The unofficial Archaeologist subclass for the DnD Artificer lets you “pilfer the secrets of the past”, according to creator Portent Press. Inspired by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the Archaeoloist gains a selection of Archaeology-themed DnD spells, and the ability to “dig into the fabric of magic itself”, turning the arcane salvage they find into useful items that last until the next long rest.
It’s a bit of a departure from the regular Artificer 5e DnD class and its subclasses, which focus more on building than on finding. The arcane salvage the class finds is randomised, and could be anything from a “slick sediment most sour” that grants the effects of the ‘Freedom of Movement’ spell when consumed, or the “dried finger of a wizard forgotten” that grants you a wizard cantrip and extra artificer spells until your next long rest.
The higher level abilities focus more on this love of mystical trinkets. At ninth level, Antiquarian’s Polish means the Artificer can ignore any curses on magic items they attune to, always recharge items by the maximum amount, and can recharge items each time they finish a long rest instead of at a specific time.
At fifteenth level their archaeological abilities let them start to find magic items instead of the normal arcane salvage, though they still turn back into fairy dust at the end of a long rest. Best of all, they gain the ability to cast Magnificent Mansion once per long rest to summon their own, extra-dimensional museum.
Each magic item the Artificer displays within the museum teaches them an additional infusion and lets them infuse an additional magic item, and any items they lose or end their attunement with will immediately teleport into the museum.
You can find the whole subclass on the r/UnearthedArcana reddit.
This Archaeologist subclass is really riffing hard on Indie’s “It belongs in a museum” line, rather than what he actually does in the movies. We’d say that Indie is a textbook DnD Rogue, with the Thief subclass and the Archaeologist background. This subclass is much more focused on playing with the mystical toys and doodads the GM drips to you throughout a campaign.
Check out the Indiana Jones 5 review at sister site The Digital Fix if you’ve not seen it yet. If you like some of this subclass but want to tweak it, we have advice on integrating DnD homebrew rules smoothly into your campaign. There’s some fun stuff out there, like this DnD modern homebrew that lets you play an elf with an AK47, or the half-goose, half-ooze monster known as a gooze.