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Thanks for the support guys, hopefully Shoe will see this and grant us our wish

I haven't played with the Artificer much, but I have been reading and re-reading the Artificer article . From the moment I started playing, I felt that something big was missing, and now I think I know what it is, and the rest of the game for that matter, the ability to craft things. The craft skill seems completely gone from 4E, which is bad enough, but artificers not having such skills/abilities/features, would be just plain mad both fluff and crunch wise. They are craftsman aren't they, so why not be able to craft things like weapons, to armor, to trinkets/devices/gadgets (of varying degrees of usefulness), and so on.

One of their current class features is "Components" in which they "Craft, imbue, and prepare the objects they will need for the day". At the moment that feature strikes me as more fluff used to make his magic sound different then other magic users, and as an excuse to use the "artifice" as a requirement for some of his spells. (unless you have a very picky DM)

However what does interest me about that feature is where it says "If you don't have what you need, you can transmute mundane materials into components." It kind of makes me think of Full Metal Alchemist, but on a more limited scale.

Why not expand this feature to allow the artificer to craft(during those extended rests) temporary special magical items. They could be used to preform simple deeds. Want a small magical crane to lift something? No problem. Need a temporary widget to temporarily fix a larger mechanical device? Sure. Looking for a clockwork toy to amuse some children? Piece of cake! The list of possibilities goes on and on. Naturally there would have to be some limits to what it could do. For example: any magical items you make could only be used by you, could not do powerful actions (like create a huge deadly fireball), and will only work for so long if you are separated from it before it looses its power; as well as being a one time use deal. In addition you can only have so many of these actively magical items on you at any given time(standard magical items do not count). As for mechanical items, they could only be simple devices that, do to the use of a small amount of magic in their creation, fall into a state of disrepair rapidly if separated from you for to long. The short lifespan and requirement to keep them on your person could serve as a means to prevent them selling the creations for money.

Well that's my two cents for the moment. Cant wait to see the finished product.

This might be a dumb question (read: it might have been already answered elsewhere), but, does the Character Builder incorporate any of the changes mentioned by Shoe to the class, or is all that material still as-written from the Dragon article?

C

JohnduBois wrote:

The Closed Beta was the Dragon Magazine article (plus Magic Weapon). I haven't downloaded the Open Beta yet (and haven't checked to see if it's available yet).

Thanks.

I think I am almost ready to wait until the Eberron Player's Guide comes out in July before making my Artificer character, unless the powers that be have mercy on us and provide the afore-voted errata...

C

I find that funny(and Interesting) that The crafting and magic item creation elements of the 3.5 Artificer repelled you when those elements are a very large part of the classes focus, both flavor and play wise. If it was just a matter of all the number crunching and little things that we had to do to make an item, then I understand and to a degree actually agree. From what I have heard, a good number of people disliked the process of creating an item to the point that it was removed for the 4th Edition.

Never the less, even if that is The issue for many people then the answer should be to change the mechanics for crafting rather then the class.

Not only did its description describe a "Magical Technologist" and have his ability to craft numerous times in their lore, just about all his class features heavily involved his interaction with items.
Artisan Bonus, Craft Reserve, Retain essence, Item Creation, Meta-magic spell trigger&Completion, and his access to all craft skills, not to mention his gaining of others as a bonus feat every few levels. All of these features helped to define the class.(Though this is how I see it)

Granted I am still trying to get comfortable with the change from 3.5 to 4E, as the class stands now the 4E Artificer feels less like its 3.5 counterpart then any of the other classes.
A good number of the spells , particularly those that require an "Artifice", feel more like something that he would craft rather then a spell/power which is how they are treated. Some such examples being: Hero's Elixir, Strangling Rope, Living Caltrop Swarm, Dancing Weapon, Arcane Springboard, Shielding Cube, Slick Concoction to name a few.
This, for lack of a better way to describe it, treatment of temporary magical items as Powers/Spells feels like it is taking away some of the fun of being a artificer and turning him into something else that is not D&D.
I touched upon the crafting of magical items via the "Components" feature in my previous post(5 posts back) and think that these "Item spells" is a good place to put them, with some Tweeks obviously. For example:

Every extended rest the artificer is allowed to craft X number of temporary magical items. These are treated like normal magical items (with a daily use), however they break down if they are not recharged or replaced during the extended rest (this recharge is separate from the arcane replenishment feature). At each extended rest the artificer can either craft a new temporary magical item (destroying any select ones that would otherwise put him over his limit) and/or recharging any that he had used that day and would like to use again. If they are separated from him for Y amount of time, then they break down.
As for how he gains access to these temporary magical items, he could record the ones he knows as Arcane Schematics, that can only be read by artificers. For a third option during extended rests, he could spend it creating a Arcane Schematic for a new one that he wanted to create and wasn't on the list, or add any schematics that he found much like how players learn new rituals. It would also make sense that he would not be able to craft or recharge any temporary magical items since he would be preoccupied working on a new one. At the next extended rest he could craft that new item. This would be a good way to allow players to incorporate their own homebrewed items that they wanted to craft as well. Naturally their would be level prerequisites just like any spell.

Creating Temporary magical items like this in a method like this would save players the effort all that it took in 3.5 and make playing as an Artificer more unique and interesting as well as making the class far more fast paced then its predecessor.