Summary

• Artificer won't be in DnD's 2024 PHB due to its niche nature, but will be reintroduced in a future book, according to developer Jeremy Crawford.
• While Artificer is popular, its unique flavor can be hard to fit universally in all DnD settings.
• Fans of Artificer will have to wait for future supplementary books to see the class in the latest edition.

While a new 2024 Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons is in the works, a statement from developer Jeremy Crawford has explained why one popular class from 5e won't be making its way into the newest edition. While the fifth edition of DnD has seen several new subclasses, rulings, and settings added to it over the course of its lifetime, the 2024 Player's Handbook is starting out with a relatively smaller selection - and while developers have promised that the changes will still be compatible with 5e, some choices may still prove to be unpopular.

As confirmed by Jeremy Crawford at the DnD at Gen Con 2024, the Artificer class won't be a part of the 2024 Player's Handbook, which will instead opt for the same 12 base classes as 5e. Expanding on why the class won't be available, Crawford stated that "Artificer in some ways didn't the task of being something universal to all DnD worlds," going on to explain that the developers felt that the class was somewhat too niche to fit into the default handbook. Crawford also made clear, however, that Artificer will be officially reintroduced in the future, saying that there are "fun new things in store for Artificer."

Artificer Won't Be In PHB 2024, But May Appear In A Later Book

Artificer Was Added To 5e Via Supplementary Materials

Since its introduction in supplementary materials for DnD 5e, Artificer has been a popular class for many players, with a large part of the DnD community ing its inclusion as one of the default classes going forward. As only the second class to make use of the Intelligence attribute, and with a unique flavor to distinguish it from other spellcasters, Artificer fills an important niche for many players who want something outside what the default 12 classes have to offer.

However, the unique flavoring of Artificers as magical inventors and tinkerers can also make it a hard class to fit into every possible DnD setting, which makes the decision to leave it out of the 2024 Player's Handbook understandable. In addition, with the newest handbook for DnD making major changes to most of the 12 classes represented in it, the work required to bring Artificer in as a default class was likely deemed too much, and it will instead be saved to be the focus of a later, supplementary book like a Tasha's Cauldron equivalent.

While the news is disappointing for fans of the Artificer class, Jeremy Crawford's statements at Gen Con 2024 at least confirmed that the class will be present in the newest edition of DnD, with changes to bring it in line with the rest of the 2024 Player's Handbook classes. Artificer will officially be a part of the newest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but until more later supplementary books are released, fans of the class will either have to wait or settle for the 5e version.