Art/Wiz Multiclass help?

[Zotharius]

A small group of mine will probably be running CoS soon and I was looking into making an Artillerist / Wizard buuuut I'm having trouble deciding when/how many levels of wizard to take and how worth it multiclassing would actually be.

I know Artificer is focused a little more on utility but I would like to avoid putting myself behind on consistent damage as well. Not sure how to build this and I was wondering if anyone out there had some ideas. So far I'm thinking a 2 level dip in wizard? But what subclass???

Also I'm thinking about taking EA fire. So firebolt would be more reliable and some higher level spells if i get to them (ex: scorching ray and fireball) would get a bit of a boost to them as well.

[Griswold]

It sounds like you want Wizard for damage, and Artificer for utility? Artificer does pretty consistent damage with both the Artillerist or the Battlesmith subclasses. I can't say much for the Alchemist subclass.

Unless there's something you want out of Wizard specifically, I'd say just go straight Artificer.

[Christew]

A small group of mine will probably be running CoS soon and I was looking into making an Artillerist / Wizard buuuut I'm having trouble deciding when/how many levels of wizard to take and how worth it multiclassing would actually be.

I know Artificer is focused a little more on utility but I would like to avoid putting myself behind on consistent damage as well. Not sure how to build this and I was wondering if anyone out there had some ideas. So far I'm thinking a 2 level dip in wizard? But what subclass???

Also I'm thinking about taking EA fire. So firebolt would be more reliable and some higher level spells if i get to them (ex: scorching ray and fireball) would get a bit of a boost to them as well.
Artillerist is actually pretty solid on damage output (at least through tier 2). With Arcane Firearm at level 5, you can fire bolt for 3d8 and then bonus action Eldritch Cannon for another 2d8. That's solid single target resourceless damage.

That said, a Wizard 2 dip is rarely a bad idea on an INT character. More spell slots and some decent subclass boons. School of Divination and School of War both have pretty universally useful level 2 abilities. So does Bladesinger if you are going Elf or have a nice DM.

[Tvtyrant]

A small group of mine will probably be running CoS soon and I was looking into making an Artillerist / Wizard buuuut I'm having trouble deciding when/how many levels of wizard to take and how worth it multiclassing would actually be.

I know Artificer is focused a little more on utility but I would like to avoid putting myself behind on consistent damage as well. Not sure how to build this and I was wondering if anyone out there had some ideas. So far I'm thinking a 2 level dip in wizard? But what subclass???

Also I'm thinking about taking EA fire. So firebolt would be more reliable and some higher level spells if i get to them (ex: scorching ray and fireball) would get a bit of a boost to them as well.

Pretty sure if you want reliable damage you can spend a level or feat on Eldritch Blast and call it a day. Artillerist, Battlesmith and Armor Artificer don't really even need that. Alchemist with Eldritch Blast is a very solid build IMO, combining healing, control and damage output.

[GearsX]

Artillerist already gets some nice DMG spells, alongside his turrets he can throw out quite a bit of dmg, I dont really see the need for wizard levels unless maybe you wanted to go Bladesinger or unless you want to specialise in a certain school, but doing so would make you lose out on artillerist lvls which would make you lose infusions and maybe even higher level abilities like the one that boosts your turret, and alows you to summon 2 at a time depending how far you wanted to take wizard lvls.

So unless theres something specific you want from wizard, i would go pure artificier.

If you want too, you could multi class 3 lvls into rogue and grab arcane trickster for more utility, giving you sneak attacks, invisible mage hand for shenanigans a few 1st lvl spells, plus more choices in cantrips.

Or also fighter to grab second wind and action surge, if you go 3 lvls here also you could grab eldritch knight also.