Minion Parade: Circle of Storms

 The Summoner, of course, need not summon spooky, scary creatures like demons or undead. In what I'd think of as the most kind of tonally neutral choice, you can pick Elementals to summon - a classic option for conjurers.

In Draw Steel, there are seven elements (the regular four and then Green, Rot, and Void). While these have their physical expressions, the elements are also (as the Alchemists and earlier philosophers thought) the essence of various concepts. Fire is not just that phenomenon of things burning, but the very idea of destruction or transformation. Earth is not just rocks and dirt, but the very idea of solidity and stability.

Elemental minions all have some kind of effect that happens when they are reduced to 0 Stamina (meaning I don't think they trigger when you sacrifice them). Some of these require you to spend 1 Essence to activate, but the key is that if you're an elemental summoner, you're going to be making an absolute mess of the battlefield (for your foes).

Signature Minions:

Elemental Mote:

Motes are tiny Hexers, and are little pure, well, motes of elemental energy that can fly. When they are killed, they inflict a bane on the next strike adjacent enemies make. Once per turn, they can transform into an adjacent allied signature minion (maintaining their current stamina) and join a new squad if they change names (though I can't imagine why you'd change them into another Elemental Mote). You can even spend 1 Essence to transform them into a signature minion you don't actually have, as if you were summoning them into the Mote's space (and thus should have the chosen minion's Stamina). All Storm Summoners get this minion and one other signature minion. Free Strike: 1.

Brisk Gale:

These small Harriers look like twisting ribbons of cloud and debris. They can fly and don't provoke opportunity attacks by moving. When killed, the space they leave a swirling wind in their space until the end of the encounter. If you or an ally starts their turn there or enter the space, they can immediately shift (including vertically). Free Strike: 1.

Fire Plume:

These tiny Artillery are extremely bright flames, sputtering and spitting sparks. Their ranged free strikes have an increased range, and when reduced to 0 stamina (ah, I see a theme developing) their space becomes wreathed with flame until the end of the encounter, dealing 2 fire damage to foes that enter the space or start their turn there. Free Strike: 2.

Walking Bolder:

These size-2 Defenders are clods of stone roll around on smaller limb-like rocks. They block line of effect for enemies, and when one is killed, you can spend 1 Essence to have them leave behind a stone wall of their size in their space until the end of the encounter. Free Strike: 1.

3-Essence Elementals:

Crux of Ash:

These phoenix-like birds made of hot ash are medium Ambushers. They can fly, and their melee free strikes against lower-Might enemies will hide all allies from the target until the start of the Crux's next turn, or until the target uses a maneuver to wipe the soot from their eyes or the crux takes damage or is destroyed. When killed, you can spend an Essence to cover the area within 1 square of the crux to be clouded by ash, granting concealment to you and your allies, and preventing foes from establishing line of effect beyond the ash if they're in an affected square. Free Strike: 5.

Flow of Magma:

This serpentine elemental made of heated rock is a large Harrier. It has a signature ability that deals 4, 6, or 8 fire damage and lets them shift 3, 4, or 5 squares. The squares that the Flow shifts into become wreathed in flame until the Flow's next turn, dealing 2 damage to any enemy that enters them. When killed, you can spend 1 Essence to launch lava into a square equal to 1+ their size (so likely a 2-square), which becomes difficult terrain for enemies until the end of the encounter and causes lower-agility foes that enter the space or start their turn there 4 fire damage. Free Strike: 4.

Desolation of Sand:

These medium Hexers are legless humanoid shapes of sand have glassy arms that shoot blasts of sand at their foes. Their free strikes inflict slowed (save ends) against low-Might enemies, and if the target is already slowed, an enemy that even has slightly higher Might becomes Restrained (end of turn). When killed, the area within 1 square of the elemental becomes difficult terrain until the end of the encounter, and you or allies that enter the area can immediately shift 3. Free Strike: 4.

5-Essence Elementals:

Dancing Silk:

These tiny Controllers look a bit like baby spiders using webbing balloons. They can fly, and their ranged free strikes can inflict restrained against low-Agility targets (EoT) and then slowed against adjacent targets with lower agility (in other words, the potency is weak, rather than average) (EoT). When slain, you can spend 1 Essence to have the Silks send ribbons of webbing into an area of their size +1 within 5 of them. The area is difficult terrain for foes until the end of the encounter, and enemies that ends their turn in the webbing and have lower Might are slowed (EoT). Free Strike: 3.

Principle of the Swamp:

These size-2, equine Brutes live in swampy sludge, and their manes can extend and hook into things like arms. They can swim and their free strikes have a distance equal to your reason and will grab lower-Might targets. They can have any number of creatures grabbed. A creature grabbed this way can still move, but can't move away from the Principle. When slain, you can spend an Essence to cause the area within 1 square of it to become difficult terrain for enemies until the end of the encounter, and a creature who ends their turn in the area is pulled 4 toward its center. Free Strikes: 4.

Quiet of Snow:

These small, six-legged, fox-like Artillery white as fresh snow fly through the air sending telepathic howls. They can fly and hover, and have a signature ability that does 4, 6, or 8 cold damage and slows lower-might targets (EoT). On a tier 3, their speed becomes zero instead. One adjacent ally to the target can shift 2 and either hide or defend when they do this. When slain, the Quiet launches a blast of air to an area equal to their size +1 and all allies within the square gain a surge. Free Strike: 4.

7-Essence Elementals:

Iron Reaver:

These Large Harriers look like metallic centipedes that shed shavings and sheets of metal as they move. Also of note, you get three of these per summon, rather than the two you get for the other minions of this level, but they have lower Stamina. They can burrow, and they get cover when adjacent to another reaver that they were summoned with. If they receive an effect that allows them to move or shift outside of their regular move action, they get to share it with each adjacent reaver they were summoned with. Their free strikes inflict bleeding (save ends) on low-Might foes, and when they inflict bleeding, they can shift 2 and make an additional free strike against a new target. (The potency for this is weak, so you need a fair number of low-Might foes, but I think this could potentially chain endlessly with enough targets). When slain, you can spend 1 Essence to create a line equal to 2x their size centered on their space, filling it with iron shards until the end of the encounter. You and allies get cover and damage immunity 2 while occupying an affected square. Free Strike: 6.

Knight of Blood:

These large Controllers look like spiky armored knights endlessly dripping blood (yeah, a bit more hardcore than you expected from an elemental, right?) Their melee strikes inflict bleeding (save ends) on low-Presence targets, and when the die is rolled for their bleed damage, the result can't be lower than a 3. When slain, you can spend 2 Essence to let them move up to their speed ignoring opportunity attacks. Each square they exit pools with blood until the end of the encounter. Enemies treat this as difficult terrain and it deals 3 corruption damage to enemies who first enter the area on a turn. If a bleeding enemy starts their turn within 10 squares of the blood pool, they are pull 2 toward the nearest square, ignoring stability. Free Strike: 7.

Light of the Sun:

These size-2 Support are avian in shape and blaze with blinding light, grasping a glowing sword. They can fly, and they have a Signature ability that deals 7, 11, or 16 Fire damage and can inflict dazed on low-Intuition foes (EoT, or Save Ends if tier 3). A target that is dazed this way has their stability reduced to 0 until the condition ends. If slain, you can spend 2 Essence for the area within 1 square of the Light to be wreathed in sentient flame until the end of the encounter. Enemies who enter this space or start their turn there take 3 fire damage and are slowed (EoT) while you or allies who enter the area or start their turn there gain 5 temporary Stamina and their speed increases by 2 until the end of their turn.

    So, that's Elementals.

Naturally, the big thing here is that you'll be seriously changing the environment of a fight, and the longer it goes, the more crazy stuff will be stacking up there. You will need to reserve some Essence if you want to make use of your higher-level minions' death-burst abilities, but it seems that they can also be fairly potent.

I do think you're going to potentially have even more to track here than other Summoners, as you cover the battlefield with the remains of your minions, so having tokens or at least something to consistently mark the affected areas is important.

I suppose that you'll also be even more ok with your minions dying than other subclasses, as you get all these cool additional effects from them. While officially all these effects go away when a battle ends, I think it's really funny to imagine that it's just an absolute ruin after you finish a fight, and that it's a big mess that will have to be cleaned up.

Minion Parade: Circle of Blight

 The Summoner is a really cool class, and while I think I'd probably be wise to stick to the suggestion that one not play it before getting some experience with simpler classes under the belt first (though I've got to imagine that if I ever play Draw Steel, I'm going to be a Forever Director) I do really like the idea of playing one. I'm primarily inclined toward the Necromancer/Circle of Graves, but the other options are all pretty cool-looking.

This class is all about the minions, and while you do have some features outside of summoning minions, that's what we're all here for. I thought it might be fun to go on a little tour through the options you have to pick for which minions you can summon.

Once again, you can only have two kinds of minion out at a time, each organized into their own squads (that share one big health pool and act in tandem with one another).

Each subclass gets their choice of 2 Signature minions, 2 3-Essence minions, 1 5-Essence minion, and 1 7-Essence minion. So you'll only ever have 6 minion types to choose from when you call them forth, but there are more options.

We're going to start by looking at the demons that the Circle of Blight Summoners can pull out of the Abyssal Wastes. I'll do a quick summary of their abilities, though I'm not going to be exhaustive, both because I have finite energy and also because I'm not just trying to reprint the entire class in this blog. (If I'm honest, I sometimes do these overview posts to help me internalize the way a class or other rule system works, and if you read it, hey, enjoy).

Demons in Draw Steel are warped and twisted creatures - a stark contrast with Devils, who are basically just winged, horned, tailed people (and in this cosmos, are not related to demons in any way - there's no "fiend" catch-all." Demons are nightmare creatures with bizarre biology that honestly give off somewhat more Lovecraftian vibes than they do in other media. Calling upon them means you're working with some nasty, nasty things that are very dangerous.

All demons seek to consume souls, and so every demon minion has a feature called Soulsight, which prevents adjacent creatures from ever being hidden from them, as the demon can sense the living soul for which they hunger in those creatures.

Signature Minions:

Ensnarer:

These guys are vaguely humanoid, with a head that splits open to reveal a massive tongue longer than the demon is tall. They are a Brute, and their free strikes have a longer distance and pull targets, with the pull distance increased for each ensnarer joining in the attack. Free Strike: 2.

Rasquine:

Small, shimmering little skulkers, these are Ambushers. Their movement is teleportation, and they can hide as a free maneuver after teleporting. Free Strike: 2.

Razor:

These are smaller versions of the Ruinant (found in the Monsters book,) swift mounds of tumbling flesh and claws. These are Harriers and deal damage back to adjacent foes that grab or attack them, this damage increasing if there are nearby Razors. Free Strike: 1.

3-Essence Demons:

Archer Spitlich:

These small Artillery minions look like larger Pitlings (found in the Monsters book). Their ranged free strikes have increased range and will also splash an adjacent enemy to the target for 2 poison damage. This poison damage prevents enemies from shifting until the Spitlich's next turn. Free Strike: 5

Fanged Musilex:

A demon made up of multiple ensnarers twisted and molded together, thee large Brutes have a longer range for melee free strikes and have pull 2, with the pull distance increasing by 2 for each minion joining in the attack. (Like with the Ensnarer, you pick which one is actually doing the pulling to determine where they're being pulled to.) If the target is pulled adjacent to the Musilex, it can either deal 2 extra damage or grab them. Free Strike: 5.

Twisted Bengrul:

This undulating mass of glass and flesh shatters pieces of itself to warp and wound foes. They're large Hexers, and they have a ranged signature ability called Mind Twist, which deals 4, 6, or 8 damage and has a potency that attacks presence, inflicting a debuff called Twisted (save ends) which prevents the target from being able to use edges or search for hidden creatures. Free Strike: 4.

5-Essence Demons:

Gushing Spewler:

These squat Controllers are mostly mouth, spraying acid and bile from their stomachs. Their ranged free strikes have an increased range and will slide the target. Also, if they take damage, they can shift 2 squares after the effects of the damage resolve. Each square they exit when doing so is covered in slime that inflicts a bane on enemies, the slime lasting until the end of the encounter. Free Strike: 3.

Hulking Chimor:

These size 2 Defenders are shapeless masses of demonic body parts who break off little pieces of themselves in the foes they attack. Their free strikes will weaken targets with low might (end of turn) with a potency that grows higher the longer the fight has been going. They also don't provoke opportunity attacks. Free Strike: 3.

Violent:

Violents are red, lanky bipeds, Ambushers that can contort their bodies into unassuming shapes. They get to add 2 damage to their free strikes for each adjacent enemy from which they were hidden when they attack, and they automatically take the Hide maneuver as a free maneuver at the start of their turns, disguising themselves as objects of their size or smaller. (In my mind, these are similar to the Mannequins from Silent Hll 2. Free Strike: 4

7-Essence Demons:

Faded Blightling:

These large Support minions look like blasphemous mockeries of "Biblically accurate angels," a kind of big ball of eyes (though here the eyes are all withered and look like blisters) ringed by wings. They can fly and have a signature ability that does 7, 11, or 16 corruption damage and a potency targeting presence that will inflict Bleeding (EoT). They can also target a friend with this to impose a double bane on the next strike that targets them. Their wings are crap, though, so if they end their turn mid-air, they fall prone. Free Strike: 7.

Gorrre:

Yes, that's three Rs. Gorrres look like weird spiny orangutan-rhinos. They're size 2 Brutes that must charge before making a strike. If the target is not mighty enough, they are knocked prone if the Gorre moved through another creature or object while charging. It can ignore difficult terrain while charging, and they destroy any unattended size 1 objects in their path, while enemies they move through on the charge take 3 damage. Free Strike: 8.

Viscisittante:

These size-2 Harriers are an ever-shfiting mass of burning flesh, scarring anything they touch as they leave parts of themselves behind. They have a signature ability that deals 7, 11, or 16 psychic damage and have a potency against a creature's presence that inflicts weakened (save ends).  Weakened creatures are then considered flanked by the demon regardless of their position until the condition ends. Free Strike: 7.

    General Thoughts:

I think there are a lot of options here to move targets around on the battlefield, so you could choose to specialize in that by going with Ensnarers, Fanged Musilexes, Gushing Spewlers, and Gorrres. However, you might decide that's a bit redundant. The handful of minions with signature abilities are probably going to give you the most damage, if that's what you're going for, though also a fair number of minions have ways to get bonus damage if certain conditions are met (such as the Violent).

What is guaranteed, though, is that your minions are going to be real gross.

Breaking Down Minions and Squads for the Summoner

 Turns out reading through a whole complex class can make you miss some things.

The Summoner, Draw Steel's first class beyond the core rules (though it and the Beast Heart were originally meant to be in the core, but some system design had to happen before they could be complete) is built around summoning minions. Lots and lots of minions.

Well, lots.

At level 1, you'll have access to four kinds of minions. Each subclass/Circle/portfolio gives you an option of three signature minions and three 3-Essence minions, and you get to choose two of each (meaning you're really choosing which minion you don't want to take in each list.)

Later on, you'll pick one type of 5-Essence minion, one type of 7-Essence Minion, and then you'll get your subclass' Champion, which is essentially your 9-Essence minion (but these break a lot of rules so we don't really need to consider them here).

You can control up to 8 minions at a time (not counting the Champion. Again, we'll set them aside for now). It's up to you whether these minions are in the same squad or not, BUT: only minions of the same name can be in the same squad.

You can only have two squads, and thus you can only have two kinds of minions out at once.

Thus, in practice, you're likely to have one squad for your signature minions and one squad for your "heroic" minions. If you want to have two squads with heroic minions, you won't be able to get your free summoned signature minions at the start of your turns (though there's an optional rule to just immediately sacrifice the squad-less signature minions to reduce ability costs).

The real upshot, though, is that you'll only have two kinds of minions out on the field at once, which should make things far more manageable.

So, another way to think about it is this:

As a Summoner, you've got two battle pets that can each be in multiple places at once. The number of places you can put them is dependent on how much Stamina they have. If you want a third pet out, you need to get rid of one of those two (either by letting them naturally get killed off by foes or by sacrificing them).

You have a cap on how many minions you can have out there on the field, 8, but if you're ok with them all being of the same kind (one "pet" with many locations) you can have them all in one big squad.

If each squad is a pet, then it makes sense that you can only command your pet to do one specific maneuver or main action on a turn.

Now, the following idea works great for minions that only have free strikes and no rolled abilities (which I think is the majority of them,) but this "pet" will do the same amount of damage with its attacks - it's just a question of whether you spread them out to multiple foes or if you concentrate them on one.

As an example: I'm controlling a squad of 4 Skeletons (Skeleton Squad! It sounds like a 1970s TV show). Each of these guys do just 1 point of damage with their free strikes. Let's say I have two Ogres I'm fighting. If I have my Skeletons attack on their turn, then I can do 4 damage to one ogre, 3 to one and 1 to the second, or 2 to each.

Now, like the Director's minions, if I target a foe with a Signature Ability, such as the Flow of Magma's Molten Strike, I make a Power Roll just once. A single target can only take the power roll's damage once, while any further minions attacking that target just add their Free Strike damage.

For example: I'm fighting three War Dogs and I've gotten 4 Flows of Magma onto the field. The Flow of Magma has a signature ability that does 4, 6, or 8 damage (as well as other effects). It also does 4 damage on a Free Strike.

The most efficient way for them to use this is to attack each War Dog separately (though they do have to get within range to do so, as this is a melee option, while free strikes can be either melee or ranged). I have more elementals than targets, so if I have Flow 1 attack War Dog A, Flow 2 attack War Dog B, and Flow 3 attack War Dog C, Flow 4 is going to, at best, need to tag-team attack one of the aforementioned ones. We'll say A.

That means that while B and C are taking 4, 6, or 8 damage from this attack, A will now be taking 8, 10, or 12 from the attack, because Flow 4 can only add its free strike damage onto Flow 1's attack.

However, if I have another squad acting separately, a different minion with an ability (say, a Quiet of Snow) could make a Power Roll against War Dog A because this is a different squad. Squads act separately, so your Quiet Squad's effects and damage would all already take into account the state of things after your Flow Squad had done its business.

This manner of contribution also applies to Maneuvers that involve a power roll. If you want to, say, knockback a target, you don't roll, but instead get a result equal to 8 plus the minions' characteristic, plus the number of squad members within distance of the maneuver. So, you might need a certain number minions to get the result of the maneuver that you're looking for.

Note that when you get your Champion at level 8, this doesn't count against your Minion or Squad maximum, breaking the rules in several ways.

Depending on your Formation choices, you might have access to more minions, but you only have two squads, and thus only ever have two types of minions on the field. (Two multi-bodied "pets.")

To be sure, even if they truly were single pets, commanding two as well as running your hero would be a challenge, and I think moving the minions is going to be probably take a lot of time regardless.

But I hope that these insights might make the class a little less overwhelming (it certainly helped me to think it out this way).

FotA's Battle Smith vs Tasha's Battle Smith

 This will be the last in our compare-and-contrast series on the Artificer subclasses, because the Cartographer is a brand-new one.

I'll concede this is a bit redundant with my overview of the subclasses, but I was making a point to avoid direct comparisons.

So far, I think we've seen what were already pretty good subclasses get what I'd think are mostly buffs, while the Alchemist, which was always the weakest subclass, got more ambiguous changes.

The Battle Smith is probably the most powerful Artificer, largely because it can make use of powerful magic weapons and feats that relate to using weapons in ways that even the Armorer, the other "martial" artificer, can't. It also has a feature somewhat similar to the old version of a Paladin's Divine Smite.

Oh, and it's a pet class. The Steel Defender also might get an edge on the Beast Master Ranger's pet because Battle Smiths are already going to be maxing out their spellcasting stat that doubles as the pet's attack stat, while a Ranger is probably splitting their power between Dexterity and Wisdom.

Let's take a look:

Battle Smith spells:

No actual changes here to the list itself - "Branding Smite" was renamed Shining Smite, and actually the two smite spells here did get redesigned to now let you cast them after you hit the target, which is a big power boost (they also don't take up concentration, so you won't have to drop a concentration spell, which is another major buff.) Conjure Barrage is also a better spell now, dealing higher damage, force damage, and also, crucially, avoiding friendly fire (which is massively better for a 60-foot cone). (You also don't need to toss a piece of ammo into the air to cast it, so you can just hold up a melee weapon).

Basically, the list is unchanged, but the spells themselves largely got better. (Oh yeah, same with Mass Cure Wounds).

Tools of the Trade includes the old Smith's Tools proficiency, but we also get our crafting time reduced when crafting weapons. Once again, this is much better if you actually have the downtime to do crafting, and a DM that allows you to craft magic items.

Battle Ready gets one slight buff: you can use a weapon with which you're proficient (so, basically all of them) as a spellcasting focus (useful if you don't have a replicated weapon). Otherwise it's the same.

Now, the Steel Defender:

One actual nerf here is that you can no longer heal the Steel Defender with the Mending cantrip (the Artillerist can still do this with their Eldritch Cannons).

The Defender's AC now scales with your Intelligence, rather than having a flat value that upgrades at a higher level. It's likely to start off the same and end up the same (unless you can push your Intelligence to 22 or higher). It now adds your PB to all of its ability checks and saving throws, not just the two skills and two saves that the old version had, though it no longer has effectively expertise in perception.

Force Empowered Rend now hits slightly harder, scaling up with Intelligence rather than PB (but getting an additional two on top of that so it'll still be better even in tier 4).

And lastly, its HP is now 5 plus 5 times your Artificer level (so, 20 at 3 and 105 at 20,) which is a very slight nerf as the old version was 2+ your Int + 5 x your Artificer level. So you're probably down like, 2 hit points overall. Not a big deal.

Level 5:

Extra Attack actually got a little... buff? You can now swap out one of your own attacks to give your Steel Defender another Force-Empowered Rend attack.

How likely is this to be the right call? Well, the rend does 1d8+2+your Intelligence. If you think of that +2 as essentially changing your d8 to a d12 (1d8+2 and 1d12 have an average damage of 6.5) then you can imagine that if you have a weapon that deals less than 1d12, this could be a buff. However, you're also probably going to have a weapon with some sort of damage bonus, and unless you are using a Wand of the War Mage or something else to buff your spell attacks, you probably have a better hit chance thanks to the ease with which you can get a +1 weapon.

It is certainly plausible that this will sometimes be optimal (maybe you're just too far out of range, even,) but only in certain situations. Still, it's something we didn't get before, so it's a buff for sure.

Level 9:

Arcane Jolt is identical, except for some wording changes.

Level 15:

Improved Defender no longer has the Defender's AC bump, but that's already kind of accounted for with its stat block (if you max out your Intelligence, which probably happens before this point, you hit that AC earlier). The other elements of the feature are the same.

    Overall Thoughts:

Once again, we have to get pretty granular to see the differences here, though I think the spell changes in particular (which actually happened last year with the PHB) are quite good for Battle Smiths.

One note, though, is that a lot of great weapon-based feats now have prerequisites that might push you to have more Strength than you were planning on. Great Weapon Master, for example (probably the best martial feat) now requires 13 Strength to pick up, which means that between the 14 Dex we need to get the most out of our medium armor and then the Intelligence and Constitution we want, we might find ourselves spread a little thin.

While we can use our Steel Defender to put spells like Dragon's Breath on, we probably want to instead put that on a Homunculus Servant. Because we don't use up a material component for Conjure Barrage (even if it used to just be a single piece of ammo) means we can stick it in the new-and-improved Spell-Storing Item. If your DM allows the Homunculus to carry the item that you stored this in, that's great. But you could also give it to your Steel Defender if they rule that the Homunculus is too small. While the Steel Defender is usually portrayed as a robot dog of some sort, it can technically take any shape you want. Another use for it could be Aura of Vitality, which could give you a very large amount of healing over a day (200d6 worth over ten minutes if you have a +5 to Int at this point. That's like a very slow Mass Heal!)

    And with that, we might be coming to the end of how many posts I can get out of this book. I haven't actually gotten the other Forgotten Realms book. I am torn: I like having the physical books and supporting my local game store, but boy do I really only use the digital versions (a shame, because the paper versions of the core rulebooks are laid out in a very sensible way that gets lost in the endless scrolling of a D&D Beyond copy). Again, there's no earlier version of the Cartographer to actually compare to.

Now, the question will be whether we get an actual published version of the Reanimator subclass. I have a feeling they might do a series of these quick supplementary books for previously-visited settings like Ravenloft. What I hope is that the policy moving forwards will be that they can publish books that relate to non-core books. This one does make explicit mention of Rising from the Last War, like adventures featuring monsters from that book. So that's my hope that the Artificer isn't a "dead" class from here on out.

FotA's Artillerist vs Tasha's Artillerist

 While the Armorer is probably my favorite Artificer subclass, the Artilerist is the one I'm most familiar with because of my long-running Ravnica campaign.

The Artillerist is by I'd guess a wide margin the most powerful of the pure spellcaster Artificers, with a cannon (and later two) that can pop out to provide consistent additional damage (or protection) on top of our own spells.

Artillerist Spells:

These have not been changed at all. Moving on.

Level 3:

Tools of the Trade replicates our old Tool Proficiency with Woodcarver's Tools, but it adds two things. The first is that we get proficiency with martial ranged weapons. And you know what are included in that category? Every firearm. Now, you might be asking why we'd want to wield a firearm with this class that doesn't get something like the Battle Smith's ability to use Intelligence with our magic weapon attacks. The answer: Artificers now get True Strike, which I think is honestly, probably the best damage cantrip for us (though admittedly, the PHB firearms have fairly low ranges). Notably, because we don't get Extra Attack, we're actually less concerned about the loading property. But it's not a terrible idea to make a Repeating Pistol or Musket at level 2 so we don't have to worry about buying ammo. (Musket is a bit more range and damage, while Pistol leaves a hand free for a shield.)

It might be a little costly in terms of feats to get something like Sharpshooter in order to get better range with these weapons. Technically, though, a replicated weapon can work as a spell focus, so we could actually cast things like Fire Bolt from one of them. But I don't think that the +1 bonus from a repeating shot weapon would apply in this case. If you're ok with a 40-foot range, though, a Musket will do just fine.

As a note, the old Artificer had an optional rule that required DM permission that gave you proficiency with firearms (for the base class,) but with the mystique around this sort of weapon kind of dispelled by adding them to the PHB, it's nice to get a special carve-out for the subclass that feels most like one that should be using guns (other than Matt Mercer's Gunslinger Fighter, of course).

Also, Artillerists get their crafting speed bonus to magic wands. This is only going to do anything for you in a campaign where you DM lets you actually craft magic items, and also gives you the downtime to do so. Wands can have some real power, though not quite as much as staves like Staff of Power or Staff of the Magi.

Eldritch Cannon, of course, is the central feature of the subclass. It's an object, rather than a Construct creature like the Battle Smith's Steel Defender, which actually means, I believe, that there's a slight nerf here: objects automatically fail saving throws (while the old version explicitly said it just added nothing to them). It's still immune to poison and psychic damage, and I think objects are similarly immune to all conditions.

One slight change is that the old version could move or climb 15 feet when directed, implying it essentially had a climb speed. (I don't know where I go this idea, but I always interpreted it as if it had spider-climb). Now, however, it simply moves 15 feet when directed.

However, there's a big buff here: the old version had you choose between Force Ballista, Flamethrower, or Protector modes when you summoned the cannon. Now, the cannon has all three functions, and you simply determine which it uses with the bonus action you use to activate it. The effects are all the same as before.

Level 5:

Arcane Firearm works the same except that you can now use a Martial Ranged weapon as your Arcane Firearm in addition to rods, staves, and wands. Makes sense, right? You ought to be able to turn a Firearm into an Arcane Firearm!

Level 9:

Explosive Cannon got two changes. While Force Ballista shots and Flamethrower bursts still get the extra d8, the Protector now also benefits, adding another d8 to the temp HP it grants (for a total of 2d8+Int now).

The Detonate function is no longer an action, but is now a reaction when your cannon takes damage. The explosion now does 3d10 instead of 3d8 damage. This is interesting: while a buff to the damage, it requires your foes to actually go after your cannons to use it. I'll also say: I don't think I've ever seen this used with the old version. The cannons are too valuable to give up for a Shatter's worth of damage (there's also a good chance you'll be caught in the blast). So I think this kind of doesn't matter one way or another.

Level 15:

Regarding the ability to now summon two cannons, there's a weird wording thing here that might be a buff: In a parenthetical, the rules clarify that if you spend a spell slot to get one cannon out, you need to expend spend another to get the second out. The old version said you could summon two with the same action, but not the same spell slot.

My interpretation of the original version of this was that your first cannon summoned per day was free, but if you were level 15+, even if you wanted to summon the second cannon as part of the same action, you'd still need to spend one spell slot. The wording here suggests to me that you only have to spend a second spell slot if you were summoning the first cannon with a spell slot, which would suggest you can get two out for free once per day.

Now, have I just been a jerk to my player and forced them to expend one more 1st level spell slot each day than they should have? Is it possible that I'm wrong here and that you still only get one free cannon a day?

Or is this a real buff, just giving you two free cannons when summoned together each day?

Might need to get some clarification on this, but I think that's how I'd rule this as a revision. Also, as a note, the two cannons don't need to use the same function when commanded.

    Overall Thoughts:

In the grand scheme of things, this is a subclass that has only gotten very subtle changes. And I think it's fine, because it already does a pretty good job at what it's supposed to do. The most notable thing is an unambiguous buff - the ability to choose any of the three options when you activate a cannon.

Draw Steel's Summoner

 Well, it's official: the Summoner is out, adding Draw Steel's first new class since the game launched earlier this year.

I... still haven't had a chance to play it. But I'm still excited. I'm also daunted, because The Summoner is the game's first Master class. It's more complex than other classes, and they recommend that you try the game out with one of the 9 core classes first before trying this one on for size.

Here's why:

The Summoner is not joking around about its name. You will be summoning hordes, legions, swarms, whatever word you want to use for "a shit-ton" of minions. This is also going to be your primary source of damage in combat.

Minions are easy-come, easy-go. They're almost like a second Heroic Resource for you to consider. You will also have a standard Heroic resource (it's actually Essence, like the Elementalist, though you will be spending it on entirely different things) but among the main ways you'll be spending heroic resources is summoning more minions.

There are four subclasses for the Summoner, each a "Circle" of Summoners. The oldest tradition is the Circle of the Grave, or Necromancers, who summon Undead minions. But there are other circles/subclasses that will give you Demon, Elemental, and Fey minions.

While the Undead and Demon versions are obviously a little dark-themed (demonologists of the Circle of Blight especially) you can still play this class with a pretty neutral or even heroic-coded aesthetic. (I love a good-aligned - not that that's a thing in Draw Steel - Necromancer though. Kind of like a Diablo-style Necromancer, which I suspect was a big inspiration for this design and also the key art).

Draw Steel classes are a little front-loaded, with their first levels generally among the most complex. This takes it to a new level.

From your subclass, you'll pick two (of three available) Signature Minions, which are kind of like picking your Signature abilities on other classes. You'll also get some 3-Essence minions and then some 5-Essence abilities (don't worry, at later levels you'll be picking up more expensive minions).

I would basically treat the stat blocks for these minions like abilities on your character sheet (or make cards).

You can command up to two squads of minions. Like the minions the Director controls, squads pool their Stamina together as one big mass. So, if you have four Ensnarer demon minions (a signature for the demon subclass) in a squad together, the individuals only have 2 Stamina, so the squad has 8. When any minion in a squad takes damage, the whole pool is depleted by the damage they take, and for every amount equal to the minions' individual Stamina they lose, one minion dies (starting with the one that directly took the damage). So, again, let's say that a monster hits one of my Ensnarers for 5 damage, and I have a squad of four at their full 8 Stamina, two of them will die and the new total will be 3 Stamina. Note also that if any damage carries over after wiping out a squad, you take the excess, so you're highly incentivized to keep those squads full of troops.

As a special exception, AoE damage can only kill minions that are in the area. So if a monster uses an ability that's, say, a 3-cube that hits two of my four Ensnarers, at most, the squad's Stamina pool can lose 4 Stamina, while the two minions outside of the area are unaffected. (Again, like minions that your Director is running).

And yes, those Ensnarers are pretty fragile. But the good news is that you immediately get 2 Signature minions at the start of combat, and then up to three more at the start of your turn, so in your very first fight at level 1, you could have 5 minions out.

Each squad can have up to 8 minions, and you can command up to two squads (though some other choices allow you to alter some of these rules - if we have the energy, we'll get into Formations). Unless otherwise specified, you can't summon beyond your maximum, though minions die often enough that you'll probably be working to replace them often.

Most minions (I think maybe all Signature minions?) don't actually have combat abilities, so to attack with them, you'll just be using their free strikes. They get to do this on your turn (they can either, as squads, take a maneuver and a movement, a main action and a movement, or two movements). I... might need to do a more careful reading of this, but you also get a free triggered action called Strike For Me, which lets you replace your own signature ability (though I don't think we have any? Maybe from an ancestry?) or our Free Strike (which, like the Talent and Elementalist, has a replacement version called Summoner's Strike) that lets you roll to see how many of your minions get to take free strikes (I think in addition to their own regular strikes if they take a main action?)

Ok, so, to add it all up, if we had our 5 Ensnarers on our first turn in our first combat, I think we could send them all to attack targets for 2 (their Free Strike value) for 10 damage, and then we could swap in Strike for Me in place of our own Summoner's Strike to let 3, 5, or 7 (well, not 7 because we don't have that many yet) to deal another 6 or 10 damage.

Like regular minions, if your minions use an ability (rather than just a free strike,) any additional minions targeting the same target only add their free strike damage, rather than doing the ability's damage on top of the first one.

The next key ability we get is Call Forth. This lets us spend 1 or more Essence. For each essence we spend, we can summon one Signature Minion (though not beyond our cap) or we can summon groups of "Heroic Minions." For example, spending 3 Essence as a demonologist would let us bring in two Fanged Musilexes. These guys are tougher and hit harder (they're actually described as being formed out of Ensnarers twisting their bodies together to form a bigger demon).

This is going to be our main way of getting minions on the board. It'll be an interesting question of mathing out how efficient it is to summon more signature abilities or getting the more expensive ones (I'd suspect the latter).

Then, finally, we'll pick our Formation. For Directors, these terms will be familiar: there are Horde, Platoon, Elite, and Leader formations. You pick one of these options.

Horde formations let you summon 4 more minions and you get one more free signature minion at the start of your turn.

Platoon formations lets you add your Reason to the damage that one of your squads deals with an ability.

Elite formations adds 3 Stamina and 1 Stability to all of your minions (this more than doubles many Signature minions' Stamina).

Leader formations prevents you from taking any damage in excess of a squad's Stamina if they're wiped out, but you can also choose to take the damage a minion would take if they're within your Summoner's Range (which is a thing - I think 5 plus your Reason squares). You can also use light armor treasures and light weapon treasures even if you don't have a kit.

Each subclass gets some other features, like a Necromancer gets the ability to speak with the dead or turn enemy minions that are slain into their own signature minions.

All Summoners get a maneuver called Minion Bridge, which lets you basically crowd-surf on a contiguous line of minions, shifting the entire length, and you can spend an essence to take a friend with you. (I heard someone in the playtest flavor this as one of their demon minions swallowing them and then another spitting them out elsewhere, which was such a cool idea).

You do also get some genuine 5-Essence abilities that aren't just summoning minions, though they tend to be affected by having minions around.

Finally, at level 1 (yes, this is still level 1) you get your choice of Quick Command, which includes various triggered actions.

I think a key way to approach this class is to treat your minions as your abilities. You are going to be constantly calling them forth, and letting them do the mechanically interesting stuff, so pick your minions carefully (at least so far, you'll generally get more of the options from your subclass than you're missing out on, though of course you can only pick minions from your subclass).

Level 2:

(Boy, are we going to do a whole class review? This is already a substantial post. We'll see the degree to which the class itself gets more complicated.)

At level 2, you can now summon a subclass-specific fortification as a maneuver once per encounter, though you can spend an Essence to move it as a free maneuver. Each fortification gets upgrades at higher levels.

Demonologists get The Boil, a mass of bubbling energy that taunts enemies to attack it until it bursts, dousing them in acid.

Elemental Summoners (we can't call them Elementalists, can we?) summon a Primordial Crystal that pulls enemies to it and can extend the reach of your allies' ranged abilities.

Fey Summoners (Fairiers? Ferriers?) can summon a Glade Pond, whose waters energize you and your non-minion allies with extra speed when they pass by it, and also automatically hides your fey minions that end within the extensive overgrowth radiating from it.

Necromancers summon Barrow Gates, which can frighten nearby enemies that start their turn near them, and gives your undead minions some damage immunity.

Each subclass now also gains new 5-Essence minions (which each come in groups of 3).

Level 3:

You get a Summoner's Kit, which gives you a few enhancements to Summoner's Strike, and you get to pick between four different Wards. These are actually quite different from other Wards other classes have.

You also get some 7-Essence abilities.

Level 4:

In addition to the standard 2nd Echelon characteristic increase, you get Minion Improvement, which boosts your minions' Stamina (by 1 for Signature minions, 3 for 3-essence minions, and 2 for 5-essence minions). They also get higher characteristics (which is primarily used for determining their ability to resist potencies).

You get some standard upgrades for this level, like more Essence when a minion dies, a skill, and  a perk.

You also get Minion Chain, which does several things.

First, when you use Minion Bridge, minions of yours within your Summoner's Range can shift up to their speed if it lets them get adjacent to another minion, so you can more easily get your desired line.

Also, they can now form vertical connections, shifting to act like ladders or hanging ropes, and then potentially they can allow themselves to fall forward to make an actual bridge across a gap. So, you know, kind of delightful (though far more whimsical with Fey, and possibly horrifying with demons or undead).

Level 5:

Each circle gets two new features.

Then, you get to pick a new 7-Essence minion from your portfolio. You get two of these for 7 Essence (with some exceptions, like the Undead Zombie Titan, which is size 4 and has 40 Stamina), and they start to look a fair bit beefier and hit harder.

Level 6:

First, you get a perk and you can pick an additional Ward for your Summoner's Kit. Also, if you reduce an enemy to 0 Stamina with a Summoner's Strike, you can Call Forth as a free maneuver, though the minions summoned with this can't act this turn.

You also get 2 additional followers, and can summon and recruit an artisan follower and a sage follower of your minion's type.

Return to the Source allows you to teleport yourself and your allies to a space within the manifold (plane) that your minions come from when you take a respite. While the denizens will treat you as a native resident, your allies might be seen as intruders. (In the default cosmology, demons are from the Abyssal Wastes, undead are from the Necropolitan Ruins, which is a place in the Abyssal Wastes, Fey are from Arcadia, and Elementals are from Quintessence).

You also get a 9-Essence ability.

Level 7:

You get the usual bonuses for hitting 3rd Echelon, including characteristic increases, more Essence at the start of your turns, and a skill.

You get a new minion improvement, which further boosts the Stamina of your minions (in addition to the stamina of your 7-Essence minions,) and you get another free Signature minion at the start of your turn. Likewise, as before, each minion has a +1 bonus to characteristics for the purpose of resisting potencies.

Finally, Their Life for Mine lets you sacrifice all of your minions and Essence (minimum 1 of each) to bring either you or an ally within your Summoner's Range who has just died as a free triggered action, giving them Stamina equal to the total number of minions and essence sacrificed. This is a limited-use ability, which you can't use again until you level up again or spend 3 Eidos (the Epic Resource at level 10).

Level 8:

You get a perk, and you also get a new feature for your subclass.

Additionally, you can now summon your Portfolio Champion, a special super-powerful 9-Essence minion. There are various special rules for the champion, which you can only have one of out at once, and which has its own squad. These are basically your "super-minions" (and refuse to be referred to as minions) and get to ignore a lot of the restrictions on your other minions. They have Stamina equal to your own, and can do things like use your recoveries to heal.

Each also gets upgraded at level 10, with an ability that can be used once per encounter that is a bit like a Villain Action and costs 1 Eidos.

Demon summoners get the Demon Lord's Aspect, which can pull two targets with its signature ability.

Elemental summoners get the Dragon's Portent, which uses a tail swipe to push around up to two creatures as its signature ability.

Fey summoners summon a Celestial Attendant, whose signature ability slide its targets around.

Undead summoners get an Avatar of Death, with a signature ability that can inflict bleeding.

Level 9:

First, you get a Kit Improvement, adding a Ward and improving your Summoner's Strike further.

You also get Steward of Two Worlds, which increases the Patience of denizens of your circle's source manifold by 2 when you're in a Negotiation.

You also now get an 11-Essence ability.

Level 10:

As usual, you get your characteristic increase (Reason is now 5). You also get another Minion Improvement, which now adds more free minions at the start of an encounter, getting two more for every two victories you have (on top of the normal two). And as usual, your minions get more Stamina and higher characteristics.

Also, a new perk and a new skill.

Your Epic Resource is Eidos. You can spend it as if it were essence, and when you do, you get two bonus signature minions when you spend it on either minions or abilities. Again, Eidos can be spent on new abilities your Champions have, though only once per encounter.

No Matter the Cost lets you reduce the cost of summoning new minions or using heroic abilities by the number of minions sacrificed (rather than a flat 1).

And Among Our Ranks lets you summon a willing, non-restrained NPC or player ally to you regardless of where they are in the Timescape to join your party until your next Respite or until they are killed, at which point they are sent back to the place from which they were summoned.

    So there you have it. Boy this was long.

This class is going to for sure be more complicated than, say, a Shadow. In some ways, you'll be kind of playing a war game against the Director while the other players are playing a TTRPG. But even if there's a lot to internalize, I do think that if you can get the hang of it, this could be a ton of fun.

This does feel like the "GM's PC" class. I'd honestly want to get a bit of running the game as a Director under my belt before trying it out, because I really think this is a class that will appeal the most to people who like that GM/Director role of controlling lots of little dudes.

They'll come and go so fast, that you'll really want to have a solid plan for where you need minions (here I think Draw Steel's less rigid initiative might actually make things easier - you can talk with your friends about where they could use the support best). The Summoner's Range is relatively generous, so you'll be able to position minions pretty trivially into advantageous positions - just make sure to make room for your allies.

I will say that there are a couple of clarifications I could use on how this all actually works - like, a table specifically of how many minions I can have out at once and how many squads I can organize them into at every level. Can I mix minions in squads?

These are questions whose answers might feel obvious with a bit more experience with the game, but I'm still somewhat in a theoretical space with it.

But I will say one thing: if the goal of this class design was to let you have a ton of minions, oh boy was it a success.

FotA's Armorer vs Tasha's Armorer

 The Armorer is my favorite Artificer subclass. While the Battle Smith is probably the most powerful of them, there's just something about making your own walking tank out of your armor that really appeal to me on a deep level.

This was a new subclass with the Tasha's reprint, but now comes back as a veteran subclass. So, let's see how it has changed.

Armorer Spells:

These have not changed at all, and that's great, because Armorers have among the best subclass spell lists.

Level 3:

As with all the subclasses, you now get the ability to craft magic and non-magic armor in half the time. This is, of course, dependent on whether you campaign even really allows for much downtime (even a 450-gold set of mundane splint armor takes 9 whole weeks of work, and cutting that down to 4 1/2 might not make an enormous difference). Still, this works on both mundane and magic armor. You should be able to bang out a set of Studded Leather for your Rogue in around two days (though you'd probably need to have leatherworking supplies proficiency).

Arcane Armor remains the same. However, Armor Model does have some big changes, including a whole new model:

The Dreadnaught is a fully new armor model, and one that I suspect will be very popular, as it has some powerful abilities, including a weapon that deals force damage.

Infiltrator is totally unchanged (at least at this level).

Guardian is slightly different: First, its Thunder Gauntlet is now Thunder Pulse, which could theoretically originate from some other part of the armor (thus leaving a hand free, though you can already cast your artificer spells through your armor anyway). The other big difference is how Defensive Field works. And this is either a buff or a nerf. You now have unlimited use of Defensive Field, but you can only activate it when you're Bloodied.

I think this is probably a nerf, as you probably aren't getting bloodied all that often in a day, and this likely means that you'll need to spend a part of your action economy mid-combat that you might want to use on something else (though Armorers are relatively light on bonus action abilities). The other big issue is that if you can't preemptively use this, you run a greater risk of getting downed in one hit. Say your max HP is, like, 31 at level 4. The old version would let you activate this as a bonus action to push yourself to the equivalent of 35. Now, let's say you get hit for a nasty hit that does, like 32 damage (maybe a bad guy rolled well on a Fireball). With the new system, you'd be down and making death saves. The old version, you would still be up, and then could use the bonus action again on your next turn to get yourself a little extra cushioning for when the bad guy's minions go after you.

In other words, despite its limited uses, this will probably actually see less use overall.

Level 5:

We just get Extra Attack. No real changes.

Level 9:

Conceptually, Armor Modifications and Improved Armorer are pretty similar in concept. The old version raised some interesting ambiguities: if you could separately infuse your armor's weapons, boots, chestplate, and helmet, did that mean that previously, you couldn't wear a magic set of boots with your Arcane Armor?

Improved Armorer is less ambiguous, at least in this way: the way your armor is described no longer says it now covers every part of you (with a helmet that can be retracted with a bonus action) and presumably just works like other armor.

Now, there is a bit a nerf here, maybe, because the old version gave you two extra infusions as long as they were onto one of these pieces of your armor. Notably, by calling out the special weapons as a target for infusion, it made it explicit that you could put, say, Enhanced Weapon on your Thunder Gauntlets (and it also explicitly said this would transfer over to your Lightning Launcher if you changed models).

The new version instead just lets you learn one new plan and replicate one new item, as long as they're both armor-type items. So, one fewer bonus infusion.

However: there's a new thing that gives you an automatic bonus to your built-in weapons, giving you a +1 to attack and damage rolls with them.

But is that a buff or a nerf? Because now that we're not infusing separate items within our armor, are those built-in weapons a possible option for replicating, say, a +1 or +2 weapon? Or is this +1 bonus the only way we can enhance these weapons at all? If it's the latter, this is a nerf to them (it saves us a replication slot, but we also lost one because of this redesign). But if we can stack this bonus on top of our +2 weapon (available at level 10,) this is actually a buff, because we can finally get effectively a +3 weapon. This is something we really need clarification on (and given that they never fixed the ability to infuse built-in weapons on D&D Beyond for the old version, I'm not going to hold my breath for a digital confirmation one way or another).

Level 15:

There are a few changes to Perfected Armor. Obviously, there are new improvement to the previously-non-existent Dreadnaught armor model. But let's look at how the Guardian and Infiltrator have changed.

Both (as well as the Dreadnaught) now get a boost to their weapon damage, with Thunder Pulse going from a d8 to a d10 (pretty tiny, actually) and the Lightning Launcher going from a d6 to 2d6.

However, while the Lightning Launcher would seem to have gotten a massive buff, let's actually pull back on that a bit:

The Lightning Launcher used to give the next attack against the target Advantage, including for allies. And then, that attack made with advantage would get to add an extra d6 if it hit. In other words, you're still getting two additional d6s, it's just staggered out a bit. You hit for 1d6 (and probably add your once-a-turn extra d6, but that's a wash with the earlier version) and then the next attack has advantage, and so you attack again for 2d6. Then, your friend attacks them, also with advantage, and they do their normal damage plus an extra d6. So, that's 4d6 spread over three attacks. Now, we're a little more selfish with our damage. Between two attacks, we're still dealing 4d6 damage (and probably adding a fifth on the first attack) but it's all coming with our hits.

The thing is, the old version could technically do less if someone misses - the d6 on the subsequent attack goes away if the attack missed. However, we were also granting advantage, first to ourselves and then our next friend. So I'd guess in the aggregate, this is probably actually a nerf, albeit a complex one that might, situationally, be better for us.

The Guardian's "yoink" ability is mostly the same, except that we get to use it Int times per long rest instead of PB times. This is a slight nerf, as by this level we probably have equal values to both, but by 17, our PB is higher.

However, while the Infiltrator gets a... slight nerf (though I'll grant it also make it far less complicated), they also get a wholly new ability that might make up for it, being able to get a brief, one-turn fly speed equal to twice your normal speed Int times per long rest. I see this primarily as a great way to get to a high vantage point out of reach of creatures in melee, though it also has plenty of utility out of combat.

    Overall Thoughts:

I think we're primarily looking at a buff here. The Dreadnaught is quite good (possibly a new default choice). I think we really need some clarification on Improved Armorer and how the built-in weapons interact with replicate magic item. That's probably the biggest thing to consider, though at worse, our weapons are just going to be slightly less powerful than they are in the old version, and we get a lot of new toys, so again, mostly a buff.