Puppet Master Sneak Peak (Patreon)

Hey all!

Just letting you know that I've been hard at work on the new class option, Puppet Master, which came in as a request here on Patreon.

It's a HUGE build requiring a ton of work. But I thought I might share it with you all before the normal folks on the blog get to check it out.

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Class Features

As a puppet master, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Points: 1d6 per puppet master level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per wizard level after 1st.

Proficiencies

Armor: None

Weapons: Clubs, daggers, handaxes, darts

Tools: Tinker's tools

Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence

Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Deception, Insight, Perception, Performance, and Sleight of Hand

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a club or (b) a handaxe
• (a) a diplomat's pack or (b) an entertainer's pack
• 3 daggers
• Small canvas-and-wood puppet, puppeteer's gloves, and hemp puppet strings.
• Tinker's tools and woodcarver's tools

Puppetry

You have learned how to create a life-sized construct that appears to move and act on its own. In reality, it is a puppet controlled by strings attached to your hand.

When you select this class, you create your first puppet which is a construct made from canvas and wood. Your puppet starts with the following statistics:

• Your puppet's size is Small.
• Your puppet's Armor Class is 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.
• Your puppet has hit points equal to four times your puppet master level.
• Your puppet's movement speed is 30 ft. It must always remain within strings' length of you.
• Your puppet's Strength and Dexterity scores are the same as your Intelligence score. Your puppet's Constitution score is 11. Your puppet's Intelligence and Charisma scores are 1. And your puppet's Wisdom score is 3.
• Your puppet can't see and has no passive Perception. It only reacts to what you can see.
• The puppet is immune to poison and psychic damage. And it is immune to the blinded, charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, and poisoned conditions.
• The puppet has a slam attack that deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Intelligence bonus.

As a construct, your puppet cannot speak and it is unaligned. It does not require air, food, drink, or sleep. It is immune to disease.

You control your puppet through use of special strings. It takes its turn on your initiative, though it doesn't take an action unless you control it. On your turn, through a combination of hand motions and telepathic signals, you can control where the puppet moves (no action required by you). It must stay within the range of your strings. You can use your action to control the puppet so that it can take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action. 

If you are incapacitated the puppet is also incapacitated. If you are blinded, frightened, poisoned, or restrained the puppet has disadvantage on all of its attack rolls, ability checks, and Dexterity saving throws, its movement is halved, and any attack rolls made against the puppet have advantage.

In order for the puppet to use its reaction, you must also use your reaction to control it, such as when your puppet makes an attack of opportunity.

If your puppet is destroyed, you can create a new puppet by spending 4 hours crafting a replacement using your tinker's tools.

Puppet Strings

Your puppet is controlled via special strings. Without the strings, you cannot control your puppet and it is incapacitated. You start with ten hemp strings that are attached to each of your fingers via puppeteer's gloves. While controlling the puppet you cannot hold an item in either of your hands nor can you take actions that require you to use your hands such as making a Sleight of Hand check or opening a door. Only your puppet can perform these actions for you.

Puppet Strings

StringCostACHPLengthWeightSilk*180 gp112090 ft.18 lbs.Hemp*12 gp112060 ft.24 lbs.Steel120 gp196030 ft.30 lbs.Mithral600 gp217060 ft.12 lbs.Adamantine 1,200 gp238060 ft.45 lbs.

* Vulnerable to fire damage.

A creature can target your puppet's strings by making an attack roll against the string's AC. If the attack hits, the creature rolls to damage the strings. The strings are immune to psychic and poison damage and they are resistant to bludgeoning and piercing damage. Hemp and silk strings are vulnerable to fire damage.

When the strings' hit points are reduced to half or less, you lose partial control over your puppet. Your puppet's movement is halved, it has disadvantage on all attack rolls, ability checks, and Dexterity saving throws, and attacks made against it are made with advantage. If the strings' hit points are reduced to 0, you no longer control the puppet and it is incapacitated until its strings are repaired.

Your puppet must stay within a range of you equal to its strings' length as shown on the Puppet Strings table.

Optional Rule. At the DM's discretion, your strings form a line that reaches from you to your puppet. The line is considered difficult terrain to any creature that passes through it.

Upgrading

At 2nd level, you have learned ways to retool your puppet with new bonuses, benefits, and features called upgrades. 

Upgrade Points

At 2nd level, you have 2 upgrade points which you can use to upgrade your puppet. Your upgrade points go up as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Upgrade Points column of the Puppet Master table. You can never have more upgrade points than shown on the table for your level. 

Upgrading Your Puppet

Your puppet must be present and have at least 1 hit point remaining in order for you to upgrade it. Using your tinker's tools, you spend your upgrade points on any upgrades that are known to you. The benefits of the upgrade immediately take effect. You do not regain the spent upgrade points and the upgrades and the benefits the upgrade offers remain in place until you remove the upgrade.

Removing Upgrades Your Puppet

You can use your tinker's tools to remove upgrades in order to regain spent upgrade points. You must select which upgrade you wish to remove and spend the requisite removal time removing it as noted in the upgrade's description. Once the removal is completed, your puppet loses the benefits of the upgrade and you immediately regain the upgrade point cost of the upgrade back.

Upgrades Known of 2nd Level and Higher

At 2nd level, you know two 1st-level upgrades of your choice from the puppet master upgrade list.

The Upgrades Known column of the Puppet Master table shows when you learn more upgrades of your choice at 1st level and higher. An upgrade you choose must be of a level no higher than what's shown in the table's Upgrade Level column for your level. When you reach 9th level, for example, you learn a new upgrade which can be of 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the upgrades you know and replace it with another upgrade from the puppet master upgrades list, which also must be of a level for which you have upgrades.

Upgrade Quality

The quality of your upgrades is determined by your Intelligence, so you and your puppet use Intelligence whenever an upgrade refers to your upgrade quality. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for an upgrade you use and when making an attack roll with one.

Upgrade save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Upgrade attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Tinkers Tools

In order to spend upgrade points and add upgrades to your puppet, you must have a set of tinker's tools available to you.