Spelljamming Gun Toting Izzet League Artificer

[Master O'Laughs]

In June I will be joining a Spelljammer game set to start at level 3. I am planning on taking the gunner feat so I can use them in melee and can ignore the loading property allowing me to use enhance weapon on it instead.

I plan on being a Battlesmith so attribute priority seems like it should be Int>Con>Dex>Wis>Str=Cha.

Apart from gunner and probably sharpshooter, what are other good feats to look at?

From what I gather, bonus action may be clogged with both steel defender or spells.

[Psyren]

You should max out Int for Flash of Genius (on top of the other benefits - attacks/damage, spell attacks, DCs, Int checks etc) as soon as you can, so I wouldn't worry about too many other feats, 2 is plenty.

With that said, Telekinetic is a half-feat if you find yourself needing one of those, and gives you another use for your bonus action if your Steel Defender goes down or isn't useful. Resilient Wis is also not a bad get for an artificer.

[Master O'Laughs]

I think I am aiming on either going custom lineage or vuman for race to get an extra feat. DMis also allowing 4d6k3 for attributes with a caveat if you have less than +5 bonus you can reroll. It helps boost the chance to get a better than 15 start or solid all rounder.

I agree getting Int to 20 is a priority.

[8wGremlin]

Artificers should get Firearm proficiency, if your DM has guns in the game.
Also with the Repeating Shot infusion makes the weapon a +1 and ignores the loading property.
So you freed up a feat, don't need to spend money on ammo, either.

I've played this build for a while and you very rarely get up close and personal, to warrant spending a feat just to get this.
You have a plethora of ways to help not get into this situation.

As for other feats, Sharpshooter is nice. As is Fighting Initiate - and Pick Archery(You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons. )

[RogueJK]

Artificers should get Firearm proficiency, if your DM has guns in the game.
Also with the Repeating Shot infusion makes the weapon a +1 and ignores the loading property.
So you freed up a feat, don't need to spend money on ammo, either.

As for other feats, Sharpshooter is nice. As is Fighting Initiate - and Pick Archery(You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons. )

Agreed. I wouldn't bother with Gunner on your Battle Smith Artificer.

As suggested, just use Repeating Shot in place of Enhanced Weapon on your firearm; you lose nothing over Enhanced Weapon and gain half of the Gunner feat's abilities. Then just the ability to attack without disadvantage at close range isn't really worth the feat.

Instead, 8wGremlin's suggestion of Fighting Initiate Archery is one good alternative to Gunner. Another could be Elven Accuracy (+1 INT). Or Fey Touched (+1 INT, Bless), if you don't already have frequent access to Bless from another party member. Any of these represent a good way to help offset Sharpshooter's -5 attack penalty.

[Hairfish]

Then just the ability to attack without disadvantage at close range isn't really worth the feat.

Counterpoint: killing an enemy with a point-blank blunderbuss blast to the face is awesome

[Kane0]

I think I am aiming on either going custom lineage or vuman for race to get an extra feat. DMis also allowing 4d6k3 for attributes with a caveat if you have less than +5 bonus you can reroll. It helps boost the chance to get a better than 15 start or solid all rounder.

I agree getting Int to 20 is a priority.

Serious question: do you want to be interesting, or optimal?

[Psyren]

Serious question: do you want to be interesting, or optimal?

Hooray for Stormwind!

[Kane0]

Hooray for Stormwind!

Sorry didnt mean to imply an either/or, more asking priority

Because if you want a particular race you can do that just fine and take the infusion, otherwise you can take gunner and free the infusion. Personally id go with a race i like, especially since the infusion is a smaller cost over a feat

[Chaos Jackal]

If, for whatever reason, you're not allowed innate firearm proficiency from the artificer, ignore the next part.

I'll back the "no Gunner" crew. Enhanced Weapon's additional +1 isn't bad, but it's not huge either and comes online at lv10; on top of that, since you do end up taking an infusion for boosting your weapon you're not even saving one. You're basically spending a feat on +1 Dex, no disadvantage when firing in melee, and eventually a +1 on attack and damage. It's not a complete waste, but it's far from great either.

Otherwise, artificers are one of the SADest classes in the game on top of really putting that one stat of theirs to use. There's too many things relying on Int on any artificer, so while rushing a 20 is far from necessary, they gain more from it than most other classes. And you get native Con proficiency, medium armor and shields, so a Dex and Con at 14 or even 12 are just fine, leaving you space to... basically build however you want, really.

If you want guns, Sharpshooter is big and not just for the damage aspect. Renaissance firearms and non-rifle modern ones have awful range; as far as safety and dealing with enemies in your face is concerned, it's much better to fire from 90-120ft than being within walking range of whatever you're shooting and firing in its face if it gets handsy.

If you feel like Flash of Genius won't be enough, Resilient (Wis) is always good, as is Lucky.

Fey Touched is a strong option for any caster; free misty step and essentially adding it to your list gives you tactical mobility, something everyone likes and the artificer lacks (on top of also being another reason against Gunner; you have someone in your face, just poof away) while stuff like gift of alacrity, silvery barbs or even bless give you strong options both for the free use and as extra spellcasting. Being an Int half-feat also means you're not missing out on stat boosting. There's numerous other half-feats for Int now, so you can just match this with Skill Expert, Telepathic or Gift of the X Dragon (or even Shadow Touched) and have both your Int and some good extra stuff on top.

[Master O'Laughs]

Serious question: do you want to be interesting, or optimal?

I usually like to have my character be proficient in killing things, but with this one, I think interesting would be more important than being optimal.

Spoiler: Chaos Jackal

Show

If, for whatever reason, you're not allowed innate firearm proficiency from the artificer, ignore the next part.

I'll back the "no Gunner" crew. Enhanced Weapon's additional +1 isn't bad, but it's not huge either and comes online at lv10; on top of that, since you do end up taking an infusion for boosting your weapon you're not even saving one. You're basically spending a feat on +1 Dex, no disadvantage when firing in melee, and eventually a +1 on attack and damage. It's not a complete waste, but it's far from great either.

Otherwise, artificers are one of the SADest classes in the game on top of really putting that one stat of theirs to use. There's too many things relying on Int on any artificer, so while rushing a 20 is far from necessary, they gain more from it than most other classes. And you get native Con proficiency, medium armor and shields, so a Dex and Con at 14 or even 12 are just fine, leaving you space to... basically build however you want, really.

If you want guns, Sharpshooter is big and not just for the damage aspect. Renaissance firearms and non-rifle modern ones have awful range; as far as safety and dealing with enemies in your face is concerned, it's much better to fire from 90-120ft than being within walking range of whatever you're shooting and firing in its face if it gets handsy.

If you feel like Flash of Genius won't be enough, Resilient (Wis) is always good, as is Lucky.

Fey Touched is a strong option for any caster; free misty step and essentially adding it to your list gives you tactical mobility, something everyone likes and the artificer lacks (on top of also being another reason against Gunner; you have someone in your face, just poof away) while stuff like gift of alacrity, silvery barbs or even bless give you strong options both for the free use and as extra spellcasting. Being an Int half-feat also means you're not missing out on stat boosting. There's numerous other half-feats for Int now, so you can just match this with Skill Expert, Telepathic or Gift of the X Dragon (or even Shadow Touched) and have both your Int and some good extra stuff on top.

Solid work here. You and everyone else has convinced me drop gunner and go repeating infusion. For "optimal" I think I may lean custom lineage for fey touched and if I choose not to go with a feat, then I am leaning Vedalken.

Background wise, I was born into a family who is involved with Azorius but I joined Izzet because of my curiosity and desire to invent.

I think the most interesting race to me is the plasmoid race in the UA but it doesn't fit in my head with what I am going for.

[Master O'Laughs]

So for infusions, I am thinking Repeating Shot, Enhanced Defense, Duplicate Magic Item (bag of holding), and Boots of winding Path.

We will be starting in a space prison and need to find our gear and escape so if I think boots and bag of holding would be most useful until we get our items.

And reading the infusion rules, I HAVE to infuse the item immediately after a long rest, correct? I would guess this is to prevent creating a magic item and the drop of a hat when you need it.