Is a pure melee artificer doable?

[Zachski]

Like, I know it gains a lot from multiclassing, but is it still doable to go for a pure artificer melee? SWF, Rune Arm in left hand? Or THF, Hand-and-a-half weapon in right hand?

Obviously, focus would be on Battle Engineer, but I actually kinda like how it has a synergy with the Artificer's spellcasting, what with the right hand weapon granting an implement bonus at the capstone. Not the greatest capstone, but I've seen worse.

The only thing that really discourages me is that the Artificer bonus feats are all ranged and spellcasting focus, forcing you to take the spellcasting stuff if you don't want to do ranged.

If not, that's fine. I'm not making one right now anyways, I'm just curious for future reference.

Incidentally, Would a 16/4 Artificer/Bard be excellent, with the Swashbuckling enhancement that makes rune arms add an additional 1d6 sonic damage to attacks? Though you'd be giving up hand-and-a-half weapons to do that, making some enhancements not worth it.

[Maelodic]

Like, I know it gains a lot from multiclassing, but is it still doable to go for a pure artificer melee? SWF, Rune Arm in left hand? Or THF, Hand-and-a-half weapon in right hand?

Obviously, focus would be on Battle Engineer, but I actually kinda like how it has a synergy with the Artificer's spellcasting, what with the right hand weapon granting an implement bonus at the capstone. Not the greatest capstone, but I've seen worse.

The only thing that really discourages me is that the Artificer bonus feats are all ranged and spellcasting focus, forcing you to take the spellcasting stuff if you don't want to do ranged.

If not, that's fine. I'm not making one right now anyways, I'm just curious for future reference.

Incidentally, Would a 16/4 Artificer/Bard be excellent, with the Swashbuckling enhancement that makes rune arms add an additional 1d6 sonic damage to attacks? Though you'd be giving up hand-and-a-half weapons to do that, making some enhancements not worth it.

The only thing the Bard tree will offer you for a melee arti is INT to damage for free, so you can use your INT mod entirely for your attack and damage.

I'd actually recommend 18 Arti/2 Monk (feats+evasion)
With Insightful Reflexes, you can get your reflex up to pretty good levels.

The bonus feats actually are beneficial to a melee- you Improved Critical: Slashing as well as Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword/Dwarven Axe.

SWF will be way more damage than THF feats- even after the changes. I do not see a reason to go anything but SWF.

[Zachski]

I guess there's no way around it, huh? Gotta splash something to be a good melee Artificer.

Sucks XD I kinda feel like Artificer is a better Spellsword than the Eldritch Knight is, if it weren't for the fact that Artificer's bonus feats were all hyper-focused on spellcasting and ranged feats.

Oh well. I have the strange urge to roll a fleshy Artificer, though.

[unbongwah]

I'm currently leveling a pure dwarven artificer who uses repeaters and SWF w/d.axes with a bit of casting on the side. [WF would've made more sense, but for thematic reasons I went dwarf.] Gameplay is rather like a ranger: ranged DPS for picking off targets, melee DPS for when they get close. The intent is to run in FotW; in particular, Unbridled Fury provides THF feats while active. Will it be viable in epics? No clue: half the fun of these builds is finding out. :)

Base stats: 11/16/16/17/8/6, levelups into INT. [Took a +2 STR tome already with the intention of taking PA, hence base STR 11, but I may drop it.]

Melee feats: SWF x3, IC:Slash, Power Atk(?)
Ranged feats: PBS, Prec Shot, IC:Ranged, IPS, Combat Archery
Others: Precision, Maximize, SF:Evo (opens DC Twists), Insightful Reflexes(?)
ED feats: PSWF or PTWF and Doubleshot

I also considered a hvy bard splash for Swashbuckler, though I'd have to change weapons from d.axes, ofc. Another option would be arty 16 / ftr 2 / monk or rog 2 for the extra feats + Evasion, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up 2 lvl 6 spell slots.

[Singular]

After the update, you'll be perfectly fine as a melee artie. The massive power boost melees are getting will make xbow arties among the lowest dps classes in the game.

[Zachski]

So as it turns out, I had enough leftover TP from ages ago to purchase the Harper tree.

wewt.

So with that in mind, I'm reviving this thread.

Pure melee artificer.

Battle Engineer and Harper.

Think this will work?

[Wh070aa]

It's workable, but depends on what you want to do. I personally think that artis are too squishy, to be optimal melee (without splash), but with some Displacement clickies, and investment in quicken/maximize for speedy healing, combined with stone skin and some other gear (ghostly, doge,depending on what you can fit in.)
Armor of speed is better for ranged, but with some boosts, you should be fine.
You basically be batlecleric, only with less hp, SP, and base damage (beholders will F your melee damage), and healing amp.
Also rune arm targeting will be weird.
Movement speed will be struggle.

Since your HP/damage migration is subpar, and you need to be close, this is not exactly EE build, if you are fine with that.

I would recommend getting the Stun SLA's for leveling, and stuff. The AOE stun (which has nice damage), is really great in cases you need to heal, or you are getting hit by too many enemies. Immensely reduces damage you take, and lets you wait for the cool downs without taking extra hits.

I think that you should get purple dragon past life speed boost for this (or something). Staying in melee range, or running away while slowed will be bad. Also getting tripped sucks, although, if you are STR based, it won't be that bad. Also low Bab means you get some stuff way later, then normally (feats with Bab requirements).

I seen people doing this before, but you need a lot of gear, to make it work, and you have to do much more spell casting than you would think to be good. All the people that I seen meleeing on arti forget to stun, and heal a lot, which is important part of this. This is batlecleric type build. Spells are important. You be using clickies every minute or so (+ the attack speed clicky).

You might go Dwarf for Dwarven Waraxe build too. Feats will be tight tho, and WF is probably better. There are almoust no good Dwarven Waraxes, and they are kinda hard to get.

I personally play human, no repair arti caster/ranged hybrid, with more of a caster stuff, so IDK about melee that much.

[unbongwah]

Know the Angles is a nice DPS perk, but based on my experience, the main problem with going pure melee arty is there's nothing in the arty PrEs which is as good as Holy Sword or even Keen Edge for boosting your DPS. BE T5s just aren't as nice as what's in some of the other trees.