Introducing the Artificer to an inexperienced player?

[Septimus Faber]

So, recently my group decided to start playing in Eberron, and accordingly one of the more experienced players made a character for a less experienced player, who wanted to be an artificer.

The problem here is that the artificer is hands down the most complicated and hard to play class in the game, and the player is the sort of person who lets game sessions wash over them without actually internalising any of the rules. So can anyone assist me in working out how to teach a player who barely understands be basic game mechanics (and has made zero use of her artificer abilities so far) to play the most complicated class in the game?

Any help is really appreciated.

[Particle_Man]

If they don't use their class features, maybe suggest another class? Ask them what sort of thing they would like to do in the game and optimize, not for power, but for simplicity of use, when making a character for them? Would they be happier with a sorcerer, perhaps? Or just a vanilla fighter with feats chosen just to either add plusses (like weapon focus/specialization) or remove penalties (like precise shot)?

[Afgncaap5]

Before I played Artificer, I was crazy tripped up by the term "infusions." It took me ages to wrap my head around the fact that they were spells, they just took longer to cast most of them and had to be cast into objects.

If the person likes the thought of the Artificer, it might help to have an enemy group with an Artificer in it. If the enemy artificer is something a little unusual (goblin, gnoll, etc.) and if it has access to action points through the... feat that gives NPCs action points, whatever it's called... it might be easy to showcase what the player *could* be doing. A cry of "I *hate* humans!" (or whatever race the players are running around as) could easily be followed by a quick Bane-infusion. You may have to cheat a bit to have the artificer finishing all these things "on the fly" or to make it more obvious than normal that the Artificer is buffing his weapons or his allies' capabilities, but the demonstration might work out.

Similarly, there are some problems that only artificers can solve quickly through use magic device or artificer knowledge.

Ultimately, though, if the player isn't interested in the complicated abilities of the class, then yeah, maybe suggest a different class. Unless the player is enjoying the game anyway, in which case it should be fine either way.