Artificer is Broken | Dungeons and Dragons 5e Guide

hey everyone welcome to constructed chaos today we're delving into the newest class in all of d5e to discover the absolutely broken features that make this thing tick so what exactly is an artificer and how do they fit into the world of dnd well simply put they're typically inventors crafters and scientists that use ingenuity and magic together to create wondrous objects that boggle the mind and as for how they fit in they don't always i think it's important to mention here that artificers may not fit into every campaign setting out there and while the case can always be made for having them artificers originally came to us from the world of eberron which has more of a steampunky flavor to it since then the class has been published again in tatcha's cauldron of everything and you may even find some subclasses are more suited for play in certain campaign worlds than others so just check with your dm before choosing to play one in their medieval fantasy setting and depending on what they say don't be afraid to change the look and feel of your artificer to help them fit in a bit better as someone once told me flavor is free so your artificer doesn't necessarily have to be the steampunk inventor scientist they can also be someone whose innate magics bring inanimate objects to life or a barkeep who stumbled upon a talent for potion making when seeking the recipe for the perfect ale now that we're finished with those pleasantries let's have a look at how our stats should line up for the most effective artificer possible as always there's room for deviation here but artificers across the board will typically care most about a high intelligence score since this will be used to determine several key factors in our brokenness least of which being our spell casting ability modifier that's right artificer just like the wizard is one of those rare cases where our intelligence will actually be key in how we function mechanically pun intended from there depending on your build you'll probably want your next highest stats in constitution and dexterity followed by wisdom charisma and strength in no particular order now don't come after me in the comments to say that you've made a fantastic artificer using only your strength score unless you're just telling me how you did that because really i'd be keen to know with that out of the way let's jump into dnd beyond and have a look at what we get starting out as an artificer we'll start things off with a d8 hit die which is about what we would expect with a caster like this as always this means we'll begin with eight hit points plus our constitution modifier at first level and a roll of the d8 plus our constitution modifier every level afterwards our proficiencies will see us able to make use of light and medium armor shields simple weapons and thieves tools tinkerers tools and another type of artisan's tools of your choice most notably however we'll also gain proficiency in constitution and intelligence saving throws a fantastic selection for maintaining our concentration and beating out some of the pesky psionic abilities that so many of our allies may fall victim to and lastly we'll gain proficiency in two skills out of arcana history investigation medicine nature perception and sleight of hand although it's worth noting that artificers will also be familiar and proficient with the use of firearms as well if they exist within the setting that you find yourself in you'll want to double check again with your dm on that for your starting equipment you'll get any two simple weapons a light crossbow with 20 bolts studded leather armor or scale mail thieves tools and a dungeoneers pack pretty standard for most classes so i won't spend too much time here finally our journey begins at first level where we unlock our magical tinkering ability this feature allows us to create four different effects in perpetuity on non-magical objects one such object can shed bright light in a five foot radius and dim light for an additional five feet play a recorded message that can be no longer than six seconds and heard up to 10 feet away create an odor or non-verbal sound perceivable up to 10 feet away or be imbued with a static image or text no longer than 25 words lines or shapes these effects will last for as long as you allow them to but a single object can bear only one property at a time and you can only do this to a number of objects equal to your intelligence modifier there are some small uses for these outside of fun and flavor but it is largely the latter still don't be afraid to get creative with this and perhaps sell some glowing rocks to random passerby in the street for a little extra gold or befriend your party's paladin by magically etching their oath into the steel of their blade once you're done toying around the real feature we're interested in at first level is our spell casting and as i mentioned earlier the artificer is an intelligence based caster meaning our spell ability modifier will be 8 plus our proficiency bonus plus our intelligence modifier but more than that the artificer is a spells prepared half caster what this basically means is that we won't gain access to some of the more high level spells available to other classes like the wizard but we will be able to prepare any spells from the artificer spell list though it is worth noting that we will only gain access to two cantrips for now and we won't be able to change them until each time we level up and even when we do level we can only change one can trip at a time so choose wisely that said you'll be able to prepare as many leveled spells as your intelligence modifier plus half your artificer level rounded down and you can change that list of prepared spells anytime you finish a long rest though rules as written says preparing a new list in this way takes one minute per spell level for each spell on your list this is flavorful but i probably won't force my own players to strictly abide by that rule here's a chart for your spell slots and can trips known but you may notice something else on here and that will take us on to level 2. this is where some of our real artificer specific abilities start to come online here we'll be able to infuse non-magical items with more powerful effects than what is allowed by magical tinkering from the long list of available infusions for us to make we can pick four at this point and can only have two active at a given time we'll get more later but as you may have seen from the chart before this number will grow with time still we'll want to be smart about what we pick here too grabbing the wrong infusion could mean that we aren't helping our party enough while picking the perfect one could bring about some absolutely broken results some notable options this early on include a bag of holding and plus one weapons and armor that eventually become plus two later with some later options like boots of the wandering path at sixth level helm of awareness at tenth level and the amulet of health at fourteenth level and so many more but i have one rule for you pertaining to the bag of holding option don't blow up your dm's campaign world by sticking it inside of another bag of holding i mean you can but that's just mean there are seriously a ton of infusions available with many of them existing as magic items within d d already so i won't list them all here but maybe i'll make a video on that one day in the future if you're interested but let's also take a moment here to go over a few noteworthy spells that you may want to consider taking early on as i mentioned before you'll want to be careful selecting your cantrips but depending on your build firebolts mending and guidance can all be great selections mending in particular has a ton of great use case for repairing our creations and items as an artificer for your first level spells the decision may be difficult but at least you can swap those out more readily again depending on your build i'd recommend having a look at absorb elements fairy fire cure wounds and tasha's caustic brew as a few notable front runners obviously there's a mixture of damage defense and support here so it could also be a good idea to take into consideration your party's composition to help fill any gaps where needed moving on to level 3 we get an ability that allows us to create a set of artisans tools vanish when we use this skill again it does take an hour of time but could come in handy depending on what task we have ahead of us i like to imagine this as having access to a very complex multi-tool that takes a while to reconfigure or to understand like those crappy things from infomercials and dollar stores but more importantly we'll also get to choose our artificer specialty at third level i won't go over every detail here but let's take a brief overview of the four options available for us to choose from currently i'll be sure to link any builds or other videos that go into more detail as we go along in case you're interested first up we'll begin with the alchemist this might not be the first image you bring to mind at the thought of an artificer but their expertise in combining ingredients to produce magical potions and elixirs is unmatched gaining access to an expanded spell list that includes entries like healing word melf's acid arrow gaseous form blight and cloud kill among others much in line with the theme of the base artificer class you'll have a mixed bag of abilities ranging from supporting your allies with boons and healing to dealing damage to enemies with toxic concoctions and right away at third level you can even mix it up with a fairly potent experimental elixir with a random effect while probably not the most able subclass available it's easy to see exactly how much fun playing an alchemist can be next let's take a look at the only subclass not released with the base artificer class and probably one of my personal favorites the armorer if you've been a marvel fanboy ever since iron man put that big glowing hockey puck in his chest you'll want to take a look at this you'll be able to enchant and subsequently wear just about any type of armor including heavy armor and armor that has a strength requirement that you don't meet from there your armor turned spell casting focus will grant you access to one of the most broken expanded spell lists in the game giving you some massive heavy hitters like magic missile mirror image hypnotic pattern greater invisibility and wall of force to name a few then you'll get to choose an armor or model that suits your combat style and you can actually change the model of armor that you have every time you complete a long or short rest the abilities you get from either of these models allows you to customize to suit your needs and even use your intelligence modifier instead of your strength or dexterity in calculations for its weapon attacks and damage rolls all this combined with that awesome spell list and you'll be a force to be reckoned with oh and did i mention that that's really just the stuff you get at third level this thing is absolutely crazy forget tony stark you are the iron man now next we'll move on to the artillerist which is another one of my personal favorites when you try to imagine what this subclass might look like you may picture some black powder ridden firearms expert right however there is so much more flavor here than that alone the artillerist uses a specially themed eldritch cannon that can range from small to tiny to fire magical attacks at enemies and even support allies much like the armorer there are multiple models of eldritch cannons and there also happens to be a pretty great expanded spell list you'll get access to spells like shield shatter fireball wall of fire and cone of cold in addition to some other great entries but what i really love about this subclass is its unique combat style typically you'll position and remotely operate your cannon alongside your own spells and abilities eventually gaining the power to blow up your cannon when too many enemies have surrounded it or done too much damage to it it's certainly a welcome alternative to the typical fireball wizard if you just want to blow stuff up and there's room for some other interesting builds in there too if you'd rather and last on our somewhat short list of artificer subclasses is the battlesmith this subclass is the truest form of support options in what we've been presented so far working as a combination of protector and medic on the battlefield and you won't have to go it alone either you'll get a steel defender companion with its own stat block to aid you of course you'll also get an expanded artificer spell list with entries like heroism shield aura of vitality banishing smite and mass cure wounds if you weren't already convinced that this is made to be a support build but alongside this you'll also get some other offensive abilities like extra attack arcane jolt and the ability to use your intelligence modifier in place of your strength or dexterity when you make an attack with a magic weapon when i first saw this subclass it struck me as the oddball of the group but i've really grown to love it for its unique flavor and perfectly able abilities finally advancing to fourth level we'll be presented with our first opportunity for an ability score improvement or feat subsequent opportunities will come about again at 8th 12th 16th and 19th level so i won't list out every option here especially since that will largely depend on your build and which subclass you've chosen however i think it's worth noting that you'll probably want to get your intelligence up to 20 as soon as possible seeing as it plays such a huge role in nearly everything you do and then maybe boost your constitution a bit afterwards as well but as far as feats go it couldn't hurt to take a look at things like keen mind meta magic adept or even the magic initiate feat for wizard so you can get a couple of extra canned trips and an extra spell from the wizard spell list at sixth level we'll gain tool expertise giving us double proficiency bonus for ability checks made with tools we're proficient with this is good but not extremely useful in my opinion except maybe in situations where you're trying to craft new items pick locks or operate some complex machine the dm's own interpretation of such situations might have to help you out a bit here honestly next we'll get flash of genius at seventh level allowing us to use our reaction to add our intelligence modifier to the role of an ability check or saving throw we see another creature make within 30 feet of us congrats you can now do the bard's job but kinda better people won't forget they have inspiration like they do with the bard and they should be getting a static plus five to their role when this is used in that way of course you can only do this a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier per long rest but again that should be about five times after you beef up your intelligence score now i've played with an artificer using this feature a few times and man did it come in clutch i think it's sort of an unsung hero for this class and kind of broken in some situations but feel free to have your own flash of genius by liking this video and subscribing to the channel below thanks we'll get our next ability called magic item adept at 10th level and this is where things can really start to get out of hand depending on your dm you'll see what i mean later but for now this ability will allow us to attune up to 4 magic items at once instead of just 3. additionally crafting a magic item with a common or uncommon rarity will take a quarter of the normal time and cost half as much gold wait you can craft magic items yes that's right this is speaking to a feature in xanathar's guide to everything and not referring to your artificer infusions a lot of people don't know about this feature or just choose to ignore it but i think it's really cool the only downside is that it leaves a lot of the decisions up to your dm in terms of what components tools and proficiencies are needed to craft once again this isn't exactly something i can cover in this video but i'll make sure to link any videos i make in the future covering the subject now at 11th level we get access to another one of my favorite artificer features called spell storing item and it might not be exactly what you think it is whenever you finish a long rest this ability allows you to store a spell of first or second level in one simple or martial weapon or one item that you can use as a spell casting focus that spell has to have a casting time of one action and must be from the artificer spell list including any extra spells you gained from your subclass from there a creature can take an action to produce the spell's effect from the item using your spell casting ability modifier and using their concentration if the spell requires it there are a lot of limits here but this is still pretty fantastic especially when you consider that the spell you store can be used a number of times equal to twice your intelligence modifier which should be a plus five at this point do be warned the whole effect will end when you apply it again after a long rest however nothing says that a creature can't use the object and subsequently pass it off to its allies for them to use without into the effect after all it doesn't say anywhere that the item requires attunement for example a wand with the invisibility spell stored is an effective and cheap way to get your whole party invisible though technically the same person could cast invisibility on everyone and then themselves or have your whole party use an item equipped with enlarge reduce to create a team of giants to battle the puny big bad evil guy or use alter self to impersonate the entire high council of government after hiding the bodies of the actual high council or just use aid or blur or tasha's caustic brew for some extra general combat support and damage either way this ability can be absolutely broken if you know how to use it oh and you can do all this stuff without the material components for the spells you're casting because it's considered a magic item wow while we're on this subject let's take a look at a few more spells that you should be considering preparing at this point you'll find some really stand out flavor and heat metal enlarge reduce invisibility and web at second level as well as some fantastic combat options like blink haste a shardalon stride and revivify at third level but as i've mentioned before a lot of these options will depend on your build and at this point what subclass you've chosen don't forget all those juicy options that come from your expanded spell list too at 14th level will become a magic item savant and be able to attune to 5 magic items all at once and we can ignore all class race spell and level requirements for attuning to or using a given magic item our attunement slots will increase again to 6 magic items at 18th level but i'm mostly concerned with the fact that we can now attune to and use pretty much any magic item in the game and we should be able to craft any magic item with enough time gold and material components so even if our dm isn't giving us great items to fill our attunement slots with we should be able to craft our own to some reasonable degree at least crafting rare items alone will take up to 200 days of time and 5 000 gold pieces but if we can manage that alongside some good uncommon rarity items that work for our build we can create some pretty broken stuff and lend out our infusions to the rest of the party if we aren't using them now this won't always be possible and it will rely a bit on your dm as i mentioned earlier but i do think the artificer is quite good even under normal circumstances especially when it comes to their capstone ability at 20th level but before we get there let's pause one last time to take a look at some fourth and fifth level spell options our selections do begin to narrow here but there's still plenty of use to be found in options like summon construct fabricate animate objects and bigby's hand but if you're still not happy with those options nothing is stopping you from up casting your favorites from lower levels before finally moving on to max level at level 20 we gain soul of artifice granting a plus one bonus to all saving throws per magic item you're currently attuned to for a whopping plus six potentially on top of that it gives us the ability to save ourselves if we dropped zero hit points without being killed outright by ending one of our artificer infusions dropping us to one hit point instead i actually like this capstone quite a bit and it gives our artificer some extra staying power that it probably needs at this point depending on what magic items armor and abilities we've gotten along the way with our adventuring and subclass choice and on that subject i think it's important to point out just how amazingly unique the artificer is in terms of what it can do and how it can fit into the context of a party quite literally i've seen builds all the way from massive in-your-face damage dealers to healers and support builds that loan out their crafted magic items and infusions to help the party from the back and if you'd like to support like that feel free to like the video and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any of the awesome builds i'll be putting together for this class later down the line with that until next time go out there and make some chaos

Channel: Constructed Chaos

Views: 259,424

Keywords: 5e, 5e artificer, 5e artificer build, Tasha's cauldron of everything, artificer, artificer 5e, artificer alchemist build 5e, artificer armorer, artificer artillerist, artificer dnd, artificer subclasses, critical role, dnd, dnd 5e, dnd 5e class tier list, dnd builds, dungeons and dragons, eberron artificer 5e, magic items for artificer 5e, spell casting, spells, subclass, tabletop, ttrpg, tutorial, xanathar's guide to everything, armorer artificer 5e, battle smith artificer

Id: 76fibpQlogY

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 25 2022