Seeking Advice on an Artificer Build for a Level 1 Campaign

Question

I'm gearing up to embark on a long-term D&D 3.5 campaign starting from level 1, and I've set my sights on playing an Artificer. However, I'm contemplating a multiclass build to add some versatility to my character. My plan is to kick off with a level of Cloistered Cleric, focusing on the Magic, Knowledge, and Trickery domains, which I intend to convert into Knowledge and Trickery Devotion feats. Additionally, I'm considering adding a level of Human Paragon to expedite the acquisition (and cost-effectiveness) of Use Magic Device (UMD) proficiency. After these initial levels, I plan to continue progressing as a pure Artificer for the remaining 18 levels. Do you think this build is viable? Are there any potential pitfalls or drawbacks I should be aware of? Should i pick another kind of Devotion feat? Do you consider usefull any template? I'd greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions you can offer. Thank you in advance for your guidance!

Answer 1

Cloistered Cleric 1st, ECL 1st

Cloistered cleric is the best single-level dip in the game, and can be good for an artificer. Artificer is so strong, though, that it’s both less useful and comes at a higher cost. There is also an artificer-specific anti-synergy here, too, which Magic Domain actually exacerbates: even though cleric spellcasting and the Magic domain means you can skip Use Magic Device checks for cleric and wizard items, the artificer’s item completion ability mandates Use Magic Device checks with generally higher DCs. That means those features—ordinarily quite valuable—are worthless to you, since if you can hit the DC to create the items, you’ll have no problem with the DC to use them. This in particular makes Magic domain fairly pointless for you: the granted ability is wasted and Nystul’s magic aura is both very niche and easily crafted using artificer abilities.

(If you have some way of getting temporary or conditional bonuses to UMD that are convenient for crafting, but inconvenient or inapplicable for adventuring, such that you can ignore UMD, that could mean cleric and the Magic domain are somewhat valuable, but it’s very unlikely that you’ll actually save many skill points that way. It’s not like Use Magic Device was ever a bad thing to have.)

Knowledge and Trickery Devotion are both good, but Knowledge Devotion, in particular, is easily grabbed as a regular feat. Getting it for free is excellent gravy on cloistered cleric, but it’s not a super-great reason to be a cloistered cleric in the first place. Trickery Devotion is similar, in that you need a lot of turn undead to get more uses of Trickery Devotion—as an artificer, you have every reason to have decent Charisma to power this, but it does limit the advantage of actually having turn undead to fuel the feat.

Meanwhile, you’re delaying everything artificer does. Most of that is probably more-or-less acceptable, but it’s a real cost. Certainly at ECL 5th and 6th, when you’re an artificer 4th or 5th but could be an artificer 5th or 6th, you’ll be feeling that level: that’s the difference between having Craft Magic Arms & Armor, or Craft Wand, and not. Those are huge, crucial feats you really want.

You’ll also reduce your caster level, which reduces the power of magic items you can craft. You’ll want Practiced Spellcaster from Complete Arcane or Complete Divine to resolve that, even if it’s only for 1 caster level.

None of this rules out the cloistered cleric level; if you want both devotion feats, it’s the only way to do it and it isn’t bad. I do recommend going with something other than the Magic domain, however.

Human Paragon 1st, ECL 2nd

The human paragon’s adaptive learning ability does not help this build in the least. Use Magic Device is already a class skill for the artificer—so if all your levels after human paragon are in the artificer class, the fact that human paragon can make that skill a class skill for all your classes is meaningless: it already is.

Also, if you did want this feature because you were taking levels in classes that don’t get Use Magic Device as a class skill, there are numerous cheaper ways to get it. The Apprentice feat from Dungeon Master’s Guide II is probably most convenient here—being an apprentice to a spellcaster makes both any one Knowledge skill as well as Use Magic Device into class skills for all of your classes. You also take it at 1st, meaning the benefit applies to your cloistered cleric level, as well.

There just isn’t really any reason to take human paragon outside of SRD-only games. Even there, it’s very niche and rarely optimal. (This is, for the record, true of pretty much all of the racial paragon classes. The drow paragon might be the one exception, since you can take a single level without interrupting cleric or wizard spellcasting. But that’s only viable for lesser drow.)

Artificer 1st-18th, ECL 3rd-20th (or 2nd-19th or 1st-20th)

Up through artificer 14th, there are good, strong class features at most artificer levels—certainly enough to warrant sticking with the class if nothing draws you away.

After that, there are a couple of bonus feats at 16th and 20th, you get a few more infusions per day (but no new levels of infusions), and some more craft reserve. You can probably do better than that—especially when you consider that a lot of prestige classes will progress your infusions anyway and thus all you’re missing out on are a couple of bonus feats and the craft reserve.

I thus recommend you consider something else for those 4-6 levels (depending on whether you decide to drop the levels in cloistered cleric and/or human paragon). Make sure to limit any levels that don’t progress artificer infusions to 4 or less, so Practiced Spellcaster can keep your caster level up (you cannot take Practiced Spellcaster twice for the same class).

Of course, prestige classes have their own requirements, which may be onerous, and it’s not like artificer progression, craft reserve, and a couple bonus feats is bad, so you can feel free to just take the artificer levels. I’m just saying that you probably can do better.