Help making a artificer.

[DrewVolker]

I have played dnd for years, but I have never had the option to play a character I have always wanted to until now. A warforged artificer.

I have always wanted to give it a try, but alas the DM I played under normally had to move away, and since its been hard to just get into a DnD game, let alone a good one.

Anyway, I am not so great at building optimized characters, as I rarely spend the time to make that one perfect build that just takes the character to the next level.

I am not going for the super dps blaster using wands (I have found thats a popular choice from searching the web), nor do I want to play the meleeficer (another popular option I've found). I am thinking of being a support character mainly, as my goal will be to buff/heal the party while maybe shooting off a crossbow if needed. I also plan on having atlest one of each of the different types of homuculi, maybe even more than one of the kind that can make magic items for you while you are away. I also plan on having the kind that attaches itself to a crossbow and can fire/reload itself by itself, and have that perched on my back or something firing away in combat, while having maybe a few iron defenders (gonna try to let the DM let me upgrade them to different types of metals) to stay back and protect me and the other non-melee combatants.

I am debating if I want to take the warforged substitution levels for artificer, as I donno if I want to give up the features I have to do gain the new ones.

I am also a little wet behind the ears when it comes to crafting in dnd, especially magical items.

So I would like help with a general build idea, what infusions to focus on, advice on making items and what skills to pick up.. etc.

I appreciate any help anyone gives me, so thanks in advance.

[DrewVolker]

I have played dnd for years, but I have never had the option to play a character I have always wanted to until now. A warforged artificer.

I have always wanted to give it a try, but alas the DM I played under normally had to move away, and since its been hard to just get into a DnD game, let alone a good one.

Anyway, I am not so great at building optimized characters, as I rarely spend the time to make that one perfect build that just takes the character to the next level.

I am not going for the super dps blaster using wands (I have found thats a popular choice from searching the web), nor do I want to play the meleeficer (another popular option I've found). I am thinking of being a support character mainly, as my goal will be to buff/heal the party while maybe shooting off a crossbow if needed. I also plan on having atlest one of each of the different types of homuculi, maybe even more than one of the kind that can make magic items for you while you are away. I also plan on having the kind that attaches itself to a crossbow and can fire/reload itself by itself, and have that perched on my back or something firing away in combat, while having maybe a few iron defenders (gonna try to let the DM let me upgrade them to different types of metals) to stay back and protect me and the other non-melee combatants.

I am debating if I want to take the warforged substitution levels for artificer, as I donno if I want to give up the features I have to do gain the new ones.

I am also a little wet behind the ears when it comes to crafting in dnd, especially magical items.

So I would like help with a general build idea, what infusions to focus on, advice on making items and what skills to pick up.. etc.

I appreciate any help anyone gives me, so thanks in advance.

[Mystify]

I don't have time to go into the finer points of artificers, but I just have to point out that having multiple homuculi to enchant items for you doesn't help. You can only have 1 magic item in production, even with the homoculi. The only thing it really does for you is allow you to adventure while the item is in production. That is worthwhile, to be sure, but its not like you can make 10 of them and make 10x as many magic items.

[DrewVolker]

Oh wow, I can't believe I somehow passed over that.
I guess I need to re-read all the stuff I thought I knew about magical items.

Thanks for that heads up.

[Gavinfoxx]

Are you sure? I've never seen that restriction as such...

[Mystify]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm

"A character can work on only one item at a time. If a character starts work on a new item, all materials used and XP spent on the under-construction item are wasted."

Right above the first table.

Time limits on crafting items are one of the major limiting factors on artificers; that it not invalidated by a 2k construct.

[Gavinfoxx]

Yea, but I can see it argued that it isn't the CHARACTER umbrella-working on any one item: each homunculus is essentially a different character, it just uses the XP total of the character that made them...

[Mystify]

Yea, but I can see it argued that it isn't the CHARACTER umbrella-working on any one item: each homunculus is essentially a different character, it just uses the XP total of the character that made them...
Artificers do not need that HUGE power boost. Time to craft is one of their few real limiting factors as it is. Ignoring or invalidating the time constraints to make items is probably the biggest reason people find the item creation so powerful. You should not have time to make 100% of the party's items. The artificer should not automatically multiply the wealth of the party by 2 or more.
There is a feat that reduces crafting time by 25%. That is a very valuable feat, because ANY reduction in the time allows them to make that much more.
Believe me, just having a constant effort to make new magic items will give the party a significant boost. Artificers are tier 1, they do not need any handouts from the DM to make them stronger.

[DrewVolker]

I appreciate the information you have both given me.

If anyone could help me out with idea for builds, what feats to take, how to spend my xp the wisest and stuff like that I'd very much appreciate it.

[Mystify]

There are a series of feats in eberron that reduce the cost of crafting by 25%, for time, xp, and money.Those can be very valuable. Figure out which ones are your limiting factors(hint: its probably time) and prioritize those first.

I would say the warforged substitution levels are worthwhile. You would have to take the craft construct feat since it is being traded away, but your craft reserve gets doubles while using it on several common items.

The intelligent weapon familiar is probably better than retain essence. Retain essence basically lets you turn an item into Xp instead of gold. Which is fine, except gold is going to be a more realistic limiting factor. you can only craft so fast, and so you are only spending 40 xp a day on crafting. This does add up, but even if you fall behind a level, that just means you are gaining more xp, since you have a bigger level gap between you and what you are fighting.

being in eborron, I'm assuming you are using action points. Your action points are precious, don't spend them on normal things. Use them for in-combat infusions when needed. You can't do it often, so don't waste it, but don't be afraid to infuse a bane or ghost touch if the battle is difficult or you are caught unprepared.

Since you are not a combat warforged, most of the warforged feats are not very important for you. Since you want to be a support character, making some good buff wands is a great idea. Haste is particularly useful. You can also make and use healing wands, both cure and repair. This will let you maintain yourself and your constructs, and help the party with healing. A crafted wand of cure light can be one of the cheapest healing sources, though at higher levels you can empty an entire wand into one person. At that point it is not worth the time to craft them, and you should buy them, but at low levels the 1 day crafting time is cake, and you can use the savings. Taking the wand weilder feat eeks out an extra 2hp per wand, making you a more efficient wand healer than a cleric would be. This also helps other buffs you may be casting out of wands.

You can use any infusion, so you should learn them all as a player so you are familiar with what you can do. Infusing armor and weapons with new enchancements is a long-lasting, effective boost. Doubly so if you can key it against the enemies you will be facing. These are best spent on granting special abilities to the items. Use greater magic weapon and magic vestment to give the weapons and armour the raw enchantment bonuses for the entire day. This leaves you free to enchant their weapons and armour with special abilities cheaply. Your infusions are best used as preparatory buffs, so shy away from using the in-combat infusions unless it will give a decided advantage.

There are some cool tricks you can do with infusions. For instance, infusing armour with etherealness can allow someone to use ethereal jaunt at a much lower level than a spellcaster could cast it. This can be used to great effect if you are clever.

Of course, I have only seen 1 artificer in play, so take my advice with a grain of salt. However, even if this advice is not the best possible advice, it does prove to be quite effective.

[Black_Zawisza]

I would also recommend the substitution levels. They're quite good.

Your best two infusions at low levels are Personal Weapon Augmentation and Spell Storing Item.

With PWA, if you can figure out what you're fighting a minute or more in advance, you can Bane your weapon against the most common creature type for a min/level and get +2 to attack rolls and +2D6+2 to damage. If you use an Action Point, you can get your Bane on with a full-round action. Hand your weapon to one of your friends and watch him go to town on the baddies.

With Spell Storing Item, you can cast any spell off any spell list in D&D with a minute's preparation (again, use an Action Point and you can make this a full-round action). Here are the catches: your Artificer level needs to be twice the spell level of the spell you want to cast, and you need to succeed on a UMD check with a DC of 20 + (3 x spell level). So 23 for 1st level spells, 32 for 4th level spells.

A very powerful and flavorful feat you could take is Item Familiar from Unearthed Arcana; you get tons of XP (I would suggest setting it aside and using it strictly as part of your Craft Reserve, to stay at the same level as your group), huge skill boosts you can use to buff UMD (you're gonna really need that at low levels for Spell Storing Item), and bonus infusion slots. If your DM takes it away from you for an extended period of time though, you're screwed. So you need to think about whether your DM is the kind of guy who steals wizards' spellbooks before you choose to take it.

Here's the best Artificer Handbook I've come across: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11474

[deuxhero]

I don't have time to go into the finer points of artificers, but I just have to point out that having multiple homuculi to enchant items for you doesn't help. You can only have 1 magic item in production, even with the homoculi. The only thing it really does for you is allow you to adventure while the item is in production. That is worthwhile, to be sure, but its not like you can make 10 of them and make 10x as many magic items.

Note: You CAN have them spam mundane item creation. Only a few, mostly alchemical, items are useful in large quantities though. You could make a shipyard.

[Mystify]

I would also recommend the substitution levels. They're quite good.

Your best two infusions at low levels are Personal Weapon Augmentation and Spell Storing Item.

With PWA, if you can figure out what you're fighting a minute or more in advance, you can Bane your weapon against the most common creature type for a min/level and get +2 to attack rolls and +2D6+2 to damage. If you use an Action Point, you can get your Bane on with a full-round action. Hand your weapon to one of your friends and watch him go to town on the baddies.

With Spell Storing Item, you can cast any spell off any spell list in D&D with a minute's preparation (again, use an Action Point and you can make this a full-round action). Here are the catches: your Artificer level needs to be twice the spell level of the spell you want to cast, and you need to succeed on a UMD check with a DC of 20 + (3 x spell level). So 23 for 1st level spells, 32 for 4th level spells.

A very powerful and flavorful feat you could take is Item Familiar from Unearthed Arcana; you get tons of XP (I would suggest setting it aside and using it strictly as part of your Craft Reserve, to stay at the same level as your group), huge skill boosts you can use to buff UMD (you're gonna really need that at low levels for Spell Storing Item), and bonus infusion slots. If your DM takes it away from you for an extended period of time though, you're screwed. So you need to think about whether your DM is the kind of guy who steals wizards' spellbooks before you choose to take it.

Here's the best Artificer Handbook I've come across: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11474
Personal weapon augmentation only works while you are wielding the weapon. You hand it to your friend, and it will stop working. The other weapon augmentations are great for party buffs, but Personal weapon augmentation, as the name suggests, is only a personal buff.

I didn't notice spell storing item before, that is quite potent. Esp since it lets you take a level 1 infusion and turn it into a 4th level spell.

Note: You CAN have them spam mundane item creation. Only a few alchemical items usful in large quantities or you could make a shipyard.
True, that is doable.

[Tvtyrant]

The Artificer is the king of level 1 (alongside the SotAO Mystic Ranger and Spirit Lion Whirling Frenzy Barbarian) because of its ability to imbue a weapon with the Bane property. +2d6 and +2 to hit, and you can slap it on a crossbow and match up with the greatsword fighter but at range. Bane's usually problem is you only have Bane against one foe, but with an Artificer you can swap it out for a different types.

[Mystify]

Bane is indeed a formidable piece of the artificer's arsenal. It also helps if you know other powerful enchantments. For instance, sacred is a +1 enchantment that makes the weapon good-aligned, and does 2d6 to evil outsiders. Stack that on an evil outsider bane, and go to town.

[Morithias]

I probably shouldn't be saying this but..

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_(rough_draft)

I'll just leave this here. I really don't think I can add anything on top of this but i'll check my other sources.