D&D 5E How is Artificer Balanced?

[doctorbadwolf]

Doc, I don’t believe this is correct. A tiny cannon can be held in a hand, but does not have to be. Either a small or tiny cannon can have legs.

Snippets from the subclass:
can take an action to magically create a Small or Tiny eldritch cannon in an unoccupied space on a horizontal surface within 5 feet of you. A Small eldritch cannon occupies its space, and a Tiny one can be held in one hand.

When you create the cannon, you determine its appearance and whether it has legs.

Okay, but that has no impact whatsoever on the point of my reply.

 

[Flamestrike]

You can make your Arcane firearm an Enhanced Spell Focus, but your Eldritch Cannon is an independent creature,, and you don't have to hold it. (Or hold it in your other hand).
Swapping between those and your crossbow could be tricky, but after perhaps the first few levels, you often don't need a crossbow.

Actually your Eldritch cannon is a magical object, not a creature. And it takes the form of whatever you want (within the size limits of the ability).

Nothing stopping you from creating your Eldritch cannon as a wrist or shoulder mounted gun (or shield generator) Predator/ Mandalorian style leaving your hands totally free to do whatever you want.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That is certainly how the Artillerist I play with approaches the class. High twenties damage on a ranged cantrip at 5th level is fairly nice. The Artillerist keeps an Infused Handaxe, just in case he needs to melee....came in handy when we encountered a Rakshasa.

Even at level 1 they are better with a wand than a crossbow - intelligence is the prime stat, there is no reason an artificer needs a dex higher than 14.

 

[Todd Roybark]

Okay, but that has no impact whatsoever on the point of my reply.

ohh it was not meant as a point of dispute, but of politeness. It was intended in the same spirit as informing someone their shoe is un tied.

 

[Flamestrike]

The best use for the turret is spamming Temp HP (remember - they dont stack!) but that requires the Artificer to either be in close with his allies, or the turret being unattended.

I suppose he could create the turret as something to clamp onto a melee PC though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The best use for the turret is spamming Temp HP (remember - they dont stack!) but that requires the Artificer to either be in close with his allies, or the turret being unattended.

I suppose he could create the turret as something to clamp onto a melee PC though.

in a white room, perhaps, though the enemies being dead a round faster often saves just as much ally HP.
But which canon is best depends on the situation and how much impact an extra couple damage dice per round make in terms of dropping enemies sooner.

ohh it was not meant as a point of dispute, but of politeness. It was intended in the same spirit as informing someone their shoe is un tied.

ahfair enough!

 

[Coroc]

Its AC is pretty decent but lets take its HP at level 1,2,3 are only 5/10/15 so a single good melee or ranged hit deactivates it and there is no chance to resummons it till next long rest, did I get that correctly?

So it is a kind of glass canon in the end, isn't it?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Has anyone got much use out of the flamethrower turret? I've seen the Protector turret get a lot of use, and the ballista as well, bt not seen the flamethower option.

Every artilerist I've seen in play, every single one, the concept was focused on using a crossbow. Unfortunately the mechanics don't deliver on that, but instead force splitting focus between a wand, staff, or rod, and a canon.

Interesting. I've seen a couple of ranged Battle Smiths, but the all the artillerists I've seen used cantrips not weapons primarily.

To clarify, we have made it so that your magical weapon can be your canon. You can simply make your crossbow (or magic sword, if you want a gunblade, or shield if you want a gunshield or a magic shield that protects your allies) into your canon. Meaning you don't need to hold a separate object (for those who aren't interested in the mobile canon option) in order to use it. It's part of your weapon. As is the arcane firearm. So, at level 5, you are shooting firebolt or whatever out of your crossbow and adding 1d8 to damage, and then shooting a force bolt from your crossbow as a bonus action.

OK Gotcha. So its like just an additional infusion rather than a pet.

Actually your Eldritch cannon is a magical object, not a creature. And it takes the form of whatever you want (within the size limits of the ability).

Technically (the best kind of ) correct. Its a magical animated object with the statistics of a creature.

Nothing stopping you from creating your Eldritch cannon as a wrist or shoulder mounted gun (or shield generator) Predator/ Mandalorian style leaving your hands totally free to do whatever you want.

Hence my confusion regarding having to swap it around in your hands.

Its AC is pretty decent but lets take its HP at level 1,2,3 are only 5/10/15 so a single good melee or ranged hit deactivates it and there is no chance to resummons it till next long rest, did I get that correctly?

It starts with 15HP (you get it at 3rd level) with a decent AC, so it can probably survive a number of attacks. You can summon it as an action by spending a spell slot

So it is a kind of glass canon in the end, isn't it?

If you get it to sit on your helmet, it could be your headcanon.

 

[Coroc]

Has anyone got much use out of the flamethrower turret? I've seen the Protector turret get a lot of use, and the ballista as well, bt not seen the flamethower option.


Interesting. I've seen a couple of ranged Battle Smiths, but the all the artillerists I've seen used cantrips not weapons primarily.

OK Gotcha. So its like just an additional infusion rather than a pet.

Technically (the best kind of ) correct. Its a magical animated object with the statistics of a creature.

Hence my confusion regarding having to swap it around in your hands.

It starts with 15HP (you get it at 3rd level) with a decent AC, so it can probably survive a number of attacks. You can summon it as an action by spending a spell slot

If you get it to sit on your helmet, it could be your headcanon.

It sounds like cool approach to the artificer, very close to the DDO version which I really love.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

First, thanks for all the answers. This is our first foray into Artificer, so the group is wonderiing why it's so good. I was curious where it balances. As far as competing with the wizard in our party, our wizard has 2 levels of rogue so, at fourth level, the 4th level is out-doing the wizard, obviously. Looks like the wizard will eventually out-shine the artificer at in spellcasting at higher levels.

Healing Word is in many ways better than the cannon’s temp hp. Healing Word brings back PCs from unconsciousness, which is arguably its best use. If you’re at 0 hp, temp hp won’t make you conscious. You need at least 1 hit point for that, and temp hp don’t do that.

The best use for the turret is spamming Temp HP (remember - they dont stack!) but that requires the Artificer to either be in close with his allies, or the turret being unattended.

The thing with spamming temp HP is that it's hard to drop anyone down to 0.

the barbarian is getting 7hp(on average) per round. It means he has to take 14 damage before it even eats into normal HP, and then, the next round, those HP are replenished. To boot, it's topping people up all around. It just makes everyone near the turret that much more tough to drop. So, sitting it near the barbarian is pretty potent and the barbarian can protect it.

The player hasn't used it this way because a) He thinks it's boring and; b) he didn't want to munchkin it up and he thought it would be too powerful.

Has anyone got much use out of the flamethrower turret? I've seen the Protector turret get a lot of use, and the ballista as well, bt not seen the flamethower option.

The flamethrower is great. Sure, it has to get into close range but an AoE 1st level spell as a bonus action has done lots to help us. Especially considering we don't have a full spellcaster yet.

It starts with 15HP (you get it at 3rd level) with a decent AC, so it can probably survive a number of attacks. You can summon it as an action by spending a spell slot

That 15 HPs is just a few HP worse than the rogue and it has a higher AC. So, it's as tough as some of the squishier PCs. The fact that an enemy has to use an action (or two or three) to drop it is just a boost to the party's survivability.

For the record, we were going to put the balista turret on my Mastiff mount (who, through RP, is intelligent - essentially, an NPC). We thought that would be cool...as long as the dog consents to being mobile artillery.