TOOL PROFICIENCY and ARTILLERIST SPELLS. These are fine. Some really good, blasty-type spells here. Shield is great. Windfall is meh. Fireball is a staple & Wall of Force is great.
ELDRITCH CANNON. Overall, great. I very much like the improvement of being able to choose which option every time you activate it. Having to choose only one option when you make it wasn't great. Couple points of order here though: they give no movement speed for the stat block. One assumes it can move, as the description calls for you to choose wheels or legs. I'd think you should be able to order it to move up to 30 feet, keeping it within 60 feet of yourself, as part of the same bonus action required to activate it. It'd be even better if it could acquire a fly speed at later levels. Another point for clarification: I assume the independent moving cannon is the Small sized one. Does the Tiny version have to be carried on your character's person? In hand? Or maybe a shoulder mount like the Predator? And if it's carried by you, does it get half cover for an AC bonus if it's targeted by enemies?
ARCANE FIREARM. This is fine.
EXPLOSIVE CANNON. I'd like the option to detonate the cannon anytime you want- not just when it's been reduced to 0 hp. That way, you have agency over when or if to use the feature, instead of having to hope enemies hit it- or hitting it yourself. Otherwise, this is a decent feature. Damage/temp hp increases. Good deal.
FORTIFIED POSITION. Good feature. No complaints or suggestions.
TOOL PROFICIENCY & BATTLE SMITH SPELLS. These are fine. A good spell list.
BATTLE READY. A good feature.
STEEL DEFENDER. Pretty good. I'd like to see it's AC be higher, both for better survivability, as well as for thematics (it is, after all, a STEEL defender.) The Artillerist's cannon has an AC of 18. I think that'd be fair for the steel defender, too. Otherwise, no complaints. I like it.
EXTRA ATTACK. great.
ARCANE JOLT. Really like this.
IMPROVED DEFENDER. Good deal. With my plan, the +2 AC makes it have a 20 AC. I don't think that's too much, considering it's level 15. Everything looks good for this feature.
As many have already mentioned, I think the Battle Smith should get to use it's equipped weapon as a spellcasting focus. It's bizarre that they'd specifically make a feature for the Armorer that makes their armor a focus. And the Artillerist gets their rod, staff, or wand. Alchemist gets no special focus, but they are basically the caster subclass and should have no problem holding their tools as a focus. Give the Smith a weapon for a focus.
If you plan it out you can have a total of 52 to 56 spell slots at a time at level 19. 6 enspelled armor level 1 shield spell
6 enspelled staff level 3 spells
6 enspelled weapon level 3 spell
10 spell-storing item on weapon level 3
1-5 spell-storing ring level varies
1 spellwrought tattoo (uncommon) level 3
1 spell refueling ring level 3
15 regular spell slots
6 drain magic item level 2
total 52-56 spell slots. You are limited in spell level on the enspelled armor because you can only have 3 rare items at a time so the spell-storing ring, enspelled staff, enspelled weapon are all rare while the rest are uncommon. You are also not restricted by the artificers spell list for the spellwrought tattoo, enspelled items and the spell-storing ring. You can literally cast spells every turn for 5 minutes straight.
General Observations (as an Armorer Enthusiast, but mostly avoiding subclasses for now)
Magical Tinkering is awful. My level 1 ability is the ability to say 1-5 times a day that I really did buy a thing that isn't on my inventory? Really? That's it? No level 1 magic items, not even Prestidigitation level ones? "DESIGN NOTE: ... Magical Tinkering now allows the Artificer to craft low-cost items quickly." Give me the option to pay the crafting cost and make it permanent and then it feel like quick crafting. This is not crafting low-cost items and it doesn't feel magical at all. It will be a waste of space by level 2. If you want to simplify the current Magical Tinkering, giving Prestidigitation an Mending would be better, in my opinion.
It appears that because of the change from creating Infusions to creating Magical Items, they dropped the language of using an infused item as a spellcasting focus. The Artificer needs it back. Replicate Magic Item is mostly a name change. The items are no more permanent than before. Artificers need the ability to use a replicated magical item that they created as a spellcasting focus.
Right Tool for the Job takes an action instead of an hour. Meh. It's still an improvement, but doesn't give you proficiency and what are you going to do with Artisan's Tools before they poof in an hour?
Starting at 6th level, the number of infusions/magic item plans known has been cut down. It drops to 2/3rds the original by level 18+.
Losing Tool Expertise was expected. Replacing it with Drain Magic Item is reminiscent of the 3.5e abilities, but draining one of your creations to cast a spell seems like a very different flavor than the original ability. It's useful and I'll take it, but I wish it was about draining magic items to create new ones.
Flash of Genius triggering on a fail will draw out the limited uses.
Magic Item Adept lost the crafting speed and cost discounts for common and uncommon items!
Spell-Storing Item including 3rd level spells is pretty wild. You don't have 4th level spells yet and you can potentially cast Haste 10 times a day?
Magic Item Savant lost the ability to ignore class, race, spell, and level requirements on attuning or using a magic item!
Level 19 ASI changed to an Epic Boon was expected.
Soul of Artifice leaves you at 20 HP instead of 1 when you use it to cheat death. Note that it disintegrates an item you created rather than just ending the infusion. The other effect changes a bonus to saving throws from up to +6 to giving you a +1D6 to any ability checks once per turn. I'm not a fan, but maybe others are.
Magic Items lost as options?
Arcane Propulsion Armor (might be deliberate due to similarity to Armorer's sub-class feature)
Armor of Magical Strength
Armor +2 (Very Rare Item)
Arcane Propulsion Arm (Very Rare item)
Belts of Giant Strength above Hill Giant (Very Rare to Legendary items)
Magic Item Changes
Armor +1 now requires level 6.
Resistant Armor renamed to Armor of Resistance
Ring of Water Walking now requires level 10.
Ventilating Lungs now requires level 14.
Spells (See Design Notes: Spell List for additions.)
Homunculus Servant I feel is okay. It's a ritual spell so it doesn't need to use a Plan Known. I would prefer if the spell component cost was reduced (maybe halved?) and if it had the familiar pocket dimension ability. (Pocket Dimension if I it's either or). As a spell, any feature that lets you take level 2+ spells from other classes can pick up this spell. Homunculus Stats:
HP went from 1 + your Int modifier + Artificer Level to 5 + 5 per spell level (max HP went from 26 to 30). Max hit dice dropped from 20 to 5 (max spell level).
Passive Perception Dropped to 10, losing your proficiency bonus. Not proficient in any skills.
No longer understands languages. Picks up 1 mile telepathy with you.
Force Strike can also be a melee attack. Damage changed from 1d4 plus proficiency bonus to 1d6 plus spell level (max level it goes from 7-10 to 6-11).
Magical Bond...? It has a proficiency bonus equal to yours... but it adds the spell level to an ability checks it makes. How does that work? When you make a Force Strike attack, do you add your spell attack modifier, plus your proficiency bonus, plus the spell's level (2-5)?
As someone who plays an Artificer to craft and use a large amount of magical items, I really don't like the changes to Magic Item Adept and Magic Item Savant. In 3.5, I loved having crazy Use Magic Device to pull off magic item shenanigans and this feels like an unnecessary change. I haven't dived into the subclasses yet (I want to look at the Juggernaut armor), but I feel like this is UA was either prepared by someone who doesn't like Artificers or deliberately scaled back with the thought that it is easier to buff than to nerf from the playtest version.
I think there are some nice changes, but there are also significant changes that limit the Artificer's ability to actually artifice.
Battle Master needs Weapon Masteries, and the ability to use a weapon as a spell focus rather than their tinker tools.
I disagree. College of Valor doesn't get Weapon Masteries. I think we will see this as a consistent pattern; Weapon Masteries are handed out by base class and Artificer doesn't warrant it. Wizards don't either and when the Bladesinger is updated, I expect that they will not have Weapon Masteries. If you want Weapon Masteries, there is a feat for it.
I do agree about the spell focus, but only with a magic weapon. It might also be nice to be able to change the damage to Force (to align with the Steel Defender's Rend). It would be nice if they picked up an extra weapon plan/item like the Armorer does with armor. I am not sure how I feel about trading Arcane Jolt for it though. Replacing one attack action attack, like the College of Valor and Eldritch Knight abilities) with a cantrip could also be an option. Might be interesting if the Steel Defender could use a reaction to deliver a touch spell - gives it offensive and defensive options for the reaction.
Edit: Updated to add that we lost the ability to replicate +2 Armor since it is a Very Rare item.
RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB. This is okayyyy... but what would be much cooler is a magical multi-tool. Like the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. Just give the Arti the ability to Bonus Action change whatever tools they are holding into any other set of tools they have proficiency with.
I feel like as soon as you find an All-purpose Tool, this is useless. Also, what are you going to do with your artisan tools in an hour? Some of the artisan tools can be pricey, but would it be problematic to allow the magical crafting class to summon crafting tools and other odds and ends that last until you finish a long rest at first level? Access to mundane gear in order to do mundane tasks seems underwhelming as a class ability.
MAGIC ITEM SAVANT and MAGIC ITEM MASTER. These are fine.
These lost the crafting speed and cost changes (Magic Item Adept) and the ability to ignore many of the attunement restrictions on magic items (Magic Item Savant). I think this is a notable nerf to these features.
The fact that they didn't completely revamp that feature tells me that they are quite tone deaf to the community.
But, but... They SAID it was a complete overhaul! They SAID it, so it has to be true! (Yeah, the Alchemist's Experimental Elixir needs a complete revamp, aka an ACTUAL overhaul. What they did was a slight buff to number of free uses, and then decreased the number of elixir options for a CHANCE to get to choose which one you want. The table needs to be greatly expanded - at least a d12, and the Alchemist needs to be able to choose ALL of their results if they want to - random results can still be a thing for those who like to live dangerously.)
STEEL DEFENDER. Pretty good. I'd like to see it's AC be higher.
The fact that it's called a STEEL Defender, but it has the AC of Wood or Bone is ridiculous. The Rules Glossary shows us the listed AC for Object Materials. Instead, it has the equivalent AC of wearing just Breastplate (14 + 1 from Dex). Does that suggest the rest of the STEEL Defender is exposed paper mache and leather scraps?
TL:DR - They're really not fine, they're very much nerfed to oblivion!
Magic Item Adept used to allow an Artificer to make stuff in quarter of the time, and for half the cost. They completely got rid of this, with NO replacement - it's a straight up nerf!
Oh, sure, each Subclass can now make SOME item types in half the time, for the same cost. But that's still a massive nerf in flexibility, time and cost!
Magic Item Savant used to allow an Artificer to ignore most, if not all, Attunement restrictions. They completely got rid of this, with NO replacement - it's another straight up nerf!
Yes, both Magic item Adept and Magic Item Savant have a secondary bullet point that expands the Replicate Magic Item feature, but other than the fact you can now replicate Rare Items from Level 14 onwards, these expansions to the Replicate Magic Item feature were already features of the Infuse Item feature of the old Artificer.
Also, they've arbitrarily limited the count of Rare Replications to three, even though you're already limited by how many existing plans you can change per level up. So 14th Level is limited to 2, and 15th Level is limited to 3, assuming you replace an existing plan. Would it really be so game-breaking making a 4th Rare Item at 16th Level, a 5th at 17th Level, and a 6th from 18th Level? At those levels, Rare Items should be almost mundane!)
They gave the Artificer some nice upgrades - Spell Storing Item allowing 3rd Level Spells is great, and Rate Magic Item Replication is great - but then they overall completely nerfed and destroyed the rest of the class, in both features and flavour. Some other minor buffs, mixed with a lot of major nerfs.
Most of the old ones have been made into new magic items (at the end of the document). Arcane Propulsion Armor is gone, though (it still overlaps heavily with the Armorer subclass).
Thanks, I didn't realize that. Makes me a lot less annoyed at the rework, now.
Yes, both Magic item Adept and Magic Item Savant have a secondary bullet point that expands the Replicate Magic Item feature, but other than the fact you can now replicate Rare Items from Level 14 onwards, these expansions to the Replicate Magic Item feature were already features of the Infuse Item feature of the old Artificer.
These second bullet points are pointless. The tables already say at what artificer level you can use them. They serve no point other than to hide that the abilities do less than before.
OK so next attempt at play test was to take the same Battle Smith and make it workable
The trick seems to be Ruby of the War Mage. So if you just treat that as a sort of Battle Smith tax it does work. I have not played that build through all the tiers but my gut feeling is its going to have to be weaker in tier 1 and 2 because you are using one of your Magic Item slots just to replicate what you had anyway before. You can get a Homunculus Servant without using a magic item slot now so that offsets the issue
From level 14+ it seems more powerful due to the basic changes in Artificer. Take your pick of 3 Rare items is crazy powerful. Possibly too powerful. Its not that you will not have rare items by this level in most games but free choice of them allows you to custom craft your combos and to have created a build around them. That is very potent indeed.
To be fair, if you look at things like Descent Into Avernus, the average lvl 11 character will have numerous very rare or even legendary level items. I believe the 3 rare items won't really be cutting it, except for when you have a DM that is really really scarce with magic items in general.
So thinking about it like that, you get about 15k gold worth of items at lvl 14. I believe that, in general, a party of level 14 would be way over that number in terms of gold value. Sure, you can pick your rare items, but most people would be looking at legendary level items at that level, so I don't know if this really holds up compared to what you normally already get.
In my opinion, this artificer just feels like a class that gives some bonuses if your DM is stingy and doesn't award the players with any magic items, but the second you have a DM that does hand out magic items, the whole class instantly falls apart.
Something that should definitely be clarified by future itterations of the Replicate magic item feature is what you do with magic items that have many variations under a single entry. For example, does enspelled weapon (quarterstaff, find familiar) and enspelled weapon (hand crossbow, burning hands) count as a single Plan, or as two Plans, one for each? Similar deal with Armor of Resistance and similar.
Additionally, while i'd be concerned with maybe increasing the potency of infusions first as others have pointed out, if i were WotC i'd probably consider an limitation on the Replicate Magic Item feature to the effect of "you cannot replicate a magic item that allows you to cast spells outside the cleric, druid or wizard spell list", so as to ensure that enterprising artificers cannot simply give their allies an free find steed or one of em new "homunculus servants", while still allowing for decent versatility.
A particular pain point of mine with the artificer has been that has only grown stronger now that each Plan corresponds to a specific magic item is the fact that a given Artificer in some cases is able to infuse / replicate certain magic items without being able to craft them using the normal magic item crafting rules; i'd love an ribbon feature that either makes you ignore the spell prerequisites for crafting a magic item if you have the corresponding Plan for that item, or even just an high- level feature that lets you flat out ignore the spellcasting prerequisites for crafting items (provided that the spells in question are on the cleric, druid or wizard spell list).
I liked tool expertise, it may not fit the games design very much anymore, but i'd still love to have it back
If i am to be completely delusional about my wishlist, a ribbon feature i'd love to see added to the class would be something that maybe allows you to forgo all raw material costs for crafting a magic item (and maybe even reduce the time required to 1/10th normal) by instead sacrificing another permanent item of the same rarity; effectively a fun ribbon that gives the players more agency in what magic items they want, and that lets you convert +1 swords you aren't using anymore into bags of holding or other useful stuff.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
ARMORER SPELLS. These are fine. Magic Missile is good, but maybe Witchbolt would be more thematic. Also, Hypnotic Pattern seems a strange choice here. It's a good spell- and I suppose you could flavor it to fit the theme- but maybe something like Aura of Vitality would be more on brand?
ARCANE ARMOR. This is a good signature feature, and I like that the armor becomes your spellcasting focus. I'd like clarification on how the armor works, though. One assumes that if you have leather armor or scale mail or whatever, that you continue to get the armor bonus of whatever armor you were wearing that has turned into arcane armor. But I wish the feature would explicitly state that. And it should clarify if the attributes and features of any magic armor continue once its been changed into Arcane Armor.
ARMOR MODEL. Overall, very good. 3 good choices that each have their uses. The Dreadnaught is well designed. I was thinking it'd be nice if you weren't pigeon-holed into having an iron ball & chain, but I see how it works thematically with the push/pull mechanic that comes later. The Guardian Armor is good also. The tanking option. But it makes one wish that one of the Armorer spells was Shield. However, perhaps its Defensive Field feature could be altered to function like a Shield spell, instead of yet another Temp HP feature. A Defensive Field to me sounds like something that defends/deflects, rather than restores (like temp hp would). So, how about, as a reaction, it adds your Int Mod as a bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn, and it can be used Int Mod times per long rest? The Infiltrator Armor is fine as is.
EXTRA ATTACK. is always good.
ARMOR REPLICATION is fine. I think it would be helpful if they just listed all the qualifying Replicate Magic Items in this feature. That way, they'd be easy to find, and there'd be no confusion as to which ones are applicable.
PERFECTED ARMOR. Is fine. I think the Dreadnaught increase to damage should be 2d8, instead of 2d6. The Infiltrators Lightning Launcher has an increase to 2d6. I don't think the Dreadnaught should have the same increase as the Infiltrator. It should be bigger. Maybe the Guardian should be a d12, I stead of a d10. Otherwise, I like the features here.
General Armorer:
Make RAW that you can use booming blade etc with the guardian/dreadnaught weapons (i recall they need a weapon with a cost so it is debatable if they a have cost because the armor has cost)
Make it so a player can use all 3 modes effectively. In the current version at least before 2024 feats you could specialize in one of the 2 modes but would almost lock out the unspecialized one (eg sentinel is great for guardian but useless for infiltrator, sharpshooter great for infiltrator useless for guardian).
Some more martial class nudges ? at least in combat we got meh DPR, ok tankiness with shield and the current infusions for +1 shield and +1 armor (we are lvl 7 in our campaign and mobs can have like +8/9 so even my plate +1 and shield +1 can be lacklustre vs advantage (eg pack tactics) or multi-attacks. outside combat the class itself feels decent/good in non-interaction situations thanks to int based skills and tools
Level 9: meh, the only thing I can think of is it may be easier to code for dndbeyond (current version doesnt work anyway)
Level 15: bump the damage numbers a bit more imo. or better yet two-stage dmg/effect bump, one at lvl9 and one at 15.
Dreadnaught:
I was thinking (as im not a fan of the ball/chain) how about the weapon could be any one handed or versatile (but not able to use it with two hands) weapon simple or martial? You choose the weapon on model change or whenever you can change models (so on short/long rest you can swap the weapon only)
Perhaps if on level 3 the weapon options are limited instead of any simple/martial weapon and on 9 you get to use more options?
Alternative: choose one weapon that can be wielded with one hand and lock into that on getting the subclass. At lvl 9 you can replace it by "fusing" a magic item you own (not created by the Replicate magic item feature) into the armor.
Reasoning: coolness factor something like a power rangers megazord sword or from pacific rim where the longsword comes out of the suit's arm ?
More realistic reasoning: at my table I sometimes feel stuck using the thunder gauntlets while our fighter and rogue got magic weapons with a ton of extra damage/utility at level1 (i got a defensive/utility option as the main tank)
Forgo the push/pull parts, maybe instead of that you gain the weapon proficiency and mastery while wielding the special weapon.
level 9 for dreadnaught the weapon is now magical to bypass resistances.
Maybe when you become bigger your damage increases, similar to enlarge/reduce, + something per size increase ? just make the buff limited use/duration
Guardian:
make thunder gauntlets light so we can punch twice without the use of extra attack (not saying we should lose the extra attack) more like a 1-2-1 punch combo. now it feels like the
MCU scene where iron man punches the hulk saying "go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep" but more clunky?
Also would make carrying a shield less mandatory as we would have another playstyle option.
Maybe turn the thunder part more as flavor (keep the disadvantage spreading effect) but is now bludgeoning and bypasses magic immunities at level 9? or we can choose bludgeoning or thunder damage on attack declaration? so we dont get in trouble when we are in guardian mode and the opponents have resistance/immunity to thunder?
Infiltrator:
The description says the gem can be on one hand or the chest, if it is on the chest then why can't the armorer also wield a weapon in both hands?
Otherwise maybe there are two gems, one on each hand, and you can do something more if you use both hands to shoot? (like a ranged-versatile thing?)
Maybe force damage instead of lightning (I dont know whats more commonly resisted, i'd guess lightning)
Level 9 or 15: get fly speed, go full Ironman/mecha
What does having the thrown property even mean for the launchers? they arent thrown, you are not throwing the glove at someone like you would a dagger.
General Artificer:
Bring back: Can use any magic item as spell casting focus (thematic with the new Drain Magic Item as a master of magic gear you can manipulate the magic inside any way you like)
Replicate magic items : should have options not available at DM discretion
Add(or bring back) tool interactions? If so explicit bonuses for when a tool can be used and with what skills.
Homonculus: Not consuming the gem, maybe level 1 spell instead of 2?
Level 20: capstone imo make it back to +1 save throw per magic item created. If the save dc is like 30 at lvl20. (so without the +6 you may need 18 or higher to succeed)
As I have only ever played my current one I can only think that for alchemist remove the randomness entirely from the elixirs. Cant speak for the other 2 subclasses.
Something that should definitely be clarified by future itterations of the Replicate magic item feature is what you do with magic items that have many variations under a single entry. For example, does enspelled weapon (quarterstaff, find familiar) and enspelled weapon (hand crossbow, burning hands) count as a single Plan, or as two Plans, one for each? Similar deal with Armor of Resistance and similar.
That actually brings up a stealth nerf.
UA Artificers have fewer Plans/Infusions known and the list of infusions appears more granular. Previously, Enhanced Defense was one Infusion that could be applied to Armor and Shields and the bonus increased to +2 at level 10. Now, it appears that Armor +1, Armor +2, Shield +1, and Shield +2 are all separate plans and you can only change one plan known when you level up. Separating Armor and Shield is helpful, but the increased bonus should not be a separate plan.
Additionally, while i'd be concerned with maybe increasing the potency of infusions first as others have pointed out, if i were WotC i'd probably consider an limitation on the Replicate Magic Item feature to the effect of "you cannot replicate a magic item that allows you to cast spells outside the cleric, druid or wizard spell list", so as to ensure that enterprising artificers cannot simply give their allies an free find steed or one of em new "homunculus servants", while still allowing for decent versatility.
This would still allow the Find Familiar and other spells with costly material components, right? Homunclulus Servants can be ritual cast without a spell slot (though using your highest spell slot during down time would be ideal) so somehow casting it via a magic item would be fine. I think a restriction on replicating spells with a costly material component would be appropriate.
A particular pain point of mine with the artificer has been that has only grown stronger now that each Plan corresponds to a specific magic item is the fact that a given Artificer in some cases is able to infuse / replicate certain magic items without being able to craft them using the normal magic item crafting rules; i'd love an ribbon feature that either makes you ignore the spell prerequisites for crafting a magic item if you have the corresponding Plan for that item, or even just an high- level feature that lets you flat out ignore the spellcasting prerequisites for crafting items (provided that the spells in question are on the cleric, druid or wizard spell list).
In prior editions, they could use Use Magic Device to craft magic items with requirements that they are missing. In 5e, Use Magic Device was replaced with class features that the Artificer lost in the UA version. They should keep the ability to bypass attunement requirements as they had as of Tasha's and be able to bypass crafting requirements if they can bypass that requirement for attunement. Spellcasting requirements they should be required to meet as normal or be able to meet by expending a spell slot (I don't have access to our DMG right now, but if you normally expend a spell slot and material component while crafting in 5e, the same should be true for the Artificer but the Artificer should be able to essentially fake any spell.)
I liked tool expertise, it may not fit the games design very much anymore, but i'd still love to have it back
Essentially this would be expertise on any skill that you justify using a Tool on. Expertise in Sleight of Hand (for picking locks) or in a choice of certain skills (Sleight of Hand, Arcana, etc.) would be decent substitutes.
If i am to be completely delusional about my wishlist, a ribbon feature i'd love to see added to the class would be something that maybe allows you to forgo all raw material costs for crafting a magic item (and maybe even reduce the time required to 1/10th normal) by instead sacrificing another permanent item of the same rarity; effectively a fun ribbon that gives the players more agency in what magic items they want, and that lets you convert +1 swords you aren't using anymore into bags of holding or other useful stuff.
This is similar to what they could do in 3.5. In 3.5, crafting magic items required time, materials, and experience points. They could drain a magic item to add to a craft reserve (a pool of points that they could instead of expending experience points while crafting).
A 5e iteration would be to, as you said, reduce the GP cost. However, since crafting with their craft reserve has been replaced with Infusions/Replicate Magic Items, it could also be that draining magic items allowed them to increase the number of replicated magic items or that it permanently added the magic item's plan to their known plans (above their limit by class level).
To be fair, if you look at things like Descent Into Avernus, the average lvl 11 character will have numerous very rare or even legendary level items. I believe the 3 rare items won't really be cutting it, except for when you have a DM that is really really scarce with magic items in general.
So thinking about it like that, you get about 15k gold worth of items at lvl 14. I believe that, in general, a party of level 14 would be way over that number in terms of gold value. Sure, you can pick your rare items, but most people would be looking at legendary level items at that level, so I don't know if this really holds up compared to what you normally already get.
At level 14, you get access to replicating rare magic items but you only have new known plan slot plus replacing one known plan. It's not until level 16 that you could potentially learn a 4th rare plan if that restriction was not in place. Also, at least in 2024 the approximate value for a Rare Item is 4,000 GP. By WotC's Awarding Magic Item Guidelines, a level 16 party should have around 18 rare items. Assuming a party of 4, that is about 5 rare items per character (4.5). Rare and higher magic items make up about 37% of the party's magical item wealth and in the next tier, it becomes 53%.
If the artificer is not restricted in the number of rare items they can craft, a level 20 artificer could be sitting at 8 additional rare magical items, hoarded or distributed throughout the party. Assuming they are hoarded (which may not be the most OP scenario) and that awarding magic item guidelines are followed and the items evenly distributed, the artificer could have their rare and higher magic item wealth jump to 56%. Woo. So broken.
In my opinion, this artificer just feels like a class that gives some bonuses if your DM is stingy and doesn't award the players with any magic items, but the second you have a DM that does hand out magic items, the whole class instantly falls apart.
The Artificer's Infusions/Replicate Magic Items are class features and shouldn't be a replacement for appropriate magic item rewards.
I think part of the issue might be this from Awarding Magic Items
The D&D game assumes that magic items appear sporadically and that they are a boon unless an item bears a curse. Characters and monsters are built to face each other without the help of magic items, which means that having a magic item makes a character more powerful or versatile than a generic character of the same level. As DM, you never have to worry about awarding magic items just so the characters can keep up with the campaign’s threats. Magic items are truly prizes—desirable but not necessary.
The DMG is essentially giving GMs permission to not award magic items at all and the Artificer then needs to be balanced against other classes in those scenarios. However, I feel like this is not a representative situation among D&D tables and particularly among published adventures. The 2024 rules even gives you a tracker to make sure you are meeting Magic Item Awards quota. When having access to magic items is less of an issue, when players are encouraged to have a magic item wish list, being the person who brings a few extra magic items to the table is less noteworthy.
Additionally, while i'd be concerned with maybe increasing the potency of infusions first as others have pointed out, if i were WotC i'd probably consider an limitation on the Replicate Magic Item feature to the effect of "you cannot replicate a magic item that allows you to cast spells outside the cleric, druid or wizard spell list", so as to ensure that enterprising artificers cannot simply give their allies an free find steed or one of em new "homunculus servants", while still allowing for decent versatility.
This would still allow the Find Familiar and other spells with costly material components, right? Homunclulus Servants can be ritual cast without a spell slot (though using your highest spell slot during down time would be ideal) so somehow casting it via a magic item would be fine. I think a restriction on replicating spells with a costly material component would be appropriate.
Find steed also does not have a Material component; the element i find problematic here is not the potential to circumvent costly material components, but the fact that any party member can use your infused items and gain access to spells that are intended for paladins only and artificers only, respectively. If a party member attunes to the artificer's infused stick and casts a spell from it once, they might get a permanent fiendish horse or a permanent homunculus servant. Artificer spending an infusion slot to get an Homunculus without paying for it would be completely fine, but the fighter, wizard, rogue and cleric in the party also getting one each is not. Yes the wizard spell lists still contains find familiar, but this has been a problem since TcoE, and besides having a familiar is not supposed to be unique to a single class the way those other two spells are.
Reason i specifically suggested "cleric, druid or wizard" is becuase those are the lists that the 2024 magic initiate and the 2024 bard uses. It seems to be WotC shorthand for "pretty much every spell in the game, except for a few spells that are really important for the identity of individual classes"
A particular pain point of mine with the artificer has been that has only grown stronger now that each Plan corresponds to a specific magic item is the fact that a given Artificer in some cases is able to infuse / replicate certain magic items without being able to craft them using the normal magic item crafting rules; i'd love an ribbon feature that either makes you ignore the spell prerequisites for crafting a magic item if you have the corresponding Plan for that item, or even just an high- level feature that lets you flat out ignore the spellcasting prerequisites for crafting items (provided that the spells in question are on the cleric, druid or wizard spell list).
In prior editions, they could use Use Magic Device to craft magic items with requirements that they are missing. In 5e, Use Magic Device was replaced with class features that the Artificer lost in the UA version. They should keep the ability to bypass attunement requirements as they had as of Tasha's and be able to bypass crafting requirements if they can bypass that requirement for attunement. Spellcasting requirements they should be required to meet as normal or be able to meet by expending a spell slot (I don't have access to our DMG right now, but if you normally expend a spell slot and material component while crafting in 5e, the same should be true for the Artificer but the Artificer should be able to essentially fake any spell.)
two things:
the 14th level feature was at this point a vestigial element from a class that has come quite far in it's flavor since then. I would not expect an modern itteration of the artificer to require an high charisma score becuase the old one needed it for Use Magic Device, i would not expect modern itterations to be described as "something inbetween arcane and divine" rather than just being arcane, it was nice to have the ability to attune to almost anything and it somewhat fit the theme of the class, but it is not really a dealbreaker. The dealbreaker for me is that they cannot craft every single item, and could not even do that in the TCoE version either.
current DMG crafting rules only require you to have certain spells prepared throughout the crafting process. (I don't think expending spell slots during crafting would make sense - it's more of a downtime thing, oh no during one of the 25 days i spent crafting this item i have 1 less spell slot than normal)
If i am to be completely delusional about my wishlist, a ribbon feature i'd love to see added to the class would be something that maybe allows you to forgo all raw material costs for crafting a magic item (and maybe even reduce the time required to 1/10th normal) by instead sacrificing another permanent item of the same rarity; effectively a fun ribbon that gives the players more agency in what magic items they want, and that lets you convert +1 swords you aren't using anymore into bags of holding or other useful stuff.
This is similar to what they could do in 3.5. In 3.5, crafting magic items required time, materials, and experience points. They could drain a magic item to add to a craft reserve (a pool of points that they could instead of expending experience points while crafting).
A 5e iteration would be to, as you said, reduce the GP cost. However, since crafting with their craft reserve has been replaced with Infusions/Replicate Magic Items, it could also be that draining magic items allowed them to increase the number of replicated magic items or that it permanently added the magic item's plan to their known plans (above their limit by class level).
yeah i did kind of get the idea from the 3.5e version, however yeah i do also think that increasing your maximum number of replicated items can cause a lot of unintended issues (especially when combined with the new Magic Item Tinker) and would be a whole lot more cumbersome for the player to track compared to a much simpler "sacrifice an item, get another permanent item". I really don't think it's a good idea to mimic the wizard's pattern of class progression either.
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I share the feelings of a lot of the previous posts, such as firearm proficiency making sense for the most technologically themed class in the game, how losing the ability to freely use any Infused Item as a spell-focus makes life harder for many Artificers, and that (while few ever see it) losing the saving throw buff on Soul of Artifice makes us cry just a little.
Some other thoughts, though.
Magical Tinkering: Maybe making it 'Mundane Tinkering' wasn't the best idea? While having some on-demand basic gear is... nice, I guess, why not make this ACTUAL Magical Tinkering? Let the Artificer create a device that only they can use that replicates any Cantrip from their spell list! How long does it last? An hour, until the feature is used again, until long rest? I dunno. But giving the class the ability to switch a cantrip on the fly would be pretty unique!
Magical Item Replication: I kinda miss Infusions? They felt like a pretty unique feature, rather than "You have more of the same stuff everyone else can probably get". It made Artificers feel like tinkers who staple on magical features to other objects. I'd go even further an have Infusions applicable to any magical item, giving the Artificer the means to "overclock" an item, or add new qualities to it. Also, Infusions felt like Invocations, and that was a plus in my book.
Right Tool for the Job: Eeeeh. I dunno. I'd turn this one around and call it "Right Job for the Tool", and allow the Artificer to gain proficiency in a single Tool item they have as part of a short rest, lasting until they use the feature again. Give Artificers something from a Short Rest, instead of watching their effect durations run out.
Flash of Genius: Having it only available on a fail means that it can no longer help on an open-ended test, like Stealth or certain knowledge or crafty checks where a higher result provide better outcome. Quibble, maybe, but still?
Magic Item (Expert): One of these higher-level features really ought to allow the Artificer to count as any species, class, etc for the purpose of using a magic item. They're supposed to be the masters of any magic items, right?
Alchemist: Please give them a necrotic cantrip for their Alchemical Savant feature? Also, repeating an oft-mentioned request - maybe the Alchemist ought to know what they're doing, and actually select their elixirs each day? Call it 'Elixir Expert' instead. They finished their experiments before graduating from Alchemist University.
Armorer: Allow their special weapons scaling at both level 9 and 15. Have Dreadnaught's Giant Stature just function as Enlarge, with with Bonus Action cast time. And Guardian's Defensive Barrier could use Intelligence modifier plus Artificer level as temporary Hit Points, to make it a bit more helpful at lower levels (compare with a Warlock spamming False Life).
Artillerist: The combined cannon is wonderful! Very lovely change! Now, consider allowing the subclass to carve their Arcane Firearm sigils into any focus-item or weapon, to open up a lot more character concepts. Also, consider making the Protector a 1d6+INT at level 3, and scale it up to 2d6+INT at level 9.
Battlesmith: They really, really need some way to use alternative spell-foci. Otherwise weapon-and-shield, two-handed weapon, and dual wielding using character just have to forgo a lot of spells. Which is sad.
Oh! And, Homunculus Servant really ought to drop their 'core gem' in their square if they get destroyed. I approve of it being a 2nd-level spell, since it puts it out of reach of Magic Initiate shenanigans, but tying a 100gp pricetag to a wee critter with Hit Points less than a hard glare is risky business for any purse!
I may have more thoughts, but these are the ones off the top of my Helm of Brilliance.
EDIT: I knew I had forgotten something! Tied to the way Magic Item Replication now works, a lot of the 2nd-level and 6th-level Infusions are now gated as 10th-level magic items, because of their item type (wondrous, ring, etc). That means some of them come in too late to be as useful, or now compete with much more attractive items.
Also-also? I have no idea what this feature would be, but it would be nice for Artificers to have some use for Short Rests. They don't have Focus Points, or Pact Slots, or Wildshapes... but it really would be nice to see some benefit for Short Resting?
.Also-also? I have no idea what this feature would be, but it would be nice for Artificers to have some use for Short Rests. They don't have Focus Points, or Pact Slots, or Wildshapes... but it really would be nice to see some benefit for Short Resting?
I would suggest that Artificers should be able to change their Infusions on a short rest.
.Also-also? I have no idea what this feature would be, but it would be nice for Artificers to have some use for Short Rests. They don't have Focus Points, or Pact Slots, or Wildshapes... but it really would be nice to see some benefit for Short Resting?
I would suggest that Artificers should be able to change their Infusions on a short rest.
probably a bad idea; one of the things that is so good about artificer infusions (now replicated items) is that items that normally recharge a random amount of charges each dawn can instead be re-infused each long rest, now every single infusion with limited charges comes back on a much shorter basis; starting 10th level you'd be able to give any two party members you'd like a 3rd level spell slot back each short rest (with a gem of power + a spell refueling ring), then get an additional two second level spell slots from Drain Magic Item before you take the rest
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
It shouldn’t take that long if they built the system right, I have created classes in a few hours in foundry, and I’ve even done it in dnd beyond. Some of their creation tools make things harder though.
And making changes to an existing one is easy as well.
As has been noted elsewhere, firearms proficiencies are simply covered by martial ranged weapon proficiency now.
Which would be fine for the Battle Smith, who gets martial weapons with the subclass, but it means that no other Artificers get that proficiency ever, including not Artillerist, who "specializes in using magic to hurl energy, projectiles, and explosions on a battlefield."
I don't think that the use of firearms needs to be tied to having a pet. It makes perfect sense for any Artificer to have proficiency with firearms if they exist in the world.
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ARTILLERIST CRITIQUE
TOOL PROFICIENCY and ARTILLERIST SPELLS. These are fine. Some really good, blasty-type spells here. Shield is great. Windfall is meh. Fireball is a staple & Wall of Force is great.
ELDRITCH CANNON. Overall, great. I very much like the improvement of being able to choose which option every time you activate it. Having to choose only one option when you make it wasn't great. Couple points of order here though: they give no movement speed for the stat block. One assumes it can move, as the description calls for you to choose wheels or legs. I'd think you should be able to order it to move up to 30 feet, keeping it within 60 feet of yourself, as part of the same bonus action required to activate it. It'd be even better if it could acquire a fly speed at later levels. Another point for clarification: I assume the independent moving cannon is the Small sized one. Does the Tiny version have to be carried on your character's person? In hand? Or maybe a shoulder mount like the Predator? And if it's carried by you, does it get half cover for an AC bonus if it's targeted by enemies?
ARCANE FIREARM. This is fine.
EXPLOSIVE CANNON. I'd like the option to detonate the cannon anytime you want- not just when it's been reduced to 0 hp. That way, you have agency over when or if to use the feature, instead of having to hope enemies hit it- or hitting it yourself. Otherwise, this is a decent feature. Damage/temp hp increases. Good deal.
FORTIFIED POSITION. Good feature. No complaints or suggestions.
BATTLE SMITH CRITIQUE.
TOOL PROFICIENCY & BATTLE SMITH SPELLS. These are fine. A good spell list.
BATTLE READY. A good feature.
STEEL DEFENDER. Pretty good. I'd like to see it's AC be higher, both for better survivability, as well as for thematics (it is, after all, a STEEL defender.) The Artillerist's cannon has an AC of 18. I think that'd be fair for the steel defender, too. Otherwise, no complaints. I like it.
EXTRA ATTACK. great.
ARCANE JOLT. Really like this.
IMPROVED DEFENDER. Good deal. With my plan, the +2 AC makes it have a 20 AC. I don't think that's too much, considering it's level 15. Everything looks good for this feature.
As many have already mentioned, I think the Battle Smith should get to use it's equipped weapon as a spellcasting focus. It's bizarre that they'd specifically make a feature for the Armorer that makes their armor a focus. And the Artillerist gets their rod, staff, or wand. Alchemist gets no special focus, but they are basically the caster subclass and should have no problem holding their tools as a focus. Give the Smith a weapon for a focus.
If you plan it out you can have a total of 52 to 56 spell slots at a time at level 19.
6 enspelled armor level 1 shield spell
6 enspelled staff level 3 spells
6 enspelled weapon level 3 spell
10 spell-storing item on weapon level 3
1-5 spell-storing ring level varies
1 spellwrought tattoo (uncommon) level 3
1 spell refueling ring level 3
15 regular spell slots
6 drain magic item level 2
total 52-56 spell slots. You are limited in spell level on the enspelled armor because you can only have 3 rare items at a time so the spell-storing ring, enspelled staff, enspelled weapon are all rare while the rest are uncommon. You are also not restricted by the artificers spell list for the spellwrought tattoo, enspelled items and the spell-storing ring. You can literally cast spells every turn for 5 minutes straight.
General Observations (as an Armorer Enthusiast, but mostly avoiding subclasses for now)
As someone who plays an Artificer to craft and use a large amount of magical items, I really don't like the changes to Magic Item Adept and Magic Item Savant. In 3.5, I loved having crazy Use Magic Device to pull off magic item shenanigans and this feels like an unnecessary change. I haven't dived into the subclasses yet (I want to look at the Juggernaut armor), but I feel like this is UA was either prepared by someone who doesn't like Artificers or deliberately scaled back with the thought that it is easier to buff than to nerf from the playtest version.
I think there are some nice changes, but there are also significant changes that limit the Artificer's ability to actually artifice.
I disagree. College of Valor doesn't get Weapon Masteries. I think we will see this as a consistent pattern; Weapon Masteries are handed out by base class and Artificer doesn't warrant it. Wizards don't either and when the Bladesinger is updated, I expect that they will not have Weapon Masteries. If you want Weapon Masteries, there is a feat for it.
I do agree about the spell focus, but only with a magic weapon. It might also be nice to be able to change the damage to Force (to align with the Steel Defender's Rend). It would be nice if they picked up an extra weapon plan/item like the Armorer does with armor. I am not sure how I feel about trading Arcane Jolt for it though. Replacing one attack action attack, like the College of Valor and Eldritch Knight abilities) with a cantrip could also be an option. Might be interesting if the Steel Defender could use a reaction to deliver a touch spell - gives it offensive and defensive options for the reaction.
Edit: Updated to add that we lost the ability to replicate +2 Armor since it is a Very Rare item.
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I feel like as soon as you find an All-purpose Tool, this is useless. Also, what are you going to do with your artisan tools in an hour? Some of the artisan tools can be pricey, but would it be problematic to allow the magical crafting class to summon crafting tools and other odds and ends that last until you finish a long rest at first level? Access to mundane gear in order to do mundane tasks seems underwhelming as a class ability.
These lost the crafting speed and cost changes (Magic Item Adept) and the ability to ignore many of the attunement restrictions on magic items (Magic Item Savant). I think this is a notable nerf to these features.
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But, but... They SAID it was a complete overhaul! They SAID it, so it has to be true! (Yeah, the Alchemist's Experimental Elixir needs a complete revamp, aka an ACTUAL overhaul. What they did was a slight buff to number of free uses, and then decreased the number of elixir options for a CHANCE to get to choose which one you want. The table needs to be greatly expanded - at least a d12, and the Alchemist needs to be able to choose ALL of their results if they want to - random results can still be a thing for those who like to live dangerously.)
The fact that it's called a STEEL Defender, but it has the AC of Wood or Bone is ridiculous. The Rules Glossary shows us the listed AC for Object Materials. Instead, it has the equivalent AC of wearing just Breastplate (14 + 1 from Dex). Does that suggest the rest of the STEEL Defender is exposed paper mache and leather scraps?
TL:DR - They're really not fine, they're very much nerfed to oblivion!
Magic Item Adept used to allow an Artificer to make stuff in quarter of the time, and for half the cost. They completely got rid of this, with NO replacement - it's a straight up nerf!
Oh, sure, each Subclass can now make SOME item types in half the time, for the same cost. But that's still a massive nerf in flexibility, time and cost!
Magic Item Savant used to allow an Artificer to ignore most, if not all, Attunement restrictions. They completely got rid of this, with NO replacement - it's another straight up nerf!
Yes, both Magic item Adept and Magic Item Savant have a secondary bullet point that expands the Replicate Magic Item feature, but other than the fact you can now replicate Rare Items from Level 14 onwards, these expansions to the Replicate Magic Item feature were already features of the Infuse Item feature of the old Artificer.
Also, they've arbitrarily limited the count of Rare Replications to three, even though you're already limited by how many existing plans you can change per level up. So 14th Level is limited to 2, and 15th Level is limited to 3, assuming you replace an existing plan. Would it really be so game-breaking making a 4th Rare Item at 16th Level, a 5th at 17th Level, and a 6th from 18th Level? At those levels, Rare Items should be almost mundane!)
They gave the Artificer some nice upgrades - Spell Storing Item allowing 3rd Level Spells is great, and Rate Magic Item Replication is great - but then they overall completely nerfed and destroyed the rest of the class, in both features and flavour. Some other minor buffs, mixed with a lot of major nerfs.
Thanks, I didn't realize that. Makes me a lot less annoyed at the rework, now.
These second bullet points are pointless. The tables already say at what artificer level you can use them. They serve no point other than to hide that the abilities do less than before.
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OK so next attempt at play test was to take the same Battle Smith and make it workable
The trick seems to be Ruby of the War Mage. So if you just treat that as a sort of Battle Smith tax it does work. I have not played that build through all the tiers but my gut feeling is its going to have to be weaker in tier 1 and 2 because you are using one of your Magic Item slots just to replicate what you had anyway before. You can get a Homunculus Servant without using a magic item slot now so that offsets the issue
From level 14+ it seems more powerful due to the basic changes in Artificer. Take your pick of 3 Rare items is crazy powerful. Possibly too powerful. Its not that you will not have rare items by this level in most games but free choice of them allows you to custom craft your combos and to have created a build around them. That is very potent indeed.
To be fair, if you look at things like Descent Into Avernus, the average lvl 11 character will have numerous very rare or even legendary level items. I believe the 3 rare items won't really be cutting it, except for when you have a DM that is really really scarce with magic items in general.
So thinking about it like that, you get about 15k gold worth of items at lvl 14. I believe that, in general, a party of level 14 would be way over that number in terms of gold value. Sure, you can pick your rare items, but most people would be looking at legendary level items at that level, so I don't know if this really holds up compared to what you normally already get.
In my opinion, this artificer just feels like a class that gives some bonuses if your DM is stingy and doesn't award the players with any magic items, but the second you have a DM that does hand out magic items, the whole class instantly falls apart.
Something that should definitely be clarified by future itterations of the Replicate magic item feature is what you do with magic items that have many variations under a single entry. For example, does enspelled weapon (quarterstaff, find familiar) and enspelled weapon (hand crossbow, burning hands) count as a single Plan, or as two Plans, one for each? Similar deal with Armor of Resistance and similar.
Additionally, while i'd be concerned with maybe increasing the potency of infusions first as others have pointed out, if i were WotC i'd probably consider an limitation on the Replicate Magic Item feature to the effect of "you cannot replicate a magic item that allows you to cast spells outside the cleric, druid or wizard spell list", so as to ensure that enterprising artificers cannot simply give their allies an free find steed or one of em new "homunculus servants", while still allowing for decent versatility.
A particular pain point of mine with the artificer has been that has only grown stronger now that each Plan corresponds to a specific magic item is the fact that a given Artificer in some cases is able to infuse / replicate certain magic items without being able to craft them using the normal magic item crafting rules; i'd love an ribbon feature that either makes you ignore the spell prerequisites for crafting a magic item if you have the corresponding Plan for that item, or even just an high- level feature that lets you flat out ignore the spellcasting prerequisites for crafting items (provided that the spells in question are on the cleric, druid or wizard spell list).
I liked tool expertise, it may not fit the games design very much anymore, but i'd still love to have it back
If i am to be completely delusional about my wishlist, a ribbon feature i'd love to see added to the class would be something that maybe allows you to forgo all raw material costs for crafting a magic item (and maybe even reduce the time required to 1/10th normal) by instead sacrificing another permanent item of the same rarity; effectively a fun ribbon that gives the players more agency in what magic items they want, and that lets you convert +1 swords you aren't using anymore into bags of holding or other useful stuff.
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
General Armorer:
Make RAW that you can use booming blade etc with the guardian/dreadnaught weapons (i recall they need a weapon with a cost so it is debatable if they a have cost because the armor has cost)
Make it so a player can use all 3 modes effectively. In the current version at least before 2024 feats you could specialize in one of the 2 modes but would almost lock out the unspecialized one (eg sentinel is great for guardian but useless for infiltrator, sharpshooter great for infiltrator useless for guardian).
Some more martial class nudges ? at least in combat we got meh DPR, ok tankiness with shield and the current infusions for +1 shield and +1 armor (we are lvl 7 in our campaign and mobs can have like +8/9 so even my plate +1 and shield +1 can be lacklustre vs advantage (eg pack tactics) or multi-attacks. outside combat the class itself feels decent/good in non-interaction situations thanks to int based skills and tools
Level 9: meh, the only thing I can think of is it may be easier to code for dndbeyond (current version doesnt work anyway)
Level 15: bump the damage numbers a bit more imo. or better yet two-stage dmg/effect bump, one at lvl9 and one at 15.
Dreadnaught:
I was thinking (as im not a fan of the ball/chain) how about the weapon could be any one handed or versatile (but not able to use it with two hands) weapon simple or martial?
You choose the weapon on model change or whenever you can change models (so on short/long rest you can swap the weapon only)
Perhaps if on level 3 the weapon options are limited instead of any simple/martial weapon and on 9 you get to use more options?
Alternative: choose one weapon that can be wielded with one hand and lock into that on getting the subclass. At lvl 9 you can replace it by "fusing" a magic item you own (not created by the Replicate magic item feature) into the armor.
Reasoning: coolness factor something like a power rangers megazord sword or from pacific rim where the longsword comes out of the suit's arm ?
More realistic reasoning: at my table I sometimes feel stuck using the thunder gauntlets while our fighter and rogue got magic weapons with a ton of extra damage/utility at level1 (i got a defensive/utility option as the main tank)
Forgo the push/pull parts, maybe instead of that you gain the weapon proficiency and mastery while wielding the special weapon.
level 9 for dreadnaught the weapon is now magical to bypass resistances.
Maybe when you become bigger your damage increases, similar to enlarge/reduce, + something per size increase ? just make the buff limited use/duration
Guardian:
make thunder gauntlets light so we can punch twice without the use of extra attack (not saying we should lose the extra attack) more like a 1-2-1 punch combo. now it feels like the
MCU scene where iron man punches the hulk saying "go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep" but more clunky?
Also would make carrying a shield less mandatory as we would have another playstyle option.
Maybe turn the thunder part more as flavor (keep the disadvantage spreading effect) but is now bludgeoning and bypasses magic immunities at level 9? or we can choose bludgeoning or thunder damage on attack declaration? so we dont get in trouble when we are in guardian mode and the opponents have resistance/immunity to thunder?
Infiltrator:
The description says the gem can be on one hand or the chest, if it is on the chest then why can't the armorer also wield a weapon in both hands?
Otherwise maybe there are two gems, one on each hand, and you can do something more if you use both hands to shoot? (like a ranged-versatile thing?)
Maybe force damage instead of lightning (I dont know whats more commonly resisted, i'd guess lightning)
Level 9 or 15: get fly speed, go full Ironman/mecha
What does having the thrown property even mean for the launchers? they arent thrown, you are not throwing the glove at someone like you would a dagger.
General Artificer:
Bring back: Can use any magic item as spell casting focus (thematic with the new Drain Magic Item as a master of magic gear you can manipulate the magic inside any way you like)
Replicate magic items : should have options not available at DM discretion
Add(or bring back) tool interactions? If so explicit bonuses for when a tool can be used and with what skills.
Homonculus: Not consuming the gem, maybe level 1 spell instead of 2?
Level 20: capstone imo make it back to +1 save throw per magic item created. If the save dc is like 30 at lvl20. (so without the +6 you may need 18 or higher to succeed)
As I have only ever played my current one I can only think that for alchemist remove the randomness entirely from the elixirs. Cant speak for the other 2 subclasses.
That actually brings up a stealth nerf.
UA Artificers have fewer Plans/Infusions known and the list of infusions appears more granular. Previously, Enhanced Defense was one Infusion that could be applied to Armor and Shields and the bonus increased to +2 at level 10. Now, it appears that Armor +1, Armor +2, Shield +1, and Shield +2 are all separate plans and you can only change one plan known when you level up. Separating Armor and Shield is helpful, but the increased bonus should not be a separate plan.
This would still allow the Find Familiar and other spells with costly material components, right? Homunclulus Servants can be ritual cast without a spell slot (though using your highest spell slot during down time would be ideal) so somehow casting it via a magic item would be fine. I think a restriction on replicating spells with a costly material component would be appropriate.
In prior editions, they could use Use Magic Device to craft magic items with requirements that they are missing. In 5e, Use Magic Device was replaced with class features that the Artificer lost in the UA version. They should keep the ability to bypass attunement requirements as they had as of Tasha's and be able to bypass crafting requirements if they can bypass that requirement for attunement. Spellcasting requirements they should be required to meet as normal or be able to meet by expending a spell slot (I don't have access to our DMG right now, but if you normally expend a spell slot and material component while crafting in 5e, the same should be true for the Artificer but the Artificer should be able to essentially fake any spell.)
Essentially this would be expertise on any skill that you justify using a Tool on. Expertise in Sleight of Hand (for picking locks) or in a choice of certain skills (Sleight of Hand, Arcana, etc.) would be decent substitutes.
This is similar to what they could do in 3.5. In 3.5, crafting magic items required time, materials, and experience points. They could drain a magic item to add to a craft reserve (a pool of points that they could instead of expending experience points while crafting).
A 5e iteration would be to, as you said, reduce the GP cost. However, since crafting with their craft reserve has been replaced with Infusions/Replicate Magic Items, it could also be that draining magic items allowed them to increase the number of replicated magic items or that it permanently added the magic item's plan to their known plans (above their limit by class level).
At level 14, you get access to replicating rare magic items but you only have new known plan slot plus replacing one known plan. It's not until level 16 that you could potentially learn a 4th rare plan if that restriction was not in place. Also, at least in 2024 the approximate value for a Rare Item is 4,000 GP. By WotC's Awarding Magic Item Guidelines, a level 16 party should have around 18 rare items. Assuming a party of 4, that is about 5 rare items per character (4.5). Rare and higher magic items make up about 37% of the party's magical item wealth and in the next tier, it becomes 53%.
If the artificer is not restricted in the number of rare items they can craft, a level 20 artificer could be sitting at 8 additional rare magical items, hoarded or distributed throughout the party. Assuming they are hoarded (which may not be the most OP scenario) and that awarding magic item guidelines are followed and the items evenly distributed, the artificer could have their rare and higher magic item wealth jump to 56%. Woo. So broken.
The Artificer's Infusions/Replicate Magic Items are class features and shouldn't be a replacement for appropriate magic item rewards.
I think part of the issue might be this from Awarding Magic Items
The DMG is essentially giving GMs permission to not award magic items at all and the Artificer then needs to be balanced against other classes in those scenarios. However, I feel like this is not a representative situation among D&D tables and particularly among published adventures. The 2024 rules even gives you a tracker to make sure you are meeting Magic Item Awards quota. When having access to magic items is less of an issue, when players are encouraged to have a magic item wish list, being the person who brings a few extra magic items to the table is less noteworthy.
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Find steed also does not have a Material component; the element i find problematic here is not the potential to circumvent costly material components, but the fact that any party member can use your infused items and gain access to spells that are intended for paladins only and artificers only, respectively. If a party member attunes to the artificer's infused stick and casts a spell from it once, they might get a permanent fiendish horse or a permanent homunculus servant. Artificer spending an infusion slot to get an Homunculus without paying for it would be completely fine, but the fighter, wizard, rogue and cleric in the party also getting one each is not. Yes the wizard spell lists still contains find familiar, but this has been a problem since TcoE, and besides having a familiar is not supposed to be unique to a single class the way those other two spells are.
Reason i specifically suggested "cleric, druid or wizard" is becuase those are the lists that the 2024 magic initiate and the 2024 bard uses. It seems to be WotC shorthand for "pretty much every spell in the game, except for a few spells that are really important for the identity of individual classes"
two things:
yeah i did kind of get the idea from the 3.5e version, however yeah i do also think that increasing your maximum number of replicated items can cause a lot of unintended issues (especially when combined with the new Magic Item Tinker) and would be a whole lot more cumbersome for the player to track compared to a much simpler "sacrifice an item, get another permanent item". I really don't think it's a good idea to mimic the wizard's pattern of class progression either.
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I share the feelings of a lot of the previous posts, such as firearm proficiency making sense for the most technologically themed class in the game, how losing the ability to freely use any Infused Item as a spell-focus makes life harder for many Artificers, and that (while few ever see it) losing the saving throw buff on Soul of Artifice makes us cry just a little.
Some other thoughts, though.
Magical Tinkering: Maybe making it 'Mundane Tinkering' wasn't the best idea? While having some on-demand basic gear is... nice, I guess, why not make this ACTUAL Magical Tinkering? Let the Artificer create a device that only they can use that replicates any Cantrip from their spell list! How long does it last? An hour, until the feature is used again, until long rest? I dunno. But giving the class the ability to switch a cantrip on the fly would be pretty unique!
Magical Item Replication: I kinda miss Infusions? They felt like a pretty unique feature, rather than "You have more of the same stuff everyone else can probably get". It made Artificers feel like tinkers who staple on magical features to other objects. I'd go even further an have Infusions applicable to any magical item, giving the Artificer the means to "overclock" an item, or add new qualities to it. Also, Infusions felt like Invocations, and that was a plus in my book.
Right Tool for the Job: Eeeeh. I dunno. I'd turn this one around and call it "Right Job for the Tool", and allow the Artificer to gain proficiency in a single Tool item they have as part of a short rest, lasting until they use the feature again. Give Artificers something from a Short Rest, instead of watching their effect durations run out.
Flash of Genius: Having it only available on a fail means that it can no longer help on an open-ended test, like Stealth or certain knowledge or crafty checks where a higher result provide better outcome. Quibble, maybe, but still?
Magic Item (Expert): One of these higher-level features really ought to allow the Artificer to count as any species, class, etc for the purpose of using a magic item. They're supposed to be the masters of any magic items, right?
Alchemist: Please give them a necrotic cantrip for their Alchemical Savant feature? Also, repeating an oft-mentioned request - maybe the Alchemist ought to know what they're doing, and actually select their elixirs each day? Call it 'Elixir Expert' instead. They finished their experiments before graduating from Alchemist University.
Armorer: Allow their special weapons scaling at both level 9 and 15. Have Dreadnaught's Giant Stature just function as Enlarge, with with Bonus Action cast time. And Guardian's Defensive Barrier could use Intelligence modifier plus Artificer level as temporary Hit Points, to make it a bit more helpful at lower levels (compare with a Warlock spamming False Life).
Artillerist: The combined cannon is wonderful! Very lovely change! Now, consider allowing the subclass to carve their Arcane Firearm sigils into any focus-item or weapon, to open up a lot more character concepts. Also, consider making the Protector a 1d6+INT at level 3, and scale it up to 2d6+INT at level 9.
Battlesmith: They really, really need some way to use alternative spell-foci. Otherwise weapon-and-shield, two-handed weapon, and dual wielding using character just have to forgo a lot of spells. Which is sad.
Oh! And, Homunculus Servant really ought to drop their 'core gem' in their square if they get destroyed. I approve of it being a 2nd-level spell, since it puts it out of reach of Magic Initiate shenanigans, but tying a 100gp pricetag to a wee critter with Hit Points less than a hard glare is risky business for any purse!
I may have more thoughts, but these are the ones off the top of my Helm of Brilliance.
EDIT: I knew I had forgotten something!
Tied to the way Magic Item Replication now works, a lot of the 2nd-level and 6th-level Infusions are now gated as 10th-level magic items, because of their item type (wondrous, ring, etc). That means some of them come in too late to be as useful, or now compete with much more attractive items.
Also-also? I have no idea what this feature would be, but it would be nice for Artificers to have some use for Short Rests. They don't have Focus Points, or Pact Slots, or Wildshapes... but it really would be nice to see some benefit for Short Resting?
As has been noted elsewhere, firearms proficiencies are simply covered by martial ranged weapon proficiency now.
I would suggest that Artificers should be able to change their Infusions on a short rest.
probably a bad idea; one of the things that is so good about artificer infusions (now replicated items) is that items that normally recharge a random amount of charges each dawn can instead be re-infused each long rest, now every single infusion with limited charges comes back on a much shorter basis; starting 10th level you'd be able to give any two party members you'd like a 3rd level spell slot back each short rest (with a gem of power + a spell refueling ring), then get an additional two second level spell slots from Drain Magic Item before you take the rest
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
It shouldn’t take that long if they built the system right, I have created classes in a few hours in foundry, and I’ve even done it in dnd beyond. Some of their creation tools make things harder though.
And making changes to an existing one is easy as well.
they just aren’t that interested in doing it
Which would be fine for the Battle Smith, who gets martial weapons with the subclass, but it means that no other Artificers get that proficiency ever, including not Artillerist, who "specializes in using magic to hurl energy, projectiles, and explosions on a battlefield."
I don't think that the use of firearms needs to be tied to having a pet. It makes perfect sense for any Artificer to have proficiency with firearms if they exist in the world.