Favourite d20 Crafter or Artificer?

[Sigurd]

From any source, what is your favourite Crafter or Artificer? Have you ever actually played it?

Failing that what are your favourite crafting rules?

Whats the source?

Why?

Sigurd

[coff]

Sigurd wrote:

From any source, what is your favourite Crafter or Artificer? Have you ever actually played it?

Failing that what are your favourite crafting rules?

Whats the source?

Why?

Sigurd

I'm a big fan of the engineering type classes. I'm currently playing an Artificer in a PFRPG game. I raised the HD to match the AB & I'm ignoring the Craft Reserve class feature since magic items no longer require XP. This is the first Artificer I've played and I'm having a lot of fun playing him.

So far I've noticed that the class is very broken as the whole party is running around with whatever magic items they want at discounted prices. Also being able to cast 3rd level spells at level 3 is pretty nuts. I'm trying to avoid using every spell possible and stick to ones that make sense from a steampunk pseudo-magic sense. I call my Fireballs "Rockets" I refer to my use of the Fly spell as using my "Jetpack" and generally avoid using spells that defy artificial restrictions that are defined mostly in my head. When I fail my Use Magic Device checks I rp it like a malfunction or lack of fuel. My infusions follow suit. Bull's Strength is my Powered Gauntlet. I don't use my weapon enhancement to give my weapon (a mace I'm referring to as my wrench) bane vs whatever creature we're fighting this battle. Rather I tend to stick with the Shock ability.

I'm a role player not a power gamer so I pick the class that best defines the character I want to make and try not to figure out the best way to abuse the abilities. I could theoretically have used enlarge person, bull's strength, bane, and energy bonus to deal 5d6 +3 (if Str was 10) at level 1. That's no fun to me and would probably annoy party members.

Before I overcame my fear of trying to understand the Artificer rules the method of choice for becoming an engineer was a few levels of Rogue & Sorcerer followed by the Gnome Artificer class from the 3.0 Magic of Faerun book. This Prestige Class was fairly weak but fit the concept well. There was a small list of spells levels 0-4 that the GA could imbue items with effectively creating wands of any item on the body slot chart. They were very limited but lots of fun. All in all it was a very weak class but fulfilled my goals just fine.

The FR Faiths & Pantheons also offered the Techsmith of Gond Prestige Class which granted a companion creature that was essentially your own personal golem that gained bonuses for levels like a druid's companion. It also granted a slew of anti-construct capabilities as well as a bonus domain. The class was designed for Clerics but a few other classes could get access to it if built right.

The last real option was the Tinker class presented in the WoW RPG. I never bought the book but read all about the class in Barnes & Noble. The core of the class consisted of using new skills presented in the book called Craft (Technological Device) and Use Technological Device. The Equipment section had a guide to building devices and a list of sample devices. I think the class accomplished the goal of creating a viable engineer class the best since it relied on no magic and was extremely versatile. Flying machines, Rocket Launchers, Powered Armor, Bombs were all in their wheelhouse. I never bought the book however since the power scale for the other classes & races seemed to have been increased and I wasn't sure if the class would be balanced in a non-WoW campaign.

I would like to see something published for PFRPG especially since they've got Alkenstar, the technology proficient nation in the middle of the Mana Wastes. A cross between the Artificer & Tinker would probably be the best way to execute such a class.

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

The Nagris Artificer and the Wildwood Crafter that Monte Cook did back in 3.0 for Materia Magica are both nice, but would need a power bump for Pathfinder. They were a freebie for a book that may or may not have come out.

Luckily I've saved my old PDF of that.

[Ruggs]

Kevin Andrew Murphy wrote:

The Nagris Artificer and the Wildwood Crafter that Monte Cook did back in 3.0 for Materia Magica are both nice, but would need a power bump for Pathfinder. They were a freebie for a book that may or may not have come out.

Luckily I've saved my old PDF of that.

Unfortunately for me, there's no PM function on the boards. ':) Kevin, I'd be interested in seeing the PDF, if it was free (and thus wouldn't violate copyright). We're looking for an alternative to the current artificer in a game I'm in, and Monte Cook might just hit the spot.

[Ben Adler]

3.5 artificiers are something that needs to be restrained, heavily, but they do what they're supposed to at least.

The most fun I've had with crafting focused characters was an Artificier who was pretty much insane, and kept doing very silly things and generally kept the rest of the party on their toes.
Recently I've also been playing a fighter with Master Craftsman and Craft Construct, Craft Arms+Armor, and Craft Wondrous Item. It's surprisingly effective, since fighters have enough feats to sink into the non-mage crafting feat tree.

Have to say that Artificer was my favorite though, so long as nobody starts with the metamagic cheese that broke them so horribly.

[A Man In Black]

I don't know about favorite, but the ECS Artificer is a godawful trainwreck. It's hideously weak, until it starts autosucceeding on every UMD check then completely breaks the game open. (Not with metamagicked wands, that's piddling stuff. Looting non-core spellcasting lists is usually the worst.) I love Eberron dearly, but the 3.5 artificer is a completely useless boondoggle and I've always just replaced artificers with wizards whenever I needed an artificer for anything.

The 4e artificer is pretty fun, though.

[Ben Adler]

A Man In Black wrote:

I don't know about favorite, but the ECS Artificer is a godawful trainwreck. It's hideously weak, until it starts autosucceeding on every UMD check then completely breaks the game open. (Not with metamagicked wands, that's piddling stuff. Looting non-core spellcasting lists is usually the worst.) I love Eberron dearly, but the 3.5 artificer is a completely useless boondoggle and I've always just replaced artificers with wizards whenever I needed an artificer for anything.

Looting non-core spellcasting lists is something that just about any spellcaster benefits from.

Have you seen some of the Ranger spells in the Spell Compendium? They blow the core ranger spells out of the water.

As a sidenote I've noticed that if you want to reign in an artificier, just limit the party gold, or keep them on a schedule that limits downtime.

[A Man In Black]

Ben Adler wrote:

Looting non-core spellcasting lists is something that just about any spellcaster benefits from.

Have you seen some of the Ranger spells in the Spell Compendium? They blow the core ranger spells out of the water.

You're already halfway there, but I don't mean non-core spells. I mean non-core spell lists. Adepts get spell level 6 Gate. Consecrated Harriers get spell level 3 Death Ward and spell level 4 Dominate Person. Go digging through the goofy spell lists and you'll find all sorts of out-leveled spells that the artificer can abuse like crazy.

Quote:

As a sidenote I've noticed that if you want to reign in an artificier, just limit the party gold, or keep them on a schedule that limits downtime.

Then they do nothing at all. The class manages to be simultaneously overpowered and underpowered.

[Tygretoe]

That was kind of the point of an artificer they where the fix it all for not having a wizard, druid or cleric of course if you know what you are doing you could break the game but the main point is to fill in for the spell caster you don't have with there crafting setup. The class is for those that will control themselves not someone who is a power gamer because guess what any class could be broken if you knew what you where doing. Great example druids with Eschew Materials as a feat at level 1 means that at level 20 you are still casting level 9 spells for nothing due to the druid the effect of replace a spell material for mistletoe because you are a druid.