Make my Artificer Awesome

[DeadManSleeping]

Very much what it says on the tin. I'm playing in a 6-person party which includes the following

Hexblade
Dual-wield Ranger
Paladin
Wizard
Cleric

I have a human Wisdom artificer (no take-backsies on it). What should I do with my build and combat actions to stop being the least potent party member?

We're not underperforming or anything, I just want to see what I can do better.

Keep in mind that I can retrain stuff, so feel free to just build your ideal artificer as you like for suggestion's sake.

[Zaq]

What are you currently doing, and what do you WANT to be doing?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. As a wise man once said, you must have a ride before it can be pimped.

[DragonBaneDM]

OKAY!

Ditch all summons until you hit the Araba...arabaster...THE FLYING CROSSBOW. It's REALLY nice, but everything else is just...ugh.

Take Crossbow Caster. Keeps you from switching implements. Also, pick up a...crap...Mindbolt Crossbow? It lets you deal psychic with all your attacks!

When you hit Level 11, take Psychic Lock. You'll notice right away that you heavily minor in Controller.

Finally, find the Charop board. Look for Tools of the Trade in Google. It'll help a lot!

[Tankadin]

Is your Cleric ranged or melee?

If ranged, then taking Crossbow Caster and popping Magic Weapon next to your Wizard and Cleric would be pretty solid--remember, the attack bonus and damage bonus applies to all of their attacks, so if the Wizard drops a burst or blast, you're giving her a bonus to each attack roll and a damage boost as well. By helping the Cleric land stuff like Lance of Faith you're helping him to enable the rest of the party as well.

If the Cleric is melee, it might be worth it to take Arcane Implement Proficiency (Glaive) and do the polearm thing. That would let you be near your melee allies without being directly in harm's way. Magic Weapon again is a great at-will.

Thundering Armor is another solid at-will, especially if you go with the crossbow Artificer. Boosting your (or an ally's) defenses when they get swarmed and sliding a mob away can be fun.

In terms of boosting your potency, look for off-turn abilities. Something like Shocking Feedback lets you use an immediate interrupt to do decent damage while giving your ally resist 5 all until the end of your next turn. The level 1 daily Punishing Eye is great as well, because your party members will be adding 4 or 5 damage to their rolls for an entire encounter. With a Twin Striking ranger, a Paladin, and Hexblade, that'd be 16 damage a round in addition to your normal attacks. Combine that with Magic Weapon and you're helping to take a monster of the board that much faster.

I'm running a Killswitch variant and it is a blast--I kept trying to recommend some Warlord powers, but, you said no take-backsies, so an Artificer|Warlord is probably out, huh? Well, the powers I wanted to recommend are the same--stuff that grants extra attacks by your or allies is always solid (your Ranger should be hitting like a truck), and stuff that lets you act out of turn is also great, be it immediate interrupts or spending feats on White Lotus Master Riposte.

[Kurald Galain]

What level are you?

And yes, a good strategy is to stock up on out-of-turn powers. The net result is that you'll make more attacks per round, which increases your efficiency.

[DeadManSleeping]

Well, since some people have asked for my current build, here it is (bolded means I can't/won't change it, italics mean I can change it without using my retrain for the level):

Level 2
Human Artificer
18 Int, 16 Wis, negligible everything else
At-Wills: Magic Weapon, Thundering Armor, Ethereal Chill
Encounter: Shielding Cube
Daily: Obedient Servant
Utility: Reinforced Minion

Feats:
Mark of Making
Crossbow Caster
Jack of All TradesPotent Restorables

For the most part, I'm angling my character for the Clockwork Engineer Paragon Path. Essentially, I want to have as many robots as possible. Even the low-level robots that need a Standard Action to attack still provide battlefield control/defense by flanking and AoOs.

Let's face it. For Heroic Tier, everything that's not robot and not Constitution-reliant sucks beyond sucking. Constitution Artificers are pretty obviously better in every way, but it's a little late for that, so I'm just scraping what I can together.

Oh, and the cleric is a Dwarf with Dwarven Weapon Proficiency, so you can bet she's melee. Outdamages the Strikers when she uses her better powers, even.

Further note: I don't have D&D Insider (and can't really afford to drop the money for the subscription), so please pageref things that aren't in either the PHB or the EPH.

[Kurald Galain]

I would pick the at-will you use least, and replace it by Heroic Effort (from HOFK; it's an encounter power that gives a retroactive bonus to an attack roll).

If all stats other than int and wis are negligible, you can safely boost your int to 20. All your to-hit and damage rolls are based on int. If that's going too far, take int 19 and bump it at level 4.

Jack of all Trades is not a very good feat; I'd recommend anything class-related instead. This is because in almost all cases, you'll want to use one of your trained skills instead, or if that's not an option, let a trained party member try it.

[DragonBaneDM]

Pick up Potent Restorables! Scaling healing bonus, bro!

[DeadManSleeping]

Pick up Potent Restorables! Scaling healing bonus, bro!

Holy crap, didn't realize that scaled. Switching!
EDIT: HOLY CRAP this applies to ALL my Healing powers? This is the best feat that an Artificer can take.

There is no real way to boost my Int. There's a reason that's Bolded!

I'll have to ask my GM about switching my Racial power. So far I've been using all my At-Wills, though. Flexibility is pretty neat!

[Kurald Galain]

There is no real way to boost my Int. There's a reason that's Bolded!
Why not? Point buy lets you start at 18, and human race lets you add two to that.

[DeadManSleeping]

We're not allowed to change our Ability scores anymore, that's why.

In any case, the way points work out, I would be stuck choosing between 18 Int 16 Wis and 20 Int 14 Wis. I use my secondary stat for a lot of things (like healing), so I picked the first one.

[Kurald Galain]

Okay.

In general, offensive buffs are better than defensive buffs; so instead of Shielding Cube, a spell that lets your allies deal more damage, or improves their to-hit rolls, is better.

I fail to see the point of Crossbow Caster. For starters, Magic Weapon is not an implement power, so you can already use it with a crossbow. For another, you can generally wield an implement in one hand, a weapon in the other; or use a staff, of course, which is both.

[Tankadin]

I fail to see the point of Crossbow Caster. For starters, Magic Weapon is not an implement power, so you can already use it with a crossbow. For another, you can generally wield an implement in one hand, a weapon in the other; or use a staff, of course, which is both.

Sure, but a crossbow is a 2-handed weapon. Is DeadMan always going to have a action to burn to swap out an implement? To swap back to the crossbow? And reload the crossbow? (I'm not seeing a speed loader feat).

It helps the character save wealth by only having to upgrade the weapliment instead of both a weapon and an implement.

To have a staff key Magic Weapon you're having your artificer next to your frontline guys with leather armor and negligible Constitution. Sure, the auspicious birth/born under a bad sign backgrounds would help, but, this doesn't strike me as a melee character.

Of course, rocking a Farbond Spellblade in one hand and an implement in the other is certainly an option, too. But you're going to run into similar item cost issues.

[DeadManSleeping]

Crossbows are 2-handed weapons (as are the ever-popular glaives).

As bad as Shielding Cube is, all the other Artificer 1 Encounter Attacks are worse. It's a severely bad level.

[DragonBaneDM]

I fail to see the point of Crossbow Caster. For starters, Magic Weapon is not an implement power, so you can already use it with a crossbow. For another, you can generally wield an implement in one hand, a weapon in the other; or use a staff, of course, which is both.

I just dig it because he's got a lot of weapon attacks, shouldn't be in the front line like a Con-Artificer, and it saves on wealth from having to maintain two weapons/implements.

Plus I nerdgasm for Psychic Lock. I don't even know why! Like I know that it's not THAT great, but I just dig it, and getting to turn all your damage into psychic just feels good to me.

[DeadManSleeping]

Further question! So, I plan on multiclassing to Wizard so that I can get the Archmage Epic Destiny (because holy crap that's good for a summoner artificer). What At-Will Spell should I choose as an Encounter power?

[DragonBaneDM]

Further question! So, I plan on multiclassing to Wizard so that I can get the Archmage Epic Destiny (because holy crap that's good for a summoner artificer). What At-Will Spell should I choose as an Encounter power?

Hm... I guess since you already HAVE Ritual Casting, getting the multiclass just for the free rituals every couple of levels is sort of a waste of a feat.

Oh! Thunderwave I think! It keys off of Wisdom and will be useful since you'll be primarily ranged. Don't be afraid of multiclassing a little heavier, though. Wizards have some killer utilities like Wraithform, Blur, and Mass Resistance that you could probably make use of.

[Kurald Galain]

Further question! So, I plan on multiclassing to Wizard so that I can get the Archmage Epic Destiny (because holy crap that's good for a summoner artificer). What At-Will Spell should I choose as an Encounter power?

Thunderwave is one of the best at-will powers in the game. It's especially funny if you put up some kind of zone spell first.

[The Reverend]

Dragon Bane you like Psychic lock on the crossbow because those are MIND BULLETS KYLE!!!!

[DeadManSleeping]

There's a spell called Beguiling Strands which is basically Thunderwave But Friendly. Our wizard has it (she retrained Thunderwave to get it, too). I really can't invest what's necessary to make Thunderwave better than Beguiling Strands, so I'd probably want to take that instead. Plus, bonus, if I go with Psychic Lock, Beguiling Strands jumps in on that.