New Class: Tinker

A traveler’s worn cloak and weathered skin masks the exotic and valuable goods she keeps in her donkey’s saddlebags. What she sells can be bought nowhere else, but she would rather barter than take coin.

A wood elf with an oddly-shaped backpack offers a noble a deal. If he trades him his fine sword for the trader’s rusty, dented blade, his most difficult problem will be solved. The noble hesitates, as it could be a trick, but knows it could be bad luck to refuse the deal.

A gnome sets up clockwork toys to walk around the town square, enchanting both children and adults. Once he has their attention, he sets up a small steam engine and the real show begins: heavy loads are lifted by a tiny platform on a corkscrew, a small glider is launched over city hall, and bolts are fired that pierce a dummy’s armor. People line up to pay for his services, but he never reveals the secret of the engine that powers it all.

Whether an itinerant merchant, a distributor of destiny, or an innovative engineering, tinkers are always moving and always making deals. They are always resourceful, though what resource they specialize in may vary.

Moving and Trading
A tinker is not simply a merchant. They have no shops and warehouses, but rely on the subtle magic of the open road. What they deal in they carry on their backs, and it’s their ability to deal and identify the best item, even when it’s not currently for sale, that makes them successful. Their passion is turning junk into treasure through constant travel and salesmanship: what’s common and useless in one area may be rare and valuable in another.

Destiny and Superstition
There is a reputation that wronging a tinker is bad luck. What exactly triggers the bad luck varies from story to story—sometimes it’s stealing, other times it’s simply refusing to make a deal. Tinkers use this reputation to their advantage, even when it’s not backed up by anything more mystical than a dramatic flip of the cloak. But tinkers recognize the power of being a welcome stranger. In times long past, the people of Myrnia swore an oath to protect travelling merchants, as they were the only source of important tools. The power of that oath lingers in all the old roads, and that power can punish those who wrong tinkers even today.

Creating a Tinker
A tinker’s first love is the road, and as you make your tinker character you should consider how she fell in love. Perhaps she part of a travelling troupe, or perhaps she was an orphan taken as a tinker’s apprentice in trade for something the town needed dearly. She could have come from a wealthy family, but grew bored of that life. Perhaps she travelled by need, as a refugee of some kind, but eventually recognized that the open road was her new home. How did she come to collect her first goods for trade? Did she build a regular route with people who expect her at a certain time, or does she wander where the wind blows and trust her good luck?

Quick Build
You can make a tinker quickly by choosing a high charisma, then wisdom. Choose the Entertainer background with a special routine of trading (like storytelling, but with your goods as props).

Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per tinker level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per tinker level after 1st

Proficiencies:
Armor: Light armor

Weapons: Simple weapons

Tools: Artisan Tools (Tinker’s Tools) 

Saving Throws: Charisma and Wisdom

Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Insight, Investigation, Perception, and Performance.

Equipment:
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
 * (a) a quarterstaff or (c) a dagger
 * (a) a sling or (c) three darts
 * a tinker’s pack (see below)
 * Traveler’s clothes

Road Points
These represent the tinker’s connection with the spirit of the road. They can be spent on tinker abilities, and refresh back to full after a long rest.

Tinker’s Pack
All tinkers from 1st level on can produce goods equal in cost to the daily pack value for their level from your tinker’s pack. You are considered proficient for one hour in whatever you have taken from your pack. The pack always weighs 20 pounds, regardless of what you have pulled from it or left inside. You can choose the item the moment you draw it from the pack.

The daily pack value resets after a long rest.

Evaluation
At the cost of one road point, a tinker at any level can determine the value and authenticity of anything she can see, as with an identify spell. However, as this is expertise and not a supernatural ability, this works even if magic is suppressed in the area. You cannot use this to check on items you cannot clearly see, such as a longsword obscured by a long cloak or a necklace only partially visible through a crack in a jewelry case. The DM may determine that some objects are too obscure or exotic to be used with this ability.

Roadsense
Starting at 2nd level, at the cost of 1 road point your character can always determine which direction and how far away a good or service would be, so long as she is on a road. No matter how rare or unusual, she knows a guy. There is no guarantee that this good or service would be affordable, however.

When using this ability, roll 1d20 and subtract your charisma modifier (result is minimum 1). The result is used in combination with the rarity of what is sought on the chart below. So an finding a tanner to fix some leather armor with a result of 13 would require 13 hours of travel. The travel time starts once the characters are on a road, so if they traveled two days up a remote mountain then 2 days are added to the travel time.

Chosen Roads
Starting at 3rd level the character has a Chosen Road. This is the path of the tinker they have chosen to walk. The Chosen Roads are listed at the end of this class description, and include a special ability, or step. Characters gain more steps at levels 7, 10, 14, and 18.

Wanderlust
Starting at 6th level, the character can spend 2 road points to make one hour of travelling count as a short rest.

Treasure Sense
A tinker of 11th level or higher can spend 4 road points to sense nearby valuables. The character will not know the path to treasure she senses or how it may be guarded, but she can point in a straight line to where it is. The range of this sense is 100 feet. Only items worth more than 50 gp are sensed with this ability.

Improved Roadsense
You can now spend 5 road points to reduce the rarity of what you seek by one level. This can only be done once for any given requested good or service.

Epic Wanderlust
Any time you enter a new town or cross into a new environment, such as moving from forest to plains, you regain all your road points.

Chosen Roads
The road and the deal are the heart of tinker life, but that means different things to different travelers. Starting at 3rd level, tinkers must choose which type of road they mean to walk.

The Market Road
This road focuses on the exchange of goods. Tinkers who follow this are experts at getting people to deal with them, and eventually become masters of getting the best deal. The power of the road can be drawn on by these tinkers, and expressed through the simple ritual of exchange.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse
At 3rd level when a tinker takes the Market Road, they can spend 2 road points and force another character who is not hostile to enter an exchange. Hostile characters are those who wish harm upon the tinker, personally or abstractly. The target of this effect must be able to communicate with the tinker for the effect work.

The target can perform a Charisma saving throw at a DC of 8 + the tinker’s charisma modifier + the tinker’s proficiency bonus. If they fail, they must immediately offer something to the tinker and name their price. This could be information, a service, a piece of equipment, coin, or anything else that could be traded. This target cannot trade something they don’t have, and will not take what they consider to be an unfair offer. Nor will their offer something they truly would never part with, such as a family heirloom or a service that violates their code of honor. The tinker may counter, asking for something different or offering another price, but if the negotiation takes longer than one minute, then the compulsion is gone.

You cannot use this ability on the same target until after a long rest.

Fair Market Value
At 7th level, a tinker on the Market Road become better at deals that involve bartering. An exchange is considered a barter if no coins are involved in the transaction.

Any character can participate in a barter at any time, but normally an NPC would expect to the exchanged items or services to be worth a roughly equivalent amount of gold pieces. For example, a dagger exchanged for 40 arrows is an even exchange, since a dagger is worth 2gp and 20 arrows are worth 1gp.

With this ability, at the cost of 3 road points the tinker may now perform a barter where the items or services received in a barter are worth as much as 30% more than the items or services given.

Let’s Talk This Out
At 10th level, a tinker on the Market Road can initiate An Offer You Can’t Refuse even if the target is hostile. For the cost of 5 road points, the tinker can force a negotiation even in the middle of combat. The effect will allow negotiation to continue for one minute, but if the target is the victim of an attack or a harmful spell the compulsion immediately ends.

Vigorous Trading
After a barter exchange, a tinker on the Market Road at 15th level may refresh up to half of her road points.

Magic Beans
Many merchants try to stretch the truth about their products to get a better price. At 18th level, a tinker on the Market Road may be able to use the magic of the road to make their boasts come true temporarily.

At a cost of 10 road points, any object which a tinker gives to another character as part of a barter may include an enchantment it did not have before that exchange. The enchantment disappears if the object is taken or given to someone else.

The first version of this enchantment is to grant a +2 enchantment bonus to a weapon’s damage or armor’s protection. This will wear off 3d8 + 24 hours after the trade.

A variation on this would allow the recipient to cast a cantrip or 1st level spell from the wizard’s list so long as they have this object on their person. The enchantment will last for 1d6+2 castings of the spell, which is determined immediately after the trade.

Neither the tinker nor the recipient know how long the enchantment will last.

Castle Road
The Castle Road leads to a great destiny, but it’s not an easy one. Great deeds are usually found alongside great hardships. Tinkers who follow the Castle Road still make deals, but their trades are more about fortune and fate than coins and goods. The ideal of these tinkers is to initiate the right deal and the right moment to change misfortunate to victory.

Lucky Charm
At 3rd level, a tinker on the Castle Road may spend 2 road points to create a lucky charm. Any object could be a lucky charm, though it’s traditional for it to be something modest you could wear, like a tin ring or a felt hat.

A lucky charm must be an object given or traded from the tinker to a different character. It will only work for the recipient—if lost, stolen, or given away the charm no longer works.

The lucky charm will grant advantage on 2 checks of the recipient’s choice during the 24 hours after receiving it. After this time the lucky charm’s effect disappear, whether or not it was used.

Tinker’s Curse
A tinker on the Castle Road may, after reaching 7th level, spend 3 road points to curse someone who has wronged her as an action. The next three checks of any kind performed by that character after the curse is invoked is at a disadvantage.

What You Need
At 10th level, a tinker on the Castle Road may identify something especially useful for a character. It is traditional, though strictly speaking unnecessary, for the offering to be preceded with the phrase, “You know what you need is…”

After that, the tinker reaches into her pack and retrieves a piece of equipment worth up to her daily pack value. This does not come out of the tinker’s daily pack value, but it does cost 6 road points to use this ability.

The piece of equipment will be especially useful for what is coming up for that character, but that may not be clear right away. For example, a coil of good rope with a grappling hook might seem like an odd choice on a wide open plain, until the character falls into a pit trap later that day.

This is a form of divination, and like all practices of that craft it’s not fully accurate. Many things can change the course of fate. The object that is given may give some indication of the coming challenges. A skeleton key implies a lock plays an important role; a map of the region might indicate there’s a good chance they will get lost; a history book written in gnomish might seem useless until they realize the artifact they seek is in the care of a scholarly gnome. The object by itself, however, is no guarantee of success.

Destiny Sense
This ability works like the Treasure Sense ability, but instead of finding valuables it finds important steps toward a goal. The tinker at 15th level can spend 8 road points and state a goal. The goal could be, “We are looking for Limra’s lost spell book,” or “We are trying to free the slaves in this cave.” It does not have to be a goal the tinker shares.

Immediately the tinker recognizes the most pressing next step in the quest. There could be many results, for example:
 * The destination is 30 miles northeast
 * There is something important hidden in this room
 * You need to talk to the guard some more

Geas
At 18th level, a tinker on the Castle Road may set someone back on the road to their destiny, even if they refuse it. She may spend 10 road points and impose a geas as the 5th level wizard’s spell. The saving throw is 8 + the tinker’s Charisma bonus + the tinker’s proficiency bonus.

The imposition of the gaes is accompanied by something simple the target wears, just like the Lucky Charm. Once the geas has been fulfilled, the object becomes a Lucky Charm whose duration begins the moment the geas has been fulfilled.

Workshop Road
All tinkers can do basic crafting tasks like sharpening blades and mending pots. Those who take the Workshop Road can go much further, using small clockwork mechanisms and steam engines to become a one-person factory… or a one-person army.

Clockworks
At 3rd level, a tinker on the workshop road can create small clockwork creations, like the gnome ability. However, the materials come from the tinker’s pack for free—they do not get consumed and they do not come from the tinker’s daily pack value. A tinker can maintain as many clockworks as her level, though it takes an action to wind them and send them on their way.

These creations can become more sophisticated as the tinker increases in level.

3rd Level – Clockworks can take 10 hp of damage before being destroyed, and perform 3 actions before winding down.

5th Level – Clockworks can carry out 5 actions before winding down

7th Level – A clockwork has Strength of 8, Dexterity of 12, and can carry out an unarmed attack

9th Level – Two clockworks can assemble themselves together as an action and then have a Strength of 12 and a Dexterity of 10.

11th Level – A clockwork can be equipped with a small ranged weapon

13th Level – Clockworks can take up to 20 hp of damage and carry out 8 actions before winding down

15th Level – Clockworks can be wound as a bonus action (so with an action plus a bonus action, two clockworks can be sent out at a time)

17th Level – Clockworks can be crafted to fly

19th Level – Clockworks have a spoken language which can be understood by other clockworks and the tinker

Steam Engine
At 7th Level, a tinker on the Workshop Road can build a portable steam engine that straps to her back. It takes 10gp worth of coal per day to keep the steam engine active, though this can come out of the daily pack value. The tinker must decide after each long rest whether to make the steam engine active, and then it will stay active until the next long rest.

Steam engines are powerful, but only as useful as the application to which they are put. Starting at 7th Level, and again at 10th, 15th, and 18th level, the tinker may choose two applications of steam power which they know how to build and maintain.

A steam engine may be active but not in use, and in this case, it is not uncomfortable to wear. However, when using an application, it begins to heat up. Starting at the third round of continuous use, characters incur 1d4 damage, reduced by their Constitution modifier. (Characters who have negative Constitution modifiers incur more damage.) Stopping use for one round will reset the counter and stop the damage.

The steam engine weighs 30 pounds and has 50hp, but if it is destroyed it will explode. An exploding steam engine will apply to anyone in a 15-foot sphere 8d6 thunder damage. A successful Dexterity save can reduce the damage by half.

Tinkers are considered proficient with their steam applications unless otherwise noted.

Steam engines are considered sacred to gnomes, so if the tinker is not a gnome then there may be some tension if they ever demonstrate their familiarity around gnomes.

Steam Applications
These are the tools that can be hooked up to the portable steam engine and accomplish tasks. Any application marked passive does not require an action, but changes how the engine or its applications work. All other applications require an action to activate unless otherwise noted.

Clockwork Launcher – Projects clockworks safely up to 100 feet away.

Efficient Boiler (Passive) – The steam engine only costs 5gp of coal per day.

Heat Sink (Passive) – Distributes the heat of the engine across your body. This allows you to use applications for three rounds before heat damage starts occurring on the fourth round. Also provides resistance against cold damage when another application is being used.

Hoist – This is a rope attached to a winch. There is a pulley and a hook to secure the setup. This takes an action to set up. It can lift up to 1000 lbs.

Jumper – Jets of steam burst from the steam engine, propelling you into the air up to 40 feet. Note that falling from this height results in 4d6 damage. You can choose the height when you activate the jumper.

Motor – When attached to a prepared cart, it can move a load of up to 500lbs at 20mph. The cart must be set up correctly beforehand, which takes about 3 hours of work. The cart has a movement of 50 in short bursts (such as combat). Someone hit by the cart must make a Dexterity check against a DC of 12 or take 2d6 damage. If they succeed in their check they take no damage.

Power Armor – This is a suit of full plate mail that the tinker has pieced together from scraps. It functions as heavy armor, and when inactive behaves as normal plate mail, requiring proficiency in heavy armor and Strength of 15 to avoid a 10-foot speed reduction. When activated the tinker who constructed it can be considered proficient in it, and avoid disadvantages to ability checks, saving throws, or attack rolls. Spells can also be cast while the armor is active. Not only is the Strength requirement eliminated when the armor is active, it provides an additional 10-foot bonus to speed—a character with 30 speed, who has 20 speed when the armor is inactive, would have a 40 speed when the armor is active. The disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks remains when both active and inactive.

Power Pry – This is a power tool for prying something open. It consists of two wedge-shaped, hardened metal bars. The two form a very thin edge when together, but can then be pushed apart by the engine with great force. The result is equivalent to a roll of 20 on Strength check to pry something open, and in some cases can be used when fingers couldn’t get a grip. This could include a locked chest, a sealed door, or two loose stones in a wall. Note that the use of the Power Pry is likely to damage whatever is being pushed apart.

Remote Operator (Passive) – Can be used to remotely start or stop the steam engine and it’s applications. Using the remote operator is a bonus action.

Steam Blade – This is a dual set of 6” blades on a 3-foot metal arm. When in use, a chain spins the blades into a blur of sharp metal. Damage: 1d10; Properties: Heavy

Steam Gun – This is a contraption that shoots bolts like a crossbow, but heavier. Damage: 1d12; Properties: Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, loading

Thumper – A burst of steam surrounds you, causing 2d4 thunder damage to anyone within 10 feet.