What is the intent of the Artificer?

[Drache64]

What is the intent of the Artificer? Is he supposed to carry around not just imbued items, but a plethora of items he crafted himself? What do you think WoTC was aiming for when they made this class? It seems creating their own Wondrous Items is built into the class apart from their imbued items...

[Sigreid]

I think the idea is kind of a magical Q with a gadget for everything.

[Anymage]

The intent was to justify how a setting could have enough magic items to serve as a replacement for technology. That was back in 3.5. Nowadays they're something that a lot of fans liked in earlier editions, so WotC brings them back for fanservice.

Mechanically they're a support class who focuses on items and gadgets (the latter often in the form of class features) instead of relying primarily on spell slots. In this case, clerics and bards already have a lot of support fullcaster territory locked down between them, so it'd be hard to make a fullcaster artificer that didn't feel like it was cribbing too heavily from one or both.

[Drache64]

The intent was to justify how a setting could have enough magic items to serve as a replacement for technology. That was back in 3.5. Nowadays they're something that a lot of fans liked in earlier editions, so WotC brings them back for fanservice.

Mechanically they're a support class who focuses on items and gadgets (the latter often in the form of class features) instead of relying primarily on spell slots. In this case, clerics and bards already have a lot of support fullcaster territory locked down between them, so it'd be hard to make a fullcaster artificer that didn't feel like it was cribbing too heavily from one or both.

But if they aren't crafting a host of extra items, will they be less than designed?

[Anderlith]

The idea was introduced in the first Eberron. The world is a pulpy Renaissance world with a foundation built on easy to use low magic. So you use a box of Brown Mold in an icebox to freeze your food, & you have autowriting quills or a series of message (the spell) stations to convey messages from far away. These creates a level of convince & “technology”. So who maintains it? Basically magical engineers called Magewrights who are the grease monkeys of spellcasters where wizards are the white collar types.

What’s the adventurer hero form of this new concept? The Artificer; a character who solves problems with simple solutions in the form of magical tools & a plethora of all those nifty magic items that you can’t really justify always having on you. In the beginning he was just really really good at crafting & had a few spell like abilities.

Now, editions beyond 3.5 handled things differently especially the way magic items were handled. Therefore the idea of the Artificer has to adapt. Now they are more of a magic gadget type. Still focusing on empowering tools & items to function as magic. Their ability to “make” Wonderous Items is to allow them to still have that identity.

[Drache64]

I get the mechanics, but as a DM will I be nerfing a player if I don't let him craft Wonderous items?

As a player, am I at the mercy of the DM to determine my play style based on what he allows me to craft?

[Anderlith]

I get the mechanics, but as a DM will I be nerfing a player if I don't let him craft Wonderous items?

As a player, am I at the mercy of the DM to determine my play style based on what he allows me to craft?

You should be allowed to craft whatever is on the list. As a DM you would be seriously restricting their options. View the Infusions as you would Wizard spells. Would you be gimping a player by removing Fireball or Magic Missle?

[Millstone85]

You should be allowed to craft whatever is on the list. As a DM you would be seriously restricting their options. View the Infusions as you would Wizard spells. Would you be gimping a player by removing Fireball or Magic Missle?I dont think they are talking about the infusions.


Is he supposed to carry around not just imbued items, but a plethora of items he crafted himself?Correct me if I am wrong, but all the artificer gets in term of permanent crafting is this line:
"If you craft a magic item with a rarity of common or uncommon, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much as the usual gold."

If a campaign doesn't involve any such crafting, and this feature is never used, I don't think it is such a great loss.

[Drache64]

I dont think they are talking about the infusions.

Correct me if I am wrong, but all the artificer gets in term of permanent crafting is this line:
"If you craft a magic item with a rarity of common or uncommon, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much as the usual gold."

If a campaign doesn't involve any such crafting, and this feature is never used, I don't think it is such a great loss.

You understand me perfectly, thank you!

So it seems then that the Artificer is considered a complete class by sticking to his provided list, crafting anything permanent outside that list should be considered extra as if any other character did it?

[stoutstien]

You understand me perfectly, thank you!

So it seems then that the Artificer is considered a complete class by sticking to his provided list, crafting anything permanent outside that list should be considered extra as if any other character did it?

Just about.
Crafting in general is very table dependent so most players wanting to make a bunch of stuff are probably going to ask before it comes up.