Artificer Build Concepts
Coming up with a character build can be difficult. If you've never played the class before, it can be hard to come up with something that could work, or you may feel as if you're ideas are too far-fetched and won't work. On the flip side, maybe you've played the class so many times before and you don't want to reuse the same concept. Now, you're flopping about looking for something new and fun and just a little bit crazy.
That's why I've thrown together a few ideas for you. Use them as is or change bits and pieces. Doesn't matter to me, as long as you have fun.
The Field Medic
Maybe you're playing an older character, someone who has seen some things in the many years they've been around. More than likely, they've also experienced their fair share of combat. However, combat was not their area of expertise. Instead, they used their gifts to help their allies.
They are prepared for every occasion with their herbalism kit and healer's kit. They have their trusty megaphone that they can dial into a specific person's frequency (Message) and a few needles with different concoctions (Spare the Dying and Cure Wounds) to help stabilize their comrades at a moment's notice.
If they're an Alchemist, they have a few more concoctions for various occasions thanks to Experimental Elixirs. Maybe you wade into battle without fear, cloaked in your Arcane Armor as an Armorer? Field Medics would love to have a Protector Eldritch Cannon, as they can repeatedly give their comrades a boost in health until they can arrive to patch them up for good.
Or, maybe you travel around with a giant Blissey-looking Steel Defender.
The Chef
You've left your tavern or bar for some reason, choosing the adventuring life. You have your Cook's Tools on hand at all times, and you know how to make a Heward's Handy Spice Pouch with ease.
In fact, what the world might not know is that you can use the spices in there for any and everything.
A sprinkle of cayenne can help a downed comrade (Spare the Dying), the luminous moss from that one rare creature helps light up an area (Light), or a light dusting of a secret mixture of spices thrown into the area helps conceal your true location (Blur). You are an expert at making small treats that revitalize others (Cure Wounds) or boost brain activity (Detect Magic, Guidance).
The Alchemist's Experimental Elixers say "vials" but if you ignore that bit, you could have different foods or drinks that have variable effects on the consumer. Perhaps the term "Iron Chef" means something different in your world, as you literally don a suit of Arcane Armor as you traverse the land. As a chef, you have various tools at your disposal that could be used as an Eldritch Cannon: a blow torch, a long-range food cannon that doubles as a weapon, or an aroma-therapy machine that has just the right amount of lavender and citrus to brighten up your teammates' spirits. As a Battle Smith, obviously, your Steel Defender is a walking wood-burning stove.
The Really Bad Santa
Or, one of the elves!
They're "bad" not in their alignment, but more in the quality of their work. They just suck at it. They travel the world with an endless bag of hazardous wonders (Bag of Holding). In it, they can pull out various toys and gizmos that were either recalled or just didn't make it off the production room floor. They insist they're all quality, though.
Well, except for the doll that got recalled for asbestos that one year (poison damage). And maybe that other thingamabob that keeps shocking everything around it (lightning damage). I guess that small blob of green goo isn't a bad toy: it can patch up wounds! (Cure Wounds) Didn't the local authorities and a band of traveling adventures need to be called to free that one kid from some action figure's near-deadly grip? (Snare).
As an Alchemist, you might have different flavored kinds of milk that may or may not be spoiled as your Experimental Elixer. Do you have a crazy getup that keeps you safe from chimney soot that also functions as your Arcane Armor? Maybe a short-circuiting reindeer follows you around as your Battle Smith's Steel Defender?
Or, my fave, you have different toys – a broken self-lighting candle, an air gun that won't stop shooting out puffs of air, or the one toy that works right in the form of a doll that says kind phrases – as your Eldritch Cannons.
The Artificer class is one that requires a lot of imagination to flavor its spells and class features. It's baked right into the rules of the class, pretty much. But, with a little time, it's the class that can stand out the most from any other because you can play it so differently each time by just changing how things look visually.
Go on. Have a blast.