How Would You Play A Melee Artificer?

[WadeWay33]

I’m trying to build a melee artificer, but I HATE PETS. So, how would I go about this? Or at least making the Steel Defender cooler?
(Just theory-crafting, so Armorer counts)

[Misterwhisper]

I’m trying to build a melee artificer, but I HATE PETS. So, how would I go about this? Or at least making the Steel Defender cooler?
(Just theory-crafting, so Armorer counts)

If armorer counts like you said, it is definitely the way to go.

Plate armor with no str requirement
Int to hit with your gauntlets that do good damage
Bonus action for a solid amount of THP each turn.
And
If you are going into a city just change it to infiltrator and you are all good.

No real need to multi class or anything, you could play an arenei high elf and get a free expertise and like booming blade if you want to hit with a spell instead of 2 normal attacks if that is your thing.

[Dork_Forge]

Plate using Armorer with the Dual Wielder feat to make bonus action attacks and ramp your AC up even more. Take a dip into Fighter for TWF and you're golden, just make sure you have a good Con (aim for +3 or more) or the Tough feat so that you can afford to soak some hits if need be, you'll be in a tanking role.

[Spectrulus]

Takes a little more effort, but two other ideas are:

Metal Mount riding Battlesmith, so less a pet more faster feet for a small character, kind of helps.

In theory an Artillerist could wade into melee, creating bonfires, using thorn whip and thunderclap alongside a shoulder climbing turret which is just your off-hand attack as well. This would probably want either a 14 DEX or taking Heavily Armored feat. Shield either way. Melee with magic and 1-2 shoulder cannons could be pretty potent as well. Especially if one is a flamethrower and the other is the healing at high levels, but you do have the options. Saving most level 1 slots to Shield will be of course necessary.

[Citadel97501]

I personally would use a high elf Battlesmith with Booming Blade, Thornwhip, Grease, and Grapples to become a deadly melee artificer. Those spells are easy to use/understand, and don't take concentration. It also keeps working with Tiny Objects stabbing the guy or casting the grease with spell storing items, just give them the command at the beginning of the spell (8 hours ago) to cast grease under anyone I hit with Thornwhip, or Grapple with.

This will set the foe up to fall down at your feet pretty reliably, and then get attacked by your Steel Defender, followed by your attacks the next turn.

[Foff]

Fire Genasi Artillerist, point buy to X, 14, 16, 16, X, X (str, dex, cos, int, wis, cha)
from this you get darkvision and innate fire resistance with an amazing stat distribution
wear medium armor + shield, put a +1 on your shield and chest piece with your invocations, latern on stack it with repulsion shield for a more than respectable 22 AC.
you're probably not as durable as a real frontliner but a combination of shielding turret, warcaster + thorn whip and amazing AC will make you into a considerable roadblock to protect your casters and ranged damage dealers

[Makorel]

Easiest way would be to embrace the pet. Let the pet work for you and be comfortable in the knowledge that you(r character) made that so it can be considered an extension of their power.

Second easiest way would be to go variant human and grab PAM.

[Misterwhisper]

It truest shocks me how much of the advice here is horrible.

Artillerist can’t attack with int in melee, just ranged.
Dual wielder is horrible, also you can bonus action give yourself free THP every turn as an armorer so TWF is not worth it, actually it is never worth it.
Tough is not needed at all, THP is way better, and saves wasting a weak feat.
Shielding turret it good for keeping you going but again, artillerist have no bonuses to melee.
You don’t get two turrets until most of the game is over, and if one is healing and the other is blasting you are not doing much in melee unless you boost an almost pointless stat.

An armorer can have a 22 AC and level 3, attacking with int, penalizing people he hits, giving themselves THP every turn, and doesn’t need str for the heavy armor.

[stoutstien]

It truest shocks me how much of the advice here is horrible.

Artillerist can’t attack with int in melee, just ranged.
Dual wielder is horrible, also you can bonus action give yourself free THP every turn as an armorer so TWF is not worth it, actually it is never worth it.
Tough is not needed at all, THP is way better, and saves wasting a weak feat.
Shielding turret it good for keeping you going but again, artillerist have no bonuses to melee.
You don’t get two turrets until most of the game is over, and if one is healing and the other is blasting you are not doing much in melee unless you boost an almost pointless stat.

An armorer can have a 22 AC and level 3, attacking with int, penalizing people he hits, giving themselves THP every turn, and doesn’t need str for the heavy armor.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that an artillerist is making weapon attacks (which only battle Smith gets to use INT for weapon attacks) but use spells that call for saves combined with the flame cannon means they can put out respectable damage in melee range. All it takes is some refluffing.

[Spectrulus]

It truest shocks me how much of the advice here is horrible.

Artillerist can’t attack with int in melee, just ranged...
...Shielding turret it good for keeping you going but again, artillerist have no bonuses to melee.
You don’t get two turrets until most of the game is over, and if one is healing and the other is blasting you are not doing much in melee unless you boost an almost pointless stat.

An armorer can have a 22 AC and level 3, attacking with int, penalizing people he hits, giving themselves THP every turn, and doesn’t need str for the heavy armor.

When you attack with a cantrip, you ARE attacking with Int, if and many of the suggested cantrip-based Artillerist builds could easily be flavoured as weapons. If you insist on using D&D 5e Rule Mechanics Weapons, then you only have two choices, we were just trying to offer our best advice we coulud.

Also I'm a bit surprised at your surprise. There are only 3 Artificer Subclasses at the moment. No one mentions the Alchemist because it is... weird. So we've all mentioned how an Artillerist can manage, how the Battlesmith is great for it even though you don't want a pet, and the UA Power Armor which is... pretty much the obvious choice? Hopefully we've been helpful if confusing!

[Dork_Forge]

It truest shocks me how much of the advice here is horrible.

Artillerist can’t attack with int in melee, just ranged.
Dual wielder is horrible, also you can bonus action give yourself free THP every turn as an armorer so TWF is not worth it, actually it is never worth it.
Tough is not needed at all, THP is way better, and saves wasting a weak feat.
Shielding turret it good for keeping you going but again, artillerist have no bonuses to melee.
You don’t get two turrets until most of the game is over, and if one is healing and the other is blasting you are not doing much in melee unless you boost an almost pointless stat.

An armorer can have a 22 AC and level 3, attacking with int, penalizing people he hits, giving themselves THP every turn, and doesn’t need str for the heavy armor.

Bold opinions, but I will defend my own advice:

Tough is not a weak feat, it's an ASI for twice the hp value of bumping Con, you trade a better Con save for more hp. You may disagree with that choice, but Tough leads to a harder to put down character whilst bumping Con leads to a caster that's harder to lose concentration. Unless you can provide anything else, I'm going to consider the "Tough is weak" thing addressed.

Dual Wielder is a great choice for Guardian, it isn't just higher damage output, but it's another chance to get your Thunder Gauntlet effect on another enemy, increasing your effectiveness as a tank. Bonus to AC helps compensate for not wearing a shield but doing your job better. You don't HAVE to bonus action attack every turn, but seeing as you're likely walking into combat with temp hp and will have a high AC, you most likely won't need to replenish your temp hp every round. On rounds where you aren't using Defensive Field you're doing nothing with your bonus action most likely without DW.

I feel that you basically wrote off the Battle Smith in your last remark, so I will just address the value of Battle Smith: All Artificers going for melee will have a high AC, Armorer barely pulls ahead in that regard. Steel Defender can draw attacks away from you, weaponises your bonus action for free every turn and gives you Defensive Pounce. It's a solid melee option (one that can synergise with typical melee options like PAM and GWM), just a different approach than Armorer.

How can an Armorer have 22AC at level 3, realistically?

[Misterwhisper]

Bold opinions, but I will defend my own advice:

Tough is not a weak feat, it's an ASI for twice the hp value of bumping Con, you trade a better Con save for more hp. You may disagree with that choice, but Tough leads to a harder to put down character whilst bumping Con leads to a caster that's harder to lose concentration. Unless you can provide anything else, I'm going to consider the "Tough is weak" thing addressed.

Dual Wielder is a great choice for Guardian, it isn't just higher damage output, but it's another chance to get your Thunder Gauntlet effect on another enemy, increasing your effectiveness as a tank. Bonus to AC helps compensate for not wearing a shield but doing your job better. You don't HAVE to bonus action attack every turn, but seeing as you're likely walking into combat with temp hp and will have a high AC, you most likely won't need to replenish your temp hp every round. On rounds where you aren't using Defensive Field you're doing nothing with your bonus action most likely without DW.

I feel that you basically wrote off the Battle Smith in your last remark, so I will just address the value of Battle Smith: All Artificers going for melee will have a high AC, Armorer barely pulls ahead in that regard. Steel Defender can draw attacks away from you, weaponises your bonus action for free every turn and gives you Defensive Pounce. It's a solid melee option (one that can synergise with typical melee options like PAM and GWM), just a different approach than Armorer.

How can an Armorer have 22AC at level 3, realistically?

Tough should have been a half feat.
You can take 2 con and improve your hp by 1/level and your concentration by 1 and con save which is pretty common by 1, all of which is rather important for a melee range Gish.
Or
You gain 2 hp/level...

Dual wielder is a bad feat all the time:
You can attack with your other gauntlet, but you can’t adda stat to it without TWF style.
Why take a feat for one ac when you can just use a shield that you can enhance easily.

Yes I wrote off the battlesmith because he specifically did not want him to use a pet.

Also an armorer with 22ac is very easy:
Plate with +1 from your infusion is base 19
You don’t have to have the strength due to armorer
Pick up a shield and make enchant it with rather speedy crafts.
Instant 22 ac.

21 if you don’t get a chance to enhance the shield yet.

[Dork_Forge]

Tough should have been a half feat.
You can take 2 con and improve your hp by 1/level and your concentration by 1 and con save which is pretty common by 1, all of which is rather important for a melee range Gish.
Or
You gain 2 hp/level...

Concentration by one and save by one are the same thing. You haven't actually provided a use for the Armorer's concentration, you're just saying a high concentration save is good in general for a gish. It is yes, but unless you have something in mind, not particularly pertinent. Con saves CAN be common, they can also not come up much depending on campaign. HP is always relevant.

Making it a half feat would have been ridiculous, as it is you're trading a +1 to a save for +1hp per level, that seems fair to me, especially since you can always count on that hp.

Side Note: Concentration is a terrible argument when talking about a UA subclass that also gave us Mind Sharpener. If you care about Concentation, you'd just pick it up as an infusion and forget about losing it.


Dual wielder is a bad feat all the time:
You can attack with your other gauntlet, but you can’t adda stat to it without TWF style.
Why take a feat for one ac when you can just use a shield that you can enhance easily.

It is a good feat for someone that actually wants to Dual Wield. Could it be better? Sure I guess, but I think that's more a comparative problem with GWM/SS.
You're acting as a tank, damage is nice (and I suggested to dip a level in Fighter for TWF anyway) but the real goal is to get your TG's effect on as many enemies as possible to spare attacks against your party members. DW directly enhances one of your subclass abilities by giving you more opportunities to trigger it, the extra damage die is icing on that cake.
Comparing +1ac from a feat to wearing a shield in isolation is pointless, of course the shield is better. The AC is one part of the feat and successfully compromises on losing AC by TWF to begin with. And by the way you can enhance your offhand Gauntlet just as easily, Radiant Weapon would be nice to have in addition to Enhanced Weapon, not instead of.


Yes I wrote off the battlesmith because he specifically did not want him to use a pet.
What they actually said was they don't want a pet unless we can suggest a way to actually make a SD cool (very subjective but besides the point), he didn't say no Battle Smith period.


Also an armorer with 22ac is very easy:
Plate with +1 from your infusion is base 19
You don’t have to have the strength due to armorer
Pick up a shield and make enchant it with rather speedy crafts.
Instant 22 ac.

21 if you don’t get a chance to enhance the shield yet.

What level 3 character has 1500GP for a grail item to Str based martials? Hell, 200GP for Spint isn't even a sure thing at level 3.And what on Earth is rather speedy crafts?

22AC at level 3 is unrealistic hyperbole for this build.

None of the advice I've seen so far in this thread has been "horrible" in the context of what OP wants. It might not be ideal, but it sure as hell isn't bad.

[Tokuhara]

So I'm big on Battlesmith Artificer, but I understand the dislike for the Steel Defender. It can be a mess. So how about we use it less as a companion and more as a mount?

Play a Gnome (pick your flavor, but both Forest and Deep have the best tools to play with in +Dex and Minor Illusion for the former and Svirfneblin Magic in the latter), then get your choice of melee weapon, shield, and as good of armor as you can get as well as a saddle. Now, you can ride your Steel Defender and become the Techno Knight. If you go Deep Gnome, a dip into Abjurer wouldn't be that bad to give you some more toughness and some additional spells with Svirfneblin Magic.