My girlfriend played in a campaign recently where she was a Thri-Kreen Artillerist Artificer, and since shes an irl entomologist, she themed everything around bugs and grafted bug parts, with some runic magic mixed in! Her eldritch cannon was a beetle that latched onto her back like a backpack and it was so cute
My Artillerist was an old lady that knitted spells, and her Eldritch Cannons were just crocheted beanie babies of D&D monsters. A beholder that looks like a deflated soccer ball, rolling around shooting beams. A dragon flamethrower. A Unicorn that defends people with rainbows. Honestly it was SUCH a fun character. Adelaide Clydesmare, what a legend.
That’s beautiful and honestly one of the coolest character concepts I’ve heard of. My table would love this, would you mind if I used her as an NPC (maybe shop vendor) in the game I run?
ME TOO! Constyance ran a knitting store which was home to a rather energetic knitting group. But then her niece and nephew got caught up (literally) with the wrong crowd. I played at cons mostly so Constance would hand out +1 sword cozys and knit caps at the start of the adventure. She had a yarn ball holder on her belt and threw out yarn like ray of sickness.
I really think this video was missing the big part that Artificer can cast from ANY infusion. Bag of holding magician pulling things out a hat! Instrument of Illusion casting musical spells and with artillerist turrets can be other instruments Boots of flying allowing spells to be fired from the feet!
Personally I love the steampunk style and find it doesn't need to contradict swords and scorcery. I got into 3d printing so I could make my own vision of the eldritch cannons and they are on thingiverse (including the dragon flamethrower). Its been a few years and I decided to run a tabaxi battlesmith and it is similarly a custom mini of my design.
Tbh EVERYONE should be reflavouring their spells, not just artificers. Non-mechanical theme changes are tons and tons of fun. My very first character was a genasi fire mage evocation wizard. When he cast "Fly" he used flame jets to propel himself because i thought it would be cool. The table loved it
I remember doing a Wild Magic Barbarian who was a former gladiator, and I reflavored some of the Wild Magic effects so that there was a sort of invisible audience that was supporting him. A couple of my favorite examples being roses being tossed at him from out of nowhere and causing the plants to grow and cause the difficult terrain effect, and another where a magical spotlight with no source is shone on him and grants him +1 AC. Some are more simple like an ethereal crowd chanting his name and providing one of the handful of other buffs.
@@derrinerrow4369 That's awesome. To me the most fun is found in the details. The mechanics of the game are strong enough to carry almost endless variation
I love re-flavoring shit in D&D, currently making a Fighter who was a Collegiate Sport drop out after not making his Ice Hockey team, his Glaive is his hockey stick but refashioned, and his armor is just his hockey gear, though I have found a custom background for him on D&D Beyond, I initially was re-flavoring the Soldier background to suit his story more. Even his abilities I've tried to flavor after Ice Hockey, such as his Interception being played off more like a check, barging into the enemy to mess up their attack and reduce the damage, much like a check in hockey would disrupt a play to get them off the puck.
I asked one of my DMs if I could reflavor a certain spell, and he said no. The spell works a certain way and that's it. Only time I ever wanted to reflavor a spell. One of the few problems I have with my group is that most of them are really focused on following the Rules as Written. Even though one of the books has a ruling that any spell can be reflavored--it might be an optional rule, though.
@@chriscollins2095 It's not a variant rule, it's directly stated in the artificer section of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. You should patiently explain that reflavouring doesn't affect the rules of the spell. You can describe casting each spell a spell a million different ways without changing a single letter of the spell description
My alchemist artificer is a harengon from the feywild. He's smol and cute, and his "potions" are actually just tasty snacks and meals. He fights with a frying pan that deals extra fire damage on a crit.
I got inspired by Luz from the Owl House to make an artificer who casts with their painter's supplies, I took an alchemist artificer and re-flavored the potions as glyphs, I still had the alchemists tools to "make paint". This character felt very different from what you expected an artificer to be like. I only wish we got more subclass options.
Three subclasses does feel very restricting!! If I'm starting from level 1 it is nice to know that I have options for where I take my class specialization.
Hopefully with the 2024 rules we get more subclasses, did you try any of the magical painting items that let you create stuff with them (don't know the names specifically)
"But only slightly less well known is this!!" OMG Ginny, absolutely brilliant. I had to back up because I missed what the "this" was because I was giggling too much.
I love the idea of a Druid Artificer who reshapes plants into living constructs, weaving gems into them for arcane powerups, now and then mixing in the blood and bones of animals and monsters to imbue the constructs with their natural abilities. Some are covered with moss to be sneaky, some are huge lumbering trebuchets for a siege, some are used like a terrifying but expendable "zerg-rush", and some are even made of root and used to burrow like snakes underneath castle walls...
I had an idea for a Firbolg Artillerist from a druidic community. He nurtures the spark of nature magic that once filled the item’s raw materials. His ‘cannon’ is a staff with a carved wooden dragon’s head
i played that in a game, my battle smith steel defender was a wood and stone golem, she was a moon elf, raised by druids of moonshae, but never found a connection with nature, yet in her learning, she still kept a cultural flair to her artifice, and then avernus happened... poor girl had never killed anyone and suddenly there was this object trying to make deals with her... (if you know you know, if you don't?, play the module)
At level two you get access to an expendable, reusable Pot of Awakening. A druid flavored Artificer can be extremely game breaking, given a couple months prep time.
As for battle smith, I played a retired ships cook who fought alongside their mechanical cast-iron stove. A guardian during the day, cooking delicious meals at night.
My artificer is a glassmaker with a bit of a daydreaming issue. Her eldritch cannons look like a blown glass seahorse (force), goldfish (flamethrower), and lotus flower (the one that gives you temporary hp) She basically animates her little glass creations so she can bring the magic of her daydreams into real life; her class gameplay is all about whimsy, sparkles, and cute creatures who happen to be translucent
I think it’s worth pointing out just how well the Artificer can be reflavoured as a witch. All the infusions feeling like witchy trinkets, the alchemist brewing potions in a cauldron, the eldritch cannons walking around with Baba Yaga’s hut’s chicken feet, the steel defender being a reanimated familiar, the armourer’s armour just being a heavily enchanted apron. Tools required can allow for an alchemist supply, herbalism kit or cooks utensils to be used as a focus, all of which could just be pulling spells out of a cauldron.
Almost anything can be reflavored to fit into almost any campaign. That’s one of my favorite things about D&D-it’s so easy to change the flavor details and end up with something that feels completely original. I’ve actually been floating a campaign idea around in my head where the PCs are dolls and stuffed animals who fight to protect a child from the monsters under the bed. Mechanically, it won’t be any different from a traditional D&D campaign, but the flavor will give it a completely different feel. Imagine a teddy bear healing their comrades with a hug, or a fashion doll using their accessories as weapons.
Yeah, I really can't wrap my head around someone getting stuck at "but it's a _steel_ defender, it needs to be _steel."_ The pseudo-steampunk flavor, IMHO, is only there to make it easier to communicate the concepts behind the class. One _could_ write a theme-agnostic version of the Artificer rules, but that would be *a lot* harder to read and understand.
Oh my gosh this campaign idea sounds amazing and I hope you get to do it cause that concept is gold! I’m especially loving Fighter Barbie using accessories as melee weapons!
And not even that sometimes. You can even have all the metal and mechanics of the class and still fit any setting, just by changing the esthetic. From the constructs like the giant Talos and the vareous works of Hephestus from Greek mythology, to the silver hand of king Nuadha of irush mythology, to the dwarfs of Norse sagas crafting magical itams, to the clockwork Nightingale, Golems...... There are so many examples of what look like technology and high crafting that date back to well before the middle ages in world mythologies that fit perfectly well within the high fantasy worlds of said mythology's. The real problem is the whole modern/stempunk esthetic, or rather the perception that the artefiser, and for that anything that even the slightest bit mechanical,artificial or highly advanced in fantasy must obviacely be done with this kind of flavoure, when that just plain rediculas.
Thank you!! EDIT: The bad news is, I have been hoodwinked by an “artist” at a local flea market. The good news is, you can get these at Walmart. And for less than I paid!! 🥲
Exactly! I came to the same conclusion while I was prepping for my Planegea campaign (prehistoric fantasy/stonepunk) in the beginning of this year. One of my players decided to play as a Dwarven Battlesmith Artificer. Luckily for him, there's lots of potential for crafting with stone and bone and it's easy to reflavor the Artificer's Infusions as stone age objects. We reflavored the Steel Defender to a stone golem ;D
Left out a part of the artillerist that most people over look which is the fact that the cannon can also give temporary hit point *every round*. That means that if you position your party correctly then you can gain a damage buffer that's constantly refreshed.
I knew the INSTANT you mentioned Armorer that The Stormlight Archive would get brought up! Can confirm Shardplate is literally magical power armor, and it's one of my favorite examples of how to make something like that feel more fantastical and less factory-made within a fantasy setting.
Artificers are so much fun to flavor! I like to pick a set of artisan's tools to specialize in (not necessarily linked to the subclass) - my dragonborn alchemist is a master of cook's tools and candymaking, and takes advantage of her fire resistance to directly handle molten sugar and create magically-infused confections. I ended up getting into candy-making IRL and passed out sweets in game when I cast spells on my allies.
I have an (as of yet unused) idea for an Artificer who's a scribe, and uses papers, inks, blotting powders, etc for their spellcasting. Like if they want to cast Detect Magic, they make a quick sketch of the area, and magical items light up on the paper like a treasure map. Or toss a quill at an ally to sprout giant feathery wings to cast feather fall. You can make so many fun flavors over the mechanics. And really that could apply to Artificer or ANY class.
This. This is exactly what I like about them. Sure, the traditional artificer is very steampunk due to its inclusion in the very steampunky Eberron, that doesn't mean they all have to be. Tool-based flavoring is the best way to make an artificer your own unique thing.
I started RP with Artificers and also played with Pathfinder. So, Artificers from Ebberron was fun. We didn't play it as guns. We played it as they are the people who make all the magic items you are buying magic items. That seemed to work well.
@@ittyandpocky Not STRICTLY true, the author of Eberron has come out and said that guns DO exist as a GM option...sort of...but they'd mostly used by the goblin tribes, they're noisy, unreliable and sort of ramshackle traditional black powder weapons, they're inherently less reliable than the go to for most people...which is wands. Wand of magic missile are easily made on Eberron and are used in place of firearms because they A) Always hit and B) deal enough damage to kill most folk in one or two hits (remember commoners have 4 hit points). So when you have what is essentially a magical gun with auto-aim built in, why use a gun? Especially when most people would carry 3-4 wands of magic missile on them and use them like pirates used flintlock pistols, carried in a brace and once one was depleted, sheathe it and go on to the next one.
I think another thing people oftentimes tend to ignore is that even in High Fantasy artificers do play a significant role. Orcs in Tolkien’s lore are known to be “clever in the arts of building things for destruction”. Of course, they’d still use catapults, ballistae and trebuchets but there’s a passage where it’s mentioned that the projectiles “burst into flame as they came toppling down”. Don’t tell me that’s not some artificer work there. Considering that Gandalf literally brings fireworks to Bilbo’s party, it’s not that much of a stretch to realize orcs used gunpowder of some sort to do that trick. Even by Morgoth’s time it’s mentioned that “masters of fire” were summoned to “set great engines” to destroy the walls of Falas. It’s ok if people want to play Arthurian tales in their D&D games, and I have no issues with classic Sword & Sorcery, but technology has been part of High Fantasy for as long as High Fantasy has been a thing, it was just a bad guy stuff… but again, if people are playing as Kobolds, Orcs and Goblins, they shouldn’t care that much about it.
11:22 - "You could play Geppetto and have Pinocchio be your Steel Defender." So... I actually do kind of have a character I've been working on that fits this description. They're not literally Geppetto, but it's very much that vibe - and I did even consider doing this exact thing of making them an Artificer with a reskinned Defender, but I had talked myself out of it because the class a whole still didn't QUITE feel like it fit the flavor I was going for with them. I have been struggling with how to mechanically represent what this character had become for a while now - and as much as the thought of trying to homebrew something for them myself feels daunting - I cannot manage to be satisfied with any of the core class or multiclass options I have considered for making them function the way they do in my head.
@@atsukana1704 What originally started as an idea for a 'creepy bard' became a old halfling man who lost his family to a tragic accident and went full Geppetto making puppets in their likeness in his grief until one day one od them came to life, seemingly possessed by the soul of his daughter. I feel like the concept has landed in this middle ground between a Bard, an Artificer, and a Warlock flavor-wise, and I'm stuck in that deadlock not sure how to make a proper build out of it.
"clockwork things are too steampunk" In 1515, Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design and construct a golden mechanical lion to present to the king of France, the lion is recorded to have strode forwards, roared, and then it's chest sprung open spilling lilies out at the feet of the king. If you need an artificer that fits the wonky, indistinct, perpetual late-medieval to high-renaissance fantasy theming of D&D, then Da Vinci is a pretty solid shout.
Also, look into the inventions of Heron of Alexandria. He lived around 60 CE. And his inventions were amazing. He even invented a very basic steam engjne.
The 1500s saw the proliferation of effective personal firearms as well, pushing the time period into that Renaissance, shot and pike era. So that's still pretty late for a truly medieval swords, knights and castles vibe.
Automatons existed since the 9th or 10th century AD. Both the Emperor of Constantinople and the Abbasid Caliph had automaton statues of lions that could pound their feet and roar. In dnd, an artificer could use magic to enhance automatons and make actual robots
Other characters an Artificer could be: - A dwarven runewriter, an elvish magewright, a goblin shaman, a nonmagical medical doctor, a warsmith, those hobgoblin dudes in ebberon - the whole shaman class in WoW, the apothycary's from WoW, the antiquarian from DD, a witcher, a mandalorian - Crescent moon, Trap, Saw, Spears, Blinkblade and demolitionist from the *haven series - The tinkerer class in gloomhaven is a pretty neat example of what a fantasy inventor might look like, same for like Kehli from Descent
Esoteric Enterprises had a non-magical doctor class. No reskin or anything, just a literal black market doctor with scalpel and sutures. Or non-magical amphetamines. You got a trauma care ability to press hp into people fast and a high Medicine skill. WFRP has plenty of non-magical Renaissance medicine with amputation, syphilis and cancer. They can't fix cancer so you die.
My Artificer started as an Artillerist but became an Armorer after tweaking and upgrading a breastplate made of a black dragon's hide and wings. By this point she had lost an arm, and she used the armor (now full plate) to replace it. When she would cast spells, the magic prosthetic would split into a number of floating pieces and reveal the wand that sat at the core of it.
In the campaign I am running, a fantasy mash up of magic, psionics, steampunk,and cyberpunk we have someone playing a technomacer which is a subclass of artificer. He has come in quite useful even in the middle of battle because he has adjusted our weapons to give them a boost. He has a strong affinity for crystals ,and the world is loosely based on the Jayne Anne Krentz novel series about a planet called Harmony in which all the technology is using a stone they called amber... It just works great. In other campaign worlds you just need to get a little more creative. In Harmony I already had a reason for the artificer class to show up.
My first play in DND 5e I ran an artificer because it was new to me. But when I talked with the GM about how I would flavor the guy, we came to the idea of being a runesmith. I carved my spells in to items, rather than building items out of odd bits. We even ended up deciding that the languages I based my etching in would impact the damage types for some homebrew selections, which led me to take the Eldritch Adept Feat and pick up Eyes of the Rune Keeper. Not exactly a typical pick for your one Invocation on that one I imagine. So, my character had a motivation to travel around looking for lost ruins to uncover lost languages, and to study the languages of all types which still thrive in the world. Perfect hook to get out and adventure with the team. And my flavor all naturally fit the world aesthetic of typical high fantasy flawlessly.
Your initial feelings around Artificers is completely understandable - I obviously have a background with Eberron, But I too have issues with how Artificers have been incorporated into 5e by art and flavour - I agree that the artillerist is the biggest flavour hurdle for the class. Eldritch Cannon and Arcane Firearm definitely needed different names and more varieties of illustrations to make the 'guns' feel only being one option of many. I am glad this book got you in a new mindset about the class!
There is the one art piece that has the kinda basilisk robot looking cannon, and it was responsible for my decision to make my Eldritch Cannon be a little frog sculpture. Having a walk/climb speed fits a little tree frog perfectly, and it actually makes a ribbit noise when it opens it mouth to breathe fire or spit out a "force ballista" shot. All any class takes to fit the flavor of a campaign is a bit of refluffing.
To be fair, they also pushed wands as guns and I really love that flavor. Wandslinger feels like a thing that a combat mage would focus on. Even having wands that can attack without you present. It would be a lot of fun to be an Artillerist cowboy.
I take inspiration for the artificer from a light novel called "Let this grieving soul retire". The alchemist is the richest in her party from selling her potions, but in battle, she uses essentially a flesh golem to fight, her steel defender.
I find it funny how people go "OMG ROBOTS!" but have zero problem with, for example, golems. (Which reminds me of a campaign I run years ago, centeted around an ante-litteram artificer losing control of his wooden golem... The players got to about 1/3 before they realized it was a retelling of Pinocchio!)
I made a Battlesmith crossbow user for a dark fey wild campaign I was in. Longest campaign I was a part of. Over the course of a year his story evolved and I turned him from an artificer, to a wizard, to a different type of wizard. As his story changed I tried to change his class to match it. For my final arc I planned to return to artificer (sort of like him accepting who he is, long plot story) and giving his wizard powers to his familiar so she can keep herself safe and help out. Basically become an artillerist artificer and my "familiar" becomes the turret. So imagine a little bird person casting fire bolts and shielding everyone. Unfortunately my time in that campaign is over, and I never did get to learn how my characters story ended. I really miss P'wish.
I once made an artificer who used cook's utensils as his arcane focus, wore a tabard with flames on it, had spiky hair, and was all about bringing his enemies to "flavour town"
The artillery artificer in my current game it's in eberron Had a great line in our last game " I cast gun prepare to meet god" when he said this the whole table ERUPTED in laughter and has been a campaign highlight so far
My first introduction to an artificer being played in anything DnD was Zirk Vervain from Not Another D&D Podcast. He is an alchemist and thus serves as pretty much the primary healer (there’s a wizard with a cleric level too but that only goes so far). Some of his backstory is that he was pretty much an intern doctor before the plot started. So that really helped with kind of recontextualizing what artificers could be and showing their versatility. One of my friends is gonna play an artificer in my next campaign and I’m interested to see how she flavors it and if she’ll lean more into DPS than support. It’ll be really cool either way!
I once played an battle Smith in theros. I was a satyr and my steel defender was a glass deer. It was fun explaining how when I cast mending or spend a spell slot how all the peices cobbled and unshattered themselves back together. Or how the force attacks or heals leapt off of its antlers like lightning.
Oooo as someone whos fav class is artificer the "its all just steam punk :/ it doesn't fit fantasy" mentality has always been one of my biggest pet peeves, and I'm so glad you made this video to convince others how untrue it is! If your setting has any magic items it HAS artificers! Dwarven runecraft, enchanted items, elven craft, living rugs as you said, there's so much you can do and is done by artificers in a high fantasy setting, and I really wish WoC had done more to illustrate that when bringing artificers over in Tasha's. Either by putting more effort into outlining at least a few non-steampunk options in the flavor text or putting in one or two more subclasses that focused on other kinds of artifice: like a charm/ward maker or something more elvish/druidic. I had one artificer who was more of a gardener, growing their little companions from specially curated seeds that released pollen of different effects; they were an artillerist and usually used the healing 'bot'. I had another who did glasswork and each 'bot' was a windchime with a magic scroll hanging from its chimes that activated on the ting. I've heard others make living dolls and more vodo esk artificers, I've heard of people having 'armor' that's like the venom symbiote but as a homunculus, or others that choose to give it all the flavor of blood magic carving runes into their own skin! Taxidermy necromancers, magical food, literally weaving the weave, magical jewelry, it just goes on and on! I just AHHHHHHHHHH once you take that half step to considering the possibilities of what an artificer actually is, there's SO MUCH cool stuff you can do, and its tragic to me that to so many the artificer is just the mechanical sparky sparky boom man...
I'm playing a Tortle Artificer/Wizard, treating it more as a hedge wizard natural scientist. He uses calligraphy tools to draw up plans, experiments, and notes, and that works as his spellbook. He inks runes and glyphs onto objects for things like infusions, and does some papercraft/origami for spell effects like conjuration. Going to make him a BattleSmith/Abjurer eventually, with a Steel Defender like a clockwork coconut crab.
And this is why Artificer is one of my favourite classes: It so open to flavouring of everything. In fact, the flavouring it already suggests is that the spells cast have different flavouring from all the other classes. Their whole thing is that even normal spellcasting is done by channeling energy through stuff. With a plant-based homebrew subclass (that frankly could mostly be re-flavoured as something else), I have a character I made that uses the Spelljammer-related Astral Drifter background, and mentally to me her spells are all flavoured as being derived from a bunch of exotic plants from different worlds, either in seed form or cuttings, just waiting for a bit of magic to awaken their unusual properties to create the spell effects.
We had an artificer in our epic level campaign join part way through He had a little mechanized robo-lizard (Arcane cannon) that was named Caustic and we just loved him immediately. His species was a homebrew thing from the setting that had been noted as "the lizard people that used to rule the world" before they took themselves out with their hubris, inventors of Warforged, ect ect Most of our artificers in setting have been researching the ancient magics the galadons had made prior. With runestones to cast our spells, humunculi made with runes stitched or carved into their bodies and the like. We do have a steampunk one making clockwolves, but most of them just build their stuff around runes and magic crystal "bullets"
My dwarf battle smith artificer, Erlang Fortran, used his knowledge of runes and magic to "program" his inventions to do things. Twist the metal ring to align the runes and the glowstick can be turned on/off, Rack the slide on his crossbow will conjure another bolt ready to be fired. He also used much of what he learned from an ancient warforged that he befriended (Whose response to what is your name was .... "Error: Not Found" a.k.a Aeror Knotfoend) to animate his workbench. So he rides it as they travel the countryside and it can follow simple commands like defend an area.
I had a warforged armorer artificer that I favored as a Lich’s Grisgol (a golem powered by a Lich’s phylactery), and the flavoring the magic as either consuming the souls stored in the phylactery of channeling a Lich’s raw power was probably the most fun I’ve had playing a character.
9:10 I did a OSE version of the Temple of Elemental Evil where our Artificer was a dwarf named Dorn. His cannon followed him around like a puppy. Our gloom stalker, Psy,christened him “Junior”. The legs were Pinocchio-like iirc.
As far as the artificer's armor, it's pretty much a transformation mechanic, you could have it be an armor made of bones that protect you as a necromancer or that your shadow materializes, or that it's made of starlight, or that it's some kind of living thing you fuse with, etc...
I had thought about making the armor be magical armor that you can summon and dismiss (like the shadow that materializes you mention) but I think that is not RAW. RAW would mean that your armor has weight and a physical presence if you take it off (that could be stolen or otherwise tampered with if left unattended). It's similar to when i wanted my shield to be made of magical energy because I hate the thought of my character lugging around the thing at all times but also not wanting to surrender that +2 AC.
The thing is, the 5e implementation shits the bed with this little line: > As an action, you can turn a suit of armor you are wearing into Arcane Armor, provided you have smith's tools in hand. It tells you to use Smith's Tools for no reason.
@@NageIfar True but it doesn't really define what counts as smith tools for you, that is up to your interpretation, if you're going to re-flavor that ability you should also re-flavor the rest. It's also important to note that while the ability requires an armor of some kind it doesn't specify what happens to the armor after.
@@tafferinthedark That is true yes the armor has to have weight and a physical appearance but that does not impede you, the magical shadow thing can be tied to a a rune in an actual piece of armor, the bones could become a bone armor once you don it off, etc... The mechanics suggest you do something some piece of armor but it doesn't say what, only that it takes an action . You could say for example that your shadow covers the armor changing it's color, the armor must still exist but you don't have to think of the magical effect as being as directly part of the armor.
@@rapidLupine7687 That's just not true. From XGE: Components. Smith's tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone. There's nothing up to interpretation. WotC consciously chose to tailor these subclasses to the engineer/mechanic archetype, and they made the wrong choice. It's their responsibility to print proper content, period. Every experienced DM worth their salt will of course allow this to be replaced with any other tool, but that's besides the point of WotC creating an unnecessarily limited image for their class.
One of my favorite tropes is where technology has started to advance and disrupt traditional fantasy settings. It plays with an interesting dynamic of magic vs science as opposed to magic or science vs humanity. It’s a conflict between the mysticism of the past and innovation of the future. I’ve never had an issue with the artificer for that reason.
@@GinnyDi everything from Sanderson’s Cosmere, to Joe Abercrombie’s Circle of the world, going back to Lord of the Rings deal with this theme. It’s almost baked into fantasy as a genre. I’m working on a campaign set in a MTG world where this exact question comes up.
Honestly, a fantastic example of this would be Seto Kaiba in YuGiOh, especially in the Dark Side of Dimensions movie. The stuff he pulls off might as well be magical, but it's all tech based with no real explanation except "roll with it." I mean, he quite literally at the end of the movie creates a stargate tunnel to astrally project himself to ancient Egypt to finally duel the Pharaoh one on one.
My favorite artificer I've played was for the strixhaven campaign. She was a pink, perky tiefling cheerleader named Cure, who very much fell into the "ditzy genius" trope. She was an Alchemist, and was the party healer. I had so much fun with her
My opinion on artificers has varied over the past few years. I really didnt want them in my game at first but one of my players brought me his artificer Rony Krats and talked me through the flavor and characteristics of the pc and I was immediately convinced. Watching him play the pc over the next year or so helped cement my new opinion. So yes. Artificers belong in D&D and I'm a little bummed they wont be a core class in the new PHB for 5.5e Thanks to my charismatic friend Sean, I have seen the light and it is glorious.
I just want my parties weren't full of artíficers. It's like if most player's didn't know any other class. I also agree they don't fit D&D base setting (middle ages). They are steampunk (industrial revolution.) 😢
I love taking artificers into the high-fantasy mindset. I have a story that I’m working on about a battle smith who uses magnets and mystical crystals with hand gestures and ancient language to channel their magic
As far as the "Steampunk/Science-based magic", like you pointed out, the artificer was introduced into 5E by way of the Eberron book, which revolves around many of those themes. I still hold that there's room for an "artificer/tinkerer" class in a more standard high-fantasy setting, but one that's more based around an alchemy/apothecary background rather than a mechanic/engineer one would probably be a better fit for that kind of setting. Also, those earrings are WILD!
I strongly encourage you to look up Hero of Alexandria (also called Heron). The things that they were creating more than 1200 years before knights in plate armor, and more than 1500 years before rapiers existed, are absolutely astonishing. Also, don't forget about other well-known figures, such as Archimedes or Yi Xing. The idea that someone might see something like that (or even just a ballista, trebuchet, crane, windlass crossbow, etc.) and decide to improve it by adding magic doesn't seem at all out of place to me. Nor, for that matter, does the idea that a magic user might focus their experimentation on making a wand or staff that improves the destructive potency of their spells, as well as magical objects (a "force ballista" and a flamethrower that emits Greek fire) which have some advantages over normal spellcasting. Unless you expect every peasant (or even just every stonemason and every shipwright) to have a wizard on call for every time they need to lift something heavy, engineers are an absolute necessity to the basic functionality of society. It's inevitable that the same principles which allow them to make cranes and siege engines will eventually be turned toward more destructive pursuits, because that's simply what people do.
Eberron isn’t really Steampunk or Science-based. It’s more magicpunk or industrialized magic. Unfortunately a lot of the official art conflicts with the actual text of Eberron. For example, a lot of official Eberron art features firearms but canonically Firearms don’t exist in Eberron.
My first character in my first DND campaign (which just ended) was a Battle Smith. Despite that he is a goliath the reason for his obsession to create things came from the fact he was considered a runt by his original tribe but would be raised by dwarves. As for the steel defender part we would use him (Asimov) as a engine to run our land ship. I think our DM learned that having a forge cleric and a battle smith might have been a bad idea XD.
I had the same feeling as you with Artificers. Thank you for this enlightening view on how they can fit into my homebrew world. I love these little books and agree they look great on my bookshelf. Soon my grandson will be of age where these will be nice to share with him. After all, he's been part of our family D&D games since he was born. Dangling in front of his mom and dad why we adventure! Since our game is posted on TH-cam he forever has proof he's literally been gaming since he was born! 😂
I always just say I'm an "Enchanter" because someone in the world has to be making all of these magical items. And not all wizards are running around throwing fire with their hands, some are working for weeks on Bracers of Defense or making Immovable Rods. It makes perfect sense in most D&D worlds.
I played a character I fashioned after Sazed in Mistborn. It would be easy to think he woud be a monk. But the notion of storing or using powers in metal (feruchemy) and then calling on them led me to flavor an armorer in a similar way. My 'armor' were my metalminds, the metal pieces used to store the energy. Also, I see Sazed as intelligence and wise. I equipped him with keen mind and observant. It was super fun.
Non-steampunk Artificers I have played in the past: a Dhamphir Battle Smith who's "Steel" defender was a bone golem. A lot of their stuff had necromancy/horror vibes...AOE spells were often thrown bombs made out of various animal and demihuman/human skulls, wands and rods made from limbs carved with scrimshaw, etc. In Curse of Strahd, I played another Battlesmith who did use a Musket, but had more Georgian vibes then Victorian. Less steampunk, more age of sail/revolutionary war/war of 1812/golden age of piracy/etc. Her defender was a Frankenstein-esq monster shaped like a three head dog (good ol'cerberus ref.) and was stitched together via taxidermy from the remains of the smith's hunting pack who had defended her from a dragon attack during a hunting trip gone astray. Had a sense of quiet tragedy whenever she would order it. In a game with a much more primative setting, I played an Artillerist who was a "Talismonger"...a hermit witch-y type who had Blair Witch style wicker and stone charms to cast spells with, and their "cannons" were a trio of straw dolls, each corresponding to a different turret function (flamethrower, force ballista, and the temp HP generator). Think "voodoo priestess". Honorable mention: Definitely more "Steampunky" I suppose, but in another Ravenloft game (Not Curse of Strahd, set after the events of that campaign), I played a Reborn Armorer who's "Secondskin" was a full metal-plated diving suit. 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with the cage-reinforced globular helmet. with the tiny viewport windows for sight and everything. Was almost always in Infiltrator Mode, and their lightning blasts were cast in arcing bolts from their primary weapon: a harpoon connected by a retractable metal chain connected to a small spool and "generator" (tiny ghostly electric eel thing in a tiny aquarium box) on their back. They were the amalgamation of a bunch of trapped spirits who all tried to flee their bonds in mass, and fused together to be Reborn as a solid person, and now collectively were "haunting" the diving suit and working as a mistwalking investigator for the Vhage Agency (a unique Dread Domain that takes the form of a singular Private Detective agency, with a singular occupant: Vhage herself, who is that realm'0s Dark Lord and has a tendency to employ adventurers as agents to go out and investigate various crimes in the Islands of Dread, a lot of which are actually the work of Vhage's secret split personality, a devious criminal mastermind). Sure, the diving suit gives it more of a Steampunk vibe to be sure, but I thought I'd mention this one anyways, just for the reflavouring factor. Iron-man Armorer? Pssh, no...Ghostly Mariner/Deep Sea Diver? Yesssssss.
Gosh your eye makeup is so spot on this video. I feel like Artificers only really "belong" if the DM works with you to achieve it. I don't see why high fantasy should be technologically restricted, but it can feel out of place if the setting makes you stick out like a sore thumb. Overall such a fun class to base characters around in my opinion!
I mean Medieval Era was more advanced than a lot of people give it credit for too. We're so used to seeing an ABSENCE of Guns, we forget the term "Bulletproof" was actually CREATED in that Era. Hell there were NINJAS who used Blackpowder Firearms.
There is an argument that necessity drive invention, so from a world-building point of view a valid argument that if you have magic that can achieve a goal there's no need for a technological solution. Imagine for example that half the population could cast Mold Earth - would you get the magically inclined person to use that cantrip, or force a person to dig a hole by hand? What use would firefighters be in a world where you have a squad of people who go around using Control Flames as a team to extinguish house fires? In this kind of theoretical worldbuilding context we can see why many worldbuilders don't truck with the idea of firearms or technology in their fanasty. In fact firearms are great examples of this. The earliest Firearms were things like lances and hand cannons that were radically experimental at best. It wasn't until the 12/1300's that we start to see what we would recognise as guns began to emerge. Their spread and popularity were bolstered by the relative ease of use and lack of training required...but even many forces preferred traditional archery and sword. Swords were even being carried and actively used in warfare as late as the First World War! It took until the 1800s for the accuracy and range of firearms to even match or exceed the bow. So, building on this principle...if a large portion of the world can cast even just 'Fire Bolt' as a Cantrip you have something as good if not better than a bow and something that is going to be immensely superior to a firearm for at least the first 400-600 years of technological development. In such a world would someone really bother exploring the capabilities of black powder? The answer many world builders come up with is 'no'. For my own part, my thought is that technology would still be developed, but perhaps more slowly for the same reason that gunpowder and firearms developed - ease of use. You develop something that requires no extra training. The real question that then pops up is when does Fantasy shift from high fantasy to urban fantasy to space fantasy? Unfortunately in that question thar be pedants!
@@TheAyanamiRei Medieval period ended around the 1200-1300's...so a little late for the emergence of guns. Likewise, it was the word 'proof' which has it's etymology in 1200's france. Bullet was derived from the french word from ball, entering common usage around the 1500's at the absolute earliest. Bulletproof was well outside of the medieval era sorry to say. Ninjas however, yeah their existance extending into the 1700s still baffles me somewhat. Though, I feel like their most superior skill was the storytelling they managed around themselves, their training, and their perported abilities.
@@MartinNelson Um, what? The medieval period ended in the mid 1400s at the earliest (and in England at least, it is often considered to end in 1513 with the Battle of Flodden). But regardless of when you consider the medieval period to have ended, D&D is explicitly Renaissance; rapiers did not exist before then. Another thing to consider is that artificers don't need firearms. It can be someone who looks at cranes and crossbows and ballistae and realizes that they can make those better via the application of magic, or who sees a magical construct and works out how to make one for themselves that will accompany them on their adventures.
@@MartinNelson While I found the response fascinating and have to agree with alot of points, one thing I would like to point out that the whole theory seems to apply at a more broad spectrum the way you put it. This necessity would perhaps be a reason to act on and invent more technological means to keep up for individuals who are not ablr to cast such spells ; having to develop different means of extinguishing a fire since you as an individual do not wish to be denied the opportunity of being a firefighter (Acting on your example). A player in our current high fantasy setting has become an artificer due to losing his legs and having to make himself mechanical ones as most people were, Para-phrasing "Narrowminded on magics and couldn't make me magical legs." While Artificers and technology aren't a common thing, our DM found a great intrigue and sense in developing different means than "The norm" to achieve these things, therefore also developing out of necessity. Even if most people are capable of casting produce flame, there will still be a crazy exception out there somewhere currently developing his flamethrower due to his lack of magical connection, slowly progressing the technology just like you have previously stated ; which is where my original comment does come in. Not every player may be comfortable in roleplaying those "exceptions" or sticking out like a sore thumb in an otherwise magical world, so I find Artificers to be a class that should be used with tight-knit conversation and cooperation to the DM, as the nature of a mechanic in a world of wizards can be both intriguing and intimidating, and the latter can definetly be worked around. ;p
For the Eldritch Cannon flamethrower option, you can also do this. You can flavor it as a Pseudodragon (or other tiny lizard) that you temporarily summon, and to make it shoot out the flamethrower, you pull it's tail each time. Better yet, you can go all Summoner flavor with this, with each effect being a different creature you abuse... Force Ballista can be a monkey throwing rocks, and the Protector option and be a fey creature singing a soothing hymn. And the Eldritch Cannon can take damage that you can heal with Mending. So you can flavor that in a way too that makes some sense. You get woodcarver proficiency, so each summon uses a token or totem that they are bound to. If the summoned creature takes damage, the damage is instead represented by cracks into their token/totem, and you just use Mending on that to "heal"them. At 9th level you get Explosive Cannon. You can simply flavor that as your summons get stronger and so they do more damage. But when you use the detonate option, the summon gets desummoned and a Mephit comes into its place and uses its Death Burst ability and self destructs. And now you have a fully fledged Summoner class, without having to ask your DM if you can play something homebrewed. Edit: Just thought of another one, if you get paint or calligraphy tool proficiencies, then you can also make the drawings in your sketchbook, or the tattoos on your body come alive and behave in similar ways.
My go-to for a non magi-punk artificer is a woodsinger who sings their creations out of living wood. Works great for a Battlesmith where the Steel Defender is a Tree Golem, and for the armorer where the suit is literally alive
I don't think she's actually read it, though. She said people travel by horses in that world. I think either she has friends that have read it that told her about Shardplate or it came up in her research for this video.
I've always seen the Steel Defender subclass as a golem-maker, most of the time, and golems have been in there seen the 1st ed Monster Manual. I had an Artillerist whose mobile "cannon" looked like a small statue of a dragon and the attack was its breath weapon. He named it "Henry" and I RP'd him as spending some of the evening downtime polishing and cleaning Henry, then putting down a small model of a pile of coins. "I know it's fake, but Henry doesn't, and I don't want him to be sad."
This is why my current artificer is a Totem Pole woodcarver. He's an artillerist and all of his eldritch cannons are these wooden carvings of animals or small totems. He doesn't have ANY metalwork tool proficiencies, and is very in tune with nature. His magic is described as a bright vibrant green color, and he's a botanist. Seriously, he collects rare plants we find on our adventures and brings them back to his garden.
I have been trying to focus on what the players want rather than my ideas of what should be fantasy. This lead to me letting guns be in my game for the first time. The player was so happy to get a musket. I am going to sneak in parts so he can get stronger firearms.
I just found out that a transit (the non-brand version of a Total station, used for surveying) is a modern version of a theodolite, which I can totally see a high fantasy artificer using. It's like a telescope/compass combo, made in brass. It's beautiful.
The idea of an artificer always made sense to me. Magic items are very common in most fantasy settings and artificer is the one that makes them. Flavour is just that, flavour.
(context this is me before watching the video) Oh Ginny I oh so do wonder what you're going to say about my most beloved class. Jk I know you mean well.
After watching yeah I completely agree with your sentiment. Personally I loved making tattoo artist artificers or an armorer that commands liquid mercury into armor. Or a weakling half orc that uses this magical armor to be stronger. Or an amputee that uses the armor in the flavor as a magical prothstetic. Made the armorer one of if not my favorite subclass as soon as I picked up tasha's.
The reasons you’ve touched on here are the exact reasons I love artificers! So much room for imaginative flavor, despite the terminology present in the material very much leaning towards sci-fi or steampunk. The armor artificial I played for a campaign is one of my favorite characters that I’ve created to this date. I absolutely loved thinking of clever spins on her spells and abilities. The possibilities are endless!
I have a satyr artificer that is apprenticed to an armorer. She liked to mix fae magics with the gear she made, and her artificer constructs were effectively posessed armor.
Artificers clicked for me when I saw that eldritch cannon can be fired from anything you choose to designate as your arcane firearm. I did a level 18 mini campaign as an artificer with a Staff of the Magi as my firearm, and the character was effectively somebody who'd wanted to be a wizard when she was young, but didn't have the theoretical mind for it... but she DID have a talent for the more hands on and applied work of an artificer. So she has a collection of magic items that make up the difference, but looks rather like a wizard. A wizard with a breastplate.
I played an Artillerist Artificier in a one-shot. They had a Homunculus Servant as one of their infusions that took the form of a tiny clockwork dragon. And the Eldritch Cannon was flavored as being an exo-skeleton for the Homunculus.
My Articifer Artillerist (with a little sprinkle of Wizard) is a wandslinger and enchanter. Her eldritch canon is mostly used in Tiny form as a secondary wand for dual wielding. Otherwise, when I use the small variant, she carves little wooden dwarvish soldiers that grow and come to life to aid her in battle.
As someone who runs a Kobold Artificer for my current D&D campaign, I see my Artificer as a magical blacksmith, someone who can build items and imbue them with magic. Who can boost their abilities both of themselves as well as the party with quick and dirty magic items. And can reduce the time and cost of enchanting items. Also remember Wrath of the Titans? The mechanical owl companion would be a homunculus servant. And Hephaestus on his own is an Artificer of the Olympian Gods, who created Pandora who was imbued with blessings/enchantments from the other gods. He also made Zeus's Lighting Bolt that he is famous for. The Dwarves who made Mjolnir in Norse Mythology. Tons of examples to justify Artificer in D&D.
Anybody that thought artificer was just steam punk didn't think about the class all that much. Using disguise self and sell cursed weapons and armor to the enemy. And if your imagination can't get past the shooty stick then think flamethrower, now everyone can cast fireball. My first thoughts were chainmail of invisibility, now you basically have high fantasy predator armor. The other was a walking balista or catapult, it's going to be slow and someone will still have to fire it but it's better than a stationary weapon the enemy has to walk into the line of fire to be useful. Or how a singing sword, everytime you hit there is a chance the sword will give you bardic inspiration or if a enemy misses it casts vicious mockery. War hammer + immovable rod + a recall feature and you have thor's hammer. How about plate armor that has wings, now your fighter has a fly speed.
Learning that Artificer was a Half-Caster class made me realize that it's just Paladin for Wizards. That helped me break away from some of the aesthetics and "D&D but gun" stigmas when I first realized my mistake. I also realized that Ranger, Paladin, Warlock, and Artificer are all that way. For Druid, Cleric, Sorcerer, and Wizard respectively. Hit with magic, but also Stick of Mighty Beating is on the table.
The fact that the words "Brandon Sanderson" and "Shardplate" made me excitedly and frantically start taping my legs, armrests and desktop, overtaken by such unreasonable HYPE, it's SO unfair. Why does so few words can have such POWER over me!? 😭 P.D.: Thanks, Ginny! Now I can play an Armorer Artificier reflavored as a full Shardbearer! :D
1:30 there was at least one Artificer option before Eberon. 2nd Edition Players Options : Spells & Magic had a few extra wizard specialization options and Artificer was one of them. Not certain if there was anything before, but that book was where I first saw it as an option.
My best friend decided to play an artificer in my campaign, which is firmly a renaissance Italy and Gothic Germany hybridized domain of dread. I had my doubts that it wouldn't clash with the world I'd built but honestly, it's been so much fun seeing how it all plays out. Another session coming up and he got his eldritch canon last session so I am beyond excited to see what he does with it haha
My first thought when you said play a battlesmith with Pinocchio as your steel defender was to add a much more brothers Grimm flavor to it... it would basically be Pinocchio meets Edward Scisorhands 😂
Something I like about the artificer is that it shows a growth in the world itself and gives depth to games that might be more than that medieval setting. D20 has their campaign that's almost a modernish setting and it leads to a lot of really cool stuff. It makes sense to me that people would be advancing tech and to have a setting that is more modern can help newer players picture the settings. The artificers are the ones advancing tech, so they are playable too.
I've seen this sort of flavor difficulty applied to many classes. The assumption that clerics must be healers, despite being able to be good in so many other roles. The assumption that paladins must be holy, despite their oath not having to be to a deity. The assumption that bards must be musicians, even though they could be using poetry or visual art to channel their magic. The assumption that warlocks must sell their souls, despite there being so many other patron types besides fiends who could want other things. The assumption that blood hunters must open their flesh, despite it being necrotic damage they take which could be flavored any number of ways. The assumption that rangers are bad, despite all the good subclasses added after the PHB. Etc... I'm not personally a fan of firearms in my D&D games... I feel like a world with firebolts & eldritch blasts wouldn't really go through the step of having inferior one-shot guns that don't work in the rain to work up towards the better guns that could compete with those spells. Having someone so good at making magic items that they have wands of firebolt and can imbue all sorts of spell effects into various objects though, that makes a LOT of sense for that sort of world. They learned magic, like a wizard does, but instead of casting it directly they pre-cast it into items they can deploy quickly as needed. As a half-caster, they're not able to tap into the weave as well as wizards can, but they make up for that with the versatility of their magic item creation, not just for spells, but for all sorts of bonuses for different situations. I have an artificer, and I flavor all of their spells & abilities. I flavor Flash of Genius as giving out little bits of advice I've come across in various encyclopedias, in a way that comes off a little condescending but isn't meant to be, but it's also useful so... Like if a Rogue's picking a lock, I might be telling them what model of lock that is to give them the bonus, or if a Fighter's using Athletics to move something heavy, maybe I'm recommending that they lift with their knees for better balance. (I try to come up with something every time.) I flavor my Cure Wounds spell as syringes of health potion that I inject into the target (& always describe it as stabbing them with it). I flavor Ashardalon's Stride as spewing magical flames out of my boots haphazardly. I like this about the Artificer, that it allows for so much of what I'm doing to be given direct flavor as I do those things. It can be harder to do this with most other classes.
My artificer uses calligrapher's tools as a medium for her scroll & rune based spellcasting, and an animated armor the group defeated as the basis of her steel defender. Flavoured all the constructs and infusions to be covered in magical runes. Gonna give that book a read.
The artificer is one of the classes that has the most potential for reflavoring. Its probably up there with the bard and the fighter. Like a dwarven armourer who uses ancient dwarven battle chants to activate enchantments on his armor. Or go the WoW shaman route of carving runes into totems to cast spells. Or for a quirkier idea how about somebody carrying around a giant paint brush and casts spells by painting it in the air or on items. One idea I've wanted to use is an artificer who worked as a janitor at a magical school. Somebody has to clean up after potion class. And maybe this could also work in worldbuilding where you can only enchant items as they are being made. This could explain as to why enchanted items are rare and valuable as you need somebody who understands both magic and glassblowing to make an enchanted orb (I've always wondered as to how many mages in magical worlds would be used for monotonous boring repetitive work of enchanting every brick of a castle).
Ya, I love the artificer. One of my favorite characters is a dragonborn armorer named Mary Ann. She was a complete and utter magical girl with a hot temper and loved collecting bits and bobs to make magical jewelry. Her armer was a sparkly princess dress that made her very nimble and she would channel magic though the jeweled parts of it to cast spells or shock enemies with glitter and sparkle. She was the princess or the dragon depending on the context.
I loved your Sanderson analogy for the Armorer. I hadn't thought about the class that way, but it could totally work. Of course, I'm the guy who played a Tinker Gnome Armorer who's suit was a medium sized mecha that he piloted. It was a Spelljammer campaign...
It's worth noting that there are more than just the three artificer subclasses. There is also the potionsmith, the infusionsmith, the thundersmith, the portal smith, and some others. Artificers are incredibly versatile and can be adapted to fit pretty much any setting.
I played a hexblood that was an artificer artilerist. Very easy to fix, just make firearm into a wand. And instead of turning a staff into a firearm just turn it into an improved staff. Really good mix with hexblood because hags usually has magic items so its very fitting. Its basically just a half caster blaster with an interest in magic items.
I have a few ideas for Artificers I'd like to try, one being a potionmaker from a family of more traditional Wizards, and one being an apothecary trying to cure magical diseases (specifically the one she's been afflicted with- vampirism, which multiclasses her into Berserker Barbarian- but that's just the one at the top of the list). Both Alchemist subclass, but I've seen some really fun Battle Smith builds from one of my tablemates.
Talking about fantasy armor mixing with scifi. Darth Bane's armor (from Star Wars Legends Universe) was made from an arthropod with a shell that was immune to lightsabers and blaster fire. The armor is alive and made of several orbalisk insects permanently attached to his skin as a parasite. He uses the pain from the parasite bites to fuel his dark side rage. Totally could use that for a barbarian or a artificer
Short answer yes, the first functional steam engine was made by Hero of Alexandria before christ, and clockwork mechanics have been around for thousands of years. Besides, the artificer is more of a magical enchanter than an engineer. A steampunk inventor with a clockwork golem is just as much an artificer as a scribe who makes spell scrolls on the fly, or a witch who brews her spells into potions and talismans. People weren't just banging stones with sticks before the industrial revolution magically made technology.
I have an artificer who usually makes a prosthetic arm cannon, but I got a beautiful vision of a flamethrower Qbert chasing people so now that's my go-to for flamethrowers
For a oneshot, I once played a sentient dog who was an artificer, namely an alchemist. I used the Saint Bernhard mini from Dungeons&Doggies, which has the little barrel at the neck and a lot of pouches and potions strapped to the back. The only steampunk thing in that oneshot was the clockwork dragon we fought hahahah
I made a gnome alchemist that jams components into a mug to then launch the spells. Except for the healing spells that mostly uses moss as the basis for slapping a cure wounds into someone. Or the Elf artillerist that carves wood and gems into the “gun” that launches the cantrips and spells.
My necromancer Wizard took a detour into Battle Smith, for a bit, all of his items involve crafting bone into items and reanimating them to create complex magical items. His steel Defender is a *significantly upgraded* skeleton.
Quite a while ago I read a novel about a young sorceror apprentice whose master made him craft a metal bird and then infuse it with magic and when that bird was actually able to fly that was when the apprenticeship ended successfully. The rest of the book was pretty much forgettable generic hero defeats the evil thing fantasy, but that little detail is still a great example for an aritficer creating a construct by magic instead of steampunky clockwork technology.
In rolemaster (a game from the 80's) there was a full caster class called Alchemist, who was essentially a magic item crafter. If your high fantasy concept includes "dwarves/elves make magic items on a level that no others can", then it's easy to imagine that they are all artificers with ancient magical knowledge to supplement their crafting skills. Or, how about Celebrimbor? Probably an Artificer, definitely not steam punk. :D
Made a hexblood battle smith artificer whose creator was a night hag, and they used the night hag powers they inherited to infuse their enemies's souls into a metal statue with ruins all over it. DM loved it♥
my artificer was an elf who, being from the exceptionally fantastical evermeet island, found joy in the mundane. she had a special love for owls, and would often model her creations after owls, or other predator species, like spiders or cats. being from a place were magics is literally everywhere, she was sent to school to become a wizard. she had the natural ability, but lacked the dedication, focus, and rigidness that are required for wizards. so whenever she needed to activate a construct, I'd have her channel arcane magic into it to showcase her natural magical talent, but tried to avoid using any kind of complicated magic to show her limits with it.
My girlfriend played in a campaign recently where she was a Thri-Kreen Artillerist Artificer, and since shes an irl entomologist, she themed everything around bugs and grafted bug parts, with some runic magic mixed in! Her eldritch cannon was a beetle that latched onto her back like a backpack and it was so cute
That idea is awesome!!!
Stealing this
Ohh I like this
Baby Tyranid!!!😂😂😂
It makes me think of the artillery bugs from Starship Troopers that vomit or shit plasma that melts people. But small and cute.
My Artillerist was an old lady that knitted spells, and her Eldritch Cannons were just crocheted beanie babies of D&D monsters. A beholder that looks like a deflated soccer ball, rolling around shooting beams. A dragon flamethrower. A Unicorn that defends people with rainbows.
Honestly it was SUCH a fun character. Adelaide Clydesmare, what a legend.
That’s beautiful and honestly one of the coolest character concepts I’ve heard of.
My table would love this, would you mind if I used her as an NPC (maybe shop vendor) in the game I run?
ME TOO! Constyance ran a knitting store which was home to a rather energetic knitting group. But then her niece and nephew got caught up (literally) with the wrong crowd.
I played at cons mostly so Constance would hand out +1 sword cozys and knit caps at the start of the adventure. She had a yarn ball holder on her belt and threw out yarn like ray of sickness.
My Artillerist makes Bard Instruments!
I really think this video was missing the big part that Artificer can cast from ANY infusion.
Bag of holding magician pulling things out a hat!
Instrument of Illusion casting musical spells and with artillerist turrets can be other instruments
Boots of flying allowing spells to be fired from the feet!
Personally I love the steampunk style and find it doesn't need to contradict swords and scorcery. I got into 3d printing so I could make my own vision of the eldritch cannons and they are on thingiverse (including the dragon flamethrower). Its been a few years and I decided to run a tabaxi battlesmith and it is similarly a custom mini of my design.
Armorer:
HAUNTED ARMOR PUT GHOSTS IN THE ARMOR, INFUSE YOUR ARMOR WITH THE SOULS OF THE DAMNED, PUT GHOSTS IN YOUR DAMN ARMOR
Metal af.
...Five Nights at Full-Metal Alchemist?
SER TONY STARK BUILT THIS SUBCLASS IN A CAVE!!!!!! WITH A BOX OF SMITH TOOLS!!!!
Its a real Alfonz Elrick/Ghost in the shell situation
Tbh EVERYONE should be reflavouring their spells, not just artificers. Non-mechanical theme changes are tons and tons of fun.
My very first character was a genasi fire mage evocation wizard. When he cast "Fly" he used flame jets to propel himself because i thought it would be cool. The table loved it
I remember doing a Wild Magic Barbarian who was a former gladiator, and I reflavored some of the Wild Magic effects so that there was a sort of invisible audience that was supporting him. A couple of my favorite examples being roses being tossed at him from out of nowhere and causing the plants to grow and cause the difficult terrain effect, and another where a magical spotlight with no source is shone on him and grants him +1 AC.
Some are more simple like an ethereal crowd chanting his name and providing one of the handful of other buffs.
@@derrinerrow4369 That's awesome. To me the most fun is found in the details. The mechanics of the game are strong enough to carry almost endless variation
I love re-flavoring shit in D&D, currently making a Fighter who was a Collegiate Sport drop out after not making his Ice Hockey team, his Glaive is his hockey stick but refashioned, and his armor is just his hockey gear, though I have found a custom background for him on D&D Beyond, I initially was re-flavoring the Soldier background to suit his story more. Even his abilities I've tried to flavor after Ice Hockey, such as his Interception being played off more like a check, barging into the enemy to mess up their attack and reduce the damage, much like a check in hockey would disrupt a play to get them off the puck.
I asked one of my DMs if I could reflavor a certain spell, and he said no. The spell works a certain way and that's it. Only time I ever wanted to reflavor a spell. One of the few problems I have with my group is that most of them are really focused on following the Rules as Written. Even though one of the books has a ruling that any spell can be reflavored--it might be an optional rule, though.
@@chriscollins2095 It's not a variant rule, it's directly stated in the artificer section of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
You should patiently explain that reflavouring doesn't affect the rules of the spell. You can describe casting each spell a spell a million different ways without changing a single letter of the spell description
My alchemist artificer is a harengon from the feywild. He's smol and cute, and his "potions" are actually just tasty snacks and meals. He fights with a frying pan that deals extra fire damage on a crit.
Daw he sounds adorable.
I got inspired by Luz from the Owl House to make an artificer who casts with their painter's supplies, I took an alchemist artificer and re-flavored the potions as glyphs, I still had the alchemists tools to "make paint". This character felt very different from what you expected an artificer to be like.
I only wish we got more subclass options.
Ooh, that sounds like a fun reflavour.
I'm a little curious, did you end up designing any glyphs for this?
@@eddiemate No, but in hindsight I probably should have, it would have been a fun exercise to get into character.
Three subclasses does feel very restricting!! If I'm starting from level 1 it is nice to know that I have options for where I take my class specialization.
Hopefully with the 2024 rules we get more subclasses, did you try any of the magical painting items that let you create stuff with them (don't know the names specifically)
tbh a Pictomancer would be a great artificer subclass.
The “classic blunders” gag had me nearly spitting out my soda I was laughing so hard! Love The Princess Bride so a reference is always welcome!
Came here just to say this 😎
Never get involved in a land war in Khorvaire! 😂 So true! 🤣
"But only slightly less well known is this!!" OMG Ginny, absolutely brilliant. I had to back up because I missed what the "this" was because I was giggling too much.
A The Princess Bride reference? Inconceivable!
I need to watch that movie, keep hearing it pop up all over the place. I do need to say though, isn't Khorvaire from Eberron? Am I just stupid?
I love the idea of a Druid Artificer who reshapes plants into living constructs, weaving gems into them for arcane powerups, now and then mixing in the blood and bones of animals and monsters to imbue the constructs with their natural abilities. Some are covered with moss to be sneaky, some are huge lumbering trebuchets for a siege, some are used like a terrifying but expendable "zerg-rush", and some are even made of root and used to burrow like snakes underneath castle walls...
I had an idea for a Firbolg Artillerist from a druidic community. He nurtures the spark of nature magic that once filled the item’s raw materials. His ‘cannon’ is a staff with a carved wooden dragon’s head
Amazing concept
i played that in a game, my battle smith steel defender was a wood and stone golem, she was a moon elf, raised by druids of moonshae, but never found a connection with nature, yet in her learning, she still kept a cultural flair to her artifice, and then avernus happened... poor girl had never killed anyone and suddenly there was this object trying to make deals with her...
(if you know you know, if you don't?, play the module)
Might as well reference Poison ivy from Batman and any Harry Potter fanfiction featuring Neville Long bottom as a central or significant character.
At level two you get access to an expendable, reusable Pot of Awakening. A druid flavored Artificer can be extremely game breaking, given a couple months prep time.
As for battle smith, I played a retired ships cook who fought alongside their mechanical cast-iron stove.
A guardian during the day, cooking delicious meals at night.
Love the concept. Delicious and dangerous!
My artificer is a glassmaker with a bit of a daydreaming issue.
Her eldritch cannons look like a blown glass seahorse (force), goldfish (flamethrower), and lotus flower (the one that gives you temporary hp)
She basically animates her little glass creations so she can bring the magic of her daydreams into real life; her class gameplay is all about whimsy, sparkles, and cute creatures who happen to be translucent
I think it’s worth pointing out just how well the Artificer can be reflavoured as a witch. All the infusions feeling like witchy trinkets, the alchemist brewing potions in a cauldron, the eldritch cannons walking around with Baba Yaga’s hut’s chicken feet, the steel defender being a reanimated familiar, the armourer’s armour just being a heavily enchanted apron. Tools required can allow for an alchemist supply, herbalism kit or cooks utensils to be used as a focus, all of which could just be pulling spells out of a cauldron.
oh damn yeah, that's perfect, I love it
Not to mention your infusions can outright be the cauldron magic items
For almost all of the same reasons, you could reflavor them as a necromancer/witch doctor, using bones and hides to create constructs or cast spells.
@@wizrad2099 that’s such a shout
Literally what I did with my Winged Tiefling Hexblood alchemist artificer when Hexblood was released.
Almost anything can be reflavored to fit into almost any campaign. That’s one of my favorite things about D&D-it’s so easy to change the flavor details and end up with something that feels completely original. I’ve actually been floating a campaign idea around in my head where the PCs are dolls and stuffed animals who fight to protect a child from the monsters under the bed. Mechanically, it won’t be any different from a traditional D&D campaign, but the flavor will give it a completely different feel. Imagine a teddy bear healing their comrades with a hug, or a fashion doll using their accessories as weapons.
Yeah, I really can't wrap my head around someone getting stuck at "but it's a _steel_ defender, it needs to be _steel."_
The pseudo-steampunk flavor, IMHO, is only there to make it easier to communicate the concepts behind the class.
One _could_ write a theme-agnostic version of the Artificer rules, but that would be *a lot* harder to read and understand.
Oh my gosh this campaign idea sounds amazing and I hope you get to do it cause that concept is gold! I’m especially loving Fighter Barbie using accessories as melee weapons!
And not even that sometimes. You can even have all the metal and mechanics of the class and still fit any setting, just by changing the esthetic.
From the constructs like the giant Talos and the vareous works of Hephestus from Greek mythology, to the silver hand of king Nuadha of irush mythology, to the dwarfs of Norse sagas crafting magical itams, to the clockwork Nightingale, Golems......
There are so many examples of what look like technology and high crafting that date back to well before the middle ages in world mythologies that fit perfectly well within the high fantasy worlds of said mythology's.
The real problem is the whole modern/stempunk esthetic, or rather the perception that the artefiser, and for that anything that even the slightest bit mechanical,artificial or highly advanced in fantasy must obviacely be done with this kind of flavoure, when that just plain rediculas.
💡🤯
Teddy Bear Tank!!
I neeeeeed to play a teddybear tank now!
@@BastrdGod I'm picturing a paladin bear - named Paddington- that does lay on hands with hugs. This needs to happen now!
Damn, that eyeshadow with those earrings? Slay sis.
Really feeling the Jem vibes
And the flawless pale skin makes it REALLY stand out!
LOL was disctracted by these for the first 2 min of the video XD
@@SilentSooYun YES! Very very Jem and the Holograms!
Thank you!!
EDIT: The bad news is, I have been hoodwinked by an “artist” at a local flea market. The good news is, you can get these at Walmart. And for less than I paid!! 🥲
Exactly! I came to the same conclusion while I was prepping for my Planegea campaign (prehistoric fantasy/stonepunk) in the beginning of this year. One of my players decided to play as a Dwarven Battlesmith Artificer. Luckily for him, there's lots of potential for crafting with stone and bone and it's easy to reflavor the Artificer's Infusions as stone age objects. We reflavored the Steel Defender to a stone golem ;D
Left out a part of the artillerist that most people over look which is the fact that the cannon can also give temporary hit point *every round*. That means that if you position your party correctly then you can gain a damage buffer that's constantly refreshed.
I knew the INSTANT you mentioned Armorer that The Stormlight Archive would get brought up! Can confirm Shardplate is literally magical power armor, and it's one of my favorite examples of how to make something like that feel more fantastical and less factory-made within a fantasy setting.
Artificers are so much fun to flavor! I like to pick a set of artisan's tools to specialize in (not necessarily linked to the subclass) - my dragonborn alchemist is a master of cook's tools and candymaking, and takes advantage of her fire resistance to directly handle molten sugar and create magically-infused confections. I ended up getting into candy-making IRL and passed out sweets in game when I cast spells on my allies.
This is amazing!! And you must be the most popular player at the table 😍
I have an (as of yet unused) idea for an Artificer who's a scribe, and uses papers, inks, blotting powders, etc for their spellcasting. Like if they want to cast Detect Magic, they make a quick sketch of the area, and magical items light up on the paper like a treasure map. Or toss a quill at an ally to sprout giant feathery wings to cast feather fall.
You can make so many fun flavors over the mechanics. And really that could apply to Artificer or ANY class.
That's SWEET! I love it.
@JDub-TV I like the concept, but quill throwing sounds painful. On the other hand, if it protects them and hurts just the littlest bit, then why not.
This. This is exactly what I like about them. Sure, the traditional artificer is very steampunk due to its inclusion in the very steampunky Eberron, that doesn't mean they all have to be. Tool-based flavoring is the best way to make an artificer your own unique thing.
I started RP with Artificers and also played with Pathfinder. So, Artificers from Ebberron was fun. We didn't play it as guns. We played it as they are the people who make all the magic items you are buying magic items. That seemed to work well.
How easy should it be to churn out magic? If you can apply industrial logic to magic you have Eberron.
Good you didn't use guns, because guns don't exist in Ebberon.
@@ittyandpocky So you can't homebrew in stuff even if you wanted to?
@@ittyandpocky Not STRICTLY true, the author of Eberron has come out and said that guns DO exist as a GM option...sort of...but they'd mostly used by the goblin tribes, they're noisy, unreliable and sort of ramshackle traditional black powder weapons, they're inherently less reliable than the go to for most people...which is wands. Wand of magic missile are easily made on Eberron and are used in place of firearms because they A) Always hit and B) deal enough damage to kill most folk in one or two hits (remember commoners have 4 hit points).
So when you have what is essentially a magical gun with auto-aim built in, why use a gun? Especially when most people would carry 3-4 wands of magic missile on them and use them like pirates used flintlock pistols, carried in a brace and once one was depleted, sheathe it and go on to the next one.
I thought that was obvious
I think another thing people oftentimes tend to ignore is that even in High Fantasy artificers do play a significant role. Orcs in Tolkien’s lore are known to be “clever in the arts of building things for destruction”. Of course, they’d still use catapults, ballistae and trebuchets but there’s a passage where it’s mentioned that the projectiles “burst into flame as they came toppling down”. Don’t tell me that’s not some artificer work there. Considering that Gandalf literally brings fireworks to Bilbo’s party, it’s not that much of a stretch to realize orcs used gunpowder of some sort to do that trick. Even by Morgoth’s time it’s mentioned that “masters of fire” were summoned to “set great engines” to destroy the walls of Falas.
It’s ok if people want to play Arthurian tales in their D&D games, and I have no issues with classic Sword & Sorcery, but technology has been part of High Fantasy for as long as High Fantasy has been a thing, it was just a bad guy stuff… but again, if people are playing as Kobolds, Orcs and Goblins, they shouldn’t care that much about it.
11:22 - "You could play Geppetto and have Pinocchio be your Steel Defender."
So... I actually do kind of have a character I've been working on that fits this description. They're not literally Geppetto, but it's very much that vibe - and I did even consider doing this exact thing of making them an Artificer with a reskinned Defender, but I had talked myself out of it because the class a whole still didn't QUITE feel like it fit the flavor I was going for with them.
I have been struggling with how to mechanically represent what this character had become for a while now - and as much as the thought of trying to homebrew something for them myself feels daunting - I cannot manage to be satisfied with any of the core class or multiclass options I have considered for making them function the way they do in my head.
Describe what you are going for? Maybe some help can be given
Creation Bard??
Wood has lower AC than steel but is probably cheaper and easier.
@@atsukana1704 What originally started as an idea for a 'creepy bard' became a old halfling man who lost his family to a tragic accident and went full Geppetto making puppets in their likeness in his grief until one day one od them came to life, seemingly possessed by the soul of his daughter.
I feel like the concept has landed in this middle ground between a Bard, an Artificer, and a Warlock flavor-wise, and I'm stuck in that deadlock not sure how to make a proper build out of it.
Exactly. The class is just badly designed.
"clockwork things are too steampunk"
In 1515, Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design and construct a golden mechanical lion to present to the king of France,
the lion is recorded to have strode forwards, roared, and then it's chest sprung open spilling lilies out at the feet of the king.
If you need an artificer that fits the wonky, indistinct, perpetual late-medieval to high-renaissance fantasy theming of D&D, then Da Vinci is a pretty solid shout.
There's also the "Antikythera Mechanism" which is a clockwork astrological computer thought to have been built some time around the 2nd century BCE!
Also, look into the inventions of Heron of Alexandria. He lived around 60 CE. And his inventions were amazing. He even invented a very basic steam engjne.
The 1500s saw the proliferation of effective personal firearms as well, pushing the time period into that Renaissance, shot and pike era. So that's still pretty late for a truly medieval swords, knights and castles vibe.
Ancient Hellenic Greeks in BC telling fantasy myths: "Oh, yeah, this thing's a big brass clockwork robot, or whatever. That's just god magic. No big."
Automatons existed since the 9th or 10th century AD. Both the Emperor of Constantinople and the Abbasid Caliph had automaton statues of lions that could pound their feet and roar. In dnd, an artificer could use magic to enhance automatons and make actual robots
Other characters an Artificer could be:
- A dwarven runewriter, an elvish magewright, a goblin shaman, a nonmagical medical doctor, a warsmith, those hobgoblin dudes in ebberon
- the whole shaman class in WoW, the apothycary's from WoW, the antiquarian from DD, a witcher, a mandalorian
- Crescent moon, Trap, Saw, Spears, Blinkblade and demolitionist from the *haven series
- The tinkerer class in gloomhaven is a pretty neat example of what a fantasy inventor might look like, same for like Kehli from Descent
Love these ideas!! Hope someone uses them
Esoteric Enterprises had a non-magical doctor class. No reskin or anything, just a literal black market doctor with scalpel and sutures. Or non-magical amphetamines. You got a trauma care ability to press hp into people fast and a high Medicine skill.
WFRP has plenty of non-magical Renaissance medicine with amputation, syphilis and cancer. They can't fix cancer so you die.
An ork alchemist called Steve Orkle. When drinking a certain potion he becomes Stefan Orkel.
My Artificer started as an Artillerist but became an Armorer after tweaking and upgrading a breastplate made of a black dragon's hide and wings. By this point she had lost an arm, and she used the armor (now full plate) to replace it. When she would cast spells, the magic prosthetic would split into a number of floating pieces and reveal the wand that sat at the core of it.
In the campaign I am running, a fantasy mash up of magic, psionics, steampunk,and cyberpunk we have someone playing a technomacer which is a subclass of artificer. He has come in quite useful even in the middle of battle because he has adjusted our weapons to give them a boost. He has a strong affinity for crystals ,and the world is loosely based on the Jayne Anne Krentz novel series about a planet called Harmony in which all the technology is using a stone they called amber... It just works great. In other campaign worlds you just need to get a little more creative. In Harmony I already had a reason for the artificer class to show up.
And the even less known saying is "Never go in against a Basalt caecilian when death is on the line." (Campaign 3, episode 73)
as you wish
My first play in DND 5e I ran an artificer because it was new to me. But when I talked with the GM about how I would flavor the guy, we came to the idea of being a runesmith. I carved my spells in to items, rather than building items out of odd bits.
We even ended up deciding that the languages I based my etching in would impact the damage types for some homebrew selections, which led me to take the Eldritch Adept Feat and pick up Eyes of the Rune Keeper. Not exactly a typical pick for your one Invocation on that one I imagine.
So, my character had a motivation to travel around looking for lost ruins to uncover lost languages, and to study the languages of all types which still thrive in the world. Perfect hook to get out and adventure with the team. And my flavor all naturally fit the world aesthetic of typical high fantasy flawlessly.
Your initial feelings around Artificers is completely understandable - I obviously have a background with Eberron, But I too have issues with how Artificers have been incorporated into 5e by art and flavour - I agree that the artillerist is the biggest flavour hurdle for the class. Eldritch Cannon and Arcane Firearm definitely needed different names and more varieties of illustrations to make the 'guns' feel only being one option of many. I am glad this book got you in a new mindset about the class!
There is the one art piece that has the kinda basilisk robot looking cannon, and it was responsible for my decision to make my Eldritch Cannon be a little frog sculpture. Having a walk/climb speed fits a little tree frog perfectly, and it actually makes a ribbit noise when it opens it mouth to breathe fire or spit out a "force ballista" shot. All any class takes to fit the flavor of a campaign is a bit of refluffing.
To be fair, they also pushed wands as guns and I really love that flavor. Wandslinger feels like a thing that a combat mage would focus on. Even having wands that can attack without you present. It would be a lot of fun to be an Artillerist cowboy.
@@LupineShadowOmega You just sold me on Artificer with the Artillerist cowboy!
I take inspiration for the artificer from a light novel called "Let this grieving soul retire". The alchemist is the richest in her party from selling her potions, but in battle, she uses essentially a flesh golem to fight, her steel defender.
I find it funny how people go "OMG ROBOTS!" but have zero problem with, for example, golems. (Which reminds me of a campaign I run years ago, centeted around an ante-litteram artificer losing control of his wooden golem... The players got to about 1/3 before they realized it was a retelling of Pinocchio!)
I made a Battlesmith crossbow user for a dark fey wild campaign I was in. Longest campaign I was a part of. Over the course of a year his story evolved and I turned him from an artificer, to a wizard, to a different type of wizard. As his story changed I tried to change his class to match it. For my final arc I planned to return to artificer (sort of like him accepting who he is, long plot story) and giving his wizard powers to his familiar so she can keep herself safe and help out. Basically become an artillerist artificer and my "familiar" becomes the turret. So imagine a little bird person casting fire bolts and shielding everyone.
Unfortunately my time in that campaign is over, and I never did get to learn how my characters story ended. I really miss P'wish.
I once made an artificer who used cook's utensils as his arcane focus, wore a tabard with flames on it, had spiky hair, and was all about bringing his enemies to "flavour town"
Did you also go to diners drive ins and dives?
@@shadenthal6276 dungeons and drive ins and dragons and diners and dives
The artillery artificer in my current game it's in eberron
Had a great line in our last game
" I cast gun prepare to meet god" when he said this the whole table ERUPTED in laughter and has been a campaign highlight so far
Industrial standards means Joe and Jane Orc at level 0 can man a mortar and shoot the PCs. I like the random artillery in Only War.
It's always a great feeling when a joke really lands and everyone at the table laughs out loud!
What's a gun?
Does he happen to be a clown named chuckles?
@@krumpits no but I'm pretty sure that is where he got the line from
My first introduction to an artificer being played in anything DnD was Zirk Vervain from Not Another D&D Podcast. He is an alchemist and thus serves as pretty much the primary healer (there’s a wizard with a cleric level too but that only goes so far). Some of his backstory is that he was pretty much an intern doctor before the plot started. So that really helped with kind of recontextualizing what artificers could be and showing their versatility.
One of my friends is gonna play an artificer in my next campaign and I’m interested to see how she flavors it and if she’ll lean more into DPS than support. It’ll be really cool either way!
I once played an battle Smith in theros. I was a satyr and my steel defender was a glass deer. It was fun explaining how when I cast mending or spend a spell slot how all the peices cobbled and unshattered themselves back together. Or how the force attacks or heals leapt off of its antlers like lightning.
Oooo as someone whos fav class is artificer the "its all just steam punk :/ it doesn't fit fantasy" mentality has always been one of my biggest pet peeves, and I'm so glad you made this video to convince others how untrue it is! If your setting has any magic items it HAS artificers!
Dwarven runecraft, enchanted items, elven craft, living rugs as you said, there's so much you can do and is done by artificers in a high fantasy setting, and I really wish WoC had done more to illustrate that when bringing artificers over in Tasha's. Either by putting more effort into outlining at least a few non-steampunk options in the flavor text or putting in one or two more subclasses that focused on other kinds of artifice: like a charm/ward maker or something more elvish/druidic.
I had one artificer who was more of a gardener, growing their little companions from specially curated seeds that released pollen of different effects; they were an artillerist and usually used the healing 'bot'. I had another who did glasswork and each 'bot' was a windchime with a magic scroll hanging from its chimes that activated on the ting.
I've heard others make living dolls and more vodo esk artificers, I've heard of people having 'armor' that's like the venom symbiote but as a homunculus, or others that choose to give it all the flavor of blood magic carving runes into their own skin! Taxidermy necromancers, magical food, literally weaving the weave, magical jewelry, it just goes on and on!
I just AHHHHHHHHHH once you take that half step to considering the possibilities of what an artificer actually is, there's SO MUCH cool stuff you can do, and its tragic to me that to so many the artificer is just the mechanical sparky sparky boom man...
I'm playing a Tortle Artificer/Wizard, treating it more as a hedge wizard natural scientist. He uses calligraphy tools to draw up plans, experiments, and notes, and that works as his spellbook. He inks runes and glyphs onto objects for things like infusions, and does some papercraft/origami for spell effects like conjuration. Going to make him a BattleSmith/Abjurer eventually, with a Steel Defender like a clockwork coconut crab.
And this is why Artificer is one of my favourite classes: It so open to flavouring of everything. In fact, the flavouring it already suggests is that the spells cast have different flavouring from all the other classes. Their whole thing is that even normal spellcasting is done by channeling energy through stuff.
With a plant-based homebrew subclass (that frankly could mostly be re-flavoured as something else), I have a character I made that uses the Spelljammer-related Astral Drifter background, and mentally to me her spells are all flavoured as being derived from a bunch of exotic plants from different worlds, either in seed form or cuttings, just waiting for a bit of magic to awaken their unusual properties to create the spell effects.
We had an artificer in our epic level campaign join part way through
He had a little mechanized robo-lizard (Arcane cannon) that was named Caustic and we just loved him immediately.
His species was a homebrew thing from the setting that had been noted as "the lizard people that used to rule the world" before they took themselves out with their hubris, inventors of Warforged, ect ect
Most of our artificers in setting have been researching the ancient magics the galadons had made prior. With runestones to cast our spells, humunculi made with runes stitched or carved into their bodies and the like. We do have a steampunk one making clockwolves, but most of them just build their stuff around runes and magic crystal "bullets"
My dwarf battle smith artificer, Erlang Fortran, used his knowledge of runes and magic to "program" his inventions to do things. Twist the metal ring to align the runes and the glowstick can be turned on/off, Rack the slide on his crossbow will conjure another bolt ready to be fired. He also used much of what he learned from an ancient warforged that he befriended (Whose response to what is your name was .... "Error: Not Found" a.k.a Aeror Knotfoend) to animate his workbench. So he rides it as they travel the countryside and it can follow simple commands like defend an area.
Mad props for the Princess Bride reference!! Yet another reason to love Ginny Di and her sense of humor ^_^ Keep it up, Ginny!!
I had a warforged armorer artificer that I favored as a Lich’s Grisgol (a golem powered by a Lich’s phylactery), and the flavoring the magic as either consuming the souls stored in the phylactery of channeling a Lich’s raw power was probably the most fun I’ve had playing a character.
9:10 I did a OSE version of the Temple of Elemental Evil where our Artificer was a dwarf named Dorn. His cannon followed him around like a puppy. Our gloom stalker, Psy,christened him “Junior”. The legs were Pinocchio-like iirc.
As far as the artificer's armor, it's pretty much a transformation mechanic, you could have it be an armor made of bones that protect you as a necromancer or that your shadow materializes, or that it's made of starlight, or that it's some kind of living thing you fuse with, etc...
I had thought about making the armor be magical armor that you can summon and dismiss (like the shadow that materializes you mention) but I think that is not RAW. RAW would mean that your armor has weight and a physical presence if you take it off (that could be stolen or otherwise tampered with if left unattended). It's similar to when i wanted my shield to be made of magical energy because I hate the thought of my character lugging around the thing at all times but also not wanting to surrender that +2 AC.
The thing is, the 5e implementation shits the bed with this little line:
> As an action, you can turn a suit of armor you are wearing into Arcane Armor, provided you have smith's tools in hand.
It tells you to use Smith's Tools for no reason.
@@NageIfar True but it doesn't really define what counts as smith tools for you, that is up to your interpretation, if you're going to re-flavor that ability you should also re-flavor the rest.
It's also important to note that while the ability requires an armor of some kind it doesn't specify what happens to the armor after.
@@tafferinthedark That is true yes the armor has to have weight and a physical appearance but that does not impede you, the magical shadow thing can be tied to a a rune in an actual piece of armor, the bones could become a bone armor once you don it off, etc... The mechanics suggest you do something some piece of armor but it doesn't say what, only that it takes an action .
You could say for example that your shadow covers the armor changing it's color, the armor must still exist but you don't have to think of the magical effect as being as directly part of the armor.
@@rapidLupine7687 That's just not true. From XGE:
Components. Smith's tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
There's nothing up to interpretation. WotC consciously chose to tailor these subclasses to the engineer/mechanic archetype, and they made the wrong choice. It's their responsibility to print proper content, period.
Every experienced DM worth their salt will of course allow this to be replaced with any other tool, but that's besides the point of WotC creating an unnecessarily limited image for their class.
One of my favorite tropes is where technology has started to advance and disrupt traditional fantasy settings. It plays with an interesting dynamic of magic vs science as opposed to magic or science vs humanity. It’s a conflict between the mysticism of the past and innovation of the future. I’ve never had an issue with the artificer for that reason.
That sounds super interesting! Artificers are great for science vs magic plots - especially when you have traditional magic users in the party!
@@GinnyDi everything from Sanderson’s Cosmere, to Joe Abercrombie’s Circle of the world, going back to Lord of the Rings deal with this theme. It’s almost baked into fantasy as a genre. I’m working on a campaign set in a MTG world where this exact question comes up.
You should check out the Shadowrun RPG sometime.
Final Fantasy 6 and 7 come to mind for this, and even some of the more recent Zelda games
Honestly, a fantastic example of this would be Seto Kaiba in YuGiOh, especially in the Dark Side of Dimensions movie.
The stuff he pulls off might as well be magical, but it's all tech based with no real explanation except "roll with it."
I mean, he quite literally at the end of the movie creates a stargate tunnel to astrally project himself to ancient Egypt to finally duel the Pharaoh one on one.
My favorite artificer I've played was for the strixhaven campaign. She was a pink, perky tiefling cheerleader named Cure, who very much fell into the "ditzy genius" trope. She was an Alchemist, and was the party healer. I had so much fun with her
tbh the concept of an "eldritch cannon" feels way more jarringly scifi than just blasting away foes with a giant handcannon
My opinion on artificers has varied over the past few years. I really didnt want them in my game at first but one of my players brought me his artificer Rony Krats and talked me through the flavor and characteristics of the pc and I was immediately convinced. Watching him play the pc over the next year or so helped cement my new opinion. So yes. Artificers belong in D&D and I'm a little bummed they wont be a core class in the new PHB for 5.5e
Thanks to my charismatic friend Sean, I have seen the light and it is glorious.
I just want my parties weren't full of artíficers. It's like if most player's didn't know any other class. I also agree they don't fit D&D base setting (middle ages). They are steampunk (industrial revolution.) 😢
I love taking artificers into the high-fantasy mindset. I have a story that I’m working on about a battle smith who uses magnets and mystical crystals with hand gestures and ancient language to channel their magic
As far as the "Steampunk/Science-based magic", like you pointed out, the artificer was introduced into 5E by way of the Eberron book, which revolves around many of those themes. I still hold that there's room for an "artificer/tinkerer" class in a more standard high-fantasy setting, but one that's more based around an alchemy/apothecary background rather than a mechanic/engineer one would probably be a better fit for that kind of setting.
Also, those earrings are WILD!
I strongly encourage you to look up Hero of Alexandria (also called Heron). The things that they were creating more than 1200 years before knights in plate armor, and more than 1500 years before rapiers existed, are absolutely astonishing. Also, don't forget about other well-known figures, such as Archimedes or Yi Xing.
The idea that someone might see something like that (or even just a ballista, trebuchet, crane, windlass crossbow, etc.) and decide to improve it by adding magic doesn't seem at all out of place to me. Nor, for that matter, does the idea that a magic user might focus their experimentation on making a wand or staff that improves the destructive potency of their spells, as well as magical objects (a "force ballista" and a flamethrower that emits Greek fire) which have some advantages over normal spellcasting.
Unless you expect every peasant (or even just every stonemason and every shipwright) to have a wizard on call for every time they need to lift something heavy, engineers are an absolute necessity to the basic functionality of society. It's inevitable that the same principles which allow them to make cranes and siege engines will eventually be turned toward more destructive pursuits, because that's simply what people do.
Eberron isn’t really Steampunk or Science-based. It’s more magicpunk or industrialized magic. Unfortunately a lot of the official art conflicts with the actual text of Eberron. For example, a lot of official Eberron art features firearms but canonically Firearms don’t exist in Eberron.
My first character in my first DND campaign (which just ended) was a Battle Smith. Despite that he is a goliath the reason for his obsession to create things came from the fact he was considered a runt by his original tribe but would be raised by dwarves. As for the steel defender part we would use him (Asimov) as a engine to run our land ship. I think our DM learned that having a forge cleric and a battle smith might have been a bad idea XD.
My favorite artificer eldritch cannon idea I’ve come up with: the cannon is a little porcelain teapot that was enchanted by the artificer
I had the same feeling as you with Artificers. Thank you for this enlightening view on how they can fit into my homebrew world.
I love these little books and agree they look great on my bookshelf. Soon my grandson will be of age where these will be nice to share with him. After all, he's been part of our family D&D games since he was born. Dangling in front of his mom and dad why we adventure! Since our game is posted on TH-cam he forever has proof he's literally been gaming since he was born! 😂
That is so cute!! 😍 Truly raised in a family tradition, haha!
I always just say I'm an "Enchanter" because someone in the world has to be making all of these magical items. And not all wizards are running around throwing fire with their hands, some are working for weeks on Bracers of Defense or making Immovable Rods. It makes perfect sense in most D&D worlds.
The Princess Bride and Eberron mashup quote made me so happy
I played a character I fashioned after Sazed in Mistborn. It would be easy to think he woud be a monk. But the notion of storing or using powers in metal (feruchemy) and then calling on them led me to flavor an armorer in a similar way. My 'armor' were my metalminds, the metal pieces used to store the energy. Also, I see Sazed as intelligence and wise. I equipped him with keen mind and observant. It was super fun.
Non-steampunk Artificers I have played in the past:
a Dhamphir Battle Smith who's "Steel" defender was a bone golem. A lot of their stuff had necromancy/horror vibes...AOE spells were often thrown bombs made out of various animal and demihuman/human skulls, wands and rods made from limbs carved with scrimshaw, etc.
In Curse of Strahd, I played another Battlesmith who did use a Musket, but had more Georgian vibes then Victorian. Less steampunk, more age of sail/revolutionary war/war of 1812/golden age of piracy/etc. Her defender was a Frankenstein-esq monster shaped like a three head dog (good ol'cerberus ref.) and was stitched together via taxidermy from the remains of the smith's hunting pack who had defended her from a dragon attack during a hunting trip gone astray. Had a sense of quiet tragedy whenever she would order it.
In a game with a much more primative setting, I played an Artillerist who was a "Talismonger"...a hermit witch-y type who had Blair Witch style wicker and stone charms to cast spells with, and their "cannons" were a trio of straw dolls, each corresponding to a different turret function (flamethrower, force ballista, and the temp HP generator). Think "voodoo priestess".
Honorable mention: Definitely more "Steampunky" I suppose, but in another Ravenloft game (Not Curse of Strahd, set after the events of that campaign), I played a Reborn Armorer who's "Secondskin" was a full metal-plated diving suit. 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with the cage-reinforced globular helmet. with the tiny viewport windows for sight and everything. Was almost always in Infiltrator Mode, and their lightning blasts were cast in arcing bolts from their primary weapon: a harpoon connected by a retractable metal chain connected to a small spool and "generator" (tiny ghostly electric eel thing in a tiny aquarium box) on their back.
They were the amalgamation of a bunch of trapped spirits who all tried to flee their bonds in mass, and fused together to be Reborn as a solid person, and now collectively were "haunting" the diving suit and working as a mistwalking investigator for the Vhage Agency (a unique Dread Domain that takes the form of a singular Private Detective agency, with a singular occupant: Vhage herself, who is that realm'0s Dark Lord and has a tendency to employ adventurers as agents to go out and investigate various crimes in the Islands of Dread, a lot of which are actually the work of Vhage's secret split personality, a devious criminal mastermind).
Sure, the diving suit gives it more of a Steampunk vibe to be sure, but I thought I'd mention this one anyways, just for the reflavouring factor. Iron-man Armorer? Pssh, no...Ghostly Mariner/Deep Sea Diver? Yesssssss.
Honestly this is one of your best videos I’ve seen. You really made me think about this class differently
Glad it helped!!
Gosh your eye makeup is so spot on this video.
I feel like Artificers only really "belong" if the DM works with you to achieve it. I don't see why high fantasy should be technologically restricted, but it can feel out of place if the setting makes you stick out like a sore thumb. Overall such a fun class to base characters around in my opinion!
I mean Medieval Era was more advanced than a lot of people give it credit for too. We're so used to seeing an ABSENCE of Guns, we forget the term "Bulletproof" was actually CREATED in that Era. Hell there were NINJAS who used Blackpowder Firearms.
There is an argument that necessity drive invention, so from a world-building point of view a valid argument that if you have magic that can achieve a goal there's no need for a technological solution. Imagine for example that half the population could cast Mold Earth - would you get the magically inclined person to use that cantrip, or force a person to dig a hole by hand? What use would firefighters be in a world where you have a squad of people who go around using Control Flames as a team to extinguish house fires?
In this kind of theoretical worldbuilding context we can see why many worldbuilders don't truck with the idea of firearms or technology in their fanasty. In fact firearms are great examples of this. The earliest Firearms were things like lances and hand cannons that were radically experimental at best. It wasn't until the 12/1300's that we start to see what we would recognise as guns began to emerge. Their spread and popularity were bolstered by the relative ease of use and lack of training required...but even many forces preferred traditional archery and sword. Swords were even being carried and actively used in warfare as late as the First World War! It took until the 1800s for the accuracy and range of firearms to even match or exceed the bow.
So, building on this principle...if a large portion of the world can cast even just 'Fire Bolt' as a Cantrip you have something as good if not better than a bow and something that is going to be immensely superior to a firearm for at least the first 400-600 years of technological development. In such a world would someone really bother exploring the capabilities of black powder? The answer many world builders come up with is 'no'.
For my own part, my thought is that technology would still be developed, but perhaps more slowly for the same reason that gunpowder and firearms developed - ease of use. You develop something that requires no extra training.
The real question that then pops up is when does Fantasy shift from high fantasy to urban fantasy to space fantasy? Unfortunately in that question thar be pedants!
@@TheAyanamiRei Medieval period ended around the 1200-1300's...so a little late for the emergence of guns.
Likewise, it was the word 'proof' which has it's etymology in 1200's france. Bullet was derived from the french word from ball, entering common usage around the 1500's at the absolute earliest. Bulletproof was well outside of the medieval era sorry to say.
Ninjas however, yeah their existance extending into the 1700s still baffles me somewhat. Though, I feel like their most superior skill was the storytelling they managed around themselves, their training, and their perported abilities.
@@MartinNelson Um, what? The medieval period ended in the mid 1400s at the earliest (and in England at least, it is often considered to end in 1513 with the Battle of Flodden).
But regardless of when you consider the medieval period to have ended, D&D is explicitly Renaissance; rapiers did not exist before then.
Another thing to consider is that artificers don't need firearms. It can be someone who looks at cranes and crossbows and ballistae and realizes that they can make those better via the application of magic, or who sees a magical construct and works out how to make one for themselves that will accompany them on their adventures.
@@MartinNelson While I found the response fascinating and have to agree with alot of points, one thing I would like to point out that the whole theory seems to apply at a more broad spectrum the way you put it. This necessity would perhaps be a reason to act on and invent more technological means to keep up for individuals who are not ablr to cast such spells ; having to develop different means of extinguishing a fire since you as an individual do not wish to be denied the opportunity of being a firefighter (Acting on your example).
A player in our current high fantasy setting has become an artificer due to losing his legs and having to make himself mechanical ones as most people were, Para-phrasing "Narrowminded on magics and couldn't make me magical legs." While Artificers and technology aren't a common thing, our DM found a great intrigue and sense in developing different means than "The norm" to achieve these things, therefore also developing out of necessity.
Even if most people are capable of casting produce flame, there will still be a crazy exception out there somewhere currently developing his flamethrower due to his lack of magical connection, slowly progressing the technology just like you have previously stated ; which is where my original comment does come in.
Not every player may be comfortable in roleplaying those "exceptions" or sticking out like a sore thumb in an otherwise magical world, so I find Artificers to be a class that should be used with tight-knit conversation and cooperation to the DM, as the nature of a mechanic in a world of wizards can be both intriguing and intimidating, and the latter can definetly be worked around. ;p
For the Eldritch Cannon flamethrower option, you can also do this. You can flavor it as a Pseudodragon (or other tiny lizard) that you temporarily summon, and to make it shoot out the flamethrower, you pull it's tail each time. Better yet, you can go all Summoner flavor with this, with each effect being a different creature you abuse...
Force Ballista can be a monkey throwing rocks, and the Protector option and be a fey creature singing a soothing hymn.
And the Eldritch Cannon can take damage that you can heal with Mending. So you can flavor that in a way too that makes some sense. You get woodcarver proficiency, so each summon uses a token or totem that they are bound to. If the summoned creature takes damage, the damage is instead represented by cracks into their token/totem, and you just use Mending on that to "heal"them.
At 9th level you get Explosive Cannon. You can simply flavor that as your summons get stronger and so they do more damage. But when you use the detonate option, the summon gets desummoned and a Mephit comes into its place and uses its Death Burst ability and self destructs.
And now you have a fully fledged Summoner class, without having to ask your DM if you can play something homebrewed.
Edit: Just thought of another one, if you get paint or calligraphy tool proficiencies, then you can also make the drawings in your sketchbook, or the tattoos on your body come alive and behave in similar ways.
My go-to for a non magi-punk artificer is a woodsinger who sings their creations out of living wood. Works great for a Battlesmith where the Steel Defender is a Tree Golem, and for the armorer where the suit is literally alive
Me: *about to comment asking if Ginny has read stormlight*
Ginny: I’m referring of course to shardplate
I don't think she's actually read it, though. She said people travel by horses in that world. I think either she has friends that have read it that told her about Shardplate or it came up in her research for this video.
I've always seen the Steel Defender subclass as a golem-maker, most of the time, and golems have been in there seen the 1st ed Monster Manual.
I had an Artillerist whose mobile "cannon" looked like a small statue of a dragon and the attack was its breath weapon. He named it "Henry" and I RP'd him as spending some of the evening downtime polishing and cleaning Henry, then putting down a small model of a pile of coins. "I know it's fake, but Henry doesn't, and I don't want him to be sad."
Ngl I'd read a book about Henry and his wielder going on shenanigans filled adventures ngl
@@StonedHunter I'm working on my gameworld and books in it, so I'll add them to the list. :)
I made an art officer who did magic by embroidery once. It was really fun.
This is why my current artificer is a Totem Pole woodcarver. He's an artillerist and all of his eldritch cannons are these wooden carvings of animals or small totems. He doesn't have ANY metalwork tool proficiencies, and is very in tune with nature. His magic is described as a bright vibrant green color, and he's a botanist. Seriously, he collects rare plants we find on our adventures and brings them back to his garden.
any setting that uses magic items, and magical item crafting as a part of culture, can use artificer.
I have been trying to focus on what the players want rather than my ideas of what should be fantasy. This lead to me letting guns be in my game for the first time. The player was so happy to get a musket. I am going to sneak in parts so he can get stronger firearms.
I just found out that a transit (the non-brand version of a Total station, used for surveying) is a modern version of a theodolite, which I can totally see a high fantasy artificer using. It's like a telescope/compass combo, made in brass. It's beautiful.
The idea of an artificer always made sense to me. Magic items are very common in most fantasy settings and artificer is the one that makes them. Flavour is just that, flavour.
(context this is me before watching the video) Oh Ginny I oh so do wonder what you're going to say about my most beloved class. Jk I know you mean well.
After watching yeah I completely agree with your sentiment. Personally I loved making tattoo artist artificers or an armorer that commands liquid mercury into armor. Or a weakling half orc that uses this magical armor to be stronger. Or an amputee that uses the armor in the flavor as a magical prothstetic. Made the armorer one of if not my favorite subclass as soon as I picked up tasha's.
The reasons you’ve touched on here are the exact reasons I love artificers! So much room for imaginative flavor, despite the terminology present in the material very much leaning towards sci-fi or steampunk. The armor artificial I played for a campaign is one of my favorite characters that I’ve created to this date. I absolutely loved thinking of clever spins on her spells and abilities. The possibilities are endless!
I have a satyr artificer that is apprenticed to an armorer. She liked to mix fae magics with the gear she made, and her artificer constructs were effectively posessed armor.
Artificers clicked for me when I saw that eldritch cannon can be fired from anything you choose to designate as your arcane firearm. I did a level 18 mini campaign as an artificer with a Staff of the Magi as my firearm, and the character was effectively somebody who'd wanted to be a wizard when she was young, but didn't have the theoretical mind for it... but she DID have a talent for the more hands on and applied work of an artificer. So she has a collection of magic items that make up the difference, but looks rather like a wizard. A wizard with a breastplate.
I played an Artillerist Artificier in a one-shot. They had a Homunculus Servant as one of their infusions that took the form of a tiny clockwork dragon. And the Eldritch Cannon was flavored as being an exo-skeleton for the Homunculus.
My Articifer Artillerist (with a little sprinkle of Wizard) is a wandslinger and enchanter. Her eldritch canon is mostly used in Tiny form as a secondary wand for dual wielding. Otherwise, when I use the small variant, she carves little wooden dwarvish soldiers that grow and come to life to aid her in battle.
As someone who runs a Kobold Artificer for my current D&D campaign, I see my Artificer as a magical blacksmith, someone who can build items and imbue them with magic. Who can boost their abilities both of themselves as well as the party with quick and dirty magic items. And can reduce the time and cost of enchanting items.
Also remember Wrath of the Titans? The mechanical owl companion would be a homunculus servant. And Hephaestus on his own is an Artificer of the Olympian Gods, who created Pandora who was imbued with blessings/enchantments from the other gods. He also made Zeus's Lighting Bolt that he is famous for.
The Dwarves who made Mjolnir in Norse Mythology. Tons of examples to justify Artificer in D&D.
Anybody that thought artificer was just steam punk didn't think about the class all that much. Using disguise self and sell cursed weapons and armor to the enemy. And if your imagination can't get past the shooty stick then think flamethrower, now everyone can cast fireball. My first thoughts were chainmail of invisibility, now you basically have high fantasy predator armor. The other was a walking balista or catapult, it's going to be slow and someone will still have to fire it but it's better than a stationary weapon the enemy has to walk into the line of fire to be useful. Or how a singing sword, everytime you hit there is a chance the sword will give you bardic inspiration or if a enemy misses it casts vicious mockery. War hammer + immovable rod + a recall feature and you have thor's hammer. How about plate armor that has wings, now your fighter has a fly speed.
Learning that Artificer was a Half-Caster class made me realize that it's just Paladin for Wizards. That helped me break away from some of the aesthetics and "D&D but gun" stigmas when I first realized my mistake.
I also realized that Ranger, Paladin, Warlock, and Artificer are all that way. For Druid, Cleric, Sorcerer, and Wizard respectively. Hit with magic, but also Stick of Mighty Beating is on the table.
The fact that the words "Brandon Sanderson" and "Shardplate" made me excitedly and frantically start taping my legs, armrests and desktop, overtaken by such unreasonable HYPE, it's SO unfair.
Why does so few words can have such POWER over me!? 😭
P.D.: Thanks, Ginny! Now I can play an Armorer Artificier reflavored as a full Shardbearer! :D
1:30 there was at least one Artificer option before Eberon.
2nd Edition Players Options : Spells & Magic had a few extra wizard specialization options and Artificer was one of them.
Not certain if there was anything before, but that book was where I first saw it as an option.
My best friend decided to play an artificer in my campaign, which is firmly a renaissance Italy and Gothic Germany hybridized domain of dread. I had my doubts that it wouldn't clash with the world I'd built but honestly, it's been so much fun seeing how it all plays out. Another session coming up and he got his eldritch canon last session so I am beyond excited to see what he does with it haha
My first thought when you said play a battlesmith with Pinocchio as your steel defender was to add a much more brothers Grimm flavor to it... it would basically be Pinocchio meets Edward Scisorhands 😂
Something I like about the artificer is that it shows a growth in the world itself and gives depth to games that might be more than that medieval setting. D20 has their campaign that's almost a modernish setting and it leads to a lot of really cool stuff. It makes sense to me that people would be advancing tech and to have a setting that is more modern can help newer players picture the settings. The artificers are the ones advancing tech, so they are playable too.
I've seen this sort of flavor difficulty applied to many classes. The assumption that clerics must be healers, despite being able to be good in so many other roles. The assumption that paladins must be holy, despite their oath not having to be to a deity. The assumption that bards must be musicians, even though they could be using poetry or visual art to channel their magic. The assumption that warlocks must sell their souls, despite there being so many other patron types besides fiends who could want other things. The assumption that blood hunters must open their flesh, despite it being necrotic damage they take which could be flavored any number of ways. The assumption that rangers are bad, despite all the good subclasses added after the PHB. Etc...
I'm not personally a fan of firearms in my D&D games... I feel like a world with firebolts & eldritch blasts wouldn't really go through the step of having inferior one-shot guns that don't work in the rain to work up towards the better guns that could compete with those spells. Having someone so good at making magic items that they have wands of firebolt and can imbue all sorts of spell effects into various objects though, that makes a LOT of sense for that sort of world. They learned magic, like a wizard does, but instead of casting it directly they pre-cast it into items they can deploy quickly as needed. As a half-caster, they're not able to tap into the weave as well as wizards can, but they make up for that with the versatility of their magic item creation, not just for spells, but for all sorts of bonuses for different situations.
I have an artificer, and I flavor all of their spells & abilities. I flavor Flash of Genius as giving out little bits of advice I've come across in various encyclopedias, in a way that comes off a little condescending but isn't meant to be, but it's also useful so... Like if a Rogue's picking a lock, I might be telling them what model of lock that is to give them the bonus, or if a Fighter's using Athletics to move something heavy, maybe I'm recommending that they lift with their knees for better balance. (I try to come up with something every time.) I flavor my Cure Wounds spell as syringes of health potion that I inject into the target (& always describe it as stabbing them with it). I flavor Ashardalon's Stride as spewing magical flames out of my boots haphazardly. I like this about the Artificer, that it allows for so much of what I'm doing to be given direct flavor as I do those things. It can be harder to do this with most other classes.
My artificer uses calligrapher's tools as a medium for her scroll & rune based spellcasting, and an animated armor the group defeated as the basis of her steel defender.
Flavoured all the constructs and infusions to be covered in magical runes.
Gonna give that book a read.
The artificer is one of the classes that has the most potential for reflavoring. Its probably up there with the bard and the fighter. Like a dwarven armourer who uses ancient dwarven battle chants to activate enchantments on his armor. Or go the WoW shaman route of carving runes into totems to cast spells. Or for a quirkier idea how about somebody carrying around a giant paint brush and casts spells by painting it in the air or on items. One idea I've wanted to use is an artificer who worked as a janitor at a magical school. Somebody has to clean up after potion class. And maybe this could also work in worldbuilding where you can only enchant items as they are being made. This could explain as to why enchanted items are rare and valuable as you need somebody who understands both magic and glassblowing to make an enchanted orb (I've always wondered as to how many mages in magical worlds would be used for monotonous boring repetitive work of enchanting every brick of a castle).
Ya, I love the artificer. One of my favorite characters is a dragonborn armorer named Mary Ann. She was a complete and utter magical girl with a hot temper and loved collecting bits and bobs to make magical jewelry. Her armer was a sparkly princess dress that made her very nimble and she would channel magic though the jeweled parts of it to cast spells or shock enemies with glitter and sparkle.
She was the princess or the dragon depending on the context.
I loved your Sanderson analogy for the Armorer. I hadn't thought about the class that way, but it could totally work. Of course, I'm the guy who played a Tinker Gnome Armorer who's suit was a medium sized mecha that he piloted. It was a Spelljammer campaign...
It's worth noting that there are more than just the three artificer subclasses. There is also the potionsmith, the infusionsmith, the thundersmith, the portal smith, and some others. Artificers are incredibly versatile and can be adapted to fit pretty much any setting.
I played a hexblood that was an artificer artilerist. Very easy to fix, just make firearm into a wand. And instead of turning a staff into a firearm just turn it into an improved staff.
Really good mix with hexblood because hags usually has magic items so its very fitting. Its basically just a half caster blaster with an interest in magic items.
I have a few ideas for Artificers I'd like to try, one being a potionmaker from a family of more traditional Wizards, and one being an apothecary trying to cure magical diseases (specifically the one she's been afflicted with- vampirism, which multiclasses her into Berserker Barbarian- but that's just the one at the top of the list). Both Alchemist subclass, but I've seen some really fun Battle Smith builds from one of my tablemates.
Talking about fantasy armor mixing with scifi. Darth Bane's armor (from Star Wars Legends Universe) was made from an arthropod with a shell that was immune to lightsabers and blaster fire. The armor is alive and made of several orbalisk insects permanently attached to his skin as a parasite. He uses the pain from the parasite bites to fuel his dark side rage. Totally could use that for a barbarian or a artificer
Short answer yes, the first functional steam engine was made by Hero of Alexandria before christ, and clockwork mechanics have been around for thousands of years. Besides, the artificer is more of a magical enchanter than an engineer. A steampunk inventor with a clockwork golem is just as much an artificer as a scribe who makes spell scrolls on the fly, or a witch who brews her spells into potions and talismans. People weren't just banging stones with sticks before the industrial revolution magically made technology.
I have an artificer who usually makes a prosthetic arm cannon, but I got a beautiful vision of a flamethrower Qbert chasing people so now that's my go-to for flamethrowers
For a oneshot, I once played a sentient dog who was an artificer, namely an alchemist. I used the Saint Bernhard mini from Dungeons&Doggies, which has the little barrel at the neck and a lot of pouches and potions strapped to the back. The only steampunk thing in that oneshot was the clockwork dragon we fought hahahah
I made a gnome alchemist that jams components into a mug to then launch the spells. Except for the healing spells that mostly uses moss as the basis for slapping a cure wounds into someone.
Or the Elf artillerist that carves wood and gems into the “gun” that launches the cantrips and spells.
My necromancer Wizard took a detour into Battle Smith, for a bit, all of his items involve crafting bone into items and reanimating them to create complex magical items. His steel Defender is a *significantly upgraded* skeleton.
Quite a while ago I read a novel about a young sorceror apprentice whose master made him craft a metal bird and then infuse it with magic and when that bird was actually able to fly that was when the apprenticeship ended successfully. The rest of the book was pretty much forgettable generic hero defeats the evil thing fantasy, but that little detail is still a great example for an aritficer creating a construct by magic instead of steampunky clockwork technology.
In rolemaster (a game from the 80's) there was a full caster class called Alchemist, who was essentially a magic item crafter. If your high fantasy concept includes "dwarves/elves make magic items on a level that no others can", then it's easy to imagine that they are all artificers with ancient magical knowledge to supplement their crafting skills. Or, how about Celebrimbor? Probably an Artificer, definitely not steam punk. :D
Made a hexblood battle smith artificer whose creator was a night hag, and they used the night hag powers they inherited to infuse their enemies's souls into a metal statue with ruins all over it. DM loved it♥
Runes. The statue had runes all over it.
my artificer was an elf who, being from the exceptionally fantastical evermeet island, found joy in the mundane. she had a special love for owls, and would often model her creations after owls, or other predator species, like spiders or cats. being from a place were magics is literally everywhere, she was sent to school to become a wizard. she had the natural ability, but lacked the dedication, focus, and rigidness that are required for wizards. so whenever she needed to activate a construct, I'd have her channel arcane magic into it to showcase her natural magical talent, but tried to avoid using any kind of complicated magic to show her limits with it.