New toDungeons & Dragonsis the Artificer,D&D’suniquely steampunk class that borrows elements from both the traditional rogue and wizard. Until recently, the artificer class was available to players only through Unearthed Arcana, which is supplemental content that Wizards of the Coast releases periodically in an unofficial capacity—usually for testing to see if it’ll fit into officialD&Dlore.
Artificers, of course, originate out ofD&D 5th edition’s one notablysteampunk-themed campaign setting, Eberron. To get full access to the class, interested players will need to purchase and refer to the recently-released sourcebook,Eberron: Rising from the Last War.Now that artificers have an official place in 5e, it’s time to explore how players can get the best build possible out of these crafty, magically talented characters.
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Selecting a Race
First, the artificer will need to be one of the many races available in 5e. To help narrow down the long list of contenders, consider these few options above all others: high elves, forest gnomes, variant humans, and the yuan-ti pureblood all make for especially strong artificers. High elves are the only elven subrace that grants a boost to intelligence, which is the primary stat for most artificer builds, and the cantrip list that all high elves get to choose from offers options not normally available to artificers. Meanwhile,anygnomish subrace actually works for an artificer, since gnomes all get a +2 intelligence boost that suits artificers perfectly. Forest gnomes, however, also get a +1 to dexterity and the wildly useful minor illusion cantrip.
As for variant humans, well, they’re reallyperfect for any class. That’s the main draw of selecting a variant human at all: due to the flexibility in assigning ability score bonuses and level one feats, they fit into any role they’re given with ease. The yuan-ti pureblood is a newer and less-conventional choice, but they’re effective nonetheless. Another intelligent race with a +1 bonus to that stat, yuan-ti purebloods also get advantage to save against all magic and immunity to poison.
There are also a couple of races specific todifferent campaign booksthat are excellent choices. Veldaken from theGuildmaster’s Guide to Ravnicais one such choice; a hyper-intellectual people with a natural predisposition towards acquiring knowledge, they’re excellent as artificers. And from Eberron itself, another variation of human works better than any other. For a Mark of Making human, it’s literally in the name that they’re inherently talented as an inventor and craftsperson.
Ability Scores
Thankfully, assigning artificer ability scores should be fairly straightforward whether manual rolls or the point buy system is being used. As previously mentioned, intelligence is the artificer’s primary stat in any situation. It’s especially needed for the spellcasting-oriented artillerist and alchemist subclasses, but even battle smiths use this as their attacking stat. Put the highest score with intelligence.
Second and third in importance on the ability score list are dexterity and constitution.Dexterity is easily preferable over strengthas an armor stat while also boosting a fairly common saving throw and some key abilities, and constitution dictates a character’s hit point numbers. When making an artificer, aim to have both of these stats fall anywhere between 14 and 16. Wisdom comes after those; it’s universally useful for its boost to wisdom saving throws alone (which are extremely common) but is of little use to an artificer otherwise.
Coming in last are charisma and strength. In most cases, players will want to give charisma the second-lowest score and make strength their artificer’s definitive dump stat; the only time strength will be more useful than charisma is if the player wants to multiclass—and even then, it’d only be more useful in specific situations. For a general best build, make strength the lowest ability score.
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Artificer Specialists
More subclasses for the artificer existwithin the Unearthed Arcana, but this guide will just deal with the ones that were made official in the latest Eberron sourcebook (DMs will have to approve any other unofficial additions themselves). The official artificer subclasses are the alchemist, the artillerist, and the battle smith.
Alchemists are spellcasting-focused and fall within a support role; they get access to healing spells and bonuses to those spells as well. Free access to two powerful healing spells and Lesser Restoration on top of that is nothing to complain about! Artillerists, meanwhile, are the spellcasting subclass intended to deal out damage and slay enemies. The spellstheycan gain constant access to include Shield, Fireball, Cone of Cold, and Wall of Force,all of which are powerful spells, and artillerists can also create wants with ease and for little money. Pretty much all of the artillerist’s class abilities are solid ones. Finally, battle smiths are the martially-focused subclass that makes for good melee or ranged fighters—and as will all classes that revolve around weapons use more so than casting, it’s the simplest of the subclasses.
Out of the three, the artillerist is themost conventionally powerful subclass. They can blow things up, defend party members by setting up turrets and come with a whole bunch of awesome spells. Luckily, all three have very distinguishable play-styles, so players who want to fulfill a certain role in the party should have little to no problem deciding which to choose: alchemist for support, battle smith to wield martial weapons, and artillerist for combat caster.
Skills and Feats
Everyclass has its own key skills; the four most useful for an artificer are perception, investigation, stealth, and arcana. Fortunately, perception, investigation, and arcana are all class skills; any player who chooses two of those from the artificer’s list of skills is well on their way to a great build. Stealth is handy for getting into an advantageous position both in and out of combat, but it’s not a class skill. So, it’d be a smart move for players to get their hands on that skill and whichever skill above wasn’t bought through class either through the character’s racial skills, background, or some other method.
Upon leveling up, players will also get the chance to assign some new feats to their artificers. Lucky, Magic Initiate, Observant, and War Caster are all generally useful feats for any artificer to take on; battle smiths, in particular, could also make great use of the Mounted Combatant feat.
Following this guide, players should be able to get their artificers into top shape in no time. The build gets even better if players select a background that suits the artificer’s abilities, hopefully granting additional Intelligence-based skills or some good tool proficiencies; Sage, Cloistered Scholar, Faction Agent, and Far Traveler would all be excellent choices in that regard. From there, the artificer will be all set to bring a steampunk flair intoanyDungeons & Dragonscampaign.
