D&D 5e: Solving the Artificer Problem (Part 1)

Eberron's beauty lies in many things. To make that beauty accessible, I think we have to articulate two iconic components: the warforged race and the artificer class.

The warforged race is (comparatively) easy to shoe-horn into an existing campaign. Many, many, people have already made excellent--even exceptional--attempts to come up with appropriate ports for the warforged. One of them would likely suit anyone's game! As such, I think we can set the warforged aside and focus on the much more peculiar conundrum of the Artificer class.

At least three solid "hacks" of existing character classes have been put forward to address the void: Cleric, Warlock, and the "official" option--Wizard. Some have bandied about the idea of a Bard hack--promising, but I have yet to see anyone make the attempt.

I'm least partial to the "official" Wizard option.  Using a Wizard Tradition to create super-temporary magical effects just turns the Artificer into a wizard with a few delayed spell effects. This seems neither in keeping with Keith Baker's original vision for the class nor with a hearty sense of fun!

The Warlock option has some interesting merits, but it's still lacking the full flavor and it still seems weaker in many respects.

Baker's playtest-worthy hack is built on the Cleric chassis, using the idea of "Artifice" as a new cleric domain. This seems somewhat reasonable, particularly considering his list of features. According to Baker (as the inventor/creator of the Eberron), the 3.5 Artificer had several key features:

• "Simple weapon proficiency
• Light and Medium armor proficiency, proficient with shields
• The ability to disable traps like a rogue.
• An exceptional talent for creating permanent magic items.
• The ability to create temporary magic items using infusions. This system had some similarities to spellcasting. The basic list of infusion effects was very limited, focusing on effects to enhance the abilities and equipment of the artificer and allies and the ability to disable or repair constructs and objects… and the unique abilities I mentioned before.
• Many of the artificer’s most useful and versatile infusions had a base casting time of 1 minute; this could be reduced to 1 round by burning an action point."

The first three options are easily taken care of whether we "hack" an old class or jump-start a new one.

The last one is also easily remedied. Under the core rules, one might even use inspiration instead of an action point. (Though action points would be easily re-entered if the setting of the campaign is Eberron.)

The second to last one is fussy, but not insurmountable. Because the list is so limited, a dedicated look at the Artificer infusions list (combined with some soul-searching about the new concentration rules and how not to completely break them) may yield some positive results. Maybe we'll come back to this one.

The real humdinger is lodged squarely in the middle: "an exceptional talent for creating permanent magic items." In the 3.X universe where every item had a cost that was easily referenced, the formula used to help Artificers fulfill this function as magic item factories were stable and accessible. In the 5e universe where (at best) items belong to vague categories (common, uncommon, rare, etc.) with loose price ranges attached, this becomes more cumbersome.

I think that while the most elegant solution would be to create a bard sublcass (the jack-of-all-trades feel and utility spell list seem to mesh much better than the flashy, offensive spells of a wizard or the healing-heavy, divine-tempered list of a cleric), the exceptional solution may be the preferred one here: creating (re-creating) the Artificer as a new 5e base class.

If we model the Artificer on its 3e counterpart and simply update to to 5e, we can probably find a clear track to make it happen.

A look at the first level reveals the following:

• Artificer Knowledge was a great way for Artificers to have (what would now be) the Detect Magic ritual: (no spell slots required, but it also couldn't be done in a round). I think we can replace this with something similar:
• Ritual Caster: You have a "ritual tome" which mimics a wizard's spellbook with several key differences. You may only scribe new spells into it that have the ritual tag. These spells must be scribed from scrolls containing the spell (they are not learned from any other means). Even another Artificer's ritual tome cannot be used to gain additional rituals. Artificer ritual tomes use unique codes and cyphers to explain the way to mimic a spell in the idiosyncratic science of artifice, and is therefore uniquely useful only to the Artificer who scribed it. The artificer may scribe spells from any list (provided that they contain the ritual tag). When casting rituals from the ritual tome, the spell takes roughly twice as long as a normal ritual (i.e. initial casting time, plus twenty minutes). This additional time represents the difference between an active spellcaster manipulating arcane/divine energies to cast a spell and the artificers tinkered, ad hoc mimicry of those same energies. At first level, your ritual tome starts with Detect Magic scribed into it.
•  Craft Reserve was absolutely the way that Artificers were able to create any magic items without immediately falling behind the rest of their party in experience points. In a post-formula magic item creation environment, the role of this feature is less clear. More to come on this in later level discussions.
• Weapon and Armor proficiencies are a stickier wicket. Most people want to give Artificers the same proficiencies they had in 3e. That might be possible, but I suspect that they're going to have a lot going for them already. To counteract this, I'm going to start by proposing that Artificers are proficient with light armor and shields (but not medium armor), and all simple weapons. Racial backgrounds or multiclassing can still pick up some slack here for those who desperately desire the slightly heavier armor, but the base class will be that much less overpowered.
• Artisan Bonus is another throwback. Perhaps it can be combined with another former ability?
• Disable Trap would make a fine admixture.
• Tools: Artificers are proficient in thieves tools and one artisan's tool set of their choice.
• Infusions can possibly work the same way they do in 3e, with some adjustments for concentration rules and (of course) the actual porting of the infusions into 5e.

What are your own thoughts on this conundrum? Feel free to toss in a comment if you have something constructive to add! Look forward to Part 2 for how my 5e Artificer class shapes up in levels beyond the 1st.