I don't think anyone saw this coming!
I'm still play testing it, and it needs a DM willing to invest a little extra time, but it's been fun so far:
. So in summary, how is this actually a problem?
Or, or, they did read the player's handbook, and realized both of those are garbage replacements of the feature. Every option for familiars in the PHB is small, poor in combat, and has little/no ability to serve as a pack animal or form of locomotion, which the mechanical creature does. Animate objects is a 5th level spell (so the artificer can't actually ever learn it) and lasts 1 minute, requiring concentration to boot.
No, I guess you're right. I guess I wasn't really equating these things to cantrips. I guess it violates some verisimilitude in my mind - dude just keeps whisking out vials of acid from a bag that never stops. I guess it's just a flavor thing, but it seems weird to me.
What I didn't like was that it apparently has to be a large CR 2 construct. In my version, I've given the ability at level 2, and the size scales every 4 levels - tiny, small, etc. So that at level 19 they can have a huge construct if they want. And the base stats are per the animate objects spell, which might be underpowered. But I'm also giving it familiar-like abilities, in that the artificer can see through it, use it to deliver touch spells, etc.
It just seems odd that they would give a mechanical servant at 6th level only, and then not have it scalable at all - especially when a lot of people in this thread (myself included) are like - why can't I have a mechanical bird at low levels?