PDA

View Full Version : Artificer Optimization Help



Rasman
2011-01-17, 05:40 PM
I'm stuck at work and terribly bored, so when I get like this I tend to create Characters and typically something I've never built before. I've always heard about how powerful Artificers are, but I've never tried building one and I was thinking of having one as a Cohort for a future campaign.

So, in short, I'm looking for help Optimizing an Artificer. I always build all my characters from 1 to 20 so I can plot out their feats for later on. So any suggestions on Feat selection and level of selection would be appreciated.

Stat Rolls are: 18, 16, 15, 15, 14, 14

Elvenoutrider
2011-01-17, 05:43 PM
How optomized do you want it because artificers can go from "I dont need a party" powerful to infinite wishes powerful

Rasman
2011-01-17, 05:47 PM
How optomized do you want it because artificers can go from "I dont need a party" powerful to infinite wishes powerful

Full Throttle. I just want to see WHY they're so strong. From that I can probably tone it down to an appropriate level.

Keld Denar
2011-01-17, 05:49 PM
Wand Surge + Wand of Unfettered Heroism = nearly infinite use of any activated item with charges.

Get a staff with 1 charge left that can cast Wish. Activate Unfettered Heroism to get +1 action point PER ROUND. Use Wand Surge to activate the Staff of Wish, using the action point instead of the charge on the staff. When Unfettered Heroism is about to run out, use your last action point to activate your Wand of Unfettered Heroism again, for free. Repeat all day long, until you need to go to sleep. Free wishes ALL day long.

That might be a bit too high on your comfort level though.

Low level artificers make excellent archers. Get a bow, load it up with some decent enchants, and use infusions to apply the proper Bane: X on demand. Lots of outsiders? Bane: Evil Outsiders. Lots of elementals? Bane: Elementals. Lots of orcs? Bane: Orcs.

Buff yourself with things like Divine Powah and go to town.

Urpriest
2011-01-17, 05:52 PM
In my opinion, the Artificer most fun as an optimization exercise (as opposed to in actual play) is probably the Blastificer. If you've got a good head for buffs you can do a pretty good Team Solars-esque Buffificer, but otherwise Blastificers are the most interesting to think through. Essentially being a Blastificer boils down to:

1. Find spells. You want spells that can damage most types of foes. Like the Mailman, you're concerned with delivery. So figure out what you'd do if enemies have a high touch AC, or immunity to some energies, or when there are a lot of weak enemies, or a swarm, etc. You want enough options to always be useful, but not so many that you run out of WBL and craft reserve.

2. Find metamagic. Artificers can make use of giant piles of metamagic, so the really big ones (Quicken, Twin, Maximize, even Admixture) end up being important. Again, be wary of your WBL.

3. Wand Mastery. Aside from metamagic, it's the only thing you really need to spend a feat on. Though dual wielding wands is fun, and more efficient with Dual Wand Wielder than with the prestige class (Cannith Wand Adept) that gives a similar ability. Again, this is because you want to be wary of WBL.

So basically, the math becomes how to arrange your feats and choose your spells in order to kill 13.33 level appropriate encounters as quickly as possible every level while making a net profit from the treasure. If you really want to do it in depth it could be a pretty cool math problem, though doing it like that would involve a lot of work.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-01-17, 05:53 PM
My favourite option for artificers is going horde-ficer, just take the improved homunculus feat, craft a few metal buddies and go to town.

Crafting a few minor schemas is also a great idea, since it is quite cost effective in the long run.

Vulaas
2011-01-17, 05:54 PM
Also, standard WBL optimization can do wonders for you, such as taking cost reduction feats, making it race/class specific, and all other sorts of nasty tricks.

Keld Denar
2011-01-17, 06:04 PM
For Blasting, there are a couple of great spells. Seeking Ray (PHBII) is a 4d6 base electrical blast at 2nd level. If you hit, all other ranged attacks for the next 3 rounds are made at +3 vs that target. Slap that puppy in a MM Wand Grip of Empower Spell for a 6d6 lazer gun, or Split Ray for an 8d6 double lazer, complete with pistol grip for shooting from the hip. Metamagic Spell Trigger can stack on Twin Spell or Energy Admixture or such on top of that for up to 16d6 blasty damage. Etc.

Akal Saris
2011-01-17, 06:12 PM
Personally, I'm a fan of the melee-ficer - go warforged, get the adamantine plating, and take the decent substitution levels. Using spell storing infusion and some buff metamagics, at level 8 you can have persisted spells like Holy Sword and wraithstrike - basically you turn artificer into a gish-with-every-spell-list.

Really, artificer is like cleric - you're good at everything without trying too hard. You can take 1-2 melee feats, craft a few wands and take 1-2 metamagic feats, and build a homonculus or two and be good at all 3 options without any serious investment.

Rasman
2011-01-17, 06:25 PM
Wand Surge + Wand of Unfettered Heroism = nearly infinite use of any activated item with charges.

Get a staff with 1 charge left that can cast Wish. Activate Unfettered Heroism to get +1 action point PER ROUND. Use Wand Surge to activate the Staff of Wish, using the action point instead of the charge on the staff. When Unfettered Heroism is about to run out, use your last action point to activate your Wand of Unfettered Heroism again, for free. Repeat all day long, until you need to go to sleep. Free wishes ALL day long.

That might be a bit too high on your comfort level though.

Low level artificers make excellent archers. Get a bow, load it up with some decent enchants, and use infusions to apply the proper Bane: X on demand. Lots of outsiders? Bane: Evil Outsiders. Lots of elementals? Bane: Elementals. Lots of orcs? Bane: Orcs.

Buff yourself with things like Divine Powah and go to town.

wow...they don't teach that in "How to Break the Game: 101"...must be an advanced class...

It's not exactly too high for MY comfort level, but my DM would snap like a twig. His level is somewhere around "I can do anything and so can you, so long as it's not better than what I'm doing" and that sounds ABOUT as good as it gets.

And they say my Planar Shepherd is OP...

I was thinking of building him in a Tony Stark fashion where he'd build himself a sort of "Battle Suit", i.e. Medium and Heavy Armor Proficiency, and just Graft his Weird Science Inventions onto/into it. But Hand Crossbows could TOTALLY be flavored into Wrist Launchers that fire Crossbow Bolts. So I like it.


In my opinion, the Artificer most fun as an optimization exercise (as opposed to in actual play) is probably the Blastificer. If you've got a good head for buffs you can do a pretty good Team Solars-esque Buffificer, but otherwise Blastificers are the most interesting to think through. Essentially being a Blastificer boils down to:

1. Find spells. You want spells that can damage most types of foes. Like the Mailman, you're concerned with delivery. So figure out what you'd do if enemies have a high touch AC, or immunity to some energies, or when there are a lot of weak enemies, or a swarm, etc. You want enough options to always be useful, but not so many that you run out of WBL and craft reserve.

2. Find metamagic. Artificers can make use of giant piles of metamagic, so the really big ones (Quicken, Twin, Maximize, even Admixture) end up being important. Again, be wary of your WBL.

3. Wand Mastery. Aside from metamagic, it's the only thing you really need to spend a feat on. Though dual wielding wands is fun, and more efficient with Dual Wand Wielder than with the prestige class (Cannith Wand Adept) that gives a similar ability. Again, this is because you want to be wary of WBL.

So basically, the math becomes how to arrange your feats and choose your spells in order to kill 13.33 level appropriate encounters as quickly as possible every level while making a net profit from the treasure. If you really want to do it in depth it could be a pretty cool math problem, though doing it like that would involve a lot of work.

Spells are going to be the fun part, I think, but the WBL is the only thing that kind of worries me. I always get these ideas for stuff I'd like to have or do but our DM doesn't quite grasp what the WBL should really be. As for Metamagic, EVERYTHING is better when it is invisible. EVERYTHING!

I'll def go for Wand Master and Duel Wand Wielder sounds fun, so it's probably a no brainer for flavor.


My favorite option for artificers is going horde-ficer, just take the improved homunculus feat, craft a few metal buddies and go to town.

Crafting a few minor schemas is also a great idea, since it is quite cost effective in the long run.

I'd probably just take Craft Construct, tbh. Golems are funnnnnnn.


For Blasting, there are a couple of great spells. Seeking Ray (PHBII) is a 4d6 base electrical blast at 2nd level. If you hit, all other ranged attacks for the next 3 rounds are made at +3 vs that target. Slap that puppy in a MM Wand Grip of Empower Spell for a 6d6 lazer gun, or Split Ray for an 8d6 double lazer, complete with pistol grip for shooting from the hip. Metamagic Spell Trigger can stack on Twin Spell or Energy Admixture or such on top of that for up to 16d6 blasty damage. Etc.

I smell Buck Rodgers drooling over this.


Personally, I'm a fan of the melee-ficer - go warforged, get the adamantine plating, and take the decent substitution levels. Using spell storing infusion and some buff metamagics, at level 8 you can have persisted spells like Holy Sword and wraithstrike - basically you turn artificer into a gish-with-every-spell-list.

Really, artificer is like cleric - you're good at everything without trying too hard. You can take 1-2 melee feats, craft a few wands and take 1-2 metamagic feats, and build a homonculus or two and be good at all 3 options without any serious investment.

*GASP* I AM IRONMAN! That's perfect, I might just HAVE to do it. Not to mention he can pretty much always repair himself. Awesome.

Keld Denar
2011-01-17, 06:30 PM
Um, the book City of Stormreach has a feat for 'forged Artificers that basically lets you use your body as a wand. Great when you don't really feel like drawing a given wand. That would be a good place to place your Unfettered Heroism spell, if you are gonna be doing that.

Rasman
2011-01-17, 07:57 PM
Um, the book City of Stormreach has a feat for 'forged Artificers that basically lets you use your body as a wand. Great when you don't really feel like drawing a given wand. That would be a good place to place your Unfettered Heroism spell, if you are gonna be doing that.

Hm...I'll have to look at it once I get home. But I think I've decided that I want a Warforged Blastificer with probably Hordeificer on the side. It gets lonely being awake all the time you know...

Might not be optimal, but it sounds fun...

HunterOfJello
2011-01-17, 08:06 PM
warforged artificers have some good racial substitution levels in Races of Eberron. You can drop Craft Homonculus for a substitution and then grab Craft Construct on your own so that you can craft all the different constructs and not just homonculi.

Also check out all the different homonculi you can make from the other Eberron books. There's a fun walking chest homonculi and a crossbow homonculi. I'd be tempted to make one of each type.

Dead_Jester
2011-01-17, 08:19 PM
If you want help for optimizing Artificers, than the 2 best guides are the following :

Ye Olde's Artificer Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_%28rough_draft%29), and The Unofficial Artificer Player's Guide (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5929.0).

For the truly ridiculous (and fun) than you could always pull out the Omniscifier (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868070/LoPs_Omniscificer), but I wouldn't recommend it as it was intended as a potential Pun-Pun killer in the days of old (you know, before Pun-Pun ascended in less than 10 rounds).

Rasman
2011-01-17, 09:59 PM
If you want help for optimizing Artificers, than the 2 best guides are the following :

Ye Olde's Artificer Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_%28rough_draft%29), and The Unofficial Artificer Player's Guide (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5929.0).

For the truly ridiculous (and fun) than you could always pull out the Omniscifier (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868070/LoPs_Omniscificer), but I wouldn't recommend it as it was intended as a potential Pun-Pun killer in the days of old (you know, before Pun-Pun ascended in less than 10 rounds).

I've been jogging though the second one for a while, but the Omnisifer intrigued and blew my brain out of the water.

I had a thought as I was looking at feats. How would the feat Spell Perfection work for a Pathfinder Artificer? Does that mean that when he makes a Wand of Fireball that he can have FREE Quickened Wands of Fireball?

Also, here's a look at his current sheet

Sony Tark, Warforged Artificer (http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=12283)

D Knight
2011-01-18, 12:11 AM
you could build bottle gnomes and fill some with potions of inflict what ever then with enemies that can sallow whole suggest that it would heal the foe. to also prove have an friend pick up the one fill with Cure what ever. but u would need dm approval.