Let's not beat around the bush; D&D's newest subclass sucks. The Cartographer, an Artificer 5e subclass from the new Eberron book, takes the cake when it comes to useless abilities. But, because I am a character builder who doesn't shy away from a challenge, I want to see if there are ways to make it worth playing.
Without completely rewriting the rules, the most obvious answer is multiclassing into one of the other DnD classes. Before I start tinkering with the Artificer, though, let's explain the problem is with the Cartographer.
Tools of the Trade
This is the first subclass feature you'll get at level three, and it's not too shabby. You'll gain proficiency with Calligrapher's Supplies and Cartographer's Tools, if you don't have those already. More importantly, when you craft a Spell Scroll, the time required is halved.
As long as you can afford the crafting costs, this should turn you into a Spell Scroll machine. Your Artificer can create a small army of free, low-level utility and healing spells with their Spell Scrolls, and they can save their Spell-Storing Item at later levels for stashing big, explosive spells.
The only problem is that you can only use these scrolls if the spell is already on your spell list. The Artificer is a half-caster with a decent but limited spell list. Things get worse when we consider:
Cartographer Spells
At level three, you'll gain a list of spells that are always prepared for your Cartographer. They're…not great.
| Artificer level | Spells |
| 3 | Faerie Fire, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word |
| 5 | Locate Object, Mind Spike |
| 9 | Call Lightning, Clairvoyance |
| 13 | Banishment, Locate Creature |
| 17 | Scrying, Teleportation Circle |
Healing Word is the obvious choice for your speedy Spell Scroll crafting, but there aren't many other plausible options. Even if we disregard Spell Scrolls, there just aren't many spells on here we'd want to cast consistently. Guiding Bolt perhaps? Mind Spike is decent, but it eats our concentration - ditto Banishment. Most other options are situational, too high a level, or not that strong.
Adventurer's Atlas
Things get a little better with your last level-three feature. Each long rest, you can use your Cartographer's Tools to create a set of magical maps (equal to 1 plus your Intelligence modifier) that are tied to specific members of your party. The map gives its target 1d4 to add to Initiative rolls, and the target knows the location of all other map holders on the same plane. Additionally, if a map holder casts a spell targeting another map holder, they can disregard line of sight or cover as long as their target is still in range.
The Initiative bonus is nice, but the ability to target invisible or hiding friends is better - even if it is a little situational without a Rogue or a sneaky spellcaster in the party. Adventurer's Atlas is the main reason that you'd decide to play a Cartographer. That's not because it's overpowered; it's just followed up by s truly awful feature.
Guided Precision
Once per turn, when you cast one of your Cartographer Spells or hit a creature affected by your Faerie Fire, you can add your Intelligence modifier to one damage roll. You also can't lose concentration on Faerie Fire if you take damage.
Seriously, who is casting Faerie Fire that often? It's a concentration spell whose value has seriously diminished in the 2024 rules, because advantage is not particularly hard to come by. The Cartographer has built most of its class identity around this low-tier spell. That's hugely disappointing for a level-five feature, as this is where your build is really supposed to come 'online'.
Ingenious Movement
At level nine, using Flash of Genius allows you to teleport yourself or a willing creature within 30 feet, up to 30 feet. Not a game-changer, but upping the value of your reactions is decent, and it's a nice extra bit of mobility - especially if you don't have easy access to Misty Step.
Superior Atlas
Lastly comes your level-15 subclass capstone. This augments your key feature, Adventurer's Atlas. It gives you a free casting of Find the Path once per long rest, provided that you are a map holder. This is a bit meh, but thankfully, Superior Atlas has a second, much more intriguing power.
When a map holder is reduced to zero HP but not killed, they can destroy the map and regain HP equal to twice your Artificer level. They're also teleported to a space within five feet of another map holder. That's the equivalent of several free, improved Death Wards.
It also makes you less reliant on the Artificer's level-20 Soul of the Artifice feature, which offers a very similar (though more powerful) benefit. That makes multiclassing much more appealing. Speaking of…
How do we make the Cartographer better?
In my mind, multiclassing into Wizard is a no-brainer for this subclass. It vastly expands your spell list for Spell Scroll production, and it counteracts the disappointing spell list your Cartographer is stuck with. The question is when to multiclass - and to what extent.
The real problem point for the Cartographer is level five, where we get that dreadful Faerie Fire feature. There's a case, then, for only taking three levels in Artificer, picking up our Adventurer's Atlas, then putting all our efforts into being a map-wielding Wizard. That gives us a spell list that reaches level nine, and it dodges Guided Precision.
My issue with this approach is that we haven't really made a better Cartographer in doing this; we've just made a weaker Wizard with a map gimmick. We also miss out on all the great stuff in the core Artificer class that comes at later levels - Flash of Genius, Spell-Storing Item, and so on.
My preference, instead, would be to take five levels in Wizard and 15 in Artificer. Yes, we have that lamentable level-five feature, but we also get access to all Wizard class features, a second subclass, and spells up to level seven. Our Cartographer still feels like an Artificer, and the power of the Wizard will hopefully balance out the subclass feature that we are planning to totally ignore.
Example build
Let's take a look at this concept in action.
Level one
Using points buy, we'll begin with these starting stats:
- Strength - 12
- Dexterity - 14
- Constitution - 13
- Intelligence - 15
- Wisdom - 10
- Charisma - 8
For our background, we're choosing House Kundarak Heir, from Forge of the Artificer. This gives us a much-needed +2 to Intelligence and +1 to Constitution. It also gives us the Mark of Warding Dragonmark feat, which gives us plenty of useful Abjuration spells.
As for species, let's go for a High Elf. This gives us a flexible Wizard cantrip to bulk out our spell list, plus some free castings of Detect Magic and Misty Step as we level up.
We'll take our first level in Artificer to benefit from proficiency in Constitution saving throws. We're also doing this because the Artificer's level-one abilities are shockingly weak compared to other classes. It sucks less to go through this at level one, when everybody is weak, than at a later level.
We get our Artificer's spellcasting ability at level one, as well as Tinker's Magic, a subpar crafting ability.
Level Two
Stick with the Artificer class to pick up Replicate Magic Item. To start with, I'd recommend crafting a Wand of the War Mage and a Weapon +1 for your best damage-dealer.
Level Three
Here comes our Cartographer! We're officially invested in making this work now. No take-backsies.
Level four
We'll stick with Artificer for now to pick up our Ability Score Improvement. Let's go with Potent Dragonmark, which buffs our Intelligence by one, and gives us an extra spell slot equal to half our level (to a maximum of five). This replenishes every rest, and it's going to be hugely helpful given how reliant our build is on spellcasting.
Level five
Now, let's take our first level in Wizard. That grants us a new form of spellcasting, Ritual Adept, and Arcane Recovery.
Level six
Take another level in Wizard. Our only new feature is Scholar, which only offers a skill Expertise, but it gives us slightly more spell slots to work with.
Level seven
We'll take our third level in Wizard here, choosing the Abjurer subclass. Since we'll only get one Wizard subclass feature, we want to pick the strongest at level three. I think the Abjurer's Arcane Ward pairs buffs our defenses well, provided we cast Shield every once in a while.
We're starting to trail behind the power-levels of single-class characters at this point, but if you're in a campaign for the long haul, it'll be worth it. Based on the multiclassing rules for spell slots, we now have access to level-three spells - which will be very useful when our Artificer wants to cast something like Fireball.
Level eight
Hit up Wizard again for another level-three spell slot, as well as an Ability Score Improvement. This time, we're going to buff our Intelligence by 2, taking us to level 20. That's maximum fuel for all our class features.
Level nine
We have to take our fifth level in Artificer at some point, so let's suck it up and take it now.
Level 10
Another level in Artificer gives us Magic Item Tinker. It's handy to convert magic items into spell slots, but it's perhaps less handy to create magic item charges from spell slots. All said and done, I'm not too torn up by taking this feature four levels later than usual.
Level 11
Late to the party, but we finally get to Flash of Genius, geared up and ready to get maximum uses out of it.
Level 12
Right on time, we get to our third Ability Score Improvement. I've gone for Heavy Armor Master with a +1 to Strength, as it means we wear Chain Mail to up our defense.
Level 13
Our ninth level in Artificer gets us to Ingenious Movement.
Level 14
We've reached Magic Item Adept, and we're one away from our Spell-Storing item feature, so let's carry on.
Level 15
Spell-Storing Item! This is an incredible Artificer feature which is about to make your build a lot more fun.
Level 16
We'll take our 12th level in Artificer here to gain another Ability Score Improvement. I'd go for something like War Caster at this point, as it means we can wield a magical shield while still casting spells. Alternatively, just give your Constitution a tasty +2 boost.
Level 17
Level 13 is a dud level for Artificers, especially when multiclassing, so let's pick up our final level in Wizard to gain more spell slots. We've also picked up Memorize Spell, but that's less important.
Level 18
Here's that dud level we were avoiding. Oh well.
Level 19
Advanced Artifice makes us more freely able to use Flash of Genius, which is nice. It would have been nicer at level 14, but multiclassers can't be choosers.
Level 20
Our Cartographer capstone comes in at this point. We've lost out on an Epic Boon, and it's not quite Soul of the Artifice, but it's pretty dang close.
Is this actually better, though?
I'll be frank, this is not a power build. If you're playing at a table of optimizers, the occasional 'wasted level' is going to chafe, noticeably. Still, if you're in love with the concept of the Cartographer, this should give you some extra oomph to make up for the weaker abilities.
Note, too, that the example build isn't designed with low-tier play in mind. If you know your campaign stops at level 10, for example, you'll likely want to drop a few Wizard levels so you can still make use of Flash of Genius.
Got your own ideas for improving the Cartographer? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord.