Xeala

Masters of invention, artificers use ingenuity and magic to unlock extraordinary capabilities in objects. They see magic as a complex system waiting to be decoded and then harnessed in their spells and inventions. You can find everything you need to play one of these inventors in the next few sections.

Artificers use a variety of tools to channel their arcane power. To cast a spell, an artificer might use alchemist’s supplies to create a potent elixir, calligrapher’s supplies to inscribe a sigil of power, or tinker’s tools to craft a temporary charm. The magic of artificers is tied to their tools and their talents, and few other characters can produce the right tool for a job as well as an artificer.

Artificers in Many Worlds

Throughout the D&D multiverse, artificers create inventions and magic items of peace and war. Many lives have been brightened or saved because of the work of kind artificers, but countless lives have also been lost because of the mass destruction unleashed by certain artificers’ creations.

In the Forgotten Realms, the island of Lantan is home to many artificers, and in the world of Dragon­lance, tinker gnomes are often members of this class. The strange technologies in the Barrier Peaks of the world of Greyhawk have inspired some folk to walk the path of the artificer, and in Mystara, various nations employ artificers to keep airships and other wondrous devices operational.

Artificers in the City of Sigil share discoveries from throughout the multiverse, and from there, the gnome artificer Vi runs a cosmos-spanning business that hires adventurers to fix problems that others deem unfixable. In Vi’s home world, Eberron, magic is harnessed as a form of science and deployed throughout society, largely as a result of the wondrous ingenuity of artificers.

Creating an Artificer

To create an artificer, consult the following subsections, which give you hit points, proficiencies, and starting equipment. Then look at the Artificer table to see which features you get at each level. The descriptions of those features appear in the “Artificer Features” section.

QUICK BUILD

You can make an artificer quickly by following these suggestions. First, put your highest ability score in Intelligence, followed by Constitution or Dexterity. Second, choose the guild artisan background.

The Artificer Table

Multiclassing and the Artificer

If your group uses the optional rule on multiclassing in the Player’s Handbook, here’s what you need to know if you choose artificer as one of your classes.

Ability Score Minimum. As a multiclass character, you must have at least an Intelligence score of 13 to take a level in this class, or to take a level in another class if you are already an artificer.

Proficiencies Gained. If artificer isn’t your initial class, here are the proficiencies you gain when you take your first level as an artificer: light armor, medium armor, shields, thieves’ tools, tinker’s tools.

Spell Slots. Add half your levels (rounded up) in the artificer class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots.

Class Features

As an artificer, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per artificer level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per artificer level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: Thieves' tools, tinker's tools, one type of artisan's tools of your choice
Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Sleight of Hand

The secrets of gunpowder weapons have been discovered in various corners of the D&D multiverse. If your Dungeon Master uses the rules on firearms in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and your artificer has been exposed to the operation of such weapons, your artificer is proficient with them.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• any two simple weapons of your choice
• a light crossbow and 20 bolts
• your choice of studded leather armor or scale mail
• thieves’ tools and a dungeoneer’s pack

Magical Tinkering

At 1st level, you learn how to invest a spark of magic into mundane objects. To use this ability, you must have thieves’ tools or artisan’s tools in hand. You then touch a Tiny nonmagical object as an action and give it one of the following magical properties of your choice:

• The object sheds bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet.
• Whenever tapped by a creature, the object emits a recorded message that can be heard up to 10 feet away. You utter the message when you bestow this property on the object, and the recording can be no more than 6 seconds long.
• The object continuously emits your choice of an odor or a nonverbal sound (wind, waves, chirping, or the like). The chosen phenomenon is perceivable up to 10 feet away.
• A static visual effect appears on one of the object’s surfaces. This effect can be a picture, up to 25 words of text, lines and shapes, or a mixture of these elements, as you like.

The chosen property lasts indefinitely. As an action, you can touch the object and end the property early.

You can bestow magic on multiple objects, touching one object each time you use this feature, though a single object can only bear one property at a time. The maximum number of objects you can affect with this feature at one time is equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of one object). If you try to exceed your maximum, the oldest property immediately ends, and then the new property applies.

Spellcasting

You have studied the workings of magic and how to channel it through objects. As a result, you have gained the ability to cast spells. To observers, you don’t appear to be casting spells in a conventional way; you look as if you’re producing wonders using mundane items or outlandish inventions.

Tools Required

You produce your artificer spell effects through your tools. You must have a spellcasting focus—specifically thieves’ tools or some kind of artisan’s tool—in hand when you cast any spell with this Spellcasting feature (meaning the spell has an ‘M’ component when you cast it). You must be proficient with the tool to use it in this way. See chapter 5, “Equipment,” in the Player’s Handbook for descriptions of these tools.

After you gain the Infuse Item feature at 2nd level, you can also use any item bearing one of your infusions as a spellcasting focus.

Cantrips (0-Level Spells)

At 1st level, you know two cantrips of your choice from the artificer spell list. At higher levels, you learn additional artificer cantrips of your choice, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Artificer table.

When you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the artificer cantrips you know with another cantrip from the artificer spell list.

Preparing and Casting Spells

The Artificer table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your artificer spells. To cast one of your artificer spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

You prepare the list of artificer spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the artificer spell list. When you do so, choose a number of artificer spells equal to your Intelligence modifier + half your artificer level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

For example, if you are a 5th-level artificer, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With an Intelligence of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells.

You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of artificer spells requires time spent tinkering with your spellcasting focuses: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

THE MAGIC OF ARTIFICE

As an artificer, you use tools when you cast your spells. When describing your spellcasting, think about how you’re using a tool to perform the spell effect. If you cast cure wounds using alchemist’s supplies, you could be quickly producing a salve. If you cast it using tinker’s tools, you might have a miniature mechanical spider that binds wounds. When you cast poison spray, you could fling foul chemicals or use a wand that spits venom. The effect of the spell is the same as for a spellcaster of any other class, but your method of spellcasting is special.

The same principle applies when you prepare your spells. As an artificer, you don’t study a spellbook or pray to prepare your spells. Instead, you work with your tools and create the specialized items you’ll use to produce your effects. If you replace cure wounds with heat metal, you might be altering the device you use to heal—perhaps modifying a tool so that it channels heat instead of healing energy.

Such details don’t limit you in any way or provide you with any benefit beyond the spell’s effects. You don’t have to justify how you’re using tools to cast a spell. But describing your spellcasting creatively is a fun way to distinguish yourself from other spellcasters.

Spellcasting Ability

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your artificer spells; your understanding of the theory behind magic allows you to wield these spells with superior skill. You use your Intelligence whenever an artificer spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for an artificer spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Ritual Casting

You can cast an artificer spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell prepared.

Infuse Item

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to imbue mundane items with certain magical infusions. The magic items you create with this feature are effectively prototypes of permanent items.

Infusions Known

When you gain this feature, pick four artificer infusions to learn, choosing from the “Artificer Infusions” section at the end of the class’s description. You learn additional infusions of your choice when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Infusions Known column of the Artificer table.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the artificer infusions you learned with a new one.

Infusing an Item

Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch a non-magical object and imbue it with one of your artificer infusions, turning it into a magic item. An infusion works on only certain kinds of objects, as specified in the infusion’s description. If the item requires attunement, you can attune yourself to it the instant you infuse the item. If you decide to attune to the item later, you must do so using the normal process for attunement (see “Attunement” in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).

Your infusion remains in an item indefinitely, but when you die, the infusion vanishes after a number of days have passed equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 day). The infusion also vanishes if you give up your knowledge of the infusion for another one.

You can infuse more than one nonmagical object at the end of a long rest; the maximum number of objects appears in the Infused Items column of the Artificer table. You must touch each of the objects, and each of your infusions can be in only one object at a time. Moreover, no object can bear more than one of your infusions at a time. If you try to exceed your maximum number of infusions, the oldest infusion immediately ends, and then the new infusion applies.

If an infusion ends on an item that contains other things, like a bag of holding, its contents harmlessly appear in and around its space.

Artificer Specialist

Artificers pursue many disciplines. Here are specialist options you can choose from at 3rd level.

The Right Tool for the Job

At 3rd level, you learn how to produce exactly the tool you need: with thieves’ tools or artisan’s tools, you can magically create one set of artisan’s tools in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. This creation requires 1 hour of uninterrupted work, which can coincide with a short or long rest. Though the product of magic, the tools are nonmagical, and they vanish when you use this feature again.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Tool Expertise

Starting at 6th level, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses your proficiency with a tool.

Flash of Genius

Starting at 7th level, you gain the ability to come up with solutions under pressure. When you or another creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an ability check or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to the roll.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Magic Item Adept

When you reach 10th level, you achieve a profound understanding of how to use and make magic items:

• You can attune to up to four magic items at once.
• If you craft a magic item with a rarity of common or uncommon, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much of the usual gold.

Spell-Storing Item

At 11th level, you learn how to store a spell in an object. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one simple or martial weapon or one item that you can use as a spellcasting focus, and you store a spell in it, choosing a 1st- or 2nd-level spell from the artificer spell list that requires 1 action to cast (you needn’t have it prepared).

While holding the object, a creature can take an action to produce the spell’s effect from it, using your spellcasting ability modifier. If the spell requires concentration, the creature must concentrate. The spell stays in the object until it’s been used a number of times equal to twice your Intelligence modifier (minimum of twice) or until you use this feature again to store a spell in an object.

Magic Item Savant

At 14th level, your skill with magic items deepens more:

• You can attune to up to five magic items at once.
• You ignore all class, race, spell, and level requirements on attuning to or using a magic item.

Magic Item Master

Starting at 18th level, you can attune to up to six magic items at once.

Soul of Artifice

At 20th level, you develop a mystical connection to your magic items, which you can draw on for protection:

• You gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to.
• If you’re reduced to 0 hit points but not killed out-right, you can use your reaction to end one of your artificer infusions, causing you to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0.

Artificer Infusions

Artificer infusions are extraordinary processes that rapidly turn a nonmagical object into a magic item.

The description of each of the following infusions details the type of object that can receive it, along with whether the resulting magic item requires attunement.

Some infusions specify a minimum artificer level. You can’t learn such an infusion until you are at least that level.

Unless an infusion’s description says otherwise, you can’t learn an infusion more than once.

Arcane Propulsion Armor

Prerequisite: 14th-level artificer
Item: A suit of armor (requires attunement)

The wearer of this armor gains these benefits:

• The wearer’s walking speed increases by 5 feet.
• The armor includes gauntlets, each of which is a magic melee weapon that can be wielded only when the hand is holding nothing. The wearer is proficient with the gauntlets, and each one deals 1d8 force damage on a hit and has the thrown property, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. When thrown, the gauntlet detaches and flies at the attack’s target, then immediately returns to the wearer and reattaches.
• The armor can’t be removed against the wearer’s will.
• If the wearer is missing any limbs, the armor replaces those limbs—hands, arms, feet, legs, or similar appendages. The replacements function identically to the body parts they replace.

Armor of Magical Strength

Item: A suit of armor (requires attunement)

This armor has 6 charges. The wearer can expend the armor’s charges in the following ways:

• When the wearer makes a Strength check or a Strength saving throw, it can expend 1 charge to add a bonus to the roll equal to its Intelligence modifier.
• If the creature would be knocked prone, it can use its reaction to expend 1 charge to avoid being knocked prone.

The armor regains 1d6 expended charges daily at dawn.

Boots of the Winding Path

Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A pair of boots (requires attunement)

While wearing these boots, a creature can teleport up to 15 feet as a bonus action to an unoccupied space the creature can see. The creature must have occupied that space at some point during the current turn.

Enhanced Arcane Focus

Item: A rod, staff, or wand (requires attunement)

While holding this item, a creature gains a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls. In addition, the creature ignores half cover when making a spell attack.

The bonus increases to +2 when you reach 10th level in this class.

Enhanced Defense

Item: A suit of armor or a shield

A creature gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class while wearing (armor) or wielding (shield) the infused item.

The bonus increases to +2 when you reach 10th level in this class.

Enhanced Weapon

Item: A simple or martial weapon

This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.

The bonus increases to +2 when you reach 10th level in this class.

Helm of Awareness

Prerequisite: 10th-level artificer
Item: A helmet (requires attunement)

While wearing this helmet, a creature has advantage on initiative rolls. In addition, the wearer can’t be surprised, provided it isn’t incapacitated.

Homunculus Servant

Item: A gem or crystal worth at least 100 gp

You learn intricate methods for magically creating a special homunculus that serves you. The item you infuse serves as the creature’s heart, around which the creature’s body instantly forms.

You determine the homunculus’s appearance. Some artificers prefer mechanical-looking birds, whereas some like winged vials or miniature, animate cauldrons.

The homunculus is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the Homunculus Servant stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places.

In combat, the homunculus shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the homunculus can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

The homunculus regains 2d6 hit points if the mending spell is cast on it. If you or the homunculus dies, it vanishes, leaving its heart in its space.

Mind Sharpener

Item: A suit of armor or robes

The infused item can send a jolt to the wearer to refocus their mind. The item has 4 charges. When the wearer fails a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, the wearer can use its reaction to expend 1 of the item’s charges to succeed instead. The item regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn.

Radiant Weapon

Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A simple or martial weapon (requires attunement)

This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. While holding it, the wielder can take a bonus action to cause it to shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. The wielder can extinguish the light as a bonus action.

The weapon has 4 charges. As a reaction immediately after being hit by an attack, the wielder can expend 1 charge and cause the attacker to be blinded until the end of the attacker’s next turn, unless the attacker succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. The weapon regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn.

Repeating Shot

Item: A simple or martial weapon with the ammunition property (requires attunement)

This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it when it’s used to make a ranged attack, and it ignores the loading property if it has it.

If you load no ammunition in the weapon, it produces its own, automatically creating one piece of magic ammunition when you make a ranged attack with it. The ammunition created by the weapon vanishes the instant after it hits or misses a target.

Replicate Magic Item

Using this infusion, you replicate a particular magic item. You can learn this infusion multiple times; each time you do so, choose a magic item that you can make with it, picking from the Replicable Items tables. A table’s title tells you the level you must be in the class to choose an item from the table. Alternatively, you can choose the magic item from among the common magic items in the game, not including potions or scrolls.

In the tables, an item’s entry tells you whether the item requires attunement. See the item’s description in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more information about it, including the type of object required for its making.

Replicable Items (2nd-Level Artificer)

Replicable Items (6th-Level Artificer)

Replicable Items (10th-Level Artificer)

Replicable Items (14th-Level Artificer)

Repulsion Shield

Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A shield (requires attunement)

A creature gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class while wielding this shield.

The shield has 4 charges. While holding it, the wielder can use a reaction immediately after being hit by a melee attack to expend 1 of the shield’s charges and push the attacker up to 15 feet away. The shield regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn.

Resistant Armor

Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A suit of armor (requires attunement)

While wearing this armor, a creature has resistance to one of the following damage types, which you choose when you infuse the item: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder.

Returning Weapon

Item: A simple or martial weapon with the thrown property

This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and it returns to the wielder’s hand immediately after it is used to make a ranged attack.

Spell-Refueling Ring

Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A ring (requires attunement)

While wearing this ring, the creature can recover one expended spell slot as an action. The recovered slot can be of 3rd level or lower. Once used, the ring can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Artificer Specialists

Artificers pursue many disciplines. Here are specialist options you can choose from at 3rd level.