Summary
Dungeons & Dragonshas more than 12 classes, which you’re likely aware of. Along with fan or third-party content, the game also officially has the artificer, a class that uses magic in a more scientific way compared to others, as well as being formidable in both melee or ranged combat, depending on how you make your character.
Just like every class, it’s important to think about which background, subclass, and species you’ll get for your character, as it determines many perks you’ll have. Species is also essential - which ones can make your artificer deadlier than most?
Despite artificers not being updated outside of an Unearthed Arcana, we’ll mostly use the 2024 update of species and 2024 character creation rules instead of the 2014 version.
10Human
Classic
The default choice for a lot of people is humans, as their bonuses are simple and generic enough that they work in any class. You get a free skill proficiency and two origin feats instead of just one, like everyone else. You’ll also get Heroic Inspiration after every long rest.
The fun part is having two origin feats, one from the species and the other from the background, allowing you to do some fun combinations instead of having to choose only one option. Artificers can be pretty different from one another, so two options help out even more as they can fit many builds.
9Halfling
Another Classic
Halflings also have generic bonuses that work on everyone. You can hide behind other people or go through them if they’re larger than you, you’re resistant to being frightened, and you’re lucky, which is their key feature.
Lucky (not the feat) allows you to re-roll any natural one that you get, and since it doesn’t have a cost, you can use this any time it happens - unless you roll two natural ones in a row, then you’re just unlucky.
8Dragonborn
Breathe In, Breathe Out
As an artificer, you’ll likely have a decent constitution bonus, and depending on your build, you may be getting up close to people. That means you canbenefit from dragonborn’s breath weaponsa lot, along with resistance to a damage type depending on your color, which is good for a squishier class like artificers.
You can also temporarily fly once per long rest, which can help maneuver your melee character a lot or keep a distance and attack from afar as a ranged character, depending on how your character fights. Either way, wings are useful.
7Dwarf
Endure The Pain
Dwarves also have damage resistance, though this time, it’s against poison specifically, as well as resistance against the condition itself. They get an extra hit point per level, which is also useful for improving your low health bar, and you may activate tremorsense.
Tremorsense lets you ‘see’ enemies that are connected to the same ground you’re standing on (as long as it’s made of stone), allowing you to fight invisible creatures or overcome the blinded condition.
6Orc
Dash Through Your Enemies
Orcs have the wonderful benefitof being able to dash as a bonus action - though it has limited use per short or long rest. Still, this is also a wonderful way to maneuver through the battlefield, ensuring distance between you and your enemies or to hunt them down properly if you’re a melee character. You also get temporary hit points whenever you dash.
Along with that, orcs kept their classic Relentless Endurance, allowing you to stay up with one hit point whenever you take an attack that zeroes your health but isn’t an insta-kill attack, so you can be more resilient.
5Goliath
Your Ancestry Defines You
Goliaths can be used in many waysdepending on their main feature, Giant Ancestry. It’s a perk you choose during character creation, which changes depending on your ancestry. It goes from teleporting as a bonus action to causing extra damage, knocking people prone, and absorbing or countering damage.
you may also enlarge yourself and carry more weight, but these aren’t as interesting features for an artificer as the previous one is. You can get whichever one fits your fighting style better and run with it.
4Tiefling
But A Different One
The2024 tieflingis interesting if you want more spells to play around with that won’t cost spell slots, making them (and elves, by the way) an interesting choice. However, we’ll focus on one thing players love, and DMs hate: wings.
Flying is a powerful trait, and some species have permanent flight compared to temporary, like the dragonborn. So, tieflings, fairies, aarakocras, and owlins are great picks for you if you want to fly around and dominate the sky with ranged combat. We recommend the winged tieflings as they can also wear medium armor while flying.
3Goblin
Hit And Run
If you want to get in close but want to take care of your health bar, goblins are a fun pick. They can cause more damage and resist the charmed condition, but the fun part is Nimble Escape, allowing them to disengage or hide as a bonus action.
That means you may punch someone with your Booming Blade and/or Thunder Gauntlets and run away without the fear of an opportunity attack, or you can hide and use ranged attacks at advantage.
2Autognome
Construct Constructor
Autognomes are a fitting narrative choice, as they are constructs themselves, making them a fun choice for a class that creates stuff or machinery. That said, they are resistant to poison, poisoned and paralyzed conditions, don’t need to sleep, get two tool proficiencies, and more.
Their key features are a higher AC when not wearing armor (13 plus your dexterity), the ability to add a d4 to d20 tests, and the ability to use the Mending cantrip to heal yourself. Their type is also construct, meaning they’re immune to spells that trigger humanoids specifically, like Hold Person.
1Eladrin
Teleport Away
As you may have noticed, positioning is key for an artificer, whether you’re melee or ranged, which is why orcs and goblins are interesting. Still, teleporting is another fun way to get around with ease, but sadly for you, artificers don’t have access to Misty Step and also don’t have that many spell slots to spend for that.
As a result, eladrins become an interesting choice as they can teleport a few times per long rest as a bonus action, and their teleports can cause different effects, such as teleporting an ally instead or causing conditions or damage to enemies next to you before teleporting. They’re also resistant to being charmed and can swap weapon and tool proficiencies when long resting.
