D&D 5e Artificer Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
by Prince Phantom
Despite having the fewest number of subclasses at only four, the Artificer might be the class that is most defined by its subclass selection. That’s not to say that the base Artificer doesn’t give a lot of neat stuff. Infusions, good proficiencies, a great spell list for a half caster, and some really cool high level features all feel great to have, but they don’t clearly define how an Artificer should actually be played. We’re a half caster, so we can’t depend solely on spells, but we also don’t get extra attack, so we can’t make effective use of weapons past 5th level. That’s where the subclasses come in, each of them giving the Artificer a defined role in combat and exploration. Well, all but one of them anyway…
4: Alchemist
Okay, to be fair, the Alchemist does define your role in the party. You are clearly the worst character at the table. The potions we can brew are generally worse than what 1st level spells provide, and we only get one random one for free each day. Any additional ones cost spell slots. The only one I would consider brewing is the flight potion, as any flight is good flight, even if it’s just 10ft each turn.
Adding our Intelligence modifier to the damage of certain spells is very useless, as half casters aren’t good with damaging spells anyway due to the stunted growth of our slots and spells. Keep in mind that that’s your replacement for extra attack. Yikes.
The expanded spell list isn’t doing any favors either, mostly bad damage spells, but Healing Word is nice to have. Our 9th and 15th level features focus on healing and removing conditions, and while they are definitely nice to have, being a healer is not a good playstyle in 5e. Even if you wanted to play a healer, there are much better ways of doing it that don’t wait until level 15 to come online. This subclass requires a skilled hand and a lot of multiclassing to even make it work at all, so stay clear unless you have a very specific build in mind or just want to intentionally nerf yourself.
3: Artillerist
You can tell there’s a divide between the subclasses that do grant Extra Attack and the ones that don’t. That being said, Artillerist is a lot closer to that divide than Alchemist, and you can definitely make a fantastic character with this. The spell list is pretty decent, with big standouts like Shield and Wall of Force, and decent options like Wall of Fire and Fireball.
The biggest draw of this subclass is the Eldritch Cannon, with the Protector option being the clear winner. Out of combat, you can spam this until you roll an 8 to get an automatic 11-13 temporary HP, and in combat you’ll average 7.5-10 temporary HP. This is repeatable every round in combat, and will negate a ton of damage from your enemies.
To demonstrate, picture a monster that does 15 dpr. That monster now only deals 5ish damage each round, as it has to eat through the temporary HP every round before it deals any lasting damage. Seriously, the damage options don’t even come close to comparing to this level of defense, even when the damage options scale. That being said, everything past 3rd level is disappointing to me. The Arcane Firearm sounds cool, but the additional damage does not make the spells that we can cast as a half caster compare to the spells of full casters. Multiclass out of this, probably into Wizard, after level 3, 4 if you want the Ability Score Increase/Feat.
2: Armorer
The Armorer is almost two subclasses wrapped into one, and while it gives the impression that you can swap between the two as you wish, you should really specialize in one of these two options if you want to be a truly exceptional character. The Defender is the weaker of the two options, as the Thunder Gauntlets it relies on can’t be boosted by any feats, unlike the Infiltrator’s Lightning Launchers which work with Sharpshooter.
They do provide a very unique taunt mechanic that allows you to play the tank role quite effectively, but without intentional planning, tanking is all you’ll be good at. The Infiltrator excels at ranged combat, which is the best kind of combat anyway, and allows you to use stealth even while heavily armored. We also get extra Infusions, something that every other Artificer wishes they had. Most importantly, we get Extra Attack, which allows us to have a defined role in combat as a person who focuses on making attack rolls while mixing in spellcasting.
1: Battle Smith
Pet subclasses are always at least decent, and the Battle Smith might be the best of them all. First, the expanded spell list has Shield, which makes it automatically great even if the rest of the options are subpar. We share the ability to attack with our Intelligence with the Armorer, except we aren’t limited in what weapons we can use like they are.
The Steel Defender is the real star of the show, being a durable and fast pet who can easily be healed out of combat with a few castings of Mending. The defender is also medium sized, meaning that if we play as a small race, we can ride it as a mount! This works great with the defender’s Deflect Attack reaction. The defender scales with our level and proficiency bonus, encouraging us to stay Artificer for as much as possible, which is good because our higher level features aren’t as exciting.
Arcane Jolt is a mini Smite/Healing Word that you’ll definitely appreciate having, but it won’t make a big difference due to its limited uses. Improved Defender probably should have just been part of the 3rd level feature, but it’s still a noticeable upgrade to the defender’s performance. Optimizing this one is simple, grab a Crossbow, the Repeating Shot Infusion, and Sharpshooter, and you’ll be dealing just as much damage as the martials while having infinitely more utility than they could ever dream of. I highly recommend this option for anyone who thinks having a robot dog is as cool as I think it is.
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