Artificer Base Class (Thoughts?)


Homebrew and House Rules


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Converting the 3.5 Eberron Artificer to Pathfinder has been a bit of a long running project for me. I think I've been working on it and re-working it for over a year now, off and on. Personally, I was very proud of the Artifice Oracle Mystery I came up with a while back. I just felt that it kept the flavor of the class and converted almost all of the 3.5 abilities perfectly. However, a friend of mine who also has a big soft spot for the Artificer didn't really like it. In his mind, he felt that the Artificer had to be INT based, someone who studied to make his items and all that. Personally, going by the 3.5 rules, the Artificer was someone who faked all of his item creation with UMD (a Charisma based skill), so I felt Oracle was a perfect fit for it.

Anyway, I'm getting off track. I think I have now more or less finished my Intelligence based full base class version of a Pathfinder Artificer. I took away the UMD based item creation and gave him an interesting spell book. This class takes heavy influence from the Alchemist, Wizard and Magus (blatantly steals from the Magus, actually). But here it is:

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ARTIFICER

BAB: +3/4

Good Saves: Will

Hit Dice: 1d8

Class Skills: Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Dex), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.

Special Abilities by Level

1. Arcane Pool, Artifice, Cantrips, Categorizer, Scribe Scroll, Systematic Craftsman
2. Bonus Feat
3. Pool Strike
4. Bonus Feat
5. Transmute Item
6. Bonus Feat
7. Trade Secrets
8. Bonus Feat
9. Pool Reach
10. Bonus Feat
11. Metamagic Item
12. Bonus Feat
13. Touchless Activation
14. Bonus Feat
15. Swift Pool
16. Bonus Feat
17. Skill Mastery
18. Bonus Feat
19. Improved Metamagic Item
20. Master Crafter

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Artificers are proficient with all simple weapons. They are also proficient with light armor and shields (except tower shields). An artificer can cast spells from spell completion items (such as scrolls) while wearing light armor and use a shield without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like other arcane spellcasters, an artificer wearing medium or heavy armor incurs the normal arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component.

Artifice (Su): An artificer gains a tome similar to a wizard’s spellbook, but does not gain the ability to directly cast the spells within it. Instead, this tome is like a magical recipe book used to create magic items of all sorts. Any spell within it lets the artificer meet the spell prerequisites for any magic item creation including spell trigger and spell completion items. An artificer’s tome may contain spells from both the cleric and wizard spell lists and he may activate any spell trigger and spell completion items using spells from his tome without making a Use Magic Device check. As long as the spell is in his tome, he may cast spells from items regardless of the source of the magic (arcane or divine) or the ability score the original creator uses for spell casting.

Although most of their spells cannot be cast directly, artificers are considered arcane spell casters for all purposes and have a caster level equal to their artificer level. This caster level is considered one level higher for the purpose of meeting prerequisites for item creation feats and caster level limits on crafting certain items (such as magic weapons). Any spell that is included in an artificer’s tome may use the artificer’s caster level and intelligence bonus to determine the effects of the spell when cast from scrolls and wands, just as if he were casting from a staff.

An artificer begins play with a tome containing five 0-level spells plus three 1st-level spells of his choice from either the cleric or wizard spell lists. The artificer also selects a number of additional 1st-level (or 0-level) spells of his choice equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the tome. The spell progression an artificer uses to determine what spells he may add to his tome and utilize each level is the same as that of a cleric and wizard. At each new artificer level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can use (based on his new artificer level) for his tome. At any time, an artificer can also add spells from scrolls or wizards’ spellbooks to his own just as a wizard can (see Magic). An artificer may choose any spells that appear on the cleric or wizard spell lists and if they appear on both at different levels, he always chooses the lower spell level. An artificer does not need to provide a divine focus for any cleric spells he uses.

The artificer may also quickly scribe a scroll once a day for each spell level he has access to in his tome at no cost (other than the cost of material components, if any). He does not gain extra scrolls per day for having a high Intelligence score. An Artificer may use the slot of a higher level spell to prepare a scroll of any lower level, such as using his 2nd level scroll slot to prepare an extra 1st level scroll. These scrolls take 1 minute each to prepare. These scrolls may only be used by the artificer who created them and they remain potent for 1 day before losing their magic. An artificer may also sacrifice a scroll slot to recharge a staff in the same manner as other casters with prepared spells or spell slots.

Cantrips: Artificers have access to three cantrips, or 0-level spells, which they can cast as normal an unlimited amount of times each day: Detect Magic, Mending, and Read Magic. He does not need to access his tome to prepare these spells nor do these spells need to be included in his tome. If an artificer wants to cast any other 0-level spells, they must be added to his book and prepared as scrolls or other magic items.

Arcane Pool (Su): At 1st level, the artificer gains an Arcane Pool similar to that of a magus. This arcane pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 his artificer level (minimum 1) + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes each morning after 8 hours of rest. If an artificer also has levels as a magus, the Arcane Pool from each class remains separate to power their respective abilities.

At 1st level, an artificer can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a standard action to grant any weapon, armor or shield he touches a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute per level. For every four levels beyond 1st, the item gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses overlap, but do not stack with existing enhancements nor do multiple applications of this ability stack with each other.

In place of the enhancement bonus, the artificer may instead grant the item a magic ability of his choice with a bonus cost up to what he is capable of granting. Meaning at 1st level he may grant abilities such as Flaming and Arrow Catching (+1), at 5th level he may grant Flaming Burst and Arrow Deflection (+2), and so on. An artificer must expend 2 points instead of 1 to add the Bane special ability to a weapon. This use does not grant an actual enhancement bonus, nor is one required before granting this ability.

A monk’s unarmed strike is considered a weapon, and thus it can be enhanced by this ability. Also, armor and weapon enhancements and abilities may be placed directly on constructs even if they are not wearing armor or wielding weapons.

Categorizer (Ex): Artificers meticulously keep track of their magical and mundane items, always knowing where every item on their person is located at any given time. An artificer never provokes attacks of opportunity when retrieving stored items and any artificer who takes the Quick Draw feat may use the benefits of Quick Draw with alchemical items, potions, scrolls, and wands.

Scribe Scroll (Su): At 1st level, artificers receive Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.

Systematic Craftsman (Ex): Artificers are experts at their craft and in return are able to use their intellect to assist in the disabling and use of other items. An artificer adds 1/2 his level to all Craft skill checks as well as Spellcraft skill checks for crafting magic items (minimum +1). He also gains a bonus to Disable Device and Use Magic Device skill checks equal to his intelligence bonus (minimum 0). An artificer can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps.

Bonus Feats: At 2nd level, and at every even level thereafter up to 18th level, an artificer gains a bonus feat. These bonus feats must be Item Creation feats, Metamagic feats, or feats from the following list: Arcane Strike, Cooperative Crafting, Extra Arcane Pool, and Magical Aptitude. The artificer must still meet the prerequisites for these feats. An artificer’s caster level is treated as one level higher for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites for Item Creation feats.

Pool Strike (Su): At 3rd level, artificers can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a standard action to charge his free hand with energy. He can make a melee touch attack with that hand as a free action as part of activating this ability. If the touch attack hits, it releases the charge and deals 2d6 points of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire, chosen when he spends the arcane pool point to activate this ability). If he misses with this attack, he can hold the charge for up to 1 minute before it dissipates. At 6th level, and every three levels thereafter, the amount of damage dealt by this attack increases by 1d6. This ability may also be used to heal construct creatures or directly damage them for the same amount.

Transmute Item (Su): At 5th level, artificers can break down magic items to their most basic components. As part of magical crafting an artificer may use any number of magical items as raw materials to create new magical items using half of their base value to help cover the gp cost of the new items, destroying the old items in the process. If the gp gained in this way is more than what is needed for the crafting, the excess gp is lost unless he spends an extra day (equivalent to 1,000 gp base price worth) of crafting to make the extra amount into actual gp. This requires a separate Spellcraft check (DC 10). Alternately, he may simply spend that same amount of crafting time to break down any number of magical items to gain half of their base value in actual gp using the same Spellcraft check. You must have the appropriate item creation feats required to make the items to perform this ability on them.

Trade Secrets (Ex): At 7th level, artificers are able to craft magic items more quickly. When determining the time required to craft magic items, reduce the base price by 25%. The artificer may also work on two magic items at one time letting him pause work on an item to work on another or divide time and resources between two items in the same day. It also takes the artificer half the normal amount of time to create mundane items using the craft skill. At 15th level, the benefits of this ability double. The time required is reduced by 50% and the artificer may work on up to four magic items at one time. It now takes one fourth the normal amount of time to create mundane items.

Pool Reach (Su): At 9th level, artificers may give their Arcane Pool abilities range. He no longer needs to touch a weapon, piece of armor or shield to enhance it with his Arcane Pool and can enhance any within 30 feet. When using his Pool Strike ability an artificer may use his attack as a ray, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The choice of using a ray must be made when the point from his arcane pool is expended and the ray is shot as part of the standard action to use this ability.

Metamagic Item (Su): At 11th level, artificers gain the ability to add the effects of metamagic feats to existing spell trigger and spell completion items. They may accomplish this in two ways, both of which increase the casting time by one step just as if he were a spontaneous caster (except when using quicken metamagic, which is still a swift action). They may use magic metamagic rods to add the effects of metamagic feats to any spell trigger or spell completion item as if it were any spell they had cast. Unlike most casters, artificers do not need to be holding the metamagic rod to use it. It just needs to be on their person such as in a pocket or mundane backpack. Metamagic rods stored in an extra dimensional space such as a bag of holding cannot be used. They may also spend a number of points from their Arcane Pool equal to the level adjustment of the metamagic feat to add any metamagic feat he possesses. So it costs one point to add Silent Spell and four points to add Quicken Spell. The final adjusted level of a spell cast this way cannot be greater than the highest level spell the artificer can add to his tome.

Touchless Activation (Su): At 13th level, artificers gain the ability to draw the power out of magic items without even laying a hand on them. Any spell from a wand or staff which appears in the artificer’s tome may be activated by him without holding it as long as it is in his possession. This includes any which are attached to his body such as a wand on a bandolier or staff strapped to his back, items in his pockets, or those stowed away in a mundane backpack. This does not include items stored in an extra dimensional space such as a bag of holding. Scrolls of spells which appear in his tome may also be activated in this manner as long as the artificer had already deciphered the magical writing. The scroll does not need to be read at the time of casting, but activation is otherwise unchanged, with the casting of the spell still provoking an attack of opportunity. All spells cast from wands, staffs, and scrolls which appear in the artificer’s tome gain the benefits of the Still Spell metamagic.

Swift Pool (Su): At 15th level, artificers may use a little extra energy to activate their Arcane Pool abilities faster. When enchanting items with his Arcane Pool or using his Pool Strike abilities, an artificer may spend one extra point to use these abilities as a swift action instead of a standard action. He may also spend one extra point when using the Arcane Pool activated form of the Metamagic Item ability to add metamagic feats (other than quicken spell) without increasing the spell’s casting time.

Skill Mastery (Ex): At 17th level, artificers may take 10 on any Spellcraft or Use Magic Device skill check even if stress and distractions would normally prevent him from doing so. This circumvents the usual rule that states you cannot take 10 on Use Magic Device checks.

Improved Metamagic Item (Su): At 19th level, the artificer’s Metamagic Item ability improves. Adding the effects of a metamagic rod no longer increases the casting time of spells. When using his Arcane Pool to add metamagic feats to spells, the artificer may now cast spells with an adjusted level of up to three levels beyond the highest spell level he can add to his tome.

Master Crafter (Ex): When an artificer reaches 20th level, his life’s work in magical crafting has truly made him a master. Work required each day to accomplish a full day’s worth of crafting is cut in half and the amount of gp worth you can craft in that time has multiplied by a factor of 10. An artificer now only needs to complete 4 hours of work per 10,000 gp in an item’s base price, with a minimum of at least 4 hours. Any single magical crafting (no longer limited to just potions and scrolls) with a base price of 2,500 gp or less can be completed in 1 hour. He may also work up to 8 hours a day with no minimum of how many items he can work on, complete, or how much work you can put into an item. Therefore, you can work on one item for 8 hours to complete 20,000 gp of work, accelerate your work to 2 hours of work per 10,000 gp to work on an item for 8 hours to complete 40,000 gp of work, complete 8 items of 2,500 gp value or less in one 8 hour period, and have as many projects going on at once as you like. Mundane crafting now only takes one tenth of the normal amount of time to complete. This ability replaces Trade Secrets.

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Any thoughts? I'd really like to hear what everyone here thinks. Is it too powerful? Not strong enough? Is it something you'd play? Thank you very much for reading.

Dark Archive

personally i feel alchemist is a great start for artificer.

also, dotting thread.


Check out the pathfinderdb for the Ardwright.

Check out Christopher Delvo's Engineer class.

Check out Anthony Kane's Engineer too.

Check out the Clockworker from Headless Hydra Games (found in the Paizo store)

I'll post links to these later. I have them all bookmark'd.


Name Violation wrote:
personally i feel alchemist is a great start for artificer.

I agree. Alchemist was a big inspiration for me early on, as can be seen in this much more strict early conversion I did. I was even working on this as an alchemist archetype, until it just began to stray way too much from the base class to still be called an archetype. Then the magus came and gave me a lot more inspiration.

Cheapy wrote:

Check out the pathfinderdb for the Ardwright.

Check out Christopher Delvo's Engineer class.

Check out Anthony Kane's Engineer too.

Check out the Clockworker from Headless Hydra Games (found in the Paizo store)

I'll post links to these later. I have them all bookmark'd.

I have seen the Ardwright, but that isn't quite what I want. I really want to get away from emulation of spells with UMD to make items for this class. Not sure if I've seen the two Engineer classes, though, nor The Clockworker, though found that one in the store and it looks interesting.


Tbh I haven't read yours yet. I just list those whenever I see an artificer / engineer class. Reading thru now!


Kane's Engineer

Hida's engineer

Christopher Delvo's Engineer. I do disagree quite strongly that the Gearman isn't a true construct, but to each their own. But this is, by far, my favorite take on it.


Now for my own thoughts. I really do love the idea of the artificer / engineers. They are one of my favorite fantasy archetypes.

I like the idea of the recipe book a lot. It's really cool! Not sure how it does balance-wise tho.

Various concerns:

[list]

  • You get a LOT from a one level dip. Categorizer alone will make it worthwhile to dip into the class.
  • On the whole, they are quite powerful.
  • The bonus feats just seem tacked on to fill gaps. Maybe I need to re-read it more carefully, but what does metamagic do for an Artificer, other than allow him to make items with metamagiced things?


  • Cheapy wrote:
    I like the idea of the recipe book a lot. It's really cool! Not sure how it does balance-wise tho.

    Thanks! I really liked the idea and was proud of myself for thinking of it. It seemed like the best way to get away from the UMD faking of spells and get more to a bookish, real Intelligence based crafter. As for the balance, I'm not too sure either. Having all cleric and wizard spells and sharing their spell progression is pretty huge. That's one of the major things I was wanting to hear reactions to. I felt that I balanced it out by not letting him have any real spell casting other than his three essential cantrips. I originally wasn't even going to give him the quick scrolls, but low level, before the artificer can afford to make a bunch of real scrolls, would kind of suck otherwise.

    Cheapy wrote:
    You get a LOT from a one level dip. Categorizer alone will make it worthwhile to dip into the class.

    Yeah, the dip-ability of the class was also a concern of mine, but I really felt that all of his first level abilities were essential to the goal of the class. Maybe I can live with moving Systematic Craftsman to level 2 and Categorizer to level 4, but I'd really rather not. It was actually worse in an earlier draft of mine. I had gone ahead and given him Quick Draw with the exception to the rule for scrolls and such automatically at first level! But I realized really fast that would be too awesome of a dip. Also, until just recently, I had this ability instead of Systematic Craftsman:

    Trapper: An artificer adds 1/2 his level to Craft (traps) skill checks, to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks (minimum +1). An artificer can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps. An artificer may select Learn Ranger Trap as a feat without meeting the prerequisites and is treated as a ranger for the purposes of the feat. He may take this feat multiple times to increase the number of traps he may use.

    I guess your opinion on Ranger Traps would determine if you thought this was an overpowered ability. I mainly just thought it just didn't quite fit into the class. I was mainly trying to give the class a little more variety/customization. But it ended up just feeling awkward. I think Systematic Craftsman is a much better alternative.

    Cheapy wrote:
    The bonus feats just seem tacked on to fill gaps. Maybe I need to re-read it more carefully, but what does metamagic do for an Artificer, other than allow him to make items with metamagiced things?

    I totally disagree about the feats. To me, they're the main feature of the class. Artificers are all about the magic item crafting and having as many of the creation feats as possible. Some of the abilities (especially later in level) were the actual gap-fillers. It was really hard for me to think of abilities to fill in some of those gaps. I actually changed my stance on the feats compared to my much earlier draft (the one I linked to earlier). Before I just automatically had the artificer receive all of the creation feats. But now, I wanted to give a little more customization to the class. Maybe Scribe Scroll is the only creation feat some artificers would have and they'd focus more on increasing their Arcane Pool and taking some metamagic feats. And about metamagic, this artificer doesn't get a lot from them until they get the metamagic item ability. But, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure that metamagic can be applied to magic items, such as making a Level 7 scroll of quickened fireball.

    Thank you for the feedback and let me know if you think of anything else for the class.


    Here's my arteficer.


    Kierato wrote:
    Here's my arteficer.

    I like the idea of basing an artificer around constructs. But this class seems a bit weak by Pathfinder standards. Just compare it to the Summoner. It really is no contest, especially since this guy doesn't have any real caster ability. Personally, I think this would work as an alchemist archetype. Just have Construct replace Alchemy (and in effect extracts), Minor Creation replace Brew Potion, Repair replace poison resistance +2 and poison use, etc. I'd also recommend giving him Craft Construct for free at some point without having to meet the prerequisites. And here is an alternate Grand Discovery that I had for my older artificer class that you might find useful:

    Living Construct:
    This artificer has spent so much time working with constructs and inanimate objects that he has learned how to become a living construct himself. He no longer ages and gains all of the traits of a construct (see Bestiary P.307) while retaining everything from his previous life with the following differences:
    -Though he no longer has a Constitution score, his hit points do not change.
    -Low-light vision and Darkvision 60 feet replace any vision based racial traits he had in his old life.
    -Since he still has his old soul, he can still be raised or resurrected, but his body must be repaired first.
    -Gains no bonus hit points for size. Has the same hit points as in his previous life.
    -Weapon and armor proficiency is determined by class.

    Hope that was helpful.


    pluvia33 wrote:
    stuff

    Pssh, you don't have the spells. You can just easily use magic items to cast them.

    You'll note that most classes get the good stuff at 2nd or 3rd level. Rogue Talents, Rage Powers, Ninja Tricks, Discoveries, etc. All at 2nd level. This is to stop some dipping. One level dip into a class is within reason for a caster. Two levels of a non-caster are generally out of the question, so I would make Categorizer 2nd level. You won't be using it too often at that low a level either, I would think.

    I like the Systematic Craftsman better. The ranger traps don't really fit.

    And yea, I do see the bonus feat thing now. It does make sense, but perhaps a better way is to make it just give the IC feats as soon as they are available?

    But perhaps most importantly, what do you see this guy doing in combat? What can he do to not be bored? Is he just a Wandslinger? If so, what does he do before he can buy wands?

    Rite Publishing's Secrets of the Gunslinger has a "Wandslinger" archetype for the gunslinger, where they get a wand instead of a firearm. Perhaps you could have them start out with a full Wand, that can't be sold? "This wand cannot be sold."

    Or you could maybe give them an Everlasting Wand or something. Bump up the uses per day a bit for them (2+mInt?). Especially at low levels, I don't see how these guys will be able to help much. Maybe I need more coffee for that.


    I can't figure out what an artificer (as a concept) has to do with scrolls or touch attacks.


    I'm just throwing out ideas. An eternal wand with 2+ mInt charges cast at full caster level and with your DCs is probably overpowered. As in, it is.

    6 magic missiles at first level, go!


    I think its a good Pathindering of the artificer. I hope PF goes on at some point to create an offical interpretation for us! :)


    Cheapy wrote:
    Pssh, you don't have the spells. You can just easily use magic items to cast them.

    Yep, and that's what this guy is pretty much based around. But you can pretty much say the same thing to a wizard. But scrolls and other items cost money to make or buy so not being able to cast the spells for real still hurts, in my opinion.

    Cheapy wrote:
    You'll note that most classes get the good stuff at 2nd or 3rd level. Rogue Talents, Rage Powers, Ninja Tricks, Discoveries, etc. All at 2nd level. This is to stop some dipping. One level dip into a class is within reason for a caster. Two levels of a non-caster are generally out of the question, so I would make Categorizer 2nd level. You won't be using it too often at that low a level either, I would think.

    Yeah, I could probably live with just moving Categorizer to level 2. Shouldn't hurt too much.

    Cheapy wrote:
    And yea, I do see the bonus feat thing now. It does make sense, but perhaps a better way is to make it just give the IC feats as soon as they are available?

    Yeah, that's how I had it in my earlier draft. I ended up changing it for the sake of customization. Maybe some artificers won't want Craft Construct or Craft Rod. Or maybe some want to focus more on metamagic and would love to have Craft Rod, but don't really want to make wands or rings.

    Cheapy wrote:

    But perhaps most importantly, what do you see this guy doing in combat? What can he do to not be bored? Is he just a Wandslinger? If so, what does he do before he can buy wands?

    Rite Publishing's Secrets of the Gunslinger has a "Wandslinger" archetype for the gunslinger, where they get a wand instead of a firearm. Perhaps you could have them start out with a full Wand, that can't be sold? "This wand cannot be sold."

    Or you could maybe give them an Everlasting Wand or something. Bump up the uses per day a bit for them (2+mInt?). Especially at low levels, I don't see how these guys will be able to help much. Maybe I need more coffee for that.

    It really depends on the build, but I'd personally see him as a support character and a bit of a magic tool box. Enhancing his party's weapons as well as his own is a big thing. He can be a secondary or even the primary healer with the cleric spell access. Also, with the medium base attack and having most of his magic feats taken care of with the bonus feats, he can concentrate on combat with his regular feats and be a pretty decent melee or ranged fighter.

    I never really thought of making him a wandslinger, but if I went that route it'd probably replace the quick scrolls. I've also played with the idea of giving him an ability similar to the Scrollmaster Wizard, to make scrolls and wands and maybe a few other magic items useable as weapons. But I didn't really get very far with the idea. Mostly felt he had too much going for him already to add something else to his bag of tricks. I really think he has plenty of abilities. Let me know when you get your coffee. ^_^

    ---

    Darkwing Duck wrote:
    I can't figure out what an artificer (as a concept) has to do with scrolls or touch attacks.

    Which concept is that? Personally, in my mind, the artificer is someone who is adept at all forms of magic item creation and the manipulation of raw magical energy. The can create bursts of untamed energy, but can't make complex spells form without the assistance of items. Scrolls are the most basic magic item so it makes perfect since that all artificers know how to make them. Again, that's just in my mind.

    ---

    Lass wrote:
    I think its a good Pathindering of the artificer. I hope PF goes on at some point to create an offical interpretation for us! :)

    Thank you for the kind words. Though I think the alchemist is probably the closest we're going to get to an artificer as official Paizo. Maybe there is hope for an artificer archetype based on alchemist, wizard or magus some day, but I think a new Pathfinder artificer base class is almost certainly not going to happen, sadly.


    Several years later.... I like your artificer class.

    I think he gets too many bonus feats( perhaps change this to at 2nd lvl and every 3 lvls after) but more feats to choose from, and some of the cool stuff should require more investment, Categorizer for instance is pretty sweet. A lvl 1 crafter, no matter how good, is still only lvl 1.

    An example might be...
    1 Artifice, Cantrips, Scrib Scroll, Arcance Pool
    2 Bonus Feat, Systematic Craftsman
    3 Pool Strike
    4 Categorizer
    5 Arcane Pool, Bonus Feat
    6 Pool Strike, Transmute Item
    7 Trade Secrets
    8 Bonus Feat, Systematic Craftsman
    9 Arcane Pool, Pool Strike
    10 Pool Reach
    11 Bonus Feat
    12 Pool Strike, Metamagic Item
    13 Arcane Pool, Touchless Activation
    14 Bonus Feat
    15 Pool Strike, Swift Pool
    16
    17 Arcane Pool, Bonus Feat, Skill Mastery
    18 Pool Strike, Improved Metamagic Item
    19
    20 Bonus Feat, Master Crafter

    I feel like this except for a few lvls, every lvl gives you something either new or a nice bump to power. I would like to see something at either 16, or 19, or both that allows artificer through pure magic force, revive, or give life to living creatures. It makes some sense to me, but its just me. just my 2, erm, 6 cents.


    I remember the artificer. The alchemist liquid spells are almost the same, except for the self only part. Replace the bombs with making magic items by soaking in magical suspensions, then replace mutagens with special homoculuses and you have the artificer.

    Grand Lodge

    The only part that sucked about the original Artificer (besides the EXP that is spent on items) is that it wasn't OGC. That being said, I tried a number of different mechanics to the artificer. Sometimes magic worked and other times the "pool" mechanic worked.

    I found that expanding past the limiting basis of being a crafter worked out for the better. I do believe that some artificers should be able to focus almost entirely. However, I also like to see the ability for an artificer to an expert on a particular field, focus on the application of magic items, or the usage of mundane items.


    Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

    Hmm ... doting this for further consideration and reading.

    Also ... I think Alchemist (maybe an archetype of the Alchemist) when I think about Pathfinderizing the Artificer class. (As others have said too).
    Or ... perhaps an alternate class Alchemist ... Hmm

    Dean


    Not sure if this has been said, but I think this makes a good replacent for an artificer: Machinesmith.


    Kjeldor wrote:
    I think he gets too many bonus feats( perhaps change this to at 2nd lvl and every 3 lvls after) but more feats to choose from, and some of the cool stuff should require more investment, Categorizer for instance is pretty sweet. A lvl 1 crafter, no matter how good, is still only lvl 1.

    In case you haven't seen it, here is my updated Artificer. I ended up moving Categorizer to level 2 at Cheapy's suggestion. At one point I was considering moving that to level 4 and Systematic Craftsman to level 2, but Cheapy said the level 2 drop for Categorizer would be reasonable and I trust his judgement.

    Yes, this class gets a lot of feats, but they're typically not very powerful. Metamagic is not as useful to this Artificer until he starts to get class features that augment them. What kind of extra feat options would you open the class up to? But in comparison, your version of feat progression only amounts to two less feats than mine (7 vs 9) and also the original 3.5 artificer gained 13.5 feats throughout its progression (considering Craft Homunculus as half of Craft Construct).

    Kjeldor wrote:
    I would like to see something at either 16, or 19, or both that allows artificer through pure magic force, revive, or give life to living creatures. It makes some sense to me, but its just me. just my 2, erm, 6 cents.

    I don't really see that to be necessary. Since he has access to Cleric spells, he can make scrolls of True Resurrection at level 17. Though I would have liked to make an ability for him to restore "life" to destroyed constructs. I just wasn't sure about he mechanics of it. Also, my main goal was to bring over as many of the 3.5 artificer abilities as possible, give them a more Pathfinder feel and functionality, and make him fully INT based, getting rid of the weird faking-spells-to-make-items thing. I mostly felt that he had enough abilities already without throwing something else in there, but if anyone has any tips on how construct resurrection might work, feel free to share.

    ---

    Goth Guru wrote:
    I remember the artificer. The alchemist liquid spells are almost the same, except for the self only part. Replace the bombs with making magic items by soaking in magical suspensions, then replace mutagens with special homoculuses and you have the artificer.

    Yeah, this artificer was an alchemist archetype at one point, but it kept moving so far away from the class that I ended up making it a new class itself. I might revisit making an artificer archetype for the alchemist since I've been exposed to Spagyric Devices in SGG's Alchemist book. I would really want to keep bombs, though. The archetype I was working on gave you a caster level and let you take item crafting feats you qualify for in place of any Discovery you want to replace.

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    Spyder25 wrote:
    Not sure if this has been said, but I think this makes a good replacent for an artificer: Machinesmith.

    I haven't had a chance to fully read through that, but it does look interesting. I didn't know I could get the class without buying the PDF. Thanks for the link!


    Good news: the machine smith is at d20pfsrd.com :-)


    pluvia33: I'd like to personally thank you for the Artifice Oracle Mystery. I've been using it for about two years now, and absolutely love it. I'm eagerly awaiting the opportunity to play your Artificer base class and love the fact that you're still working on it.

    Thanks so much.

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