The artificer is a playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. The Artificer first appeared as a full class in the 3.5 edition of D&D and was introduced in the Eberron campaign setting. The artificer is a unique base class that reflects many of the core themes of Eberron.
Campaign setting
Though introduced as a wizard specialist in Player's Option: Spells & Magic (1996) and as a prestige class for gnome arcane spellcasters in Magic of Faerûn (2001), artificers were first added as a standalone class in the Eberron campaign setting. They are a major defining feature of a Dragonmarked house, House Cannith, and the common people in the metropolis of Sharn and other cities rely heavily on artificers to maintain the magical infrastructure. Artificers represent many of the high-magic elements of Eberron as a campaign setting.
Publication history
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
The first appearance of an artificer was as a wizard specialist introduced in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition supplement Player's Option: Spells & Magic (1996) where artifice was a newly added specialty within the School of Thaumaturgy. This artificer channels magic into or through non-living items for their own personal use, thus any spells in the Enchantment/Charm school which happen to affect living things, and the entire school of Necromancy are opposed to the Artifice specialty and off limits to the artificer of AD&D 2nd edition.
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
In D&D 3rd edition, the artificer was introduced as a base class in the Eberron Campaign Setting (2004).
The artificer's abilities act primarily on items and constructs. The artificer uses Intelligence-based Infusions instead of typical magics and psionics. Infusions work similarly to spells but must be implanted in a specific object, giving it a temporary magic effect.
An artificer can create magic items for which he or she does not have access to the prerequisite spells. Artificers receive a number of craft reserve points every level. These points can be used instead of experience points in the creation of new magic items. Thus Artificers are able to make use of item creation feats without the experience penalty that other spell casters must take.
Constructs, mechanical beasts, and particularly Warforged fall under the artificer's area of influence. Specific infusions can be cast to repair or inflict damage to any creature with a construct subtype. At fourth level Artificers may craft a homunculus companion. A homunculus is similar to a Wizard's familiar but more intelligent and generally better equipped to a single task.
No published race has artificer as a favored class, though being a warforged artificer gives players the advantage of being able to use infusions on themselves.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition
The artificer as an official base class appeared in the Eberron Player's Guide (July 2009). Shannon Appelcline (author of Designers & Dragons) wrote that "the artificer was the first character class to be playtested as part of D&D Insider, in an article that was collected in Dragon #365 (July 2008). The 4e playtest artificer was updated quite a bit for his first official appearance in the Eberron Player's Guide, with the biggest change being to his healing infusions, which was intended to help differentiate him from other leader classes. A design & development article in Dragon #376 (June 2009) provides interesting insights into the development of the artificer [...], such as the fact that special rules only used by the artificer [...] were replaced by more standard 4e mechanics [...] because the new rules 'didn’t amount to enough mechanical benefit'".
Artificers are arcane leaders. They can use rods, staves, and wands as implements. Artificers can also use arcane spells called infusions to imbue objects with magical power, and focus on buffing, healing and protecting allies. Many of their powers relate to weapons or armor.
Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
The 5th edition version of the artificer first appeared in a 2017 Unearthed Arcana playtest and went through several rounds of public playtesting. The final version was included in the Eberron: Rising from the Last War (November 2019) campaign book. It was the first base class published for 5th edition since the Player's Handbook (August 2014). It includes three subclasses: the alchemist, focused on potions and elixirs, the artilerist, focused on ranged weaponry and defenses, and the battle smith, focused on constructs and combat.