FotA's Alchemist vs Tasha's Alchemist

 In my previous review, I tried to look at the Artificer class and subclasses as if they were brand-new. While I think I'm warming up more and more to the revamped version of the class the more I think about its possibilities, after a somewhat disheartened initial reaction, I'm generally pretty sanguine on the revamps to the subclasses.

The Alchemist, though, gave me a pretty sour taste. This is a subclass that I think has always suffered from over-conservative design, afraid to let it really excel in any of its presented roles. Are we the chemical-throwing spellcasters, are we the half-caster who can be a full healer?

Let's take a look at all the differences and compare and contrast.

Alchemist Spells:

The only change here is that Blight was replaced with Vitriolic Sphere. This is a buff, as Blight is doesn't do nearly enough damage for a single-target spell of its level. Vitriolic Sphere is actually pretty good.

Level 3:

Tools of the Trade now grants Herbalism Kit proficiency along with Alchemist's Supplies, which is nice (and solves any issues you might have determining if healing potions are only crafted with the former - you have both, so you can for sure craft them.) Also added in here is the Potion Crafting bonus, which replaces an old base class feature that came much later. While limited to potions and no longer saving you gold, this now halves the crafting time for any kind of potion, which means that if you can craft a legendary potion, this feature is still helping you.

Naturally, any kind of crafting will require some downtime, which is a bit campaign-dependent. But this is technically a new feature for the subclass, so I guess it's a buff.

Now, let's talk Experimental Elixir.

The first change is that you now create two free Experimental Elixirs per day, and you gain additional free elixirs at certain levels. While the old version capped out at 3 at level 15, now you'll have 5 per day by level 15.

As before, you can spend a spell slot to make an elixir of your choice (rather than a randomized one).

One big change here is that, like the broader change to potions in 2024, a creature can consume an elixir as a bonus action, rather than an action now. They can even administer an elixir as a bonus action as well.

So, let's compare the elixirs:

Healing now does 2d8+Int rather than 2d4+Int, and it also gets more powerful as you level up, growing to 3d8 at level 9 and 4d8 at level 15. A pure buff.

Swiftness starts off the same, granting 10 extra feet of movement for an hour, but like Healing (this will be a pattern) we see it improve as you reach higher levels, going to 15 feet at level 9 and 20 feet at level 15. Again, pure buff.

Resilience is the same at level 3, but the duration of the AC bonus increases at higher levels, going from 10 minutes at level 3 to 1 hour at level 9 and then 8 hours at level 15.

Boldness follows the same structure as Resilience, extending the buff longer at higher levels. It goes from 1 minute at 3 to 10 minutes at 9 to an hour at 15.

Fly now increases its fly speed from 10 feet at level 3 to 20 feet at level 9 to 30 feet at level 15.

Transformation is gone, but instead, if you roll a 6 when determining what your free Experimental Elixirs do, you just get to pick.

With one exception, this feature has received purely buffs. The only possible argument for a nerf is if you liked being able to get the Transformation option. Alter Self, while not an amazing spell, can be very useful if you find yourself fighting underwater, so spending a spell slot to select it and give the Paladin a swim speed could be very good in such a situation. That said, every other element of these changes is an unambiguous improvement (and you could argue that in most situations, the new "pick one of the other 5 of your choice" option is better.

Level 5:

Alchemical Savant works almost the same, except that it no longer increases the Necrotic damage you do. This is a nerf, right? Well... none of our Alchemist spells deal Necrotic damage now that we replaced Blight with Vitriolic Sphere, and that was literally the only spell we could have gotten at all that did Necrotic damage. Now, it's possible that we might get one via, like, a Dragonmark feat that would then count as an Artificer spell for us, but even if this is a "nerf" it's basically not, and just removes a damage type that would be baffling if one didn't know about the older version of the subclass. (I will say that I feel like necrotic spells do make sense for an Alchemist, but I guess between Poison and Acid, we've got enough stuff to corrode and corrupt our enemies' flesh.)

Level 9:

Here, though, we start to see some true nerfs. While we still get to cast Lesser Restoration for free a few times each day, our Experimental Elixir no longer grants any Temporary Hit Points. Even if the base feature has gotten a near-perfect buff, the loss of this is a pure nerf. Do they balance? Eh... I'm not sure. I do think that the elixirs are a lot better (especially healing) but they're now effectively weaker in this way, so...

I don't know why they got rid of this, or at least why they didn't replace it with something cooler.

Level 15:

Ok, here's where there are the biggest changes, even if the feature is called Chemical Mastery. This is a mix, I think, of buffs and nerfs.

The one non-changed thing is the resistances to acid and poison damage and the immunity to the poisoned condition.

Here's what we lose:

The old version let us cast both Greater Restoration and Heal each once for free per day, without needing material components. This was, I think, a really great way to let the Alchemist slot in as at least a partial substitute for a true dedicated healer like a Cleric or Druid. Heal, being a 6th level spell, was one we'd never be able to cast anyway, and we were actually getting it before we even got 5th level spells.

In terms of spells, we now gain Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron. This is also a 6th level spell, and again, it's once free per day with no material components required. TBC is a perfectly flavorful spell, but it requires a lot of parsing to see how best to use it. The potions are limited to Common or Uncommon quality. In terms of pure healing capabilities, 5 Potions of Greater Healing will get you 70 hit points, like Heal, but one of the major strengths of that spell is getting to put all of that healing into a single action.

This is, undoubtedly, a more versatile option than what we got before, but the two spells we lose are both effects that more or less every party is going to really want to have.

Fully added in the new version, though, is Alchemical Eruption. This lets us deal an extra 2d8 force damage to one creature we damage with a spell that does Acid, Fire, or Poison damage. 9 average damage at level 15 is maybe not enormous, and unlike Alchemical Savant, which might be adding 5 extra damage to some AoE spell like Vitriolic Sphere (I think only its initial damage) spread across all of its targets, this is going to be a one-time thing against a single enemy. I think it's going to feel the most notable when we hit a target with Acid Splash, Poison Spray, or Fire Bolt, buffing our cantrips to respectable levels (a Fire Bolt at this level is hitting for 3d10+2d8+5, or around 30.5, which is respectable for a cantrip).

    Thoughts:

So, I do think that the subclass has gotten an overall buff, but only a fairly minor one, and losing some of the higher-level stuff is pretty nasty. I think the added effects to Chemical Mastery are debatable, but I think this will continue to be in competition for least powerful Artificer subclass, which is a shame given that it's also one of the only subclasses that really fits in just about every setting (though I'll maintain you can certainly flavor the more steampunk subclasses to work in pre-industrial settings - like flavoring your Armorer as carving giant runes into stone armor, or a Artillerist just going all in on magic wands and animated wooden cannons).

Philosophically, I think that the designers decided to move the Alchemist into more of a damage-dealing role, though I think they're going to still fall well behind the Artillerist as the spell-casting focused damage dealer.

I honestly think you could have given the subclass nothing but buffs and it would have been good for the game. This is still playable, but I'm not inclined to play it.

Artificer: The Power of Shenanigans

 When I initially looked over the revision to the Artificer, I felt bummed out by some of the lost features - most importantly the amazing level 20 capstone's now-lost boost to saving throws.

However, the more I think about it, the more I have come to realize something:

Artificers are the "inventor" class. And you need to be inventive with it. And if you are, you can pull of some insane shenanigans.

DMs: if your natural instinct is to rein in fiddly rules-based shenanigans, make an exception here. This is the class that is built around "clever hacks," and it will honestly lose out a lot on its power if you don't let them pull of things that seem to bend the rules but don't, actually. The fantasy of this class is to find the clever methods, exploits, and interactions that a real-life engineer would. So try to be accommodating (within reason).

My intent in this post is not to give you an exhaustive list of all the ways that you can game the Artificer's features, but instead to bring up broad categories or avenues for clever tricks.

    Your Homunculus:

Homunculus Servant, which used to be an infusion, is now a 2nd level spell. It can be cast as a ritual and has a 100gp spell component, though this component is not consumed by the spell, so you can buy it once and just keep it around.

The Homunculus isn't terribly powerful in a vacuum, but it has a big benefit: you don't need to use any action to command it in a fight.

Every Artificer should have one of these. There's no reason not to. Basically, it should be expected that a 5+ level Artificer has one of these if it hasn't been killed in combat or some other catastrophe. (While your spell preparations are limited, I might keep this one prepared if you can spare it just so you can always get it back after a 61-minute ritual).

Now, the Homunculus has a little dinky attack that does... a little bit of damage. But we can do more.

Notably, the Homunculus is a conveniently flying creature that could potentially wield magic items. If you put a powerful spell (like a Battle Smith's Conjure Barrage) in a Spell-Storing Item, you could have the Homunculus use the item to cast the spell while freeing up your action to do other things. We can also cast spells like Dragon's Breath on it, weaponizing its action.

I will say that this isn't technically all that different from a Familiar (in many ways, this is the Artificer's equivalent) but I do think that the somewhat less explicitly beast-like form means that it's plausible for them to carry at least very small items and use them.

    Magic Item Tinker:

There are several ways to make ample use of this feature.

Being able to charge up a magic item with spell slots can be quite good: items that cast spells that are higher than 1st level will let you basically up-cycle your low-level spell slots in favor of them. Perhaps the most dramatic is if you make a Helm of Teleportation, which will effectively give you Teleport as a 1st level spell. This is limited, though, because you can only use it on replicated magic items. But other items, like Winged Boots (which now works on a charge system) has four charges and gives you an hour of flight per charge. While not as fast as the actual Fly spell, a 3rd level spell slot effectively gives you 3 extra hours of flight with them. By level 9, when you have 2 3rd level, 3 2nd level, and 4 1st level spells, on top of the four base charges, you could spend 20 hours flying with your boots (if you were willing to expend all your spell slots).

Now, both the Drain and Transmute magic item options are also quite powerful if you use the following strategies:

Get an item with a powerful one-use effect, or an item that has charges. Once all those uses or charges are expended (and if you don't want to spend spell slots to recharge it) you can then dispose of the old item for another one. For example, a Spell Refueling Ring will give you back up to a 3rd level spell slot. It recharges at dawn, but why wait for that? You can always just create another one tomorrow, so drain it or transmute it to get, respectively, another spell slot or some other useful item.

Indeed, a lot of magic items won't necessarily regenerate all of their charges every day. Thus, it's a better call to just use up all of its charges (or as many as you think you'll need) and then drain it.

    All Kinds of Spell-Storing Item Stuff:

While the feature isn't all that different than it was in the previous version, the fact that it can cast 3rd level spells is a pretty big deal. The best use, I think, is if you can put a powerful spell in it and then hand it to a character who doesn't generally do such powerful things. If this can be your Homunculus, that's great. But you could hand it to a friendly NPC who is following your party, or you can just hand it to a fellow party member who might not have quite the best tools for a given situation - like a Rogue when you're facing 20 minor monsters.

Three of the subclasses have very strong 3rd level AoE damage spells that you can put in this - Battle Smiths get Conjure Barrage, Artillerists get Fireball, and Armorers get Lightning Bolt. But while there aren't quite as obvious choice for the Alchemist or Cartographer, you can get some utility out of Fly, letting each party member cast it on themselves and worry about concentration separately.

    There are probably lots of clever uses for these avenues of shenanigans, and I'll be curious to see as the online community comes up with more. Also, as new books come out, we will see new wondrous items that might inspire new tricks.

Again, I think if you aren't using these tricks, the class might feel a little underpowered, so even if you're not generally the kind of player who looks for this sort of rules chicanery, I do think that that's the intent behind the Artificer.

FotA Artificer vs Tasha's Artificer

 So, in my class and subclass review posts, I tried to look at the revamped Artificer class with fresh eyes. The class did get a fair number of changes. My initial reading is that I think the base class at least has actually lost some cool features that I'm sort of sad/frustrated to see go.

But it seems like the best approach is to just go level-by-level and see what has changed.

I'm going to skip features that are not changed, but even if there's a fairly equivalent feature, we'll compare the two. I'm going to leave subclasses alone.

Starting Equipment:

Yeah, we're actually starting before we even get to the proper level class features. Artificers now only start with Studded Leather armor, and don't have the option for Scale Mail (that I'd assume everyone took). Now, we can easily make ourselves a set of half-plate right when we hit level 2, but I think that's kind of notable.

Level 1:

Here, Tinker's Magic replaces Magical Tinkering. The latter was a kind of pseudo-Prestidigitation effect. The new thing lets you conjure up various pieces of adventuring gear. Both are opportunities to think outside the box, which I like, and I don't know you could for sure call one better than the other.

Spellcasting works the same way, with one big buff: you can swap out a cantrip on a long rest.

However, our spell list, which in Tasha's included a lot of spells found in that book and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, has changed a bit, and lost those supplementary spells. This means losing awesome defensive spells like Absorb Elements and Intellect Fortress, among others. We of course benefit from spells that made it into the 2024 PHB (Summon Construct is here, obviously). The new True Strike will also be a pretty solid cantrip option for the now-three non-martial Artificers (the old version didn't get the old True Strike, but that spell sucked, so who cares?)

Level 2:

The huge thing here is that Infuse Item has been replaced with Replicate Magic Item.

The really strong bonus you get with the new version is that you no longer need to have the base item to create your new item. That means that you can easily get your hands on Half Plate (or Plate if you're an armorer) armor and expensive weapons like firearms without spending a copper penny.

It would take me far too long to go into every change in what items you can replicate compared to the old infusions, though notably most of the Artificer-specific options have been turned into broader magic item categories that you can still make. Notable omissions, though, are Arcane Propulsion Armor and Armor of Magical Strength.

Despite this, I think, probably, that this is a buff. Not only losing the need to actually get expensive items to infuse, but the fact that there are options for just, like "an uncommon wondrous item" gives you tons of possibilities and also future-proofs the design because you'll be able to play with magic items printed in later books.

Level 3:

The Right Tool for the Job is, sadly, just gone. This allowed us to create a set of temporary artisan's tools with an hour of work. While we can make or find a Manifold Tool to get similar functionality, the class feature is gone.

Level 6:

Tool Expertise is gone. I do think that the 2014 rules were always a little unclear on how one used tools (though maybe they actually spelled it out in Xanathar's?) But the way I've been running it with the Artificer in my Ravnica game, we just treat it as getting expertise when a tool proficiency would come into play - like, if you were making a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check using Thieves' Tools, you'd start with your Dex, then add double your proficiency because you're proficient with Thieves' Tools, but you'd also get advantage because you have both the skill and tool proficiencies.

I don't love that Artificers now don't get Expertise in anything - I know they abandoned the Warrior/Priest/Mage/Expert concept for classes early in the "One D&D" playtest, but I still feel like it was a good theme, even if not an explicit mechanical identity.

All this said, we now get a new feature in Magic Item Tinker. And this does have a ton of potential. The biggest, I think, is using lower-level spell slots to fuel charges that cast higher-level spells. However, because we're limited to items we've replicated, the number of items that work for this is actually somewhat low (Necklace of Fireballs is the main one I'm thinking of). Still, there's some nice versatility here, and it is, arguably, a better feature than Tool Expertise. We can charge up our replicated magic items, regain a spell slot by absorbing replicated magic item (once a day), and swap out replicated magic items once a day as well.

Level 7:

Flash of Genius is nearly the same, but now, like a lot of other similar features, you get to know if the test failed before you use the feature. (I'd recommend DMs treat a d20 test with multiple degrees of success as a "failure" to trigger this if they don't get the best possible result).

Level 10:

Magic Item Adept used to halve the crafting time and cost of common and uncommon magic items. Similar functionality has been added to each subclass at level 3, though for a narrower category of item to be crafted (and I think no gold discount). The extra attunement slot is the same.

Level 11:

Spell-Storing Item has been mostly buffed, as it can now store 3rd level spells as well (Artillerists can now put Fireball in it, and Armorers Lightning Bolt). However, there's one very subtle nerf, which may have been intended with the original version: You can't put a spell in it that has a consumed material component (it's ok if there's a priced one, just as long as it's not consumed). The old version had no such restriction, and I believe that if you're casting a spell through an item, you don't have to provide such material components.

Neither will let you have 10 uses of Revivify at the ready, though.

Level 14:

Magic Item Savant has been replaced with Advanced Artifice. Both grant a fifth attunement slot, but the old version also let you use magic items regardless of class, race (er, species) or level requirements to attune to an item. I think class was the far more common version of this, but I will say that this hurts a lot - not only did the freedom to attune to any magic item give Artificers access to really powerful items that might give them spells they'd not normally be able to have access to, but it also future-proofed the class, so that they don't have to go through each magic item and list whether it can be attuned by an artificer.

In recompense, Advanced Artificer gives us a single use of Flash of Genius back on a short rest.

That's... fine, but I do think this must count as a nerf, as we have to say goodbye to Staff of the Magi and Staff of Power, or Robe of the Archmagi, Necklace of Prayer Beads, Staff of Healing, etc. Honestly, that hurts.

Level 20:

And here's the other thing that hurts:

Soul of Artifice has the same name in both versions, but the new one is, I'd say, less powerful.

The old version gave you a bonus to all saving throws equal to the number of magic items to which you were attuned. This was one of the best 20th-level capstones because it was very likely to give you a +6 to all saves (as you can attune to six items at once, and even if your DM somehow hadn't given you enough of them by that point, you could just make your own).

The new version retains the old version's ability to end one of your artificer infusions (or in this case, absorb one of your replicated magic items) to avoid dropping to 0 HP, and this element of it got a buff, where you can now absorb multiple items, getting 20 HP per item absorbed.

In fairness, the new capstone also now refreshes all of your Flash of Genius charges on a short rest, which is good (even if I think the Advanced Artificer thing could have come with the base feature, and we could have gotten this at level 14).

    So, yeah.

It's a mixed bag, for sure. The really big disappointments come at higher levels, so if you're expecting to do a campaign that ends before or in early tier 3, the new version has a lot to recommend it.

I will say, though, that even if level 20 is a mere dream to most players (though not for my players! My campaign plan requires them to not only hit 20, but do a fair amount of stuff there) I'm really bummed out by the loss of the saving throw bonus. It's an absurdity, of course, but it was just so good, and level 20 capstone features should feel like they're overpowered. Neither feature in the new version is terribly exciting.

I feel similarly about the loss of universal magic item use, both from a design perspective and from a "they took away a cool toy" perspective. And while it's still somewhat rare, level 14 is far more conceivable as a level people will actually get to than 20.

My last big caveat here is that there are two very big lists that I have not gone over with a fine-tooth comb, which is the full spell list and the full Replicate Magic Item list. I think probably the new spell list is smaller, but I haven't checked to see what they get, rather than lose. However, I'd guess that the total potential for Replicate Magic Item is probably a little better (other than those two armor options I mentioned earlier). At level 2, we can make any common magic item that isn't a potion, a scroll, or cursed, and then we get uncommon wondrous items that aren't cursed at level 10, and then rare ones at 14. This is in addition to the bespoke lists we get at each level that include things like +1 Armor, +2 Wands of the War Mage, or Dazzling Weapons (which I think is just the new name for Radiant Weapons).

Where does this all land, then, on a power level? I think it's open to interpretation. If you were hoping the Artificer would get an unambiguous buff, I don't think we can say that. But it's something interesting to play around with.

Midnight Releases March 2nd, 2026

 Oh hey! I'll still be in my 30s when Midnight releases!

Yes, we've got an official release date for Midnight, WoW's eleventh expansion, and part two of the Worldsoul Sage trilogy of expansions. It's March 2nd (you saw the title, right?)

This does mean that I get about two months in my 30s to play the expansion. The reason I find that particularly interesting is that I started playing WoW when I was 20, so some time around the end of 2026 (maybe just over into 2027, because I was a few months past 20 when I started playing) I'll have been playing this game for half my freaking life, which is insane.

Also of note, this March release will make The War Within the shortest WoW expansion ever, at just 18 Months (approximately). The previous record-holder was a tie between Warlords and Cataclysm, which both felt longer, I think, especially Warlords, which had an enormous content drought.

With War Within only lasting about a year and a half, we might have to reconsider the general cadence of expansion launches.

Generally, starting in full force with Wrath of the Lich King, we've tended to get an expansion launch in late summer or fall of even-numbered years and we get the next expansion announcement around the same time in odd-numbered years.

But unless Midnight is by far our longest expansion (previous record holder was BFA with 26 months, though Shadowlands had been intended to launch earlier, but you might remember this somewhat disruptive virus going around in 2020, which delayed it. Runner-up is split between Wrath, Mists, and Vanilla - if you count it as, well, not an "expansion" but a phase of the game's life - with 25 months) we can probably expect the Last Titan to launch either around two years later in late winter/early spring of 2028, or, if Midnight has a similar lifespan to War Within, as early as Summer/Fall of 2027. As a note, if that were the case, it would be the first expansion since Burning Crusade to launch in an odd-numbered year, 20 years later.

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that, while we still have a couple months to do what we wanted to do in War Within, there's not going to be a super-long tail to this expansion. They already skipped the "season four" we got in Shadowlands and Dragonflight.

Monk of the Storm

 So, fun fact, my first post-2024 character concept I came up with was a Goliath Warrior of Elements Monk. The concept was that he was from a flying city (ancient cloud giant runestones keep it aloft) and a crew member (sailor background) on an airship that flies into storms to collect elemental energy.

This concept actually works really well in Eberron, perhaps minus the flying city. But I realized there was a way to make it really powerful by level 8.

First off, we find a way to get Mark of the Storm as our origin feat. We could make him a House Lyrandar heir as his background. This will allow him to boost his Dex with the background, though it doesn't help Wisdom, which is a little tough as I generally want +3s to both at level 1.

Now, Monks are a lot better than they were, but they still don't quite overcome characters with powerful damage-enhancing spells. But now we can! And it's even quite on-theme.

We'll take some appropriate Dex feat at level 4 to boost our Dex from 17 to 18. Then, we take Potent Dragonmark at level 8, which is, conveniently, the level at which we'll get a 4th level spell slot from it.

This will give us access to Conjure Minor Elementals (hey, we're an Elements Monk). Now, each attack we land within 10 feet of us will hit for 2d8 extra damage.

And while it does cost us our action to cast this spell, we can immediately Flurry of Blows to make two attacks. At this level, that's two attacks that are each doing 3d8+4, or 17.5 damage each, or 35 total.

But then, on subsequent turns, with another Flurry of Blows, we can hit four times, meaning 12d8+16, or 70 damage.

At level 10, we get two upgrades: our Flurry of Blows now does one more attack, and also our Conjure Minor Elementals will get upcast to 5th level. So, now, on turn two, we're doing five attacks that are each hitting for 4d8+4, or 22 per hit, giving us 110 damage.

Obviously, this is just damage potential, as this assumes all attacks hit. We're also slightly delaying our Dexterity progression (though we can boost Wisdom with the Potent Dragonmark feat, so we're still getting something we'd want to boost anyway).

At 10, barring Wraps of Unarmed Prowess (though I'd hope our DM would give us some) we have a +8 to hit. Against a target with a 15 AC (weirdly common at level 10, even if that feels low) we would have a 70% hit chance.

So, we have 22x70%, or 15.4, plus 18 (our extra damage for crits)x5%, or .9, giving us 16.3 damage per attack.

Thus, on round one, we're doing an average of 48.9 damage, and on subsequent rounds we've got 81.5 damage, and that is pretty damn good if you ask me.

We will only ever be able to do this once per day, but I think that's fine - this is our boss-melting move. Given that we're likely an Airship captain, this is our "GET! OFF! MY! SHIP!" move.

Dragonmarks in Forge of the Artificer

 The Dragonmarked Houses are a major part of Eberron's lore and world. While the overall pitch is 1930s pulp adventure (whether that be hard-boiled crime stories or racing to explore ancient ruins, Indiana Jones-style - which, yeah, is itself a throwback to 1930s pulp). But even if the world is one in which magic has given the setting the equivalent of early 20th century technology, the Dragonmarked Houses add a more fantastical element to the world.

Each of the Houses is blessed with a Dragonmark - a magical sigil that forms on their body that imbues them with some kind of magical power. The Houses, which are largely actual blood relations, but also grand organizations that act as monopolistic corporate enterprises and also sort of guilds, are the major powers in the setting. While there are several nations that just fought the massive Last War (and that name is probably over-optimistic,) the Houses transcend national borders.

I think a good analogue might be the Spacing Guild from Dune, if you're familiar: just as the Spacing Guild maintains (theoretical) political neutrality in order to maintain its monopoly on space travel, you'll similarly find that, say, Airships in Eberron must all be operated with someone bearing House Lyrandar's Mark of the Storm.

In Rising from the Last War, Dragonmarks were treated as new sub-races, or for races that didn't have such things, more like variants.

In an effort to give players greater freedom, and also tie into the overhauled feat system, these are now handled as feats. That said, there's guidance in the book that suggests that if you aren't a member of the family (and maybe not even the same species) you might take your Dragonmark feat at 4th level instead of as an Origin Feat. Naturally, this will slightly hamstring you, as you don't get any ability score bump from them.

The book has a background for each of the Dragonmarked Houses, which will give you a corresponding feat, though because these work like the ones in the 2024 PHB, they do come with specific ability score bonuses, which might not work well for you (if you wanted to be an Artificer who flies an Airship, sadly the Lyrandar Heir background doesn't give you a boost to Intelligence - again, this is the biggest problem I have with the 2024 revamp, and generally suggest taking older backgrounds if you can't find the feats/bonuses you want).

There are Dragonmark feats for each of the houses, as well as a few others, like the Aberrant Mark. These are designed as Origin Feats, and you also can't double up on them (a Human, for example, can't pick up the marks from two different houses).

Honestly, I'd originally intended to detail them all here, but they're all fairly complex, especially for Origin feats. Generally, similarly to how they were in RftLW, you'll get a d4 bonus to one or two skills associated with the house (like Investigation and Insight for the Mark of Detection) and then one or two free spells you can use each once per day, or that you can spend spell slots on to cast additional times. Then, there's a sort of expanded spell list you get, adding spells to your potential choices (though this doesn't automatically prepare them).

A few of these will also give you non-spell features, or modify spells in unusual ways (like letting you use Speak with Animals on Monstrosities).

If you're planning on playing a non-spellcaster character, I think these Dragonmarks get seriously devalued, but most D&D characters do have some kind of magic.

The Aberrant Dragonmark feat works a little differently, giving you broad access to your choice of Sorcerer spells (a cantrip and a 1st level spell) and then a one-a-day bonus to a Con save, and some extra Temp HP or damage to a foe when you use the 1st level spell you got.

Each of the Dragonmark Feats has a corresponding General Feat, including the Aberrant Mark, which require the previous one as a prerequisite. These give various other thematic bonuses related to the things you got for the basic Dragonmark, and also some new abilities that are a little more unique. These also grant a 1-point ability score bump of your choice, which makes them pretty broadly useful.

Potent Dragonmark is a catch-all enhancement to any of the Dragonmark feats. It'll increase the ability score chosen for the spells in the previous feat. It also makes all of the spells in the expanded spell list automatically prepared for free. Finally, it gives you an extra spell slot to use on the spells granted by your Dragonmark feat, which is of a level equal to half your level rounded up, to a maximum of 5. It also recharges on a short or long rest.

While you can only use this spell slot on a spell granted by the feat, this is actually pretty huge: if you're a half-caster, you'll be able to get access to 5th level spells by level 10.

Some of these spells are really good, and again, being a half (or one-third) caster with access to them early is quite amazing. As I interpret it, you can  have higher-level spells prepared because you do have a spell slot to cast them, so an Eldritch Knight with Mark of the Storm is going to be able to cast Conjure Minor Elemental as early as 8th level (and be able to upcast it at level 10).

So, yeah, I'd strongly consider these feats if playing in an Eberron campaign, just make sure you coordinate with your DM.

Finally there's an Epic Boon that will grant you an 8th level or lower spell from the Sorcerer class list. There are suggested spells based on your type of Mark, but you actually get to choose. You can cast it once for free per day, and then spend a spell slot on it, which does mean potentially getting two (or a third if you upcast it to 9th level) 8th-level spells in a day, which is pretty rad. Non-casters and half/third casters will also probably enjoy having some high-powered magic.

Actually, upon closer inspection, the Epic Boon, Boon of Siberys, only requires you be in an Eberron campaign - no prerequisite to have a Dragonmark.

Once again, I think there are some really strong options here. I do think my favorite possibility is the aforementioned half/third-caster getting spells before they're supposed to (I now wonder if I ought to rebuild my Armorer to get Mark of the Storm... Maybe just use his extra Human origin feat to pick it up instead of Tough?) But each Mark comes with different things, so it's worth a pretty thorough read-through. (Man, and I normally never get excited about new feats!)

Building for Damage: Battle Smith

 Ok, I love my Armorer concept, of course, but as I acknowledged while building it, it's not going to be taking home the prize for topping the damage meters (sorry, I know those don't exist in D&D, but I've been playing WoW nearly twice as long, so that's the term that comes to mind).

Battle Smiths have a big advantage over Armorers for their damage because they can use any kind of martial weapon, and that means that they can take advantage of the many weapon-focused feats that can really enhance your damage potential.

However, one issue they run into compared to 2024 martial classes is that they don't get access to weapon masteries. This means that they either forgo powerful abilities like Vex, Graze, or Nick, or they have to find it some other way.

When it comes to Feats, they also have the following issue: these feats will tend to boost Strength or Dexterity, and we'll probably want to focus on Intelligence, because we can actually use Int for our weapons (they have to be magic weapons, but we're Artificers, so they will be magic).

As I see it, you have two options: You can actually push Strength or Dex (Strength is probably the way to go for damage output) and treat Intelligence more like the way a Ranger would treat Wisdom. But I think the better call, honestly, is to just get enough in a physical stat for your minimum requirements and then push Int, which will help with both spellcasting and our fantastic Flash of Genius feature.

Now, if we had total free-reign to do whatever we wanted, and had a super-chill DM, this would be an Antimatter Rifle build. The Antimatter Rifle, found in the DMG, does 6d8 Necrotic damage on a hit, which I think is just going to blow past every other possible damage-boosting feat we can find (Great Weapon Master, which I think is the most powerful damage feat for a martial class, lets you deal 6 extra damage per hit at level 17+ on your turn. A Greatsword or a Maul are the highest-damage weapons in the PHB. They deal 2d6 damage. 2d6+6 (the Int bonus is a wash) is 13. 6d6 is 21.) We could even make a Repeating Shot version and never run out of ammo.

But it's very unlikely that a DM will allow this. So we'll assume that we're going to go with PHB weapons.

In this case, the Greatsword is probably our weapon of choice. I'm going to say not a reach polearm because we already have a use for our bonus action, so Polearm Master is devalued.

However, if we take Great Weapon Master, we can actually be quite powerful as well with a Heavy Crossbow, which also has the Heavy property.

The trick, though, is that we need to have 13 in Strength to get the feat and wield the Greatsword, and also 13 in Dex to wield the Heavy Crossbow.

We'd want to get at least 14 in Dex anyway to max out our AC using medium armor, though, so the latter isn't much of a challenge. It's the Strength that becomes a little tricky: we're spread a bit thin, needing at least 13s in Strength and Dex, and then trying to get a 17 in Int, so we probably have to dump Wisdom and Charisma and will probably only wind up with 14 Con.

Now, we want to get Graze, which is an amazing weapon mastery, but spending a whole general feat on a single weapon mastery is probably a bit too much.

Yeah, I think we're starting off as a Fighter.

This will delay certain things, but I think in the long run, it solves a lot of our problems (much as it does for a Bladelock).

With one level in Fighter, we can get the Greatsword's Graze mastery, as well as potentially the Heavy Crossbow's Push. We'll also get heavy armor training. For now, that's not going to help us very much as we'll probably be doing just as well in Medium Armor, but if we can eventually push our Strength to 15 (which might not happen until level 12 or something) we can upgrade to Plate. We'll take Defensive fighting style to compensate for the fact that we're going to probably be in Half Plate from level 2 to, like, 12 or 16. And we get Second Wind (we also might consider taking a second Fighter level at some point, but we do want to focus on Artificer for the most part).

Now, the first few levels will be rough. We'll probably want to stick to cantrips for our main damage for levels 2 and 3, and then by 4 (Artificer 3) we'll sort of come online. We'll make a +1 Greatsword and have our Steel Defender.

At level 5 (Artificer 4) we'll take Great Weapon Master. Our Int is still just going to be +3, but the +1 bonus to our weapon will mean we're now hitting for 2d6+7, though only once per turn until the next level. Technically, True Strike will give us slightly more damage than the bonus from Great Weapon Master (which requires us to use the Attack action - this is why it's so damn good for Eldritch Knights, who can do something like Booming Blade as part of the Attack Action,) but we'll soon set aside True Strike.

Level 6, we're going to start feeling less hamstrung by our multiclassing now that we have Extra Attack.

At level 7, we'll have more magic item replication options. We can change out our +1 Greatsword for a Dazzling Greatsword (which still has the +1 bonus plus other stuff).

At 8, we'll get Flash of Genius.

Finally, at 9, the level I wanted to build this to, we're going to get a second feat. Now we probably want to pick up an Intelligence half-feat. War Caster is the obvious choice. Fey Touched can let us get Hunter's Mark, but I think we will probably be better off with my Homunculus Servant/Dragon Breath combo. We'll have +4 to Intelligence now.

So, if we look at the hypothetical encounter from my Abram Locke post, we can imagine that we're doing the same damage with the Homunculus/Breath attack. We ultimately landed on an average damage of 13.3875 against two Cloakers for the cost of a 2nd level spell slot and a bonus action (assuming we already summoned the Homunculus at some earlier point).

We're now hitting with a +9 to hit and for 2d6+9 on a hit (though still 4 on a miss).

So, as usual with Graze, we can just ignore the 4 from Int for now and add it at the end. So a hit is now worth 2d6+4, or 11 (this four from GWM) and a crit adds another 2d6, or 7.

We have an 80% chance to hit an AC of 14. So, 11x80% is 8.8 and then 5%x7 is .35. So that's 9.15, and then add the guaranteed 4 each attack to give us 13.15 per attack, or 26.3 total damage per turn from our Greatsword.

We then add in the Dragon Breath to get 39.6875 damage per turn.

Now, round one, that's it. But once Dragon's Breath is up and running, we can add our Steel Defender to the mix. It's only going to have a +8 to hit, hitting for 1d8+6. So, with a 75% hit chance, we're looking at 10.5x75%, or 7.875, plus 4.5x5%, or .225, for a total of 8.1 damage from the Defender on rounds 2+, which would bring our damage per round up to 47.7875.

Honestly, I think that's pretty damn respectable, actually.