Quote Originally Posted by PeteNutButter View Post
Fighter is the least MAD class. Every character needs a decent str or dex for AC, plus con for HP, and that's all a fighter needs. He does not "need" str, unless you prefer that over dex, but that's just a 1 for 1 swap.

You're talking about a cool niche build that comes online at level 13. The added turrets per short rest could be useful, but are they necessary? I guess it depends on how much your DM is turret slapping. YMMV
Comes online at level 5 actually. Levels 1-3 are straight Artillerist, then Hex 2. It's even better at high levels, but don't mistake that for "not coming online." A Fighter 1/Artificer 4 would have 4 first level slots and AC 21ish in plate+shield, whereas the artywarlock 3/2 has 6 first level slots + 2 more per short rest, Wrathful Smite/Hex/Shield/THP turrets/etc. to make good use of those slots, and AC 19ish in half-plate. The Fighter variant is not better than the warlock variant--they should be the same color, either both blue or both black.

In the meantime you'd be losing at least 5 attribute points for an otherwise useless attribute, and going to be behind in almost every way for the bulk of your career. A few niche abilities synergizing doesn't necessarily raise a class's rating.
Er, no. You're waaaaay ahead in spell slots by levels 4-5, Charisma isn't useless to you (Agonizing Repelling Blast is a great control action and Artificers even have Web to synergize with it), and you're not more behind than the Fighter variant is because you're both missing out on the same number of Artificer levels.

Fighter dip is easy, and hard to screw up. You don't have to plan it, and it doesn't make your character weaker at its primary job. It's probably best for the fighting style on a battle smith where action surge is just two more attacks. On the other hand, you'd have to be very careful not to make your character much weaker with a dip in a warlock (or any other MAD class). I've seen a lot of late game MAD builds and they often end up with the player talking every week about how just wait until I"m level x... and then the campaign ends before we get there.

Purple rating is not a death sentence.

I've played many purple MC combinations. They just take some experience and knowledge to work around their weaknesses.
Fighter sounds purpleto me by these criteria. It's equally easy to mess up. In what way will I be glad to be e.g. a Fighter 2/Artillerist 7 instead of an Artillerist 9? Now I can... throw Action Surged Shatter x2 instead of Fireball, while having weaker turrets and fewer spell slots? How is that an improvement?

I'm not saying Artificer/Warlock is a must-have, I'm saying that Artificer/Fighter is worse or at best maybe competitive with it, and should not be rated two colors higher.