Can the version of the Artificer class published in “Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything” choose to end an infusion

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Is there an easy way for an Artificer to willfully end an infusion?

One of the many problems I am seeing is that an infusion only works on non-magical items. But infusions cause items to become magical. So if I infuse my armor with Enhanced Armor and want to switch it to Resistant Armor, is there a direct path to do so?

There is a version of this question here, but it deals with the UA version. My question is specifically for the version published in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. The answers may be the same, but I think it should be clarified based on the new/updated rules.

Best Answer

Ben Barden’s answer to the UA version of this question remains correct for the officially published version of the Artificer in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything:

Yes, but it's not perfectly smooth

Currently, as described, there are three ways to drop an infusion.

  • You can die, and wait a few days. This will cause you to drop all of them all at once, and also requires you do die and stay dead for a few days. It's not a perfect solution.

This follows from this part of the Infuse Item feature description (TCoE, p. 12-13):

Your infusion remains in an item indefinitely, but when you die, the infusion vanishes after a number of days have passed equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 day).

Ben Barden’s next point is:

  • You can infuse enough items to exceed your maximum, thus causing your oldest to fall off the back end. Since you can keep touching and keep reinfusing, you can easily decide whichever distribution you like every day. Just re-infuse until you've dropped the ones you want to drop. This is potentially problematic in the case where you have infusions (like your favorite Bag of Holding) that you don't want to drop for even a moment, but otherwise works quite well.

This follows from this portion of the feature description:

If you try to exceed your maximum number of infusions, the oldest infusion immediately ends, and then the new infusion applies.

Ben’s third point:

  • On level-up, you can unlearn one infusion in favor of another, which instantly drops the infusion on whichever one you unlearned. This has obvious limitations on frequency of use, but does let you drop any one infusion cleanly without disrupting any other.

Which explains this line from the feature description:

The infusion also vanishes if you give up your knowledge of the infusion for another one.

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