[3.5] Help with optimizing an Artificer?

[rmg22893]

I'm starting at level 5, with 9000 GP. Anything goes, as long as it isn't insanely cheesy. I've gotten my feats and items up to this point; I just need help with deciding where to go next, for the next couple of levels or so.

[Flickerdart]

You'll want all the cost-reducing feats: Magic Artisan (FRCS), Legendary Artisan (ECS), Exceptional Artisan (ECS) and Extraordinary Artisan (ECS). Together, they'll reduce your gold costs by 50%, your XP costs by 25% and your time expenditures by 25%. If your DM doesn't let you use Forgotten Realms content, Magic Artisan is out, but that's still 25% off all the things. Considering how much crafting you'll be doing, this is great.

Also, get your hands on a Dedicated Wright (ECS). The little sucker only costs 2100GP and 160XP to craft (plus Craft Construct and the Arcane Eye spell), and will forevermore do all your crafting for you, using your ranks and feats (though you still need to pay all associated costs). What this means is that you don't need extra downtime to craft anymore, since the Dedicated Wright will happily craft away inside your Bag of Holding while you're running around lopping heads off orcs.

[rmg22893]

You'll want all the cost-reducing feats: Magic Artisan (FRCS), Legendary Artisan (ECS), Exceptional Artisan (ECS) and Extraordinary Artisan (ECS). Together, they'll reduce your gold costs by 50%, your XP costs by 25% and your time expenditures by 25%. If your DM doesn't let you use Forgotten Realms content, Magic Artisan is out, but that's still 25% off all the things. Considering how much crafting you'll be doing, this is great.

Also, get your hands on a Dedicated Wright (ECS). The little sucker only costs 2100GP and 160XP to craft (plus Craft Construct and the Arcane Eye spell), and will forevermore do all your crafting for you, using your ranks and feats (though you still need to pay all associated costs). What this means is that you don't need extra downtime to craft anymore, since the Dedicated Wright will happily craft away inside your Bag of Holding while you're running around lopping heads off orcs.

Oh, thank you for mentioning the Magic Artisan feat, didn't know about that. That will be extremely useful. Even more awesome is that my DM has house-ruled no XP costs for item creation :D So I don't need the XP reducing feat.

[sonofzeal]

Stuff you might want to get, either in Wands or Scrolls or Eternal Wands or Schemas....

ATTACK
Backbiter (SpC)
Ray of Clumsiness
Ray of Enfeeblement
Grave Strike (SpC, can sneak-attack undead for 1 round)
Guided Shot (SC - swift, ignore cover/conceal)
Grease
Magic Missile
Sniper's Shot (SpC 194 - swift, Sneak Attack at any range)
True Strike
Net of Shadows (SpC 147, 1d6 rounds, CL creatures within 25', will save)



COMBAT BUFF
Aura Against Flames (SpC, CL rounds, Resist Fire 10 and extinguish fires)
Enlarge Person
Reduce Person
Protection from Evil
Know Greatest Enemy (SpC 129, CL rounds, know strongest and general CR +/- 2 of the rest)
Improvisation (SpC 121, CL rounds, CL*2 points, can spend CL/2 on any one roll)



UTILITY
Benign Transposition
Climb Walls
Comprehend Languages
Disguise Self
Ebon Eyes
Embrace the Wild (SpC, gain animal sences for CL*10 min)
Expeditious Retreat
Floating Disk
Lay of the Land (SpC 131, 50 miles, "good understanding")
Lesser Vigor
Omen of Peril (SpC)
- Portal Beacon (SpC)
Resist Planar Alignment (SpC)
Scholar's Touch (RoD 169 - CL rounds, "read" all books touched)
Unseen Servant
Weildskill (CL min, +10 skillcheck or one proficiency)
Energy Alteration (ECS, 10*CL min, change element of item [offensive or defensive])
Repair Light Damage
Indisputable Possession (MoE, CL*10 min, will save if someone is actively holding)
Arcane Sight (SRD)
Clairaudience (SRD)
Gaseous Form (SRD)
Haste (SRD)
Knock (SRD)

[hydraa]

You said you had the feats selected, did you look at the apprenctice feat (1st level only) in DMG II. 10% discount on raw materials

[Alienist]

You'll want all the cost-reducing feats:


Magic Artisan (FRCS)
Legendary Artisan (ECS)
Exceptional Artisan (ECS)
Extraordinary Artisan (ECS)


Together, they'll reduce your gold costs by 50%, your XP costs by 25% and your time expenditures by 25%.

If your DM doesn't let you use Forgotten Realms content, Magic Artisan is out, but that's still 25% off all the things. Considering how much crafting you'll be doing, this is great.

Also, get your hands on a Dedicated Wright (ECS). The little sucker only costs 2100GP and 160XP to craft (plus Craft Construct and the Arcane Eye spell), and will forevermore do all your crafting for you, using your ranks and feats (though you still need to pay all associated costs). What this means is that you don't need extra downtime to craft anymore, since the Dedicated Wright will happily craft away inside your Bag of Holding while you're running around lopping heads off orcs.

A few notes (read as: technical quibbles) on the above:

Magical Artisan is strictly inferior to the others because it only applies to one type of Magical Item (e.g. Rings, or Wondrous Items).

If you're dipping into Forgotten Realms territory, Mercantile Background is better than Magical Artisan. Getting 50% more on the sale of treasure beats the pants off getting a 25% discount on certain classes of magic item creation.

Having both Magical Artisan and Extraordinary Artisan does not reduce the cost by 50%. You should not add them, but they multiply instead.

With both of them, you would spend 281.25gp per 1000gp base price, instead of 500gp per 1000gp base price.

Guild Membership also provides discounts for item creation (and spell components, of which Artificers have some of the pricier ones).

If you already had Magical Artisan and Extraordinary Artisan and you received a 10% materials discount from the guild, you would pay 253.125gp per 1000gp in the base price.

At low-mid levels reducing the time it takes to craft anything is a trap. The problem is you need to make UMD rolls. The longer it takes to craft the more UMD rolls you get. Hence taking longer means less chance of wasting gold/xp/crafting pool. At higher levels when you auto-succeed at UMD and items take months to create you can revisit this with my blessing. I won't be offended. Note that there are other ways around the time to crafting problem (particularly relevant if your DM is stingy with down-time are Warforged (don't sleep, can cast infusions directly onto themselves etc) and the dead-baby-wright which Flickerdart already raised).

The artisan feat that gives you an XP reduction is always useful. Additionally it makes your crafting pool go further.

And now a heresy:
Reducing gold costs isn't particularly important.
Oh, right now as you're trying to squeeze the maximum mileage out of your wealth by level it looks like the best thing ever. And if you read the artificer guides they rave on about this.

However, as soon as you start adventuring, gold becomes the least of your concerns. Why is this? Because you have other players in the party literally throwing their gold at you in order to make items for them.

Example: let us say that you are charging 75% of the market rate for magic items. You make 2 items with a base price of 4000gp each, and charge 3000gp, and the actual materials cost is only 2000gp. So you charged 6000gp and spent 4000gp and made a 2000gp profit... which you use to make your own items.

The big problem with crafting isn't how much gold it costs you, the big problem is the XP cost.
(The obvious exception to this rule is if your DM plays the relatively obscure variant that lets other players pay the XP cost for the item)

The gold cost is just you spending other people's money. The XP is my precious.

And now some observations:
If your DM initially objects to the homunculus crafting in a bag of holding, and if I remember the RAW correctly - simply remind them that crafting requires the same conditions as spell preparation. Hence if a wizard (who could solve the lack of air problem and light problem - (NB: homunculi don't breathe and lack of light isn't a problem as Homunculi have dark vision)) could prepare spells in the bag of holding then the homunculi can do crafting in it. If not the bag of holding, then ask about the portable hole.

If someone else in the party beats you to Mercantile Background then your 'bargaining power' erodes. They can only use it once per month to get a discount on something they're buying, but on the big ticket items (read as: magic items) that is all they need.

[hydraa]

though you can mitigate the xp somewhat if you have high xp items for purchase (wish scrolls (5000 xp for 28825gp), permanancy scrolls (2000 XP for 10125gp), inheritent bonus tomes +1 5100XP for 27500), golem manuals (clay 1712xp for 12000gp, even the cursed item you may come across) with the artificers 5th level retain essence ability

[Alienist]

though you can mitigate the xp somewhat if you have high xp items for purchase (wish scrolls (5000 xp for 28825gp), permanancy scrolls (2000 XP for 10125gp), inheritent bonus tomes +1 5100XP for 27500), golem manuals (clay 1712xp for 12000gp, even the cursed item you may come across) with the artificers 5th level retain essence ability

That is a valid point, but I think it depends on the party dynamic.

E.g. from a certain way of looking at it, you need to pay half price in gp, and then you need an equivalent amount of items to strip the essence from... at which point you are paying 1.5x the market price and you might as well just pay the market price and buy it off the shelf. Even if you are recycling junk magic items (instead of selling them for half price) it still adds up to 1x market price, and you might as well just pay market prices.