Cartographer Builds?

I really only just saw the new UA, and it looks really cool! Especially the ability to charge magic items, I thought that was a necessity. Of course there are other "okay" or "poor" changes with it. However, I am definitely more interested in putting the new Cartographer subclass to good use and optimization (my DMs are generally pretty lax when it comes to using UA). A caster-leaning subclass that, if given the right proficiencies via other measures, could actually make a pretty good warrior. Does anyone have any ideas on how to use it effectively? Optimized or flavorful character builds?

My take is that it has a couple interesting tricks but nothing that another class couldn't do far better.  Could have a bit of potential as a dip for another class, but only if you are planning a heist or something.  Otherwise most of the tricks a cartographer brings to the table are REALLY situational.  And pretty much regardless of feats, without multiclassing, you are not going to make a competent caster or basher out of it.  Less of a gish, more of a gishn't.

I like the subclass but it needs a bit of tweaking to play into the stealth/scouting aspects it lends itself to. The Faerie Fire ability it awesome but it should be invisible Faerie Fire so that it can be used as an radar of sorts when cast a head or an alarm when cast behind.

For builds I think a Scribes Wizard with the Cartographer would be pretty lethal. The map could be given to your spellbook which can act as a drone exploring 600ft in front of the party. Then you can modify your spells and yadda yadda. The two classes sort of just fit.

Quote from heydanseegil >>

I like the subclass but it needs a bit of tweaking to play into the stealth/scouting aspects it lends itself to. The Faerie Fire ability it awesome but it should be invisible Faerie Fire so that it can be used as an radar of sorts when cast a head or an alarm when cast behind.

For builds I think a Scribes Wizard with the Cartographer would be pretty lethal. The map could be given to your spellbook which can act as a drone exploring 600ft in front of the party. Then you can modify your spells and yadda yadda. The two classes sort of just fit.

 
Agreed. The whole point of radar is that you can see enemies before they can see you, and act on that knowledge. But if they can see Faerie Fire being cast, they are bound to know something is amiss and/or that they are being targeted.

That would be a really cool build, especially since you can cast spells targeting allies with your maps without seeing them, and from your Manifest Mind's position. Fitting indeed.

But the true question, Does the Cartographer's level 3 feature to cut scribing time in half stack with the scribes wizards feature that does the same thing? , essentially scribing scrolls in 1/4 of the normal time?

Yes it does. And then you add in a helper to cut that in half again for even faster crafting of scrolls.

Just remember, that any helper needs to also have the spell being scribed prepared the same as the main crafter

I am playing with an all Artificer party and wanted to have a Cartographer (for the Initiative Advantage) and as a Skirmisher since the teleport seems really nice and Fairie Fire seems like a great support spell. However, after Level 3 the Cartographer kind of petered out so I wanted to multi-class.

As I fleshed out the build I first added Rogue-Thief to maximize scroll and magic item use - and I realized the power of Sneak Attack.

As I continued to explore, I developed our party strategy whcih is mainly control-focused with push and pull into AoEs. I wanted to use Fog Cloud or Darkness to provide cover and protect the Cartographer (rogue bonus action hide) since he was squishy.

I wound up adding Warlock(5) to get a bunch of useful invocations and spells (getting Hunger of Hadar for the party is really critical but Devil's Sight and other invocations really powered-up the character as well).

In the end I wondered what was left of the Cartographer (and when to take Artificer levels) but the teleport and Fairie Fire features are still quite powerful but I need to get them added to the character before levels get too high.