As of the last update to the Artificer, multi-classing an Artificer rounds their level up. I can't find mention of this on DnDBeyond, but it is noted in the Unearthed Arcana pdf at the end under multi-classing.
I suppose it would depend on which artificer subclass you went with, then. Archivist would almost be my first choice if it weren't for the fact that the damage for information overload scales with artificer level and not character level. Battle Smith makes the most sense if you were a Bladesinger wizard, maybe War Magic as well. As fitting as an artillerist evoker would be, an evoker with just one level of artificer seems more efficient and elegant to me.
Of the artificer pets available, the order of thematically appropriate pets for a wizard IMO goes the archivist's manifested mind, then the alchemist's homunculus, then the battle smith's iron defender, then finally the artillerist's arcane turret. Though I really believe it's a tie for last place for both the iron defender and the arcane turret as, to me, both pets just scream: "I'm a machine made by a mechanic, not a wizard!" But I will concede that if a wizard did decide to build themselves a mechanical pet, they would more likely IMO come up with the concept for an iron defender first before they would for an arcane turret.
I can agree that gaining Infuse Item is worth losing an ASI over, so at least two levels of artificer does work for me.
As of the last update to the Artificer, multi-classing an Artificer rounds their level up. I can't find mention of this on DnDBeyond, but it is noted in the Unearthed Arcana pdf at the end under multi-classing.
I suppose it would depend on which artificer subclass you went with, then. Archivist would almost be my first choice if it weren't for the fact that the damage for information overload scales with artificer level and not character level. Battle Smith makes the most sense if you were a Bladesinger wizard, maybe War Magic as well. As fitting as an artillerist evoker would be, an evoker with just one level of artificer seems more efficient and elegant to me.
Of the artificer pets available, the order of thematically appropriate pets for a wizard IMO goes the archivist's manifested mind, then the alchemist's homunculus, then the battle smith's iron defender, then finally the artillerist's arcane turret. Though I really believe it's a tie for last place for both the iron defender and the arcane turret as, to me, both pets just scream: "I'm a machine made by a mechanic, not a wizard!" But I will concede that if a wizard did decide to build themselves a mechanical pet, they would more likely IMO come up with the concept for an iron defender first before they would for an arcane turret.
I can agree that gaining Infuse Item is worth losing an ASI over, so at least two levels of artificer does work for me.
Personally, I like the Battle Smith and Archivist best. I wish the Battle Smith had gotten a suit of arcano-mechanical armor instead of a pet but that's me.
I have an Artificer in a new Eberron campign called Dillan Hunt. His sidekichkis a warforged named Andromeda. When I get my Manifest Mind I plan to also call her Andromeda. I was thinking of going Battle Smith if the DM would let me reflavor the Iron Defender as Andromeda, but he turned the suggestion down. :)
I made Dillan a half-elf (House Lyrandar) with the new Shipwright background from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. The Artillerist turret I find very nice at low levels in Defense mode, but at higher levels it doesn't scale at all well.
Currently, my favorite Infused items are: Repeating weapon, Bag of Holding, Returning weapon, Goggles of the Night, Cloak of the Manta Ray.
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Watch your back, conserve your ammo, and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
What I've been noticing in my experiments is that multiclassing the artificer either kinda sucks, or ends up being a "two good things next to each other" situation rather than having any sort of synergy. No Sorcadin superbuild that's greater than the sum of its parts here; the artificer's primary feature (Infuse Item, for the dense) scales with artificer level so any multiclass options you take have to be weighed against slowed progression on your infusions as well as the usual delayed spellcasting, and given the artificer's item focus nobody else generally has much interplay.
There's some possibilities out there. Forge cleric is a der, in that you gain a sort-of 'bonus' item infusion and can use Artisan's Blessing to quick-forge metal components for your more advanced builds (or to quickly replace lost tools and the like), and the Thief Rogue lets you Use An Item as a bonus action; if you as an artificer player can't figure out how that's potentially very hijinks, you're bad at this class and need to move on. But insofar as base classes/class features go? Nothing seems to mesh with the artificer. Either the MC is more-or-less completely dysfunctional (/barb LAWL, /druid WUT) or it ends up mostly just being a cool thing placed next to another cool thing.
Admittedly that happens for some classes, especially ones not focused 100% on combat, but it just seems a shame. Feels like the artificer should be more flexible than that to me, but I suppose it's a different kind of flexibility.
Also of issue is that Artificers cap out at 5th level spells, so multiclassing with them rounds their level down and may end up with your wizard being unable to cast higher level spells.
As of the last update to the Artificer, multi-classing an Artificer rounds their level up. I can't find mention of this on DnDBeyond, but it is noted in the Unearthed Arcana pdf at the end under multi-classing.
Spell Slots. Add half your levels (rounded up) in the artificer class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots.
So what you're saying is artificer 1/wizard 19 is the way to go? :P
Not at all. If anything, multiclassing out of Wizard for any reason would be within certain acceptable parameters.
In reverse order: 20th level is Signature Spell, 19th being the Ability Improvement, 18th being Spell Mastery, and 17th being the minimal level as a Full Caster needed to cast any 9th-Tier spells.
If it is true that Artifacers 'round up' with regards to spells, then the intervals for them would be 1st, 3rd, etc. Granted there are attainable on the even-numbered levels as well, I digress.
Back on point; I feel that if you wish to forgo any leveling as a pure Class and dip into Artifacer, 16th~18th would be my range. 16th would allow me to fetch Ability Improvement in Artifacer to make up for losing it from Wizard, also infinite use of a single 1st-Tier and 2nd-Tier spell is really useful (spam heals with Cure Wound out of combat, for one) as well two 1/day uses of a 3rd-Tier spell can be of use...
Anyways, I feel that unless there is a heavy enough demand for more free usage of spells (lilely utility ones, at that level), I'd profit far more with being an Artifacer and going in to about 4th level. You still walk away with two levels towards casting plus 16 from before, raising you above what is needed to fuel spells with the 9-level Slot (not 9th-Tiered spell, need 17 levels into Wizard for that).
Although I'd rather not forgo access to Wish and other 9th-Tiered spells (assuming my character lives long enough or the campaign has sessions that plan to keep going for a long haul) so if that's the case, trading out the fifth use of Ability Improvement from multiclassing and picking up something messy and potent like, I don't know.., Psychic Scream. That'll still get me Archtype in Artifacer, so thatll work nicely enough.
I don't think you multiclass Artificer for the spells, you multiclass it for the 4 levels in Battlesmith to get the INT on attacks and damage with your weapon and go into other classes that want that. Rune Knight maybe, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster and so on. Makes you a little less MAD.
Hear me out: Battlesmith/Eldritch Knight. You get a lot of attacks; a pet that can impose disadvantage; stupid sexy pact weapons; cantrips into attacks; int as an atrack modifier. It may not be meta but it sounds like fun as hell.
The artificer I'm playing rn will be Battle Smith Artificer 11, Abjuration Wizard 6, Hexblade Warlock 3. He's a hill dwarf who spends his time alone trying to figure out how magic came to be, he uses a modified heavy crossbow (Magic infusions and eldrich invocations) to cast magic, for flavour he has a switch he flips to open up the 4 eldrich blast cannons, he has the tough feat and a maxed out con mod in addition to being a hill dwarf and abjuration for the arcane ward (Reflavoured as an energy shield system he built through old wizard texts) Honestly really fun build to reflavour spells from the three different sources as inventions, and using a battery to keep track of spell slots (Warlock spell slots is just a spare while the other ones recharge over a long rest)
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I’m a fan of an Alchemist/Rogue combo. The Arcane Trickster brings some good perks to that party. Having an invisible Mage Hand that can administer Elixirs for you as a Bonus Action is pretty sweet. Add to that Cunning Action, additional Cantrips Known, access your a few spells not on the Artificer list just in case, and even and extra 3d6 on your weapon attacks is helpful for an Alchemist.
Artificer 3/Wizard 17 in the long run. I'd start with Artificer 1, then 2 levels wizard, then 2 levels artificer, then wizard the rest of the way.
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You can find it here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/artificer#OptionalRuleMulticlassing
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I suppose it would depend on which artificer subclass you went with, then. Archivist would almost be my first choice if it weren't for the fact that the damage for information overload scales with artificer level and not character level. Battle Smith makes the most sense if you were a Bladesinger wizard, maybe War Magic as well. As fitting as an artillerist evoker would be, an evoker with just one level of artificer seems more efficient and elegant to me.
Of the artificer pets available, the order of thematically appropriate pets for a wizard IMO goes the archivist's manifested mind, then the alchemist's homunculus, then the battle smith's iron defender, then finally the artillerist's arcane turret. Though I really believe it's a tie for last place for both the iron defender and the arcane turret as, to me, both pets just scream: "I'm a machine made by a mechanic, not a wizard!" But I will concede that if a wizard did decide to build themselves a mechanical pet, they would more likely IMO come up with the concept for an iron defender first before they would for an arcane turret.
I can agree that gaining Infuse Item is worth losing an ASI over, so at least two levels of artificer does work for me.
Starknightl; you added that just now didn't you? I know you did. Just to prove me wrong . . . :)
I swear I went over the class yesterday before responding to this topic and couldn't find the silly thing. Thanks for the link.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Personally, I like the Battle Smith and Archivist best. I wish the Battle Smith had gotten a suit of arcano-mechanical armor instead of a pet but that's me.
I have an Artificer in a new Eberron campign called Dillan Hunt. His sidekichkis a warforged named Andromeda. When I get my Manifest Mind I plan to also call her Andromeda. I was thinking of going Battle Smith if the DM would let me reflavor the Iron Defender as Andromeda, but he turned the suggestion down. :)
I made Dillan a half-elf (House Lyrandar) with the new Shipwright background from Ghosts of Saltmarsh.
The Artillerist turret I find very nice at low levels in Defense mode, but at higher levels it doesn't scale at all well.
Currently, my favorite Infused items are: Repeating weapon, Bag of Holding, Returning weapon, Goggles of the Night, Cloak of the Manta Ray.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Gunslinger would be more like 7 or 8 for what he should have been
What I've been noticing in my experiments is that multiclassing the artificer either kinda sucks, or ends up being a "two good things next to each other" situation rather than having any sort of synergy. No Sorcadin superbuild that's greater than the sum of its parts here; the artificer's primary feature (Infuse Item, for the dense) scales with artificer level so any multiclass options you take have to be weighed against slowed progression on your infusions as well as the usual delayed spellcasting, and given the artificer's item focus nobody else generally has much interplay.
There's some possibilities out there. Forge cleric is a der, in that you gain a sort-of 'bonus' item infusion and can use Artisan's Blessing to quick-forge metal components for your more advanced builds (or to quickly replace lost tools and the like), and the Thief Rogue lets you Use An Item as a bonus action; if you as an artificer player can't figure out how that's potentially very hijinks, you're bad at this class and need to move on. But insofar as base classes/class features go? Nothing seems to mesh with the artificer. Either the MC is more-or-less completely dysfunctional (/barb LAWL, /druid WUT) or it ends up mostly just being a cool thing placed next to another cool thing.
Admittedly that happens for some classes, especially ones not focused 100% on combat, but it just seems a shame. Feels like the artificer should be more flexible than that to me, but I suppose it's a different kind of flexibility.
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Not at all. If anything, multiclassing out of Wizard for any reason would be within certain acceptable parameters.
In reverse order: 20th level is Signature Spell, 19th being the Ability Improvement, 18th being Spell Mastery, and 17th being the minimal level as a Full Caster needed to cast any 9th-Tier spells.
If it is true that Artifacers 'round up' with regards to spells, then the intervals for them would be 1st, 3rd, etc. Granted there are attainable on the even-numbered levels as well, I digress.
Back on point; I feel that if you wish to forgo any leveling as a pure Class and dip into Artifacer, 16th~18th would be my range. 16th would allow me to fetch Ability Improvement in Artifacer to make up for losing it from Wizard, also infinite use of a single 1st-Tier and 2nd-Tier spell is really useful (spam heals with Cure Wound out of combat, for one) as well two 1/day uses of a 3rd-Tier spell can be of use...
Anyways, I feel that unless there is a heavy enough demand for more free usage of spells (lilely utility ones, at that level), I'd profit far more with being an Artifacer and going in to about 4th level. You still walk away with two levels towards casting plus 16 from before, raising you above what is needed to fuel spells with the 9-level Slot (not 9th-Tiered spell, need 17 levels into Wizard for that).
Although I'd rather not forgo access to Wish and other 9th-Tiered spells (assuming my character lives long enough or the campaign has sessions that plan to keep going for a long haul) so if that's the case, trading out the fifth use of Ability Improvement from multiclassing and picking up something messy and potent like, I don't know.., Psychic Scream. That'll still get me Archtype in Artifacer, so thatll work nicely enough.
I don't think you multiclass Artificer for the spells, you multiclass it for the 4 levels in Battlesmith to get the INT on attacks and damage with your weapon and go into other classes that want that. Rune Knight maybe, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster and so on. Makes you a little less MAD.
Hear me out: Battlesmith/Eldritch Knight. You get a lot of attacks; a pet that can impose disadvantage; stupid sexy pact weapons; cantrips into attacks; int as an atrack modifier. It may not be meta but it sounds like fun as hell.
The artificer I'm playing rn will be Battle Smith Artificer 11, Abjuration Wizard 6, Hexblade Warlock 3. He's a hill dwarf who spends his time alone trying to figure out how magic came to be, he uses a modified heavy crossbow (Magic infusions and eldrich invocations) to cast magic, for flavour he has a switch he flips to open up the 4 eldrich blast cannons, he has the tough feat and a maxed out con mod in addition to being a hill dwarf and abjuration for the arcane ward (Reflavoured as an energy shield system he built through old wizard texts) Honestly really fun build to reflavour spells from the three different sources as inventions, and using a battery to keep track of spell slots (Warlock spell slots is just a spare while the other ones recharge over a long rest)
What about the artificer/rogue combo?
It's good. Especially with Battlesmiths.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
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I’m a fan of an Alchemist/Rogue combo. The Arcane Trickster brings some good perks to that party. Having an invisible Mage Hand that can administer Elixirs for you as a Bonus Action is pretty sweet. Add to that Cunning Action, additional Cantrips Known, access your a few spells not on the Artificer list just in case, and even and extra 3d6 on your weapon attacks is helpful for an Alchemist.
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