D&D Releases Playtest for Updated Artificer

Wizards of the Coast has dropped a new Unearthed Arcana Playtest for the Artificer, bringing the often neglected 13th Dungeons & Dragons 5E class into alignment with the 2024 rules update. The playtest was released via D&D Beyond today, with feedback launching on December 24th.

The Artificer gains several new abilities, many of which are designed with an eye to making the class more versatile. For instance, players can now craft low-cost items quickly with a revamped Magical Tinkering ability, while Infuse Item ha been changed to Replicate Magic Item and allows players to replicate magic items of certain rarities and item type. Players can also use the Magic Item Tinker ability to convert a Replicated magic item into a spell slot. The capstone Soul of Artifice ability has also received a buff, with the Artificer no needing a Reaction in order to utilize its ability to skip death saving throws and restoring more health as well.

The subclasses were also updated. For example, the Alchemist's Experimental Elixir producing more elixirs and Chemical Mastery getting a big boost with extra damage, resistance, and the ability to cast Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron. The Armorer has a new Dreadnought option and Armor Modifications was replaced with a new ability called Armor Replication. The Artillerist's Eldritch Cannon can switch between various options instead of being set to one option and the Explosive Cannon ability does more damage and only requires a Reaction to use. Finally, the Battle Smith has received minor adjustments to its Steel Defender construct.

Compared to many other class updates in the 2024 Player's Handbook, the Artificer's changes are much less drastic. There are some obvious updates that bring the class in line with the design updates to other classes, but it didn't receive a major rework like several other classes.

 

[Remathilis]

Looks like the first "Tasha's" is already in the works.

I'm betting on a new Eberron book. It's really needing some love with how species rules changed. The warforged and kalshatar are still using the old race design, dragonmarks need a whole redesign, the artificer is getting a glow up, etc.

 

[Stormonu]

Hmm, downloading and looking through this. I've got a decent level Artificer (Armorer) and I'm curious to see what they're looking at doing. The prior subclasses have somewhat frustrated me in how narrow they feel.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I briefly looked over the document, and... I'm not seeing anything that'd make me go OMG I NEED TO PLAY THIS HALF-CASTER. Which is a shame, as I love the concept of an artificer.

Edit: It still feels like core class elements have been cut off into the subclasses, rather than the subclasses enhancing that part of the main class.

 

[kittenhugs]

What I like:

• magical tinkering is now a mundane utility belt option (very much helped by adventuring gear being given actual mechanics in the PHB)
• homunculus is a class-unique spell that you don't have to waste precious infusion slots on
• the not-that-useful unique infusions becoming generic magic items
• replicating magic items is just generally more versatile
• Artillerist is more flexible with its cannon
• armorer has a size-and-reach lockdown option
• Having true strike means that battlesmith can come out swinging using Intelligence at 1st instead of having to wait to come online
• Enspelled weapon and armor in the DMG means at 6th level you can get an extra 6 castings of any 1st level spells you know (except enchantment spells), that you can hand off to your allies (like armor that can cast shield or cure wounds 6 times lol. A dip into paladin means you could throw 6 divine smites on a weapon. There are definitely other exploitable options her esp with multiclassing).
• As far as I can tell, replicate magic item not requiring an item to infuse means you can generate +1 full plate at 6th level without spending a dime
• more than anything, this means we're getting Eberron content probably in 2026, which gives me and my groups something to look forward to since it's the only setting I've run games in for years outside of re-running Curse of Strahd.

What I don't like:

• having a different number of item formulas known vs. the number you can have made means you're still likely to have items you can replicate but never will, because some options are flat better than others
• Alchemist still depends on a random feature that it doesn't have a huge number of uses for without expending precious half-caster slots
• Artillerist still doesn't get much use of its eldritch cannon without expending precious half-caster slots
• The Rising/Tasha's artificer had problems keeping up with other classes numerically and I don't think this has changed much--they don't have the ability to buff and support as much as bard or cleric, and they don't have the ability to deal damage like the martials and other half-casters. It would require a larger rework to fix that issue, though, and I'm sure this would do fine to okay in actual-play, or do really well in a campaign where the DM gives them time to craft items.

 

[TwoSix]

Battle Smith: Minor changes. Why does the Steel Defender generally have a worse AC than a Beast of the land? For that matter casting focus?

I was going to say because it has infinite HP outside of combat thanks to Mending, but it looks like that they nerfed that interaction.

But 15 AC isn't terrible, and by the time you hit levels where 15 AC is more of a speedbump, your Steel Defender will probably be hanging back and acting as a turret for Spell Storing Item anyway.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given that this is probably not going to be showing up in the Dragons in Dungeons book, Heroes of the Borderlands or the two Forgotten Realms books, this feels like confirmation that the early 2026 book will be one of character options. (The other choice is Eberron, but there are already two Eberron books and there's a lot of 2014 subclasses people would like to see converted sooner rather than later.)

 

[I'm A Banana]

I was pretty happy with the Alchemist I played, but let's see what they'd do differently...

Pro

• Fond of the new magical tinkering. Kind of like the idea of an alchemist character carrying around "bottled lamp."
• Delivering Elixirs as a bonus action is huge. In line with some of the other changes in 24, but especially welcome here. Now I can buff or heal and still use my turn to do a cantrip or weapon attack.
• I like the restorative reagents temp hp buff - Alchemists are healer-lite, it's good that they can function as a reliable buffer.
• The expanded options for magic item plans is welcome. The old infusion list struggled with the problem of "100 channels and nothing on." This lets a lot more customization and interesting interaction into the room.

What Would Be Cool

• I'd love more Experimental Elixirs. The random roll isn't bad (since you can always create one of your choice by burning a spell slot), but the options are a little limited, with most being pretty circumstantial. Keeping with the theme of something that buffs you when you drink it, I think we're missing something that can add some damage (maybe adding a bit of force damage to the attacks of someone who drinks it), and maybe something that buffs ability checks (where's my popeye spinach or my cha-boosting purfume?). And we should keep the transformation in that case. Give me a d12 to roll or something.
• Give me firearms proficiency! Let Artificers show their boomsticks!
• Would it be too much to let Flash of Genius apply to attack rolls? And what if we allowed it to inflict a penalty in addition to a buff so that we can help enemies fail saves and fail attacks, too?

I think this holds together. Unlike others, I don't think the artificer necessarily needs a huge rework, though one of the things that is definitely true about it is that its powers are hidden behind class features that aren't always clearly telegraphed. Flash of Genius is a GREAT buffing ability, for instance, and for an Alchemist, Alchemical Savant is pretty devastating (makes poison spray basically your greatsword). And the AC an artificer can get is S-tier. But these don't read as especially flashy, and come in after the initial level, and require a bit of system mastery to get up and running. Having a very good AC, for instance, requires a good knowledge of how effects stack and a choice to lean into AC when choosing your replicated magic items. Making good use of Flash of Genius means remembering an ability you've been playing without for seven levels and how it stacks with smaller effects like bless and the Elixirs. Using Alchemical Savant well means keeping close track of the spells your using and taking into account enemies' resistances.

The experience of playing an artificer to me was in noticing how many different little +1 or +1d4's you can stack, and doing a lot of research on magic items and spells. This doesn't change that experience. Though, I don't think that experience is exactly fun for everyone (and certainly I'm personally a little meh on it).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

...why would you do this to us

You could just publish the 2019 sidekick classes to D&D Beyond as-is.

 

[kittenhugs]

Okay followup, enspelled armor and weapon is actually hilarious as an option with multiclassing.

If you dip into wizard you can replicate Enspelled Weapon to create a weapon that allows the wielder to cast find familiar... which you could then spend a day passing around to each party member until everyone has a familiar that doesn't go away. This is already true of just crafting something like an Enspelled Quarterstaff of Find Familiar with 10 days of work and 200gp of materials, but this lets you do it on a much shorter time scale without any real resource expenditure. This is something you could legitimately do with the party with a single day of downtime before/during an adventure, not even a full day.

And at 14th level? Well, you can do this again, but with homunculus servant, giving everyone another permanent extra buddy they can communicate with telepathically from a distance. This also lets you generally get around the component costs of find familiar and homunculus servant.

Artificer 14/wizard 1/paladin 5 could give everyone in the party their own familiar, homunculus, and mount from find steed.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Given that this is probably not going to be showing up in the Dragons in Dungeons book, Heroes of the Borderlands or the two Forgotten Realms books, this feels like confirmation that the early 2026 book will be one of character options. (The other choice is Eberron, but there are already two Eberron books and there's a lot of 2014 subclasses people would like to see converted sooner rather than later.)

I'm not sure where it was said, but I believe that there's going to be a Tasha's/Xanathar's refresh to 2024 rules. Of which this will be a part.