Divine Artifice?

[Afgncaap5]

tl;dr - Would it break the game to drop the Artificer (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_Eberron_v1.1.pdf) arcane tradition into cleric or druid class?

I was just looking over the 5e Eberron conversion and something about the Artificer didn't sit well with me. At first I thought it was the fact that it was just folding the artificer class into another class, and I didn't like how they meshed (I want my wizards squishier than my artificer, and my artificer to have slower/weaker spells at high levels than wizards, I think), but after giving it some thought I realized: I didn't like the fact that they were calling Artificers arcane casters.

In other games this probably wouldn't bug me; generally, I use "arcane" as an umbrella term that can include dabbling in divine miracles, psychic emanations, necromantic rituals, and all the other elements of the different magics that we know and love. D&D generally doesn't treat the word "arcane" in that sense, though, so the 3.5 Artificer's ability to use (or at least replicate) divine favor at the same time as arcane study felt like a step in the right direction for me. Seeing this new artificer as a variation on regular old wizardry felt like a step back.

So... having said that, do you think it'd break the game any to take Artificer from the Arcane Tradition, and just drop it into the Cleric class or even Druid class? It might take a little jiggering to get just right, and it wouldn't feel like it would solve the problem for me entirely, but it might satisfy my desire to see Thrane sending out holy fortifiers or the druids to develop their own barkskin enchanted armor or apothecaries on the fly.

Heck, I'm tempted to see if I can't slice it up enough to make it fit in the Warlock class a bit. It just feels like this is a "tradition" that could be shared between the practitioners of many magics.

[GutterFace]

Honestly I like the idea. the Artificer tradition fits a supporting role well and clerics are good in that aspect.
I might steer away from Druid based mostly on fluff, since if you abhor metal armor and weapons you might be less effective at "buffing" them.
but hey that's just an opinion.

[Fralex]

Hey, that stuff's a playtest right now anyway, you might as well experiment!

Personally, I view the distinction of Divine/Arcane in terms of whether you're the one setting the mystical Weave in motion, or you're requesting that someone else do it on your behalf. Clerics pray for their deities to do them a favor, warlocks use special techniques their patrons taught them. Druids compel the spirits of nature to aid them, bards sing the magic into existence. Paladins believe in their oaths so sincerely it manifests as a micro-god and provides magical assistance as long as they uphold it, sorcerers express magic spells as if flexing another muscle. So to me, making artificers arcane is way more flavorful than making their magic this weird, generic, categorized field like the original one was.

For me, though, the thing the current artificer proposal is lacking is freedom. Actually, lemme just copypaste the comment I posted on Keith Baker's blog (he invented artificers, if you don't know):


What, in your view, is the “heart” of the artificer class? Considering 5e handles magic items and crafting so differently from 3e, the UA version feels like it’s trying too hard to incorporate mechanics that aren’t quite compatible with 5e, and the end result is something that does several things the original artificer could do without really capturing what made it fun.

For me I think the biggest thing was the freedom you had, because of the very mix-and-match nature of 3e’s magic item crafting. When I made something, it felt like my own creation. I had decided that this item would be a wand, and then I decided it would have this one particular spell. There was no list of “approved ideas” I was restricted to coming up with, or at least, the list was so huge it didn’t matter.

The UA artificer doesn’t give you that same creative freedom. Scroll-Infusing comes sort of close, because scrolls are the only magic item still open to any spell you want, but you’re still limited to just a portion of the wizard spell list. Maybe if being an artificer let you add any spell to your spellbook, but those spells could only be cast through magic items? Sort of like this person’s idea: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?367999-5e-Homebrew-The-Artificer-%28of-Alancia%29

And this was his response:


Absolutely. As someone who played an artificer in 3.5, my favorite aspect was Spell Storing Item and the Weapon and Armor augmentations… the ability to come up with exactly the spell or effect that the current situation calls for. Someone needs healing? I’ll use Spell Storing Item to create a healing salve. Horde of undead? Time to slap an “Undead Bane” enchantment on my hammer. Honestly, the creation of long-term magic items was never as important to me as a character feature as that ability to create the perfect tool on the spur of the moment.