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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kyvin" data-source="post: 7707157" data-attributes="member: 6851739">I'd like to add my ideas to this thread. I was very pleased to see the UA artificer, as someone who has always liked the idea of the artificer as a class. I think it brings something unique to the game. From this thread, I get the feeling that just like the ranger, people have very different ideas about what an artificer should be. Indeed, the class can go in many different directions. One way that the artificer can go in two different directions is the magic vs technology aspect. Some people really want the artificer to be magic-powered and others more steampunk. I think the best route is give the artificer some mechanical toys but make sure to say that the technology is powered by the artificer's unique kind of magic.First off, my opinion is that alchemy shouldn't belong to the artificer. In my mind, the artificer is the class that builds magical stuff, like an arcane engineer. Working with all kinds of chemicals and obscure magical components to create potions and draughts and so forth sounds like something a wizard would be doing. It even says in the UA fluff that artificers long to create magical objects that aren't temporary. I would like to see Alchemy as a wizard tradition.Another opinion I have is that the artificer class should NOT get spellcasting. Again, it says right in the fluff that artificers create objects, not spells. Why not just be a wizard? Instead, I think the focus of the artificer class should be using gadgets or inventions that function like spells. For example, artificers could start with being able to create or power up two inventions a day to start and then more as they level up. They can choose which inventions they want for that adventuring day from a list similar to the warlock invocations list. Items could include goggles of darkvision, monocles that can read languages, boots that spring or levitate, chains or traps that catch monsters, belts that put up a shield-like forcefield, the more flavorful and goofy the better. It would take a bonus action for the artificer to activate an invention, and the artificer would get a certain number of "slots" or "artificer points" a day to activate these items. To make things more interesting, when an artificer uses an invention they might have to roll a d20 and add their proficiency bonus. On a score of 5 or lower, the invention doesn't function. On a natural 1, the invention seriously malfunctions and can't be used until the following day after a long rest. To make things even more interesting, if an artificer wants to swap out an invention for another they can do so during a short rest, but the invention doesn't work on a score of 10 or lower, because artificer hastily put it together. In this way, the artificer is the problem solver and versatile 5th party member but there's a chance of failure. This would also give the artificer a totally unique flavor rather than just another spellcasting class (which so many classes already have). This also solves the problem of giving the artificer cool things to make that they can swap out every day but aren't DMG magic items for free that can get lost or stolen.As far as the artificer subclasses, call them vocations or whatever here are my ideas:Cannoneer -the gun artificer but don't call it a gun, call it a thunder cannon or arcane cannon and have it use magic, not bullets. Make it scale, add other goodies like being able to fire off explosions or magic bombs (smoke, bursting, web) or whatever for all the people who want a bomb-shooting alchemist. As they level, let them fire off big blasts once a day or choose an elemental damage type to fire. Or maybe call it something else and let players choose if they want to make it a staff, rod, wand, or cannon, but give it the same abilities.Armorsmith - the mech artificer. Gains proficiency with heavy armor and a slam attack that scales. As they level, gets proficient or advantage on strength checks. At high levels, gets to power up their armor with resistance to a damage type for the day or something crazy like +2 armor class for a limited time as a one per day ability.Mechanomancer - the clockwork minion artificer. Gets a mechanical pet that doesn't outdo the ranger. Other cool ideas would be little clockwork bugs that run up to enemies and explode (like Torchlight 2's spider mines) and a clockwork thopter that functions like an aura, zapping enemies that enter your reach (also stolen from Torchlight 2, would need to reflavor a bit but you get the idea).I DO really like: being able to cast identify and detect magic as rituals, the ability to attune to more magic items (but maybe 5 max) and the capstone ability is really neat. But honestly I don't like the Infuse Magic idea. It seems really fiddly and as a DM I don't want to deal with fiddly stuff. I think the inventions per day thing covers this idea. Maybe they could still be able to give inventions to other players but they only last the day and would need the artificer present (nearby?) to "activate" them. This would satisfy those in the community who really wanted the artificer to supply party members with support items.Thanks for reading, I would appreciate hearing other people's opinions as well.</blockquote>

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