Iron-man as an artificer

[Godna]

We are starting at level 10 and i got the okay from the DM and he is alllowing me to pool my craft reserve and spend it all at once before but i want to know what kinda items to make boots of flight are obvious but what else?

[Siegel]

Gloves of fireball
Ring of magic missile
Googles of True Sight


(don't know if this exist)

[Tacoma]

Well the armor of course. You need protection from attacks.

The helmet visor should include various types of information about the damage level of your equipment, whether each piece is functional, and whether there is some magical or physical effect (like acid) hitting it. Include a display for charges left in all carried items that you have to update yourself of course when a charge is used.

You need the hand things that fire bursts of knockdown force.

You should have a rack of mini-missiles in your back on your shoulders.

The whole suit should protect against high or low pressure, be airtight, supply air to you, and control internal temperature from arctic to death valley levels.

And solve the icing problem at high altitudes.

[The Glyphstone]

Icing problem?

[Tacoma]

:P

From the movie. At high altitude ice formed on the suit and clogged the control surfaces.

Though why the man wouldn't understand this effect from years of high altitude planes and space shuttle missions, I hesitate to guess.

[Demons_eye]

Go warforged and grab a few levels of warlock.

[Xefas]

Buy a pair of Casting Gloves from the Magic Item Compendium. Grab the feats Two-Weapon Fighting, Double Wand Wielder, and Elven Spell Lore.

Now craft a few Wands of Scorching Ray at Caster Level 7. You can use Metamagic Spell Trigger to then shoot 4 Sonic Rays out of your forearms a round (or Lightning Rays if you prefer) while still having your hands free.

I...err...I think that's how it works.

[Waspinator]

A Warforged Warlock would work.

Also, if you go third-party, the Dragonmech and Warcraft d20 books have some neat stuff:
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/403/mechswf0.png

[Mando Knight]

Go warforged and grab a few levels of warlock.

Heh heh... yeah. I'm just waiting for 4E's Eberron player's guide to come out so I can mix that Artificer (they get powers with crossbows! Yay!) with the Warforged (and their crossbows-that-can-be-built-in-and-auto-reload) and either Ranger (for either Prime Shot, Hunter's Quarry, or the "use not-Off-Hand weapons in the Off-Hand) or Wizard (mostly for Utility powers)...

[Doomsy]

Gloves of the Ram? Iron Man didn't exactly fire *fire* at people, it was more like force beams. Of course, that is probably quite a bit less effective in combat but he was not really trying to kill people.

[overduegalaxy]

Mechanus gear armor from Planar Handbook or one of the massive armors from Races of the Stone would probably be your best bet as a base for the suit.

[Deth Muncher]

I actually asked this very same question a few months ago when the movie came out (as did several other people).

You have two ways of going about this: You're either warforged, or you're not.

The Warforged way is to get two of the arm enhancement that lets you shoot force missiles, many, many Wands of Magic Missile at CL9 combined with Rods of Many Wands (so if you can duel weild Rods, you're suddenly doing obscene amounts of missile damamge at one point). As to other things, dipping a level in Warlock will net you your Hand-Blasts, or, alternatively, Wands of Scorching Ray will do the trick. I forget if there are Boots of Flying or not, but you could always get the Wings of Flying, which are amazing, and if you don't like having them as wings, you can always reslot them for a fee. Oh, and also, you're going to need a good deal of "Detect X" spells permanencied on you, to represent his advanced targeteing system. I would go with Arcane Sight (since it's Detect Magic on crack, and unfortunately, Greater Arcane Sight specifically says you can't permanency it), Detect Undead, and possibly a Detect Living ,if that exists? I've never actually run over something like that, but it would only make sense to exist.

Now you have the other way, which is to be any other race (generally human). I'm not EXACTLY clear on the Mechanus Gear armor, but the Clockwork Armor from one of the Eberron articles on the WotC site is perfect for Iron Man: you get extra speed, extra Str and Dex (assuming you make the requisite checks, which you will, because you have a PhD in horribleness are an Artificer), and it's even got the icing problem like in the movie: cold damage freezes it, and you've eithter got to hit it with a fire attack dealing the same amount of damage as the ice attack, or have someone on the outside help you. As a human, the best way to get all the spells you need is a Runestaff. It's kinda costly, but you can shove the major spells, like Fly, Scorching Ray and such, right into there, and you'll be golden. Again, the DW Rod of Many Wands/3x Wand of Magic Missile is a great way to go. Also, the same goes with Permanency-ing the Detect spells on you, and you may want to get a constant Immunity to Fire effect put on you as well, so as if you ever get frozeded, just get your party mage to Fierball you back to mobility. My thought would perhaps to grab that one ring from Sandstorm, which gives you the Fire subtype while wearing it. The only problem THERE is that when you get hit by that cold attack that freezes your armor, you're going to be taking extra damage.

[Fizban]

Death Muncher got most of the stuff for doing it as a sorcerer/wizard, but the problem here is he's playing artificer, so he can't use a runestaff.

Mechanus Gear is just a type of heavy armor with a higher bonus than full plate that slows you down even more. It is quite awesome, however the Clockwork armor really is the way to go with this one.

No point in shelling out over 40,000gp for casting gloves when you can have a pair of Wand Chambers built into the arms of your armor for only a few hundred: see our own Giant's Dungeonscape for details. That'll let you keep both on hand at all times. Shields can have Wand Chambers as well: a buckler is a type of shield, so strap a Chambered buckler to both arms to keep another pair ready at all times. Unfortunately you can't Chamber a Spiked Gauntlet, but 4 wands at the ready should give you most of what you need, and you can easily switch them out of combat.

Ther spell compendium's got some spells you'll want. Battering Ram is force effect that deals damage and bull rushes, similar to the Ring of the Ram, for a 2nd level slot. Scorch is a another 2nd level spell that gives you a short line of fire, great for a flame thrower. PHBII has Melf's Unicorn Arrow, that deals force damage multiple times with bull rushes, at 3rd level, along with swift action spells that give bonuses to attack, which along with True Strike gives you all your computer targetting needs. Stoneskin or Heart of the Earth (Complete Mage) will get you the DR you need to stand up to melee. Tons of other spells can probably get you just about any other effect Iron Man's got outside of the movie. You don't want to restrict yourself though, be sure to stack other buffs that can keep you alive even if they aren't part of the shtick: Shield is a cheap +4 AC and the miss chances afforded by Blur, Displacement, or Shadow Phase (SC, like Displacement but less illusion) are essential if you get the urge to smack something around instead of shooting it to death. Don't forget your Armor Enhancement infusions, you can get some nice perks there, including the fire resistance you'll want if you need to thaw yourself out.

Wraithstrike and Heroics will help greatly if you try and do melee damage, letting you strike as a touch attack and granting the combat feats you don't have, respectively (though Heroics is more The Tuxedo than Iron Man, at least looking at the movie). Specifically, give yourself Power Attack, whip out a 2 handed weapon or both your fists (use Heroics again for Improved Unarmed Strike to avoid attacks of opportunity), and power attack for full while using Wraithstrike for decent damage.

Feats I would suggest: Craft Wand (free), Dual Wand Wielder, Two Weapon Fighting (prerequiste for Dual Wand) Wand Mastery, Twin Spell, Split Ray and/or Maximize Spell, maybe whatever feat reduces gp and/or xp costs for crafting. Wand Mastery will get you another missile/damage die with most 1st and 2nd level wands, which isn't too shabby when you combine it with your Metamagic Spell Trigger ability, Metamagic Item Infusion, Dual Wand Wielder, and Metamagic Wand Grips (Complete Mage). You need a fair number of 3rd level infusions to pull off the full combo (2 per fight use use it in), but I'm pretty sure you can make scrolls or use a pearl of power or someething for that. The plan:

Take your two favorite damage wands, generally a minimum level Lesser Orb, Scorching/Seeking Ray, or Orb spell. Use Metamagic Item to get Twin Spell on them for free, aand Metamagic Wand Grip to add Quicken to the one you'll designate as primary. Activate your primary wand once with Split Ray (for a ray) or Maximize (for an Orb) using Metamagic Spell Trigger, your secondary wand once with the same, and then your primary again with the Wand Grip to Quicken it. The end result with:

Lesser Orb:
6 maximized orbs for 13 charges (4+5+4), 48 damage or 96 with Wand Mastery

Seeking Ray:
12 rays for 10 charges (3+4+3), 168 average damage

Seeking Ray gives you a bonus to hit after the first one, so you should only miss on a 1.

Extra bonus: if you drop someone while firing, you just change targets. There's nothing stopping you from using it with other wands either. You can also go crazy using Dual Wand Wielder and grips of quicken to get pretty much any 3 wanded spells you want in one round. I like Ray of Sickness, Launch Item, and Enervation. Ray of Sickness and Enervation will both give at least a -2 penalty to all saves, each, and you can launch either a Tanglefoot Bag for another -2 on reflex saves, of a flask of Atruman Oil (Planar Handbook) for a -4 on fortitude saves. If you really need a will save spell, an extended Fear instead of a Launched itemwill get you 2 guaranteed rounds of shaken so you can hit next turn. With a -6 penalty on their save, anything with a proper save DC is pretty much guaranteed to land after that.

I'm not totally sure about the stacking order for the metamagic, the CharOp boards on gleemax could do it better, but even if you can't stack them all, just Metamagic Item [Twin], Metamagic Wand Grip [Quicken], and Dual Wand Wielder is crazy, since Dual Wand Wielder only costs one extra charge, and you get a third activation. Each activation is already giving you 2 copies from Twin, so you've got 2*3=6 copies of the spell in the wand. If you Split Ray Scorching or Seeking Ray, you get 2 rays instead of 1 for each spell. Depending on how they stack, that's either 2 rays*2 copies*3 activations= 12 rays, or (2copies+1 extra ray)*3 activations= 9 rays, I've assumed the former above.

This all costs a ton of cash, hence why I would usually stick to 1st level wands until you're fighting the BBEG (though I'm not sure, you may have enough cash by 9th/12th level to use 2nd level wands regularly). If your DM for some reason allows you to use the Runestaff with UMD and your infusion slots, you'll be in heaven, since that'll save a ton of money on wondrous items and/or other wands and scrolls you'd need for movement and defense options.

Okay, well that turned more into Blastificier optimization than I intended, but that is essentially what Iron Man artificier style does. He has really thick armor, some nifty wondrous items, and a pile of damaging wands that he's really good at pumping up.

Edit: Gah! Took so long my log in expired, almost lost my post. And editing for clarity on blastificing, speeling. Added save debuff combos cause I love them, added TWF prerequisite on list of feats.

Edit2: upon reviewing the Metamagic Wand Grip, I find that it in fact does use extra charges. Saves you a feat though, so that's not shabby. So, adding 4 to the number of charges above, that's:

Lesser Orb:
6 maximized orbs for 17 charges (4+5+8), 48 damage or 96 with Wand Mastery

Seeking Ray:
12 rays for 14 charges (3+4+7), 168 average damage

Still cheap and effective. You can really skip the quickened blast if you don't need it, since Metamagic Item: Twin Spell (two castings) and Dual Wand Wielder have already quadrupled your effects for the price of 3 charges. Split Ray doubles that to x8 for another 4. The worst offender is Metamagic Item, since it doesn't cost you anything and allows any metamagic feat. People don't like the idea of a persistand Wraithstrike at 15th character level (note that monsters hardly need to roll to hit either at that level with their attack bonuses)? An Artificier can do it at 5th. And he can hand the pumped up wand to anyone else to UMD, and the whole party can pass it around and UMD it themselves. That infusion is ridiculous.

[Fishy]

Not quite the same thing, but there's that Renegade Mastermaker PrC from Magic of Eberron, that lets you build robotty parts to replace/enhance your squishy parts until you become a full Warforged.

[Talic]

Ooh ooh! Then you can go Reforged!

[Roderick_BR]

Gloves of the Ram? Iron Man didn't exactly fire *fire* at people, it was more like force beams. Of course, that is probably quite a bit less effective in combat but he was not really trying to kill people.
Except in the movie. He was out for blood there.

Ok, pump up some powerful armor with all your defenses. Do the scorching ray tihng in the gloves. Get some winged boots (or a boot version of the lying broom/carpet). And a helmet loaded with different kinds of lens and googles.

[TengYt]

Be sure to take the Leadership feat and have your cohorts be Bards. Make sure they are allowed to take ranks in Perform (Black Sabbath).

[ericgrau]

:P

From the movie. At high altitude ice formed on the suit and clogged the control surfaces.

Though why the man wouldn't understand this effect from years of high altitude planes and space shuttle missions, I hesitate to guess.

Move stuff spoilered

Seriously, of all the problems to have on a first flight. Not a million other things. That seriously annoyed me when his dad got a working suit the moment he popped the battery in. Without any testing. And the battery fit perfectly without any pre-fitting; it could have at least been jimmied in with some kind of tie. It was a cliched bigger-and-badder copy of the hero for the final fight. The buildup made sense, and I give them mad props for that, but his dad's suit could have at least been a blatant (but larger) copy of Stark's desert suit, with some bigger - but normal tech - weapons as well and poor agility (but functional) flight like the original. Then Stark could have said "my battery's low, I don't have the energy to pump through all that heavy armor". Instead it was, "oops, my baterry's just unstable not low and it pooped half its power into a lucky direct hit, but it had no effect b/c his poorly designed untested suit is just so much better." And apparently Stark industry scientests can break the altitude record whenever they feel like it, they just hadn't gotten around to it before.

When each is worn down bit by bit in such a perfectly even fight that a random cop with a pistol could have turned the tables either way at the end it was also annoying and cliched. Likewise for the way both combatants enjoyed the Dragonball Z shield-against-all significant-damage-until-plot-dictates-otherwise (TM).

Other than that I really liked the movie before the final fight. Good action, awesome plot, wonderful Chutzpah. So-so character development, but intentionally and quite amusingly so. A great constrast to the cliche there. "Remember that night when I said yada yada" "And then you walked out on me for no apparent reason? Yah, I remember that." :smallbiggrin: And no long stupid Tony Stark mourning scene like the public (and movie cliches) suspects when he gets out of the desert. Just a cheeseburger.

[imperialspectre]

Oh, and also, you're going to need a good deal of "Detect X" spells permanencied on you, to represent his advanced targeteing system. I would go with Arcane Sight (since it's Detect Magic on crack, and unfortunately, Greater Arcane Sight specifically says you can't permanency it), Detect Undead, and possibly a Detect Living ,if that exists? I've never actually run over something like that, but it would only make sense to exist.

There isn't a "Detect Living" spell per se, but there's "Detect Thoughts." And that would explain the whole ability to target enemies and hostages from the movie.

[The Glyphstone]

:P

From the movie. At high altitude ice formed on the suit and clogged the control surfaces.

Though why the man wouldn't understand this effect from years of high altitude planes and space shuttle missions, I hesitate to guess.

I know, I was quoting Warmonger.:smallbiggrin::smallwink: Guess I forgot the [/villain] tags.

[SilentNight]

Go warforged and grab a few levels of warlock.

Okay, I really want to do that now.