Artificer is a class that gives everyone I’ve seen play it an expression that I could only describe as a mixture of confusion and disappointment. The spell list lacks iconic and easy-to-use blast spells like Magic Missile or Fireball, the class and subclass features are not always intuitive on how they should best be used, and the half-casting chassis makes progression slow and uneventful.
While every class requires certain mastery over the game’s rules to reach its best potential, Artificer stands out as a class with a rather high-skill floor. This article, as well as the Artificer builds I post after this, should hopefully ease newer players into better understanding the Artificer playstyle.
Rather than overwhelming you with a detailed breakdown of every ability and option an Artificer gets, I just wanted to highlight the most important things an Artificer gets during levels of frequent play. If you take advantage of the most important abilities, it should lead to a very effective character at most tables.
PART 1 – SPELLCASTING
Artificer is, first and foremost, a spellcaster. Even with the half-casting progression, the spellcasting ability is still the backbone of the class. And even limited spellcasting is still good, provided we get good spells with it. I will highlight some of the most noteworthy spells on the Artificer’s spell list and address their applications.
Something to note about the Artificer is that it has unique spellcasting rules compared to other spellcasting classes. All spells obtained through the Artificer spell list effectively have a material component (Marked as an “M” on a spell’s component section). Said material component has to be the Thieves Tool, some other artisan tool, or one of your infusions.
In a straight-classed build, this is actually really helpful. It means you can have a weapon and shield in both hands, and as long as one of them is an infusion, you are capable of casting spells like Shield (obtained via Battle Smith or Artillerist) without needing the War Caster feat. On a multiclass build, however, War Caster is absolutely needed to not have spellcasting involve juggling multiple spell components alongside your equipment.
CANTRIPS
Guidance
The Artificer doesn’t get a ton of cantrip choices, but try to pick this up if you have room. Guidance provides a mathematically similar bonus to proficiency between Levels 1-8, meaning it’s like having expertise when you cast this using skills you are already proficient in.
Magic Stone
A necessary spell to lean on to squeeze out as much damage as possible, it works great with spells like Tiny Servant. If you don’t have that spell yet, literally any NPC will do. Buy some chickens to throw them or something.
1ST LEVEL SPELLS
Absorb Elements
A great defensive spell that will grant temporary resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage and only requires a reaction.
With this, you don’t need to worry about Dexterity Saving throws as most abilities and spells that use those are typically save-for-half blasts of elements this spell grants you temporary resistance to. The additional damage added to your next attack is small and is not the reason you take this spell.
Faerie Fire
A decent save-or-suck concentration spell that will grant allies advantage to attack rolls toward all enemies affected. It’s a good way to support the martial characters in your party at earlier levels, but you’ll have better tools at higher levels.
Grease
A layer of battlefield control that doesn’t require concentration, ideally you want to throw this down while already concentrating on a big spell. This can help slow down melee enemies at choke points.
2ND LEVEL SPELLS
Web
I’m breaking the alphabetical order just to highlight how important this spell is. Web is good, easily one of the best 2nd Level Spells in the game, certainly the best 2nd Level Spell for battlefield control, and it remains a potent spell for the majority of your career.
Web is a great spell for multiple reasons.
1 – It’s an effect that remains as long as you maintain concentration. If an enemy breaks out of a web, it is possible to push them back in.
2 – It targets two separate stats. It requires a dexterity saving throw to avoid getting stuck and a strength check just to break out.
3 – An enemy needs to use their own action just to attempt to break out of the effect, this means when an enemy does get stuck in your web, they either have to make their actions while restrained or use that action to only gamble their chances that it won’t be wasted.
4 – It doesn’t have to be placed on the ground. While the Web does fall apart if it’s not connected to a surface, it still lasts a round regardless, making this an acceptable means for grounding flying enemies.
This is not only your best 2nd Level Spell, this is also your best 3rd Level Spell. Web provides no benefits for being upcasted, but is still better than the majority of your 3rd Level Spell List depending on your subclass and thus is still worth using 3rd Level Spell slots on.
To end off the otherwise amazing spell that is Web, I want to say that the damaging effect that triggers when the web is on fire is a trap. Don’t do this. It’s not worth losing this spell’s effects for cantrip-tier damage.
Aid
Targets three creatures and increases their maximum hit points for the duration. This has more value if you were to multiclass into a class with full-caster progression like Wizard, as this spell upcasts really well. For reference, casting this with a 5th Level Spell Slot heals a total of 60 HP split between three party members.
This is also a useful cast even in the middle of combat. If multiple party members are downed, this can bring them back up. Making it a better value than even higher-level healing spells like Mass Cure Wounds.
Magic Mouth
So maybe you choose Artificer because you wanted to craft your own tools, only to be disappointed to learn the class features nothing to really enhance your crafting abilities. Magic Mouth is how you make an Artificer feel more like an Artificer… ignoring the fact it’s also available to Wizards and Bards.
I can talk all day about the complexity of Magic Mouth, but that’s outside the scope of this article. If you are interested in the ridiculous things you can do with this spell, check out this awesome GitP post here.
Rope Trick
An extradimensional space to keep your party safe. The most common use case for this is to allow the party to safely take a short rest even while in the middle of a dungeon, or alternatively in combat as a means to keep your party safe.
3RD LEVEL SPELLS
Fly
Good, if very temporary, mobility. Basically does exactly what it says on the tin.
Revivify
I wouldn’t call any Artificer a “Healer”, but this is still a good spell to have. Ideally, you should hope the situation where you need doesn’t arise, but when it does at least you’ll be prepared.
Tiny Servant
While this is a 3rd Level Spell, it’s probably best to cast using a 4th Level spell slot when those become available to you.
This is mostly a concern for Battle Smiths and Armorers, but when you get to Level 11+, this spell will be a massive help in keeping your DPR relevant. It combines nicely with the Magic Stone cantrip, which is why I recommend not leaning heavily into feats that use your Bonus Action even if it does lead to a slightly worse character between Levels 3-10.
4TH LEVEL SPELLS
Fabricate
Another spell that will complement the Artificer flavor. It’s very useful for making loads of expensive items to sell. However, there’s a chance a fellow Wizard or Clockwork Soul Sorcerer used this spell for making the party bank several levels ago.
5TH LEVEL SPELLS
Transmute Rock
Concentration-free battlefield control if turning rock into mud. It forces a saving throw, but you don’t have to care if the enemies pass that or not. You are mainly casting this to drastically slow down enemies approaching you and your party.
Wall of Stone
Two subclasses have access to Wall of Force, so this is mostly a substitute for those who never got access to that. While Wall of Force is by far the better spell, this has a handful of its own advantages, it can create a wall of twice the length in comparison and is capable of blocking line of sight.
SPELLCASTING CONCLUSION
While there are good Artificer spells beyond this list, I believe this highlights the best the spell list has to offer.
The Artificer’s spell list is a hodgepodge of spells you can find from a variety of other classes, but overall it can be disappointing for those used to the playstyle of the Wizard, Cleric, or Druid. If we compare it to the other “Half-Casters” in the game, this features a lot more versatility compared to the Paladin’s spell list but falls short compared to the Ranger’s spell list.
For the majority of any game, your “Big Gun” spell once you reach Level 5 should be Web. It’s a fantastic spell that’s already a must-pick for Wizards and Sorcerers, so it would be foolish not to pick it up here.
PART 2 – INFUSIONS
The most iconic feature of the Artificer, because everyone loves having magic items. There is a good chunk of decent options to choose from. Most of them are very obvious in their function (IE: +1 Weapon or +1 Armor), so I’ll mention the more involved infusions.
LEVEL 2 INFUSIONS
Homunculus Servant
An extra action you only need a bonus action for. Homunculus Servant works well with Artificer abilities such as the spell storing item and the Spellwrought Tattoo infusion we’ll talk about below.
It also has a fly speed. If you are a small-sized creature, then you can have this grapple you and fly you around at a flight with a speed of 15 feet. It’s not a lot, but even a slow flight is really good in this game.
Repeating Shot
This allows you to ignore the loading property of certain guns and hand crossbows, but it also allows you to wield a shield alongside a one-handed ranged weapon. While there is confusion if this really works RAW, it’s at least clear that it is RAI.
To put simply, this isn’t just a +1 to attack and damage rolls, but also a +2 to AC, giving you twice the benefits of the Enhanced Defense infusion. I highly recommend Battle Smiths use this infusion on a Hand Crossbow or a Pistol.
Spellwrought Tattoo
This allows an Artificer to access any 1st Level Spell in the game. Very potent options include Gift of Alacrity, Find Familiar, and Bless. If using a spell that requires concentration, you can put the tattoo on a familiar or homunculus servant to cast the spell outside of any player’s main action and have them maintain the concentration.
There’s also a bit of “Tech” that allows one to cast certain non-concentration spells multiple times with the same tattoo, as the tattoo only disappears once the duration of the first spell casted ends. Check with your DM if he would allow this, as this would open up giving your entire party the benefits of Gift of Alacrity.
If you like Kobolds and want to hear more about these Tattoos, check out Pack Tactics video on them here.
LEVEL 6 INFUSIONS
Pipes of Haunting
This is just as important of an Artificer infusion as Web is for an Artificer spell. It’s so good I named this website after it. It’s a friendly-fire AOE fear effect. It requires proficiency in a wind instrument, but that can easily be handled by picking up the proficiency in your background.
It’s as simple as that, really. You can re-infuse the pipes after every long rest to always start with maximum charges and you can carry multiple sets thanks to the “replicate magic item” rules and use it nearly every combat encounter. This combined with the Web spell is a nasty combo of battlefield control and is what I believe to be the main reason to play Artificer.
One last additional piece of info, even though an enemy becomes immune to “these pipes” after succeeding the saving throw, that could imply that they are still vulnerable to a separate set of pipes. Ask your DM before attempting this as they might rule otherwise, but regardless of their ruling, it’s still one of the best infusions in the game.
So good in fact, it’s better than the rest of the infusions you get for the rest of the career, and is absolutely worth infusing more of even as higher-leveled infusions become available. So I’m going to end this section early.
INFUSIONS CONCLUSION
Battle Smith will really want the repeating shot infusion, small players will likely want the Homunculus Servant, and any leftover other slots are basically Pipes of Haunting slots. While there is other fun stuff that you might want, just keep in mind cutting into your Pipes of Haunting budget also cuts into your effectiveness as a character.
If you are disappointed to hear that, read this website’s name and ask yourself why you expected to hear anything different.
Okay, to be fair, if you are in one of those “one-combat-a-day games” where ability resources barely matter, then only having more than a single set of the Pipes is enough. Just keep in mind the game itself calls for six to eight encounters a day and some of my recommendations are going to be influenced by that.
PART 3 – CLASS FEATURES
Again, this isn’t an exhaustive overview, just the highlights you should be aware of.
LEVEL 1 – SAVING THROWS
Along with Sorcerer, Artificer is one of the only spellcasters that innately gets Constitution saving throws. Constitution saves are tied to making concentration checks for your spells, so having it simply makes you a better spellcaster. There are also many dangerous effects at early levels that are tied to Constitution saving throws, so reliably passing those as well is good too.
LEVEL 7 – FLASH OF GENIUS
This requires a reaction and has limited uses, making it rather underwhelming compared to the Paladin’s Aura of Protection. That said, a saving throw boost of any kind in this game is still really really good. At higher levels, failing certain saving throws can straight-up kill your character, so simply being a worse version of one of the best abilities in the entire game is still a very good ability.
LEVEL 10 – MAGIC ITEM ADEPT / LEVEL 14 – MAGIC ITEM SAVENT / LEVEL 18 – MAGIC ITEM MASTER
I’m lumping these together since they all follow the same general theme, making you better at using magic items and eventually doubling the number of magic items you can attune with. Removing the attunement limitations of most magic items is also great, as it allows you to attune to many powerful magic items like Staff of the Magi, Staff of Power, Rob of the Archmagi, and many more.
The issue, however, is that beyond your own infusion (which is likely mostly going into Pipes of Haunting), you have little to no control over what magic items you get. This can be an incredible ability or a near-worthless one depending on the campaign.
LEVEL 11 – SPELL STORING ITEM
This is a defining high-level Artificer ability, it can basically be seen as its own infusion. This can be 6-10 additional castings of Web per day, and that’s good because Web is good. There are other spells that also work really well if you want to change up playstyles, Vortex Warp in particular is another great spell to have a ton of additional castings of.
Beyond additional castings, the other great part of this ability is that you don’t have to be the one to cast them. Hand this off to a Familiar, Homunculus, or your Steel Defender and have them cast and concentrate on the spell in your place. You can now effectively concentrate on two spells at once.
This ability is also fun to play with Eberron’s Dragonmark races and many MtG backgrounds, allowing access to store spells like Goodberry.
LEVEL 20 – SOUL OF ARTIFICE
Between this and Flash of Genius, your saving throws should be pretty damn spectacular. While it is campaign dependent to get 6 magic items to attune to so you can have +6 to all saving throws, you should have at least a few magic items to attune to by Level 20. The additional ability to end an infusion to avoid is also a nice option to have depending on the situation.
CLASS FEATURES CONCLUSION
Honestly, there isn’t too much here. Artificers are heavily reliant on their subclasses, so ideally we want something really good for our subclass to make up for our lacking base class features.
PART 4 – SUBCLASSES
The Artificer class on its own is not very meaty and heavily relies on a good subclass to make the most out of the class itself. This is where things get really swingy, as Artificer has two really solid subclasses and two not-so-solid ones.
We will start with the positives.
ARTILIERST
This is what comes to mind when I think of a “Vanilla” Artificer. However, it’s playstyle many people expect from it and what’s the most optimal is often confused.
Many people want to summon the Flamethrowers and Force Ballista, but without any solid martial or other damage abilities within this subclass, this leads to a very weak damage output for what’s expected from a subclass called “Artillerist”.
The king here is the Protector Canon. As a bonus action, this provides temporary hit points to party members within 10 feet of you. While temporary hit points do not stack, think of this more as damage reduced from enemies every turn of combat, which can add up to hundreds of damage avoided across an adventuring day. Being a Temporary HP battery is one of the few effective ways to properly fulfill a “Tank” or “Healer” playstyle in DnD 5e.
While this subclass has been outclassed by the Twilight Cleric following its debut in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the Artillerist can still be a valuable asset. Its larger focus on battlefield control thanks to the abilities of the base Artificer’s class allows it to potentially have party members avoid taking any serious damage throughout multiple fights.
The expanded spell list provided is above average for an Artificer subclass. The one thing we absolutely care about is Shield, but spells like Shatter and Fireball are nice to have, even if they are obtained well past the points where they are the most potent.
BATTLE SMITH
Battle Smith is a smartly designed subclass that allows an Artificer to have a strong focus on martial weapons without stepping on its spellcasting abilities.
Alongside allowing Intelligence for magical weapon attacks and later extra attacks, the Artificer is one of those “pet” subclasses that gains a companion in the Steel Defender. While the stat block for the Steel Defender is simple, the tactical options it contributes is a bit more deceptively varied than at first glance.
A Battle Smith is capable of using its bonus action to allow the Steel Defender to use its action to attack, decreasing the need for a feat that grants a Bonus Action attack like Crossbow Expert. However, if no commands are given to the Steel Defender, it can still use its movement and use dodge action. So if a feat like Crossbow Expert was taken regardless, the Steel Defender still contributes as a kind of moving node that can block melee-focused enemies and enforce disadvantage on enemy attack rolls using its own reaction.
The options for the Steel Defender don’t end there either, it makes for a very sturdy mount if you happen to be a small-sized creature, and its ability to heal with only a cantrip or revived entirely with a 1st Level Spell Slot makes it an incredibly efficient summon compared to spells like the Paladin’s Find Steed.
The expanded spell list is a little lacking. It contains Shield, just like the Artillerist, so just that alone makes it pretty good. Aura of Vitality is also decent out-of-combat healing, providing roughly 70 HP worth of healing throughout the course of a minute.
ALCHEMIST
The Alchemist is on the weak side as far as class and subclass combinations go, but I believe it’s salvageable. It requires thorough knowledge of the game’s rules to make the most of it.
The main feature of the Alchemist is the Experimental Elixirs. You can expend a spell slot to fill a flask with one of six possible elixirs. This is like having six additional spells prepared.
Some of these potion effects are actually quite good. Boldness provides the benefits of the Bless spell without needing concentration, and also stacks with it provided you get it through another source. Resilience is like a mini Shield of Faith and has a decent duration. Swiftness and Flight elixirs also have their applications as well.
The part that impedes this ability to reach its true greatness, however, is the fact that creatures need to spend their own action to drink the elixir. In other words, they need to spend an action to receive your buffs. This isn’t an issue with elixirs with longer durations, but when the best elixir (Boldness), lasts only a minute it becomes a struggle to get the effects running entering combat. It’s a very small homebrew change to allow another creature, say a familiar or a homunculus servant, to feed an elixir to someone else as an action. If your DM allows such a change, then the Alchemist can actually be a pretty competent support character.
A trick that can help an Alchemist to make the most out of their Experimental Elixir ability is rest casting. The wording of the potions states the elixirs last “until the next long rest”. This means if you cast the potions during a long rest, which is allowed because the long rest rules allow up to an hour of “strenuous activity” such as “at least 1 hour of walking,Fighting, castingSpells, or similarAdventuringactivity”, those potions will still be usable throughout the next adventuring day and you’ll regain your spell slots at the end of your current long rest.
The spell list is a bit disappointing. Healing word is great for picking up fallen allies at a range, but until Death Ward is obtained at 13th Level (I’d personally be multiclassing out of Alchemist well before then), that’s going to be about it. Thankfully, as stated, the Elixirs are like having an additional six spells prepared.
If you want a more detailed overview of the Alchemist Subclass as a whole, check out
Jinofcoolnes’s video here.
ARMORER
Do I have to talk about this one? Aughh… I really do not care for the Armorer. It is likely one of my least favorite published subclasses in the whole game.
The Armorer is split into two separate models. The Guardian is focused on “Tanking” and the Infiltrator is focused on “Scouting”. The problem is these are not effective roles in DnD 5e.
Both the Artillerist and the Battle Smith are more effective at protecting the party than the Guardian’s thunder gauntlets. What’s more, both are also better at protecting themselves thanks to having access to the Shield spell. The killer here is that the Battle Smith is also decent at dealing damage on top of protecting the party. A Guardian struggles to outperform, and often falls behind, an Eldritch Blast spamming warlock.
The Infiltrator has a bit more potential but is ultimately also hampered by its weapon restriction. It lacks a bonus action attack, making it only marginally better at damage than the Guardian. Meanwhile, the Battle Smith gets two separate choices on where it wants to get its bonus action attack from. While the additional speed and advantage to stealth are interesting additions to the Artificer’s core abilities, it doesn’t change the fact that getting a Spellwrought Tattoo for Find Familiar will make a safer and more effective scout than an Infiltrator will be.
The Armorer is a frustrating example of a subclass that can’t even do the bare minimum of what it’s expected and designed to do. The main source of that frustration comes from the cool stuff it does get at higher levels. Its spell list contains Hypnotic Pattern, which is the best control spell for that spell level, and its 9th Level Ability also grants the player character additional infusions, jamming more Artificer into your Artificer. However, I do not believe these shortcomings at earlier levels are worth the few good things the Armorer only eventually gets.
KEITH BAKER HOMEBREW
Beyond official material, Keith Baker, the man who created the Eberron setting and the concept for the Artificer, has had a hand at publishing homebrew subclasses through his own third-party books: Exploring Eberron and Dread Metrol. Unfortunately, despite the otherwise great quality of these books, I believe the Artificer subclasses they feature to be fairly under-tuned and weak compared to the best of officially published options.
I normally don’t cover homebrew, but I wanted to mention this here now in case anyone planned to ask about them.
SUBCLASSES CONCLUSION
Battle Smith and Artillerist are the best options and Alchemists can still be okay with careful decisions. Armorer is unfortunately very disappointing and I do not recommend taking it.
PART 5 – RACES
Due to the ability to switch around ability score improvements in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and every race since having flexible ability scores, any race can pick up the Artillerist or Alchemist and be at least okay with it alongside generating stats with point buy or the standard array. Battle Smith isn’t as free with their selections to stay up to par, however. Most of these races I’m listing here are potent regardless of taking the Artificer class but are worth mentioning anyways.
VARIANT HUMAN / CUSTOM LINEAGE / KOBOLD (VOLO’S GUIDE TO MONSTERS)
These three races fall into the “only things that actually work with the majority of martial builds” camp. What I mean by that is that if I wanted to make a martial character that’s actually doing its job, I want it to out-damage a Charisma-Boosting Warlock that’s simply spamming Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast Invocation and Hex.
That means, assuming a DPR of 65% is consistently achieved by boosting a primary stat at levels 4 and 8, achieving a DPR of 17.8 at Level 5, a DPR of 28.65 at Level 11, and a DPR of 38.2 at Level 17.
Not failing to beat this isn’t failing to beat a Warlock in DPR, they have much better things to concentrate on than hex at level 5 and beyond. No, it’s failing to beat a Warlock 2 / Literally Nothing X, assuming this imaginary “Literally Nothing” class still gives its Level 4 and 8 ASIs. This means that combinations like Warlock 2 / Sorcerer X, Warlock 2 / Bard X, or any other combination of Warlock 2 and any full casting class, regardless of if they use charisma as their primary stat, is capable of out-damaging your character and being only slightly behind a full casting character while doing so. This isn’t considering the additional built-in control the Repelling Blast invocation gives to Eldritch Blast.
Beating the Warlock baseline is simply a sign of doing “okay” damage, as ideally, we’d want to be comfortably above it to claim we are doing “good” damage. That said, it’s not a necessity we achieve the DPR of a Fighter with the Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter feats because we at least have infusions and spells to make up for any of our DPR shortcomings compared to a Fighter, we should just ideally be between a Warlock and a Fighter.
Now onto the actual races themselves. Variant Human and Custom Lineage can achieve a good DPR as a Battle Smith by taking the Sharpshooter feat as their bonus feat at Level 1. Two Sharpshooter attacks with a Hand Crossbow and a Bonus Action attack with a Steel Defender is enough to stay above a Warlock at Level 5. At Level 11, the combination of Tiny Servant and Magic Stone should give us the boost we need. Ideally, we should at least be competing with the Warlock Baseline before we call adding our DPR with Magic Stone to make our own DPR “good” because a Warlock 2 / Clockwork Soul 9 can do the exact same thing at Level 11 on top of their Eldritch Blast. If we don’t believe we will reach Level 11, then picking up Crossbow Expert at Level 4 for a strong Bonus Action attack is the way to go, as it will be better overall at Levels 4-10. We don’t want to have Crossbow Expert beyond Level 10 because Magic Stone costs a Bonus Action. Custom Lineage has the edge over the Variant Human thanks to its ability to be a small-sized creature and has the option to mount the Steel Defender or have a Homunculus Servant grapple them for flight instead.
Both Human and Custom Lineage also work great for the other Artificer subclasses, being able to pick up the War Caster feat if they plan to go Artillerist or Alchemist instead.
The Kobold as printed in Volo’s Guide to Monsters (Or as I like to call “Oldbold”), has great synergy with the Battle Smith. While you should check with your DM to see if, yes, your Dungeons and Dragons game features dungeons, then the sunlight sensitivity drawback shouldn’t be an issue where it matters most. Activating the Pack Tactics ability is easy with the Steel Defender, especially if it’s constantly dodging for its own survivability. Kobolds are also small-sized creatures, so you also have the option to mount the Steel Defender or be grappled by a Homunculus Servant for flight.
EARTH GENASI (MORDENKAINEN PRESENTS: MONSTERS OF THE MULTIVERSE)
This is probably the peak option for Artillerist or Alchemist. Pass Without Trace is a powerful spell, so effectively adding it to your Artificer Spell List is just extra value to your character, especially if no one else in your party has the spell.
No, really, have you read the surprise rules in DnD 5e? Starting an encounter by surprising the enemy, which is very easy to do when this spell is active regardless if your entire party has disadvantage on stealth checks with their armor or not, is effectively giving your entire party the fighter’s Action Surge ability. And the spell’s duration is long enough to last multiple combats if in a dungeon crawl.
RACES CONCLUSIONS
This was more a rant about the Martial/Caster discrepancy than actual race recommendation, but part of the reason for that is because there are so few races that work with martial characters, while nearly every race can be okay as a casting-focused character. So don’t feel like you’re restricted by choice if playing an Artillerist or Alchemist, and consider what you want out of the Battle Smith if taking anything other than a free feat race or Oldbold.
PART 6 – FEATS AND MULTICLASSING
FEATS
Sharpshooter and possibly Crossbow Expert for Battle Smith.
War Caster for Artillerist or Alchemist, especially if you plan on Multiclassing.
Beyond that, any feat that adds a +1 to intelligence like Fey Touch can be good for rounding out odd-number ability scores.
Oh, and you’ll like want Resilient (Wisdom) at around Level 12 or so. Wisdom saves start to become patricianly deadly around those levels, so taking Resilient to gain Wisdom saving throw proficiency is an optimal defensive choice.
There really isn’t much beyond that. Outside of martial-based feats for a Battle Smith, there isn’t anything too character-defining for an Artificer. If your playing a Variant Human or Custom Lineage and find you can take Alert, Lucky, or any other generally strong feats, go ahead. I personally like Ritual Caster myself.
MULTICLASSING
Probably the most popular and well know Artificer Multiclass is Artificer 1 / Wizard X, but hearing that is probably not why you are reading this guide.
Alternatively, going Artificer 6 before branching out into a full casting class should give you the majority of the Artificer toolkit that can be easily combined with other playstyles.
Finally, there’s dipping a level into Fighter if you really want the archery fighting style for your Battle Smith for cheap. While it’s better than spending a whole feat on the Archery Fighting Style by taking the Fighting Initiate Feat, I personally don’t care for taking this Multiclass dip as it delays certain abilities and your spellcasting progression. It’s still an objective boost to your offenses regardless.
There really isn’t too much to say beyond that.
ARTIFICER – CONCLUSION
The Artificer is an oddball class that is primarily a spellcaster despite only being limited to Half-Casting progression. They happen to get one of the best 2nd Level Spells in Web, and have access to multiple Pipes of Haunting, combing this with the martial abilities of the Battles Smith or the Protector Cannon found within the Artillerist subclass, they can still be effective characters. They’ll be able to keep up well enough in optimized tables and shouldn’t overshadow characters at unoptimized ones either.
Overall, the Artificer is a middle-of-the-road class. It’s better than classes that don’t get any spellcasting but worse than other classes that do get spellcasting (Save subclasses like Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster). If you want to assist your party through less direct means, I think Artificer is a good choice and generally a good enough class worth recommending. Just be mindful that it takes more mindful choices compared to other classes.
