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View Full Version : artificer and what to watch out for



Truffles
2007-02-28, 02:44 AM
Simply put I am dming a campaign and my player wants to play an artificer. Are there any serious game breaking combos i should know about?

TheOOB
2007-02-28, 02:47 AM
Metamagic spell trigger. Be very very careful what metamagic feats you allow.

JaronK
2007-02-28, 02:56 AM
Honestly, the Artificer is one of the strongest classes out there, since they can do anything any other caster class can do, but they can do it two levels earlier. They're harder to use than Druids, but they can do almost anything better than a normal class as long as they have enough down time and money.

JaronK

Bears With Lasers
2007-02-28, 02:56 AM
Um.

Everything.

The artificer is D&D's most powerful base class, and in a world with CoDzilla, that's saying a lot. Basically, he can do anything other spellcasters can do, only two levels earlier.

The biggest troublemakers are Metamagic Spell Trigger and the Metamagic Item infusion (mmm, free Persistent wand spells).

TheOOB
2007-02-28, 02:57 AM
Persistant spell, the feat that should not be.

Jack Mann
2007-02-28, 03:04 AM
Persistent spell wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for things like divine metamagic, the incantatrix, or the artificer's abilities.

Bears With Lasers
2007-02-28, 03:05 AM
Eh, it still shouldn't be. It's either absolutely crappy (Persistent Bless) or still too good (Persistent Wraithstrike) 99% of the time.

TheOOB
2007-02-28, 03:09 AM
Spell duration is the balancing factor on the vast majority of spells, even assuming your playing won't find away around the level increase(they will), there are still some low level spells that are too nasty to have all day.

PnP Fan
2007-02-28, 08:30 AM
as usual with spellcaster types, giving them time to prep is your enemy. Many of the nifty combat abilities of the class require MINUTES to cast. Don't rain on your buddy's parade, but don't play the game he wants you to play it all the time either.
Also, at middle-low levels (don't remember exactly when) they have this ability to suck xp out of magic items. You have at least two options with this ability. 1. give the party magic items that they can use, and the artificer won't get to use this as often, so you'll have some control over what magic items are floating around in your campaign (by manipulating your other PC's desires) or 2. Completely randomize treasure so that your artificer can just suck dry the useless stuff, and make party appropriate items. Just stick to your guns when things like craft times start coming up. So even if your artificer can suck magic items dry, if it takes another game-month to get that to pay off, and you have 2 or 3 adventures during that time, your pc's will have to do without that item that you gave them.
Also the Warforged-Artificer can be difficult, since warforged don't get tired, or suffer from sleep deprivation, etc. . .

oriong
2007-02-28, 09:18 AM
An artificers flexibility is incredible, and his buffing ability is extremely powerful as well. Their weakness is time. As has been said the standard casting time on many effects is 1 minute. An artificer with a good deal of forknowledge can be extraordinarily powerful.

If you allow an artificer there are two things to watch out for:

A) amount of gold you give the party. An artificer will rule in a monty haul campaign or anything like it.
B) Amount you let the party know ahead of time, especially days ahead of time. The best way to deal with an artificer is to give them a time limit.