Party Artificer Needs Help in Combat

[Wolfwood2]

Okay, so we are playing Age of Worms in Greyhawk with 5 PCs, one of whom is a human Artificer. We just finished the Blackwall Keep adventure and are taking a couple of weeks of downtime before heading off to the big city. Half the party just made 7th level, and the other half is about another session away.

The problem is that the Artificer has been very weak in combat. Like, he'll shoot off missiles from his CL-1 wand of magic missiles. Or he'll use a level 1 scroll. Now, he's not completely useless. Occasionally he'll make good use of the Spell-Storing Infusion or come up with just the right scroll. However, it always seems like he would be better off if he were just a wizard or something. Physically, with a 10 strengh, d6 hitpoints, and no feats invested in combat he's not much when it comes to hitting things with his mace. That leaves magic.

Part of this is probably that he has been very generous spending his time crafting things for various members of the party, charging us 3/4 the book value. Another part has been a certain lack of downtime. I mean, he's gotten himself a Dedicated Wright homoculus, but when an entire adventure (and two level gains) happens over a week, that's not much time.

Finally, there's been a lack of raw cash. I don't mean that the DM has been stinting us on treasure. Far from it! My record-keeping shows that party members have from 20,000 to 38,000 (or so) worth of magical items each, when the suggested treasure value for 7th level characters is 19,000. (The wide range is because of a Shocking, Returning, +1 Trident and a Ring of Minor Spellstoring found items that are throwing off the total balance with their high book value.)

However, we've been keeping out found magic treasure instead of selling it, because normally somebody can make use of it. So that's less cash for the artificer to play with.

I'm looking for suggestions to give the player. I've always heard how Artificers are supposed to be this incredibly powerful class, but I'm not seeing it come together for him. Maybe things will change once he gets Craft Wand at 7th.

The latest suggestion has been to let him switch out his 6th level feat for Leadership and get a construct cohort to use his best infusions on. However, this is a Greyhawk game and I'm not sure we want to have a warforged running around. Are there any constructs suitable for Leadership that better fit the Greyhawk feel?

 

[Patlin]

The Artificer is more like a Cleric than a Wizard, IMO. My warforged artificer does fine smashing things with his morningstar. There are a number of ways of buffing up using infusions, even at low levels. The 10 strength is sort of unfortunate... Is his Dex a lot better? If so, he could be a mean archer. Personal Weapon Augmentation is great, especially if you add the correct Bane quality to your weapon.

Lots of people talk about the "blastificer" build, using wands and metamagic feats. I imagine that would work very well at high levels, but it's expensive until you get the infusion that provides temporary charges.

 

[Wolfwood2]

The Artificer is more like a Cleric than a Wizard, IMO. My warforged artificer does fine smashing things with his morningstar. There are a number of ways of buffing up using infusions, even at low levels. The 10 strength is sort of unfortunate... Is his Dex a lot better? If so, he could be a mean archer. Personal Weapon Augmentation is great, especially if you add the correct Bane quality to your weapon.

We had a 32 point buy, but he spread the points around a lot. I think his base stats were something like:

Str-10, Dex-14, Con-14, Int-16, Wis-10, Cha-14

With Personal Weapon Augmentation he could be a decent archer, but he doesn't have precise shot and he's not proficient with anything except the crossbow.

You may be under-estimating how much your PC has benefited from being a warforged. Lots of infusions that are effectively useless without a construct around to use them on.

Lots of people talk about the "blastificer" build, using wands and metamagic feats. I imagine that would work very well at high levels, but it's expensive until you get the infusion that provides temporary charges.

Also, we have not been in a location where wands are available to be bought (until next session) and he doesn't get Craft Wand until 7th.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

There's no reason he couldn't craft another homunculus. Some of the ones in the ECS and in the Magic of Eberron book are downright nasty in combat.

Part of the problem with the artificer is that it is very, very good at turning spare cash and downtime into combat effectiveness.

If you don't have either of those, then he'll be in trouble.

One of the things I liked about my Artificer from a World's Largest Dungeon campaign was that I could infuse the party's gear to account for whatever challenge we were about to face. This is especially true with the weapon enhancement infusions which allow me to throw the appropriate Bane augmentation on everyone's stuff.

I'd also multiclassed a couple levels of fighter (maybe just 1?) and spent a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Great Trident) (usually enhanced with Returning) in order to get some in-combat flexibility.

 

[irdeggman]

I have to assume you are using action points. If not, the Eberrron setting class - artificer is hampered a lot. The ability to spend AP to reduce casting time is huge.


He can also spend charges to apply metamagic feats to wands (if he has the metamagic feat) - so that CL -1 wand of magic missiles could be much more powerful if appropriately "metamagiced".

And he should be good at Disabling Devices too.

You need to find wands, staves or rods.

The artificer's strength lies in his UMD ability (second only to the warlock).

Is the player dissatisifed with his ability to contribute in combat or are the other players?

There is a major difference.

If the player is not happy then look for ways to help him out (several have been suggested), if it the rest of the players - tough it. It is his character and he is doing what his character does well. Making items that the party can use.

 

[Wolfwood2]

I have to assume you are using action points. If not, the Eberrron setting class - artificer is hampered a lot. The ability to spend AP to reduce casting time is huge.

We are using action points.

He can also spend charges to apply metamagic feats to wands (if he has the metamagic feat) - so that CL -1 wand of magic missiles could be much more powerful if appropriately "metamagiced".

Yeah, he did that last time. After a series of dice rolls, he was able to cast one Quickened CL-1 magic missile and one regular CL-1 magic missile... in the same round! Cue 5 points of damage and all the other players struggling to hide their pity smiles.

Then it's the psion's initiative. Overchanneled augment, and cue 7d10 Mind Thrust damage.

And he should be good at Disabling Devices too.

He actually is, but that's pretty boring work. Not flashy or fun during combat time.

You need to find wands, staves or rods.

We've found a few CL-1 level wands. Honestly, rods and staves are probably a bit much for (until end of last session) 6th level characters.

The artificer's strength lies in his UMD ability (second only to the warlock).

Yes, he's maxed the skill and built an item to give himself a bonus on the check. Mostly it's, "Don't roll a 1."

Is the player dissatisifed with his ability to contribute in combat or are the other players?

There is a major difference.

If the player is not happy then look for ways to help him out (several have been suggested), if it the rest of the players - tough it. It is his character and he is doing what his character does well. Making items that the party can use.

The player isn't happy that the most useful thing his character does in combat is to take a hit so that other, more effective PCs can stay on their feet longer. The DM nicknamed his character "damage sponge" after the artificer fell to negatives twice in the same session. (This was about third or fourth level or so.)

The other players acknowledge how useful having an artificer is, but we feel bad for him when his huge combination of feats and class abilities, that he's been waiting so many levels for, results in 2d4+2 damage.

Still, getting custom-made items and having newly found items identified immediately (with an artificer's monocle) is pretty cool.

Is the Iron Defender really worthwhile for him? It seems like he'd have to pump in an awful lot of gold to make it survivable in combat. It only starts with, what, 3D10+10 hitpoints? The player is very worried he'll kill his character by taking damage from destroyed homoculuses.

 

[Anthelios]

I ran a long Eberron game with a very effective Artificer PC playing, here are some of the tricks he used:

1.) Use Magic of Eberron book. Its got a LOT of useful infusions. Blast Rod is very handy in battle. 7th level is 7d8 worth of blasts (either as separate blasts or all at once) if my memory serves correct. Also, races of Eberron has some infusions which can turn the human artificer into a warforge temporarily, allowing him to directly buff and heal himself.

2.) DMG2 Has some very surprisingly easy low market bonus abilities. Get yourself a flaming weapon and then use weapon augmentation to add the elemental summoning abilities from DMG2 to the weapon, turning your market value +2 sword into a huge fire elemental.

3.) Bane weapon. Personal Weapon Augment + bane is very effective. +2 +2d6 comes in handy.

4.) Grab some low cost rings/amulets/works of art from the treasure, or purchase them in a town. Use this to cast Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace early on. By 7th level those spells last over an hour. Wear the rings yourself, or pass them to the fighter to increase his damage output while you blast away with your blast rod.

5.) The Magic Item Compendium has a lot of new abilities that can be conferred with weapon and armor augmentation spells. The list goes on.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, in another game I got to play in, the artificer PC and my necromancer came up with a wicked little combo. He would add the wounding property to his three iron defenders, then I would follow up with Escalating enfeeblement, since the target had CON damage already.

About the iron defenders, there is a feat in magic of eberron which allows you to give your hommoculi special abilities. One of which is storing an infusion.. like a weapon augmentation or a repair construct they can cast on them self. This saves time at the beginning of the battle.

 

[Maldor]

in the errata the class gets craft wand at 6th level and metamagic spell trigger at 7th
he should take craft construct and look thourgh the MM's for the low end ones and get a golem manal as soon as he can use it.
at lower levels it's hard to find a construct you can make but effigy's out of complete arcane are fairly good.

 

[irdeggman]

Maldor's correct.

The errata was uploaded in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=164253

Oh and pay particular attention to the remphasis on the fact that everything an artificer creates in neither arcane nor divine (basically everyone would need to do a UMD to use those items that depend on the "type" of spell, like scrolls).

 

[robberbaron]

I played an Artificer and I tended to infuse Bane a lot, including on my crossbow, then shoot stuff.
Very much a supporting class, even more so than the Bard, perhaps, but Bane/Ghost Touch/Flaming, etc are all useful infusions and enhance the party's kickassability.
Keeping the Warforged 'alive' was also part of the Artificer's remit.

My DM house-ruled the Artificer's ability to re-use magic items (can't think of the actual name at the moment) to include GP value of the item, instead of just XP value. Made a heck of a lot of difference, I can tell you. At the end of the last adventure I spent a lot of time using up several items to craft new ones.