Ginny Di posted a video several months ago focused on Artificers and the bad rap they get for "ruining" the immersion or concept of a setting in many games. She discussed some ways that artificer class and subclass abilities could be re-flavored to fit into a higher fantasy setting without making a DM worry that their player would try to invent gunpowder or war robots and mess with the setting they had already created, which I loved as someone who firmly believes that the mechanics of a class should be allowed to be used for a character concept that might classically make more sense with another class (eg. my spores druid who is a priest/cleric of the goddess of death in his world despite having no levels in cleric–no real connection to nature or fungus or anything you might typically expect from a spores druid). It got me thinking about how I would use each of the artificer subclasses to create a character that felt completely different from the most common conception of an artificer. My mind first went to Brennan Lee Mulligan's Cinderella from Dimension 20's Neverafter and her glass armor, which lead to the creation of Nikhil Korai, an Earth Genasi glassblowing-apprentice-turned-criminal (rogue flavor) who stole a set of enchanted glass armor from his former glassblowing master. Naturally, he's an armorer artificer primarily using the infiltrator armor, which functions by magically refracting light around his body to obscure him. He's working to learn more about how the armor's enchantments work and hopefully upgrade it himself in the future, and for now he uses the small amount of magic and crafting he knows to eke out a living while avoiding the authorities and his former master.
What are your higher-fantasy artificer concepts that could fit into a game where a "firearm" needs to be extinguished in a bucket of water and "automaton" might be met with a "bless you"?
(Copied from a reply I posted below): I definitely agree with the general idea that there's no obligation to go steampunk/industrial and that the magic flavor is there! I was less trying to start a discussion about how it fits into fantasy and more just asking to see if anyone had any particularly fun re-skins they wanted to share of an arcane armor set/steel defender/eldritch cannon or unique flavor for casting/infusing as a more arcane than technical artificer :)
Generally speaking you just play up the magic side of the class with what would typically be the product of mechanical engineering and chemistry being the result of enchanting and alchemy instead. Armorers and Artillerists do their stuff by etching magic runes onto equipment, and a Battle Smith's pet is a golem or similar case of a solid mass of material being animated rather than having joints, seams, and internal mechanisms.
My artificer just makes high fantasy magic items - they express their magic by putting it in things - potions, scrolls, armor, weapons, trinkets, etc. They don't have a gun and won't. They just like making things and they cast through things they make.
The class is really a half-casting wizard with armor proficiency and thieves' tools, and you can make your own Bag of Holding at level 2 (does it get any more high fantasy than that?). Magical tinkering gives you a free camera from the get-go. It fits fine into high fantasy and there's no obligation to steampunk it.
I definitely agree with the general idea that there's no obligation to go steampunk/industrial and that the magic flavor is there! I was less trying to start a discussion about how it fits into fantasy and more just asking to see if anyone had any particularly fun re-skins they wanted to share of an arcane armor set/steel defender/eldritch cannon or unique flavor for casting/infusing as a more arcane than technical artificer :)
It often helps to keep Clarke’s comment that any sufficiently advanced technology is tantamount to magic in mind. The artificer may be creating “technlogy” but to everyone else it’s simply magic. Think “ a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” .
It often helps to keep Clarke’s comment that any sufficiently advanced technology is tantamount to magic in mind. The artificer may be creating “technlogy” but to everyone else it’s simply magic. Think “ a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” .
I sometimes think that Pratchett’s corollary - any sufficiently advanced magic will look like technology - is at least as applicable to the Artificer.
While artificers have been given a heavy steampunk styling in character art—including the official art—you don’t have to make them that way.
My artificer is styled as a half-elven craftsman who’s straightforwardly Tolkienesque. His day job is, well, being a smith and craftsman. Since the Ten Towns are in eternal night right now, he’s naturally had to give up his day jobhttps://vidmate****/ .
Ginny Di posted a video several months ago focused on Artificers and the bad rap they get for "ruining" the immersion or concept of a setting in many games. She discussed some ways that artificer class and subclass abilities could be re-flavored to fit into a higher fantasy setting without making a DM worry that their player would try to invent gunpowder or war robots and mess with the setting they had already created, which I loved as someone who firmly believes that the mechanics of a class should be allowed to be used for a character concept that might classically make more sense with another class (eg. my spores druid who is a priest/cleric of the goddess of death in his world despite having no levels in cleric–no real connection to nature or fungus or anything you might typically expect from a spores druid). It got me thinking about how I would use each of the artificer subclasses to create a character that felt completely different from the most common conception of an artificer. My mind first went to Brennan Lee Mulligan's Cinderella from Dimension 20's Neverafter and her glass armor, which lead to the creation of Nikhil Korai, an Earth Genasi glassblowing-apprentice-turned-criminal (rogue flavor) who stole a set of enchanted glass armor from his former glassblowing master. Naturally, he's an armorer artificer primarily using the infiltrator armor, which functions by magically refracting light around his body to obscure him. He's working to learn more about how the armor's enchantments work and hopefully upgrade it himself in the future, and for now he uses the small amount of magic and crafting he knows to eke out a living while avoiding the authorities and his former master.
What are your higher-fantasy artificer concepts that could fit into a game where a "firearm" needs to be extinguished in a bucket of water and "automaton" might be met with a "bless you"?
(Copied from a reply I posted below): I definitely agree with the general idea that there's no obligation to go steampunk/industrial and that the magic flavor is there! I was less trying to start a discussion about how it fits into fantasy and more just asking to see if anyone had any particularly fun re-skins they wanted to share of an arcane armor set/steel defender/eldritch cannon or unique flavor for casting/infusing as a more arcane than technical artificer :)
Generally speaking you just play up the magic side of the class with what would typically be the product of mechanical engineering and chemistry being the result of enchanting and alchemy instead. Armorers and Artillerists do their stuff by etching magic runes onto equipment, and a Battle Smith's pet is a golem or similar case of a solid mass of material being animated rather than having joints, seams, and internal mechanisms.
My artificer just makes high fantasy magic items - they express their magic by putting it in things - potions, scrolls, armor, weapons, trinkets, etc. They don't have a gun and won't. They just like making things and they cast through things they make.
The class is really a half-casting wizard with armor proficiency and thieves' tools, and you can make your own Bag of Holding at level 2 (does it get any more high fantasy than that?). Magical tinkering gives you a free camera from the get-go. It fits fine into high fantasy and there's no obligation to steampunk it.
I definitely agree with the general idea that there's no obligation to go steampunk/industrial and that the magic flavor is there! I was less trying to start a discussion about how it fits into fantasy and more just asking to see if anyone had any particularly fun re-skins they wanted to share of an arcane armor set/steel defender/eldritch cannon or unique flavor for casting/infusing as a more arcane than technical artificer :)
It often helps to keep Clarke’s comment that any sufficiently advanced technology is tantamount to magic in mind. The artificer may be creating “technlogy” but to everyone else it’s simply magic. Think “ a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” .
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I sometimes think that Pratchett’s corollary - any sufficiently advanced magic will look like technology - is at least as applicable to the Artificer.
I can accept that
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
While artificers have been given a heavy steampunk styling in character art—including the official art—you don’t have to make them that way.
My artificer is styled as a half-elven craftsman who’s straightforwardly Tolkienesque. His day job is, well, being a smith and craftsman. Since the Ten Towns are in eternal night right now, he’s naturally had to give up his day job https://vidmate****/ .