Artificer
So, Inky has let us know the Artificer class will be released soon. We don't know yet what stuff it will have, but I think we can discuss what stuff it SHOULD have. 

First, what it gets in 3.5 (if my googles are correct)
d6 hit die, 4 skill points per level, and Int is a primary stat
3/4 BAB, good Will save, poor Fort and Ref
medium armor, normal shields, simple weapons
infusions - basically a small amount of spells on the Warmage model
Item Creation - they get all the item creation feats for free, and some extra perks to let them avoid spending exp when creating magic items
Bonus Feats in addition to those, one every 4th level (probably metamagic)
Item usage - they have a bonus to UMD, and can spend extra charges from wands and staffs to apply metamagic feats to them
Craft Homonculus
Trap Searching and Disabling
Seems like a lot, right? Artificer is one of the five classes most preferred by munchkins and powergamers. 

Artificer infusions top out at 6th level.
6: Blade Barrier, Globe of Invulnerability, Reconstruct, Deconstruct
They get the Repair line, the Bull's Strength group, and an Inflict line that only works on constructs.
Many of the other infusions simply apply temporary enchantments to a weapon. We know this can be done using Master's Touch code.

Obviously item creation feats in the hand of Turbine dev's = fail (see: Cannith Crafting).  They'd have Artificers sacrificing actual halflings to make Chattering Rings.  Actually, bad example...that would be worth it.

I've got a crazy one for artificers.
1) Give them wand/scroll line that makes bards look gimp.
2) Allow the artificer to apply their own spell level (at additional charge cost for that part) and DC to wands.
3) Make all wands eternal when in the hands of an artificer and give them a chance to reuse scrolls.  The eternal thing would work very well along with the mentioned ability to allow them to apply metamagics to wand usage at the cost of extra charges.

These abilities would be used to fake the artificer creating magical items.  They're a powerful set of abilities on their own.  Running around casting heightened phantasmal killers from an eternal wand with a respectable DC (but having to tote several around since it's taking a bunch of charges every cast) and then flipping to maximized/empowered at-level fireballs.

If the devs do it right for once they will have bonuses to Cannith crafting, or any other crafting.

gambler wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 10:31am:


That would piss me off to no end.  I want to actually PLAY my Figher who is my main crafter.  I don't want to TR him into an Artificer craft-bot.

Eladiun wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 11:07am:


If it's something like this, that basically just speeds up leveling, it would be less of an issue as far as making current crafters obsolete.  It becomes a question of whether starting over with an Artificer is more efficient than continuing to level the current crafter.  But it still means people without high level crafters already would be foolish not to make a crafting bot.  And if the difference is strong enough, we could get into a situation where Artificer crafting leveling becomes reasonable, but non-Artificer leveling remains insane.

The worst would be crafting options that only Artificers can do, or major cost reductions just for Artificers (as in, bypassing Purified Eberron Shard, Large Devil Scale and Demon's Blood type costs)

Strakeln wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 11:44am:



No, crafting levels are separate and do not reset.  Per MadFloyd and tested in game...

Right now my crafting mule is my capped Exploiter...it would have to be a significant bonus for me to TR again to a legend and grind up just for crafting.  Although, there would be some synergy with my current gear.

They would really have to make my nipples pop to get me to grind all that XP.

Strakeln wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 11:44am:


Seems likely.

It's still a terrible, terrible idea, and one I'm hoping the Devs will actually have the sense not to do it.  No matter how slim that hope is...

Eladiun wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 11:07am:


People grind out millions of xp for as little as 1% more effectiveness. I really think people (myself included) would bang out a TR for a 10% boost to crafting.

Eladiun wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 12:26pm:


No way in hell I'm leveling my crafter as long as an unknown Artificer class is looming.

My crafter is a Barbarian; he's not the most geared, but he does have an Epic Claw set.  I'm not TRing him into an Artificer, so if Artificer gets any substantial bonus to Cannith Crafting I'll either be starting over, or forgetting about the damn thing and crafting what I can with the levels I already have.  +4 Holy Banes are good enough...

Jaxx wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 12:15pm:


I will be reincarnating Cru at some point in the near future.

Fuck Off wrote on Aug 4^th, 2011 at 1:34pm:


I'm sure that some people do have a dedicated "alt" just for crafting, but I made it one of my main characters and I don't want to be pushed into turning him into a character class that is a complete mismatch for his current setup.  Heavy Pick specced Kensai -> Artificer does not seem like a powerhouse of a character. 

Hmm, I'm liking the Eternal Wands idea. The ability to craft Eternal wands combined with Wand/Scroll Mastery sounds interesting, especially if infusions don't take mat components. a set of ten wands at cap instead of ten stacks of spell components would be ... damn, the wands would all move around wouldn't they?