Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Introduces The Artifcer

I don't think anyone saw this coming!

 

[Darkness]

[MENTION=6805042]Datalore[/MENTION]
Please tone down the hostility. I know debating rules can be an irritating experience, but your posting in this thread is getting pretty abrasive.

In particular, please stop accusing your fellow posters of trolling (i.e., not posting in good faith). If you're wrong, you insulted an innocent poster. If you're right, you're just giving the troll what he wants: Attention. So either way, nothing good comes from it.
If you really think someone is trolling, just ignore them and - if you think it's warranted - report the post so a moderator can take a look.

Keep it civil: Don't engage in personal attacks, name-calling, or blanket generalizations in your discussions. Say how you feel or what you think, but be careful about ascribing motives to the actions of others or telling others how they "should" think. People seeking to engage and discuss will find themselves asking questions, seeking clarifications, and describing their own opinion. People seeking to "win an argument" sometimes end up taking cheap shots, calling people names, and generally trying to indimidate others. My advice: don't try to win.

For reference, the rules.

If you have any questions, PM me.

-Darkness,
EN World moderator

 

[Datalore]

[MENTION=6805042]Datalore[/MENTION]
Please tone down the hostility. I know debating rules can be an irritating experience, but your posting in this thread is getting pretty abrasive.

In particular, please stop accusing your fellow posters of trolling (i.e., not posting in good faith). If you're wrong, you insulted an innocent poster. If you're right, you're just giving the troll what he wants: Attention. So either way, nothing good comes from it.
If you really think someone is trolling, just ignore them and - if you think it's warranted - report the post so a moderator can take a look.

For reference, the rules.

If you have any questions, PM me.

-Darkness,
EN World moderator

Absolutely, you are 100% correct. My apologies.

 

[Ancalagon]

I like it!

I do agree it's not perfect. The mechanical servant is too... vague, doesn't scale, it needs work. Also I want this guy as my servant:

http://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Robo

Ie I love the *idea* of a mechanical servant, but while it's really nice that it's fairly open ended, a bit more guidance would be nice.

A good point was made about defensive capacities. It's not *fragile* with d8 hp and medium armor, but the lack of a shield and limited spells do make it not great.

I am also struck how easily re-flavored this class is. Change the wording and you have a shaman infusing items with spirits and with an aggressive bound ghost striking his or her foes...

Lastly, for those upset about it creating magical items, you can make them "needing tuning/repairs", meaning that after a few days away from the artificer, they stop working right. Or that only the artificer can use them.

I really would like playing this in a game now...

 

[Garresh]

I like it!

I do agree it's not perfect. The mechanical servant is too... vague, doesn't scale, it needs work. Also I want this guy as my servant:

http://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Robo

Ie I love the *idea* of a mechanical servant, but while it's really nice that it's fairly open ended, a bit more guidance would be nice.

A good point was made about defensive capacities. It's not *fragile* with d8 hp and medium armor, but the lack of a shield and limited spells do make it not great.

I am also struck how easily re-flavored this class is. Change the wording and you have a shaman infusing items with spirits and with an aggressive bound ghost striking his or her foes...

Lastly, for those upset about it creating magical items, you can make them "needing tuning/repairs", meaning that after a few days away from the artificer, they stop working right. Or that only the artificer can use them.

I really would like playing this in a game now...

I've tried to adjust the construct to be less frustrating for the Ranger, by reintroducing vanilla ranger restrictions on the construct, and making it specialize more on a specific purpose. Thoughts?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...icer-Analysis-and-Proposal-Mechanical-Servant

Also, who thinks the healing draught needs to be a bonus action like the swiftness draught?

 

[Ancalagon]

There must be a reason... is it to prevent a "double heal" (cast cure light wound and give the draught) in one round?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Also, who thinks the healing draught needs to be a bonus action like the swiftness draught?

I don't think so really. The Draught can be out of the pouch for 1 hr, during that time you can't pull out another healing draught but everything else is fine.

I think most alchemists should either use the draught outside of combat, where the action economy isn't important and keep one out and on their person otherwise. It is a decently big heal after all, especially at mid levels.

I'm kind of tempted to make an Alchemist field medic who has the Healing Draught, the healer feat, and then infuses cure spells for a rainy day. That's a lot of potential healing for a class, but the biggest ones only work once per day.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I'm kind of tempted to make an Alchemist field medic who has the Healing Draught, the healer feat, and then infuses cure spells for a rainy day. That's a lot of potential healing for a class, but the biggest ones only work once per day.

You might actually find the Wizard tradition Artificer better for that concept. Healer feat is effective for between-short-rests healing, but I think that the greater number and level of the spell slots converted to potions of the wizard would make the difference compared to the very limited slots of the actual Artificer class.
With the plus side that if you want to take the UA Alchemist feat, it synergises well with the tradition Artificer, but may not with the actual Artificer. (If your DM OKs it working with healing draughts as well though, that's a big boost to Alchemist Artificer.) Downside of the tradition version of that concept would be considerably worse at-will damage.

 

[Ancalagon]

This really does look a bit like the pathfinder alchemist the more I think about it. Reasonable healing potential, reasonable utility, reasonable damage, reasonable buffing.

The differences is that he can actually *casts* spells but has less infusions/potions/etc, and this limits buffing somewhat. My alchemist could distributes "spell potions" to the entire party and make it extremely resilient. Also, the Mutagen is gone, and that was a great way to boost your fighting abilities/defenses.

The mechanical servant will really be needed for defense I think. My 3.X alchemist was *extremely* resilient, I don't think I could build that in 5e...

So the alchemist will be great in small parties where each member has to "wear more than one hat", and (this was the situation in that old 3.x game) in parties where every main role is already filled - you can back up almost any endeavor. It's almost Bard-ish in that way.

That being said, I don't think it's OP. You play this class because it's fun, not for power gaming purposes...

 

[Garresh]

I don't think so really. The Draught can be out of the pouch for 1 hr, during that time you can't pull out another healing draught but everything else is fine.

I think most alchemists should either use the draught outside of combat, where the action economy isn't important and keep one out and on their person otherwise. It is a decently big heal after all, especially at mid levels.

I'm kind of tempted to make an Alchemist field medic who has the Healing Draught, the healer feat, and then infuses cure spells for a rainy day. That's a lot of potential healing for a class, but the biggest ones only work once per day.

What about at least raising the "cooldown" to short rest instead of long rest? The draught is once per day which makes it kind of mediocre compared to other sources of healing.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

What about at least raising the "cooldown" to short rest instead of long rest? The draught is once per day which makes it kind of mediocre compared to other sources of healing.

Have you considered that maybe it is intended to be mediocre compared to other sources of healing?

Sources of healing need not be created equal for each to individually be worth using.