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View Full Version : 3rd Ed Taking an existing Artificer... into melee?



RoyVG
2016-06-01, 05:10 AM
So our party has recently been caught up in a snag because our main front-line damage dealer (Übermount+Charger) left the party due to him moving out of town, making it impossible to him to join unless by pure coincidence. Most of the other party members are relatively squishy. My party composition is as follows, all characters are level 11:


A Warforged Artificer (me) mainly focused on buffs and utility items.
A BattleSorcerer/AbjurantChampion/JadePhoenixMage Gish with a homebrew intelligent weapon and and homebrew familiar. DM was veeeeery lenient in what he was allowed to do.
A Mystic Ranger archer that mainly just shoots arrows because she is new to the game and her boyfriend (the above mentioned Gish) made her character and she doesn't quite use her spellcasting at all unless she is remembered that she can cast spell, only to figure out she hadn't prepared any.
A Swift Hunter focussing on Scout, also has a mount it likes to use. Can often literally throw a fist full of d6's when volley-ing one undead creature. Has the Nemesis feat keyed to Favored Enemy (Undead), turning him into our undead radar

We also have two occasional players joining in, depending if they are available

A Barbarian that wrecks stuff with a giant crystal club. This guy moved as well and it's very unlikely that we'll see him in the future.
A mostly 'vanilla' Warlock, nothing fancy like Hellfire warlock. Purely ranged based, so no Glaive/Clawlock. This is my girlfriend's character but she lives quite far away, so she'll be present approximately 50% of the time
Our Swift Hunter also started about thinking of switching to a Malconvoker in the near future, meaning we'll be even more squishy or not depending on the kind of creature he binds.

Anyway, because of the party composition, I feel that I'm the most suitable to at least try and become a more beefy character that is more adept at melee combat, and as an artificer, I think I can get away with it as well if I'm smart.

I don't have my sheets at the moment, though I'll add some more information later today when I have them. I'll put some thing I know from the top of my head here now

Warforged Artificer 11 with the WF Artificer ACF lvl 1+4 (not the 5th level one)
Str 14
Dex 16
Con 16 or 18
Int 22 (+2 item and level ups went here)
Wis 7
Cha 16

Skill point mainly in Search, Disable Device, Use Magic Device, Spellcraft and some spent around the Knowledges and Crafts

Feats (besides the given Artificer bonus feats): Adamantine body, Extend + Persist Spell, Wand Mastery, Craft Construct,

At this moment I have no real weapon, relying mostly on buffing my party or using my Wand of Scorching Ray (which was boosted to CL5 and together with Wand Mastery giving CL 7, so 2 rays). I have some other utility and healing wands and some other non-combat magic items.
Our campaign is extremely undead-centric and has relatively low amouts of down time, so item creation with expensive items is a general no-go, I took much inspiration from this guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice)

I'm thinking of getting/building a Battlefist and combined with a Persisted Divine Power (through Spell Storing Item to create a 1-use 'wand' and Metamagic Item infusion to put Persit on this 'wand') and using Greater Mighty Wallop (through another Spell Storing Item) to increase the damage.

tl;dr I'm a buff-centric Artificer that wants to transition into a more Meleeficer role, and I would like some advice.

Kelb_Panthera
2016-06-01, 04:28 PM
I don't really see the necessity but with an artificer you're just your equipment, for the most part anyway. Swap out some stuff for good arms and armor, buff yourself, wreck face. If your DM allows custom items, work with your party to make feat-granting gear for some of their tricks (A&EG 128).

ExLibrisMortis
2016-06-01, 04:44 PM
Have a look at this guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice). You can take your artificer into melee, no problem.

I'd suggest that you assume your mystic ranger prepares default spells each morning, because not getting any casting because you forgot to mention preparation is a bit lame.

Forrestfire
2016-06-01, 06:45 PM
I would recommend picking up wraithstrike in addition to divine power and greater mighty wallop. When combined with Power Attack (heroics for it out of spell-storing item before a fight, or possibly retrain a feat into it), that'll pretty much give you all the damage you need in melee. Persisting lion's charge might be good as well, if you've got the slots (that or use it instead of greater mighty wallop).