Artificer?

[Akennedy]

I hate to sound absolutely foolish, but what makes an artificer so good? I read it over and I don;t understand what makes it broken or absolutely great. Can someone fill me in?

[Tor the Fallen]

Step one: Make a wand of ennervation.
Step two: Take the following feats- maximize, empower, split ray, twin spell.

Now, rather than raising the spell level of your ennervate, you just use extra charges on the wand.

Goodbye everything.

You get to make that wand 2 levels lower than a wizard gets access to his spells. In fact, you get access to all the spells 2 levels lower than a wizard does.

This means, with scribe scroll or craft wand, you can be casting haste and fly at level 3.

You get every spell, ever, two levels lower, and can cast them with all the metamagics you want on them without raising the spell level.

[Hectonkhyres]

So... in other words, Cheese?

[Tor the Fallen]

A neat little trick:
Get yourself a bag of holding and the dedicated wright in the back of the book. Heck, get a couple of them. Spend the hour you have to, casting spells and getting them pumped up about going back in the dark, damp null space you keep on your back, then send 'em on in with the raw amterials.

Et voila, a trimester later, out pop Fighter's new sword, a wand for Wizard, and whatever the hell else you wanted them to make.


So... in other words, Cheese?

The goudaiest.

[Starbuck_II]

I hate to sound absolutely foolish, but what makes an artificer so good? I read it over and I don;t understand what makes it broken or absolutely great. Can someone fill me in?

a. Crafting stuff takes exp
b. Artificers get free exp for crafting (the value resets each level so you should craft every level)
c. They get spell access earlier for crafting
d. They get bonus feats to reduce things: exp cost, time, and gold.

Add all this and more: they get pretty strong. Heck, they get double wealth (since crafting costs 1/2 gold value) and free exp so they aren't a lower level very much.

[Arbitrarity]

Nah, that's not the problem. The problem is mainly spell duplication, and at low levels, bane weapons.

Crafting items is needed for the duplication, but it's not the cheese. Metamagic spell trigger is nice though.

[Tor the Fallen]

Combine that with their 4+int skill points, d6 hitdie, and 3/4 BAB, they're virtually better than a wizard in all regards. They even get bonus feats!

If you've got feats to burn, double wand wielding can make you even deadlier.

[The Valiant Turtle]

A few of the less cheesy reasons artificers are good:

Trapfinding. Artificers get Disable Device, Open Lock and Search as class skills (and trapfinding) so they can cover the main duties of your thief. They aren't very stealthy however. It's generally best to pump Int as well, so you'll have the skill points to do it.

Infusion: Spell Storing Item. This is probably the most important infusion on the list. For a rather low xp cost you can 'cast' any spell in the game. If you have a good knowledge of all the spells your DM allows, you can probably get yourself out of almost any situation with this. Remember: A wizard can do anything... Tomorrow. You can do anything in a few minutes... with a few xp.

Infusion: Personal Weapon Augmentation (Bane): At first level and onward you can make your weapon Bane against whatever, which is extremely useful. Alternately, if you have a better melee-monster in the party you can spend 20 gold in spell components and make their weapon bane against whatever. They'll love you for it.

Use Magic Device: Although it is an artificers biggest limitation, it's important to remember just how powerful UMD is in it's own right, not including all the great things that Artificers use it for.

Other general advice. The best races for an Artificer in Eberron is usually a human (preferably with the mark of making) or a Warforged. The 'forged might not seem that great with their Cha penalty, but they have lot going for them.

For more information I believe there is a sticky artificer thread over at WotC's message boards. I believe it is under Eberron... Magic.

[Tor the Fallen]

Are you sure they get open lock? I thought they only got disable device....

[Shhalahr Windrider]

a. Crafting stuff takes exp
b. Artificers get free exp for crafting (the value resets each level so you should craft every level)
I don't consider the XP cost relevant to most balance issues. Generally, gold is a greater limiting factor than XP. As for the concern with falling behind in levels, well there's the Catch-Up mechanic in the XP rules, so you wind up gaining XP at a faster rate than your teammates for a short while. And, if the numbers fall just right, you can actually wind up with a greater total XP level than your teammates.

Really, all the XP cost is is a bit of flavor that represents charging magic items with the caster's life force or something similar. It doesn't really affect balance at all.

[The Valiant Turtle]

I've got the book open and it's there. Unless it's been Errated... (just a sec...)

No mention of changes to skill list in the Errata (although there are some minor changes, namely the swap of Craft wand and Metamagic spell trigger)

[Nerd-o-rama]

The most broken thing about Artificers is massive metamagic stacking. The fundamental flaw here is that anything that allows adding metamagic to spells without increasing their spell level is abuseable. Divine Metamagic, Metamagic Spell Trigger, same deal. At least the clerics have a per-day limit.

Also, Artificers have access to spells two levels before Wizards or Clerics, although they have to craft them into items, and they are at the appropriate caster level.

[Tor the Fallen]

I've got the book open and it's there. Unless it's been Errated... (just a sec...)

No mention of changes to skill list in the Errata (although there are some minor changes, namely the swap of Craft wand and Metamagic spell trigger)

Huh. Could've sworn they were missing open lock.

[StickMan]

Its a fun class, making stuff is fun and they get the feats to do it. And infusions are just nifty.