Artificer optimization?

[NineThePuma]

So, I'm planning on playing an Artificer 1/Rogue 1/Artificer +4 in a game, and was wondering what sort of optimization I should look at.

I'm already planning on picking up extraordinary Craftsman, at level 1, in an attempt to make my gold stretch. But are there other tricks I should be aware of?

(And Improved Homunculus is on my list of things to get already guys. Just not yet.)


The Artificer style is an attempt to be more mundane, with a focus on crafting stuff.

EDIT:
This build is for a PbP sandbox urban game; I am semi-solo, and can easily stay home crafting while the other party members are out and about. I'm intending to focus more on producing mundane gear and make lots of gold by doing horrible things to the economy.

[PinkysBrain]

Artificer ... and you are aiming for more mundane? The whole "non magical, technological gizmo" schtick doesn't work well in 3e ... and to the extent it does (tanglefoot bags and umm ... tanglefoot bags) the Artificer is not a good class to make optimal use of it. Wouldn't it be easier to just play a rogue? I'm just going to ignore that you said it, because there is nothing the artificer can do terribly well which is mundane :)

Do you have the DMG2? The weapon enhancements which allow you to summon elementals are very nice.

You can hold the charge on an infusion, so in dangerous areas you can hold the charge on a 1 min casting time infusion.

Rapid infusion feat is a must at low level.

Once you can put a metamagic feat on a wand persistent spell becomes extraordinarily good ... but cheesy. If you like cheese, you can use persistent spell with the spell from Races of Eberron which gives you one action point per round.

[Coidzor]

You don't need Rogue 1, for starters. Why are you taking it?

I guess Changling Substitution Level 1 as your first level would be nice for getting all of the skills you'd want.

First thing you gotta do is figure out how much time the DM's going to give you and how willing to play ball the rest of the party is, and whether the DM is going to be reasonable or shaft you on XP or by sending enemies at you that scale faster than your increased ability to customize your gear and leveling rate allow in some kind of attempt to punish you or even if the DM will allow you to spread things around so the entire party is paying for their gear together with both their GP and XP.

I recommend you to figure out with your group what you all want to do about magical loot and the issue of selling it vs. using it for crafting.

[NineThePuma]

You don't need Rogue 1, for starters. Why are you taking it?

I guess Changling Substitution Level 1 as your first level would be nice for getting all of the skills you'd want.

First thing you gotta do is figure out how much time the DM's going to give you and how willing to play ball the rest of the party is, and whether the DM is going to be reasonable or shaft you on XP or by sending enemies at you that scale faster than your increased ability to customize your gear and leveling rate allow in some kind of attempt to punish you or even if the DM will allow you to spread things around so the entire party is paying for their gear together with both their GP and XP.

I recommend you to figure out with your group what you all want to do about magical loot and the issue of selling it vs. using it for crafting.

Rogue 1 is Changeling Sub-level, correct; it's for the Social Intuition feature. Originally, that was going to be my first level, but the fact that I need to get a couple feats through flaws sorta dampened that. Ah well.

The group issue won't be a real issue, though I'm sure that the EXP thing will come up at some point. I'll just have to prepare for that circumstance.


Artificer ... and you are aiming for more mundane? The whole "non magical, technological gizmo" schtick doesn't work well in 3e ... and to the extent it does (tanglefoot bags and umm ... tanglefoot bags) the Artificer is not a good class to make optimal use of it. Wouldn't it be easier to just play a rogue? I'm just going to ignore that you said it, because there is nothing the artificer can do terribly well which is mundane :)

Do you have the DMG2? The weapon enhancements which allow you to summon elementals are very nice.

You can hold the charge on an infusion, so in dangerous areas you can hold the charge on a 1 min casting time infusion.

Rapid infusion feat is a must at low level.

Once you can put a metamagic feat on a wand persistent spell becomes extraordinarily good ... but cheesy. If you like cheese, you can use persistent spell with the spell from Races of Eberron which gives you one action point per round.[/QUOTE]

I meant mundane in the sense of "not going around digging through ancient tombs" actually.

All books are in play, so I can craft to me hearts content.

The rest of your advice is based on the assumption that I'm going to be in combat a bunch; I'm not.


[hr]

This build is for a PbP sandbox urban game; I am semi-solo, and can easily stay home crafting while the other party members are out and about. I'm intending to focus more on producing mundane gear and make lots of gold by doing horrible things to the economy.

[Coidzor]

So what are you going to be doing then?

Breaking the economy would be aided by selecting some of the methods collected here (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7274.00).