D&D 5E (2024) What's New with the Artificer in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

[doctorbadwolf]

3rd: Right tool for the job: This has been completely removed and turned into a recipe for a magical item without giving you an extra use of said ability

Ugh. I didnt even think of that...

Tbh the new Artificer could just have the old stuff added bacj in without balance issues.

Then let replicate magic item include modifying exsting items so that you can add repeating to a looted magic crossbow you find.

 

[eclair~]

Tbh the new Artificer could just have the old stuff added bacj in without balance issues.

Then let replicate magic item include modifying exsting items so that you can add repeating to a looted magic crossbow you find.

That would involve too much effort, and 2024 is about minimizing the amount of effort the target audience has to put into optimizing their characters (and effort of the programmers to implement functions on DDB).

 

[Kurotowa]

If it doesn't say everything about the 2024 Artificer that they get a specific facility solely to get other people to actually make things instead of themselves...

An Artificer isn't a surgeon, they're a field medic. They're not supposed to hole up in the workshop for six months crafting a legendary weapon, they're supposed to be an adventurer out in the field diving into perilous dungeons and battling deadly monsters. Everything in their kit is about practical applications under combat conditions.

So yes. They get a Bastion facility focused on letting NPCs do the NPC thing of spending a lot of downtime crafting while the PC Artificer goes out to do PC adventurers.

 

[mellored]

6th: Magic Item Tinker: Gives you the ability to spend spell slots to recharge magical items, to swap out a magical item for another once per day, and the ability to get a spell slot back by sacrificing a magical item once per day.

Can you use up all the charges on an item, then swap to a different one with full charges?
Or use it up and then trash it for a spell slot.

 

[eclair~]

An Artificer isn't a surgeon, they're a field medic. They're not supposed to hole up in the workshop for six months crafting a legendary weapon, they're supposed to be an adventurer out in the field diving into perilous dungeons and battling deadly monsters. Everything in their kit is about practical applications under combat conditions.

So yes. They get a Bastion facility focused on letting NPCs do the NPC thing of spending a lot of downtime crafting while the PC Artificer goes out to do PC adventurers.

They're not even a field medic. They're a stage magician who plays cheap tricks instead of practised illusions. They're the class for people who want to pretend they're genius inventors but not have to roleplay or engage in any sort of work in that regard.

The class would have a more cohesive identify if every one of their features involved little fey doing all of the work for them and slipping things into their pockets at an apt time.

 

[Zardnaar]

Is the class still crap? Could you just use the old one and maybe buff it? Eg extra feat at 6 and 14?

 

[Kurotowa]

They're not even a field medic. They're a stage magician who plays cheap tricks instead of practised illusions. They're the class for people who want to pretend they're genius inventors but not have to roleplay or engage in any sort of work in that regard.

I continue to feel that a good half the complaints about Artificers come from people comparing it to the imaginary Artificer they dreamt up based on the name alone, not the actual class as it's ever existed on paper. It is not and never has presented itself as a "genius inventor" class.

 

[eclair~]

Is the class still crap? Could you just use the old one and maybe buff it? Eg extra feat at 6 and 14?

The best way to sum it up is that the core class has nowhere near the amount of power creep some of the other classes get, and only if you pick the right Replicate/Spell-Storing choices do you have any leg up for this. And if you get your Bastion to make the right items for you, because the class identity actively discourages doing any higher-level crafting yourself.

Maybe viable if you pick the Optimizer choices, trash otherwise.

 

[WanderingMystic]

Can you use up all the charges on an item, then swap to a different one with full charges?
Or use it up and then trash it for a spell slot.

Yes, you can, in fact I personally feel that that is part of the point.
As far as using up a charged item you would have to swap it out to a different item not the same from how it reads.

Personally, I would do the magic missiles since regardless of your level it is useable. At higher levels I might have neckless of fireballs. Now DNDBeyond counts all single use items and use per rest items as charged items so technically you can keep sacrificing 1st level spell slots into your Spell Storing ring or Pearl of Power to turn that 1st level slot into an up to 3rd level spell. Personally, I feel that this is abusing the ability however it is one of the few times i would use a spell slot to recharge an item since your 1st level spell slots are often used for your subclass.

 

[eclair~]

It is not and never has presented itself as a "genius inventor" class.

Literally on the front page on DDB this very moment:

The Artificer returns as a true master of magical invention in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer. Come see what's changed, and how it helps shape these tinkerers into the ultimate inventive class!

The design of the class is such that you cannot invent anything anyone else couldn't make themselves, and with no less ability than you to do so at that.