Introduction
We’re taking a look at building single-class parties. Building a party around a single class presents unique challenges often due individual classes’ limited capabilities. DnD is fundamentally a game about a party of diverse characters pooling their abilities to become more than the sum of their parts. The single-class party flips that on its head, introducing fun new challenges.
The Artificer is an extremely versatile class capable of filling many roles in the party. While it doesn’t have the incredible spellcasting of the Wizard, its combination of spellcasting and durability makes it much more survivable.
The Rules
- No multiclassing
- 4 party members
- Must attempt to cover all party roles
Strengths and Weaknesses the All-Artificer Party
Artificers have great Control options like Web, Support options like Aid and Faerie Fire, and even a few Blaster options like Tasha’s Caustic Brew and Shatter. Since the whole party is Intelligence-based, we can distribute the Scholar role among the party. Artificers are ritual casters and have a ton of utility spells and tool proficiencies, so we can easily manage any Utility Caster tasks with whatever the party has on hand.
Perhaps the Artificer’s biggest shortcoming is the lack of subclass options, limiting our ability to build a diverse party. There’s also not one person in the party predisposed to Charisma, so a Face is a struggle.
The Party
Member 1: Alchemist Artificer
We need a healer, and the Alchemist is the only version of the Artificer which gets access to Healing Word. Experimental Elixir also provides some healing and some buffs. Between the two we can firmly claim the Healer and Support roles. We can also pick up Chef’s Tools for the bonus to healing when we take a Short Rest, and we might add even more healing and support with feats like Inspiring Leader and/or Chef.
Alchemist doesn’t get a lot of offensive power, but between Alchemical Savant and access to a Homunculus Familiar, we’re not exactly suffering. We’ll mostly use our spellcasting for area control and support, relying on spells like Faerie Fire and Web.
Member 2: Armorer Artificer
The Armorer can be either a Defender or a Scout depending on your choice of Armor Model. In this case we’ll go for Infiltrator Armor so that we can fill the Scout role within the party. We’ll grab a Homunculus Familiar to supplement our damage, and we can reasonably call ourselves a Striker. We can use Enhanced Weapon on our lightning launcher and we might even take Sharpshooter to further boost our damage output, making us a decent Striker.
We’ll use most of our spells for utility and support purposes rather than using them offensively. This lets us focus on Dexterity over Intelligence in order to support our skills. Lightning launcher works with either Dex or Int, so we’re not hurting ourselves much by doing so. Our familiar’s attack is Int-based, unfortunately, but we won’t worry about it too much since we have another Striker in the party.
Member 3: Artillerist Artificer
Our party’s Blaster and Striker, the Artillerist’s job is to blow stuff up. Nice and simple. We don’t have a lot of difficult roles to handle or complexity to deal with, so we’ll suck it up and play the party’s Face, too. A splash of Charisma and a few skills won’t kill us, especially if we pick a race like the Half-Elf or the Kenku which can get us extra skills.
In combat we just need to shoot stuff. Our Force Ballista does good single-target damage, and with Arcane Firearm we can hit crowds with spells like Shatter and Fireball or we can pick of single enemies with Scorching Ray and with cantrips.
Member 4: Battlesmith Artificer
Without a secondary melee character, the Battlesmith is a great choice because our Iron Defender can serve as a second character on the front line. We aren’t quite as sticky as an Armorer in Defender Armor, but we can use Booming Blade to solve that problem. Our spellcasting and our Iron Defender also gives us respectable damage output, so we’re not just on the front lines drawing punches.
As we gain levels we also pick up Arcane Jolt, which can work a bit like Healing Word, allowing us to save dying allies. Having two options here is really helpful in case our Alchemist is knocked out.
The Report Card
The Face role is our biggest shortcoming, but we can cast spells like Guidance and Enhance Ability, allowing us to compensate for our party’s lack of Charisma. Everything else is well covered, often by multiple party members.
| Role | Member(s) |
|---|---|
| Blaster | 3 |
| Controller | Everyone |
| Defender | 4 |
| Face | 3 |
| Healer | 1 |
| Scholar | Everyone |
| Scout | 2 |
| Striker | 2, 3 |
| Support | 1 |
| Utility Caster | Everyone |
Biggest Strength
Math! With everyone in the party carrying Enhanced Armor/Focus/Weapon, we have a huge mathematical advantage in terms of both AC and attacks. With no reason or incentive to share our infusions, we’re free to stack those mathematical bonuses. Our saves are borderline unstoppable once everyone has Flash of Genius and starts stacking cloaks and rings of protection. We’re mathematically unassailable.
We also have a ton of both magical and mundane utility, allowing us to address problems with some combination of spellcasting and the right tool proficiencies for any given situation.
Biggest Weakness
Talking. Our Face probably has something like 12 Charisma, and, while we can use spells and/or the Help action, we’re not going to match a party with high Charisma and/or Expertise. Casting all those spells is expensive, too.
Conclusion
This would be an awesome party to take into a dungeon or into the wilderness where social interactions are rare and you need to survive with what your party can do on their own. The second this games turns into social intrigue, there’s going to be a bunch of very uncomfortable engineers staring at each other while NPCs hope that one of the party can carry a conversation.
