The Forge of the Artificer, er... Artificer revamp didn't strictly introduce the Homunculus servant, but it did make some big changes to how it works which will make it, if you ask me, a must-use spell for any Artificer.
The old version took up one of your infusions and also demanded a bit of your action economy, forcing you to use your bonus action to command it, which kind of made it useless for Artillerists and Battle Smiths, who want to use their bonus actions for key subclass features (Eldritch Cannons and Steel Defenders, respectively).
The new version, though, is now a second level spell that acts a lot like Find Familiar, but with one key difference: the Homunculus can attack. (Oh, and the component in the spell isn't consumed, so once you have it, as long as the DM isn't mean and steals your spell component, you can re-cast the spell easily.)
The thing is, the homunculus' attack, while better than a familiar's because it can be ranged (I suppose a Chain pact Warlock could use a Skeleton familiar's shortbow attack, with the pact boon allowing it to attack, but its attack bonus doesn't scale the way the homunculus' attack does) on top of, you know, it being allowed to attack.
But one trick that isn't really talked about a lot is giving your familiar a magic item that can do something more exciting. I can't recall if using a magic item requires a Magic action or a Utilize action, but neither of these are prohibited by either spell. That said, if you have an Owl, for example, your DM could likely argue that they don't have the proper limbs to use and operate a magic item. But the homunculus has two things in its favor: one is that we have pretty broad leeway to define how its limbs are configured, the art often showing a little mechanical dude hovering around with two humanoid-like arms. The other is that, as artificers, we can very easily cook up some magic items to give to them.
Now, if you're worried about carrying capacity, the Homunculus Servant has a Strength of 4. Most playable characters (who are all Medium or Small unless altered by some spell or class feature) have a carrying capacity of 15 pounds for each point of Strength (meaning that a normal person should be able to carry 150 pounds). Tiny creatures, however, have this value halved. But luckily, even with a mere 4 Strength, that means that you can still carry up to 30 pounds as a tiny creature.
The heaviest kind of arcane focus is a staff, which weighs just 4 pounds. A wand is 1 pound. In fact, the very heaviest mundane weapon in the game is the Heavy Crossbow, at 18 pounds, which our Homunculus could hold (and wield! With a 15 Dexterity, they're qualified to use a Heavy ranged weapon!) The heaviest set of artisan's tools, Tinker's Tools, is 10 pounds.
The point here is that unless something is explicitly very heavy (there are armor sets that will be too heavy for them, though I might argue that if you make a set of armor for the homunculus, it might be lighter given that it's for a tiny creature) they should be able to carry most magic items.
One last bit of preamble:
At level 11, you can make a spell-storing item, and three of the five subclasses (and maybe four if and when the Reanimator subclass comes out - which I hope it does) have very good AoE damage spells at 3rd level that will likely be your go-to option for this. And with ten casts per day (unless you're taking a lot of general feats and not Intelligence-capped yet, but then still probably eight uses) you'll probably just have the Homunculus use this over and over.
But level 11 is a pretty big threshold, crossing into tier 3. As a second level spell, we can start using a Homunculus at the start of tier 2. So, what do we do from levels 5-10 with them?
One option to consider is the Dragon's Breath spell, which allows the Homunculus to use its action to do a 30-foot cone (dex save) for 3d6 of a standard dragon elemental damage type. This is really not a bad use of one bonus action in a combat, but it does take up what is still a pretty precious 2nd level spell slot. Making a magic item for them might be a good alternative. But what options ought we to look at?
5th level:
At 5th level, we're still using just our base Replicate Magic Item feature's options. There are a few wands included in the bespoke list, but none that do any damage. But we can also create any common magic item that isn't a scroll, a potion, or cursed.
And frankly? There's not a lot of great options here. Even enspelled items that cast cantrips are actually Uncommon. I think you're really best off just using Dragon's Breath or, if you want to conserve spell slots, just making use of the Homunculus' own attack.
6th level:
Here, we get our second suite of replicable items, and we start to get some strong options:
Pipes of Haunting doesn't have a ton of charges (though we can use Magic Item Tinker on it when it runs out to turn it into one of the other options here) but it's a pretty powerful effect, inflicting the frightened condition on creatures within 30 feet (of your choice). The Wisdom save DC is a set 15 (standard for a lot of magic items) but that's actually pretty good - at level 6 with a +4 to Int, we're looking at a 15 DC for our spells anyway. A 30-foot emanation, effectively, is going to easily cover, if not the entire battlefield, then a pretty enormous swath of it, and there's no limit on targets. You'll only use this once per fight, as creatures who succeed on the save will be immune to the effect, but it's a hell of an opener.
Wand of Magic Missiles is a pretty straightforward option. With 7 charges, you'll probably be able to use this on most turns, and if you just use it up and Magical Tinker it into something else, it only needs to last half the day (though be aware that there's a 5% chance that it crumbles to dust if you use up the last charge, which isn't terrible in the long term, but will prevent you from transforming it into something useful). You can up-cast the spell by using more charges, so if you need a bigger burst of damage, you can do that, but spreading it out over all 7 charges means, effectively, a total of 21d4+21 damage. Or, perhaps more usefully, you can think of this as being a guaranteed (except in very rare cases) 3d4+3 (around 10.5 damage) every turn. To contrast this with the Homunculus' normal attack, that's got an attack bonus equal to your spell attack (we'd probably assume +7 at this level) and does 1d6 plus the spell's level in Force damage, so at this level that's 1d6+2, or 5.5, and if you have a target with an AC of 15, that's 3.75 damage per round. In other words, the wand's going to be doing 2.8 times as much damage.
Wand of Web is another good choice - for one thing, it's your homunculus who will maintain concentration on the spell, rather than you. Web's a strong spell, though the DC on this item is only 13. Still, it's a pretty large region, and the webs are even flammable (which will destroy them, but they do cause extra fire damage when they burn - I'm sad that the new Grease is explicitly non-flammable).
Of these, Wand of Magic Missiles is obviously the best choice for pure damage output. But it's very dependent on the kind of fight you're fighting - if you're getting swarmed by lots of monsters, an AoE fear might make that fight a lot more manageable. If you want to really debilitate a foe or a couple of foes, Web's going to be really great for that. It's a question of what your party really needs from you.
Level 10:
While we're only a level away from Spell-Storing Item, our options here open up massively, because we can now make any uncommon wondrous item. And uncommon is when magic items start to become way more powerful. Now, we can't make any staff, rod, or wand here - which does limit our spellcasting item options. And enspelled items are all staves, armor, and weapons, which aren't included here either. But still, we have a ton of things to look at. I'm not sure I'll be able to cover all the best options here, btu I'll try to find some really solid options.
Coiling Grasp Tattoo might be a bit odd, but it's an endlessly-reusable action that can deal 3d6 damage on a failed strength save and grapple a target. The DC is set by the item, so the Homunculus' low Strength is not a problem here, and the 15-foot range on it can potentially have the Homunculus safely hover above.
The Decanter of Endless Water can do a small amount (only 1d4) damage in a line with its Geyser action, but it can also knock creatures prone. The benefit this has, I think, over something like Wand of Web is that it never runs out (just as the name of the item suggests).
Gems of Brightness can inflict the blinded condition, though note that they don't have the friendly fire protections of the Pipes of Haunting. While the normal version of the item never regains charges and becomes a nonmagical item after its 50 charges are expended, if it's replicated, you can just make a new one when it's used up.
A Pyroconverger (from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica) is basically a flamethrower that deals 4d6 damage. It doesn't have charges, but there's a growing chance (starting at 50%) that it'll explode, so while hilarious, perhaps not the most practical.
A Wind Fan, similarly to the Gem of Brightness, is largely limited by its chance to break, though Gust of Wind (the spell it casts) is arguably not that great.
Level 14:
By this level, you'll have the Spell-Storing Item, which is probably what you'll have your homunculus using, as it's got a pretty hefty number of charges, uses your own (likely quite high) spell save DC. But we do have some other options.
The Ring of the Ram is probably not worth it unless you want it specifically for breaking objects, especially if you're looking for a sustainable option (the get decent damage out of it, you'll probably want to expend extra charges).
But we also now get Rare wondrous items:
Bag of Beans could be used as a single big AoE burst - if you dump out all of the beans (3d4, so an average of 7.5, we'll round down to 7) then each bean will explode for 5d4 force damage in a 10-foot radius sphere. Your homunculus could thus do something like a bombing run, and if we assume 7 beans, that's basically 35d4 damage (or half on a successful DC 15 Dex save,) which is 87.5 damage - not nothing. (Planting the beans will have much more strange effects, which are randomized). This won't outdamage ten Conjure Barrages, of course, but if you need a really sudden burst, it's an option.
Cube of Force will allow your Homunculus to maintain Wall of Force, among other useful spells, if you need crowd control more than damage.
Cube of Summoning is a very silly option, as you'll be able to have your homunculus cast a random "Summon" spell at 5th level.
Necklace of Fireballs is probably not going to be as good as an Artillerist's spell-storing item, but if you're a Cartographer or Alchemist who doesn't have as good of a 3rd level spell to toss in it, this is a workaround.
I think that, probably by design, most of the items that can cast lots and lots of spells are either staves or wands, while wondrous items are largely more about constant, passive effects or one-per-day big things that you might not need to hand off to your homunculus.
Honestly, I think that the level 6 options you get pretty early on are going to do a lot to tide you over until level 11. Wand of Magic Missile is probably your most universally useful option, though I'd genuinely consider both the Pipes of Haunting and the Wand of Web.
Now, depending on the item you find in your campaign, or the items you're able to craft if your DM gives you the downtime, materials, and opportunity, there might be some really good options. A lot of these have some attunement requirements that might get in the way, but something like a Wand of Binding (which can cast Hold Person and Hold Monster) could be great to have someone else concentrating on.
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