If you wanted to bring your D&D or Pathfinder character to DCSS, you could be a druid with Fedhas. You could be a monk with Wu Jian. You could be a barbarian with Trog.
But you simply couldn’t be an artificer. That has changed.
Forgecraft - developed by DracoOmega
Forgecraft is the art of shaping tangible objects out of magic. Forgecraft
spells can construct a wide array of mechanical creatures that will fight
alongside the caster, as well as create traps and barricades and even turn the
physical resilience of one’s armour into a weapon.
It introduces the following spells:
Forgewright starter spell. It inserts a bomb inside an enemy. The next time you melee attack them, the bomb detonates and does a little bonus damage.
LV 2 - Construct Spike Launcher
Forgewright starter spell. It transforms a nearby wall into a turret that attacks enemies.
Forgewright starter spell. A channel spell that eventually summons a powerful ally, which… runs out of steam after a few turns. You can wind the bee back up by bumping into it, giving it extra turns.
Reaver starter spell. (What?? A buff? To the worst caster background in the game??) It makes your MP bar come alive in the form of an arcane blade - which starts slicing entire lines of enemies, line-passing through them Uskayaw-style and dealing damage proportional to how much magic you spent on it. This drains all of your magic points, but they are returned to you when the blade dies or expires.
LV 5 - Alistair’s Walking Alembic
A supportive friend! Its attacks are weak, but occasionally vent out some poisonous fumes around it. After a certain amount of attacks, it finishes brewing a fresh batch of potions and distributes them to allies within 3 tiles, including the player. This buffs everyone with various powerful potion effects! This seems a little OP to me (infinite haste potions, lol), but the commit message states that the randomness of it should keep it reasonable. We’ll see in playtesting.
LV 5 - Nazja’s Percussive Tampering
Slams a mechanical ally (anything created by Forgecraft) with a big hammer, dealing AoE damage and “upgrading” the ally with a bonus 4 HD (basically, spell damage) and 25% melee damage.
LV 6 - Forge Monarch Bomb
It’s a cute little clockwork insect which endlessly churns out mines. This does almost nothing, until you recast the spell, at which point all the mines explode and incinerate the screen.
A protective tank! It always try to stay as close to you as possible, buffing your AC as long as it is not separated. Amazing for the squishies.
The Mountain Dwarf special. Charges up for a few turns (you are rooted for the duration), then unleashes a big blast of raw AoE physical damage which scales only with how much AC you have. Spellpower only affects the charge duration.
It’s a wall that explodes when it is broken, a little bit like Fedhas’s Wall of Briars. Don’t overthink it.
Summons 4 stationary sawblades which shred everything which dares come close to them.
Summons a single gigachad extremely OP bodyguard. You can give it ANY melee weapon, even legendary unrandom artifacts. It will attack as you attack, block attacks for you, and gradually charge up an awesomeness meter at which point it will go full anime, explode and Manifold Assault everything around it. Yes, Felids can finally use melee artifacts. Welcome to the new DCSS.
Now Forgecraft spells: Summon Lightning Spire, Summon Blazeheart Golem, Hellfire Mortar, Hoarfrost Cannonade, Spellforged Servitor, Iskenderun’s Battlesphere, Animate Armour. Some of them have been renamed to keep in tune with the artificer theme.
Forgecraft Aptitudes:
- Mountain Dwarf: +2 (but now have -2 Summoning)
- Coglin: +2
- Yellow Draconian: +2 (they were the only colour with no aptitude bonus!)
- Demonspawn: -1
- Felid: -1 (curse those non-opposable thumbs!)
- Ghoul: -2
- Minotaur: -2
- Tengu: -2 (to contrast with their +2 summoning, as an inverse of MD)
In all other cases, species have the same Forgecraft aptitude as they had
Summonings.
New Summonings Spells
Because the Summoner background has been utterly mangled (RIP FeSu guide, for the second time), it gets these two replacement Summonings spells:
LV 4 - Summon Seismosaurus Egg
Summoner starter spell. Places an immobile egg that needs to be “imprinted” by standing near it while enemies are busy pwning you. Should you complete this little ritual, it summons a very OP (for its level) dinosaur with a 4 tile radius AoE attack, like a mini-Shatter.
LV 4 - Eringya’s Surprising Crocodile
Summoner starter spell. The crocodile starts as a mount, dragging both you and an adjacent enemy backwards one tile. Then, you hop off the crocodile - while it stands between you and your foe. It’s basically the best answer to Attacks of Opportunity ever engineered.
New Background: Forgewright
You can start your tinkering journey right away in trunk with the Forgewright background:
The Forgewright specialises in the creation of magical constructs, ranging from
simple weapons to elaborate and powerful golems. Many of their creations
benefit from fighting alongside them.
Let the Industrial Revolution commence.
but I’m having too much fun with forgecraft!
but I really like the variety that this adds. Looking forward to what I can do with one once I learn how to use it right!
