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Hi! Since we’ve been seeing quite a few threads about homebrew fixes for certain classes, I started thinking about other classes that could use some attention, and the inventor immediately came to mind. IMO the inventor is currently the weakest class in PF2e by a significant margin, and while the changes I’m about to suggest don’t fully solve all of its issues, I think they could work well as errata-level adjustments to at least alleviate some of its problems.
Unstable
Unstable actions are experimental applications of your innovation that even you can’t fully predict. When you take an unstable action, attempt a DC 13 flat check immediately after applying its effects. On a failure, the innovation malfunctions in a spectacular (though harmless) fashion, such as a belch of smoke or shower of sparks, and it deactivates your Overdrive. On a critical failure, you also take an amount of fire damage equal to half your level (rounded up).To take an unstable action, you must be using your innovation (for example, wearing an armor innovation or wielding a weapon innovation) and into Overdrive. If you have a minion innovation, some unstable actions are taken by the minion instead of you. In these cases, only the minion can take that action, and the minion needs to be into Ovedrive and have been Commanded that turn to take the action. If you critically fail the flat check, the minion takes the damage instead of you. You can use only one unstable action per round, even if you go into Overdrive again.
Some actions have an Unstable Function entry, which you can use to add the unstable trait for a bigger benefit. If you’re unable to use unstable actions, you can still use the action normally, but you can’t use the unstable function.
Overdrive [one-action] 1st Level
[Inventor] [Manipulate]
Temporarily cranking the gizmos on your body into overdrive, you try to add greater power to your attacks. Attempt a Crafting check that has a standard DC for your level.
Success Your gizmos go into overdrive, adding power to your attacks. Your Strikes deal additional damage equal to 2 + half your level for 1 minute.
Failure Your gizmos whine concerningly and begin to smoke. As success, except it lasts for 1 round.
Critical Failure Whoops! Something explodes. You take fire damage equal to half your level (rounded up).
Expert Overdrive [Level 3]
You've increased your skill in crafting, and you can put your devices into a more powerful state of overdrive. You become an expert in Crafting, and your Overdrive DC flat check becomes 12.Master Overdrive [Level 7]
Your mastery of invention and crafting enhances your Overdrive even further. You become a master in Crafting, and your Overdrive DC flat check becomes 11.Legendary Overdrive [Level 15]
Your peerless inventing and Crafting ability has supercharged your Overdrives. You become legendary in Crafting, and your Overdrive DC flat check becomes 10.
As I understand it, this is a change to unstable actions so that failing doesn't prevent you from using any unstable actions for the rest of the encounter, strictly speaking, but requires an action tax and a check via Overdrive to enable, or re-enable. I like this; although I'm not a fan of Overdrive, I think letting the Inventor do something to start using unstable actions again in combat would make them feel less likely to be shut down at random, which would be an improvement.
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As I understand it, this is a change to unstable actions so that failing doesn't prevent you from using any unstable actions for the rest of the encounter, strictly speaking, but requires an action tax and a check via Overdrive to enable, or re-enable.
Yeah, pretty much this. The idea is that the unstable trait works like the overflow trait for the kineticist, with overdrive taking the place of channel elements to "enable" unstable actions to be used by the inventor but risk losing it on a low roll, requiring you to "recharge" your overdrive to use them again.
I just noticed I made a mistake in writting "Overdrive DC flat check" when it should be "Unstable DC flat check". Ups.
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I think this is a really good way to improve the Inventor's existing class features. Makes Overdrive more similar to panache for consistency and also makes Unstable less punishing if you roll bad. I've tried to fix the class by completely reworking it from the ground-up but if someone liked the current playstyle of Inventor but wanted it to be better I'd point them to this.