Help building a lvl 7 artificer who will turn on the party

[Deaconjunglist]

I'll be playing an lvl 7 dwarf artificer for just a few sessions while my main character is captured. He will help the party rescue my main and then, of course betray them.

I've never played or even seen an artificer, I'm fairly new to dnd. I understand they can be difficult to play, but as I said I won't be running him for long. That said I do have some questions:

At lvl 7, what should my gear comprise of? Assuming normal starting wealth, but crafting everything himself. He will stay out of melee combat if he can, being more of a merchant and inventor than a fighter. I imagine he will have wands for ranged attacks.

How many homunculi should I have? I'd like at least a packmate and a expeditious messenger (who will basically be a spy satellite).

I've read the "artificers guide 3.0" and the "artificers without artifice" guides, but I'm still confused about some basic things (what is a minor schema? What book is that in and why is it so important?) Are there other guides I should check out?

Specific feats you recommend?

Thanks everyone!

[RoboEmperor]

Get craft construct and build a Hydra Effigy. Look up the Effigy Template in Complete Arcane. 0 Homunculi.

[Deaconjunglist]

Get craft construct and build a Hydra Effigy. Look up the Effigy Template in Complete Arcane. 0 Homunculi.

Wtf no that's rediculous

[Menzath]

Wtf no that's rediculous

It sort of is, bit not really.

Basically it's minionmancy with constructs instead of undead. But using the top picks for undead works just as well since effigy creatures have most of the same drawbacks as making them undead, but without a controllable HD limit.

You want a minion mount, cause living mounts are for suckers and mount movement is awesome, especially flyiers. If the flyer mount can actually grab and carry you, even better action economy. You want a general BSF or two to keep enemy mages occupied (unless you have a hydra, then you lolz).

Then you want wands of things that save your life, protection from energy, vigor, cure, invisibility, dimension door, etc. Then wands for battle field control and/or summons, black tentacles, solid fog, a horde of wolves. At that point you might get damage spells.

If your artificer has an int above 15 then they would most likely not be a gung-ho crazy who wouldn't do some preparation to try and give them an edge, especially if they got to lvl 7. Crafting in itself is a time consuming process that requires forethought, why would they not apply that outlook to doing other things?

[Deaconjunglist]

Ok, I mean it is an incredibly awesome idea, and I'll keep it in mind for AFTER he turns into a bad guy. At that point I will hand him off to the dm and go back to playing my main.

But for now I'm looking for just a regular ol' artificer, who isn't super suspicious but has a few tricks up his sleeve... A bit more subtle than riding a mecha-hydra.

[RoboEmperor]

Ok, I mean it is an incredibly awesome idea, and I'll keep it in mind for AFTER he turns into a bad guy. At that point I will hand him off to the dm and go back to playing my main.

But for now I'm looking for just a regular ol' artificer, who isn't super suspicious but has a few tricks up his sleeve... A bit more subtle than riding a mecha-hydra.

Pick something other than a hydra. Lion? Tiger? Griffon?
https://i.imgur.com/BTG1SGq.png

[zfs]

It sort of is, bit not really.

Basically it's minionmancy with constructs instead of undead. But using the top picks for undead works just as well since effigy creatures have most of the same drawbacks as making them undead, but without a controllable HD limit.

You want a minion mount, cause living mounts are for suckers and mount movement is awesome, especially flyiers. If the flyer mount can actually grab and carry you, even better action economy. You want a general BSF or two to keep enemy mages occupied (unless you have a hydra, then you lolz).

Then you want wands of things that save your life, protection from energy, vigor, cure, invisibility, dimension door, etc. Then wands for battle field control and/or summons, black tentacles, solid fog, a horde of wolves. At that point you might get damage spells.

If your artificer has an int above 15 then they would most likely not be a gung-ho crazy who wouldn't do some preparation to try and give them an edge, especially if they got to lvl 7. Crafting in itself is a time consuming process that requires forethought, why would they not apply that outlook to doing other things?

Whatever he builds is eventually going to the DM as an enemy - it probably shouldn't be something that will just TPK the party once it's out of his control.

[Deaconjunglist]

Whatever he builds is eventually going to the DM as an enemy - it probably shouldn't be something that will just TPK the party once it's out of his control.

And further more, he's not a bad guy yet. In fact he's a simple merchant, he specializes in magical weapons/armor/wands...

I could see him making the living crossbow homunculus, whatever it's called, but that's as far as I want to go in that direction, for plot reasons...

You see my main is a Warforged, which is not known to exist in this world. Seeing it is what will cause the artificer to betray the group. The most advanced robots previously known are his steampunk style homunculi, clockwork spider shaped robots, not the creatures shown in the eberron campaign book.

So effigies, especially a hydraulic Hydra, are a really cool idea. But not for now. I just a basic, beginners artificer build at lvl 7.

[zfs]

You see my main is a Warforged, which is not known to exist in this world. Seeing it is what will cause the artificer to betray the group. The most advanced robots previously known are his steampunk style homunculi, clockwork spider shaped robots, not the creatures shown in the eberron campaign book.

So effigies, especially a hydraulic Hydra, are a really cool idea. But not for now.

I like it - sort of a Dr. Wily complex. "The world's greatest robot MUST be my creation!"

[Deaconjunglist]

I like it - sort of a Dr. Wily complex. "The world's greatest robot MUST be my creation!"

Yes, exactly!

[RoboEmperor]

Get the Least Dragonmark:Mark of Making on your character and have him use Summon Marked Homunculus for his homunculus needs and save your wealth on stuff that matters.

[Falontani]

If your going construct master before you get into the big guns. Grab yourself an iron defender. (1250 gp) up it to 6 hd (8000 gp) since constructs are objects (for more information read into sentient items) enchant your construct with burning hands (cl 5 at will usable only by your construct dude costs will run you 3500 gp) (my preference because it's like a miniature breath weapon). Grab the feat improved homunculus from magic of eberron. It gets 3 feats, don't mess them up. You can do a bunch with your improved homunculus feat for him.
Get yourself that Arbalester, (1250) throw it 2 hd (4000) it now has 2 feats, throw it rapid reload, and some other feat. It will reload and fire itself, and it gets a free enchantment from improved homunculus.

With a single feat you can reduce all these prices by 25%. With magical artisan applied to the above feat you lower it by an additional 25%.

None of these constructs are over powered, but it will leave you in a good place to use wands/scrolls.
Like: power word pain (best bang for your buck for the lower levels)
Summon monster 4 (available early through the demonologist list) to summon clockwork mender swarms.
As well as all the things a wizard does

[RoboEmperor]

enchant your construct with burning hands (cl 5 at will usable only by your construct dude costs will run you 3500 gp)

What is this enchantment and what book is this from?

In any case I disagree. Homunculi are just too expensive for what they do which is why I recommend Summon Marked Homunculus instead and use the money for actual constructs.

[Falontani]

What is this enchantment and what book is this from?

In any case I disagree. Homunculi are just too expensive for what they do which is why I recommend Summon Marked Homunculus instead and use the money for actual constructs.

Using the dmg/mic to price a custom enchantment. I personally give it a 1d4 round cooldown to make it more thematic.
1x5x2000 plus 30% off from race requirement is 7k market price. Divide in half for your crafting price

[RoboEmperor]

Using the dmg/mic to price a custom enchantment. I personally give it a 1d4 round cooldown to make it more thematic.
1x5x2000 plus 30% off from race requirement is 7k market price. Divide in half for your crafting price

Homunculi don't have a market price. That 2,000gp per hd is crafting cost. And mic says don't underestimate the word "guideline" for the custom item creation rules so it's on the same level of custom researched spells in terms of official-ness.

So if you spend your 6th level feat on magical artisan for homunculi instead of craft construct, the lowest you can get with apprentice and extraordinary artisan is 9250 x 0.75 x 0.75 x 0.9 = 4682.8125gp per max hd iron defender and I'd prefer even the flesh golem over the iron defender, which costs 7087.5gp each (can't apply magical artisan until 9th level).

[Malroth]

On a more on track note, Artificers are specalists in gear creation. They are similar to the wizard in that they are extremely weak when poorly prepared and extremely strong when preparations are finished, but even moreso. As to how much gear they have, Assume slightly more than Twice WBL as your starting point If you're being conservative and "everything i could possibly want with CL less than my lv+3" as a worst case, discuss with your DM as needed but Even the worst Artificer should be frighteningly well equipped.

Minor Schema Are a Magic Item in Ebberon, they work similarly to a Scroll but they can be reused on a daily basis and be used to meet spell prereqs for item creation.

Play wise I reccomend, if not Immediately going for the robot army, Metamagic spell trigger mixed with Persist spell. Wands of Lesser vigor, Divine Favor, Alter Self, Shield, Protection from X, detect thoughts, invisiblility get MUCH more powerful when you can make them last 24 hours just by spending a few extra charges.

[Yogibear41]

Wtf no that's rediculous


Welcome to the Giant in the Playground forums.


You can do a bunch of different things with an Artificer, it depends on what play-style you want to use.