 Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappie and little known fact about me, but I love Eberron, the world, the technology, the noir, hard-boiled action that is equal parts crime drama, western, and fantasy, makes the whole setting just my favorite thing in the world. To that end, the new Eberron book makes me the happiest person alive. And the only thing that gets me disgruntled is that I can't spend this week curled up in a chair, reading it by a warm fire that I set in my apartment, because I've got to talk about the new, official version of a class that we have been waiting for since it first reared its head as a wizard subclass in the very first unearthed arcana, the Artificer. I'm gonna talk about the features of the class from the core abilities to the subclasses, and I'm gonna give some tips on how to play the best mad scientist that you can be. As always, keep in mind that a lot of this is just my opinion, so if you think that my gears are soft and that my brass isn't slick enough, feel free to play your Artificers however you want. But with that out of the way, strap on those brass goggles and let's begin. So the Artificer is the ultimate magical greaser of D&D that manages to avoid being a total nerd like the wizard, because where the wizard stays in a library and aims to study the literal fabric of the cosmos, Artificers resolve to take on a world filled with gangsters and goblins by putting a hammer to some nuts. From building a magi-mechanical robot that can file your taxes for you to crafting a joy buzzer so powerful that it's a total party killer, the Artificer is easily one of the most conceptually flexible classes in D&D, able to be represented by any character concept that employs the use of gadgets to satisfy themselves. Also weird side note that I had nowhere else to put, I think it's really funny that the Artificer is the 13th class and it was published in the official Eberron book, because Keith Baker, the guy who wrote the Eberron setting, has a thing for making the number 13 significant by having 12 of something, and then having a secret special lost 13th thing, it's like everywhere in Eberron and I know they didn't do it on purpose, but the coincidence just makes me smile. Anyway, from the way that your proficiencies and health are laid out, the Artificer exists as a sort of catch-all class, not unlike the Bard, where it can build itself to fill out pretty much any role that the party might be lacking in, but where the Bard carries itself with all the grace of a madman and poofy pants running around and shouting, MAGIC IS MY GEMIC! The Artificer is only a halfcaster, meaning that the magic will only be part of your gimmick. Your real versatility comes in a fancy keyword called infusions. Infusions are the gearhead versions of Orlox invocations, allowing you to add magical effects not onto yourself, but onto any item that you can get your hands on, effectively granting you access to a catalog of magical items that can serve to fill in any holes that you might find in the armor of the party. With the power of infusion, you can make weapons and armor more powerful, you can craft a magic item from a table that gets bigger as you level up, and you can even build your own little robotical, homunculus servant so that you can finally make that robot army. Beyond that, the power of the Artificer gives you a sort of cantrip version of infusions that gives minor magical properties to a basic item. You can also use your thick brain to add your intelligence modifier to saving throws and ability checks. You can get really good with tools using them as both your arcane focus and eventually doubling your proficiency bonus with them, and your knowledge and mastery over magical items that you craft common and uncommon items pretty much at will, as well as letting you attune to more magical items than the average bear, with your capstone letting you both add a bonus to all your saving throws equal to your attunements, and letting you end one infusion to not die somehow. What all this means is that, as I said earlier, you can really play your Artificer however you want. Do you want to be a tank? Just build up armor and weapon infusions and then put them on yourself. Want to play support? Pick up a healing spell and pass around all those beneficial items. Want to be a skill monkey? Eh, technically you can't be that good at ability scores, but your random grab bag of magic items means that you have the right tool for the job in a way that nobody else can even come close to imitating. But if you want to specialize further into the various different styles of steampunk then the Artificer has you covered with three distinct archetypes for you to choose from. You've got the Alchemist for if you want to really lean in on the Potion Maker, the Artillerist for when you're tired of swords and just want to whip out a Glock, and the Battlesmith, which gives you a robotic animal companion just to make sure that even the new classes can still flex on the Ranger. Now to start with, the Alchemist is my personal favorite of the whole bunch, as it focuses on being just a pure representation of the mad scientist that the Artificer is known for. With this subclass, your affinity with Alchemist supplies grows, letting you cast new spells, including a couple more healing spells, you can make an Elixir with a random magical property to prank your friends, your spells will get stronger as your intellect grows, you can make experimental Elixirs that heal and give out lesser restorations to people, and you can eventually gain resistance to both poison and acid damage, and you can also grant greater restoration and heal once prolonged rest without spending a spell slot. So considering all of the crazy healing opportunities that this subclass provides, if you were looking to be a mid to backline healer, supporting the party like a boss, while also tossing out damage to remind people that you are still a jack of all trades, this subclass is the one that you're going to want to choose. Bonus points if you make all your potions, taste like those weird Japanese fizzy drink flavors that you find at the back of an FYE. Next up, the Artillerist is what you want to pick if your goal is to get some damage off and protect your allies, but stay at a distance, because who cares about swords and axes when you're literally bringing a battle cannon to fight against bandits. The Artillerist doesn't really involve itself in subtlety, preferring to use the age-old adage of, so anyway I started BLASTING to blow the hell out of everything through a mix of guns, wands, and a big eldritch cannon. As an Artillerist, you get new spells that focus on ranged fighting and defensive capabilities, and you get an eldritch cannon, which acts as either a small little boom shoo or a handheld master blaster. In either case, the cannon will act as either a flamethrower, a force gun, or a force field, and as you get stronger, you can make the cannon do more damage, you can use it as a grenade, you can use it as half cover, and you can eventually have two of them out at the same time. In addition to this, you also get the power to use a wand, a staff, or a rod as your arcane focus, and if you do, your damaging spells get a bit more of a kick to them. Now, I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed that this subclass doesn't focus more on being either a gunslinger or a wand slinger, since the whole cannon idea always felt a bit clunky to me, but once it's on the field, that cannon is STRONG. If you pick flamethrower, you're basically giving yourself a free mobile burning hands as a bonus action every single turn that you're able, and sure, the cannon can be destroyed, but it has an AC of 18 and almost as much health as you do, and if it does break, you can just make a new one with a spell slot. Never mind the fact that the thing scales at 9th level, lasts for a whole hour, and by 15th level you can get two of them, so you can have a bad guy chase you into the back of an alleyway and get you cornered just for two Teodor brand burn cannons to jump off of nearby roofs and torch the sucker. And finally, the Battlesmith is, as it sounds, the archetype for you to pick if you don't want to think about complicated things like strategy and instead you just want to hit things. With a bevy of new spells that accentuate the core concept of please hit me in the face as hard as you can, as well as the ability to now use martial weapons and attack using intelligence so that it can be big brain time, the Battlesmith continues by giving you your own steel defender, a mechanical animal that fights with you and makes your enemies flee in terror of a mechanical Rottweiler. As you progress in levels, you'll gain an extra attack, as well as a sort of artificer smite that can either do damage like normal or heal an ally because somehow you are so smart that your smartness energy flows into an ally, and your capstone turns that smite into a more powerful brain blast, and it also gives your Goddard improved defenses so that it doesn't die so often. As the stereotypical give-this-class-a-companion subclass, the Battlesmith's dog is nonsensically resilient. The smite is fine because while it'll generally be used more often than a paladin, it won't scale until 15th level so it should balance out in theory, but that steel defender just isn't going to ever die. It can deflect attacks, it can repair itself, it gets healed with the Mending Cantrip, you can spend a spell slot to bring it back even if it does die, and by 15th level it'll just be downright impossible to deal with. This isn't the worst thing ever because the damage it does doesn't really scale well, but it will forever be a source of annoyance for any DM that just doesn't want to deal with a basically unkillable enemy. Overall, I think the artificer is very powerful despite some of the discussions I've seen floating around the D&D space. From damage numbers that just keep stacking up to mechanics that don't really make the most worldly sense, to a mechanical mastiff that is just downright impossible to destroy, the artificer reminds me a lot of gauge from Borderlands. Like gauge, this is a perfect class to play if you want to have an easy time with the game, but the DM is going to have to stay very careful not to let the bonuses from infusions catch up with the downright silly bonuses from some of the other class features. My hope is, if you're intent on playing a full Metal Alchemist in your own games, work with your DM to narrow down exactly what they do and don't like about the class, and with any luck, you'll be building your own Megazord in no time. Buuuut that'll about do it! I hope you enjoyed this video, leave a like, comment, subscribe, ring the bell, please try not to infuse magical properties into bedroom toys, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can fill the world with Cybertongs. But yeah, Davi out.