Craftsman Final Redux

Cascades of sparks leapt from his hammer as it beat the unruly iron into shape. The smith was always distantly aware of the irony that the crimson sparks were but a preamble: once finished, far more red would cascade from this blade. 

The final craftsman redux is here! 

We've reexamined the whole of the craftsman class with an eye for making it easier to pick up and use, more dynamic, and more expressive for players that really want to tinker with things. The last iteration of this class did wonders, but the work that we've put into this new version really shows. The class has gotten a total makeover: the old "Crafting Techniques" are now "Masterwork Properties" (as they now work identically to weapon properties), and the old subclasses are now "Artisans' Guilds". You'll see new tweaks, big and small, all over the place.

The very biggest change is pretty remarkable: the new craftsman places in your hands the very same system used to create the weapons in the Player's Handbook and all the Mage Hand Press books. It's based on weapon properties and damage dice, the most intuitive parts of weapons in 5th edition, and it allows you to create any weapon in the PHB and beyond; always balanced, guaranteed! This new system really puts you in the shoes of a craftsman, as you riddle out from the properties how your weapon works, swings, and feels.

Using these properties we've crafted a truly staggering number of simple, martial, and exotic weapons -- four pages of tables, 130 in total. Moreover, we've only scratched the surface of what you can do when you apply the properties system. Some of the old staples, like the Mountain Cleaver, return, joined by new favorites, like the Doomerang and the Rocket Fist.

And, of course, exotic weapons would be no fun without exotic armor, exotic ammunition, and a supply of explosives. We've got tables of those too, all rebalanced polished to a mirror sheen. The whole ensemble works far better and demonstrates a cohesion that allows the class to work with or without all of the additional equipment included in the book.

- - -

Like the Alchemist, this book will see release in two chunks, the current release and a proper Complete version. This version contains the more-or-less final version of the properties, weapons, armor, explosives, and ammunition, but is missing a good chunk of the class's archetypes and the supplemental crafting rules previously included in the Complete Craftsman. We're still working on those additional things, and we plan to include far more archetypes than last time. For now, enjoy the single largest dump of equipment we've ever thrown into a single book.

Next month, we plan to have all (or most of) our Modern Rules supplement finished. We've made some progress on it this month, but the sheer scale of all the mechanics and number-crunching this book required took us a little by surprise, and we're a little behind from where we'd like to be. Moreover, since many of our artists have been neck-deep in commissions for Dark Matter, we're a little short on art for both the Craftsman and Modern Rules supplement, so if either of these books launch with placeholder art, just know that we will make sure they get the pieces they need in due time.

Changelog: 

•  2/1/19: Weapon Properties: If a property requires a martial weapon, you can apply it to an exotic weapon.
• Aerodynamic Property: Applies to melee and ranged weapons
• Blaster: Now also removes bonuses provided by the Reload property
• Loading Property: Does not allow Reload, always increases damage die by one step
• Magazine Property: Renamed Reload property
• Reload Property: Allows for a weapon to gain the Reload (1, 2 actions) property, specifies that removing the property causes the weapon to inherit the Loading property
• Two-Handed Property: Does not allow Light or thrown
• 2/3/19: Martial property: Range increases clarified
• Two-Handed: Can't be Foregrip
• Versatile: Can't be foregrip
• Climbing property: Full climbing speed
• Explosive property: Damage die decreased by one step
• Rocket property: Damage die decreased by one step
• Grenade Launcher: Has heavy property
• Light Cannon: Damage reduced to 2d10, range increased to 120/360
• Rocket Launcher: Damage decreased to 2d8
• Demolition Bow: Damage decreased to 1d8
• Doomerang: Damage decreased to 1d4; Explosive property replaced with Rocket
• Plasma Launcher: Damage increased to 2d10
• 2/7/19: Rapid Modifications: Ability can be added to an item only once between long rests