Introduction
An Artificer's prepared-spell list tops out at Intelligence modifier plus half their level, rounded down, with a one-spell minimum. A 5th-level Artificer with a solid 16 Intelligence prepares exactly four spells, total, before cantrips. A same-level Cleric or Druid, by comparison, prepares Wisdom modifier plus full class level, which is often double that number and pulls from a list they never have to formally "learn." Every other prepared full caster in the game treats their list as a deep bench they rotate through daily. An Artificer treats it as a short, deliberate loadout, closer in spirit to a Warlock's tiny known-spell list than to a Cleric's sprawling one, except an Artificer can change the loadout after every long rest instead of being stuck with it.
That scarcity is compounded by a second layer unique to this class: Artificers don't cast spells the way anyone else does. Every artificer spell requires the caster to have a spellcasting focus, usually a set of tools they're proficient with, and the class's own Infuse Item feature and Replicable Items progression quietly duplicate a meaningful slice of what a prepared spell would otherwise do. A Ring of Jumping does what Jump does, permanently, for free, once it's been infused. A Cap of Water Breathing does what Water Breathing does without ever touching a spell slot. Picking spells for an Artificer isn't just "what's strong," it's "what isn't already covered by the toy box," and this guide ranks the general Artificer spell list with both of those pressures in mind: which picks earn one of a four-or-five-spell prepared list, and which picks the Infuse Item subsystem quietly makes redundant.
Most of the Artificer spell list is reprinted material from the Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide to Everything (marked with an asterisk in the source list); Eberron: Rising from the Last War introduces no new spells of its own for the class. The one exception is Ashardalon's Stride, added by Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, which explicitly names the Artificer as eligible even though the class itself originates elsewhere. Beyond that single spell, what these books add is the delivery system: tool-based casting, the Infuse Item and Replicable Items subsystem, and (for the three specialists) a fixed bonus-spell table that sits entirely outside this list and never competes with it.
● Blue: Fantastic. Earns one of an Artificer's very few prepared-spell slots in almost every build. ● Green: Good. A solid pick once the Blue-tier essentials are covered. ● Orange: Situational. Correct in a specific build, party composition, or campaign, not a default pick. ● Red: Bad. Skip it; an Artificer's prepared list is too short to spend here.
Why a Four-Slot Prepared List Changes Everything
Artificer spell selection runs on a different logic than any other prepared caster in the game, for three compounding reasons.
Every pick is a permanent-feeling decision, even though it technically isn't. An Artificer can swap their prepared list after any long rest, the same as a Cleric or Druid. In practice, though, the list is so short that a wasted slot is far more painful. A Cleric who prepares a mediocre spell alongside twelve good ones barely notices. An Artificer who prepares a mediocre spell alongside three good ones has spent a quarter of their entire toolkit for the day on it.
The Infuse Item subsystem is a silent competitor for the same problems. Before ranking a single spell, it's worth asking whether a Replicable Item already solves the same problem for free. A 2nd-level Artificer choosing between preparing Detect Magic and infusing a Wand of Magic Detection isn't really choosing between two good options; the wand does the job with zero ongoing slot cost, which frees the prepared-spell slot for something the toy box can't replicate. This guide flags every spell that has a direct or near-direct infusion equivalent, because that overlap should drive a real chunk of an Artificer's spell-selection math.
Ritual casting is close to free value for a slot-starved class. An Artificer can cast a prepared spell as a ritual if it carries the ritual tag, without spending a spell slot at all. Once a ritual spell occupies one of the class's precious prepared slots, it can be cast as many times as the day allows at zero ongoing resource cost. That makes the handful of ritual-tagged spells on this list (Alarm, Detect Magic, Identify, Magic Mouth, Skywrite, Water Breathing, and Water Walk) worth weighing more heavily than their raw power alone would suggest.
Tool-based casting rewards INT-primary races and specific proficiencies. Every Artificer spell requires a spellcasting focus, which for most Artificers means the tools their specialist already grants proficiency with. A Battle Smith casting through smith's tools, an Alchemist through alchemist's supplies, an Artillerist through woodcarver's tools: the flavor is fixed by subclass, but the mechanics don't change what a spell does. What does change is which race pairs best with the class, since Intelligence drives both the spell save DC and the attack modifier. For the full breakdown of Gnome, Vedalken, and Warforged pairings against the class's Intelligence dependency, see the D&D 5e Artificer Guide.
A missed prepared spell can't be patched with a spell slot the way a Sorcerer's known-spell gap can. A Sorcerer without the right spell known can sometimes brute-force a problem with a higher-level slot on an adjacent spell. An Artificer facing a problem their four or five prepared spells don't cover has almost no equivalent workaround mid-adventure; the fix has to wait for the next long rest, when the list can be reshuffled. That single-rest turnaround is a real strength (an Artificer can retool their entire spell list overnight to match tomorrow's expected problem) but it also means a poorly chosen list has real consequences for the rest of a given day, which is the core reason this guide treats "does this spell solve a problem nothing else on the character sheet solves" as the deciding question for almost every entry below.
Hot Take: Detect Magic and Identify are the two best 1st-level picks on this entire list, and it isn't close. Both are ritual-tagged, both are cheap on Intelligence-based prepared-spell math, and both solve the single most common bottleneck in any dungeon-crawling campaign: figuring out what the pile of loot actually does before someone attunes to a cursed item by accident. An Artificer who prepares both never spends a spell slot identifying anything again, for the entire campaign, at the cost of two of their four early slots. That's a strong trade for a class whose Replicable Items list can't replicate "knowing what things are."
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Start BuildingCantrips: Free Damage and Free Utility
An Artificer's cantrips are the only part of the spell list that don't compete with the prepared-list bottleneck at all, since cantrips are known outright rather than prepared and re-chosen. That makes them worth locking in early and rarely revisiting.
1. Guidance — Cantrip — ●
A d4 added to one ability check, cast as a bonus action with concentration up to 1 minute. An Artificer with Tool Expertise (doubled proficiency on tool checks starting at 6th level) is already the party's best tool-check specialist; stacking Guidance on top of that turns lockpicking, disarming traps, and crafting checks into near-locks. Free, renewable, and it never competes with a leveled slot.
2. Mending — Cantrip — ●
Repairs a single break or tear in an object, 1 hour of casting time outside combat. The reason it rates this high for an Artificer specifically and almost nobody else: the class's own companion stat blocks call it out by name. Casting Mending on a Steel Defender, a Homunculus Servant, or an Eldritch Cannon restores 2d6 hit points to it, as written directly in each companion's own feature text. A Battle Smith or Artillerist who keeps this cantrip on hand has a free, unlimited between-fights heal for their construct companion that doesn't touch a spell slot, an infusion, or a long rest.
3. Fire Bolt — Cantrip — ●
1d10 fire damage, scaling to 4d10 by 17th level, the standard ranged-attack cantrip every INT-caster leans on when nothing else is happening. An Artillerist already gets a comparable ranged option from their Eldritch Cannon, which makes Fire Bolt slightly less mandatory for that specialist than for an Alchemist or Battle Smith who has no other reliable ranged damage source.
4. Spare the Dying — Cantrip — ●
Stabilizes a dying creature at 0 hit points, touch range, no cost beyond an action. An Artificer isn't usually a party's primary healer, but this cantrip is the cheapest possible insurance against a downed ally bleeding out while everyone else is still fighting, and it costs nothing to know.
5. Prestidigitation — Cantrip — ●
The general-purpose minor-effects cantrip: light a candle, clean an object, produce a harmless sensory trick. Thematically strong for a class built around visible, hands-on tinkering, and it costs nothing to carry even though it rarely matters in combat.
Skip: Acid Splash and Poison Spray both lag behind Fire Bolt on average damage and lose value once an Artillerist's Eldritch Cannon comes online. Mage Hand is solid utility but redundant with how much an Artificer already handles through tools and Magical Tinkering. Dancing Lights, Light, Message, Resistance, Create Bonfire, Frostbite, Magic Stone, Thorn Whip, and Thunderclap are all fine in a vacuum but rarely beat the five above for one of an Artificer's limited cantrip slots.
1st-Level Spells
1. Cure Wounds — 1st Level — ●
1d8 plus spellcasting modifier in healing, touch range, 1 action. An Artificer is not the party's dedicated healer by class design, but most Artificer-inclusive parties don't have a Cleric or Druid either, and a class that can prepare Cure Wounds is a class that doesn't need one. Pairs directly with the Homunculus Servant infusion (available at 6th level): the homunculus's Channel Magic reaction can deliver any touch-range spell you cast, which turns Cure Wounds from a melee-range heal into a ranged one without spending an extra resource.
2. Faerie Fire — 1st Level — ●
Outlines every creature in a 20-foot cube in light, granting advantage on attacks against them and preventing them from benefiting from invisibility, on a failed Dexterity save with no attack roll required. For the full mechanical breakdown, see the Faerie Fire spell guide. An Artificer rarely has a second party member built around granting advantage the way a Bard or Paladin does, which makes this one of the few spells on the list that meaningfully boosts the whole party's damage output for a single 1st-level slot.
3. Absorb Elements — 1st Level — ●
A reaction that halves incoming acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage and adds a matching damage type to your next melee hit. Costs no action economy at all since it's cast as a reaction to being hit, which makes it one of the most efficient defensive picks any Artificer can prepare, especially a Battle Smith who's already standing in melee range.
4. Identify — 1st Level — ●
Ritual-tagged, and once prepared it never needs a spell slot to cast. See the Identify spell guide for the full ritual-casting breakdown. An Artificer's own Replicable Items list hands out a steady stream of magic items across the campaign, on top of whatever the party finds; a class this deep into magic-item logistics benefits more than almost any other from never needing to guess what a found item does.
5. Detect Magic — 1st Level — ●
Also ritual-tagged, also a permanent slot-free utility once prepared. See the Detect Magic spell guide for the full rundown. Combined with Identify, an Artificer who prepares both effectively removes "figuring out what the loot does" from the campaign's list of resource-consuming problems, for the rest of the game, using only two of their earliest and smallest prepared-spell allotment.
6. False Life — 1st Level — ●
1d4+4 temporary hit points, no concentration, castable before a fight starts. A cheap, renewable damage buffer for a class with a d8 hit die and a habit of standing near its Steel Defender or Eldritch Cannon in the thick of combat.
7. Grease — 1st Level — ●
A 10-foot square of slippery ground, Dexterity save or fall prone on entry or on a failed check to stand. Cheap crowd control for a chokepoint fight, but competes directly with Absorb Elements and Faerie Fire for the same early slots and rarely wins that comparison outside a battlefield built around a doorway or hallway.
Skip: Alarm is ritual-tagged and useful for a cautious camp, but most tables already have a Ranger or a watch rotation covering the same need. Catapult and Disguise Self are fine niche picks with narrow application. Jump and Longstrider both lose most of their appeal once an Artificer can infuse a Ring of Jumping or reach for a Boots of Striding and Springing-equivalent through Replicate Magic Item, since both items solve the same problem permanently without a prepared-spell slot. Purify Food and Drink and Sanctuary are both fine safety-net picks that rarely beat the seven above. Snare is a trap-setting spell most tables never get enough downtime to use effectively.
2nd-Level Spells
1. Enhance Ability — 2nd Level — ●
Advantage on ability checks of one chosen type for 1 hour, touch range. Flexible enough to cover almost any skill challenge the party runs into, and the 1-hour duration means one casting typically survives an entire scene.
2. Invisibility — 2nd Level — ●
Full invisibility until the target attacks or casts a spell, up to 1 hour, touch range. See the Invisibility spell guide for the complete mechanical breakdown. An Artificer without a dedicated stealth ally can hand this to whoever needs to scout or set up a guaranteed opening attack, and the touch range means it doesn't have to be self-targeted.
3. Aid — 2nd Level — ●
+5 to current and maximum hit points for up to 8 hours, three targets at once. See the Aid spell guide for the full breakdown. A pre-combat buff that scales across a whole party, worth preparing whenever an Artificer expects a long, grinding day of encounters and doesn't have a Cleric on hand to cover it.
4. Darkvision — 2nd Level — ●
60 feet of darkvision for 8 hours, touch range. Valuable for a party missing a race with innate darkvision, and the 8-hour duration means it's a once-per-adventuring-day cast rather than a per-encounter one.
5. Lesser Restoration — 2nd Level — ●
Ends one disease or one of several debilitating conditions (blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned) on a touched creature. Worth a slot the moment a party lacks a dedicated support caster, since removing paralysis mid-fight can single-handedly save a character's life.
6. Magic Weapon — 2nd Level — ●
+1 to attack and damage rolls on a nonmagical weapon, concentration, up to 1 hour. The catch: the Enhanced Weapon infusion does the same job permanently, with no spell slot and no concentration required, the moment an Artificer has a free infusion to spend on it. Magic Weapon earns a slot mainly for temporarily enchanting a borrowed weapon, an ally's weapon, or a found mundane weapon that isn't the one already carrying the Enhanced Weapon infusion.
7. Web — 2nd Level — ●
A 20-foot cube of sticky webbing that restrains creatures on a failed Dexterity save, with a Strength check needed to break free. Strong area control for a chokepoint fight, but concentration-dependent and situational enough that it usually loses out to Enhance Ability or Invisibility for one of an Artificer's early 2nd-level slots.
8. Alter Self — 2nd Level — ●
Change your own appearance, grow a natural weapon, or gain a swimming speed and water breathing for up to 1 hour, concentration. Flexible, but it's a self-only spell on a class whose best 2nd-level picks (Enhance Ability, Invisibility, Aid) can all be handed to whichever party member needs them most. Worth a slot mainly for a Battle Smith leaning into the natural-weapon option as a melee damage supplement.
Skip: Spider Climb is a fine niche pick, but the Slippers of Spider Climbing entry on the 10th-level Replicable Items table does the same job permanently once an Artificer reaches that tier, which makes preparing the spell version mostly a stopgap for the levels before that infusion becomes available. Arcane Lock, Blur, Continual Flame, Enlarge/Reduce, Heat Metal, Levitate, Magic Mouth (ritual, but narrow), Protection from Poison, Pyrotechnics, See Invisibility, Skywrite (ritual, but narrow), and Rope Trick are all situationally fine but rarely beat the six Blue and Green picks above for a slot this scarce.
9. Kinetic Jaunt, Vortex Warp — 2nd Level — ●
Two picks from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. Kinetic Jaunt is a bonus-action mobility buff (+10 feet, no opportunity attacks, movement through occupied spaces), a reasonable escape option for an Artificer who ends up too close to melee. Vortex Warp forcibly relocates a single creature within 90 feet on a failed Constitution save, useful for repositioning a dangerous enemy away from a squishy ally. Neither displaces the class's core prepared-list picks above, but both are legitimate fills for an Artificer's fourth or fifth known 2nd-level slot at higher levels.
10. Air Bubble — 2nd Level — ●
A Spelljammer: Adventures in Space addition. Creates a 24-hour globe of fresh air around a willing creature's head, no concentration required, upcasting to two additional globes per slot level above 2nd. Dead weight in a standard dungeon-and-town campaign, but a real answer to Wildspace's foul-and-deadly air clock or any prolonged underwater or toxic-gas scenario the class's kit doesn't otherwise cover - see the Spelljammer guide's wildspace rules for the air-quality rules this spell answers.
3rd-Level Spells
1. Haste — 3rd Level — ●
Doubled speed, +2 AC, advantage on Dexterity saves, and an extra action (minus casting a spell) for one creature, concentration, up to 1 minute. See the Haste spell guide for the full breakdown of the lethargy penalty on the way out. One of the single strongest buffs any class gets at 3rd level, and an Artificer who reaches a 3rd-level slot has every reason to prepare it the moment it's available.
2. Fly — 3rd Level — ●
60-foot fly speed for up to 10 minutes, touch range, concentration. See the Fly spell guide for the complete mechanical rundown. Strong positioning and terrain-solving utility, and touch range means it can go on whichever party member needs it most for a given encounter rather than only the Artificer.
3. Revivify — 3rd Level — ●
Returns a creature dead for less than 1 minute to life with 1 hit point, 300 gp diamond material component consumed. See the Revivify spell guide for the full timing and component breakdown. Worth a permanent slot in any party without a dedicated caster covering resurrection at this tier, since the alternative to having this prepared is a dead character staying dead.
4. Dispel Magic — 3rd Level — ●
Ends one spell effect on a target, automatic against the caster's own slot level or lower. See the Dispel Magic spell guide for the full ability-check math against higher-level effects. Situational but occasionally mandatory against an enemy spellcaster's buffs or a magical hazard, and it's one of the few answers on this list to a problem the Infuse Item subsystem can't touch at all.
5. Protection from Energy — 3rd Level — ●
Resistance to one chosen damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder) for up to 1 hour, concentration. A strong situational pick against a known elemental threat, and it overlaps meaningfully with the Resistant Armor infusion, which grants the same resistance permanently to whoever wears the infused armor. Prepare the spell for a known upcoming threat the infusion hasn't been built around yet; lean on the infusion for a standing, campaign-long answer.
6. Elemental Weapon — 3rd Level — ●
+1 to attack rolls and an extra 1d4 of a chosen damage type on a weapon, concentration, up to 1 hour. A heavier, longer-lasting cousin of Magic Weapon that competes with the same Enhanced Weapon infusion overlap discussed above at 2nd level, but the added elemental damage die makes it worth a 3rd-level slot for a Battle Smith who knows in advance which resistance an enemy is likely to lack.
7. Ashardalon's Stride — 3rd Level — ●
+20 feet of speed, immunity to opportunity attacks while moving, and 1d6 fire damage to anything you pass within 5 feet of, bonus action, concentration, up to 1 minute. From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, one of the spells this book explicitly notes is available to Artificers, a class that originates in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Eberron: Rising from the Last War, not this book. A situational mobility pick for an Artificer who needs to close distance around a Steel Defender or a group of enemies rather than a default prepared choice.
Skip: Water Breathing and Water Walk are both ritual-tagged and useful for a nautical campaign, but the Cap of Water Breathing infusion on the 2nd-level Replicable Items table covers the same underwater-survival need permanently, for free, the moment an Artificer chooses to infuse it, which makes preparing the spell version largely redundant once that item exists. Blink, Catnap, Create Food and Water, Flame Arrows, Glyph of Warding, and Tiny Servant are all fine in the right campaign but rarely beat the five Blue, Green, and Orange picks above for a slot this scarce.
4th-Level Spells
1. Freedom of Movement — 4th Level — ●
Immunity to being restrained, and movement isn't reduced by difficult terrain, for 1 hour, touch range, no concentration. One of the best defensive utility spells any class can prepare, especially valuable for a Battle Smith or a Steel Defender caught in the kind of grapple-and-restrain combos that shut down melee-committed builds.
2. Fabricate — 4th Level — ●
Converts raw material into a finished product of the caster's choice, no roll required. This is the single most thematically on-brand spell on the entire Artificer list: a class built around "magic as technology" gets a spell that literally manufactures objects, and it solves physical-world problems (build a rope bridge, forge a replacement part, produce a container) that no infusion or item replication covers.
3. Stoneskin — 4th Level — ●
Resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for up to 1 hour, concentration, touch range. A strong survivability pick for a Battle Smith wading into melee range alongside their Steel Defender, less valuable for an Artillerist or Alchemist staying at range.
4. Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound — 4th Level — ●
A phantom guard dog that attacks intruders for up to 8 hours without requiring concentration. Strong for a party that needs a defended camp or a guarded chokepoint, narrow otherwise.
5. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere — 4th Level — ●
Traps a creature (willing or on a failed Dexterity save) inside an impervious, weightless sphere for up to 1 minute, concentration. A niche but powerful answer to a single dangerous enemy: nothing gets in or out, which makes it a hard removal tool against a boss whose allies are the real threat, similar in spirit to Banishment but without the plane-of-origin permanence clause.
Skip: Arcane Eye and Elemental Bane are both fine niche picks. Leomund's Secret Chest and Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum are both downtime and logistics tools rather than combat picks, useful in a long campaign but rarely worth one of an Artificer's precious slots ahead of the five above. Stone Shape is situational enough to sit below the Blue, Green, and Orange picks for most builds.
Also from Tasha's Cauldron: Summon Construct conjures a themed spirit ally on the artificer's own construct list, sharing your initiative and scaling with the slot spent. Thematically the tightest fit of any Tasha's Cauldron summon spell for the class, but it still competes with Freedom of Movement and Fabricate for one of only four prepared slots at this level.
5th-Level Spells
1. Greater Restoration — 5th Level — ●
Ends one of a long list of debilitating effects on a touched creature: exhaustion, petrification, a curse, a charm, and reduced ability scores or maximum hit points among them. The single best answer on this list to the kind of long-term, campaign-altering debuff that a short rest or a lesser spell can't fix, and worth a permanent slot in any party without dedicated coverage for it elsewhere.
2. Animate Objects — 5th Level — ●
Animates up to ten Tiny objects (or fewer, larger ones) into temporary combatants that fight on your turn, concentration, up to 1 minute. A thematically perfect capstone for a "magic as technology" caster, and mechanically one of the strongest action-economy spells in the game: it converts a single casting into multiple extra attackers for the duration.
3. Creation — 5th Level — ●
Creates an object out of shadowstuff up to a 5-foot cube, permanent if it isn't organic in nature. A slower, more permanent cousin of Fabricate, better for crafting a specific finished item over the course of an hour rather than instantly converting raw materials on hand.
4. Wall of Stone — 5th Level — ●
Creates a nonmagical stone wall up to ten 10-foot-square panels, which can be shaped into a barrier, a bridge, or a set of steps and made permanent by holding concentration for the full duration. A strong battlefield-shaping and problem-solving tool for a class already thinking about physical construction, situational enough that it rarely edges out Greater Restoration or Animate Objects for a slot this scarce.
Skip: Bigby's Hand is a strong spell in a vacuum, but it costs an entire concentration slot to do a job an Eldritch Cannon or Steel Defender is often already doing for an Artillerist or Battle Smith. Skill Empowerment and Transmute Rock are both fine situational picks that rarely beat Greater Restoration or Animate Objects for one of the class's few 5th-level slots.
Campaign-gated honorable mention: Create Spelljamming Helm (Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, 5th Transmutation) touches an unoccupied Large-or-smaller chair and a crystal rod worth 5,000+ gp that the spell consumes, transforming the chair into a spelljamming helm. Not a combat or utility pick in any normal sense - it's a one-time crafting spell that only matters if your table is running a Wildspace or spelljamming-ship campaign, where it's the cheapest legitimate way for a party to own its own ship's helm instead of buying one for roughly 7,500 gp.
Specialist Bonus Spells: A Second List That Doesn't Compete
Starting at 3rd level, each Artificer Specialist gets its own fixed table of bonus spells that are always prepared and never count against the Artificer's normal prepared-spell total. These sit entirely outside the general spell list above, which means a specialist's spell selection math isn't really a competition between the two lists; it's an addition. The bonus spells effectively give every Artificer a second, subclass-flavored spell list layered on top of whatever they prepare from the table above.
| Specialist | Level 3 | Level 5 | Level 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemist | Healing Word, Ray of Sickness | Flaming Sphere, Melf's Acid Arrow | Gaseous Form, Mass Healing Word |
| Artillerist | Shield, Thunderwave | Scorching Ray, Shatter | Fireball, Wind Wall |
| Battle Smith | Heroism, Shield | Branding Smite, Warding Bond | Aura of Vitality, Conjure Barrage |
Notice the shape: an Alchemist's bonus list plugs the healing gap this guide's own top picks (Cure Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration) already lean into, effectively doubling an Alchemist's healing access without spending a prepared slot on it twice. That redundancy is a reason to redirect an Alchemist's general-list slots toward utility instead: an Alchemist can safely lean on Detect Magic, Identify, and Freedom of Movement from the ranked lists above, trusting Healing Word and Mass Healing Word to cover the party's day-to-day healing needs for free.
An Artillerist's bonus list is almost entirely damage and battlefield control (Shield, Thunderwave, Scorching Ray, Shatter, Fireball), which means an Artillerist can safely spend more of their own prepared-list slots from the table above on utility and ritual picks like Detect Magic and Identify, since the bonus list already covers offense at every tier this guide ranks. Shatter and Fireball both also appear (or have close cousins) among the general list's higher-rated picks discussed above, so an Artillerist gets to double down on area damage without ever spending a general-list slot to do it.
A Battle Smith's bonus list leans defensive and melee-supportive (Shield, Heroism, Warding Bond, Branding Smite), which pairs naturally with Freedom of Movement and Stoneskin from the general list above: between the bonus list's Shield and the general list's Absorb Elements, a Battle Smith standing next to their Steel Defender has a strong answer to almost any incoming damage type before they've spent a single general-list slot on defense. For the full feature-by-feature breakdown of each specialist, including the rest of their bonus-spell progression through 17th level, see the Alchemist, Artillerist, and Battle Smith guides.
Infusion Synergy: When the Toy Box Replaces the Spell
The single most Artificer-specific piece of spell selection math is checking whether a Replicable Item already does a spell's job before spending a prepared slot on it. A handful of direct overlaps are worth knowing by heart:
- Detect Magic / Identify vs. Wand of Magic Detection / Wand of Secrets. Both wands sit on the 2nd-level Replicable Items table. An Artificer who infuses one or both frees up the prepared-spell slot that would otherwise go to the matching ritual spell, though most Artificers still find room to prepare Detect Magic and Identify early anyway, since ritual casting means they cost nothing to run once prepared and the wands take an infusion slot that could otherwise go toward combat gear.
- Water Breathing vs. Cap of Water Breathing. Same 2nd-level table. The cap is a straight permanent replacement for the spell in any campaign with a real underwater or nautical thread, at zero ongoing slot cost.
- Jump vs. Ring of Jumping. The ring sits on the 10th-level Replicable Items table, later than the 1st-level spell is available, which makes Jump a reasonable stopgap pick in the early game that becomes safe to drop once the ring comes online.
- Spider Climb (the spell) vs. Slippers of Spider Climbing. Same relationship, same 10th-level table: a spell worth having early, safe to retire once the permanent item exists.
- Magic Weapon vs. Enhanced Weapon. The infusion is available from 1st level and does the same job permanently for a single weapon. Magic Weapon still earns a slot for enchanting a weapon that isn't the one carrying the infusion.
- Protection from Energy vs. Resistant Armor. The infusion (available at 6th level) grants a chosen resistance permanently through worn armor. The spell remains useful for a resistance type the infused armor wasn't built around, or before 6th level.
The broader pattern: infusions win whenever the need is standing and predictable (a party that's always fighting fire elementals, a campaign built around a flooded dungeon), and spells win whenever the need is temporary, unpredictable, or needs to be handed to someone other than whoever's wearing the infused gear. An Artificer who tracks this overlap consciously effectively stretches a four-or-five-spell prepared list much further than the raw number suggests, because half of what a Cleric or Wizard would need a spell slot for, an Artificer's magic items are already quietly covering.
There's a resource-competition wrinkle worth flagging, too: infusions and prepared spells don't draw from the same daily pool, but they do draw from the same character-build budget. An Artificer only knows a limited number of infusions at a time (four at 2nd level, growing with class level), and Replicate Magic Item itself has to be chosen as one of those known infusions before it can produce anything from the Replicable Items tables at all. A player who spends every known infusion on permanent buffs (Enhanced Weapon, Enhanced Defense, Homunculus Servant) has less room left for Replicate Magic Item slots, which pushes more of the "solve this with an item instead of a spell" logic back onto the general spell list above. In practice, most Artificers end up running a mix: a couple of permanent combat-boosting infusions, one or two Replicate Magic Item picks for the biggest slot-saving overlaps (the wands at 2nd level are the highest-value pick for this reason), and a spell list that covers whatever's left.
Ritual Casting: Free Value for a Slot-Starved Class
An Artificer can cast a prepared spell as a ritual, without spending a spell slot, as long as the spell carries the ritual tag and is currently on their prepared list. That's a smaller list than a Wizard's ritual-book access, but it hits two of the strongest utility spells on this entire ranking:
- Detect Magic and Identify together solve the recurring "what does this do" problem for the rest of the campaign, at zero ongoing slot cost once prepared.
- Alarm is a fine camp-safety ritual, though most parties already have another way to cover a watch.
- Magic Mouth and Skywrite are both narrow, flavorful utility picks that rarely beat a combat-relevant spell for one of an Artificer's scarce prepared slots, ritual tag or not.
- Water Breathing and Water Walk are both strong ritual picks in a nautical campaign, weighed against the Cap of Water Breathing infusion covering similar ground for free.
The practical takeaway: once Detect Magic and Identify are locked in, an Artificer has effectively removed the "identify the loot" tax from the rest of the game using two of their earliest and smallest allotment of slots, which is a better return on investment than almost any other pair of 1st-level picks on this list.
One limit of ritual casting for an Artificer: it never adds a spell to the prepared list that wasn't already chosen there. Unlike a Wizard's ritual-book access, which lets a Wizard cast any spell in their spellbook as a ritual whether or not it's currently prepared, an Artificer only gets the ritual-free-casting benefit for spells that have already spent one of their scarce prepared slots. That distinction matters when weighing a ritual spell against a non-ritual one of similar power: the ritual tag is a real bonus on top of whatever the spell already does, not a reason on its own to prepare something that wouldn't otherwise earn a slot.
Build Archetype Shortlists
Alchemist (healing-forward): Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire, Identify, Detect Magic, Lesser Restoration, Fly, Greater Restoration. The Alchemist's own bonus list (Healing Word, Mass Healing Word) already doubles down on healing access, so the general-list picks here lean toward utility and party support rather than duplicating more healing.
Artillerist (ranged damage-forward): Fire Bolt, Absorb Elements, Identify, Detect Magic, Haste, Freedom of Movement, Animate Objects. The bonus list (Shield, Thunderwave, Scorching Ray, Shatter, Fireball) already covers offense, which frees these general-list slots for defense and battlefield control instead.
Battle Smith (melee-forward): Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, Enhance Ability, Freedom of Movement, Stoneskin, Haste. Freedom of Movement and Stoneskin both directly protect a build that's already committed to standing in melee range beside a Steel Defender.
All three shortlists deliberately skip spells that a Replicable Item already covers at the level shown, on the assumption that infusion slots are being spent to match: an Alchemist or Battle Smith planning to reach 6th level with the Homunculus Servant or Enhanced Weapon infusion already accounted for shouldn't also burn a prepared slot duplicating what that infusion will soon do for free. Adjust each shortlist for the campaign's actual pace: a game that reaches 6th level slowly gets more mileage out of the early-game stopgap picks (Jump, Magic Weapon) flagged as situational above; a game that levels quickly can skip straight to the infusion-based version of the same effect.
Spells to Avoid
- Magic Weapon (2nd), when the Enhanced Weapon infusion is already active on the same weapon — the infusion does the same job permanently for free.
- Water Breathing / Water Walk (3rd), outside a nautical campaign — the Cap of Water Breathing infusion covers the common case, and neither spell does much in a campaign that never goes near open water.
- Jump and Spider Climb (1st and 2nd), past the level the matching Replicable Item unlocks — Ring of Jumping and Slippers of Spider Climbing both replace the spell permanently.
- Leomund's Secret Chest and Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum (4th) — fun downtime tools, almost never worth one of a four-or-five-spell combat-relevant list.
Verdict
An Artificer's spell list rewards the same instinct a Warlock's does, in a different shape: every pick has to justify itself against a four-or-five-spell list, but the Artificer's version of that scarcity comes with a built-in escape hatch the Warlock never gets. Detect Magic and Identify anchor the early game because ritual casting turns them into permanent, zero-cost utility. Cure Wounds and Faerie Fire anchor the mid tier because they solve problems (healing, granting advantage) that no infusion can replicate. Haste, Freedom of Movement, and Greater Restoration anchor the higher levels because they answer threats that hit hardest against a class already spread thin between spellcasting, Infuse Item, and (for two of the three specialists) a companion creature to manage. Layer the specialist's own bonus-spell table on top, and check the Replicable Items list before spending a slot on anything an infusion already covers, and an Artificer's four or five prepared spells stop looking like a weakness and start looking like exactly the tight, deliberate loadout a "magic as technology" class was built to run.
For the complete class breakdown including Infuse Item, the Steel Defender, and every specialist's full feature set, read the D&D 5e Artificer Guide. For the full feat priority list by level, see our Best Feats for Artificer guide.
FAQ
What is the best 1st-level Artificer spell in D&D 5e 2014? Cure Wounds. An Artificer is rarely a party's dedicated healer, but a party without a Cleric or Druid needs someone who can stabilize hit points between rests, and Cure Wounds fills that role at the cheapest possible slot cost. Paired with the Homunculus Servant infusion's Channel Magic reaction, it can also be delivered at range instead of by touch.
How many spells does an Artificer actually get to prepare? Intelligence modifier plus half the Artificer's level, rounded down, with a minimum of one. A 5th-level Artificer with 16 Intelligence prepares four spells total, cantrips aside. That is smaller than almost any other prepared caster's list in the game, which is why every single pick in this guide has to justify its slot.
Do the Artificer's specialist subclasses expand the base spell list? Yes, but the expansion doesn't touch this list. Each specialist (Alchemist, Artillerist, Battle Smith) gets its own fixed bonus-spell table that's always prepared starting at 3rd level and never counts against the Artificer's normal prepared total. Those bonus spells are covered in each specialist's own guide, not here, since this list only covers the general Artificer spell list every Artificer chooses from.
Is ritual casting worth building around for an Artificer? For the handful of ritual-tagged spells on this list, yes. An Artificer can cast a prepared spell as a ritual if it has the ritual tag, which means Detect Magic and Identify can be cast for free, as many times as needed, without ever touching a spell slot. On a class with this few slots, that pays off for zero ongoing cost, once the prepared-list slot is spent to learn them in the first place.
Should an Artificer prepare Magic Weapon if they already have the Enhanced Weapon infusion? Usually not both at once. Enhanced Weapon does the same job permanently and doesn't cost a spell slot or a prepared-spell slot to maintain. Magic Weapon earns a slot mainly when the Artificer needs to temporarily enchant a borrowed, found, or ally's weapon that isn't the one they've already infused.
Continue Exploring
For the full class breakdown (Infuse Item, the Steel Defender, specialist comparisons, and race and feat synergy), see the D&D 5e Artificer Guide. For which feats to prioritize alongside these spells, see Best Feats for Artificer. Or return to the D&D 5e Spell Guides hub to compare every class's spell list.
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