Tools of the Trade

Simply put, smith’s tools and tinker’s tools made the most sense to me for what he can create.

Spells

Q creates both offensive and defense gadgets. This is why, at each level, the spells are usually one of each. In the movies, Q’s creations can usually either help Bond out of a bind, or give him that crazy attack that his enemies never saw coming. Either through some sort of sneaky distraction or blowing something up, Q’s gadgets gave Bond that one extra edge every time. I would argue that the Counterspell is the magical equivalent of many of Bond’s crafty escapes where he uses the villain’s own deathly devices to escape; Live and Let Die, where he jumps on the crocodiles to escape being eaten, or in Goldfinger, where he uses the laser that is going to fry his testicles to break free of his restraints. And while it may not be a Cloud of Daggers, it seemed like almost every pen, watch or camera could shoot a dart or dagger at someone, just like the ski pole in A Spy Who Loves Me.

Clockwork Mount

The most iconic of all of Q’s inventions was the car he would create and that would inevitably be destroyed. Undeterred, he would create another one, with cooler and more specialized features. The Aston Martin is the James Bond car, but it is Q who makes it the amazing vehicle is is. Since we cannot have cars in D&D (I wish Descent into Avernus was out, as it is to have Infernal engines, which could have added a whole new dimension), the Q Artificer has the ability to create a clockwork mount that either he or one other character can ride. Sure, it’s no Aston Martin, but riding a robot construct shaped like a horse is pretty cool.

Crossbow bolts replace the rockets. You get a total of six, and they need to be reloaded every short rest. There was some debate on giving it a bite and or a claw attack. In the end, it was decided that a slam attack and the ability to knock someone prone fit better. Nothing like getting knocked around by hundreds of pounds of metal to ruin someone’s day.

As stated above, the mount can be “given” to another character to use. I know this breaks with Artificer tradition, but since in the movie the car was made by Q for Bond, I felt it matched the flavor we were looking for. Lastly, the mount lasts until it is killed. No deciding you don’t like Bob the mechanical horse and making Billy the Mastiff the next day. Trust in Bob, he’ll serve you right!

Rings

It seemed like every movie had smaller gadget that had some minor yet important feature that got our hero out of a scrape. From the Stun Gas cigarette in The Spy Who Loved Me to the Electromagnetic Ring in Diamonds are Forever, there was always some trinket that Q gave Bond in the early stages of the movie that was crucial late in the game.

Rings seemed like the most logical item here, since their aren’t many watches in D&D and we don’t want kids to smoke. At 6th level, you learn how to take any common ring and enhance it with a variety of special properties. After you finish a long rest and have your tinker tools, you can give any non magical ring one of the following properties:

Adrenaline - Minor healing to get you through the fight.

Escape tactics - How many times has Bond escaped certain doom.

Sleepy Time -Poison and knock out darts are a staple in the Bond universe.

Smoke Bomb - See The Spy That Loved Me.

Sneaky - How he gets in so many places is beyond me.

Winning Smile - I needed to add in Bond’s ability to seduce women and make friends somehow.

Remote Control

In Tomorrow Never Dies, Q made the car (a BMW…for shame) able to be controlled by remote control. This has been applied to the clockwork mount. At 14th level, you have been able to give your clockwork mount the ability to function on its own. It can now move and attack independent of you, but will always respond immediately to all direct commands it is given. Not only that, but you have also learned how to upgrade Bob the mechanical horse with some new features:

Multiattack - Two crossbow bolts at a time.

Upgraded Missiles - More missiles!

Poisonous Breath - They love gas almost as much as the darts.

So there it is, the Q Artificer. Have comments? Please feel free to let me know below.