Unearthed Arcana Revised Artificer Survey now available

Enevhar Aldarion · May 29, 2019

I posted this to the actual thread about the Artificer, but I thought maybe is should have it's own thread too:

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/artificer-returns

Paul Farquhar · May 29, 2019

I would encourage people to give feedback. The class could be made much better with a little tinkering.

Charlaquin · May 29, 2019

I was very thorough on this one. They’re honing in on what could be a really great class, but it’s not quite there yet.

MiraMels · May 29, 2019

I spent an hour this morning filling it out. My response basically boiled down to "this is 140% of a class at the moment, but i'm looking forward to the 100% you pare it down to"

Charlaquin · May 29, 2019

MiraMels said:
I spent an hour this morning filling it out. My response basically boiled down to "this is 140% of a class at the moment, but i'm looking forward to the 100% you pare it down to"

Interesting! I think I agree, if I understand you correctly. This class definitely has a lot going on. Is there anything in particular you felt may have been contributing to the bloat that you’d be willing to talk more about?

Personally, I really like the tool proficiencies, crafting, and infusions, have mixed feelings about the pets, and think the spellcasting is too much.

77IM · May 31, 2019

My repeated feedback was "Unnecessarily complex." I like the class, I just think it needs streamlining. I agree with the 140% metaphor.

hbarsquared · May 31, 2019

No. Pets.

Either one subclass, or an artificer version of find familiar.

Everything else is just tweaks.

doctorbadwolf · May 31, 2019

MiraMels said:
I spent an hour this morning filling it out. My response basically boiled down to "this is 140% of a class at the moment, but i'm looking forward to the 100% you pare it down to"

My feedback will boil down to “do not pare this class down to any significant degree. It’s good as is, with some tweaks to when things come online and where they exist in the class or subclass”.

I’ll be extremely disappointed if it has noticeably fewer moving parts on release.

Li Shenron · May 31, 2019

I largely hate the Artificer class in all its incarnations. I would have liked it only if it was done to represent a non-magic character e.g. a MacGuyver-type, but the game already has too many casters. So I am very undecided whether I should express my deep dislike to it, or if I should encourage them to go through with it as-is (or even purposefully suggest changes against my taste) so that I make sure I won't be tempted to waste my money on the Eberron book.

Paul Farquhar · May 31, 2019

Conceptually, I'm fine with the artillerist's turrets. They are just weak to the level of pointlessness. Just buff them a bit.

If you deleted the alchemist's homunculus you are left with an extremely weak class all round. It's a spellcaster who gains spells at half the rate of other spellcasters. I would leave it alone since a complete reworking would prevent the release of the class anytime soon.

The Archivist, you would have to design dungeons so the party can't camp in a safe place whist the invulnerable artificial mind explores and slowly kills anything that can't run away. Personally, as it is, I would just ban the subclass. I don't like the concept anyway, but I guess making the AM vulnerable to Dispel Magic and force damage would help.