Our Top Artificer Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

this week's episode of our show has been sponsored by the seekers guide to twisted taverns which is just coming off the back of a wildly successful kickstarter campaign and is now available for pre-order this book contains 14 brand new taverns for you to explore and join in the revelry with your party at your own game table they absolutely blew through all of their amazing stretch goals and there are tons of super fun accessories as well to augment your game taverns have been a cornerstone of dungeons and dragons campaign and i feel like we're overdue for a good pub crawl some of our amazing friends are working on this project including logan from runesmith here on youtube as well as elder mancy and ghostfire games so make sure to check out the links below to pre-order your copy of twisted taverns and get the party started and now on to this week's episode greetings my name is monty martin and i'm kelly mclaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we cover everything dungeons and dragons including advice for players and guides for dungeon masters we upload new videos on tuesdays and thursdays so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are taking a look at the spells available to artificers in dungeons and dragons 5th edition now artificers are quite unique they are a magical class but they are only half casters meaning that they will gain up to fifth level spells as they progress artificers might be all about that magic but they have surprising limitations that are not really apparent when you first scan through the class and in many ways the artificer is going to use their spells and spell casting in a very similar manner to the way a paladin or a ranger might making them quite different from wizards and warlocks and sorcerers even though they lean towards the more arcane pursuits as an artificer you get to choose which spells you want to prepare in the same manner as a cleric or druid at the start of each adventuring day you focus on your tools and you choose any of the spells from the artificer spell list equal to your intelligence modifier plus one half your artificer level rounded down so what this means is that a level 10 artificer with a 20 intelligence not that uncommon would get to prepare 10 spells but in addition to this you're also going to get your cantrips and your artificer subclass is going to give you a subset of spells that are always available to you with all of this in mind it means that there is a challenge in choosing the spells that are going to have longevity as your third fourth and fifth level spells aren't actually going to come online until much later in the game this puts you a little bit behind some of the full casters meaning that your choices are going to be very important because a fourth level spell coming online at level 13 is very different than a fourth level spell coming online at level seven there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling so first off as our artificers we need to choose which cantrips we want to pack this is actually a really difficult choice because the artificers actually have one of the largest selections of cantrips across all the classes in the game but you only get to pick two of them when you start your career and you only learn your third can't trip at level 10 and your fourth cantrip at level 14. this makes choosing your cantrips very difficult because do you want to choose to have an attack can trip like firebolt or shocking grasp or do you want to have the more utility cam trips like guidance or magehand and mending it's very difficult to have your cake and eat it too so your choice of artificer subclass might really come into play here as well that's a theme that we're going to see through a lot of the spell selection for the artificer because depending on the subclass you choose your artificer could excel in different areas certain artificers have the ability to deliver blows in melee or ranged combat in which case you may be relying on your cantrips a little less and you might want some great utility options as an armorer or a battlesmith you might be okay not bringing in a combat focus kant trip a cantrip like mending is very thematic and is also really useful for an artificer to be able to repair their constructs on the other hand an alchemist or an artillerist is probably going to want to choose one of the ranged attack cantrips to be your primary damage dealing go to because you have class features that augment the damage of your spells in certain ways so for me i would strongly consider taking firebolt or ray of frost with an alchemist an artillerist because you really want to make sure that you have a cantrip that is based on an attack role i would not recommend making a cantrip as your damage dealing can't trip that is based on a saving throw as your sole damage dealing can trip because at higher levels of play particularly the the spells that are available to artificers like frostbite these are based on constitution saving throws which a lot of monsters have really good con saves so i wouldn't make a cantrip like frostbite my soul damage dealing cantrip artificers also do get things like green flame blade and booming blade and you might get some mileage out of these but i think that the subclasses that i'm most likely to use these with which are the battlesmith and the armorer they both get extra attack and so you end up with this little bit of an incompatibility that by fifth level you're probably going to favor extra attack instead of these cant rips i also will say that some other great choices that are on the spell list are things like guidance and mage hand both very useful utility spells they feel at home with the artificer and no matter which one you're choosing you might want to grab one of those i think that the restriction is so heavy with the artificer and there's so many cameras that you want to have i do think it's actually a really good idea to consider a feat like magic initiate wizard or even spell sniper to be able to pick up a couple of additional cantrips that you can bring into play because it's really hard to say no to not having mage hand and guidance but i don't know if i would necessarily make those my only two unless i was playing a battlesmith or an armorer now as i mentioned you also have like press to digitization in there but that one starts to fall lower on the list than it normally would because of the restrictions that the artificer has so a great list of options but be very aware of what abilities and what subclass you are going to lean into so that you pick the cantrips that complement your choices as we move on to first level spells something that i like to do is pick spells that feel thematic for my character but are also really useful and i think one of the standout options here is grease it seems super appropriate for an artificer to be spraying grease all over the place from from their constructs and robots and it it's just a great spell really useful for utility purposes and very at home with the artificer for myself i think one of my go-to's here is gonna be fairy fire i love this spell it has so much utility in detecting invisible enemies but also bolstering your allies by granting advantage on attack rolls it's a great sort of marker light sort of ability or spell that will really give you as an artificer a reliable source of advantage on attack roles against your foes so this is particularly useful again if you are going to go just for yourself as a battlesmith or an armorer and have a bunch of magical minions and constructs around well now you're giving yourself your allies and your constructs advantage on attack roles just for your first level spell slot so i think artificers get a lot of mileage from fairy fire as their go-to first level concentration spell but i also don't mind the prospect of taking something like tash's caustic brew our officers don't have a lot of other damage dealing spells until you get into the subclasses i also think if you are going to be playing an artificer that is going to be dealing damage in melee combat absorb elements is a great choice here where you basically are just going to pull in the damage that you're being dealt and then use it against the enemies again very thematic and really appropriate and a great spell some artificial subclasses do get you access to shield um but absorb elements is basically the only reaction spell that our officers have at their disposal and it could save your life so it is worth considering if we look at the rest of the first level spells available here something else that's going to be a theme through this episode is that you want to be very aware of the party dynamic that you're also playing in if you don't have another full caster or a cleric you might want to consider something like cure wounds as a great option you may also pack something like disguise self or detect magic but this very much depends on who else is in your party that might better benefit from these types of spells artificers have a lot of utility but the key thing is figuring out what are your go-to spells going to be and then looking at the rest of your party and the needs of your adventure and figuring out where you can fill the gaps artificers are all about having the right tool for the job so it does require a little bit of analysis on your part on going okay we've got a paladin a cleric and a bard in the party i really don't need to prepare cure wounds this theme continues as we move on to our second level spells where one of the first choices i'm going to bring up is aid but i also want to say that aid might not be your first choice if there's a cleric in the party because they're going to do a better job casting aid but if nobody else has the spell it's a great choice to bring to any party aid is one of those spells that is amazing i love it but because of the artificer's delayed spell progression it means that it's difficult for you to get the maximal benefit from aid by up casting it and getting a bigger increase to characters maximum hit points so well if you are the only person in your party that can cast aid you should absolutely prepare it if there is anyone else in your party that can prepare and cast the spell they should be the ones to do it another super thematic option is heat metal this spell is incredible for devastating enemies that are either made of metal wearing armor or carrying metal weapons brutal spell heat metal is amazing because it both deals damage and causes disadvantage on their attack rolls after they take that damage and the way the spell is worded it's really hard to wriggle out of the effect especially if someone is wearing full plate armor or is made of metal themselves so heat metal i i totally love it as a spell it's a very rare spell because not many other classes get it aside from like druids and stuff so i really like it and it would be a go-to for me with with an artificer as well because it is that swiss army knife sort of a spell in combat where you're both getting the damage and the debuff out of it i also think following along with a artificer's theme having a cloaking device on your mechanical armor is really really cool and so invisibility is a great option really it's a great option for anybody who can cast invisibility but again with the artificer being able to turn invisible or turn a party member invisible is always useful invisibility is one of those spells that has so many applications both in and outside of combat it helps with exploration problem solving information gathering and it can be an escape if you need it to be so i really think that it's one of those multifunctional spells that with so many limits on your spell slots and your spell selection invisibility really shows its muscle some other great options to consider are things like enhanceability and large reduce rope trick and web these are all great spells a lot of them feel appropriate on the artificer and if they sound useful to add to your party dynamic they might be the right choice for you i think web as a control spell in particular as a battlefield control spell it's one of those spells that is really good at third level when wizards and sorcerers get access to it but it's still really good when you get it at level five and it's going to be really good for a very long time because restraining foes and keeping them in place so they break out of the webs and creating that area that is on the battlefield that is difficult terrain is great um it's a spell that you'll be able to put in your arsenal and use it effectively at level five when you get it but still use it really effectively late in your career as well so it has a lot of mileage to it the final second level spell that we think should be considered is levitate now this is kind of an oddball in the mix but levitate can actually be used for a great control spell if you have an enemy hiding behind cover you can levitate them and they just if they don't have a ranged attack they might just lift into the air and now they're floating there for you and your party to shoot an attack so levitate has a lot of interesting implications beyond just using it to kind of float around the battlefield you can actually use it to devastate some enemies now there is a couple other second level spells like dark vision protection from poison and magic weapon that you might be tempted to use as buff spells but be aware that you do have infusions that you can use to create similar effects that aren't going to demand your concentration or a spell slot so if you're gravitating towards those spells think about whether you want to use a spell to do that or an infusion to do that as we move on to third level spells what's really interesting about the artificer is that for most spellcasting classes third level is where it blows open into all the best spells that we love in the game with the artificers it's a little bit more limited and you're actually looking at more utility spells than you are things like fireball mind you your subclass option will usually give you some pretty great third level spells as well that said i think the go-to spell here for many artificers is probably going to be haste not only can armorers and battlesmiths get fantastic results simply from casting haste on themselves alchemists and artillerists are going to see great returns by casting haste on a party member that they can then buff up with their infusions and other abilities as well so i think that haste is probably the strongest combat option for most artificers again that's going to be dependent on your subclass because again the artillerist gets fireball and the armorer gets hypnotic pattern but i think the strongest case is probably haste yeah other ones that i really like on this third level list i'm a personal fan of blink i think it's a really useful spell and i like the image of your artificer having some sort of gadget that blinks them in and out of uh the plane of existence that you're on so it can be a really fun and thematic spell as well to pack i also think that again if you don't have anybody else in the party who's going to bring this along revivify is on the artificer spell list so if somebody is down in combat you might want to have rivifify to bring them back up and even if you do have a cleric in the party who has revivify if they go down you might want a second person with revivify so revivify being on the spell list it's always a good option and something to be aware of a few other tools that are similar to revivify that you might want to bring these if you're the only person that can cast that would include dispel magic fly or even water breathing so again an artificer always needs to be looking at the situation saying which is the right tool that i need to pack in my toolbox today because if you're the only one that's going to bring along revivify and you need it you need it if you're the only one that can bring the spell magic and you need it you need it so take a look at those situations make sure you're packing the right tool and while you're packing your toolbox you might want to bring along a little helper in the form of a tiny servant i really love this spell because it's kind of like a a second familiar that lasts all day long and can actually make a couple little attacks you don't need to concentrate on the tiny servant it just lasts eight hours it has all kinds of great utility of fetching objects exploring around environments or even attacking in combat so i think that beyond haste for me personally tiny servant is totally going to be my go-to for any artificer and again it feels thematic to just bring this little object to life and have it help you out almost all day long as we move on to the fourth level spells it actually gets a little tough there's not a lot of standout options here however one that seems very appropriate for the artificer you might want to upgrade that tiny servant into a construct with the spell summon construct this is one of the new summoning spells introducing tasha's cauldron of everything and even though you're not getting this spell until 13th level the summon construct is pretty beefy at this level of play it has 55 hit points in an ac of 17 when you summon it up and it gets to make two melee attacks that deal 1d8 plus 8 damage each uh and then you get to choose one of a couple different abilities like a slowing effect a berserk effect or a heated body i think that if you're looking for your go-to damage dealing spell at high levels of play with an artificer this is probably a really good option and depending on what your capacity to make melee attacks is this might be a better option than say haste i also think that adding another body into the battlefield is always a benefit it just means that your enemies have yet another thing that they need to attack so even if your construct gets destroyed it ate up a lot of attacks that would have been delivered to the party so it's always useful i think that when we look at this list the only other one that really stands out to me is the spell fabricate again very appropriate you can turn material that you know about into objects and it's kind of cool to be able to do that you can fabricate a bridge out of wood and i i like to imagine that sort of anime where you pull out your tools and this cloud appears with gears flying out and then all of a sudden i turn this wood into a bridge in 30 seconds but i think it takes a minute to cast but yeah it's 10 minutes to cast it but but again it's totally appropriate for that like wiley coyote style thing where you go off camera and you hear just the hammers and the drills going and all of a sudden your artificer built something you do need the raw materials there and you also do need proficiency in the appropriate tools but as an artificer you actually get a lot of tool proficiencies so there's going to be a lot of cool things that you can build and so if you want to get into that kind of like macgyver mentality of playing your artificer of what cool things can i build to help solve problems i think this is kind of like the big gun being dropped on you it's like saying at 13th level okay artificial you want to build cool stuff and solve problems here you go here's your invitation to do that so again it's going to depend on the situation and how permissive your dm is with these sort of things and your own creativity but i think that the artificer is the biggest case to kind of let's see what the cool things you can do with fabricate are so i would i would definitely bring this as an artificer another spell that is similar to this is stone shape you can get really creative with stone shape especially in dungeon environments so this is kind of that time when with fabricate and stone shape your artificer could actually be rebuilding the dungeon and remodeling it as you're exploring it and i think that that brings a lot of utility in the adventure the last one i'm going to mention from the fourth level list is auto luke's resilient sphere although not my first choice it is a pretty potent spell and i like to imagine that my artificer maybe has some sort of shield force feel that they can put around them and that's the sphere i gotta say though with these fourth level spells i'm really missing my favorite go twos of dimension door polymorph and banishment it feels like the the powerhouse spells of fourth level are just not on the artificial spell list at the same time though i feel like it is appropriate that those spells are saved for the blasty spellcasters well as the uh the artificer leans more into with especially with fourth level into the idea of what an artificer should be doing which is creating and building and reshaping things and i think that is really interesting that the spell list does feel thematic although i do agree that we are missing our favorite spells here but one favorite that we aren't missing once we get the fifth level spells is animate objects this is a phenomenal spell it is totally on brand for an artificer to bring your magical constructs to life and send them forward i just think that it as amazing as animate objects is as a spell it really suffers from the fact that the artificer doesn't get it till 17th level yeah it is one of my favorite spells in the game but when we're looking at fifth level spells you do need to keep that in mind that this is for end game play exclusively because by the time you reach 17th level all the other full spell casters in your party have been whipping out game ending spells at this point so you really want to be cautious about which fifth level spells you pick and how they're going to impact the entire game one of the biggest issues with animate objects is that it has to animate non-magical objects now you can bring along some coins that are made of silver or maybe some daggers made of adamantine but the problem still is going to remain that if you're fighting an enemy that has resistance to non-magical weapon attacks or even worse immunity to those attacks your animated objects are not going to be effective in that situation and that's where you might want to switch to a spell like bigby's hand and and so i do think that for the artificer depending on what kind of enemies you're facing in your high level campaign and what purpose you want to get from it bigby's hand is another one of those swiss army knife spells and anime objects is a swiss army knife spell too but if you're thinking about the the context of high level play bigby's hand is a magical force damage dealing hand and so you can use that say to punch an imperian who is immune to non-magical damage or a lich or any of those other high-level enemies that just don't care that your animated objects are stabbing them uh bigby's hand on the other hand can flick that lich right out of there i having been the wizard who has used bigby's hand to flick a lich into a prismatic wall i you know it's always a good way to end a game yeah and again it does come down to the the the kind of issue that i that i still have with the artificer of course is that part of the magic of bigby's hand is that you can combine it with things like force cage and prismatic wall and all these other higher level spells but the for the artificer that's not really on the table there's not a lot else on the fifth level list that i would consider but for thematic purposes i should mention that you also have transmute rock and wall of stone which are both pretty thematic and carrying that idea of reshaping the battlefield as you go so monty and i actually designed our spell lists uh assuming a 10th level artificer who has a 20 intelligence which equates to 10 spells chosen interestingly enough monty and i ended up with the exact same spell list so let's take a look at what our 10th level artificer gained now this is taking some assumptions into account such as what we talked about with certain spells that if other people in the party had packed we probably would have chosen something different but let's assume that we're going in as the only spellcaster in the party what spells would we have chosen for me at first level it would have been absorb elements fairy fire and grease would be my three go-to first level spells i 100 agree those are the three i would pick off the bat at second level we took heat metal invisibility web and aid again i think aid could be switched out if somebody else has the ability to take it but that's the choice i would make if nobody else could take aid and for the third level spells would be settled on haste and reverbify this is the only disagreement kelly wanted blink and i wanted tiny servant so couldn't 100 agree there i say that 9 out of 10 in agreeance is pretty great yeah yeah i i think tiny servant gives me more bang for my buck though because it's going to last all day or blank is only going to be up for a minute yeah you do you uh cantrips are a really tough call here but by tenth level you are gonna be able to have mending guidance and at least one other attack can't rip still though i would be really really tempted to take magic initiate especially if i was playing a custom lineage or a variant human and that way at least i could pack along two more cantrips perhaps mage hand and another attack can trip i agree i think that the only one that i know i want to take is mending because there's so many uses that artificers have with mending it's actually baked into their class that a lot of their constructs and abilities say you can use mending to heal this this creature so it's important that if you do have an ability that states that that you have mending that's the only one that i think is essential other than that it's kind of a toss-up depending on the artificial you're playing and what your play style is going to be on whether you're going to take guidance or fire bolt or what have you mage hand there's so many good options and it's really hard to pick only two so this has been a look at spells for the artificer in dungeons and dragons fifth edition tell us about your favorite spell options for your artificer in the comments below the videos that we create on our channel are made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our patreon supporters if you enjoy the work that we do here on youtube twitch and elsewhere please consider supporting us by following the links in the description below to join our community and we are making a book dungeons of drackenheim is coming to kickstarter as a fifth edition module we have partnered with ghostfire games to bring this campaign to life and you can join the mailing list at drakenheim.com so that you are up to date on all of the updates involving this kickstarter and don't forget to check out our live play shadows of drakenheim which is tuesday nights at 6pm eastern at twitch.tv dungeon underscore dudes you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and we have plenty more guides to all the various spells available to different classes in d5e wait 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: 144,174

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: JdtJqq7qnBc

Length: 26min 14sec (1574 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021