No, they're not. In the current iteraction, Infusions cost their own unique resource, independent from spell slots. My suggestion is to consolodate those resources. Have Infusions cost spell slots and get rid of the separate limited number of Infusions per day. Then the folks who don't want to cast spells with their Artificer can spend those spell slots on more infusions, and the folks who do want to cast spells with their Artificer can spend their spell slots on that.
So, you want infusions to be spells that require the caster to be holding an item to cast, restrcited by level, what spells they prepared that day, and subject to counterspell when cast.
So, spells with clunky mechanics.
But at that point, why have "greater infusions" cost their own unique resource? Just have them consume a spell slot. Maybe with a minimum level for some of the more powerful ones.
do you want them to be distinct from spellcasting, or not?
Because I don't agree with the author that it works that way just because he says it does. Sorry, a spell is a spell, not an item. You can pretend it's an item if you want, but I'm not interested in doing that.
Only the Artificer has to use a tool to cast a spell. How is this any different from your suggestion of making infusions cost spell slots to create?
I don't think it's impossible to do in a balanced way. At all.
I agree! They did it just fine in the current iteration of the Artificer.
But lets go down this road a bit. How long do the infusions for things like wands and scrolls last? Is it different from stuff like repeating shot and many handed pouch (another thing that is entirely unique to artificers, btw)?
If it lasts longer than a long rest, does that infusion "slot" remain used up?
Can you change an unused wand of fireballs for a wand of dispel magic 3 hours after ending a long rest, or only during a long rest?
How is the costing of spellstoring items determined?
Can the party fighter use an infused wand of fireballs, or only the artificer themself?
If it can be passed off to other creatures, how do you balance that? If not, how is it different from the artificer casting the spell, since it clearly is coming from their own power, not the item itself?
How do you explain the idea that the magic comes from the item, if it requires the Artificer to make the item? If they can imbue that item with fireball, how the hell does that translate to them not making a fireball under their own power?
If they can do this without any special power of their own, like TOny Stark or Green Arrow, why can't my tinker/magic item crafting rogue make infusions? Why isn't this whole system just part of the crafting rules?
Except it is, because in one case you have a scroll or a wand, and in the other case you don't. A scroll or a wand can be put in a backpack, it can be lost, stolen, or destroyed, it can be cast at one's leisure. A spell does none of those things, it's just an instantaneous effect. You might as well say that a match is fire.
If I wake up from a night's sleep and have 6 matches, every single day, no matter what, how is that different from is I wake up with the abiity to make fire come out of my pinky, in the same size, for the same duration, as a match, 6 times a day?
Description. That's literally it. You're demanding extra mechanics to separate things that are literally non-distinct in terms of what the character can accomplish in a day.
Note how "Ki Point" and "Spell Slot" are two completely different terms. They're also functionally different resources, as they have different things they can be spent to do.
They aren't, though. The shadow monk is a spell caster. They cast spells. this is like trying to say that Ranger Spell Slots and Wizard Spell Slots are functionally different because they can be spent to do different things. It's blatantly absurd. If your hypothetical artificer casts spells by spending Infusion Points, it's still a spellcaster, just like the current one.
Alll of which is great! I'd love it if I could do more of those things, instead of casting boring spells.
You have literally been saying that they should be casting spells by making a wand that casts the spell, while claiming that the class has nothing that is unique. You made false claims, I corrected them with examples.
One more question. How would tracking how many charges of fireball the infusion wand would be able to cast work? Do you want to have to determine during a long rest exactly how many charges of each spell you've stored in items you have for the day? 3 detect magics, 4 magic missiles, 2 fireballs, 1 water breathing, etc? Because if so, that's just old school vancian spellcasting with a new coat of paint.
Or maybe you don't want it to be clunky and annoying, so you'd prefer to simply have x number of infusions that you use up as you declare throughout the day that you happen to have a wand or ring or whatever for this situation, and produce a ring of water breather you imbued during your last rest?
Because that is literally just current spell casting.
Look, I'm not going to do a back-and-forth "nu-uh," "yes-huh" with you. I disagree with you that it is, and you've said nothing to convince me.
I presented plenty of counter points in the post you quoted. At this point, it's clear that you simply refuse to acknowledge or consider the points of anyone who disagrees with you. Feel free to make an artificer that meets your requirements. Most players want what's being offered.
Maybe there is a feature that could accomodate you, if you were willing at all to compromise.
Spell storing item could be a low level feature, and you could cast a spell using a spell slot at any point to create a stasis bound spell in an object, that you could then hand to a friend. using it yourself is identical to casting it, except that you used the spell slot earlier. It can be countered just like casting from a wand.
If material components are required, they are spent when using the spell slot to imbue the item. You can reclaim your stored spell slots during a long rest, or let them stay in the object. You don't regain spell slots unless you use the spell stored, or reclaim the slots during a rest, removing them from the item. You do not recover spent material components, if the spell description says they are consumed by the spell.
I'd be fine with this as a subclass, but there are some hefty balance concerns, and you're still a spellcaster, because you can't have a subclass that removes spellcasting as a class feature, AND because spell slots by level and spell levels are already balanced, and the class is already too complicated to add "Infusion Points" just to obfuscate that it's a spellcasting class.
There would have to be an extra cost if your friends can use it. Perhaps a restriction on what level of spell you can imbue, or which ones can be used by someone other than you. Handing level 3 spell to your level 5 ranger friend is overpowered inherently. Magic items get away with it by being limited and having cost and rarity that help the GM adjudicate what items to give out.
