How to Play: Artificer?

[JKTrickster]

I kind of realized that throughout my years of playing Dnd, I have never met nor played as an Artificer. How do they work?

I (kind of) understand the concepts that they can make magic weapons, but from looking at the class I don't comprehend why they are Tier 1.

They look extremely complicated, but I think they're the right class for me - except how can I use it properly?

[RFLS]

I kind of realized that throughout my years of playing Dnd, I have never met nor played as an Artificer. How do they work?

I (kind of) understand the concepts that they can make magic weapons, but from looking at the class I don't comprehend why they are Tier 1.

They look extremely complicated, but I think they're the right class for me - except how can I use it properly?

Step 1: Be ready for lots of paperwork.
Step 2: Have all the splat books.
Step 3: Abuse your wand based class features.
Step 4: Make magic items for 5% of their base value.
Step 5: Cast every single spell in the game 2 levels before anyone else can.

[Answerer]

Artificers take a Wizard's preference for preparation, and dial it up to 11. They're very difficult to play up to potential, but that potential is ludicrous.

Mostly, the idea is to always have the perfect item for every task. An Artificer can accomplish this, but you need to know what the perfect items for your level/campaign are. This involves a combination of knowing which items are great, and what's necessary for your campaign.

[phlidwsn]

Obligatory handbook post: Artificer's Handbook 3.0 (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5929.0)

[Kelb_Panthera]

I kind of realized that throughout my years of playing Dnd, I have never met nor played as an Artificer. How do they work?

I (kind of) understand the concepts that they can make magic weapons, but from looking at the class I don't comprehend why they are Tier 1.

They look extremely complicated, but I think they're the right class for me - except how can I use it properly?

The artificer's crafting abilities aren't just a nice bonus, they're the entire core of the class. Infusions are just shy of rubbish (long casting times for durations that barely outlast them in many cases and they absolutely have to target an item, meaning you can have your "spells" stolen by a competent rogue.)

The thing about an artificer is this; if he has time to prepare for an encounter, usually by crafting a scroll of just the right spell, then he can handle pretty much anything you can throw at him. If, on the otherhand, an artificer finds himself in a campaign/adventure where he gets no downtime and no cash/opportunity to buy magic items, then he ends up somewhere between an expert and an adept in capability; yes the NPC classes. Artificer is the most DM/Campaign dependent of the T1 classes but given that he's second in ability only to the StP erudite that's okay.

Craft yourself some schemas of some versatile spells that you'll really want to have once a day, and a few wands of spells you'll want to spam fairly often and you should be okay for the most part, unless the DM actively tries to get in your character's way.

[Piggy Knowles]

I don't know, I disagree pretty strongly that infusions are rubbish. People always seem to ignore how good some of them are... You can actually play a reasonable artificer who does very little crafting, mostly focusing on infusions and UMD, and still end up with a pretty solid character. It won't be as insane as an artificer with a dedicated wright in a portable hole churning out items to break a campaign over its knee with, but it'll be decent.

Infusions take some time to use, but they provide a huge amount of versatility.

Personal Weapon Augmentation, for instance, gives you any +1 ability (or priced ability worth less than 10k) to your weapon. So yeah, give yourself a bane weapon specifically targeted against the enemy you're about to fight. Or if you can select options not from the table (which is described as "suggested options") maybe turn it into a smoking weapon for near-unbeatable concealment. Or use it before every fight to tack on the lucky enhancement... ordinarily that's 1/day, but you've just turned it into 1/encounter.

Spell Storing is even more insane. This essentially means that, with a little bit of preparation, you can cast any low level spell. Sure, you can't immediately do it on the fly, but if you've got a minute or so to spare, you're good to go. You're limited to 4th-level spells, but that's still an incredible amount of versatility, with no real crafting required. (And if you want to get cheesy, look to your buddies like the Adept, Trapsmith, Telflammar Shadowlord and Demonologist for low level versions of spells.)

That's just two first level infusions. Yeah, they're probably the two best first level infusions, but still, there's a crazy amount of versatility to be had with them.

I haven't even gotten into Metamagic Item, the third level infusion. (It, um, does what it sounds like. Except that it's even better than most infusions, since it only has a 1 round casting time. Metamagic reducers are what make DMM and Incantatrix sit as king of the hill, and the artificer is every bit as good at this as they are, without extra feats or prestige classes.)

[Zelkon]

The artificer's crafting abilities aren't just a nice bonus, they're the entire core of the class. Infusions are just shy of rubbish (long casting times for durations that barely outlast them in many cases and they absolutely have to target an item, meaning you can have your "spells" stolen by a competent rogue.)


Infusions are enough to make the artificer tier 3 by themselves, not even counting ANY other feature.

[Answerer]

Infusions are just shy of rubbish
Wow, I... don't think you could possibly be more wrong.

Forget infusions, as a whole, making the Artificer tier-3. Spell-storing item alone would do that easily.

[Tvtyrant]

Playing an Artificer is IME based around two things. What core concept you want to play, and what magic item you want to focus on to get there.

Concepts:

1. Melee/swordfighter
2. Archer
3. Lots of minions (Megamind!)
4. Direct caster
5. Shapeshifter
6. Something else

Items:

A. Wands/Staffs
B. Scrolls/Schema/Eternal Wands
C. Contingencies
D. Magical Arms/Armor
E. Constructs

An Artificer basically uses things from the second list to do the things on the first list, but which items they use effectively decide their build.

For instance; Schema are like scrolls that can be used once per day. They can be used in several of the roles I mentioned, and are especially important for minions (because you are going to be casting the same spells on your minions every day for all 20 levels or so.)

Eternal Wands are good for the same thing, or if you are going main caster for spells like Endure Elements that you will be using every day.

So to play an Artificer you need to pick a role, and then an item type to fulfill that role.