Artillerist Artificers have access to a powerful spellcasting toolbox by level five, but they’re limited to two cantrips and six spell slots. And, they won’t get significant increases to either until levels nine and ten. Very few campaigns last beyond that, and most end earlier. Instead of waiting half of your campaign for a power boost that may never come, you should cut in line by taking one level of Wizard at level six.
This works so well because Artillerist subclass abilities all increase the effectiveness of spell slots and cantrips. The Eldritch Cannon is an efficient use of first level spell slots, and the Arcane Firearm increases the damage of every Artificer cantrip and spell. All they need is more cantrips and spell slots, and one level of Wizard gives them exactly that. Here are the upsides and downsides of this build:
+ Get three extra cantrips. You can now take ranged and melee damage cantrips without having to skip Mending and other utility options.
+ Recover a first level spell slot on a short rest via Arcane Recovery.
+ Because Artificers round up when multiclassing, get all higher level spell slots one level early. You’ll have an extra 2nd level spell slot at level six, and two 3rd level spell slots at level eight.
+ You learn and prepare 6 Wizard spells. These can cover low level staples and rituals, so you can prepare more interesting Artificer spells. you also get access to cantrips and spells like Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, Find Familiar, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. And, you can transcribe additional found Wizard spells and you can cast rituals from your spellbook.
- All Artillerist features will be delayed by one level. These are strong features, and this is the most painful part of this build. The biggest pain points are level eleven when a pure Artillerist would get a spell storing item, level fifteen and the level twenty capstone. Take this into consideration before multiclassing.
- Your Eldritch Cannon will have 5 fewer hp.
- One of your hit die will be a d6.
Getting Artillerist features late will be mitigated by having more cantrips and spell slots and getting higher level slots earlier. You’ll be able to upcast spells and will feel more free to use spell slots when you need them. With just one level of Wizard you will be much more versatile and powerful than a pure Artillerist, and you’ll have more fun in the levels that you’re most likely to play.
Not much to add here, seems about right. Although you shouldn't underestimate the first negative. Many of the core artificer features are things you'll want as soon as possible. More infusions and the very powerful Flash of Genius and Spell Storing Item also give you more versatility. But that seems to be a give and take.
Speaking as someone who's done exactly this, save on a Battlesmith rather than an Artillerist, and played the character in question for most of a year now:
The "delay artificer progression by one level" drawback is vastly more painful than it's made out to be. My gal started at level 5 due to campaign reasons, and began life as an Artificer 4/Wizard 1, with plans to take a second wizard level down the road a bit to snag cool School goodies. She's currently Art 7/Wiz 1 because every single level, I look at my progression and realize artificer gives me something really awesome and helpful. I may honestly never take that second wizard level. The first wizard level is absolutely as useful as Patrick makes it out to be, the extra cantrips and bookful of utility and staple spells is phenomenal. I wouldn't trade that one wizard level out even if the DM let me, but man. It's almost agonizing sometimes to see what I might've been able top play with, if I'd had the fortitude to just adhere to the artificer's limits and monoclass.
Standard multi-classing MO. Trading power and flexibility later for power and flexibility now. For games with a good idea of ending at certain levels the dip can seem like a no brainier but in more open ended games it's not so clear.
Delaying the artificer's features is probably one of the hardest choices in the game because they always seem to have something just around the corner. You seriously downplay this in your comparison. The only time I could see the dip being a clear winner is after lv 11 but only if 20 isn't a clear possibility.
Who cares if you have arcane recovery if you can pump out spell scrolls at a rate that lv 1 slots are nearly infinite for the whole party and you blasting away with 2-3 shatters per round without using your action?
I agree that the build is not as strong at level eleven and especially at twenty, and if you know that your campaign will run into tier 3 or 4 it makes this a harder choice. But, this doesn’t apply to the vast majority of D&D players. D&D Beyond released data showing that 90% of games end in Tier 1 or 2. Lots of people are going to play through levels six through eight and watch their Artillerist stagnate, then have their campaign end.
Regarding Artificers always having something right around the corner, that’s not true for level five Artillerists. They’re going to be using the same two cantrips, the same few uses of their Eldritch Cannon, and only one more second level spell slot by level eight. It’s the only stretch in the game when they don’t get a boost to spellcasting or their cannons. If waiting one extra level for a spell storing item is painful, isn’t waiting three levels for improved casting and cannons much more painful?
Also, that extra spell slot will be impactful even at level eleven because you can use it to create an Eldritch Cannon. Artillerists just use low level slots better than any other class or subclass. Getting to pump out near infinite spell scrolls will be dependent on your DM too. I agree that delaying the spell storing item is a downside of this build though. I didn’t go into more detail because I felt that saying all features are delayed covered it.
I don’t want to underplay Flash of Genius or the Spell Storing Item. They’re powerful features and you definitely want them. But, to look at this from another perspective, is it worth delaying spell slots and cantrips (that Artillerists make especially good use of) for many levels in the hopes of getting these features one level earlier? For most players, I don’t think it is.
Speaking as someone who's done exactly this, save on a Battlesmith rather than an Artillerist, and played the character in question for most of a year now:
The "delay artificer progression by one level" drawback is vastly more painful than it's made out to be. My gal started at level 5 due to campaign reasons, and began life as an Artificer 4/Wizard 1, with plans to take a second wizard level down the road a bit to snag cool School goodies. She's currently Art 7/Wiz 1 because every single level, I look at my progression and realize artificer gives me something really awesome and helpful. I may honestly never take that second wizard level. The first wizard level is absolutely as useful as Patrick makes it out to be, the extra cantrips and bookful of utility and staple spells is phenomenal. I wouldn't trade that one wizard level out even if the DM let me, but man. It's almost agonizing sometimes to see what I might've been able top play with, if I'd had the fortitude to just adhere to the artificer's limits and monoclass.
Thanks for the feedback!
I just want to note that an Artillerist will make better use of the extra spell slots, because they have an Arcane Firearm and their cannons. They are built around using spells to be effective. Battlesmiths are less dependent on those resources, since they get an extra attack and their steel defender doesn’t expire after an hour.
Also, Artillerists don’t have int based weapons, so they have to depend entirely on cantrips for non-resource based attacks. Firebolt is the natural choice, but as soon as an enemy approaches them they have to make all attacks at disadvantage. It hurts a lot! Their can take a second damage cantrip for melee, but then they lose mending, so their cannons are less likely to last a full hour. Thorn whip would cover melee and 30’ ranged, but it only does d6 damage. This is an extremely difficult choice, and getting a third cantrip is huge for an Artillerist.
Since a few people have said that I’m downplaying the delay of Artificer features, I’ll go back and update that point in the original post.
Edit: oh, and I’ve seen a few posts elsewhere saying to take 2 levels of Wizard, and I agree with you that it isn’t needed. The second level Arcane Tradition features compare poorly to high level Artificer features.
It is not from a self reporting survey, it is data mined from their system. I would be interested in seeing any other data about how long campaigns last.
I Agree that the Artificer abilities at levels six through eight are great. They help them be much better support characters. In the meantime, the core abilities that Artillerists use every round in combat stagnate, and their limited cantrips hurt their role as a caster. People choose to be an Artillerist bacause they want to use cannons and blast spells. This build lets them do those things more often.
I don't think people are disagreeing with your idea, Patrick. Not in principle. the disagreement mostly comes from the idea of it as a 'shortcut' rather than a very real build progression decision with pros and cons that deserve serious consideration. The wizard dip allows somewhat greater use of the eldritch cannon (though this also clashes with the artillerist's important Shield spell) and allows the artificer to offload utility cantrips to its wizard level. That said, an elven or tiefling artificer can obtain useful utility cantrips as part of their species, and Magic Initiate also allows one to acquire useful utility cantrips without slowing class progression, if at the cost of 'sacrificing' an ASI. There are options for redressing the cantrip concerns, and four first-level slots is four first-level slots kinda regardless of how many other slots you've got.
It's all choices. Some players gravitate towards the increased flexibility and low-level casting of the wizard dip - I did, and as painful as it is to slow artificer progression I don't regret it. But many other players hate losing progress towards their higher-level abilities - they see "most campaigns don't reach high levels" as a reason to avoid diluting their progression with multiclass dips, not a reason to give up on higher-level abilities altogether. Those players will look for any other option they can before dipping out of their class, including telling someone else to take Mending if they have room and help them fix their cannon in the rare case where it becomes necessary.
The lack of conflictong data is not proof that the data that this site collected from itself and reported is relevant. The data only represents a sliver of the number of books sold off shelf let alone anyone who plays without buying. It's a tiny sample no matter how to cut it. It's probably as close as taking a bucket of water from the lake and trying to judge the whole ecosystem off that.
I agree that it is only one piece of evidence, And we don't have any way to definitively show what percentage of all D&D games end before tier three. But, I'm posting this on D&D Beyond, so their data is relevant to the people reading this. The only other info I can find is that WOTC has said that high level adventures are not in high demand. They didn't release any specific data showing how they know that though. And, while this is anecdotal, I have a dozen characters from one shots and campaigns that ended early who will never reach level eleven. And I wasn't being sarcastic in asking for other data. Knowing what levels get played most is very important in deciding how to build characters.
But, I don't think I need any more proof to make a post advising people to build their characters in a way that is fun at low levels. I made my assumptions clear in my post, and people can judge for themselves whether it makes sense for their campaign.
I don't think people are disagreeing with your idea, Patrick. Not in principle. the disagreement mostly comes from the idea of it as a 'shortcut' rather than a very real build progression decision with pros and cons that deserve serious consideration. The wizard dip allows somewhat greater use of the eldritch cannon (though this also clashes with the artillerist's important Shield spell) and allows the artificer to offload utility cantrips to its wizard level. That said, an elven or tiefling artificer can obtain useful utility cantrips as part of their species, and Magic Initiate also allows one to acquire useful utility cantrips without slowing class progression, if at the cost of 'sacrificing' an ASI. There are options for redressing the cantrip concerns, and four first-level slots is four first-level slots kinda regardless of how many other slots you've got.
It's all choices. Some players gravitate towards the increased flexibility and low-level casting of the wizard dip - I did, and as painful as it is to slow artificer progression I don't regret it. But many other players hate losing progress towards their higher-level abilities - they see "most campaigns don't reach high levels" as a reason to avoid diluting their progression with multiclass dips, not a reason to give up on higher-level abilities altogether. Those players will look for any other option they can before dipping out of their class, including telling someone else to take Mending if they have room and help them fix their cannon in the rare case where it becomes necessary.
Shortcuts can definitely cut both ways. People talk about not taking shortcuts in life or in their work because you end up with a better result by going the long way. I really do see this build as a shortcut for more Artillerist resources, and then coming back later for the other Artificer features. I feel that it's a very good shortcut, but it's fair to say that's not the route that everyone wants to take.
I generally prefer single classed characters. I posted this because it's such an unusual multiclass. It pushes their features back, but also pulls their spell slot progression forward. No other class does that with a single level dip. Also, instead of getting different features from the multiclass, they get more resources to fuel their core subclass abilities. Arcane recovery and added cantrips are a perfect fit for the Artillerist's gaps in their abilities. It's definitely worth considering the tradeoffs, but I think that people will find that the benefits for an Artillerist are greater than the downsides.
A few of other points: the Shield spell clashing with Eldritch Cannon is an argument for wanting more resources to use on these powerful abilities. I think that's a great point in support of the "shortcut" build. I would also add Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, and Feather Fall as great emergency uses for an extra first level spell slot.
I agree that High Elves (or Half-Elves with a High Elf cantrip) are a really good choice for Artillerists. High Elf Artillerists might not be as compelled to take a one level Wizard dip as everyone else, but the extra spell slots and spells known/prepared are still extremely useful for them.
I would have been more persuaded by the Magic Initiate argument before Fey Touched and Shadow Touched were released. The +1 to Int that they give helps you keep up with ASIs, and the first and second level spell known and a free use of each are so good for any spellcaster. Someone who does not want to multiclass should absolutely look at Magic Initiate, but they will not only be missing out on the resources from the Wizard dip, but also the ASI, the ability to use spell slots to cast their new spells, and the second level spell from the FT or ST feats.
That’s correct. Your Wizard spells benefit from an Enhanced Arcane Focus, which gives +1 to any spell attack, but not the Arcane Firearm bonus damage, which only applies to Artificer spells. So, it’s better to pick non-damage Wizard spells and cantrips.
the one exception I‘ll mention is Mind Sliver. It requires an int save, deals psychic damage, and gives a d4 debuff to the enemy’s next saving throw. Even without the bonus damage, it might be worth considering as a backup attack.
Honestly, the best shortcut for an Artillerist is a simple two-step process. First, we pick up the Wizard Magic Initiate feat. Go with Artificer Initiate if you want at first level to give yourself a bonus cantrip and some extras as an alternative. Second, we need the All Purpose Tool. That magic item lets you pick a cantrip from a class to use, and you can change it daily. Now I'll admit the magic item does require talking with your DM about it so they can find a way to fit it into the campaign somehow.
Yes, that’s a great magic item. The cantrip counts as an Artificer cantrip, so you can add Arcane Firearm damage to it too. The ability to turn into other tools is a nice bonus.
The +1 to attacks and saves requires you to hold it though, and you can’t make it into an Arcane Firearm since it isn’t a wand, staff, or rod. So you won’t benefit from that aspect unless you want to give up your shield, or juggle the two focuses to get a bonus to save DC for certain spells. And you’ll probably still want to spend an infusion on Enhanced Arcane Focus. That’s a bit annoying.
Also, if your party does have long adventuring days the 8 hour limit could come into play. This won’t be an issue for many people though, and even having the extra cantrip part of the time is huge.
I don’t think that most people should assume that they’ll get one as part of their build. But, if you’re playing in a campaign where you can pick magic items, it’s a top choice just for the cantrip.
You still can’t use it in combat, which does lower the value a bit. But, when you are a half caster anything that can save a spell slot is worth it. Combat frequency will vary by DM, so it’s less useful for parties that have one combat per day or get a short rest between each battle. I often have multiple fights in the same adventure site in games I run, where characters have at least a few minutes between combat. A lot of dungeons and adventure sites follow that pattern too.
And, Mending works on your Homunculus. Even though the Homunculus competes with the Eldritch Cannon over the use of your bonus action, there are a lot of circumstances where it would be useful to an Artillerist. I’ve had mine drop rocks in another location to distract the enemy before we attacked, and it gave me a healing potion when I was unconscious (since they can take any action when the Artillerist is incapacitated). They also have a weak attack as an extra option for when you have your Protector cannon out, or if you are conserving spell slots.
The Homunculus is less likely to be active in combat and is less likely to survive a hit anyway, so I admit that’s an edge case use. And you’re right that an Artillerist could get by with only Damage cantrips. Mending is nice to have though, even if you go the High Elf / Magic Initiate / All Purpose Tool routes that others have pointed out.
Overall - Great. The Wizard level boosts spellcasting a lot. A PA who infused a Spell Refueling Ring would have the same number of 2nd level slots, but no other benefits. Other infusions might be better than the ring, but not so much better that they eclipse everything else. A great trade off.
Level 7
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-Flash of Genius
Overall - Good. You are not as strong of a support character at this level, but you are a stronger & more versatile spellcaster. As an Artillerist you will make good use of the additional resources and feel less constrained in combat.
Level 8
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
+2 3rd level spell slots
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
-ASI or Feat
Overall - Great. This is a huge boost to spellcasting. If you pick a Spell Refueling Ring as an infusion you can get an additional 3rd level spell slot as well. A PA could only replace a 2nd level spell slot with the same infusion. Invisibility and Aid make great use of the higher level spell slots. This is the strongest level for this build.
Level 9
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-3rd level spells prepared
-2 spells known (Fireball & Wind Wall)
-Explosive Cannon
=Proficiency Bonus increase
Overall - OK. A weak trade off. Losing out on Fireball, Dispel Magic, Revivify, etc. for a level does hurt. Upscaled spells won’t match the power of 3rd level spells, but you do have more spell slots to cast them with. The lower cannon damage hurts as well, though your Protector option is still as strong as a PA's. Proficiency bonus going up is a silver lining.
Level 10
+2 cantrips (PA catches up a bit here and at 14); +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 3rd level spell slot
-2 higher level infusions known, -1 infusion
-Enhanced Arcane Focus is +1 instead of +2
-Magic Item Adept
Overall - Good. You have noticeably more powerful spellcasting but you lose out on stronger infusions and magic item crafting. A PA has more accurate spell attacks and can access Winged Boots before you. If your campaign has a lot of downtime, the PA can make better use of it crafting items. Being able to use an extra 3rd level spell and an extra (newly upgraded) cannon is a big benefit at this level though.
Level 11
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-Spell Storing Item
=Cantrip damage boost
Overall - OK. You only lose one thing, but it’s an extremely versatile feature. A weak trade in exchange for spellcasting power. Cantrips scaling up is a silver lining. (Before writing this all out I called this level bad, but I bumped it up to ok because I realized that you do have Magic Item Adept already and you get improved cantrips. And, I think the Wizard features help somewhat.)
Level 12
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 4th level spell slot
-ASI or Feat
Overall - Great. A huge boost to spellcasting at this level, well worth it. Tiny Servant and Fly gain a lot from the 4th level spell slot.
Level 13
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-4th level spells prepared
-2 spells known (Ice Storm, Wall of Fire)
=Proficiency Bonus increase
Overall - Good. Artificers don’t have the strongest 4th level spells. You’ll miss out on a once a day use of Arcane Eye, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, or Summon Construct. You will instead get more use out of your cannons and upcast 3rd level spells. A decent trade.
Level 14
+2 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6-1 Artillerist prepared spell
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 4th level spell slot
-2 higher level infusions known, -1 infusion
-Magic Item Savant
Overall - Good. A solid tradeoff, but you will miss the ability to attune items from other classes. How much this hurts is highly dependent on your campaign.
Level 15
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-Fortified Position
Overall - Bad. Oof. Fortified Position is a huge power boost and your 1st level spell slot and cantrips are not doing as much to make up for it at this level.
Level 16
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 5th level spell slot
-ASI or Feat
Overall - Great. A big spellcasting boost. Being able to upcast spells like Summon Construct and Tiny Servant is both powerful and thematic for an Artillerist.
Level 17
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-5th level spells prepared
-2 spells known (Cone of Cold, Wall of Force)
=Proficiency Boost
=Cantrip damage boost
Overall - OK. Delaying Wall of Force and Animate Objects hurts a lot. Getting both a proficiency boost and improved cantrips prevents this from being completely bad. Still, a weak trade.
Level 18
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 5th level spell slot
-Magic Item Master
-2 higher level infusions known, -1 infusion
Overall - Good. Being able to cast more high level spells and use more cannons at the cost of having fewer magic items is exactly the tradeoff that this build is meant for.
Level 19
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-ASI or Feat
Overall - Good. Nothing great or terrible at this level.
Level 20
+3 cantrips; +6 Wizard spells known; +1 1st level spell slot (Arcane Recovery); -5 cannon HP; -1 hit die is a d6
-1 Artillerist prepared spell
+1 6th level spell slot
-Soul of Artiface
Overall - Bad. Terrible. Getting an ASI and a 6th level spell slot as your last feature instead of Soul of Artiface stings. If you instead take Wizard levels at 19 and 20, you would get an extra use of Arcane recovery and a 7th level spell slot. Or, two levels of Fighter would get you action surge. Either way, you’re making the best of a bad situation. The PA wins out at 20 by a wide margin.
Just looking at levels 6 through 14, this build is great. You do miss out on strong features at 9 and 11, but you have some qualities that help mitigate things, and there are many levels where you are better off than a PA. The most common trade off is more spellcasting power at the cost of delaying support abilities.
However, starting at level 15 the benefits that you get from your Wizard class do a lot less to help. Level 17 is going to hurt, and at level 20 you will be way behind. I don't believe that many campaigns get to these levels, but it is worth considering it, and checking with your group to see if it's likely.
The Artillerist is better off sticking to Artificer spells as much as possible. This combination is actually better suited to other forms of Artificer to make them a bit more magical (if that's your preferred flavor).
it's kind of like dealing with a warlock. yes you can take other classes. you can give it more cantrips and such. But it's just not going to compare to their ability to use their select chosen cantrips from main class. EB for Warlocks, or in the Case for the Artillerist actually a wide list of actually quite a number of nice cantrips to choose from. Many of which are actually getting an extra level tier upgrade to their damage thanks to the arcane firearms d8 damage which is one of the most common damage die sizes for cantrips. When considering things other than Cantrips that d8 is still valuable because the way the power is written (the fact that it says one of the spells damage rolls instead of a single target affected)
in most instances your Eldritch Cannon is actually going to make up for that spell slot that your gaining by going with 1 or more wizard levels instead. 2d8 doesn't sound like a lot. But considering that one of them is force damage at a decently long range with a potential for pushback that damage is going to add up over time and allow for some minor battlefield control.
Also people shouldn't under estimate some of the spells the Artillerist gets. Ice Storm and Wall of Fire are both fairly strong spells. They still work well as battlefield control spells even at high level and their damage is actually decently solid for the level of spell that they are and when you get them.
The Earlier you get a couple of upgrades that the Artillerist actually gets the more useful they are going to be to you as well. Such as the extra die of damage that they will do at 9th level (Effectively the same damage as casting many cantrips at 11th level). or even having the ability to get 2 of them out if you get high enough level that can serve Either the same purpose with two times the potential power or serve in two different capacities.
The spell book and ritual spells also is not something that you can only get through picking up a class level delaying your artificer and Artillerist features. you can pick it up through feats and the like and the feat has some advantages and disadvantages to taking it as an alternative route. namely that there are a lot more ritual spells that you can actually pick up than the wizard can pick up on their own which actually improves the feature over the class level. The same actually goes for additional cantrips and the like as well which could potentially give you the benefit of being able to use the arcane firearm ability on them to boost them as well if you desire. These are very viable options since the Artificer for the most part is Single Attribute Dependent leaving you more variety in what you can do with your ASI's overall. While some come to the conclusion that being such makes ASI's a bit less important that is not necessarily the case.
Talking about the damage increase of cantrips purely as part of leveling is also kind of mis-informative. These are going to go up regardless so they aren't a pro or con for either side of deciding whether the multiclass is worth it or not since they are going to increase regardless with the situation that we're talking about. The same holds true for the proficiency increases. if a level is going to be a bad trade without these things being included it's simply a bad trade. it's not redeemed by something your going to get whether you make the trade or not.
And while There is some complaint and the idea seems to have been started in this thread over casting the same cantrip over and over again. other spell casters do this as well for a variety of reasons and many players do exactly this despite having a larger pool to choose form in general at an earlier level, Which weakens the need for the increase as an argument in some respects and might give weight to other ways to gain additional cantrips in other respects. Artificer is still the best choice for someone to take the Artificer Initiate Feat despite the way that it is worded and addresses to some degree a couple of issues with the Artificer class just as one example.
I noted the cantrip damage boosts and proficiency bonus increases with ‘=‘ equal signs to show that they are the same as the normal Artillerist. Since you get Artificer features late and spell slots early, it’s notable that cantrips and proficiency keep pace. They are neither better nor worse in that respect. At best, they can make the other losses at certain levels a bit less painful.
I agree that Feats are options you can use to get cantrips and wizard rituals without multiclassing, but they also have a cost. An Artillerist who takes Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster will be 8 levels behind on ASIs, whereas the Artificer with one level of Wizard will only be one level behind on ASIs. An Artificer who gets a cantrip through the High Elf racial feature misses out on the chance to take an extra feat at level 1 through variant human or custom lineage. Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Mobile, Alert, Lucky, or just getting +2 to int are all available to the multiclassed Artillerist. It’s just a different tradeoff.
One last point is that feats can’t ever get you more uses of your Eldritch Cannon or more spells cast using high level spell slots. No feat is going to come close to giving you a first level spell slot and three third level spell slots at level eight. The extra prepared spells and spellbook are nice benefits, and the cantrips add a lot to an Artillerist as well, but the spell slots are adding a ton to this build.
Having more spell slots is huge. Starting out as a spellcaster is painful because you can only cast a couple of spells a day at first level. As you level up, it feels great to be able to use spells more freely. Having access to higher level spells is important as well, but the raw number of spell slots you have access to makes a big difference. As a half caster, getting more spell slots takes twice as long. Paladins, Rangers, Battle Masters, and Armorers all have weapons and an extra attack to make up for their slower spell slot progression. Artillerists are fully spellcasters, but they are stuck with fewer spell slots for longer than any other spellcaster class. Getting those extra spell slots early gives you that good feeling of being able to cast more spells, sooner. That’s the shortcut.
Artillerist Artificers have access to a powerful spellcasting toolbox by level five, but they’re limited to two cantrips and six spell slots. And, they won’t get significant increases to either until levels nine and ten. Very few campaigns last beyond that, and most end earlier. Instead of waiting half of your campaign for a power boost that may never come, you should cut in line by taking one level of Wizard at level six.
This works so well because Artillerist subclass abilities all increase the effectiveness of spell slots and cantrips. The Eldritch Cannon is an efficient use of first level spell slots, and the Arcane Firearm increases the damage of every Artificer cantrip and spell. All they need is more cantrips and spell slots, and one level of Wizard gives them exactly that. Here are the upsides and downsides of this build:
+ Get three extra cantrips. You can now take ranged and melee damage cantrips without having to skip Mending and other utility options.
+ Recover a first level spell slot on a short rest via Arcane Recovery.
+ Because Artificers round up when multiclassing, get all higher level spell slots one level early. You’ll have an extra 2nd level spell slot at level six, and two 3rd level spell slots at level eight.
+ You learn and prepare 6 Wizard spells. These can cover low level staples and rituals, so you can prepare more interesting Artificer spells. you also get access to cantrips and spells like Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, Find Familiar, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. And, you can transcribe additional found Wizard spells and you can cast rituals from your spellbook.
- All Artillerist features will be delayed by one level. These are strong features, and this is the most painful part of this build. The biggest pain points are
level eleven when a pure Artillerist would get a spell storing item, level fifteen and the level twenty capstone. Take this into consideration before multiclassing.- Your Eldritch Cannon will have 5 fewer hp.
- One of your hit die will be a d6.
Getting Artillerist features late will be mitigated by having more cantrips and spell slots and getting higher level slots earlier. You’ll be able to upcast spells and will feel more free to use spell slots when you need them. With just one level of Wizard you will be much more versatile and powerful than a pure Artillerist, and you’ll have more fun in the levels that you’re most likely to play.
EDIT: I added a much more in depth review by level in a later post.
Not much to add here, seems about right. Although you shouldn't underestimate the first negative. Many of the core artificer features are things you'll want as soon as possible. More infusions and the very powerful Flash of Genius and Spell Storing Item also give you more versatility. But that seems to be a give and take.
Speaking as someone who's done exactly this, save on a Battlesmith rather than an Artillerist, and played the character in question for most of a year now:
The "delay artificer progression by one level" drawback is vastly more painful than it's made out to be. My gal started at level 5 due to campaign reasons, and began life as an Artificer 4/Wizard 1, with plans to take a second wizard level down the road a bit to snag cool School goodies. She's currently Art 7/Wiz 1 because every single level, I look at my progression and realize artificer gives me something really awesome and helpful. I may honestly never take that second wizard level. The first wizard level is absolutely as useful as Patrick makes it out to be, the extra cantrips and bookful of utility and staple spells is phenomenal. I wouldn't trade that one wizard level out even if the DM let me, but man. It's almost agonizing sometimes to see what I might've been able top play with, if I'd had the fortitude to just adhere to the artificer's limits and monoclass.
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I agree that the build is not as strong at level eleven and especially at twenty, and if you know that your campaign will run into tier 3 or 4 it makes this a harder choice. But, this doesn’t apply to the vast majority of D&D players. D&D Beyond released data showing that 90% of games end in Tier 1 or 2. Lots of people are going to play through levels six through eight and watch their Artillerist stagnate, then have their campaign end.
Regarding Artificers always having something right around the corner, that’s not true for level five Artillerists. They’re going to be using the same two cantrips, the same few uses of their Eldritch Cannon, and only one more second level spell slot by level eight. It’s the only stretch in the game when they don’t get a boost to spellcasting or their cannons. If waiting one extra level for a spell storing item is painful, isn’t waiting three levels for improved casting and cannons much more painful?
Also, that extra spell slot will be impactful even at level eleven because you can use it to create an Eldritch Cannon. Artillerists just use low level slots better than any other class or subclass. Getting to pump out near infinite spell scrolls will be dependent on your DM too. I agree that delaying the spell storing item is a downside of this build though. I didn’t go into more detail because I felt that saying all features are delayed covered it.
I don’t want to underplay Flash of Genius or the Spell Storing Item. They’re powerful features and you definitely want them. But, to look at this from another perspective, is it worth delaying spell slots and cantrips (that Artillerists make especially good use of) for many levels in the hopes of getting these features one level earlier? For most players, I don’t think it is.
Thanks for the feedback!
I just want to note that an Artillerist will make better use of the extra spell slots, because they have an Arcane Firearm and their cannons. They are built around using spells to be effective. Battlesmiths are less dependent on those resources, since they get an extra attack and their steel defender doesn’t expire after an hour.
Also, Artillerists don’t have int based weapons, so they have to depend entirely on cantrips for non-resource based attacks. Firebolt is the natural choice, but as soon as an enemy approaches them they have to make all attacks at disadvantage. It hurts a lot! Their can take a second damage cantrip for melee, but then they lose mending, so their cannons are less likely to last a full hour. Thorn whip would cover melee and 30’ ranged, but it only does d6 damage. This is an extremely difficult choice, and getting a third cantrip is huge for an Artillerist.
Since a few people have said that I’m downplaying the delay of Artificer features, I’ll go back and update that point in the original post.
Edit: oh, and I’ve seen a few posts elsewhere saying to take 2 levels of Wizard, and I agree with you that it isn’t needed. The second level Arcane Tradition features compare poorly to high level Artificer features.
It is not from a self reporting survey, it is data mined from their system. I would be interested in seeing any other data about how long campaigns last.
https://www.enworld.org/threads/90-of-d-d-games-stop-by-level-10-wizards-more-popular-at-higher-levels.666097/
I Agree that the Artificer abilities at levels six through eight are great. They help them be much better support characters. In the meantime, the core abilities that Artillerists use every round in combat stagnate, and their limited cantrips hurt their role as a caster. People choose to be an Artillerist bacause they want to use cannons and blast spells. This build lets them do those things more often.
I don't think people are disagreeing with your idea, Patrick. Not in principle. the disagreement mostly comes from the idea of it as a 'shortcut' rather than a very real build progression decision with pros and cons that deserve serious consideration. The wizard dip allows somewhat greater use of the eldritch cannon (though this also clashes with the artillerist's important Shield spell) and allows the artificer to offload utility cantrips to its wizard level. That said, an elven or tiefling artificer can obtain useful utility cantrips as part of their species, and Magic Initiate also allows one to acquire useful utility cantrips without slowing class progression, if at the cost of 'sacrificing' an ASI. There are options for redressing the cantrip concerns, and four first-level slots is four first-level slots kinda regardless of how many other slots you've got.
It's all choices. Some players gravitate towards the increased flexibility and low-level casting of the wizard dip - I did, and as painful as it is to slow artificer progression I don't regret it. But many other players hate losing progress towards their higher-level abilities - they see "most campaigns don't reach high levels" as a reason to avoid diluting their progression with multiclass dips, not a reason to give up on higher-level abilities altogether. Those players will look for any other option they can before dipping out of their class, including telling someone else to take Mending if they have room and help them fix their cannon in the rare case where it becomes necessary.
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I agree that it is only one piece of evidence, And we don't have any way to definitively show what percentage of all D&D games end before tier three. But, I'm posting this on D&D Beyond, so their data is relevant to the people reading this. The only other info I can find is that WOTC has said that high level adventures are not in high demand. They didn't release any specific data showing how they know that though. And, while this is anecdotal, I have a dozen characters from one shots and campaigns that ended early who will never reach level eleven. And I wasn't being sarcastic in asking for other data. Knowing what levels get played most is very important in deciding how to build characters.
But, I don't think I need any more proof to make a post advising people to build their characters in a way that is fun at low levels. I made my assumptions clear in my post, and people can judge for themselves whether it makes sense for their campaign.
Shortcuts can definitely cut both ways. People talk about not taking shortcuts in life or in their work because you end up with a better result by going the long way. I really do see this build as a shortcut for more Artillerist resources, and then coming back later for the other Artificer features. I feel that it's a very good shortcut, but it's fair to say that's not the route that everyone wants to take.
I generally prefer single classed characters. I posted this because it's such an unusual multiclass. It pushes their features back, but also pulls their spell slot progression forward. No other class does that with a single level dip. Also, instead of getting different features from the multiclass, they get more resources to fuel their core subclass abilities. Arcane recovery and added cantrips are a perfect fit for the Artillerist's gaps in their abilities. It's definitely worth considering the tradeoffs, but I think that people will find that the benefits for an Artillerist are greater than the downsides.
A few of other points: the Shield spell clashing with Eldritch Cannon is an argument for wanting more resources to use on these powerful abilities. I think that's a great point in support of the "shortcut" build. I would also add Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, and Feather Fall as great emergency uses for an extra first level spell slot.
I agree that High Elves (or Half-Elves with a High Elf cantrip) are a really good choice for Artillerists. High Elf Artillerists might not be as compelled to take a one level Wizard dip as everyone else, but the extra spell slots and spells known/prepared are still extremely useful for them.
I would have been more persuaded by the Magic Initiate argument before Fey Touched and Shadow Touched were released. The +1 to Int that they give helps you keep up with ASIs, and the first and second level spell known and a free use of each are so good for any spellcaster. Someone who does not want to multiclass should absolutely look at Magic Initiate, but they will not only be missing out on the resources from the Wizard dip, but also the ASI, the ability to use spell slots to cast their new spells, and the second level spell from the FT or ST feats.
Also Arcane Firearm says you get an extra d8 on your Artificer spells. Wouldn’t those extra spells from multiclass be Wizard Spells?
That’s correct. Your Wizard spells benefit from an Enhanced Arcane Focus, which gives +1 to any spell attack, but not the Arcane Firearm bonus damage, which only applies to Artificer spells. So, it’s better to pick non-damage Wizard spells and cantrips.
the one exception I‘ll mention is Mind Sliver. It requires an int save, deals psychic damage, and gives a d4 debuff to the enemy’s next saving throw. Even without the bonus damage, it might be worth considering as a backup attack.
Honestly, the best shortcut for an Artillerist is a simple two-step process. First, we pick up the Wizard Magic Initiate feat. Go with Artificer Initiate if you want at first level to give yourself a bonus cantrip and some extras as an alternative. Second, we need the All Purpose Tool. That magic item lets you pick a cantrip from a class to use, and you can change it daily. Now I'll admit the magic item does require talking with your DM about it so they can find a way to fit it into the campaign somehow.
Yes, that’s a great magic item. The cantrip counts as an Artificer cantrip, so you can add Arcane Firearm damage to it too. The ability to turn into other tools is a nice bonus.
The +1 to attacks and saves requires you to hold it though, and you can’t make it into an Arcane Firearm since it isn’t a wand, staff, or rod. So you won’t benefit from that aspect unless you want to give up your shield, or juggle the two focuses to get a bonus to save DC for certain spells. And you’ll probably still want to spend an infusion on Enhanced Arcane Focus. That’s a bit annoying.
Also, if your party does have long adventuring days the 8 hour limit could come into play. This won’t be an issue for many people though, and even having the extra cantrip part of the time is huge.
I don’t think that most people should assume that they’ll get one as part of their build. But, if you’re playing in a campaign where you can pick magic items, it’s a top choice just for the cantrip.
Mending only takes 1 minute.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/mending
You still can’t use it in combat, which does lower the value a bit. But, when you are a half caster anything that can save a spell slot is worth it. Combat frequency will vary by DM, so it’s less useful for parties that have one combat per day or get a short rest between each battle. I often have multiple fights in the same adventure site in games I run, where characters have at least a few minutes between combat. A lot of dungeons and adventure sites follow that pattern too.
And, Mending works on your Homunculus. Even though the Homunculus competes with the Eldritch Cannon over the use of your bonus action, there are a lot of circumstances where it would be useful to an Artillerist. I’ve had mine drop rocks in another location to distract the enemy before we attacked, and it gave me a healing potion when I was unconscious (since they can take any action when the Artillerist is incapacitated). They also have a weak attack as an extra option for when you have your Protector cannon out, or if you are conserving spell slots.
The Homunculus is less likely to be active in combat and is less likely to survive a hit anyway, so I admit that’s an edge case use. And you’re right that an Artillerist could get by with only Damage cantrips. Mending is nice to have though, even if you go the High Elf / Magic Initiate / All Purpose Tool routes that others have pointed out.
By popular request, here is a much more in depth look at this build level by level. I commented on each level and gave one of the following ratings:
Great - you’re much better than a Pure Artillerist (PA).
Good - you make better use of your Artillerist features, but you lose some utility elsewhere.
OK - you’re missing a strong feature, and the Wizard benefits only help somewhat.
Bad - you’re missing out on a very strong feature, and the Wizard benefits don't make up for it.
Just looking at levels 6 through 14, this build is great. You do miss out on strong features at 9 and 11, but you have some qualities that help mitigate things, and there are many levels where you are better off than a PA. The most common trade off is more spellcasting power at the cost of delaying support abilities.
However, starting at level 15 the benefits that you get from your Wizard class do a lot less to help. Level 17 is going to hurt, and at level 20 you will be way behind. I don't believe that many campaigns get to these levels, but it is worth considering it, and checking with your group to see if it's likely.
The Artillerist is better off sticking to Artificer spells as much as possible. This combination is actually better suited to other forms of Artificer to make them a bit more magical (if that's your preferred flavor).
it's kind of like dealing with a warlock. yes you can take other classes. you can give it more cantrips and such. But it's just not going to compare to their ability to use their select chosen cantrips from main class. EB for Warlocks, or in the Case for the Artillerist actually a wide list of actually quite a number of nice cantrips to choose from. Many of which are actually getting an extra level tier upgrade to their damage thanks to the arcane firearms d8 damage which is one of the most common damage die sizes for cantrips. When considering things other than Cantrips that d8 is still valuable because the way the power is written (the fact that it says one of the spells damage rolls instead of a single target affected)
in most instances your Eldritch Cannon is actually going to make up for that spell slot that your gaining by going with 1 or more wizard levels instead. 2d8 doesn't sound like a lot. But considering that one of them is force damage at a decently long range with a potential for pushback that damage is going to add up over time and allow for some minor battlefield control.
Also people shouldn't under estimate some of the spells the Artillerist gets. Ice Storm and Wall of Fire are both fairly strong spells. They still work well as battlefield control spells even at high level and their damage is actually decently solid for the level of spell that they are and when you get them.
The Earlier you get a couple of upgrades that the Artillerist actually gets the more useful they are going to be to you as well. Such as the extra die of damage that they will do at 9th level (Effectively the same damage as casting many cantrips at 11th level). or even having the ability to get 2 of them out if you get high enough level that can serve Either the same purpose with two times the potential power or serve in two different capacities.
The spell book and ritual spells also is not something that you can only get through picking up a class level delaying your artificer and Artillerist features. you can pick it up through feats and the like and the feat has some advantages and disadvantages to taking it as an alternative route. namely that there are a lot more ritual spells that you can actually pick up than the wizard can pick up on their own which actually improves the feature over the class level. The same actually goes for additional cantrips and the like as well which could potentially give you the benefit of being able to use the arcane firearm ability on them to boost them as well if you desire. These are very viable options since the Artificer for the most part is Single Attribute Dependent leaving you more variety in what you can do with your ASI's overall. While some come to the conclusion that being such makes ASI's a bit less important that is not necessarily the case.
Talking about the damage increase of cantrips purely as part of leveling is also kind of mis-informative. These are going to go up regardless so they aren't a pro or con for either side of deciding whether the multiclass is worth it or not since they are going to increase regardless with the situation that we're talking about. The same holds true for the proficiency increases. if a level is going to be a bad trade without these things being included it's simply a bad trade. it's not redeemed by something your going to get whether you make the trade or not.
And while There is some complaint and the idea seems to have been started in this thread over casting the same cantrip over and over again. other spell casters do this as well for a variety of reasons and many players do exactly this despite having a larger pool to choose form in general at an earlier level, Which weakens the need for the increase as an argument in some respects and might give weight to other ways to gain additional cantrips in other respects. Artificer is still the best choice for someone to take the Artificer Initiate Feat despite the way that it is worded and addresses to some degree a couple of issues with the Artificer class just as one example.
I noted the cantrip damage boosts and proficiency bonus increases with ‘=‘ equal signs to show that they are the same as the normal Artillerist. Since you get Artificer features late and spell slots early, it’s notable that cantrips and proficiency keep pace. They are neither better nor worse in that respect. At best, they can make the other losses at certain levels a bit less painful.
I agree that Feats are options you can use to get cantrips and wizard rituals without multiclassing, but they also have a cost. An Artillerist who takes Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster will be 8 levels behind on ASIs, whereas the Artificer with one level of Wizard will only be one level behind on ASIs. An Artificer who gets a cantrip through the High Elf racial feature misses out on the chance to take an extra feat at level 1 through variant human or custom lineage. Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Mobile, Alert, Lucky, or just getting +2 to int are all available to the multiclassed Artillerist. It’s just a different tradeoff.
One last point is that feats can’t ever get you more uses of your Eldritch Cannon or more spells cast using high level spell slots. No feat is going to come close to giving you a first level spell slot and three third level spell slots at level eight. The extra prepared spells and spellbook are nice benefits, and the cantrips add a lot to an Artillerist as well, but the spell slots are adding a ton to this build.
Having more spell slots is huge. Starting out as a spellcaster is painful because you can only cast a couple of spells a day at first level. As you level up, it feels great to be able to use spells more freely. Having access to higher level spells is important as well, but the raw number of spell slots you have access to makes a big difference. As a half caster, getting more spell slots takes twice as long. Paladins, Rangers, Battle Masters, and Armorers all have weapons and an extra attack to make up for their slower spell slot progression. Artillerists are fully spellcasters, but they are stuck with fewer spell slots for longer than any other spellcaster class. Getting those extra spell slots early gives you that good feeling of being able to cast more spells, sooner. That’s the shortcut.