Artificer in July Dragon (possibly)

[zero skill LPB]

I'm playing a Dragonmarked Halfling Artificer in an Eberron-adapted Age of Worms campaign. I very much look forward to seeing all my PC's elements revealed (Halfling in PHB, Artificer soon, Dragonmark ... 2009?! Crap!)

Some thoughts:

Warforged no longer require/desire Repair spells
Use Magic Device is gone, daddy, gone
Crafting is different, Alchemy is different
Most Infusions (Rituals?) requiring Action Points (changed) to Hasten... Ow, my brain

Artificers. Interesting times ahead.

 

[Vael]

Wait, artificers were overpowered in eberron? I always got the impression they were utterly useless in combat (worse than bards)
But then again I never played one nor did I really play in Eberron.

Artificers required a level of accounting and organization that made wizards seem simple, but the result was that a well-designed artificer was insanely powerful. Wand (and later Staff)-based blasting builds could apply lots of metamagic to make for viable blasting, there's nothing quite like a Maximized, Twinned Scorching Ray at level 8, and this is hardly the best example. Artificers could also abuse Persistent Spell to make them really good melee combatants.

Put it this way, one of the first viable anti-Pun Pun builds was an Artificer.

 

[jackston2]

A whole nother class? sounds like a lot of work for Wotc, it's probably going to be a paragon path.

Also hoping for a controller

 

[kennew142]

I seriously doubt it will be a paragon path. If you've read any Eberron material, you know how integral artificers are to the campaign - and how rare any NPC over 10th level is.

I suspect that Artificers will be arcane leaders, but I could see them as controllers. At their core artificers are characters who buff their campanions and manipulate magical energies.

Whatever happens with them, they will be significantly different (mechanically) in 4e, since charged items and stat bump items have been thrown on the rubbish heap.

I'm just hoping that 4e airships can travel more than 50 feet off the ground!

 

[blargney the second]

Dragonmark ... 2009?! Crap!

Dragonmarks should be relatively easy to convert to 4e:
* +2 to one skill
* take an encounter power and turn it into a daily

-blarg