Lord of Blades is the Ultimate Artificer — But He Needs Your Help!

Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took a thorough look at the new character class for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, the artificer. 5E D&D players have been champing at the bit for some time to see an official version of this longtime favorite class first seen in D&D 3.5. Artificers are a integral part of the Eberron campaign setting, so it’s only natural the 5E D&D version comes in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Since Dave and Ted covered the artificer class in great detail in the video below, I’m going to take a look at the class from a Dungeon Master’s point of view.

Steal artificer features for your 5E D&D monsters

Almost everything about artificers in 5E D&D not surprisingly comes from the class description section of Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Outside this section the class gets mentioned here and there but nothing too in depth specifically. One place artificer does show up is in the stat block for the Lord of Blades. He’s a 20th level spellcaster with artificer spells prepared, and I didn’t see any other new creatures with artificer spells. This is great for two reasons.

First, the Lord of Blades is a compelling character I’ve been interested in for a long time. And second, the death of artificer creatures means we’ll have to create some of our own. If our Eberron adventures involve the Lord of Blades, things are bound to involve artificers, Creation Forges and similar themes and trappings. However you imagine the Lord of Blades in your campaign, one of the consistent aspects of the character is the nation he established deep in the Mournland. Naturally, adventurers will travel there at some point or another.

“The Lord of Blades is a warforged warlord who has broken all ties with his former masters. He has established a nation for his people deep in the Mournland, centered in a great fortress where warforged from all over Khorvaire can come and feel a sense of belonging. No one knows what the Lord of Blades plans for his followers, but many fear that he intends to build a legion of warforged zealots, primed to march from the Mournland to unleash destruction on their former masters.

Some tales assert that the Lord of Blades led the warforged armies of Cyre in the Last War. Others cast him as a newer warforged, perhaps the last to come out of the Cannith creation forges before the Thronehold Accords led to their dismantling. One story claims the Lord of Blades caused the destruction of Cyre and warns that he plans to repeat the Day of Mourning in each of the remaining Five Nations. Whatever the truth, he has become a beacon for warforged everywhere.” — from Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Whatever the situation at the Lord of Blades’ fortress in the Mournland, warforged live there. Without any warforged creatures to work with, we’ll need to have something to accompany the iron defenders and other constructs hanging around the Lord of Blades’ pad.

The easiest thing to do is take any of the NPC stat blocks like scout, veteran or apprentice wizard and apply warforged traits. In the Dungeon Master’s Guide, chapter 9 has an NPC Features chart with examples of many races for this purpose. Along the same lines you can make adjustments to the chosen stat block taken straight from the warforged description.

Warforged Features. +2 Con, +1 Int, Constructed Resilience, Integrated Protection

From here you can simply add artificer class features to the stat block to quickly create a variety of new warforged creatures. Here’s a few standouts that will be easy to slap on a creature.

• Spellcasting. This one is easy. If the stat block is a spellcaster, simply replace their spells with spells on the artificer spell list. You can imagine these warforged with integrated devices to produce spell effects. Like suits of armor around the world…
• Infuse Item. The creature knows 2-6 infusions, simple enough to choose them and apply the benefits to the stat block. Alternatively, a warforged with this trait could provide them allies. Since you’re the DM and your creatures operate by different rules, consider your warforged creature can Infuse Items with their action, or even bonus action!
• Flash of Genius. Giving a creature a reaction makes them much more versatile. Throwing out bonuses to ability checks and saving throws greatly ups the stakes in an encounter.
• Spell-Storing Item. Like Infuse Items, this feature gives the warforged extra spellcasting. You could also simply give any warforged you’re putting together a consumable item with a useful spell stored within.
• Soul of Artifice. Saving throw bonuses tied to the items your Infuser passes out provides a nice little bump. And burning Infused Items to thwart death is simply boss. Imagine a campaign ending finale battle against the Lord of Blades, who can burn his Adamantine armor and weapons to stay alive. That’s epic.
• Alchemist Spells. I wouldn’t even bother messing with figuring out the spellcasting specifics. Choose a few appropriate ones from the list and warforged can cast them each once.
• Experimental Elixir. Make this 1/Day, or Recharge (6) if you want to make it possible to use more than once. As a bonus action your warforged can roll 1d6 and get the effect from the Experimental Elixir table.
• Artillerist Spells. See Alchemist Spells above.
• Eldritch Cannon. Including this feature on any stat block means whoever they’re with has amazing support from a flamethrower, force ballista or protector. Bump it up to an Explosive Cannon for a major boost. And with Fortified Position the support rockets into SIberys.
• Battle Smith Spells. See Alchemist Spells above.
• Arcane Jolt. Assume the creature wields a magic weapon. Now they deal an extra 2d6 force damage or restore 2d6 hit points.
• Artificer Infusions. Boots of the Winding Path, Enhanced Defense and Enhanced Weapon, Radiant Weapon, Repeating Shot, Repulsion Shield, Resistant Armor and any of the Replicable Items add artificer flavor and nifty abilities to your warforged creature.

With the wide variety of NPC stat blocks out there and all the amazing artificer features you can take the something as plain as a commoner and create a unique new creature with fun, impactful and memorable abilities. I’ve used the technique of taking character class features and slapping them on monster stat blocks quite a few times and it’s a ton of fun. Grungle in the Jungle is an adventure we still talk about years later.

How about you? What are your favorite character class feature and monster mash-ups? Are you interested in running a 5E D&D campaign centered around the Lord of Blades, or would you rather play in a campaign like that? Is the Lord of Blades the ultimate artificer? Let me know in the comments!