Trying to spice up my artificer

[RatElemental]

In my current game we started at level 3, and I'd always wanted to try out artillerist artificer. It was fun, at first, I even sorta managed to build around battlefield control using the ballista's knockback with a couple of artificer's cantrips (like ray of frost). I've had a bad time with artificer before, so if I'd known the campaign was going to end up moving on past the end of the module we were doing, I'd have picked something else, but now I need to try and make this work.

The issue I'm running into now is I feel very stifled by how terrible Artificer's spell progression is, with me basically relegated to just being a cantrip spammer. It's quite boring spending every turn telling the DM "Yeah I ray of frost/thorn whip/chill touch that guy then have my ballista/humonuculus shoot them too."

Getting to level 7 let me flex the flash of genius for a bit, which was fun, but we recently hit level 8 and I'm trying to decide where I want to take the character. I'm already at 20 int, so a new feat could help breathe some life into them, though I'm not sure which one I would want to pick. I've been considering switching to taking levels in wizard just to shore up my spell slots. IF my calculations are right, just one level of wizard would get me a third level slot, which I know I can't use on any actual 3rd level spells, only upcasting, but it is tempting.

Was hoping to get some advice on this conundrum, starting to play the character as a gish is sort of out of the question at this point which is probably what artificers were meant to be doing, but I want to try to salvage them. Is it too late to start dipping wizard? Any advice on which feats might add some fun options?

Note on feats: I already have fey touched, and shadow touched is not really in the cards. I've considered magic adept but just one more 1st level slot doesn't seem worth much, though I could see having two more cantrips to play with maybe helping. Metamagic adept is interesting but far too limited to be of much use IMO. I could see ritual caster (wizard) working but then it would be redundant if I multiclass to wizard later on and rituals are an out of combat option where the character already shines anyway. Character is a feylost goblin, so no racial feats to choose from.

[stoutstien]

I definitely wouldn't dip. Lv 9,10,11 are big for artificer and really when then come into their own.

What are your infusions looking like?

[RatElemental]

I definitely wouldn't dip. Lv 9,10,11 are big for artificer and really when then come into their own.

What are your infusions looking like?

My current infusions are a custom nerfed version of the barrier tattoo, my homunculus, and boots of elvenkind.

[stoutstien]

My current infusions are a custom nerfed version of the barrier tattoo, my homunculus, and boots of elvenkind.

At level 8 you should have 6 "known" and 3 prepared each day.

[RatElemental]

At level 8 you should have 6 "known" and 3 prepared each day.

The other three are bag of holding, which I've been waiting to swap out since I crafted a permanent one, enhanced defense and enhanced arcane focus which may not work anymore since I got a wand that has some inherent magic to it I've been using instead. Arcane firearm is worded such that it still worked but I don't think infusions will.

As for why I'd have a known infusion I planned to craft a permanent version of, I've been using the reasoning (and got my DM on board with) that knowing an infusion counts as knowing the formula for an item that the DMG lists as a prerequisite for crafting magic stuff.

[Quietus]

It really depends on what you want to be doing here. Do you want to continue to be a control-focused character? Do you have the stats to support any sort of melee combat? Enough dex to max out medium armor, or possibly enough strength to grab the Heavily Armored feat and step it up a notch?


As an artillierist you have the opportunity to have one of the highest AC's available. You could be an AoE spammer - get the +1 armor infusion and the Repulsion Shield infusion, slap on the heaviest armor available to you, and run the flamethrower instead of the force turret. Ideally you do this with an option to use an AoE cantrip, or a spell centered on you. If you have the stats to do it, you can pick up Booming Blade, grab Warcaster as your feat, and control the battlefield by standing in the middle of it throwing out cones of fire and weapon+stat+2d8 damage attacks. Or if your DM is a fan of mobs, throw down Sword Burst for 2d6+1d8 in a 5 foot radius around you, while throwing flames. And that's just what you can do with no resources spent! Next level your flamethrower will do 3d8, and you'll have fireballs!

Also, don't sleep on having your homunculus carry around your flamethrower. That can turn the cone into a 15-foot circle, in case that's easier to aim.

You're in a stretch of levels that are fantastic for the artillerist. Feat now, next level you get better cannons and fireballs. Level after that, upgraded infusion options, plus more infusions, plus an additional attunement slot. After that, spell storing item to have your homonculus (or you, or your familiar, if you do something to grab Find Familiar!) throwing around 10 Shatters a day on top of everything else you do. So the real question is, what is it you'd rather be doing right now? Because you can almost certainly find a way to make that happen.

[J-H]

I have Mobile on my Artillerist. I don't have a melee cantrip at all (oops) but the extra move speed has been great for repositioning so I can get line of sight to hiding enemies, Thunderwave a grappling enemy away, etc.

[Psyren]

In my current game we started at level 3, and I'd always wanted to try out artillerist artificer. It was fun, at first, I even sorta managed to build around battlefield control using the ballista's knockback with a couple of artificer's cantrips (like ray of frost). I've had a bad time with artificer before, so if I'd known the campaign was going to end up moving on past the end of the module we were doing, I'd have picked something else, but now I need to try and make this work.

The issue I'm running into now is I feel very stifled by how terrible Artificer's spell progression is, with me basically relegated to just being a cantrip spammer. It's quite boring spending every turn telling the DM "Yeah I ray of frost/thorn whip/chill touch that guy then have my ballista/humonuculus shoot them too."
...
Was hoping to get some advice on this conundrum, starting to play the character as a gish is sort of out of the question at this point which is probably what artificers were meant to be doing, but I want to try to salvage them. Is it too late to start dipping wizard? Any advice on which feats might add some fun options?

At 8+ as an Artillerist you should pretty much either decide to stick with Artificer, or swap over to Wizard full time. Yeah it does kind of suck to be a level 7 artillerist when all the full casters on your team are rocking their shiny new 4ths and you're still stuck with 2nds. But Artificer in general isn't meant to be the star of the show, you're a skillmonkey and a support class / force multiplier through your infusions and Flash of Genius. If you'd rather take a more direct hand on the battlefield, then go for wizard and don't look back, this is definitely the time to do so. The rest of the stuff in Artillerist isn't bad but if casting is what you want to do more of then none of it holds a candle to more and better spell slots.

Regarding your infusions, you definitely have no reason to be using a homunculus, since it does less damage than your cannon and they're both fighting for your bonus action. I would free that one up ASAP for something else like Mind Sharpener, and swap out the Bag of Holding while you're at it since you have a real one. If you must have a pet, grab Find Familiar once you enter Wizard.


Getting to level 7 let me flex the flash of genius for a bit, which was fun, but we recently hit level 8 and I'm trying to decide where I want to take the character. I'm already at 20 int, so a new feat could help breathe some life into them, though I'm not sure which one I would want to pick. I've been considering switching to taking levels in wizard just to shore up my spell slots. IF my calculations are right, just one level of wizard would get me a third level slot, which I know I can't use on any actual 3rd level spells, only upcasting, but it is tempting.
...
Note on feats: I already have fey touched, and shadow touched is not really in the cards. I've considered magic adept but just one more 1st level slot doesn't seem worth much, though I could see having two more cantrips to play with maybe helping. Metamagic adept is interesting but far too limited to be of much use IMO. I could see ritual caster (wizard) working but then it would be redundant if I multiclass to wizard later on and rituals are an out of combat option where the character already shines anyway. Character is a feylost goblin, so no racial feats to choose from.

Your calculations are correct; Artificer 7/Wizard 1 means you'll be treated as a Multiclass Caster 5 and your slots will thus go from 4/3 to 4/3/2 instead of staying at 4/3. And once you go Art 7/Wiz 2, you'll have an extra 3rd-level slot over an Artificer 9, and it only gets better from there.

If you're already at 20 Int I would go for Wizard right away since you don't need the ASI. If however you were to go to Artificer 8, there are a number of solid feat options - what are your other stats?

[RatElemental]

Regarding your infusions, you definitely have no reason to be using a homunculus, since it does less damage than your cannon and they're both fighting for your bonus action. I would free that one up ASAP for something else like Mind Sharpener, and swap out the Bag of Holding while you're at it since you have a real one. If you must have a pet, grab Find Familiar once you enter Wizard.

Main thing I've used the homunculus for is to carry and deliver things out of combat, and it does save me spell slots summoning my cannon in less serious fights. Having it carry my turret (As mentioned above) is an idea I hadn't considered but it seems like a good enough reason to have one.


If you're already at 20 Int I would go for Wizard right away since you don't need the ASI. If however you were to go to Artificer 8, there are a number of solid feat options - what are your other stats?

5 strength, 15 dex, 12 con, 8 wisdom and charisma. Can't remember precisely how I ended up with stats so weird since it's been a while, I think I rolled for them. The aforementioned nerfed barrier tattoo infusion scales the dex max to level, so another point in Dex would give me +1 AC with it.

Overall my skills out of combat don't tend to come up much, the first time I ever picked a lock was two sessions ago. Most of the time out of combat utility falls to the warlock who actually has the stats to be a face. I have expertise in stealth (DM gave us one free feat at first, and skilled seemed more useful for +1 int than any of the other options besides shadow touched, which would not fit at all) so there was one time I managed to sneak past some noble's guards and have my homunculus deliver a note to him. Flash of genius was definitely a turning point in that regard though.

[Psyren]

Main thing I've used the homunculus for is to carry and deliver things out of combat, and it does save me spell slots summoning my cannon in less serious fights. Having it carry my turret (As mentioned above) is an idea I hadn't considered but it seems like a good enough reason to have one.

I'm not saying a homunculus has no benefit at all for an artillerist, but with it taking up one of your extremely valuable infusion slots, the opportunity cost is very high. Especially if you or any of your allies have unfilled attunements. I already mentioned Mind Sharpener for you or one of the other casters that spends most of their time concentrating on something, but there are plenty of other solid choices too like Boots of the Winding Path, Spell-Refueling Ring, an Enhanced Arcane Focus or Enhanced Weapon for someone else, Spellwrought Tattoo...

A Tiny turret can share your space or an ally's space (shoulder-mounted cannon) without losing effectiveness so there's no reason for you to need a homunculus to carry it around either. Have it ride on you in ballista configuration, or on one of the melee in flamethrower or guardian configuration.



5 strength, 15 dex, 12 con, 8 wisdom and charisma. Can't remember precisely how I ended up with stats so weird since it's been a while, I think I rolled for them. The aforementioned nerfed barrier tattoo infusion scales the dex max to level, so another point in Dex would give me +1 AC with it.

In that case I would recommend either Skill Expert or Resilient Dex for that 1 point to get you to 16. Alternatively, go for a solid full feat like Lucky, Metamagic Adept, or even the new Rune Shaper feat and use that to pick up spells like Sanctuary, Command, Goodberry and/or Armor of Agathys.

[Skrum]

I would *strongly* recommend against taking wizard levels. Levels 9, 10, and 11 are extremely important, powerful levels that will significantly change your character - in exactly the direction you seem to be frustrated with. If you take all wizard levels now, you're not gonna be casting 3rd level spells till character level 13. If you stay with artificer, you'll get them next level, at 9th.

And that's just what you'll get at 9th. At 10, you can attune to 4 items. It sounds like you game is generous enough with magic items that this will really matter - and even if you don't find anything, you get access to the 3rd tier of infusable items: headband of intellect and winged boots are the standouts, but others present interesting choices as well, like gloves of missile snaring.

If the game goes this long, level 11 is spell storing item. It's an amazing ability, letting you spam a 1st or 2nd level spell of your choice. My top choice would be Shield; with 10 extra casts of shield per day, unless your DM really grinds with a no-rest schedule, you effectively have +5 AC.

That's about as strong a 3 level stretch as I can think of. Don't leave artificer - if you are that unsatisfied with the class, I would recommend talking to the DM about respec'ing to wizard. As in, rebuild your character to be wizard 8. They sound like they're fairly lenient, and most DM's will work with a player that really isn't having fun with their class. But I really don't think the solution is to take wizard levels now, when you're about to get some of the best features artificer offers.

[RatElemental]

I'm not saying a homunculus has no benefit at all for an artillerist, but with it taking up one of your extremely valuable infusion slots, the opportunity cost is very high. Especially if you or any of your allies have unfilled attunements. I already mentioned Mind Sharpener for you or one of the other casters that spends most of their time concentrating on something, but there are plenty of other solid choices too like Boots of the Winding Path, Spell-Refueling Ring, an Enhanced Arcane Focus or Enhanced Weapon for someone else, Spellwrought Tattoo...

A Tiny turret can share your space or an ally's space (shoulder-mounted cannon) without losing effectiveness so there's no reason for you to need a homunculus to carry it around either. Have it ride on you in ballista configuration, or on one of the melee in flamethrower or guardian configuration.



In that case I would recommend either Skill Expert or Resilient Dex for that 1 point to get you to 16. Alternatively, go for a solid full feat like Lucky, Metamagic Adept, or even the new Rune Shaper feat and use that to pick up spells like Sanctuary, Command, Goodberry and/or Armor of Agathys.

My mistake, I have skill expert already. All my attunement slots are already taken, so I was trying to find infusions that don't take those. Can only swap one out per level too, so... you're advocating I take 3 artificer levels just for that here. Metamagic adept seems not great to me, but rune shaper sounds interesting...

Overall what I'm getting here is that, as I thought, my best options are probably to continue with artificer or swap the character out. Another player retired their bard to bring in a wizard, and is now retiring the wizard to bring the bard back, which was part of the reason I thought switching to leveling in wizard might have been a good idea.

I have reasons for not retiring this character though, one of the magic items the DM gave them seems pretty plot relevant, and their backstory is pretty tied up with another member of the party. I suppose I'll stick with it for now and revisit the matter at 9th, swapping out one of my three infusions that need switching wouldn't hurt anyway.

[Spore]

I have read a pretty cool build on reddit a couple weeks ago, that basically is summed up like follows:

1) Get a homunculus.

2) Get the Protector barrier generator cannon.

3) Let the homunculus activate its barrier ability each turn. (remember the homunculus AND the actual generator gets the temp HP too).

4) You may just tell your DM you take a minute outside of combat so your tHP rolls are always maxed out.

Enjoy a group plus eventual pets with an additional 13 tHP; which sounds like little, but spread around 3-4 players plus a homunculus is a hecking ton!. Imagine a life cleric healing for 60+ HP every turn! Sure a ballista is fun and so is the flamethrower, but seeing your whole group light up as suddenly much more reckless spell usage and maneuvers are possible is worth the opportunity cost.

But if you are not having fun, and it is definitely not the DM, but the character, I would suggest not playing the same role again. Don't go wizard. Switch it up. Play a rogue or a martial or maybe a druid.

[stoutstien]

Oh you don't have the pipes of haunting. That is low key one of the highest impact infusions you can have. It's basically like getting 3 lv 3 spells a day (though only for a single option). Friendly fire and doesn't break on damage.

[stoutstien]

I have read a pretty cool build on reddit a couple weeks ago, that basically is summed up like follows:

1) Get a homunculus.

2) Get the Protector barrier generator cannon.

3) Let the homunculus activate its barrier ability each turn. (remember the homunculus AND the actual generator gets the temp HP too).

4) You may just tell your DM you take a minute outside of combat so your tHP rolls are always maxed out.

Enjoy a group plus eventual pets with an additional 13 tHP; which sounds like little, but spread around 3-4 players plus a homunculus is a hecking ton!. Imagine a life cleric healing for 60+ HP every turn! Sure a ballista is fun and so is the flamethrower, but seeing your whole group light up as suddenly much more reckless spell usage and maneuvers are possible is worth the opportunity cost.

But if you are not having fun, and it is definitely not the DM, but the character, I would suggest not playing the same role again. Don't go wizard. Switch it up. Play a rogue or a martial or maybe a druid.

Note that only you as the artillerist can activate the cannon regardless on who is holding it so the homunculus can move but would only be able to dodge in this case. Not a bad thing per se but something to keep in mind.

[RatElemental]

But if you are not having fun, and it is definitely not the DM, but the character, I would suggest not playing the same role again. Don't go wizard. Switch it up. Play a rogue or a martial or maybe a druid.

I'm not feeling constricted by the caster role, I'm feeling constricted trying to play something that isn't really a caster as a caster. That said I already know what class I would use for a new character and it's not wizard, it's a 3rd party one I've already sent to my DM for a backup character.


Oh you don't have the pipes of haunting. That is low key one of the highest impact infusions you can have. It's basically like getting 3 lv 3 spells a day (though only for a single option). Friendly fire and doesn't break on damage.

I'm not typically within 30 feet of any enemies, though that does seem like a viable option, assuming my pan flute proficiency counts as having proficiency in wind instruments.

[stoutstien]

I'm not typically within 30 feet of any enemies, though that does seem like a viable option, assuming my pan flute proficiency counts as having proficiency in wind instruments.

Pan flute counts for sure. You get flight in a few levels so getting in and out range will get easier. Even as an "oh crap" button it's solid thanks to them not being able to come closer and disadvantage on both attacks and checks.