Title basically sums it up, but here’s the long version:
Someone in the session zero of our upcoming campaign discovered a homebrew race the DM made called Vampire (Originals). In addition to a +2 Strength and +2 Con, it can pick any weapon, craft and armor it wants to be proficient in, as well as its’ own special healing melee attack!
Obviously, he chose Artillerist. While getting a heavy armor proficiency and + 2 Con is great, I’m not sure whether or not he knows entirely what he is doing based on his actions and body language.
I guess he could use his canons while fighting on the front lines, right? I mean, they have Gauntlets of Strength as an infusion for a reason, right? He just doesn’t have to use them with his build. But what stat does his canons run on? Intellect I would assume. So does he run a Strength/Intellect split like an Eldritch Knight might? His stats are 16 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 15 Constitution, 13 Intellect, 10 Wisdom and 8 Charisma. He’s using a quarterstaff, light crossbow, and a dart. His only spells are shield and thunderwave (he hasn’t selected any cantrips yet.)
I don’t mean to be nosy; I am simply curious myself. In the end, it’s up to him what he wants to play as. Of course, if he were to ask for help, it would be nice to be able to.
A low int artillerist is definitely possible. The flamethrower only really suffers a little from a low int bonus as it still does half damage on a failed save and the protector still provides decent temp hit points. You'll be using your low level spells on shield which doesn't care about casting stat and artificer has a decent number of support spells as well. You probably want to multiclass after 4 or seriously commit to increasing int with asi's and half feats.
Int is a key stat for Artificer - the int of 13 will limit him to one magical tinkering item and will make his spells known count small. Even getting it to 14 will help if he wants more spell variety, giving him an additional spell he can prepare. (He can reselect the spells after every long rest, but the cantrips will be only changeable on level up). Thunderwave and Shield are the spells you get included with a level 3 Alchemist, so at level 3 he'd prepare two more (your int modifier plus half your level rounded down).
I would say on the cantrips, I'd suggest picking something that has combat utility that isn't using the spellcasting modifier, maybe something like booming blade, and probably mending for the cannons.
So booming blade, mending, and flamethrower. Gotcha. Hopefully we can convince him to take something like Fey Touched followed by + 2 int stats. He could always add to his strength later. Much later. Our campaign is suppose to go to level 20 anyway.
If he hasn’t selected any spells at all he’s further behind than I thought! I’m kind of worried. On one hand, i feel like I should talk to him or the DM, but he could just be busy with life, and the DM has as much access to his character sheet as I do. There’s another player who didn’t make it to session zero that hasn’t even picked his fighter subclass. If it is who I think it is, they talked about going Eldritch Knight, but that’s even more decisions to make. I’m not sure what to do or say (if anything.)
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Title basically sums it up, but here’s the long version:
Someone in the session zero of our upcoming campaign discovered a homebrew race the DM made called Vampire (Originals). In addition to a +2 Strength and +2 Con, it can pick any weapon, craft and armor it wants to be proficient in, as well as its’ own special healing melee attack!
Obviously, he chose Artillerist. While getting a heavy armor proficiency and + 2 Con is great, I’m not sure whether or not he knows entirely what he is doing based on his actions and body language.
I guess he could use his canons while fighting on the front lines, right? I mean, they have Gauntlets of Strength as an infusion for a reason, right? He just doesn’t have to use them with his build. But what stat does his canons run on? Intellect I would assume. So does he run a Strength/Intellect split like an Eldritch Knight might? His stats are 16 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 15 Constitution, 13 Intellect, 10 Wisdom and 8 Charisma. He’s using a quarterstaff, light crossbow, and a dart. His only spells are shield and thunderwave (he hasn’t selected any cantrips yet.)
I don’t mean to be nosy; I am simply curious myself. In the end, it’s up to him what he wants to play as. Of course, if he were to ask for help, it would be nice to be able to.
A low int artillerist is definitely possible. The flamethrower only really suffers a little from a low int bonus as it still does half damage on a failed save and the protector still provides decent temp hit points. You'll be using your low level spells on shield which doesn't care about casting stat and artificer has a decent number of support spells as well. You probably want to multiclass after 4 or seriously commit to increasing int with asi's and half feats.
Certainly will be fun to see how it plays out!
Int is a key stat for Artificer - the int of 13 will limit him to one magical tinkering item and will make his spells known count small. Even getting it to 14 will help if he wants more spell variety, giving him an additional spell he can prepare. (He can reselect the spells after every long rest, but the cantrips will be only changeable on level up). Thunderwave and Shield are the spells you get included with a level 3 Alchemist, so at level 3 he'd prepare two more (your int modifier plus half your level rounded down).
I would say on the cantrips, I'd suggest picking something that has combat utility that isn't using the spellcasting modifier, maybe something like booming blade, and probably mending for the cannons.
So booming blade, mending, and flamethrower. Gotcha. Hopefully we can convince him to take something like Fey Touched followed by + 2 int stats. He could always add to his strength later. Much later. Our campaign is suppose to go to level 20 anyway.
If he hasn’t selected any spells at all he’s further behind than I thought! I’m kind of worried. On one hand, i feel like I should talk to him or the DM, but he could just be busy with life, and the DM has as much access to his character sheet as I do. There’s another player who didn’t make it to session zero that hasn’t even picked his fighter subclass. If it is who I think it is, they talked about going Eldritch Knight, but that’s even more decisions to make. I’m not sure what to do or say (if anything.)