Artificer

Third built class. Runs on the homebrew engine in the Core Rules using a new power model, Invention. Built from the Sunpeak lore and the Valoria House perks. Numbers are tunable; the mechanic is the point.

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1. What an Artificer is

The inventors, shipbuilders, and steampunk engineers of Valoria. Where other Houses inherit power or pray for it, Sunpeak builds it. Metal hulls, clockwork limbs, pressure boilers, gas grenades, and turrets bolted to a deck rail. Human hands and a human mind, no bloodline and no leyline. "The World Must Evolve to Survive." An Artificer does not cast a spell, they deploy a device, and the device does the work.

Power model: Invention. Abilities are built and deployed machines, not spells: bombs, turrets, gadgets, gas, shock weapons, deployable shields, clockwork constructs. There is no environmental gating; a gadget works the same in a cave, a ballroom, or the open sea, because the Artificer brought the source with them. The loadout is swappable: an Artificer re-tools between rests, swapping which devices are loaded the way the Cavalier re-drills maneuvers. Fueled by Pressure.

The hard class note: metal is the counter to Blooded Sorcery. Sunpeak builds metal ships and metal machines, and metal is so unnatural to the sea that it severs a Sea Shepherd's connection (see the Sea Shepherd page, section 5: on a metal hull a Sea Shepherd rolls at disadvantage with Tide capped low, and only level 8 and up can push through, at half effect). That is not a coincidence of the setting, it is a design pillar. The Artificer's metal hulls and clockwork constructs are the natural, intended counter to Darkcliff's blooded gift. A Sunpeak fleet sailing iron-hulled warships is a strategic answer to a House that owns the water. The HUD should treat an Artificer's deployed metal (a hull, a large construct standing in the water) as a proximity-breaker for any Sea Shepherd nearby, the same way the Sea Shepherd doc already greys out their abilities on metal.

2. Pressure (the resource) and the build-and-vent cycle

Pressure is not a reserve you draw down like a mage's spell points. It is a working boiler. It builds as the engine runs (you gain Pressure passively each round you are in a scene with a running rig) and it builds as you vent steam (deliberate venting actions, the at-will Bleed Valve below), and it is spent to fire gadgets or to overclock. A still Artificer with a cold boiler has little to spend; one who has been running hot for a few rounds is loaded.

The pool size per level matches the base column of the core pool table (section 6 of the core rules: 8, 10, 14, 18, 22, 28, 34, 42, 54, 68). On top of that:

• Passive build: regain 2 Pressure (up to max) at the start of each of your rounds while the rig is running.
• Vent build: the Bleed Valve at-will (section 6) trades a turn of doing nothing offensive for an immediate burst of Pressure.
• Overclock: any costed device may be fired at +1 Pressure cost to push it past safe limits (the Overclock rules, section 5).

Recovery follows the core rest economy: a long rest restores full Pressure and full HP and lets you re-tool the loadout; a short rest restores 25% and recharges any device marked 1/short rest. There is no leyline tap; the Artificer carries the source.

3. The clockwork construct (companion sub-module)

Every Artificer can build and field a clockwork construct. It uses the one companion model from core rules section 11, with the steam twist.

• Built at level 1 as a small automaton: a knee-high brass helper that fights at your side, carries gear, and operates a single gadget.
• Upgrades to a war-frame at level 10 (the Masterwork tier): full-size, armored, able to wield a deployed turret or shield on its own.
• Its own HP (Light tier). Acts on the Artificer's turn.
• Construct traits: immune to poison, gas, charm, fear, and disease (it is a machine, no lungs and no mind to bend). Does not eat, sleep, or breathe.
• If destroyed it can be rebuilt over a long rest if salvage remains, otherwise it is built fresh (no permanent loss the way a living companion dies, because it was never alive). This is the one place the Artificer companion differs from the Sea Shepherd and Cavalier mounts.
• The Clockwork specialization branch (section 8) deepens the construct into a true combatant.

4. Progression (levels 1 to 10)

Same pool curve as the core base column. Pressure behaves differently from a mage's pool (section 2).

5. The invention model and Overclocking (how deploying works)

Every Artificer ability is a row with the standard fields, no environmental requirement (a device carries its own source):

name | unlock | cost | Cast DC | Resist DC | resist type | damage | effect | description

Resolution is the standard core schema: action roll (1d20 + level action mod + Intelligence) versus the Cast DC to deploy or fire the device cleanly, then the target resists with the named save versus the Resist DC. The Cast DC is the difficulty of getting the device built and aimed correctly under pressure, so it scales up with the device's tier.

Overclocking. Any costed device may be overclocked: pay +1 Pressure and push the boiler past safe limits for a bigger result (one extra damage die, or +2 to the Resist DC, declared before the roll). The risk is a backfire: on a natural 1 to 3 on the action roll of an overclocked device (not just a natural 1), the device misfires in your hands. You take 1d6 per device tier in steam-burst damage, the device is spent, and your boiler vents (lose 2 Pressure). Overclocking a capstone is staff-gated.

This is the Artificer's signature risk dial, the way proximity is the Sea Shepherd's and valor-Conviction is the Cavalier's. Run cold and safe, or run hot and gamble.

6. At-will gadgets (free, no cost, no roll)

Always available; the everyday kit of a working engineer.

Sparkwork is the Artificer's answer to a mage's prestidigitation and the Sea Shepherd's Spindrift, the parlor trick that announces what you are without spending a thing. A Sunpeak engineer cannot resist making something whir, click, or hiss when they enter a room, and the fancier the little automaton, the more they are showing off.

7. Core devices (every Artificer)

8. The three workshops (specialization, pick one at level 4)

Locked once chosen; an Artificer commits a workshop to a discipline. Each deepens one face of the craft.

Bombardier, the demolition line. Explosives, fire, and area damage. The artillery of the three. Branch unlocks: Cluster Charge (Lv6, heavier Frag Bomb that scatters into three small blasts), Napalm Flask (Lv7, an area that leaves the ground Burning for several rounds), Breaching Charge (Lv8, a blast that ignores cover and shatters fortifications and metal hulls). Loud, devastating, hard on your own boiler.

Gadgeteer, the utility line. Control devices, traps, and battlefield rigging. The tactician. Branch unlocks: Net Launcher (Lv6, root a cluster of foes in a clockwork net), Tanglefield (Lv7, a wide zone of slowed terrain that halves enemy movement), Lockdown Array (Lv8, deploy a ring of mines and snares that controls a whole choke point). Low raw damage, the highest control value on the field.

Clockwork, the construct line. Constructs and mechanical companions. The commander. Branch unlocks: Combat Frame (Lv6, the automaton becomes a real fighter with Medium-tier HP and a weapon), Twin Build (Lv7, field a second small construct), Iron Vanguard (Lv8, your construct can deploy and operate any one of your core devices on its own turn). Your strength is on the table in machines, not in your own hands.

9. House Sunpeak perks (folded into the class)

These are the Valoria House perks converted into engine rows under core rules section 10.

• Level 1, Tinkerer. Advantage on all tinkering and invention checks (Craft: tinkering, Craft: invention). Attaches to the check.
• Level 6, Mechanical Horse. Build or receive a warhorse construct: a tireless mechanical mount, immune to poison, that does not eat or sleep. Uses the companion model (core section 11), Light tier HP, acts on your turn. A second machine alongside the clockwork construct, this one a mount.
• Level 10, Masterwork Invention. Choose one signature build:
• Mechanical Cart: a six-seat steam carriage, tireless, that climbs rough terrain a normal cart cannot. Hauls a crew and cargo overland with no animals.
• Single-Pilot Flying Machine: a one-seat flyer with limited range (short hops, not open-ended flight), and once per long rest an overclock burst grants +30 feet of speed for one minute.

10. Capstones (levels 9 to 10, house head, staff managed)

Siege Engine is the Sunpeak House capstone made real: the iron answer to a House that owns the water, a gun big enough to crack a hull from shore. Grand Design is the master engineer running every machine at once, the whole workshop alive.

11. Class traits

• Swappable loadout. An Artificer re-tools on a long rest, swapping which devices are loaded, like the Cavalier re-drills maneuvers. The set of available devices grows with level; which are loaded is the player's choice each rest.
• Magic items. Artificers are not blooded and not arcane, but they may attune and use mechanical and martial magic items (enchanted gear, clockwork relics, an enchanted tool kit). They cannot use items that channel raw arcane casting the way a blooded or learned caster does.
• HP tier: Medium. Key stat: Intelligence (design, calculation, precision). Saves as core.
• No environmental gating. Devices carry their own source, so nothing greys out for terrain. The trade is the Overclock backfire risk (section 5) instead of a proximity dependence.
• Metal counters Blooded Sorcery (RP and mechanical layer): an Artificer's deployed metal (Iron Wall, a large construct, a hull) breaks a nearby Sea Shepherd's sea-magic proximity. The HUD surfaces this the same way it greys out a Sea Shepherd on a metal deck. This is Sunpeak's strategic role in the realm, not just a damage number.

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12. Open for your sign-off

• Level titles (Apprentice Smith, Journeyman, Engineer, Master Engineer, Chief Artificer, Grand Artificer). Rename freely.
• The three workshop names (Bombardier, Gadgeteer, Clockwork).
• Whether the Overclock backfire window should be natural 1 to 3, or just natural 1 and 2, since it is the class's whole risk dial.