Artificer

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Artificers are attuned to gadgets, mechanics and magic elicited from arcane items, as opposed to casting magic themselves. As a consequence, they enter the Dungeon with an assortment of wands. Artificers are skilled at evoking magical items and finding traps, and also understand the basics of melee combat.

An Artificer is an Evocations specialist. Wands and rods are their tool of choice, and they bring some of the former with them to the Dungeon.

Preferred Races

Deep Dwarf, Halfling, Kobold, Spriggan, Draconian, and Demonspawn are the recommended races if you pick an Artificer Background.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 short sword
• +0 leather armour
• Wand of enslavement (15 charges)
• Wand of flame (15 charges)
• Wand of random effects (15 charges)
• Ration

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Fighting: 1
• Short Blades: 1
• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 1
• Evocations: 3

Choosing Artificer adds 3 to your starting Strength, 4 to your starting Intelligence and 5 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Artificer is a versatile, but annoying, background. It is important to both be liberal with your wand charges and save them where possible. Against enemies you can comfortably fight, you should use your short sword in melee to kill enemies. Your enslavement wand is very useful against packs early on, such as orcs and jackals, and should be used in this way. Your flame wand is useful for reliably killing enemies from range, albeit slowly, and 15 charges won't last long. The wand of random effects should absolutely not be written off as useless - it has the potential to haste, berserk or make enemies invisible, which means it is best used on a staircase (or behind a door if the monster cannot open doors) so that you can easily escape should something go sour. However, you can deal very significant damage, as well as hex monsters, by using random effects to kill things. This will also help you conserve your more reliable flame wand charges.

Artificers can choose many paths to pursue through the games and pretty much whatever path you choose, your evocations will be a useful supplement to your damage and will cover many of the weaknesses of that play style.

History

Prior to 0.14, artificers began with scrolls of recharging identified.

Prior to 0.10, artificers could start off the game with a +0 leather armour, a bread ration, and either a rod of Striking (8 charges) or their choice of a wand from Magic Darts, Frost, Flame, Confusion, or Enslavement (15 charges each). If they chose a wand, they also started with a wand of random effects (15 charges). If they chose a non-damaging device (wand of enslavement or wand of confusion), they started with a +0,+0 dagger.