Verdict
Forge of the Artificer is a messy, disjointed book, with half the page count of D&D’s usual releases. It relies on a six-year-old book for lore and context, while it focuses instead on delivering an updated catalog of Eberron-themed character options. These are, on the whole, strong and interesting additions to your character-building repertoire. However, this book stops short of being a must-buy thanks to hit-and-miss new content and minimalist adventure content.
- Strong Artificer subclasses remain strong
- Origin Dragonmarks are useful and exciting
- Interesting Bastion and airship rules
- Feels incomplete without Forge of the Artificer
- New Cartographer subclass is underwhelming
- Greater Dragonmarks are dull
- Adventure structures lack detail
While 'necessary evil' might be too strong a phrase for the latest D&D book, Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, I feel justified in calling it a 'necessary irritable'. It brings some of D&D's most beloved classes and species up to speed with the new rules, and it offers the odd character option that is so powerful, it shouldn't be missed. That's pretty damn necessary. I just wish the book was structured in a more approachable manner - or that all of its contents were this useful.
What is Eberron: Forge of the Artificer?
Clocking in at just 112 pages, Forge of the Artificer is a mini sourcebook with a more limited scope than most D&D releases. Its primary purpose is to reintroduce the Artificer 5e class, with updated rules that bring it up to speed with the 2024 overhaul of fifth edition.
Chapter one is entirely dedicated to this entry in the DnD classes roster. The four existing subclasses have been tinkered with, and the all-new Cartographer subclass is introduced. You'll find just one spell in this chapter: Homunculus Servant, a summoning spell that went through some interesting changes during playtesting.
Chapter Two reintroduces Dragonmark feats, now available to all characters regardless of which DnD races they belong to, and handed out depending on your background. Speaking of species, five appear here: Changeling, Kalashtar, Khoravar, Shifter, and the beloved Warforged. Changes to these species have been fairly minimal but positive overall.
Chapter three offers new Bastion rules, including the chance to turn a steampunk airship into a mobile Bastion. After that comes three chapters of adventure 'templates' designed to inspire campaigns based around key parts of the Eberron setting. These generally provide a brief overview of a relevant place, genre, or group of characters, followed by 'campaign arc' suggestions and brief encounter outlines.
Finally, we finish with a chapter on operating Eberron's famous elemental airships. Honestly, these seem pretty good - simple enough to implement, and fun rather than feeling like mid-battle homework. The upgrades system makes your ship feel more yours - and more of a character in your campaign.
Who is Eberron: Forge of the Artificer for?
Based on that chapter breakdown, Forge of the Artificer sounds like it's designed with both DMs and players in mind. There's plenty of new(ish) character options, and Dungeon Masters have some campaign tools to play with.
Except that I'd argue that there's really not much incentive for DMs to pick up this book. I've spoken before about my issues with D&D's new campaign arcs, and I remain unimpressed by their lack of detail and thought. But there's another potential issue here for anyone who wants to run an Eberron game.
On its own, Eberron: Forge of the Artificer isn't a great introduction to the setting mentioned in its title. This is a lore-light, rules-first mini-supplement, one that openly declares that it's designed to be used in tandem with Eberron: Rising From the Last War - a book published six years ago.
For the already initiated, this limited view of Eberron shouldn't be too troubling. Long-time D&D players likely already own Rising From the Last War, which is an excellent sourcebook, even if its character rules are now out of date. That gives a more comprehensive introduction to Eberron's pulpy, post-war, steampunk feel. This book, meanwhile, provides more modern versions of the rules players need to immerse themselves in the world.
Unfortunately for anyone who doesn't own Rising From the Last War - and doesn't want to buy it right now - Forge of the Artificer leans very heavily on its companion book. There's not much in the way of clear setting description, and when the explanations do arrive, they come with incomplete information and illogical ordering. It makes the world of Eberron all that more difficult for a newcomer to navigate.
I can see the vision that Wizards of the Coast was going for here. The mini sourcebook does its best not to alienate older D&D fans, and it doesn't force existing customers to pay for content they already have. It's just a shame that the execution is so messy.
What's good and bad about Eberron: Forge of the Artificer?
Most of the rules content in Forge of the Artificer is satisfying, and a few morsels are even spectacular. There's a few wobbly moments when it comes to power and quality, but my overall impressions are positive.
Artificer class
First, let's talk Artificer. We've seen its updated version go through many iterations in playtesting, and this final draft is by far the most balanced. It keeps the exciting play potential of abilities like Replicate Magic Item and Spell-Storing Item, but it axes some of the more broken builds that could stem from such powers.
The Artificer isn't a very exciting class until at least level six thanks to a few underwhelming abilities early on. However, from there, it's full steam ahead (pun intended). All your best class features, from Flash of Genius to your magic item production, are a little more generous resource-wise, giving an Artificer more bang for their buck.
When it comes to subclasses, the quality is less consistent. Despite introducing all manner of tweaks, the pre-existing subclass feel near-identical to their previous versions. The strong remain strong, and the weak are…well, we'll get to that.
The Artillerist and Battle Smith still storm ahead, in my opinion, as the clear cream of the crop, while the Armorer is sitting pretty somewhere in the middle. These subclasses have been nudged up in power slightly (because all of the 2024 rules updates have had an element of power creep to them), but there's nothing shocking about the changes made. Solid, reliable, but not very surprising.
Unfortunately, not every cog in this machine gleams. The Alchemist, long regarded as an insultingly bad subclass, is still kind of bad. It's better, but still not brilliant.
The Cartographer is, similarly, low down on the Artificer tier list. Its map-making ability has some interesting potential for strategic spellcasting, but its over-reliance on Faerie Fire seriously dampens its power potential. Plus, I don't believe that the theme Wizards was going for - 'illumination', if the mix of radiant damage spells and utility features is anything to go by - is consistent or engaging. The Cartographer feels like a mish-mash of ideas without a clear role it can play in the party.
Character options
As I already mentioned, the changes to Eberron's species aren't overwhelming. They are, however, pretty interesting when compared with the Player's Handbook options we've seen so far.
Changelings have advantage on all Charisma checks while shapeshifted (which, realistically, should be all the time). Khoravar can learn basically any cantrip and skill worth learning, and the Warforged is quite literally the perfect species for a gruelling survival campaign.
The origin Dragonmark feats you pick up from Eberron's backgrounds are, on the whole, pretty exciting. Most of them offer useful or powerful spell lists that can enhance a range of builds. The only real drawback is that the stats and skills you gain from the associated background might not always suit the build that you had in mind.
What I'm less interested in are the 'Greater' Dragonmark feats. These are designed to be upgrades to your origin Dragonmarks, and they can only be selected if you already have said origins. That would imply that they're an improvement on what came before, but this simply isn't the case. The only higher-level Dragonmark that's worth considering is Potent Dragonmark.
Potent Dragonmark is a feat so strong that D&D players have raised many a Reddit-based concern about balance. But, for reasons I've already explained, I'm all for it.
Everything else
Forge of the Artificer marks the first time that I've felt genuinely excited about Bastions as a concept. A moving, shooting base that gives you a variety of genuine benefits to invest in as upgrades? That appeals far more than a lone tower where I keep a research library and a personal zoo.
That's where my excitement ends, though. The three campaign frame chapters remain oddly structured, sparsely populated, and uninspiring. The greatest tabletop RPG rulebooks are able to expertly sow the seeds of potential storylines into their lore, and with enough enthusiasm, this can push a budding DM to start drafting their own campaigns. This is what I want from Dungeons and Dragons, but I'm simply not excited by its paint-by-numbers list of stat blocks and brief advice on genre games.
In the end, Forge of the Artificer achieves most of what it set out to do. There's enough hit-and-miss content among the rules to stop me calling this a must-have gem among sourcebooks, but it largely delivers on its promises. A new class to play with in the 2024 rules, worthy new character options, and a unique setting to mess around with. Just don't expect rich lore or an in-depth campaign to work with.
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