Skaven Warplock Engineer (5e Class)
Template:Needswork
Warplock Engineer
Introduction
To rattle my men to rattle the great horned rat guides your blades and spells to the fleshy creatures of the surface. The skaven are an ambitious industrious and overall cowardly race of rat men hybrids but they have two things that no other creature has superior skaven engineering and the green material known as warpston(aka wyrd stone) is used by the skaven to empower your armor and weapons to even greater heights imbuing them with magical effects and new technologies or you can follow in the horned rats path worshiping his greatness in exchange for this most powerful and fickle blessings.
Creating a Warplock Engineer
Why would you play this class?
Did you perhaps(for non skaven races) find yourself witness to the great skaven war machines and are now obsessed with possessing that power for yourself? Did you receive or find some blueprint or instructions on how to create skaven weapons and arms and embark on a quest to complete this design? Did you hear the whispered blessing of the horned rat in the darkness? Have great black rats stolen away your family and you now equip yourself like them for poetic justice when you mindlessly slaughter those who cause harm to others?
- Quick Build
You can make a Warplock Engineer quickly by following these suggestions. First Intelligence or Wisdom for spell casting or mechanical prowess should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution. Second, choose the urchin background.
Class Features
As a Warplock Engineer you gain the following class features.
- Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per Warplock Engineer level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Warplock Engineer level after 1st
- Proficiencies
Armor: crafted and light armor
Weapons: all simple weapons
Tools: tinker's tools
Saving Throws: depending upon subclass but all have con in addition to the subclasses
Skills: choose two from, athletics acrobatics deception perception and survival
- Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) 1 simple melee weapon or (b) 1 simple ranged weapon
- (a) leather armor or (b) robes
- (a) mechanical tools or (b) glassblowers tools or (c) woodcarver's tools/miners tools
Level | Proficiency Bonus | Cantrip Known | Features | —Spell Slots per Spell Level— | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | ||||
1st | +2 | 2 | Careful Study | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
2nd | +2 | 2 | Warpstone Miner | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
3rd | +2 | 2 | Warpstone Mechanic | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
4th | +2 | 3 | Ability Score Improvement, Warpstone Miner Improvement, Commanding Squeaker | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
5th | +3 | 3 | Twin Tailed Comet | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
6th | +3 | 3 | Careful Study Feature, Extra Attack | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
7th | +3 | 3 | Mechanical Savant, Vehicular/Artillerist Specialist | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
8th | +3 | 3 | Ability Score Improvement, Warpstone Miner Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — |
9th | +4 | 3 | Warpstone Miner Improvement (Warp Token) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
10th | +4 | 4 | Verminous Valor | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
11th | +4 | 4 | Feral Constitution | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
12th | +4 | 4 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
13th | +5 | 4 | Plague Father | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
14th | +5 | 5 | Careful Study Feature | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
15th | +5 | 5 | Verminous Valor Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
16th | +5 | 5 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
17th | +6 | 5 | Warpstone Miner Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
18th | +6 | 5 | Twin Tailed Comet Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
19th | +6 | 5 | Ability Score Improvement, Mechanical Mastermind | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
20th | +6 | 6 | Careful Study Feature | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Careful Study
You are no dull rat unlike those brutal big black rats or skulking slimy gutter runners you understand the true utility of warpstone to power fell machines and vile magics to complete your ends. The warlock engineer is the perfect mixture of crazy and tough together you blast at range and create explosives at low levels then evolve to masterful power casters or horrifying one rat weapon team. These subclasses are not powerful fighters but their skills lie in their powerful reliance upon their chose specialties whether that is chaotic magics or maniacal machines thus you begin with your most basic and important skills.
At 1st level, you chose a study. Choose between Grey Seer, and Mechanic, both detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 1st and again at 6th, 14th, and 20th levels.
Warpstone Miner
At level 2, the Skaven are an industrious and hardscrabble race and they have figured out how to find and use the microscopic residue of the pure essence of chaos and magic in the world. During a long or short rest you can use the rest (instead of regaining HP or hit dice) to develop a warpstone dig providing you with an amount of warpstone shards equal to 1D20 plus your intelligence or wisdom modifier warpstone tokens come in three sizes small(made with 5 shards) medium (made with 10 shards) and large (made with 20 shards)these power your skills and can be used for crafting and even to empower and fuel your magics and mechanics.
At level 8 with Skaven miner you may add proficiency to your warp shard roll and you may also mine/scavenge for some common materials such as woods metals or stone to use as craft materials.
At level 17 with master warp miner you gain the ability to dig far deeper and if you roll above a 20 you may acquire a #of warpstone lumps of any size based on a 1D3 roll with 1 being small 2 being medium and 3 being large
- Volatile warpstone
Natural warpstone being the pure solid essence of chaotic magics taken physical form it is naturally incredibly dangerous in anything but the tiniest amounts. This of course extends to your insane and dangerous weapon choices and their ammunition and mining and well every time you are around the stuff resistant as you may be you must still resist the effects of well chaotic and rampant mutation throughout your body. Each time you are around warpstone you must make a constitution save the DCs follow shards(DC5) Small lump (DC10) Medium lump (DC14) Large lump (DC16) weapon firing has its own difficulties on a weapon failure you make this con save against the ammunition with disadvantage unless a mechanic buff says elsewise. This trait of course also extends to those enemies who are struck with your warpstone ammunition and while warp melee weapons are simply augmented the ranged options that use warpstone lumps force your enemies to make similar save to you although without your significant resistances
- Mutations
Naturally working with hazardous materials has its well negative effects should you fail to resist the glowing ores alure you could quickly find yourself in deep deep peril. Mutations are always the result of prolonged exposure to warpstone how much an how quickly is a problem. So when you fail a check against the DC of warpstone weather from weapons spells or anything else you tally the times failed and the size of the deposit or ammo exposed too based on the shards that make up those deposits again small=10 medium=20 large=30 when you get to 40 you roll percentile dice at the end of the day if the %is less than 40 you wake up with a mutation lower than 20% you wake up with a major mutation. Minor mutations can be anything literally growing a second tail for instance a third ear on the back of your head maybe your skin turning your eye color your eye turning your skin color that sort of thing annoying and unique but not out right dangerous or deadly and can be resisted over time with surgery and healing magic. Major mutations however are well not good at all they could be anything from your blood becoming acid to all your bones extending an extra three inches and growing long points out of your skin should the % be lower than 10 you roll one single death save if you succeed you receive a major and minor mutation and survive if you fail you mutate so quickly and badly that it kills you. Note all of these effects happen for your enemies as well the only difference is you were slightly exposed to the material they got stabbed shot crushed by it etc they upon failing immediately receive minor and major mutations that can be debilitating(your dm makes up these effects but you will get a chart i will make later most likely)
- Warpstone object fragility
Any amature can sling or whip a hunk of chaos at an enemy but your better your machines and spells as well as your items all have a chance to work and a chance to not thus when using a globe a musket getting your armor or weapons broken or damaged as well as any heavy weapon or staff/censor your weapon danger DC is rolled with your attack or use and is 10- your proficiency(past 7th level)-your build modifier(int unless your a seer then wis). The failure of a weapon or item causes it to break explode or open upon you you may make a save against the con cost of your own weapon or gain mutatio weapons require time and gold to fix and globes cannot be fixed but the ammo can be salvaged
- Warpstone tokens
At 4th level, communicating with the horned rat is well impossible but we know he favors us. How you dare question? Why through our lucky warpstone tokens of course. Forging 1D6 shaped cubes of solid warp stone which you can do at level 4 allows you to roll a d6 and affect the outcome this is usually determined by the DM but i normally run it as 6 the gods smile upon you and your tiny cantrip to light that fire becomes a giant green lightning bolt that lights the entire field on fire on a 1 something terrible happens such as you tried to open a door and you rolled the d6 the die begins to radiate heat till it burns your hand and makes a cube shaped hole 50 feet down before exploding and collapsing the house your in. It lends the idea that skaven really really can't control their magic which is both funny and true. These cubes cost 1 large lump plus some workmanship test (DC 10 tintering check) to create and are a solid investment considering something like a 5 could still be a great boon to your attempt possibly even saving you from a bad roll the only thing this cube cannot be used on is saves against the powers of warpstone because obviously it's the same material you can only have one of these items at a time.also for the mechanics this is your large scale fuel source if you have a doom flayer or a doom wheel one of two of these tokens will power these machines of death for say 1D6 days these are incredible powerful and hard to make but they are needed if you want to speed into battle on a vehicle or open fire with you artillery pieces.These tokens are actually rather safe when made but can be broken down into more dangerous parts this form is how you transport many pieces of warpstone safely without having to use heavy lead boxes.
At level 9, you may have up to your wisdom modifier plus 1 tokens.
Warpstone Mechanic
At level 3, Your mechanical knowhow is based in your verminous intelligence. You can spend time to develop ways to safely or rather more safely handle warpstone using such cutting edge technology as primitive lead gauntlets and even thick glasses so it doesn't instantly burn your eyes out when you work with it as such when you mine warpstone you may make your mining check at disadvantage to avoid any checks you make while mining.At level 7 mechanical savant allows you to create even better protective equipment such as gas masks and/or lead plates for your body these can negate all effects of warp stone but cannot be worn with armor as they are very bulky and heavy. At level 14 the mechanic upgrade allows you to craft armor out of lead and warp stone to make it not dangerous to you but only to others as difficult as it is it will protect you from your enemy and yourself
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Commanding Squeaker
At level 4 your new feelings of self importance gives you access to several options for "creative work solutions" these slave-I mean employees will work away in your mine while you make use of your long rest only requiring that they receive a few whippings during your watch you gain these followers from defeating enemies of Int at least 8 opposable thumbs and a CR less than 1/2 your level they must be intimidated convinced or else retrained in order to submit and can probably be a problem later on (note they don't fight and automatically fail any checks given to them to resist warp poison so their generally not long lived either) but they can help expand your resource pool for as long as their rampantly mutated half corpses can struggle up their own self dug grave mine
Twin Tailed Comet
At 5th level, your prayers will nearly always fall upon deaf ears but the fates are entwined in the green eye of Morrslibs massive chaos moon. Your devotion can cause you to react with warp stone beneficially once per day if you fail a save against a warpstone mutation save you may use your re-action to supplicate yourself and pray for a beneficial mutation rolling percentile dice below 2x your level + your wisdom or intelligence score if you are below it the mutation benefits you rather than harming you these can be things such as growing or shrinking you gaining or regenerating health or even giving you temporary buffs like invisibility or poisonous attacks.(DM discretion)
At 18th level, twin tailed comet increase: You may now take this grovel action as a bonus action and as the powers of the warp surround you enemies attack your at disadvantage regardless of prone.
Extra Attack
At 6th level, you can attack twice instead of once, whenever you take the attack action.
Mechanical Savant
At 7th level, this is a research and development skill only allowing you to spend time and develop blueprints of your future machines. This upgrade is also your gateway beyond simple warp smithing to warp artillery cannons and mortars these are incredibly expensive and time consuming but are exponentially more powerful than a simple lump of magically radioactive death. This ability can only have one focus at a time with the fist natural step being one piece of simple artillery or a small vehicle like a poison wind mortar or a warpfire thrower or a rattling gun . This also allows you to make vehicles if able and/or make full warp resistant armor with the rating of heavy plate (lead heavy plate makes you auto fail any dex checks have disadvantage on saves but protects you from all warp radiation and gives you an armor class of 18 as well as making you 5 feet slower) this armor also extends to the robes worn by the seers allowing you to infuse it with a warp stone token giving you two that you have at your disposal per day.Your skill increases over time so be careful giving yourself too much credit early on large sale weapons manufacture is not part of your art your more of a skilled artisan that a manufacturer. These options are limited by your dm to what is allowed things like offensive artillery are not to be used in normal combat things like warp cannons or catapults are more made to defend a base or city however poison wind mortars and weapon systems such as rattling guns or warpfire throwers that can be used in normal combat. Additionally they are going to take assistance to make and are not able to be created until higher levels or more slaves are acquired also their incredibly expensive.
Vehicular/Artillerist Specialist
At 7th level, Many options exist for artillery poison wind mortars plague catapults and warp lightning cannons. Vehicle wise multiple options exist for this vehicle both incredibly expensive and hilariously dangerous the doom wheel and doom flayer as well as other warp fueled ships and pack vehicles but you'll have to see.
Verminous Valor
At 10th level, simple honor and bravery doesn't register with the skaven and neither does it with you when you make your attack action while you still have at least movement left you may use verminous valor once per short rest to spend that movement without receiving an attack of opportunity.
At 15th level, you don't like to get up close with enemies due to all of your spells and dangerous equipment which is volatile to you and your enemy alike thus you have created a way to escape from your enemies clutches. As such once per combat as a reaction you can use your action to activate verminous valor to cast a spell or empty your weapon into a single target within melee range this attack has advantage and if it hits it counts as a critical hit the target makes a mutation save and them the force of your strike throws you 10 feet and your target 10 feet in opposite directions.
Feral Constitution
At level 11, your exposure to warpstone has given you more and more time to reist your form changing. Whenever you are targeted with a spell that changes your form polymorph alter self etc you have advantage on those saves against those spells.
Plague Father
Rats and vermin are a plague upon the land so shall you be upon your enemies. At level 13, whenever you manage to cause an enemy to fail a warp mutation save you may slightly guide the mutation choosing something like a status effect or a specific debilitating mutation or even a long time illness to infect the target this effect cannot instantly kill the target nor deal direct damage.
Mechanical Mastermind
At 19th level, practice makes perfect your creations all rise in quality your globes boil over with purple poison your warpfire leaves trails of poison and fires solid shards your rattling gun shots turn golden with radiation and your artillery and vehicles become more reliable and effective this is a blanket increase in quality and makes all of your equipment just a bit more effective ( item changes determined by DM)
Grey Seer
- Magister
At 1st level, you gain warp spell casting an ability of both a cleric of the horned rat and a druid of spores but none of that classes traits you gain the following spells at the same rate as a normal cleric additionally you gain a higher skill with warpstone tokens both making them for less and using them more safely allowing you to roll 2D6 per token and choose the outcome you also gain a specialized version of shillelagh that is a plague censer dealing poison damage instead of physical and increasing the damage to 1D10
- Chaos Fueled Spellcraft
At 6th level, By far the most incredible god the skaven lord the horned rat has blessed you seer with absolute skill and power your spells can now be fueled with pure warpstone additionally you are now immune to the mutagenic effects of solid warpstone(you can even eat the stuff)but when you use it to fuel your magics then it uses you as a conduit forcing you to save against it and spells may now be cast for no spell slots if you are out of them in this manner 1 small lump for a cantrip one medium lump for a level 1 spell one large lump for a level 2 spell and finally an extra large lump per spell level above second and you must make a save for each one used. Additionally you gain access to dangerous plagued times using your staff(shillelagh) to cause an incredible amount of damage when you get access to contagion you may use the staff to cast that spell as a melee spell attack through ut costing the required lumps of warpstone stuffed into yourstaff which als causes a fave against mutation.
- Unbreakable Concentration
At 14th level, your plague censer rings with the deep hum of the horned rats blessing as does your new warp infused horns your circlet allows you to concentrate on two spells at once and your censer can now deal an extra 2D10 poison damage per strike the DC of your spell casting also increases by +2
- Plague Master
At 20th level, the horned rat smiles upon you once per day you may call upon him to transmute you into his avatar your body flexes and grows until you reach giant size your claws grow long and wreathed in warp lightning you can only cast evocation spells in this form and you gain temporary HP equal to your wisdom score plus proficiency additionally you can use your claws as attacks using wisdom to cast a melee spell attack dealing 3D10 + wsdom necrotic damage per strike
- Gray Seer Spell List
You know all of the spells listed below as they are gifted to you by the great horned rat himself but you will not stray far from his requests you may choose one new spell from any spell list whenever you gain a new level (including cantrips)
All grey seers know shillelagh guidance and light
- 1st Level
growth, guiding bolt, cure wounds, command
- 2nd Level
spiritual weapon, blindness/deafness, enhance ability
- 3rd Level
bestow curse, incite greed, revivify
- 4th Level
- 5th Level
- 6th
- 7th
- 8th
- 9th
Mechanic
- Mechanic
At 1st level, you gain a glass blowers kit and proficiency with any metal and wood and warp mechanical tool kits you may now begin your mechanized slaughter with poison wind globes costing much in time and equipment these glass globes filled with a small crushed lump of warpstone you may now use these globes to lace a 10x10 area with poisonous mutagenic smoke that deals 1D6 poison damage and forces a mutation save on enemies
- Mechanical Small Arms
At 6th level, your tired of using limited range explosive grenades you know what would be more fun....yeah i was thinking guns too you gain the skill and precision to create the massive and lengthy muskets(R 100/200 Dmg 3D6 + 1D12 psn) enhanced with warpstone bullets and warpstone enhanced gunpowder naturally that's expensive costing about 2 shards per shot and firing a slug of one medium worked warpstone bullet and getting all that warpstone is hard and the gun is dangerous which of course means you need some protection you may begin to use a set of lead armor which can resist the mustations of both your small arms and of mining additionally your glass globes are dangerous to you that is until you create both this armor and a set of rebreathers to be able to resist the effects of airborne warpstone particles. Additionally spending more time and effort you can overwork your warpstone making it more dangerous and more effective and turning it deep purple this increases all of your dice damage by 1 each and increases your save against the effects of your warp attacks with this special ammo +2 these are limited to one until it is ready at later levels at perhaps 10 or 11.
- Master warpstone manipulation
At 14th level, your skill grows more and more allowing you to create single person heavy weapons choosing between the warp fire thrower a short range flamethrower this deals 5D6 fire damage per spew its range was 30/60 feet with each creature between you and your target having a chance to be hit as well you may attack twice with this weapon and roll using either intelligence or dex to strike additionally its strikes are to be considered a double large lump of napalm liked warpstone causing the DC to become 17 con (with warp master it becomes 18) the weapon is reloaded with a jelly like warpstone material and it is able to fire one spew for each large lump used in the mixture to load it max 12. Your second option is the rattling gun a highly different weapon you attack normally however you may attack far more targets when attacking roll 1D6 per attack you are able to hit that many creatures with your attack which acts as if you are attacking them all individually with one roll. Each "bullet" a hit has at least 8 shards in the whole burst dealing 6D4 for a whole burst of 6 shards to the target each "bullet" counts as a shard of stone however your damage is how many bursts and thus shards impact based on that define the save by the damage and then treat it as either individual shards or a lump to save against the ratling gun has a range of 60/120 and is able to fire up to 8 times with 64 shards loaded
- Master of the Warp
At 20th level, your weapons and machines reduce your enemies into unholy green slag you may now spend a short rest to salvage enemy bodies for warp stone shards you gain a flat number of of shards equal to the creatures CR plus your intelligence modifier additionally your skill grows in power allowing you to combine your creations such as artillery and vehicles or hitching your heavy weapons or small arms to doom flayers creating dual purpose vehicles to ride to green flaming victory
Multiclassing
Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the skaven warplock engineer class, you must meet these prerequisites:
Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the skaven warplock engineer class, you gain the following proficiencies:
Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Classes