We all know that Warlock is a good class to take a three-level dip into to gain some spell slots and additional bonuses, however, some characters just do not want to sell their soul or firstborn to gain power. Some just want to work hard.
I have been playing with the idea of adding dips of Artificer (three levels to get the benefits of the class sub-class) onto other classes and found some interesting synergies that are effective. Now I am avoiding Spellcasters in this list as I found that an equal amount of levels in warlock was more beneficial. I also avoided half-casters (Ranger and Paladin ) not because there is no benefit but the whole two spellcasting rules. So this leaves Fighter, Barbarian, and Monk getting the most benefits.
The list is presented with the artificer dip with the paired Class and directed to the class in question and not as an Artificer player. The benefits to all from the Artificer class are the addition of spells, able to create magic weapons and common magic items and additional tool proficiency. Magic tinkering is a fun RP addition; a knight that always smells like roses for example. One does have to have an Intelligence of 13 but this is not a hard or negative thing to have. You are a warrior scholar.
The Alchemist with Monk or Barbarian. Reason: It is all about bonus actions and spells slots. For the monk, they have a lot of options for bonus actions, the other subclasses compete for them as well (steel defender, Eldric pew pews) and Armorer gets in the way of unarmored defence, but with the Alchemist they can make potions in advance and consume them as normal. The potions also pair well with the monk giving additional mobility, armour, saving throws and even growing natural weapons. For Barbarians, it's the spell slots. When you are in the raged state you can not cast or concentrate on spells, so turning them in the potions instead a head of time makes this a non-issue, and as (most likely) the team tank, having 3-4 healing potions every day on hand is sustainment in the fight.
The Artilliest with the Bardarian. Speaking of bonus actions. Why not use your spell spots for some side damage or healing per turn. Again Rage and spellcasting is a no-go, but commanding a handgun or turret as a bonus action is allowed. Hold the line while you take potshots or have another provide cover fire. Receiving temporary hitpoints (D8+1) every round at no cost is nice for sustainment.
The Armorer for the Rogue and Fighter. Heavy stealth armour? yes, please! Sniping with a 1d6+1d6+sneak attack? sure thing. Or are you going into a situation where it is more of a brawl and you need that extra defence and melee damage? Armourer is unique for the Rogue as it adds to its already effectiveness in movement and stealth, but also shores up it weakness in heavy combat. For the fighter, you are adding more of what the class is already good at. More offence, more defence.
Battle Master with Rogue, Fighter. Now I have a Caviler fighter and Battlesmith where the steel defender is used instead of a Mount, but as a beast of burden pulling a chariot (yes the numbers work as the SD shares the pony stats for the most part). Besides that adding a pet to the attacks rotation that use your bonus action, you are vehicle bound with all the benefits. For Rogue its a way to get your sneak attacks off, as your SD can position itself to give you the chance to strike.
I wish there was more synergy with the sub classes and Monks. The bonus actions, unarmored defense, monk weapons create a lot of limitations that are hard to get by. I am homebrewing a New Sub class for the Artificer called the "Tattoo smith", which focus on tattoo's beyond replicated infusions. I am hoping it is a nice fix.
Some additional thoughts on Infusions if you take only 3 level dip you will be stuck with 4 known infusions of which 2 can be active at once. Pick ones tat you will be happy with for your whole character.
update. What about unlimited, all cantrips from all class lists? Even a 1 level dip allows you to craft (as the artificer can) the All-purpose-tool.
For many builds, especially Barbarians and Monks, this will be highly MAD. Each of them need at least two stats besides INT.
Where I think this strategy could work is for subclasses of Fighter and Rogue that benefit from INT. So Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior, and Arcane Trickster, with some overlap for Inquisitive. If you want to avoid dual spell casting, Arcane Archer and Psi Warrior would been like the best options.
For Arcane Archer, an Artillerist would provide helpful synergies. You could either get temp HP or a use for your bonus action with your cannon. The bow requirement doesn’t work that well with Armorer or Alchemist.
For Psi Warrior, all the Artificer subclasses could work, but it seems especially well-suited to Armorer. The forced movement powers and thunder gauntlets could pair well for melee control. Battlesmith and Artillerist are both prodigious users of bonus actions, which will compete with a few features of Psi Warrior.
For many builds, especially Barbarians and Monks, this will be highly MAD. Each of them need at least two stats besides INT.
Where I think this strategy could work is for subclasses of Fighter and Rogue that benefit from INT. So Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior, and Arcane Trickster, with some overlap for Inquisitive. If you want to avoid dual spell casting, Arcane Archer and Psi Warrior would been like the best options.
For Arcane Archer, an Artillerist would provide helpful synergies. You could either get temp HP or a use for your bonus action with your cannon. The bow requirement doesn’t work that well with Armorer or Alchemist.
For Psi Warrior, all the Artificer subclasses could work, but it seems especially well-suited to Armorer. The forced movement powers and thunder gauntlets could pair well for melee control. Battlesmith and Artillerist are both prodigious users of bonus actions, which will compete with a few features of Psi Warrior.
Thanks for the feedback, It was a bit of theory crafting and a lot of fun. Remember, the main idea is to have another choice than a Dip in Warlock (Hexblade). Here are my rebuttals.
A 13 Int is not that hard to come by, and the only thing that it affects against the artificer is you have only 1 tinkering and low spell scores, which you don't care about because you are using those spell slots for items. It's a three-level dip at most and nothing to really get invested into. But even at those levels, it adds a lot of abilities and flavour. And I think more so than the traditional Warlock dip.
But of course, using a subclass that has a need for Int is always best. I would like to add more ideas to your pairing for Arcane Archer and Psi Warrior. For the Archer, Alchemist would be a good paring just for the Alchemist kit (Take wood carving tools at LVL 1 Artificer so you can make arrows, Alchemist kit to make acid, alchemist fire, Oil to attach to said arrow) but looking at the Elixirs you have +10ft to kite, +10ft Kite from the air or Guidance in a bottle and other good stuff. Hawkeye who?
For Psi Warrior, the true winner is the Battle Smiths "Battle Ready Feature" as it allows for the Int bonus for attacks and damage, with a magic weapon, that you can make. Because some of the Psi warrior abilities have a heavy requirement for Int bonuses, this is a win-win. ( yes Armorer has something similar, but that feature is only for the special armour attacks and not all weapon attacks.)You only have 1 bonus action from BS and 2 from PW; I would say manageable. The strength of this fighter is now a dump stat. You are a Jedi with a battle droid. Roger Roger??
An Arcane Archer whose trick arrows are really all alchemical inventions does sound like a fun spin on the magic-oriented original,
and because you can infuse the bow or otherwise use a magic one, you can dump dex and str, if you wanted to go battle master. Not sure it's worth the dip but it's not bad.
We all know that Warlock is a good class to take a three-level dip into to gain some spell slots and additional bonuses, however, some characters just do not want to sell their soul or firstborn to gain power. Some just want to work hard.
I have been playing with the idea of adding dips of Artificer (three levels to get the benefits of the class sub-class) onto other classes and found some interesting synergies that are effective. Now I am avoiding Spellcasters in this list as I found that an equal amount of levels in warlock was more beneficial. I also avoided half-casters (Ranger and Paladin ) not because there is no benefit but the whole two spellcasting rules. So this leaves Fighter, Barbarian, and Monk getting the most benefits.
The list is presented with the artificer dip with the paired Class and directed to the class in question and not as an Artificer player. The benefits to all from the Artificer class are the addition of spells, able to create magic weapons and common magic items and additional tool proficiency. Magic tinkering is a fun RP addition; a knight that always smells like roses for example. One does have to have an Intelligence of 13 but this is not a hard or negative thing to have. You are a warrior scholar.
The Alchemist with Monk or Barbarian. Reason: It is all about bonus actions and spells slots. For the monk, they have a lot of options for bonus actions, the other subclasses compete for them as well (steel defender, Eldric pew pews) and Armorer gets in the way of unarmored defence, but with the Alchemist they can make potions in advance and consume them as normal. The potions also pair well with the monk giving additional mobility, armour, saving throws and even growing natural weapons. For Barbarians, it's the spell slots. When you are in the raged state you can not cast or concentrate on spells, so turning them in the potions instead a head of time makes this a non-issue, and as (most likely) the team tank, having 3-4 healing potions every day on hand is sustainment in the fight.
The Artilliest with the Bardarian. Speaking of bonus actions. Why not use your spell spots for some side damage or healing per turn. Again Rage and spellcasting is a no-go, but commanding a handgun or turret as a bonus action is allowed. Hold the line while you take potshots or have another provide cover fire. Receiving temporary hitpoints (D8+1) every round at no cost is nice for sustainment.
The Armorer for the Rogue and Fighter. Heavy stealth armour? yes, please! Sniping with a 1d6+1d6+sneak attack? sure thing. Or are you going into a situation where it is more of a brawl and you need that extra defence and melee damage? Armourer is unique for the Rogue as it adds to its already effectiveness in movement and stealth, but also shores up it weakness in heavy combat. For the fighter, you are adding more of what the class is already good at. More offence, more defence.
Battle Master with Rogue, Fighter. Now I have a Caviler fighter and Battlesmith where the steel defender is used instead of a Mount, but as a beast of burden pulling a chariot (yes the numbers work as the SD shares the pony stats for the most part). Besides that adding a pet to the attacks rotation that use your bonus action, you are vehicle bound with all the benefits. For Rogue its a way to get your sneak attacks off, as your SD can position itself to give you the chance to strike.
I wish there was more synergy with the sub classes and Monks. The bonus actions, unarmored defense, monk weapons create a lot of limitations that are hard to get by. I am homebrewing a New Sub class for the Artificer called the "Tattoo smith", which focus on tattoo's beyond replicated infusions. I am hoping it is a nice fix.
Some additional thoughts on Infusions if you take only 3 level dip you will be stuck with 4 known infusions of which 2 can be active at once. Pick ones tat you will be happy with for your whole character.
update. What about unlimited, all cantrips from all class lists? Even a 1 level dip allows you to craft (as the artificer can) the All-purpose-tool.
For many builds, especially Barbarians and Monks, this will be highly MAD. Each of them need at least two stats besides INT.
Where I think this strategy could work is for subclasses of Fighter and Rogue that benefit from INT. So Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior, and Arcane Trickster, with some overlap for Inquisitive. If you want to avoid dual spell casting, Arcane Archer and Psi Warrior would been like the best options.
For Arcane Archer, an Artillerist would provide helpful synergies. You could either get temp HP or a use for your bonus action with your cannon. The bow requirement doesn’t work that well with Armorer or Alchemist.
For Psi Warrior, all the Artificer subclasses could work, but it seems especially well-suited to Armorer. The forced movement powers and thunder gauntlets could pair well for melee control. Battlesmith and Artillerist are both prodigious users of bonus actions, which will compete with a few features of Psi Warrior.
Thanks for the feedback, It was a bit of theory crafting and a lot of fun. Remember, the main idea is to have another choice than a Dip in Warlock (Hexblade). Here are my rebuttals.
A 13 Int is not that hard to come by, and the only thing that it affects against the artificer is you have only 1 tinkering and low spell scores, which you don't care about because you are using those spell slots for items. It's a three-level dip at most and nothing to really get invested into. But even at those levels, it adds a lot of abilities and flavour. And I think more so than the traditional Warlock dip.
But of course, using a subclass that has a need for Int is always best. I would like to add more ideas to your pairing for Arcane Archer and Psi Warrior. For the Archer, Alchemist would be a good paring just for the Alchemist kit (Take wood carving tools at LVL 1 Artificer so you can make arrows, Alchemist kit to make acid, alchemist fire, Oil to attach to said arrow) but looking at the Elixirs you have +10ft to kite, +10ft Kite from the air or Guidance in a bottle and other good stuff. Hawkeye who?
For Psi Warrior, the true winner is the Battle Smiths "Battle Ready Feature" as it allows for the Int bonus for attacks and damage, with a magic weapon, that you can make. Because some of the Psi warrior abilities have a heavy requirement for Int bonuses, this is a win-win. ( yes Armorer has something similar, but that feature is only for the special armour attacks and not all weapon attacks.)You only have 1 bonus action from BS and 2 from PW; I would say manageable. The strength of this fighter is now a dump stat. You are a Jedi with a battle droid. Roger Roger??
An Arcane Archer whose trick arrows are really all alchemical inventions does sound like a fun spin on the magic-oriented original,
and because you can infuse the bow or otherwise use a magic one, you can dump dex and str, if you wanted to go battle master. Not sure it's worth the dip but it's not bad.