Getting ready to build an artificer. I’ve never played as or with one in 5e so I’m curious to hear some feedback on it.
I was very interested in battle smith but we already have a war cleric and a moon Druid. The other two party members haven’t picked yet. With that info, I’m guessing battle smith may be adding too much melee unless the other guys pick ranged characters.
So...pluses/minuses? Tips? Do they hold up well with the established classes? At the end of the day, most important question, is it fun?
There's absolutely no reason a battlesmith has to be a melee character. In point of fact, their Returning Weapon and Repeating Shot infusions allow them to do very well as ranged attackers. My own battlesmith currently uses a Returning Weapon'd javelin; that allows her to shift fluidly between melee and range as the situation dictates, since the javelin is equally useful in both.
You have to be very careful with your spell slots and extremely choosy with your cantrips, but depending on how your campaign handles tool proficiencies and how stingy your DM is with magic gear, artificers range from decently okay to pretty excellent. They're never great at combat, but clever play lets them pull a lot of cool utility work. They start shining at later levels, your Tier 1 play is kind of a slog, but once you start breaking into 6th level or higher, it starts pulling together nicely.
If your DM allows firearms, Repeating Shot is extremely useful. Returning Weapon isn't super powerful, it is best to give to a spear or dagger. Monks will appreciate these weapons, if your party has one. Battle Smith will actually improve the melee abilities of your other party members, deflecting attacks against them, eventually helping heal them, and so on. I wholly recommend Battle Smith. if you want to be ranged, it is good, but Artillerist is better at blasting.
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Thanks. Looks like I probably won’t be playing it. DM feels infusions are too powerful and wants to limit them by forcing a skill check to see if they’re successful. I feel like that severely nerfs an artificer as it makes their primary ability sometimes unusable.
Your DM sounds pretty terrible, to be honest. As a DM myself I would never nerf anything. In fact, I am more likely to buff things because I think most of the fun in the game comes from being powerful and having the ability to have a meaningful impact on the world around you.
Plus, the more powerful the players are, the more powerful the enemies get to be ;)
To be fair, that sounds more like the DM might just not want Artificers to be a part of their campaign world, and that's entirely valid. I'd recommend you simply talk to your DM, and ask them if that's the case. If they don't want to deal with Artificers in their world, or if having them exist would be contrary to the world theme, that's their call. You'd both end up happier in the long run by making a character that meshes with the world.
If their issue is just with the way the class itself functions, then there might be a broader underlying problem.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
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Hey all.
Getting ready to build an artificer. I’ve never played as or with one in 5e so I’m curious to hear some feedback on it.
I was very interested in battle smith but we already have a war cleric and a moon Druid. The other two party members haven’t picked yet. With that info, I’m guessing battle smith may be adding too much melee unless the other guys pick ranged characters.
So...pluses/minuses? Tips? Do they hold up well with the established classes? At the end of the day, most important question, is it fun?
There's absolutely no reason a battlesmith has to be a melee character. In point of fact, their Returning Weapon and Repeating Shot infusions allow them to do very well as ranged attackers. My own battlesmith currently uses a Returning Weapon'd javelin; that allows her to shift fluidly between melee and range as the situation dictates, since the javelin is equally useful in both.
You have to be very careful with your spell slots and extremely choosy with your cantrips, but depending on how your campaign handles tool proficiencies and how stingy your DM is with magic gear, artificers range from decently okay to pretty excellent. They're never great at combat, but clever play lets them pull a lot of cool utility work. They start shining at later levels, your Tier 1 play is kind of a slog, but once you start breaking into 6th level or higher, it starts pulling together nicely.
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If your DM allows firearms, Repeating Shot is extremely useful. Returning Weapon isn't super powerful, it is best to give to a spear or dagger. Monks will appreciate these weapons, if your party has one. Battle Smith will actually improve the melee abilities of your other party members, deflecting attacks against them, eventually helping heal them, and so on. I wholly recommend Battle Smith. if you want to be ranged, it is good, but Artillerist is better at blasting.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Thanks. Looks like I probably won’t be playing it. DM feels infusions are too powerful and wants to limit them by forcing a skill check to see if they’re successful. I feel like that severely nerfs an artificer as it makes their primary ability sometimes unusable.
That's unacceptable. That's like making a cleric have to make an arcana or religion check before every spell they cast, or channel divinity they use.
Might be time to get a new DM, or talk to them about how you can't just nerf key parts of classes.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Your DM sounds pretty terrible, to be honest. As a DM myself I would never nerf anything. In fact, I am more likely to buff things because I think most of the fun in the game comes from being powerful and having the ability to have a meaningful impact on the world around you.
Plus, the more powerful the players are, the more powerful the enemies get to be ;)
Check out my Homebrew Magic Items
To be fair, that sounds more like the DM might just not want Artificers to be a part of their campaign world, and that's entirely valid. I'd recommend you simply talk to your DM, and ask them if that's the case. If they don't want to deal with Artificers in their world, or if having them exist would be contrary to the world theme, that's their call. You'd both end up happier in the long run by making a character that meshes with the world.
If their issue is just with the way the class itself functions, then there might be a broader underlying problem.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.