For fvs: If you're going the casting route definitely go human, I went dwarf and I like it but I have less max wis, less skills and one less feat, wheras the skills and the wis (still can go farily high) I can work around that extra feat means i'm thinking of TR'ing to a human. For Melee go WF fvs or Half orc 18fvs/2fighter. The WF has more DR, HP and SP. The HO has more dps while still maintaining full healing (albeit with less sp)

For and artificer, there isn't really a bad class, elf probably being the worst but still manageable due to boosted dex.
Halfling here works well if you like them. Human is probably what i'd go for the extra feat or WF for the better self repairing.