Artificer

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Details

Category: Classes

Published on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 05:00

Written by Collin Freeman

Artificers are magical technologists. They have the ability to use spells from magical items and empower items with temporary spells. Artificers can also repair items, such as constructs, or increase the power of a device or object. Their list of spell-like infusions is limited, but they can also work with spells from other spell-casters' lists. An artificer's magic is neither arcane nor divine.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills

Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Dex), Diplomacy (Cha), Fly (Dex), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all Knowledge Skills taken individually), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Int).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier

Level	Base Attack	Fort	Ref	Will	Special Abilities
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Artificer Knowledge, Artisan bonus, Scribe Scroll, Trapfinding
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Brew Potion, Reduce Materials
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Craft Wondrous Item
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Craft Homunculus, Bonus Feat
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Craft Arms and Armor
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Craft Wand, Improved Reduce Materials
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Metamagic Spell Trigger
8th	+6/+1	+2	+2	+6	Bonus Feat
9th	+6/+1	+3	+3	+6	Craft Rod
10th	+7/+2	+3	+3	+7	Greater Reduce Materials
11th	+8/+3	+3	+3	+7
12th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Craft Staff, Bonus Feat
13th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Skill Mastery
14th	+10/+5	+4	+4	+9	Forge Ring, Master Craftsman
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+5	+9
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Bonus Feat
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+6	+11
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+6	+11
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Bonus Feat

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An artificer is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the axe (throwing), flail, handaxe, hammer (light), pick (light), rapier, and short sword. Artificers are proficient with light and medium armor, and all shields (except tower shields).

Item Creation: Though not a spellcaster, an artificer has several abilities that allow him to create magic items of various kinds. An artificer can employ the Use Magic Device skill to emulate spell prerequisites an item might have (and nonspell prerequisites, too). An artificer gains the Scribe Scroll feat at 1st level and gains other item creation feats as he gains artificer levels: Brew Potion at 2nd level, Craft Wondrous Item at 3rd level, Craft Magic Arms and Armor at 5th level, Craft Wand at 6th level, Craft Rod at 9th level, Craft Staff at 12th level, and Forge Ring at 14th level. Magic items created by an artificer are considered neither arcane nor divine.

Artificer Knowledge: Starting at 1st level, an artificer can make a special check (d20 + artificer level + Intelligence modifier) to determine whether a particular item has a magical aura.

Artisan Bonus: Also starting at 1st level, an artificer gains a +2 bonus on any Use Magic Device check to activate a magic item for which he has the corresponding item creation feat.

Trapfinding: Artificers can use the Perception skill to locate traps when the task has a Difficulty Class higher than 20. Finding a nonmagical trap has a DC of at least 10, or higher if it is well hidden. Finding a magic trap has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it. Artificers can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magic traps. A magic trap generally has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it.

Bonus Feats: In addition to the item creation feats he gains, an artificer gains a bonus feat at 4th level and every four levels thereafter. These bonus feats must be chosen from the list in the artificer class description (see Eberron Campaign Setting published by Wizards of the Coast).

Craft Homunculus: At 4th level, an artificer can create a homunculus. The artificer doesn't need the Craft Construct feat, but he does have to emulate the spell prerequisites for crafting a homunculus with the Use Magic Device skill and must pay for the cost of construction as noted in the artificer class description. Whenever the artificer has the time and money, he can upgrade an existing homunculus, as long as he can pay for the upgrade and the homunculus' total hit dice don't exceed the artificer's hit dice -2.

Metamagic Spell Trigger: Starting at 7th level, an artificer can apply a metamagic feat he knows to a spell effect from a spell trigger item he activates. Doing so drains extra charges from the item equal to the level increase that the metamagic feat normally imposes. If the spell trigger item does not have charges, this power does not work. The artificer also must have the item creation feat corresponding to the item he is using (for example, craft wand to apply a metamagic feat to a spell effect from a wand).

Skill Mastery: Beginning at 13th level, an artificer always can take 10 when making a Spellcraft or Use Magic Device check.

Master Craftsman: An artificer can create or repair any magically crafted item in 1 hour. He may also create multiple magical items per day up to when other restrictions (e.g., rest, eating) apply instead of the usual limit of 1 per day.

Artificer Infusions: Artificers don't cast spells. Instead, they wield infusions, which imbue magical power into items both mundane and magical. Though an infusion isn't a spell, it works just like a spell in game terms. There's a limit to the number of infusions an artificer can use each day, but he can use any infusion from the artificer class list (level permitting) without preparing it ahead of time (see Eberron Campaign Setting published by Wizards of the Coast). An artificer never requires a divine focus to imbue an item with an infusion. In cases where an infusion duplicates a spell that requires either a material component or a divine focus, or requires either an arcane focus or a divine focus, the artificer uses the arcane material component or arcane focus. Like a spellcaster, an artificer can apply metamagic feats he knows to his infusions. An artificer can also learn new infusions that aren't on the normal artificer class list by studying the infusion and making a Spellcraft check (albeit a fairly difficult one). This allows personalization of the fusion list. Saving throws against infusions have a DC based on Intelligence.

	Infusions Per Day
Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1st	3	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	4	1	-	-	-	-
3rd	4	2	-	-	-	-
4th	4	3	1	-	-	-
5th	4	4	2	-	-	-
6th	5	4	3	-	-	-
7th	5	4	3	1	-	-
8th	5	4	4	2	-	-
9th	5	4	4	3	-	-
10th	5	5	4	3	1	-
11th	5	5	4	3	2	-
12th	6	5	4	4	2	-
13th	6	5	4	4	3	1
14th	6	5	5	4	3	1
15th	6	6	5	4	3	2
16th	6	6	5	4	4	2
17th	6	6	6	4	4	3
18th	6	6	6	5	4	3
19th	6	6	6	5	4	4
20th	6	6	6	5	5	4

Author's Note: Since the Artificer in the Eberron Campaign Setting originally had a d6 hit-die, some players may wish to increase the Pathfinder's hit die to a d8 given that your hit die is usually tied with your base attack bonus. To compensate for some of the increased abilities and characteristics of player classes in Pathfinder, I gave this Artificer class a little better selection of weapons and increased his advancement in number of infusions he can use per day.

Additional Ratings
Balance:	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 3.85 (34 Votes)
Utility:	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 3.90 (30 Votes)
Clarity:	1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 3.81 (31 Votes)

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