Cartographer Artificer: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Teleport and find things with this navigational artificer and brand new subclass for D&D 2024.

Cartographers are artificers adept at traversing landscapes safely and can help their allies accomplish this as well. They possess maps that can track their allies and help them teleport around the battlefield. Cartographers are also skilled at finding their target, whether that be marking foes for attacks, locating something or revealing invisibility.

The cartographer is a brand new artificer subclass so naturally, it’s one I’ve been interested in checking out. Unfortunately, the original Unearthed Arcana wasn’t hugely inspiring, and sadly, the feedback doesn’t seem to have improved things much either. So spoiler alert, this is probably the most disappointed I’ve been by a subclass for all of D&D 2024.

Below I’ll go into detail on the 2024 cartographer including how to use it, how good it is and how best to build one.

At a glance

Half caster with lots of utility
Great at buffing allies
Can easily move around the battlefield
Focus on using faerie fire as a spell

2/5 – The cartographer falls flat as a subclass. It fails to scale damage properly, doesn’t provide good enough spells (especially for spell storing item) and has some features that are highly situational or unlikely to be used. There are a few decent aspects, like some interesting uses of teleportation, but for the most part, the cartographer underperforms and doesn’t stack up against other artificer subclasses.

Cartographer features

Khoravar: Wizards of the Coast — Cartographer artificer: Wizards of the Coast

Tools of the trade (Lv3) – 2/5

The classic artificer ribbon feature. You get calligrapher’s supplies and cartographer tools proficiency and half the time crafting scrolls. Neither are a big deal, but players that like to scribe lots of scrolls might enjoy the extra speed.

Cartographer spells (Lv3) -2/5

Because the core artificer class isn’t blessed with many strong spells, they tend to be reliant on strong subclass spell lists. This is especially the case for your spell storing item which can now use level 3 spells.

Most artificer subclasses got this memo; sadly, the cartographer didn’t. The level 3 spells are particularly important here, but neither are inspiring options for a spell storing item. Call lightning is fine, but isn’t the single turn impact spell you want in an item with up to 10 level 3 spell slots (it’s a slow burn, spell slot saving spell that you don’t want to be putting in a spell storing item). Clairvoyance is a worse option. This is particularly painful when other artificer subclasses get the likes of conjure barrage, fireball and lightning bolt.

It’s not all bad. Guiding bolt is decent, faerie fire is alright at low levels and healing word and banishment are quite good. But spells like locate object, mind spike and teleportation circle aren’t particularly great either.

Adventurer’s atlas (Lv3) – 3/5

1d4 extra initiative for probably most or all of your party is pretty decent. Knowing where they all are is maybe only situationally useful. This might help if the ally is invisible for example where you need to see the target to cast a spell on them. They still need to be in range though and I’m not convinced this is resolving a problem that comes up very often.

Mapping magic (Lv3) – 3/5

Faerie fire is alright as a spell. It works better for parties that struggle to get advantage through other methods. This is more plentiful in the 2024 rules, making faerie fire less useful.

The cartographer does seem to want to push the subclass into a faerie fire build, which suffers from the ranger’s hunter’s mark problem. You’re either tied into a level 1 spell, or some of your features quickly become redundant over time. And I think faerie fire is worse for this as hunters mark at least scales better.

Portal jump is better fortunately. It’s often going to be less distance than misty step, but it doesn’t require spell slots or your bonus action. Unfortunately, unlike every other artificer subclass, cartographers don’t have something really meaningful to do with their bonus action that’s now been spared other than maybe cast healing word.

Still, a preserved bonus action is pretty solid, as is a no limit teleport feature that works nicely for getting out of cages or getting away from dangerous enemies.

Guided precision (Lv5) – 2/5

Cartographer’s get the obligatory 5th level damage boost that other artificer subclasses get. However, it’s worth comparing what you get here to the other subclasses:

Alchemist – Increase spell healing or damage by intelligence modifier, but only if healing or dealing poison, fire or acid damage. This occurs every time they cast a spell but only for one roll of that spell
Armorer – Extra attack
Artillerist – +1d8 to a spell’s damage roll
Battle smith – Extra attack
Cartographer – Plus intelligence modifier to a damage roll once per turn from a cartographer spell or to a creature affected by your faerie fire

Cartographers are most comparable to alchemists and artillerists for this feature, but the issue is that their requirements are much harder to contrive.

If you’re concentrating on a spell (like call lightning or haste) then you won’t be using faerie fire. And chances are, by this level, you won’t want to be concentrating on a level 1 spell, and certainly not as levels get higher. This means you can only use this on guiding bolt, mind spike and call lightning. Not a great range and there are no cantrips here to speak of.

Call lightning isn’t a bad shout as it’s an AoE spell so the damage increase will affect all affected creatures. But again, comparing to other subclasses, the artillerist gets a similar benefit with fireball which has much bigger area and damage. Alchemist’s can use their equivalent on mass healing word at the same level and get the healing boost to all 6 targets because it’s the same healing roll.

Basically, this feature is difficult to contrive, and when compared to other subclasses, especially disappointing. And subclass features are extremely important for power scaling for an artificer.

Ingenious movement (Lv9) -3/5

Free additional benefit when using flash of genius is pretty decent. And 30ft teleportation can be quite useful. In practice though, this can be a little situational. The trigger is a failed saving throw (and then using flash of genius), a trigger you have almost no tactical control over.

It would have been better if this wasn’t linked to flash of genius at all and instead, triggered as a reaction to someone being hit perhaps or something else more likely to mean someone needs to teleport.

Having said that, having someone in the party in need of a teleport isn’t unusual, so the actual effect can be quite good, but the timing is somewhat challenging. It also doesn’t have a use limit and preserves action economy, both of which are better than other similar features can do.

Superior atlas (Lv15) – 4/5

Safe haven is quite good. It diminishes your teleportation capabilities, but at preserving their life with a decent number of hit points (30-40), that’s a solid sacrifice. Find the path I don’t think is a particularly exciting spell. It can be practical, but either you know where to go, or the DM will give you the information to work this out. Either way, it won’t be used often.

How good is the cartographer subclass?

Artificers rely heavily on the quality of their subclasses to boost their capabilities. Improving their spell lists and damage scaling for attacks are particularly important for artificers. Unfortunately, the cartographer did not get the memo here.

Their spells just aren’t strong enough to make good use of spell storing item (which is really important for bringing power scaling for artificers).

They also lack enough power scaling features. I’m not expecting artillerist level power scaling; cartographers are intended to have more utility than the almost pure damage dealing of an artillerist. But the one damage scaling feature they have, is weak compared to their compatriots.

On top of this, adventurer’s atlas feels redundant for allies until level 15, which feels like 12 levels of why should I bother putting your map in my pack again!? I know the point of the feature is more for the cartographer, but it would have been nice to give allies some proper benefits to having this atlas around.

Tying the subclass to faerie fire feels like they didn’t learn lessons from rangers and hunter’s mark. They also make the trigger for ingenious movement something that could easily mean it being a bit redundant.

Its not all bad. Teleportation is kind on your action economy, some spells are decent enough and there is some nice resilience at later levels for the party. But it really isn’t enough for what I think is quite a poorly designed subclass.

2/5

Building an optimised cartographer

eberron — Artificer: Wizards of the Coast

The challenge with building an optimised cartographer is that they aren’t particularly good at much. They aren’t great with weapon attacks and are kind of inadequate when it comes to spellcasting. The best thing for them is really to make use of standard artificer spells and features and use them as a teleporting support class.

As a general rule, I wouldn’t recommend playing a cartographer if you’re keen on building something powerful. If you love the flavour of the cartographer though, then below is some advice on how to get the most out of them.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Intelligence: Your spellcasting ability and the one you’ll use for a lot of your best features like flash of genius and spell storing item and the damage boost from guided precision. By getting more uses of flash of genius, you’ll also get more uses of ingenious movement.
Dexterity: If you have medium armor, you’ll want to get this at least 14 for the AC boost. As a rogue alternative, you may need this for things like unpicking locks and stealth too. You might also use it for your ranged weapons, though cantrips will usually be more powerful.
Constitution: All classes benefit from more resilience and artificers are no different. This will also help you concentrate more easily on spells too.

Options to avoid

Strength: Dump, you’ve got no use for strength.
Wisdom: Only useful for some skills and saving throws, otherwise, not worth investing in.
Charisma: This is mostly for face skills and these don’t come naturally to an artificer so I wouldn’t invest much here either.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	15	15
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

Arcana: Common knowledge skill and you have the intelligence to back it up.
History: Another common intelligence skill.
Investigation: Investigation comes up a fair bit and as one of the few intelligence based classes, you’re in a good place to help here.
Nature: This feels like the domain of rangers and druids, but as an intelligence skill, this is another that an artificer is well placed to focus on.
Perception: Perception is always useful, especially if you’ll be filling in for a rogue. Cartographers feel like a decent fit for a party scout so this makes sense.
Sleight of hand: Great option if you don’t already have a rogue with this.

Stealth isn’t on the artificer list of skills, but I’d consider it for the cartographer who likely makes sense as a scout with their capabilities.

Species/race

I’d look for species with the following qualities:

Resilience: Make yourself tougher or more evasive through things like more hit points, resistances or flight. Being evasive is probably more important for a cartographer. Flight can be really useful for this.
Innate spellcasting: The more spells you possess the better. And as a utility caster, an expanded range will benefit you a fair bit.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Damage resistances as well as some light healing for recovering allies are solid. But you’re mainly here for temporary flight which will keep you a lot safer in nasty battles.
Elf (2024): An extra skill and darkvision are both helpful. You’re mainly here for the innate spellcasting though. High Elf is a good option for misty step and an extra cantrip. Drow is good for buffs and debuffs but does give faerie fire which you already have. They do have darkness though. Wood Elf can work nicely for a more stealthy artificer.
Gnome (2024): Extra magic resilience is great as you’ll undoubtedly be the target of some spells. Minor illusion and speak with animals are better options than what the Rock Gnome gives.
Human (2024): If you need to boost your skill proficiencies to take full advantage of all those knowledge skills or add in stealth proficiency, then Human’s a good option. The consistent supply of heroic inspiration is useful too. However, the extra origin feat is probably the trait you want most, especially if you want to grab something like the tough origin feat, which is normally only available with backgrounds that don’t work for the artificer.
Shifter (2024): Temporary hit points and a choice of benefits. Beasthide for the extra AC and swiftstride for the faster movement and the extra safety are good options. The skills aren’t the best for an artificer, but everything else works well.
Tiefling (2024): 4 extra spells known is mainly what you’re after here. I’d favour the infernal legacy.
Warforged (2024): More AC, poison resilience, a skill and tool proficiency and a few other buffs all work really well for an artificer that wants to be tougher and have more skills at their fingertips.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now in D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a cartographer, I’d prioritise intelligence and then one of dexterity or constitution with the below being your best options:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Scribe	Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom	Skilled	Investigation, perception	Calligrapher’s tools

I’d go with criminal for a stealth build or sage for more of a spellcasting and knowledge build.

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for an artificer. Ironically, crafter is a poor option for an artificer who can do the things the crafter feat suggests in better ways usually:

Alert: This will really help you build into a high initiative character, and it can be shared with allies of needs be.
Lucky: Advantage on d20 tests and disadvantage on your aggressors is universally useful. Especially as avoiding getting hit is one of the best ways to not lose concentration.
Magic initiate: Grab some extra spells known from another spell list. A good way to make yourself even more flexible with spellcasting.
Musician: A generally excellent origin feat for helping your allies out with some heroic inspiration (kind of like a slightly better lucky, you give to your friends).
Skilled: If the party needs a bit more proficiency in knowledge skills or you need to fill in for a rogue, then this works well for you. This can bump up your number of skill proficiencies a decent bit.
Tough: Really valuable extra hit points for a class on the lower end of these.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. These are some of the better options for an artificer:

Genie magic: Another spell to cast and there’s plenty of utility here as you can simply choose any that’s on the sorcerer spell list.
Mage slayer: Great for disrupting spellcasters and gives you something similar to legendary resistance.
Ritual caster: If you feel like you’re struggling to have enough of the spells you want available to you, then this is the best way to boost your utility with more spells gained through this feat than any other. You can check out my full guide to ritual casting for more tips.
Shadow touched: Invisibility and an illusion spell are great for a caster class. Especially one built for stealth.
Speedy: A good option for martial artificers that want to use hit and run tactics.
Weapon master: A good option if your go to cantrips will be true strike as you can use it for your main weapon.

Weapons

Cartographers are definitely best using their actions for spells rather than weapon attacks. However, one of their best cantrip options is true strike which uses a weapon attack in the casting. It’s frustrating that you only get the extra damage from guided precision with cartographer spells so You’re reliant on faerie fire to get this working with cantrips. You’re best off with a ranged weapon here and a light crossbow or hand crossbow is likely your best option here.

Armor

Most cartographers will do best with medium armor as they don’t usually need dexterity for attacks as spells will serve them better so likely won’t want to prioritise this. Half plate will give you the best protection, but if you don’t want to be hampered for stealth, then a breastplate is best.

A shield is a great option for the extra protection. Just be aware that you may need to juggle spell components and a spellcasting focus if you’re also wielding a shield. If you’re going for true strike and a shield, you can use a replicate magic item weapon as a spellcasting focus so at least your weapon won’t be an issue for item juggling.