What I have found is that some items, like the Necklace of Prayer Beads are obviously intended for Divine casters, so allowing an Artificer to attune to it by default wouldn't make sense. Items like the Staff of Charming explicitly include classes that could be considered "Full Casters".
I couldn't find a single item that was intended for arcane half-casters that didn't explicitly call out "Spellcasters" as a universal term, which was used for items like the Pearl of Power from the Basic Rules.
Ergo, I see no reason to make any changes for the Artificer.
What I have found is that some items, like the Necklace of Prayer Beads are obviously intended for Divine casters, so allowing an Artificer to attune to it by default wouldn't make sense. Items like the Staff of Charming explicitly include classes that could be considered "Full Casters".
I couldn't find a single item that was intended for arcane half-casters that didn't explicitly call out "Spellcasters" as a universal term, which was used for items like the Pearl of Power from the Basic Rules.
Ergo, I see no reason to make any changes for the Artificer.
Something like the Staff of Power
Where it calls out specific classes but it was before Artificer was out.
As far as I know there is no such thing as an arcane half-caster that isn't an artificer?
As a DM, I'd be willing to allow artificers to attune to items that can only be attuned to by Arcane Spellcasters (Wizards, Sorcerers). But then again, every item is different. Whenever the issue would come up, I'd make the decision in the moment.
When I said "Half-caster" I was also rolling in sub-classes like the Eldritch Knight Fighter, which is technically a "Third-Caster" or whatever. The point being, there is a category of casting classes in the Basic Rules that are actively excluded from those lists.
A Full Caster with a Magic Staff reinforces their party role. However, if a martial or hybrid class had access to a Magic Staff, it would dramatically increase their versatility and step on the toes of other classes. The Artificer should definitely have a feature to overcome attunement limitations, but it shouldn't be free.
Level 14 is pretty much end game, so Magic Item Savant probably doesn't come into play the way it should. If a player wanted to address that, I'd probably offer to add a "Magic Item Novice" feature at level 6. For example:
"The Artificer can attempt to ignore requirements when attuning to a magic item. To do so, the Artificer makes an intelligence check against a DC according to the items rarity:
Common DC 15
Uncommon DC 17
Rare DC 19
Very Rare DC 21
Legendary DC 25
Artifacts can not be decieved this way.
The artificer must succeed on this check every 24 hours to remain attuned. Failure prevents the artificer from attuning to the item again until a Long Rest is taken."
Or, attunement could act like concentration. If the Artificer takes damage, or gets distracted, they would make a concentration check to remain attuned.
So, there are items that have a specific list of classes that can attune to them that came out before the Artificer.
Is there an official rule on which of these they can use? If not how would you rule on attunement on class specific attunement on pre-artificer items?
Anything that a wizard can attune to?
Nothing until they get to level 14 and get magic item savant?
Something else?
The "official rule" is that whatever the item says can attune to it is what can attune to it, unless a specific artificer feature overrides it.
I did a fairly comprehensive search of the magic item database, so here are few examples of items with a specific list that excludes the artificer:
Mizzium Apparatus (Ravnica)
Necklace of Prayer Beads (Basic Rules)
Staff of Charming (Basic Rules) ***
Staff of Healing (Basic Rules)
Rod of Resurrection (Dungeon Master's Guide)
What I have found is that some items, like the Necklace of Prayer Beads are obviously intended for Divine casters, so allowing an Artificer to attune to it by default wouldn't make sense. Items like the Staff of Charming explicitly include classes that could be considered "Full Casters".
I couldn't find a single item that was intended for arcane half-casters that didn't explicitly call out "Spellcasters" as a universal term, which was used for items like the Pearl of Power from the Basic Rules.
Ergo, I see no reason to make any changes for the Artificer.
Something like the Staff of Power
Where it calls out specific classes but it was before Artificer was out.
As far as I know there is no such thing as an arcane half-caster that isn't an artificer?
As a DM, I'd be willing to allow artificers to attune to items that can only be attuned to by Arcane Spellcasters (Wizards, Sorcerers). But then again, every item is different. Whenever the issue would come up, I'd make the decision in the moment.
When I said "Half-caster" I was also rolling in sub-classes like the Eldritch Knight Fighter, which is technically a "Third-Caster" or whatever. The point being, there is a category of casting classes in the Basic Rules that are actively excluded from those lists.
A Full Caster with a Magic Staff reinforces their party role. However, if a martial or hybrid class had access to a Magic Staff, it would dramatically increase their versatility and step on the toes of other classes. The Artificer should definitely have a feature to overcome attunement limitations, but it shouldn't be free.
Level 14 is pretty much end game, so Magic Item Savant probably doesn't come into play the way it should. If a player wanted to address that, I'd probably offer to add a "Magic Item Novice" feature at level 6. For example:
"The Artificer can attempt to ignore requirements when attuning to a magic item. To do so, the Artificer makes an intelligence check against a DC according to the items rarity:
Common DC 15
Uncommon DC 17
Rare DC 19
Very Rare DC 21
Legendary DC 25
Artifacts can not be decieved this way.
The artificer must succeed on this check every 24 hours to remain attuned. Failure prevents the artificer from attuning to the item again until a Long Rest is taken."
Or, attunement could act like concentration. If the Artificer takes damage, or gets distracted, they would make a concentration check to remain attuned.