Artificer Specialist: Battle Smith 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Battle Smith artificers are closest to rangers and paladins in presentation. You’re getting excellent bonus proficiencies, Extra Attack, solid bonus spells, and a summon-like ally that will feel similar to Beast Master ranger.
If you want a big robot pet to beat up monsters alongside you, Battle Smith is the specialty for you.

3rd Level: Tool Proficiency, Battle Smith Spells, Battle Ready, and Steel Defender

Tool Proficiency gives you proficiency with smith’s tools, or another tool proficiency if you’re already proficient with smith’s tools. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has some expanded tool uses that somewhat empower smith’s tools, but not in that meaningful of a way. This is more a ribbon that a feature, which is fine, as you’re getting a ton more.
Battle Ready also is fairly simple: you get proficiency with martial weapons, and when you attack with a magic weapon, you can use your Int to hit and damage instead of the normal modifier. This provides two directions: take a solid strength so as to not then need to spend infusions turning a weapon magical or accept a lackluster level 1 and 2 and then an infusion at 3rd level to start attacking with a +1 Greatsword as your primary action.
This option also gets Extra Attack, and pairing Extra Attack with martial weapon proficiencies automatically opens this build up to any number of martial feat-based builds that lean on Sentinel, Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Master, or Crossbow Expert.
Battle Smith Spells are free prepared spells you get as you unlock higher-level spell slots. You get Heroism, Shield, Branding Smite, Warding Bond, Aura of Vitality, Conjure Barrage, Aura of Purity, Fire Shield, Banishing Smite, and Mass Cure Wounds.
Conjure Barrage is a joke of a spell, only offering 3d8 damage for a 3rd-level spell slot and coming in at 9th level. Aura of Vitality and Purity are also utter trash, both requiring your concentration and having little to no major impact on the vast majority of fights. Branding Smite is a 2nd level slot, your bonus action, and your concentration for typically 2d6 bonus damage an no other effect. A 1st level Divine Smite deals 2d8 damage. Oof.
Most of these are nearly uncastable, especially considering the level you get them compared to your full-caster buddies. Some exceptions, though, are Shield, which is busted at basically all tiers of play and an easy place to put 1st level slots in the mid to upper tiers, and Warding Bond, which is a nifty little defensive feature that opens up some interesting build directions to play more as a protector yourself for the rest of the party. It can be a way to leverage your hit points to keep your Steel Defender alive while you’re safely in the back, or help stretch out your front-line paladin or barbarians' hit points further. It won’t be for every table, but is a neat option to keep in mind.
Steel Defender is an ally you control as a bonus action that acts immediately after your turn. It has a solid AC of 15 for a 3rd-level ally, a 40 ft. speed, a decent chunk of hit points equal to 2 + your Int mod + 5 times your level (normally around 20 to start), and a d8 + proficiency bonus melee spell attack it can make each turn. It also gets the Deflect Attack reaction that helps defend nearby allies by imposing disadvantage on attacks against a buddy within 5 feet of it, making it a perfect ally to stand next to or even mount if you’re small.
Your Steel Defender is immediately a massive boon your combat prowess; not only at 3rd level do you start attacking with martial weapons, you get a bonus action attack with this each round, a bunch of bonus hit points, and a defensive reaction to assist you and your other melee ranged allies.
On top of all this, Mending can repair it freely out of combat, and should it die, a 1st level or higher slot and 1 minute of your time can bring it back with all its hit points.
Out of combat, it also just gets twice your proficiency bonus to all its perception checks, functionally acting as expertise. Early this isn’t going to typically be better than you or your allies with a reasonable Wisdom score’s perception checks, but with a +4 or +5 proficiency bonus, this is making those checks with +8 or +10.
The Steel Defender is a house of a companion and radically empowers your character the moment you get it.

5th Level: Extra Attack

Extra Attack further takes your character down the half-caster martial character route solidifying how excellent this option can be built with all the classic martial feats. Two great-sword attacks a round with a bonus d8+3 attack from your Companion and all its defensive capabilities make for an excellent average turn and is backed up by Shield as a free prepared spell to help you stay alive. It leaves you with a ton of room for utility in your infusions and other core class options, or opportunities to lock in doing the attack actions as best you can with dedicated infusions to boost your to hit and damage rolls further.

9th Level: Arcane Jolt

Arcane Jolt really highlights just how similar to Paladin this option can feel like, as it gives you your Int mod bonus “smites” that deal 2d6 force damage on hit. It also can apply on your Steel Defender hits, but is gated at once per turn. The Steel Defender does technically act on its own turn, meaning you can use the Jolt once on one of your attacks, and immediately again on your Steel Defender’s turn with its attack roll.
A 9th-level pool of smites is pretty solid. It isn’t revolutionary or anything, and does have the added flexibility to act as a 2d6 free ranged heal when you hit somebody, which is superior to even the action efficiency of Healing Word. Arcane Jolt keeps you scaling in damage and utility, and absolutely is worth getting to.

15th Level: Improved Defender

Improved Defender caps off the Battle Smith with empowerments to both your Arcane Jolt and Steel Defender. Now, your Arcane Jolts (that you have more of, as their usage is tied to your proficiency bonus) double their damage and healing from 2d6 to 4d6. On top of that, your Steel Defender gets a free +2 AC and adds a free, undodgeable 1d4 + Int mod damage to whatever creature it imposes disadvatnage on with its Deflect Attack round after round, kind of feeling like a 4th attack.
While I don’t love upper-tier features that are scaling elements of lower-tier features, this still represents a big boost to your abilities. I’d much rather see these elements baked into the lower-level features as upper-level scaling with some newer, cooler ability unlocked here, this option is packed full of enough juice it doesn’t really need something new to do here.

All Together

Battle Smiths are as close to traditional half-casters as you can get with the artificer class. Martial weapon proficiencies, Extra Attack, a companion similar to animal compaions, some smite-like features, and an expanded spell list that offers you shield all come together to make a robust attack-focused character that can leverage all the martial character builds you could ask for.

Extra Attacks made with a twice-ish per round 4d6 bonus damage is going to have a lot of rounds of feeling powerful and having a defensive companion regularly dishing out a free d8+PB damage and redirecting attacks that easily is brought back is going to be strong at most tables.

If you want a traditional feeling character with the artificer class that has a big robot buddy to help keep you alive, Battle Smith is right for you.

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