Artificer (Class)

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In Dharrenal, arcane magic is studied and treated like a science in many ways. For all of its strangeness, magic still adheres to certain fundamental principles that govern its nature, its use, and its effects. Spellcasters like wizards and sorcerers specialize in certain forms of that science; wizards the studious academics, yearning to understand the core truths of magic itself, and the sorcerers acting as conduits for raw magical energy into the world.

Artificers understand magic on a different level from other spellcasters, and do not cast spells in the way wizards or sorcerers do. They have a remarkable facility with magic items and constructs, and in many ways, they keep some of the more industrial parts of the world running. What once existed as a fringe group of magical scientists is quickly growing into a very necessary field throughout the continent.

### **Adventurers**

Artificers adventure for a variety of purposes. They seek deposits of rare minerals and magical shards to use in their creations. They search for hidden secrets and forgotten lore related to making magical artifacts or constructs. They face danger to acquire money to fund their research or workshops. Like any other adventurers, they might also be motivated by a desire to fight evil or gain power, or by any host of similar reasons.

### **Characteristics**

Perhaps the ultimate magical dabblers, Artificers can use just about any spell from a wand or scroll, empower ordinary items with temporary eldritch power, repair damage constructs, alter the function of existing magical items, and craft their very own magical items and constructs. More experienced artificers can have one or more constructs serving as servants, assistants, or bodyguards.

They have a limited list of their own spell-like infusions that they can apply to objects, and they can also potentially work with almost any of the spells on other classes' spell lists.Their magic is neither arcane nor divine, and they are not bound by that classification: their trade is magic in its most base, its most abstract and, according to them, its purest form.

### **Alignment**

If artificers have a tendency toward any alignment, it is true neutral. They are often more interested in their work than its moral implications. Some artificers create magic items for the common good, while others seek to create items of tremendous destructive power.

### **Religion**

Many artificers revere Boccob, the god of knowledge and arcane magic. Others call Moradin, god of the forge, as their patron, and those who see themselves more as swashbuckling treasure hunters claim Olidimmara as their deity. Many are too preoccupied with mastering their craft, however, to worry about the gods who may or may not be the source of magic.

### **Background**

Like wizards, artificers learn their craft through long years of hard study. They share a sense of camaraderie with others who have endured similar training. They view other artificers as either colleagues or rivals. Rivalry may take a friendly form as the artificers try to outdo each other in their creations and accomplishments, or it could turn deadly, with each sending construct assassins after each other, to cite an example.

### **Races**

Humans obviously excel as artificers, having no natural attachment to the aesthetics of magic as elves do, and no knack for particular expressions of magic as gnomes have. Their adaptable, analytical minds make them well-suited to the artificer's work of reducing magic to its component pieces and reassembling them into a new form.

Despite their misgivings about magic, dwarves also make fine artificers, having a particular affinity for working with constructs. Gnomes, with their skill in tinkering, show equal skill in the craft. Other races don't have strong traditions in the field of the artificer, often choosing different magical pathways, but any race has the potential to excel.

### **Other Classes**

Artificers work best when providing magical support to members of other classes. Though they are quite versatile, their talents lie in enhancing the items--weapons, armor, and other gear--used by everyone during an adventure. They think of every party member as components of a machine, encouraging better teamwork within the group and sometimes providing useful strategies and tactics afforded by their unique mindset.

### **Role**

In a typical adventuring party, artificers have a range of roles revolving around magic items. They bring an unparalleled flexibility to the job, able to acquire or create items that cover any weakness or gaps in their overall skillset.

## Game Rule Information

Artificers have the following game statistics:

* **Abilities:** Charisma is the most important ability for an artificer, because several of their infusions rely on their ability to make a Use Magic Device check. Intelligence is also important because it determines the effectiveness of their infusions and the creation of magical items, but it plays a lesser role than most spellcasters. A high Dexterity never hurts.
* **Alignment:** Any
* **Hit Die:** d6

### Class Skills

The artificer's class skills are:

Appraise (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Int), Knowledge: Arcana (Int), Knowledge: Architecture & Engineering (Int), Knowledge: The Planes (Int), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha)

* **Skill Points at 1st level:** (4+INT modifier) x 4
* **Skill Points at each additional level:** 4 + INT

### Class Features

All of the following are class features of the artificer:

* **Weapon & Armor Proficiency:** Artificers are proficient with all simple weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields).
* **Infusions:** An artificer is not a spellcaster, but they do have the ability to imbue items with magical infusions. Infusions are neither arcane nor divine; they are drawn from **The Artificer Infusion List**. They function just like spells and follow all the rules for spells. For example, an infusion can be dispelled, it's subject to the rules for anti-magic fields, etc.
	+ An artificer can imbue an item with any infusion from the list without preparing it ahead of time. Unlike a sorcerer or bard, they do not select a subset of the available infusions as known infusions; they have access to every infusion on the list that is of a level they can use.
	+ Infusions can only be imbued into an item or a construct. They cannot, for example, imbue an ally with *Bull's Strength*. They must instead imbue that ability on an item that ally is wearing. For example, imbuing that same ally's belt with Bull's Strength, allowing it to function as a *Belt of Bull's Strength*. They can imbue infusions directly onto a construct.
	+ Each day, an artificer must focus their mind on their infusions. They must get a full night's rest to refresh their daily infusions, after which they spend 15 minutes concentrating. Without such a period of time, they do not regain used infusion slots.
	+ An artificer cannot automatically use a spell trigger or spell completion item if the equivalent spell appears on their infusion list. For example, an artificer must still employ the *Use Magic Device* skill to use a *Wand of Light*, even though the Light cantrip appears on their infusion list.
	+ Many infusions have long casting times, often 1 minute or more. They can choose to spend 1 point from their Craft Reserve to instead cast these infusions in 1 action.
	+ To imbue an item with an infusion, an artificer must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the infusion level. Infusions never allow saving throws. You may apply metamagic feats and item creation feats to infusions spontaneously, but this requires extra time.
	+ Like spellcasters, artificers can only use a certain number of infusions of a particular level per day. Their base daily infusion allotment is given on the above table. In addition, they can receive extra infusions per day if they have a sufficiently high INT score.
	+ It is possible for an artificer to learn infusions that are not on the normal list. These might be ancient or obscure formulae, or secret infusions known only to members of a secret society. When they encounter such an infusion, they can attempt to learn it by making a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + infusion level). If this check succeeds, they add it to their list. If not, they can try again when they gain another rank in Spellcraft.
* **Craft Reserve:** An artificer receives a pool of points they can spend in order to imbue items with infusions more quickly. By spending 1 Craft Reserve Point, an Artificer can choose to change the Casting time for any of their infusions to 1 action. If an infusion takes 1 hour or longer normally, you can change the casting time to 1 minute by spending 1 Craft Reserve Point. You receive 1 Craft Point per level, which refresh every day when you meditate on your infusions.
* **Artificer Knowledge:** An artificer can make a special artificer knowledge check with a bonus equal to Artificer level + INT modifier to detect whether a specific item has a magic aura. They must hold an examine the object for 1 minute. A successful check against DC 15 determines that the object has magical qualities, but not their nature. They cannot take 10 or 20 on this check. A particular item can only be examined in this fashion once; if they fail, they can learn no more about that object.
* **Artisan Bonus:** An artificer gains a +2 bonus on Use Magic Device checks to activate an item of a kind for which they have the appropriate Item Creation feat. For example, an artificer who has the Craft Wand feat gains a +2 bonus on checks to use a spell from a wand.
* **Disable Trap:** An artificer can locate and disarm traps like Rogues, but do not gain the bonuses to the checks that Rogues do; they can simply use the Search and Disable Device skills to locate and disarm both nonmagic and magical traps. An artificer who beats a trap's disarm DC by 10 or more can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with their party) without actually disarming it if they choose.
* **Item Creation (Ex):**