Battle Smith

Armies require protection, and someone has to put things back together if defenses fail. A combination of protector and medic, a Battle Smith is an expert at defending others and repairing both materiel and personnel. To aid in their work, Battle Smiths are accompanied by a steel defender, a protective companion of their own creation. Many soldiers tell stories of nearly dying before being saved by a Battle Smith and a steel defender.

Tools of the Trade

At 3rd level, You gain proficiency with smith's tools and in heavy armor. If you are proficient in smith's tools, you gain proficiency in another set of artisan's tools of your choice.

Moreover, when another creature within 5 feet of you is targeted by an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the triggering attack roll. However, you must be wielding a shield or a melee weapon to use this reaction.

Battle Smith Spells

Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Battle Smith Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

Artificer Level	Battle Smith Spells
3rd	Heroism, Shield
5th	Branding Smite, Warding Bond
9th	Aura of Vitality, Conjure Barrage
13th	Aura of Purity, Fire Shield
17th	Banishing Smite, Mass Cure Wounds

Steel Defender

By 3rd level, You have created for yourself a faithful construct, known as a Steel Defender. It is friendly to you and obeys your orders. Its game statistics are found in the Steel Defender stat block on the next page, which uses your Spell save DC and proficiency bonus (PB). Your Steel Defender uses the rules below:

Creating the Defender. During a long rest, you can spend 1 hour using smith's tools to create a Steel Defender. You can only have one Steel Defender, and creating another destroys the previous Steel Defender. If your Steel Defender dies, you expend a spell slot and spend 1 minute repairing it with your smith's tools, restoring it to life with its maximum hit points.

Infusions. Your Steel Defender can bear one Infusion that is meant for boots, a cloak, gauntlet, helmet, or suit of armor.

Combat. In combat, your Steel Defender acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but it only takes the Dodge action on its turn unless you use your bonus action to order it to take an action in its stat block, or another action. If you are incapacitated, the Steel Defender can act on its own to defend you to the best of its abilities.

Model. Upon creation, you choose a model for your Steel Defender; Humanoid or Quadruped, which determines its appearance and capabilities both in and out of combat:

Humanoid. Your Steel Defender resembles a Medium humanoid creature. It is proficient with shields, and it has humanoid hands that it can use to perform simple tasks.

Quadruped. Your Steel Defender resembles a Large beast of your choice. Its walking speed increases by 10 feet, and it can be ridden by you as if it were a trained mount.

Steel Defender
Medium or Large construct, Unaligned
Armor Class: 13 + pb (natural armor)
Hit Points: 5 + five times your Artificer level
Speed: 30ft
STR 16(+3) DEX 12(+1) CON 14(+2) INT 4(-3) WIS 10(+0) CHA 6(-2)
Saving Throws: Dex +1 plus PB, Con +2 plus PB
Skills: Athletics +2 plus PB, Perception +0 plus PB x 2
Damage Immunities: Poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10 + (PB x 2)
Languages: understands the languages you speak
Hit Dice. The Steel Defender has a total number of d10 Hit Dice equal to your Artificer level. It gains all the normal benefits of both short and long rests.
Might of the Master. You add your PB to any ability check or saving throw the Steel Defender makes.
Vigilant The defender can't be surprised.
ACTIONS
Force-Empowered Rend. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d8 + PB force damage.
Repair. The Steel Defender expends one of its Hit Dice to restore 1d10 + PB hit points to itself or to one construct or object within 5 ft. that it touches.

Minor Upgrade

At 5th level, You have upgraded the offensive capabilities of your Steel Defender. It gains one Minor Upgrade of your choice:
- Minor Arcanum. You imbue your Steel Defender with a 1st-level Artificer spell of your choice with a casting time of one action. As a bonus action, you can order the Defender to cast that spell at 1st-level, using your spellcasting modifier. The Steel Defender has three Charges of this spell, and it regains all Charges when it finishes a short or long rest.
- Martial Offense. The damage die of the Steel Defender's Rend attack becomes a d10. Whenever you order it to make a Rend attack it can make two Rend attacks instead of one. It can also replace either Rend attack with a grapple or shove.

Modular Defender

At 9th level, Your Steel Defender now counts as multiple individual items for the purposes of Infusions: its torso (armor or cloak), legs (boots), head (helmet), and the limbs it uses for Rend attacks (gauntlet or melee weapon). Each item can bear one Infusion.

Additionally you can spend a flash of genius to replace one of the upgrades on your steel defender with a different one of the same level, once you have done so you must complete a short or long rest before you can do so again.

Greater Upgrade

Also at 9th level, You can imbue your Steel Defender with wondrous abilities and features. It gains one Greater Upgrade of your choice:
- Greater Arcanum. You imbue your Steel Defender with a 2nd-level Artificer spell of your choice with a casting time of one action. As a bonus action, you can order your Defender to cast the imbued spell at 2nd-level, using your spellcasting modifier. The Steel Defender has three Charges of this spell, and it regains all Charges when it finishes a short or long rest.
- Limited Sentience. You improve the cognitive abilities of your Steel Defender. Its Intelligence score becomes 10, and
it can speak, read, and write one language of your choice. It will also carry out simple instructions you give it until they are complete. Examples include "bring me that object", "attack that creature", or "let nothing through this door".
- Reinforced Plating. You greatly improve its defenses. It is resistant to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Masterwork Upgrade

At 15th level, You imbue your Steel Defender with wondrous abilities and powers. It gains one Masterwork Upgrade of your choice:
- Arcane Ward. Creatures of your choice within 15 feet of your Steel Defender are resistant to damage from spells.
- Major Arcanum. You imbue your Steel Defender with a 3rd-level Artificer spell of your choice with a casting time of one action. As a bonus action, you can order the Defender to cast that spell at 3rd-level, using your spellcasting modifier. The Steel Defender has three Charges of this spell, and it regains all Charges when it finishes a short or long rest.
- Self-Destruct. You embed a powerful arcane explosive in your Steel Defender. As a bonus action, you can order your Steel Defender to self-destruct, destroying itself and forcing all creatures within 30 feet to make a Dexterity saving throw. Creatures take force damage equal to the Steel Defender's remaining Hit Dice on a failure (maximum of 10d8), and half on a success. Once this feature is used, your Steel Defender cannot be rebuilt until the end of your next long rest