Artificer (Revised 1.4)

A gnome sits hunched over a workbench in room cluttered with every sort of tool, carefully drawing the final lines to an intricate rune. With a crackling hum of arcane energy, the completed rune flares with power, and she watches with a smile of pride as the golem comes to life and stands.

A troll growls in hunger as it looms over a dwarf, who slides a long, metal tube from a holster at his belt. With a thundering boom, a gout of energy erupts from the tube, and the troll's growls turn into shrieks of panic as it turns to flee.

With a thunderous crash of energy a figure lands in the middle of the battlefield. As the smoke clears, a towering presence stands amidst the war-torn battlefield clad in glowing mechanical platemail. The glowing visor swivels to inspect the wreckage. It raises a gauntlet, and lightning crackles forth.

Makers of magic-infused objects, artificers are defined by their inventive nature. Like wizards, they see magic as a complex system waiting to be decoded and controlled through a combination of thorough study and investigation.

Artificers, though, focus on creating marvellous new magical objects. Spells are often too ephemeral and temporary for their tastes. Instead, they seek to craft durable, useful items.

Creating an Artificer

When creating an artificer character, think about your character's background and drive for adventure. Does the character have a rival? What drove your character down the path of being an artificer? Is it about curiosity and invention, or about the power the item brings? Did you character learn from another artificer, or receive a vision or flash of inspiration to learn their craft?

Consider how your character interacts with the a world, and what they represent. Consult with your DM regarding guilds or societies your character might belong to.

Quick Build

You can make an artificer quickly by following these suggestions. For the Cannonsmith or Gadgetsmith paths, make your highest attribute Dexterity, followed by Intelligence. For Runesmith, Potionsmith or Wandsmith, Intelligence followed by Constitution or Dexterity, and for Warsmith, choose either Strength or Intelligence, with Constitution as your second highest attribute. Second, choose the Guild Artisan background.

Class Features

• Hit Dice: 1d8 per artificer level
• Hit Points at 1st: Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per artificer level after 1st

Artificer Specialization

At 1st level, you focus your craft on a particular specialization: Cannonsmith, Gadgetsmith, Potionsmith, Runesmith, Warsmith or Wandsmith, each of which are detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 1st level and again at 3rd, 5th, and 14th level.

Magic Item Analysis

Starting at 1st level, your understanding of magic items allows you to analyze and understand their secrets. You know the artificer spells detect magic and identify, and you can cast them as rituals.

Tool Expertise

Starting at 2nd level, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses any of the tool proficiencies you gain from this class.

Spellcasting

As part of your study of magic, you gain the ability to cast spells at 2nd level. The spells you learn are limited in scope, primarily concerned with modifying creatures and objects or creating items.

Specialization Upgrade

Your expert craftsmanship allows you to improve your Specialization's Wondrous Item with new attributes.

Starting at 3rd level, choose an upgrade from the list at the end of your specialization. The features and properties of your Specialization's Wondrous Item permanently improves in that way.

You apply an additional upgrade to your Specialization's Wondrous Item at 5th, 7th , 9th , 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th and 19th level. You cannot apply an upgrade more than once, unless the upgrade's description says otherwise. Upgrades cannot be replaced or changed, besides as described in the specialization.

Customizing Artificer Upgrades

The upgrades for each Artificer Specialization is presented in a list at the end of the Specialization, but invariably there will always be ideas for upgrades not included in that list. At the heart of an Artificer beats an unrelenting drive for creativity, after all!

It is recommended that if there is Upgrade not included in your class list, you consult your DM to add it.

An custom upgrade should aim be balanced against the existing non-level restricted upgrades, as the level restricted upgrades are balanced around the limited number of them available.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Arcane Reconstruction

At 6th level, you have mastered the knowledge of using magic to repair things. You learn the Mending cantrip, and can cast it at will. Additionally, you learn the Cure Wounds spell. If you already know Cure Wounds you can select another spell from the Artificer list. When you cast Cure Wounds, it can heal constructs in addition to normally valid targets. Both Mending and Cure Wounds learned through this features are considered Artificer spells for you.

Superior Attunement

At 6th level, your superior understanding of magic items allows you to master their use. You can now attune to up to four, rather than three, magic items at a time.

Wondrous Items Proficiency

At 7th level, your familiarity with the workings of magical items means that you can ignore class based restrictions on attuning to magical items.

Improved Magical Crafting

At 10th level, your experience in creating your own wondrous invention makes you more adept at crafting a magic item than a normal spellcaster. Creating a magic item takes you half the time it would normally take.

Additionally, you can make 1 hour of progress toward crafting a magic item, scroll, or potion during a long rest.

Wondrous Item Recharge

Starting at 10th level, you can recharge a magic item that has has charges, as long as those charges can only be used to cast spells. To restore charges, you perform a ritual that takes one minute and expends a spell slot of equal or higher level then a spell slot level of a spell cast by the item. The number of charges restored to the item is equal to the number of charges required to cast that spell using the item once.

Study of Magic

At 11th level, your proficieny in the workings of magic has become so great you can cast detect magic and identify at will. Additionally, you have advantage on all Intelligence (Arcana) checks to understand the workings of magical traps, effects, or runes.

Wondrous Items Mastery

Starting at 18th level, you can activate a magic item that would normally take an action as a bonus action instead.

Soul of Artifice

At 20th level, your understanding of magic items is unmatched, allowing you to mingle your soul with items linked to you. You can now attune to five, rather than four, magic items at a time. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to.

Artificer Specializations

Thundermonger

At 3rd level, you've developed the arcane engineering skill to upgrade your Thundercannon to deliver its shots with greater force.

Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 thunder damage to one creature you hit with an Attack using Thunder Cannon. After discharging this bonus damage, the you cannot deal this bonus damage again until the start of your next turn.

This extra damage increases by 1d6 when you reach certain levels in this class: 5th level (2d6), 7th level (3d6), 9th level (4d6), 11th level (5d6), 13th level (6d6), 15th level (7d6), 17th level (8d6), and 19th level (9d6).

Devastating Blasts

Beginning at 5th level, when you miss an attack with your Thunder Cannon, you can still choose to apply your Thundermonger damage, but it deals only half the bonus damage.

Elemental Swapping

Starting at the 14th level, when you take the attack action with your Thunder Cannon you can adjust the firing chamber, causing any bonus damage granted by Thundermonger to deal Fire, Cold, Acid, or Lightning damage instead of Thunder damage. Alternatively, you can consume a Vial of Holy Water to cause your next Thundermonger bonus damage to deal Radiant Damage.

Cannonsmith Upgrades

Shock Absorber.

You add a reclamation device to your Thunder Cannon to gather energy from the surroundings when it is present. As a reaction to taking Lightning or Thunder Damage, you can cast Absorb Elements without consuming a spell slot. When absorbed in this method, you can apply the bonus damage granted by Absorb Elements to your next Thunder Cannon attack even if you make a ranged attack.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Combat Gadgets

Beginning at the 14th level, when you take the attack action, you can replace an attack with using any gadget that requries an action to use.

Additionally, any weapon gadgets you have created gain a +2 to their attack and damage rolls.

Gadgetsmith Upgrades

Flashbang.

You create a high luminary discharge device. As an action, you can target a point within 30 feet. Any creature within 20 feet of the targeted point must make a dexterity saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn. Once you use this gadget, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

Potionsmith

An alchemist is an artificer who has pursued the secrets of alchemy. While many a village has an apothecary grinding odd herbs and roots into potent (or not so potent) concoctions, the careful process of mixing and brewing is just one way to achieve results. Through the use of the intricate secrets of the craft and direct infusions using magical rituals, a real alchemist can come up with explosive results in the blink of an eye... sometimes literally.

An alchemist can be a scholar who has delved much of the knowledge the world has to offer or an explorer that has unlocked the secrets of the wilderness. Their knowledge could come being friends of the fey, or unfettered access to the royal library. As such, alchemists can be good or evil, lawful or chaotic.

Healing Draught. As a bonus action, you can produce combination that will provide potent magical healing. Immediately after creating the draught, you can use your action to consume it or give it a creature within 5 feet. An adjacent creature can use their reaction to drink it if given it. If an adjacent creature is incapacitated and unconscious, you can use your action to feed it to them. A creature who drinks this draught regains 1d8 health. A creature can benefit from a number of these healing draughts equal to their constitution modifier (minimum 1), after which they provide no additional benefit until they complete a long rest.

The healing increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Explosive Reaction.

You formulate a new instant reaction, a devastating minor explosion. Targeting a point within 15 feet, as an action, you cause an explosion. Creatures within 10 feet of the target point must make a constitution saving throw, or take 1d10 thunder damage from the shockwave of the explosion.

The damage damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10).

Persistent Reactions.

Your reactions that effect a target area persist in that area until the start of your next turn. Creatures entering the effect or ending their turn there have to repeat the saving throw against the effect. You can choose to make a reaction not persist at the time of taking the action to cause it.

Runecraft

At 1st level, you gain the ability to Runecraft items. At the end of a Long Rest, you can place up to two runes on nonmagical items. The number of items increases to 3 runes at 5th level Artificer, 4 runes at 9th, 5 runes at 13th, and 6 runes at 17th.

The runes effects fade at the end of your next long rest, at which point the same rune or a different rune may be selected.

These runed items grant the following benefits only to you. A weapon or piece of armor can have multiple Runes active on it, a piece of jewelry can only have a single Rune active on it at a given time.

• Rune of Ability. A piece of jewellery or armor with this Rune grants grants a +1 to an Ability Score of your choice, as well as the maximum for that score while it is active.
• Rune of Flametongue. A melee weapon inscribed with this Rune deals 1d6 bonus fire damage. This spell's damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level Artificer (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
• Rune of Protection. A piece of jewellery or armor with this Rune grants +1 to armor class. At 5th level Artificer it grants +1 to all Saving Throws as well.
• Rune of Regeneration. A piece of jewellery or armor with this Rune allows you to recover health equal to your Artificer level when you take a short rest.
• Rune of Recovery. A piece of jewellery with this Rune allows you to recover Spell Slots equal to or less than quarter your Artificer level (rounded up) during a short rest. For example, you can recover a 1st level spell slot if you're 1st level artificer, and two 1st level spells slots or a 2nd level at level if you're a 5th-level artificer.
• Rune of Enhancement. A weapon inscribed with this Rune gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls. The bonus increases to +2 at 9th level, and increases to +3 at 17th level.
• Rune of Vorpal Force. A weapon inscribed with this Rune deals all damage dealt with it as Force damage.

• Rune of Warding. A piece of armor inscribed with this Rune generates a shield of temporary hitpoints equal to you Artificer level. These temporary hitpoints are refreshed when you take a short or long rest.

You can be effected by only a single instance of any given rune.

Warforged Golem

At 3rd level, you have attained the forging skill, arcane knowledge, and mastery of rune magic to create a Warforged Golem. This golem is controlled by a magic Runed Pendant:

The Warforged Golem obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on your initiative, though it doesn't take an action unless you command it to. On your turn, you can verbally command the construct where to move (no action required by you) and take the Help or Attack action. It has Proficiency in Simple Weapons.

Your Warforged Golem's Proficiency increases when yours does. Additionally, it gains 5 hit points for every level in Artificer you gain. If the golem is killed, it can be returned to life via normal means, such as with the revivify spell.

In addition, over the course of a long rest, you can repair a slain servant if you have access to its body. It returns to life with 1 hit point at the end of the rest. If the servant is beyond recovery, you can reproduce the construct exactly as it was, with four days of work (eight hours each day) and 1,000 gp of raw materials. It regains all health at the end of a long rest.

Warforged Golem

Medium Construct, unaligned

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• Armor Class 14 (Natural Armor)
• Hit Points 10 + (5 per Artificer Level)
• Speed 25ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	12 (+1)	14 (+2)	4 (-3)	5 (-3)	1 (-5)

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• Damage Immunities poison, psychic
• Condition Immunities exhaustion, charmed, poisoned
• Senses passive perception 7
• Languages Understands creator’s languages, but cannot speak

Actions

Attack Protocol. Slam: +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 1d4 + 2

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Improve Dexterity. You tune the servos in your Warforged Golem. Your Warforged Golem's Dexterity score increases by 2. You may apply this upgrade multiple times. A Warforged Golem's maximum Dexterity score is 18.

Warsmith

A Warsmith is an Artificer that has turned their wondrous talent of invention to a singular goal: making themselves a juggernaut of war. The reasons behind this could be benevolent or nefarious. Some Warsmiths seek to turn their invention into a machine of death and terror; others become the arbiter of justice and order, and others still perhaps merely seek to refine their craft in pursuit of pure innovation.

Because few individuals would pursue such a wondrous invention without a driven purpose to their endeavour, Warsmiths tend to be Lawful, usually driven to their actions by a greater purpose they seek the power to accomplish, be it righting the wrongs or the world, or bringing it to heel beneath their ironshod boot.

Standing About In Fancy Magic Armor

How closely you model your suit to what a more typical set of plate armor might look like can vary, but in all but most exotic settings a set of Mechplate will tend to stand out.

Consider how this might effect interactions with the inhabitants of the world - some may be in awe, some may form devious schemes, and some may see a threat.

Fully Customized Gear

Starting at 14th level, you've mastered the customization of your Mechplate. You can immediately select two additional upgrades that do not count against your class upgrade total for your Mechplate.

Additionally, during a long rest, you can now swap out any one upgrade for any other upgrade of the same level requirements, so long as you don't have upgrade that requires the upgrade you are removing as a prerequisite, or an incompatible upgrades.

Mechplate Upgrades

Integrated Weapon

You integrate a melee weapon into your Mechplate. When you apply this upgrade you must have a weapon to integrate, and you must choose where on your armor the weapon is located. The weapon cannot have the Heavy property. You are proficient with this weapon. As a bonus action you can activate the weapon.

You must treat it as though you are wielding it with one hand, but you cannot be disarmed of it. Once activated, you can use this weapon when you take the attack action, and it does not require the use of a hand or your mechplate gauntlet. You can apply this upgrade multiple times, selecting a new weapon and new location on your armor to install it.

Resistance

You tune your Mechplate against certain forms of damage. Choose acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage. While wearing your Mechplate you have resistance to that type of damage. If you apply this upgrade more than once you must choose a different damage type.

Learning Spells of 1st Level and Higher

Each time you gain a artificer level, you can add one wizard Spells of your choice to your Spellmanual for free. Each of these Spells must be of a level for which you have Spell Slots, as shown on the Artificer table.

On your adventures, you might find other Spells that you can add to your Spellmanual. For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gold pieces.

Wands Akimbo

Starting at 5th level, when you use your action to cast a spell using charges of a Wand, if you are holding your Blasting Rod in your other hand, you can cast the Blasting Rod's cantrip with it as bonus action, picking either the same target or a different target.

Additionally, you can draw or stow two wands when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Masterwork Wands

Starting at 14th level, If you use a wand you made to cast a concentration spell, as long as you continue to hold the wand you have advantage on checks to maintain concentration on that spell.

Additionally, when you create a wand that causes spell damage of fire, cold, acid, thunder, or lightning damage, you can choose a different damage type from those types for the spell when cast by that Wand.

Wandsmith Upgrades

Additional Notes

Artificer Spell List

Change Log

Gadgetsmith Changes

• Upgraded Impact Gauntlet to 1d8 bludgeoning damage.
• added Antimagic Shackle upgrade.
• Added Zombie Wires upgrade
• Added Useful Universal Key ugprade
• Added Mechnical Arm upgrade
• Added Element Eater upgrade.
• Clarified language around Smoke Bomb. These do not require concentration, but last a # of rounds equal to the intelligence modifier.

Runesmith Changes

• Instant Runes is now a 1/short rest ability, rather than long rest.
• Rune of Dominion now only increases the first saving throw of a spell.
• Removed exclusivity of 'Armament' upgrades.
• Added Warforged Apprentice Upgrade.
• Added Warforged Adept Upgrade.

Warsmith Changes

• Changed the 14th level ability to "Fully Customized Gear" and moved Reactive Armor to an upgrade (nerfed; no longer grants resistance to bludgeoning piercing and slashing from magical damage).
• Small creatures wearing mechplate now count as Medium.
• Added Mechsuit upgrade.
• Added Active Camouflage upgrade.
• Added Power Fist upgrade.
• Added Sun Cannon upgrade.

Wandsmith Changes

• Wandsmiths can now change their upgrade wands with a cost of time and gold.
• Added New Magical Rod upgrade for Wandsmith artificers.
• Changed Wandsmith to require using a charge of their Wand to gain the benefits of casting a spell with it.
• Reworded how the Intelligence modifier is added to damage to avoid cases of double dipping and avoid 'the magic missile problem'.