Exploring Eberron through Artificer Specialists for 5E D&D

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted tinker with Exploring Eberron through another look at the character options included in the Dungeon Master’s Guild book produced by Keith Baker, the original creator of the megapopular Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. Eberron’s rich and detailed setting appealed to D&D players from the very beginning. Exploring Eberron wonderfully illustrates how curating character options creates a tremendous opportunity to show, rather than tell, what’s special about your world. Exploring Eberron includes several subclasses specially tailored to the setting for 5E D&D characters to choose from and Nerdarchy explores them all like we do. In the case of the Artificer Specialists I’m searching through the book to find connection points between these subclasses and the larger world they come from. So let’s get into it.

Artificer Specialists in Exploring Eberron

The subclass options in Exploring Eberron vary in the extent they get into specific themes and concepts of the campaign setting and this DMG book. The two Artificer Specialists presented within represent two ends of the spectrum with the Forge Adept incorporating very specific campaign setting details while the Maverick takes a more generic approach.

“As a Forge Adept, you carry on these ancient traditions, creating mystical weapons and armor, strengthening allies on the battlefield, and bringing down enemies with weapons imbued with your own soul energy.” — Exploring Eberron

• The Kech Shaarat have the finest Forge Adept artificers.
• Forge Adept artificers are associated with the Dhakaani.
• Dhakaani artificers typically focus on the creation of arms and armor as Forge Adepts.
• The ancient traditions of renowned Dhakaani daashor live on in the Forge Adept artificers of today.

In the world of artifice, the Maverick is a jack of all trades and master of none. A Maverick is always experimenting with new designs, forever abandoning yesterday’s work in pursuit of a new obsession.” — Exploring Eberron

• Some of the world’s most eccentric and brilliant innovators are Maverick artificers, pushing the boundaries of science and magic.
• While often dismissed by other artificers as eccentric amateurs a Maverick may stumble on remarkable breakthroughs.

Since artificers are such an integral part of Eberron there’s a lot of terrific places to find inspiration for your artificer throughout the book. Here’s a small sampling of the many ways artificers engage with the setting and represent a critical part of the history and lore throughout Eberron.

• You’re on the edge of an arcane breakthrough, but the final piece of the puzzle is tied to the work of the giants. You’ll need to search through their ruins for clues.
• Daashor artificers of Dhakaan produced remarkable artifacts and were master weaponsmiths with a remarkable understanding of adamantine and other exotic alloys.
• Expert artificers are largely tied to House Cannith.
• Cannith artificers are working to adapt other charged items to use breath of Siberys — a small globe containing a highly refined solution of dragonshards held in a suspended state.
• As an artificer you are unconventional, using personalized techniques and improvising solutions.
• The artificer is an arcane engineer; instead of working directly with mystical energy, they use tools to perform wonders.
• Artificers are innovators and inventors developing tools to shape the future.
• Artificer Techniques presents ideas to consider your appearance and the way you cast your spells.
• When artificers cast spells they’re using a tool and its associated skills to produce magical effects.
• Your character’s background may represent a different approach whether it’s guild artisan, soldier, sage, urchin or criminal.
• Various institutions like the Arcane Congress, Tasker’s Dream, House Cannith or The Twelve employ and train artificers.
• While Onatar is the acknowledged patron of House Cannith, some believe that the Traveler is the source of dramatic inspiration, helping artificers make unforeseen breakthroughs.
• An artificer could hear Dyrnn’s whispers, guiding them to create living tools; their infusions might appear to be alive.
• An artificer from an old Whisperer family could have an unorthodox approach to alchemy, and their homunculus could be a living ooze.
• A Battle Smith artificer could work with stone instead of metal, sculpting their Steel Defender before bringing it to life.
• The Kech Hashraac are a logical choice for a Dhakaani Artillerist artificer.
• A Hashraac artificer could have left the clan to pursue their own unorthodox weapons research, hoping to return in triumph once they have perfected their techniques.
• A Volaar wizard or artificer could be struggling to master the techniques of the gath’dar, while a duur’kala could be an envoy sent to recover an ancient treasure or to seek allies among the outsiders.
• The Kech Dhakaan call their artificers daashor.
• Artillerist artificers are generally only found in the Kech Hashraac.
• A Volaar artificer could follow any archetype with the idea that you are blazing new trails through your work.
• At the height of the Empire of Dhakaan, the only common spellcasters were artificers and bards.
• A character exploring the fleshcrafting techniques could be an artificer, describing their spellcasting as being tied to organic tools.
• Narathun dwarves are more likely to be artificers or wizards than warlocks.
• Soranath artificers are fascinated by the potential of the Realm Below and what they could learn both from the Udar artifacts and the symbionts of the daelkyr, and Grayroot Spire has been experimenting with fleshcrafting.

The gnome artificer Vi and her cockatrice-like eldritch cannon battle foes atop a lightning train. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Your Exploring Eberron stories

We’ve now covered all five new subclass options from Exploring Eberron! Subclasses in the book absolutely speak to strong themes and concepts permeating the campaign setting but none as much as the artificer. The class itself traces its origin directly to Eberron.

Discovering ways to immerse character into campaign settings adds new dimensions to how they view the world and how the world views them. Exploring Eberron contains tremendous amounts of interesting information and lore about the world enough for any player to find cool and interesting ways to help bring characters to vibrant life. If you’re interested in finding out more about this campaign setting Exploring Eberron is a big 250 page book available at Dungeon Masters Guild in both PDF and hardcover options here.