Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kendrick 11-13-05, 06:57 PM	I'm building a new artificer character, with starting level 19. I'm not absolutely sure what feats (especially which metamagic feats) are going to be most useful. Here's what I'm leaning towards right now: Least Dragonmark of Making Extend Spell Persistent Spell Extraordinary Artisan Improved Homunculus Wand Mastery Chain Spell Etch Schema Twin Spell Heighten Spell Extra Rings Attune Magic Weapon Least Dragonmark of Making is a prereq for Cannith Wand Adept; Extraordinary Artisan will allow me to stretch my starting wealth to ~2 million gp (character is assumed to have already crafted all items he is capable of making - I pay full price only for items the character doesn't have the feats for). Improved Homunculus, combined with advanced homunculi, will give me one hell of a bodyguard team. Wand Mastery should be self-explanatory. Etch Schema, if I understand the schema description, will allow me to make the many, many schemas I'll be using - both because I can use the metamagic spell completion ability to use them with no ongoing gp cost, and because it's a non-DM-dependant method of getting spells per day. It's the other feats that I'm really not sure of. I'm not certain what metamagic feats will be most useful to an artificer. Persistant spell seems like an excellent feat to abuse with schemas and metamagic spell completion. Twin Spell also seems like a basic combat feat for the build, to double damage either by burning extra charges or by infusing it with Metamagic Item. Chain and Heighten, however, I can't really explain why they're there. When I looked at my options, they felt the most useful, but this would be my first artificer, so I really don't know. Extra Rings and Attune Magic Weapon are also questionable to me - Extra Rings looks powerful, but I know I'll be able to combine ring effects at increased gp price if I need to; Attune Magic Weapon looks nice, but if I'm missing something more basic like a metamagic feat, it can go too. Opinions? Suggestions? Any info is appreciated.
Caelic 11-13-05, 07:19 PM	I'm assuming you're going Epic with this build. Heighten gives access to Epic Heighten...which, in the hands of an Artificer, means you can Heighten your spells to infinitely-high level through use of the Metamagic Item infusion.
Kendrick 11-13-05, 07:36 PM	I'm assuming you're going Epic with this build. Heighten gives access to Epic Heighten...which, in the hands of an Artificer, means you can Heighten your spells to infinitely-high level through use of the Metamagic Item infusion. Wow. That's...yeah, that's gonna get banned after about one use. I'll have to see what my DM will allow as the maximum effect. Suppose it were maxed at, say, +10 or +15 levels, would you consider it worth it then? I can't really see my DM allowing significantly more than +15 levels, and I only get so many infusions each day.
Caelic 11-13-05, 07:41 PM	I don't think +15 levels would be all that unreasonable; it's something you'll have to work out with your DM, obviously. You may also want to ask him if he permits Quicken to be applied to spell trigger devices. There's a certain amount of controversy, though the rules as written seem to strongly imply that it's legitimate. If Quicken's valid, the holy troika of feats for an Artificer are Persistent, Quicken, and Twin.
Kendrick 11-13-05, 08:01 PM	My DM will allow quicken to be used with spell trigger items. There are several reasons I didn't put it in the initial build - I don't believe I can count on 2 rounds of buff time before combat very often, and it's fairly expensive to burn the extra charges to use my charater's metamagic spell trigger ability. I guess quicken should probably go back in - I just looked at what it would do in a normal combat, and it adds power in porportion to the cost and combat usually lasts long enough for it to be effective. That probably means Attune Magic Weapon will be coming out. One thing I might be missing here - no matter how many metamagic feats I get, I can only use them so many times per day except in emergencies. Is it really worth it to get things like chain and heighten, when I probably need to save my infusions to add twin and quicken?
Kendrick 11-13-05, 09:23 PM	And if you're wondering why the wealth I listed is wonky for a level 19 character, that's 'cause it's a level 20 campaign - by agreement with the DM, I gave up that level in return for being able to ignore XP components of magic items, and pay only the gold (and only 75% of the gold cost to create at that)
Kendrick 11-14-05, 04:55 PM	Still wondering whether Heighten Spell and Chain Spell are the best uses for those feat slots. Anyone?