i mean most settings have some sort of alchemy, and you could always play up the magical or mystical aspects of the artificer and downplay the importance of the science, after all the artificer is very magical and their spells are just spells, an artificer might just be an artistic wizard who likes to produce magical artifacts and infuse them with their own life essence, and one who likes to blend their own life essence with that of an magic item with soul of artifice and magic item adept and all that, nothing says your spells have to be inventions and heck you can at second level cast them with wands and rods as soon as second level with the enhanced arcane focus infusion. I even think some features are down right hard to explain as inventions and make more sense as normal wizard spells cast as an wizard casts them, especially disguise self, enlarge/ reduce, alter self and absorb elements. Heck look at the official art for the artillerist, it is literally just some random explorer with a wand, was it not for the book telling us, that could easily depict an wizard, warlock or sorcerer
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
An Artificer doesn't need to use mechanical gizmos, most people seem to forget this and have only the "mechanical" artificer in mind.
My artificer (battlesmith) is based on a "forgemaster" (from the netflix series castlevania or the game), a mystical necromancer who uses a mix of transylvanian "science" and magic to revive minions,in his case a dog (steel defender) and a raven (homunculus).
The only issue I have with Artificers would be the gunpowder / real world firearms so I'll just refavor the Artillerist into Wandslinger and reinforce that the Eldritch Cannon is just a blasting wand only usable by the Artillerist and no need for any gunpowder because it all just magical energy.
No artificer has gunpowder/real world firearms. The artillerist already is a wandslinger. I'm genuinely confused and curious where this idea is coming from.
well technically using a variant rule provided in the ebberon book all artificers who are exposed to the firearm rules provided in the dungeon masters guide are considered to bee proficient in firearms, there are indeed artificers out there weilding pistols, muskets and gunpowder kegs, they do indeed exist (i mean look ath the giff from mordekinens tombe of foes and the old the old spelljammer stuff, they basically only use gunpowder), in fact artificer is arguably one of the best gunslingers you can play as due to the repeating shot infusion letting you ignore the loading property
that being said yeah artillerists are just fancy wand specialized war mages
(There's even smokepowder and a Drow Gunslinger stat block in Dragon Heist. There's also a submarine, and mentions of Lantan. Also, robot swashbuckling Nimblewrights. )
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
The artificer can fit into almost any setting, but the aesthetic of your artificer might not.
I find that 85% of the time when a DM says that the artificer will not work in a game, it is because the DM is either making an assumption about what kind of artificer the player wants to play or the player has described an aesthetic that does not match the game the DM wants to run. As a class that to-be-honest asks a lot from the player when it comes to flavor, the artificer can be adjusted to fit into nearly any setting with the right aesthetic, but for years, it has been saddled with the arcano-punk aesthetic of Eberron. I suggest that both the player and DM try to look past this limitation and try to explore the possibilities. An artificer could be a rune-smith slowing and painstakingly etching arcane power into their creation with each tap of the hammer, a swamp witch stirring their cauldron of trouble, a Classical Greek soldier and their automaton guarding their home against the barbarians beyond their border, or a toy maker constructing miraculous contraptions to please the masses.
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Bark side up, bark side down, it really, truly does not matter.
There's a lot of this that I can use to figure out if & how Artificers should work in a deep ethereal Ravenloft.
I lean to them not being available until iron age technological level at minimum, with alchemist being a possible exception.
I'm playing an Artillerist in the Dragon of Icespire Peak. He's the son of a well-known wandmaker. His "spells" involve taking normal items and imbuing them with magic. i.e. Cure Wounds is bandages imbued with magic. Faerie Fire is a bag of magic dust. His Eldritch Cannon is basically a heavy crossbow with a wand fused to it. So it's very possible to re-flavor Artificer to match the world they live in, you just have to be creative. Fortunately, the Artificer class encourages that degree of re-flavoring.
Resounding yes! In a world with magic items there are specialists for creating them. Even if you are not a fan of the archetypical steampunk inventor, you could still base your artificer on Hephaistos or Daedalus. Artificers are also canon for Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, whether you find them medieval enough or not.
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+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +
I got the ok from my DM to make an artificer for a game that will mostly play out in Waterdeep. We went back and forth a bit on my character's background, with him finally making the suggestion that I was somehow transported to the Sword Coast from Eberron, and am searching for a way back home. I jumped at that opportunity, and managed to get a Mark of Making out of it as well.
I know this post is almost 4 years old, but I just absolutely have to butt in here - Waterdeep literally has a temple of Gond in which its' priests construct wonders, trinkets, magic items and other things that would be squarely considered "magi-tech". In official Forgotten Realms lore, priests of Gond are called artificers and tinker with magical items as tribute to their god Gond, the wonderbringer.
Kind of spoilery for Waterdeep dragon heist -
In the actual Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign, you encounter multiple Nimblewrights, clockwork mechanical people, one of whom is an advanced Nimblewright that lives in the House of Inspired Hands (a temple of Gond that would summarily have artificer priests) and builds other Nimblewrights in a lab full of wacky magitech and magical trinkets.
🍿🍿🍿👀 it's sad that this argument still exists in 2024. WoTC had the chance to put the Artificer in the new PHB and so far have let us down. I have hopes it'll be in the DMG.
But yes the Artificer can be in any setting and exists already in most. People get the image of Ebberon in their head, but the Artificer is much more than a steam punk mage. I made a Dwarf Artificer Battle Smith who's Iron Defnder is basically a stone Golem. He carves Runes in items for his flavor of infusions and usually casts spells in the same flavor as a wizard. Why wouldn't that work in DnD? Lol
Everything they can do and make is already in game. They just made it into a class so the person who makes all these random magical things like potions or enchanted blades could also be an adventurer. I main an Alchemist myself and love it. Best character I've ever run, cannot wait until the next campaign with them and potions are anything but absurd.
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i mean most settings have some sort of alchemy, and you could always play up the magical or mystical aspects of the artificer and downplay the importance of the science, after all the artificer is very magical and their spells are just spells, an artificer might just be an artistic wizard who likes to produce magical artifacts and infuse them with their own life essence, and one who likes to blend their own life essence with that of an magic item with soul of artifice and magic item adept and all that, nothing says your spells have to be inventions and heck you can at second level cast them with wands and rods as soon as second level with the enhanced arcane focus infusion. I even think some features are down right hard to explain as inventions and make more sense as normal wizard spells cast as an wizard casts them, especially disguise self, enlarge/ reduce, alter self and absorb elements. Heck look at the official art for the artillerist, it is literally just some random explorer with a wand, was it not for the book telling us, that could easily depict an wizard, warlock or sorcerer
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
An Artificer doesn't need to use mechanical gizmos, most people seem to forget this and have only the "mechanical" artificer in mind.
My artificer (battlesmith) is based on a "forgemaster" (from the netflix series castlevania or the game), a mystical necromancer who uses a mix of transylvanian "science" and magic to revive minions,in his case a dog (steel defender) and a raven (homunculus).
well technically using a variant rule provided in the ebberon book all artificers who are exposed to the firearm rules provided in the dungeon masters guide are considered to bee proficient in firearms, there are indeed artificers out there weilding pistols, muskets and gunpowder kegs, they do indeed exist (i mean look ath the giff from mordekinens tombe of foes and the old the old spelljammer stuff, they basically only use gunpowder), in fact artificer is arguably one of the best gunslingers you can play as due to the repeating shot infusion letting you ignore the loading property
that being said yeah artillerists are just fancy wand specialized war mages
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
(There's even smokepowder and a Drow Gunslinger stat block in Dragon Heist. There's also a submarine, and mentions of Lantan. Also, robot swashbuckling Nimblewrights. )
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
The artificer can fit into almost any setting, but the aesthetic of your artificer might not.
I find that 85% of the time when a DM says that the artificer will not work in a game, it is because the DM is either making an assumption about what kind of artificer the player wants to play or the player has described an aesthetic that does not match the game the DM wants to run. As a class that to-be-honest asks a lot from the player when it comes to flavor, the artificer can be adjusted to fit into nearly any setting with the right aesthetic, but for years, it has been saddled with the arcano-punk aesthetic of Eberron. I suggest that both the player and DM try to look past this limitation and try to explore the possibilities. An artificer could be a rune-smith slowing and painstakingly etching arcane power into their creation with each tap of the hammer, a swamp witch stirring their cauldron of trouble, a Classical Greek soldier and their automaton guarding their home against the barbarians beyond their border, or a toy maker constructing miraculous contraptions to please the masses.
Bark side up, bark side down, it really, truly does not matter.
There's a lot of this that I can use to figure out if & how Artificers should work in a deep ethereal Ravenloft.
I lean to them not being available until iron age technological level at minimum, with alchemist being a possible exception.
I'm playing an Artillerist in the Dragon of Icespire Peak. He's the son of a well-known wandmaker. His "spells" involve taking normal items and imbuing them with magic. i.e. Cure Wounds is bandages imbued with magic. Faerie Fire is a bag of magic dust. His Eldritch Cannon is basically a heavy crossbow with a wand fused to it. So it's very possible to re-flavor Artificer to match the world they live in, you just have to be creative. Fortunately, the Artificer class encourages that degree of re-flavoring.
In a low technology setting, you can just reflavour most thinks into enchanted items.
The Irondefender can be a Golem, the homunculus an animated object and so on. So I don’t see a limitation on the settings it can be used on.
Even Firearms could work based on magic (magic stone cantrip…) instead of black powder.
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]The Forgotten Realms has things like airships and the High House of Wonders, but not artificers? Preposterous!
Resounding yes! In a world with magic items there are specialists for creating them. Even if you are not a fan of the archetypical steampunk inventor, you could still base your artificer on Hephaistos or Daedalus. Artificers are also canon for Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, whether you find them medieval enough or not.
+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +
You could have a Mesolithic Artificer with an extraordinary talent for knapping flints.
I know this post is almost 4 years old, but I just absolutely have to butt in here - Waterdeep literally has a temple of Gond in which its' priests construct wonders, trinkets, magic items and other things that would be squarely considered "magi-tech". In official Forgotten Realms lore, priests of Gond are called artificers and tinker with magical items as tribute to their god Gond, the wonderbringer.
Kind of spoilery for Waterdeep dragon heist -
In the actual Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign, you encounter multiple Nimblewrights, clockwork mechanical people, one of whom is an advanced Nimblewright that lives in the House of Inspired Hands (a temple of Gond that would summarily have artificer priests) and builds other Nimblewrights in a lab full of wacky magitech and magical trinkets.
🍿🍿🍿👀 it's sad that this argument still exists in 2024. WoTC had the chance to put the Artificer in the new PHB and so far have let us down. I have hopes it'll be in the DMG.
But yes the Artificer can be in any setting and exists already in most. People get the image of Ebberon in their head, but the Artificer is much more than a steam punk mage. I made a Dwarf Artificer Battle Smith who's Iron Defnder is basically a stone Golem. He carves Runes in items for his flavor of infusions and usually casts spells in the same flavor as a wizard. Why wouldn't that work in DnD? Lol
Everything they can do and make is already in game. They just made it into a class so the person who makes all these random magical things like potions or enchanted blades could also be an adventurer. I main an Alchemist myself and love it. Best character I've ever run, cannot wait until the next campaign with them and potions are anything but absurd.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.