Author Topic: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion  (Read 11058 times)


Offline Agita

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2012, 03:55:59 PM »
For those that would prefer to use the guide offline, the PDF is available for download, courtesy of Save-vs-DM's generous hosting of the file. You may download it by clicking ont he following link:
http://www.savevsdm.com/pdf/UnofficialA … ebook3.zip (dead link)

Not a dead link, just truncated.
http://www.savevsdm.com/pdf/UnofficialArtificerGuidebook3.pdf
http://www.savevsdm.com/pdf/UnofficialArtificerGuidebook3.zip
Please send private messages regarding board matters to Forum Staff instead.

Offline Libertad

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2012, 05:05:19 PM »
Thanks!

Just posted the link!

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2012, 07:02:28 PM »
Good idea getting the "3.0" out of the title.
This is not for 3.0e Lantan Artificers.
The 3.0 refers to how many versions of this
the original author went through.

Borg286 ...had the most recent BG handbook.
He implied the slightly polemical Tier Zero
in the title, generating quite the !@$# storm.

Psi Arty is also NOT addressed in this. And it shouldn't.
Psi Arty's wait for their Prince to come ...
 :P
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Offline prospero63

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2012, 09:36:08 PM »
Has anyone run across any third party sources for infusions? I found this reference but haven't run across anything else. TIA.

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2012, 06:29:03 PM »
(googles)


Ah, there was a Borg286 thread on the PF Arty.
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8882.0
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Offline prospero63

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2012, 06:37:37 PM »
Hmmm. Unless I'm missing it that's more of a complete redesign of the artificer. While the premise of saying "has access to all divine and arcane spells of 4th level or lower" is interesting, that would require a complete redesign of the class which won't fly in the campaign I'm playing in.

Offline kitep

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2012, 04:31:53 AM »
Quote
Spellcraft
The most generally used aspect of Spellcraft is to identify ongoing magical effects. For an Artificer, knowing what is going on is the first step in being able to choose the proper counter measure to disable it. Which, while useful in it’s own right, is not the most useful function of this skill for the Artificer. It can also be used to identify magic items, for free, simply by looking and playing with them. By examining the way the item uses magic, how it reacts, etc, you can determine things like it’s plus bonus, it enhancements, and more. While not 100% reliable, it is totally free, and means you will be able to help identify magical items without having to spend money and time using an Identify spell.

Where is this found at?  I've looked, and even taking 20, I keep failing my Search roll :(


Offline sirpercival

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2012, 07:10:33 AM »
Artificer's Monocle, MIC.
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Offline kitep

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2012, 01:41:35 PM »
Thanks.

@Libertad - any chance we can add this reference to the handbook?  I wasted a lot of time looking thru ECS looking for it and would hate for others to do so as well.  Articicer's Monocle, MIC, p72
« Last Edit: September 06, 2012, 02:40:18 PM by kitep »

Offline nijineko

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2013, 11:55:19 PM »
btw, the item crafting cost basics are incorrect in the handbook. see quote below, and correction below that.

Quote
Getting Started
At the most basic level, the Artificer makes a magical item just like everybody else. You take the market value of the item you want to make, and divide by 1,000 to get the number of days it will take you to craft the item. Take the market value of the item and divide it by 25, and you will get how many xp the item costs to create (some or all of which you can supply from your Craft Reserve). Take the market value of the item and divide it by 2, and you will get how much gold it will cost you to make the item. This is the basic information you need to start the crafting process.

Cost to Craft (gp) = Market Price / 2
Cost to Craft (xp) = Market Price / 25
Time to Craft (in days) = Market Price / 1,000


Cost to craft (gp) = Base Price / 2
Cost to craft (xp) = Base Price / 25
Time to craft (in days) = Market Price / 1,000
Market Price = Base price + item cost (*if any) + spell xp cost (†if any)

* such as a weapon, armor or shield
† such as a ring of wishes

Note: for many items, the base price and the market price are the same, but not for all. and the rules for crafting specifically call out base price to calculate the gp and xp values rather than the market price.

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2013, 06:53:52 PM »
I ported over Borg286's Zeroficer guide here:
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6427.msg144450#msg144450

Same ballpark, different franks.
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Offline zook1shoe

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2014, 03:37:32 AM »
Maybe mention that standard artificers get nearly every Item Creation feat in the game?

the item creation bonus feat section doesn't limit you to gaining just those on the table, while the psionic artificer was edited to apply only to the table.
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Offline PlzBreakMyCampaign

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #13 on: May 23, 2014, 04:22:34 PM »
That's fluff text. Its like how the barbarian is 'the pinnacle of class design' but ... it isn't. Or how the scout class isn't a great scout or how example characters are more often wrong than not or how the "for example" lines often mess up how an example of an ability works by RAW, etc

I'm not going as far as Soro here. Arti's seem to me to be either the "live fast, die hard" way to power or the "stretch your resources to the breaking point" class. But I've never played one, mainly because of how stupidly powerful they become at level 10 (8 with Bloodlines).

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2014, 06:32:48 PM »
the problem is.... there are no rules for 'phenomenal strength' or 'durability', so that is considered 'fluff'.
but when the 'fluff' in the artificer's ability uses game terms, it can be considered part of the mechanical rules of the ability.
otherwise, how do we separate fluff from mechanical rules?

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Offline PlzBreakMyCampaign

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Re: The Unofficial Artificer Handbook Discussion
« Reply #15 on: August 06, 2017, 04:43:55 PM »
Every core feat, yes. All splat books only assume core unless they reference something else. So yes, in core, a barbarian was the ultimate mundane class. But there was no factotum or warblade there. Anyways, I have useful things for you:

Unfortunately all the other artificer handbooks are unfinished. Does this handbook fully obsolete the old ("tier 0") one? There is no synopsis of the Crafting Handbook or Soro's tier 4 artificer claims. There should be. There's also a lot of extra prose in the handbook (Attributes & Attune Weapon feat, I'm looking at you). Here's the only useful part from the last attempt:

BAB: Divine Power. Persist it
Special Attacks: (Cloud of Knives!)
Class Archetypes: Ring of Evasion and Skill boosters. clockwork armor.
Feats and Skills: spells grant feats or skill bonuses.
Sneak Attack: Hunter's Eye
Find Traps
Rage: Gutworm symbiont from Fiend Folio.
Spells up to 6th: For the Warforged, Wand Bonding lets you cast spells from wands using your infusion slots instead of charges. (City of Stormreach, page 119)

Lastly, the Psionic Artificers section is way too small, especially for the tier 0 rumors surrounding it (hint, they're false). The handbook says things like "you will need to go through and make psionic variants of all of the various homunculi as well," which isn't true. You can't expect your DM to homebrew extra material just because the normal versions don't work for your variant. The Psi Arti simply needs to multiclass like an arcane swordsage if you want to get the most out of it. Just so everyone is clear on the variant, I've faithfully converted the entire class:

(click to show/hide)

Commentary: "A psionic Artificer cannot emulate spells to create magic items." [MoEp42] This seems to imply that DMs are not to have the full transparency variant in effect. If that is the case, Psionic Artificers are automatically Tier 2. All of the magical flexibility they used to have is now gone. Now they are just stuck with their 3 really overpowered infusions (Spell Storing Item, Metamagic Item, and Item Alteration). If those are already off the table for regular artificers, then that's another tier drop. You're like a bard or psywar, but still above a UMD rogue.

Things would get really hairy for you if scrolls/wands & power stones/dorjes were banned. But fear not! If your DM thinks a whopping 3 tiers worth of nerfing might have been too harsh, you might be able to stay Tier 3 with liberal use of Psychic Reformation: "The subject can also choose to forget powers it acquired when advancing to its current level, replacing them with new ones." Just multiclass Psion and enjoy the powers known!

The good news is that Psionic Artificers would have 46 powers known since the list doesn't change much: 13 at level 1! In E6, the class is its won 6 class level long dip complete with 29 spells know. Level 7 only offers some (eternal) wand stretching and level 10 is a dead level in case you wanted 5th level infusions. You don't. They're bad, as are the 6th level ones. There infusion list is:
(click to show/hide)