Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Introduces The Artifcer

I don't think anyone saw this coming!

 

[Savevsdeath]

So, i'm late to this party by nearly a month but i thought i'd give my .02 as i just got around to reading this article - i like it. A lot. The breakdown:

-Core Chassis. Mechanically, the core chassis is a solid class. It sets you up to do anything a magical inventor might be able to do, which means it's very broad and general. I like that spellcasting is just a SMALL part of what it does. We have enough spellcasting classes, but giving artificer no actual magical ability would be a bit ridiculous. It's balanced, and i love that with the application of a subclass you can be any number of different kinds of magical engineer to fit any kind of campaign. I also like that the construct companion is a core part of the class, just change it to scale and offer an option for certain subclasses to switch it for something else to satisfy the people who don't want it. A+, WotC.

-Alchemist. The standard creator of magical potions. Again, feels balanced and useful without being too strong or weak. It needs more mechanical options and more powerful ones as it increases in level, but as it is I had a hard time deciding if i wanted to play an Alchemist or a Gunsmith. Its solid, just needs MORE.

-Gunsmith. Here's where i'm going to disagree with most other the diehard grognards and fantasy purists. WotC, whatever you do please do NOT change the Gunsmith. I made one last night, played it for a session, and it FEELS like a gun-toting badass. I made a goggle-wearing inventor working for the royal intelligence service that was forced to become a field agent after is mentor was murdered by a rival without a hitch in a setting crafted by my wife that is a combination of the wild west and victorian steampunk. Don't cave in to people who hate the concept of the gunsmith and gun-users in D&D and homogenize the class to a 'wandificer'. Leave guns as the default flavor, and give a sidebar to refluff as-needed. All i'd want is a way to have a pistol rather than what is basically a rifle, that's it. You nailed this one.

EDIT: Revisiting my opinions on the alchemist, i changed my mind after a further reading. It doesn't need more powerful options in that the options need to scale, it needs a wider variety, especially since alchemists can fling them all day long. Keep them unlimited use and low power relatively speaking, but limitless. Perfection.

 

[gyor]

A bioenigeer subclass could be interesting, using artificer magical princples to biological orgasms.

 

[SkidAce]

A bioenigeer subclass could be interesting, using artificer magical princples to biological orgasms.

Organisms perhaps?

 

[plisnithus8]

A bioenigeer subclass could be interesting, using artificer magical princples to biological orgasms.

I homebrewed a Skinsmith class that hunts creatures and grafts parts of them to his/her body: giant hornet wings, displacer beast fur, ankheg acid throat, etc.

 

[der_kluge]

Because 32 pages of threads on this topic aren't enough, I feel inclined to provide my own thoughts. A player in my new campaign asked me if she could play this. I hadn't even seen it, and admittedly I just glanced at what one could do at level one and called it good.

But after running with it a couple of sessions, we hate it. HATE it. Ok, maybe I hate it, but she's also not liking certain aspects of it that make no sense.

The alchemical stuff is broken, IMHO. The first rub was why the different mechanic. The PhB clearly states that throwing alchemical fire is a ranged attack. There it is, right on page 148. Ok, admittedly it's buried (as are most rules in 5th edition), but it's there. And then this class comes along and suddenly you're making Reflex saves for the target?? What's up with that. Also, thunderstones are broken. I'm sorry. 3.5 thunderstones just caused everyone to go deaf. Not a huge deal. But with these - a Con save, or you're knocked 10' back and are prone?! And if they make that save? That's ok, just do it again. And again. And again, until they fail. Because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing in this description that says that you can't just make some of these things for INFINITY. Got a castle wall you're trying to break into? That's ok, bring in a level 1 Artificer and he'll just pelt the same section of wall with vials of acid until he dissolves his way through. How much does that cost? Oh, nothing. It's absolutely free. Puh-lease.

And don't even get me started on free magic items.

And yes, as others have pointed out, the mechanical dog is really lame, and weird. There are already decent rules for this (animate objects, find familiar) - it's like whoever wrote this never bothered to read the PhB.

I'm currently working on a replacement for this class. As it turns out, my player actually wants something more like an Infuser - why, I have no idea, but that's a different problem. I'm going to finish my variant Artificer, and I can upload it.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Because 32 pages of threads on this topic aren't enough, I feel inclined to provide my own thoughts. A player in my new campaign asked me if she could play this. I hadn't even seen it, and admittedly I just glanced at what one could do at level one and called it good.

But after running with it a couple of sessions, we hate it. HATE it. Ok, maybe I hate it, but she's also not liking certain aspects of it that make no sense.

The alchemical stuff is broken, IMHO. The first rub was why the different mechanic. The PhB clearly states that throwing alchemical fire is a ranged attack. There it is, right on page 148. Ok, admittedly it's buried (as are most rules in 5th edition), but it's there. And then this class comes along and suddenly you're making Reflex saves for the target?? What's up with that. Also, thunderstones are broken. I'm sorry. 3.5 thunderstones just caused everyone to go deaf. Not a huge deal. But with these - a Con save, or you're knocked 10' back and are prone?! And if they make that save? That's ok, just do it again. And again. And again, until they fail. Because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing in this description that says that you can't just make some of these things for INFINITY. Got a castle wall you're trying to break into? That's ok, bring in a level 1 Artificer and he'll just pelt the same section of wall with vials of acid until he dissolves his way through. How much does that cost? Oh, nothing. It's absolutely free. Puh-lease.

And don't even get me started on free magic items.

And yes, as others have pointed out, the mechanical dog is really lame, and weird. There are already decent rules for this (animate objects, find familiar) - it's like whoever wrote this never bothered to read the PhB.

I'm currently working on a replacement for this class. As it turns out, my player actually wants something more like an Infuser - why, I have no idea, but that's a different problem. I'm going to finish my variant Artificer, and I can upload it.

That's a lot of feedback. Did you give it to WotC on their artificer survey?

 

[Dualazi]

The alchemical stuff is broken, IMHO. The first rub was why the different mechanic. The PhB clearly states that throwing alchemical fire is a ranged attack. There it is, right on page 148. Ok, admittedly it's buried (as are most rules in 5th edition), but it's there. And then this class comes along and suddenly you're making Reflex saves for the target?? What's up with that. Also, thunderstones are broken. I'm sorry. 3.5 thunderstones just caused everyone to go deaf. Not a huge deal. But with these - a Con save, or you're knocked 10' back and are prone?! And if they make that save? That's ok, just do it again. And again. And again, until they fail. Because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing in this description that says that you can't just make some of these things for INFINITY. Got a castle wall you're trying to break into? That's ok, bring in a level 1 Artificer and he'll just pelt the same section of wall with vials of acid until he dissolves his way through. How much does that cost? Oh, nothing. It's absolutely free. Puh-lease.

Confused on a couple things here, if you wouldn't mind:

You're not making reflex saves for the target of the alchemical fire, you're forcing them to make one. I can see some issues if this deviates from the rules as to how other people use it, but that can be chalked up to differences in skill or formula. Probably the most legit complaint, though, since I like rules to be internally consistent across the board.

Why are thunderstones a problem? If you want to kite things we already have repelling blast (which IIRC has no save) and ray of frost, to name a few. Plus, Con saves are the most consistently high on monsters, which also lessens the issue. I think this is the point, too, since deafening just isn't good enough to warrant taking when you have a limited choice in your arsenal.

The acid splash one is probably the most funny, though. You know who else can do this? Basically every caster in the game. If the defenders are letting a level 1 alchemist sit there and slowly bore a hole into the walls, then there's more problems here than class design. Lastly, the acid damage is maximized against objects, but otherwise unchanged. In terms of damaging walls, there's a litany of better options. So in summary, how is this actually a problem?

And yes, as others have pointed out, the mechanical dog is really lame, and weird. There are already decent rules for this (animate objects, find familiar) - it's like whoever wrote this never bothered to read the PhB.

Or, or, they did read the player's handbook, and realized both of those are garbage replacements of the feature. Every option for familiars in the PHB is small, poor in combat, and has little/no ability to serve as a pack animal or form of locomotion, which the mechanical creature does. Animate objects is a 5th level spell (so the artificer can't actually ever learn it) and lasts 1 minute, requiring concentration to boot.

Basically I feel like a lot of these complaints are just as applicable to many of the other default options in the PHB, so I'm a little confused as to how they're so awful in your eyes.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I homebrewed a Skinsmith class that hunts creatures and grafts parts of them to his/her body: giant hornet wings, displacer beast fur, ankheg acid throat, etc.

That's awesome! I always wanted to play a fleshwarper PrC in 3.5. If you're willing to share it, I'd love to see what you came up with.

 

[Awesome Adam]

The alchemical stuff is broken, IMHO. The first rub was why the different mechanic. The PhB clearly states that throwing alchemical fire is a ranged attack. There it is, right on page 148. Ok, admittedly it's buried (as are most rules in 5th edition), but it's there. And then this class comes along and suddenly you're making Reflex saves for the target?? What's up with that. Also, thunderstones are broken. I'm sorry. 3.5 thunderstones just caused everyone to go deaf. Not a huge deal. But with these - a Con save, or you're knocked 10' back and are prone?! And if they make that save? That's ok, just do it again. And again. And again, until they fail. Because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing in this description that says that you can't just make some of these things for INFINITY. Got a castle wall you're trying to break into? That's ok, bring in a level 1 Artificer and he'll just pelt the same section of wall with vials of acid until he dissolves his way through. How much does that cost? Oh, nothing. It's absolutely free. Puh-lease.

Try not to get hung up on the names and semantics, those abilities are on par with cantrips.

And don't even get me started on free magic items.

I would have prefered some enhanced ability to craft items, instead of a freebies myself, but that list of freebie items is very restictive. Utility items, that have little more effect on the game than ritual casting would.

And yes, as others have pointed out, the mechanical dog is really lame, and weird. There are already decent rules for this (animate objects, find familiar) - it's like whoever wrote this never bothered to read the PhB.

CR2 Large mechanical dog ?

Both animate object and find familiar have about ZERO impact on a player if they get destroyed. They can fire, forget, and resummon them daily.

The artificer has to actually invest in protecting his creation, or wait until between adventures to rebuild it.

 

[plisnithus8]

That's awesome! I always wanted to play a fleshwarper PrC in 3.5. If you're willing to share it, I'd love to see what you came up with.

I'm still play testing it, and it needs a DM willing to invest a little extra time, but it's been fun so far:

View attachment 81147

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ByBpOLjt