Artificer Feedback

I was really underwhelmed when I first saw the 2024 artificer UA, at face value it looks like they basically haven’t touched it.

Artificer was always quite middle of the pack in terms of power, jack of all trades/master of bone. An optimised artificer was only ever ‘pretty good’ and would pale in comparison to other optimised classes (not that it’s all about pure optimisation, though). This update seems like it brought them up a peg, but maybe only to what would be good by 2014 standards. Now the bar is higher, and they’re still not reaching it.

First of all, 2 cantrips? STILL?! They almost all have a reason to take Mending both mechanically and thematically, which means they get 1 other choice which has to be a damage option given that they don’t have weapons beyond Battlesmith so need a source of damage. Fix - They all get Mending for free, by default.

Infusions (or replicate magic item now) has one MAJOR change: making Enspelled Items. If I’m getting this right, this gives the Artificer and his gang an extra 18 (6 casts x 3 items) free casts of spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Catapult, Cure Wounds (which averages at a total of 78 free healing assuming 2D8+4), Healing Word, and more. Imagine giving 3 members of your party Expeditious Retreat and now you’re all the Flash. This change is actually where the secret power of the Artificer comes from because it’s so versatile and strong, so much so that it blows all the other Replicate Magic Item options out the water.

Alchemist saw some much needed QoL improvements in Bonus Action Elixirs, more control over what you’re getting, and more of them in general. All good changes. What they’re still sorely lacking however is making Elixirs with higher level slots. If I use a third level slot, I still only get one Elixir? Fix - Turning spell slots into Elixirs gives a number of Elixirs equal to the level of the slot. This has been a common homebrew fix for a long time and I’m baffled it’s still missing.

In the Artificer UA video released, Jeremy Crawford states that the fantasy of the Alchemist is someone slinging vials of acid, but Alchemists get NOTHING to support this beyond +Int to acid/fire/necrotic damage. This is a really big deal for me. Alchemist should be the go-to bomber, throwing AoE explosives in vials of acid, fire, whatever! Just please give them some way to do little AoE ranged attacks for those damage types! Please! Even if it’s an Alchemist unique cantrip or class feature.

A lot of people worry about the randomness of Alchemists Elixirs but frankly I quite like the unstable mad scientist vibe that gives them, and they get more elixirs now with more potential for choosing the results so I think that’s much less of an issue now. Plus, getting to make actual potions in half the time is the best of the four subclasses improved crafting bonuses. A health potion taking 4 hours at 25gp could actually see some use, though I think every table is different in how rare a few hours of downtime is. Hey, it’s better than Armourer now getting to make Plate armour with 750gp in a mere 38 days, rather than 75…

The continued danger with Alchemist is that what it gets as a baseline compared to other subclasses is very little, and is almost expected to pour some of their spell slots into it to bring it up to par. Other subclasses just do their thing, and their options are more consistently and strong. It’s better, it’s just still not very much, especially as the other subclasses get boosted too.

Armourer and Artillerist seem really good from what they’ve shown, I don’t really have any feedback there beyond damn I really want to play around with the Dreadnaught armour suit as someone who never felt inspired by that subclass before.

Battlesmith saw the fewest changes. I get why, it was already pretty good, but I can’t help feel like it’s a little lacklustre now comparatively. First, why doesn’t it get Weapon Masteries? It’s a martial half-caster, like paladin or ranger. This feels like an oversight and really hurts them if it goes through. Just let them join in on that fun.

The Steel Defender, too, is mostly just a sack of hitpoints. It’s got a defensive feature and does decent damage, but it’s not very interesting. A really cool fix would be to add a few customisation options as you level up, to personalise it how you’d like. Just off the top of my head you could:

-Make it Ride-able, with mounted bonuses

-Give it a fly speed (at high level)

-Spider climb

-A ‘breath attack’ limited AoE

-A ranged attack option

-An ability to set itself up as mobile half-cover

-Damage resistances

-A free attack if it makes an enemy miss you with its defensive reaction

Right now it just feels a little bland.

Oh and I love that Homunculus is a spell now, just really cool.

Some good changes overall, but the QoL boosts really expose the shortfalls of the class and it’s subclasses overall.

I hope this feedback helps.