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{{flavour| Artificers have built, bought or burgled an assortment of magic wands to help them through the early Dungeon. Wands have a limited number of uses, though, so they'll want to upgrade from their club ASAP.}}
An '''Artificer''' is an [[Evocations]] specialist. [[Wands]] are their tool of choice, and they bring a few with them to the [[Dungeon]].

==Preferred Species==
[[Kobold]], [[Spriggan]], [[Draconian]], and [[Demonspawn]] are the recommended species if you pick an Artificer Background.

==Starting Equipment==
Some [[species]] may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.
*+0 [[club]]
*+0 [[leather armour]]
*[[Wand of charming]] (15 charges)
*[[Wand of flame]] (15 charges)
*[[Wand of iceblast]] (5 charges)

Even if a wand [[alternate items|would be replaced by another wand]], Artificer's wands will always remain the same.

==Starting Skills and Stats==
These are adjusted by your species' [[aptitude]]s.
*[[Fighting]]: 1
*[[Dodging]]: 1
*[[Armour (skill)|Armour]]: 2
*[[Stealth]]: 1
*[[Evocations]]: 3

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

==Strategy==
Artificers begin with worse equipment and skills than other backgrounds, but have a number of good emergency tools to compensate. In the very early game, it is one of the strongest backgrounds, as the wands can bail you out from many terrible situations. However, you won't have enough charges to kill ''everything'' with a wand. In addition, because the player doesn't start invested in a "permanent" offensive skill, it can be more difficult to [[Early Game Character Building|develop]] past the very early game.

Each wand has a number of uses:
*The wand of flame deals moderate damage (high for D:1-2) from a distance. Use it to soften up a dangerous threat that isn't dangerous enough to warrant another wand. Or use it to deal a bit of extra damage.
**When used over [[water]], a wand of flame will create damaging [[steam]] clouds. This deals significantly more damage, and can block [[line of sight]] in the right layout.
*The wand of charming has a chance to convert a monster into an ally (for a short time). You can turn groups, like [[orc]] bands or [[killer bee]] packs, against each other. You can also use it to escape from a monster - charm a monster, then '''[[t]]'''ell it to '''r'''etreat.
*The wand of iceblast deals huge damage relative to the early game. A base Artificer deals 3d9 damage with iceblast - that's enough to one-shot [[orc priest]]s, [[Sigmund]], and other [[out-of-depth]] threats. Plus, iceblast damages in a 3x3 area and never misses.

Artificers can choose many paths to pursue through the game; pretty much whatever you choose, your evocations will be a useful supplement to your main skills.

Artificer is a particularly good background for species that start off weak, but become strong later. Examples include [[Demonspawn]], [[Barachi]], and [[Naga]].

==History==
*In [[0.29]], Artificers received 5 charges of [[wand of iceblast|iceblast]], losing their [[piece from Xom's chessboard]] (which was moved to [[Chaos Knight]]).
*Prior to [[0.27]], Artificers began with a [[wand of random effects]] (15 charges) instead of a piece from Xom's chessboard.
*Prior to [[0.26]], Artificers began with a [[short sword]] instead of a club, and started with [[Short Blades]] skill instead of Armour skill.
*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.

{{backgrounds}}

[[Category:Backgrounds]]

Artificer - Revision history

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