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One of the newest classes to hit Dungeons & Dragons, the Artificer deals in arcane contraptions, infusing their magical energies into mechanical devices to create living constructs, alchemical reagents, or deadly new weaponry. The Battle Smith Artificer leans more into the latter camp, using their knowledge of the arcane to enhance their martial abilities.
Creating a Battle Smith Artificer isn't for the faint of heart. You'll need to make important decisions at the earliest levels in order to maximize your potential later on. Fortunately, this guide is here to teach you how best to play the Battle Smith Artificer.
A Weapon-Wielding Magic Class
Although the Battle Smith is a martial class, often found wielding magical swords and shields in the thick of battle, the Battle Smith ideally doesn’t derive its damage from Strength or Dexterity.
At level three, the Battle Smith receives the Battle Ready feature, which allows the Battle Smith to use their Intelligence modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity modifier when making attack or damage rolls with magical weapons. As such, it’s best to maximize your character's Intelligence as it will not only help your attack damage but also your spells as well.
Because Battle Ready doesn’t arrive until level three, the Battle Smith Artificer might feel a little underwhelming at levels one and two. We’ll have some advice on how to deal with those early levels later on.
The Best Species For Battle Smith Artificer
Intelligence, Constitution, and Dexterity are the Battle Smith Artificer's most important ability scores. If you're using D&D's legacy rules for species, then you'll likely want to play as a Gnome, Human, or Dwarf. If you're playing with the new character creation rules outlined in Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything, then you've got a lot more options.
Whichever you choose, it's generally recommended to increase Intelligence by two and Constitution or Dexterity by one for each of them.
Here are a number of advantageous species, but feel free to pick whichever species feels right to you.
Aasimar |
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Autognome |
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Bugbear |
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Earth Genasi |
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Goblin |
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Goliath |
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Kobold |
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Orc |
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Giff |
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Ability Score Spread For Battle Smith Artificer
As mentioned in the previous section, Battle Smith Artificers will want to prioritize Intelligence first, Constitution second, and Dexterity third when choosing their ability scores. Either Strength or Charisma can be largely ignored, while a modicum of Wisdom is often helpful for perception checks.
A decent starting ability score spread for the Battle Smith Artificer might look something like this:
Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma |
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10 (0) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 16 (+3) | 10 (0) | 8 (-1) |
As the Artificer can wear medium armor, a few points into Dexterity will help maximize your armor class. Intelligence helps maximize the potency of your attacks and spells, while Constitution will provide hit points and better saving throws for concentration checks.
Best Starting Background For Battle Smith Artificer
Backgrounds are largely for flavor, but if you're looking to maximize your skill scores, pick one that offers a few Intelligence-based skills.
The Cloistered Scholar provides both History and either Arcana, Nature, or Religion, the Sage provides both Arcana and History, and the Izzet Engineer (for those with the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravinca sourcebook) provides both Arcana and Investigation skills.
However, you may want to play your Artificer with a more balanced array of skills. In which case, you could choose Soldier for both military rank and proficiency in Athletics and Intimidation. Or you could pick Noble for proficiency in Persuasion.
Best Starting Equipment For Battle Smith Artificer
All Artificers start with the equipment granted by their background as well as the following:
- Any two simple weapons of your choice
- A light crossbow and 20 bolts
- Your choice of studded leather armor or scale mail
- Thieves’ tools and a dungeoneer’s pack
Since you can't start with a shield, you could go with dual hand axes at first level, although this would remove your ability to cast spells easily. A javelin, mace, quarterstaff, or spear are good choices to maximize your damage potential.
Pick whichever armor maximizes your armor class. If you have a lot of dexterity, choose studded leather. Otherwise, scale mail.
Once you're able to choose the Battle Smith subclass at level three, you'll gain proficiency with martial weapons. At that point, you'll want to look into upgrading your gear chosen at first level.
Best Spells For Battle Smith Artificer
Artificers get fewer spell slots than most spellcasting classes in D&D 5E, so you'll want to pick spells that have the most impact.
For cantrips, Mending is almost a required spell as it will help you heal your Steel Defender. Your other cantrip can be either utility-based like Guidance, Message, or Light, or it could be a damage-dealing cantrip like Firebolt or Shocking Grasp.
With maximum Intelligence at level one, Firebolt will generally be your most reliable ranged attack, while your light crossbow will be slightly more reliable at dealing damage.
Artificers can replace one cantrip every time they level up, so don't feel like you're stuck with these cantrips for the rest of the game. If you choose Firebolt as your damage-dealing cantrip, you'll certainly want to replace it at level three as your martial weapons will be far more efficient at dealing damage.
Like Wizards, Artificer spells must be prepared each day, but unlike Wizards, Artificers have a very limited number of spell slots. Artificers don't learn a second-level spell slot until level five, so you'll want to have the most impactful spells prepared.
Cure Wounds and Detect Magic are probably the most impactful spells at level one. Absorb Elements can be helpful to provide your Artificer with a reaction. Faerie Fire is another useful combat trick, while Expeditious Retreat provides you with a bonus action spell that could come in handy early on.
At later levels, the Artificer's lack of spell power becomes more apparent, so it makes the most sense to stick with utility spells. Lesser Restoration, Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Haste, Greater Restoration, and Revivify are all good spells to have on hand.
Feats For Battle Smith Artificer
Battle Smith Artificers will generally want to take ability score increases for the first several levels until you’ve maximized your Intelligence score. After that, however, you may want to consider some of these feats depending on your preferred playstyle.
Fade Away |
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Gunner |
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Keen Mind |
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Sharpshooter |
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War Caster |
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Playing The Battle Smith Artificer
At level two, the Artificer gains the Infuse Item feature, giving you access to two magical items of your choice. One of those Infusions should certainly be either Enhanced Weapon, which makes your weapon magical and gives it +1 to both attack and damage rolls, or Repeating Shot, which does the same for ranged weapons but also ignores the loading property.
Once you hit level three, you'll be able to take the Battle Smith subclass and receive its Battle Ready feature. This gives you proficiency with martial weapons and lets you add your Intelligence score modifier to your weapon attacks.
Your focus from here should be on obtaining a powerful magical weapon to allow you to use other Infusions.
Your Steel Defender is a very helpful pet, providing both additional damage through the use of your bonus action and imposing disadvantage on enemy attacks. It also has darkvision, allowing it to guide you through dark locations without the need for light.
At level 10, the Enhanced Weapon Infusion provides +2 to attack and damage rolls, out-pacing Repeating Shot for dealing ranged damage. Enhanced Defense is another Infusion that can also provide +2 to your armor class.