Infusion: any common magical item?

[Slipjig]

Hi all!

I'm considering a house rule that I'd like some feedback on: allowing an artificer to spend one of their Known Infusion slots on "any common magic item", instead of requiring them to pick a specific common magical item.

My thought is that there a lot of common items that could be extremely useful in very specific circumstances (Charlatan's Die, Tankard of Sobriety, Cloak of Many Fashions) and some that are just RP-fun (Cloak of Billowing, Armor of Smoldering, Masquerade Tattoo). However, if you can only swap out your infusions at level-up, there's no way anybody will spend one of their limited "infusions known" slots on these. On the other hand, dedicating a slot to be able to create ANY of them (though still only one at a time, and still counting against your total active infusions) gives artificers an ability to play 'Magical Q-Division' for the party.

Thoughts? Does this break anything?

[Psyren]

It's definitely more powerful since they'd only really need one or two instances of "Replicate Magic Item" that they could rotate as needed between LRs, and could devote the remainder of their infusions to more numerically impactful things. I don't think it would be broken though - ultimately, being able to swap through these kinds of items tend to benefit the party as a whole rather than just the artificer.

[Sigreid]

I personally would call it fair to let them use the infusion for any common magic item that they already know the formula to make the normal way;

[Dualight]

Spellwrought Tattoo: This would mean having all cantrips and 1st level spells at all time.

[HPisBS]

The RAW already says "Alternatively, you can choose the magic item from among the common magic items in the game, not including potions or scrolls." I say add "spellwrought tatoos" to that and you're good.



After all, by 11th lvl, they can just make whatever common (and uncommon) items for cheap and permanently have them -- without having to give up their standard infusion selections.

-- Of course, this requires a decision on just how crafting will be handled. Do they need to find a formula first? Can it just be bought? What would it take for them to R&D one themselves? What special materials would they require? Does each item need its own unique stuff, or do they share commonalities of some kind? Can these materials be easily purchased, or does the party need to find and gather them themselves? In the event that they gather all the stuff themselves, does the Artificer's lvl 11 translate into consuming less of those materials?

Xanathar's handles a little of that for you (largely by handwaving it with crafting costs X gp and Y weeks), but there was a 3rd party pdf out there that had actual formulas for things. Though it likely wouldn't be exactly what you're looking for, it might still be better than Xanathar's total vagueness.

[Slipjig]

Spellwrought Tattoo: This would mean having all cantrips and 1st level spells at all time.

Yes, Spellwrought Tattoo is the one thing I identified as being a potential exploit (familiars for everybody, including random NPCs you pass in the street!), but that's already the only Common Magic Item that might be worth a permanent "Infusion Known" slot all by itself.

(Though other than Find Familiar shenanigans, I'm having a hard time coming up with any real exploits where the ability to cast a single 1st level spell once a day is going to be more valuable than having the other infused items on the standard list.)

And yes, I realize that at Level 11+ they can do it cheaper than other classes, but by that point in most campaigns the cost of creating a permanent common item will be inconsequential anyway, so that's really only a benefit when creating more powerful items.

[HPisBS]

Yes, Spellwrought Tattoo is the one thing I identified as being a potential exploit (familiars for everybody, including random NPCs you pass in the street!), but that's already the only Common Magic Item that might be worth a permanent "Infusion Known" slot all by itself.

And yes, I realize that at Level 11+ they can do it cheaper than other classes, but by that point in most campaigns the cost of creating a permanent common item will be inconsequential anyway, so that's really only a benefit when creating more powerful items.

Common and Uncommon. (Also, I misremembered; it's actually lvl 10.)

So, +1 weapons, +1 shields, Wands of Magic Missiles, Weapons of Warning, even the class-specific +1 items (like +1 All-Purpose Tools and Moon Sickles) could be churned out according to however you handle crafting.


Edit:
But again, to your actual question, they can already use an infusion slot to replicate any common item. So long as you either add tattoos to the list of un-replicable items, or put some kind of condition on it, there should be no problems.

[Slipjig]

Common and Uncommon.

So, +1 weapons, +1 shields, Wands of Magic Missiles, Weapons of Warning, even the class-specific +1 items (like +1 All-Purpose Tools and Moon Sickles) could be churned out according to however you handle crafting.


Edit:
But again, to your actual question, they can already use an infusion slot to replicate any common item. So long as you either add tattoos to the list of un-replicable items, or put some kind of condition on it, there should be no problems.

I'm not sure what you mean. An artificer can only have so many infusions active at once, if you go over the limit your oldest one disappears. You can also only have any particular infusion on one item at a time, so you can have a single +1 weapon and a single +1 shield active at a time (if you are willing to spend two of your active infusion slots), but there's no "churning out" involved (unless you are talking permanent items?).

As to your second paragraph, are you ignoring the "infusions known" limitation and saying an artificer already knows every infusion, with their only limitation being the number active at once? I can't figure out any other way your statement makes sense.

[HPisBS]

I'm not sure what you mean. An artificer can only have so many infusions active at once, if you go over the limit your oldest one disappears. You can also only have any particular infusion on one item at a time, so you can have a single +1 weapon and a single +1 shield active at a time (if you are willing to spend two of your active infusion slots), but there's no "churning out" involved (unless you are talking permanent items?).

Right, I listed some of the permanent items that can be quickly and cheaply churned out as of lvl 10.


As to your second paragraph, are you ignoring the "infusions known" limitation and saying an artificer already knows every infusion, with their only limitation being the number active at once? I can't figure out any other way your statement makes sense.

Sorry, I either misread or forgot that the house rule being considered was about letting a single "infusions known slot" be spent to simultaneously know how to infuse any and all common items instead of just one specific item.