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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Halfling in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2020

    Default Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics


    I was originally planning to make this doc a huge guide answering every Artificer related question. It was gonna have a snappy intro and title cards and everything, but it turns out that idea was impossible. Definitely for me and almost certainly for anyone else too. Why? Well, because a discussion of Artificer is essentially talking about the entire game, twisted through its lens. You get, just as a part of a normal gameplay, access to every spell list, enchantment, and magic item. Making a guide for all that is just too much, even the D&D obsessive in me doesn’t have that kind of time. But I’ve played 2 full campaigns of this class and had to do a hell of a lot of research, so I think I’m at least qualified to leave you some notes.

    Firstly, Spell Storing Item (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 115), henceforth known as SSI, is your heart and soul.

    A lot of comments hanging about the internet space say that Artificers are terrible in campaigns where there is too little gold or time to craft. They are all liars because this spell exists. If you really want to play Artificer, you’ll need to read that. Probably multiple times. How does it affect gameplay? Well for starters it turns you into a full caster for levels 1-10. That’s pretty good.

    -You should always be SSI storing some spells at the beginning of the day, at least enough that you have options if you get caught off guard. This isn’t really different from a prepared caster just preparing spells, I’m just mentioning it because my first Arti used to have a bad habit of only casting SSI reactively, which almost got me killed when our party got ambushed. So, uh, don’t do that.

    -Almost all the time you cast spells in combat, you’ll actually be activating a wand. This is both good and bad. The good is that you won’t get AoO’d for doing it, and also there’s a lot of verbal/somatic component malarky you get to not think about. The bad is that your magic items use magic item save DCs, and those are based on the minimum score needed to cast the spell and not your actual stat. Your SSI Glitterdust has an effective INT of 12, compared to the wizard’s 18 or higher. This is compounded by the fact that other fullcasters get to trick out their spells in ways you just can’t. Say you’re 8th level and got an orange ioun stone, so now you cast spells at CL 9. Even though you can now cast SSI at CL 9, the spell it makes in wand form still has max CL=artificer level. Because of this, almost all feats and abilities that can improve your CL or spell save DCs don’t help Artificer. Similarly, spells that give your next cast spell extra stuff (example: Spell Enhancer) don’t work because you aren’t casting a spell.

    -That said, you don’t really mind, because you have the best spell selection in the entire game. Right off the bat, your “spell list” is effectively every spell list ever printed, you can have as many different spells as you have slots, and you can switch all of them on a day to day basis. Also, despite being a level behind a full caster on paper (level 2 spells at character level 4 instead of 3, and so on), you always cast bigger spells than everybody else. Why? Because SSI can cheat on spell levels by accessing faster progression spells from classes like Paladin or Divine Crusader or Trapsmith, and it also just cheats on spell level inherently because the level of spell you can put into an item goes up automatically while SSI itself is always still first level. Both of these effects stack, leading to things like an 8th level Arti potentially casting the 8th level spell Summon Giants, as a 4th level Disciple of Thrym spell, from a 1st level spell slot. Oh, and just as icing on the cake, since it’s a wand (and therefore a magic item) you can UMD it to emulate race or alignment, for fun things like getting dragonblood spell bonuses as any race.

    How do you know what to put in an SSI? Well do you have every 4th level or lower spell in the game memorized? I don’t. Go look at these if you wanna start reading up:
    Bargain Bin: http://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/in...?topic=12661.0
    Druid Spells: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...2suKx_4eA/edit
    Goodstuff: http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=11111

    Here’s some of my favorites as a place to start:
    1st: Snowsight, Haste, Grease, Magic Mouth (mostly because casting it at your max CL can help buffer you and your items vs enemy area Dispel Magic), Lesser Restoration
    2nd: Obscuring Snow, Kelpstrand, Alter Self, Air Walk, Glibness, Luminous Armor (Sacrifice costs aren’t expensive material components nor xp costs. Have fun.), Primal Instinct, Dimension Door, Lesser Celerity, Heroics, Ray of Stupidity
    3rd: Black Tentacles, Wall of Stone, Stone Shape, Scrying, Greater Dispel Magic, Disobedience, Fabricate, Divination, Flame Sands, Greater Mighty Wallop, Darkbolt
    4th: Contact Other Plane, Animate with the Spirit, Restoration, Transmute Mud to Rock, Wings of Flurry, Celerity, Greater Lum Armor, Ethereal Mount, Polymorph, Lesser Holy Transformation (to allow Outsider Polymorph), Bloodfreeze Arrow


    I see a lot of people note SSIs's xp cost as a major concern, but honestly after playing with it in two different campaigns I can confidently tell you it isn't. This isn't even an "xp is a river so you catch back up" sort of thing, nor is it a matter of SSI letting you fight stronger encounters while dying less (although note that both of the above are true,) it's just that the XP cost itself is tiny. You could cast 7, 8, 10 of the things at max power and still just watch as the encounter day you solved with them gives you a sum that's an order of magnitude more. Maybe two, if you're conservative. It's just not an issue, don't worry about it.

    But something you should worry about, and by far SSI’s biggest drawback, is the stupidly high UMD check you need to hit to make one. The good news is that Artificer is in eberron, so if you get to use it at all then book-wise you probably have a little bit to work with to help you out. The check for higher level spells doesn’t scale as fast as your skill bonuses, so it’ll get easier as you go up, but even then it's still the thing you have to pivot your whole build around. If you’re spending a huge chunk of the game at level 1-2 then you're pretty much locked in.

    Target DC: 23

    d20 base: 1
    Ranks: 4
    Stat: 1-3 usually, but in this case you should have high CHA, so 3.
    Be a bonus feat race, get Iron Will+Hardened Criminal: get to take 10, so under these circumstances basically +9

    So we’re at 17. Still a bit short. How do we finish?
    Well, you could buy a masterwork tool for (a skill), which can be UMD. that’s a +2.
    If you know you’re mostly gonna be lower level, then you could max CHA, for an extra +1 from an 18. Maybe a +2 if you have spicy point buy.
    Could spend 1 spell slot on Skill Enhancement before SSI preps, that’s a +2
    And if creating an SSI counts as activating an item you could snag a +2 for reuse.

    If you have extra flaw-feats or similar, this gets much easier. Shape Soulmeld Mage Spectacles (as an Azurin) gets a +6, and even basic Skill Focus is a +3.

    Most 3.5 campaigns aren't centered around 1-2, true, but even if you aim beyond that this UMD requirement is still gonna have to be accounted for in your build.

    A common example of more minimal investment is crafting a UMD-boosting item like circlet of persuasion by level 3 for a +3, getting the masterwork UMD for +2, then taking Item Familiar on your boosting item for +6 on top of your 6 ranks. Add in a base 16 CHA and you'll hit SSI on a 3 or higher, with an optional skill enhancement to always hit. That gets you set by level 3.

    (Note: A few guides recommend a similar route but using a custom skill boosting item in step 1. I broadly agree with this advice, because I think skill boosting is by far the most likely custom item to be actually allowed, but don't expect it to just be freely available. Many DMs just ban all custom items outright, and rightfully so since a lot of em are busted as all hell.)

    It wouldn’t be all that reductive to say that an Artificer’s life consists of either improving Spell Storing Item or finding abilities that are peerless enough to not be left behind by it, and this just spills over into everything else. Take ability scores for example. You want charisma but only insofar as it helps boost your UMD to make SSIs, and you want intelligence for bonus spell slots (read: bonus SSIs) but you don't actually want it that much because your save DC has nothing to do with your casting stat.

    Ok so what's in that second category? What else does Artificer do? If you choose to only have SSI online by level 3, what do you do in the interim?


    Mostly using Personal Weapon Augmentation (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 117). This spell does for +1 enchantments what SSI does for spells. It has a 10 minute/level duration, which is impressively long for their level, but it also has a one minute casting time, which is disastrously slow. It’s Touch range, which is really good for you. Have you read the rules on holding the charge yet? Too bad, I am literally just gonna put them right here because they’re that important:

    If you don’t discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the discharge of the spell (hold the charge) indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren’t considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. (If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack.) If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

    The biggest problem with this spell is its casting time giving it awkward pacing. 10 minutes is long but it’s not nearly long enough when you can’t cast reactively. Holding the charge solves this by allowing you to cast even earlier and (at the admittedly real cost of not being able to touch anything) hold until a fight actually happens, at which point you touch the item you want to enchant (at worst a move action you can do while moving, like drawing a weapon,) and you still have your standard for whatever fun times you had in mind.

    Just as important as the actual casting, holding the charge lets you make decisions reactively. People talk a lot online about Personal Weapon Augment (Bane), for example, but without Holding the Charge it doesn't actually amount to much, because they have to guess the type of the next encounter and on top of wasting the spell if there isn't an encounter in time, they also waste it if they just guess wrong. Compare this to when they cast and Hold charge. Not only can they save the Bane until the combat starts, but they can also see who they’re fighting, pick the most relevant Bane on drawing their weapon, and shoot all in one turn. Oh they’re fighting a ghost? They just picked Ghost Touch instead. Nuts.

    So what effects should you use? Honestly my best advice is just going here and searching through stuff and doing comparisons yourself. But that can take a while so here are my favorites:

    Bane, Elemental Power Large (yes this needs a prereq synergy enchantment. It doesn’t matter, go get one. It’s so undercosted for what it does,) Sudden Stunning (melee only holds it back, otherwise it would easily be the best weapon augment on this list and also in general), Spellblade, Warning, Merciful, Magebane.

    A lot of this is true for all the weapon/armor enchant spells, I just think Personal Weapon Aug is the one you’ll use for the most things, although shoutout to Armor Enhancement (Fearsome), and Armor Enhancement Greater (Undead Controlling, Etherealness, and a few more that I forget).

    Crafting scrolls can be nice, too. I tend not to love them because they aren’t very efficient in terms of value-for-time as consumables that still take at least a day to craft (although you can ease that by chaining multiple spells into a single scroll,) and I tend not to have a lot of downtime. Your options are also usually not quite as strong as SSI equivalents because you have to pay for higher minimum caster levels. That said, they have two obvious advantages. First, the needed UMD check is far less murderous. The DCs are usually 2-3 lower off the bat, there’s no question on +2 for activating the same kind of item before, for crafting you get to retry checks, you get the +2 UMD synergy bonus for scrolls, and you get to use your +2 Artisan bonus since you have scribe scroll. Second, because Artificers add two to their caster level for crafting, the max spell level of the scroll you can make is always at least one higher than the level of spells you can cast or SSI, giving them good potential as silver bullets for situations you can't quite tackle with what you currently have. This is especially true later when they become critical to your ability to cast spells of 5th level and beyond.

    Ok so we’ve seen good non-SSI options, now how do we go about boosting SSI? Later on down the line you get Power Surge and Concurrent Infusions, which could act to extend its value, but the more important step comes earlier than that.


    Metamagic Item


    After spending 1-3 feats on UMD boosting, you’ll probably want to spend more still on metamagic feats because Metamagic Item is silly. It’s so absurdly silly. I remember when Divine Metamagic trading 7 turn attempts for Persist was considered one of the strongest things you can ever do. Meanwhile, since Infusions are spells, Artificer literally just spends a 1st level spell slot on SSI (Metamagic Item) for the same payoff while laughing maniacally.

    Which metamagic feats do you use? Well, you have like a dozen options but I see most great artis go for one of 2 common feat routes that are taken as soon as UMD is established (usually using your level 4 bonus feat and level 6 feat, or at worst trading one of those for your level 8 bonus feat):

    Extend > Persist

    As popular as it is consistent. Persist buffs from the best spell list in the game, eventually Extend those persists for 48 hour buffs. Later down the line you also get the option to just raw Extend an SSI to carry it’s 1 hour/level duration into the next day, which is pretty nice. Some of my favorite spells to persist include: Prayer, Adoration of the Frightful, Swift Fly/Haste, Cone of Euphoria, Magic Savant, and Linked Perception.

    Reach (or Ocular, see below) > Chain

    The basic plan here is making an SSI of the spell SSI, then you can Reach spell on it to qualify for chain and Chain it to get a (caster level) number of extra SSI copies. Proceed to start casting spells and never stop. It’s a good thing chain doesn’t make you pay costs over and over, because otherwise this would have finally started to reach levels of xp drain I’d actually have to think about. You also have the option to reach or chain your offensive spells. This is an especially good route for those without as much access to buying magic items or time to craft.

    After picking a starting pair, you usually add on a 3rd down the line (think of your level 8 or 12 bonus feat) as an attempt to take advantage of the fact that by that point it’s not a huge cost to slap on 2 metamagics on one SSI and possibly Power Surge it too. Options include:

    -Ocular Spell. This needs 4 ranks in a skill base Artificers don’t have, but you could get it as soon as 6th level even with that limitation, and of course you could always take a feat or dip to get it at 4th or even earlier. Either way, it's a very strong pick, because it does a lot of things at once. It makes any non-personal targeted spell into a 60 ft ray, qualifying it for both Chain and (if it’s not instantaneous) Persist. It lets you shoot 2 spells at once as a full round action, letting it be a more specific version of a Quicken effect. And finally, *you* cast the spells, so your INT score and traditional DC boosters work again. Also, you get to use items and qualify for feats that need you to cast spells, which is a huge list. Glyphseals, Craft Contingent Spell, Arcane Mastery, Greenbound Summoning, and on and on. If you can take this one, take this one.

    -Twin. Strictly in terms of casting more spells faster, Twin is probably better than Ocular, since there are a lot of good multitarget and AoE spells that Twin doesn't restrict into single beams. If the latter isn't allowed or you already have it, this is the next best one.

    Quicken: Probably the least efficient 3rd metamagic route in terms of gain per resource expended, but it does offer the most flexibility of the 3, as it lets you freeform cast any two spells in a round, including unrepeatable ones like Wall of Stone. If you have access to Celerity, skip this and get more of those. If you don't, this is probably your best remaining immediate action spell enabler and thus your most important 3rd metamagic.

    As an aside, you almost certainly can’t use your 9th feat slot on these because Wand Mastery exists. It's basically a feat tax, since it’s one of like 3 ways in the entire game to boost SSI’s Save DC while also boosting its caster level just as a bonus. Even if you have Ocular Spell, there are just so many good multitarget spells that don't work well with it, so you'll probably take this anyway.


    Crafting, and Crafting feats:


    So, just to recap feat picks for a level 8 arti so far: you have 4 standard feats and 2 bonus feats, with the option for +1 from race and +1 or 2 from flaws if you're lucky. Getting big UMD took anywhere between 1 and 3 feats and enabling Metamagic Item popoffs took 2, maximum 3. So irregardless of your setup you usually have space left over after the mandatory picks. What do you fill it with? Craft boosting feats are your first and best option, as they have high value payoff while being exceedingly modular. (Well, ok, your first and best option would be Leadership, but imagine finding a table where Leadership isn’t just banned. Couldn’t be me.) Think about the resource you have the least of, between time/gold/xp, slap the appropriate eberron Artisan feat on to remediate the problem, done. If you have 2 spare feats, slap on Magical Artisan on that first artisan feat and laugh.

    As for what you should be actually crafting, the split in options I discussed earlier resonates here too. There are items that get you more SSI slots as efficiently as possible, (mostly in the form of UMD boost items and Memento Magica) and SSI+Metamagic Item is so good that these hedge out most of the rest of the game. Why get concealment items (even really good ones like Smoking Weapons,) when you can spam Snowsight and Obscuring Snow? Why get flight items when you can persist Swift Fly? Etc.

    So 2 categories of items remain. Those that are cheap enough to be craftable pre-6 that can compete with SSI alone, and those that do something so wild or so powerful that not even your full casting suite can replicate it.

    Shapesand: ridiculously flexible and only 100 gp. I’d call having at least one jar of this mandatory if possible. If you get the volume right to shape it into armor that’s easily a 4-5 gp for 1 of value, and that’s literally the least creative way to use it I can think of. (See here here for more ideas on mundane items that shapesand could potentially turn into.)


    Wand Chambers: Also 100 gp, and totally mundane. You’ll want to remember that these exist.
    For similar reasons, you should remember that Gauntlets are weapons and can be enchanted as such.

    Artificer's Monocle: borders on infinite componentless Identity for 1500 gp.

    Handy Haversack: Extra storage+move action draw. 2000 gp.

    Crafting enchantments on ammunition: It's pretty nuts. If you’re worried about getting a book thrown at you, there’s a very safe application of this where you make or buy Shock/Corrosive ammo, so you can Personal Weapon Augment (Elemental Power) them yourself.

    Anklets of Translocation: There are a lot of possible movement options you could choose to go for, like a Chronocharm of the Horizon Walker or a Shadow Cloak or the Greaves of Aundair, but Anklets have 3 big advantages:
    -they're a teleport effect, and not just movement.
    -swift action activation, which is fast by teleport standards
    -Some of the cheapest versions of the effect around, at 1400 gp for 2 uses/day, meaning you can get it long before Metamagic Item shows up.

    This isn’t to say that it’s the best movement item of all time or anything, merely that it works the best for a class that can already get itself Lesser Celerity and every low level teleport, including (Shadow Magic) Flicker. (Although if the former is unavailable, consider looking into getting those greaves.)

    Tunic of Steady Spellcasting: big bonus to a good skill for 2500 gp.

    Getting maneuvers via the ToB magic items: There are a lot of things maneuvers can do that spells can't, and a good chunk of them belong to maneuvers low enough to be found in novice versions that only cost 3k. Their various prerequisites can be met via either UMDing having maneuvers as a class feature, having the spell Heroics up over a day or two, or making a 2nd item to give knowledge of a lower level maneuver.

    -Ring of the Diamond Mind (Mind Over Body/Moment of Perfect Mind), turning a save into a concentration check is a good way to probably auto-pass that save. Getting to do it again 5 minutes from now for only 3000 gp is insane. Also if you wanted you could switch between those two maneuvers by reactivating the headband over a few days to grant a different one. Only problem is, it's a ring, and you can't craft those for a long long time.

    -Crown of the White Ravens (White Raven Tactics) direct extra actions are within the realm of spells, but definitely not within the realm of the kind of spells you have when you can first afford to craft this. Yes, it's more limited than that, between the finicky method and the limited range, but you're also paying 1/4th the price of a Belt of a Battle for an effect you get to use once per encounter instead of once per day.

    -Iron Heart Vest (Iron Heart Surge). Not as good as you might think, since it can't win action economy wars. It's closer to a Restoration sort of effect in application, with some measure of versatility against grapples and such. It's still good, but not quite to the level of most of the rest of this list.

    Third Eye Clarity: Stunned and Dazed are two of the most lethal conditions in the whole game, Ocular + Persist Favor of the Martyr could take over this protection eventually but a spare 3000gp (actually 1500, since you can craft it) will come much sooner than double metamagic. Hell, there aren’t even a lot of combat items that compete for the Face slot so when you don’t need this anymore you can just give it to another party member. Very solid 3rd or 4th item.

    Headband of Consciousness Effort: This is a very good magic item. It's much worse than a Ring of the Diamond Mind, but that should tell you more about the ring than this. You can actually craft this one, so if there's no magic mart then you take what you can get. 4000 gp.

    Ring of Silent Spells: There are a surprisingly high number of items that qualify under the header of "ring to help you win spellcasting wars" (Ring of Counterspells, Ring of Enduring Arcana, Ring of Spell Battle,) but they mostly very between overkill and redundant, especially when you consider that componentless, uncounterspellable Spell Like Abilities mess with every single one of them. If you really want to throw a ring slot at the problem, this item is the cheapest by far, most helpful for allied casters besides yourself, and the most useful for other things, so while I wouldn't call it a top tier item it's pretty good for sure.

    Your real anti-magic plans can just consist of stuff you already have. Have high initiative with spells like Primal Instinct plus the Warning weapon enchantment to strike first and take enemy casters out before anything happens. Spread out your magic items and put magic mouth on them to buffer against Dispel Magic. Mix in Wings of Cover, a few choice Spellblade or Dispelling weapons, and some extra action economy and that's all you really need.

    Glyphseal: You can't use it yourself, because you can't put infusions in it and using SSI doesn't count as casting a spell, but if you have any other casters in your party you should make one, and if you don't but spellcasting services are available you should still make one. Any sort of contingent spell effect, even low level ones, are naturally hideously strong, and despite not getting an extra SSI it can still double as a bonus slot per day, and it's only 1000 gold. Absolute steal. I'd recommend waiting until you have access to big skill boosters like Divine Insight first, so you can hit the DC 30 Search check on a 10 instead of a 20, but definitely a top purchase.

    Headband of Intellect: Not nearly as good on you as a wizard, but the +2 version is probably still worth picking up sometime after Ocular Spell and before Craft Staff. +4 and above? You should be spending that kind of money on crafting staves.

    Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage and Ring of the Darkhidden: I don't really recommend either of these, because I don't think they fit into Artificer's gameplan very well, but they are firmly hard to duplicate effects that are generally cheap for the price range, especially the 500 GP Chronocharm. I figure you should know they exist even if you never make one.


    That’s it, then. The best spellcasting, one of if not the best metamagic enabler, and crafting, with a nod to weapon/armor enchants. Your 3.5 pillars of gameplay. You can do lots of other things, after all Artificer has literally infinite capacity to be too cute, but from what I could gather this is most of the really important stuff.

    Alright, have fun!
    Last edited by Xenken; 2022-05-19 at 12:59 AM.
    My Beginner's Guide for Moon and other Druids: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...pecially-Moon)

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2016

    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    here have a handbook
    Currently Playing: Aire Romaris Chaotic Good Male Half Celestial Gray Elf Duskblade 13 / Swiftblade 7 /// Elven Generallist Wizard 20

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2009

    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    I really appreciate you highlighting the holding the charge interaction, since that's imo enormously important to making the artificer even playable at low levels.

    Quote Originally Posted by Xenken View Post
    A lot of comments hanging about the internet space say that Artificers are terrible in campaigns where there is too little gold or time to craft. They are all liars because this spell exists. If you really want to play Artificer, you’ll need to read that. Probably multiple times. How does it affect gameplay? Well for starters it turns you into a full caster for levels 1-10. That’s pretty good.
    Spell Storing Item is really good for sure, but "turns you into a full caster for levels 1-10" is a huge exaggeration.

    For one, at 1st level, one-half your artificer is 0. You can try to nab any cantrip you want (and for 0 XP cost, I guess), but having 3 attempts a day at casting a cantrip with a minute and a DC 20 skill check is ... unimpressive. You can't even pull out bargain bin spells from obscure spell lists, because those are all on spell lists that don't go up to 9th level, and those also don't have cantrips.

    And second, of course, you stop getting new spells after 8th level. So really it turns you into almost an even-level full caster for levels 2-9, except that all your spell slots can cast your highest level of spell, but with a CL 20+level*3 UMD check in advance and your DCs don't keep up with enemy saves.

    Every spell that you don't care about pumping your DC for up to 4th level is still a really good spell list, but frankly losing basically every spell where you really need the target to fail their save to do its job is a bigger step down than losing two of the big three spell lists. Spell list diving makes up for this a bit by giving you a handful of spells ahead of schedule, but it's not a panacea even at the levels where you have something ahead of schedule, you're still a spell level behind odd-level full casters on everything else half the time, and after 9th you're just not keeping up.

    But the skill checks kind of kill it. Because from 2nd to 9th level, your bonus from Cha + ranks + Skill Enhancement gives you success on an 12-13 or so. Without Skill Enhancement, which makes up the extra point per spell level you don't get from ranks, you're looking at optimistically +9 vs DC 23 at 2nd level. And that's assuming a +4 in Cha, which isn't necessarily your primary ability score—this bonus to UMD is kind of the main thing it really does for you. Heck, truenamers have easier DCs and at least they're SAD.

    So you need extra support, and your only real options at low level are feats, so let's talk feats. Your best feat options average about +5 per feat. This is an absolutely staggering opportunity cost, since where you're spending three feats on just barely functioning as something on par with a full caster, actual full casters get to spend their feats on things like "65% to cast a 2nd-level spell" or "have half as many spells but a spell level ahead" or "60 hp of healing before even digging into spell slots". Or DMM Persistent Spell in 2-3 feats. Or DMM Heighten Summon Elemental in 3 feats. Or just spend three feats for -20% for enemies to save against your favorite encounter-ender.

    Your alternatives include Least Dragonmark (Making) to give yourself access to Summon Marked Homunculus, Versatile Spellcaster to put yourself a spell level ahead on infusions (okay, your 2nds aren't fantastic, but you've got some 3rds and 4ths), Rapid Infusion, Wand Bonding, the Dragonmark Luck/Prophecy's Hero + Wand Surge combo, or just starting your metamagic stack, plus the stuff that anyone can take, like at-will 2d6 ranged touch attacks or fly for a minute a day or, like, an extra warm body.

    Point is, feats are actually really good. At low levels, often better than the about one extra spell a day you get to successfully cast by improving your SSI check, if you spend all your slots on that. Which you don't necessarily actually want to, because personal weapon augmentation and lesser armor enhancement are actually pretty good. SMH, also actually pretty good if you get to cast it.

    And actual full casters get to have this on top of ... just being a full caster without having to jump through hoops just to get their "being a full caster" working. Their spells mostly work fine even on the elite array. They don't need to be an azurin with flaws to avoid a spell failure chance.

    Now, around 4th-6th level your metamagic stuff comes online and you can SSI metamagic item your SSI wands, and you have enough SSI casts to match full casters' good spells, but that's also the point where (a) you start being able to afford stuff like circlet or persuasion, you can pick up a loadstone or -2 sword to make a legacy item or item familiar, and all that. If you go the persist route, Magic Savant gives you +4 and lets you take 10 once you hit 7th level, which pretty much solves your SSI UMD check problems from then until when you just straight up have enough ranks and always-on bonuses to succeed normally.

    Actually doing this stuff that you can do better than full-casters, though requires ... feats! Different feats from the ones that boost your UMD check!

    So my take is that you should really just give up on trying to making casting Spell Storing Item out of slots viable at low level until you get your silly metamagic shenanigans going, which usually means that you aren't going to be taking UMD boosting feats at all, except maybe Shape Soulmeld if you can retrain that out later.

    But then, I say "casting Spell Storing Item out of slots" because, well:

    Quote Originally Posted by Xenken View Post
    Say you’re 8th level and got an orange ioun stone, so now you cast spells at CL 9. Even though you can now cast SSI at CL 9, the spell it makes in wand form still has max CL=artificer level.
    The flip side of this is that if you're an 8th-level artificer and you cast SSI at CL 1, the spell in wand form is still CL 8, because you use your artificer level for "the spell's" caster level. Even though the XP cost is based on "your" caster level. Which makes SSI's XP cost even less relevant than it already is—but that's not really important. It does, however, make items that duplicate SSI really cheap. A CL 1 + 4 XP scroll of SSI has a market price of 45 gp, costs you 12.5 gp + 5 XP to make, and lets you pull out any 4th-level or lower spell with CL = your full artificer level with a minute's notice.

    A CL 1 + 1 XP per charge wand costs 1k gp (20 gp/charge), which is kind of pocket change for the ability to pull out any 1st-level spell—including paying out-of-pocket for SSI with a higher (but still hilariously cheap) XP cost if you need that. And this kind of of a game-changer that salvages low-level use of SSI because whereas having a 30-60% chance for one of your four spells to just not work unless you spend all your feats on it is kind of crippling, spending 1-3 minutes 30-50 gp average to cast exactly the right 1st-level spell at CL 2 is actually a pretty good deal a lot of the time with fifty chances in a stick. And the relative cost of this compared to a full-caster pulling out scrolls just keeps goes down at higher levels, since you don't pay for caster level (and you're paying dirt cheap for higher spell level too).

    Quote Originally Posted by Xenken View Post
    Be a bonus feat race, get Iron Will+Hardened Criminal: get to take 10, so under these circumstances basically +9
    Note that this is much, much worse than e.g. the +9 an azurin gets by taking Shape Soulmeld + Skill Focus, because it only helps if you actually make the check on a 10. You don't. Being a bonus feat race almost doesn't matter, because Hardened Criminal isn't actually letting you accomplish anything of value until around 3rd level anyway.

    Quote Originally Posted by Xenken View Post
    Well, you could buy a masterwork tool for (a skill), which can be UMD. that’s a +2.
    Eeeeh, that's not quite how masterwork tools work. A masterwork tool is for "a job" and grants a bonus on "a related skill check (if any)". It's the generic version of artisans' tools, thieves' tools, musical instruments &c., which are restricted by the tool being applicable to the task and grant the bonus to skills checks where the tool is applicable. They don't just generically make you better at a particular skill like a competence magic item does.

    Now, you can probably come up with some kind of tool which would be suited to the task of casting Spell Storing Item, like "eldritch whorlwood stick well-suited to holding spells" or "anti-static wrist strap but for magic" or something, but it's not exactly a gimme.

    Quote Originally Posted by Xenken View Post
    (Note: A few guides recommend a similar route but using a custom skill boosting item in step 1. I broadly agree with this advice, because I think skill boosting is by far the most likely custom item to be actually allowed, but don't expect it to just be freely available. Many DMs just ban all custom items outright, and rightfully so since a lot of em are busted as all hell.)
    Ah, well, for +5 competence skill bonus magic items specifically there's the option of finding a 4th-level specialist (DMG2 155) and convincing them to part with their +5 competence bonus magic item. What that item is like, we have no idea, but apparently they have one at that level... (It's also a legacy weapon ability, which normally I'd say isn't worth the complexity of learning that system and working around its downsides, but you are playing an artificer.)

    Quote Originally Posted by lylsyly View Post
    here have a handbook
    prefer the other handbook tbh

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    Quote Originally Posted by sreservoir View Post
    Now that I've read it so do I! Bookemarked and thank you for bringing it to my attention ;-)
    Currently Playing: Aire Romaris Chaotic Good Male Half Celestial Gray Elf Duskblade 13 / Swiftblade 7 /// Elven Generallist Wizard 20

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Devil

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    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    SSI isn't a spell, so I don't see how the Chain spell thing works. I might have missed something, though. Also, I don't see how you can Persist Flicker, given that Flicker is a mystery and would therefore need metashadow feats, or something. Also, you say "(See here for more ideas.)" but you forgot to include the link.

    Other than those quibbles, great handbook.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Halfling in the Playground
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    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    Quote Originally Posted by Kalkra View Post
    SSI isn't a spell, so I don't see how the Chain spell thing works. I might have missed something, though. Also, I don't see how you can Persist Flicker, given that Flicker is a mystery and would therefore need metashadow feats, or something. Also, you say "(See here for more ideas.)" but you forgot to include the link.

    Other than those quibbles, great handbook.
    -Infusions are just like spells and follow all the rules for spells (quote from the class description of Infusions) > SSI is an Infusion > SSI is just like a spell, and has a level of 1 > SSI can place any spell of 4th or lower in an item > the infusion SSI, just like a spell, can be placed by SSI into an item.

    -OOOH, true. You're right. You explicitly can't metamagic mysteries even when they are spells. Rip, I missed that. You could go for volume and just do Quickened Flicker every fight or something but that's way way more commitment. Perhaps this is space for repeatable teleports from magic items to shine? (Although I suspect the best way to get a lot of short teleports is just getting more anklets, heh.) Corrected and noted.

    -Yo thanks for catching that! I definitely wouldn't have seen that otherwise. Link Fixed.
    My Beginner's Guide for Moon and other Druids: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...pecially-Moon)

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    Pixie in the Playground
     
    NecromancerGuy

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    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    Oh, hey Xenken! Reading this guide of yours is really illuminating, honestly. Makes Sapphire make way more sense mechanically.

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    Default Re: Xenken's 3.5 Artificer Basics

    Just a point of clarification, does Chain Spell really work on Ocular Spell when it's applied to spells that don't have a single target object/creature? That seems to be stretching the rules a bit, if that's what you're saying.
    Last edited by Tohron; 2022-05-28 at 06:32 PM.

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