Major nerf that I really hate is the fact that you _have_ to use tools, in order to cast spells. This is a *_MAJOR_* nerf to Battle Smiths specifically, as no other subclass really cares about what they're holding in their hands as much, beyond tools. Hopefully they either revert the change, or just let Battle Smiths use Magic Weapons as their Spellcasting Focus. Just let me cast spells with an enchanted sword or whatever, and I'm good. I don't want to have to juggle a sword, shield, and a pair of pliers, just so I can take advantage of both my class and subclass.
It says on the UA for the spell section list that it doesn't include spells from Tasha's Cauldron but it does state that you can feel free to include them as part of their spell list. It's just the list of spells from the 2024 phb.
The key thing with the magical item disintegration: Magic items without charges are still magic items. Burn the charge on your spell storing ring to get a spell slot back. Its now worthless until the next day where you can just auto create it again. So may as well vanish it into a free additional slot.
as written, the spell storing ring wasn't created using replicate magic item, so wouldn't be an option for this. but, yeah, something that you did create with that feature that had charges would work.
What I find really amusing is that they made the Mind Sharpener have 4 charges when created, but only gets back 1d4 charges per day. So just eat your ring after it is out of charges to get back a spell slot, then remake it the next day with a full 4 charges, no roll required. (I guess they made it random charges per day in case a DM wants to actually give someone the item, or if someone wants to actually craft it.)
@@GrubbySnotflingeryou can make a spell storing ring with replicate magic item. I think you're mistaking the spell storing ring with the spell storing item class feature.
You no longer get to use one of your infused items as a spellcasting focus. In groups that are strict about item interactions in a turn this could be a real pain for some builds, especially the battle smith.
Considering this is the test version, we might get that back, if not there is a common wonderous item that converts your simple or martial weapon into a focus that you can craft. Ruby of the war mage.
@@OMAGAICE122 I do hope so. Having to use up a magic item and attunement slot on the ruby sounds like quite a tax. Fortunately, my group is pretty lenient on this sorta thing as long as we don't try to juggle TOO much.
This, together with the +1 to savings in lvl 20, were the two things that made me most sad. The subclasses ended up making me happy again. But this one specially is really a bummer. The lvl 20 one will be seen less in game anyways for most people.
What he's not mentioning is that Artificers lost the ability to use their infusions as Spell Focus items. This nerfs the many Battlesmiths that use shield and 1H weapon and try to cast spells like the smite spells. They would now require a feat or common attuned item to do this. Steel Defender also lost Expertise in Perception, but gained prof in all saves and skills. Artificers also lost the ability to ignore attunement requirements.
@@adriannelson4214 my artificier was the groups swiss army knife with the tool expertise when it came to "we need a thing to solve the puzzle/follow the bbeg/save valuable time traversing the ruins."
Dreadnought Armorer marks the 4th or 5th subclass that is just "me get big and hit hard" and I'm not even remotely tired of it. Keep my chonkers coming baby!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Edit: Alchemist get Greater Restoration and Heal, not Harm and Heal! But still, way better than Bubbling Cauldron imho!
Imo I think they are overcorrecting while trying to future proof the artificer. Sure plans are slightly easier to track but now they’ll get access to some former infusions much later because they’re no longer exclusive to the class. They could have done it through the Replicate Magic Item infusion and keep the cool exclusive features. The capstone nerf was unnecessary and lame. The alchemist just feels very unfocused. It feels like the experimental elixir is supposed to be the core feature but nothing really builds on that feature after you get it. The other subclasses are good, the dreadnaugh is awesome (guardian could have its dmg buffed a little tho). Artillerist is great, same as Battle smith though I think they should get access to weapon masteries. Overall, apart from the alchemist, I think they have the right ideas but are not ambitious enough. They really need to rework the alchemist. Either take out the randomness or fully commit to it. I’d give them multiple thematic random tables to choose from and allow the experimental elixir to properly scale. This way you might not always get the perfect or expected solution for a situation but you’ll get a solution.
People tend to forget that some alchemist elixirs can stack (love that it is now a bonus action to drink, although i wish that it could be an action OR a bonus action)
@sspectre8217 I'd love to see more elixir options to choose from as well as some scaling, maybe some damage dealing ones that can be thrown or something
To any DM that says Artificer doesn't fit the setting (presumably Forgotten Realms), remember Mechanus exists. A realm of modrons, robots, and technology everywhere.
@@sansprobus7209 the setting doesn't fit the setting.....? Maybe you don't understand the setting. To be fair Wizards has been taking a dump on the lore for a while
I still miss the Infiltrator feature from the OG UA where the armor could be hidden beneath your character's clothing. Loved that, and most of the time it's just fluff so I would rather they had tinkered with that rather than removing it entirely.
people, I am begging you, FILL THE SURVEYS ABOUT THE UA WHEN THEY COME OUT. All of this needs to be heard by the Beach Witches (WotC) and leaving it in comments, while good for the community, is not enough for them to fix the classes.
Hopefully enough people spread the survey that gets the word out! These changes are horrible overall. A few nice tweaks, but overall... No thanks. I hope @DnDShorts reminds people when it comes!
The level 9 feature of armorer is a nerf in a big way. It’s not a good trade. Being able to attune to two more items as long as they are part of your armor is huge. Limiting it to an armor feature and only 1 is a massive nerf.
Not to mention that RAW armorer can't make their inmate weapons magical since the infusion system no longer works on existing objects, instead it makes up new ones and you can't make thunder gountlets or the lightning luncher as a separate magic item. I'd never play that subclass in the state that it is in the UA.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it. Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC... Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature. Also they can no longer infuse their weapon so that's a other big nerf
you missed an important aspect of flash of genius in the new AU: it can only be used when someone near you FAILS a skill check or saving throw. you can't fail an initiative check, so it can no longer be applied to initiative. also arguably any check that doesn't have a DC can't use this either (like if the DM is asking for a check to see how WELL you do it, rather than just if you succeed.)
@@tuseroni6085 It is a dex check, but it's not a skill. The old factotum worked with every check you weren't proficient with (initiative too, since you can't have proficiency), now it's specifically only with skill checks
The artificer UA really feels like they want to play it safe and get it out quickly. A bit of a rebalance and a few changes to smooth certain things out and see what people say so they can make a few more changes before they start printing it.
@googloocraft12 It doesn't suck, but it's certainly not high tier. Thankfully the feedback opens up next week so we can at least point out the problems in hopes they are addressed.
@The_Fallen_1 As of now, it hasn't fixed the biggest problem with the artificer. Ironically it's basically the opposite of the martials where it sucks early on, but becomes insane at high levels with Attunement slots and their subclass capstone being cracked in some cases.
Main problem is, it's really bad. They really said "Hey, ever wanted to play an npc the players get help from? Now you can!" Most of your main class features is crafting items when other players can already do that or just buy them easily and they have a whole class to themselves. I mean come on, at level 10 you're still making uncommon items and at level 14 when your party probably starts having legendaries is when you can start crafting 2 rare items because of how the plan system works, this is horrible, you'll be level 18 by the time you can replace all your uncommon items with rare. I don't know who WOTC hates more, ranger or artificer.
Unless I'm missing something, the armorer subclass is getting hosed here, as you can't infuse your built in armor weapons anymore. You don't "infuse" current items, you actually create magic items, so you can create a +1 weapon, etc. I have to imagine that most tables are going to ignore this and allow it to work as before, but it just seems like something that could have been addressed easily.
Same with them taking away Tool Expertise, I'm just gonna take the new bits I like and slap them on top of the old stuff that was good and fine already, kinda like the Optional Class Features from Tasha's Cauldron.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it. Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC... Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Regarding the steel defender: yes, it gets fewer hit points, but also no longer gets the bonuses to saves, skill checks, and passive perception that it had before. A pretty big nerf...
หลายเดือนก่อน +17
The humunculus servant now doesn’t left the gem when it dies. And the spell consumes it. Now is not that expendable as before
As someone who's been running an Artificer for the past year+ I am a little disappointed to see how little has changed. With all of the mixing up of the other classes, this feels like an afterthought.
That’s probably because it is 😔 I feel like if it wasn’t an afterthought, they would’ve included it in the PHB like a lot of the other Tasha’s stuff (Yes I know Artificer isn’t originally from Tasha’s, but that’s where it became “official” imo)
The UA has sparked me to rebuild Artificer largely from scratch. I have a new class feature to help lock in the core identity of base class, which each subclass will be able to exploit appropriately. I am actually really excited to work on it since, yeah, this UA isn't doing it for me.
@@graethynne Yes! That’s awesome! Take the creative power into your own hands lol. A friend and I did the same thing for the Ranger because I hated how the 2024 PHB “revised” it. Gave it an actual class mechanic and gameplay loop and gave the subclasses ways to interact with it. Sometimes it’s more fun to see what you can come up with than just uselessly moan about design changes you dislike, y’know?
Yeah. That was my impression from the official video. They started off saying how they were bringing up the power level and that they were revamping it from level 1..... Only to have the same thing as before. I'm not an artificer player, so take it for what you will, but the artificer feels very underwhelming for what it is compared to what it COULD be if they ditched the current mechanics and included an actual functioning crafting system. It's what always holds me back from playing it.
Consider if the artificer had features that could affect enemy items. Like turning enemy items into cursed items, or suppressing magical effects. In my games, I also let artificers spend Heroic Inspiration when they see a magical effect to be "inspired" with a new invention idea. Then there's a couple checks to solidify the design and crafting recipe. It's not a mechanic that can well be written into the class, but I highly recommend DMs to try it out!
@ but are you required to use a bedroll for a short rest? Because I’ve never been required to. And if you need one for a short rest, wouldn’t you already have one for a long rest? Unless you always sleep at an inn, which would make travel difficult
The lvl 9 armorer feature is worse. You used to be able to apply infusions to each armor piece and got 2 extra infusions to apply to the armor. Now it's just 1 extra and only 1 effect to the entire suite?
You can also no longer get the special weapons if wording does not change. If you are already wearing magic armor, you can only make armors for the rest of the party. Enspelled armor is also much weaker than enspelled weapon, because it only gets two schools (at least transmutation should be in there).
Actually its worse than you think. The armorer's special weapons could be enchanted in the Tasha's version. Now because you straight up create a new magic item instead of infusing magic into an item the Armorer weapons can never get any upgrades. So no +2 flail dreadnoughts. There was also tech with the bonus action take of helmet thing allowing you to turn on and off a certain helmet infusion too that is now gone.
So, Alchemist cannot choose their elixir, but the Artilerist can choose their canons every turn now. Seriously, does WotC know how to balance... anything? They seem to have this habit of buffing already strong options, while neglecting (or nerfing) the weaker ones. Here's a thought - give Alchemists their own cantrip that allows them to toss elemental bombs. They do a decent damage, but have a splash effect that forces enemies adjacent to the target to make a save or take half the damage done to the target creature as they're caught in the bomb's effect. Even let the Alchemist choose the damage type. Essentially give the potion guy the ability to make wacky offensive AND defensive potions. Also, let those elixirs scale up.
Our GM worked with a player in our group to homebrew something exactly like that and the artificer eventually created basically a magic grenade launcher that the tired-of-only-being-effective-at-melee-range paladin could wield.
The cantrip you describe is basically a buffed Acid Splash. Which I think would be a good addition to the Alchemist. We've seen subclasses get access to bossted cantrips before, like Arcane Trickster with Mage Hand.
You didn't mention the nerfs to spells prepared and infusions/plans at mid and high levels. My artificer player read this and his reaction was "I'll play it if I have to."
There wasn't a link on pointy hats video that I saw, so I'm dropping my requested comment here I've been pointedly asked to come and thank you for your monstrous contribution! Your doublely spirited creation is awesome! It would make for a great way to surprise the party at what should be a happy moment! So, would you most likely find it in a bottle of bubbly? Because that is the spirit I think of the most when used to celebrate. Others can be uncorked for much more somber occasions, which wouldn't do for this creatures preferred meals
I’ve been playing an Armorer Artificer for a bit now, also the 1st time playing the class itself, and it is so fun. I get more use out of the Guardian Armor and though not much combat has occurred it has been a godsend. Plus our DM lets me modify it outside of infusions which is a plus so I can actually make the modifications from scratch and within reason.
They definitely should’ve kept the infusions as they were. A lotta dms I’ve seen online/reddit tend to not allow much crafting if any at all, or are very strict about it. Especially considering time to craft. Now you have to wait quite a few levels to be able to make something like a repeating shot, which is now an uncommon magic item. I’m also very disappointed that alchemist is basically the same as before and still a very weak subclass, and didn’t do anything to actually make me feel like its an alchemist subclass. They just make a couple preset potions. 10 ft flying speed? Seriously? And no progression? Terrible. They should scale. You should get new and better options. You should have access to making different potions of different rarity and much easier than normal. You should be able to be an alchemist. I do like the changes to artillerist’s eldritch cannon tho. I’m glad it’s only a play test because I really think they can do better all around. It feels very lazily done and that things that didn’t need changing were changed, and things that did weren’t. I do love that it specifies you can make magic items of specific types and rarities now. You’re not limited to a specific list and that’s all.
Why does it seem like everyone bashes _Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron_ ? _Potions of Hill Giant Strength, Potions of Resistance_ and _Potion of Fire Breath_ are all stellar options to just have in your back pocket. Especially the _Potions of Resistance._ On hand, non-Concentration damage resistance to any singular non-Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage type? That's huge!
You can do a TON with ball bearings: 1) Make an area a tripping hazard; I suggest stairs. 2) Use as ammunition for a sling. Should work the same as a sling bullet. 3) Have a familiar drop one into an enemy's armor immediately after casting Heat Metal on it. Can't Dispel Magic and item you can't see. 4) Have your owl familiar fly high above opponents and tear open the bag above them with its talons. Unavoidable AOE damage (save for half) in a sizable area, that is now also a tripping hazzard (assuming the area is level ground). Best at night. 5) Use it to weigh down small items you wish to hide for later in the murky waters of a river. 6) Pile them up in the middle of a corridor and cast Thunderwave on them in the direction of approaching enemies. 7) Roll them to set off motion-sensitive traps from a distance. 8) Place one on the floor to see if the ground/floor is level. Might lead to covered sewer grates or vertical cave openings. 9) Use to defraud canny merchants by lining the sides and top of the inside of coin pouches with genuine coin, but fill the center with ball bearings. The weight won't be far off, and they are unlikely to dump them out when looking inside and only seeing gold coins. Could save you up to ~40% on such deals. Just be sure you don't care about burning metaphorical bridges. 10) Use a bag of them Indiana Jones' style as a replacement on a clearly weight-trapped pedestal holding the McGuffin. 11) Use bags of them to displace dangerous liquid in a shallow basin so you can reach the item at the bottom without touching the liquid. They are sturdy enough that they won't perish immediately landing in most acids, and items are immune to poison. 12) Use the Catapult spell on a loosely-opened bag of ball bearings. 13) Use a combination of the bag's drawstrings and a candle to create a delayed-action distraction. Ball bearings falling 10 or more feet onto flagstones can make quite a racket. 14) Assuming the lock is sturdy enough and the keyhole wide enough, put a ball bearing into the keyhole and hit the lock with Firebolt several times. This should fuse the bearing with the opening, preventing key access or lockpicking. 15) Use as a replacement pouch in pickpocketing. Hopefully the mark won't notice a weight difference. 16) Shiny bribery items for ravens, crows, and magpies. Use in conjunction with Speak With Animals spell for maximum cooperation. 17) If you are good enough, use as a fake bribe on the sly to local law enforcement by handing it carefully in a closed money pouch. Bonus: if they discover the ruse just after handoff, they may be unlikely to confront you over it in a crowded place as they risk outing themselves for accepting bribes (assuming that bribery is actually illegal in that area). 18) Cast light on a bearing and drop, throw, or skip it anywhere you need it to provide illumination at a distance. 19) Use the bearings to make a conspicuous trail (like a line of Reese's Pieces) that leads into a trap for idiots. 20) Throw small handfuls on the ground near a pack of rust monsters so you can keep them away from your paladin's plate armor long enough for your party to pass by them and escape.
And that's not even talking about how you can move objects building the Pyramids style and how ball bearings can be used as bullets in a pinch for muskets.
2) WWWWEEEEELLLLL... Depends on is you DM is the hand wavy type. Old rules there were 1,000 ball bearing per 2 pounds (though the new rules are not that granular it is just ball bearing no count). While one bag/pouch of 20 per 1 1/2 pound. And if you are just going RAW even with the amount (1,000 ball bearing) there is not mention of using them as ammunition. But your miles may vary if you DM does or doesn't play things RAW.
Worst parts of this "update" is the infusion to replicated item changes. 1. Armorer can't enhance their weapons anymore 2. enhanced weapon and defense used to scale to +2 at level 10, now you gotta wait til 14 to replicate +2 weapons/armor 3. Plans known heavily nerfed compared to infusions known on 2014, and no scaling means you have to swap them over several levels.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it. Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC... Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Hey man, sorry to disturb you but I think I came up with one of the strongest builda for OneD&D: Eldritch Knight fighter using medium armor and int as main stat. Get shillelagh with magic initiate and choose intelligence, use a quarterstaff and get polearm master. The build idea is you use the first attack to hit with true strike, the second for normal attack, the bonus attack from polearm maater gets a better dice due to shillelagh; keep in mind that the ability topple scales with intelligence if you use shillelagh and with war caster you might use a shield aswell. All this adds ontop of the extra d4 armor class from blade ward and the ability to cast spells.
They can do caltrops which is much better than ball bearings. But if they didn't change the grappling this dreadnought couldve been a very intelligent grappler which is a funny idea
something that could help the alchemist: magical tinkering expanded to include acid flasks and alchemist's fire give some mechanic for brewing a custom potion. maybe you roll two d20s, one is a positive effect the other a negative effect maybe replace experimental elixir with that.
I would like to express my gratitude for the monster you created for the Pointy Hat video. You are a very nice and sweet person, and I wish you a happy new year!
I built my own Artificer subclass which I'd like to playtest/see playtested. Artificer: Grenadier Sub-Class description needed* At 3rd level you gain Tool Proficiency: When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with alchemist's supplies. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan's tools of your choice. At 3rd level Grenadier Spells Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Alchemist Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Artificer Level Grenadier Spells 3rd Hunter’s Mark, Ice Knife 5th Cloud of Daggers, Wrist Pocket 9th Conjure Barage, Melf's Minute Meteors 13th Elemental Bane, Raulothim's Psychic Lance 17th Conjure Volley, Telekinesis At 3rd level you gain Grenade Manufacturing: You can now create specialized grenades. The number of grenades crafted per long rest is equal to your intelligence plus your proficiency bonus plus the number of infusions you can make. The damage and healing for the grenades that deal damage increases by 1 die at level 5, 9, and 15. 3rd Level Grenades: Acid Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 Acid damage and another 2d4 acid damage on all subsequent turns unless the target spend an action removing it. Darkness Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 Necrotic damage and is engulfed in magical darkness until the end of your next turn. Freeze Grenade: When it hits the target must make a CON save equal to your spell DC. On a failure the target takes 2d6 cold damage and is paralyzed. On a success the target takes half damage and its movement speed is reduced by 10ft. Flame Grenade: When it hits the target they take 2d12 fire damage. Flash Bang Grenade: All Creatures within 10 feet of the grenade must make a constitution saving throw or be blinded and deafened for the next 1d6 rounds. Force Grenade: When it hits, the target takes 2d8 force damage and is pushed 10 feet. Gas Grenade: When it hits the target take 2d8 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of your next turn. Glue Grenade: When it hits the target is restrained and remains that way unless they take an STR (Athletics) check DC equal to your spell-save and an action to get out of it. Healer’s Grenades: All creatures of your choosing within a 10 foot radius heal 2d10 points of damage. Light Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 radiant damage and you can heal 1 ally within 30ft (including themselves) for 1d6. Mind Killer Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d8 psychic damage and is confused until the end of your next turn. Nail Grenade: When it hits, the target takes 2d8 piercing, and every creature within 10 feet takes 1d8 piercing damage. If it misses everyone within the targeted area takes 1d8 piercing damage. Sleep Grenade: When it hits, if the target has lower hit points than your maximum the artificer’s maximum hit points, it is rendered unconscious until the end of your next turn. Slick Grenade: All creatures within a 5 foot radius of the grenade must made a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. The area is treated as difficult terrain for the next minute, and any creature that moves at least 5 feet within the area must make a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. At 5th level you gain Thrower: You are proficient with all thrown weapons and items. When using these, you use your intelligence modifier for attack and damage. You add your intelligence to all damage, even with thrown items that don’t normally deal damage. All thrown weapons and items count as magic for damage resistance purposes. The range of your throwing weapons is equal to 10 times your intelligence modifier for a short range and 30 times your intelligence modifier at disadvantage. At 5th level you gain Auto-Return: You can add the Returning Weapon Infusion to a single weapon without needing to use an attunement slot or an Infusion slot. At 9th level you gain Explosive Throws: Up to your proficiency bonus times per long rest, you can cause a thrown item to deal extra force damage equal to double your artificer level and proficiency bonus combined. At 15th level you gain Targeted Throws: As a full round action you can upgrade your attacks with thrown weapons and items. You can turn a miss into a hit, a hit into a critical hit, and a critical hit deals maximum damage. This must be declared before the attack is made.
A few things I want to point out about the playtest Artificer. Lack of Tool Expertise could be due to some of the new things we can use tools for, but it still sucks. Firearm proficiency seems to only be the domain of the Battle Smith. And some folks wish that weapons could be spell foci for Battle Smiths. I do admit that the Experimental Elixir table is silly. I think the spell slot burn to make more needs to scale a bit, similar to the extra ones you get per long rest. The fact that the subclasses give a time reduction to specific crafting options is huge. Alchemists just get to be the ultimate potion makers in the party. Battle Smiths make your weapons faster. Armorers make all the armor ever. And Artillerists can ... whittle a magic wand faster? Well, you can make magic wands faster at least.
Subclasses get an easier time making their thing, but this was wider before, at 10th. 1/3 of the infusions known are gone. Ignoring item restrictions is gone.
It looks like they got rid of tool proficiency for everyone, rogues can't get it for Thieves' tools anymore either. I think it's because they are pairing tool usage with a skill check, and if you are proficient in both you get advantage. I'm not sure I get it, to be honest. Apart from Thieves' tools and sleight of hand, I can't think of a skill/tool check combo offhand. Maybe arcana couples with Smith's tools for making a magic sword? I don't know, I think they could have outlined it better.
Few things to note: 1. Dreadnaught can cast Booming Blade and reach attack a melee enemy up to 15 feet away and then push them an additional 10 feet away. 2. Battle Smith can no longer heal the Steel Defender with Mending.
A suggestion I’ve seen for elixirs is to have them able to choose from the ones currently available or roll on a wild magic style table with more powerful effects. You could increase the number of options you can choose from as you level up to show gradual proficiency with the elixirs
Overall decent, sometimes good, but some bad elements (artificer main for years): - The level 14 feature (Magic Item Savant), which previously removed level, class, and race restrictions on item use and attunement no longer does so. This is devastating, as it was singularly one of the most interesting class features in the game. When I saw the announcement, the first thing I thought was "I hope they didn't give the entire Artificer class the thief-rogue-subclass-treatment." I was so disappointed I put my phone down. - Losing the ability to use infusions as spell focus items is horrible for battlesmith and alchemist. Battlesmith can't cast the spells on its own spell list (think shield) unless it's holding a spell focus (which it basically shouldn't be holding), and forcing attunement to a Ruby of the War Mage is a crazy ask. Alchemists having to keep tools in hand is pretty awful for a subclass who regularly rely on wands and staffs. - New capstone is so bad compared to the old one. I thought the old capstone was one of the best implementations of a lvl 20 feature in the game. It REALLY felt like a capstone, which is something they claimed they wanted every class to experience... So why remove it in favour of this silly ability? A chaff enemy in any lvl 20 encounter does 20 damage by merely looking at you. Please bring back the save bonus. - Why does the artillerist's cannon have a 1 hour duration and you only get to make em once per long rest. Idk about the rest of you but artillerist is genuinely the least viable for day-long periods of play. You're good for the first difficult encounter, and then you have nothing for the rest of them. I hope lots of people send feedback.
There is a little with how they changed infusions 🙁 Right now we have this for example: Enhanced Arcane Focus Item: A rod, staff, or wand (requires attunement) While holding this item, a creature gains a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls. In addition, the creature ignores half cover when making a spell attack. The bonus increases to +2 when you reach 10th level in this class. Under the new rules we can (and I believe they expect us to) make a Wand of the War Mage +1 at level 2 that would replace this. Issue is we can't make the +2 Rare version until level 14 Similar thing with Enhanced Defense. Hopefully that gets looked at.
I do feel like this was a missed opportunity. I just feel like the Artificer still doesn’t carve out a good enough niche on its own. Like creating magic items is cool but I’d love to see how you, the Artificer, can use them in much cooler ways
A couple of stealth Artificer buffs that didnt seem to have been noticed: Alchemist elixirs can now be applied to allies (previously they could only be applied to yourself), which enables a supportive playstyle without consuming concentration. The Guardian armor defensive field has been buffed massively due to now having unlimited uses of temp HP. Thats 3-20 THP every round at the cost of your bonus action, not shabby.
What I want from the Alchemist is a subclass feature that adds Alchemist's fire to the Magical Tinkering list. It's literally called Alchemist's fire, why doesn't the Alchemist have an easy supply of it. maybe if they do, they can have Alchemical Savant and Chemical mastery's bonus features apply to potions/alchemist's fire/acid/stuff normally made with an Alchemists' kit as well. Other than that, I'd be happy with magical elixir getting some scaling going.
@@anthonydaquet7934 It is true that the alchemist's Supplies normal crafting rules does allow for one to make alchemist's fire (and acid). But normal crafting is 5 days and 50 GP. Throwing those two into magical tinkering gives enough free, quick access that you can incorporate it safely into the character's style of combat at lower levels.
Unpopular opinion, but i LOVE the random potions, if anything the worst change for me was adding the "choose a potion" on the 6. When i play an alchemist, i spend all of my spell slots and roll for potions even though i don't have to, it's so much more fun than casting spells! The actual problem with the potions table is that they're kinda weak and they don't scale with higher level slots.
The new Battlesmith does give the Steel Defender your proficiency bonus to all of their saves, which is nice. Previously it was just Reflex and Constitution, iirc.
But it no longer heals with mending, has no expertise, and is not inmune to surprise. Also you can't cast spells with your weapons anymore so the Battelsmith is more limited
Love the artificer getting some attention! Edit: Whoopsie, this turned out way longer than I thought Here are my main thoughts (I play an armorer, so I'll probably focus on that): Spellcasting: The fixed progression in prepared spells harms artificers especially early on, while the max spells at level 20 stay the same Artificers feel pretty weak/useless before they get their subclass at lvl 3, I feel like this robs them of some versatility in terms of spells, especially in the early game Being able to switch out Cantrips is fantastic! No more ritual casting?!? Or did they forget to include the class feature (which they did specifically mention in tasha's), or why would they give the homunculus servant spell the ritual tag? Infusions/Create magic item: love the creation mechanism! But the little "recommended" addendum makes it look like you have to choose them for specific weapons/armor, so if your Bard friend finds a magic weapon and he doesn't need the +1 Scimitar you provided, you can't give your barbarian a +1 great sword until you reach the next level not to mention this drastically nerfs the armorer, since you cannot infuse your armor with multiple buffs at a time (e.g. no more armor of magical strength on your +1 Plate, so if you're grappled think will look tough, this makes frontlining ) Flash of Genius: being able to use it after you know the roll failed is neat, although my DM thus far ruled that you could use it after seeing the roll but before seeing if it fails instead of before the roll (as some tables play) Subclasses: Alchemist: Never played this guy but still seems pretty weak Armorer: Dreadnought sounds absolutely busted. The wording implies that you get the range increase even if you don't grow in size due to space restrictions, so somewhere out there will be an artificer gnome hiding in a little hole in the wall whacking people from across the room They broke the Guardian. You can't get your temp HP before the fight anymore, but once you're below half, it's basically infinite HP, because the is unlimited uses (could be used as free healing forever for your dhampir friend, for example) Infiltrator is pretty boring in comparison now. Artillerist: Flexibility is great, this is a major game changer I don't expect the protector healing to increase, in the published versions the gun damage already increases, but temp HP given do not One thing I still think needs fixing: mending takes a full minute, so unless you have 2 seperate encounters within 1 hour (the lifespan of the cannon), the "heal 2d6" is almost useless. why not allow for a shortened use of mending, taking 1 action and healing 1d6 or something? Battle Smith: Sure the extra damage is great, but why make the steel defender worse at defending (well not really, but less HP so you catch my drift), why not let you choose one of two models depending on your playstyle Spellstoring: Absolutely busted, if they want to include 3rd lvl spells, they could maybe adjust the usages, for example int mod * 3 for lvl 1 spells, *2 for lvl 2 and *3 for lvl 3 Soul of Artifice: This capstone was already great, staying alive with 1 HP is busted enough as is, but no reaction needed for zooming back up to 20 hp is crazy I do prefer the former implementation of magical guidance, because it implied that each of your items gave you some form of magical assistance, now it's just "roll a d6 if there's at least one", feels less in sync with the class, idk Closing thoughts: There's a lot here to like, but I feel that this greatly changes the spirit of the class, in my perception the Artificer is a class of versatility, offering decent, albeit not perfect, solutions to many problems your party may encounter. This UA version loses a lot of that versatility, especially in early levels where your party members are probably more dependent on your assistance P.S: new homunculus not needing your action to take orders is insane
@@nathans9764 oh true, I only skimmed it earlier, the loss in HP is only 2 at max level if I read it right (5 flat instead of 2+int mod as base value), the save profiencies are great other tiny details in the changes: early level buff: repair is now 2d8+ int mod instead of proficiency, great for survivability early on if you do something funky like play an autognome (if your dm lets you) significant downgrade: skill proficiencies were dropped, so no more 2xPB on perception, which was a huge benefit at all levels before
@@abfallbube they also lost the vigilant "cannot be surprised" passive. It's a bit odd because with the change to surprise, it's not a super strong ability. Re: ritual casting, everyone gets that now, so it's not spelled out in individual classes anymore, except wizard, who can ritual cast unprepared spells.
I looked at armorer through infiltrator eyes, because I hardly use Guardian. Perhaps the other types compensate somewhat for the nerfs. I still want infiltrator to be viable though.
3:18 Does it have to be your magic item that you drain? Because in certain situations that can be used as an attack. A nearly indestructible philactry is a magic item. It can be drained and destroyed that way. "I have defeated you. I am the undead KING! Neil before me as I turn you into my minions. Wait, what is that? What are you doing? Get your hands off that! NNOOOO!"😂
I would like to see a longer Elixir list for the Alchemist sub class). And rather than have them scale, as you level up you get to roll multiple times for multiple effects, which would stack if you roll the same value (or roll the choose value and pick the same one). Also, to make it interesting, you could let the Alchemist choose an Elixir for a weaker effect, or roll for a stronger one. But I do like the core idea. It is an Experimental Elixir. You are throwing in whatever you have on hand, in variable quantities, to see what you get.
Drain Magic Item is actually really good because it gives a reason to make limited use items. Like the Spell Refueling Ring is an okay item, but now you can refuel one of the Wizard’s spell slots, and now that’s it’s out of uses, consume its magic to get a 2nd level spells slot for you.
Important to remember as always, this is just the first playtest. Is it great? No. Could it work? Absolutely. The ability to magically make mundane items, very cool, needs to last longer. The ability to just make any magic item of a certain rarity? Freaking awesome. Now they can keep making new books with items and now Artificers can make them. Some of the other features aren’t quite as fun. Alchemist could still be better, it needs more reliability and a touch more power. Armorer gaining a new armor type I feel immediately makes it better but it could use some tweaks. Artillerist is pretty darn good, especially with being able to cycle through the turret types easily. Battle Smith also isn’t bad. Every subclass could use tweaks but the main class needs a little umph.
@ But I don’t think any subclass got access to Weapon Mastery right? Not War Cleric or Valor Bard. So I don’t expect any subclass to include Weapon Masteries.
as someone plays probably too much artificer. My response to this UA is "Try Harder", I was hoping they were cooking and maybe they still are but damn. this sucks. Every other class got stronger and this feels...like nothing.
my god sometimes I don't know where I think I read this stuff, I was certain of that when I was recording (so certain I didn't think to look it up 🙄🙄) You're right, my bad, thanks for the correction!
My solution was to let them freecast subclass spells, as the artificer should be the more spell focused half-Caster, but they couldn't even manage that. They made some cool changes & some bad, but ultimately the artificer is mostly in the same place and the subclasses are on a more even playing field, but none of them have surpassed what the best had.😊
It seems that Alchemists could be fixed by either applying Artificer spell slots, so level 1, up to uncommon, level 2 up to rare, level 3 up to very rare, etc. Beyond that, I would break potions into 'types', so Healing, Buffing, Damage, etc or some other better way of sorting them, just spit balling off the top of my head. So what makes it experimental is you can choose, either you create a potion that is available to you, so if you use a level 2 spell slot, you can make a Potion of Gaseous Form and thus you can roll a 1d3 and the potion will have 1-3 uses, OR you can choose to use a skill check to try to create a potion from a chosen category (like healing) and you can get 1 potion of a level above what would normally be available, and the 'randomness' would still be within a scope of value. So it might not gain you hit points but it might remove status effects, but at least it isn't so random that you now have dragons breath or something. Then by the nature of the spell slots the class scales better as well, access to more interesting and powerful potions. I mean considering how common the potions end up on the loot charts in the DMG, you would think that a class designated as an Alchemist would have proper access to these limited use items.
There are A LOT of hidden nerfs in this UA, many because of the removal of infusions and some that they didnt mention but that you can find by comparing the text to 2014. Also, the artificer was already middle of the pack before and it needed way more options/buffs to keep up with power creep in 2024. Armorer seems ok and artillerist actually feels great. But alchemist sucks just as much as ever and Battelsmith with no weapon masteries is literal hearesy. They both need a lot of help mechanically in 5.5 (one more than the other) Previous infusions gated by level, no mention of mending for my companion, making the capstone trash, no infusion casting equivalent, no ignoring prerequisites for magic items, no expertise, and no extra infusions for armorer (locking them into +0 weapons as their mains). Finally the flavor seems lost, im not tinkering or crafting, stuff just appears for an hour and NOTHING is special, its just a normal magic item that anyone could stumble upon, except worse cuz it's not permanent. Really love the spell storing ring tho, great stuff there.
I would say 2014 Artificer is in the same boat as creation bard and illusionist wizard: completely broken with a creative player and lenient DM, but kind of sucky if you're not willing to rack your brain and push the envelope.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it. Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC... Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
My problem with this iteration of the Artificer is that it's so tied to the creation/use of magic items, which is the domain of the DM. If you're in a low magic setting then Artificer is simply going to get banned since it's disruptive for the setting. If you're in a high magic setting with magic item shops and/or crafting, your class feature basically doesn't exist.
I don't know, being able to create an enspelled weapon with fireball with 7 charges every single night seems a pretty big buff in any setting. Being able to do the same thing with enspelled armor with shield also is cracked. People are missing the upper limits of what is possible here...and it is potentially scary, especially at high levels.
I have a player who is interested in playing this new UA Artificer and they want to try Alchemist because of the flavor and RP potential. They also were lukewarm about the randomly rolled daily Experimental Elixir, so I told them that as they level up it will go from a d6 to a d8 to a d10 to eventually a d12 and a 6 or higher will always mean they can choose. So as they go up in level they aren't guaranteed to be able to choose their daily elixir, but their chances of rolling to choose will increase as they gain levels. I was considering just ignoring it entirely and always letting them choose, but the player seemed to think my suggestion was a fair enough compromise for now. We'll play it by ear
I love the artificer. I just want them to release it into the creative commons with the rest of the 2014 classes so that awesome third party creator can make it better.
It's possible they can't as a result of the whole process of Keith Baker creating Eberron with WOTC. I honestly think there has to be a legalese reason they haven't already.
The LevelUp/A5E Artificer is already available via OGL, ORC and CC. A fact that quite a few people used to create a total of 22 (1 not yet published but already named) archetypes/subclasses for it.
I agree that the Alchemist suffers from underwhelming imagination. I was always a fan of the Artillerist, now I can have all 3 types of eldritch cannons at once is awesome!
I feel like a couple things are not getting mentioned bc he straight up skipped over them, so heres a couple. 1. Guardian armorer got a massive upgrade with a slight nerf. Defensive matrix (i cant remember what they changed the name to) is now no longer limited use, you just use it as a bonus action when below 1/2 hp. 2. This is a big one, the items artificers can make got a massive buff. He didnt mention that at level 14 you can make ANY rare magic item (no pots/scrolls), and he just glossed over the uncommons at 10. There are some absolutly busted things done here, the limits are what items you can come up with that are rare or lower. Some examples being staff of defense, or a staff of healing, or maybe any of the belts of strength 3. The drain magic item feature has some great use cases he kinda missed out on, alot of magic items (especially the wonderous) have limited use effects, and a decent one is the pearl of power, so even more spell slots 4. Alchemist did kinda get dealt dirty in this version. I personally like it still as its the support subclass, but i do agree that the potions need some level/spell slot scaling. Rules as written, tashas alchemist experimental elixers didnt go away on a rest, so hey look, 2 warlock levels and an elf just make 20 something elixirs in a day of prep time. 5. The force ballista part of the artillerist cannon got nerfed, used to deal 2d8+int damage, so the trade off was higher single target damage in exchange for not hitting multiple creatures (compared to flamethrower cannon). Also the gun works on cantrips, which includes booming blade (also alch damage boost works with firebolt) Apart from these, i cant find too much more he skipped over, however he WAY sold short the replicate magic item system, and the capstone was a pretty big nerf imo
The Armorer was really close to the alchemist in term of power. Like Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it. Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC... Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature. Also they can no longer infuse their weapon so that's a other big nerf
I love the artillerist change! That's my favorite artificer subclass, but one of it's major flaws was being stuck in the cannon choice once a fight starts or having to use your action and a spell slot to do so.
@@pizzaemperor3553 That's a fair criticism. I would say if you want to keep it a choice in order to make players think, I'd want the choice to be a little stronger in someway. For instance, give a single/limited use ability for each type of cannon that allows some increased damage, CC, or utility. As an example, the flamethrower could get 10ft extra range and deal an additional 1d8 damage, protector could give a 15ft speed boost to creatures effected by it until the end of their next turn, the ballista could have a saving throw to knock a creature back further and knock them throw. These abilities could be single use or PB use or something like that to make that choice feel like more impactful. Then when you get 2, you get a lot of mix and match options with it!
@@52392daner With all due respect, they're already very good. These are substantial effects for a bonus action with no concentration. I can't really in good faith say they need an extra buff. I could maybe here the free cannon being a short rest recharge at some point to make the choice less damning but still
@@52392daner With all due respect, they're already very strong effects for a bonus action with no concentration. It's a pretty good subclass. At most I could see flamethrower bumped up to d10's and the free turret being short or long rest, but that's it.
I made my own version of the Artificer some time ago. It doesn't have so many Spells nor Prepared Spells but it can infuse some more items. The important thing is the revised and expanded infusions list. I wasn't sure if it was good, but a friend who is a veteran and likes playing Artificer told me that he prefers my version because it's polyvalent and can adapt to many play styles
Grab incredible TTRPG maps from CzePeku! Get the entire 4000+ maps back catalogue when you join! www.patreon.com/czepeku/posts
That sounds so cool!
I don't know why DND refuses to just make a proper Alchemist and make it like the Pathfinder one but still different so it's not a full copy
Major nerf that I really hate is the fact that you _have_ to use tools, in order to cast spells. This is a *_MAJOR_* nerf to Battle Smiths specifically, as no other subclass really cares about what they're holding in their hands as much, beyond tools. Hopefully they either revert the change, or just let Battle Smiths use Magic Weapons as their Spellcasting Focus. Just let me cast spells with an enchanted sword or whatever, and I'm good. I don't want to have to juggle a sword, shield, and a pair of pliers, just so I can take advantage of both my class and subclass.
It says on the UA for the spell section list that it doesn't include spells from Tasha's Cauldron but it does state that you can feel free to include them as part of their spell list. It's just the list of spells from the 2024 phb.
that makes sense!
Fact is, 2024 is still 5e. So EVERYTHING for 5e that isnt retconned or changed or explicitely removed, is still officially released for 5e.
For now... mwahahahaha!
So what you're saying is: *Catapult it is, then?*
The key thing with the magical item disintegration: Magic items without charges are still magic items. Burn the charge on your spell storing ring to get a spell slot back. Its now worthless until the next day where you can just auto create it again. So may as well vanish it into a free additional slot.
Real
as written, the spell storing ring wasn't created using replicate magic item, so wouldn't be an option for this. but, yeah, something that you did create with that feature that had charges would work.
They made the spell storing ring a magic item in the UA, so you could create it with replicate magic item
What I find really amusing is that they made the Mind Sharpener have 4 charges when created, but only gets back 1d4 charges per day. So just eat your ring after it is out of charges to get back a spell slot, then remake it the next day with a full 4 charges, no roll required.
(I guess they made it random charges per day in case a DM wants to actually give someone the item, or if someone wants to actually craft it.)
@@GrubbySnotflingeryou can make a spell storing ring with replicate magic item.
I think you're mistaking the spell storing ring with the spell storing item class feature.
You no longer get to use one of your infused items as a spellcasting focus. In groups that are strict about item interactions in a turn this could be a real pain for some builds, especially the battle smith.
Bards: *Trying to hold a weapon and any of the two-handed instruments the game lists* "YOU THINK YOU KNOW PAIN!?"
Considering this is the test version, we might get that back, if not there is a common wonderous item that converts your simple or martial weapon into a focus that you can craft. Ruby of the war mage.
@@OMAGAICE122 I do hope so. Having to use up a magic item and attunement slot on the ruby sounds like quite a tax. Fortunately, my group is pretty lenient on this sorta thing as long as we don't try to juggle TOO much.
I can no longer pull spells from my Bag of Holding? This day extracts a heavy toll
This, together with the +1 to savings in lvl 20, were the two things that made me most sad. The subclasses ended up making me happy again. But this one specially is really a bummer. The lvl 20 one will be seen less in game anyways for most people.
What he's not mentioning is that Artificers lost the ability to use their infusions as Spell Focus items. This nerfs the many Battlesmiths that use shield and 1H weapon and try to cast spells like the smite spells. They would now require a feat or common attuned item to do this.
Steel Defender also lost Expertise in Perception, but gained prof in all saves and skills.
Artificers also lost the ability to ignore attunement requirements.
I agree I don't like that they got rid of ignoring attunement requirements 😢
Yeah the attunement requirement is a huge thing
Not to mention Tool Expertise. That shit was my jam
@@adriannelson4214 my artificier was the groups swiss army knife with the tool expertise when it came to "we need a thing to solve the puzzle/follow the bbeg/save valuable time traversing the ruins."
@@Scoundrel_at_Heart yeah, the changes hurt the arteficer in his role of Jack in all traits and master of non, except item creation
So Wizards DID only keep Artificer out of the 2024 PHB so they could put it in another 60 dollar book!
60 dollar book doubt it like 20 or 30 probably
Oathbreaker has joined the chat...
A new 60 dollar book? Where? WHERE?!
Get a pencil and copy it into your $5 notes for F R E E
Absolutely yes 💯
The capstone putting you a 20hp instead of 1hp is *barely* a buff. At level 20 creatures sneeze for more than 20dmg
At least it doesn't cost a reaction anymore, so you can keep up as long as you have items
Also, less likely to die outright from a single big hit.
Memento mori
@@asilva4956yes but we lost a +6 to all saving throw for a 1d6 to skill check (guidance at level 20 WTF WOTC)
It's still an incredible capstone regardless.
Dreadnought Armorer marks the 4th or 5th subclass that is just "me get big and hit hard" and I'm not even remotely tired of it. Keep my chonkers coming baby!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Edit: Alchemist get Greater Restoration and Heal, not Harm and Heal! But still, way better than Bubbling Cauldron imho!
5th, it’s the 5th subclass of artificer.
@@AtelierGodit’s not a different subclass
Imo I think they are overcorrecting while trying to future proof the artificer. Sure plans are slightly easier to track but now they’ll get access to some former infusions much later because they’re no longer exclusive to the class. They could have done it through the Replicate Magic Item infusion and keep the cool exclusive features. The capstone nerf was unnecessary and lame.
The alchemist just feels very unfocused. It feels like the experimental elixir is supposed to be the core feature but nothing really builds on that feature after you get it.
The other subclasses are good, the dreadnaugh is awesome (guardian could have its dmg buffed a little tho). Artillerist is great, same as Battle smith though I think they should get access to weapon masteries.
Overall, apart from the alchemist, I think they have the right ideas but are not ambitious enough.
They really need to rework the alchemist. Either take out the randomness or fully commit to it. I’d give them multiple thematic random tables to choose from and allow the experimental elixir to properly scale. This way you might not always get the perfect or expected solution for a situation but you’ll get a solution.
People tend to forget that some alchemist elixirs can stack (love that it is now a bonus action to drink, although i wish that it could be an action OR a bonus action)
@sspectre8217 I'd love to see more elixir options to choose from as well as some scaling, maybe some damage dealing ones that can be thrown or something
To any DM that says Artificer doesn't fit the setting (presumably Forgotten Realms), remember Mechanus exists. A realm of modrons, robots, and technology everywhere.
@@RealLifeIronMan Also if magic items fit, people who make them fit.
@@EpicRandomness555 Agreed.
I envision Artificers as etching runes & inlaying crystals, rather than steampunk gunslingers.
@@bestegeryeah how they look depends on the setting.... just like every other class
I mean Mechanus doesn't really feel like it fits the setting either?
@@sansprobus7209 the setting doesn't fit the setting.....? Maybe you don't understand the setting. To be fair Wizards has been taking a dump on the lore for a while
I still miss the Infiltrator feature from the OG UA where the armor could be hidden beneath your character's clothing. Loved that, and most of the time it's just fluff so I would rather they had tinkered with that rather than removing it entirely.
You can still turn off the armor and turn it back on with an action. Not ideal but better than don/doff rules.
people, I am begging you, FILL THE SURVEYS ABOUT THE UA WHEN THEY COME OUT. All of this needs to be heard by the Beach Witches (WotC) and leaving it in comments, while good for the community, is not enough for them to fix the classes.
Hopefully enough people spread the survey that gets the word out! These changes are horrible overall. A few nice tweaks, but overall... No thanks. I hope @DnDShorts reminds people when it comes!
The level 9 feature of armorer is a nerf in a big way. It’s not a good trade. Being able to attune to two more items as long as they are part of your armor is huge.
Limiting it to an armor feature and only 1 is a massive nerf.
Not to mention that RAW armorer can't make their inmate weapons magical since the infusion system no longer works on existing objects, instead it makes up new ones and you can't make thunder gountlets or the lightning luncher as a separate magic item. I'd never play that subclass in the state that it is in the UA.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it.
Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC...
Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Also they can no longer infuse their weapon so that's a other big nerf
you missed an important aspect of flash of genius in the new AU: it can only be used when someone near you FAILS a skill check or saving throw. you can't fail an initiative check, so it can no longer be applied to initiative. also arguably any check that doesn't have a DC can't use this either (like if the DM is asking for a check to see how WELL you do it, rather than just if you succeed.)
Yeah that's massive for checks that have degrees of success (often lore for me)
Initiative is not a skill check, so it would not apply anyway. In fact the new bard's factotum doesn't apply to initiative anymore
@@sofiarizzo7260 initiative is a dex skill check, at least in 2014 rules, idk if they changed that, but this has been confirmed by Jeremy Crawford.
@@tuseroni6085 It is a dex check, but it's not a skill. The old factotum worked with every check you weren't proficient with (initiative too, since you can't have proficiency), now it's specifically only with skill checks
@@sofiarizzo7260 skill check is player shorthand, the term the book uses is "ability check" and initiative is an ability check.
The artificer UA really feels like they want to play it safe and get it out quickly. A bit of a rebalance and a few changes to smooth certain things out and see what people say so they can make a few more changes before they start printing it.
This needs a LOT OF CHABGES because right now it sucks
@googloocraft12 It doesn't suck, but it's certainly not high tier. Thankfully the feedback opens up next week so we can at least point out the problems in hopes they are addressed.
@The_Fallen_1 As of now, it hasn't fixed the biggest problem with the artificer. Ironically it's basically the opposite of the martials where it sucks early on, but becomes insane at high levels with Attunement slots and their subclass capstone being cracked in some cases.
Main problem is, it's really bad. They really said "Hey, ever wanted to play an npc the players get help from? Now you can!" Most of your main class features is crafting items when other players can already do that or just buy them easily and they have a whole class to themselves. I mean come on, at level 10 you're still making uncommon items and at level 14 when your party probably starts having legendaries is when you can start crafting 2 rare items because of how the plan system works, this is horrible, you'll be level 18 by the time you can replace all your uncommon items with rare. I don't know who WOTC hates more, ranger or artificer.
Unless I'm missing something, the armorer subclass is getting hosed here, as you can't infuse your built in armor weapons anymore. You don't "infuse" current items, you actually create magic items, so you can create a +1 weapon, etc. I have to imagine that most tables are going to ignore this and allow it to work as before, but it just seems like something that could have been addressed easily.
Same with them taking away Tool Expertise, I'm just gonna take the new bits I like and slap them on top of the old stuff that was good and fine already, kinda like the Optional Class Features from Tasha's Cauldron.
@@adriannelson4214 Well, they took away tool expertise because tool expertise doesn't exist anymore. they took it away from rogues too
It's not great, but on the plus side you can turn the armor weapon into a spell-storing item. Can't remember if that was always the case
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it.
Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC...
Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Regarding the steel defender: yes, it gets fewer hit points, but also no longer gets the bonuses to saves, skill checks, and passive perception that it had before. A pretty big nerf...
The humunculus servant now doesn’t left the gem when it dies. And the spell consumes it. Now is not that expendable as before
Lmao, that sucks really bad ngl
That is just plain evil. How do I retain the memory of my dolls then??
As someone who's been running an Artificer for the past year+ I am a little disappointed to see how little has changed. With all of the mixing up of the other classes, this feels like an afterthought.
That’s probably because it is 😔 I feel like if it wasn’t an afterthought, they would’ve included it in the PHB like a lot of the other Tasha’s stuff (Yes I know Artificer isn’t originally from Tasha’s, but that’s where it became “official” imo)
The UA has sparked me to rebuild Artificer largely from scratch. I have a new class feature to help lock in the core identity of base class, which each subclass will be able to exploit appropriately. I am actually really excited to work on it since, yeah, this UA isn't doing it for me.
@@graethynne Yes! That’s awesome! Take the creative power into your own hands lol. A friend and I did the same thing for the Ranger because I hated how the 2024 PHB “revised” it. Gave it an actual class mechanic and gameplay loop and gave the subclasses ways to interact with it. Sometimes it’s more fun to see what you can come up with than just uselessly moan about design changes you dislike, y’know?
Yeah. That was my impression from the official video.
They started off saying how they were bringing up the power level and that they were revamping it from level 1..... Only to have the same thing as before.
I'm not an artificer player, so take it for what you will, but the artificer feels very underwhelming for what it is compared to what it COULD be if they ditched the current mechanics and included an actual functioning crafting system.
It's what always holds me back from playing it.
@@egg_l0rd13 Thanks mate! I think I have a good hook.
Consider if the artificer had features that could affect enemy items. Like turning enemy items into cursed items, or suppressing magical effects.
In my games, I also let artificers spend Heroic Inspiration when they see a magical effect to be "inspired" with a new invention idea. Then there's a couple checks to solidify the design and crafting recipe. It's not a mechanic that can well be written into the class, but I highly recommend DMs to try it out!
I love how you can craft a bedroll that disappears after an hour. Unless you’re incredibly creative, that’s almost entirely useless
Prank your friends. “Hey everybody, I already set up camp. Time for bed!
@ you’re the only one with a real bedroll lol
Good for a Short Rest, at least.
When your bard has to seduce the BBEG, but they refuse without a bed.
@ but are you required to use a bedroll for a short rest? Because I’ve never been required to. And if you need one for a short rest, wouldn’t you already have one for a long rest? Unless you always sleep at an inn, which would make travel difficult
The lvl 9 armorer feature is worse. You used to be able to apply infusions to each armor piece and got 2 extra infusions to apply to the armor. Now it's just 1 extra and only 1 effect to the entire suite?
Yeah i just read that and i had to reread that multiple times to make sure i was reading that right
You can also no longer get the special weapons if wording does not change. If you are already wearing magic armor, you can only make armors for the rest of the party. Enspelled armor is also much weaker than enspelled weapon, because it only gets two schools (at least transmutation should be in there).
Yeah, not sure why he thinks this is the same thing. It’s really not, at all.
Actually its worse than you think. The armorer's special weapons could be enchanted in the Tasha's version. Now because you straight up create a new magic item instead of infusing magic into an item the Armorer weapons can never get any upgrades. So no +2 flail dreadnoughts. There was also tech with the bonus action take of helmet thing allowing you to turn on and off a certain helmet infusion too that is now gone.
So, Alchemist cannot choose their elixir, but the Artilerist can choose their canons every turn now.
Seriously, does WotC know how to balance... anything? They seem to have this habit of buffing already strong options, while neglecting (or nerfing) the weaker ones.
Here's a thought - give Alchemists their own cantrip that allows them to toss elemental bombs. They do a decent damage, but have a splash effect that forces enemies adjacent to the target to make a save or take half the damage done to the target creature as they're caught in the bomb's effect. Even let the Alchemist choose the damage type. Essentially give the potion guy the ability to make wacky offensive AND defensive potions.
Also, let those elixirs scale up.
Our GM worked with a player in our group to homebrew something exactly like that and the artificer eventually created basically a magic grenade launcher that the tired-of-only-being-effective-at-melee-range paladin could wield.
Funny enough, that is somewhat similar to what Pathfinder has. All this time and DnD still cannot make a decent alchemist. Sad.
The cantrip you describe is basically a buffed Acid Splash. Which I think would be a good addition to the Alchemist.
We've seen subclasses get access to bossted cantrips before, like Arcane Trickster with Mage Hand.
They always go hard on power creep. They've always been this way, every edition. Because it drives sales.
Reminds me of Storm Herald, I'd love to change the weather type.
You didn't mention the nerfs to spells prepared and infusions/plans at mid and high levels. My artificer player read this and his reaction was "I'll play it if I have to."
please respond to the survey to voice your complaints. They won't listen otherwise.
@speeddevil4040 where can I find the survey?
@@Mirie-Maribael usually they come out after a couple of weeks after the UA releasses. Be on the lookout
Armorers can no longer get +1 to their subclass weapons. ~that’s stupid~
There wasn't a link on pointy hats video that I saw, so I'm dropping my requested comment here
I've been pointedly asked to come and thank you for your monstrous contribution! Your doublely spirited creation is awesome! It would make for a great way to surprise the party at what should be a happy moment! So, would you most likely find it in a bottle of bubbly? Because that is the spirit I think of the most when used to celebrate. Others can be uncorked for much more somber occasions, which wouldn't do for this creatures preferred meals
I’ve been playing an Armorer Artificer for a bit now, also the 1st time playing the class itself, and it is so fun. I get more use out of the Guardian Armor and though not much combat has occurred it has been a godsend. Plus our DM lets me modify it outside of infusions which is a plus so I can actually make the modifications from scratch and within reason.
They definitely should’ve kept the infusions as they were. A lotta dms I’ve seen online/reddit tend to not allow much crafting if any at all, or are very strict about it. Especially considering time to craft. Now you have to wait quite a few levels to be able to make something like a repeating shot, which is now an uncommon magic item. I’m also very disappointed that alchemist is basically the same as before and still a very weak subclass, and didn’t do anything to actually make me feel like its an alchemist subclass. They just make a couple preset potions. 10 ft flying speed? Seriously? And no progression? Terrible. They should scale. You should get new and better options. You should have access to making different potions of different rarity and much easier than normal. You should be able to be an alchemist.
I do like the changes to artillerist’s eldritch cannon tho. I’m glad it’s only a play test because I really think they can do better all around. It feels very lazily done and that things that didn’t need changing were changed, and things that did weren’t.
I do love that it specifies you can make magic items of specific types and rarities now. You’re not limited to a specific list and that’s all.
Why does it seem like everyone bashes _Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron_ ? _Potions of Hill Giant Strength, Potions of Resistance_ and _Potion of Fire Breath_ are all stellar options to just have in your back pocket. Especially the _Potions of Resistance._ On hand, non-Concentration damage resistance to any singular non-Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage type? That's huge!
@@clarkside4493 Potion of Pugilism for Monks!
Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron seems like such a versatile spell, and with a creative player you can easily find some interesting exploits
Really curious how you think you can exploit this spell, seems pretty exploitproof to me @@jordanholt9170
Plus if you have a Monk they'll really appreciate a steady source of Potions of Pugilism
@@neoman4426 exactly!
You can do a TON with ball bearings:
1) Make an area a tripping hazard; I suggest stairs.
2) Use as ammunition for a sling. Should work the same as a sling bullet.
3) Have a familiar drop one into an enemy's armor immediately after casting Heat Metal on it. Can't Dispel Magic and item you can't see.
4) Have your owl familiar fly high above opponents and tear open the bag above them with its talons. Unavoidable AOE damage (save for half) in a sizable area, that is now also a tripping hazzard (assuming the area is level ground). Best at night.
5) Use it to weigh down small items you wish to hide for later in the murky waters of a river.
6) Pile them up in the middle of a corridor and cast Thunderwave on them in the direction of approaching enemies.
7) Roll them to set off motion-sensitive traps from a distance.
8) Place one on the floor to see if the ground/floor is level. Might lead to covered sewer grates or vertical cave openings.
9) Use to defraud canny merchants by lining the sides and top of the inside of coin pouches with genuine coin, but fill the center with ball bearings. The weight won't be far off, and they are unlikely to dump them out when looking inside and only seeing gold coins. Could save you up to ~40% on such deals. Just be sure you don't care about burning metaphorical bridges.
10) Use a bag of them Indiana Jones' style as a replacement on a clearly weight-trapped pedestal holding the McGuffin.
11) Use bags of them to displace dangerous liquid in a shallow basin so you can reach the item at the bottom without touching the liquid. They are sturdy enough that they won't perish immediately landing in most acids, and items are immune to poison.
12) Use the Catapult spell on a loosely-opened bag of ball bearings.
13) Use a combination of the bag's drawstrings and a candle to create a delayed-action distraction. Ball bearings falling 10 or more feet onto flagstones can make quite a racket.
14) Assuming the lock is sturdy enough and the keyhole wide enough, put a ball bearing into the keyhole and hit the lock with Firebolt several times. This should fuse the bearing with the opening, preventing key access or lockpicking.
15) Use as a replacement pouch in pickpocketing. Hopefully the mark won't notice a weight difference.
16) Shiny bribery items for ravens, crows, and magpies. Use in conjunction with Speak With Animals spell for maximum cooperation.
17) If you are good enough, use as a fake bribe on the sly to local law enforcement by handing it carefully in a closed money pouch. Bonus: if they discover the ruse just after handoff, they may be unlikely to confront you over it in a crowded place as they risk outing themselves for accepting bribes (assuming that bribery is actually illegal in that area).
18) Cast light on a bearing and drop, throw, or skip it anywhere you need it to provide illumination at a distance.
19) Use the bearings to make a conspicuous trail (like a line of Reese's Pieces) that leads into a trap for idiots.
20) Throw small handfuls on the ground near a pack of rust monsters so you can keep them away from your paladin's plate armor long enough for your party to pass by them and escape.
Holy crap, this is amazing
21) Cast Darkness on one & throw or roll at enemy, or do the same drop-into-armor trick.
You can also cast animate objects on a bag of ball bearings for a bunch of tiny objects; solid AC and great bonus action damage
And that's not even talking about how you can move objects building the Pyramids style and how ball bearings can be used as bullets in a pinch for muskets.
2) WWWWEEEEELLLLL...
Depends on is you DM is the hand wavy type. Old rules there were 1,000 ball bearing per 2 pounds (though the new rules are not that granular it is just ball bearing no count). While one bag/pouch of 20 per 1 1/2 pound. And if you are just going RAW even with the amount (1,000 ball bearing) there is not mention of using them as ammunition. But your miles may vary if you DM does or doesn't play things RAW.
Worst parts of this "update" is the infusion to replicated item changes.
1. Armorer can't enhance their weapons anymore
2. enhanced weapon and defense used to scale to +2 at level 10, now you gotta wait til 14 to replicate +2 weapons/armor
3. Plans known heavily nerfed compared to infusions known on 2014, and no scaling means you have to swap them over several levels.
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it.
Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC...
Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Hey man, sorry to disturb you but I think I came up with one of the strongest builda for OneD&D: Eldritch Knight fighter using medium armor and int as main stat.
Get shillelagh with magic initiate and choose intelligence, use a quarterstaff and get polearm master.
The build idea is you use the first attack to hit with true strike, the second for normal attack, the bonus attack from polearm maater gets a better dice due to shillelagh; keep in mind that the ability topple scales with intelligence if you use shillelagh and with war caster you might use a shield aswell. All this adds ontop of the extra d4 armor class from blade ward and the ability to cast spells.
They can do caltrops which is much better than ball bearings. But if they didn't change the grappling this dreadnought couldve been a very intelligent grappler which is a funny idea
Caltrops and ball bearings together is even better lol
We could've have our Artificer's doing Pot Buster's bro 😭😭😭😭😭
Amen 🙏@@MeatbagSlayer
Very intelligent grappler is ironically very 40k dreadnought
I just went through that Warlock subclass from the end of the video and is beautiful and on theme with the message. Well done.
something that could help the alchemist:
magical tinkering expanded to include acid flasks and alchemist's fire
give some mechanic for brewing a custom potion. maybe you roll two d20s, one is a positive effect the other a negative effect maybe replace experimental elixir with that.
And eventually at higher levels, you can roll 2 dice and take the one you like the most, like they did with wild magic sorcerer
I would like to express my gratitude for the monster you created for the Pointy Hat video. You are a very nice and sweet person, and I wish you a happy new year!
Pointy tells me to say, thanks for the monster. Happy Holidays.
I built my own Artificer subclass which I'd like to playtest/see playtested.
Artificer: Grenadier
Sub-Class description needed*
At 3rd level you gain Tool Proficiency: When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with alchemist's supplies. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan's tools of your choice.
At 3rd level Grenadier Spells
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Alchemist Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Artificer Level Grenadier Spells
3rd Hunter’s Mark, Ice Knife
5th Cloud of Daggers, Wrist Pocket
9th Conjure Barage, Melf's Minute Meteors
13th Elemental Bane, Raulothim's Psychic Lance
17th Conjure Volley, Telekinesis
At 3rd level you gain Grenade Manufacturing: You can now create specialized grenades. The number of grenades crafted per long rest is equal to your intelligence plus your proficiency bonus plus the number of infusions you can make. The damage and healing for the grenades that deal damage increases by 1 die at level 5, 9, and 15.
3rd Level Grenades:
Acid Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 Acid damage and another 2d4 acid damage on all subsequent turns unless the target spend an action removing it.
Darkness Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 Necrotic damage and is engulfed in magical darkness until the end of your next turn.
Freeze Grenade: When it hits the target must make a CON save equal to your spell DC. On a failure the target takes 2d6 cold damage and is paralyzed. On a success the target takes half damage and its movement speed is reduced by 10ft.
Flame Grenade: When it hits the target they take 2d12 fire damage.
Flash Bang Grenade: All Creatures within 10 feet of the grenade must make a constitution saving throw or be blinded and deafened for the next 1d6 rounds.
Force Grenade: When it hits, the target takes 2d8 force damage and is pushed 10 feet.
Gas Grenade: When it hits the target take 2d8 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of your next turn.
Glue Grenade: When it hits the target is restrained and remains that way unless they take an STR (Athletics) check DC equal to your spell-save and an action to get out of it.
Healer’s Grenades: All creatures of your choosing within a 10 foot radius heal 2d10 points of damage.
Light Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d6 radiant damage and you can heal 1 ally within 30ft (including themselves) for 1d6.
Mind Killer Grenade: When it hits the target takes 2d8 psychic damage and is confused until the end of your next turn.
Nail Grenade: When it hits, the target takes 2d8 piercing, and every creature within 10 feet takes 1d8 piercing damage. If it misses everyone within the targeted area takes 1d8 piercing damage.
Sleep Grenade: When it hits, if the target has lower hit points than your maximum the artificer’s maximum hit points, it is rendered unconscious until the end of your next turn.
Slick Grenade: All creatures within a 5 foot radius of the grenade must made a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. The area is treated as difficult terrain for the next minute, and any creature that moves at least 5 feet within the area must make a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
At 5th level you gain Thrower: You are proficient with all thrown weapons and items. When using these, you use your intelligence modifier for attack and damage. You add your intelligence to all damage, even with thrown items that don’t normally deal damage. All thrown weapons and items count as magic for damage resistance purposes. The range of your throwing weapons is equal to 10 times your intelligence modifier for a short range and 30 times your intelligence modifier at disadvantage.
At 5th level you gain Auto-Return: You can add the Returning Weapon Infusion to a single weapon without needing to use an attunement slot or an Infusion slot.
At 9th level you gain Explosive Throws: Up to your proficiency bonus times per long rest, you can cause a thrown item to deal extra force damage equal to double your artificer level and proficiency bonus combined.
At 15th level you gain Targeted Throws: As a full round action you can upgrade your attacks with thrown weapons and items. You can turn a miss into a hit, a hit into a critical hit, and a critical hit deals maximum damage. This must be declared before the attack is made.
yoink. Thanks for the idea.
Needs some spacing but Nice! Would throw more grenades.
"What kind of self-respecting drug dealer doesn't understand what drugs they are making?" Walter White would not be impressed. /s 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
A few things I want to point out about the playtest Artificer. Lack of Tool Expertise could be due to some of the new things we can use tools for, but it still sucks. Firearm proficiency seems to only be the domain of the Battle Smith. And some folks wish that weapons could be spell foci for Battle Smiths. I do admit that the Experimental Elixir table is silly. I think the spell slot burn to make more needs to scale a bit, similar to the extra ones you get per long rest.
The fact that the subclasses give a time reduction to specific crafting options is huge. Alchemists just get to be the ultimate potion makers in the party. Battle Smiths make your weapons faster. Armorers make all the armor ever. And Artillerists can ... whittle a magic wand faster? Well, you can make magic wands faster at least.
Subclasses get an easier time making their thing, but this was wider before, at 10th. 1/3 of the infusions known are gone. Ignoring item restrictions is gone.
It looks like they got rid of tool proficiency for everyone, rogues can't get it for Thieves' tools anymore either. I think it's because they are pairing tool usage with a skill check, and if you are proficient in both you get advantage.
I'm not sure I get it, to be honest. Apart from Thieves' tools and sleight of hand, I can't think of a skill/tool check combo offhand. Maybe arcana couples with Smith's tools for making a magic sword? I don't know, I think they could have outlined it better.
Draining magic items for spell slots is a good thing to do with an item that has used all its charges for the day
Already watched this video once (love the warlock design) but came back to say thanks for the monster 🤙
Give the spell storing item to the thief rogue, and they can activate it twice on each of their turns.
10:01 Tell that to the Monks with their cans of spinach
Few things to note:
1. Dreadnaught can cast Booming Blade and reach attack a melee enemy up to 15 feet away and then push them an additional 10 feet away.
2. Battle Smith can no longer heal the Steel Defender with Mending.
Booming Blade only works on creatures within 5 feet of the caster.
@fesdrengen I forgot about that since it's a lame fucking rule and no one should respect it
Pointily yours, Pointy sends his regards! Thank you for the monster!
🤩🤩🤩
A suggestion I’ve seen for elixirs is to have them able to choose from the ones currently available or roll on a wild magic style table with more powerful effects. You could increase the number of options you can choose from as you level up to show gradual proficiency with the elixirs
Man its part of my Goblinardo's backstory that he figured out how to ritual cast Catapult then made his 'gun'.
Thanks!
Thanks so much!!
Overall decent, sometimes good, but some bad elements (artificer main for years):
- The level 14 feature (Magic Item Savant), which previously removed level, class, and race restrictions on item use and attunement no longer does so. This is devastating, as it was singularly one of the most interesting class features in the game. When I saw the announcement, the first thing I thought was "I hope they didn't give the entire Artificer class the thief-rogue-subclass-treatment." I was so disappointed I put my phone down.
- Losing the ability to use infusions as spell focus items is horrible for battlesmith and alchemist. Battlesmith can't cast the spells on its own spell list (think shield) unless it's holding a spell focus (which it basically shouldn't be holding), and forcing attunement to a Ruby of the War Mage is a crazy ask. Alchemists having to keep tools in hand is pretty awful for a subclass who regularly rely on wands and staffs.
- New capstone is so bad compared to the old one. I thought the old capstone was one of the best implementations of a lvl 20 feature in the game. It REALLY felt like a capstone, which is something they claimed they wanted every class to experience... So why remove it in favour of this silly ability? A chaff enemy in any lvl 20 encounter does 20 damage by merely looking at you. Please bring back the save bonus.
- Why does the artillerist's cannon have a 1 hour duration and you only get to make em once per long rest. Idk about the rest of you but artillerist is genuinely the least viable for day-long periods of play. You're good for the first difficult encounter, and then you have nothing for the rest of them.
I hope lots of people send feedback.
There is a little with how they changed infusions 🙁
Right now we have this for example:
Enhanced Arcane Focus
Item: A rod, staff, or wand (requires attunement)
While holding this item, a creature gains a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls. In addition, the creature ignores half cover when making a spell attack.
The bonus increases to +2 when you reach 10th level in this class.
Under the new rules we can (and I believe they expect us to) make a Wand of the War Mage +1 at level 2 that would replace this. Issue is we can't make the +2 Rare version until level 14
Similar thing with Enhanced Defense. Hopefully that gets looked at.
I do feel like this was a missed opportunity. I just feel like the Artificer still doesn’t carve out a good enough niche on its own. Like creating magic items is cool but I’d love to see how you, the Artificer, can use them in much cooler ways
A couple of stealth Artificer buffs that didnt seem to have been noticed:
Alchemist elixirs can now be applied to allies (previously they could only be applied to yourself), which enables a supportive playstyle without consuming concentration.
The Guardian armor defensive field has been buffed massively due to now having unlimited uses of temp HP. Thats 3-20 THP every round at the cost of your bonus action, not shabby.
What I want from the Alchemist is a subclass feature that adds Alchemist's fire to the Magical Tinkering list. It's literally called Alchemist's fire, why doesn't the Alchemist have an easy supply of it.
maybe if they do, they can have Alchemical Savant and Chemical mastery's bonus features apply to potions/alchemist's fire/acid/stuff normally made with an Alchemists' kit as well.
Other than that, I'd be happy with magical elixir getting some scaling going.
The new alchemist supplies list alchemist fire, acid and oil as items it can create
@@anthonydaquet7934 It is true that the alchemist's Supplies normal crafting rules does allow for one to make alchemist's fire (and acid). But normal crafting is 5 days and 50 GP. Throwing those two into magical tinkering gives enough free, quick access that you can incorporate it safely into the character's style of combat at lower levels.
Unpopular opinion, but i LOVE the random potions, if anything the worst change for me was adding the "choose a potion" on the 6.
When i play an alchemist, i spend all of my spell slots and roll for potions even though i don't have to, it's so much more fun than casting spells!
The actual problem with the potions table is that they're kinda weak and they don't scale with higher level slots.
The new Battlesmith does give the Steel Defender your proficiency bonus to all of their saves, which is nice. Previously it was just Reflex and Constitution, iirc.
But it no longer heals with mending, has no expertise, and is not inmune to surprise.
Also you can't cast spells with your weapons anymore so the Battelsmith is more limited
@@xadielplasencia3674 I think the reason for the loss of mending heal is because cure wounds spell now works on constructs
@@xadielplasencia3674Pretty sure immunity to surprise isn't a thing anymore in general, so that part makes sense.
@@xadielplasencia3674Getting a massive boost to saves is a fair trade for that imo. Although the mending thing should be brought back.
Love what you do for the community. Hope to see much more from you in the New Year. Have a safe and Merry Christmas.
Love the artificer getting some attention!
Edit: Whoopsie, this turned out way longer than I thought
Here are my main thoughts (I play an armorer, so I'll probably focus on that):
Spellcasting:
The fixed progression in prepared spells harms artificers especially early on, while the max spells at level 20 stay the same
Artificers feel pretty weak/useless before they get their subclass at lvl 3, I feel like this robs them of some versatility in terms of spells, especially in the early game
Being able to switch out Cantrips is fantastic!
No more ritual casting?!? Or did they forget to include the class feature (which they did specifically mention in tasha's), or why would they give the homunculus servant spell the ritual tag?
Infusions/Create magic item:
love the creation mechanism! But the little "recommended" addendum makes it look like you have to choose them for specific weapons/armor, so if your Bard friend finds a magic weapon and he doesn't need the +1 Scimitar you provided, you can't give your barbarian a +1 great sword until you reach the next level
not to mention this drastically nerfs the armorer, since you cannot infuse your armor with multiple buffs at a time (e.g. no more armor of magical strength on your +1 Plate, so if you're grappled think will look tough, this makes frontlining )
Flash of Genius:
being able to use it after you know the roll failed is neat, although my DM thus far ruled that you could use it after seeing the roll but before seeing if it fails instead of before the roll (as some tables play)
Subclasses:
Alchemist:
Never played this guy but still seems pretty weak
Armorer:
Dreadnought sounds absolutely busted. The wording implies that you get the range increase even if you don't grow in size due to space restrictions, so somewhere out there will be an artificer gnome hiding in a little hole in the wall whacking people from across the room
They broke the Guardian. You can't get your temp HP before the fight anymore, but once you're below half, it's basically infinite HP, because the is unlimited uses (could be used as free healing forever for your dhampir friend, for example)
Infiltrator is pretty boring in comparison now.
Artillerist:
Flexibility is great, this is a major game changer
I don't expect the protector healing to increase, in the published versions the gun damage already increases, but temp HP given do not
One thing I still think needs fixing: mending takes a full minute, so unless you have 2 seperate encounters within 1 hour (the lifespan of the cannon), the "heal 2d6" is almost useless. why not allow for a shortened use of mending, taking 1 action and healing 1d6 or something?
Battle Smith:
Sure the extra damage is great, but why make the steel defender worse at defending (well not really, but less HP so you catch my drift), why not let you choose one of two models depending on your playstyle
Spellstoring: Absolutely busted, if they want to include 3rd lvl spells, they could maybe adjust the usages, for example int mod * 3 for lvl 1 spells, *2 for lvl 2 and *3 for lvl 3
Soul of Artifice:
This capstone was already great, staying alive with 1 HP is busted enough as is, but no reaction needed for zooming back up to 20 hp is crazy
I do prefer the former implementation of magical guidance, because it implied that each of your items gave you some form of magical assistance, now it's just "roll a d6 if there's at least one", feels less in sync with the class, idk
Closing thoughts:
There's a lot here to like, but I feel that this greatly changes the spirit of the class, in my perception the Artificer is a class of versatility, offering decent, albeit not perfect, solutions to many problems your party may encounter. This UA version loses a lot of that versatility, especially in early levels where your party members are probably more dependent on your assistance
P.S: new homunculus not needing your action to take orders is insane
Steel defender actually got a defensive buff he didn't mention; proficiency in all saves. Not a bad trade for a couple HP.
@@nathans9764 oh true, I only skimmed it earlier, the loss in HP is only 2 at max level if I read it right (5 flat instead of 2+int mod as base value), the save profiencies are great
other tiny details in the changes:
early level buff: repair is now 2d8+ int mod instead of proficiency, great for survivability early on if you do something funky like play an autognome (if your dm lets you)
significant downgrade: skill proficiencies were dropped, so no more 2xPB on perception, which was a huge benefit at all levels before
@@abfallbube they also lost the vigilant "cannot be surprised" passive. It's a bit odd because with the change to surprise, it's not a super strong ability.
Re: ritual casting, everyone gets that now, so it's not spelled out in individual classes anymore, except wizard, who can ritual cast unprepared spells.
I looked at armorer through infiltrator eyes, because I hardly use Guardian. Perhaps the other types compensate somewhat for the nerfs. I still want infiltrator to be viable though.
Thank you for the Holiday Spirit! If you know, you know.
3:18 Does it have to be your magic item that you drain? Because in certain situations that can be used as an attack. A nearly indestructible philactry is a magic item. It can be drained and destroyed that way.
"I have defeated you. I am the undead KING! Neil before me as I turn you into my minions. Wait, what is that? What are you doing? Get your hands off that! NNOOOO!"😂
Unfortunately, it has to be an item you created with the replicate magic item class feature.
Oh I already had seen your latest video and then saw the Pointy Hat holiday monster video haha
I would like to see a longer Elixir list for the Alchemist sub class). And rather than have them scale, as you level up you get to roll multiple times for multiple effects, which would stack if you roll the same value (or roll the choose value and pick the same one).
Also, to make it interesting, you could let the Alchemist choose an Elixir for a weaker effect, or roll for a stronger one.
But I do like the core idea. It is an Experimental Elixir. You are throwing in whatever you have on hand, in variable quantities, to see what you get.
Drain Magic Item is actually really good because it gives a reason to make limited use items. Like the Spell Refueling Ring is an okay item, but now you can refuel one of the Wizard’s spell slots, and now that’s it’s out of uses, consume its magic to get a 2nd level spells slot for you.
very clever!! Yeah, that's a fantastic use of an item like that, or a clockwork amulet etc.
Thank you for the monster stat :) (from the Pointy Hat channel)
13:17 I'm not saying it was because of the layoffs.... but its because of the layoffs.
i think the best adjustment for spell storing ite is have the charges be less the higher th spell level 10 uses of haste a day per item is crazy
Important to remember as always, this is just the first playtest. Is it great? No. Could it work? Absolutely.
The ability to magically make mundane items, very cool, needs to last longer.
The ability to just make any magic item of a certain rarity? Freaking awesome. Now they can keep making new books with items and now Artificers can make them.
Some of the other features aren’t quite as fun.
Alchemist could still be better, it needs more reliability and a touch more power.
Armorer gaining a new armor type I feel immediately makes it better but it could use some tweaks.
Artillerist is pretty darn good, especially with being able to cycle through the turret types easily.
Battle Smith also isn’t bad.
Every subclass could use tweaks but the main class needs a little umph.
The main problem with the battle smith is that it really should have gotten one or two weapon masteries to keep it in line with the other martials.
@ But I don’t think any subclass got access to Weapon Mastery right? Not War Cleric or Valor Bard. So I don’t expect any subclass to include Weapon Masteries.
@@EpicRandomness555 That's fair. We'll see what happens.
Armorer should have Shield or Shield of Faith.
And Guardian Armorers should be able to bonus action punch.... They're wearing gauntlets on each hand.
Appreciate the love brother. Happy holidays.
as someone plays probably too much artificer. My response to this UA is "Try Harder", I was hoping they were cooking and maybe they still are but damn. this sucks. Every other class got stronger and this feels...like nothing.
They only just started cooking
please respond to the survey to voice your complaints. They won't listen otherwise.
I love the visual of a small race like a kobold or a goblin using the dreadnought ability
Tasha's Alchemist cannot cast harm
It's *greater restoration* and heal, not harm and heal
my god sometimes I don't know where I think I read this stuff, I was certain of that when I was recording (so certain I didn't think to look it up 🙄🙄) You're right, my bad, thanks for the correction!
I'd say the sentiment is still the same though. Having at least 1 6th lv spell is better than not
Love your collab with D4! Great content you two put out! My two favorite D&D youtubers! Exciting to see Artificer get a revamp right?
it is WILD to me that they made a half caster that still doesn't get multiattack innately. That's dumb.
My solution was to let them freecast subclass spells, as the artificer should be the more spell focused half-Caster, but they couldn't even manage that. They made some cool changes & some bad, but ultimately the artificer is mostly in the same place and the subclasses are on a more even playing field, but none of them have surpassed what the best had.😊
It seems that Alchemists could be fixed by either applying Artificer spell slots, so level 1, up to uncommon, level 2 up to rare, level 3 up to very rare, etc.
Beyond that, I would break potions into 'types', so Healing, Buffing, Damage, etc or some other better way of sorting them, just spit balling off the top of my head. So what makes it experimental is you can choose, either you create a potion that is available to you, so if you use a level 2 spell slot, you can make a Potion of Gaseous Form and thus you can roll a 1d3 and the potion will have 1-3 uses, OR you can choose to use a skill check to try to create a potion from a chosen category (like healing) and you can get 1 potion of a level above what would normally be available, and the 'randomness' would still be within a scope of value. So it might not gain you hit points but it might remove status effects, but at least it isn't so random that you now have dragons breath or something.
Then by the nature of the spell slots the class scales better as well, access to more interesting and powerful potions. I mean considering how common the potions end up on the loot charts in the DMG, you would think that a class designated as an Alchemist would have proper access to these limited use items.
There are A LOT of hidden nerfs in this UA, many because of the removal of infusions and some that they didnt mention but that you can find by comparing the text to 2014. Also, the artificer was already middle of the pack before and it needed way more options/buffs to keep up with power creep in 2024.
Armorer seems ok and artillerist actually feels great.
But alchemist sucks just as much as ever and Battelsmith with no weapon masteries is literal hearesy. They both need a lot of help mechanically in 5.5 (one more than the other)
Previous infusions gated by level, no mention of mending for my companion, making the capstone trash, no infusion casting equivalent, no ignoring prerequisites for magic items, no expertise, and no extra infusions for armorer (locking them into +0 weapons as their mains).
Finally the flavor seems lost, im not tinkering or crafting, stuff just appears for an hour and NOTHING is special, its just a normal magic item that anyone could stumble upon, except worse cuz it's not permanent.
Really love the spell storing ring tho, great stuff there.
I would say 2014 Artificer is in the same boat as creation bard and illusionist wizard: completely broken with a creative player and lenient DM, but kind of sucky if you're not willing to rack your brain and push the envelope.
armorer and artillerist got some good changes, but overall got pretty fucked
Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it.
Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC...
Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
I wish WOTC knew the difference between a ball bearing and a bearing ball.
Thanks for the monster!
- PointyHat sends his regards
Anyone else COMPLETELY caught off guard by this UA release? 😮
thank you for the monsters
My problem with this iteration of the Artificer is that it's so tied to the creation/use of magic items, which is the domain of the DM. If you're in a low magic setting then Artificer is simply going to get banned since it's disruptive for the setting. If you're in a high magic setting with magic item shops and/or crafting, your class feature basically doesn't exist.
I don't know, being able to create an enspelled weapon with fireball with 7 charges every single night seems a pretty big buff in any setting. Being able to do the same thing with enspelled armor with shield also is cracked. People are missing the upper limits of what is possible here...and it is potentially scary, especially at high levels.
I have a player who is interested in playing this new UA Artificer and they want to try Alchemist because of the flavor and RP potential. They also were lukewarm about the randomly rolled daily Experimental Elixir, so I told them that as they level up it will go from a d6 to a d8 to a d10 to eventually a d12 and a 6 or higher will always mean they can choose. So as they go up in level they aren't guaranteed to be able to choose their daily elixir, but their chances of rolling to choose will increase as they gain levels. I was considering just ignoring it entirely and always letting them choose, but the player seemed to think my suggestion was a fair enough compromise for now. We'll play it by ear
I love the artificer. I just want them to release it into the creative commons with the rest of the 2014 classes so that awesome third party creator can make it better.
It's possible they can't as a result of the whole process of Keith Baker creating Eberron with WOTC. I honestly think there has to be a legalese reason they haven't already.
The LevelUp/A5E Artificer is already available via OGL, ORC and CC. A fact that quite a few people used to create a total of 22 (1 not yet published but already named) archetypes/subclasses for it.
Thank you for the holiday spirit!
Since it's UA I'm hoping any critique is actually taken and used to improve it. But this is WoTC we're talking about, who knows 😂
They pulled through with the monk... So I give it a 50/50 chance.
I agree that the Alchemist suffers from underwhelming imagination. I was always a fan of the Artillerist, now I can have all 3 types of eldritch cannons at once is awesome!
I feel like a couple things are not getting mentioned bc he straight up skipped over them, so heres a couple.
1. Guardian armorer got a massive upgrade with a slight nerf. Defensive matrix (i cant remember what they changed the name to) is now no longer limited use, you just use it as a bonus action when below 1/2 hp.
2. This is a big one, the items artificers can make got a massive buff. He didnt mention that at level 14 you can make ANY rare magic item (no pots/scrolls), and he just glossed over the uncommons at 10. There are some absolutly busted things done here, the limits are what items you can come up with that are rare or lower. Some examples being staff of defense, or a staff of healing, or maybe any of the belts of strength
3. The drain magic item feature has some great use cases he kinda missed out on, alot of magic items (especially the wonderous) have limited use effects, and a decent one is the pearl of power, so even more spell slots
4. Alchemist did kinda get dealt dirty in this version. I personally like it still as its the support subclass, but i do agree that the potions need some level/spell slot scaling. Rules as written, tashas alchemist experimental elixers didnt go away on a rest, so hey look, 2 warlock levels and an elf just make 20 something elixirs in a day of prep time.
5. The force ballista part of the artillerist cannon got nerfed, used to deal 2d8+int damage, so the trade off was higher single target damage in exchange for not hitting multiple creatures (compared to flamethrower cannon). Also the gun works on cantrips, which includes booming blade (also alch damage boost works with firebolt)
Apart from these, i cant find too much more he skipped over, however he WAY sold short the replicate magic item system, and the capstone was a pretty big nerf imo
The Armorer was really close to the alchemist in term of power. Like Guardien temp hp is so little and even worst the Artilleris protector canon is 10 times better at it.
Armorer level 9 feature is a joke. Oh wow I get a rare armor, also rare amor : +1 AC...
Find a better armor in the wild, guess what you now have a usless level 9 feature.
Also they can no longer infuse their weapon so that's a other big nerf
0:11 quick intro lol
Thank you for the Monster !
I love the artillerist change! That's my favorite artificer subclass, but one of it's major flaws was being stuck in the cannon choice once a fight starts or having to use your action and a spell slot to do so.
Oh no, you had to actually think and choose wisely with your features. Glad that's gone...
@@pizzaemperor3553 That's a fair criticism. I would say if you want to keep it a choice in order to make players think, I'd want the choice to be a little stronger in someway. For instance, give a single/limited use ability for each type of cannon that allows some increased damage, CC, or utility.
As an example, the flamethrower could get 10ft extra range and deal an additional 1d8 damage, protector could give a 15ft speed boost to creatures effected by it until the end of their next turn, the ballista could have a saving throw to knock a creature back further and knock them throw. These abilities could be single use or PB use or something like that to make that choice feel like more impactful. Then when you get 2, you get a lot of mix and match options with it!
@@52392daner With all due respect, they're already very good. These are substantial effects for a bonus action with no concentration. I can't really in good faith say they need an extra buff. I could maybe here the free cannon being a short rest recharge at some point to make the choice less damning but still
@@52392daner With all due respect, they're already very strong effects for a bonus action with no concentration. It's a pretty good subclass. At most I could see flamethrower bumped up to d10's and the free turret being short or long rest, but that's it.
Starting an artificer sub class bingo card.
1 - the Architect
Gather up all the spells that make tiny living spaces, and make your own dungeons.
Why is nobody talking about the fact that they took away our tool expertise?! I feel like I'm going insane.
Your content is delightfully entertaining. Thank you so much!!
Thank you for the monster! :)
Saw your collaboration with d4 and pointyhat. Thank you for the free monster, and also the subclass!
Pointily yours, the hat sends his regards! I've always loved your stuff but that monster was especially delightful ❤️
Thank you for the monster ☺🎅
Thank you for the monster❤
"Warlocks of the Sea want me to give them Money!"
"Did you try using a paper and pencil? 😂"
I made my own version of the Artificer some time ago. It doesn't have so many Spells nor Prepared Spells but it can infuse some more items. The important thing is the revised and expanded infusions list. I wasn't sure if it was good, but a friend who is a veteran and likes playing Artificer told me that he prefers my version because it's polyvalent and can adapt to many play styles
Thanks for the monster! Pointy regards!
thank you for an amazing pointedly holiday spirit creature!