Artificer playtest evaluation for D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Digging into the potential changes for the artificer class in D&D 2024.

If you want to check out the full playtest material, you can find it all here. There’s also a video deep dive that I’ve embedded below:

Why are we getting changes to the artificer?

The old artificer rules were created for D&D 2014. Rules and classes have been adjusted with the introduction of D&D 2024. In particular, power levels have increased for all the classes and greater flexibility and synergy between features has also been introduced. While you can use the 2014 artificer in your games, you may find that it lacks a little in the power department compared to revised classes.

This is also a chance to improve on aspects of the class that didn’t land so well before. We might for instance look to crafting mechanics, the usefulness of certain features or the alchemist subclass at large as things we’d hope would be improved upon with the new artificer.

Oh, and also, armorers can become mechs with a new dreadnought armor! How did I not mention this already!?

What might be changing and how does it stack up?

As I said, these are playtest materials only so may change in the future, but I’ve summarised the changes I’ve found below and how well I think they stack up:

Firearm proficiency

This is now gone! This is disappointing as firearms became a standard option in D&D 2024, but now the most appropriate wielder of these weapons has lost that proficiency, including the artillerist! Hopefully this gets added back to the class.

Spellcasting focus

You can no longer use infused items (or now, replicated magic items) as a spellcasting focus. This is problematic for battle smiths in particular who often rely on wielding a shield for a bit more durability but now, don’t have enough hands to wield this.

Magical tinkering

I found I barely used magical tinkering with the 2014 artificer. It essentially created a minor, technological/magical effect with an object that was quite limited in scope. The problem was, if you wanted to do these types of things, there were spells that could easily accomplish them.

This changes in the playtest material. You now get to create a non-magical object from a list of 26 objects. They’re all quite practical things like ball bearings, ropes, shovels and torches.

I think the use case here is that being unprepared with adventuring gear is no longer a problem as you can just make the object you need with a magic action. D&D 2024 makes more uses for adventuring gear too, as explained in my guide.

Overall, this feels like a reasonable, if unremarkable change.

Spellcasting

Spellcasting remains largely the same for the artificer. You remain a 2/3 caster (as you have access to things like cantrips, which half casters don’t get). You can now change a known cantrip on a long rest. You also gain access to a few extra spells. these are:

• Elementalism
• True strike
• Arcane vigor
• Dragon’s breath
• Homunculus servant
• Circle of power

It’s worth noting that the homunculus servant was an infusion, but has now become a spell option. I suppose this makes it a more accessible option as prepared spells are more plentiful than infusions.

Overall, more spell options is handy and true strike is a nice addition allowing you to get involved in weapon attacks using your intelligence, even if you don’t have a subclass that enhances this. Dragon’s breath also gives you some more melee prowess with an AoE cone attack you can use all combat.

These changes are minor, but decent enough.

Replicate magic item

Now we get to the meaty changes! Infuse item has been replaced with replicate magic item. This was already an option within the list of infusions available and in practice, works much the same way. However, now you don’t improve an item, you build it from scratch. So if you want a returning weapon, you don’t customise the barbarian’s war hammer, you build them a returning war hammer for example.

Although you’re no longer using infusions, most of the options for infusions are represented in the types of items you can create. But you get even more options.

Whereas before, you had a reasonably large, but still limiting list of infusions and items you could create, now, you’re mainly restricted only by rarity (and by virtue of this, the power) of the item you want to create. By level 14, you’ll be able to create rare armor, rings, wands and weapons and wondrous items which is pretty strong.

In terms of pure changes, there are a few items you can no longer create as well as some that change in level at which you can create them which I’ve summarised below:

Removed items

• Armor of magical strength
• Homunculus servant (now a 2nd level spell)
• Arcane propulsion arm
• Arcane propulsion armor

Items with changing level requirements

• Shield +2 moves from 10th to 14th level
• Wand of the war mage moves from 10th to 14th level
• +2 weapon moves from 10th level to 14th level
• Mind sharpener moved from 2nd to 10th level
• Repeating shot moved from 2nd level to 6th level
• Returning weapon moved from 2nd level to 6th level
• Ring of water walking moved from 6th to 10th level
• Boots of the winding path moved from 6th to 10th level
• Radiant weapon moved from 6th to 14th level
• Armor of resistance moved from 6th to 14th level
• Spell refuelling ring moved from 6th to 10th level
• Ventilating lungs moved from 10th to 14th level

Another big change is every long rest, you can essentially replace your full contingent of magic items allowed from this feature. The 2014 rules capped this at a single magic item each long rest.

There is a bit of a reduction in the plans known versus the number of infusions that used to be known and this perhaps feels unnecessarily limiting.

Overall, I think this is a change for the better. Mainly, it just means you’ve got a huge number of extra options to craft giving you more flexibility in what you want to create. I’ve not evaluated what items now become available to you as that’s a vast article all on its own, but I expect this to be a strong option for the artificer.

One issue that does come up here is that the armorer can no longer use upgraded weapons as their armor comes with its own weapons that you can’t just infuse anymore. I suspect this is unintended and we’ll see this fixed in the final version.

Magic item tinkerer

Tool expertise is replaced by this improvement to your magic item replication. You not only gain access to more magic items, but you can also destroy a magic item you created to transform it into a spell slot.

Spell slots are limited to 1st and 2nd level spells (depending on the rarity of the item) which feels a little limiting and like a poor equivalent if I’m honest. Having said that, magic items are cheap and easy to come by for an artificer, but even so, I’d have liked to have seen this scale better with levels.

Once you get to higher levels, you’re already underpowered on the spellcasting side of things, it feels like this could have eventually stretched to 3rd and 4th level spells.

Flash of genius

You can now use this in response to a failed saving throw or ability check rather than just to enhance one. This follows the design philosophy I’ve seen across other similar features and I’m glad it’s happening for the artificer too. It makes the feature much more useful.

Spell-storing item

You can now store spells up to level 3 in an item rather than the previous limit of level 2. This is a big upgrade!

Level 3 spells take a big step up in power allowing you to repeat cast a load of level 3 spells each day (twice the number of your intelligence modifier).

The vanilla artificer spell list for level 3 spells isn’t hugely inspiring (haste is probably your best option) but artillerists get fireball and armorers get hypnotic pattern and lightning bolt. Having 10 more of these each day is not to be underestimated and feels unintentionally overpowered!

Epic boon

Like all classes in D&D 2024, artificers will get an epic boon at level 19. You’ve got the same options everyone else has in the Player’s Handbook.

Soul of artifice

An extra d6 to most ability checks is very handy. You also get restored to 20hps when reduced to 0 instead of being restored to 1hp giving you a better chance of survival. This doesn’t cost a reaction either making this a bit more reliable.

Artificer 2024 subclasses

All the artificer subclasses get a spruce up (some more than others). We have the exact same 4 that appeared in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Alchemist

Alchemists were the weakest of the 4 artificer subclasses, and that probably remains the case here. But there are some decent quality of life improvements that bring it more in line with the other artificer subclasses.

• Blight replaced with vitrolic sphere – Blight as a prepared spell has been replaced with vitriolic sphere. In terms of power levels, these spells do similar levels of damage. Blight is more instantaneous and performs better on a passed saving throw, but vitrolic sphere has a better range so they’re comparable. I suppose vitrolic sphere is a little more flavoured towards an alchemist so the change makes sense.
• Craft potions faster – Your tool proficiency now also lets you craft potions using half the amount of time.
• Upgraded experimental elixir – Experimental elixir now produces more elixirs starting at 2 at level 3 (up from 1) and reaching 5 at level 15 (up from 3). This nearly doubles the effectiveness of this feature by itself. The healing of the Healing elixir has also increased from 2d4 + intelligence modifier to 2d8 + intelligence modifier. Finally, the last option on the random table has been changed from a transformation into a choice of the other 5 elixirs. It’s also worth noting that the new rules allow potions to be imbibed with a bonus action now making these substantially more useful in the heat of combat.
• Temporary hit point upgrade for restorative reagents – Restorative reagents now gives temporary hit points equal to your artificer level + your intelligence modifier rather than 2d6 + your intelligence modifier. With this feature coming in at level 9 and an average roll of 7 from 2d6, this will usually be more powerful even when it first kicks in at level 9 and will always be more powerful from only a few levels later.
• Chemical Mastery changes – You now deal an extra 2d8 damage when casting a spell that causes certain types of damage. You can also cast Tasha’s bubbling cauldron without expending a spell slot, knowing the spell or using material components (useful considering the high cost of material components for the spell). This replaces access to the heal and greater restoration spells. You also lose immunity to the poisoned condition. I think this goes some way to resolving power levels for the alchemist at later levels with the extra damage, though I feel this should have come into play sooner. I’m not sure the spell changes are necessarily upgrades, but considering the extra damage, it’s probably a fair exchange (plus, how could you not give an alchemist Tasha’s bubbling cauldron as a known spell)!?

Armorer

Armorers were already great, but somehow Wizards of the Coast have recognised that deep within me, what I actually wanted was some mech armor. So now you can get even bigger, bulkier armor called dreadnought armor!

• Faster armor crafting – Like the alchemist, the armorer is faster at crafting their signature item. Twice as fast in fact. I expect alchemists to enjoy more use out of this than armorers, but its still a decent addition.
• Armor types – The guardian armor’s defensive field now kicks in when bloodied rather than having limited uses. However, the real show stealer is the brand new dreadnought armor. Basically, you can now take Armor that makes you a mech! This Armor has an arm mounted wrecking ball, deals more damage than the other Armor types, pushes enemies, can increase its size to large (and eventually huge) and you can even fly. I really like the idea of grappling massive creatures in the enlarged dreadnought armor. Yes, you’ll need a decent strength, or you could take a dip into monk for dexterity based grapples instead…
• Armor replication – Armor modifications was quite complicated so it’s been replaced by armor replication which basically gives you an extra plan and magic item you can create as long as it’s armor. It definitely simplified the feature.
• Increased damage from perfected armor – Perfected armor will now increase the damage of the various armor types’ weapons bumping guardian armor up to 1d10 and infiltrator armor up to 2d6. It’s a small damage boost, and perhaps doesn’t go far enough, but I suppose armorers are less about high damage and more about resilience.

Artillerist

The artillerist receives only a few alterations which include:

• Quicker wand crafting – You can now craft wands in half the time it used to take.
• 3 in 1 eldritch cannons – Your eldritch cannons no longer need to pick a cannon type, you can just choose which power to use each turn instead. I like this change quite a lot. It allows an artillerist to be more flexible and adapt to the changing nature of combat.
• Reaction cannon detonations – You can now detonate your destroyed cannon using a reaction instead of an action and it deals more damage to nearby creatures (from 3d8 to 3d10). This should mean that you can catch more enemies in the blast after they’ve just battered your turret.

Battle smith

The battle smith is probably the least changed subclass of them all with just a couple of minor tweaks which are:

• Faster weapon crafting – You can now craft weapons in half the time.
• Steel defender stats – A couple of the steel defender’s stats have been adjusted including hp which is slightly lower, but also slightly easier to calculate. Its damage does increase slightly though at 1d8 +2 + your intelligence modifier compared to 1d8 + your proficiency before. I think overall, that probably makes your steel defender slightly more powerful.
• Bonus action demand – One challenge with the battle smith is the steel defender’s demands on your bonus action. This isn’t necessarily problematic, but you get smites on your spell list that require bonus actions to cast making them a little redundant most of the time when you can just command your steel defender to deal extra damage instead. Probably the best option here is to replace those smite spells with spells that can be kore useful for the battle smith.

Are the changes any good?

Mostly, I’d say so. The original classes and subclasses were pretty good (barring the alchemist) and a load of fun. They fit a similar niche as bards and warlocks. Highly flexible, utility specialists with lots of options and customisation. Because of this, I don’t think they needed huge amounts of change.

But these playtest rules do feel promising, even if there are some issues to iron out. Replicate magic item makes artificers more creators than tinkerers and the flexibility in items created is pretty huge here.

I think broadly speaking, they manage to address the power disparity for the alchemist. However, I do wonder if it needs enhanced spell damage earlier in the subclass as outside of preparing potions, it has little extra going for it in combat.

The addition of the dreadnought armor is exciting and a fun addition.

However, I think a few tweaks are needed with the big issues being addressing the lack of firearms proficiency, the armorer’s lack of options for wielding magic weapons, the large number of level 3 spells able to be stored in an item and spellcasting focus juggling with weapons. These feel like unnecessary/accidental downgrades, but don’t take a lot to fix.

So overall, I’d say I’m happy with the general approach, but it definitely needs some important changes before it’s ready to publish.

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What do you think of the potential changes coming to the artificer? Let me know in the comments below.

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