SangoProduction
2021-03-10, 07:48 PM
A blacksmith character is a fun little concept. But rarely is it all too satisfying - feeling either like a wealthmancer or a lightly reflavored fighter.
Then again, what exactly are you looking to get out of a blacksmith character? It's kind of a consequence of trying to turn a mundane job into a fantasy class. Really have to ham up those fantasy elements, with the flavor of being a blacksmith to make it really fit.
Let's see how this class manages it.
Post-Review Analysis: Eh. A bit of a sunder monkey, and wealthmancer. Neat. Though, aside from 2 features meant to fix what they break, there is only 1 sunder-based feature. Oh right, the insights also have sunder synergies. I mean, it does at least not pigeon hole the blacksmith into only ever sundering... it just... functions like an artificer without spells if you don't.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined well enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Maintenance (M): A very light, 24 hour buff for your allies. It'll never wear off, probably affects all of your party, and you do get some light bit of flexibility if you foresee some encounters. You would certainly not mind trading this out for a good archetype.
Clarifying Reinforcements (<S>): If you know you're about to go up against a mind caster, you sure as sugar don't want them turning your barbarian on you.
Swarm Proofing (<G-S>): Most swarms have really low damage per turn, as well as rider effects if you're damaged. DR can negate damage, and thus the rider effects. So for 1d6, this grants you a 33% chance to ignore Distraction and such, which is pretty nice... If you know you're going up against swarms...
Armor Maintenance (G): +1 AC is small, but pretty much universal. In all likelihood, this or Sharpen Weapons will be your default enhancement.
Sharpen Weapons (G): +2 to all damage with manufactured weapons. (Natural attack spam could probably be a bit too good, I guess)
Fortifying/Quickening Reinforcements (<G>): If you see their needs coming, like perhaps you're off to slay a dragon, or face a horde of snake-spiders, go ahead.
Polish (M-G): Once per day, deflect a ray. It's not an all day buff, but it is a guaranteed avoidance of a magic attack. By comparison, on average, it would take 20 attacks on you for that +1 AC to be the difference between a hit and miss. Unless you're getting swarmed, that would probably also be once per day, if not less.
However, this does only ever work against rays. So it's great if you can anticipate it. Of course, then they might just never target you with a ray, since your armor's so shiny that it gives away your defensive strategy.
Pack Straps (M): Improves your pack mule. Or lets a horse carry a morbidly obese gnome.
Cobbling (N, F): An occasional effective +5 to move speed. Hah. But unlike move speed, this would allow 5-ft steps in difficult terrain. This obviously improves if you see that need coming, and you really want to always be able to 5-ft step. But that is so improbable I'm keeping it here.
Heavy-Duty Reinforcement (N-): If your DM's constantly sundering your stuff, he's a bit of a ****. But you can repair it anyway, and it's an attack that's not hurting you. Maybe if the wizard keeps getting his materials pouch sliced open...then just carry more. Better a stabbed bag than a stabbed wizard. The damage portion is nothing compared to Sharpen Weapons until very late levels. But hey, by level 40, you'll be able to slice through adamantine.
Thunderous Blows (G): I like it. Sure, making use of this requires being a sunder monkey... but you aren't completely and totally useless if you come across beasties. Which is great. Normally it's either equipped humanoids or unequipped monsters. So this at least always applies... in theory.
The damage part just happens for free on sunders and attacking a construct, the other option is a special sunder attempt, not a special attack action. So you can match it up with other attack-action-using effects and spheres.
The natural armor penalty is useful if they don't have healing. The natural attack sunder...basically useless, except in the case where they have 3+ natural attacks, though more are always preferable for the action. Probably don't want to actually fight something with a half dozen attacks just to get value out of this.
I really have to wonder why the gaping hole in their scales is an easier wound to fix than a bleeding papercut.
Skilled Craftsman (G-S): As a wealthmancer ability, it does simplify things. A reasonable GM is going to let it apply to all reasonably blacksmith-like crafting, and not just arms and armor. Anyway... It's nice. Now you don't have to spend all day fixing the stuff you broke. Yay. And you can repair destroyed (*nonmagical*) items! Yay!
...Unironically, because of those last two sentences, this is the single most build-enabling sunder ability. Even more than Thunderous Blows.
Artisan Savant (S): Wealthmancy...so long as you stay single classed Blacksmith. Switch out, even to a casting class, and your crafting CL will not progress. But hey, bonus feats. Neat.
Reforge (F): Now you can repair destroyed magic items. So just go ham.
Oh, and it also adds unprecidented flexibility for arms and armor as an Ex ability. Granted, it does take narrative time scales to get said flexing, but now you don't even need to try and trade in your grandpa's family relic for something that can fight undead.
Rapid Maintenance (M): An additional minor bonus. Woo.
Smith's Masterpiece (G): I like that you get this normally impossible weapon. I really do. Very, incredibly in flavor. I just don't think even an impossible weapon is going to matter much on the scales of wizards tossing universes at each other.
Heat Forged (<S>): Assuming you are in a campaign where heat and fire are major factors, this is amazing. A completely passive Fire Resistance 10, which scales by 1 per level. And with fire being one of the most common damage types, this is still pretty good. And I bloody love the flavor of just becoming one with the forge, and handling molten metal by hand.
Rune-Charged Maintenance (<S>): Placed here for precisely Ghostglyph, because ghosts are terrifying. Nothing else here really worth mentioning. Maybe Ancient Splendor, or Invulnerability.
Tangling Wreckage (S): Entangled as a rider effect just for giving armor the broken condition.
Master Shieldsmith (S): Getting no penalties for shield bashing while attacking with a real weapon is still real nice. And because dual wielding is just an additional attack, it can proc your thunderous blows as well.
Economic Crafting (G-S): Wealthmancy. Yay.
Satisfying Crunch (G-S): Immediate action martial focus refresh, and a bonus to attack/CMB rolls just just for doing what the class is already telling you your job is.
Maker’s Know How (<G-S>): Wealthmancy. Most useful if you like using wands and what not.
Stunning Strikes (G-S): A chance at a one round stun...as a rider effect. That's impressive, even for just 1 turn, with a 1d4 cool down per target. And very much fits the Blacksmith trope. Again, kind of thought this would be a baseline ability... maybe not as a rider effect, but like a monk's stunning fist.
Toolsmith (G-S): It's like Skill Focus, but it works on every single skill, so long as you've got masterwork tools.
Toymaker (G, F): Love the flavor on it. Also familiars are very useful.
Hammer Down (G): Bull rush and trip at the same time. That's pretty great at maintaining are control. Unfortunately, you can't bull rush on an AoO, as far as I can tell. And they are still combat maneuvers, which tend to be pretty unreliable, unless you're facing specifically humanoids with class levels.
Hampering Dents (M-G): Just a rider benefit to sundering armor. Neat. Reducing enemy damage by 1 each attack isn't all that impactful, but it's not like you're going out of your way for it.
Gunsmith (M-G): In general, guns suck. But there are ways to make them not suck, and then you can start using them. I even have a build guide in my signature. But the reason why I rate it up here is because you explicitly get to sunder from range, which enables Barrage, which takes advantage of your bonus dice per sunder. There are other ways to sunder from range, which require less investment than making guns work, but it's still cool.
Practiced Power (I): Honestly, I expected this to be a standard class feature, due to the flavoring of a blacksmith. But as to how it functions as a Smithing Insight: Considering that the Piston Hammer is the best weapon for sundering, this actually has a use. It's like one and a half feats, every 5 levels, if you only ever sunder... I just don't know how I honestly rate it.
Double-Edged Sword (M): Makes the enemy really want to drop it, even before it's destroyed. Neat. They probably would have wanted to anyway, but still neat. Maybe they don't have a backup weapon.
Durable (M): Toughness and Endurance. Flavorful. Not particularly useful, when your practitioner modifier is already Con. It would make a lot more difference for low con characters.
Expanded Crafting (M): A bonus feat. Meh.
Penetrating Blows (M): Oh look. It's weapon specialization. Except it only works for melee weapons against objects. At least it's all melee weapons. Truly makes such a difference. /s
Animal Grooming (M): Your maintenance effects are all really minor. Getting to affect your mount/companion is also really minor. The only possible exception is using the Alteration sphere to give your companion a natural attack spam, and get bonus damage to each of those. Still pretty meh.
Hobbling Strikes (M): -5 speed on hitting the armor. OK...
Crafting Competence (M, F): For when you want to spend resources on being slightly better at a skill. By level 6, this is at least equivalent to Skill Focus feat over the Skill Craftsman bonus.
Armorclad Mastery (N-M): Reduces the penalties of armor. You are already proficient in light armor, so you'd have to try real hard to get heavier armors to have 0 penalty, in order to cheat the proficiency (by which point, would be easier to just take proficiency). Armor mastery feats are all really minor. Same with the movement speed.
Shieldsmith (N-M): On its own, this does basically nothing. Even for tower shield, as Tower Shield Mastery talent in equipment sphere is already a thing. It's got a use when you have Master Shieldsmith... but that probably implies that the two effects should be switched, shouldn't it? Unless this was intended purely as an insight tax.
Siegesmith (N): Barring nonsense like summoning weapons you are proficient with, siege weapons are basically pointless. Even a 25% discount on top of the 66%-75% for crafting, is nowhere near enough to make it viable for common use. Even disregarding practicality of lugging around giant siege structures.
Archetypes
Overall: Gives up magical crafting to be a partial technician, while remaining a frontline sunder monkey. It's...pretty cool, actually. And all you give up are 2 feats, which you can still take with your feats, if you really wanted to.
Insights (G-S): Can select technician insights in place of smithing insights. Epic! I like the technician insights! They are very well varied and some are quite powerful.
Trapfinding (I): Useful, though you probably wanted it earlier, if you were the dedicated trap finder. In which case, you probably had it before coming into the class, and so this is just wasted and you lose Craft Wondrous Item for nothing.
Technical Maintenance (G-S): Look at the list of maintenance. And then look at the list of invention improvements. You'll never use regular maintenance again. And this is significantly different from Technician, because these improvements are for your allies, and not just yourself. It really does give a different flavor to it.
Dysfunction: Not exclusive with Iron Chef. It says you can perform the maintenance, not that it's on your list of maintenances. So, you don't even have to give up your very small buffs to gain the improvements. Depending on the DM, this may or may not fly.
Overall: A great, flavorful (hah) archetype...which doesn't really lose much of anything, if you don't select the chef insights. But the chef's insights do try and make it worth your while. There are no maintenance insights that try to do that. Or that even exist, as far as I know.
Recipes (G-S): Yup. Basically just a different type of maintenance. Except that you can get save bonuses, as well as other minor bonuses. And if you really want to spend insights on it, you can improve your versatility. You do lose out on the best default maintenance in the AC and Damage ones, though. And it doesn't last all day, and it does take a substantial amount of time to prepare - especially if people want different dishes.
Oddly enough, doesn't change anything else about the class. It's still a sunder monkey that's largely about forging items. Doesn't even get a bonus to Profession (cook). Truly strange.
Insights
Starches (S): I'm not going to move Expanded Preparation down, but... Bread kind of makes it obsolete, if you're not wanting any other side dish. But it comes with Potatoes and Rice, which are great side dishes. (Well, rice does require that the +3 pass break points, but still good when it's good.)
Aromatic Dishes (G-S): A sickened aura or a +4 to face skills. And it works with aroma slots.
Expanded Preparation (G-S): Brew for situational (side dish only) buffs, and Soup for all day buffs. That's pretty impressive versatility. Best taken at higher levels, when it'd actually matter.
Fruits (G): +4 to Strength or Int, or +1 to save vs emotions. Neat, but as a side dish, it's just a bonus effect.
Vegetables (<G>): Relatively slight boosts as side dishes. But the +4 charisma with Aromatic means that you net a +6 to face skills from just the dish.
Herbs and Spices (M-G): Grants a list of garnishes with very minor buffs. But a garnish doesn't take any of the other slots. It did take your insight though.
Fruits, Expanded (M): Exceptionally situational and minor buffs.
Vegetables, Expanded (M): Again, exceptionally situational buffs.
Harvester (N-M) Only able to obtain rations on killing blow, while specifically using thunderous blows. Even if it was necessary to get more rations, it's trivial to do with a Survival check.
Overall: This is a pretty good demon or fey hate archetype. Not sure losing out on 1d6 damage of your primary ability is worth what the archetype grants otherwise. Unless you're frequently encountering low CMD creatures with high DR, and are starting several levels in.
Hidden Weapons (G): Just another option for your maintenance. Glamered is nice to have when you don't need to pay for it.
Great Hospitality (N): Oh look. You got +1 round of a buff's duration. And I spent the entire duration just telling you that.
Anathemic Blows (I): I'll be totally honest, I don't know how to rate this. Losing 1d6 damage off your sunder in order to potentially sunder DR off of an enemy is neat. A heck of a lot of DR if it's penetrated by cold iron (though your crafted weapons already count as cold iron).
But the creatures that have DR? They tend to be monsters, and monsters tend towards having a heck of a lot higher CMD than AC, with AC scaling roughly 1*CR, and CMD at (2 to 3)*CR. But you are not losing out on the attack you give up for your sunder attempt...assuming targeting CMD didn't ruin your attack. But this is literally the sunder monkey class. You're looking to sunder when you can, and this gives you a decent reason to.
I have no idea what it means by "Against creatures with damage reduction overcome by cold iron and objects made of cold iron they instead deal the normal amount of extra damage." Who is they? What's the normal amount of extra damage?
Cold Iron Specialist (G-S): The stuff you craft counts as cold iron, when beneficial, and you bump your skill bonus to your full class level, when working with cold iron. Only thing you give up is slightly longer repair of non-cold iron items.
Gregarious Smith (G): There are a couple good social talents.
Overall: Leans away from being a sunder monkey, and much more towards being a wealthmancer and magic craftsman. So, yeah. Very much an NPC-style of character, unless you get very active with your wealth expenditure.
Base stats: Goes from Full BAB to 3/4 BAB, and d10 hp to d8. Minor losses.
Casting: Low caster. Intelligence casting ability modifier. Probably a pre-USOP archetype. Most allow you to pick now. Low caster means you are limited in your choice of spheres to either Enhancement (see below), or to those that don't require high CL (see other Spheres in Review).
Blended Training (G-S): Despite being low caster, you gain 1 talent each level, which can be put in either SoM or SoP spheres.
Enhancement Lord (S): Uses Enhancement sphere at full CL, and loses basically nothing. Due to Enhancement sphere, you can minimize numerical bonuses, and focus your wealth on the special abilities.
Magical Essence (S): Everyone can make use of 20% extra WBL on top of crafting's wealth multiplier.
Master Artificer (M): Class level gets to count as caster level, and it stacks normally with other caster level. Huge step up. And a bonus crafting feat...at level 2... Which means you need to dip out in order just to pick up a typically useful (non-scroll) crafting feat. And you lose your other crafting feats for it...which is an exceptionally strange set of decisions.
Reforge (S+): Can restore broken magic items (how? No Skilled Craftsman). And can reforge implements in addition to its normal uses. That's like reforging a reusable scroll.
Insights
Disenchant (<S>): If your DM doesn't already let you "trade in" equipment in this way, now you've got a means of recycling.
Item Master (I): So.. wealthmancer the flip out of CL 1 scrolls with your save DC. Most offensive sphere effects benefit from high CL, even aside from DC.... So... OK, so let's just go and review every single sphere again just to determine the value of this! Oh, and then I'll review all the spells ever printed.
Greater Enhancement (G): There's quite the reasonable amount of flexibility in even the base Armorist list. I know, because I partially reviewed the class, meticulously going over the abilities it granted...and then it failed to submit. lol.
Supreme Artificer (I): ...Is this not the default way of crafting?
Improved Enhancement (M-G): Existing weapon enhancements stack with the Enhancement sphere. Now that's unique. Also basically just a +1 to hit and damage, but still, once you've crafted your party's weapons, you get to not feel bad about overlapping your requisite +1 bonus before you get the interesting enchants.
Hidden Cache (M): The storage is small and largely insubstantial.
Crafting Insight (M): Bonus on all checks related to crafting magic items. A definitely minor, if useful, boost.
Master of Repair (N-M): Bonus magical talent, but also links it to his class level. Meh. At least it gives him back the ability to repair stuff.
Overall: Creation is a great supplement to just about anything you could possibly want. It's different from creation incanter in that it can take SoM talents, has fewer talents, and instead of bonus feats or customizable class features, gets two item creation feats by level 5.
I mean... It's sort of in theme for a magic blacksmith to just conjure things, but I really don't see what this brings to the table that's superior to, or at least significantly different from, a creation incanter.
Base Stats: Goes from Full BAB to 3/4 BAB, and d10 hp to d8. Minor losses.
Casting / Blended Training: Count as a 3/4 caster. Not terrible. Not good. But still gets 1 talent per level, which is quite alright.
Creation specialist (G): Creation sphere is cast at full CL, and gets a couple extra Creation talents. Creation is one of the most versatile spheres in the game. So it's pretty great, and works even on a tight talent budget.
Magical Ingenuity (N): Gains basically nothing, while losing an equipment sphere talent.
Expert Spellforge (M): Potent Alteration is a fine. But beyond that extra talent, it doesn't really do much.
Then again, what exactly are you looking to get out of a blacksmith character? It's kind of a consequence of trying to turn a mundane job into a fantasy class. Really have to ham up those fantasy elements, with the flavor of being a blacksmith to make it really fit.
Let's see how this class manages it.
Post-Review Analysis: Eh. A bit of a sunder monkey, and wealthmancer. Neat. Though, aside from 2 features meant to fix what they break, there is only 1 sunder-based feature. Oh right, the insights also have sunder synergies. I mean, it does at least not pigeon hole the blacksmith into only ever sundering... it just... functions like an artificer without spells if you don't.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined well enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Maintenance (M): A very light, 24 hour buff for your allies. It'll never wear off, probably affects all of your party, and you do get some light bit of flexibility if you foresee some encounters. You would certainly not mind trading this out for a good archetype.
Clarifying Reinforcements (<S>): If you know you're about to go up against a mind caster, you sure as sugar don't want them turning your barbarian on you.
Swarm Proofing (<G-S>): Most swarms have really low damage per turn, as well as rider effects if you're damaged. DR can negate damage, and thus the rider effects. So for 1d6, this grants you a 33% chance to ignore Distraction and such, which is pretty nice... If you know you're going up against swarms...
Armor Maintenance (G): +1 AC is small, but pretty much universal. In all likelihood, this or Sharpen Weapons will be your default enhancement.
Sharpen Weapons (G): +2 to all damage with manufactured weapons. (Natural attack spam could probably be a bit too good, I guess)
Fortifying/Quickening Reinforcements (<G>): If you see their needs coming, like perhaps you're off to slay a dragon, or face a horde of snake-spiders, go ahead.
Polish (M-G): Once per day, deflect a ray. It's not an all day buff, but it is a guaranteed avoidance of a magic attack. By comparison, on average, it would take 20 attacks on you for that +1 AC to be the difference between a hit and miss. Unless you're getting swarmed, that would probably also be once per day, if not less.
However, this does only ever work against rays. So it's great if you can anticipate it. Of course, then they might just never target you with a ray, since your armor's so shiny that it gives away your defensive strategy.
Pack Straps (M): Improves your pack mule. Or lets a horse carry a morbidly obese gnome.
Cobbling (N, F): An occasional effective +5 to move speed. Hah. But unlike move speed, this would allow 5-ft steps in difficult terrain. This obviously improves if you see that need coming, and you really want to always be able to 5-ft step. But that is so improbable I'm keeping it here.
Heavy-Duty Reinforcement (N-): If your DM's constantly sundering your stuff, he's a bit of a ****. But you can repair it anyway, and it's an attack that's not hurting you. Maybe if the wizard keeps getting his materials pouch sliced open...then just carry more. Better a stabbed bag than a stabbed wizard. The damage portion is nothing compared to Sharpen Weapons until very late levels. But hey, by level 40, you'll be able to slice through adamantine.
Thunderous Blows (G): I like it. Sure, making use of this requires being a sunder monkey... but you aren't completely and totally useless if you come across beasties. Which is great. Normally it's either equipped humanoids or unequipped monsters. So this at least always applies... in theory.
The damage part just happens for free on sunders and attacking a construct, the other option is a special sunder attempt, not a special attack action. So you can match it up with other attack-action-using effects and spheres.
The natural armor penalty is useful if they don't have healing. The natural attack sunder...basically useless, except in the case where they have 3+ natural attacks, though more are always preferable for the action. Probably don't want to actually fight something with a half dozen attacks just to get value out of this.
I really have to wonder why the gaping hole in their scales is an easier wound to fix than a bleeding papercut.
Skilled Craftsman (G-S): As a wealthmancer ability, it does simplify things. A reasonable GM is going to let it apply to all reasonably blacksmith-like crafting, and not just arms and armor. Anyway... It's nice. Now you don't have to spend all day fixing the stuff you broke. Yay. And you can repair destroyed (*nonmagical*) items! Yay!
...Unironically, because of those last two sentences, this is the single most build-enabling sunder ability. Even more than Thunderous Blows.
Artisan Savant (S): Wealthmancy...so long as you stay single classed Blacksmith. Switch out, even to a casting class, and your crafting CL will not progress. But hey, bonus feats. Neat.
Reforge (F): Now you can repair destroyed magic items. So just go ham.
Oh, and it also adds unprecidented flexibility for arms and armor as an Ex ability. Granted, it does take narrative time scales to get said flexing, but now you don't even need to try and trade in your grandpa's family relic for something that can fight undead.
Rapid Maintenance (M): An additional minor bonus. Woo.
Smith's Masterpiece (G): I like that you get this normally impossible weapon. I really do. Very, incredibly in flavor. I just don't think even an impossible weapon is going to matter much on the scales of wizards tossing universes at each other.
Heat Forged (<S>): Assuming you are in a campaign where heat and fire are major factors, this is amazing. A completely passive Fire Resistance 10, which scales by 1 per level. And with fire being one of the most common damage types, this is still pretty good. And I bloody love the flavor of just becoming one with the forge, and handling molten metal by hand.
Rune-Charged Maintenance (<S>): Placed here for precisely Ghostglyph, because ghosts are terrifying. Nothing else here really worth mentioning. Maybe Ancient Splendor, or Invulnerability.
Tangling Wreckage (S): Entangled as a rider effect just for giving armor the broken condition.
Master Shieldsmith (S): Getting no penalties for shield bashing while attacking with a real weapon is still real nice. And because dual wielding is just an additional attack, it can proc your thunderous blows as well.
Economic Crafting (G-S): Wealthmancy. Yay.
Satisfying Crunch (G-S): Immediate action martial focus refresh, and a bonus to attack/CMB rolls just just for doing what the class is already telling you your job is.
Maker’s Know How (<G-S>): Wealthmancy. Most useful if you like using wands and what not.
Stunning Strikes (G-S): A chance at a one round stun...as a rider effect. That's impressive, even for just 1 turn, with a 1d4 cool down per target. And very much fits the Blacksmith trope. Again, kind of thought this would be a baseline ability... maybe not as a rider effect, but like a monk's stunning fist.
Toolsmith (G-S): It's like Skill Focus, but it works on every single skill, so long as you've got masterwork tools.
Toymaker (G, F): Love the flavor on it. Also familiars are very useful.
Hammer Down (G): Bull rush and trip at the same time. That's pretty great at maintaining are control. Unfortunately, you can't bull rush on an AoO, as far as I can tell. And they are still combat maneuvers, which tend to be pretty unreliable, unless you're facing specifically humanoids with class levels.
Hampering Dents (M-G): Just a rider benefit to sundering armor. Neat. Reducing enemy damage by 1 each attack isn't all that impactful, but it's not like you're going out of your way for it.
Gunsmith (M-G): In general, guns suck. But there are ways to make them not suck, and then you can start using them. I even have a build guide in my signature. But the reason why I rate it up here is because you explicitly get to sunder from range, which enables Barrage, which takes advantage of your bonus dice per sunder. There are other ways to sunder from range, which require less investment than making guns work, but it's still cool.
Practiced Power (I): Honestly, I expected this to be a standard class feature, due to the flavoring of a blacksmith. But as to how it functions as a Smithing Insight: Considering that the Piston Hammer is the best weapon for sundering, this actually has a use. It's like one and a half feats, every 5 levels, if you only ever sunder... I just don't know how I honestly rate it.
Double-Edged Sword (M): Makes the enemy really want to drop it, even before it's destroyed. Neat. They probably would have wanted to anyway, but still neat. Maybe they don't have a backup weapon.
Durable (M): Toughness and Endurance. Flavorful. Not particularly useful, when your practitioner modifier is already Con. It would make a lot more difference for low con characters.
Expanded Crafting (M): A bonus feat. Meh.
Penetrating Blows (M): Oh look. It's weapon specialization. Except it only works for melee weapons against objects. At least it's all melee weapons. Truly makes such a difference. /s
Animal Grooming (M): Your maintenance effects are all really minor. Getting to affect your mount/companion is also really minor. The only possible exception is using the Alteration sphere to give your companion a natural attack spam, and get bonus damage to each of those. Still pretty meh.
Hobbling Strikes (M): -5 speed on hitting the armor. OK...
Crafting Competence (M, F): For when you want to spend resources on being slightly better at a skill. By level 6, this is at least equivalent to Skill Focus feat over the Skill Craftsman bonus.
Armorclad Mastery (N-M): Reduces the penalties of armor. You are already proficient in light armor, so you'd have to try real hard to get heavier armors to have 0 penalty, in order to cheat the proficiency (by which point, would be easier to just take proficiency). Armor mastery feats are all really minor. Same with the movement speed.
Shieldsmith (N-M): On its own, this does basically nothing. Even for tower shield, as Tower Shield Mastery talent in equipment sphere is already a thing. It's got a use when you have Master Shieldsmith... but that probably implies that the two effects should be switched, shouldn't it? Unless this was intended purely as an insight tax.
Siegesmith (N): Barring nonsense like summoning weapons you are proficient with, siege weapons are basically pointless. Even a 25% discount on top of the 66%-75% for crafting, is nowhere near enough to make it viable for common use. Even disregarding practicality of lugging around giant siege structures.
Archetypes
Overall: Gives up magical crafting to be a partial technician, while remaining a frontline sunder monkey. It's...pretty cool, actually. And all you give up are 2 feats, which you can still take with your feats, if you really wanted to.
Insights (G-S): Can select technician insights in place of smithing insights. Epic! I like the technician insights! They are very well varied and some are quite powerful.
Trapfinding (I): Useful, though you probably wanted it earlier, if you were the dedicated trap finder. In which case, you probably had it before coming into the class, and so this is just wasted and you lose Craft Wondrous Item for nothing.
Technical Maintenance (G-S): Look at the list of maintenance. And then look at the list of invention improvements. You'll never use regular maintenance again. And this is significantly different from Technician, because these improvements are for your allies, and not just yourself. It really does give a different flavor to it.
Dysfunction: Not exclusive with Iron Chef. It says you can perform the maintenance, not that it's on your list of maintenances. So, you don't even have to give up your very small buffs to gain the improvements. Depending on the DM, this may or may not fly.
Overall: A great, flavorful (hah) archetype...which doesn't really lose much of anything, if you don't select the chef insights. But the chef's insights do try and make it worth your while. There are no maintenance insights that try to do that. Or that even exist, as far as I know.
Recipes (G-S): Yup. Basically just a different type of maintenance. Except that you can get save bonuses, as well as other minor bonuses. And if you really want to spend insights on it, you can improve your versatility. You do lose out on the best default maintenance in the AC and Damage ones, though. And it doesn't last all day, and it does take a substantial amount of time to prepare - especially if people want different dishes.
Oddly enough, doesn't change anything else about the class. It's still a sunder monkey that's largely about forging items. Doesn't even get a bonus to Profession (cook). Truly strange.
Insights
Starches (S): I'm not going to move Expanded Preparation down, but... Bread kind of makes it obsolete, if you're not wanting any other side dish. But it comes with Potatoes and Rice, which are great side dishes. (Well, rice does require that the +3 pass break points, but still good when it's good.)
Aromatic Dishes (G-S): A sickened aura or a +4 to face skills. And it works with aroma slots.
Expanded Preparation (G-S): Brew for situational (side dish only) buffs, and Soup for all day buffs. That's pretty impressive versatility. Best taken at higher levels, when it'd actually matter.
Fruits (G): +4 to Strength or Int, or +1 to save vs emotions. Neat, but as a side dish, it's just a bonus effect.
Vegetables (<G>): Relatively slight boosts as side dishes. But the +4 charisma with Aromatic means that you net a +6 to face skills from just the dish.
Herbs and Spices (M-G): Grants a list of garnishes with very minor buffs. But a garnish doesn't take any of the other slots. It did take your insight though.
Fruits, Expanded (M): Exceptionally situational and minor buffs.
Vegetables, Expanded (M): Again, exceptionally situational buffs.
Harvester (N-M) Only able to obtain rations on killing blow, while specifically using thunderous blows. Even if it was necessary to get more rations, it's trivial to do with a Survival check.
Overall: This is a pretty good demon or fey hate archetype. Not sure losing out on 1d6 damage of your primary ability is worth what the archetype grants otherwise. Unless you're frequently encountering low CMD creatures with high DR, and are starting several levels in.
Hidden Weapons (G): Just another option for your maintenance. Glamered is nice to have when you don't need to pay for it.
Great Hospitality (N): Oh look. You got +1 round of a buff's duration. And I spent the entire duration just telling you that.
Anathemic Blows (I): I'll be totally honest, I don't know how to rate this. Losing 1d6 damage off your sunder in order to potentially sunder DR off of an enemy is neat. A heck of a lot of DR if it's penetrated by cold iron (though your crafted weapons already count as cold iron).
But the creatures that have DR? They tend to be monsters, and monsters tend towards having a heck of a lot higher CMD than AC, with AC scaling roughly 1*CR, and CMD at (2 to 3)*CR. But you are not losing out on the attack you give up for your sunder attempt...assuming targeting CMD didn't ruin your attack. But this is literally the sunder monkey class. You're looking to sunder when you can, and this gives you a decent reason to.
I have no idea what it means by "Against creatures with damage reduction overcome by cold iron and objects made of cold iron they instead deal the normal amount of extra damage." Who is they? What's the normal amount of extra damage?
Cold Iron Specialist (G-S): The stuff you craft counts as cold iron, when beneficial, and you bump your skill bonus to your full class level, when working with cold iron. Only thing you give up is slightly longer repair of non-cold iron items.
Gregarious Smith (G): There are a couple good social talents.
Overall: Leans away from being a sunder monkey, and much more towards being a wealthmancer and magic craftsman. So, yeah. Very much an NPC-style of character, unless you get very active with your wealth expenditure.
Base stats: Goes from Full BAB to 3/4 BAB, and d10 hp to d8. Minor losses.
Casting: Low caster. Intelligence casting ability modifier. Probably a pre-USOP archetype. Most allow you to pick now. Low caster means you are limited in your choice of spheres to either Enhancement (see below), or to those that don't require high CL (see other Spheres in Review).
Blended Training (G-S): Despite being low caster, you gain 1 talent each level, which can be put in either SoM or SoP spheres.
Enhancement Lord (S): Uses Enhancement sphere at full CL, and loses basically nothing. Due to Enhancement sphere, you can minimize numerical bonuses, and focus your wealth on the special abilities.
Magical Essence (S): Everyone can make use of 20% extra WBL on top of crafting's wealth multiplier.
Master Artificer (M): Class level gets to count as caster level, and it stacks normally with other caster level. Huge step up. And a bonus crafting feat...at level 2... Which means you need to dip out in order just to pick up a typically useful (non-scroll) crafting feat. And you lose your other crafting feats for it...which is an exceptionally strange set of decisions.
Reforge (S+): Can restore broken magic items (how? No Skilled Craftsman). And can reforge implements in addition to its normal uses. That's like reforging a reusable scroll.
Insights
Disenchant (<S>): If your DM doesn't already let you "trade in" equipment in this way, now you've got a means of recycling.
Item Master (I): So.. wealthmancer the flip out of CL 1 scrolls with your save DC. Most offensive sphere effects benefit from high CL, even aside from DC.... So... OK, so let's just go and review every single sphere again just to determine the value of this! Oh, and then I'll review all the spells ever printed.
Greater Enhancement (G): There's quite the reasonable amount of flexibility in even the base Armorist list. I know, because I partially reviewed the class, meticulously going over the abilities it granted...and then it failed to submit. lol.
Supreme Artificer (I): ...Is this not the default way of crafting?
Improved Enhancement (M-G): Existing weapon enhancements stack with the Enhancement sphere. Now that's unique. Also basically just a +1 to hit and damage, but still, once you've crafted your party's weapons, you get to not feel bad about overlapping your requisite +1 bonus before you get the interesting enchants.
Hidden Cache (M): The storage is small and largely insubstantial.
Crafting Insight (M): Bonus on all checks related to crafting magic items. A definitely minor, if useful, boost.
Master of Repair (N-M): Bonus magical talent, but also links it to his class level. Meh. At least it gives him back the ability to repair stuff.
Overall: Creation is a great supplement to just about anything you could possibly want. It's different from creation incanter in that it can take SoM talents, has fewer talents, and instead of bonus feats or customizable class features, gets two item creation feats by level 5.
I mean... It's sort of in theme for a magic blacksmith to just conjure things, but I really don't see what this brings to the table that's superior to, or at least significantly different from, a creation incanter.
Base Stats: Goes from Full BAB to 3/4 BAB, and d10 hp to d8. Minor losses.
Casting / Blended Training: Count as a 3/4 caster. Not terrible. Not good. But still gets 1 talent per level, which is quite alright.
Creation specialist (G): Creation sphere is cast at full CL, and gets a couple extra Creation talents. Creation is one of the most versatile spheres in the game. So it's pretty great, and works even on a tight talent budget.
Magical Ingenuity (N): Gains basically nothing, while losing an equipment sphere talent.
Expert Spellforge (M): Potent Alteration is a fine. But beyond that extra talent, it doesn't really do much.