Artificer Specialist: Armorer 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

I never really entirely got the Armorer fantasy until I saw it in play at the table. It merges the medieval magical armor enchanted to float around and defend the castle with the modern superhero and sci-fi mecha tropes beautifully into a fantasy version that looks and feels excellent. You basically assemble your own armor that has built-in technology for defense and offense with a suite of various modes and abilities that make you feel like Iron Man.

This subclass is packed full of juice and builds off the base artificer fantasy in a way basically none of its other subclasses do, making it the best expression of what an artificer subclass should look like.

3rd Level: Tools of the Trade, Armorer Spells, Arcane Armor, and Armor Model

Tools of the Trade not only gives you smith’s tools proficiency, which opens up the Xanathar’s Guide to Everything tool abilities and actions, but it also gives you heavy armor proficiency, making this something you want to know about when you start out with your artificer. Heavy armor doesn’t care about your Dexterity, making Strength a far more appealing option for weapon attacks early. Notably, your Armor Models get to attack with Int, making it possible to just focus on Int and Con for a durable frontline artificer.
Armorer Spells are excellent; you get Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Mirror Image, Shatter, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt, Fire Shield, Greater Invisibility, Passwall, and Wall of Force. Mirror Image and Shatter I’m not thrilled with, but every other one of these effects provides a solid chunk of damage for the slot, and excellent in or out-of-combat utility like Fire Shield, Greater Invisibility, and Wall of Force.
What’s more is all of these feel like extensions of this magical armor. All of these effects feel like something a mecha piolet would flick a switch to activate in some sci-fi or superhero movie but within the world of D&D fantasy. I’m a huge fan.
Arcane Armor takes any downsides heavy armor typically has and removes them. No longer do any have a Strength requirement, making Dexterity still a fine option to consider, you can use the armor as your spellcasting focus (which opens up a hand for holding other stuff), can’t be removed, replaces missing limbs (huge flavor win, rarely practical), and can be doffed and donned as an action instead of the usual 10+ minutes.
Notably, the Int bonus on the attack rolls does apply to damage as well. This helps you keep pace with some other lower tier martial characters.
Armor Model expands the Arcane Armor base with new Intelligence-based attack rolls depending on your chosen model. You can swap between the two whenever you finish short or long rests.
- Guardian model gives you Thunder Guantlets for 1d8 melee ranged weapons that impose disadvantage on all attacks a hit creature against anyone but you until the start of your next turn, and a Defensive Field bonus action usable a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest that grants temp HP equal to your level. This scales superbly; 2 instances of +3 temp HP isn’t a ton, but 5 instances of 13 temp HP is a bonus 65 hit points per long rest. That’s a ton of extra juice attached to d8 weapons imposing disadvantage on attack rolls while in armor giving you an AC of 16 or more.
- Infiltrator model offers Lightning Launcher, a d6 90/300 ranged weapon that deals a bonus d6 damage once on each of your turns, Powered Steps for a bonus 5 ft. speed, and Dampening Field, giving you advantage on Stealth checks. The boon to stealth checks typically just mitigates disadvantage most heavy armor imposes, making this a reasonable ranged blaster option. 2d6+Int mod lightning damage at a 90 ft. range is like a ranged greatsword that beast mundane resistances; at 3rd level, this feature is pretty solid.

5th Level: Extra Attack

Extra Attack works in tandem to your two new attacks offered by your armor models. It scales far better with Guardian’s Thunder Gauntlets, as it can impose disadvantage on two creatures' attacks against anyone else, often acting like a “taunt”. Infiltratior’s once-per-round bonus damage is a non-bo with this feature, giving you basically a ranged greatsword attack followed by a regular shortbow, but that’s still a meaningful improvement that will help your mid-game feel solid.
While this isn’t doing as exciting things as other half-casters like Paladins are doing, in combinationn with base artificer’s magic item infusions, this can feel like a solid middle ground between a supportive bard or cleric and a ranger or fighter.

9th Level: Armor Modifications

Armor Modifications is a necessary quality of life improvement for you; you already want to infuse your suit of magical armor, and now, not only can you infuse your armor four times, you get two BONUS infusions that just have to work on your armor.
Mind Sharpener is easily my favorite option of the bunch, giving you 4 free passes on otherwise failed concentration saves as a tank. This is likely an option you’ll already want on, and now it being free opens up other infusions to make cool items or enhance your abilities in other ways.
Armor of Magical Strength is a low-tier option you can consider to enhance your Strength ability checks and prevent yourself from getting knocked prone. Enhanced Defense gives the armor +1 AC now, and +2 AC instead at 10th level. Resistant Armor can be something you infuse differently from adventure to adventure when you know about a specific kind of incoming enemy to target their damage types for resistance to it.
The weapon augments also work with this, as it specifies the armor is considered a special weapon. Enhanced Weapon gives you +1 or +2 to hit on attack and damage rolls, which when applied twice per turn and not costing you an infusion dedicated to utility is pretty great.
There are some rules questions to pose to your DM about how Armor Modifications works with Replicate Magic Items, as it notes that the armor is split into four (helm, boots, armor/chest, and special weapon), but still could be considered a part of the single armor and thus not allow for mixing and matching with new pieces. I’d rule you can use an infusion for something like Boots of Elvenkind to replace the boots of your armor, but your mileage may vary. Notable options here though would include Boots of Striding and Springing, Helm of Telepathy, Headband of Intellect, Hato f Disguise, Winged Boots, and Boots of Speed.

15th Level: Perfected Armor

Perfected Armor closes out Armorer with upgrades to the Guardian and Infiltrator modes.
Guardian gets a pull reaction to suck enemies within 30 feet up to 30 feet closer to you and then gets a free attack against them as part of the reaction. With its usages being your proficiency bonus per long rest, you’re going to get a lot of free attacks when things move into range.
Infiltrator upgrades its attacks to have the target dimly glow, have disadvantage on attacks against you, and empower the next attack roll made against it with advantage and a bonus d6 lightning damage on hit, increasing your round-to-round damage by potentially 2d6 while also aiding your teammates by lining up more shots for them.
These are both massive upgrades that you can leverage over the course of the game. With Guardians being attached to a resource, swapping once your out over a short rest can maximize the option's efficiency, which is pretty sweet.

All Together

Armorer feels like a perfect execution of giving artificers enough to do to make them feel like they can scale and contribute meaningfully in fights while still being centrally focused on magic item creation and magical utility. The two armor modes are both a blast to play with and while I prefer Guardian as it encourages a full frontal damage build to levy your heavy armor AC, Infiltrator can also be a fine default mode to launch lightning at will.

Armor Model, Extra Attack, Armor Modifications, and Perfected Armor all contribute to a central goal: maximize your cool armor-specific weapons. This backed up by a star-studded spell list leaves you with a myriad of great options round to round. It isn’t going to ever be a completely backbreaking damage option, but alongside the utility the core artificer provides, I think you can have an exceptional time with Armorer.

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