Dungeons & Dragons 5e Engineering Specialties (KS): Clockwork Menagerie
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Clockwork Menagerie Engineer, Engineer
Features:
Clockwork Familure
3rd-Level Engineer Feature
You complete work on a Tiny mechanical servitor, about the size of an arcane magic-user's familiar. The servitor often has the general appearance of some kind of small animal or miniature humanoid, but it is clearly a mechanical construct and not a natural beast. Use the stats for a clockwork familiar.
The familiar acts on your turn, following your most recent instructions to the best of its abilities; you can issue new instructions on your turn as a bonus action, as long as you are within 100 feet of the familiar. It doesn't emote or communicate with you beyond its general status (undamaged, light damage, heavy damage, broken) and the status of its latest task (underway, completed, abandoned, or impossible), but as long as it's within 100 feet, you always know these things about it. You can peek through its senses as for the find familiar spell (Player's Handbook, p. 240), using clunky goggles, provided it's within range. If you give it a task which takes it out of range, you know only which direction it's in, and whether or not it has been destroyed, until it gets back into range.
The familiar has no initiative or decision-making powers of its own, so you must provide it with clear and specific instructions as to what you want it to do. It can't communicate with anyone but you (though it can deliver letters for you, etc.), nor follow any directions requiring independent judgment or initiative; encountering such a situation will cause it to sit motionless until given an instruction it understands, or return to you after an hour or more elapses. You can program it with basic sequences of tasks, enabling it to perform more complex services with a single command (“messenger,” “scout,” “spy,” etc.). If it gets lost and can't hear your instructions, it will seek you out by moving toward you as directly as possible, changing direction only to try to get around obstacles or avoid hostile creatures.
You can switch your familiar off and stow it along with your other gear (it weighs 10 lb.), if it's in the same space as you at the start of your turn. Deploying it or putting it away requires a Use an Object action, after which the familiar either appears in your space, or disappears from your space into your pack. It can act normally on the turn it was deployed. If reduced to 0 hit points, the familiar is broken, though you can attempt repairs normally. If a familiar is totally destroyed or lost, you can build a replacement with a week of downtime. You may not have more than one clockwork familiar at the same time; if you build a second while you still have the first, the original becomes inactive as the elemental spirit moves to the new mechanical body you have built.
Mechanical Warrior
7th-Level Engineer Feature
You finish constructing a Medium-sized mechanical servitor, which is capable of aiding you in combat and other rudimentary adventuring tasks. The construct has a generally humanoid appearance, but is clearly artificial and mechanical. Use the stats for a mechanical warrior, but add your proficiency bonus to the construct's AC, attack rolls (but not damage), and Strength and Constitution saving throws. Its maximum hit points are equal to the number in the stat block, or four times your engineer level, whichever is higher.
Communication and control of the construct are identical to the clockwork familiar above, save that you can't use your headset to look through the warrior's senses. A mechanical warrior can be switched off and carried as gear, though it weighs 200 lb, and takes a full minute to pack or unpack. You can have both a clockwork familiar and a mechanical warrior, but you can't have more than one of either.
Automation Gadgetry
10th-Level Engineer Feature
Your technical mastery is such that you can build a gadget into one of your automataions. The gadget must be chosen from the lists of Weapon, Defensive and Movement, or Iron Brute Gadgets (the latter only for a mechanical warrior), and you must meet all other listed requirements. If the gadget requires a charge to activate, the automaton can use the ability once, before you must reset the gadget over a short or long rest.
Upon reaching 15th level, you can add a gadget to the other automaton, or a second gadget to the previously enhanced automaton.
Expanded Menagerie
14th-Level Engineer Feature
You have one extra charge for
your gadgets, added to the number for your level on
the Engineer table. At 18th level, this increases to two
extra charges. These charges are expended and
recovered as for the normal charges granted by your
engineer level.
Superior Machinery
17th-Level Engineer Feature
Your mastery in the
creation of mechanical automata is unmatched. Your
clockwork familiar increases its Dexterity and
Constitution by 4 each, and your mechanical
companion increases its Strength and Constitution by
4 each. Re-figure their hit points based on their new
Constitution values and the listed hit dice. Both also
increase their Armor Class by 1.
Clockwork Familure
Clockwork Familiar
The familiar acts on your turn, following your most recent instructions to the best of its abilities; you can issue new instructions on your turn as a bonus action, as long as you are within 100 feet of the familiar. It doesn't emote or communicate with you beyond its general status (undamaged, light damage, heavy damage, broken) and the status of its latest task (underway, completed, abandoned, or impossible), but as long as it's within 100 feet, you always know these things about it. You can peek through its senses as for the find familiar spell (Player's Handbook, p. 240), using clunky goggles, provided it's within range. If you give it a task which takes it out of range, you know only which direction it's in, and whether or not it has been destroyed, until it gets back into range.
The familiar has no initiative or decision-making powers of its own, so you must provide it with clear and specific instructions as to what you want it to do. It can't communicate with anyone but you (though it can deliver letters for you, etc.), nor follow any directions requiring independent judgment or initiative; encountering such a situation will cause it to sit motionless until given an instruction it understands, or return to you after an hour or more elapses. You can program it with basic sequences of tasks, enabling it to perform more complex services with a single command (“messenger,” “scout,” “spy,” etc.). If it gets lost and can't hear your instructions, it will seek you out by moving toward you as directly as possible, changing direction only to try to get around obstacles or avoid hostile creatures.
You can switch your familiar off and stow it along with your other gear (it weighs 10 lb.), if it's in the same space as you at the start of your turn. Deploying it or putting it away requires a Use an Object action, after which the familiar either appears in your space, or disappears from your space into your pack. It can act normally on the turn it was deployed. If reduced to 0 hit points, the familiar is broken, though you can attempt repairs normally. If a familiar is totally destroyed or lost, you can build a replacement with a week of downtime. You may not have more than one clockwork familiar at the same time; if you build a second while you still have the first, the original becomes inactive as the elemental spirit moves to the new mechanical body you have built.
Mechanical Warror
Communication and control of the construct are identical to the clockwork familiar above, save that you can't use your headset to look through the warrior's senses. A mechanical warrior can be switched off and carried as gear, though it weighs 200 lb, and takes a full minute to pack or unpack. You can have both a clockwork familiar and a mechanical warrior, but you can't have more than one of either.
Automation Gadgetry
Upon reaching 15th level, you can add a gadget to the other automaton, or a second gadget to the previously enhanced automaton.
Expanded Menagerie
Superior Machinery
Created by
Raven Gladstone.System
Dungeons & Dragons 5eStatblock Type
Engineering Specialties (KS)Link/Embed
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2025 [en] | Anvil Time: 20:30, Aug 5 2025