Piggy Knowles
2020-06-19, 05:45 PM
INTRODUCTION
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger, WhamBamSam, Darrin and daremetoidareyou. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
For this showcase, we’ll be going with the build that got the most votes during our last showcase: Bob the Builder!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/718572790705291415/723667956185170000/bob.jpeg
Bob the Builder
Can we build it? Yes we can!
BACKGROUND
I’m a sucker for the flexibility of the creation spells. If I see minor/major creation or fabricate on a spell list, there’s a pretty good chance I’m going for it. I just love the idea conceptually: a caster who can manipulate matter, create any object, any time.
Of course, these spells have a couple of big drawbacks. The first and biggest is that casting time. It pretty much precludes you from using the spells on the fly, instead leaving them as utility options for between combat. The second is that they tend to require extremely high craft skills. Remember, you’re still making a craft check to create or fabricate these items. Most craft DCs for anything interesting are going to be at least in the low 20s, and crafting something like a poison will sometimes bring you into the 30s. These skills aren’t totally out of reach, but it means it’s not something you can just slap onto a character.
Still, one build idea that has constantly been knocking around our cluttered google docs/discord full of ideas is a character focused on using dragonmark heir alongside the mark of making to create a character who can use this skills mid-combat. Dragonmark heir not only gives you access to these spells as SLAs, letting you circumvent some of the issues with casting times, but it also supercharges your caster level. A dragonmark heir will have a base caster level for her dragonmark abilities of 15 by ECL 9, and this jumps to 17 with a single feat. That’s pretty significant… especially when you look at feats like Quicken Spell-Like Ability, which require a high caster level to use.
We toyed with a ton of different build options to best take care of this idea, from chameleons to cyre scouts and masters of masks, but we kept coming back to the artificer. After all, if you’re going to be a builder, why not stick with the class that does it best? We decided to focus almost exclusively on infusions, however. The excellent Artificer Without Artifice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice) handbook (one of my absolute favorite handbooks) goes into why this is such a potentially potent option, and so we worked on combining an infusion-focused artificer who specialized in building and crafting mid combat, often as a swift action.
The final outcome was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy.
THE BASICS
Race: Human. You’re a dragonmarked member of House Cannith, so this one’s pretty much locked in from the get-go.
Build Stub: Cloistered Cleric 1/Artificer 9/Dragonmark Heir 5/Alchemist Savant 5.
Alignment: Any! Keep your cleric restrictions in mind, but this build has no alignment requirements at all.
Bob the Builder
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Cloistered Cleric 1
Extend Spellb, Knowledge Devotionb, Able Learner, Least Dragonmark (mark of making - make whole)
Turn/rebuke undead, lore
You won’t stay in cleric for long, but it gives you a lot right off the bat. You’ll go with the Planning and Artifice domains. Planning nets you a spare feat in Extend Spell, helpful for down the road when you want to start dabbling in Persistomancy. Artifice gives you a flat +4 to all craft checks, making it a great way to keep your craft skills high. With a heavy Int-focus and Knowledge Devotion, you should also be netting some bonus damage at this level, allowing you to plink away with a crossbow without feeling inadequate here.
2nd
Artificer 1
Scribe Scrollb
Artificer knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation
I love the artificer. It’s one of my absolute favorite classes, though it’s one that I think a lot of people find intimidating. It has such a nasty reputation, both among DMs (who frequently hear of it as a source for cheese of the worst sort) and players (who find its frequent need for downtime and item-focused abilities daunting).
Anyhow, you’re primarily going to be here for the infusions. While you will be a competent crafter, and there are a few things you should definitely consider making, infusions all on their own can be an amazingly flexible class feature that fits right in with Bob. There are three infusions in particular you’ll want to consider at this level: personal weapon augmentation, lesser armor enhancement and summon marked homonculus. Let’s take a look at each in turn.
Personal weapon augmentation is one of your only selfish abilities, but it’s a really good one. If you’ve ever got a minute’s prep time before a battle, this will let you spend the next minute with any special ability equivalent to a +1 or a 10,000gp bonus added to your weapon. The gold standard here is bane, which adds on some really excellent bonuses to attack and damage if you know what to expect. However, you can also use this to get access to options that would normally be outside your level range like air elemental power, sudden stunning or vanishing. The short duration plus long casting time means that at this level it will only come in handy when you have buff time, but that comes up fairly often in my experience and since artificers don’t need to prepare infusions, it’s always going to be there as an option.
Lesser armor enhancement is everything I just said about personal weapon augmentation except even better, because it lasts ten times as long, you can use it on your allies and +1 armor enhancements tend to be especially valuable. Think death ward, displacement (enhancements with per day activations are especially great choices in general). blinding or heraldic crest.
Finally, summon marked homonculus is one of my absolute favorites, and it’s something specifically open to you as an artificer of House Cannith. This allows you to summon one of a variety of homunculi that serve you for an hour per level. That’s right, not only are you summoning something that is overall going to be significantly more useful than most things on the summon monster I list, but you get a little helper buddy for a full hour rather than just a single round. Expeditious messengers and arbalesters both have a lot of uses, and a dedicated wright can assist you on craft checks, which can certainly come in handy. It also goes boom when it gets destroyed, and while 1d6 damage won’t mean much down the road, it’s actually pretty potent right now, so don’t be afraid to send your little buddy out into the fray.
3rd
Artificer 2
Brew Potionb, Favored in House
Favored in House is theoretically a throw-away feat that you’re just taking to qualify for dragonmark heir, but it’s actually not bad all on its own, letting you roll for a certain number of favors from your house.
You can technically use spell storing item for 1st-level spells at this point, which is I guess worth noting, but realistically you’re not hitting the required UMD check so let’s just leave that aside. If you feel like buffing up a bit first with, say, a scroll of guidance of the avatar, though… well, at that point it gives you any 1st-level spell off of any list in the game at the cost of about a minute’s worth of prep and a bit of XP. Probably not something you’ll want to do very often, but it’s an option you have, so don’t disregard it.
4th
Artificer 3
Craft Wondrous Itemb
2nd-level infusions come online here. You can immediately upgrade to the full version of armor enhancement if you’re willing to shell out 50gp; the cost keeps you from spamming it at this level, but giving someone a +3/+35,000gp armor enhancement is no joke. Mirror image, bane blind, menacing, speed... there are a lot of good enhancements in this range. Lesser weapon augmentation also pops up, which does everything personal did except now it can help your friends, too. And don’t we all want to help our friends? And unseen crafter is perfect to keep you flush with poisons, alchemy and similar items without slowing yourself down.
5th
Dragonmark Heir 1
Lesser Dragonmark (mark of making - minor creation)b
Lesser Dragonmark, house status
Why leave artificer for dragonmark heir, when artificers already get the creation and fabricate lines as infusions? Well, this gives it to you at a much earlier level, as a spell-like ability and with a supercharged CL. Minor creation as an SLA by ECL 5 is absolutely fantastic, especially for an Int-focused character with a +4 on all craft checks. With nothing more than a set of masterwork tools, your craft bonus should be in the neighborhood of +19. Many craft DCs hover around 20, so this guarantees success on most items you’ll try to make. As far as poisons, your best target for this level is probably terinav root. It’s a craft DC 25 to make, giving you a 75% chance to succeed without requiring any boosters (consider using the skill enhancement if you want to ensure you don’t botch the roll). Making several cubic feet of contact poison with a DC of 16 and high Dex damage makes it quite nasty for this level, and you can use your homonculi to deliver it without risk of poisonining yourself. You’ll get access to bigger and badder poisons as you level, with the big daddy being black lotus poison (DC 35).
Oh, and speaking of your homonculi, since you’ve upgraded your dragonmark your summon marked homunculus infusion now gains the ability to summon iron defenders, packmates, persistent harriers or true homonculi.
6th
Dragonmark Heir 2
Mighty Dragonmark
Additional action points, improved least dragonmark
Mighty Dragonmark may seem like an odd choice, since your dragonmarks don’t come with spell DCs, but it’s here for the CL boost. That’s a couple of extra cubic feet added onto minor creation, which probably won’t make a difference when it comes to poisons but can be pretty significant if you’re building larger or more complex items.
7th
Dragonmark Heir 3
Improved lesser dragonmark
An extra use of your lesser mark every day? Yes please.
8th
Dragonmark Heir 4
Greater Dragonmark (mark of creation - fabricate)b
Greater dragonmark
You got minor creation by 5th level, and now you have fabricate by 8th. While minor creation is still going to be your best bet for making poisons, fabricate has ENORMOUS utility, especially when you have the ability to cast it quickly. This basically allows you to convert one object, or a series of objects, into another finished product. While the spell says raw materials, it’s made pretty clear that those raw materials can be in almost any form - for example, the spell text itself suggests turning a grove of trees into a wooden bridge. Not only does this mean you can make huge quantities of items with a wave of your hand (especially great for alchemy and trapmaking, turning a long and tedious task into something that takes seconds), it also gives you significant powers of reshaping the battlefield. You can turn 160 cubic feet of material into something else. How about taking 160 cubic feet from the floors and walls to create barricades, or crushing stone wall traps? Think of the potential utility of stone shape, except no longer restricted to one type of material, and with significantly greater control over the finished product...
9th
Dragonmark Heir 5
Quicken Spell-Like Ability (fabricate)
Improved greater dragonmark
Hey, remember all the cool things I mentioned you could do with fabricate? Now consider that you can do them as a swift action, multiple times per day. Using fabricate mid-combat can be quite gamechanging, letting you reshape the terrain and create large and complicated structures in the blink of an eye.
Note that natively you only hit CL 17, which is one point shy of what’s required for quickening fabricate. Luckily, there’s a simple solution: a dragonmark focus, an inexpensive item that you can easily craft yourself. For only 750gp you can make the +1 version, which is enough to hit CL 18 by ECL 9 and qualify appropriately.
10th
Alchemist Savant 1
Efficient alchemy, poison use
Since you already qualify for it, go ahead and start taking levels in alchemist savant. This is a fun little PrC for any artificer more concerned with infusions than crafting. You don’t get a ton of use out of efficient alchemy, since you mostly will use fabricate or unseen crafters/dedicated wrights to make your alchemical items, but poison use is handy so that you don’t have to solely rely on your homonculi to manipulate your poisons for you.
Oh, and since your artificer CL is now 4, you can store 2nd-level spells with spell-storing item. As those UMD checks that seemed out of reach at ECL 3 should be quite easy now, that’s actually pretty significant. 2nd-level spells may not seem all that exciting at ECL 10, but the fact that you can pull any such spell from any list with only a minute’s preparation means you have an incredible amount of utility.
11th
Alchemist Savant 2
Brew spellvial
I know that crafting hasn’t really been your MO, but spellvials can be handy ways to dish out targeted effects as a ranged touch attack. The real draw at this level, though, is 3rd-level infusions. Greater armor enhancement is the big one - +5/100,000gp effects on armors and shields are downright incredible, and you’ve got a pretty decent duration on them now too. Look for the utility options - proof against enchantments, slippery aura, whirlwind, undead controlling, stonemeld, etherealness, radiant, heavy fortification, time buttress... there is a LOT you can do with this.
12th
Alchemist Savant 3
Persistent Spell
Efficient alchemy (2 potions/day)
Again, the efficient alchemy abilities really aren’t that great, but everything else you get at this level makes up for it. Going up to CL 6 brings your spell-storing item infusion up to 3rd-level spells. Combine that with the metamagic item infusion that you gained access to last level and Persistent Spell, and you can now toss out a 24-hour buff from any spell list of up to 3rd level for the cost of a handful of XP and two of your daily infusions. It’s not as free or spammable as DMM, but it’s insanely flexible.
13th
Alchemist Savant 4
Create alchemical mixture
While most of the potion/alchemy related abilities have been a bit meh, these last two make up for it. Create alchemical mixture is a lot of fun: it allows you to combine a spellvial or poison with an alchemical splash weapon, giving you a potent delivery method. The main utility here is creating alchemical splash weapon poisons, letting you or your allies/homonculi deliver poisons as a ranged touch attack.
14th
Alchemist Savant 5
Brew universal potion
Here we are, the main reason I love this class. Universal potions (or oils in your case) are basically blank slates that can be filled with any infusion of the appropriate level as a move action. So why is this so good? Well, one of the biggest drawbacks to infusions is that many of the best of these have a long casting time. However, as it only takes a move action to “fill” the oil with an infusion and a standard action to apply an oil to an appropriate target, this allows you to apply any infusion of up to 3rd-level in a single round. You’re still limited by the number of universal oils you have on you at any given point in time, but even just carrying a few to apply things like lesser weapon augmentation and greater armor enhancement mid-combat is fantastic.
And as far as our infusions go, two things of note: first, your spell-storing items can now store 4th-level spells from any list. Yes, that includes massively underleveled spells like summon giants off the disciple of Thrym list. Second, you get 4th-level infusions. By far the most notable is concurrent infusion, which lets you apply three different 1st-level infusions in one. This saves you infusion slots, sure, but more importantly it also lets you apply spell-storing item without requiring XP. Now there’s basically no drawback to your buff routine. You also get weapon augmentation, giving you up to +3/70,000gp abilities. That means elemental power (greater), or speed, or roaring, or splitting, or doomwarding... you get the idea.
15th
Artificer 4
Chain Spellb, Travel Devotion
Craft homunculus, bonus feat
Back into artificer. I know I said we mostly didn’t care about crafting, but I’m a sucker for homonculi. I know you can summon homonculi for the whole day with a 1st-level infusion, but if nothing else this is worth it for crafting a permanent dedicated wright, which can craft for you as you adventure. As for your bonus feat, you can pick up a metamagic feat, so go ahead and grab Chain Spell. It’s another great option for applying buffs via metamagic item that your party will love you for.
As for your feat, you’ve got turning from your cleric dip, so Travel Devotion is a nice choice in case you want to retain the ability to move while activating a universal potion, allowing you use even your highest-level infusions with long casting times in combat and still move.
16th
Artificer 5
Craft Magic Arms and Armorb
Retain essence
A lot of the abilities that come on in these levels are craft-focused, but for those times you do decide to craft, it’s hard to argue with the efficiency of retain essence. And since you likely have a dedicated wright at this point, crafting really isn’t so bad!
17th
Artificer 6
Craft Wand
Onto 5th-level infusions! These aren’t as amazing as the stuff you picked up in the first four levels, but there are some gems here and there. While fabricate is something you’ve been able to do for some time, major creation is quite nice for making stone or metal items. You can’t do it as quickly as your dragonmark abilities allow, but it’s still handy. You also get a couple of walls at this level, including wall of force.
18th
Artificer 7
Dragonmark Visionary
Metamagic spell trigger
Oh hey there 7th-level artificer, nice to see you. You’ve been applying metamagic via your metamagic item infusion for some time, but now you can do it on the fly with wands by burning extra charges. This can burn through resources quickly, which is why I didn’t prioritize getting it at a lower level, but it’s still a handy option to have.
As for Dragonmark Visionary, neither of the two spell-like abilities it grants are particularly useful to you at this level, but an extra use of your existing greater dragonmark SLA? Now that’s definitely something worth going for.
19th
Artificer 8
Rapid Infusionb
Bonus feat
With a bonus feat you could take more metamagic, but I recommend Rapid Infusion. It’s only once per day, but getting a high level infusion applied in a single round in just one combat per day can make a big difference.
20th
Artificer 9
Craft Rodb
You close things out with 6th-level infusions, which is as high as it goes for the artificer. The artificer’s infusion list is definitely front-loaded, with the absolute best infusions popping up early, but there are some really nice options here as well. The big one is that you finally get access to greater weapon augmentation, giving you up to +5/200,000gp enhancements. This isn’t quite as good as it sounds, simply because +5 enhancements are so few and far between, but there are still some ok options. The best option is probably to nab yourself an elder elemental via elemental power (elder), but going with something like dancing or brilliant energy isn’t bad either.
Intelligence is far and away your most important stat, as it drives your infusions and almost all of your skills. Without a heavy crafting focus and with delaying spell-storing + metamagic item shenanigans to the mid-levels when UMD checks are easier to make, you aren’t as Charisma-dependent as your typical artificer either, but a decent score here is never bad.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 16/Wis 10/Cha 14
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 12/Con 12/Int 18/Wis 10/Cha 14
Crafting skills are a must. The ones with lower DCs don’t need heavy investment, but poisonmaking, trapmaking and alchemy all want reliable results in the mid-30s, so go ahead and dump everything you can into here. UMD is similarly required, as should be no surprise. You’ll also want a rank in all the monster-identifying knowledges to get the most out of Knowledge Devotion, which alongside a crossbow and personal weapon augmentation will likely be your best source of damage in the lowest levels. Outside of that, you’ve got some flexibility, and you’ll end up having more skill points than you’d expect as a human with a heavy Int focus.
Equipment recommendations for an artificer always gets a bit odd. You can of course craft most of your own equipment yourself given the downtime, or set yourself up with a dedicated wright crafter set up in a portable hole laboratory if that suits your fancy. You won’t have much in the way of a craft reserve, but since you’re not fully crafting focused the way many artificers are, it should be enough to suit.
One thing you’ll definitely want early on is a dragonmark focus, which will improve the CL of your dragonmark SLAs by +1 to +4. A +1 focus is cheap (only 750gp if you’re crafting it yourself) and is sufficient to Quicken fabricate by ECL 9, but it’s never going to hurt to improve your CL even further. You’ll also want to make universal oils once you hit ECL 14, as they are cheap, can be crafted quickly, and allow you to apply even long-casting time infusions in a single round.
BUILD SUMMARY
The goal was to develop an artificer that focused more on in-combat infusions and crafting, as opposed to one who spends all their time focused on out of combat crafting. To that end it gets all the usual tricks you’d expect from an infusion focused artificer, most notably the spell-storing item/metamagic item infusion combo to apply persisted or chained buffs.
Starting from an early level (ECL 5), the build is able to craft dangerous poisons to be distributed via its summoned homonculi. By ECL 9 it packs CL 18 minor creation and fabricate SLAs, along with Quicken Spell-Like Ability to use them as swift actions and buffed out craft checks to fully take advantage. That’s 180 cubic feet of super rapid crafting mid-combat, capable of producing everything from complex traps to weapons to alchemical items. This can function as utility, battlefield control/reshaping or offensive magic, or it can be reserved to mass-produce things like alchemical items during downtime. It’s also just insanely flexible. Need a catapult, or a bridge, or a trap, or a blockade? Bob can build it!
As the levels progress, Bob focuses even more on the infusion side of things. Alchemist savant is a class that doesn’t get a lot of attention beyond its ability to mix alchemical items with poisons, but its universal potion ability is particularly excellent for artificers: once it comes online, it allows Bob to completely bypass the full minute casting time of many of the best infusions. Think of the flexibility of the greater armor enhancement infusion, allowing you to apply up to a +5 armor buff (which includes some really gamechanging utility options that would ordinarily be way too expensive to ever purchase) in a single round: swift action to move via Travel Devotion, move action to infuse the universal oil with greater armor enhancement and standard action to apply it. While the cost involved means Bob may not wish to spam this multiple times a combat, it’s a great option to have available, especially after Rapid Infusion has been used up for the day.
And that, of course, is what Bob is all about: build it, fix it, buff it out... and do it fast.
VARIANTS
We made several versions of this build, all with various degrees of complexity. Some leaned harder into the crafting side of things, including an interesting version involving effigy master, while others eschewed artificer entirely. We even have one version that looks straight out of an iron chef competition involving Cyre scout and ten levels of master of masks, and one version that manages to combine Alchemist Savant and Master Alchemist on an artificer base in order to create 6th-level universal potions.
If you’re interested in less substantial build changes, quite a few of the feats can be swapped around. Mighty Dragonmark mostly is not essential if you don’t mind spending the bucks to craft a more expensive dragonmark focus (though improving the CL is valuable independent of Quicken SLA), and Dragonmark Visionary can be replaced altogether. The alchemist savant and latter artificer levels can also be moved around if you value earlier access to abilities such as retain essence (definitely helpful if you plan to focus more on crafting). And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Craft Construct, which I really strongly considered adding despite how much of a cost sink combat constructs can be solely because it opens up the super cool clockwork items from that one old web series (the universal key in particular is one of my all time favorite D&D items).
SOURCES
Artificer, infusions, Dragonmark Heir, Least/Lesser/Greater Dragonmark, Favored in House: Eberron Campaign Setting
Mighty Dragonmark, Dragonmark Visionary, summon marked homonculus: Dragonmarked
Alchemist Savant, Rapid Infusion: Magic of Eberron
Travel Devotion, Knowledge Devotion: Complete Champion
Able Learner: Races of Destiny
Persist Spell, Chain Spell: Complete Arcane
***
And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger, WhamBamSam, Darrin and daremetoidareyou. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
For this showcase, we’ll be going with the build that got the most votes during our last showcase: Bob the Builder!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/718572790705291415/723667956185170000/bob.jpeg
Bob the Builder
Can we build it? Yes we can!
BACKGROUND
I’m a sucker for the flexibility of the creation spells. If I see minor/major creation or fabricate on a spell list, there’s a pretty good chance I’m going for it. I just love the idea conceptually: a caster who can manipulate matter, create any object, any time.
Of course, these spells have a couple of big drawbacks. The first and biggest is that casting time. It pretty much precludes you from using the spells on the fly, instead leaving them as utility options for between combat. The second is that they tend to require extremely high craft skills. Remember, you’re still making a craft check to create or fabricate these items. Most craft DCs for anything interesting are going to be at least in the low 20s, and crafting something like a poison will sometimes bring you into the 30s. These skills aren’t totally out of reach, but it means it’s not something you can just slap onto a character.
Still, one build idea that has constantly been knocking around our cluttered google docs/discord full of ideas is a character focused on using dragonmark heir alongside the mark of making to create a character who can use this skills mid-combat. Dragonmark heir not only gives you access to these spells as SLAs, letting you circumvent some of the issues with casting times, but it also supercharges your caster level. A dragonmark heir will have a base caster level for her dragonmark abilities of 15 by ECL 9, and this jumps to 17 with a single feat. That’s pretty significant… especially when you look at feats like Quicken Spell-Like Ability, which require a high caster level to use.
We toyed with a ton of different build options to best take care of this idea, from chameleons to cyre scouts and masters of masks, but we kept coming back to the artificer. After all, if you’re going to be a builder, why not stick with the class that does it best? We decided to focus almost exclusively on infusions, however. The excellent Artificer Without Artifice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice) handbook (one of my absolute favorite handbooks) goes into why this is such a potentially potent option, and so we worked on combining an infusion-focused artificer who specialized in building and crafting mid combat, often as a swift action.
The final outcome was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy.
THE BASICS
Race: Human. You’re a dragonmarked member of House Cannith, so this one’s pretty much locked in from the get-go.
Build Stub: Cloistered Cleric 1/Artificer 9/Dragonmark Heir 5/Alchemist Savant 5.
Alignment: Any! Keep your cleric restrictions in mind, but this build has no alignment requirements at all.
Bob the Builder
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Cloistered Cleric 1
Extend Spellb, Knowledge Devotionb, Able Learner, Least Dragonmark (mark of making - make whole)
Turn/rebuke undead, lore
You won’t stay in cleric for long, but it gives you a lot right off the bat. You’ll go with the Planning and Artifice domains. Planning nets you a spare feat in Extend Spell, helpful for down the road when you want to start dabbling in Persistomancy. Artifice gives you a flat +4 to all craft checks, making it a great way to keep your craft skills high. With a heavy Int-focus and Knowledge Devotion, you should also be netting some bonus damage at this level, allowing you to plink away with a crossbow without feeling inadequate here.
2nd
Artificer 1
Scribe Scrollb
Artificer knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation
I love the artificer. It’s one of my absolute favorite classes, though it’s one that I think a lot of people find intimidating. It has such a nasty reputation, both among DMs (who frequently hear of it as a source for cheese of the worst sort) and players (who find its frequent need for downtime and item-focused abilities daunting).
Anyhow, you’re primarily going to be here for the infusions. While you will be a competent crafter, and there are a few things you should definitely consider making, infusions all on their own can be an amazingly flexible class feature that fits right in with Bob. There are three infusions in particular you’ll want to consider at this level: personal weapon augmentation, lesser armor enhancement and summon marked homonculus. Let’s take a look at each in turn.
Personal weapon augmentation is one of your only selfish abilities, but it’s a really good one. If you’ve ever got a minute’s prep time before a battle, this will let you spend the next minute with any special ability equivalent to a +1 or a 10,000gp bonus added to your weapon. The gold standard here is bane, which adds on some really excellent bonuses to attack and damage if you know what to expect. However, you can also use this to get access to options that would normally be outside your level range like air elemental power, sudden stunning or vanishing. The short duration plus long casting time means that at this level it will only come in handy when you have buff time, but that comes up fairly often in my experience and since artificers don’t need to prepare infusions, it’s always going to be there as an option.
Lesser armor enhancement is everything I just said about personal weapon augmentation except even better, because it lasts ten times as long, you can use it on your allies and +1 armor enhancements tend to be especially valuable. Think death ward, displacement (enhancements with per day activations are especially great choices in general). blinding or heraldic crest.
Finally, summon marked homonculus is one of my absolute favorites, and it’s something specifically open to you as an artificer of House Cannith. This allows you to summon one of a variety of homunculi that serve you for an hour per level. That’s right, not only are you summoning something that is overall going to be significantly more useful than most things on the summon monster I list, but you get a little helper buddy for a full hour rather than just a single round. Expeditious messengers and arbalesters both have a lot of uses, and a dedicated wright can assist you on craft checks, which can certainly come in handy. It also goes boom when it gets destroyed, and while 1d6 damage won’t mean much down the road, it’s actually pretty potent right now, so don’t be afraid to send your little buddy out into the fray.
3rd
Artificer 2
Brew Potionb, Favored in House
Favored in House is theoretically a throw-away feat that you’re just taking to qualify for dragonmark heir, but it’s actually not bad all on its own, letting you roll for a certain number of favors from your house.
You can technically use spell storing item for 1st-level spells at this point, which is I guess worth noting, but realistically you’re not hitting the required UMD check so let’s just leave that aside. If you feel like buffing up a bit first with, say, a scroll of guidance of the avatar, though… well, at that point it gives you any 1st-level spell off of any list in the game at the cost of about a minute’s worth of prep and a bit of XP. Probably not something you’ll want to do very often, but it’s an option you have, so don’t disregard it.
4th
Artificer 3
Craft Wondrous Itemb
2nd-level infusions come online here. You can immediately upgrade to the full version of armor enhancement if you’re willing to shell out 50gp; the cost keeps you from spamming it at this level, but giving someone a +3/+35,000gp armor enhancement is no joke. Mirror image, bane blind, menacing, speed... there are a lot of good enhancements in this range. Lesser weapon augmentation also pops up, which does everything personal did except now it can help your friends, too. And don’t we all want to help our friends? And unseen crafter is perfect to keep you flush with poisons, alchemy and similar items without slowing yourself down.
5th
Dragonmark Heir 1
Lesser Dragonmark (mark of making - minor creation)b
Lesser Dragonmark, house status
Why leave artificer for dragonmark heir, when artificers already get the creation and fabricate lines as infusions? Well, this gives it to you at a much earlier level, as a spell-like ability and with a supercharged CL. Minor creation as an SLA by ECL 5 is absolutely fantastic, especially for an Int-focused character with a +4 on all craft checks. With nothing more than a set of masterwork tools, your craft bonus should be in the neighborhood of +19. Many craft DCs hover around 20, so this guarantees success on most items you’ll try to make. As far as poisons, your best target for this level is probably terinav root. It’s a craft DC 25 to make, giving you a 75% chance to succeed without requiring any boosters (consider using the skill enhancement if you want to ensure you don’t botch the roll). Making several cubic feet of contact poison with a DC of 16 and high Dex damage makes it quite nasty for this level, and you can use your homonculi to deliver it without risk of poisonining yourself. You’ll get access to bigger and badder poisons as you level, with the big daddy being black lotus poison (DC 35).
Oh, and speaking of your homonculi, since you’ve upgraded your dragonmark your summon marked homunculus infusion now gains the ability to summon iron defenders, packmates, persistent harriers or true homonculi.
6th
Dragonmark Heir 2
Mighty Dragonmark
Additional action points, improved least dragonmark
Mighty Dragonmark may seem like an odd choice, since your dragonmarks don’t come with spell DCs, but it’s here for the CL boost. That’s a couple of extra cubic feet added onto minor creation, which probably won’t make a difference when it comes to poisons but can be pretty significant if you’re building larger or more complex items.
7th
Dragonmark Heir 3
Improved lesser dragonmark
An extra use of your lesser mark every day? Yes please.
8th
Dragonmark Heir 4
Greater Dragonmark (mark of creation - fabricate)b
Greater dragonmark
You got minor creation by 5th level, and now you have fabricate by 8th. While minor creation is still going to be your best bet for making poisons, fabricate has ENORMOUS utility, especially when you have the ability to cast it quickly. This basically allows you to convert one object, or a series of objects, into another finished product. While the spell says raw materials, it’s made pretty clear that those raw materials can be in almost any form - for example, the spell text itself suggests turning a grove of trees into a wooden bridge. Not only does this mean you can make huge quantities of items with a wave of your hand (especially great for alchemy and trapmaking, turning a long and tedious task into something that takes seconds), it also gives you significant powers of reshaping the battlefield. You can turn 160 cubic feet of material into something else. How about taking 160 cubic feet from the floors and walls to create barricades, or crushing stone wall traps? Think of the potential utility of stone shape, except no longer restricted to one type of material, and with significantly greater control over the finished product...
9th
Dragonmark Heir 5
Quicken Spell-Like Ability (fabricate)
Improved greater dragonmark
Hey, remember all the cool things I mentioned you could do with fabricate? Now consider that you can do them as a swift action, multiple times per day. Using fabricate mid-combat can be quite gamechanging, letting you reshape the terrain and create large and complicated structures in the blink of an eye.
Note that natively you only hit CL 17, which is one point shy of what’s required for quickening fabricate. Luckily, there’s a simple solution: a dragonmark focus, an inexpensive item that you can easily craft yourself. For only 750gp you can make the +1 version, which is enough to hit CL 18 by ECL 9 and qualify appropriately.
10th
Alchemist Savant 1
Efficient alchemy, poison use
Since you already qualify for it, go ahead and start taking levels in alchemist savant. This is a fun little PrC for any artificer more concerned with infusions than crafting. You don’t get a ton of use out of efficient alchemy, since you mostly will use fabricate or unseen crafters/dedicated wrights to make your alchemical items, but poison use is handy so that you don’t have to solely rely on your homonculi to manipulate your poisons for you.
Oh, and since your artificer CL is now 4, you can store 2nd-level spells with spell-storing item. As those UMD checks that seemed out of reach at ECL 3 should be quite easy now, that’s actually pretty significant. 2nd-level spells may not seem all that exciting at ECL 10, but the fact that you can pull any such spell from any list with only a minute’s preparation means you have an incredible amount of utility.
11th
Alchemist Savant 2
Brew spellvial
I know that crafting hasn’t really been your MO, but spellvials can be handy ways to dish out targeted effects as a ranged touch attack. The real draw at this level, though, is 3rd-level infusions. Greater armor enhancement is the big one - +5/100,000gp effects on armors and shields are downright incredible, and you’ve got a pretty decent duration on them now too. Look for the utility options - proof against enchantments, slippery aura, whirlwind, undead controlling, stonemeld, etherealness, radiant, heavy fortification, time buttress... there is a LOT you can do with this.
12th
Alchemist Savant 3
Persistent Spell
Efficient alchemy (2 potions/day)
Again, the efficient alchemy abilities really aren’t that great, but everything else you get at this level makes up for it. Going up to CL 6 brings your spell-storing item infusion up to 3rd-level spells. Combine that with the metamagic item infusion that you gained access to last level and Persistent Spell, and you can now toss out a 24-hour buff from any spell list of up to 3rd level for the cost of a handful of XP and two of your daily infusions. It’s not as free or spammable as DMM, but it’s insanely flexible.
13th
Alchemist Savant 4
Create alchemical mixture
While most of the potion/alchemy related abilities have been a bit meh, these last two make up for it. Create alchemical mixture is a lot of fun: it allows you to combine a spellvial or poison with an alchemical splash weapon, giving you a potent delivery method. The main utility here is creating alchemical splash weapon poisons, letting you or your allies/homonculi deliver poisons as a ranged touch attack.
14th
Alchemist Savant 5
Brew universal potion
Here we are, the main reason I love this class. Universal potions (or oils in your case) are basically blank slates that can be filled with any infusion of the appropriate level as a move action. So why is this so good? Well, one of the biggest drawbacks to infusions is that many of the best of these have a long casting time. However, as it only takes a move action to “fill” the oil with an infusion and a standard action to apply an oil to an appropriate target, this allows you to apply any infusion of up to 3rd-level in a single round. You’re still limited by the number of universal oils you have on you at any given point in time, but even just carrying a few to apply things like lesser weapon augmentation and greater armor enhancement mid-combat is fantastic.
And as far as our infusions go, two things of note: first, your spell-storing items can now store 4th-level spells from any list. Yes, that includes massively underleveled spells like summon giants off the disciple of Thrym list. Second, you get 4th-level infusions. By far the most notable is concurrent infusion, which lets you apply three different 1st-level infusions in one. This saves you infusion slots, sure, but more importantly it also lets you apply spell-storing item without requiring XP. Now there’s basically no drawback to your buff routine. You also get weapon augmentation, giving you up to +3/70,000gp abilities. That means elemental power (greater), or speed, or roaring, or splitting, or doomwarding... you get the idea.
15th
Artificer 4
Chain Spellb, Travel Devotion
Craft homunculus, bonus feat
Back into artificer. I know I said we mostly didn’t care about crafting, but I’m a sucker for homonculi. I know you can summon homonculi for the whole day with a 1st-level infusion, but if nothing else this is worth it for crafting a permanent dedicated wright, which can craft for you as you adventure. As for your bonus feat, you can pick up a metamagic feat, so go ahead and grab Chain Spell. It’s another great option for applying buffs via metamagic item that your party will love you for.
As for your feat, you’ve got turning from your cleric dip, so Travel Devotion is a nice choice in case you want to retain the ability to move while activating a universal potion, allowing you use even your highest-level infusions with long casting times in combat and still move.
16th
Artificer 5
Craft Magic Arms and Armorb
Retain essence
A lot of the abilities that come on in these levels are craft-focused, but for those times you do decide to craft, it’s hard to argue with the efficiency of retain essence. And since you likely have a dedicated wright at this point, crafting really isn’t so bad!
17th
Artificer 6
Craft Wand
Onto 5th-level infusions! These aren’t as amazing as the stuff you picked up in the first four levels, but there are some gems here and there. While fabricate is something you’ve been able to do for some time, major creation is quite nice for making stone or metal items. You can’t do it as quickly as your dragonmark abilities allow, but it’s still handy. You also get a couple of walls at this level, including wall of force.
18th
Artificer 7
Dragonmark Visionary
Metamagic spell trigger
Oh hey there 7th-level artificer, nice to see you. You’ve been applying metamagic via your metamagic item infusion for some time, but now you can do it on the fly with wands by burning extra charges. This can burn through resources quickly, which is why I didn’t prioritize getting it at a lower level, but it’s still a handy option to have.
As for Dragonmark Visionary, neither of the two spell-like abilities it grants are particularly useful to you at this level, but an extra use of your existing greater dragonmark SLA? Now that’s definitely something worth going for.
19th
Artificer 8
Rapid Infusionb
Bonus feat
With a bonus feat you could take more metamagic, but I recommend Rapid Infusion. It’s only once per day, but getting a high level infusion applied in a single round in just one combat per day can make a big difference.
20th
Artificer 9
Craft Rodb
You close things out with 6th-level infusions, which is as high as it goes for the artificer. The artificer’s infusion list is definitely front-loaded, with the absolute best infusions popping up early, but there are some really nice options here as well. The big one is that you finally get access to greater weapon augmentation, giving you up to +5/200,000gp enhancements. This isn’t quite as good as it sounds, simply because +5 enhancements are so few and far between, but there are still some ok options. The best option is probably to nab yourself an elder elemental via elemental power (elder), but going with something like dancing or brilliant energy isn’t bad either.
Intelligence is far and away your most important stat, as it drives your infusions and almost all of your skills. Without a heavy crafting focus and with delaying spell-storing + metamagic item shenanigans to the mid-levels when UMD checks are easier to make, you aren’t as Charisma-dependent as your typical artificer either, but a decent score here is never bad.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 16/Wis 10/Cha 14
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 12/Con 12/Int 18/Wis 10/Cha 14
Crafting skills are a must. The ones with lower DCs don’t need heavy investment, but poisonmaking, trapmaking and alchemy all want reliable results in the mid-30s, so go ahead and dump everything you can into here. UMD is similarly required, as should be no surprise. You’ll also want a rank in all the monster-identifying knowledges to get the most out of Knowledge Devotion, which alongside a crossbow and personal weapon augmentation will likely be your best source of damage in the lowest levels. Outside of that, you’ve got some flexibility, and you’ll end up having more skill points than you’d expect as a human with a heavy Int focus.
Equipment recommendations for an artificer always gets a bit odd. You can of course craft most of your own equipment yourself given the downtime, or set yourself up with a dedicated wright crafter set up in a portable hole laboratory if that suits your fancy. You won’t have much in the way of a craft reserve, but since you’re not fully crafting focused the way many artificers are, it should be enough to suit.
One thing you’ll definitely want early on is a dragonmark focus, which will improve the CL of your dragonmark SLAs by +1 to +4. A +1 focus is cheap (only 750gp if you’re crafting it yourself) and is sufficient to Quicken fabricate by ECL 9, but it’s never going to hurt to improve your CL even further. You’ll also want to make universal oils once you hit ECL 14, as they are cheap, can be crafted quickly, and allow you to apply even long-casting time infusions in a single round.
BUILD SUMMARY
The goal was to develop an artificer that focused more on in-combat infusions and crafting, as opposed to one who spends all their time focused on out of combat crafting. To that end it gets all the usual tricks you’d expect from an infusion focused artificer, most notably the spell-storing item/metamagic item infusion combo to apply persisted or chained buffs.
Starting from an early level (ECL 5), the build is able to craft dangerous poisons to be distributed via its summoned homonculi. By ECL 9 it packs CL 18 minor creation and fabricate SLAs, along with Quicken Spell-Like Ability to use them as swift actions and buffed out craft checks to fully take advantage. That’s 180 cubic feet of super rapid crafting mid-combat, capable of producing everything from complex traps to weapons to alchemical items. This can function as utility, battlefield control/reshaping or offensive magic, or it can be reserved to mass-produce things like alchemical items during downtime. It’s also just insanely flexible. Need a catapult, or a bridge, or a trap, or a blockade? Bob can build it!
As the levels progress, Bob focuses even more on the infusion side of things. Alchemist savant is a class that doesn’t get a lot of attention beyond its ability to mix alchemical items with poisons, but its universal potion ability is particularly excellent for artificers: once it comes online, it allows Bob to completely bypass the full minute casting time of many of the best infusions. Think of the flexibility of the greater armor enhancement infusion, allowing you to apply up to a +5 armor buff (which includes some really gamechanging utility options that would ordinarily be way too expensive to ever purchase) in a single round: swift action to move via Travel Devotion, move action to infuse the universal oil with greater armor enhancement and standard action to apply it. While the cost involved means Bob may not wish to spam this multiple times a combat, it’s a great option to have available, especially after Rapid Infusion has been used up for the day.
And that, of course, is what Bob is all about: build it, fix it, buff it out... and do it fast.
VARIANTS
We made several versions of this build, all with various degrees of complexity. Some leaned harder into the crafting side of things, including an interesting version involving effigy master, while others eschewed artificer entirely. We even have one version that looks straight out of an iron chef competition involving Cyre scout and ten levels of master of masks, and one version that manages to combine Alchemist Savant and Master Alchemist on an artificer base in order to create 6th-level universal potions.
If you’re interested in less substantial build changes, quite a few of the feats can be swapped around. Mighty Dragonmark mostly is not essential if you don’t mind spending the bucks to craft a more expensive dragonmark focus (though improving the CL is valuable independent of Quicken SLA), and Dragonmark Visionary can be replaced altogether. The alchemist savant and latter artificer levels can also be moved around if you value earlier access to abilities such as retain essence (definitely helpful if you plan to focus more on crafting). And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Craft Construct, which I really strongly considered adding despite how much of a cost sink combat constructs can be solely because it opens up the super cool clockwork items from that one old web series (the universal key in particular is one of my all time favorite D&D items).
SOURCES
Artificer, infusions, Dragonmark Heir, Least/Lesser/Greater Dragonmark, Favored in House: Eberron Campaign Setting
Mighty Dragonmark, Dragonmark Visionary, summon marked homonculus: Dragonmarked
Alchemist Savant, Rapid Infusion: Magic of Eberron
Travel Devotion, Knowledge Devotion: Complete Champion
Able Learner: Races of Destiny
Persist Spell, Chain Spell: Complete Arcane
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And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!