Experiences with the Artificer Class?

[|)ar|{]

In my experience, Artificer balance is based almost totally on the games level of money and down time. If you have a low money time sensitive game the artificer will be a little weak. If you give them a lot of money and free time your going to have to watch the artificers power level. For example

We start to explore a dungeon. Incorporial undead and flooded rooms make exploration a challenge. We aren't in a hurry so we leave, spend a week or two making ghost touch oil and water breathing potions. We go back in and plow through with little challenge.

Artificers can do this to just about any level appropriate challenge give enough time. Just keep that in mind. I'm not saying its bad, just something you have to watch out for.

Another big problem you should watch out for is a rich artificer. If you give them too much money they will break the class. If wand charges have little value to them then you will end up with a wizard/cleric/rogue that makes your bard feel small and worthless.

Artificers are fun and I love having them in a group because it means I can put them up against anything and they always have a solution but it requires a lot of extra work on your part to keep things balanced.

 

[MadMaxim]

You might also want to disallow feats like the one found in Complete Arcane that allows a caster to use two wands at once, given that it's a special prestige class ability of the Cannith wand adept in Sharn: City of Towers.

It's funny that you mention it, because the Artificer is planning to take the Canntih Wand Adept prestige class. I've seen the plan that the player has for his character and he's going to be making a ton of magic items. I don't really mind that because I think they're going to need all the tools they can get their hands on.

I intend to run relatively combat-light campaign, considering that their characters aren't the best fighters, so there'll be a lot of intrigue and working their way around threats instead of through them.

 

[Stormborn]

In a recent campaign, one of the characters was an artificer. Even with using 3rd party rules for creating much weaker golems to help the character, the artificer was a support character. They have okay combat abilities, but they won't survive long as a front line fighter.

THREADJACK: Which Product?

On Topic: We ahd an artificer in out Eb game, which only lasted through 6th level, but she was effective both in and out of combat. In that game we had a Fighter, a Bard, and an Artificer and did just fine most of the time.

 

[SiderisAnon]

THREADJACK: Which Product?

Golemcraft 101, from Dog Soul Publishing.

It allows you to create golems from Tiny on up. I gave the artificers in my campaign the ability to craft these golems. It was either every two or every three levels that the size they could craft went up. The golems presented are not too bad. The materials cost was one of the biggest limits to creating golems at low levels. We were working on some more tweaks, but the player left the game, so I never got to test the rules with the artificer at higher levels. We did have to change the base spells required because the artificer didn't have them.

 

[Stormborn]

Golemcraft 101, from Dog Soul Publishing.

It allows you to create golems from Tiny on up. I gave the artificers in my campaign the ability to craft these golems. It was either every two or every three levels that the size they could craft went up. The golems presented are not too bad. The materials cost was one of the biggest limits to creating golems at low levels. We were working on some more tweaks, but the player left the game, so I never got to test the rules with the artificer at higher levels. We did have to change the base spells required because the artificer didn't have them.

Oh Great! Glad you liked it. (I wrote it.)

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I DM an Eberron game (6th level PCs), and the artificer is by far the most powerful member of the group. This is partially because he's also a warforged -- perhaps the most powerful race -- but I think artificers are the most powerful "official" PC class.

The other characters are not hyper-optimized, but they're also not scrubs -- a 6th-level half-orc ranger, a 3rd/3rd-level human fighter-rogue, a 6th-level sea spiritfolk shugenja, and a 6th-level kalashtar paladin. The warforged artificer is in a different league.

Yes, a warforged artificer is one truly awesome combo. Depending on the type of game you run, that could mean good or bad. It gets even moreso if you throw in the alternate artificer abilities from Races of Eberron.

 

[MadMaxim]

Yes, a warforged artificer is one truly awesome combo. Depending on the type of game you run, that could mean good or bad. It gets even moreso if you throw in the alternate artificer abilities from Races of Eberron.

Yes, he's using the substitution class levels from Races of Eberron. I'm expecting him to turn into a magic item-creating factory during downtime.

 

[Kafkonia]

My one experiencing playing with an Artificer really pointed up the flaws and benefits in it. It was a game with a lot of combat and no downtime to craft items. He basically wound up being little more than a cohort, as he had little he could do in combat aside from try to buff his golem. I would imagine that was frustrating for the player.

But you could see a lot of potential in the class, it was just all unutilized.

 

[MadMaxim]

Thanks for all the feedback, people. I'llsee how it goes.