One of the members of our group has a 3.5v. artificer that is geared toward making constructs and homunculi that serve as his private guard. He buffs the party, but rarely attacks creatures directly. In fact, most the time he is invisible and under the protection of sanctuary. I digress. We like the basic direction the Dragon article takes. For instance, our artificer in the RP side of the game is our de facto leader. For him to fill that roll in combat is appropriate. However, I am interested in any suggestions you have for other artificer builds, especially animator builds.
Thank you all, in advance.
Hi All,
One of the members of our group has a 3.5v. artificer that is geared toward making constructs and homunculi that serve as his private guard. He buffs the party, but rarely attacks creatures directly. In fact, most the time he is invisible and under the protection of sanctuary. I digress. We like the basic direction the Dragon article takes. For instance, our artificer in the RP side of the game is our de facto leader. For him to fill that roll in combat is appropriate. However, I am interested in any suggestions you have for other artificer builds, especially animator builds.
Thank you all, in advance.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=813665
I've actually wanted to create an necromancy-oriented artificer prestige class for a while, but never have. They'd get undead-oriented abilities (like infusing undead directly as if they were constructs) and also other necromancer-style abilities, like a "death knell" type infusion where if you kill someone with a weapon infused with it, experience is added to your craft pool.
Hmm... some thoughts.
Libris Mortis would help. Feats like corpsecrafter and its ilk could help.
Animate dead is usually a level 4 spell to arcanists, and level 3 spell to divine spellcasters. However, one might argue that, since it's also a domain spell, and domain spells can always be arcane via the Arcane Disciple feat, it's also arcane at level 3. This is a cherry-picking approach to the rules, and it would require DM approval, but if your DM accepts it, this would allow you to craft an Eternal Wand of Animate Dead -- that'd save you a bit of cash in the long run.
Command undead is another essential bit for a necromancer-artificer. Maybe craft an eternal wand of extended command undead -- ten days of command per casting, two castings per day. That could keep 20 undead under control, at a time (although a safety margin might be wise).
If you really want to get a bunch of elves mad at you, you could create items and cast "create deathless" and "create greater deathless" -- the body of that dolgaunt you just killed? Now it's an Undying Councillor! No need to have any faith in the Undying Court or anything like that -- you're an artificer: you can do anything! Heh. Good times.
Overall, I'd say the artificer doesn't offers a huge amount of promise with regard to animation-oriented necromancy. True, it can animate dead two levels sooner than a cleric, but everything the artificer does with regard to necromancy is expensive and awkward, compared to the easy with which a cleric can create and command undead minions.
If when referring to the Dragon Article you mean the 4E Artificer playtest article, you're going to have to search the boards or create a new build yourself, which, granted, isn't all too difficult. Powers in 4E are pretty easy to create, and to balance them, just compare them to other powers of the same level from similar builds and/or classes. It won't be RPGA-legal, but it'll be unique and certainly fun if you're looking for a specific flavor for the class you're playing.