Dragon 365 - Artificer

[Bagpuss]

The hands thing might not be too much of an issue, you are only going to be using one power a turn, and in 4th Ed it's only a minor action to retrieve or stow an item.

 

[Cadfan]

The hands thing might not be too much of an issue, you are only going to be using one power a turn, and in 4th Ed it's only a minor action to retrieve or stow an item.

The concern is for when half your powers use one item, and half use the other.

Lets say round 1, I want to use my crossbow. Round 2, I want to use my wand. Round 3, I want to use my crossbow again. I start with my crossbow in my hand, but unloaded.

Round 1
Minor, load crossbow
Standard, fire crossbow
Move, whatever

Round 2
Minor, draw wand
Standard, use wand
Move, whatever

Round 3
Minor, stow wand
Minor, load crossbow
Standard, fire crossbow

You can switch from crossbow to wand easily, but it sucks to go from wand to crossbow.

Its just a whole lot of things to juggle, and it doesn't "feel" very cool. Who wants to spend half their actions taking things out or putting them away? Quickdraw fixes some of the problem, but you still end up doing the juggling dance, and that makes you less badass and more inventory-manager.

Also, heaven forbid one of your powers has "sustain minor" in it.

 

[Scribble]

My only complaint is the whole "it takes 3 hands" thing.

The class gets access to simple ranged weapons, and has powers that trigger from ranged weapons. This basically means crossbows, in context. It also has a theme of "rune inscribed augmented weaponry," which is pretty cool, but again means you're using crossbows.

And then you're ALSO using implements.

It's only a minor action to sheath or draw a weapon. So most likely you're only trading out a move action to switch up, or sheath your implement in order to load the bow.

Or just don't use an xbow. (since the others are load free...)

 

[Bagpuss]

The concern is for when half your powers use one item, and half use the other.

(snip nice example)

Hmm slightly better with Quick Draw and using only a hand crossbow, but still that's a bit of a pain just to use your class powers.

I definitely think some under-slung implement holder could be in order. It wouldn't really give much of an advantage to other implement using classes, but would stop the Artificer doing the hand-jive.

 

[Vendark]

You don't have to use a crossbow. The powers work fine with a sling or thrown weapon. It even says that thrown weapons used with an artificer's powers return automatically as if they were magic.

If you want to use a crossbow and don't want to be swapping out items, I'd avoid selecting powers that use implements as much as possible.

 

[Cadfan]

Or just don't use an xbow. (since the others are load free...)

That doesn't actually help much, because they're still two handed weapons. It does free up some actions, which is nice, but you're still going to end up in positions where you want to load and fire your hand crossbow, but you're holding a wand in one hand and the crossbow in the other, and you have to put away the wand to load the crossbow, then take it back out again.

Its not unbalancing. At absolute worst, we're concerning ourselves with a few minor actions. But its annoying. With a hand crossbow and Quickdraw, you'll probably never even notice it mechanically, but in-game your character is switching things back and forth over and over.

 

[Rechan]

You don't have to use a crossbow. The powers work fine with a sling or thrown weapon. It even says that thrown weapons used with an artificer's powers return automatically as if they were magic.

Woah.

Although, I'll have to review the article. Area burst powers that make multi attacks might be difficult to use a single thrown weapon for.

 

[Scribble]

That doesn't actually help much, because they're still two handed weapons. It does free up some actions, which is nice, but you're still going to end up in positions where you want to load and fire your hand crossbow, but you're holding a wand in one hand and the crossbow in the other, and you have to put away the wand to load the crossbow, then take it back out again.

Its not unbalancing. At absolute worst, we're concerning ourselves with a few minor actions. But its annoying. With a hand crossbow and Quickdraw, you'll probably never even notice it mechanically, but in-game your character is switching things back and forth over and over.

Eh... yeah I definitely see your point.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Well, I have not digested the rules well enough to say whether it's a good class, but I really do like the playtest format, and the fact that they're previewing it online. Assuming they're really paying attention to feedback, this is potentially a big improvement!

Ken

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

My only complaint is the whole "it takes 3 hands" thing.

<snip>

I'll email that to the response email address.

Sounds like a good idea!

But maybe one of the new races is the Thri-Keen, and he will be able to fully use this class!