My First Rogue/Artificer

[Endarire]

Intro
This is my first serious attempt at an Artificer.  This character, Julantor, will be the group's scout, skill monkey, magic item crafter, and Blastificer.  In short, he's an engineer that puts WoW engineers to shame.

I must be Human for Able Learner and I chose Rogue1 so I have all the appropriate skills as class, plus I can swap Sneak Attack +1d6 (meh) for Improved Initiative (yay).

Campaign & Character Constraints
-I'm using a 32 point buy.  Wealth and gear are standard for ECL1s.

-We begin NAKED and IMPRISONED at ECL1 with no guarantee of getting our pre-imprisonment stuff back.

-We probably won't get past level 10.

-No respeccing, rebuilding, or retraining.  Ever.

-Alignments Allowed: True Neutral and any Good.  I may be able to persuade my DM into allowing LN or CN, but I'd prefer not.

-No undead PCs.  We can still rebuke, command, and create undead minions.

-No flaws and probably no traits.

-All polymorph buffs are self-only.

-Magic-psionic transparency is in place.  Magic item creation feats can't be used to make psionic items and vice versa.

-The max number of skill ranks is always 3 + HD.

-As this isn't Eberron, there are no action points!

-Willing allies may pay up to 100% of the crafting XP cost.

-Disable Device also covers locks.

-Summon nature's ally isn't worth casting and thus I want to avoid summoning.

-Leadership is gutted and not worth using.

Source Material
-Anything 3.5 or unupdated 3.0, pending DM approval.  No wraithstrike.
-Anything from the Spell Compendium will require a "good reason" to take.  Fortunately, most SC spells are available from other sources.

Party Mates
Dragonborn Fire Elf Conjurer5/Incantatrix10/Master Conjurer1/Archmage3/Olin Gisir1
Crowd control central and buff persister.

Dragonborn Nezumi (Oriental Adventures 13) Barbarian1/Martial Transmuter5/Eldritch Knight6/Abjurant Champion5/EK+3 *UNCONFIRMED*
If she joins, she'll be a dragoon gish.

Strongheart Halfling Cloistered Cleric4/Church Inquisitor1/CC+2/Divine Disciple5/Contemplative6/CC+2
Clerical crowd controller, buffer, and would-be Wizard

Dragonborn Buomman (Planar Handbook 8) Druid20 *UNCONFIRMED*
If she joins, she'll primarily tank.

My Build: Human Rogue1/Artificer19
Stats: 8 STR/14 DEX/14 CON/18 INT/8 WIS/12 CHA

Notes: I must be Human for Able Learner and I chose Rogue1 so I have all the appropriate skills as class, plus I can swap Sneak Attack +1d6 (meh) for Improved Initiative (yay).  Until I have magical artillery to shoot freely, I'll focus on shooting things with my shortbow.

-=LEGEND=-
Specific Feat
[Class Feature or Bonus Feat]
{Trait or Flaw}

1: Able Learner, {Aggressive}, Extraordinary Artisan, [Improved Initiative], Mercantile Background, [Murky-Eyed], [Noncombatant], Magic Artisan: Extraordinary Artisan, {Passionate}
2: [Scribe Scroll]
3: [Brew Potion], Item Familiar: UMD
4: [Craft Wondrous]
5: [Craft Homunculus], [Legendary Artisan]
6: [Craft Arms & Armor], [Disenchant], Practiced Artisan
7: [Craft Wand]
8: [Metamagic Spell Trigger]
9: [Empower Spell], Magic Artisan: Legendary Artisan
10: [Craft Rod]
11:
12: Craft Contingent Item, [Metamagic Spell Completion]
13: [Craft Staff], [Quicken Spell]
14: [Skill Mastery: Take 10 on UMD]
15: [Extra Rings], [Forge Ring], -=FEAT=-
16:
17: [-=METAMAGIC FEAT=-]
18: -=FEAT=-
19:
20:

Skillz to Pay da Billz
Max Disable Device, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spellcraft, Spot, Tumble, UMD

Should I invest anything in Craft?  With a Wizard ally able to cast magecraft, and masterwork tools, we can take 10 and get over 20.  For some reason, I thought of maxing Craft: Traps with this character and I don't recall why.

[sonofzeal]

Well, I'm playing an Artificer now, so.....

- Craft skills are unnecessary for the most part.  At some point you'll be wanting Dedicated Wrights, and those get free ranks in Craft.  My character had six wrights as of level 10, just to keep up with all the demand.

- There are a lot of excellent blastificer builds, but those get really expensive really fast.  My discount blastificer method is a CL1 wand of Seeking Ray (normally CL3 minimum but Artificers are awesome that way; seeking ray is like scorching ray but better in almost every possible way at this level).  You'll be doing 4d6 damage, which isn't too bad at low level, and you'll be doing it quite cheaply and reliably.  When you can, pick up Split Ray and use it with Metamagic Spell Trigger for 8d6 at 3 charges a pop, which is worth it at that point.  Then, when you can, pick up Dual Wand Weilder to go up to 16d6 at 7 charges a pop.  Might want to make the second wand Scorching Ray at that point, just to mix element types.  Then, Belt of Battle when you can afford it to basically get a 1/day 32d6 for 14 charges of a 1500 gp wand.  If you ever see a better bargain for an Artificer, let me know.

- You can draw spells for wands off of any spell list.  Master Trapsmith, Ranger, Paladin, and other classes with odd spell lists are your friends.  Everyone has Sor/Wiz wands; you can make a wand of Lay of the Land for 750 base price.

- Eternal Wands are your friend.  Seriously.  Anything that looks useful but would only come up occasionally (like Lay of the Land) is perfect for this.  On the other hand, situational stuff that could need repeated casting (like Silence for the whole party) is better on a regular Wand.  On that note, here's a table of prices I made...


   Schema    Wand  Pearl  Scroll Knowstone EtWand
1st   400    750   1000     25     1000      820
2nd  2400   4500   4000    150     4000     4420
3rd  6000  11250   9000    375     9000    10900
4th 11200  21000  16000    700    16000    -----
5th 18000  -----  25000   1125    25000    -----

[bayar]

Factotum is better than Rogue for the purposes of class skilling.

[Endarire]

Factotum gets more class skills, but fewer skill points and no Improved Initiative.  I considered it, but +4 initiative is better than Factotum's offerings for me.

Since we can make custom items, could I make a spell trigger wondrous item to cast seeking ray or a similar spell at will, and how much would it cost?

[sonofzeal]

Factotum gets more class skills, but fewer skill points and no Improved Initiative.  I considered it, but +4 initiative is better than Factotum's offerings for me.

Since we can make custom items, could I make a spell trigger wondrous item to cast seeking ray or a similar spell at will, and how much would it cost?

Scouts also get 8 skill points.  Worse skill list, but better HP (which is important at 1st level), and Skirmish will be awesome for you - all your wanding is standard action only, and rays can carry precision damage.  That's +1d6 to all your ray attacks, hardly insubstantial.

As to at-will spell trigger wondrous items.... I believe the price for an at-will one comes out to 3,600 gp but isn't spell trigger.  Anyway, your Metamagic Spell Trigger class power would be totally borked on an at-will item, because the burned charges don't hurt you.  Everyone would grab one and slap as many metamagic feats on it as they can!  Maximixed Empowered Split-Ray Twinned Quickened Seeking Ray, every round of every fight, for free?  Right.

No, Artificers burn gp/xp to do their cool things, that's what keeps them in line.  In return, they get to craft for other party members at a profit, aren't harmed much by being behind a level (with boosted xp income), and effectively get almost twice as much gp/xp to burn on their class powers.  If your DM is reasonable, the result actually balances out.  I'm by far the best optimizer in my current group where I'm playing a lvl11 Artificer, and while I'd like to think I'm the most useful member of our party, the difference is marginal and I haven't made anyone irrelevant.  Artificers can burn a lot of gp/xp really fast to do crazy things (blastificers, omniscificers, etc), but unless you're at really high levels or only doing a one-off, they generally keep themselves in line or burn through their resources fast than they come in.

[pfooti]

Later on, artificers don't have to worry so much about burning XP during play - at level 5, you can use retain essence to suck craft points out of magical traps you find, can't you?

Personally, I wouldn't be so hot about trading in a level of progression with the Artificer for +4 initiative and 16 skill points. I've never been sold on initiative. With a caster, especially an AoE caster, I guess having a high initiative is good so you can get off the bigass fireballs before your meatshields get in the way, but initiative only really affects the first round of combat. After that, it's just back and forth. I do like going first in situations where I get a huge +initiative roll (I did it with an improved init / hummingbird familiar / elven generalist, that was +12 before a dex modifier!), but I honestly don't think it's so amazing you should sacrifice a lot for it.

[sonofzeal]

Later on, artificers don't have to worry so much about burning XP during play - at level 5, you can use retain essence to suck craft points out of magical traps you find, can't you?

Personally, I wouldn't be so hot about trading in a level of progression with the Artificer for +4 initiative and 16 skill points. I've never been sold on initiative. With a caster, especially an AoE caster, I guess having a high initiative is good so you can get off the bigass fireballs before your meatshields get in the way, but initiative only really affects the first round of combat. After that, it's just back and forth. I do like going first in situations where I get a huge +initiative roll (I did it with an improved init / hummingbird familiar / elven generalist, that was +12 before a dex modifier!), but I honestly don't think it's so amazing you should sacrifice a lot for it.

I don't really agree.  The fundamental Artificer mechanic gets rolling just fine fairly quickly, and while the class does improve it (more craft reserve, more items you can craft, more special tricks like Metamagic Spell Trigger), you don't really lose that much in the long run.  Your infusions are pretty trivial, and you get all the really good item creation feats quickly.  Unless you really care about rods and staffs, you can do just fine with Artificer 7 and leaving it at that.  Still, I'd try to hit decent Artificer level as quickly as possible, so you can start making the most of the gp/xp that comes in.  If you really want skills, you can focus on Skill Enhancement and a wand of Wieldskill - for my character, that's a total of +13 or so, and allows it to be used untrained.

[bayar]

Artificier 9 for Craft Construct and binding elementals ?

[Endarire]

Rogue1 is to make Spot, Listen, Hide, and Move Silently Artificer class skills via Able Learner.  He's the group's only skillsman.

[sonofzeal]

Rogue1 is to make Spot, Listen, Hide, and Move Silently Artificer class skills via Able Learner.  He's the group's only skillsman.

Go Scout then; same skillpoints, has all those as class skills, and the other perks are better for you.

[Straw_Man]

  Not sure why your swapping SA when you start with 2 feats,  hell, a Beguiler with the Obtain familiar feat and Hummingbird will have +4 Init and better spot & listen than anything a Feat Rogue can manage. I'd recommend Factotum but you've already said your not impressed.

  Artificer ... what really improves on the Artificer? Your going to be gimped for a bit depending on loot, you will need gold to start crafting. So you might want to go Baneficer and shoot things with Bane arrows, though lack of AP will hurt. can you take Heroic surge or other AP granting feats?

[Endarire]

What feats advise you for the open slots?

[sonofzeal]

Extend -> Persist is an awesome combo for you, especially using your "Metamagic Item" infusion to completely bypass the cost!  You'll be wanting those sooner rather than later, preferably around the time you get 3rd level infusions.

Split Ray, as already mentioned, does wonderful things to your damage, though it may or may not count as a "volley".  If not, you only get precision damage once.  Still, check with your DM on this.  "Twin" might be good for emergencies, raising your damage by another factor of two for a sharply increased cost, but (imo) Split Ray should be your bread and butter.

Item Familiar is probably not necessary.  It'll boost your UMD into the stratosphere, but is a big liability (if you lose it you're toast) and really, you shouldn't be failing any UMD checks anyway.  The flavor does fit the Artificer, but it's a well known cheese-level exploit, and Artificers are close enough to cheese as it is.

[Endarire]

How does Metamagic Item bypass Persist's cost and where can I find Metamagic Item's writeup?

[sonofzeal]

How does Metamagic Item bypass Persist's cost and where can I find Metamagic Item's writeup?

Metamagic Item is a 3rd level Artificer infusion, straight out of Eberron Campaign Setting where the Artificer is printed.  It lasts 1 round/level and lets you temporarily apply metamagic to a spell trigger item without burning extra charges.  Persisted Lesser Vigor for everyone!

[LimaBeanMage]

Remember at higher levels to invest in staffs (or staves) for your power house casting. Talk with your DM to see what they think about UMD emulating class level and ability scores to gain monstrous caster levels and DCs. It's actually good that you have 12 charisma for these purposes. You cannot technically cast from a staff containing "sorcerer" spells  with such low charisma. Use your incredible UMD checks to emulate an extremely high charisma score and get DCs that a sorcerer would drool over.

Staff of Baleful Polymorph with DC 30+ for the win!