I haven't seen many people talking about the Armorer + Shield Master combination. I'm currently playing this, and I've got to say, casting Enlarge on yourself for Advantage on Athletics is insane. Not to mention you are then able to shove a Huge sized creature (so long as you go from Medium to Large size).
Yea and if you put it in your spell storing item you can man handle people all the time. Then with winged boots (and maybe giants belt/ogre gauntlets) caste haste on yourself and fly up with a huge creature and make gravity do your damage!
Great build! I happen to be playing an Armorer Abjuration Mark of Warding Dwarf, which is probably the most unkillable tank I have ever seen. Only went to lvl 4 in Artificer (for Armorer and the the ASI), then straight Abjuration Wizard. The build uses the feats Dwarven Fortitude, Durable, and Shield Master. The Mark of Warding Dwarf gains Armor of Agathys on any spell list they have access to as well well as +2 to Con and +1 to Int (Con and Int are our important stats), while Abjuration Wizard gains Arcane Ward for a renewable pool of hit points to absorb initial damage, which occurs before temporary hit points from Armor of Agathys and any hit will trigger Agathys regardless of whether or not you lose any temp HP. Dwarven Fortitude lets you heal in combat by dodging, which lets you regain 1 hit die + your Con. Durable makes your minimum roll on hit dice used to heal to be twice your Con, which means your minimum HP gained from dodging is 3x Con (a +4 Con = 12 HP from a roll of 1d6). So, you cast Agathys at your highest level, which fills your Ward and grants Temp HP. In full plate and with a +1 Shield from enhanced defense, you then use your reaction to Absorb Elements (refilling your Ward), cast Shield (refilling your Ward), or use your shield mastery to avoid damage, while occasional regaining any lost HP. You technically have an “extra” 12 HP per hit die, extra renewable HP via Ward, and renewable Temp HP via Agathys netting 630+ HP over your base HP. And you want to get hit, because that’s your primary source of unavoidable damage dealing via Agathys, while you use your Thunder Gauntlet to tap targets with Booming Blade.
@@yanngerard6531 To add damage to your hit, and to either lock your opponent in place to prevent additional damage or to cause additional damage if they intentionally move. Read the spell.
Yeah the extra damage essentially makes up for the lack of an extra attack especially if the creature chooses to move. It basically locks down the enemy so that it can't get away from you without being punished for it
Howdy, I really like the support capabilities of this build. Personally, I probably would skip on magic initiate just because at that high of a level 5temphp and 5 cold damage isn't that helpful at all. Also, I would swap the Enhanced Defense infusion for Repulsion Shield at level 6, it seems like a perfect add for this build and I'm kinda surprised it didn't even get a mention. Sure, at level 10 it's one less AC, but I think it makes up for it with it's utility.
I do like the Repulsion Shield infusion and it is a lot of fun for sure. The utility is a pretty nice trade off for 1 AC point but for this build I was just trying to get to a high AC number. Your idea is more than valid and makes a lot of sense
I took your idea and adjusted it a bit. My feats will be Shield Master, Sentinel, Prodigy (athletics), and Resilient (Wisdom). My damage will be pretty terrible but I'll be annoying enough that the DM won't ignore me. Really looking forward to playing this character. I wish I could get that extra feat on other races though.
Great video, thanks. I'm about to play an 8th level armorer in a one-shot tonight, and am really looking forward to it. I wish it were 10th, though! Those extra infusions are just HUGE.
Don't sleep on Thorn Whip. It's a great cantrip to pull an enemy off of a teammate if they happen to get past you. The 10ft move is enough so they won't need to disengage and can use their action for something more useful. Edit: Nevermind. Just got to the level where you take TW. Personally I'd take it at lvl 1 but to each their own. It's a fun build either way.
If you're looking to play an Armorer (Guardian) but without necessarily leaning into a strength and shoving build for one reason or another, then a good alternative core would be: - The Telekinetic feat for +1 INT, Mage Hand, and a bonus action Telekinetic Shove. This shove only moves enemies toward/away from you. It's based on your spell save DC so you'll be less MAD. - You could still use the Magical Strength infusion, but you won't be so tied to it either. Instead, you can now use both the Enhanced Defense and the Repulsion Shield infusions. - Sentinel is still good here. - Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get access to the Shield spell is gonna get you a lot of mileage. [EDIT: Check with your DM if they run Magic Initiate RAW, meaning you can't use your artificer spell slots on wizard spells unless you have a spellcasting feature that lets you use slots on wizard spells, or if they run it RAF, because all the other spell feats including Artificer Initiate doesn't have this problem.] Much of the reason to shove is to restrict enemy movement and to grant advantage by knocking the enemy prone, but if you have ranged party members, they might not like that so much. And if you get advantage a lot -- like because your DM uses the DMG flanking rules -- then knocking them prone won't have as much impact. The ranged shove with Telekinetic will give you some ranged control over enemy positoning, which can help to keep enemies in your control spells like Grease/Web. And because you won't be relying on your bonus action to shove so much, your Homunculus Servant will be a lot more attractive of an option for a little bit more damage.
@@DapperSnapperGaming I made this build a few months ago, and our sessions just started a couple weeks ago. When I was making my Guardian Armorer, I was looking at Shield Master *first*. Funny how that worked out.
I want to note as well that going the Telekinetic route lets you prioritize DEX a bit more (depends on how you generate your scores) which can make you more flexible for whenever you need to go Infiltrator for sneaking around. Just proficiency in Athletics and Flash of Genius can do a lot to save you on the rare occasion you're grappled and shoved in combat, so you can pump your stealth a bit more. Failing stealth, I feel, has a much bigger penalty than a single grapple.
I honestly can't think of playing an Armorer without wanting to play Iron Man, and Iron Man needs repulsor rays. Since repulsors push targets away (hence the name), you kinda need a couple levels of Warlock for Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast for a Tony Stark build. I think I'd also want either Action Surge or Quickened Spell in such a build to take fullest advantage of the damage capabilities of Eldritch Blast, so a couple levels of Fighter or several Sorcerer levels would also be necessary. Happily, the subclass abilities of the Armorer make it unnecessary to key on any ability score besides INT and CON, which means multiclass minimums are actually fairly easy to achieve. I would dump STR in particular because eventually none of your attacks will rely upon it, Armorers don't need it to wear heavy armor, and there's an Infusion to handle Athletics and other STR checks (and also because the Advantage to initiative checks provided by the Helm of Awareness increases dramatically in value as your DEX mod rises). 😉
Good to hear some neat builds. This is my first vid of yours. My only criticism is that the music needs to be something else or switch over time. I like that town in pokemon but having it on loop is difficult to make it through to the end
Love this build and this is mostly what I'm going to use in my next character but I gotta say there's some stuff that are problems I haven't seen in the comment section yet. If you get hit with a fireball, even if you are the only one to be hit, it isn't targeting you so shield master won't count, technically. Still gonna take it but worth knowing. Armor of agathys would never last more that one hit. RAW I wish it were better but that's it. Armorer has a BA that gives 5 temp hp, why would we spend a feat to get one more? Maybe shield or silvery barbs? Once per day wouldn't be broken. Why would you haste and not Enlarge/Reduce? We don't do much damage... War caster is too good I understand what you're doing not taking it. I will try not to. While I like the idea of how sentinel works, I don't think it's necessary. We have two attacks and we can assume we are currently grappling a prone creature. They have disadvantage to all attacks. That means we can hit two others. There would now be three on the board with disadvantage attacking anyone but us, assuming they are within reach (and that we could hit both of them at half movement speed). Our melee friend(s) should (with advantage) destroy the prone creature. And then we repeat. We really don't need more things that demand our reactions. Armor of magical strength should have been one of the first infusions. The level 10 is crazy. Enhanced weapon and spell refueling? I get winged boots so I'll let that slide for a moment. We aren't a damage dealer so the enhance weapon would only be useful if you're giving it away. As I will not, I'm gonna grab gauntlets of ogre power to help the strength checks. They were strong already but now they don't lose. EVER. Helm of awareness will give advantage on initiative checks and as a shutdown support we need that. Winged boots VS homunculus servant depends on the DM. This character is built to immediately disarm the boss and allow his quick dispatch. Any damage we deal should be accessory. Edit: Forgot to mention I like helm of awareness more than spell refueling ring. I'm assuming a strong ally or two at this level would be able to take out a prone creature within a couple rounds and so initiative would be more important than an extra third level spell. If there are three of these encounters per day we were dead anyways.
Actually, the fireball comment is wrong, the shield master wording is >If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect. It doesn't say target, it says if you have to make a dex save.
The Guardian description says that it's when the target ends it's turn within 30 ft of you so that doesn't work with Sentinel. The Infiltrator activates when hit with the Lightning Launcher which is ranged so Sentinel also would not apply.
Currently playing an Armorer, I am level 4 and nowhere near to afford a plate armor (at our current rate maybe at level 8, heck I an still far away from being able to afford half-plate, I had to borrow from team members to afford a breastplate).
Can't really infuse your guantlets with enhanced weapon though as they're not technically a simple or martial weapon. Maybe your DM will let you get away with this, maybe not, but would be good to suggest an alternative for those who won't be able to.
@MichaelWeber5237 For the Armorer, the thunder gauntlets section says “Each of the armor’s gauntlets counts as a simple weapon while you aren’t holding anything in it” and the lightning launchers say “A gemlike node… It counts as a simple ranged weapon…” So both special weapons for the armorer count as simple weapons, with the gauntlets having the caveat of not holding anything in them, but you can still hold something in one gauntlet(like a shield) and use the other hand (which isn’t holding anything) to attack with.
I hate to nitpick, but I think that you're putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble. Last I checked, it's pronounced ARTificer, not arTIFicer!! Other than that, great video!! LMAO
I haven't seen many people talking about the Armorer + Shield Master combination. I'm currently playing this, and I've got to say, casting Enlarge on yourself for Advantage on Athletics is insane. Not to mention you are then able to shove a Huge sized creature (so long as you go from Medium to Large size).
Yeah it's pretty potent. Lots of fun to mess around with
Yea and if you put it in your spell storing item you can man handle people all the time.
Then with winged boots (and maybe giants belt/ogre gauntlets) caste haste on yourself and fly up with a huge creature and make gravity do your damage!
Gets better with a rune knight dip!
How had i not considered shield master that is so GOOD
It's a really fun interaction 😁
Great build! I happen to be playing an Armorer Abjuration Mark of Warding Dwarf, which is probably the most unkillable tank I have ever seen. Only went to lvl 4 in Artificer (for Armorer and the the ASI), then straight Abjuration Wizard. The build uses the feats Dwarven Fortitude, Durable, and Shield Master. The Mark of Warding Dwarf gains Armor of Agathys on any spell list they have access to as well well as +2 to Con and +1 to Int (Con and Int are our important stats), while Abjuration Wizard gains Arcane Ward for a renewable pool of hit points to absorb initial damage, which occurs before temporary hit points from Armor of Agathys and any hit will trigger Agathys regardless of whether or not you lose any temp HP. Dwarven Fortitude lets you heal in combat by dodging, which lets you regain 1 hit die + your Con. Durable makes your minimum roll on hit dice used to heal to be twice your Con, which means your minimum HP gained from dodging is 3x Con (a +4 Con = 12 HP from a roll of 1d6). So, you cast Agathys at your highest level, which fills your Ward and grants Temp HP. In full plate and with a +1 Shield from enhanced defense, you then use your reaction to Absorb Elements (refilling your Ward), cast Shield (refilling your Ward), or use your shield mastery to avoid damage, while occasional regaining any lost HP. You technically have an “extra” 12 HP per hit die, extra renewable HP via Ward, and renewable Temp HP via Agathys netting 630+ HP over your base HP.
And you want to get hit, because that’s your primary source of unavoidable damage dealing via Agathys, while you use your Thunder Gauntlet to tap targets with Booming Blade.
Hi, how does booming blade work ? Does it count as an attack of the multi attack action or you just can't attack twice if you use it ?
To cast Booming Blade, you are taking the "Cast a Spell" action, not the Attack action. That's why you can only do it once
@@DapperSnapperGaming huh what's the point then once you get the extra attack ?
@@yanngerard6531
To add damage to your hit, and to either lock your opponent in place to prevent additional damage or to cause additional damage if they intentionally move. Read the spell.
Yeah the extra damage essentially makes up for the lack of an extra attack especially if the creature chooses to move. It basically locks down the enemy so that it can't get away from you without being punished for it
My favorite class for the tank armorer is warforged. +1AC is very strong
Standard is pretty much my go to for statues for any build
Howdy, I really like the support capabilities of this build. Personally, I probably would skip on magic initiate just because at that high of a level 5temphp and 5 cold damage isn't that helpful at all. Also, I would swap the Enhanced Defense infusion for Repulsion Shield at level 6, it seems like a perfect add for this build and I'm kinda surprised it didn't even get a mention. Sure, at level 10 it's one less AC, but I think it makes up for it with it's utility.
I do like the Repulsion Shield infusion and it is a lot of fun for sure. The utility is a pretty nice trade off for 1 AC point but for this build I was just trying to get to a high AC number. Your idea is more than valid and makes a lot of sense
@@DapperSnapperGaming Rock on👍 thanks for the reply!
I took your idea and adjusted it a bit. My feats will be Shield Master, Sentinel, Prodigy (athletics), and Resilient (Wisdom). My damage will be pretty terrible but I'll be annoying enough that the DM won't ignore me. Really looking forward to playing this character. I wish I could get that extra feat on other races though.
As long as you are drawing fire and surviving then you're being effective. You should have a great time!
Great video, thanks. I'm about to play an 8th level armorer in a one-shot tonight, and am really looking forward to it. I wish it were 10th, though! Those extra infusions are just HUGE.
The armorer is just stupid amounts of fun. And yeah that 10th level list is kinda busted
Yuan-Ti or Satyr. Well protected against magic, too. :-)
Don't sleep on Thorn Whip. It's a great cantrip to pull an enemy off of a teammate if they happen to get past you. The 10ft move is enough so they won't need to disengage and can use their action for something more useful.
Edit: Nevermind. Just got to the level where you take TW. Personally I'd take it at lvl 1 but to each their own. It's a fun build either way.
I would love an or versatility (guardian and infiltrator) build for armorer please
If you're looking to play an Armorer (Guardian) but without necessarily leaning into a strength and shoving build for one reason or another, then a good alternative core would be:
- The Telekinetic feat for +1 INT, Mage Hand, and a bonus action Telekinetic Shove. This shove only moves enemies toward/away from you. It's based on your spell save DC so you'll be less MAD.
- You could still use the Magical Strength infusion, but you won't be so tied to it either. Instead, you can now use both the Enhanced Defense and the Repulsion Shield infusions.
- Sentinel is still good here.
- Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get access to the Shield spell is gonna get you a lot of mileage. [EDIT: Check with your DM if they run Magic Initiate RAW, meaning you can't use your artificer spell slots on wizard spells unless you have a spellcasting feature that lets you use slots on wizard spells, or if they run it RAF, because all the other spell feats including Artificer Initiate doesn't have this problem.]
Much of the reason to shove is to restrict enemy movement and to grant advantage by knocking the enemy prone, but if you have ranged party members, they might not like that so much. And if you get advantage a lot -- like because your DM uses the DMG flanking rules -- then knocking them prone won't have as much impact. The ranged shove with Telekinetic will give you some ranged control over enemy positoning, which can help to keep enemies in your control spells like Grease/Web.
And because you won't be relying on your bonus action to shove so much, your Homunculus Servant will be a lot more attractive of an option for a little bit more damage.
This is a more than viable option for sure! I thought about going with something similar to this originally actually.
@@DapperSnapperGaming I made this build a few months ago, and our sessions just started a couple weeks ago. When I was making my Guardian Armorer, I was looking at Shield Master *first*. Funny how that worked out.
Great minds think alike lol
@@DapperSnapperGaming Just in opposite directions, I suppose :P
I want to note as well that going the Telekinetic route lets you prioritize DEX a bit more (depends on how you generate your scores) which can make you more flexible for whenever you need to go Infiltrator for sneaking around. Just proficiency in Athletics and Flash of Genius can do a lot to save you on the rare occasion you're grappled and shoved in combat, so you can pump your stealth a bit more. Failing stealth, I feel, has a much bigger penalty than a single grapple.
I honestly can't think of playing an Armorer without wanting to play Iron Man, and Iron Man needs repulsor rays. Since repulsors push targets away (hence the name), you kinda need a couple levels of Warlock for Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast for a Tony Stark build. I think I'd also want either Action Surge or Quickened Spell in such a build to take fullest advantage of the damage capabilities of Eldritch Blast, so a couple levels of Fighter or several Sorcerer levels would also be necessary.
Happily, the subclass abilities of the Armorer make it unnecessary to key on any ability score besides INT and CON, which means multiclass minimums are actually fairly easy to achieve. I would dump STR in particular because eventually none of your attacks will rely upon it, Armorers don't need it to wear heavy armor, and there's an Infusion to handle Athletics and other STR checks (and also because the Advantage to initiative checks provided by the Helm of Awareness increases dramatically in value as your DEX mod rises). 😉
Good to hear some neat builds. This is my first vid of yours. My only criticism is that the music needs to be something else or switch over time. I like that town in pokemon but having it on loop is difficult to make it through to the end
Thank you so much! That's a pretty good idea. I might just have to do that
Big fan of armorer... shield and revolver ftw...
Artificers can make the shield spell tatoo, so there is no need for taking levels in mage.
Great video man. Post it all over Reddit
I appreciate it! Thank you for the support
Please Please do an infiltrator build.
man the views , this is awesome . so proud of you man
Thanks my guy. I appreciate it!
@@DapperSnapperGaming no problem man , hmu some time !
Will do friend!
Love this build and this is mostly what I'm going to use in my next character but I gotta say there's some stuff that are problems I haven't seen in the comment section yet. If you get hit with a fireball, even if you are the only one to be hit, it isn't targeting you so shield master won't count, technically. Still gonna take it but worth knowing.
Armor of agathys would never last more that one hit. RAW I wish it were better but that's it. Armorer has a BA that gives 5 temp hp, why would we spend a feat to get one more?
Maybe shield or silvery barbs? Once per day wouldn't be broken.
Why would you haste and not Enlarge/Reduce? We don't do much damage...
War caster is too good I understand what you're doing not taking it. I will try not to.
While I like the idea of how sentinel works, I don't think it's necessary. We have two attacks and we can assume we are currently grappling a prone creature. They have disadvantage to all attacks. That means we can hit two others. There would now be three on the board with disadvantage attacking anyone but us, assuming they are within reach (and that we could hit both of them at half movement speed). Our melee friend(s) should (with advantage) destroy the prone creature. And then we repeat. We really don't need more things that demand our reactions.
Armor of magical strength should have been one of the first infusions.
The level 10 is crazy. Enhanced weapon and spell refueling? I get winged boots so I'll let that slide for a moment. We aren't a damage dealer so the enhance weapon would only be useful if you're giving it away. As I will not, I'm gonna grab gauntlets of ogre power to help the strength checks. They were strong already but now they don't lose. EVER. Helm of awareness will give advantage on initiative checks and as a shutdown support we need that. Winged boots VS homunculus servant depends on the DM.
This character is built to immediately disarm the boss and allow his quick dispatch. Any damage we deal should be accessory.
Edit: Forgot to mention I like helm of awareness more than spell refueling ring. I'm assuming a strong ally or two at this level would be able to take out a prone creature within a couple rounds and so initiative would be more important than an extra third level spell. If there are three of these encounters per day we were dead anyways.
Actually, the fireball comment is wrong, the shield master wording is
>If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.
It doesn't say target, it says if you have to make a dex save.
@@Shoefae You are entirely right. That was my confusion between parts 2 and 3. It was correctly addressed in the video.
Yeah works like evasion, but uses your reaction unlike evasion. The other option is mostly against cantrips.
The attack from perfect armor doesn't seem to be an opportunity attack, does it still synergize with sentinel?
The Guardian description says that it's when the target ends it's turn within 30 ft of you so that doesn't work with Sentinel. The Infiltrator activates when hit with the Lightning Launcher which is ranged so Sentinel also would not apply.
How do you combine the grab with the sentinel feat?
Are your stats out? How did you get a 17 in Intelligence to start?
I use a modified standard array in all of my videos. 17 15 13 12 10 8. It's what I and many of my DM friends use so I used it here
Currently playing an Armorer, I am level 4 and nowhere near to afford a plate armor (at our current rate maybe at level 8, heck I an still far away from being able to afford half-plate, I had to borrow from team members to afford a breastplate).
Can't really infuse your guantlets with enhanced weapon though as they're not technically a simple or martial weapon. Maybe your DM will let you get away with this, maybe not, but would be good to suggest an alternative for those who won't be able to.
@MichaelWeber5237 For the Armorer, the thunder gauntlets section says “Each of the armor’s gauntlets counts as a simple weapon while you aren’t holding anything in it” and the lightning launchers say “A gemlike node… It counts as a simple ranged weapon…” So both special weapons for the armorer count as simple weapons, with the gauntlets having the caveat of not holding anything in them, but you can still hold something in one gauntlet(like a shield) and use the other hand (which isn’t holding anything) to attack with.
'Ar-tif-fisser" and where are you getting a start of 17? Did you roll stats?
The stats are a modified standard array that DMs that I play with use. Many other UA-camrs use this (or at least similar ones) as well.
Doing a Warhammer 40 k mechanicus magos
Where's the infiltrator build, that's the good one 👀
That may or may not be coming very soon
I hate to nitpick, but I think that you're putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble. Last I checked, it's pronounced ARTificer, not arTIFicer!! Other than that, great video!! LMAO
I was thinking the same, but assumed he went with a Brit pronunciation
✨️
take mobile and use the gauntlets to impose disadvantage then run like hell to help out the Paladin or barbarian.
Lol that could be a really nice combo
Plate is like 1500 gp, I don't think most people will have that at level 3
It is unlikely but possible if you have a really nice DM. Otherwise, it is just a goal that would be nice to shoot for ASAP
Can you please learn to pronounce artificer right lol
Artifice, pronounced how I pronounce it, is a word that means uncanny intelligence or ingenuity. This is what Artificers are based on.