Editing Artificer (section)

====The Final Result: November 2019====
Released in Eberron: Rising From the Last War, the Artificer has seen its final published form. This marks the first fully-fledged, officially released class for 5th edition... 5 years after it was released. This final form takes lessons learned from the previous two prototypes, and refines them down to a smooth final product. [[skub|That's not to say it's a perfect refinement]]. The Archivist is oddly absent from the final release, but this may have been due to fan backlash, or possibly held back for inclusion in whatever psionic content ever gets an official publication. 

If you have played with the previous prototypes, you'll find the final release to be more or less what you were expecting. There are a number of noticeable tweaks though.
*Artificers get more Infusions Known, beginning with 4 and capping out at 12 at level 18.
*You also get more Infused Items, capping out at 6.
*Right Cantrip For the Job gets replaced with Right Tool For the Job, which allows you to conjure up a set of artisan's tools using an hour of work. This feature is moved down to 3rd level.
*Arcane Armament is gone.
*Tool Expertise is moved up to 6th level.
*7th level gives you Flash of Genius, which lets you add your INT mod to your or an ally's ability/saving throws as a reaction.
*10th level gives you Magic Item Adept, which gives you a 4th attunement slot and quarters the time to make and halves the gold needed to make a common or uncommon magic item.
*Spell Storing Item is now an 11th level feature.
*14th level gives you Magic Item Savant, which gives you a 5th attunement slot, and allows you to ignore class, race, spell, and level requirements to attune to items.
*18th level gives you Magic Item Master, which gives you a 6th attunement slot.
*Your capstone, Soul of Artifice, gives you the +1 saving throw bonus of the other one and allows you to cheat death by ending one of your attunements to bring you down to 1 HP instead of 0 HP.

'''Alchemist'''
*In an attempt to make the Alchemist more like an Alchemist, they axed the Alchemical Homunculus (which now any Artificer can take), and gave them the ability to make '''Elixirs'''. At the end of a long rest, or by using an action and burning a spell slot, you can charge a flask with liquid and roll for which of 6 effects it has: Healing 2d4+INT mod HP, increasing walking speed by 10 ft for 1 hour, giving a +1 AC bonus for 10 minutes, adding a d4 to every attack roll or saving throw for a minute, granting a 10ft flying speed for 10 minutes, or granting the ability to cast Alter Self for 10 minutes. If the elixir was created using the long rest method rather than the spell slot method, you don't get to pick which of these effects the potion does, the material forcing you to roll randomly instead.
*Restorative Reagents at 9th level gives anyone who drinks one of your Elixirs 2d6+INT mod temp hit points, as well as the ability to cast Lesser Restoration for free.
*Chemical Mastery at level 15 gives you both Greater Restoration and Heal as freebie spells, in addition to resistance to poison and acid damage.
'''Artillerist'''
*Arcane Turrets are now called Eldritch Cannons, can be made to be size Tiny and can be held (so you can have your GUNtificer again), and don't necessarily have to have legs anymore. They now last for an entire hour or until destroyed. The Flamethrower now deals 2d8 Fire damage upfront.
*Wand Prototype at level 6 has been replaced with Arcane Firearm at level 5, so combined with your cannon you can go John Woo guns akimbo. Instead of a flat bonus to damaging spells, it is now a 1d8 bonus to damage.
*Explosive Cannon at level 9 boosts the damage of all Cannons by 1d8, and allows you to detonate your cannons, dealing 3d8 force damage on a failed DEX save. In theory, this allows you to make a tiny sized flamethrower that you can also [[Awesome|throw at people like a grenade.]]
*Fortified Position at level 15, in addition to letting your cannons provide half cover, lets you have 2 cannons out at once. ([[TTS|Lord]] [[Rogal Dorn|Adorable]] approves)
'''Battle Smith'''
*The Iron Defender is pretty much the same, except it deals force damage.
*To make up for the lack of Arcane Armament, you just straight up get Extra Attack at 5th level.
*Arcane Jolt is now a 9th level feature, and the dice is bumped up to 2d6. Otherwise, it works exactly the same.
*Improved Defender at level 15 now grants +2 AC to your pet, in addition to bumping up the dice of Arcane Jolt to 4d6.

New and Changed Infusions:
*Boots of the Winding Path are now a 6th level infusion.
*Enhanced Wand is now Enhanced Arcane Focus, allowing rods, staves, and wands to be enhanced.
*Homunculus Servant, as hinted above, is now a generic infusion. It loses the ability to enhance friends and shoot acid, but gains a ranged force attack and can deliver touch spells on your behalf.
*Radiant Weapon is now a 6th level infusion and has 4 charges to blind people with as a reaction. 
*Replicate Magic Item's levels have been adjusted, granting new options at 2nd, 6th, 10, and 14th. There are also a couple of new Eberron-flavored options, like prosthetic limbs, Warforged wand sheathes, and a ROCKET FIST.

February 2020 finally saw the Artificer gain a new archetype in the '''Class Archetypes 3''' UA in the form of the Armorer. This lets you use heavy armor, which is just as well since you'll be using it for your class. This turns it into literal [[Power Armor]] with one or two varieties: The Guardian for close combat and protection or the Interceptor for speed and built-in shooting. Or stealth.

The archetype provides everything the artificer would need to be a heavy armor user (proficiency, ability to ignore strength requirements) and a proper tank (bonus action to gain temporary HP equal to level, inflict disadvantage on struck enemies), except for failing to give the enemy an actual reason to actually attack the armorer and not just ignore him in favor of juicier targets.

In other words, the damage output is very lacking. While the armorer does get to use Int for attack rolls, this ability is strictly limited to the integrated weapons of the armor - the fists and the launcher. The weapon typing of these further limits feats the armorer can use to boost damage.
The spell list is quite good, though, and the armorer gets additional infusion slots for the armor, which counts as four slots.

Mind you, there is some nice out of combat role playing potential here - wearing concealed full plate armor to the king's banquet will surely leave the artificer the only heavily armored party member among the fine cloth wearing attendees...

The Armorer became official in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.