D&D: Revised Artificer, New Subclass, And Dragonmark Feats In ‘Eberron Unearthed Arcana’
An Eberron Unearthed Arcana takes another swing at the Artificer with a new subclass, a revision, and several Dragonmark feats.
There are big things in the works for Eberron right now. A new Eberron focused Unearthed Arcana dropped today, taking aim at a revised Artificer. This is, of course, because there’s a new book that’s all about Artificers (and now, it seems, all about Eberron, too) coming later this year, titled Forge of the Artificer. You can look for it in August.
But it’s not just a few minor tweaks to the technomancer here. There’s a new subclass. A whole suite of Dragonmark Feats, making them more like what they once were in the glory days of Eberron. And finally some new magic items and spells along for the ride.
All of which has me even more excited for Forge of the Artificer. This book is a “companion piece” for the main 5E setting book, Eberron: Rising from the Last War. In addition to the Artificer, there will be new player options, including the Khoravor (which we haven’t seen previewed yet) and Dragonmarks, which will again be available as feats. You can see for yourself in the new Unearthed Arcana.
Eberron Unearthed Arcana – Updated Artificer Front And Center
While the Unearthed Arcana is about all of Eberron, it is specifically focused on the Artificer. Little wonder. Again the upcoming book has Artificer in the name. And the Artificer is front and center in the new Eberron Unearthed Arcana.
By and large, the Artificer is getting to be in much better shape. Perhaps the biggest revision to the Artificer, in general, is a refinement of the lists. Power-hungry players will notice that the lists of magic items that Artificers can replicate have been trimmed down. In particular, the ability to replicate “Enspelled Items” – that is, items that store spells that can later be cast by anyone – is gone. Enspelled items no longer appear on the list of replicable items.
Which is probably fine. It is maybe too powerful for a single class to be able to load up spells on items that they can pass around like candy or just use to pump up their own spellcasting arsenal. But, the limitations now in place seem a little too extreme.
Now, you can craft Uncommon and Rare Wondrous Items at certain levels (10 and 14) instead of any item. And that’s still an expansive enough list. But as for the other item types, you’re limited to the specific weapons, armors, rings, and wands that appear on the Artificer pattern list instead of just the general catalog. Which, again, I understand. I just don’t like that as much.
A minor change, but a neat one, is that Tinker’s Magic lets you make an item as a Magic Action that lasts until you finish a Long Rest. That’s kind of a fun little ribbon feature. Also, you can recharge magic items with spell slots now or transform one magic item into another. All in all, pretty good, reasonable changes.
Mapmaker Mapmaker Make Me A Map
The other big Artificer option on display here is the new Artificer Subclass, the Cartographer. We’ll be going through that one in-depth in another article. But it’s, as the name suggests, an Artificer focused on making maps.
In the context of the Last War, Artificer Cartographers would serve as scouts and recon types. They gain the ability to create something called an Adventurer’s Atlas, which allows you to teleport to people in your magical ring of networked atlases. There are a few other things you can play around with too.
But maps and teleportation, overall, are the Cartographers’ playground in the new Eberron Unearthed Arcana. Which is an interesting niche to try and fill. There aren’t really very many Exploration focused classes. So I’m hoping that the Cartographer gets some features that let it play well with the underutilized third pillar of D&D.
The three pillars are,nominally, exploration, combat, and social interaction. However, most games focus much much more on the latter two pillars. Exploration takes a backseat from the other two, especially looking at the catalog of adventures released by WotC. Even Curse of Strahd relies more on the players following threads from person to person than getting out there and exploring the cursed lands of Barovia.
So the prospect of a class that embraces the third pillar, is a fascinating one. Assuming it does, in fact, embrace exploration. I’d hate for it to just be the emergency teleport clinician.
Eberron Unearthed Arcana – New Items, New Spell, New Feats
Of course, it isn’t just Artificers that get to play with fun new toys in the new Eberron Unearthed Arcana. There are nine new magic items, one new spell, and a whopping twenty-eight new feats to dig through. That’s so much stuff to play around with.
Starting with the new spell: Homunculus Servant. This is a revised version of an ability the Artificer had before. Now, it’s a 2nd level spell that any and all Artificers have access to. It is a fancy version of other Summoning type spells you might be familiar with. Homunculus Servant lets you create a Homunculus with a specific stat block:
As you can see, it’s not the toughest creature you can summon. With a base of 15 hit points, plus five for every spell level you use above 2nd (up to 30 hp at 5th level). But it has a nice ranged attack and you can use it to cast Touch spells through. It might not be much compared to, say, a Summoned Aberration or even a Giant Insect. But what makes this valuable to Artificers is that the spell has a duration of Instantaneous.
So you summon the Homunculus once, and then it sticks around until it is reduced to 0 hit points, which is kind of incredible. Sure, each casting has a cost of 100gp, but that’s pretty cheap to add a free attack to your party plus all the other scouting things a homunculus can do.
Then there are the new magic items and Dragonmarked feats to consider. All in all, this is a massive unearthed arcana, and it shows big things in store for Eberron. At twenty-eight different feats, it’s a return to form for Dragonmarks, though the feat chains are a little less overpowered than they were at the height of Eberron. Still, we’ll take a look at those in another article too.
For now, you can play test of the new Eberron Unearthed Arcana below!
What artifice, what craft!
