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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 7669651" data-attributes="member: 5435">Well, I see two possible differences that prevent simply reskinning the existing spell mechanic from other classes:1) In HERO terms, the artificer's spells have the obvious accessible/inaccessible focus limitation, while everyone else's spells have the incantation and gesture limitations.  Part of the artificer's story is that they manipulate the magical matrix directly and intuitively, without the need for words and gestures.  This difference is something that no edition of D&D has really tried to play with in official supplements, and there is a real if minor in-game impact (Silence spell, casting with hands tied, disarm attempt on some foci...).2) I would like to see the artificer class with a relatively limited spell list representing their buffs, but an unlimited formula list representing their crafting knowledge. So Enhance Ability is a buff, and any artificer can cast it using their spell slots on anyone's belt, but they also keep a sort of spellbook that represents all the magical items they have researched or encountered. An artificer finds a Helm of Telepathy, studies it for a day, and thereafter they can build one of their own given enough time and resources. In this sense they are sort of a wizard/cleric hybrid with respect to spell knowledge.There is plenty of design space in 5th edition to further differentiate an artificer class from any other existing class--e.g. loosening the concentration restriction for their infusions, permitting metamagic on wands, letting them sidestep the enormous time requirement for creating rare items, unique construct-related abilities, etc.A last point--my ideal artificer as described upthread would not need any vastly new mechanics, but would cherry-pick interesting abilities from other classes to support its niche and story.  The construct-focused artificer subclass could borrow abilities from the beastmaster ranger, for example. It's true that cleric, bard, and wizard all have some overlap with my vision of the class that would let me build an "artificer" by reskinning alone, but the difference between my vision and these base classes is still large and each case includes several class powers that I don't want.</blockquote>

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