High Int?

[rimble]

If insightful damage AND deadly weapons (when it's finally debugged and released to live) can be cast on the same weapon concurrently, then what's lost by going max INT for an melee artificer swinging a bastard sword?

What stat will you raise (and how high will it be) to be able to hit with that Bastard Sword that you have Insightful Damage on?

[Neouni]

How about: "is capped by your intelligence bonus."
which is in all the artificer knowledge feats.
Capstone does remove that limitation but you wanted to multiclass.

So be carefull how low you want to go if you still want the bonus caster levels.

[FooWonk]

What stat will you raise (and how high will it be) to be able to hit with that Bastard Sword that you have Insightful Damage on?

16 base
02 enhancements
07 item
03 exceptional
04 tome
02 ship
02 rage
==
36 STR [32 without buffs ]

15 BAB
13 strength
05 weapon
02 battle engineer
04 item
02 set bonus
==
41 to-hit [ permanent ]
05 divine power
==
46 [ meh attainable ]

The only item I don't have for TR is the +4 to-hit item.

[Lifespawn]

if people are maxing in and using insightful strikes for the hit bonus they can't use insightful damage at the same time right?

wouldn't it be better to do a decent high dex and just use insightful damage all the time?

[Therigar]

wouldn't it be better to do a decent high dex and just use insightful damage all the time?

If melee this eats an extra feat. Might make sense for crossbows or players with previous DEX builds and a surplus of rapiers.

Seems to be a strong grouping of three build types -- crossbow, bastard sword or dwarven axe. DEX obviously doesn't work for two of these.

So "better" might not be the way to describe it. DEX would be an alternative but I think that most of the thinking is geared towards STR with bastard sword (or perhaps dwarven axe) and the THF glancing blows.

[rimble]

16 base
02 enhancements
07 item
03 exceptional
04 tome
02 ship
02 rage
==
36 STR [32 without buffs ]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I guess the problem is that I don't see very many good offensive spells, so I don't see the point in bothering with Int except for Crossbow damage...but really, they'll come eventually, even if not right here at launch, so taking a little penalty on your +Attack to max Int for the spell benefits and +Damage benefits will make even more sense at some point. Seems like a good plan.

[hit_fido]

So "better" might not be the way to describe it. DEX would be an alternative but I think that most of the thinking is geared towards STR with bastard sword (or perhaps dwarven axe) and the THF glancing blows.

That's what I'm thinking... insightful infusions only work on a one hander so might as well pick the best one hander possible, bastard and daxe, good base damage and allows for glancing. Max int and then whether your swinging or shooting you can always use Insightful Strikes for the best possible to hit bonus as needed. With melee your str based damage bonus is still decent and you add in deadly weapons and the rune arm damage that happens on glancing blow or whatever. Some are building around ranged more, I'll go tilted toward melee but what I come back to with max int is I should still be able to use Insightful Strikes when ranging to make sure I'm hitting even with lower dex, so ranged will remain a decent option too. Everything else about artificer keys off of Int so might as well give it a shot and see how it goes.

Nothing about this class seems cookie cutter (yet) and that is really cool and interesting.

[Lifespawn]

If melee this eats an extra feat. Might make sense for crossbows or players with previous DEX builds and a surplus of rapiers.

Seems to be a strong grouping of three build types -- crossbow, bastard sword or dwarven axe. DEX obviously doesn't work for two of these.

So "better" might not be the way to describe it. DEX would be an alternative but I think that most of the thinking is geared towards STR with bastard sword (or perhaps dwarven axe) and the THF glancing blows.

sry my comment was for the crossbow not melee

[Dirichlet]

I didn't see it mentioned yet, but the Rune Arm DCs are Int based. Another advantage to an Int based melee is that you can easily switch to Insightful Strikes on a Crossbow if you're ever forced at range.

I imagine Str based will win in the raw dps race, but it doesn't look like Int is that far behind. It's like 1 or 2 damage per swing with an additional loss against very high AC opponents. But then the advantages of Int based are indeed subtle.

[Samadhi]

How about: "is capped by your intelligence bonus."
which is in all the artificer knowledge feats.
Capstone does remove that limitation but you wanted to multiclass.

So be carefull how low you want to go if you still want the bonus caster levels.

14 Int is dumpstat Int for me - and since all of the knowledge-base feats cap out at like +5 anyway; you are easily going to get that with 14 starting Int and no level ups there.