The New Artillerist

 By far the subclass I'm most familiar with - one of my most consistent players in my Ravnica game plays an Artillerist with the Izzet League, and so for the past 5 years, I've seen them in action. The Artillerist is one of the caster-only options for Artificers, but has major features that boost their ranged damage. Let's look at the update!

Artillerist Spells:

1st: Shield, Thunderwave

2nd: Scorching Ray, Shatter

3rd: Fireball, Wind Wall

4th: Ice Storm, Wall of Fire

5th: Cone of Cold, Wall of Force

    Well, you get Fireball, and even if you have to wait until level 9 to get it, it's still probably the best AoE spell for its spell level in the game. Shield ups your defensive capabilities by a lot, and Wall of Force is another stand-out (though you'll have to wait until tier 4 - which my players are in.) Solid spell list, though I do wonder if some of the lower-level damage spells are going to start to feel kind of redundant with your ample single-target options.

Level 3:

Tools of the Trade:

You gain the following benefits:

Ranged Weaponry: You gain proficiency with Martial Ranged Weapons.

    Notably, this includes all firearms, including Modern and Futuristic options. While the old version of the Artificer gave firearm proficiency to the whole class, the only subclass that could really make use of them was the Battle Smith. However, as we'll see at level 5, Artillerists will actually do quite well with a Musket or Pistol (and I think if any class should get access to more advanced firearms, it's the Artificer).

Tool Proficiency: You gain proficiency with Woodcaver's Tools, or another type of tools if you already are proficient with these.

Wand Crafting: When you craft a magic wand, the amount of time to craft it is halved.

    Notably there is no bonus to crafting any non-magic things here, and even the Alchemist gets to craft potions, which are a PHB-facing set of rules. DMs should for sure allow an Artillerist to craft wands, but it is somewhat under their control.

Eldritch Cannon:

Using Smith's Tools or Woodcaver's Tools, you can use a Magic action to create a Small or Tiny (your choice) Eldritch Cannon within 5 feet of you on a horizontal surface. You determine if the cannon is carried on your person or if it has legs or wheels to move about on its own. It disappears if reduced to 0 HP or after an hour, or if you dismiss it early as a Magic action.

You can create a cannon once for free per long rest, or you can expend any level spell slot to create one later. You can only have one cannon out at a time (at least for now).

The cannon is an object with an AC of 18 and HP equal to 5 times your Artificer level. Casting Mending on it restores 2d6 HP to it. It is immune to Poison and Psychic damage.

As a bonus action, you can activate the cannon if it's within 60 feet of you. You can also direct it to move 15 feet before or after its activation option, which are the following:

Flamethrower: The cannon blasts fire in a 15-foot cone. Creatures in the area must make a Dex save, taking 2d8 Fire damage on a failure or half on a success. Flammable objects in the cone that aren't being worn or carried will start burning.

Force Ballista: You make a ranged spell attack against a creature or object within 120 feet of the cannon. On a hit, the target takes 2d8 Force damage and if it is a creature, the target is pushed up to 5 feet away from the cannon.

Protector: Each creature of your choice within 10 feet of the cannon gains temp HP equal to 1d8 + your Intelligence modifier.

    This is the core feature of the subclass. It's nearly unchanged from the original version except for one very important distinction: the old version forced you to choose the cannon type when you created it. Now, you choose what effect happens on each activation. In five years playing with this player, I think I've seen options other than the Force Ballista chosen maybe two or three times. Now, an Artillerist can be far more adaptable to the situation. This feature is something you'll want to use in pretty much every combat, and is a major source of damage, complementing your actions on later turns.

    One notable change here is that I believe the 5-foot pushback on the Force Ballista was mandatory before, whereas now the "up to 5 feet" wording suggests you might be able to choose to push them back less, or not at all. This is also, notably one of the rare cases of an ability that can push a creature back regardless of size.

Level 5:

Arcane Firearm:

When you finish a long rest, you can use Woodcarver's Tools to carve sigils into a Rod, Staff, Wand, or Martial Ranged Weapon (Light Crossbows need not apply, I guess) and turn it into an Arcane Firearm. These last until you carve them into a different item.

You can use an Arcane Firearm as a spellcasting focus for your Artificer's spells. When you cast a spell through it, roll 1d8 and add the value to one of the spell's damage rolls.

    So, if you want to fight with a gun, here's how to do so: Make yourself a magic firearm, like a Repeating Musket (though the loading property is less of an issue as you don't get extra attack - still, if you want to avoid having to buy ammo, this is nice). Then, be sure to get the True Strike cantrip. Now, you'll be able to attack with your Musket for 1d12+1d6+1d8+4 by this level, or 18.5 per hit.

    Now, I've been pretty generous and allowed my player to make their +2 All-Purpose Tool into an Arcane Firearm. Technically, this shouldn't work, though a Staff of Power or some such thing would work. Here's an interesting interpretive question: if a firearm grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it (like a Repeating Musket,) would an attack using it as a spellcasting focus for something like Scorching Ray technically gain that benefit? Probably not intended, but I'd be tempted to allow it.

    This bonus isn't huge, of course: it's actually slightly worse than the Alchemists' equivalent by the time you cap your Intelligence, but it does help with the fact that you're probably going to be relying more on cantrips than a full caster would.

Level 9:

Explosive Cannon:

Your eldritch cannon gains the following benefits:

Detonate: When your cannont takes damage, you can use a reaction to cause it to detonate if you're within 60 feet. This destroys the cannon, and every creature within 20 feet of it needs to make a Dex save, taking 3d10 force damage on a failure or half as much on a success.

    I've never seen the earlier version of this used. Unless a monster is really focusing down a cannon, you'll probably want to just keep the cannon up as long as you can. And your reaction is already pretty precious, as you will probably want to save it for Shield or Flash of Genius.

Firepower: The cannon's damage rolls and the Temp HP its Protector action grant increase by 1d8.

    This is a straight-up buff, and while it's not huge, we also see it effectively doubled at level 15.

Level 15:

Fortified Position:

This also grants two benefits:

Double Firepower: You can now have two cannons out at the same time, and you can create two at a time with your magic action. (If you expend a spell slot to generate one cannon, you need to expend another to create the second - more on that in analysis). You can activate both cannons with the same bonus action, and their activation orders can be different. You cannot create a third cannon while you have two.

    This is a pretty massive buff, especially stacked with the damage buff from Explosive Cannon - your cannons are collectively doing three times as much as they were at level 8. It is, however, a little spell-slot intensive even at these levels, because we are still half-casters. That said, the wording here is interesting: you have to expend a spell slot for a second cannon if you expended one for the first, but if you're using your free first use of the cannon of the day, do you get both for free? As written, that seems to be the case, which is a change from the older version (where your first popping out of two cannons still costs a 1st level spell slot). That might be a fun little quality-of-life improvement - not huge, but nice.

Shimmering Field Projection: You and allies have Half Cover while within 10 feet of your cannons.

    This is unchanged. I think there's an interesting nuance here - I've generally ruled it that the field has an edge, so if a creature gets within the force field, their attacks no longer suffer from the cover, though I could imagine an interpretation where it's just a flat +2 to everyone's AC. I think my version encourages the players to keep foes at range (the Force Ballista's forced movement can help with that).

    Overall Thoughts:

While I think I'm drawn somewhat more to the martial style of Artificers, the fact that you can now quite effectively use a gun with this class (or a Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, if you're boring) makes this already-cool subclass just a little bit cooler. The biggest change here, though, is the versatility of the Eldritch Cannons, which is going to give players a lot more fun options to explore mid-fight.