Magic is something that grabs the imagination of mortals and immortals alike. It fascinates and terrifies in equal measure, whether used for good or ill. From the most humble hedgewitch to the most powerful archwizard, and everything in between. Whether granted the power they seek from study, or faith, or ancestry, power comes from many sources. An Artifex is one who finds themselves not following the normal path to arcane power, instead creating what they lack and seeking out knowledge that they tinker, test, and apply to the world around them with an almost childlike wonder.
Welcome to the public playtest for the Artifex, a combined Crafting and Path of War class! The document can be found here and the mobile version can be found here
Here are just some of the things that can be found inside this playtest:
- The new Artifex hybrid class with three archetypes
- Three new archetypes for other classes, including the Amanuensis, Machinesmith, and Scholar!
- New feats, including new crafting feats
- Two new complete Martial Disciplines: Mystic Suffusion and Tarnished Caduceus with their own martial traditions, style feats, hybrid feats, and associated veils.
- New talents for the Alchemy Sphere
- New Veils and Sphereshaper veils!
- And more!
The public playtest will continue until the end of November, and as I have done previously the document will remain open until the book is published.
There has been so much interest and recommendations for the playtest, and here are some of the changes and edits that have occurred:
- 10/13/26- Added the Arcane Animus feat, changed Mystic Suffusion and Mystic Suffusion Style to treat rods as discipline weapons Altered Évocateur move action recovery to grant a circumstance bonus to their next attack/damage roll and deflection bonus to AC for 1 round. Added a note in the New Martial Disciplines area to outline what martial disciplines may be exchanged for each other.
- 10/15/26- Accepted recommendation to add wording indicating upper bound of maneuvers and stances that can be learned from Artifex level are indicated in the class table. Added effect to Codex of War veil’s wrist bind to let it trap magical or supernatural effects that fail to harm the veilweaver for later use. Edited the Évocateur’s Scribe of War ability to always treat the summoned weapons as belonging to the weapon groups from their disciplines chosen by their Records of War class ability. Small edits for clarity to The Alchemist veil for clarity.
- 10/16/26- Changed wording of the Meta Infusion ability to clarify that only the metamagic feats chosen through the class ability can be applied to items created through martial artifice. Altered wording of Spellswitch to grant items used through it the attack bonus from Martial Magister. Consume Charge artifex talent changed to a once per combat ability that increases in healing each time it is taken. Elemental Blade changed to mirror the legendary magus talent it is based on. Manifest Arcanum potential technique altered for balance. Artifex’s Withstand Arcana class ability now functions against hostile magical and supernatural effects.
- 10/17/2026- Edited effects of Codex of War Wrists bind for clarity, removed restriction on number of magic effects that can be stored.
- 10/19/26- Edited the effects of the Philosopher’s Revenge maneuver from the Tarnished Caduceus discipline to be usable 1/encounter at full strength and every following time that combat has a reduced effect and a side effect. Edited its entry in the table to match maneuver type in the description (Counter).