Artificer Class Guide for Dungeons & Dragons 5e

in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons every adventure seeks great and powerful magic items but somebody has to make them alchemists arcane inventors rune Smith's poring over there and VLEs and all the tinkerers creators inventors and engineers that suffuse the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons could be yours to play with the new artificer class the very first class introduced in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition since the game came out in 2014 my name is Monty Martin and I'm Callie McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we discuss everything Dungeons and Dragons including advice for Dungeon Master's and guides for players we upload new videos every Thursday so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are taking an in-depth look at the brand-new artifice or class introduced in ever on rising from the last war we are gonna be taking a look at all of their class features abilities subclasses spell lists and all the great things that the artificer has to offer although the artificer has gone through many revisions through on Arthur canna it is an all new class and Kelly and I haven't had the chance to really sink our teeth into it and play it that much at the table so today we're gonna go through our first reactions overview and a general review of what the class gets and what we think about it so these are largely our opinions and they haven't fully hit the play experience yet but we're gonna do our very best we are very curious to hear what you think of the artificer as well so please let us know there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling so let's start off with a simple question what is the artificer all about well the artificer is all about magic items and using that as the theme of the overall class from their spell casting and other class features tinkering crafting building and creating arcane wonders and objects and using those as your adventuring tools is really at the heart and soul of what the artificer is all about artificers are mad in nature but they channel their magic through the many tools that they use to create and tinker with mundane items turning them into something much more and that really is the exciting part of the artificer is there the blacksmith who still has that magical edge to them now the artificer will be able to create through their infusions and other abilities bonafide magic items although they have a few special rules with them and they can create full-on magic items too if you work with your dungeon master to do so the artificer class also is quite unique in the its spell casting is described as using tools to build little artifacts that are then deployed to create the spell effects in our first read-through of the artificer it's very clear that this class is designed for utility support roles and ingenuity when it comes to deploying your magic items across the battlefield quite notably the artificer is the second class built on intelligence which powers both its spell casting and many of its other class features making this unique alongside the wizard is the only two classes in the game that actually really care about their intelligence score with all that being said let's take a look at the artificers class features so right out the gate the artificer is a 1d8 hit dye class decidedly average you get proficiency in light armor medium armor and shields but you only get proficiency in simple weapons for tools you get thieves tools tinker tools and one other tool set of your choice and you do get proficiency in your Constitution and intelligent saving throws which is really good that is the icing on the cake for the artificer as a spell caster having intelligence and constitution is great you also get to choose any two skill proficiencies from Arcana history investigation medicine nature perception or slate of hand you also get the extra skills from your background as appropriate and you may even get further to proficiencies from your background too so right away you can tell that the artificer relies a lot on their tool proficiencies they get more tool proficiencies than any other class in the game you're going to have an array of different tools use for an array of different problems to solve with proficiency in Constitution saving throws a decent hit die and good armor and shield proficiencies your artificer will actually be pretty sturdy at the front lines of battle as well so let's talk about the artificers other features that they get as they level up the first one being magical tinkering which really gives you an array of different little options that you can apply to mundane objects which to me reminds me a little bit of the press Edition spell but infused into an item I think there's a lot of creative ways that smart players that love can trips like prestidigitation minor illusion thaumaturgy and others will find inventive uses for this class class feature although a lot of it is just kind of a bit of a role-playing flare so the first big feature that we're all here for is the spell casting of the artificer the artificer is what we would call a half caster class over the course of 20 levels of play the artificer starts with first level spells and a few kin trips and advances all the way to gaining fifth level spells by 17th level thus the artificer is not a full spell caster like a cleric wizard or druid instead there are a half caster like a paladin or a ranger they get fifth level spells that sets them apart from say and eldritch night or an arcane trickster but they're not gonna get those world shattering 6th 7th 8th and 9th level spells I hope the other class features make up for that one of the interesting things about the spell casting of an artificer is that they get to use their tools as the spell casting focus for their spouse however they can also use an infused magic item that they've created as their spell casting focus interestingly about this this means that you can use your spell casting focus could be a weapon that you've infused or your shield or even your armor or a pair of magic boots that you've created using that as the arcane focus for all of your spells this could be an interesting way of being able to cast spells while you're still holding a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other for instance artificers do you get the ability to cast can trips but they only get 2 they don't get 1/3 can't trip until the 10th level and they don't get 1/4 can't trip until 14th level that said I think taking magical secrets feet with other classes and picking up some spells from the artificer list might be a pretty cool pickup for a wizard or the other way around artificer spell casting is based on their intelligence and as we said before this makes them only the second class in the entire game that uses intelligence as their spell casting ability this means that when you cast a spell that requires an attack role your spell attack modifier will be your intelligence modifier plus your proficiency modifier and your saving throw DC for any of your artifice or spells will be determined as 8 plus your proficiency modifier plus your intelligence modifier finally the number of spells you can prepare as an artificer is determined by one half of your class level plus your intelligence modifier artificers prepare their spells so every day you just get to choose anything you want from the artifice or spell list equal to half your level plus your int mod and that's how many spells you get for the day this is not a class that has a spell book or has a limited number of spells known that said this is a pretty small list because even if you have an intelligent score of 20 and have a plus 5 modifier a tenth level artificer only gets to prepare 10 spells that said all of the artificers subclasses do you grant a list of spells that are automatically prepared which does kind of weigh it out a bit this means that the artificer choice of subclass has a major impact on what spells they are going to have available in their adventures finally artificers our ritual casters but they do have to have the ritual spell prepared in order to cast it one perk to offset the limited number of kin trips known by the artificer is that when they gain a level they can actually unlearn one of their kin trips to learn a different one so this does give you a little bit of flexibility as your characters advancing one of the biggest features that the artificer has is their infusions which actually gives you a list of options that you can choose from on how you want to infuse mundane items to turn them into something magical here's a basic overview of how this works at the start of the day you can touch a non magical item and infuse it semi-permanently with magical power based on the infusions that you know the number of infusions that you know is determined by your character level and the maximum number of infusions that you can have in play at any one time is also determined by your artifice or level and finally you can only have one of each infusion you know in effect at any one given time so each of your infusions can only exist in one item at a time and each item can only have one infusion on it at a time so bear in mind that you will know more infusions then you will be able to have actually in play at any one given time and essentially you're never going to have more than one of any one infusion in play although there are some infusions that you can take more than once and you can have one of each of those copies of that infusion in play at a time so there's a list of eleven infusions to choose from Manji and I have read over the list we're not going to talk about each of them today but we are going to talk about the ones that we thought stood out first of all many of the infusions have a very basic effect giving a +1 or +2 bonus as you level up to the attack and damage rolls of a weapon or a suit of armor or a shield or some other minor perk but there are two other infusions that we think are really special and really worth taking a special look at the first one that really stood out to me is the homunculus servant which lets you create a little magical construct that gets to follow you around aid you in battle and serve you in other ways your homunculus is very similar to a wizard's familiar but in fact it's much stronger in many ways because you can actually command it to make ranged attacks that deal force damage and have it provide a wide range of other functions for you I think that given the flexibility and power of familiars in general having an enhanced familiar like the homunculus is probably something that you simply cannot ignore one thing to keep in mind though is that the homunculus does require you to use your bonus action in order to give it commands which is something that is a little bit different than the standard familiar I think the homunculus is great it has a flying speed which is just something that is great for any familiar it also can deliver touch smells like the standard familiar but also it has evasion which can be very helpful for keeping the homunculus alive Plus unlike a wizard's familiar the homunculus does level up with you although just a little bit its proficiency bonus increases as yours increases and its hit points are always equal to your artifice or level plus your intelligence modifier plus its own Constitution modifier so it's got a little bit of resilience it's still probably gonna get taken out by most fireballs but it's a little bit better than the one hit point familiar the other infusion that we both really loved was the replicate magic item option replicate magic item is the only infusion that can be selected more than once because with replicate magic item every time you take it you choose a magic item from the list on the tables listed and there's quite a lot of them and that is the magic item that you're able to replicate with this infusion so effectively replicate magic item allows you to pick and choose which magic items you want for your character but technically speaking you could infuse this magic item and give it to another party member there are some really good options on this list including the wing it boots the amulet of health and the gem of seeing unfortunately those really awesome options don't become available until 10th and 14th level so for me the best magic items that you can make with this feature are gonna be some things that you're gonna get much much later as your character advances I did notice there are some options in there that can help out based on the campaign you're playing and the setting that you're in there's things like goggles of night or a bag of holding that you can make at early levels if you haven't already obtained those and you're the only person in your party that doesn't have dark vision normals of night might be really helpful or a bag of holding to help you carry all your stuff unfortunately because you have to lock in your choice when you level up and well you can't change what your infusions are once each time you level up it does make it a little bit difficult to predict this would be amazing if you could just replicate any of the magic items on the table and be like oh we need a bag of holding today but that's not actually how it works so there's a little bit of planning required to get the most out of this infusion moving on with the abilities that the artificer gains as they level up you have the right tool for the job which allows you to use your tools to create different toolsets that you can now obtain and use the next ability we gain is tool expertise which allows you to double your proficiency with any tools that you're using and that includes theives tools as artificers level up they also gain the magic item adept savant and master abilities which increase the number of magic items they can attune to first two four then five then to six which is pretty exceptional if you're finding a lot of magic items but note that a lot of your own infusions also require attunement so this kind of counterbalance is that fact so you might end up using all your extra attunements for your own other class features that said artificers also gain a kind of cool ability in that they can attune to any magic item with magic items savant even if there's a race class spell casting or other requirements so your artificer could be carrying around a Holy Avenger or a staff of the Magi or any magic item even one that was meant for dwarves or elves or anything like that which is kind of neat the one thing to keep in mind is that this is almost essential for the way that the artificer is built and designed because they're going to be creating a lot of magic items themselves that require attunement so really it's going to balance out in the end although there are 20th level capstone ability so love artifice will give them a pretty hefty bonus to their saving throws for every magic item they have attuned the final ability that I think is really nifty that all artificers gain is the flash of genius ability which allows them to use their reaction when an ally makes an ability check or saving throw and add the artificers intelligence modifier to that role if you have an intelligent score of 20 modifier of +5 it means that you can use this feature five times today for those clutch saving throws like if you're about to get hit with finger of death I think that from all of the things that we've looked at with the artificer more than ever I would say that it's important to get your intelligence score up to 20 there's so many features that rely on that bonus that you have to your intelligence modifier that are really helpful for this class yep definitely want to make a gnome artificer your choice of subclass will gain you a bunch of new abilities Radle a selection of spells that are always prepared and future class features that you'll gain at level 9 and level 15 so let's take a quick look at what each of these subclasses are because they're pretty unique and they add a lot to the artificer gameplay so the first option we're going to look at is the alchemist which is the master of potion making and they gain proficiency with Alchemist supplies when you take this subclass at 3rd level as an alchemist spells such as healing word flaming sphere gaseous form cloud kill and raised dead will be added to the spells that you always have prepared and can cast as an artificer that's a really good list it is it's a good balance of utility healing and a little bit of damage dealing one of the first abilities you gain and one of the most fun abilities for The Alchemist is the experimental elixir which allows you after a long rest to create one elixir although you can create more as the artificer levels up you roll a d6 and it randomly selects the elixir that's created and you have to use that elixir before you take another long rest once the elixir is used it's gone of course you could also expend a first-level spell slot or higher to create an additional elixir and when you do so you get to choose which elixir you want which is pretty handy because these are elixirs have some great effects and they don't require concentration they just require someone to drink them up the two options that really stood out to me is there's an option for healing which seems pretty obvious there's also an option for transformation which basically gives you a free casting of the altar self spell I really like the elixir of flight being able to create a 10-minute long flight speed even if it's only 10 feet is insanely useful I also really like the boldness elixir because it's basically blessed in a can that someone can knock back to get a d4 bonus to their attack rolls and saving throws for one minute well your levelling up as an alchemist you're going to find other abilities that will enhance your healing spells allowing you to add your intelligence modifier to them or gain additional spells as well all of which makes a pretty good package that makes this a really good utility support healer class and I it's a very well-rounded option I did - I think wedding doubt choose the alchemist as your artifice or subclass and you won't be disappointed the potions are a lot of fun you get to feel like you're making lots of interesting things and it really just does everything the artificer does anyways even better healing is all well and good but if you want to blow some things up the artillerist is the best subclass to choose like The Alchemist the artillerist does gain some additional spells that are always prepared for them but their spell list is way more aggressive gaining spells like shield thunder wave scorching ray fireball wall of fire cone of cold and the incredible wall of force so let's spell this alone can cause a lot of chaos on the battlefield but if that's not enough for you you can add more boom with the Eldridge cannon the eldritch cannon is something that you can create as an action and it is a small or tiny cannon that can walk on its own or climb it has a speed of up to 15 feet or I think you can carry it as well handheld if it's tiny yeah and you can command this cannon to move around and fire as a bonus action but you actually get to choose one of three different types of cannons each time you build it you can do the flamethrower which causes 2d 8 fire damage in a cone outwards from the cannon or you can do the forced ballista which fires bolts of force up to a range of a hundred and twenty feet lastly you get the option for the protector which creates a 10-foot aura which gives temporary hit points at 1d8 plus your intelligence modifier to anybody within that area now the eldritch cannons are pretty cool and as you level up as an artillerist they're gonna gain additional die to their temporary hit points or damage and eventually at 15th level you can have two of them which is really sweet because both of them are activated using the same bonus action so you can have two Force ballistas or you can mix and match having a protector and a force ballista which I really like that you also get great features like being able to use your cannon as cover for your entire party or forcing it to detonate exploding and damaging all the enemies around overall I really like this I think it's a cool package for damage-dealing although I'm not certain if it will end up being an incredible damage dealer I think I need to see it and play before I can assess how good this package of abilities actually is in play well the artillerists likes to blow things up from afar the battle Smith prefers a more intimate approach the battle psmith does gain proficiency in Smith tools but also gains proficiency in martial weapons and their battle ready class feature means that they can use their intelligence modifier instead of strength or dexterity when making attack rolls using a magic weapon so this pairs really well with some of the infusion options where if you take this subclass and you don't already have a magic item you're going to want to choose one of the infusions that allows you to create one and now you're using intelligence for all of your attacks the battle Smith also gains additional spells repaired many of them come from the Paladin spell list in fact this includes spells like shield branding smite or a vitality and banishing smite so this really encourages your artificer to get raid close and personal and smite somebody but you don't have to run into battle alone because you're going to have an ability called the steel defender that allows you to create a construct that aids you in battle this construct can have any appearance you like in the official artwork it's usually represented as a mechanical dog of some kind but it can be really anything that you imagine and it can run into battle with you and you can command it to attack using your bonus action or have it move around or take any other actions it takes its turn directly after yours in combat this ability is more or less an upgraded version of the homunculus infusion that we talked about earlier so you may not want to take both at the same time if you feel like having a bunch of mechanical pets run into battle then you could take both finally the steel defender does level up with you and gains more durability and more functionality as it levels up as you level up you will also gain the extra attack feature allowing you to attack twice with your weapons and this worth noting in this moment that nothing actually restricts you to melee weapons with the battle Smith features so you could use ranged weapons in if you wanted to finally you get the arcane jolt ability which allows you to do extra damage or extra healing when you hit with an attack the artificer has a bunch of class features but they are still a spell caster so how does that spell this stack up I actually am very impressed with this spell list it's a nice mixed bag from a lot of the other classes you don't get to select a lot of spells though so let's talk about which one stood out to us as far as can trips are concerned mending stands out as an important choice on the artificer spell list this is because the steel defender from the battle Smith the eldritch cannon from the artillerist as well as the homunculus can all be healed for 2d6 when mending is cast on them allowing you to basically keep them always at full hit points because you can just spam mending on them between combat this makes your can trip selection really difficult though because you only get two can trips to start and if one of them is going to be mending you only really get to choose one other option this is a very restrictive choice and for my artificer I might strongly consider taking the magic initiate feet for wizards so that I could get to pick a couple extra can trips because I think the the restriction is really really tight here as we move on to first level spells to that I immediately saw that stood out to me were absorb elements and fairy fire second level spells though are where the artifice or spell list gets a really good because I don't think we've ever seen this combination of spells together in one class aside from a bard or multi classing because there are options like aid enhance ability enlarge reduce invisibility rope trick and even web are all here on the artifice or spell list it's really incredible at second level when we move on to third level some of the standout options are things like dispel magic haste and revivify for the fourth level spells though these options are a little bit slim my favorites here would include things like Auto Luke's a resilient sphere and arcane eye which I think are both excellent although these are now starting to come online quite late as the artificer has to be a very high level before they get fourth level spells when it comes to fifth level spells the artificer isn't really going to see those until about 17th level but with options like animate objects in Big B's hand it can be pretty decent so now that we've looked at all the artificers class features spells and subclasses what excites you most about this Kelly I think that the artificer fills this really nice place as a support character and I do think that a player who really enjoys playing that support role and using their ingenuity solving problems and being creative with the way that they can use all of these features is going to be really really fun at the table so I have to be the voice of dissent I want to love this class I think that there's a lot of creative options here and a lot of things that excite me about the artificer unfortunately I can't help shake the feeling as I read this entire class that the artificer has the abilities that you would find in ten levels of another class stretched over 20 it almost feels like the artificer is half a class and that the class features that they gain don't stack up when measured against other support based classes like clerics bards druids and especially the wizard all of which are classes that get 6th 7th 8th and 9th level spells I think that the artificers spell casting is really hamstrung by the fact that they get it over 20 levels and I think that a 20th level artificer might be looking at the abilities of say a tenth level wizard and going what did I get over all these 20 levels fair enough I'm really excited to see how this all plays out at the table because we won't know our real answer until we actually try it for a long campaign I for one I'm extremely excited to dig into the artificer try some of the subclass options and see how it all plays out I think that there's a lot of incredible potential here I think that some of the multi classing options that we might see with characters multi class scene between wizard and artificer especially for that battle smith ability to use intelligence on attack roles with magic weapons might be really really fruitful i'm skeptical about this but it could turn out that the artificers ability to two four five and up to six magic items at once and bypass all the restrictions for a tune Minh means that the artificer has a secret weapon in their arsenal unfortunately that is still going to be one that is dependent on the dungeon master providing that treasure so yes if you have a character that's attuned to six legendary magic items I think they're gonna be a force to be reckoned with no matter what but is there a dungeon master that is going to give one player character six legendary magic items what if I'm really nice to you can I have six legendary magic items just give me a bully Avenger and a staff of Magi at the same time hmm but does but at the same time does six does having all those extra magic items really make up for the fact that this class doesn't gain six seventh eighth and ninth level spells I think at the end of the day the artificer is something that we're going to see a lot of creativity and ingenuity when we see it played at the table and I think it's a really exciting addition and I think there's going to be a lot of people out there who have so much fun with this class I think that it really lets you play out that mad inventor and you get to mix the smithing and designing with magic elements and I do think that that's gonna be a really cool thing to see I totally love the flavor and the lore of this class I think the Eberron setting is incredible and it's probably my favorite of all the official D&D settings and so it's really wonderful to see the artificer once again in Dungeons and Dragons and as the first brand new class added at the game since 2014 there's a lot of excitement about it so maybe we will see new subclasses new infusions new spells and other features that really bring the artifice are into its own and time will tell if the artificer really can make something special in your next D&D campaign so this has been a look at the artificer class in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition if you've played one or are thinking of playing one tell us about it in the comments below if you're enjoying the show please consider supporting our work on patreon you can find out how by following the links in the description below don't forget to check out our live play dungeons of dragon high which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. Eastern on Twitch you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and we have plenty more guides to the classes and subclasses of guns in the Dragons Smith Edition right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 504,302

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: ta-E8u2QM5w

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Arizonagreg]

I really like the Dungeon Dudes. Good small group of players on their stream. Steady weekly content.

[u/Haokah226]

Next to WebDM these guys are my second favorite youtube channel.

[u/[deleted]]

Really want to try the alchemist out to be honest, love the idea of a potion flinger

[u/TigerKirby215]

I'm glad to see DD making a video about Artificer so fast. Their videos are always in-depth while still being easy to understand. Yeah the meme channels like JoeCat and Davvy Chappy made videos about Artificer and while they're good for a laugh they really don't give much for character inspiration and simply read off the class' features instead.

Wonder if XP to Level 3 is going to redo their Artificer video lol

[u/Mindfreezer]

Some of the best out there, I love to seek these for inspiration!

[u/yo_soy_soja]

I'm pretty committed to The Forgotten Realms rn and won't be playing artificer anytime soon. But it looks like a fun class, and it's great seeing people analyze it.