Low level Artificer Feats

[Black_Zawisza]

This is for a generic Artificer build that's flexible enough to buff, blast, etc. fairly well whenever I feel like it.

Flaw: Rapid Infusion (retrain to Extraordinary Artisan when I actually have resources to craft)
Flaw: Skill Focus: UMD (retrain to Extend Spell at level 4 to qualify for Persist)
1: Nymph's Kiss
3: Item Familiar
Artificer Bonus 4: Persistent Spell

This is what I've come up with for my low level feats. What do y'all think?

[HunterOfJello]

What race are you playing?

If you DM will allow you access to Magic of Incarnum then take the feat Shape Soulmeld. It requires you to have 13 constitution and allows you the ability to shape a single soulmeld that you choose when you take the feat. In this case you want to choose the soulmeld Mage's Spectacles so the feat's full name will be Shape Soulmeld (Mage's Spectacles).

The feat has you use a weird type of magic called incarnum to shape a pair of blue glowing spectacles on your face. They don't take up an item slot, but they are noticeable. The specific benefit that the spectacles give you is a, "+4 insight bonus on Decipher Script, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device checks. The mage’s spectacles also allow you to make
these checks untrained."

Since that gives a +4 bonus to UMD and gives the same bonus to Decipher Script and Spellcraft too, it's a much better feat that Skill Focus: UMD.

[Black_Zawisza]

What race are you playing?

If you DM will allow you access to Magic of Incarnum then take the feat Shape Soulmeld. It requires you to have 13 constitution and allows you the ability to shape a single soulmeld that you choose when you take the feat. In this case you want to choose the soulmeld Mage's Spectacles so the feat's full name will be Shape Soulmeld (Mage's Spectacles).

The feat has you use a weird type of magic called incarnum to shape a pair of blue glowing spectacles on your face. They don't take up an item slot, but they are noticeable. The specific benefit that the spectacles give you is a, "+4 insight bonus on Decipher Script, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device checks. The mage’s spectacles also allow you to make
these checks untrained."

Since that gives a +4 bonus to UMD and gives the same bonus to Decipher Script and Spellcraft too, it's a much better feat that Skill Focus: UMD.
Nice catch, thanks! And I have my heart set on a Goblin Artificer. Human's definitely a better choice, I agree, but the flavor's just too cool.

[Aegis013]

Don't the prerequisites for Rapid Infusion require Artificer 3rd level?

[umbergod]

Don't the prerequisites for Rapid Infusion require Artificer 3rd level?

that it does

[Black_Zawisza]

that it does
:smallsigh:

Ah, well. Any suggestions for a replacement?

[umbergod]

could tack on skill focus UMD to go with the shape soulmeld, for a nasty +7 to UMD at first level before cha mod and ranks :P

[Aegis013]

Point Blank Shot is good for low levels. You'll probably rely fairly heavily on your crossbow at the beginning of the game for any kind of damage output. You can retrain it later, or not, if you think it's good enough (since it helps you land those rays).

I might take a metamagic or two now, unless you just intend to do a lot of retraining (and the DM allows that), for blasting, Maximize, Split Ray, Twin Spell are my favorites.

Or, you could just take the -25% gp cost to craft (Extraordinary Artisan I believe) now, so you can get the -25% xp cost one as your first bonus and get to crafting minor items earlier.

Edit: The best option imo, however, is to be a Kobold and grab you some Dragonwrought cheese.

[Madcrafter]

PBS is a good choice, and you can retrain it later if you want.
The two better artisan feats are also good choices, especially if your DM is stingy or if you are in a high power game.
Any metamagics to set you up for later on, though you have a large amount of choices with a general artificers.
Another good choice is Heroic Spirit, especially if you tend to use your action points to speed up your casting, which you should, often. Even if you level up every session, its still a good investment (and there are shenanigans you can pull later on, if its that sort of game).
By the time you get to mid levels, your UMD check is negligible (unless you are pulling some dirty tricks) so unless you can retrain often, I wouldn't invest too many feats into it.

[deuxhero]

Apprentice: Craftsmen (DMG2) supposedly reduces costs to 90% of the GP, don't know if works for magic or is mundane only.