Race Selection for Artificer

[Samadhi]

Curious what people's thoughts are on choosing a race for their upcoming artificers.

[andbr22]

WF - way to obvious
Humans - lot of usefull feats availble for artificers. not much hurt in HP.
Dwarfs - Strudines uber ales.
Drows - poors mans Artificer - high int and dex helps with Xbows and spells, high cha is better umd, but low con will realy hurt them.

[Jay203]

i'm still going wf since i like my wfs

[Tenkari_Rozahas]

WF - way to obvious
Humans - lot of usefull feats availble for artificers. not much hurt in HP.
Dwarfs - Strudines uber ales.
Drows - poors mans Artificer - high int and dex helps with Xbows and spells, high cha is better umd, but low con will realy hurt them.

Helfs will make good arties too if you get 14 ch to start and take the pally/FvS dilettante they will beable to self heal as well.

[Mithis]

Helf w/ wizzy dilletante (sp?)

[Uska]

Human extra feat skill points maybe the dragonmark flavor for any rp of being of the house

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Gnome.




Human might be best.
Drow maybe....but have to read closer to see if they really get an advantage from max Int.

Also need to read closer to make a decision about WF.

I was thinking WF, because it has some flavor with the class IMO.


Real curious about other people's opinions now that we know their abilities.

And would like people to explain their choices if they could....
thx.


Edit: the more posts I read about this, the more I think Drow would be a real good choice. Highest Int, Easy to get 16/17 Dex, and some Cha for UMD. Would make a good caster, crossbowman, UMDer.

But the extra feat for Humans is very useful for a ranged build...exspecially if you want him to be able to do somehting else as well.
I actually think Human is the best choice. But people will be too tempted to make them uber-crafters and end up having less feats for combat.

But I think I will go with WF for my first one....

[Cyr]

WF, self healing without spending more build resources seems like a win to me.

[Samadhi]

WF, self healing without spending more build resources seems like a win to me.

I had asked in another thread without much response; but do we know exactly what spells other than Art specific ones they are getting (for example: reconstruct?)

[Tenkari_Rozahas]

well. with augment summon, and the AC/HP enhancing enhancments pet seems to do pretty well tanking. and add in stuff like toughen construct and bulls strength it makes a VERY effective tank. making yourself WF with high UMD means you can cast those reconstruct scrolls, and rezz scrolls.sure you take a little hit to cha, but they get a umd enhancement line to quiet easily counter that.

[QuantumFX]

Warforged and Human seems to be the frontrunners IMO.

Forged because you are a construct and nearly every buff spell the Artificer offers only affects constructs.

Human because you have the ability to get the Cannith Dragonmarks and become a pimp crafter.

[Dawnsfire]

Human- Umd will get high enough for scroll healing pretty fast. If you are worried about it before hand the Construct Essence feat will allow you 50% repair healing (-25% reg heal) until you get there.

[fyrst.grok]

Human and WF are obvious..

But.. Halfling.. And name him Wee-Man.. And the iron defender Rattle-Cat..

[Dcloak]

What placement of stats does someone recommend for a WF 32 build?

[Tenkari_Rozahas]

What placement of stats does someone recommend for a WF 32 build?

well, my 32 Point WF arty, has maxxed out int, 10 str and wis, 12 cha, 14 dex, and the rest in con., and he does pretty well.

[cdbd3rd]

This same question was asked in-game on Advice channel.


Of course, as helpfully as I could, stated that Horc was the obvious choice.


(then I cleaned it up with a proper Human/WF answer after the chucking died away.)

[Dcloak]

well, my 32 Point WF arty, has maxxed out int, 10 str and wis, 12 cha, 14 dex, and the rest in con., and he does pretty well.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking something similar like:

STR 10
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 18
WIS 6
CHA 10

[Shade]

Dwarf.

Far as self healing goes a lot of people seem to be missing the fact they get cure spells too.

Yea cure spells that use potions and have lower limits, but they are still full on cure-mass spells, with very low SP cost, which you can fully apply metas, enhancements, and even a special feat to further boost them. I tested them briefly and they seemed to work pretty nice too. They also cure your pet. Also unlike repair spells - they ignore arcane spell failure.

So the WF-Repair thing while nice - isn't quite as big as you may think.

re: Stats. Seems like a no brainer to me:
Str - They suck at melee, so not a priority.. Maybe 2 points so you can carry lots of bolts and loot.
Dex - This is kinda the trick stat.. Youd think since they are good with crossbows youd want some.. But really you should dump it because they get a spel to replace dex with Int for attack rolls. They also have really poor reflex saves without much way to boost it other then taking insightful reflexes.. So pretty much nothing uses dex.
Wis - saves and spot skill.. low priority.
Cha - they get really killer UMD anyways, maybe put 2 points.

So pretty simple stats distribution thats quite hard to argue:
Max Int = 16 points
Max con -2 = 10 points
Leaves you 6 on a 32pnt build.. spread into str/wis/cha as you see fit.
On a tr, max con and spread rest into str/wis/cha as you see fit.

[FatedWanderer]

I was thinking of Helf with rog dilli to add sneak attack damage to the pew pew. Best, I don't know but it sounds good.

[Diyon]

Dwarf.

Far as self healing goes a lot of people seem to be missing the fact they get cure spells too.

Yea cure spells that use potions and have lower limits, but they are still full on cure-mass spells, with very low SP cost, which you can fully apply metas, enhancements, and even a special feat to further boost them. I tested them briefly and they seemed to work pretty nice too. They also cure your pet. Also unlike repair spells - they ignore arcane spell failure.

So the WF-Repair thing while nice - isn't quite as big as you may think.

re: Stats. Seems like a no brainer to me:
Str - They suck at melee, so not a priority.. Maybe 2 points so you can carry lots of bolts and loot.
Dex - This is kinda the trick stat.. Youd think since they are good with crossbows youd want some.. But really you should dump it because they get a spel to replace dex with Int for attack rolls. They also have really poor reflex saves without much way to boost it other then taking insightful reflexes.. So pretty much nothing uses dex.
Wis - saves and spot skill.. low priority.
Cha - they get really killer UMD anyways, maybe put 2 points.

So pretty simple stats distribution thats quite hard to argue:
Max Int = 16 points
Max con -2 = 10 points
Leaves you 6 on a 32pnt build.. spread into str/wis/cha as you see fit.
On a tr, max con and spread rest into str/wis/cha as you see fit.

I agree for the most part here, but if you're going crossbow focused, you'll want high dex to qualify for Imp. precise shot. Also lets you use some other spell to enchant your weapon for more damage. Depending on the rate of fire, I've been thinking about a great crossbow user, using imp. precise shot and the PrE ability to mow down/crowd control large groups.

As to race, I've been thinking half-elf. That way if I go wiz-dilettante I get the same int bonus as drow, or go maybe rogue- or pally-dilettante for either SA or save bonuses, but only 1 point behind drow in INT. Also gets the benefit of human versatility.

I think it is possible to set them up for melee reasonably well. Ya, they won't have anything incredible as far as melee goes, but you could easily pull it off while still being great with spells/buffs, traps, self healing, and some ranged attack capability. All you have to do is invest some in STR (or DEX or INT depending on how you want to go about), take a few feats out of your base of 12, and slap a melee weapon in your hand.