One of the things that gets me most excited about playing my Artificer in a few weeks is thinking of all the ways I can flavor my spells with my tools. I'm going Artillerist so my Arcane Firearm is going to be a wand that's shaped similar to a pistol or maybe even having tinkered with a pistol to shoot some of the spells. I have a few ideas for some of the other spells like Faerie Fire which is going to be a glitter grenade, but I'm looking for inspiration on some of the others.

Let's see what i've done so far:

Shocking Grasp - Tazergloves to punch ppl with
Arcane Weapon - Different kinds of magazines for her Repeating Shot infused Crossbow
Comprehend Languages - A little earpiece, like what Bodyguards use
Grease - Literally a jar of fat
Detect Thoughts - Artificial Mind invading the targets head
Locate Object - Goggles that show a glittery trail in the direction of the target
Cure Wounds and Reduce/Enlarge - Syringes with differently colored concoctions
Catapult - Small tethers inside wristbands that attach to the target ala spider-man

My artificer has a guantlet that she's built most of her gadgets onto. It looks like a cross between the Infinity Gauntlet and the Right Hand of Doom, with a good smattering of random steampunk buttons, switches etc. There's a bunch of crystals and lenses that do different things. The main one is on the palm (so there's a bit of Iron Man in there too) surrounded by concentric rings of runes that spin, with different combinations producing different effects. Weird reference, but remember that movie 13 Ghosts? Think of the rings the ghosts were supposed to be on.

Mage Hand- energy crackles between the fingers and things just lift in front of it- it's basically the zero point energy field manipulator, aka gravity gun from HL2. I need to figure out a way to get Telekinesis so it can actually be the gravity gun.
Catapult- see above
Cure Wounds- rings configure, green healing energy comes out. Either that or a green syringe fires from the gauntlet. Problem is it's supposed to be touch.
Disguise Self/Shield/other full-body self effects- crystal emitters placed on strategic parts of the body that can be activate to either throw up a hologram or a force field.
Faery Fire: glowing chaff-like particles shot from a nozzle, adhering to anything they touch.
Arcane Weapon- another crystal based contraption added to weapons. I pictures it's activation like Mass Effect 2/3 ammo- you just click a button to apply the relevant energy. You could also make it voice activated, if you want Judge Dredd's Lawgiver.

Overall, I'm going very technomagicky, glowy holographic overlays and archaic looking crystals based devices everywhere.

Unseen Servant- literally 3 kobolds under an invisible cloak I fashioned.

Mage Hand - one of the kobolds sticks his hand out from under the cloak

These are some good suggestions and ideas, thanks everyone!

I was also going to play an artillerist. My wand is going to be a big, bulky thing with a stock so it can rest on my forearm, and it's going to be covered in sliding panels and little mechanical hatches. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but I thought when I cast Thunderwave a little metal disk would fold out of the end and a tiny little hammer would spring up and hit it like a gong. Maybe with Scorching Ray the end of the wand could split into three parts and spin round like a gattling gun... like I said, I haven't worked everything out yet.

A few of my favorites, by way of inspiration/idea-sharing:

-Guidance (Alchemist's Tools): A vial of smelling salts, steeped in absinthe, menthol, and a number of other chemicals even stronger-smelling and less identifiable.  A single whiff is all it takes - whoever gets so whiff'd tends to end up with a little bit of a nosebleed, but they've also never felt so wired in their life.

-Mending (Alchemist's Tools): Strips of bandaging cloth, saturated with alchemical restorative and repairing agents carefully prepared at the lab back home.  Carefully applying these strips, which take on a shimmery grey coloration as a side effect of the imbuing process, allows the agents to restore the item. 
-Mending (Smith's Tools): A small brass tap hammer, carved with runes that glow faintly while in use.  Tapping a broken device repeatedly with the hammer reforges it, allowing the artificer to restore it to working order.

-Shield (Tinker's Tools): A cloak broach in the shape of a kite shield, with an artificial mechanical eye worked into it that's never entirely still.  The eye carefully watches for incoming blows, activating a burst of defensive magical power whenever it detects an imminent threat.
-Absorb Elements (TInker's Tools): The same cloak broach, modified with a Sharingan Eye (if I want to torment my DM) or backed with a glyph-carved copper disk if I'm being more reasonable and less weeaboo.

-Heroism (Alchemist's Supplies/Brewer's Supplies): A vial of golden liquid that burns when consumed, filling the drinker with fiery resolve.  Actual, literal Liquid Courage.

-Disguise Self (Tinker's Tools): A set of spectacles with carefully etched arcane sigils worked into their frames.  When worn, the artificer can disguise herself as normal, or evoke the ability for no one to recognize her despite looking exactly the same unless she tells someone who she is.  This may or may not be an awful Superman joke.

Heroism: Will tell the character "We need a hero!" And then slap a red badge of courage on their chest.

Use cook's utensils as your focus and make sure cupcakes are applied to every spell effect somehow.  War baker is now a thing.  ;)

One of my player's has a gnome artificer that's slowly turning into a Ghostbuster. He wears a big backpack that whirrs and smokes. He has the one Wand Infusion that gives him bonuses. So he has this large wand-shaped-wand that's attached to the backpack, and he has a crank on the wand and he starts cranking it and firing Scorching Rays while the backpack whirrs and smokes, it's hilarious.

Here's something I've been thinking since I read that sidebar:  couldn't ANY wizard say his spells look steampunky?

Of course. As long as long as it fits the setting. I'm all for re-flavoring things to suit a particular style.

I've seen  Blur be flavored as being a bunch of little mirrors that pop out of armor and constantly rotate, and Faerie Fire essentially being a glitter bomb.

I'm going with with a rod as my arcane focus, which is kind of like a gun, in that i load the spells and the rod is the firing device.

I also have a reskinned Ring of Spell storing, as a Rod in spell storing and i just load extra spells into it. 

Also working with my DM on some Grim's (aka goblin) jumper cables! SCIENCE! 

There's quite a few spells I use with my Artificer that make use of syringe, some of which can be crossbow bolt mounted (such as Expeditious Retreat and Haste). Blur uses a holographic interface strapped to his chest. Changing the settings on it injects him with a serum that causes him to Blink over to the astral realm (the Blink Spell). Enlarge/Reduce is a freakin ray gun. Mending and Revivify use a little mechanical spider with all kinds of repair attachments, and a compartment on the bottom that can channel energy from a diamond when settled over the recently deceased's heart into an electric shock to jumpstart the heart. Dispel Magic uses a thrown cube that generates an AMP (Anti-Magic Pulse) to end magic. Comprehend Languages uses a pair of blacked out goggles that generates a bright flash coded in magic. The magic stimulates the language centers of the brain, allowing for understanding of spoken languages, and understanding of written languages when you trace out the words with the fingers of your right hand (stimulating your left brain, where the language centers are contained). 

The thing I love about Artificers goes right into the old adage "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So it's fun to take things from today's technology, reflavor it as using magic, and voila; you've got cool magic tools!

Here have been mine so far. 

Fire Bolt: A little device I squeeze to shoot out a roman candle like mote of burning energy

Faerie Fire: an explosive I wound up and tossed in the air to explode and rain little lights down

grease: a little disc I slid down the hall that popped a sprinkler head and just started spraying grease everywhere.

To clarify Going for artillerist, and former toymaker, currently carpenter and tinker.

As an artillerist, most of my blasting spells will be from my wand focus/arcane firearm.

Given we finally started the new game last weekend, the only other spell I've had the chance to use was Grease which was a flask of oil (grease is  terribly underrated spell).

A little foreword about my character cause i feel its necessary; He is a paranoid for reasons and so he carries nothing on his person that would let people know exactly the kinds of items he has (ie. Goggles and excessive magical jewelry or large weapons). Also he really likes birds

Spare the Dying- A brass knuckle type thing with two prongs and a trigger (or maybe just a pen like object with a pointed end and a clicker?). Just stab a friendly body and guve em a jolt to keep them outta deaths door (can be amped up to cast higher level death prevention spells such as raise dead and revivify) 

Grease- Shakes his cloak and about 1000 small metal marbles fall out, and move as a unit to the desired location. After the duration is over the melt into the ground and more need to “be crafted”

ray of sickness/healing word- Both are tiny song birds that fly towards the creature you designate to them and upon reaching them, or making a successful attack, they detonate. The Healing word bird explodes in glittery yellow dust that magnetizes to blood. The Ray of sickness bird explodes in a cloud of green and black smoke that sticks to organic material, deals damage and leaves a lingering cloud as long as the target is poisoned.

Feather Fall (more burds)- Tiny birds again, three for each person, more for a chunkier party member, that desperately grab on to the affected creatures and fight against gravity for you. They fall apart after the duration 

Quote from Save_Versus >>

Here's something I've been thinking since I read that sidebar:  couldn't ANY wizard say his spells look steampunky?

 Correct. Its my biggest complaint that Artificers get no specific benefit for how they are supposed to cast their spells, when any class can reflavor spells

Quote from Atrome >>

Quote from Save_Versus >>

Here's something I've been thinking since I read that sidebar:  couldn't ANY wizard say his spells look steampunky?

 Correct. Its my biggest complaint that Artificers get no specific benefit for how they are supposed to cast their spells, when any class can reflavor spells

 I've been thinking about this while keeping with 5E's "keep it simple" philosophy and the only things I could think of are:

1. Something akin to metamagic, but that's the Sorcerer's perview.
2. Something that requires all of their spells to have a Material component no matter what, but I can't think of how to implement that because that sounds like a neutral to negative thing.