Welcome back to the weekly D&D and Tabletop Gaming thread!  Here’s a place where we can talk about Dungeons & Dragons or any other tabletop games that you nerds might be into.  Tell us about the games you’re playing, speculate about future expansions, recruit your fellow Avocados into new groups, whatever you want.

We’re back to subclasses this week, and taking a look at the Artillerist Artificer.  The Artillerist, as its name would suggest, specializes in creating magical projectiles and explosions.  Whereas the Battle Smith took the role of the combat medic/repairman, the Artillerist takes the roll of the blaster.  As such, they get a handful of spells added to their repertoire automatically at certain levels. These include Shield and Thunderwave at level 3, Scorching Ray and Shatter at level 5, Fireball and Wind Wall at level 9, Ice Storm and Wall of Fire at level 13, and Cone of Cold and Wall of Force at level 17.

Starting at level 3, an Artillerist gains proficiency with woodcarver’s tools, as well as the ability to make an Eldritch Cannon.  The cannon is a small or tiny object with an AC of 18 and hit points equal to five times your Artificer level.  You can create one for free every day, but you can only have one active at a time. If it is destroyed, you can use a spell slot to create a new Cannon if you don’t want to wait until the next day.  Each time you make a cannon you can choose one of three options.  A Flamethrower can shoot out a 15-foot cone of fire, dealing 2d8 damage to anyone in the area who fails a DEX save.  A Force Ballista makes an attack against a single target within 120 feet or it, which deals 2d8 force damage on hit and pushes the target back 5 feet.  Finally, a Protector emits a wave of positive energy, granting itself and any allies within 10 feet of it temporary hit points equal to 1d8 plus your INT modifier.  Each of these effects can be activated as a bonus action on your turn, and you can also choose to move the cannon up to 15 feet with the same bonus action.

At 5th level, you learn to craft your own Arcane Firearm, carving certain sigils into a wand, staff, or rod.  The sigils allow you to use the firearm as an arcane focus for your spells, and you can add 1d8 to the damage roll of any spell you case through it.

At level 9 your Eldritch Cannon becomes an Explosive Cannon.  All of the damage rolls the cannon makes increase by 1d8.  In addition, you can use your action to detonate the cannon itself, forcing all creatures within 20 feet to make a DEX save or take 3d8 force damage.

Finally at 15th level, you increase the defensive capabilities of your Cannon, making it a Fortified Position.  Your Cannon now emits a 10-foot radius field of magical protection, that grants half cover to anyone inside it.  In addition, you can now have two cannons active at once, creating them with a single action (though it still takes a spell slot to create more than one), and commanding both a single bonus action on your turn.  The two cannons can be identical, or you can choose different options for each.

I took over the GM’s chair once again, this time running the group through the D&D 5e adventure “Forge of Fury,” found in the Tales From the Yawning Portal book.  The PCs are:

• Gash the Furious, a Half-Orc Totem Warrior Barbarian (played by Otto)
• Slowclap, a Kenku Kensei Monk (played by Josephus Brown)
• Seraphina Lathander, an Aasimar Light Cleric (played by The Wasp)
• Oona Maku, a Half-Elf Hunter Ranger (played by Wafflicious)
• Fritzi Flickerfling, a Gnome Evoker Wizard (played by The Hayes Code)
• Edith Stitch, a Gnome Forge Cleric (played by Spiny Creature)

[spoiler title=”Finale”]

After slaying the dragon, and taking as many trophies as they could, the party camped for the night on a small island in the Black Lake where Nightscale had piled her hoard.  After a sufficiently long rest, Edith cast a Water Walk spell on the party so that they could explore the lake without needing to swim.  Seraphina noticed that the water was flowing eastward, and Fritzi was able to determine that there must be an underwater tunnel leading up to the surface.  Since the party didn’t want to attempt to swim out, they decided to head back up through the fortress and cave system.

On their way up, they took a different path up through the caves then they did coming in.  Seraphina’s sharp eyes spotted some troglodyte attempting to ambush them, and shouted a warning.  Two of the trogs attacked, while a third ran over to a wooden gate set in one part of the cave wall, letting loose a large brown bear.  Even with the beast though, the trogs were no match for a group of dragon-slayers.  Slowclap punched the bear a few times, while the rest of the group took out the troglodytes.  Gash ended the encounter by chopping the bear’s head off with one swing of her newly discovered magical greataxe.

The party found another tunnel leading out of the cave, but decided to continue exploring a bit more.  They eventually discovered the troglodyte’s nesting area and had another battle with a large group of the lizard-people.  A well-placed Fireball from Fritzi roasted most of the trogs in one shot, but also alerted their chief and his giant lizard pet, who came running in from another cave room.  The chief cast a spell of his own, but his Scorching Rays all missed their mark.  He didn’t live long enough to regret that mistake.