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Designed by:Matthew Carson
Most magic item books are 75% new magic items, along with some new supplemental rules or other additions. The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items is the opposite, the new Artificer-themed items and spells are only a fraction of the book, which expands the item crafting system of D&D 5e.
Fifth Edition’s crafting system is barebones at best, and this isn’t the first product I’ve reviewed that injects some meatier rules into enhancing, creating, and upgrading mundane and magical items. But it’s certainly one of the most detailed and complex.
To their credit, the designer warns about the amount of math in the book (or “maths,” for some of you), and frequent sidebars and examples help alleviate some my biggest concerns.
But make no mistake, while I love the overall design of this book and its attention to detail, it’s a little too dense to use in my campaigns.
I’ll try to explain it as best I can: crafting an item takes money and time. Time is expressed in work weeks (8 hour days), and money in gold pieces.
Artificers have a Crafting Input level determined by their subclass (if they have one). The higher the value, the faster and more efficiently they can create the item.
Crafting environment, tool condition, and NPC and/or player assistance are all accounted for, with various modifiers and costs. The end result is the creation of a mundane item after a certain amount of time, and the right amount of money spent.
No actual skill checks, which I find disappointing.
Improving items does require a skill check, and it involves some divisible math to determine how much the item is improved.
If you run the kind of game where players loot rusty goblin swords of fallen enemies and sell them for gold, this could work well for your more economy-driven players.
In my games, I stick to more tangible loot such as gold, gems, scrolls, etc.
There are additional rules for enchanting items with magical effects, combining magic items, creating scrolls and potions, and even creating sentient magic items like some kind of cyberpunk AI-wizard. Neat!
All told there are over 20 pages of rules alone, with lots of tables, and what appear to be a well-balanced, heavily researched crafting system.
The a la carte approach to rules design means I can take whatever individual rules I like and leave the rest behind. Just like 5e, technically!
In our Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign I devised a simple crafting system for our Artificer player. By spending raw chardalyn and a bit of money, he could craft magic items from a recipe list by making skill checks during each rest.
After a number of skill checks, the items would be complete. Failures just resulted in the item(s) taking more time to create.
I wish this rules system was a lot simpler, and utilized skill checks more.
Yes, the Artificer is going to have an insanely good tool kit check, but that’s kind of the point. Let them do their thing and show off those tool checks, or hilariously muck it up because of a bad day.
My players don’t often get meaningful amounts of downtime, nor access to thousands of gold (at least, not all at once). I (and my players) have no interest tracking workweeks and filling out literal worksheets to calculate crafting costs and time.
Yes, this book includes worksheets. Ten pages of them!
The worksheets are incredibly detailed and kind of awesome. But whether the idea of handing your crafting player a worksheet excites you or makes you shake your head is exactly how you’re going to feel about this book.
The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items does include a few dozen new magic items and spells. All are designed for the Artificer specifically (duh!), and most of them directly support the crafting system with magic cauldrons, anvils, and alembics, and spells that can engrave, color change, or transform items.
In other words, if you’re not going to engage with the rules system, you may find them of limited use. Though I did like the look of the socketable armor gauntlets for the armorer, and the construct nodes that can magically buff the battlesmith’s robo-buddy.
I don’t want my own misgivings of crunchy rulesets to discourage anyone who’s unafraid of a realistic, well-balanced rules expansion. This a great-looking, well-written rules book, even if I know it’s not for me.
Pros:
- Expands Artificer gameplay with new rules for crafting, improving, and enchanting items.
- Appendix includes over 10 pages of printer-friendly worksheets.
- Dozens of magic items and spells designed specifically for Artificers.
- Professional layout and design.
Cons:
- Too much math, not enough skill checks.
The Verdict: For those seeking a crunchier, more robust rules expansion for crafting and enchantment, The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items will make a lot of Artificer players very happy.
A review copy of “The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
