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YES OH MY GOD RKHSGAKSL

hi! i’ve been following you on twitter and insta for a while and ive seen a lot of your DND stuff that i love, like your artificer Ren.

i’ve recently started playing DND and i chose an artificer, i was wondering if you had any advice on playing one?

i adore and admire your art

Hi, thank you so much!!

I saw this ask days ago but I knew the answer might get lengthy, so I had to wait until I had a chance to sit down and write it. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Artificer, and it's actually replaced Rogue as my favorite DnD class.

Full disclosure though - I actually have yet to take a close look at the other artificer subclasses (battle smith, armorer, alchemist). My artificer, Ren, is an artillerist. Any thoughts I have may very well apply to other subclasses as well, but just know they'll be coming from the angle of artillerist!

So basically, bottom line, the artificer is good at just about everything (limited only by what you have prepared and available at the time), is really, really fun to play mechanically, versatile, and the class features are packed.

The rest of this is going under a read more.

Utility

While you can definitely build your artificer around a specialty (usually according to subclass), the base class is designed first and foremost for utility. Artificers are prepared casters that can swap out their spells for any other on the artificer spell list every long rest. Being half-casters means the number of spells they can have prepared at once is more limited, but the sheer number of spells they have access to is still impressive. If you look at the base artificer spell list, you might notice that very, very few of them are geared towards actual damage. Many of them can be handy in a variety of circumstances, especially if you get creative! There are excellent options for disguise, flavor, defense, and support. Also notice that many of the spells can be applied not only to the benefit of you the artificer, but to you team as well - more on that when I get to buffing. Also, casting the spells is fun! The idea behind using your tools as your spellcasting focus is that you're actually using inventions you have created, so you can flavor it however you imagine. To cast the Invisibility spell, Ren has an sphere that separates into lots of tiny butterflies with glass wings. They gather around the target of the spell in a formation, and the light reflects and refracts on the wings to bend light around the target and hide them.

And then, when you choose a subclass, you automatically get MORE SPELLS! Artillerist gets Shield, Thunderwave, Scorching Ray, and Shatter. Three very good, effective damager spells, two AoE, and one sniper. And then - shield. SHIELD. This spell is so important to me. Usually when you create an artificer, you may be able to lean towards higher defense armor to make up for the fact that Dexterity probably isn't one of your higher stats. Ren doesn't have that luxury, because he can fly. If I want him to be able to fly, he is limited to light armor. He is very squishy, with an AC of only 14. His team is very, very good about covering him, but if Ren does find himself in a situation, or if he needs to jump into the fray to cover a teammate for a round, Shield gives him a +5 bonus to his AC if he's hit. Imagine that +5 bonus on a character with a higher AC! You could be the one covering your teammates with that kind of defense!

And then on top of all those spells - infusions!! Not only is there that lovely list of infusions that grant defense or attack bonuses or let you create a metal homunculus servant, you can also replicate magic items! There are so many ways you could take this depending on the campaign. You could make items that let you fly, maneuver in water, or items that replace spells to either get access to other spells or just to free up room for a few more spells on your prepared list. A lot of artificer can turn into resource allocation. Or, you can make infusions and give them to your teammates, again, more on that in a bit. Take Ren's homunuclus though, a metal bird he named Joule. Joule can attack if Ren spends a bonus action. Joule can also deliver touch spells. This means that Ren can send Joule in to an enemy to deliver a Shocking Grasp without endangering himself, or he can send Joule to a teammate to deliver a Cure Wounds without spending his own movement. This is a tactic I've used a lot, it's come in very handy. Furthermore, Joule (situation allowing) might be able to use the Help action to give advantage on a roll (this ACTUALLY saved Ren's life, and recently assisted our Fighter when he found himself in a situation) and often acts as a messenger/lookout for the party. Whenever the party splits, Ren sends Joule to keep an eye on them and report back if there's trouble.

There's another part of the utility aspect here that I think often goes overlooked - CRAFTING. Artificers have SO many tool proficiencies. Use them!! Talk to your DM about crafting rules. Crafting takes time and it isn't until the higher artificer levels that trying to craft magic items on the regular becomes feasible. But there are other things you can do even earlier. For example, Ren is proficient with smith's tools. He came into some money during the first act of the game and spent it on silver, then borrowed a forge, hired a few of the apprentices for just a couple of gold a day. In only a day and a half, he silvered 20 arrows for the ranger, one of the ranger's swords, and the fighter's glaive. This was right before the group went to Avernus, which is filled with fiends and demons and devils that are resistant to non-silvered weapons. That contribution alone from Ren has made a HUGE difference in combat. My DM introduced some other crafting options (The Complete Armorers Handbook Weapon and Armor Upgrade System from DM's Guild), so Ren also muffled the armor of our fighter and cleric, allowing them to wear the heavy armor with higher defense without any penalties to their stealth.

Class Features

This is where I am only able to comment on artillerist. But OH DO I HAVE THOUGHTS-

Artillerist gets some nice features like a 1d8 bonus to attacks with Arcane Firearm, but what I really want to talk about is, of course, their cannons. Their class features revolve around this. You can spend a turn action to create one of three options: a force cannon (delivers 2d8 damage and blasts the target back 5 feet), a flamethrower (delivers 2d8 damage on a failed save in a 15-foot cone), and a protector cannon (grants temporary hp to anyone of the artificer's choice within 10 feet of it). You can make one cannon per day for free, but you can spend spell slots if you need to make another one later.

I need to emphasize that while it takes a turn action to create a cannon, it is only a bonus action to fire it. You can attack with the cannon on the same turn you make it. Also, on subsequent turns?? You have an entire turn action to do whatever you want with!! You can cast a utility spell to help with battlefield control, or a buff spell to help your teammates, or a damage cantrip like Firebolt (the artificer's bread and butter) which stacks with the 1d8 damage bonus, or whatever else you want to do - and you'll still have your cannon left for the bonus action.

You can make these cannons either tiny, so they are small enough to hold, or small objects, that occupy their own space. I used to favor the handheld cannons because of their mobility. We had several combats that involved a chase, so it was easier for Ren to just carry the cannon with him. However, I recently discovered the true power of the cannons. All of them have an AC of 18 and hit points equal to 5 x your artificer level. Which leads me into...

Battlefield control

An AC of 18 and hit points equal to 5 x artificer level is basically a whole other character on the battlefield with you!! We found ourselves in an intense combat recently with two powerful enemies moments away from flanking our artillerist and our fighter. Our fighter was already fighting one, and a helmed horror statue (bad!!) just knocked down the door to the room. Ren dropped a cannon in the doorway.

That statue could NOT get through that cannon. That AC of 18 kept it out of the room for the rest of the combat. The one round where the statue actually did hit the cannon, and with a multiattack, it wasn't enough damage to take it out. Ren then cast Mending to restore the cannon's hit points. Hilarious. And it bought our fighter enough time to take out the other enemy, and the rest of our group time to get to the back of the building and assist us. Plus, at higher levels: the cannons count as half cover...AND you can make and command two of them at once...AND they can explode!

Also consider all the AoE spells and how they can be used to help the flow of combat in your favor. There are damage dealing spells like Fireball, or utility spells like Grease. Consider the force cannon and the 5-foot pushback it delivers on a hit. We ran into some trouble when an enemy was physically stopping our vehicle from moving forward, and all we had to do was make it let go for an instant. Ren constructed a cannon with his action, fired at it with his bonus, and forced it just 5 feet away - but it was enough, and we were on our way. Imagine using that to knock enemies around the battlefield - away from your friends, or in the range an AoE spell you can unleash on the same turn.

Versatility

Artificers can swap between offense, defense, and support/buff in an instant.

Artillerists can snipe with Firebolt or Scorching Ray from a distance. They can unleash AoE attacks like Thunderwave or Fireball. They can heal their teammates. They can use their homunculus to deliver touch spells if they need to. They can jump in and play defense for a round with Shield. They can give their allies a temp hp bump with the protector cannon.

Another sometimes overlooked power of the artificer though - BUFF YOUR TEAM.

Looking at the artificer spell list, consider spells like Faerie Fire, Sanctuary, Aid, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Invisibility, Magic Weapon - all of these and more that can give your team significant advantages. I really believe that part of the reason artificer is so based in utility, and so versatile, and so adaptable, is not to stand alone but so the artificer can cover the team - fill in any holes and enhance their strengths.

With infusions, it's totally understandable to focus on giving your build those bonuses. Especially if your build is meant to be combat effective and you're handling a lot of the front-line action yourself. But for Ren, who is quite squishy, and who isn't built for front-line combat, it's much more advantageous to give those infusions to his party members. Since he silvered one of the ranger's swords, he infused the other one to be a Radiant Weapon. He also gave our cleric a defense bump (so there wouldn't be TWO people with low AC lol!!). This works well in this group, because the better protected his companions are, the better protected he is, too. But it might not work for everyone!

Just consider your party makeup and decide where your artificer would be most effective with spells and infusions.

Multiclassing

Artificer isn't a class I would personally recommend multiclassing with. Being a half-caster means artificer doesn't see higher level spells for quite some time, and the class features are good enough that sticking primarily with artificer is worth it. However, I do think you can get away with multiclassing 2-3 levels into another class. Wizard is the obvious pick, since they are also Intelligence-based casters. This is actually quite a good move, especially for artillerist. Just two levels in wizard will get you the Sculpt Spells feature, which lets you carve out areas of safety within your AoE attacks. That means you can cast Fireball without frying your teammates. Additionally, and this would be the case with a multiclass into any full caster class, you more spells and more cantrips that you can have prepared at one time, and more spell slots, which of course is incredibly useful. My recommendation here would be to move utility spells onto the wizard list, making room for damage spells on the artificer list that can stack with Arcane Firearm in the case of artillerist.

Of course, Ren's situation is a little unique. Being in an Avernus game, most of the enemies we encounter are resistant or immune to fire. And artillerist is skewed towards fire, with its signature spells including Firebolt, Scorching Ray, and Fireball. Resistance you could actually get around very easily with the Elemental Adept feat. Immunity is the BIG problem for me because there is no feat to get around that. However, the sorcerer class has a Metamagic feature that lets you change the damage type of your spells. You could take a feat that gives you this as well (Metamagic Adept), but you would only get two uses of it per day. Given that Firebolt is Ren's main attack, and every enemy we encounter has a high likelihood of resistance/immunitiy, I felt that two uses wouldn't be enough. So, I multiclassed into sorcerer and with that got some fun abilities, the extra spells and cantrips to free up my artificer list, and am one level away from the Metamagic I need. It's a steeper dip than wizard (3 levels instead of 2) and generally wouldn't be the most optimal option for artificer, but it was the best option for Ren considering the environment of this campaign.

But yeah! There are a ton of ways you can build out artificer. Check out the other subclasses and see how they stack, because I'm sure they have similar strengths as artillerist does! Artificer is my favorite class and I hope this gave you some ideas for how to play yours!

#artificer #reblog #dnd #gunslinger #CATCH ME SENDING THIS TO MY DM SO WE CAN OBSESS TOGETHER #this is the first time my dm or myself have experienced an artificer so we’re both learning #its so fun #my artificer is an elf named Torra and she really likes guns #its great

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