The infusions/replicate magic items take up a large part of the power budget for Artificers.
What if the artificer did not get the ability to replicate magic items, but instead crafts small items to cast their spells? Elixers/poisons/reagent mixtures, runes/glyphs, trapped elemental energies, or resonance crystals. It's flavor, but much of the casting is flavor already. Going deep on this would be assigning a gold cost to spell levels and requiring spending gold and downtime to produce said items. 1st lvl is 5gp, 2nd is 25gp, 3rd is 125gp, 4th is 625gp, and 5th lvl at 3125gp per spell item. Could become lots of book-keeping that could bog down table fun.
Still half-casters in that spells mostly top out at 5th lvl. So still dependent on class features for power.
Magic Tinker similar to TCoE version, but limit is gold cost, time and duration. Too accessible and then there's the question of why go adventuring.
All Artificer spells would require material and somatic components but not require any verbal components. Some of the first part is already a class requirement, the second part would be new. You need the thing and you need to active the thing. You don't need to talk to the thing. "Please work this time" evokes a lack of confidence in one's work. And snappy one-liners should not be required for casting.
All Artificer spells could last the full duration unless dispelled or nullified without concentration but can't be modified after cast. Can't change an Illusion or what a Dominated person would do or change the target of Hunter's Mark, but things like Fairey Fire and Heat Metal have fairly straightforward effects. Using Magic Weapon on two different weapons before a fight also becomes an option.
Immunity to Counterspell when casting an Artificer spell. They don't have much in the way of spells, but they always get to cast what they've got.
Crafting Magical items in a reduced time/cost would still be part of the class, but that's more of the retirement plan, not a large part of the adventuring career. Also a class specific creation: Artificer's Staff (hammer, axe, pick, shovel, saw, immovable brace/boom, or any other oddly useful tool).
Players get to select spells to add to the artificer list at certain levels, making the class very customizable. 2nd lvl - add a cantrip or 1st lvl spell, one free cast of a 1st lvl Artificer spell per long rest. 4th lvl - add a 1st or 2nd lvl spell, one free cast of a 2nd lvl Artificer spell per long rest. 7th lvl - add a 2nd or 3rd lvl spell, one free cast of a 3rd lvl Artificer spell per long rest. 10th lvl - add a 3rd or 4th lvl spell, one free cast of a 4th lvl Artificer spell per long rest. 13th lvl - add a 4th or 5th lvl spell, one free cast of a 5th lvl Artificer spell per long rest. select subclasses 15th lvl option, add a 6th lvl spell, one free cast of a 6th lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
Draining magic items for spell slots could still be a thing, but it's any magic item that is not an Artifact/Sentient.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish per se. If you don't want infusions, you can just be a wizard and flavor all your spells as magic items too.
Having to pay gold for every spell seems like a significant new limitation, and I'm not clear what benefits you'd get in return? What am I overlooking?
I think you could get what you want by just making a wizard with one level dip of Artificer.
The infusions/replicate magic items take up a large part of the power budget for Artificers.
What if the artificer did not get the ability to replicate magic items, but instead crafts small items to cast their spells? Elixers/poisons/reagent mixtures, runes/glyphs, trapped elemental energies, or resonance crystals. It's flavor, but much of the casting is flavor already. Going deep on this would be assigning a gold cost to spell levels and requiring spending gold and downtime to produce said items. 1st lvl is 5gp, 2nd is 25gp, 3rd is 125gp, 4th is 625gp, and 5th lvl at 3125gp per spell item. Could become lots of book-keeping that could bog down table fun.
Still half-casters in that spells mostly top out at 5th lvl. So still dependent on class features for power.
Magic Tinker similar to TCoE version, but limit is gold cost, time and duration. Too accessible and then there's the question of why go adventuring.
All Artificer spells would require material and somatic components but not require any verbal components. Some of the first part is already a class requirement, the second part would be new. You need the thing and you need to active the thing. You don't need to talk to the thing. "Please work this time" evokes a lack of confidence in one's work. And snappy one-liners should not be required for casting.
All Artificer spells could last the full duration unless dispelled or nullified without concentration but can't be modified after cast. Can't change an Illusion or what a Dominated person would do or change the target of Hunter's Mark, but things like Fairey Fire and Heat Metal have fairly straightforward effects. Using Magic Weapon on two different weapons before a fight also becomes an option.
Immunity to Counterspell when casting an Artificer spell. They don't have much in the way of spells, but they always get to cast what they've got.
Crafting Magical items in a reduced time/cost would still be part of the class, but that's more of the retirement plan, not a large part of the adventuring career. Also a class specific creation: Artificer's Staff (hammer, axe, pick, shovel, saw, immovable brace/boom, or any other oddly useful tool).
Players get to select spells to add to the artificer list at certain levels, making the class very customizable.
2nd lvl - add a cantrip or 1st lvl spell, one free cast of a 1st lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
4th lvl - add a 1st or 2nd lvl spell, one free cast of a 2nd lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
7th lvl - add a 2nd or 3rd lvl spell, one free cast of a 3rd lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
10th lvl - add a 3rd or 4th lvl spell, one free cast of a 4th lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
13th lvl - add a 4th or 5th lvl spell, one free cast of a 5th lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
select subclasses 15th lvl option, add a 6th lvl spell, one free cast of a 6th lvl Artificer spell per long rest.
Draining magic items for spell slots could still be a thing, but it's any magic item that is not an Artifact/Sentient.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish per se. If you don't want infusions, you can just be a wizard and flavor all your spells as magic items too.
Having to pay gold for every spell seems like a significant new limitation, and I'm not clear what benefits you'd get in return? What am I overlooking?
I think you could get what you want by just making a wizard with one level dip of Artificer.