Artificer Specialist: Artillerist 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Do you enjoy making stuff explode? Do you want a free magical gun to blast away with? Want to get as close to the Gunslinger as possible without using Critical Role materials? If so, Artillerist has your back.

This option is built around a magical mobile canon you can direct in one of three modes you’ll spend your bonus actions on round after round to weaponize. Its power is directly tied to keeping it alive, and while it doesn’t scale particularly well, this play pattern early is a blast to use and multiclasses superbly with martial characters like rogues and fighters.

3rd Level: Tool Proficiency, Artillerist Spells, and Eldritch Canon

Tool Proficiency grants you free proficiency with woodcarver’s tools, or another artisan’s tools if you already have it. Even with Xanathar’s Guide to Everything’s expanded tool options, woodcarver’s tools are still pretty worthless beyond flavor or a need for more arrows.
Artillerist Spells are probably the best expanded spell list artificer specialties get. It freely prepares for you Shield, Thunderwave, Scorching Ray, Shatter, Fireball, Wind Wall, Ice Storm, Wall of Fire, Cone of Cold, and Wall of Force. Shield is a powerhouse at all tiers, and while it’s a bit more costly on full casters, it’s still an effect I’m eager to spend a few of my smaller spell slot total on. Fireball at 9th level is still Fireball; 8d6 fire damage in a great area at long range will feel good, especially if your group doesn’t already have a wizard or sorcerer slinging out Fireballs earlier. It still suffers from the upper-tier spells competing with higher and higher level spells from your full-caster buddies, but the 3rd-9th level options are solid enough with just Fireball and Shield, with Thudnerwave, Scorching Ray, and Shatter all being reasonable damage options, and Wind Wall being a niche tool to pull out from time to time.
Eldritch Canon is the bulk of this subclass. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can create a small or tiny canon with 18 AC and 5 times your level hit points. It gets to be either a flamethrower, force ballista, or protector, each offering different kinds of damage or utility respectively, and each can be used as a bonus action. Additionally, when you command it to activate and use its ability, you can also have it walk or climb up to 15 feet if you’ve built it with legs (which is optional).
This is also a notable reason to take the Mending cantrip, as if it takes a bit of damage yet isn’t destroyed, out of combat you can spam mending on it to get it back to full.
- Flamethrowers are my favorite, giving you a bonus action 2d8 Burning Hands every round. This can decimate many early encounters focused on moderate to large groups of smaller enemies, and even against larger ones, feels like a great off-hand attack.
- Force Ballistas are simpler, and better on characters wanting to sit back and unleash hell from cover. Bonus action 120 ft. range 2d8 spell attacks are awesome, and this one also comes with a free, no save 5 ft. shove on it. It helps you disengage in a pinch, and otherwise is a great battery for consistent bonus damage round after round.
- Protectors may be the trickiest to get a lot of utility out of; it’s a reusable source of temporary hit points that really ask you to build a defensive character that wants to levy taking damage round after round and refilling it with free temporary hit points. It plays great alongside one or two other melee-ranged characters. This kind of option I’d consider if I was an Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger multi-class looking to improve my durability, or a supportive frontline character boosting up other bulkier allies round after round.

5th Level: Arcane Firearm

Arcane Firearm adds a d8 to Artificer spells you cast once per spell. This works great with stuff like Fireball, which now basically gets a free up-cast with 8d6+1d8, and worse with Scorching Ray effects that make multiple damage rolls.
This isn’t a great replacement for Extra Attack, though. It doesn’t empower your canon at all, and Thunderwave, Scorching Ray, and Shatter aren’t made that much better by it I’d want this over higher-level slots or Extra Attack. Still, it’s good enough alongside the utterly busted Eldritch Canon that you can feel reasonable with this in the mid tiers.

9th Level: Explosive Cannon

Explosive Canon passively scales up your Eldritch Cannon with a bonus d8 damage to its two attacks (notably excluding the protector entirely), and gives it an explosive action option that lets it blast into pieces. I can’t fathom why you’d do that, though, as it’s just a 20 ft. radius sphere of 3d8 damage. If you want area damage, with this feature your Flamethrower deals 3d8 damage every round in a 15 ft. cone. Yes, the area is better on the explosion, but then you’re waiting around for a long rest to get it back, something I’m not thrilled to do.
This damage increase feels like it should be baked into Eldrtich Cannon, maybe multiple times, to help the option scale without you getting other means of keeping up with martial and full-caster characters. With no other feature coming in at this level, I’m not thrilled to wait this long for just 1d8 damage improvement, especially if I’m just using the Force Ballista, or worse yet if I prefer a build using the Protector.

15th Level: Fortified Position

Fortified Position is a fantasy I adore. It attaches a freaking force field to your Eldritch Cannon and gives you a second cannon you can control at the same time as the other. This is a massive boon to the option, easily over doubling its utility as you mix and match as you please with the scaling damage Explosive Cannon gives, but I just don’t know if I’m fine waiting to get to 15th level for this massive upgrade. A protector on the frontline granting everyone +2 AC and 1d8+5 temporary hit points every round is a ton of defensive utility, and then you can also have a Flamethrower spewing flames in 15 ft. 3d8 damage cones, or a Force Ballista with you and your backline allies for the cover benefit and an extra shot each round. Two Force Ballistas will be good in basically every kind of encounter, as it gives you two free 3d8 blasts a round on top of your regular spellcasting.
Again, my only gripe is I have to get here with just Arcane Firearm and Explosive Cannon as features in the mid tiers.

All Together

Artillerist is my favorite subclass of the four currently available, but it has some issues. It has a massive 3rd level power spike, slacks in power majorly up until 9th level, then gets a small boost before once again dwindling in comparative power until it has another massive spike in power at 15th level with Fortified Position. This option alongside something like an Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight, or Bladesinger, though, with Extra Attack from each and some excellent proficiencies excites me greatly, as does the top-end fantasy of spewing flames everywhere while blasting out Fireballs round after round for maximum demolition.

Eldritch Cannon is a powerful enough feature you can feel great about using it even if it doesn’t scale well in the mid tiers. This option will provide a ton of fun, and for that reason, even without it being the most consistently powerful option, can be a great time for anyone without other bonus actions they’re eager to use. Multiclass or not, try out Artillerist.

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