Best Races for Artificer 5e
by Prince Phantom
The Artificer is a class that wants many different things from its race, and each individual Artificer can have very different wants than others. This means that a lot of races can work with the class, it all comes down to what you want your build to accomplish. I’ll detail a few good races each for Artificers that want to specialize in damage, defense, utility, and support. Obviously all Artificers will be a mix of these four, but it can be a good idea when planning out your character to try to focus on one or two of them. Also note, I’ll be excluding Variant Human, Custom Origin, and all races with permanent flight, as those races are great for literally any character, and I’ll exclude the Dragonmark Races as many tables don’t allow those outside of Eberron campaigns.
Races for Damage:
Aasimar: Any of the three Aasimar subraces can provide extra damage with their transformations, but I think the Radiant Soul is the clear winner with it’s 1 minute of flight. A couple of damage resistances and a touch of healing round this option out very well. If you’d like to go for one of the other two Aasimar options, or are starting around level 10 or above, don’t fret over the loss of flight, as we can craft Boots of Flying at level 10.
Dhampir: A vampire Artificer might sound strange, but once I tell you that you can infuse your teeth, that probably won’t bother you much anymore. While the Dhampir don’t have any features that specifically deal extra damage, Artificer is one of the best enablers of the Dhampir bite.
Grung: The Grung’s ability to coat any weapon in poison for no action is potentially very strong, but of course can be curtailed by immunity to poison. Still, a Grung Artificer could pump out damage and the poisoned condition very well.
Best Races for Defense:
Warforged: I mean, who doesn’t want to be an Artificer whose main project is themselves? An Armorer fits this theme even better. Artificers love to stack up AC, and the Warforged’s +1 AC is a great way to build that stack even higher. Add on their poison resistances and a lot of potential extra downtime (which Artificers absolutely love) and you’ve got a home run option for focusing on defense.
Earth Genasi: Artificers who plan to stand on the front lines can take a lot of damage, even with their high AC, especially when monsters’ hit chances start climbing in the mid to upper tiers of play. Being able to cast Blade Ward as a bonus action when we know we are about to take a bunch of attacks can make us feel like a Barbarian for a turn, which will do a lot for our survivability. Sure, we can only do it a limited number of times, but hopefully you won’t need it too often. Add on Pass Without Trace, a spell Artificers both need and don’t normally get, and near immunity to difficult terrain and you’ve got a great package of features.
Githzerai: The main benefit of this race is access to the Shield spell, and while two of the four Artificer subclasses get that spell, the other two don’t. I should note that a lot of Artificers would benefit greatly from a 1-2 level dip in Wizard, which would also grant this spell, so if you plan to do that then you don’t need to get Shield from your race. Still, those aspects don’t apply to everyone, and if they don’t apply to you, then the Githzerai is a fantastic option.
Races for Support:
Hobgoblin: Some Artificers have their bonus action locked down every turn by a subclass feature, but for those who don’t, the Hobgoblin’s Fey Gift feature fills that niche and provides some pretty great benefits to you and your allies. It helps that the rest of the race is pretty great too, providing a lot of help to pass important saving throws that can be combined with our Flash of Genius ability.
Kender: This is mostly for the Defender Armorer subclass, as it provides an addition way to taunt creatures on top of our Thunder Gauntlets. This taunt is a good backup option for when we either want to taunt three enemies in a single turn, can’t get in melee range, or miss our attacks.
Metallic Dragonborn: The special breath weapons provided by this race are a big boost to our support capabilities, allowing us to knock away or incapacitate a large number of creature all for the cost of a single attack. This is really only for the two Artificer subclasses with extra attack though. The Gem Dragonborn is also a great option for its flight, though flight is less needed on the Artificer as we can craft Boots of Flying at level 10.
Best Races for Utility
Eladrin/Shadar-Kai: Both of these races are cut from the same cloth and both provide an absolute laundry list of features, the headliner of both being a Misty Step-like teleport that has an additional bonus when we use it. I think I personally would go for the Shadar-Kai for their resistance to all damage after teleporting and always on necrotic resistance.
Harengon: This race gives a ton of boosts to various aspects of our sheet, including boosting our initiative, giving a bonus action disengage for those Artificers that aren’t interested in melee, boosting Dexterity saves, and more. This race has both quality and quantity.
Autognome: The other robotic race, Autognomes provide a lot of support for both skill and tool checks, along with poison resistance and an interesting way to heal yourself since Artificers can pick up Mending right at level 1.
In summary:
As you can see, the Artificer can work with a ton of races and concepts. Despite having the fewest subclasses, this class can fulfill just about any role in the party it wants to and be fairly good, if not stellar at it. How fitting that the class all about building stuff is so ripe for being built upon itself. Build your Artificer your way, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. Unless you pick Alchemist. Don’t pick Alchemist.
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