Valor Bard VS Artificer...?

[jaappleton]

Trying to decide which is better overall.

Both get a lot of skills. One more tools than skills.

Both get spellcasting, but Bard gets full casting

Both get an extra attack. Valor at 6, but it isn't dependent on a magic item like Artificer's at 5.

Spell lists are both... support oriented. You could argue Bard could lean 'control' over support.

Artificer gets to make magic items. Bard can alter results with Inspiration.

[Rhedyn]

I would rather play an Artificer, but the Valor Bard is better by being a fullcaster.

[stoutstien]

Trying to decide which is better overall.

Both get a lot of skills. One more tools than skills.

Both get spellcasting, but Bard gets full casting

Both get an extra attack. Valor at 6, but it isn't dependent on a magic item like Artificer's at 5.

Spell lists are both... support oriented. You could argue Bard could lean 'control' over support.

Artificer gets to make magic items. Bard can alter results with Inspiration.
Iof you look at infusions as buffs you can hand out that are always on it harder to compare. The problems with the artificer as of now is that they haven't added xans spells and they have a pretty big dead space from 7-13.
The alchemist gets to use an inspiration sytle buff that is arguably better than the bards.

[Man_Over_Game]

One is a problem solver (Valor) and the other is a buff bot (Artificer)

Or roughly the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer.

As to which one is better, most would say that versatility is generally more valuable than specialization in 5e, so my vote goes to the Bard.

As cool as the Artificer is, it's pretty stagnant and unchanging. It encourages builds not roleplaying.

[Mercurias]

Trying to decide which is better overall.

I don't know that one is necessarily better than the other.

I compare Artificers more to Rogues than Bards. Artificers have a lot of utility and some armor, but they easily aren't tuned to have melee combat potential, unlike some Rogues or Valor Bards. Artificers offer a lot of versatile, long-lasting support options with their Imbuements that no other class can offer.

I'd place the Valor Bard as a secondary melee support caster in full armor with party face potential.

I'd place the Artificer as a range-focused skill-monkey half-caster with heavy support from its spells and class skills.

I would like to have both in the party, because it would be easy for their skills and focuses to not overlap while both contributing heavily. Let the Valor Bard go heard and heavy on social skills while the Artificer turns into the trap-breaker and sneak.

[Bjarkmundur]

With the Artificer still in beta I wouldn't bet on it in a 'strict' environment. If however your DM is the lighthearted kind I'd go for it, and solve any problems you see with the class on the fly (and let us know!)

[Fiskco]

Another factor to consider is what sort of character you want to play outside of skills. Bards generally have a high charisma and end up as a party face, whereas an artificer may end up being a walking utility belt of tools and buffs.

That being said, tool proficiency’s are pretty good in the artificer, especially with the tool expertise at level 3 being usually less useful than the skill expertise of the bard at level 3.

[Aquillion]

My impression is that the artificer's value depends heavily on how generous your DM is with magic items. Depending on that, their infusions can range from dominating the entire game to being just a minor thing.