I purchased the Artificer class, as well as a few non-class related things (race, background, etc).  I know the Thorn Whip is supposed to be part of the Artificer class, but the cantrip doesn't show up on my character sheet.  It's still another purchase on the marketplace.  Shouldn't it be included in my Class purchase?  Is this a one-off bug?  Am I missing other spells that I don't even know about?  

Any clarification is greatly appreciated!

From my understanding, spells that classes can learn/cast have their own source, so buying the class only grants you access to things specifically granted by the class (subclass, infusions, etc). I know Thorn Whip is from the PHB. So unless you also own the PHB, you may not have access to the spell yet. If you're playing in a campaign via DNDBeyond, the DM can share their content with the players and then you'll have access to everything they do.

Thanks for the added info.  It's a bit confusing, of course.  I expected to have access to everything for that class when purchasing.  And of course I bought the physical PHB before realizing that didn't relate to the online product. 

I'm not sure this system of "adding on" is having the desired results.  I'm more inclined to just play with something else rather than purchasing something I thought I already had.

Thanks again, though.

Happy to help and sorry for the mix up! I hope you get everything sorted.

When you buy a piece of a book (like a single spell, or the bundle for all the spells in the book) it reduces the cost of later fully buying the book. If they tried to combine that with things like a bundle for 'everything you can cast as a druid' or similar, it would just get too complex in terms of pricing the bundles versus discounts from the relevant books, so buying a subclass never includes any spells, just the subclass itself.

I have access to spells from someplace, though, and I'm not sure where that comes from if not from the purchase of the class.  I guess a follow up question would be, how do you know what spells are included when you buy a class, or what's the logic for deciding which ones are left off?

I would be fine if the system was that a spell purchased as a bundle under a class was tied to that class.  Then again, I would have Thorn Whip as an Artificer and if I bought Druid, I would have it there too.  

I'm probably missing something... I guess I don't see how separating the spells from the class is helpful.  

Thanks for the input, though.

Those spells that in the SRD/Basic Rules are available to everyone for free, as are spells from the Elemental Evil Players Companion.  (Spells from EEPC that were published in later for-purchase books/sources have been updated if any changes were made when they were republished, but they are still free).  So it's likely that all the spells you do have access to are from one of those two sources.

It's also possible that your character is in a campaign in which someone has turned on content sharing, and that the rest of the players have some sources, but not the PHB.  (that strikes me as unlikely, though)

Finally, whether or not campaign sharing is turned on, homebrew is always shared in campaigns.  So if your character is in a campaign and anyone in the campaign has homebrew spells accessible to artificers (or certain artificer subclasses), then you would have access to those spells unless you turn off homebrew on the first page of the builder. 

Quote from Cager1974 >>

I have access to spells from someplace, though, and I'm not sure where that comes from if not from the purchase of the class.  I guess a follow up question would be, how do you know what spells are included when you buy a class, or what's the logic for deciding which ones are left off?

 No spells are included when you buy a subclass. The only way to get spells is to buy the spells, or the book they come in. Unless they're free (ie Basic Rules/SRD).