I am a simple dungeon master looking for reasons to play each class. (My players often ask why they should play “x” class and I was wondering what you guys think)
Creative versatility. The flavor of the spellcasting is only limited by the imagination and the tinkering feature is neat. They can also flex into any trinity role reasonably well, giving them a jack-of-all-trades vibe while also being able to specialize very well with the help of infusions.
It's very creative and versatile. It's more on the complex side, but you can start doing crazy things with it which adds a whole new dynamic to the game. It'll shake up a ton of situations!
I am currently playing a battlesmith and I’ve found I have the tools to do almost aanything the team might need me to. With a high AC (19 at lvl 3) and a steel defender that can soak a lot of dmg with it’s self-repair he can tank. With his sword, steel defender and smited he can deal dmg in melee or ranged. He has healing, identify, detect magic, thieves tools. He has buffs, ways to get to the enemy, ways to stop enemies.
it’s just so versatile, and with some foresight and preparation you can bring tools to aid in any situation.
Chalk one up for versatility. It's also the class that is the most SAD and that doesn't really need any kind of outside support. With a long rest an Artificer can prepare for pretty much anything.
I agree with Stoutstein that you really can't call any class "the best" but mechanically the Artificer is one of the strongest. It has one of the best capstone abilities and it can fit in pretty much any party role. It is also probably the best "superhero" class (along with the Monk) if you want to play a very cinematic epic hero. The artificer is also good at mimicking other classes. For example, up until Tasha's, the Battle Smith was a better beastmaster ranger than the beastmaster ranger was.
Versatile - Able to play the holy trinity. Being a Jack of all Trades you can fill in any gap (or hybrid gaps)
SAD - Definitely makes builds easier from a stat perspective
Creative - right at level 1 you have lots of liberty in how your flavor your character (i.e. spellcasting) and tactically even with just magical tinkering you can create some neat solutions
Infusions - this can make you less DM dependent for magic items. Need a bag of holding? get one at lvl 2. Need a boost in offensive or defensive stats? Enhanced weapon/defense
Cons
Complicated - IMO this classes takes more thought into the build and playstyle than other classes. Although some people like that (like myself)
Master of None - I believe other classes can specialize in their role better. So if you want the best Tank or damage dealer? There are stronger classes.
High Level Dependent - This is def more my personal opinion. But I think the Artificer really kicks in more at higher levels than some other classes
All in all, I think its a super fun class to build and play.
My character had wine every day, and at level 3 could make most of the partly fly (the whole party if luck determined it). He used Magical Tinkering to make a stone constantly emit the sound of rustling bushes, which he used to distract someone by helping them investigate while the party snuck in a window. Later on Flash of Genius helped keep our Order of Lycan Bloodhunter from attacking allies.
Specifically the Battle Smith is really strong in tier 1-2. Your AC is very high (19 at level 2, with the option to cast shield). You have magic, you can use the same ability score for your melee attacks. The steel defender might not look that good, but it's hp pool won't be that much lower than yours, and it can heal itself for a 2d8+PB 3 times per day, on a bonus action, and you're also able to heal it to full outside of combat with the mending spell. You also have the ability to create your own magic items on top all this.
I can't talk for the other subclasses, as I haven't explored them that much, but the Battle Smith is almost like the hexblade in what it offers, sacrificing the full spell progression for more spell slots, a summon, and the ability to create your own magic items. (Oh, and you also get access to cantrips).
Ok it definitely is high ranking if it isn't the best because it actually is quite interesting in all ways. You could do so much with infusions alone if you maxed yourself out and even without maxing yourself out you got a good pool of tricks up your sleeve. And think about how good its subclasses are even though it's new like genuinely i love this class so much and even thinking about possible ideas for it is amazing to me and i can't help but love it.
Versatile - Able to play the holy trinity. Being a Jack of all Trades you can fill in any gap (or hybrid gaps)
SAD - Definitely makes builds easier from a stat perspective
Creative - right at level 1 you have lots of liberty in how your flavor your character (i.e. spellcasting) and tactically even with just magical tinkering you can create some neat solutions
Infusions - this can make you less DM dependent for magic items. Need a bag of holding? get one at lvl 2. Need a boost in offensive or defensive stats? Enhanced weapon/defense
Cons
Complicated - IMO this classes takes more thought into the build and playstyle than other classes. Although some people like that (like myself)
Master of None - I believe other classes can specialize in their role better. So if you want the best Tank or damage dealer? There are stronger classes.
High Level Dependent - This is def more my personal opinion. But I think the Artificer really kicks in more at higher levels than some other classes
All in all, I think its a super fun class to build and play.
yea those cons definitely are true but i feel like once the artificer gets more official subclasses than it will be better. People sometimes think bards are masters of none but oh god anybody who crosses paths with a bard knows they better watch out cause if you are on their bad side... yea sorry we may need to put you in some d&d equivalent of witness protection and get protected by a elder dragon WHO CAN'T BE SEDUCED!!! So yea maybe in a few more books that'll at least knock off one con but who knows.
yea those cons definitely are true but i feel like once the artificer gets more official subclasses than it will be better. People sometimes think bards are masters of none but oh god anybody who crosses paths with a bard knows they better watch out cause if you are on their bad side... yea sorry we may need to put you in some d&d equivalent of witness protection and get protected by a elder dragon WHO CAN'T BE SEDUCED!!! So yea maybe in a few more books that'll at least knock off one con but who knows.
haha, yea I can't wait to see what the next subclass is. love the artificer and all it can do. it'd also be nice what they do with an optional class feature too
yea those cons definitely are true but i feel like once the artificer gets more official subclasses than it will be better. People sometimes think bards are masters of none but oh god anybody who crosses paths with a bard knows they better watch out cause if you are on their bad side... yea sorry we may need to put you in some d&d equivalent of witness protection and get protected by a elder dragon WHO CAN'T BE SEDUCED!!! So yea maybe in a few more books that'll at least knock off one con but who knows.
haha, yea I can't wait to see what the next subclass is. love the artificer and all it can do. it'd also be nice what they do with an optional class feature too
I actually made some artificer subclasses back when i first got the players handbook. The first was called the way of the gear smith and basically they used gears and cogs as main damage givers and acted more as a modified version of a steampunk half caster. But the thing is i made two other classes branching from this with the gears,but they're vastly better and I see as much better. Sorry if bringing up my homebrew here is bad but the first was called the way of the construct and acted as a rogue-ish subclass and basically they use their set of gears as quick attackers not dealing as much damage but can give a impressive amount given enough time to focus and drain the enemy's hp. And they get their name from the innate agility of being able to sense life and other forces in constructs and the system i made(mind you i was a little bit more of a newbie at the time so it could seem jankie or messed up) the artificer rolls a d20 when around a construct for the first time if they roll a nat1 they sense nothing and know nothing of the construct in question, if they role a 2-10- the artificer feels a construct is around and may be able to pinpoint it if they try to roll again and roll a 15 or higher. 11-19- the artificer learns the most purposes of the construct and what tasks it was built to follow, nat-20 means you understand all the purposes of the construct and even be able to hijack said construct and give it commands.
Now i probably should backtrack a bit to bring light to something i overlooked real quick with the gears. You see for the way of the construct after you reach level 5 you get 10 special gears you're able to enchant but the thing is they also require a long or short rest and if not properly taken care of will shatter and you need divine intervention or wish to truly fix the gears. On the bright side when one does have all their gears fine at level 20 they fuse into a orbe of welding able to fix any none magic thing in a singular day and if magic it may take a whole week but the object will still contain all of it's magic.
way of the clock is the other subclass and it's basically the caster rout of things and if you know what mechanus is they get a special spell to planer shift to there at level 13 but overall i didn't do much with them besides that sorry but just wanted to share ideas of future posibilities for the artificer.
Having played artificer and being in games with them, they have an extremely high creative ceiling. Artificers are basically bards in that they're extremely versatile, and in the hands of a creative player there is very little they won't be able to justify trying in game as an artificer.
Of course, any class can do this but it comes alot easier if the class is expected to pull some crazy shenanigans.
I don’t think it’s the best class. I think it’s about average. However, it is quite fun. I get to make and distribute some magic items regardless of the DM’s loot handout rate, I have good to exceptional AC and Saves, so I’m pretty survivable. I have half-casting, which is right where I like to sit for my characters (I usually play Warlocks, Paladins, and Rangers because I prefer partial casting). My only real complaint is the bad damage output, which can be dealt with by buffing other people instead of yourself to maintain the average damage for a party.
Also, if you play a small-size Battle Smith you can ride your Steel Defender. It means you get an upkeep-free mount that can defend you as a reaction. It also means that you essentially have 40-foot movespeed and a bonus action dash at level 3, on top of the other Battle Smith benefits - from there you can either multiclass Fighter (especially Cavalier) for added tankiness, or Rogue for insane, reliable, mobile damage (Steady Aim reduces YOUR movespeed to 0, not your mount's, or you can just rely on literally always having an ally for sneak attack if you're melee), or just stay with Artificer for the lategame benefits.
Just so many crazy ideas for cool builds, and infusions give you so much potential for optimization. I love it.
Between spells and rituals, infusions, the SSI, subclass abilities, and extra items attunement there is a lot of lower level magic available compared to every other class and artificers fill a similar role to the various inventor/gadgeteer tropes out there.
I can't, in good conscience, call the artificer the best class. Partially because I don't think any class is "best," and partially because I think it's an odd duck.
They cast spells...sort of. They must do so through tools (artisan's or thieves'), which serve as a spellcasting focus. But they still need to incorporate expensive material components, as well as somatic and verbal components. And each tool needs to be able to compatible with every spell. With some, this is easy. I can use calligrapher's supplies to perform "scriptomancy" and either write my spells in the air via a pen (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger) or have them prepared on sheets of paper that I just invoke with a little power (The Owl House). But others are more...complicated.
Never mind that you still need to sweet talk some spells and tools to work together, because verbal components don't go away. And infused objects taking the place of these tool proficiencies is almost a let-down. On one hand, the class encourages a lot of creativity to figure out how all your spells can work with the tools you choose. It puts a lot of power in the hands of the player to invent trappings for how their "spells" work. (Because, let's be honest, they're not exactly spells.) But this isn't well-communicated via the text, and past a level or two it doesn't matter because everyone infuses a weapon or piece of armor to cast their spells from.
This has the unfortunate side-effect of making your tool proficiencies only relevant to your spellcasting at 1st-level. And you're only ever guaranteed thieves' tools. So you either need to spend starting coin to buy something cheap (thus limiting your roleplay options) or choose a background that comes with artisan's tools, like Folk Hero or Guild Artisan. I mean, you could start above 1st level. Plenty of campaigns do, but most official hardcovers don't. I started a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign...9 months ago, and one of the players was an artificer who didn't choose a background that granted additional artisan's tools. They had to wing it until 3rd-level, when they could just magically fabricate some smith's tools, to really start playing their class.
It's effective, powerful, and offers strong support to a party. You're not going to top DPR charts, but you can still contribute and you can help make everyone else better. But it also suffers from clunky design. Its not bad, it works and does its job well enough, but its mechanics don't quite support its theme. I think this was a missed opportunity by WotC to design a system from whole cloth. I get why they didn't, but what we have strikes me as half-baked.
Caveat: I've been DM for three artificers (one Artillerist and two Armorers), and I'm currently playing a Battle Smith in a campaign so I can better understand the class. I understand your experiences may differ from mine. I just want to clarify I'm not weighing in blind.
I am a simple dungeon master looking for reasons to play each class. (My players often ask why they should play “x” class and I was wondering what you guys think)
Creative versatility. The flavor of the spellcasting is only limited by the imagination and the tinkering feature is neat. They can also flex into any trinity role reasonably well, giving them a jack-of-all-trades vibe while also being able to specialize very well with the help of infusions.
It's very creative and versatile. It's more on the complex side, but you can start doing crazy things with it which adds a whole new dynamic to the game. It'll shake up a ton of situations!
I am currently playing a battlesmith and I’ve found I have the tools to do almost aanything the team might need me to. With a high AC (19 at lvl 3) and a steel defender that can soak a lot of dmg with it’s self-repair he can tank. With his sword, steel defender and smited he can deal dmg in melee or ranged. He has healing, identify, detect magic, thieves tools. He has buffs, ways to get to the enemy, ways to stop enemies.
it’s just so versatile, and with some foresight and preparation you can bring tools to aid in any situation.
Chalk one up for versatility. It's also the class that is the most SAD and that doesn't really need any kind of outside support. With a long rest an Artificer can prepare for pretty much anything.
I agree with Stoutstein that you really can't call any class "the best" but mechanically the Artificer is one of the strongest. It has one of the best capstone abilities and it can fit in pretty much any party role. It is also probably the best "superhero" class (along with the Monk) if you want to play a very cinematic epic hero. The artificer is also good at mimicking other classes. For example, up until Tasha's, the Battle Smith was a better beastmaster ranger than the beastmaster ranger was.
I agree with everyone above
Pros
Cons
All in all, I think its a super fun class to build and play.
My character had wine every day, and at level 3 could make most of the partly fly (the whole party if luck determined it).
He used Magical Tinkering to make a stone constantly emit the sound of rustling bushes, which he used to distract someone by helping them investigate while the party snuck in a window.
Later on Flash of Genius helped keep our Order of Lycan Bloodhunter from attacking allies.
Specifically the Battle Smith is really strong in tier 1-2. Your AC is very high (19 at level 2, with the option to cast shield). You have magic, you can use the same ability score for your melee attacks. The steel defender might not look that good, but it's hp pool won't be that much lower than yours, and it can heal itself for a 2d8+PB 3 times per day, on a bonus action, and you're also able to heal it to full outside of combat with the mending spell. You also have the ability to create your own magic items on top all this.
I can't talk for the other subclasses, as I haven't explored them that much, but the Battle Smith is almost like the hexblade in what it offers, sacrificing the full spell progression for more spell slots, a summon, and the ability to create your own magic items. (Oh, and you also get access to cantrips).
Ok it definitely is high ranking if it isn't the best because it actually is quite interesting in all ways. You could do so much with infusions alone if you maxed yourself out and even without maxing yourself out you got a good pool of tricks up your sleeve. And think about how good its subclasses are even though it's new like genuinely i love this class so much and even thinking about possible ideas for it is amazing to me and i can't help but love it.
yea those cons definitely are true but i feel like once the artificer gets more official subclasses than it will be better. People sometimes think bards are masters of none but oh god anybody who crosses paths with a bard knows they better watch out cause if you are on their bad side... yea sorry we may need to put you in some d&d equivalent of witness protection and get protected by a elder dragon WHO CAN'T BE SEDUCED!!! So yea maybe in a few more books that'll at least knock off one con but who knows.
haha, yea I can't wait to see what the next subclass is. love the artificer and all it can do. it'd also be nice what they do with an optional class feature too
I actually made some artificer subclasses back when i first got the players handbook. The first was called the way of the gear smith and basically they used gears and cogs as main damage givers and acted more as a modified version of a steampunk half caster. But the thing is i made two other classes branching from this with the gears,but they're vastly better and I see as much better. Sorry if bringing up my homebrew here is bad but the first was called the way of the construct and acted as a rogue-ish subclass and basically they use their set of gears as quick attackers not dealing as much damage but can give a impressive amount given enough time to focus and drain the enemy's hp. And they get their name from the innate agility of being able to sense life and other forces in constructs and the system i made(mind you i was a little bit more of a newbie at the time so it could seem jankie or messed up) the artificer rolls a d20 when around a construct for the first time if they roll a nat1 they sense nothing and know nothing of the construct in question, if they role a 2-10- the artificer feels a construct is around and may be able to pinpoint it if they try to roll again and roll a 15 or higher. 11-19- the artificer learns the most purposes of the construct and what tasks it was built to follow, nat-20 means you understand all the purposes of the construct and even be able to hijack said construct and give it commands.
Now i probably should backtrack a bit to bring light to something i overlooked real quick with the gears. You see for the way of the construct after you reach level 5 you get 10 special gears you're able to enchant but the thing is they also require a long or short rest and if not properly taken care of will shatter and you need divine intervention or wish to truly fix the gears. On the bright side when one does have all their gears fine at level 20 they fuse into a orbe of welding able to fix any none magic thing in a singular day and if magic it may take a whole week but the object will still contain all of it's magic.
way of the clock is the other subclass and it's basically the caster rout of things and if you know what mechanus is they get a special spell to planer shift to there at level 13 but overall i didn't do much with them besides that sorry but just wanted to share ideas of future posibilities for the artificer.
Having played artificer and being in games with them, they have an extremely high creative ceiling. Artificers are basically bards in that they're extremely versatile, and in the hands of a creative player there is very little they won't be able to justify trying in game as an artificer.
Of course, any class can do this but it comes alot easier if the class is expected to pull some crazy shenanigans.
I don’t think it’s the best class. I think it’s about average. However, it is quite fun. I get to make and distribute some magic items regardless of the DM’s loot handout rate, I have good to exceptional AC and Saves, so I’m pretty survivable. I have half-casting, which is right where I like to sit for my characters (I usually play Warlocks, Paladins, and Rangers because I prefer partial casting). My only real complaint is the bad damage output, which can be dealt with by buffing other people instead of yourself to maintain the average damage for a party.
It's flavorful and versatile.
Also, if you play a small-size Battle Smith you can ride your Steel Defender. It means you get an upkeep-free mount that can defend you as a reaction. It also means that you essentially have 40-foot movespeed and a bonus action dash at level 3, on top of the other Battle Smith benefits - from there you can either multiclass Fighter (especially Cavalier) for added tankiness, or Rogue for insane, reliable, mobile damage (Steady Aim reduces YOUR movespeed to 0, not your mount's, or you can just rely on literally always having an ally for sneak attack if you're melee), or just stay with Artificer for the lategame benefits.
Just so many crazy ideas for cool builds, and infusions give you so much potential for optimization. I love it.
Reasons to play an artificer:
Between spells and rituals, infusions, the SSI, subclass abilities, and extra items attunement there is a lot of lower level magic available compared to every other class and artificers fill a similar role to the various inventor/gadgeteer tropes out there.
I can't, in good conscience, call the artificer the best class. Partially because I don't think any class is "best," and partially because I think it's an odd duck.
They cast spells...sort of. They must do so through tools (artisan's or thieves'), which serve as a spellcasting focus. But they still need to incorporate expensive material components, as well as somatic and verbal components. And each tool needs to be able to compatible with every spell. With some, this is easy. I can use calligrapher's supplies to perform "scriptomancy" and either write my spells in the air via a pen (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger) or have them prepared on sheets of paper that I just invoke with a little power (The Owl House). But others are more...complicated.
Never mind that you still need to sweet talk some spells and tools to work together, because verbal components don't go away. And infused objects taking the place of these tool proficiencies is almost a let-down. On one hand, the class encourages a lot of creativity to figure out how all your spells can work with the tools you choose. It puts a lot of power in the hands of the player to invent trappings for how their "spells" work. (Because, let's be honest, they're not exactly spells.) But this isn't well-communicated via the text, and past a level or two it doesn't matter because everyone infuses a weapon or piece of armor to cast their spells from.
This has the unfortunate side-effect of making your tool proficiencies only relevant to your spellcasting at 1st-level. And you're only ever guaranteed thieves' tools. So you either need to spend starting coin to buy something cheap (thus limiting your roleplay options) or choose a background that comes with artisan's tools, like Folk Hero or Guild Artisan. I mean, you could start above 1st level. Plenty of campaigns do, but most official hardcovers don't. I started a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign...9 months ago, and one of the players was an artificer who didn't choose a background that granted additional artisan's tools. They had to wing it until 3rd-level, when they could just magically fabricate some smith's tools, to really start playing their class.
It's effective, powerful, and offers strong support to a party. You're not going to top DPR charts, but you can still contribute and you can help make everyone else better. But it also suffers from clunky design. Its not bad, it works and does its job well enough, but its mechanics don't quite support its theme. I think this was a missed opportunity by WotC to design a system from whole cloth. I get why they didn't, but what we have strikes me as half-baked.
Caveat: I've been DM for three artificers (one Artillerist and two Armorers), and I'm currently playing a Battle Smith in a campaign so I can better understand the class. I understand your experiences may differ from mine. I just want to clarify I'm not weighing in blind.