The artificer, a build and the wonderful balance of 5e

[Waazraath]

Ok, the artificer is out for quite a while now. I'd like to share a build with the folks here, and at the same time, use it as an illustration on how well 5e is balanced in general. Even with regard to multiclassing, as this is something that is the talk of these days on this board.

Lets start with a build. The concept is a techwizard crossbow archer, using a shield and all kind of enhancements to his equipment to make it better (can also be used in RP). Neccesry components are the Artificer Battle Smith (sub)class, the Repeating Shot infusion, and the Crossbow Expert and Sharp Shooter feats. Given these last two prereqs, Variant Human is (once again) the race to go. Ability scores aren't set in stone, as long as you start with a 16 in int and a dex no lower than 14 (for the early levels). Con 14 would be nice as well.

Levels:
1 - Sharp Shooter feat, guidance and mage hand cantrips (utility), memorize spells like cure wounds and feary fire, contribute to combat by staying in the back line, shoot arrows with a shortbow, and cast useful spells.
2 - get infusions. Upgrade your bow to +1, and give a frontliner another +1 to AC (or be greedy and take it yourself)
3 - replace the least used cantrip with 'mending'. You get a critter (steel defender), and more important: proficiency with martial weapons, and can use intelligence as attack stat. At this point, you can start using a shield, switching your enhanced weapon for repeating shot. With shield & half plate, and 14 dex, you have 19 AC. Switch your armor infusion to your own armor, and you have AC 20. You can use your infused crossbow as a spellcasting focus. Use your bonus action to make your Steel defender attack.
4 - get the feat crossbow expert; make 2 attacks, shoot from melee. You can be a party's tank, in addition to damage dealer. Walk into melee Keep your steel defender close, and it can give disadvantage on an attack aganist you. Don't attack with it anymore, your bonus action is better spend on another attack with your hand crossbow.
5 - extra attack: make 3 attacks for 1d6 +14 damage, if using SS. Also: get 2nd level spells; since you don't need them for combat (you'll be most efficient shooting arrows) you can either pick buff or utility spells, whatever your party needs. You're a combat god and a have a lot of options outside of combat as well.
6 - tool expertise (more utility!), extra infusion, stronger infusions. Seriously, just pick what's needed here, bag of holding, goggles of night if often fighting in the dark, item to improve one of your skills... it's all possible. Or use it to enhance a party mate. Or get another +1, buy infusing your shield as well as your armor with enhanced defense.
7 - flash of genius: strong reaction int modifier/day, on an ability check or save. Very nice to have.
8 - +1 int, on attack, damage, extra use of flash of genius.
9 - 3rd level spells, pick flame arrows for another 1d6 damage, it lasts an hour so usually you can buff before combat. Combat routine is 3 attacks on +4, for 2d6 + 15 damage, or on +9 for 2d6 + 5. And don't forget arcane jolt: int times/day, add 2d6 force damage to a target, or heal an ally for 2d6.
10 - more and stronger infusions! Enhance armor becomes +2, so you can get +2 to ac from infusing shield and armor. Get winged boots, allowing one of your squishy teammates to fly above the fray.

And here I'll stop. By now, I think we have a build that is strong in damage, is very difficult to bring down (high AC, optional shield and absorb element spells, flash of genius to get +4 to a saving throw), and is very versatile through spells, infusions and tool expertise. If we procede this build all the way to lvl 20 as an artificer, there will be a lot of nice features. Stronger arcane jolt, a few more (and stronger) infusions, stronger spells, and a very nice capstone (though nothing game breaking by the time you get it). Proceding this way doesn't change the essence of the build, but there's nothing wrong with it.

Now lets check out the multi-class options. There are a few obvious ones. Wizard, as only other int based caster. Rogue, to increase versatility through skills and have a steady (though not spectacular) damage increase through sneak attack. Fighter, at least a few levels for the fighting style, action surge, a subclass and maybe one more for a feat. And the nice thing is: none of those is a obviously superior option, compared to each other, or artificer 20.

Wizard gets strong defensive options (especially War Mage) +2AC/+4 on a save as a reaction (that you usually won't use, and the drawback of not casting next round doesn't hurt since you're shooting arrows); +5 on initiative is also very nice. The spells add a lot of versatility (much bigger spell list), and a familiar, but not a lot of extra damage. 10 levels of rogue gets 5d6 extra damage per turn, expertise in 4 skills, cunning action, uncanny dodge, and evasion. So in addition to extra versatility (skills), there's extra damage and a few nice defensive options. The subclass doesn't really matter, several have nice features, but nothing too spectacular for this build. So whether you go for artificer 20, artificer 10/ wizard 10, or artificer 10 / rogue 10, the end result is a decent damage dealing, very versatile character. Only by sneaking in some fighter levels, for +2 to hit, action surge, and (probably) battle master maneuvers, you can also really up your (nova) damage.

All in all, if you really want to optimize, something like artificer 10 / fighter 4 / wizard 2 / rogue 4 would be strongest... but that makes it a bit of a frankenstein's creature build.

Any thoughts?

[Christew]

Ok, the artificer is out for quite a while now. I'd like to share a build with the folks here, and at the same time, use it as an illustration on how well 5e is balanced in general. Even with regard to multiclassing, as this is something that is the talk of these days on this board.

Seems like a very solid build. I am not really sure that you met your stated goal of illustrating how well 5e is balanced though.

[Damon_Tor]

Artificer is the one class I just can't bring myself to multiclass. The capstone is too good.

[MaxWilson]

All in all, if you really want to optimize, something like artificer 10 / fighter 4 / wizard 2 / rogue 4 would be strongest... but that makes it a bit of a frankenstein's creature build.

Any thoughts?

Thought: Sharpshooter + Crossbow Expert are a heavy investment for a class that only has 2 built-in attacks, and already has a good use for its bonus action, and Crossbow Expert makes the Repeating Shot infusion partially redundant. Consider Fighter 11/Battlesmith 9 [Sharpshooter, no Crossbow Expert, 4 other feats or ASIs] instead and use your bonus action to control your Iron Defender.

[Damon_Tor]

Thought: Sharpshooter + Crossbow Expert are a heavy investment for a class that only has 2 built-in attacks, and already has a good use for its bonus action, and Crossbow Expert makes the Repeating Shot infusion partially redundant. Consider Fighter 11/Battlesmith 9 [Sharpshooter, no Crossbow Expert, 4 other feats or ASIs] instead and use your bonus action to control your Iron Defender.

Use your bonus action to cast Magic Stone which are thrown by three Tiny Servants who operate a shoulder-mounted turret.

[Dork_Forge]

Thought: Sharpshooter + Crossbow Expert are a heavy investment for a class that only has 2 built-in attacks, and already has a good use for its bonus action, and Crossbow Expert makes the Repeating Shot infusion partially redundant. Consider Fighter 11/Battlesmith 9 [Sharpshooter, no Crossbow Expert, 4 other feats or ASIs] instead and use your bonus action to control your Iron Defender.

Repeating shot isn't made that redundant because the build uses a shield, otherwise it's be stepping a little on the toes of XBE yes. If you get any hostiles within 5ft of you, your effectiveness tanks without Crossbow Expert.

To OP: It's a nice build, I don't think I'd take SS personally on it without getting the Archery style from somewhere though, instead get XBE at 1st level or choose a different race and bump your Int to +5. For multiclassing, if available there's some value to the 2020 version of the bloodhunter to stack on Rite damage and gain some extra defences.

[Biggstick]

Repeating shot isn't made redundant because the build uses a shield, otherwise it's be stepping a little on the toes of XBE yes.

To OP: It's a nice build, I don't think I'd take SS personally on it without getting the Archery style from somewhere though, instead get XBE at 1st level or choose a different race and bump your Int to +5. For multiclassing, if available there's some value to the 2020 version of the bloodhunter to stack on Rite damage and gain some extra defences.

Repeating shot makes the Crossbow Expert feat redundant. Max followed the thought up with stating to not take Crossbow Expert in his suggested build.

Sharpshooter works great on a Battlesmith, as their Bonus Action will have solid usage available all the time. The only issue I'd have is finding a good use of one's reaction.

I'd consider building the character as a Gnome though, starting with a level of Fighter and wearing heavy armor with 15 Strength and 16 (or 17) Intelligence. After the first level of Fighter, immediately multiclass into Artificer for Battlesmith. Sure, you'll be a level behind the progression, but you're still going to bring tanky utility to the party. You're also going to be quite mobile when you get to level 4 and can ride your medium construct in combat. Add on top of that the potential to pick up Repeating shot at PC level 4 and Sharpshooter at PC level 5, you'll be a heavily armored, Sharpshooting hand crossbow user (while still using a shield) who has solid mobility.

[Dork_Forge]

Repeating shot makes the Crossbow Expert feat redundant. Max followed the thought up with stating to not take Crossbow Expert in his suggested build.

Sharpshooter works great on a Battlesmith, as their Bonus Action will have solid usage available all the time. The only issue I'd have is finding a good use of one's reaction.

I'd consider building the character as a Gnome though, starting with a level of Fighter and wearing heavy armor with 15 Strength and 16 (or 17) Intelligence. After the first level of Fighter, immediately multiclass into Artificer for Battlesmith. Sure, you'll be a level behind the progression, but you're still going to bring tanky utility to the party. You're also going to be quite mobile when you get to level 4 and can ride your medium construct in combat. Add on top of that the potential to pick up Repeating shot at PC level 4 and Sharpshooter at PC level 5, you'll be a heavily armored, Sharpshooting hand crossbow user (while still using a shield) who has solid mobility.

It enables shooting in melee without disadvantage and allows you the option of attacking at range with your bonus whilst your Steel Defender is at your side, not needing one of three abilities is not redundant. -5 is a high penalty for a build that doesn't have Archery without a dip and no solid way of getting full turn advantage.

[Benny89]

It's good build for an XBE-caster, though Hexblade/Fighter is still better because of advantage, invisibility, Smites, Arcanum and Life Drinker. This one is more tanky, but if you plan on sitting back, it's better to stack DPR.

Still, it's good caster archer build, but I would go with Fighter 2/8 Artificer/10 Wizard for more caster focus or 2 Fighter/18 Artificer for more DPR stacking. 5 Artificer/15 Wizard can give you Tenser Transformation though.

It lacks good source of advantage and Archery style. Wizard would give it Greater Invisibility. Fearie Fire is nice ,but it's save or nothing. Fighter dip will give it Archery style.

So my preferable build here would be 1 Fighter/5 Artificer/14 Wizard probably.... I would need to run some numbers.

Still, sounds fun :).

[Dork_Forge]

It's good build for an XBE-caster, though Hexblade/Fighter is still better because of advantage, invisibility, Smites, Arcanum and Life Drinker. This one is more tanky, but if you plan on sitting back, it's better to stack DPR.

Still, it's good caster archer build, but I would go with Fighter 2/8 Artificer/10 Wizard for more caster focus or 2 Fighter/18 Artificer for more DPR stacking. 5 Artificer/15 Wizard can give you Tenser Transformation though.

It lacks good source of advantage and Archery style. Wizard would give it Greater Invisibility. Fearie Fire is nice ,but it's save or nothing. Fighter dip will give it Archery style.

So my preferable build here would be 1 Fighter/5 Artificer/14 Wizard probably.... I would need to run some numbers.

Still, sounds fun :).

I agree about Archery and needing a source of advantage for SS, but by stopping your Art at 5 you're not only missing out on Arcane Jolt, you're also hamstringing the hp of the Steel Defender and missing out on Flash of Genius and more/better infusions.

[Benny89]

I agree about Archery and needing a source of advantage for SS, but by stopping your Art at 5 you're not only missing out on Arcane Jolt, you're also hamstringing the hp of the Steel Defender and missing out on Flash of Genius and more/better infusions.

That is true. Artificer is still new to me when it comes to min-maxing. I need to dig more into it to really get best of it.

I think you kind of need to get to level 10 with him. There is just too much good stuff. But level 10 is 2 levels away from ASI...

It has quite nice DPR boosts with Flame Arrow and small smite with Jolting Bolt.

But the accurcy of this build is what worries me. It has Fearie Fire but it's not that good for constant use. I have seen level 12 characters fail to use that spell against group of kobolds just because they have good DEX saves. Not saying all creatures will, but you know. Not to even mention enemies with Legendary Resistance...

Archery style we can cover with Fighter dip... That is ok. Now the accuracy boost from spell or combo is another story. Let's check our options:

1. Greater Invisibility. That would require 7 levels of Wizard. It's too long to wait for it. So no.
2. Warlock 3 levels. Can be done with 13 CHA. Devil's Sight Darkness combo is always good. We also get Shield and Curse. But nothing else here from us...
3. Another options is... Bless spell. We could dip 1 level of Cleric of any kind to get Bless spell and then use our slots to cast it. Bless extra 1d4 is good when combining with easy getting +1 and +2 weapon with Artificer.
4. 3 Levels of Fighter to get Battlemaster and use Precision attack to offset misses. That actually sounds best, though it's also sadly a late game effect as you are much better rushing those 10 levels of Artificer as fast as possible with 1 level Fighter dip...
5. Magic Initiate: Cleric. Depends on your DM. If your DM allow you to use your Magic Initiate spells with your spell book, then that is great way to obtain Bless without need to multiclass.

Time for some Math and DPR calculations:




So let's first check the 1 Fighter/12 Level Artificer Battle Smith:

Feats: XBE, SS, +2 INT, +2 INT.

Now, our equipment looks like this: hand Crossbow +2, Bracers of Archery (from infusions). We also have Archery style for +2 to hit.

We have 20 INT. At this point our to hit modifier is: +5 prof, +5 INT, +2 Archery and +2 Crossbow. Total of + 14. With Sharpshooter we have +9 to hit. So we hit AC 18 on 9 up. So 60% chance to hit AC 18.

Our DPR looks like this. We probably have Flame Arrow casted already so +1d6 damage. Our Bracers of Archery gives +2 to damage too. We can use our mini-smite only once per turn, 5/day.

so 3 x (2d6 + 5 + 10 + 2 + 2) = 78 DPR. Not bad. But the problem is lack of advantage here. We have fearie fire, which is our best bet. But then - no Flame Arrow. We can here our mini smite for overall 85 DPR. Good on paper, but not reall that great accuracy. Our crit chance is pretty much none. 60% to hit AC 18 is not that impressive, though not horrible either.




If Ferie Fire is on target we get additional +5 to hit. So our bonus is now +14 wit Sharpshooter. Our chance to hit AC 18 is now on roll 4 up. So 85%. Which is definitely better. But if Fearie Fire fails- we lost action and slot. And during our first turn we deal 0 damage because Faerie Fire is Action to cast and we can't use bonus action to shoot with crossbow as it requires attack action first.

So if we use Fearie Fire our damage looks like this:

1st round: 0 damage. Save or Suck Fearie Fire. We also lose Flame Arrow here because it's concentration too. So our damage is lower.
2nd round: 67.5 damage. You can add another 2d6 damage for 74,5 damage. But only for 5 rounds during day.

Even Bless instead of Fearie Fire doesn't give us much and we had to go with 18 INT on level 13: +13 to hit and +2 from bless so + 15 total. With SS = + 10, so we hit AC 18 on 8+, so 65%. Only 5% increase overall. Not worth it. Advantage is still the king of accuracy.


Let's compare that to 1 Fighter/12 Hexblade Crossbow Master build: 20 CHA, XBE + SS, +1 Pact Weapon, Archery +2 and advantage from either Shadow of Moil or Darkness which gives +5 to hit. Overall with Sharpshooter we have +13 to hit. We hit AC 18 with 80% of accuracy. Reliable Accuracy.

1st round: Curse + Shadow of Moil/Darkness: 0 damage.
2nd Turn: 3 x (1d6 + 6 + 5 + 10 + 5) = 88,5 damage with guarantee advantage. You also have 19-20 crit range so you can also add 6k8 or 12k8 smite to this damage. Remember we don't need to waste any more resources here.

Of course Artificer will have more AC due to Infusions + Shield but Hexblade will give most enemies disadvantage to hit him and he is invisible/concealed/heavy obstructed which prevents any spells with "in sight" to be used on him. Which also gives him great defense + Armor of Hexes + Levistus Tomb. I say that they are equal, just different in terms of defense.


Overall Artificer XBE build seems really strong but lack of reliable advantage makes him less effective in my opinion that Hexblade build. Life Drinker also beats Flame Arrow and Smite combined with advantage + 19-20 crit range beats Jolting Bolt by far. Of course going after that 2 more levels for Precision Strike can add to that, but so it will add to Hexblade if we continue with Fighter. Hexblade also get's Foresight at his Last Arcanum. And he is better with crit fishing thanks to Smite and 19-20 crit range.

So it depends on if you want to be more reliable archer or more tanky archer front liner with Repulsion Shield, which sounds fun :)! Both are great gish-archers though. Artificer is also more team-oriented (even Fearie Fire if it works gives everyone at team advantage) while Hexblade is definitely self-oriented.

[Waazraath]

Seems like a very solid build. I am not really sure that you met your stated goal of illustrating how well 5e is balanced though.

Lol, eh, yeah. See what you mean. In illustrationg how different multiclass options 11-20 don't give very different power results (unless mixing 3 more classes), I think it does, but if you compare this build with a champion archer not using feats, I guess it doesn't. Oh well.

For the rest, a lot of interesting ideas and options, thanks. I noticed the redundancy on the bonus action (with steel defender and cbx), but in this build I deceided to go for the tankyness, and the (unique as far as I know in 5e) combination of shield + hand crosbow. Especially since the build has so much other strong defensive features. Fighter 11 / artificer 9 is strong as well of course, but it also has some redundancy (extra attack). As for SS: yeah, the build can do without I think... it's always an option to pick it later, after maxing out INT (little better to hit chance), to only pick it in combination with fighter / battlemaster (+2 to hit from fighing style + precision attack maneuver), or pick it depending on the rest of the party (do you have a cleric that regularly casts bless for example). For the DPR-calculations: thanks, makes thinkgs more insightful. Bracers of archery don't work with crossbows though, alas.

[Benny89]

L For the DPR-calculations: thanks, makes thinkgs more insightful. Bracers of archery don't work with crossbows though, alas.

No problem. And good catch on Archery Bracers. So our damage with Artificer is even lower :/.

I think if someone wants to make full caster Gish-archer build - The Hexblad 1/Sword Bard 19 or Whisper Bard with XBE and SS are best bets due to Greater Invisibility, Holy Weapon, Simulacrum and Tenser Transformation. And their Defense Flourish gives them tons of extra AC anyway. Hexblade is also great due to smooth power curve and steady DPR with some Nova option.

If only Artificer had at least Greater Invisibility.