D&D: The Updated Armorer – Make Your Own Power Armor In A Cave With Scraps!

The updated Armorer subclass for the Artificer really is all about having your own suit of magical power armor.

You don’t have to be D&D’s version of Tony Stark. But the Armorer subclass for the Artificer, featured in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, doesn’t really shy away from its inspiration. The whole idea of the subclass, even back when it was first introduced in 5E, is that you construct a suit of magical power armor. It’s a great fantasy – one that leans into the sci-fi components lurking hidden in D&D. And the updated Artificer is no different.

And if you’re there thinking, “Why put sci-fi in my fantasy games?” you’ve never met another nerd in your life. That’s something that goes back to before D&D even existed. The Dying Earth novels that inspired it, Conan fighting aliens, even Tolkien did it, putting a literal spaceship into The Silmarillion, the fantasiest of his fantasy novels. So, don’t let genre conventions deter you, because the updated Armorer has some cool stuff going for it.

The Updated Armorer – Make Any Armor Magical

The Armorer Artificer is about one thing and one thing only – making a cool suit of magical armor. But within that idea, you’ll find a lot of customization. Although, you’ll once again have to know what kinds of magical gear your Artificer is capable of making, and then you’ll have to dial it in if you want to get really custom with your custom suit of magical power armor.

But before we get to that, the updated Armorer has a few tools to help make sure you get the most out of your armor. Tools of the Trade, specifically, gives you heavy armor proficiency at level 3, which means you can have any kind of armor you want. You also make armor in half the time and have smith’s tools.

Armorer Spells is a handy list of extra spells that you always have prepared. And I really like this list – these are spells that it makes perfect sense would come out of your magic power armor. Yes, technically it’s you casting Magic Missile, but you have that spell prepared because your magic power armor is capable of firing off blasts of seeking energy. Or a Thunderwave. Or replicating itself according to Mirror Image. It’s a fantastic little bit of flavor wrapped up in spells that are just great to have, including higher level spells like Greater Invisibility (for a cloaking field) and Passwall (so you can phase through matter).

But the heart of the subclass is in two different features Arcane Armor and Armor Model. Why these are two features, I don’t know, because they both work in concert with each other. But in a nutshell these are your magical power armor features. You can transform any suit of armor into Arcane Armor as a Magic action, and that gives it a few baseline benefits: it has no Strength Requirement, you can take it on or off as a Utilize action, and it is a spellcasting focus for you.

The Armor Model, feature, on the other hand, is where the power side of the Magical Power Armor equation comes into play. This feature lets you pick one of three different armor models whenever you make a suit of Arcane Armor and I can’t think of a single reason why you wouldn’t. There are three models all in all: Dreadnaught, Guardian, and Infiltrator, and each one gives you a special weapon you can use your Intelligence bonus to fight with and a special benefit while wearing it.

Dreadnaught Armor lets you become Large as a Bonus Action (up to your Int mod times per day), which isn’t as exciting as it sounds. All it does is increase your reach by 5 feet. But it plays well with the special weapon, Force Demolisher, which gives you the Reach property, deals 1d10 Force damage on a hit, and pushes creatures at least one size smaller up to 10 feet away or pulls them that distance closer.

Guardian Armor, on the other hand, is for protecting your allies. You gain a defensive field while wearing this armor, that lets you give yourself temporary hit points equal to your Artificer level as a Bonus Action whenever you’re Bloodied. Not bad. And you gain the Thunder Pulse weapon, which is a melee weapon that deals 1d8 Thunder damage on a hit and gives any creature hit by it Disadvantage on targets other than you until the start of your next turn.

Finally, the Infiltrator Armor for those who want to be stealthy. You gain 5 feet of movement speed and Advantage on Stealth Checks (which cancels out the penalty a Heavy armor might impose), and you have a weapon called the Lightning Launcher which lets you blast people out to 90/300 for 1d6 Lightning Damage, and once per turn when you hit someone, they take 2d6 damage. Making one shot effectively a ranged greatsword.

Put The Craft In Crafty

At higher levels the updated Armorer unlocks even more utility. At level 5, you gain Extra Attack so you can keep attacking with your Arcane Armor weapons. And then at level 9 you gain Improved Armorer which is where the full potential of the subclass can be found.

Improved Armorer gives you a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with your armor weapon, which is nice. But it also gives you an additional plan for the Artificer’s Replicate Magic Item feature, but it has to be armor. And here’s where the subclass reminds you of what you can do with the Artificer base class. Because the Arcane Armor can be any suit of armor, even magical ones.

Meaning a crafty Armorer could make Arcane Armor of Resistance or Adamantine Arcane Armor or Mithral Arcane Armor and have advantage on Stealth Checks in full plate. And that’s on top of whatever magic armors you find as part of the campaign.

Finally, at level 15 Perfected Armor gives you bonuses to each of your Armor Models, upgrading your base damage of the weapons, and giving some minor benefits. Notably the Dreadnaught lets you become Huge, the Guardian Armor lets you yank creatures across the battlefield, and Infiltrator lets you fly up to twice your speed as a Bonus Action.

Fun stuff all around. The updated Armorer might be one of the more flexible Artificer subclasses. I’m here for it.

Check out the updated Armorer and four other Artificer subclasses in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer!

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Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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