I would like to see the Battle Smith, the Armorer, and the Artillerist combined into one subclass. The pet/blaster/melee subclass. You'd have options for building your golem/pet, as well as for making yourself, the Artificer, more powerful as a blaster or melee fighter. So, you could have a very powerful pet... but you'd be a rather weak combatant yourself, having mostly a support role for yourself. Or... you could be a powerful blaster or melee fighter, but with a weaker pet that has very limited combat capability. Or... you could balance it out between yourself & the pet/golem, assigning offensive, defensive, & support abilities more evenly. I have no specific ideas for this- just this very rough outline.
And then I'd like to see the Alchemist have actual control of their abilities, rather than random die rolls (pretty much everyone agrees on that point.) But, going further, I'd like to see them have a wider variety of potions they could make, as they increase in level. I'd like to see them have the option to be a bomber subclass, tossing potion-grenades that could have limited AOE affects that harm enemies or help allies. Grease pots. Smoke bombs. Explosive grenades. Web bombs. Healing balm bombs. Etc. Etc. This is what I think of for an Alchemist.
And then... there should be a "mad scientist" mutagenics subclass. The Frankenstein's monster/lycanthropy/Jeckyl & Hyde subclass. You could bonus action slurp a potion and grow your legs to be huge- or like a frog's or a kangaroo's or whatever- and then jump around. Or drink a concoction that gives you a huge cyclopean eye that shoots various beams for a time. Or another that gives you claws. Or scales. Or camouflage. Etc. Lots of possibilities.
And that's what I'd like to see. A base class that's, frankly, kind of "vanilla". Not unlike the Wizard. Have main class features that cover the pseudo-science/arcane feel for the Artificer class as a whole. And then: 3 subclasses that take you thematically in different directions: The "tinkerer" that makes golems, armor, & blasters. The "volatile chemist" that makes arcane grenades. And the "mad scientist" that transforms themselves into different things. All 3 subclasses feel different from each other, yet individually, they allow for such a wide variety of game play choices that several people could all play the same subclass and still feel like they have a unique character that fulfills different party roles from the others.
If I were designing an Artificer class from scratch I would dump the entire Spellcasting feature altogether. Artificers as "half casters" has never felt right to me, especially since they have no signature spells of their own like Paladins and Rangers do.
I wholeheartedly agree. The name itself implies someone who constructs items, not throwing spells around. Why do we need another spell aster in the mix if they have no class specific spells.
I don’t mind the infusions as short term remedies. However, each subclass needs specific skill sets that advance with their levels.
With my military background I see the three subclasses like this:
Alchemist adventurer as a combat chemical/explosives specialist.
Armorer adventurer as a combat defensive specialist.
Artillerist adventurer as a combat weapons specialist.
Battle smith adventurer as a combat robotics specialist.
What makes them different from the run of the mill artificer is that they have taken up an adventuring life and acquired the basic skills of the artificer:
Hit points
Proficiencies
Starting equipment
In addition, they use their innate magical abilities to activate their skills and materials when constructing their products.
I personally like how the Compleat Alchemist progressed skills in alchemy, although the gathering piece is a bit cumbersome. At the lowest level their abilities only allow them to formulate elixirs, next level toxic powders, then compounds, then devices, then talismans, then potions, and so on.
The same progression of skills for the other subclasses could also be applied.
I would love to see artificers gain some abilities that naturally improve their value to the entire party. For instance, an ability that allows them to expend spell slots to restore magic item charges, maybe at a ratio of 2 x the slot's lvl. At the moment, they have some decent support spells (although no artificer-exclusives, sad), artisan tools for just about any situation, and free magic items to give to the party. That's about it. They need to be a unique support. I also would like to see some sort of ability to create permanent magic items, not just infusions, without ONLY crafting.
I would love to see artificers gain some abilities that naturally improve their value to the entire party. For instance, an ability that allows them to expend spell slots to restore magic item charges, maybe at a ratio of 2 x the slot's lvl. At the moment, they have some decent support spells (although no artificer-exclusives, sad), artisan tools for just about any situation, and free magic items to give to the party. That's about it. They need to be a unique support. I also would like to see some sort of ability to create permanent magic items, not just infusions, without ONLY crafting.
You left off Flash of Genius plus Spell-storing Item (which let party members benefit from Self). Let someone's Familiar be a Cure Wounds monkey or Give someone False Life, let the Barbarian charge up walls with Spider Climb, give everyone See Invisibility for an hour.
Artificer has pretty amazing party support options.
That's true, that's true. Good points. I was primarily speaking to the limited UNIQUE support abilities. For instance, all of those spell-based things could be done by a Chronurgist wizard with Arcane Abeyance, and Flash of Genius bears many similarities to Bardic Inspiration.
Don't get me wrong, the Artificer is my favorite class. I just think it could use some options that make it stand out as, y'know, an Artificer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I would like to see the Battle Smith, the Armorer, and the Artillerist combined into one subclass. The pet/blaster/melee subclass. You'd have options for building your golem/pet, as well as for making yourself, the Artificer, more powerful as a blaster or melee fighter. So, you could have a very powerful pet... but you'd be a rather weak combatant yourself, having mostly a support role for yourself. Or... you could be a powerful blaster or melee fighter, but with a weaker pet that has very limited combat capability. Or... you could balance it out between yourself & the pet/golem, assigning offensive, defensive, & support abilities more evenly. I have no specific ideas for this- just this very rough outline.
And then I'd like to see the Alchemist have actual control of their abilities, rather than random die rolls (pretty much everyone agrees on that point.) But, going further, I'd like to see them have a wider variety of potions they could make, as they increase in level. I'd like to see them have the option to be a bomber subclass, tossing potion-grenades that could have limited AOE affects that harm enemies or help allies. Grease pots. Smoke bombs. Explosive grenades. Web bombs. Healing balm bombs. Etc. Etc. This is what I think of for an Alchemist.
And then... there should be a "mad scientist" mutagenics subclass. The Frankenstein's monster/lycanthropy/Jeckyl & Hyde subclass. You could bonus action slurp a potion and grow your legs to be huge- or like a frog's or a kangaroo's or whatever- and then jump around. Or drink a concoction that gives you a huge cyclopean eye that shoots various beams for a time. Or another that gives you claws. Or scales. Or camouflage. Etc. Lots of possibilities.
And that's what I'd like to see. A base class that's, frankly, kind of "vanilla". Not unlike the Wizard. Have main class features that cover the pseudo-science/arcane feel for the Artificer class as a whole. And then: 3 subclasses that take you thematically in different directions: The "tinkerer" that makes golems, armor, & blasters. The "volatile chemist" that makes arcane grenades. And the "mad scientist" that transforms themselves into different things. All 3 subclasses feel different from each other, yet individually, they allow for such a wide variety of game play choices that several people could all play the same subclass and still feel like they have a unique character that fulfills different party roles from the others.
That's what I'd like to see.
I wholeheartedly agree. The name itself implies someone who constructs items, not throwing spells around. Why do we need another spell aster in the mix if they have no class specific spells.
I don’t mind the infusions as short term remedies. However, each subclass needs specific skill sets that advance with their levels.
With my military background I see the three subclasses like this:
What makes them different from the run of the mill artificer is that they have taken up an adventuring life and acquired the basic skills of the artificer:
In addition, they use their innate magical abilities to activate their skills and materials when constructing their products.
I personally like how the Compleat Alchemist progressed skills in alchemy, although the gathering piece is a bit cumbersome. At the lowest level their abilities only allow them to formulate elixirs, next level toxic powders, then compounds, then devices, then talismans, then potions, and so on.
The same progression of skills for the other subclasses could also be applied.
Artificers need their spells or a pile of infusions that will be too hard to balance.
Artificers should get back t their spells that give them self only magic items.
How to add Tooltips.
I would love to see artificers gain some abilities that naturally improve their value to the entire party. For instance, an ability that allows them to expend spell slots to restore magic item charges, maybe at a ratio of 2 x the slot's lvl. At the moment, they have some decent support spells (although no artificer-exclusives, sad), artisan tools for just about any situation, and free magic items to give to the party. That's about it. They need to be a unique support. I also would like to see some sort of ability to create permanent magic items, not just infusions, without ONLY crafting.
You left off Flash of Genius plus Spell-storing Item (which let party members benefit from Self). Let someone's Familiar be a Cure Wounds monkey or Give someone False Life, let the Barbarian charge up walls with Spider Climb, give everyone See Invisibility for an hour.
Artificer has pretty amazing party support options.
How to add Tooltips.
That's true, that's true. Good points. I was primarily speaking to the limited UNIQUE support abilities. For instance, all of those spell-based things could be done by a Chronurgist wizard with Arcane Abeyance, and Flash of Genius bears many similarities to Bardic Inspiration.
Don't get me wrong, the Artificer is my favorite class. I just think it could use some options that make it stand out as, y'know, an Artificer.