playable artificer in dfrpg

[S1C0]

I am a life time nerd and gamer first time i have posted on anything ever. i have made a scion of a svartevel or dark elf in Norse mythology. my gen approved the idea of a 300 year old craftsman he has ritual refinement (crafting) twice three mortal stunts letting him use craftsmanship for discipline lore conviction for making stuff, inhuman recovery and he also has the disabled power thing for ritual he has agoraphobia making him a whistler type support character what my question is do you know anything i could do to make him an epic force of creation and not entirely game break the world?

[Mrmdubois]

First you could lay out his character sheet, skills, stunts, powers and all that in a clear, easy to read format.

Otherwise I'm not sure, because it will depend on how your stunts are worded, and how exactly you're using your refinements, etc.

[Mrmdubois]

Oh, and what's the games power level?

[S1C0]

OK duh on my part 
high concept: artificer svartevel shut-in
trouble aspect: limited economy
other aspects:
I give life
home sweet home
equivalent exchange
Don't worry about it
Skills: 35 sp
superb:craftsmanship; lore
great:scholarship;contacts
good:endurance;conviction
fair:intimidation;investigation;alertness
average:stealth;survival;deceit
mortal stunts
do you like it i built it myself (use craft for self made weapons)
-3 Artificer custom skill shuffle (allows use of craft instead of conviction lore discipline)(like a power but still a mortal stunt just three rolled into one)(i think we got rid of this in favor of the refinement)
scrapheap challenge (crafting two time shifts faster)
19th century tech 20th century solutions (+4 hexing scale on anything i craft)
Powers
-1 ritual(artifice)
+2 disability severe agoraphobia (takes mental stress when in large open spaces with a weapon 5)
0 wizards constitution
-1 its alive (allows for an exchange in crafting of stress for more life like constructs)
-2 refinement (4 focus items slots) specializations for better crafting the specific element spirit


man i am a noob typewriter been typing this whole time let me know what you think and what is needed   

just read the new post when trying to post this chest deep 10 refreash 35 skill points



 
 

[S1C0]

so uh yeah any crafting based stuff i do need like powers or stunts that would make better golems and mechs

[Vairelome]

A few comments:

The skill pyramid was followed, but you only have 33 of 35 points used.  You should have two more skills at Average (+1).

To power Ritual (Crafting), you need Lore and Discipline.  You don't need Conviction for Ritual at all (though it may be very necessary for your Mental Stress Track, given some of the other things you've listed).  You have both Craftsmanship and Lore as apex skills, so a stunt substituting Craftsmanship for Lore doesn't do anything useful.

In general, you will get more benefit from Refinement than any stunt for this build.  (Though Discipline is a must.)

Ritual (Crafting) is -2 refresh.  Refinement is -1 refresh each.

Ritual (Crafting) gives you 2 focus item slots.  Each point of Refinement gives 2 more.  If you want to maximize the utility of the stuff you create, your first priority should be a focus item of +5 Crafting Power.  I'd also pick up a second focus item of +3 Crafting Frequency.  (Ritual plus 3x Refinement should cover the focus items.)  Next, you want at least 2-3 more Refinement where the focus item slots are converted to enchanted item slots on a 1 to 2 basis.  (2x more Refinement gives 8 enchanted item slots; 3x gives 12.)  At this point, each enchanted item slot can be filled with some item that has a 10-shift effect, 4 uses per session.  With a bit of imagination, this can be an incredibly potent build.

[S1C0]

yeah i was onto that for a while my gn is as new to the game as i am but i have already made a ton of utility based homunculus
that add two to my complexity in certain instances (gn approval) and a robot hand to aid in frequency and i did forget to mention that are power level just went up so i forgot to do the math  . he does trades for his items that he makes and so far he has yet to leave his laboratory and has just sent out his creations to do his bidding (mostly)

[Lavecki121]

Also you need to take full thaumaturgy in order to get those refinements. Ritual only lets you get more focus item slots

[Mrmdubois]

You take Refinement to get focus item slots, that's what it looks like he did to me.

[Lavecki121]

Right, sorry. I meant specialties. They are somwhat helpful since you dont have to devote focus slots to them and you can get an extra +2/+1 pretty easy with thaumaturgy and 1 refinement.

[KOFFEYKID]

I have to pop in here to warn you that a focused crafter is really scary powerful, more so than the average wizard. If balance is a concern in your game, you should be concerned.

[Lavecki121]

Yea, that is true. I just made one. Actually I made a guy a lot like your proposed one. But the people I was playing with were sceptical and I had to defend it.

[Haru]

There are quite a few things off here.

do you like it i built it myself (use craft for self made weapons)

Craftsmanship is used to create things anyway. I don't think a stunt is necessary for that.

-3 Artificer custom skill shuffle (allows use of craft instead of conviction lore discipline)(like a power but still a mortal stunt just three rolled into one)(i think we got rid of this in favor of the refinement)

Technically this is ok, but pushing everything into one skill is something I am generally very weary about. What's more, you have lore and craftsmanship at the same level, so that is basically 1 point of refresh going to waste. Conviction is not really needed for crafting as well, so that's another point of refresh you could safe. The last one to replace discipline with craftsmanship is the only one that might make sense, but only if you need to create an item in a hurry.

scrapheap challenge (crafting two time shifts faster)

Nothing wrong with that.

19th century tech 20th century solutions (+4 hexing scale on anything i craft)

Don't really understand what this is supposed to do. Make your constructs more resilient against hexing? They are magical constructs anyway, so hexing wouldn't be an issue.

-1 ritual(artifice)

Ritual is always [-2], regardless of what kind of ritual you take.

+2 disability severe agoraphobia (takes mental stress when in large open spaces with a weapon 5)

That's kind of weird. Things like that are usually handled by compels on a character aspect. Is that a house rule?

-1 its alive (allows for an exchange in crafting of stress for more life like constructs)

The rules allow you to spend stress and even consequences anyway, when you are casting or creating an item. There's no need for a stunt.

-2 refinement (4 focus items slots) specializations for better crafting the specific element spirit

Sounds good.


If you want to have a big, powerful golem ready at your service, the easiest way to go would be to make it a second character and not worry about how to summon or build it. You could create him at the same level as your character, or a bit below, depending on what you can agree on with your GM. If he is concerned about it being too powerful, he can always increase the opposition as if the golem was an additional PC on the table. You can even have the GM control the golem and your character can only control him indirectly by giving him orders.

The golem should probably have the "walking dead" power. If the golem takes stress or consequences, they don't go away automatically, you use your craftsmanship to repair it. The time needed is the same as for any other consequences.

Anything else you want to do, you can store in enchanted items and potions. If you keep a few free potion slots, you can do a lore declaration at any given time to say that you have a magical device for just such an occasion. The difficulty will be set by the GM. This will cost you one potion slot at that moment, of course, but it's worth it.

[Vairelome]

Right, sorry. I meant specialties. They are somwhat helpful since you dont have to devote focus slots to them and you can get an extra +2/+1 pretty easy with thaumaturgy and 1 refinement.

For general purposes I agree that the upgrade to full Thaumaturgy is (eventually) worthwhile, but the reason is for the flexibility in being able to do things other than crafting, not because it makes your crafting any better.

For 4 refresh, you could get Thaumaturgy and one Refinement, giving you +2/+1 in specialties, plus an extra +2 Crafting Power from the Thaumaturgy focus item slots, for a grand total of +4 Crafting Power and +1 Crafting Frequency.

However, if you stuck with Ritual (Crafting), for the same 4 refresh, you'd have Ritual and 2x Refinement for six focus item slots total, giving you +5 Crafting Power and +1 Crafting Frequency.  While all of your bonuses are from focus items, this isn't really an issue, because the full Thaumaturgy build also gets some of its bonus from focus items, and unlike most other types of focus items, it's not necessary to take your Crafting focus items out in the field--they can stay safely in the lab.

The top priority a crafter has is getting his Crafting Power bonus up to the cap, which is his Lore rating--and Lore ought to be one of his apex skills.  Most (full Thaumaturgy) or all (Ritual only) of this bonus will be from a focus item.  Once you have that, picking up 2-3 points of Crafting Frequency is my preference.  You can cap out Frequency as well, but I don't think you'll usually need six uses per session off multiple enchanted items; three or four uses per session ought to be enough, since you can spend a point of mental stress to get an extra use once the normal limit is reached.

I have to pop in here to warn you that a focused crafter is really scary powerful, more so than the average wizard. If balance is a concern in your game, you should be concerned.

This is quite true, an optimized crafter is one of the most powerful builds available in the RAW.  His major offensive advantages are swinging Weapon:10 effects before a wizard can reasonably get to that power level and being able to outlast the Evocation/Channeling focused practitioners that can match his Weapon rating.  (He should also have better defensive enchanted items as well, and crazy flexibility with powerhouse potions for every occasion.)

He does have one downside compared to an Evocation/Channeling combat caster or wizard--usually his to hit caps out at +5 (his Discipline rating), where the other types of casters would cap out higher than that, due to Control bonuses.  From what I remember, that's the one spot where he's merely mortal.

[KOFFEYKID]

The power isn't so much in his attacks.

His defenses are formidable (Armor 5, 10 Shift Blocks, 10 shift veils, etc), as well as his mobility (supplemental 5 zone movement and such).