Artificer?

[Gwazi Magnum]

I am currently reading this guide about the artificer and I like what I see so far.

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2829.0

But this is all still one persons opinion/viewpoint on the Artificer.

What do other people think about the class and what are the best ways to build/make one?

Also one bit I am confused about in the guide...

He suggests multi-classing as a lv.1 wizard and cleric so wands don't require UMD, but scrolls still will.

But my question in the multi-class regard therefore is...

1. Are often would I use wands compared to scrolls?
2. Don't I need a high UMD anyways for the item creation? If so why is no UMD check for wands a big enough perk to multiclass over?

[Gavinfoxx]

It wouldn't, generally. You never want to multiclass as an artificer to another base class, IMO.

Really, you can eventually stack UMD modifiers so high that, even on a 1, you can't fail the checks...

That one guide isn't personally my favorite; I use it along with a bunch of older guides, for a more thorough look.

[Gwazi Magnum]

What other guides do you use then?

Because I do really want to use this class and another guide on it would help me a lot.

Also, what manual is it that has the Artificer in it?

[Karnith]

Also, what manual is it that has the Artificer in it?
The artificer is from the Eberron Campaign Setting, starting on page 29.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12661

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Artificer_Player%27s_Guide_%283.5e_Optimized_Chara cter_Build%29

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_%28rough_draft%29

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7274.0

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=177

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19869786/Optimized_Artificer

[Gwazi Magnum]

The artificer is from the Eberron Campaign Setting, starting on page 29.

Thanks, I'm looking over it now so I can see exactly how they describe it and what they get so I don't need to guess off guides (which wouldn't be legit anyways).


http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12661

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Artificer_Player%27s_Guide_%283.5e_Optimized_Chara cter_Build%29

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_%28rough_draft%29

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7274.0

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=177

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19869786/Optimized_Artificer

Thanks, I'm making sure to read over them now. Hopefully being able to make an extremely good Artificer.

I'm thinking going Warforged, thoughts?

[Big Fau]

1. Are often would I use wands compared to scrolls?
2. Don't I need a high UMD anyways for the item creation? If so why is no UMD check for wands a big enough perk to multiclass over?

1: Infinitely more frequently. Scrolls are those emergency buttons you see in movies; They get pushed once and then do something important. And even then, I'd try to find another way around my problem because scrolls are expensive compared to wand charges.

2: Yes, this is something that handbook's author overlooked. You need to meet a DC that is slightly higher than the "activate wand" DC. Multiclassing, however, removes a major drawback for low-level games: If you never have to roll a d20 to activate a wand, you never risk rolling a 1 to activate one of your major offensive abilities. UMD has that pesky Natural 1 rule which shuts down a magic item. This can be life-threatening at the lower levels where you won't have enough wands to switch back and forth.

That said, it really only matters for as long as it takes you to get an at-will UMD modifier of +20 or better. After that the multiclassing really does not help at all.

[Illarion]

With the ACF's warforged make great artificers

[Gwazi Magnum]

1: Infinitely more frequently. Scrolls are those emergency buttons you see in movies; They get pushed once and then do something important. And even then, I'd try to find another way around my problem because scrolls are expensive compared to wand charges.

2: Yes, this is something that handbook's author overlooked. You need to meet a DC that is slightly higher than the "activate wand" DC. Multiclassing, however, removes a major drawback for low-level games: If you never have to roll a d20 to activate a wand, you never risk rolling a 1 to activate one of your major offensive abilities. UMD has that pesky Natural 1 rule which shuts down a magic item. This can be life-threatening at the lower levels where you won't have enough wands to switch back and forth.

That said, it really only matters for as long as it takes you to get an at-will UMD modifier of +20 or better. After that the multiclassing really does not help at all.


Hold on, rolling a 1 'shuts down' a magic item?

What does that mean exactly? Breaking it?
Also, if it's from rolling a 1, not my total why would it even matter if my UMD was at +20 or not?

[Gwazi Magnum]

Regenerating XP

There are a variety of ways to reduce xp but there is a non-super cheesy way to get a continuously regenerating xp supply. Ambrosia is a substance that can be used to replace 2 xp for crafting purposes per dose. Distilled Joy is the spell that creates Ambrosia by using a person in continuous pleasure. The major downside to Distilled Joy is it has a casting time of 24 hours. The way to get around that is by using a Spell Clock that casts it once every 24 hours, a magic trap with the spell cast into it as a Spell Like Ability, such as by a Factotum, or using a Limited Wish. One way to keep the person in a state of continuous pleasure is by putting the nipple ring from BoVD that turns pain to pleasure on them then putting them near a symbol of pain. For maximum effect place the subject in overlapping Manifest Zones, one providing the timeless trait and the other providing the fastest flowing time trait you can find (in Eberron's case Dal Quor). These manifest zone are created through the psionic power Anchor Plane. To get a pool of people willing to act as xp batteries you simply need to use the feats Leadership, Extra Followers, and Assemble the Horde.

Limited Wish casting of Distilled Joy or Spell Clock (160k) to make Ambrosia - BoED
Nipple Clamp of Exquisite Pain (8k) - BoVD
Symbol of Pain (Wiz5, 1k) - SRD
Manifest Zone - ECS
Anchor Plane - FoE

I am confused by how this is working... how exactly am I setting this up and how much XP am I really getting from this over a period of time?

Does this outright eliminate my need to spend personal XP or reserved XP?

[Alienist]

I am confused by how this is working... how exactly am I setting this up and how much XP am I really getting from this over a period of time?

Does this outright eliminate my need to spend personal XP or reserved XP?

Basically this is D&Ds version of the matrix. You have to start enslaving people for it to work. Don't go down that path.

Cost reduction is a very dangerous road to get on. There's always "just one more" until finally the cost to make an item is "wafer thin". How long do you think the campaign will last if every time the dm gives you 1000gp the artificer makes 30,000gp worth of items? Or if after every time you take a dump you fish around in the bowl for a +5 holy avenger?

The best way to play an Artificer is to just keep things as simple as possible.

[Gavinfoxx]

I prefer Elation/Good Hope traps mixed with SLA (like from a Factotum) traps of Distilled Joy; Elation mixed with Good Hope should be enough, right?

I also wrote this, and the things it links to...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

Which can help with some types of Artificer games.

[Madcrafter]

The best way to play an Artificer is to just keep things as simple as possible.

Nonsense. Artificer is a complex class for people who want a complex class. While you could play it simply, I'd suggest going for a different class instead in that case.

That said, cost reduction is generally something you want to keep within reasonable limits. The 25% less XP and gp feats from Eberron should be plenty in my experience, reasonable optimization without completely upsetting things. Artificer has "Break WBL" as a class feature, but that doesn't mean you have to break the game as well.

As for the original question, I think the artificer is a powerful, versatile and overall excellent class. Very fun to play.

[Yogibear41]

He suggests multi-classing as a lv.1 wizard and cleric so wands don't require UMD, but scrolls still will.


im pretty positive that multclassing as either of those would still require UMD on wands because anything the artificer makes is neither arcane nor divine, then again I could be wrong.

IMO your better off sticking strait artificer anyway once you get to I believe level 13 you can take 10 on UMD and that should allow you to always activate/craft what you want, assuming you keep UMD maxed at every level which you should.

Their are builds where you don't even rely on wands to heavily at low levels a light crossbow with a bane infusion can do work.

[Yogibear41]

Hold on, rolling a 1 'shuts down' a magic item?

What does that mean exactly? Breaking it?
Also, if it's from rolling a 1, not my total why would it even matter if my UMD was at +20 or not?

If you roll a natural 1 you can't attempt to use the same wand again for 24 hours


EDIT: Gavinfoxx is correct

[Gavinfoxx]

If you roll a Natural 1 and Fail. So if a Natural 1 is NOT enough to cause a failure, it works fine.

[Gwazi Magnum]

Basically this is D&Ds version of the matrix. You have to start enslaving people for it to work. Don't go down that path.

Cost reduction is a very dangerous road to get on. There's always "just one more" until finally the cost to make an item is "wafer thin". How long do you think the campaign will last if every time the dm gives you 1000gp the artificer makes 30,000gp worth of items? Or if after every time you take a dump you fish around in the bowl for a +5 holy avenger?

The best way to play an Artificer is to just keep things as simple as possible.

I'm really just looking to get the best bang of my buck from exp and gold (mostly exp) so the reserve works fine and I never feel the need to dip into personal exp.

Though in that regard, I read that restricting items to certain alignments and/or skills reduces XP cost. How strict is this rule though?

As in, can it only be a 'Good' alignment or do I detail specifically Lawful Good or Chaotic Good?
For skills can I just say something like Skill 1 in Climb? Or does the skill number need to be higher? Also would the skill have to relate to the item at all or is it simply nothing more than a prerequesite?


I prefer Elation/Good Hope traps mixed with SLA (like from a Factotum) traps of Distilled Joy; Elation mixed with Good Hope should be enough, right?

I also wrote this, and the things it links to...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

Which can help with some types of Artificer games.

Sorry, but I am very new to this concept. I don't want to become total infinite XP drain guy but I would still like to know how it works. But I am 0 experience in this xp draining regard. So the second you say stuff like distilled joy is when I become lost.

Is there a way you can describe it where someone with no experience in this regard could pick up on it and understand it? Or is it a thing or I do need previous knowledge in other areas?


Nonsense. Artificer is a complex class for people who want a complex class. While you could play it simply, I'd suggest going for a different class instead in that case.

That said, cost reduction is generally something you want to keep within reasonable limits. The 25% less XP and gp feats from Eberron should be plenty in my experience, reasonable optimization without completely upsetting things. Artificer has "Break WBL" as a class feature, but that doesn't mean you have to break the game as well.

As for the original question, I think the artificer is a powerful, versatile and overall excellent class. Very fun to play.

Sorry for the noob question but what does WBL mean?


im pretty positive that multclassing as either of those would still require UMD on wands because anything the artificer makes is neither arcane nor divine, then again I could be wrong.

IMO your better off sticking strait artificer anyway once you get to I believe level 13 you can take 10 on UMD and that should allow you to always activate/craft what you want, assuming you keep UMD maxed at every level which you should.

Their are builds where you don't even rely on wands to heavily at low levels a light crossbow with a bane infusion can do work.

That's what I figured.
However, I am considering asking my DM if I can use a clockwork rifle from the DMs book. For RP reasons being technology adept and all that. If it's approved would this be a better weapon than a crossbow or a longbow?


If you roll a natural 1 you can't attempt to use the same wand again for 24 hours


EDIT: Gavinfoxx is correct


If you roll a Natural 1 and Fail. So if a Natural 1 is NOT enough to cause a failure, it works fine.

Ah, that makes sense and eliminates my fear of breaking wands. Thank you. :)

[Alienist]

Nonsense. Artificer is a complex class for people who want a complex class. While you could play it simply, I'd suggest going for a different class instead in that case.

That said, cost reduction is generally something you want to keep within reasonable limits. The 25% less XP and gp feats from Eberron should be plenty in my experience, reasonable optimization without completely upsetting things. Artificer has "Break WBL" as a class feature, but that doesn't mean you have to break the game as well.

As for the original question, I think the artificer is a powerful, versatile and overall excellent class. Very fun to play.

Nonsense. Artificer is an interesting idea, bad executed and with enormous amounts of unnecessary complexity thrown on top of it. To recommend it to a neophyte is to do them an enormous disservice.

To deliberately compound the complexity to the point where you need spreadsheets just to track your character is to do yourself a great disservice.

The Artificer is not versatile. It has two settings, weak buffer and game destroyer. There is virtually no middle ground unless you use restraint, which I advocated, and which you then said was nonsense.

Overall it is probably the worst designed class in the game. Classes which use skills for their mechanics (compare Truenamer) are just a terrible idea to start with, and Artificer is badly written on top of that.

What makes it worse is that it has only four distinct features:
(1) a small amount of free xp
(2) free crafting feats
(3) crafting from cleric list
(4) crafting from wizard list
Each and every one of those things is rendered irrelevant the moment that your party makes friends with an NPC wizard, and an NPC cleric.

Just shove money at your NPC buddies, crank the handle and tada! Out pops the magic item you want. NPCs don't spend xp so you're golden.

----

I want to bring special attention to your assertion that you can break Wealth By Level (WBL) without breaking the game.

I see that as a logical contradiction, it doesn't make sense. Perhaps you could provide examples?

[CockroachTeaParty]

From my experiences with the artificer class (mostly at low level), they are actually pretty weak. They require two resources, money and time, that may not be available in most games.

Many published adventures, and many DMs, favor a certain momentum in their games. If your party is tracking down a dangerous fugitive, it's difficult for the artificer to request days, weeks, or months to craft some new items while the perpetrator gets away (a weak example, granted, but there's many more situations where there simply isn't enough time, space, and resources to craft everything you want).

Many theoretical comparisons of power between tier 1 classes claim that artificer is the most powerful class in the game, but I would say that in practice it actually is far less useful than people think. I can't speak for the higher levels, but they usually wind up shooting crossbow bolts and burning through Action Points while the actual spellcasters enjoy their spells without additional headaches.

[Alienist]

Ah, that makes sense and eliminates my fear of breaking wands. Thank you. :)

If you need people to do this level of basic research for you, just give up on Artificer right now. You've got about a month's worth of reading and head scratching and swearing at the rules ahead of you just to understand the class. And that's just the beginning. Because guess what? The whole point of Artificer is that it gives you access to every spell ever written. Ain't nobody gonna slog through all that for you. You need to level up and put some points into proactivity, or else you'll never get anywhere.

UMD is what the class revolves around, and you're not even willing to read the description of the skill for yourself? Seriously? *twitch*

[Alienist]

From my experiences with the artificer class (mostly at low level), they are actually pretty weak. They require two resources, money and time, that may not be available in most games.

Many published adventures, and many DMs, favor a certain momentum in their games. If your party is tracking down a dangerous fugitive, it's difficult for the artificer to request days, weeks, or months to craft some new items while the perpetrator gets away (a weak example, granted, but there's many more situations where there simply isn't enough time, space, and resources to craft everything you want).

Many theoretical comparisons of power between tier 1 classes claim that artificer is the most powerful class in the game, but I would say that in practice it actually is far less useful than people think. I can't speak for the higher levels, but they usually wind up shooting crossbow bolts and burning through Action Points while the actual spellcasters enjoy their spells without additional headaches.

While I agree with your point in general, it does break down pretty quickly.
Consider the following combo:

Wand Surge + Persist + Unfettered Heroism = an unlimited supply of action points for 24 hours

infinite action points + wand surge = unlimited uses of wands and staves

Unlimited uses of staves and wands means you can refresh the combo before you go to sleep and first thing in the morning when you wake up.

[Gavinfoxx]

You know that thing where you said 'sorry, but I'm new to this concept', while quoting me and asking for help... and the quote had a link to a google document? The answer to the question you were asking is in the google document you quoted...


Also, second on Artificer is the most advanced, spreadsheet heavy class in the game. Be wary.


Also, as far as a rifle as better than a longbow or crossbow? Using DMG, D20 Past, or D20 Modern rules? No, not really.

If you want to blast, blast with a wand...

I mean, D20 past stats for a Winchester 1873 have it as 2d10, 15 shots, 50 RI, 20/x2 CRIT mod. Respectable, but nowhere near the damage output of an artificer using wands. Though as best as I can figure, that SHOULD be 2d8..

Even the d20 Modern stats for an HK G3 are just 2d10, 90 RI, 20/x2 crit, 20 shots... not all that great, compared to a composite longbow with moderate strength bonus.

[Alienist]

If you want to play a 'rules lite' version of Artificer, just take a vanilla cleric and spend your third level feat on craft wondrous items.

That gets you 50% of the way there, and then the other 30-40% you can get by blowing a second feat on craft arms and armour at level 6.

NB: making custom items is a recipe for disaster, just stick to the ones that are printed. It's not like there's a terrible shortage of things to choose from.

[Gavinfoxx]

Remember, though. Artificer is NOT a technology adept class. They are a magic adept class, that can causally use magic to become a technology adept class (or any other type of class) at any time they wish to invest the money and time to do so.

[Piggy Knowles]

From my experiences with the artificer class (mostly at low level), they are actually pretty weak. They require two resources, money and time, that may not be available in most games.

I've recently played an artificer that intentionally did as little crafting as possible. (It was actually a mix of classes, focused on skill-monkeying and infusions.) It was also a game with no action points.

This watered down version of an artificer was still easily a tier 3, at least as competent as any factotum. Most of my infusions were pre-cast, so that I didn't worry about casting them in combat and the long casting time didn't hurt me. I'd also keep some one round infusions like Heat Metal readied otherwise.

I did very minimal crafting, but one of the first items I did go for was a wand of Fell Drain Magic Missile. I would spend my rounds attacking (I wasn't a front liner but I had a reasonable attack bonus thanks to my buffs and occasionally a rapid infusion Personal Weapon Augmentation for Bane), debuffing with a negative level from my wand or with alchemical items, and using alchemy for general crowd control. Outside of combat I was outrageously effective, with Spell Storing Item giving me a way to deal with almost anything we came up against.

This was, again, an intentionally watered-down artificer. I wasn't using Unfettered Heroism to cast crazy infusions on demand. I didn't have a Dedicated Wright inside a portable hole churning away wands for me. I wasn't sucking the essence out of every item I saw. I only had two actual levels in the class - the rest was all progressed by Uncanny Trickster and Ardent Dilettante. In my total time, I crafted two wands, some alchemical items and a couple of scrolls - I was NOT a crafting machine. The money/time issue basically never came up. And I was still quite effective.

[Story]

(3) crafting from cleric list
(4) crafting from wizard list

(5) Crafting from the druid list
(6) Crafting from the sorceror list
(7) Crafting from the paladin list
(8) Crafting from the adept list
(9) Crafting from the runescarred berserker list
(10) Crafting from the bardic sage list
(11) Crafting from the trapsmith list
...

[Madcrafter]

Nonsense. Artificer is an interesting idea, bad executed and with enormous amounts of unnecessary complexity thrown on top of it. To recommend it to a neophyte is to do them an enormous disservice.

To deliberately compound the complexity to the point where you need spreadsheets just to track your character is to do yourself a great disservice.

The Artificer is not versatile. It has two settings, weak buffer and game destroyer. There is virtually no middle ground unless you use restraint, which I advocated, and which you then said was nonsense.I didn't know he was a neophyte, though that did become clearer after I posted. I agree that it would not be a class I would recommend to a beginner, and said as much; I think that a cleric with Craft Wonderous Item as you suggest would be a more reasonable suggestions in that case.

And I did not disagree with your suggestion of exercising restraint; the part of the post I said was nonsense was that the best way to play one would be to keep it as simple as possible. I did suggest taking the two cost reduction feats, but stopping there.

Overall it is probably the worst designed class in the game. Classes which use skills for their mechanics (compare Truenamer) are just a terrible idea to start with, and Artificer is badly written on top of that.

What makes it worse is that it has only four distinct features:
...
Each and every one of those things is rendered irrelevant the moment that your party makes friends with an NPC wizard, and an NPC cleric.

Just shove money at your NPC buddies, crank the handle and tada! Out pops the magic item you want. NPCs don't spend xp so you're golden.
In some groups, you never get NPC allies like these.
While I agree that having a skill as a core mechanic is not a great design decision, I don't think comparing it to the Truenamer is really an apt example. Whether that makes the class a terrible thing I think is more personal preference.

I want to bring special attention to your assertion that you can break Wealth By Level (WBL) without breaking the game.

I see that as a logical contradiction, it doesn't make sense. Perhaps you could provide examples?
Simply exercise some restraint. Just because one can load up the party with extra shiny stuff, doesn't mean it has to be done to extremes. Plus not all items are universally useful, and generalizing can be the thing the artificer specializes in. As an example, I had a custom amulet of Unfettered Heroism and the Wand Surge feat once, and it was not in the slightest threatening to the campaign's integrity. Said item costed some 40 or 50k gp, and I acquired it at level 8. The fact that I could use my wands infinitely didn't really change much, since (in my experience) wands tend to be fairly infinite in uses anyways. Plus I could just make a new one if one actually did run out, and such a method would have probably been more economically sound in the first place. In a lot of cases in that campaign, the small forest's worth of low level scrolls I carted around came in far more handy than some extra wand charges.
And if the artificer is not showing enough restraint for the

[Gwazi Magnum]

I've spent some more hours reading over Artificer and I do have most of it down by now. So despite what some people here seem to believe/want, I am still going to make an Artificer.

That being said those who are still willing to help and not just hate on me wanting to be an Artificer, I do have another question. Well not so much a question but looking for a second opinion.

That is what skills do you deem worthwhile for an Artificer to invest in?

Note mine started with 17 Intelligence (from how my abilities were rolled), and increased to 18 at level 4. So starting at level 8 I have a total of 81 skill points.

Currently it's divided as this...

11 ranks = Use Magic Device, Knowledge (Arcana), Craft (Black Smithing) Search & Disable Device
5 ranks = Craft (Armorsmith)
4 ranks = Craft (Weapon Smith)
2 ranks = Craft (Sculpting)

15 SP Leftover/Undecided

Now my reasoning here is that Use Magic Device for creating items (Obviously), Knowledge (Arcana) for general knowledge on magic and to identify enemies so I can use Infusions to properly cast Bane on my weapon.

Black Smithing is so I can make magical amulets and rings when need be.

Search and Disable Device so when we there are Magical Traps I can find them and break them down for exp with minimal risk.

The other crafts I have set to the numbers I need at to take 10 and successfully build any Homunculus, Weapons or Armor I need.

Note: My +4 Int Mod would also go there so for example if I take 10 with sculpting 2 + 4 + 10 = 16.

I'm considering Appraise for some of my last skill points for roleplay purposes. Does this sound like a good idea to anyone here?

------------------

Also, starting at level 8 I don't want the past 7 levels of Craft Reserve to be wasted, so I'm contacting other players to see if they want any magic items made for them before hand where that 7 levels of xp can be used. We'll just then make a reason for them to work together IC before the campaign starts.

But no one else has any final concept yet on what kind of character they want to make. So for now, does anyone know of some generally good magic items I can make with craft reserve experience alone that would help them out?

Note: I have the Legendary Artisan Feat so exp cost are 25% cheaper.

[Gavinfoxx]

Despite what you might think, you don't actually NEED any Craft (X) skills. The DC's are all very, very low.

A 1/day wondrous item of Magecraft, or if you want to spend a bunch of money on it, a Cartouche of Imhotep, and a net 20 int after mods, and Take 10 gets you DC 20 with every craft ever. That's plenty.

Read this, including the 'I have X mod to craft' bit:

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11066.0

Important Skills are:

Use Magic Device

and to a lesser extent:
Knowledge Arcana
Spellcraft
Concentration

maybe Craft Alchemy, if you wanna make the weird advanced stuff.

Some Jugs of Shapesand mean you have whatever mundane, non-masterwork tools for mundane crafting that you could ever want (you already have a +5 bonus that is the same type as masterwork would get you).

If you want to identify enemies correctly, here are the skills necessary. Get at least one in each:

Knowledge Arcana
Knowledge Dungeoneering
Knowledge Local
Knowledge Nature
Knowledge Religion
Knowledge The Planes

and if your GM uses it
Knowledge Psionics

Also get the Skill Trick Collector of Stories

Alternately, get the feat Jack of All Trades instead of a bunch of cross-class skills.

[SowZ]

Artificer is a great class, I am quite the fan. (Just look at my sig.) If I were you, I would make an item of divine inspiration and an item of improvisation as soon as possible. They are both bonus to skill checks, (the bonus stacks, too,) and can be applied to any skill. (Including crafting checks.) No need to worry about meeting those craft DCs ever again!

Not to mention the awesome utility of being able to get a 15+ bonus to any skill whenever it is needed.

[Alienist]

I've spent some more hours reading over Artificer and I do have most of it down by now.

No, you really don't.

You need to go back to your first and second level infusion lists and find the pieces that you overlooked with respect to crafting.

For skills, I would put one point (and not more than that) into all/most of the crafting skills.

SowZ suggestions are excellent, but if we've started the "Suggest Bard spells" part of the build, I highly recommend Magic Savant. For one thing, it will take the spreadsheet out of the equation (sic).

For combat:

Do use an infusion on yourself (if warforged)/your armour (if not) with Healing Greater. 3d8+15 x2 + 2d8+5 x1 retroactive healing is pretty darn impressive. Your homework is to figure out which single infusion that is.

At level 9, make yourself a Tentacle Rod or a Greater Tentacle Rod and win at melee. Want to Bane it super fast? Write it down.

Your homework: explain why you need to be at least level 9 to make one. (Oh, it requires Craft Rod. Okay well, other than that, why do you have to be at least level 9?)

-----

Do think about metamagic. Your three best class features (only two of which you have now - hint: they're both infusions) are all about the metamagic.

-----

Do make a circlet of mages.

Do make a headband of intellect.

Do your homework to figure out how to make them the same item without slapping on a 1.5 multiplier.

-----

Later levels: I'm quite partial to standing at the back, with my Rod and my Staff (of Flamestrike) (bonus points if you get the reference) and burninating the peasants (ditto) well away from the melee. If the DM decides that isn't fair and that you need loving too, use the Rod to remind him of why you no longer bother with melee.

-----

Using your prehistoric craft pool:

Levels 1-2: it's all about the scrolls.

There are an absolute boatload of good low level spells. This is your utility belt (yes, you're batman, much more so than that silly wizard, compared to you, he's robin).

Level 3-4: make some noise. Then make some headgear.

Level 5: it's all about the +1 weapon. Don't get caught with your pants down by some incorporeal upstarts.

Level 6-8: wands, armour and weapons

If you think you have left over crafting pool points it's because you haven't made enough wands.

You can use an infusion to slap metamagic on a wand, and this is where your power starts shining through.

Do figure out how to get Flamestrike on a wand. Do figure out how to get Twin metamagic on the wand.

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Level 9: Greater Tentacle Rod

NB: by level 9 you have stopped making wands because....

When you get to level 12, you must do 2 things:

(1) pile all your remaining wands into a big pile
(2) pee on them while laughing maniacally

From now on it's Staves all the way baby. You can't even remember why you liked wands. Staves are just so much better.

Level 14 is all about the Rings. You have a number of them which are artificer specific. Get ye hence and findeth them, and maketh them.