The Iron Defender's stat block for the Battle Smith Artificer (from Unearthed Arcana: The Artificer Returns), under "hit points" says the following:
equal to five times your level in this class + your Intelligence modifier + the Iron Defender’s Constitution modifier
I could read this two ways:
Way 1:
equal to five times (your level in this class) + your Intelligence modifier + the Iron Defender’s Constitution modifier
Or way 2:
equal to five times (your level in this class + your Intelligence modifier + the Iron Defender’s Constitution modifier)
Which of these readings is correct?
Best Answer
(5 × Level) + your Int + defenders Con
Interpreting equations like this isn't defined by the game rules and so we use the english meaning. Unfortunately, english (and most other languages AFAIK) isn't very good at it, which is a big reason for using mathematical symbolics. As a good rule; take the simplest reading as you scan through. This gives:
$$ 5 \times \text{Level} + \text{Your Int} + \text{Defender's Con} $$
which for anyone not fully comfortable with order of operations equals
$$ (5 \times \text{Level}) + \text{Your Int} + \text{Defender's Con} $$
If it were to mean
$$ 5 \times ( \text{Level} + \text{Your Int} + \text{Defender's Con} )$$
it should (in my opinion) been worded as (italics to emphasise change):
As additional support, the same problem of having such equations in D&D rules have appeared for Arcane Ward where lead designer Jeremy Crawford has chimed in on twitter (not official ruling, but gives what the intended meaning is) with the statement that
should be read as:
Meaning to be read as
$$ (2 \times \text{Level}) + \text{Int} $$
similar to that above.
As an addendum: the final version of the subclass clarifies the calculation as:
and this is how the feature is implemented in D&D Beyond. (Thanks to @Garret Rooney and @V2Blast)