Hey there, everyone. With the release of High Seas Gadgeteering, it's about high time that the base class itself gets a looking-over to see if it can be made more fun. I had originally instituted the 3 custom weapons / 3 accessories limit due to there being only 13 accessories from which to choose. Given this expansion, the ability to go 2/4 seems like it would work while still giving variety a chance. Since the class is a half year old and it's not a balance issue that prompts this change, I simply thought it'd be best to ask if this was something you all wanted before I started chopping.
Out of the 3pp products I have on hand I have the Machinesmith(LJP Games), Tinker(you), Gearhead(Pure Steam), Golemoid/Steamwright/Mechamage(Thunderscape) and Artisan(Drop Dead Studios) so I never took a look at Gadgeteer. How doe the Gadgeteer work/what does it do?
I'm not familiar with a few of those, so please bear with me as I describe the gadgeteer in a vacuum.
The gadgeteer is a cross between Inspector Gadget and MacGyver. Like her sources of inspiration, she is wholly dependent on her technical aptitude, wacky gadgets, and quick thinking (or sheer dumb luck) in order to thrive. Her primary class feature is the custom weapon/accessory blank system, which allows her to prepare a small number of wacky weapons and fancy accessories that fulfill functions from whale oil flamethrower and toxic lipstick to combination spy camera/emergency escape parachute cigar and laser vision goggles. All of the gadgeteer's weapons and accessories are highly customizable, the most complex accessories making an oracle mystery blush for want of options.
Custom weapons can be made from any weapon the gadgeteer picks up. Weapon special abilities are suppressed, but you have the option to pay to keep your enhancement bonus. Custom weapons cherry-pick bonuses from three-and-a-half pages of options in three categories: offensive, defensive, and addons. A custom weapon can have one offensive and one defensive option, as these tend to be very efficient and scale with level, and as many addons as she wants/can afford.
Accessories are another beast altogether. Simply select one of the base accessories and purchase addons for it, which can unlock new functions, expanded fuel reservoirs, expanded damage, and so on. For example, one accessory makes healing energy bars out of trail rations. It can be upgraded to crank out energy bars that heal more, heal the undead, make animals more obedient, or even make the eater vomit instead of being healed.
All of these are paid for through the Structure Point, or SP, system. As you level, you get more blank slots to fill with fun toys. Each blank has a base pool of a few Structure Points, just to get you started. From there, you have a discretionary pool of SP that you can use to upgrade them further. For example, let's suppose you have three blanks with 3 directly-assigned SP each and a discretionary pool of 10 SP. This means you have a total of 19 SP, but you have to put at least 3 SP into each of your gadgets.
TL;DR
Endzeitgeist calls the gadgeteer "Batman's Rogue Gallery - The Class" I'm not saying they're all there, (Mr. Freeze and the Penguin are clearly missing their respective guns) but the gadgeteer is pretty much the closest you can get to playing, say, The Joker or Poison Ivy in a Pathfinder game. Also Mission: Impossible.
The gadgeteer is, first and foremost, a wacky hijinx class. You are MacGyver. You are Mission:Impossible. You are The Joker. You can steal people's faces, use a fishing pole to slaughter swarms of minions, electrocute your enemies with a hidden joy buzzer, and shoot freaking lasers from your freaking forehead, for heaven's sake! If a party does nothing but dungeon delve, then the gadgeteer simply does not have the best time possible. A full half of your accessories are made to dick with people and events! You are not just an engineer. You can be a tech-bestowed superspy a'la James Bond. Be aware of this - there needs to be wacky circumstances and intrigue in order to make all of the gadgeteer's tools work, and when the gadgeteer straight up murders the BBEG with toxic lipstick after successfully seducing him, you'll know you're playing the right class.
Alright, did some rebalancing.
Blanks will now allow a 2/4 split, SP per blank is going up by +1 across the board, a number of logic holes have been filled, and the gadgeteer can't sell stuff they prepare to merchants.
Of special note - When making custom weapons, weapon special abilities can now be saved from suppression by spending twice the weapon special ability's enhancement modifier in SP.
I'm thinking all of this put together will make the gadgeteer more competitive without letting it actually outshine somebody.
I'm working on a gameworld this class might work well for... My kobolds fit into the niche gnomes did back in the old days.
You're one of the Pincushion fellows, yes? We can talk if you'd like to use it and have me cook up a few racial accessories, besides. I've liked you guys ever since that Agile spiel.