Makorel
2020-03-01, 05:08 AM
Title pretty much says it all. The Artificer is a class that emulates the sort of "support doctor" archetype. The Doc Brown or Q making the inventions for Marty McFly or James Bond to use. As a result a lot of the Artificer's mechanics are designed so that they can be spread around the party. Artillerists and Battle Smiths don't necessarily need to do this and in fact get a lot of mileage out of using their own inventions. The Alchemist does not have such a luxury.
But like I said before, while the Artificer is not necessarily the one tooling up to kick some ass, they are definitely the one who is making the ass-kicking machine. It is an interesting idea because while we've had support type classes before it's not entirely the traditional controller/buffer/god-wizard style we're used to in 5e but rather that you do some Batman style Preptime before-hand and sit back and throw cantrips while you watch the rest of your party go to town with your magic items. I would like to find the nuts and bolts of this style of play to see if the mechanics match up with the fiction, particularly for the Alchemist as they don't seem to have any other choice.
Spells
As a prepared caster, a lot of the Artificer's Preptime comes down to what spells they want to prepare each day. There are a few nice spells here like Grease, Faerie Fire and Web, but as a half caster the Artificer simply isn't going to be able to spam spells nearly as well as a full progression caster. Where things get interesting is with the Spell Storing Item at 11th level (or SSI). this, combined with another party member or the Artificer's own tiny servant allows them to either cast two spells in a single turn or have two spells going at once.
For the Alchemist in particular, spells seem to focus on a combination of healing and "flavorful" damage spells. Healing is all well and good especially with the extra bump from Alchemical Savant but in times when healing isn't necessary the Alchemist is going to be stripped for spells unless they're relying on cantrips and won't be doing as much damage as the Artillerist. The gameplan seems to be less about Preptime here and more about the Alchemist conserving their spell slots for Cure Wounds/Healing Word/Mass Healing Word and use Alchemical Savant to bump that healing. I don't know if Alchemist makes the best healer but Alchemical Savant doesn't seem too shabby on Mass Healing Word.
I also would like to note Death Ward on the Alchemist's spell list. A good Preptime spell to have going into combat stymied again by Artificer being a half-caster.
Infusions
The Artificer starts with two items they can Infuse. As far as being a Preptime class this is not a lot to work with even with 4 known infusions. The most applicable use of the Infusions are the stat boosting weapons and armor but you can only kit out a few party members at best with this feature. In a game where magic items are rare or where non-magical weapon resistance is common this can be a lot better though.
Artificer subclasses don't get exclusive infusions so the Alchemist will benefit from a lot of the same infusions that other Artificers would except they're handing off their magic weapons to other people. That's not a lot of magic weapons but in theory you could pad that out with the spell Magic Weapon and double up on it at 11th level if you somehow haven't gotten any magic weapons by that point. On the flip side I can see a game where a DM has given the party some better weapons than the Alchemist can make and so they're stuck with some useless infusions until they can level them out of their list. If all else fails the Alchemist could take the Homonculus infusion and then they can use the "help" action twice per turn. Depending on the makeup of the party it might be better than attacking.
Elixers
This is the thing the Alchemist gets. Of them I think Resilience is the most applicable to combat due to +1 AC but all the ones that have 10 minute durations I think are usable and get a fair bit better when the temp HP kicks in at 9th level. The Preptime here is handing out the potions beforehand and I can see the strat being to shout "Pop your potions!" just before you think combat is going to start so everyone remembers to drink them. And if your party is into your potions you could ask what they would like to have on deck and let them figure out how to use them. Other than that the Healing potion isn't worth using over Healing Word until 9th level, Boldness I probably wouldn't prepare unless someone asked for it and Transformation I can see being good specificallly if you have a Monk in your party.
Other stuff
Flash of Genius at 7th level is a very good ability, comparable to a Paladin's Aura (and stacks with it too!). If someone needs to make a Saving Throw this is a good ability. I've been complaining about the Artificer's slow caster progression but this ability actually makes you one of the more reliable users of Dispel Magic.
Magic Item Savant is the wild card ability of the class. You never know what kind of magic items you're gonna get but this will probably be a support Artificer's saving grace at high levels when the DM stops giving a care about balance. You ever wanted to have a Staff of the Magi, a Rod of Resurrection and an Instrument of the Bards while still having attunement slots left over? That's what being a Magic Item Savant is like.
For the Alchemist Restorative Reagents gives lesser restoration times INT mod at 9th level and Chemical Mastery gives greater restoration and heal once per day at 15th. This sort of healing is good to have but in my experience the restoration spells don't get a whole lot of use and in this case they just seem to come on late for their level. Like I won't say no to an extra heal and this isn't all you're getting but at 15th I would expect such a feature to also be INT mod per day.
Conclusion
This class has a whole lot of fiddly bits to it. Slow spell casting is helped somewhat by infusions elixers and some base Artificer stuff but I still probably won't know how well an Alchemist does in play until I see it for myself. Either way this post was mostly for allowing me to collect my thoughts on how I would play an Alchemist in game. I'd like to hear what you guys think. How would you make an Alchemist that contributes well to combat?
But like I said before, while the Artificer is not necessarily the one tooling up to kick some ass, they are definitely the one who is making the ass-kicking machine. It is an interesting idea because while we've had support type classes before it's not entirely the traditional controller/buffer/god-wizard style we're used to in 5e but rather that you do some Batman style Preptime before-hand and sit back and throw cantrips while you watch the rest of your party go to town with your magic items. I would like to find the nuts and bolts of this style of play to see if the mechanics match up with the fiction, particularly for the Alchemist as they don't seem to have any other choice.
Spells
As a prepared caster, a lot of the Artificer's Preptime comes down to what spells they want to prepare each day. There are a few nice spells here like Grease, Faerie Fire and Web, but as a half caster the Artificer simply isn't going to be able to spam spells nearly as well as a full progression caster. Where things get interesting is with the Spell Storing Item at 11th level (or SSI). this, combined with another party member or the Artificer's own tiny servant allows them to either cast two spells in a single turn or have two spells going at once.
For the Alchemist in particular, spells seem to focus on a combination of healing and "flavorful" damage spells. Healing is all well and good especially with the extra bump from Alchemical Savant but in times when healing isn't necessary the Alchemist is going to be stripped for spells unless they're relying on cantrips and won't be doing as much damage as the Artillerist. The gameplan seems to be less about Preptime here and more about the Alchemist conserving their spell slots for Cure Wounds/Healing Word/Mass Healing Word and use Alchemical Savant to bump that healing. I don't know if Alchemist makes the best healer but Alchemical Savant doesn't seem too shabby on Mass Healing Word.
I also would like to note Death Ward on the Alchemist's spell list. A good Preptime spell to have going into combat stymied again by Artificer being a half-caster.
Infusions
The Artificer starts with two items they can Infuse. As far as being a Preptime class this is not a lot to work with even with 4 known infusions. The most applicable use of the Infusions are the stat boosting weapons and armor but you can only kit out a few party members at best with this feature. In a game where magic items are rare or where non-magical weapon resistance is common this can be a lot better though.
Artificer subclasses don't get exclusive infusions so the Alchemist will benefit from a lot of the same infusions that other Artificers would except they're handing off their magic weapons to other people. That's not a lot of magic weapons but in theory you could pad that out with the spell Magic Weapon and double up on it at 11th level if you somehow haven't gotten any magic weapons by that point. On the flip side I can see a game where a DM has given the party some better weapons than the Alchemist can make and so they're stuck with some useless infusions until they can level them out of their list. If all else fails the Alchemist could take the Homonculus infusion and then they can use the "help" action twice per turn. Depending on the makeup of the party it might be better than attacking.
Elixers
This is the thing the Alchemist gets. Of them I think Resilience is the most applicable to combat due to +1 AC but all the ones that have 10 minute durations I think are usable and get a fair bit better when the temp HP kicks in at 9th level. The Preptime here is handing out the potions beforehand and I can see the strat being to shout "Pop your potions!" just before you think combat is going to start so everyone remembers to drink them. And if your party is into your potions you could ask what they would like to have on deck and let them figure out how to use them. Other than that the Healing potion isn't worth using over Healing Word until 9th level, Boldness I probably wouldn't prepare unless someone asked for it and Transformation I can see being good specificallly if you have a Monk in your party.
Other stuff
Flash of Genius at 7th level is a very good ability, comparable to a Paladin's Aura (and stacks with it too!). If someone needs to make a Saving Throw this is a good ability. I've been complaining about the Artificer's slow caster progression but this ability actually makes you one of the more reliable users of Dispel Magic.
Magic Item Savant is the wild card ability of the class. You never know what kind of magic items you're gonna get but this will probably be a support Artificer's saving grace at high levels when the DM stops giving a care about balance. You ever wanted to have a Staff of the Magi, a Rod of Resurrection and an Instrument of the Bards while still having attunement slots left over? That's what being a Magic Item Savant is like.
For the Alchemist Restorative Reagents gives lesser restoration times INT mod at 9th level and Chemical Mastery gives greater restoration and heal once per day at 15th. This sort of healing is good to have but in my experience the restoration spells don't get a whole lot of use and in this case they just seem to come on late for their level. Like I won't say no to an extra heal and this isn't all you're getting but at 15th I would expect such a feature to also be INT mod per day.
Conclusion
This class has a whole lot of fiddly bits to it. Slow spell casting is helped somewhat by infusions elixers and some base Artificer stuff but I still probably won't know how well an Alchemist does in play until I see it for myself. Either way this post was mostly for allowing me to collect my thoughts on how I would play an Alchemist in game. I'd like to hear what you guys think. How would you make an Alchemist that contributes well to combat?