@@andrewthemaroon8608 lol, ur a chronogy wizard. Take whatever sounds cool and requires clutch saving throws and then force the enemy to fail them. Just thinking of at 2 spells from each level take 1.) Magnify Gravity, Ice knife 2.)Vortex Warp,, Tasha's Mind Whip 3.)counterspell, Hast 4.) Divination, Polymorph 5.) Hold Monster, Wall of force 6.) Contingency, Otto's irresistible dance 7.) Force cage, Planeshift 8.)Clone Dark Star 9.)True Poly, Wish
they follow the jedi school of understanding. restoring balance means we have all the power and you’re completely gone. equal amounts of light and dark? what’s that?
To be fair this subclass more or less brings sorcs up to wizard levels of utility. It’s def the best sorcerer but it doesn’t break the game. Moon druids are game breaking.
My clockwork sorcerer is an archmage's clock that he True Polymorphed into an assistant. I just wanted to put it out there. Plays like a well oiled machine.
@@silentrain713 You actually do 5d8 Force damage when using Draconic Transformation's Breath Weapon. Summon Draconic Spirit is the one where you can choose the element (and gain resistance).
Personally, since Mage Armor and Shield are already on the Sorcerer spell list, I’d grab Armor of Agathys as a trade out spell. So at level one I’d have Mage Armor and Grease (or Shield if I went with a Mountain Dwarf) and just rely on Ray of Frost and Mind Sliver for attacking until level two.
It just comes down to what you want your overall spell roster to look like. If you want Armour of Agathys, then yeah, absolutely trade it in for a sorcerer spell list spell, but if you would rather have an extra spell from a different school, or 9f a different level that are already on the Sorcerer spell list then you should take shield/mage armour.
I really like the flavor idea of a dragonborn Clockwork Sorcerer that temporarily ages themselves up into a full dragon with draconic transformation. It's a real Time Wizard + Baby Dragon = Thousand Dragon type beat.
I used Custom Lineage to make a Clockwork Soul that was blown into Mechanus and experimented on by Modron, so she was this half Modron cyborg with a bunch of mechanical prosthetics all over her body, so I really leaned into her being this sorta robot-like caster. I'd take stuff like Magic Missile which manifested as turrets popping out of her shoulders shooting drunken missile barrages, Ray of Sickness was her dripping mercury into her prosthetic arm to basically mercury poison them, Suggestion was her mechanical eyes flashing in rapid patterns like Ka from Jungle Book to hypnotize people. It was really fun.
An image of a janitor, from a long line of janitors, just popped into my head. His name is Gary. Recognised by beings of order long ago, his family has kept institutions and parliaments clean and orderly, allowing the wheels of governance and order to spin on without distraction. Gary uses the Grease spell with deep revulsion, but he knows that to fight the grease, sometimes you have to be one with the grease. Not the brightest star in the sky, but he offers great advice...especially on the removal of stubborn stains.
With the Telekinetic feat, I can "stop time", "pick" somebody up, and move them two steps down the stairs they are climbing right before I go back up the stairs and pose, without having to wait for 17th level.
Personally my go to first level pick would be armour of agathys. Shield is available through sorceror and the first level sorceror spell list is nothing special whilst AOA is a lovely spell. Plus if you ever want to turn your sorcerer into a tank, aid, armour of agathys and bastion of law all stack.
Armor of Agathys + Bastion of Law + Blade Ward can literally turn you into a tank in a pinch. I just rolled a Tortle Sorc in a campaign that has this exact strategy in his pocket.
I think folk sleep on Bastion of Law a bit. The fact that you don't need to sink a reaction to use it is significant. Pairs well with Absorb Elements. Also means you can roll your BoL dice as needed.
Ignoring wildshape and polymorph loopholes, a Clockwork Soul Hill Dwarf with the Tough Feat and a Max Con is the way to get the most HP, mathematically speaking. You could dip into Barbarian to get rage and not rely on concentration spells if you wanna make a good tank. Not the best way about it, since it's just a lot of HP. Not much else. But a fun thought exercise.
yup! AoA is amazing in combination with the 6th level ability. Though I personally went sorlock with hexblade and picked up the spell that way :) Makes the combo even better now!
Every time I watch one of these class videos, I get hyped to play them, lol. You guys should do these for the classes you've decided are the least optimal, to still make them as best as they can be.
I know this is the problem with all the class and subclass breakdowns.. all paladins are great and different but everyone just winds up playing a vengeance paladin Because of you Google "best paladin subclass" you'll get an answer really quickly, therefore all the rest get neglected even though (except in the case of the druid) most are pretty close
As a DM I am listening to this build and crying. My poor villains. Regardless, great video! I loved the puns, alliteration, thematic choices, and overall the script was great!
My Clockwork Soul is a Glamour Bard multiclass: she gained sorcerer powers by accident and they clash thematically with the chaotic Feywild magic of the Glamour Bard which leads to really interesting RP. She's kinda like a humanoid Victini: lots of probability fuckery, support skills, and also specializing in Fire and Psychic spells.
for the bonus feat at level one, take fey touched. You get one free casting of misty step, learn misty step (one of the best spells in the game, and you basically get another spell to choose from now), as well as one more first level spell. Many will take bless here, very strong on a sorcerer and great option for early concentration, but I like gift of alacrity the most. Initiative is very important for spellcasters and with this, no concentration btw, you will almost always win initiative. And you still get the +1 to cha for an immediate 18 in charisma :)
I see you're a person of culture as well. I 100% agree initiative is Very Important. Especially for a Battlefield Controller who wants to set up the battlefield.
@@beastwithin7772sometimes when I build characters, I’ll have a theme in mind that I really want to achieve. One of my all time favorite builds is a Clockwork Soul Harengon. Theming the build around the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, I use a ton of iconography in my spellcasting of clocks to represent his pocket watch. Dude is built to be incredibly swift through a number of means too (massive initiative bonus, teleportation spells to mimic how the White Rabbit just randomly disappears and finds himself further ahead at every turn, and through buffing spells). Gift of Alacrity is a perfect spell for ensuring he starts first. Recently got to play him in a lvl 20 one shot, and with a natural +14 Initiative & GoA, buddy was never out-sped in the turn order allowing him to get off his early battlefield control every time. Really helped to secure our advantage early on, especially when we got to the boss and I was able to subtly cast Time Stop against the big bad and buff up. Delayed Blast Fireball pairs exceptionally here.
Hey Dungeon Dudes, can you do a video on the “Sorlock” multi-class? Specifically what subclasses you should pick and how many levels of each, just like the “Witch-Knight” video you guys did. Love the content!
thats easy :) The by far optimal choice for subclasses is clockwork for sorcerer, and hexblade for warlock. Why these two? Hexblade gives hexblades curse (better version of the hex spell, no concentration and so on, especially on higher levels, you will not use hex and mostly this), medium armor (so great armor class and no need to invest into dexterity heavily), shield proficiency, the shield spell (which you always want and the other level 1 warlock spells are not that great) Clockwork soul gives you the extra spells, this and abberant mind are BY FAR the strongest, but this has better spells, the lv 6 ability combos very well with armor of agathys, which you get by picking warlock, this makes you an effective tank if you want to, though you are still mostly an "eldritch blast archer"/spellcaster. Also, the level 10 ability allows you to never roll under 10 on attack rolls. That basically guarantees you hitting your eldritch blasts on most weaker enemies. Best level split is 18/2, but 17/3 can also be good, especially if you want to play at only lower levels. This gives you level 2 spells on warlocks, so twice the sorcery points per short rest, and a pact (which should be pact of the chain). However, in my opinion, 18/2 is still the optimal choice! Best origin is custom origin. That givey you +2 to charisma, so 17 charisma, darkvision, and a free feat. For that, use fey touched. That gives you another +1 to cha, so you start with 18!, as well as also misty step and your choice of another lv 1 spell, I suggest gift of alacrity or bless. The first ASI should be spend on +2 cha. After that, I would take "metamagic adept", and after that, just improve your constitution. For invocations, agonizing blast is a requirement, and for the other, choose between eldritch mind (advantage on concentration saves!) or repelling blast. Which Clockwork Magic spells should you take? Lv 1: Absorb Elements (you already have shield from hexblade) Lv 2: aid (depending on the dm, it is the best spell to revive fallen allies, as increasing the hit point maximum also increases the current hitpoints. With a 2nd level slots, and 3 people at a time ;) ) Lv 3: Counterspell Dispel Magic / Fly (get all these spells, either through this or sorc) Lv 4: Banishment Summon Construct / Polymorph (take polymorph through sorc otherwise) lv 5: telekinesis / animate objects / greater restoration wall of force (obviously) greater restoration is interesting specifically, because it can remove exhaustion, so you can, if you have the money, pull of the old "I know there will be a boss battle, so I don't sleep for a week in preparation and stock up on spell slots" trick. Though that is very expensive, and your DM will not like it! telekinesis is already a useful spell, but it also combos very well with the lv 10 clockwork feature, because it is one of the few spells with an ability check. You can also take bigbys hand here, but I think telekinesis is better You will basically get all metamagics over time, if you take metamagic adept (which you should, gives you two more megamagics and +2 sorcery points, which offsets the two level warlock dip) But I would take them in the following order: 1) Quickened (Lv 3) 2) Twinned (Lv 3) 3) Subtle (Metamagic Adept) 4) Heightened (Metamagicadept) 5) Careful (Lv 12) 6) Transmuted (lv 19) (for meteor swarm lol)
If you take repelling blast instead of eldritch mind, take war caster as a feat. This is the reason I personally prefer eldritch mind. If you want more feats instead of increasing constitution on higher levels, you can take stuff like lucky, you really are free to choose there :)
Al Lv 20: 9th level spell casting 164 hit points (tanky ;)) AC: 17 (half plate) +2 (shield) = 19 without magic items (+5 by casting the shield spell! So effectively 24, if you do not get attacked too often) if you want more taking: +25 hit points (Armor of Agathys) (you deal 25 cold damage if they hit you) +5d8 hit points (bastion of law) +20 (Aid) -> 231.5 hit points on average thats more than fighers have with full con, and you have an even better AC with shield unless they are an eldritch knight, and even then, you have a lot more spell slots. Still, while you can tank, I would suggest staying back a bit, otherwise you have disadvantage on eldritch blast. Though then, you can of course still do stuff like quicken booming blade (with cha since you are hexblade) or just cast normal spells :) No build can be perfect, neither is this. The major weakness is your wisdom, you will likely have either +0 or +1. Why is this bad? This leaves you vulnerable to magic. You can, if you want to, take resilient (wis). Otherwise, sorcerers have the best counterspell in the game (competing with bards) because of subtle spell, which means your counterspell can not be counterspelled back. Also, your lv 10 ability means you can never roll below a 10 on the counterspell, meaning you automatically succeed against most spells, unless they are very high level. In addition, the ability magical guidance which sorcerers got in tashas basically gives you advantage on counterspells for one sorcery point. So spellcasters are not actually a problem in my opinion, at least not one on one. However, some creatures have effects that you restist with wis against, that are not spells and can not be counterspelled. Those can be problematic. It pays to have a paladin in the party ;) On armor of agathys and bastion of law: armor of agathys givey you 5 temporary hit points per spell level (so 25 at level 5). When an enemy hits you, they take this as damage. They always take full damage (so if you have 5 temp HP left and they hit you, they still take 25!) Bastion of law givey you a pool of d8s, at most 5 d8s. When taking damage, you can reduce damage by this amount, spending these in the process. These are NOT temp HP, so they can stack! (and aid increases max HP, not temp HP, so you can combine them). Why is this important? Because that means, that the 25 temp HP will stay around for much longer, meaning you not only have effectively +22.5 more hit points (which is good at level 20, but GREAT at level 6), but the enemy also takes the 25 damage more often. Another sidenote: If an enemy attacks you multiple times, they take the damage multiple times. If an enemy attacks you once for 50 damage, they take 25. If they attack you twicke with multiattack for the same amount, they take 50 damage!
@@liamlyda2116 as a quick sidenote, maybe you can ask your DM about this: generally, when not for story reasons doing it the other way around (i think it is easier to justify being a sorcerer and making a pact than being a warlock and discovering your bloodline) you should start with sorcerer in this multiclass, as that givey you constitution save proficiency, which is important to hold concentration. It is one of the things that balances the sorcerer against the wizard, and many wizards even take resilient (con) to get it :) If I was you, I would ask your DM, if you can "retcon" your character to have started with 1 level sorcerer (the sorcerer blood was always inside you after all, even before you made the pact in your backstory). That is really the only thing that changes depending on the order of the multiclass though. Usually you have to worry about armor proficiencies, but both sorcerer and warlock don't have heavy or medium armor proficiency, and if you take hexblade as a patron, you get armor through the subclass anyways, regardless of the level
I love the idea of readjusting the pocket watch time to match a concentration spell like invisibility or polymorph. Knowing when the spell is going to end. When I am thinking of teleportation, I don’t why but I think about a pendulum clock. It’s a weird way to think, but sounds cool in my head. Small hand of a clock is Mage hand and a big hand of the clock is Bigby’s hand.
I liked this one, but I would have liked to see two builds rather than one single way to make a specific character. The first sorcerer specific episode was great in this aspect.
Would really love to see a "top 10 spells that we'd nerf/adjust for 5.5e - which ones and why/how?". The "gotta have polymorph/wall of force comment made me think of it.
A 1 level dip into Order Cleric compliments this class too well to pass up. Any time you buff or otherwise target an ally they get to reaction attack. Imagine twinning a vortex warp and dropping the fighter and rogue directly on top the bbeg and granting the rogue a reaction flanking sneak attack immediately. Also, 1st level retraining needs to grab armor of agathys idk why you'd grab mage armor just wear armor.
@@josuemanuel8965 Also take mage armor with your normal Known spell if you really need it, not with the retrainable abj/trans spells known from the subclass that have access to armor of agathys. The video is offering bad advice there. Take AoA > Mage armor.
As cool and thematic as the Dunamancy spells are, I don't think they're available to any other classes besides Wizard. Also I say Vortex works with Reverse Gravity because they are landing on a solid surface, them falling off it is after they land. It's a secondary effect in my opinion. Also for Draconic transformation, you could flavor it so spectral cogs and gears form around you in a draconic shape like a clockwork dragon.
Your guy's got me inspired, but as I was working things out I have a question on how you guy's get the Grease spell ? Clockwork soul feature, "the new spell must be an Abjuration or Transmutation spell from the Sorcerer, Warlock or Wizard spell list. Page 68 TCoE." Grease is a Conjuration spell as is Web.
If you flavoured your Custom Lineage as a Dragonborn then you could be turn back time to your Ancestors to turn it forward to your evolved form for Draconic Transformation.
@@riellelong5274 The first sentence of their description on D&D Beyond is, “Born of dragons….” So they kinda are. Even if it’s some kind of magical DNA shenanigans, that should easily count as an ancestor. Besides, he’s talking about taking Custom Lineage…. “I’m a half-dragon” is good enough to Picard it. (Make it so) 😜
@@shanelilly9673 half dragon sure go for it. Dragonborn aren't half dragons. Dragonborn are a slave race made on the other twin planet where the gods didn't interfere so dragons ruled with an iron fist. Made by the dragons in their image to serve a function as smaller races
@@riellelong5274 I understand what you’re talking about. But that is a 4th Edition backstory for Dragonborn. As I said be before, the 5e Dragonborn description says “born of dragons” and “Shaped by the draconic gods, or the dragons themselves…” 5e seems to purposefully leave the “how” of their existence up in the (L)air. 😉
@@shanelilly9673 I mean I don't think lore goes away between editions. 5e is just very light on the lore it gives in the main books. Which is very sad but I don't take that as "we erased all the lore on the older editions". If that were the case then there is basically no lore at all. Because 5e is shit at talking about it. And I know it's become somewhat contentious but I'm of the mind if you take that identity away from dragonborn and just treat them like half dragons(who are very different) than your erasing super cool stories around them and essentially watering it down. Its cool that there are multiple races effected by dragons and multiple ways it works out. It sucks alot if all of it gets distilled down to some idea of half dragon and that's it.
Okay I know everyone always says that your videos come out just as they want them but seriously. I was watching the Sorcerer subclass video and was thinking to myself, "Gee, I wonder if they have a How-To video for the Clockwork Soul" and I checked and you didn't. Yet a day later, guess what pops up in my notifications? Great video guys!
I just played a Clockwork soul Warforged with amnesia wich was extremely friendly to everyone.. just like B.E.N. from "Treasure Planet" Disney movie and messing around everyone and everything until my party helped me out to find my memory gem xD
Going clockwork sorcerer 19/order cleric 1 improves your effectiveness by 200%: you gain armor, shields, you grant an attack to an ally every time you target them with healing word, polymorph, haste, vortex warp, bless and so on. You still mantain full caster progression and delay the upper level spells only by 1 level. Combining armor of agathys with the clockwork 5d8 shield help maintain concentration and dealing damage to who attack us in melee
Currently I am playing a Yuanti-Pureblood clockworck soul who rolled very good stats(nothing below a 12[being strength]) in the module Dungeon of the Made Mage. Honestly I can say this is what a sorcerer should be. Switching out spells id normally already take(shield. Mage armor, feather fall) is so useful and allows me to use other things that i would be force to give up just to be practical at times. I understand a sorcerer is not a utility caster but giving class some versatility only makes a game more fun since its lets you have more impact. Sickening radiance with this character is powerful. I literally took out a coven of hags, 4 grimlocks, and 6 beast amboniations all by a simple subtle sickening radiance from around a corner while they threaten we never leave. In short more sorcerors need to be designed similar to this. Please wizard fix draconic sorcerors lol
Effects that give disadvantage on next save to opponent and either slow or web is a very nice combo that can lay waste to more than you'd think. It worked long before disadvantage was a thing too and spells used to their full effect and often outside the normal box, can do a lot more than most realize, it often comes down to your imagination and how you see the situation evolve if something like a web is added in a sneaky way along with some grease or other easy to accomplice tricks can do a lot more in a good roleplaying setting than most realize.
Yes! I'm trying to decide between a clockwork soul and bladesinger for my next character. Now you guys have put out a video for both. You're mind readers.
I just made a clockwork soul sorcerer, and homebrewed it to have Intelligence as its spell casting ability, with race as a warforged. I love the flavor of this subclass.
I flavored my sorcerer as a mathematician using equations and proofs to effect the probabilities of magical effects happening. When he casts a spell he forms equations and things like Dr Strange in the MCU. I went AOE specialist though since my party has no other class that has any AOE abilities. I also took a few levels of Warlock in great old one. My theory for this is that there is a grand mathematical equation or formula and though he could never solve it he may be given parts of the formula and can use this to form his warlock spells.
I'm taking a similar approach to a Divination Wizard. Picking up anything that lets me manipulate action economy and dice rolls to make sure things happen as foretold. I was considering Clockwork Soul for the same reason, but just didn't want to play a Charisma character.
To make polymorph more thematic, you could flavor it like the target is being evolved or devolved to different tiers of the animal kingdom. Yes, the idea of from the Super Mario movie,
I'm a clockwork soul sorcerer in a campaign, a mountain dwarf for armour and weapon profs, telekinetic and I took armour of agathys. I cast the armour of Agathys, then step up to my enemy, booming blade them then shove with telekinesis, they either stay put unable to hit me or they step forward taking additional booming blade damage and if they hit me they take damage again, it's a great tactic for single target lock down and damage against a melee only
I made a character like this last year. I made a Githyanki "Jedi" type character. Using Magnify Gravity, Telekinesis, Bigbys Hand, Animate Objects, Catapult, etc. It was very fun. At higher levels, I picked up the Spell 'Move Earth' to reshape the hills around a village to protect them from raiders. Super fun character. Around level 12, I decided to multiclass into Warlock to get Eldritch Blast and grab the Invocations to move enemies around as well.
I went Autognome, and flavored all my spells as weapons and devices built into the robot. Highly recommend. It was a futuristic themed one shot where we all knew the whole party was going to die in the final battle. The DM said the people we saved were going to make a statue of our characters and asked what we wanted them to look like. I asked for my parts to be used to make a clock tower instead.
I just realised that if you go Eladrin you can use your BA to teleport people into battle besides casting a leveled spell. This is a great option for the build you presented. Plus you can switch tool proficiencies on a long rest and can use your 4th level clockwork spells to get Fabricate. You will be the only Sorcerer to cast it and have the ability to craft highly detailed things; a true Master Craftsman (seems appropriate for a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer).
Working on that now. For flavor I have animated Mr potato head objects that account for my failures. Like an eye that has to crawl back into the socket.
Been doing exactly this!! For even more clockwork flavor, I had them created as a minion on Mechanus for the Modrons before they fled in a violent attack on their ship used for the Modron March
I'm really enjoying this series, I'm excited to see if yall make a wizard because I've been wanting to build one for a while, but don't have any ideas on how to flavor it. I really like the scribe wizard because they can use their book as a focus which i think any wizard should be able to do.
I'm playing a Protector Aasimar Clockwork Sorcerer in my current D&D game. It's pretty fun honestly from the RP perspective, she's nowhere near the damage dealer my Storm Sorcerer was in a previous campaign as of right now but being able to support the party and erase advantage/disadvantage was pretty big when we had a Berserker Barbarian who would Reckless Attack. The subclass features are really where CS Sorcerer has shone thus far for me. Outside of Restore Balance, even Bastion of Law has come in handy once or twice for NPCs we've had to interact with. Honestly, I like having the class spells. I know some of them aren't optimal but having Alarm set has come in handy. And while I haven't used Wall of Force yet, I get the feeling going into high tier 2-low tier 3 we're going to need it.
My clockwork soul sorcerer is a very chaotic and random individual. Pulling from the philosophical concept that if you look at it from a broad enough perspective what looks like chaos to our tiny concept of order, is actually in itself part of order playing out at a grander level beyond the comprehension of our perspective. aaaaand I love it. So he'll manifest it even for very simple things like he'll take 3/4 of a mug of ale walk to another business and leave it there. Because for some reason beyond what he knows that's where and how it needed to be.
I had considered a lvl dip for clockwork soul for my warforged Artificer arcanist, ('as he unlocked the power within!') But this video has convinced me playing the class through would be fun and flavourful. I had hitherto seen its interference with adv/disadv as sortvof the lesser sire of The Grave Clerics cancelling of Critical hits. Adv/disadv probably come up more often but "I cancel that crit" sounds more epic than "I cancel your advantage." but I am warming up to the theme of everything in its proper place and think the layering on of time and gravity spells would be amazing.
Wasn't to interested in this subclass untill I realized you can get aid and tiny servant. I'm actually surprised no one talks about combining these spells. I'm currently playing a reborn fairy clockwork soul sorcerer. Was created like a clockwork toy and kept in a glass case as a work of art for years. Anyways my favorite thing to do since level seven is, before long resting for four hours, cast tiny servants at level four and upcast aid and extend meta magic both. Now I've got three tiny servants who guard me untill I'm done resting and are active for 12 more hours with 12 hours extra hp. All at no concentration and I've got full spell slots and spell points for the day!
Its weird, but I had a Pally 2 Clockwork Sorc and man that was fun. He was essentially in an order of clergy and had a job as a mailman in his off time. Atleast until Mechanicus called out to him, and he uses that order to be an excellent delivery man.
I would run a Custom Lineage race with the Heavy Armor Master Feat. Start off as a Paladin for at least 2 or 3 levels, then multiclass into a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. By 8th Level, you can have a 3rd Level Armor of Agathys, a 3rd Level Aid spell, and the Bastion of Law feature up and running on yourself. Run into battle and either Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade as your action and Quicken a Blade Ward. You can half all non magical Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage, then reduce it by 3, and if you need to use Bastion of Law you can take almost no damage and still have your enemy hit with 15 points of Cold damage from Armor of Agathys. You can easily use this build to solo many low level monsters or one very powerful monster.
Just finished making a Warforged Hexblade SorClock. 1-2: Hexblade to nab the med armor prof, our fav blasting cantrip and invocations 3-5: Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, so we get our metamagic (Twinned & Quickened) 6-7: Hexblade to get our pact of the tome (Sapping sting, Vicious Mockery & Guidance) for some absolute savage twin spelling potential. Plus Telekinetic feat. From here you can pretty much take this build anywhere you want, sure you won'tget your level 9 spells, but let's be real, you're not playing to level 20 anyway and the sheer amount of control options you have on the battlefield is just crazy and it's dripping with flavour.
How about doing this sort of thing for the less powerful classes first? I am especially looking forward to your take on the Mastermind (My favorite class)
Constructive feedback: on your text screens where you swap spells out etc, add extras spaces, punctuation or colour the new and old spells differently. It'll make it easier to read
Step 1: decide to be better than all the other sorcerers who don't get expanded spell lists ....unless you watch the Dungeon Dudes expanded spell lists for sorcerers video!
If you're picking conjuration spells like grease or create pit the I'd take heighten spell metamagic to up their spell level. This can also be done with banishment or dismissal. Also for twinned metamagic you have to have chain lightning. Twinned chain lightning is just mad.
Using this flavour, I'd flavour sickening ray as an area in which their consciousness experiences time differently to their body, so they feel like they've been stuck for anywhere from weeks to years, trying to move out of it but their body couldn't keep up with their mind. The damage could be self inflicted psychologically, or it could be them pushing their bodies too far/not balancing out their body control properly and so causing injury, simply because they're trapped being unable to rely on muscle memory as their and their body's concept of time is disconnected.
I played a Clockwork Soul 18/ Celestial Warlock 2 for a one shot, and I'm sure y'all didn't mention it because it requires a multiclass, but Trance can turn Eldritch Blast spam into the world's most accurate minigun. Being able to garuntee a 19, 20, 21 (or higher with magic items) on your attack rolls means that you can just turn enemies into swiss cheese. Really fun dip if you want to have a really strong offensive option in your pocket
I've done a Mountain Dwarf Clockwork Soul Sorcerer in a couple of GGR (Ravnica) one-shot adventures. All I will say is Sleep + Subtle is outright hilarious at lower levels.
Running a Clockwork Soul in a campaign right now. I really just hammered down on the debuff spells available to sorcerers already and swapped out my Clockwork Magic spells for utility spells like Counterspell, Absorb Elements, Polymorph, etc. I have Slow and Raulothim's Psychic Lance as my go-to crowd-control spells depending on the situation. Sinaptic Static is also great as a heavy hitter and a bit of a debuff. After that, a round or two of tasha's mind whip and the combat is usually over in 3 or 4 rounds at most. I would love to try some of the combos in your video, but in our games the combats just don't last long enough for that. We either kill the monsters quickly or they start killing us. As the party's main damage dealer (with a barbarian and a cleric), I usually can only get in one round of debuffing before I need to start laying out some heavy damage
I'm planning on playing a Clockwork Soul for an upcoming Strixhaven campaign, but I'm curious about the retraining aspect of the subclass. Can you retrain one of the bonus spells at the same level you get it? The guys mentioned retraining Protection from Energy for Haste at 5th level, but that's the same level you get it.
Now that I have Vortex Warp, I'm looking forward to fighting one of the powerful "glass cannon" type of creatures, like a Beholder. Just plop it right in front of 2 or 3 of our melee characters so they can now it down.
Had a tough time understanding the build with the mind sliver/spike swap, but a really great and eye-opening analysis. Also wish the Strix spells were listed with alternatives, since AL and other campaigns might not allow them. Subclass seems SSS Tier after the retraining tips, which are very appreciated. Love your Vids!
Armor Of Agathys is an amazing 1st level spell for them to get especially since you can lessen damage you take from Bastion of Law and taking Fizbans Platnium Shield ensuring your temp HP and damage from Armor of Agathys lasts longer
Bastion of Law is another reason you can skip Warcaster for a Clockwork Soul. It *reduces* damage, potentially making your concentration check an easy or automatic success from 6th level on. With both Bastion and Trance of Order at level 14+ you can almost never fail, and you can ration Bastion to ensure concentration check success on as many as five big hits.
Floor is still there and solid so it would be a legal target for the spell. When they appear on the floor in the area of reversed gravity they would then be affected by the spell normally for entering a spell area.
This is a dope build and I’m definitely playing this in my next campaign. However I probably won’t be using the whole web / grease / sickening radiance combo as sadly my party has historically refused to work with my strategies and instead prefers to just hit things smh (I have 3 people with me that always play combat classes, and they’re not gonna be satisfied just pushing enemies back into my microwave).
Very fun build ! Personally I would switch the Empowered Spell Metamagic for Distant Spell, at least early on . Doubling the range on all your battlefield control spells seems appropriate for the master of space & time haha
Agreed. I actually think they might be a bit too good. I'd like to see every sorcerer subclass have 2 spells of 1st to 5th available and get one of them automatically known. Versatility but not *too much as metamagic adds so much to the class already. (Reallt want to play clockwork and aberrant mind but will feel a bit bad how good they both are)
@@jiminkpen9750 I agree. I’ve watched a lot of you tubers talk about these 2 new origins and I think that we’ll find through play testing that the aberrant mind sorcerer is as good or better than the clockwork. I’m a level 11 aberrant mind sorcerer right now and it feels broken as crap. The psionic spells ability seems badly underrated by most.
@@pw3829 yeah, both play very differently but the powers and extra spells enhance that style. Aberrant mind for subtle (unnoticeable and uncounterable) mind magics, and clockwork for survivability (armour of agathys and bastion of law) with more obvious buffs, battlefield control, etc.
I LOVED using Sickening Radiance w/ my Celestial Warlock. That spell is just mean & one of the few radiant spells I had that can take advantage of the crap Radiant Soul feature.
I feel like it would be fun for you gents to do a series of these videos on the lowest ranked subclasses to see how you guys ovecome the issues with the classes you spelled out in the subclass rankings videos
I have a combo I call "F That Guy in Particular" for when I really need to land a save-or-suck spell. Cast Mind Sliver as an action to do a little damage and hit them with a saving throw penalty, then Quickened Spell something like Banishment or Levitate, then if they still make the save, follow up with Silvery Barbs.
I'm surprised there was no mention of the possibility of taking Armor of Agathys. I'm planning to play a warforged paladin 2 or 6/ Clockwork sorcerer X that focuses on time manipulation spells like the obvious Slow and Haste but also thermodynamics with fire, cold, and maybe lightning or thunder spells so Armor Of Agathys will be a really good fit.
I had just made a Clockwork Soul Sorc 2 days before this video posted for a campaign starting in 2 weeks. I had already written my backstory and already done my artwork, and the race I chose does not get a level 1 feat. So, none of this can really work for me, unfortunately. It would be great if you offered some flexibility. Like at least, "if you're not playing a custom lineage or variant human... " here is an option or two. Otherwise, very cool.
My current backup character in the event of current character death is a Clockwork Soul sorcerer. Going to be theming them as either an earth bender, an ice witch or a crystal sorceress.
Thank you for the puns and not saying "hey, see what I did there? Huh ?". I appreciate you assume we are clever enough to simply enjoy your awesome humour. Great video and now I want to play a clockwork soul sorcerer!
The idea I have for a Clockwork sorcerer is a Changeling who is an actor and always introduces himself as being world famous but nobody knows who he is because he always changes into his roles and exceedingly few people know he's a changeling. A lot of his magic would be control and illusion basically controlling when people enter or exit the "stage" and otherwise deceiving people while convincing them of his role. So I'd downplay control a little bit in favor of unique stage effects. His proudest moment was convincing director Steven Spellberg to polymorph actors into dinosaurs rather than rely on heavy magical generated imagery.
Vortex Warp is kinda my new favourite spell. I've used it to some awesome effects in combat in the last 2 weeks since my Sorcerer picked it up. Got Melf's Minute Meteors, but the enemies just won't clump up for AoE damage? Now I can position an enemy where I wasn't them. A squishy ally managed to get surrounded? Move them somewhere better! We're trying to take a prisoner for questioning at the end of battle, and he thinks he's gonna double move run away? 😁 Hey buddy, get back here!
ARgh! Sorcerer was the first long campaign character I ever had, and that campaign is coming to an end. You make me wanna play a sorcerer in the next one as well x'( In the end i think i will be able to stick with artificer, but yees... I do have a special place in my heart for sorcerers!
As my parties non-cleric spell caster I'm obligated to pick up more offensive spells at the time of writing this our party is only level two and I went for a thri-kreen as my race (our DM gave me an magical item that allows my character to hide what race they actually are and the party hasn't picked up on it they just think I'm a human sorceress with telepathy though I'm dropping hints that I'm not what I seem) But my spell list looks like this: Cantrips: Fire bolt Infestation Mind sliver Ray of frost Sacred flame (astral wanderer background) Toll of the dead (astral wanderer) 1st level: Burning hands Chromatic orb Cure wounds (astral wanderer) Grease (love setting up grease fires 😈) Protect from good and evil Shield Can't wait for meta-magic and the other spells.
Yes, we meant mind sliver, not Mind Spike. We get these names mixed up all the time!
It happens. Thanks for the video!
So mind choppy choppy, not mind stabby stabby. Got it
I need this for the Chronomancer Wizard. I just recently started a campaign as one and realized idk what spells I should take/when
Which begs the question, should there be other Mind ______ spells? Mind Shiv? Mind Lance? Mind Cuisinart? 🧠⚔️
@@andrewthemaroon8608 lol, ur a chronogy wizard. Take whatever sounds cool and requires clutch saving throws and then force the enemy to fail them. Just thinking of at 2 spells from each level take 1.) Magnify Gravity, Ice knife 2.)Vortex Warp,, Tasha's Mind Whip 3.)counterspell, Hast 4.) Divination, Polymorph 5.) Hold Monster, Wall of force 6.) Contingency, Otto's irresistible dance 7.) Force cage, Planeshift 8.)Clone Dark Star 9.)True Poly, Wish
"I am casting Polymorph on the bandit leader, as I am reversing Time-Space to return him to monke."
- an actual sentence uttered at my table.
I'm gonna do the same but to evolve them to crab instead
That’s amazing 😆
~_~
It's kind of ironic how a subclass this powerful has an ability called "restore balance"
"Restore Balance" by finally giving Sorcs an OP class like every other caster. 🤣
they follow the jedi school of understanding. restoring balance means we have all the power and you’re completely gone. equal amounts of light and dark? what’s that?
To be fair this subclass more or less brings sorcs up to wizard levels of utility. It’s def the best sorcerer but it doesn’t break the game. Moon druids are game breaking.
@@sharkwang1542 fuck moon druids, all my homies hate moon druids.
At level 2 @@sharkwang1542
My clockwork sorcerer is an archmage's clock that he True Polymorphed into an assistant. I just wanted to put it out there. Plays like a well oiled machine.
Warforged?
@@MadnessOpus A gnome actually ^^
That is one amazing character concept
The pun "ticks" me off
I know, my comment was late. It was poor timing.
On Draconic Transformation - Always be yourself and never change. Unless you can be a Dragon - then be a dragon. Great show guys.
@@silentrain713 You actually do 5d8 Force damage when using Draconic Transformation's Breath Weapon. Summon Draconic Spirit is the one where you can choose the element (and gain resistance).
@@Cloudz2021 Yes. That is when you get to ride your dragon (DM not requiring an exotic saddle of course)
Personally, since Mage Armor and Shield are already on the Sorcerer spell list, I’d grab Armor of Agathys as a trade out spell. So at level one I’d have Mage Armor and Grease (or Shield if I went with a Mountain Dwarf) and just rely on Ray of Frost and Mind Sliver for attacking until level two.
Agreed. Armor of Agathys also pairs really well with Bastion of Law when you eventually get it.
It just comes down to what you want your overall spell roster to look like. If you want Armour of Agathys, then yeah, absolutely trade it in for a sorcerer spell list spell, but if you would rather have an extra spell from a different school, or 9f a different level that are already on the Sorcerer spell list then you should take shield/mage armour.
How are you adding Grease, a Wizard spell, at level one..? (Trying to work out how this works, thnx!)
@@Robalexwalter yeah here for the same thing, grease is exclusive to wizards in 5e
@@Robalexwalter Because as the video clearly states Clockwork Soul Sorcerers get to select spells from the Wizard and Warlock Spell lists.
I really like the flavor idea of a dragonborn Clockwork Sorcerer that temporarily ages themselves up into a full dragon with draconic transformation. It's a real Time Wizard + Baby Dragon = Thousand Dragon type beat.
Dragonborn can't "age themselves up into a full dragon". They aren't Dragons...
@@Omnifarious42 "homebrew" dnd can be played as imaginative and fun as a table allows it
@@Omnifarious42 He was talking about flavoring the "Draconic Transformation" 7th level spell
I used Custom Lineage to make a Clockwork Soul that was blown into Mechanus and experimented on by Modron, so she was this half Modron cyborg with a bunch of mechanical prosthetics all over her body, so I really leaned into her being this sorta robot-like caster. I'd take stuff like Magic Missile which manifested as turrets popping out of her shoulders shooting drunken missile barrages, Ray of Sickness was her dripping mercury into her prosthetic arm to basically mercury poison them, Suggestion was her mechanical eyes flashing in rapid patterns like Ka from Jungle Book to hypnotize people. It was really fun.
An image of a janitor, from a long line of janitors, just popped into my head. His name is Gary. Recognised by beings of order long ago, his family has kept institutions and parliaments clean and orderly, allowing the wheels of governance and order to spin on without distraction. Gary uses the Grease spell with deep revulsion, but he knows that to fight the grease, sometimes you have to be one with the grease. Not the brightest star in the sky, but he offers great advice...especially on the removal of stubborn stains.
With the Telekinetic feat, I can "stop time", "pick" somebody up, and move them two steps down the stairs they are climbing right before I go back up the stairs and pose, without having to wait for 17th level.
You can't even do that at 17th level with Time Stop! This is a better option than a 9th level spell straight from level 1
Dio moment
THE WORLD!!!
Personally my go to first level pick would be armour of agathys. Shield is available through sorceror and the first level sorceror spell list is nothing special whilst AOA is a lovely spell. Plus if you ever want to turn your sorcerer into a tank, aid, armour of agathys and bastion of law all stack.
Strong agree
Armor of Agathys + Bastion of Law + Blade Ward can literally turn you into a tank in a pinch. I just rolled a Tortle Sorc in a campaign that has this exact strategy in his pocket.
I think folk sleep on Bastion of Law a bit. The fact that you don't need to sink a reaction to use it is significant. Pairs well with Absorb Elements. Also means you can roll your BoL dice as needed.
Ignoring wildshape and polymorph loopholes, a Clockwork Soul Hill Dwarf with the Tough Feat and a Max Con is the way to get the most HP, mathematically speaking. You could dip into Barbarian to get rage and not rely on concentration spells if you wanna make a good tank. Not the best way about it, since it's just a lot of HP. Not much else. But a fun thought exercise.
yup! AoA is amazing in combination with the 6th level ability.
Though I personally went sorlock with hexblade and picked up the spell that way :)
Makes the combo even better now!
Every time I watch one of these class videos, I get hyped to play them, lol. You guys should do these for the classes you've decided are the least optimal, to still make them as best as they can be.
I know this is the problem with all the class and subclass breakdowns.. all paladins are great and different but everyone just winds up playing a vengeance paladin Because of you Google "best paladin subclass" you'll get an answer really quickly, therefore all the rest get neglected even though (except in the case of the druid) most are pretty close
As a DM I am listening to this build and crying.
My poor villains.
Regardless, great video! I loved the puns, alliteration, thematic choices, and overall the script was great!
Corrections: Mind Spike is a 2nd Lvl spell. "Mind Sliver" is the Cantrip.
You should do a video like this for the Genie Warlock, I’d love to see your takes
I play a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer with a Genie Warlock dip. Been playing since 1981 and it's the most fun character I've ever played.
My Clockwork Soul is a Glamour Bard multiclass: she gained sorcerer powers by accident and they clash thematically with the chaotic Feywild magic of the Glamour Bard which leads to really interesting RP. She's kinda like a humanoid Victini: lots of probability fuckery, support skills, and also specializing in Fire and Psychic spells.
for the bonus feat at level one, take fey touched. You get one free casting of misty step, learn misty step (one of the best spells in the game, and you basically get another spell to choose from now), as well as one more first level spell.
Many will take bless here, very strong on a sorcerer and great option for early concentration, but I like gift of alacrity the most.
Initiative is very important for spellcasters and with this, no concentration btw, you will almost always win initiative.
And you still get the +1 to cha for an immediate 18 in charisma :)
I see you're a person of culture as well. I 100% agree initiative is Very Important. Especially for a Battlefield Controller who wants to set up the battlefield.
@@beastwithin7772sometimes when I build characters, I’ll have a theme in mind that I really want to achieve. One of my all time favorite builds is a Clockwork Soul Harengon. Theming the build around the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, I use a ton of iconography in my spellcasting of clocks to represent his pocket watch. Dude is built to be incredibly swift through a number of means too (massive initiative bonus, teleportation spells to mimic how the White Rabbit just randomly disappears and finds himself further ahead at every turn, and through buffing spells). Gift of Alacrity is a perfect spell for ensuring he starts first. Recently got to play him in a lvl 20 one shot, and with a natural +14 Initiative & GoA, buddy was never out-sped in the turn order allowing him to get off his early battlefield control every time. Really helped to secure our advantage early on, especially when we got to the boss and I was able to subtly cast Time Stop against the big bad and buff up. Delayed Blast Fireball pairs exceptionally here.
Playing my first sorcerer starting in a couple of days, looking forward to being the force of order in my party. LOVE you guys so much!
Hey Dungeon Dudes, can you do a video on the “Sorlock” multi-class? Specifically what subclasses you should pick and how many levels of each, just like the “Witch-Knight” video you guys did. Love the content!
YES! Please make this video, I just created my first character (warlock) and I plan on multiclassing into Sorcerer!
thats easy :)
The by far optimal choice for subclasses is clockwork for sorcerer, and hexblade for warlock.
Why these two?
Hexblade gives hexblades curse (better version of the hex spell, no concentration and so on, especially on higher levels, you will not use hex and mostly this), medium armor (so great armor class and no need to invest into dexterity heavily), shield proficiency, the shield spell (which you always want and the other level 1 warlock spells are not that great)
Clockwork soul gives you the extra spells, this and abberant mind are BY FAR the strongest, but this has better spells, the lv 6 ability combos very well with armor of agathys, which you get by picking warlock, this makes you an effective tank if you want to, though you are still mostly an "eldritch blast archer"/spellcaster.
Also, the level 10 ability allows you to never roll under 10 on attack rolls. That basically guarantees you hitting your eldritch blasts on most weaker enemies.
Best level split is 18/2, but 17/3 can also be good, especially if you want to play at only lower levels. This gives you level 2 spells on warlocks, so twice the sorcery points per short rest, and a pact (which should be pact of the chain).
However, in my opinion, 18/2 is still the optimal choice!
Best origin is custom origin. That givey you +2 to charisma, so 17 charisma, darkvision, and a free feat. For that, use fey touched. That gives you another +1 to cha, so you start with 18!, as well as also misty step and your choice of another lv 1 spell, I suggest gift of alacrity or bless.
The first ASI should be spend on +2 cha. After that, I would take "metamagic adept", and after that, just improve your constitution.
For invocations, agonizing blast is a requirement, and for the other, choose between eldritch mind (advantage on concentration saves!) or repelling blast.
Which Clockwork Magic spells should you take?
Lv 1:
Absorb Elements
(you already have shield from hexblade)
Lv 2:
aid (depending on the dm, it is the best spell to revive fallen allies, as increasing the hit point maximum also increases the current hitpoints. With a 2nd level slots, and 3 people at a time ;) )
Lv 3:
Counterspell
Dispel Magic / Fly (get all these spells, either through this or sorc)
Lv 4:
Banishment
Summon Construct / Polymorph (take polymorph through sorc otherwise)
lv 5:
telekinesis / animate objects / greater restoration
wall of force (obviously)
greater restoration is interesting specifically, because it can remove exhaustion, so you can, if you have the money, pull of the old "I know there will be a boss battle, so I don't sleep for a week in preparation and stock up on spell slots" trick. Though that is very expensive, and your DM will not like it!
telekinesis is already a useful spell, but it also combos very well with the lv 10 clockwork feature, because it is one of the few spells with an ability check. You can also take bigbys hand here, but I think telekinesis is better
You will basically get all metamagics over time, if you take metamagic adept (which you should, gives you two more megamagics and +2 sorcery points, which offsets the two level warlock dip)
But I would take them in the following order:
1) Quickened (Lv 3)
2) Twinned (Lv 3)
3) Subtle (Metamagic Adept)
4) Heightened (Metamagicadept)
5) Careful (Lv 12)
6) Transmuted (lv 19) (for meteor swarm lol)
If you take repelling blast instead of eldritch mind, take war caster as a feat.
This is the reason I personally prefer eldritch mind.
If you want more feats instead of increasing constitution on higher levels, you can take stuff like lucky, you really are free to choose there :)
Al Lv 20:
9th level spell casting
164 hit points (tanky ;))
AC: 17 (half plate) +2 (shield) = 19 without magic items
(+5 by casting the shield spell! So effectively 24, if you do not get attacked too often)
if you want more taking:
+25 hit points (Armor of Agathys) (you deal 25 cold damage if they hit you)
+5d8 hit points (bastion of law)
+20 (Aid)
-> 231.5 hit points on average
thats more than fighers have with full con, and you have an even better AC with shield unless they are an eldritch knight, and even then, you have a lot more spell slots.
Still, while you can tank, I would suggest staying back a bit, otherwise you have disadvantage on eldritch blast. Though then, you can of course still do stuff like quicken booming blade (with cha since you are hexblade) or just cast normal spells :)
No build can be perfect, neither is this. The major weakness is your wisdom, you will likely have either +0 or +1. Why is this bad? This leaves you vulnerable to magic. You can, if you want to, take resilient (wis).
Otherwise, sorcerers have the best counterspell in the game (competing with bards) because of subtle spell, which means your counterspell can not be counterspelled back.
Also, your lv 10 ability means you can never roll below a 10 on the counterspell, meaning you automatically succeed against most spells, unless they are very high level. In addition, the ability magical guidance which sorcerers got in tashas basically gives you advantage on counterspells for one sorcery point.
So spellcasters are not actually a problem in my opinion, at least not one on one. However, some creatures have effects that you restist with wis against, that are not spells and can not be counterspelled. Those can be problematic. It pays to have a paladin in the party ;)
On armor of agathys and bastion of law:
armor of agathys givey you 5 temporary hit points per spell level (so 25 at level 5). When an enemy hits you, they take this as damage. They always take full damage (so if you have 5 temp HP left and they hit you, they still take 25!)
Bastion of law givey you a pool of d8s, at most 5 d8s. When taking damage, you can reduce damage by this amount, spending these in the process. These are NOT temp HP, so they can stack! (and aid increases max HP, not temp HP, so you can combine them).
Why is this important?
Because that means, that the 25 temp HP will stay around for much longer, meaning you not only have effectively +22.5 more hit points (which is good at level 20, but GREAT at level 6), but the enemy also takes the 25 damage more often.
Another sidenote: If an enemy attacks you multiple times, they take the damage multiple times. If an enemy attacks you once for 50 damage, they take 25. If they attack you twicke with multiattack for the same amount, they take 50 damage!
@@liamlyda2116 as a quick sidenote, maybe you can ask your DM about this:
generally, when not for story reasons doing it the other way around (i think it is easier to justify being a sorcerer and making a pact than being a warlock and discovering your bloodline) you should start with sorcerer in this multiclass, as that givey you constitution save proficiency, which is important to hold concentration.
It is one of the things that balances the sorcerer against the wizard, and many wizards even take resilient (con) to get it :)
If I was you, I would ask your DM, if you can "retcon" your character to have started with 1 level sorcerer (the sorcerer blood was always inside you after all, even before you made the pact in your backstory).
That is really the only thing that changes depending on the order of the multiclass though. Usually you have to worry about armor proficiencies, but both sorcerer and warlock don't have heavy or medium armor proficiency, and if you take hexblade as a patron, you get armor through the subclass anyways, regardless of the level
I love the idea of readjusting the pocket watch time to match a concentration spell like invisibility or polymorph. Knowing when the spell is going to end. When I am thinking of teleportation, I don’t why but I think about a pendulum clock. It’s a weird way to think, but sounds cool in my head. Small hand of a clock is Mage hand and a big hand of the clock is Bigby’s hand.
7:46 how did you miss the opportunity for "a well greased machine" like that?
I liked this one, but I would have liked to see two builds rather than one single way to make a specific character. The first sorcerer specific episode was great in this aspect.
Would really love to see a "top 10 spells that we'd nerf/adjust for 5.5e - which ones and why/how?". The "gotta have polymorph/wall of force comment made me think of it.
A 1 level dip into Order Cleric compliments this class too well to pass up. Any time you buff or otherwise target an ally they get to reaction attack. Imagine twinning a vortex warp and dropping the fighter and rogue directly on top the bbeg and granting the rogue a reaction flanking sneak attack immediately.
Also, 1st level retraining needs to grab armor of agathys idk why you'd grab mage armor just wear armor.
sorcerers don`t have armor proficiency
@@josuemanuel8965 Order clerics do...they get light, medium, heavy and shield. So, all of the above.
@@josuemanuel8965 Also take mage armor with your normal Known spell if you really need it, not with the retrainable abj/trans spells known from the subclass that have access to armor of agathys. The video is offering bad advice there. Take AoA > Mage armor.
As cool and thematic as the Dunamancy spells are, I don't think they're available to any other classes besides Wizard. Also I say Vortex works with Reverse Gravity because they are landing on a solid surface, them falling off it is after they land. It's a secondary effect in my opinion.
Also for Draconic transformation, you could flavor it so spectral cogs and gears form around you in a draconic shape like a clockwork dragon.
I was literally hoping you would do a video in this two days ago. Y'all rock.
Your guy's got me inspired, but as I was working things out I have a question on how you guy's get the Grease spell ? Clockwork soul feature, "the new spell must be an Abjuration or Transmutation spell from the Sorcerer, Warlock or Wizard spell list. Page 68 TCoE." Grease is a Conjuration spell as is Web.
If you flavoured your Custom Lineage as a Dragonborn then you could be turn back time to your Ancestors to turn it forward to your evolved form for Draconic Transformation.
Dragonborn don't have dragon ancestors
@@riellelong5274
The first sentence of their description on D&D Beyond is, “Born of dragons….” So they kinda are. Even if it’s some kind of magical DNA shenanigans, that should easily count as an ancestor. Besides, he’s talking about taking Custom Lineage…. “I’m a half-dragon” is good enough to Picard it. (Make it so) 😜
@@shanelilly9673 half dragon sure go for it. Dragonborn aren't half dragons. Dragonborn are a slave race made on the other twin planet where the gods didn't interfere so dragons ruled with an iron fist. Made by the dragons in their image to serve a function as smaller races
@@riellelong5274
I understand what you’re talking about. But that is a 4th Edition backstory for Dragonborn. As I said be before, the 5e Dragonborn description says “born of dragons” and “Shaped by the draconic gods, or the dragons themselves…”
5e seems to purposefully leave the “how” of their existence up in the (L)air. 😉
@@shanelilly9673 I mean I don't think lore goes away between editions. 5e is just very light on the lore it gives in the main books. Which is very sad but I don't take that as "we erased all the lore on the older editions". If that were the case then there is basically no lore at all. Because 5e is shit at talking about it.
And I know it's become somewhat contentious but I'm of the mind if you take that identity away from dragonborn and just treat them like half dragons(who are very different) than your erasing super cool stories around them and essentially watering it down. Its cool that there are multiple races effected by dragons and multiple ways it works out. It sucks alot if all of it gets distilled down to some idea of half dragon and that's it.
5:34 I think you meant Mind Sliver instead of Mind Spike
Okay I know everyone always says that your videos come out just as they want them but seriously. I was watching the Sorcerer subclass video and was thinking to myself, "Gee, I wonder if they have a How-To video for the Clockwork Soul" and I checked and you didn't. Yet a day later, guess what pops up in my notifications? Great video guys!
I just played a Clockwork soul Warforged with amnesia wich was extremely friendly to everyone.. just like B.E.N. from "Treasure Planet" Disney movie and messing around everyone and everything until my party helped me out to find my memory gem xD
Think Absorb elements fits well here.
Plus a multiclass dip into warlock hexblade - yea I know I said too much.
Going clockwork sorcerer 19/order cleric 1 improves your effectiveness by 200%: you gain armor, shields, you grant an attack to an ally every time you target them with healing word, polymorph, haste, vortex warp, bless and so on. You still mantain full caster progression and delay the upper level spells only by 1 level.
Combining armor of agathys with the clockwork 5d8 shield help maintain concentration and dealing damage to who attack us in melee
Currently I am playing a Yuanti-Pureblood clockworck soul who rolled very good stats(nothing below a 12[being strength]) in the module Dungeon of the Made Mage. Honestly I can say this is what a sorcerer should be. Switching out spells id normally already take(shield. Mage armor, feather fall) is so useful and allows me to use other things that i would be force to give up just to be practical at times. I understand a sorcerer is not a utility caster but giving class some versatility only makes a game more fun since its lets you have more impact. Sickening radiance with this character is powerful. I literally took out a coven of hags, 4 grimlocks, and 6 beast amboniations all by a simple subtle sickening radiance from around a corner while they threaten we never leave. In short more sorcerors need to be designed similar to this. Please wizard fix draconic sorcerors lol
Effects that give disadvantage on next save to opponent and either slow or web is a very nice combo that can lay waste to more than you'd think. It worked long before disadvantage was a thing too and spells used to their full effect and often outside the normal box, can do a lot more than most realize, it often comes down to your imagination and how you see the situation evolve if something like a web is added in a sneaky way along with some grease or other easy to accomplice tricks can do a lot more in a good roleplaying setting than most realize.
Yes! I'm trying to decide between a clockwork soul and bladesinger for my next character. Now you guys have put out a video for both. You're mind readers.
This video is excellent, thanks! PLEASE do an Aberrant Mind video - we Sorcerers are neglected enough!
I just made a clockwork soul sorcerer, and homebrewed it to have Intelligence as its spell casting ability, with race as a warforged. I love the flavor of this subclass.
Mind spike would be pretty good as a cantrip @Dungeon Dudes
I flavored my sorcerer as a mathematician using equations and proofs to effect the probabilities of magical effects happening. When he casts a spell he forms equations and things like Dr Strange in the MCU.
I went AOE specialist though since my party has no other class that has any AOE abilities. I also took a few levels of Warlock in great old one. My theory for this is that there is a grand mathematical equation or formula and though he could never solve it he may be given parts of the formula and can use this to form his warlock spells.
I'm taking a similar approach to a Divination Wizard. Picking up anything that lets me manipulate action economy and dice rolls to make sure things happen as foretold.
I was considering Clockwork Soul for the same reason, but just didn't want to play a Charisma character.
To make polymorph more thematic, you could flavor it like the target is being evolved or devolved to different tiers of the animal kingdom. Yes, the idea of from the Super Mario movie,
I'm a clockwork soul sorcerer in a campaign, a mountain dwarf for armour and weapon profs, telekinetic and I took armour of agathys. I cast the armour of Agathys, then step up to my enemy, booming blade them then shove with telekinesis, they either stay put unable to hit me or they step forward taking additional booming blade damage and if they hit me they take damage again, it's a great tactic for single target lock down and damage against a melee only
I made a character like this last year. I made a Githyanki "Jedi" type character. Using Magnify Gravity, Telekinesis, Bigbys Hand, Animate Objects, Catapult, etc. It was very fun. At higher levels, I picked up the Spell 'Move Earth' to reshape the hills around a village to protect them from raiders. Super fun character. Around level 12, I decided to multiclass into Warlock to get Eldritch Blast and grab the Invocations to move enemies around as well.
I gotta give these boyos some money, they’ve been the soundtrack to me cooking for hours and hours
I went Autognome, and flavored all my spells as weapons and devices built into the robot. Highly recommend. It was a futuristic themed one shot where we all knew the whole party was going to die in the final battle. The DM said the people we saved were going to make a statue of our characters and asked what we wanted them to look like. I asked for my parts to be used to make a clock tower instead.
I just realised that if you go Eladrin you can use your BA to teleport people into battle besides casting a leveled spell. This is a great option for the build you presented.
Plus you can switch tool proficiencies on a long rest and can use your 4th level clockwork spells to get Fabricate. You will be the only Sorcerer to cast it and have the ability to craft highly detailed things; a true Master Craftsman (seems appropriate for a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer).
Warforged Clockwork Soul. It just writes itself.
Working on that now. For flavor I have animated Mr potato head objects that account for my failures. Like an eye that has to crawl back into the socket.
Been doing exactly this!! For even more clockwork flavor, I had them created as a minion on Mechanus for the Modrons before they fled in a violent attack on their ship used for the Modron March
@@lancer4224130 how's it going
I'm really enjoying this series, I'm excited to see if yall make a wizard because I've been wanting to build one for a while, but don't have any ideas on how to flavor it. I really like the scribe wizard because they can use their book as a focus which i think any wizard should be able to do.
I'm playing a Protector Aasimar Clockwork Sorcerer in my current D&D game. It's pretty fun honestly from the RP perspective, she's nowhere near the damage dealer my Storm Sorcerer was in a previous campaign as of right now but being able to support the party and erase advantage/disadvantage was pretty big when we had a Berserker Barbarian who would Reckless Attack.
The subclass features are really where CS Sorcerer has shone thus far for me. Outside of Restore Balance, even Bastion of Law has come in handy once or twice for NPCs we've had to interact with.
Honestly, I like having the class spells. I know some of them aren't optimal but having Alarm set has come in handy. And while I haven't used Wall of Force yet, I get the feeling going into high tier 2-low tier 3 we're going to need it.
My clockwork soul sorcerer is a very chaotic and random individual. Pulling from the philosophical concept that if you look at it from a broad enough perspective what looks like chaos to our tiny concept of order, is actually in itself part of order playing out at a grander level beyond the comprehension of our perspective.
aaaaand I love it. So he'll manifest it even for very simple things like he'll take 3/4 of a mug of ale walk to another business and leave it there. Because for some reason beyond what he knows that's where and how it needed to be.
I had considered a lvl dip for clockwork soul for my warforged Artificer arcanist, ('as he unlocked the power within!') But this video has convinced me playing the class through would be fun and flavourful.
I had hitherto seen its interference with adv/disadv as sortvof the lesser sire of The Grave Clerics cancelling of Critical hits. Adv/disadv probably come up more often but "I cancel that crit" sounds more epic than "I cancel your advantage." but I am warming up to the theme of everything in its proper place and think the layering on of time and gravity spells would be amazing.
Wasn't to interested in this subclass untill I realized you can get aid and tiny servant. I'm actually surprised no one talks about combining these spells. I'm currently playing a reborn fairy clockwork soul sorcerer. Was created like a clockwork toy and kept in a glass case as a work of art for years. Anyways my favorite thing to do since level seven is, before long resting for four hours, cast tiny servants at level four and upcast aid and extend meta magic both. Now I've got three tiny servants who guard me untill I'm done resting and are active for 12 more hours with 12 hours extra hp. All at no concentration and I've got full spell slots and spell points for the day!
Its weird, but I had a Pally 2 Clockwork Sorc and man that was fun. He was essentially in an order of clergy and had a job as a mailman in his off time. Atleast until Mechanicus called out to him, and he uses that order to be an excellent delivery man.
oh boy... I just ran my haunted clocktower one-shot on Sunday with a clockwork soul sorcerer BBEG, and I really could have used this before then lol.
I would run a Custom Lineage race with the Heavy Armor Master Feat. Start off as a Paladin for at least 2 or 3 levels, then multiclass into a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer.
By 8th Level, you can have a 3rd Level Armor of Agathys, a 3rd Level Aid spell, and the Bastion of Law feature up and running on yourself. Run into battle and either Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade as your action and Quicken a Blade Ward.
You can half all non magical Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage, then reduce it by 3, and if you need to use Bastion of Law you can take almost no damage and still have your enemy hit with 15 points of Cold damage from Armor of Agathys.
You can easily use this build to solo many low level monsters or one very powerful monster.
Could you guys do this type of guide for aberrant mind sorcs? Love your content
Just finished making a Warforged Hexblade SorClock.
1-2: Hexblade to nab the med armor prof, our fav blasting cantrip and invocations
3-5: Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, so we get our metamagic (Twinned & Quickened)
6-7: Hexblade to get our pact of the tome (Sapping sting, Vicious Mockery & Guidance) for some absolute savage twin spelling potential. Plus Telekinetic feat.
From here you can pretty much take this build anywhere you want, sure you won'tget your level 9 spells, but let's be real, you're not playing to level 20 anyway and the sheer amount of control options you have on the battlefield is just crazy and it's dripping with flavour.
How about doing this sort of thing for the less powerful classes first? I am especially looking forward to your take on the Mastermind (My favorite class)
What's funny is, I just started a campaign with a sorcerer with clockwork soul. I dig the build laid out.
loving the clockwork-themed commentary puns and t-shirt !
Constructive feedback: on your text screens where you swap spells out etc, add extras spaces, punctuation or colour the new and old spells differently. It'll make it easier to read
Step 1: decide to be better than all the other sorcerers who don't get expanded spell lists
....unless you watch the Dungeon Dudes expanded spell lists for sorcerers video!
funny commonde
If you're picking conjuration spells like grease or create pit the I'd take heighten spell metamagic to up their spell level. This can also be done with banishment or dismissal. Also for twinned metamagic you have to have chain lightning. Twinned chain lightning is just mad.
Using this flavour, I'd flavour sickening ray as an area in which their consciousness experiences time differently to their body, so they feel like they've been stuck for anywhere from weeks to years, trying to move out of it but their body couldn't keep up with their mind.
The damage could be self inflicted psychologically, or it could be them pushing their bodies too far/not balancing out their body control properly and so causing injury, simply because they're trapped being unable to rely on muscle memory as their and their body's concept of time is disconnected.
I played a Clockwork Soul 18/ Celestial Warlock 2 for a one shot, and I'm sure y'all didn't mention it because it requires a multiclass, but Trance can turn Eldritch Blast spam into the world's most accurate minigun. Being able to garuntee a 19, 20, 21 (or higher with magic items) on your attack rolls means that you can just turn enemies into swiss cheese. Really fun dip if you want to have a really strong offensive option in your pocket
I've done a Mountain Dwarf Clockwork Soul Sorcerer in a couple of GGR (Ravnica) one-shot adventures.
All I will say is Sleep + Subtle is outright hilarious at lower levels.
Running a Clockwork Soul in a campaign right now. I really just hammered down on the debuff spells available to sorcerers already and swapped out my Clockwork Magic spells for utility spells like Counterspell, Absorb Elements, Polymorph, etc. I have Slow and Raulothim's Psychic Lance as my go-to crowd-control spells depending on the situation. Sinaptic Static is also great as a heavy hitter and a bit of a debuff. After that, a round or two of tasha's mind whip and the combat is usually over in 3 or 4 rounds at most. I would love to try some of the combos in your video, but in our games the combats just don't last long enough for that. We either kill the monsters quickly or they start killing us. As the party's main damage dealer (with a barbarian and a cleric), I usually can only get in one round of debuffing before I need to start laying out some heavy damage
I would love to have a little more PLAY in this video, love the build ideas.
Almost 3k view in the first hour. You guys are killing it. Keep up the great work
You can also rebrand "Web" as "Distorted Space". Leave spell as is just change description.
I'm planning on playing a Clockwork Soul for an upcoming Strixhaven campaign, but I'm curious about the retraining aspect of the subclass. Can you retrain one of the bonus spells at the same level you get it? The guys mentioned retraining Protection from Energy for Haste at 5th level, but that's the same level you get it.
Now that I have Vortex Warp, I'm looking forward to fighting one of the powerful "glass cannon" type of creatures, like a Beholder. Just plop it right in front of 2 or 3 of our melee characters so they can now it down.
Had a tough time understanding the build with the mind sliver/spike swap, but a really great and eye-opening analysis. Also wish the Strix spells were listed with alternatives, since AL and other campaigns might not allow them. Subclass seems SSS Tier after the retraining tips, which are very appreciated. Love your Vids!
Armor Of Agathys is an amazing 1st level spell for them to get especially since you can lessen damage you take from Bastion of Law and taking Fizbans Platnium Shield ensuring your temp HP and damage from Armor of Agathys lasts longer
Clockwork/ Hexblade with repelling /agonizing blast I found gives you a great control blaster build.
Clockwork/ Daolock, go cheese grater with a minor in blasting... 😆
Bastion of Law is another reason you can skip Warcaster for a Clockwork Soul. It *reduces* damage, potentially making your concentration check an easy or automatic success from 6th level on. With both Bastion and Trance of Order at level 14+ you can almost never fail, and you can ration Bastion to ensure concentration check success on as many as five big hits.
Floor is still there and solid so it would be a legal target for the spell. When they appear on the floor in the area of reversed gravity they would then be affected by the spell normally for entering a spell area.
This is a dope build and I’m definitely playing this in my next campaign. However I probably won’t be using the whole web / grease / sickening radiance combo as sadly my party has historically refused to work with my strategies and instead prefers to just hit things smh (I have 3 people with me that always play combat classes, and they’re not gonna be satisfied just pushing enemies back into my microwave).
Thanks for the video, looking to use this sub-class in a Campaign soon!
Big fan of the Hill Dwarf Clockwork Soul, going for Armor of Agathys, Aid and I spiring Leader. "I am a man who can never die, now with d6 hit dice"
Armor of Agathys goes great with Bastion of Law.
Am I missing something? Isn't Grease a Wizard and Artificer spell only?
Very fun build ! Personally I would switch the Empowered Spell Metamagic for Distant Spell, at least early on . Doubling the range on all your battlefield control spells seems appropriate for the master of space & time haha
Loved this analysis! The 2 new sorcerous origins are spectacular.
Agreed.
I actually think they might be a bit too good. I'd like to see every sorcerer subclass have 2 spells of 1st to 5th available and get one of them automatically known.
Versatility but not *too much as metamagic adds so much to the class already.
(Reallt want to play clockwork and aberrant mind but will feel a bit bad how good they both are)
@@jiminkpen9750 I agree. I’ve watched a lot of you tubers talk about these 2 new origins and I think that we’ll find through play testing that the aberrant mind sorcerer is as good or better than the clockwork. I’m a level 11 aberrant mind sorcerer right now and it feels broken as crap. The psionic spells ability seems badly underrated by most.
@@pw3829 yeah, both play very differently but the powers and extra spells enhance that style. Aberrant mind for subtle (unnoticeable and uncounterable) mind magics, and clockwork for survivability (armour of agathys and bastion of law) with more obvious buffs, battlefield control, etc.
Please make one for the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer as well
I LOVED using Sickening Radiance w/ my Celestial Warlock. That spell is just mean & one of the few radiant spells I had that can take advantage of the crap Radiant Soul feature.
A warforged clockwork soul sorcerer that is a rouge modron would be cool flavor
Thank you for the video guys!
Clockwork Soul reminds me of Doctor Jonathan Osterman (Doctor Manhattan) or Doctor Fate both from DC.
I feel like it would be fun for you gents to do a series of these videos on the lowest ranked subclasses to see how you guys ovecome the issues with the classes you spelled out in the subclass rankings videos
I have a combo I call "F That Guy in Particular" for when I really need to land a save-or-suck spell. Cast Mind Sliver as an action to do a little damage and hit them with a saving throw penalty, then Quickened Spell something like Banishment or Levitate, then if they still make the save, follow up with Silvery Barbs.
I'm surprised there was no mention of the possibility of taking Armor of Agathys.
I'm planning to play a warforged paladin 2 or 6/ Clockwork sorcerer X that focuses on time manipulation spells like the obvious Slow and Haste but also thermodynamics with fire, cold, and maybe lightning or thunder spells so Armor Of Agathys will be a really good fit.
I had just made a Clockwork Soul Sorc 2 days before this video posted for a campaign starting in 2 weeks. I had already written my backstory and already done my artwork, and the race I chose does not get a level 1 feat. So, none of this can really work for me, unfortunately. It would be great if you offered some flexibility. Like at least, "if you're not playing a custom lineage or variant human... " here is an option or two. Otherwise, very cool.
My current backup character in the event of current character death is a Clockwork Soul sorcerer. Going to be theming them as either an earth bender, an ice witch or a crystal sorceress.
Thank you for the puns and not saying "hey, see what I did there? Huh ?". I appreciate you assume we are clever enough to simply enjoy your awesome humour.
Great video and now I want to play a clockwork soul sorcerer!
The idea I have for a Clockwork sorcerer is a Changeling who is an actor and always introduces himself as being world famous but nobody knows who he is because he always changes into his roles and exceedingly few people know he's a changeling. A lot of his magic would be control and illusion basically controlling when people enter or exit the "stage" and otherwise deceiving people while convincing them of his role. So I'd downplay control a little bit in favor of unique stage effects. His proudest moment was convincing director Steven Spellberg to polymorph actors into dinosaurs rather than rely on heavy magical generated imagery.
Vortex Warp is kinda my new favourite spell. I've used it to some awesome effects in combat in the last 2 weeks since my Sorcerer picked it up.
Got Melf's Minute Meteors, but the enemies just won't clump up for AoE damage? Now I can position an enemy where I wasn't them.
A squishy ally managed to get surrounded? Move them somewhere better!
We're trying to take a prisoner for questioning at the end of battle, and he thinks he's gonna double move run away? 😁 Hey buddy, get back here!
ARgh! Sorcerer was the first long campaign character I ever had, and that campaign is coming to an end. You make me wanna play a sorcerer in the next one as well x'(
In the end i think i will be able to stick with artificer, but yees... I do have a special place in my heart for sorcerers!
As my parties non-cleric spell caster I'm obligated to pick up more offensive spells at the time of writing this our party is only level two and I went for a thri-kreen as my race (our DM gave me an magical item that allows my character to hide what race they actually are and the party hasn't picked up on it they just think I'm a human sorceress with telepathy though I'm dropping hints that I'm not what I seem)
But my spell list looks like this:
Cantrips:
Fire bolt
Infestation
Mind sliver
Ray of frost
Sacred flame (astral wanderer background)
Toll of the dead (astral wanderer)
1st level:
Burning hands
Chromatic orb
Cure wounds (astral wanderer)
Grease (love setting up grease fires 😈)
Protect from good and evil
Shield
Can't wait for meta-magic and the other spells.