and tied to a background, players can play with those elements when designing a character history.

If tinkerers are mostly a dwarven tradition, all a Master Class: Tinkerer player has to do when wishing to play a human tinkerer is find some reason they are an exception to that general rule. Perhaps their godmother was a dwarven tinkerer, or their parents were ambassadors to a dwarven Craftlord, and they were raised and taught with dwarven youth. Lots of players do great jobs being creative with this kind of thing, and it can result in characters with built-in ties to a campaign world. You can get much more creative with classes tied to campaign elements that just linking them to a culture or deity. Perhaps a spaceship crashed into a time-travelling wizard’s flying castle, and those within 5 miles of the explosion were all changed in a way that turned their children into tinkerers.

Maybe fairy godparents choose to bless specific apprentices with the great destiny of being a tinkerer. Maybe when a computer golem explodes, tiny pieces of its cognition gears can get stuck in the food chain, and a small percentage of people who eat the cheese from a nearby farm end up developing the talents of a tinkerer.

The main drawback of doing things this way is that it’s more work, and it can be frustrating for players who want a tinkerer with a very different flavor. Of course not every character concept is appropriate for every campaign, but limiting player options can lead to dissatisfaction if the limitations seem capricious or unnecessary. In most cases, campaigns assume the core classes are universal rather than saying all rangers come from Rangeria, and players may feel locking down tinkerers to a tight range of background elements is needlessly restrictive.

The Chosen Few

This approach limits the number of tinkerers even more severely than just tying them to a campaign element, and sets the class as something totally apart, which only a very few (or possibly only one) character can use. This can be as simply as deciding the tinkerer is built on a tight set of specific methods of approaching crafting, which just one tinkerer PC has learned, or that a single master tinkerer created and their 7 apprentices are the only ones left who know the secret. This has all the drawbacks of being tied to a campaign element, and also adds a good deal of narrative focus on any PC that is allowed to be one of the chosen few who are tinkerers. That can be very appealing to some players, but it can also risk taking the same amount of focus away from other players, which is obviously less fun for them. It also immediately brings up a number of questions—can the PC tinkerer teach other people? If not, why not? Can any other player multiclass into tinkerer, or is it limited to just one player, and if so, does that make that one player more important?

This is the sort of thing that works very well for the right group, and can be disastrous for others. If you like this idea as a GM, it’s worth bringing it up to players when discussing the campaign, and seeing how they feel about it.

Alignment: A tinkerer may be of any alignment.

Starting Wealth: 4d4 × 10 gp

Class Features

As a tinkerer, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per tinkerer level
Hit Points At 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5)+ your Constitution modifier per tinkerer level after 1st.

Proficiencies

Armor: Light and medium armor
Weapons: Simple and martial weapons
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Constitution
Tools: Choose any five
Skills: Choose any five.

Table 1-1: The Tinkerer

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Minor Crafts	Major Crafts	Knacks
1	+2	Crafts, tinkerer’s kit	2	1	—
2	+2	Knacks	2	2	2
3	+2	Specialization, tinkerer’s proficiency	2	2	2
4	+2	Ability Score Improvement	3	2	2
5	+3		3	2	3
6	+3	Specialization feature	3	2	3
7	+3		3	2	4
8	+3	Ability Score Improvement	3	2	4
9	+4		3	2	5
10	+4	Specialization feature	4	2	5
11	+4		4	3	5
12	+4	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	6
13		+5	4	3	6
14	+5	Specialization feature	4	3	6
15		+5	4	3	7
16	+5	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	7
17	+6		4	4	7
18	+6	Specialization feature	4	4	8
19	+6	Ability Score Improvement	4	4	8
20	+6		4	4	9

Crafts

Every tinkerer has a complex understanding of mechanics, alchemy, brewing, engineering, carpentry, and ways to combine those crafts to produce items quickly. As long as you have your tinkerer’s kit, as your action you can create and minor crafts and major crafts. Your minor crafts are restored when you complete a short rest. Your major crafts are only restored after you complete a long rest. You begin play being able to create basic crafts, which function as pieces of mundane equipment. Your versions of this equipment may not be exactly the same in appearance as the item it emulates (your hunting trap might be a barbed spike creatures step on, rather than a saw-toothed ring that snaps shut), but its function is obvious and works exactly as the item it emulates.

Creating a basic craft is an action, and you can use it the same action you create it. When you use an item you can create as a minor basic craft (whether you crafted that specific item or not), you gain benefits. When you use such an item to deal damage, the damage die is increased to 1d10. You gain an additional d10 of damage at 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10). If such an item does damage on a failed check (such as a hunting trap) or failed save (such as basic poison), that damage is increased to 1d4 (if it was less than 1d4), plus an additional 1d4 at 5th, 11th, and 17th level. If such an item has a save DC (such as ball bearings), that DC is increased by your proficiency bonus. When you use an item you can create as a major basic craft (whether you crafted that specific item or not), you also gain benefits. When using a potion of healing, you add your tinkerer level to the hp healed.

When using a spyglass, objects are magnified to triple their size (x4 their size if you are 6th level, x5 if you are 12th, and x6 if you are 18th). When you use a toolkit, you can use it as a bonus action.

Minor Basic

• Acid
• Alchemist’s fire
• Antitoxin
• Ball bearings
• Healer’s Kit (one use)
• Hunting trap
• Lamp
• Lantern
• Lock
• Manacles
• Oil
• Poison, basic
• Ram, portable

Major Basic

• Potion of healing
• Spyglass
• Tools or Toolkit (any)

Tinkerer’s Kit

You have a special toolkit you have put together to assist you in your various tinkering efforts. Your tinkerer’s kit functions as any two tools or toolkits of your choice that you are proficient with. At 3rd level, and every 3 levels thereafter, you select an additional toolkit you are proficient with for it to function as. If lost or destroyed, you can recreate your tinkerer’s toolkit from any toolkit it functioned as with one day of work. When you have your tinkerer’s kit, you can craft up to 10 gp worth of material in one day of downtime. If alternate crafting rules are used, you double the amount of progress you make in each day of crafting. Your tinkerer’s kit allows you to craft items appropriate to the tools it emulates in any location. Your proficiency bonus with your tinkerer’s kit is doubled.

Knacks

At 2nd level you pick up a special tinkering knack.

Knacks come in two categories: gadgets and techniques. Gadgets are devices you have managed to put together using your tinkering kit, and only function if you have access to your tinkering kit. Techniques represent special ability you have picked up along the way, and may be related to special crafting techniques, or dabbling with magic, or some insight on a way to use equipment. When a knack emulates a spell, you use your tinkerer level to determine any level-dependent effects, and it is considered to have a spell level equal to half your tinkerer level.

If a knack has a prerequisite you must meet it to select the gadget. You may select it the same level you meet the prerequisite. You gain additional knacks as indicated on Table: 1-1 The Tinkerer.

Alchemist (Technique)

When you do damage with a basic craft, you add your Intelligence modifier to the damage dealt.

Basic Magic (Technique)

You can cast detect magic 3 times/day, and identify 1ce/day.

Battlefield Bombs (Gadget)

You can create bombs that affect the battlefield. These create nonmagic effects that emulate one spell you have selected from the list below. Creating a battlefield bomb requires a major craft. Each spell has a minimum level you must be to select it as a battlefield bomb, and you may select this knack more than once to select multiple kinds of bombs. If you are 4 or more levels higher than the minimum for a battlefield bomb, you may select the same bomb twice for it to expend a minor craft, rather than a major craft.

• Fog Cloud (3rd level)
• Grease (3rd level)
• Cloud of daggers (5th level)
• Web (5th level)
• Conjure barrage (9th level)
• Fireball (9th level)
• Stinking Cloud (9th level)
• Delayed Blast Fireball (18th level)
• Incendiary Cloud (20th level)

Chink in The Armor (Technique)

When you damage a target with a weapon or basic craft, you can expend a minor craft to create a weak point in their defenses. The target takes a -2 penalty to their AC until the end of your next turn. Each round after that the target can make a DC 10 Dexterity save to end the penalty.

Deep Pockets (Technique)

You gain an additional 2 minor crafts each day.

If you are 10th level or higher, you also gain one additional major craft each day.

Herbalist (Technique)

You can cast detect poison and disease at will.

Mastercraft (Gadget)

You have created an item of spectacular quality. This functions as a common magic item, though it may not actually be magical. The item requires your constant maintenance and attention—it does not function for anyone else, and falls apart if you are apart from it for more than 24 hours. If lost or destroyed you can recreate this mastercraft with a day of downtime. Once you have selected your mastercraft, it cannot be changed.

If you are 10th level, you can instead have a mastercraft that functions as an uncommon magic item. If you are 18th level, it can function as a rare magic item. You may select this knack up to three times (the second time at 10th level or higher, the third at 18th level or higher), with it functioning as a different class of magic item each time. Your mastercraft must be an item that could be crafted using the downtime rules. The GM has final say on what items can be gained as mastercrafts.

Mending Magic (Technique)

Prerequisite(s): Basic Magic Technique

You can cast mending at will.

Parachute Cloak (Gadget)

Prerequisite(s): Tinkerer Level 9th

You can create a nonmagic effect that duplicates the levitate spell on yourself at will.

Phosphorescent Lantern (Gadget)

You can create nonmagic effects that duplicate the light or faerie fire spells at will.

Ritual Notes (Technique)

You have tinkered with magic enough to be able to cast rituals. You keep ritual note in your tinkerer’s kit. Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag. These may be chosen from any spell lists. As long as you have your tinkerer’s kit, you can cast these spells as rituals. When you find other ritual spells, if they have a spell level no greater than half your tinkerer level, you can experiment with them to attempt to create enough notes to add them to your ritual notes. Such experimentation takes 2 hours and 50 gp per level of the spell to be added.

Security Systems (Gadget)

Prerequisite(s): Tinkerer Level 5th

You can create nonmagic effects that duplicate the alarm or arcane lock spells three times per day.

Spring Heels (Gadget)

Prerequisite(s): Tinkerer Level 5th

You can create nonmagic effects that duplicate the jump and longstrider spells on yourself at will.

Tinker Master (Technique)

Prerequisite(s): Basic Magic Technique, Tinkerer Level 12th

You can cast fabricate once a day.

Trap Finder (Technique)

Prerequisite(s): Proficiency with Thieves’ Tools

You gain a bonus action each round. You can use this bonus action to use your thieves’ tools to disarm a trap or open a lock. You can cast find traps twice per day.

Use Magic Device (Technique)

Prerequisite(s): Tinkerer Level 7th

You ignore all class, race, and level requirements on the use of magic items.

Weapon Magic (Technique)

Prerequisite(s): Basic Magic Technique

You can cast magic weapon 3 times/day. It has a spell level equal to half your tinkerer level (minimum 1st, maximum 6th).

Wings (Gadget)

Prerequisite(s): Tinkerer Level 9th

You can create nonmagic effect that duplicate the fly spell on yourself at three times per day.

Specialization

At 3rd level, your tinkering has specialized on one specific area of crafting and tinkering. You select one specialization. Each specialization gives you access to additional crafts, which emulate spells but are created by using your minor and major crafts. You create these effects in a specific manner (with an extract for the apothecary, with a weapon or armor for the armorer, and with a construct for the constructwright). These crafts use major and minor crafts as your basic crafts (and drawn from the same maximum crafts/day), and act exactly as the listed spell they emulate except as noted.

Apothecary

You have tinkered with ways to create elixirs, liquids very similar to potions. You add the extracts listed below as major and minor crafts when your tinkerer level is double their spell level. An extract is “cast” by drinking it, as if imbibing a potion— the effects of an extract exactly duplicate the spell upon which its formula is based, save that the spell always affects only the drinking character. You use your tinkerer level as the caster level to determine any effect based on caster level. Extracts act as if they were of a spell level equal to half your tinkerer level. It takes as long to create the extract as it would take to cast the emulated spell. You can drink the extract as part of the same action, or later pass it to another character to drink. Extracts not used on the same day they are created lose their potency and become inert.

Creating extracts consumes raw materials, but the cost of these materials is insignificant—comparable to the valueless material components of many spells. If a spell normally has a costly material component, that component is expended during the consumption of that particular extract.

Apothecary Extract Minor Crafts

• Resistance

Apothecary Extract Major Crafts

• Cure wounds (1st)
• False Life (1st)
• Aid (2nd)
• Alter self (2nd)
• Barkskin (2nd)
• Invisibility (2nd)
• Feign Death (3rd)
• Haste (3rd)
• Nondetection (3rd)
• Stoneskin (4th)
• Dream (5th)
• Heroes’ Feast (6th)
• Etherealness (7th)
• Animal shapes (8th)
• Astral projection (9th)

Resistance Ready Extract

At 6th level, you can begin each day with one extract prepared. This does not count against your total number of major crafts for the day.

Rare Formula

At 10th level you create a special rare formula for one extract as a major craft. This can either have the effect of two extracts you know of 2nd level or less (such as an extract that grants both barkskin and invisibility), or can be a wizard spell or 3rd level or less that effects the target that drinks the extra, or gives that creature the power to cast the spell once using your caster level (as appropriate to the spell). You gain a second unique extract as a major craft at 14th level, which can combine any 2 extracts you know of 4th level or less, or can be a wizard spell of 5th level or less.

Lost Formula

At 14th level, you gain two additional extracts as major crafts. They may be selected from the following potions: climbing, fire breath, giant strength, heroism, resistance, vitality, or water breathing.

Legendary Formula

Once each day, you can use 2 major crafts to create an extract that works as a potion of invulnerability, or a potion of longevity.

~~~

Armorer

You have mastered secrets of creating weapons that spray fire and acid, cloaks that shed the eyes of your enemies, and cloth that protects as well as armor. Of course, your processes are experimental, and don’t work for long in combat conditions without regular adjustments and maintenance.

Select two armorer emulations minor crafts. You gain access to these minor crafts, and all major crafts with a spell level no greater than half your tinkerer level. These are the spells you can emulate using your tinkerer’s kit. They function exactly like the spells they emulate, save that they are not magical effects. You use your tinkerer level as the caster level to determine any effect based on caster level. Armorer emulations act as if they were of a spell level equal to half your tinkerer level. It takes as long to use an armorer emulation as it would take to cast the emulated spell.

Armorer Emulations Minor Crafts

• Acid splash
• Eldritch Blast
• Fire Bolt
• Poison Spray
• Ray of Frost
• Shocking Grasp

Armorer Emulations Major Crafts

• Burning Hands (1st)
• Ensnaring Strike (1st)
• Mage Armor (1st)
• Shield (1st)
• Thunderous Smite (1st)
• Blur (2nd)
• Branding Smite (2nd)
• Flame Blade (2nd)
• Blinding Smite (3rd)
• Elemental Weapon (3rd)
• Lightning Arrow (3rd)
• Fire Shield (4th)
• Banishing Smite (5th)
• Conjure Volley (5th)

Shock And Awe

At 14th level you can cause your weaponry to be so showy, flashy, and distracting it is difficult for foes to focus on attacking you. When you use an armorer emulation craft to make an attack roll or do damage, you gain half cover (a +2 bonus to your AC and Dexterity saving throws) until your next turn.

Snap Shot

At 18th level you no longer expend a minor craft to use your armorer emulation minor crafts. You can make an attack with an armor emulation minor craft as a reaction when a target provokes an attack of opportunity from you.

~~~

Constructwright

You have learned to make constructs, clockwork and spring and steam-driven automatons that serve you loyally. You gain a number of construct emulations, which are spells your constructs can act as. A construct is “cast” by assembling it from parts you carry with you—the effects of creating a construct exactly duplicate the spell upon which it is based, save that any summoned creature is a construct rather than its normal type. You use your tinkerer level as the caster level to determine any effect based on caster level. Constructs act as if they were of a spell level equal to half your tinkerer level. It takes as long to create a construct as it would take to cast the emulated spell.

Elemental Weapons

At 6th level you have significantly expanded your weapon designs. You gain the remaining armor emulation minor crafts you had not previous selected.

Additionally, select one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder. Whenever you do damage with an armorer emulation, you can change the damage it does to the selected type.

Rapid Fire

At 10th level, you have learned to expend additional resources to craft simple, easily used weapons when circumstances call for it. You can use an armorer emulation minor craft as a bonus action by expending a major craft, rather than minor craft, to do so.

Constructwright Emulations Minor Crafts

• Blade ward
• Dancing lights

Constructwright Emulations Major Crafts

• Find Familiar (1st)
• Animal Messenger (2nd)
• Find Steed (2nd, with conjures?)
• Conjure animals (3rd)
• Conjure Minor Elementals (Earth only)(4th)
• Conjure Elementals (Earth Only)(5th)

Gadgets

At 6th level, you can assign your basic minor crafts and gadgets to your constructs. Any construct you create can use your minor basic crafts as an action, which are as effective as if you had used them. If you have a gadget knack, you can grant it to a construct when the construct is created. You regain it when you wish and are adjacent to the construct, or can rebuilt it the next day.

Guardian

At 10th level you have a guardian construct with you at the beginning of the day. This is a single construct identical to one you could create with a construct emulation with a spell level at least 2 lower than half your tinkerer level.

It lasts until destroyed, though you can only have one guardian at a time. Each day you can choose a new guardian, or repair an existing one restoring it to full hp.

Augmented Constructs

At 14th level you can construct advanced constructs.

Select one of the following benefits. All the constructs you create with this specialization gain this benefit.

• Resistance to one damage type (once selected, the damage type cannot be changed)
• Climb 30 feet
• Fly 30 feet
• Swim 30 feet
• Bonus damage (all attacks deal 1d6 additional damage)
• Ranged attack (uses your proficiency as its attack bonus, does 2d6 acid, fire, or lightning damage. Once the damage type is selected, it cannot be changed).

Blueprinted Constructs

At 18th level, each day you can select one benefit from augmented constructs to grant all the constructs you create that day. You cannot select an augmentation your constructs already have.

Tinkerer’s Proficiency

At 3rd level you gain proficiency with one additional set of tools of your choice. You gain proficiency with another set of tools at 6th level, 12th level, and 18th level.

Ability Score Improvement

At 4th level you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. You cannot exceed an ability score of 20. You may do this again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.