D&D 5e Best Feats for Artificers

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Welcome to the inventor’s guide to the best feats for Artificers in D&D 5e! I’ll reveal fun, useful feats to graduate your Artificer through stringent TTRPG scenarios.

Feats are powerful customizations when coupled wisely with class abilities. Some feats are better than others, so I’ll direct you to Artificer feats that are worth your character’s time to learn.

Feats are published in various books, so settling on 5e’s best Artificer feats is challenging. I’m guiding your Artificer to the best feats and weeding out the worst. My feat recommendations come from officially published sources, such as the PHB, TCoE, XGtE, etc.

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Top Artificer Feats of D&D 5e by Subclass

The challenge I faced with the Artificer is that it’s an incredibly versatile class with varied playstyles for its subclasses. I’ve provided subclass-specific feat “builds” for your consideration, dear readers.

While my recommendations will help you identify feats that suit a typical Artificer, don’t shy away from feats that make your Artificer unique. As long as you know what you’re getting into, you can have fun with many feat options.

Artificers often need Intelligence to be high, and that’s it for their ability score ambitions. The focused stat gives Artificers mild freedom to get creative with their feats instead of going all stats with their ASI opportunities.

I limited my recommendations to sets of three or four feats to leave you room for improving your Intelligence or other stats with ASI stat boosts.

If you want quick advice that isn’t subclass-specific, I’d recommend these four feats as strong options to Artificers in broad strokes:

• Lucky (helps with concentration and anything else)
• Telekinetic (stat boost and a useful bonus action)
• War Caster (bolster concentration)
• Fey Touched (awesome spell options, stat boost, Misty Step)

Here are my top feats divided by subclasses for Artificers in D&D 5e!

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Alchemist Artificer Feats

While this subclass is first in alphabetical order, it is not the best Artificer subclass for optimized play. I’ve figured out how I’d play the Alchemist, so that’s how I’ll proceed with my feat recommendations.

Experimental Support Alchemist

• Fey Touched (Bless)
• Shadow Touched (your choice)
• Magic Initiate (or a racial feat that applies to you and gives you spells)
• Healer

We’re going to lean hard into the support role with this concept. I aim toward one thing: creating heaps of Experimental Elixirs using spell slots. These feats give you additional spells that you can cast without spell slots, opening up your spell slots to create elixirs. The Alchemist is a subclass with a few design issues, but this seems like the most fun way to play it.

When you initially create an Experimental Elixir, you’ll roll to get a random effect (out of the six effects available); however, if you create an Experimental Elixir with a spell slot, you choose the effect.

Some effects are pretty cool and don’t require your concentration. Remember, you can’t drink two elixirs with the same effect to stack their benefits. You could potentially give party members flight, AC boosts, Bless, movement speed boosts, and the Alter Self spell’s transformation.

As for feats, all the feat recommendations will help you not get depleted of all your spellcasting. You get some escape and utility options with several of them. Fey Touched is one of the better ones since you’ll gain Misty Step and Bless (potentially stacking with your Experimental Elixir). You can use Alchemical Savant with spells like Acid Splash to deal acceptable damage while supporting your allies.

I threw in Healer since it fits the theme. You can heal allies reliably between rests if you have a healer’s kit.

Mad Scientist Alchemist (please forgive me)

• Fey Touched (Bless, Gift of Alacrity, or Tasha’s Hideous Laughter)
• Metamagic Adept (Careful Spell, Distant Spell)
• Elemental Adept (Acid)
• Poisoner

This Alchemist is committing to using acid and poison damage. I’m not saying this is optimal, but it’s unique and could be fun for an experienced player. You already decided to play an Alchemist, so strap in for a playstyle that is odd. I playtested the Artificer from UA, and I mostly used it for tossing acid, so I know it can be done.

I’d plan on casting Tasha’s Caustic Brew and upcasting it whenever possible. It’s a neat new spell, so use it. Your Alchemical Savant feature will allow you to boost the damage of the acid once per casting. You can potentially rack up the damage if enemies fail their Dex save and don’t use their action to cleanse themselves.

Fey Touched has options for you, but Tasha’s Caustic Brew is how we want to use our concentration. Bless is an excellent party buff if you aren’t concentrating on TCB (that sounds like a drug). Gift of Alacrity helps you move early in the combat order. Tasha’s Hideous Laughter can support your front liners by inflicting debilitating laughter on an enemy, which may be a better use of your concentration at times. Besides, what’s a mad scientist without maniacal laughter?

Metamagic Adept will allow you to extend the range of Tasha’s Caustic Brew or avoid harming an ally. Pair this with Elemental Adept to rack up the acid damage and bypass resistances.

Poisoner will be used to coat your ally’s weapons in poison with your bonus action. They’ll put it to use much better than you can.

Good luck!

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Armorer Artificer Feats

The Armorer subclass is weird! It can wear heavy armor and use the armor’s weapons, but Intelligence is its focus. Artificers don’t get substantial hitpoint gains either. Let’s see what I can develop for feats when specializing in the Guardian or Infiltrator armor types.

Guardian Armorer

• Sentinel
• War Caster
• Dual Wielder
• Lucky / Resilient (Dex/Wis)

I like imagining this subclass as a semi-tank that can utilize its armor to soak up damage for the party. It’s a d8 hit die class, so it’s tough to achieve, but it seems fun to try. The hitpoint issue is partially remedied with temporary hitpoints from the Defensive Field feature.

The Sentinel feat is here to keep an enemy next to you while it’s distracted by your Thunder Gauntlets. They’ll be stuck with you, and you’ll likely have temporary hitpoints.

War Caster enables you to cast Green-Flame Blade as an opportunity attack. Sentinel helps you secure that opportunity attack. I choose Green-Flame Blade in this way because Sentinel will stop an enemy’s movement, so they can’t trigger Booming Blade’s bonus damage when they move. You’ll also have advantage on concentration saving throws when you take damage.

Lucky or Resilient can help you to survive. Saving throws will be a blind spot for you unless you have these feats.

Dual Wielder allows you to gain a bonus action attack with your gauntlets (which are simple melee weapons that are not light). It is usually a bad feat, but I noticed this was an interesting interaction that warranted mentioning. You’d also gain +1 to your Armor Class.

Infiltrator Armorer

• Sharpshooter
• Crossbow Expert (you’ll need to find a way to gain proficiency with hand crossbows as martial weapons)
• Fighting Initiate: Archery (you’ll need proficiency with a martial weapon due to the feat’s prerequisite)
• Lucky / Resilient (Dex/Wis)

With this concept, you’re a lightning sniper with a hand crossbow and heavy armor. You might want to be a Battle Smith instead, but let’s see what we have here! Battle Smiths will certainly be easier to manage for this sniper Artificer since it gets proficiency with martial weapons.

Sharpshooter is a must for this type of Armorer. You can deal extra damage with your ranged attacks, and you won’t have disadvantage on attacks up to three hundred feet! Artificers can cast Fly so that you can rain death and lightning from above like Zeus himself.

Crossbow Expert is debatable here. It gives you a bonus action to attack with your hand crossbow, but you won’t get to use your Intelligence modifiers for your hand crossbow. Dexterity ends up being a secondary stat for you, but you’re stealthy anyway.

Fighting Initiate is for the Archery Fighting Style. It will help you land your ranged attacks to get the +10 damage from Sharpshooter.

Lucky and Resilient are options to augment your saving throws, but Lucky also helps with your ranged attacks when you need them to land. You might not need Lucky if you’re using spells like Web to gain advantage on attacks against an enemy.

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Artillerist Artificer Feats

The Artillerist is interesting because no feats stick out as must-haves for it. It’s a notably self-sufficient subclass. My recommended feats will supplement the Artillerist’s fundamentals. This subclass already uses its bonus actions well, and it augments Artificer spellcasting rolls (healing or damage).

General Artillerist

• Fey Touched (Gift of Alacrity)
• Resilient (Dex/Wis)
• Alert
• Lucky / War Caster

The generalist Artillerist wants to roll high on Initiative. You must place your cannons in advantageous positions to get the most out of this subclass, and going first helps you do that. Fey Touched gives you Gift of Alacrity for this purpose, and Alert helps you further. You also get Misty Step and a boost to your Intelligence with Fey Touched.

Resilient is there to help you with saving throws and round out a stat. You can pad your concentration by taking Lucky or War Caster.

Pyromaniac Artillerist

• Elemental Adept (Fire)
• Flames of Phlegethos (Tieflings only)
• Fey Touched (Hex)
• Lucky / Alert

I want to premise this by saying the fire-boosting feats here are not actually that good, but going for fire specialization is popular. The pyromaniac Artillerist wants to use fire damage. Elemental Adept and Flames of Phlegethos will augment your fire damage by fortifying your damage rolls and overcoming fire resistance. FoP will also boost your Intelligence or Constitution. Remember, these feats only help your spellcasting, not your cannons.

Gaining the Hex spell from Fey Touched will combo with your Scorching Ray spell since it adds damage to each ray. Hex will compete with your cannon bonus actions, so be wise with how often you need to use it. You can use Lucky to make sure your rays hit if you’re in a tight spot, but Lucky is versatile. Alert is a fantastic alternative for helping you get into position quickly with your cannons.

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Battle Smith Artificer Feats

You are probably playing a combat-capable Artificer if you’re a Battle Smith. This subclass is fantastic in many game aspects, but my recommendations aim to be a ranged attacker with a hand crossbow or a melee attacker with a polearm. I’ve prepared two sets of feat recommendations for the Battle Smith, depending on whether you’re building a ranged or melee character.

The combat-based feats will work best if you lean into your Battle Ready subclass feature. Using Intelligence instead of Strength or Dexterity for your attacks is unbelievably helpful.

Ranged Battle Smith

• Crossbow Expert
• Sharpshooter
• Fighting Initiate (Archery)
• Alert (or Lucky / Resilient)

You’re going to have a bonus action attack with Crossbow Expert, so you might consider moving your Steel Defender forward to block an enemy and absorb attacks while it uses the Dodge action. You could also keep it close to you to use its reaction Deflect Attacks to protect you when an enemy gets close. Fighting Initiate for the Archery Fighting Style enables you to land attacks more often when using Sharpshooter for bonus damage.

Alert makes sure you and your Steel Defender move early in combat rounds and get into position. If you’re more concerned with succeeding on attacks and saving throws, you might get the Lucky feat instead.

Resilient is excellent if you want to boost your Dexterity or Wisdom and gain a saving throw proficiency.

Melee Battle Smith

• Polearm Master
• Great Weapon Master
• Sentinel
• War Caster (or Lucky / Resilient)

The classic PMS (Polearm Master + Sentinel) combo increases your damage output while stopping enemies in their tracks when they get too close. However, there’s a remix to this combo with the help of your Steel Defender. You can keep your Steel Defender between you and an enemy as you reach over the SD with your reach weapon. If the enemy attempts to move around your Steel Defender, they may leave your reach, thus triggering your Sentinel reaction to halt their movement.

War Caster fortifies your concentration and allows you to cast Green-Flame Blade as an opportunity attack (pay attention to the range and your DM’s ruling on it). If you’re Intelligence has reached twenty, War Caster may be a great choice.

If spell concentration isn’t a concern, pick Lucky or Resilient. Resilient is excellent if you want to boost your Dexterity or Wisdom and gain a saving throw proficiency.

Mounted Combatant could be a fun feat for you. Give your Steel Defender a spell-storing item for Warding Bond; it will share your damage as you resist all damage!

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Conclusion

The Artificer was a tough class to evaluate for feat selections. The Artificer is an exceedingly complex, versatile class!

While my recommendations are grounded in experience, game mechanics, and metagame knowledge, I recognize the subjective nature of feat recommendations. I attempted to explain assumptions and personal points, but I welcome feedback on my blind spots. I’m confident that you’ve learned how to choose Artificer feats wisely by exploring my summary.

Tell me, which feats have I treated fairly or unfairly? Cast Message in the comments section below to communicate if you emphatically agree or passionately disagree with my recommendations. I’m always learning more about this complex game. Thank you again for reading. I hope you’ll share this article with your friends to get a discussion started.

Before you go, your Passive Perception has shown you secret passageways to discover more content about feats and character concepts!

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