Good morning, D&D community! Or is it evening? Noon? I’ll ask you, reader, you should know; you’re about to play the clockwork soul, so you’ll always know what time it is!
Forgive me for starting with a bad joke. I’ve been playing D&D for a few years, and few things have gotten me as excited as the Clockwork Soul. So with this guide, we’ll go over this new sorcerer subclass:
What are its new features, and how do you use them?
What advantages does this subclass offer over other sorcerer subclasses?
What spells and metamagic should I consider taking with this subclass?
What multiclasses should I consider with this subclass?
There’s a lot to go over, so let’s get started! I’ll use the standard D&D color-code ranking:
Blue (or *****) is exceptional
Green (or ****) is good
Purple (or ***) is decent
Orange (or **) is circumstantial
Red (or *) is just bad
Clockwork Soul Features:
Clockwork Magic *****
This feature is revolutionary. It really is. This feature (and the Psionic Spells from the Aberrant Mind) totally change(s) the game for the sorcerer. Let’s go over the spells you get by default first, and then we’ll talk about swapping those spells out for better spells.
1st level
Alarm **: This spell would be a lot better on almost any other spellcaster’s list. It’s a decent ritual spell that you can cast to protect your campsite at the end of the day; basically, it’ll substitute for Leomund’s tiny hut until someone in your party can learn that spell. The problem with this spell on the sorcerer list is: sorcerers can’t cast spells as rituals. So maybe at the end of the day you’ll have a 1st level slot to cast this, but if you’re using your spell slots aggressively, you shouldn’t expect that to happen most days. I will say, at least this spell matches the clockwork theme, though.
Protection from evil and good **: This spell sort of indicates that the theme for this subclass is around order and law, rather than timepieces. It’s a decent enough protection spell for a single creature when you need it. The problem is that you probably won’t need it that much, especially at low levels. Fiends, fey, and so on—they tend not to menace the party until very high levels. That makes this spell pretty circumstantial, and as a sorcerer, you don’t really get to take circumstantial spells.
2nd level
Aid ****:Aid is a good spell. You cast it at the start of the day, and three creatures (including you, maybe) get 5 extra hit points that can stack with temporary hit points. At low levels—especially for you, squishy sorc—this can be a lifesaver. I don’t think it’s an amazing choice, because you can do much more useful things with second-level spell slots. Where I do think this spell works well is if you’re multiclassed—say with bard, as we’ll be discussing later—and you have higher-level spell slots without higher level spells to cast with them. Aid scales marvelously with level. A third level aid adds twice as many hit points to your party! So if you’re a multiclass spellcaster, you especially want to hang on to this.
Lesser restoration ***: Another good spell, and one sorcerers usually don’t get, but one you’ll probably want to swap out! Lesser restoration can remove all manner of debilitating conditions from allies, like poisoned and paralyzed (paralyzed sucks big-time). The problem is, this is another circumstantial spell, and sorcerers shouldn’t be the ones to take circumstantial spells.
That said, having lesser restoration prepared by at least someone in the party is a good idea. If for some reason you don’t have a bard, druid, cleric, paladin, ranger, or artificer in your party—first of all, I’m sorry. Second of all, maybe hang on to this one. Otherwise, let the cleric pick up the tab on this one.
3rd level
Dispel magic ****: This is a great spell, one that works fabulously for sorcerers since Tasha’s and will work even better for you! Even so, you’re probably gonna swap this one out, because you have a better option. If you do keep it, just know you can end the effect of any ongoing spell on one target, whether it be a hold person spell on the barbarian or a planar binding on a pit fiend. If you’re trying to end a spell of 4th level or higher, you need to make a Charisma check, and we’ll go over how that works when we talk about your better option.
Protection from energy **: Remember what I said about circumstantial spells being a boo-hoo for sorcerers? This one is kind of the lame fart of circumstantial spells. You can give one creature resistance to one energy damage type. Except it’s a concentration spell that has to be cast in advance, and you’re not often going to get a chance to prepare in advance when you’re taking elemental damage. Also, if you take the damage, you have to make a concentration saving throw to avoid losing this spell. Just kind of a bummer all around. You have a better option to reduce energy damage at a much lower level, which we’ll talk about later.
4th level
Freedom of movement ***: Another good spell; another circumstantial spells. And what do we say about circumstantial spells?
This spell actually has the same problem as protection from energy, as we need to know in advance that we’re going to need to surpass difficult terrain, escape from bonds, etc. Note that this is a bit redundant with lesser restoration if you kept that, because lesser restoration also cures paralyzation.
While I do think this is circumstantial, it might be worth keeping on your list anyway. You don’t have a huge assortment of great swapping options at this level.
Summon Construct ****: A great summoning spell! This is one of the new ones from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and it solves many of the problems previously facing summoners: it gives you a pre-ordained stat block, and it only summons one creature, preventing slowdown of the game. As the new summoning spells go, this isn’t the best among them; but as a spell on its own, this is a great pick. Worth considering keeping, even with the expensive material component!
5th level
Greater Restoration **: Cir-cum-stan-tial! What do we know about circumstantial spells? They’re not for sorcerers. This is basically a powered-up version of lesser restoration, except the conditions that it cures are substantially rarer. Just like with lesser restoration, let the cleric take this one, unless there’s absolutely no one in your party who can learn it—but you have much, much, much better options at this level.
Wall of force *****: Holy. Cow. This is the best 5th level spell. And you get it automatically. Amazing. Keep this on your list.
What’s so amazing about a wall, you ask? Well, trust me, it’s a game-changer for any party that gets it. Basically you can use it to divide enemy groups and take them on one at a time, highly reducing their damage dealt to the party. It can’t be dispelled either. If you want specific examples, I highly recommend watching Treantmonk’s video on Mid Level Tactics for Wizards (I wrote the transcript for that one!).
Okay, that’s all the spells you get automatically. At first, it doesn’t seem great; a mix of some decent spells, some lackluster spells, and one fantastic spell. There are two reasons why this ability is game-changing.
The first is that sorcerers get very, very few spell selections. Anyone who’s played a sorcerer can vouch for that. A level 20 sorcerer knows 15 spells. That’s less than two picks per spell level. This gives a level 20 sorcerer access to 25 spells; a level 10 sorcerer access to 21. Game-changing.
The second reason this is game-changing, and the reason this feature is amazingly awesome, is that it’s customizable. Every time you level up, you can take one of these granted spells and swap it out for something better. You’re probably gonna want to do that for every one of these spells except wall of force, and maybe summon construct. You don’t get to choose whatever you want, but you have a wide assortment of options: any spell of the same level that is from the abjuration or transmutation school, and the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list.
I can’t possibly go over how many marvelous choices there are from this list, but I’ll go over a few from each level just to give you an idea!
1st level
1st level spells are really important for sorcerers, and they don’t get to take many of them. Fortunately, our options for 1st level spell swaps for alarm and protection from evil and good are absolutely amazing.
Shield *****: Shield is an absolutely marvelous spell. As a reaction when you take a hit, you add +5 to your Armor Class until the start of your next turn. You’ll find that most of the time, that bonus will cause the attack to miss; even if it doesn’t, you get to retain that bonus for the rest of the round, possibly causing many attacks to miss that would have otherwise smacked you down hard. As a squishy sorcerer, this is probably your pick at 1st level. Swap it out for protection from evil and good.
Armor of Agathys *****: Not one of my favorites, but a fantastic spell, and probably the one you want at level 2. You cover your body in icy armor, gaining some temporary hit points that last for an hour (they don’t last until your next long rest, like most temporary hit points do). For the rest of that hour, whenever an enemy hits you with a melee attack, they take damage equal to the number of temporary hit points you started with.
This does three great things for you: it bolsters your weenie sorcerer hit points, it discourages melee enemies from attacking you, and it damages those enemies. At level 1, this spell is decent, but if you upcast it, it’s even better! Like I talked about with aid, if you’re a multiclass caster who has high level spell slots but no high level spells, this is a great choice to use with those spells. I tend to like this better on the warlock, the “home” class for this spell, because they get those spell slots back. Still not a bad pick for you, though.
Absorb elements *****: See why I said you have so many better options at first level? This spell is an amazing defensive boost. Whenever you take elemental damage, you use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage. So, red dragon breathes on you, you fail your saving throw, you can reduce that damage from lethal to merely annoying. It only lasts a round, but you don’t have to cast it in advance using your action, which makes it a billion times better than protection from energy, despite being a lower level spell.
Note, this is a spell from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, so if for some reason your DM doesn’t let you take those spells—first of all, I’m sorry. Second of all, you have other great options.
Not going to go over them in depth, but mage armor, longstrider, and feather fall are all worth considering if none of the three spells above appeal to you. Mage armor is something a straight sorcerer was probably going to take anyway, so this saves you a spell selection; longstrider is a good long-term buff that can be twinned cheaply; and feather fall is a circumstantial spell, but extremely useful in that circumstance.
2nd level
You’re not in Kansas anymore! Now you’re doing some real magic! Sorcerers do tend to want a lot of 2nd level spells, and now you get some extras to replace aid and lesser restoration.
Levitate *****: Levitate is a great defensive/offensive spell, with some added utility. Wanna get an ally (or yourself) out of range of a melee enemy? Cast this on them. Wanna hold up a melee enemy and keep it harmlessly out of reach until your archers are ready to fill it with arrows? Cast this on them. It tends to be more reliable when cast on your allies, but you can chance it on enemies if you want. You can also use it to lift heavy things, and scale tall obstacles with ease—plus, you get to have some fun with zero-g physics! Not a bad scale to twin with the twinned spell metamagic.
Rope Trick *****: Another great spell! It’s just a tad redundant with levitate on the utility side because you can use it to scale things with ease, but it’s actually a foolproof way to get yourself a safe short rest. Remember when healing spirit came out (before the errata) and people complained because it restored a bunch of hit points? A short rest can do that, and restore a lot of abilities that replenish on a short rest—but parties will often avoid short rests because they’re not sure they can complete them safely. Cast this, get everybody up into the pocket dimension, and pull your rope up behind them. 100% safe short rest, virtually guaranteed. So much for alarm.
Not gonna go into a lot of detail on these other spells, but I’ll mention them because they’re good if you use them with the twinned spell metamagic: darkvision, enhance ability, enlarge/reduce, magic weapon, and spider climb. Darkvision is good to have on your list if you have two or more members of the party without innate darkvision (having to hold a torch in dark places is a bummer and gives your position away). Enhance ability can be really great in all manner of skill challenges, and often you’re going to have the spell slots for it on non-adventuring days, like when you just arrived in town and need to convince the innkeeper to let you stay at a discounted rate. Enlarge/reduce is an okay utility spell, and being able to twin it cheaply is all right. Magic weapon may be a good choice if you’re in a low magic campaign, and you’re going up against enemies that have resistance to your martials’ nonmagical weapon damage. Finally, spider climb is a spell that’s good for mobility—though you’re probably better off just taking levitate.
3rd level
3rd level spells represent a huge leap in power over everything that’s come before, and you’re about to see some marvelous choices to replace dispel magic and protection from energy.
Counterspell *****: Remember that spell I said was like dispel magic, but better? It’s this one. Counterspell is a game-changer when fighting spellcasters, and only the three arcane casters (bards excluded) have it on their list. You could have taken it as a normal sorcerer, but by 3rd level you’d usually be struggling to put this on your list. The really nice thing for you, as a Tasha-boosted sorcerer, is that if you fail your Charisma check to cancel a higher-level spell, you can just spend a sorcery point to reroll it with your Magical Guidance option!
Even so, this is a tad circumstantial because you’re not always facing spellcasters; this would be the second 3rd level spell I swap out, not the first, and when I do, I’m giving up dispel magic for it.
Blink ****: Blink is a good defensive option, giving you a 50% chance to avoid all threats outside a turn. It’s not reliable, but it’s a good use of a 3rd level spell once you reach high tiers of play; for that reason, this is a strong choice once you reach those higher levels, but probably not at levels 5 and 6.
Slow ****: Control and debuffing is a powerful option for sorcerers, but they often have to worry about friendly fire. Not so with slow, which targets up to six creatures of your choice and debuffs them. What I really like about this spell is how well it blends thematically with the clockwork soul, as well as the spell I’m talking about next.
Haste ***: Haste isn’t a fantastic buff, but it’s not bad, and buffs have the advantage of being reliable. You double a creature’s speed, increase its AC, give it advantage on Dex saves, and give it another action. I tend to like to give this to rogues, so they can use their hasted action to attack on their turn, and use their normal action to Ready an attack for later, letting them use their Sneak Attack twice a round. Yes, this really works. This spell twins decently, too.
The major concern with this spell is concentration. If it drops, your target doesn’t just lose the benefits of this spell—they’re incapacitated for a whole round, which is just awful. Don’t take this spell—and especially don’t twin it—if you’re not certain you can maintain concentration on it. You want your party to love you, not hate you.
Though I think counterspell is superior to this, I might take this spell along with slow, just because the concept of a Clockwork Soul who slows things down and speeds them up is just so intuitive. You can still take counterspell with your normal picks.
Fly ***: Flight is great, and your martial characters will love the maneuverability this spell grants them. It also upcasts well, if you’re a multiclass caster—though for the same reason, you don’t wanna twin this spell. There are a couple of downsides, though: this uses your concentration, it’s a touch spell, and if you lose concentration, you fall (in which case, maybe you have feather fall prepared!). If you like being able to fly—and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t, in real life?—this is worth considering.
Tiny servant ***: I’m gonna be honest, I don’t love this use of the spell because it feels gimmicky, but you can cast it and give the tiny servant magic stones (from a warlock multiclass) each round to throw. You can even twin it. Some optimizers like to use this spell up to three times, and spread the stones among their servants to deal copious damage. Like I say, it’s gimmicky, and I tend not to love it, but you do you.
Water breathing **: This spell is much better for another caster that can cast it as a ritual, but you can cast it at the end of every day to give basically everyone in your party 24 hours of water breathing. Then you don’t ever have to worry about finding yourself underwater! You do have better options, obviously, but I think this one is worth mentioning; and if you’re leveling up and know you’re about to go on a water-based adventure, maybe this isn’t a bad choice for you.
4th level
Sadly, you don’t have nearly as many good options to replace freedom of movement and summon construct as you’ve had at lower levels, but you still have some decent ones.
Polymorph *****: This is a conditional blue rating, and the reason it’s conditional is that this spell starts out as one of the best spells in the game, but as you reach higher and higher levels, it tapers off. I’m not saying it’s ever a bad spell, but at a certain point, maybe you were better off sticking with your original spell.
Still, at level 7 this is huge. You can cast it on an enemy and turn them into a snail, then carry it 200 feet up and drop them, yes. That’s not a bad use of this spell. A better use is to cast it on your fellow party member and turn them into a Giant Ape. Then you stand back and let King/Queen Kong do their thing. Again, at higher levels, your friends are probably better off playing their regular characters.
Banishment ****: A decent spell, which scales better than polymorph, but isn’t as versatile. Creatures tend to have poor Charisma saving throws, so if you throw this on even a really bad guy, you can stick them in a demiplane and let the rest of your party mop up their minions. Alternatively, if they’re an intruder from another plane, you can “return to sender.” Not a bad spell to Heighten with your metamagic either. It tends to be decent even at high levels.
Stoneskin **: Whoa, our third alternative and we’re already down to the orange rating? Yeah, not a lot of great choices at this level. Stoneskin can be an okay buff for an ally, provided you’re facing enemies that deal nonmagical weapon damage, but it costs money to cast, and it’s concentration. Meh.
5th level
We're going from having few good options to having some great options to choose from. You know you’re not giving up wall of force—only you and the wizard get that one—so choose carefully to replace greater restoration.
Animate objects *****: You know how you’re always secretly a bit jealous of the fighter, ranger, paladin, and barbarian, how they get to use those weapons multiple times a round to deal out impressive damage, consistently? Time to beat them at their own game. You animate ten tiny objects (mathematically the best option) and send them to attack your bad guys, dealing great gobs of damage. The damage is nonmagical, which isn’t super reliable at this point, but even against foes that are resistant to it, this damage is notable, and it only uses your bonus action and concentration to keep up. Even if you don’t take this with your Clockwork Magic, you probably want it with your regular selections. Just be careful using this against enemy blasters. A single fireball, and about half of those things are gone.
Telekinesis ****: At first glance, this spell doesn’t seem that impressive, but it’s actually quite good for you. Every round, you pick a target, and have to beat them in a contest to hold and restrain them. Not only is this a long-lasting spell, it’s based on ability checks, not saving throws (so no legendary resistance), and as a Tasha-boosted sorcerer, you can reroll skill checks if you fail. Probably not worth it if you think your foe rolled really high, but if you rolled real low and wanna spend a sorcery point, it could be worth it. And of course it has the added versatility of moving heavy things, and acting as a rich man’s fly: have the party step onto a big rug, use this spell on the rug, and you have a temporary, budget flying carpet.
Note too that this spell works pretty well with your Trance of Order ability at 14th level, and Quicken spell. If you’re feeling gimmicky, you could even combine this with the magic stone+tiny servant trick I mentioned above: hold the bad guy in place while your servants throw rocks at them. What a humiliating way to kill something.
Transmute rock ****: This is a great control spell, and it’s non-concentration. You turn rock to sludge, or you turn sludge to rock; if you turn rock to sludge, you can slow enemies down or restrain them, or bring the roof down on their heads (or both, the wording is unclear); if you turn sludge to rock, you can trap them. Either option is good, and this is one of few spells—along with hypnotic pattern and fear that careful spell works decently for. Not a lot of casters have access to this spell, so you should strongly consider it.
Skill empowerment **: I don’t think this is a good option—it’s actually mathematically worse than enhance ability, which comes at a much lower level—but the two spells do stack, and giving a character expertise on an important skill check might just make the difference, especially as proficiency bonuses are getting big. If none of the spells above appeal to you, this is worth considering.
As you can see, the Clockwork Magic feature is just wonderful and gives you a wealth of choices. On its own, it would make Clockwork Soul one of the premier sorcerers—but wait! We get other subclass abilities, and some of them are pretty great!
Restore Balance***
This is a good ability! You can use your reaction to prevent a roll from being made with advantage or disadvantage—so if your rogue is lying prone and a bear is about to maul them, you can cancel that advantage, or if your bard is trying to convince the guards of an outlandish lie, you can cancel that disadvantage. There will often be enough circumstances during the day that you will want to use this at least a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. What keeps this from being green for me is that it uses your reaction, and as a sorcerer, you have a number of uses for your reaction: shield, absorb elements, counterspell… Using this means you aren’t using any of those. That said, this is a good ability, that you’ll be using for your entire career, and it doesn’t require sorcery points or anything like that.
Bastion of Law ***
My perspective on this feature has seen a bit of whirlwind. At first I was very excited thinking that it was an all-day buff that you could use over and over again. Then I realized the points are expended when you use them and got quite dispirited. Finally I realized that this ability actually works quite well with armor of Agathys, which you are quite likely to swap out one of your first level Clockwork spells for. So you can combine this with that spell, combine it with aid, to get a fairly beefy sorcerer, which is pretty unique.
Trance of Order ****
It takes a long time to get here, but boy, is this a fun ability! You use your bonus action to enter this trance, and now you can’t be attacked at advantage (pro tip: lie down if enemies are attacking at range. Ranged attacks will have disadvantage against you, and melee attacks won’t benefit from advantage), plus all of your attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws are a 10 at minimum.
This is marvelous. While this is up, you will make almost all Constitution saving throws, including concentration saves. You will make most ability checks, and most attack rolls (you probably don’t make attack rolls, though you might—see the section on multiclassing with warlock). On top of all that, you can use this more than once a day by spending 5 sorcery points—expensive, but potentially worth it. You can even use this outside of combat to reliably overcome skill challenges and navigate social rolls. You can use this with spells like telekinesis and counterspell that rely on ability checks—it probably won’t turn a failed counterspell into a successful one, but then again, it might! With telekinesis, this is great synchronicity. Marvelous ability, well worth the wait.
Clockwork Cavalcade ****
Well, look at that. We went from game-changer to good ability to crap to good ability to good ability! With one glaring exception, this subclass just gives and gives and gives. This ability isn’t a knockout or anything, especially compared to getting wish at level 17, but it’s a decent capstone, and you don’t have to use sorcery points on it. You get to restore 100 hit points, distributed as you like (contrast this with the 6th level heal, which restores 70 points to one creature), get to repair damaged objects… Yeah, that’s useless. Ah well. And you can end all spells on creatures and objects of your choice. That’s circumstantial, but it’s reliable; you don’t have to take a chance on it, like with dispel magic. Say a party member has been petrified with flesh to stone? Congrats, you didn’t need greater restoration after all. Enemy cast haste on themself? That’s over, and now they’re incapacitated for a round, no ability check, no option for a counterspell. Animated objects harassing you? Not anymore. You can even end a magic jar spell, if your DM is mean enough to use that on your party! All in all, this isn’t a flashy capstone, but it’s significant and significantly good, and you can even repeat it if you really need to for seven (oof) sorcery points—that converts to a 4th level spell slot, and this is significantly better than that.
So that’s everything the Clockwork Soul has to offer; now let’s talk about the sorcerer’s specialty: metamagic. How do the abilities you’ve gained affect what kinds of metamagic you want?
Careful spell: This probably wasn’t a metamagic you wanted, but it’s not a bad choice at high levels if you want to combine it with transmute rock. Prior to this, the only sorcerer spells it really worked well with were hypnotic pattern and fear, so this is a step up.
Distant spell: Still bad.
Empowered spell: This isn’t a sorcerer that lends itself to a lot of blasting, but if you want to tack some on to your spell list, this is a cheap metamagic. I wouldn’t expect it to work with spells like animate objects and summon construct, but you can ask your DM.
Extended spell: Still, still bad. I guess you can use it to extend a fly, or lengthen a polymorph or armor of Agathys through a short rest.
Heightened spell: As good as it would be for any sorcerer, though to be honest, playing a Shadow Sorcerer and relying on the Hound of Ill Omen kinda soured me on this one. Keep in mind that a number of your spells—telekinesis, animate objects—don’t benefit from this. This actually works quite well in combination with Restore Balance if you’re facing a monster with magic resistance; they go from having advantage on their save to having disadvantage. No other sorcerer can do that. No other character can do that, because of how advantage and disadvantage normally cancel each other out. Do check with your DM to make sure that Restore Balance wouldn’t cancel out the creature’s disadvantage, though; the wording leaves room for interpretation.
Quickened spell: Good as it would be for any sorcerer, though combining this with telekinesis can have some nice effects; you cast telekinesis and engage your trance of order on round one, then throw some non-concentration spells in on subsequent rounds. Note that this works quite well with the sorlock build we’ll be talking about in the multiclassing section.
Seeking spell: Bad.
Subtle spell: Good, but this doesn’t give this kind of sorcerer any unique advantage; plus, your spellcasting will be obvious regardless if you go along with the flavor text under your Clockwork Magic feature. Besides, most of your spells, it won’t matter whether they’re cast subtly or not.
Transmuted spell: This metamagic tends to work a lot better for blaster sorcerers, and you’re probably not a blaster. If you want to pick up flaming sphere at level 3, you might take this to turn your sphere into acidic sphere, and you can swap it back out with your Sorcerous Versatility.
Twinned spell: Glorious as ever. This subclass does give you access to a number of great spells that don’t twin, however: wall of force, counterspell, telekinesis, transmute rock, slow, aid. Still, there are plenty of spells you can take that twin plenty well, and a couple from this subclass—polymorph sticks out—that do.
Spell selection
We already went over the Clockwork Magic, and other guides have covered sorcerer spell picks more extensively, but it’s worth noting just how much Clockwork Magic frees you up to take other sorcery spells, including the additional ones from your Optional Class features.
First—or perhaps last—having such a solid low-level spell list means that, once you get access to 6th level spells and above, you have more freedom to expend your valuable spell selections on them. Want both mass suggestion and chain lightning? You can probably afford it! Want wish and meteor swarm? Go for it, you lucky sonuvagun, and congrats on reaching tier 4!
Also, having many of your bases covered by Clockwork magic means you can pick some spells that sorcerers ordinarily don’t pick. You’ll want your essentials, of course: mirror image and misty step, hypnotic pattern or fear, dimension door, and so on—but maybe you want to branch out a big and pick some unusual ones. Suggestion, web, and flaming sphere are all options that are open to you.Fireball can give you some blasting fun. Have fun with it. Luxuriate in your expansive spell list. Don’t get too crazy, though—your selections are still incredibly valuable. You probably want to pick up mind sliver, by the way; you can really knock down the bad guys’ good saving throws, and a fair number of your good spells require concentration, so you may be casting some cantrips.
Multiclassing
When it comes to sorcerers, there are a number of good multiclasses. The paladin is one notable example. When it comes to the Clockwork Soul, though, I want to narrow our focus to two classes that I think are well-suited for this subclass: the bard and the warlock.
We don’t want to do really extended multiclasses, because we just get so much good stuff from Clockwork Soul; is going 6 levels in paladin worth it when you can get so many great spells and abilities? Let’s talk about the warlock first, because everyone I know is talking about it.
So for the warlock, it’s your standard sorlock build. If you don’t know what I’m talking about—it’s long-standing practice for optimizers to take two levels of warlock for the eldritch blast cantrip and the Agonizing Blast Eldritch Invocation, then quicken those eldritch blasts for two, then four, then six, then eight beams a turn. A well-built sorlock can do this quite a bit, turning a sorcerer—which normally prefers blasting over single-target striking—into a striker powerhouse. With Tasha’s Cauldron, you actually don’t even need the second level in Warlock; take the first for eldritch blast, and take the Eldritch Adept feat for Agonizing Blast. You can also take magic stone if you want to make use of the tiny servant gimmick, or toll the dead if you want a reliable damage cantrip in melee.
If you are going to go the sorlock route, I recommend either the Hexblade or the new Genie warlock. Hexblade offers more advantages—medium armor and shields, the Hexblade’s Curse (though I’ll note that the latter uses your bonus action, and you’re going to be pretty bonus-action-hungry). Genie, though, gives you a nice little damage boost that doesn’t rely on your bonus action, plus a fun little hidey hole for you to take short rests in. It also gives you access to the sanctuary spell—a personal favorite of mine—if you choose the Dao patron; and really, if we look in our heart of hearts, aren’t we all tired of every warlock being a Hexblade? The advantages of this multiclass are obvious; armor proficiency, so no need for mage armor, and of course your standard sorlock eldritch blast quickening mischief, but where this gets really good is at very high levels, and it’s for this reason that I recommend only a one level dip if you can get away with it.
See, eldritch blast happens to synergize exceptionally well with your level 14 Trance of Order. If you can set that up, then against almost all enemies, you’re going to hit with every beam you fire, which takes your damage from fairly good into the stratosphere. That said, you have to be, at minimum, level 15 before you can access this combination, and that’s an awful lot of being just another sorlock.
A combination I actually like a bit better than this is bard; specifically, two levels in bard. You get your light armor, you get your extra skill proficiency, you get your bardic inspiration and song of rest—that’s all secondary to getting Jack-of-all-Trades, and this ability turns you into a counterspelling, telekinesis-ing monster.
Jack-of-all-Trades lets you add half your proficiency bonus to any ability check that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus. That includes ability checks like the charisma check to counterspell, or contest an enemy with telekinesis. Consider; you were already going to have a fairly good chance at those rolls thanks to Magical Guidance and, at very high levels, Trance of Order. Jack-of-all-Trades will make your success almost certain. On top of this, you get access to some decent 1st level spells and cantrips, and can maintain your regular spellcasting progression. If you want, you can even go three levels in bard for some medium armor and shields from Valor, and expertise in a couple of skills; I don’t know if that’s worth delaying your spell progression by three levels and, eventually, cutting you out of Clockwork Cavalcade, but it’s certainly a valid choice. One level of bard probably won’t do much for you, though.
And that’s pretty much all I have to say on the Clockwork Soul! Enjoy your new characters, and keep an eye on the time! :) Yep… Yeah, that’s all I’ve got, sorry. Is it time for me to go? I’ll go.
Aid should be green (good) and not purple (decent). You said it yourself, "Aid is a good spell".
More importantly, Aid can be used in combat to bring back up three unconscious, 0hp allies. It sorts of work like a Healing Word on steroid, on top of granting a +5 max hp buff for 8 hours.
Hey! Great guide. I have a question for ya. Would Metamagic Adept be a good feat for this subclass? I'm starting to think that it isnt the best choice.
I am creating a Clockwork Sorcerer and Im taking a level in Order Cleric for the ability to give my allies an attack when I cast spells on them. With so many buff spells here it makes sense. Anyway, our DM is allowing a free feat at level 1 and I was considering Metamagic Adept. Fey touched wouldnt be great cuz my character is Eladrin elf which means he already kinda has Misty Step. I guess I should consider Shadow Touched. I also like the idea of Alarm on this character. Not sure. What do you think?
Hey! Great guide. I have a question for ya. Would Metamagic Adept be a good feat for this subclass? I'm starting to think that it isnt the best choice.
I am creating a Clockwork Sorcerer and Im taking a level in Order Cleric for the ability to give my allies an attack when I cast spells on them. With so many buff spells here it makes sense. Anyway, our DM is allowing a free feat at level 1 and I was considering Metamagic Adept. Fey touched wouldnt be great cuz my character is Eladrin elf which means he already kinda has Misty Step. I guess I should consider Shadow Touched. I also like the idea of Alarm on this character. Not sure. What do you think?
Thanks for reading! Metamagic adept is a great feat for sorcerers, those sorcery points are just so valuable and you don't have enough options to spend them. The problem is lessened for an Aberrant Mind sorcerer because they get what is essentially free Subtle Spell at level 6; for Clockwork though, we want Twinned Spell, Subtle Spell, Quickened Spell, Heightened Spell, and Extended Spell, and we'll never get all of them.
That said, Shadow-Touched would be an okay option. Telekinetic and Skill Expert are also strong considerations. If you plan to take alarm, I should warn you that as a sorcerer you can't cast spells as rituals, so alarm is going to be less useful for you than for other casters.
I should also say that Treantmonk, the undisputed master of wizards, recently did a build guide for the Clockwork/Order combo; if you haven't had a chance to look at it, I strongly suggest you do.
greater restoration can be good for sorlocks, because it allows you to be a coffeelock. If you have the money (which is very DM dependant obviously), you can stock up on 5th level spellslots
greater restoration can be good for sorlocks, because it allows you to be a coffeelock. If you have the money (which is very DM dependant obviously), you can stock up on 5th level spellslots
Yeah, that's a little too far into theoretical optimization territory for me, but if your DM is cool with it, that is one way to go!
So, animated objects are not creatures, the are objects.
Clockwork Calvacade does repair them specifically because they are objects and doesn't count toward the 100 HP total for creatures. This would count for both Animate Objects and Bigby's Hand, but the distinction is important.
Someone took after Treantmonk and his style of guides.
Keep it up, this is nifty.
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Question: it says we can change out our Clockwork spells as we go, but I can't find any way to do this on dndbeyond (the app nor the website). Anyone know how to do this, or is this feature missing at the moment?
Question: it says we can change out our Clockwork spells as we go, but I can't find any way to do this on dndbeyond (the app nor the website). Anyone know how to do this, or is this feature missing at the moment?
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
So another stupid question... how do I do that? Lol I created a copy of clockwork soul sorcerer subclass, edited "clockwork magic" to change out the spells I wanted, & edited the description to list the correct spells I had added (just to be thorough). Now when I create a character and set that as my subclass though, it still lists (in the description) and adds (in the spells list) the default spells. I've gone and made sure that my changes to the subclass saved, so why aren't those changes appearing on my character? Sorry for my noobness 😅
So another stupid question... how do I do that? Lol I created a copy of clockwork soul sorcerer subclass, edited "clockwork magic" to change out the spells I wanted, & edited the description to list the correct spells I had added (just to be thorough). Now when I create a character and set that as my subclass though, it still lists (in the description) and adds (in the spells list) the default spells. I've gone and made sure that my changes to the subclass saved, so why aren't those changes appearing on my character? Sorry for my noobness 😅
Have you turned on Homebrew Content and selected your homebrew copy of the subclass? because if you have not, you'll only see the original one.
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I have yes, and I'm able to set my subclass to "COPY_OF_Clockwork Soul". And the only thing I changed was those Clockwork Spells; it just didn't seem to actually set them. Idk. First time ever trying to do anything with homebrew honestly
I have yes, and I'm able to set my subclass to "COPY_OF_Clockwork Soul". And the only thing I changed was those Clockwork Spells; it just didn't seem to actually set them. Idk. First time ever trying to do anything with homebrew honestly
since it's a *new* homebrew it shoulda gone through immediately... Someone better at it than me should take over from here, and probably not in this thread since this is the guide still! :D
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
On that note, I play with the Homebrew system a whole bunch and it can take (in my experience) up to 15 min for updates to go through to the Character Sheet. So, when I make a change to the homebrew creation, I click the Save button on every screen I'm on (Basic info, modifier, action, etc.) before moving on to another screen or going back to a previous one. Then, after that, I watch a YouTube video or something and check back on it afterwards. It always gets updated, but sometimes, it takes a while.
Good morning, D&D community! Or is it evening? Noon? I’ll ask you, reader, you should know; you’re about to play the clockwork soul, so you’ll always know what time it is!
Forgive me for starting with a bad joke. I’ve been playing D&D for a few years, and few things have gotten me as excited as the Clockwork Soul. So with this guide, we’ll go over this new sorcerer subclass:
There’s a lot to go over, so let’s get started! I’ll use the standard D&D color-code ranking:
Blue (or *****) is exceptional
Green (or ****) is good
Purple (or ***) is decent
Orange (or **) is circumstantial
Red (or *) is just bad
Clockwork Soul Features:
Clockwork Magic *****
This feature is revolutionary. It really is. This feature (and the Psionic Spells from the Aberrant Mind) totally change(s) the game for the sorcerer. Let’s go over the spells you get by default first, and then we’ll talk about swapping those spells out for better spells.
1st level
Alarm **: This spell would be a lot better on almost any other spellcaster’s list. It’s a decent ritual spell that you can cast to protect your campsite at the end of the day; basically, it’ll substitute for Leomund’s tiny hut until someone in your party can learn that spell. The problem with this spell on the sorcerer list is: sorcerers can’t cast spells as rituals. So maybe at the end of the day you’ll have a 1st level slot to cast this, but if you’re using your spell slots aggressively, you shouldn’t expect that to happen most days. I will say, at least this spell matches the clockwork theme, though.
Protection from evil and good **: This spell sort of indicates that the theme for this subclass is around order and law, rather than timepieces. It’s a decent enough protection spell for a single creature when you need it. The problem is that you probably won’t need it that much, especially at low levels. Fiends, fey, and so on—they tend not to menace the party until very high levels. That makes this spell pretty circumstantial, and as a sorcerer, you don’t really get to take circumstantial spells.
2nd level
Aid ****: Aid is a good spell. You cast it at the start of the day, and three creatures (including you, maybe) get 5 extra hit points that can stack with temporary hit points. At low levels—especially for you, squishy sorc—this can be a lifesaver. I don’t think it’s an amazing choice, because you can do much more useful things with second-level spell slots. Where I do think this spell works well is if you’re multiclassed—say with bard, as we’ll be discussing later—and you have higher-level spell slots without higher level spells to cast with them. Aid scales marvelously with level. A third level aid adds twice as many hit points to your party! So if you’re a multiclass spellcaster, you especially want to hang on to this.
Lesser restoration ***: Another good spell, and one sorcerers usually don’t get, but one you’ll probably want to swap out! Lesser restoration can remove all manner of debilitating conditions from allies, like poisoned and paralyzed (paralyzed sucks big-time). The problem is, this is another circumstantial spell, and sorcerers shouldn’t be the ones to take circumstantial spells.
That said, having lesser restoration prepared by at least someone in the party is a good idea. If for some reason you don’t have a bard, druid, cleric, paladin, ranger, or artificer in your party—first of all, I’m sorry. Second of all, maybe hang on to this one. Otherwise, let the cleric pick up the tab on this one.
3rd level
Dispel magic ****: This is a great spell, one that works fabulously for sorcerers since Tasha’s and will work even better for you! Even so, you’re probably gonna swap this one out, because you have a better option. If you do keep it, just know you can end the effect of any ongoing spell on one target, whether it be a hold person spell on the barbarian or a planar binding on a pit fiend. If you’re trying to end a spell of 4th level or higher, you need to make a Charisma check, and we’ll go over how that works when we talk about your better option.
Protection from energy **: Remember what I said about circumstantial spells being a boo-hoo for sorcerers? This one is kind of the lame fart of circumstantial spells. You can give one creature resistance to one energy damage type. Except it’s a concentration spell that has to be cast in advance, and you’re not often going to get a chance to prepare in advance when you’re taking elemental damage. Also, if you take the damage, you have to make a concentration saving throw to avoid losing this spell. Just kind of a bummer all around. You have a better option to reduce energy damage at a much lower level, which we’ll talk about later.
4th level
Freedom of movement ***: Another good spell; another circumstantial spells. And what do we say about circumstantial spells?
This spell actually has the same problem as protection from energy, as we need to know in advance that we’re going to need to surpass difficult terrain, escape from bonds, etc. Note that this is a bit redundant with lesser restoration if you kept that, because lesser restoration also cures paralyzation.
While I do think this is circumstantial, it might be worth keeping on your list anyway. You don’t have a huge assortment of great swapping options at this level.
Summon Construct ****: A great summoning spell! This is one of the new ones from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and it solves many of the problems previously facing summoners: it gives you a pre-ordained stat block, and it only summons one creature, preventing slowdown of the game. As the new summoning spells go, this isn’t the best among them; but as a spell on its own, this is a great pick. Worth considering keeping, even with the expensive material component!
5th level
Greater Restoration **: Cir-cum-stan-tial! What do we know about circumstantial spells? They’re not for sorcerers. This is basically a powered-up version of lesser restoration, except the conditions that it cures are substantially rarer. Just like with lesser restoration, let the cleric take this one, unless there’s absolutely no one in your party who can learn it—but you have much, much, much better options at this level.
Wall of force *****: Holy. Cow. This is the best 5th level spell. And you get it automatically. Amazing. Keep this on your list.
What’s so amazing about a wall, you ask? Well, trust me, it’s a game-changer for any party that gets it. Basically you can use it to divide enemy groups and take them on one at a time, highly reducing their damage dealt to the party. It can’t be dispelled either. If you want specific examples, I highly recommend watching Treantmonk’s video on Mid Level Tactics for Wizards (I wrote the transcript for that one!).
Okay, that’s all the spells you get automatically. At first, it doesn’t seem great; a mix of some decent spells, some lackluster spells, and one fantastic spell. There are two reasons why this ability is game-changing.
The first is that sorcerers get very, very few spell selections. Anyone who’s played a sorcerer can vouch for that. A level 20 sorcerer knows 15 spells. That’s less than two picks per spell level. This gives a level 20 sorcerer access to 25 spells; a level 10 sorcerer access to 21. Game-changing.
The second reason this is game-changing, and the reason this feature is amazingly awesome, is that it’s customizable. Every time you level up, you can take one of these granted spells and swap it out for something better. You’re probably gonna want to do that for every one of these spells except wall of force, and maybe summon construct. You don’t get to choose whatever you want, but you have a wide assortment of options: any spell of the same level that is from the abjuration or transmutation school, and the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list.
I can’t possibly go over how many marvelous choices there are from this list, but I’ll go over a few from each level just to give you an idea!
1st level
1st level spells are really important for sorcerers, and they don’t get to take many of them. Fortunately, our options for 1st level spell swaps for alarm and protection from evil and good are absolutely amazing.
Shield *****: Shield is an absolutely marvelous spell. As a reaction when you take a hit, you add +5 to your Armor Class until the start of your next turn. You’ll find that most of the time, that bonus will cause the attack to miss; even if it doesn’t, you get to retain that bonus for the rest of the round, possibly causing many attacks to miss that would have otherwise smacked you down hard. As a squishy sorcerer, this is probably your pick at 1st level. Swap it out for protection from evil and good.
Armor of Agathys *****: Not one of my favorites, but a fantastic spell, and probably the one you want at level 2. You cover your body in icy armor, gaining some temporary hit points that last for an hour (they don’t last until your next long rest, like most temporary hit points do). For the rest of that hour, whenever an enemy hits you with a melee attack, they take damage equal to the number of temporary hit points you started with.
This does three great things for you: it bolsters your weenie sorcerer hit points, it discourages melee enemies from attacking you, and it damages those enemies. At level 1, this spell is decent, but if you upcast it, it’s even better! Like I talked about with aid, if you’re a multiclass caster who has high level spell slots but no high level spells, this is a great choice to use with those spells. I tend to like this better on the warlock, the “home” class for this spell, because they get those spell slots back. Still not a bad pick for you, though.
Absorb elements *****: See why I said you have so many better options at first level? This spell is an amazing defensive boost. Whenever you take elemental damage, you use your reaction to gain resistance to that damage. So, red dragon breathes on you, you fail your saving throw, you can reduce that damage from lethal to merely annoying. It only lasts a round, but you don’t have to cast it in advance using your action, which makes it a billion times better than protection from energy, despite being a lower level spell.
Note, this is a spell from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, so if for some reason your DM doesn’t let you take those spells—first of all, I’m sorry. Second of all, you have other great options.
Not going to go over them in depth, but mage armor, longstrider, and feather fall are all worth considering if none of the three spells above appeal to you. Mage armor is something a straight sorcerer was probably going to take anyway, so this saves you a spell selection; longstrider is a good long-term buff that can be twinned cheaply; and feather fall is a circumstantial spell, but extremely useful in that circumstance.
2nd level
You’re not in Kansas anymore! Now you’re doing some real magic! Sorcerers do tend to want a lot of 2nd level spells, and now you get some extras to replace aid and lesser restoration.
Levitate *****: Levitate is a great defensive/offensive spell, with some added utility. Wanna get an ally (or yourself) out of range of a melee enemy? Cast this on them. Wanna hold up a melee enemy and keep it harmlessly out of reach until your archers are ready to fill it with arrows? Cast this on them. It tends to be more reliable when cast on your allies, but you can chance it on enemies if you want. You can also use it to lift heavy things, and scale tall obstacles with ease—plus, you get to have some fun with zero-g physics! Not a bad scale to twin with the twinned spell metamagic.
Rope Trick *****: Another great spell! It’s just a tad redundant with levitate on the utility side because you can use it to scale things with ease, but it’s actually a foolproof way to get yourself a safe short rest. Remember when healing spirit came out (before the errata) and people complained because it restored a bunch of hit points? A short rest can do that, and restore a lot of abilities that replenish on a short rest—but parties will often avoid short rests because they’re not sure they can complete them safely. Cast this, get everybody up into the pocket dimension, and pull your rope up behind them. 100% safe short rest, virtually guaranteed. So much for alarm.
Not gonna go into a lot of detail on these other spells, but I’ll mention them because they’re good if you use them with the twinned spell metamagic: darkvision, enhance ability, enlarge/reduce, magic weapon, and spider climb. Darkvision is good to have on your list if you have two or more members of the party without innate darkvision (having to hold a torch in dark places is a bummer and gives your position away). Enhance ability can be really great in all manner of skill challenges, and often you’re going to have the spell slots for it on non-adventuring days, like when you just arrived in town and need to convince the innkeeper to let you stay at a discounted rate. Enlarge/reduce is an okay utility spell, and being able to twin it cheaply is all right. Magic weapon may be a good choice if you’re in a low magic campaign, and you’re going up against enemies that have resistance to your martials’ nonmagical weapon damage. Finally, spider climb is a spell that’s good for mobility—though you’re probably better off just taking levitate.
3rd level
3rd level spells represent a huge leap in power over everything that’s come before, and you’re about to see some marvelous choices to replace dispel magic and protection from energy.
Counterspell *****: Remember that spell I said was like dispel magic, but better? It’s this one. Counterspell is a game-changer when fighting spellcasters, and only the three arcane casters (bards excluded) have it on their list. You could have taken it as a normal sorcerer, but by 3rd level you’d usually be struggling to put this on your list. The really nice thing for you, as a Tasha-boosted sorcerer, is that if you fail your Charisma check to cancel a higher-level spell, you can just spend a sorcery point to reroll it with your Magical Guidance option!
Even so, this is a tad circumstantial because you’re not always facing spellcasters; this would be the second 3rd level spell I swap out, not the first, and when I do, I’m giving up dispel magic for it.
Blink ****: Blink is a good defensive option, giving you a 50% chance to avoid all threats outside a turn. It’s not reliable, but it’s a good use of a 3rd level spell once you reach high tiers of play; for that reason, this is a strong choice once you reach those higher levels, but probably not at levels 5 and 6.
Slow ****: Control and debuffing is a powerful option for sorcerers, but they often have to worry about friendly fire. Not so with slow, which targets up to six creatures of your choice and debuffs them. What I really like about this spell is how well it blends thematically with the clockwork soul, as well as the spell I’m talking about next.
Haste ***: Haste isn’t a fantastic buff, but it’s not bad, and buffs have the advantage of being reliable. You double a creature’s speed, increase its AC, give it advantage on Dex saves, and give it another action. I tend to like to give this to rogues, so they can use their hasted action to attack on their turn, and use their normal action to Ready an attack for later, letting them use their Sneak Attack twice a round. Yes, this really works. This spell twins decently, too.
The major concern with this spell is concentration. If it drops, your target doesn’t just lose the benefits of this spell—they’re incapacitated for a whole round, which is just awful. Don’t take this spell—and especially don’t twin it—if you’re not certain you can maintain concentration on it. You want your party to love you, not hate you.
Though I think counterspell is superior to this, I might take this spell along with slow, just because the concept of a Clockwork Soul who slows things down and speeds them up is just so intuitive. You can still take counterspell with your normal picks.
Fly ***: Flight is great, and your martial characters will love the maneuverability this spell grants them. It also upcasts well, if you’re a multiclass caster—though for the same reason, you don’t wanna twin this spell. There are a couple of downsides, though: this uses your concentration, it’s a touch spell, and if you lose concentration, you fall (in which case, maybe you have feather fall prepared!). If you like being able to fly—and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t, in real life?—this is worth considering.
Tiny servant ***: I’m gonna be honest, I don’t love this use of the spell because it feels gimmicky, but you can cast it and give the tiny servant magic stones (from a warlock multiclass) each round to throw. You can even twin it. Some optimizers like to use this spell up to three times, and spread the stones among their servants to deal copious damage. Like I say, it’s gimmicky, and I tend not to love it, but you do you.
Water breathing **: This spell is much better for another caster that can cast it as a ritual, but you can cast it at the end of every day to give basically everyone in your party 24 hours of water breathing. Then you don’t ever have to worry about finding yourself underwater! You do have better options, obviously, but I think this one is worth mentioning; and if you’re leveling up and know you’re about to go on a water-based adventure, maybe this isn’t a bad choice for you.
4th level
Sadly, you don’t have nearly as many good options to replace freedom of movement and summon construct as you’ve had at lower levels, but you still have some decent ones.
Polymorph *****: This is a conditional blue rating, and the reason it’s conditional is that this spell starts out as one of the best spells in the game, but as you reach higher and higher levels, it tapers off. I’m not saying it’s ever a bad spell, but at a certain point, maybe you were better off sticking with your original spell.
Still, at level 7 this is huge. You can cast it on an enemy and turn them into a snail, then carry it 200 feet up and drop them, yes. That’s not a bad use of this spell. A better use is to cast it on your fellow party member and turn them into a Giant Ape. Then you stand back and let King/Queen Kong do their thing. Again, at higher levels, your friends are probably better off playing their regular characters.
Banishment ****: A decent spell, which scales better than polymorph, but isn’t as versatile. Creatures tend to have poor Charisma saving throws, so if you throw this on even a really bad guy, you can stick them in a demiplane and let the rest of your party mop up their minions. Alternatively, if they’re an intruder from another plane, you can “return to sender.” Not a bad spell to Heighten with your metamagic either. It tends to be decent even at high levels.
Stoneskin **: Whoa, our third alternative and we’re already down to the orange rating? Yeah, not a lot of great choices at this level. Stoneskin can be an okay buff for an ally, provided you’re facing enemies that deal nonmagical weapon damage, but it costs money to cast, and it’s concentration. Meh.
5th level
We're going from having few good options to having some great options to choose from. You know you’re not giving up wall of force—only you and the wizard get that one—so choose carefully to replace greater restoration.
Animate objects *****: You know how you’re always secretly a bit jealous of the fighter, ranger, paladin, and barbarian, how they get to use those weapons multiple times a round to deal out impressive damage, consistently? Time to beat them at their own game. You animate ten tiny objects (mathematically the best option) and send them to attack your bad guys, dealing great gobs of damage. The damage is nonmagical, which isn’t super reliable at this point, but even against foes that are resistant to it, this damage is notable, and it only uses your bonus action and concentration to keep up. Even if you don’t take this with your Clockwork Magic, you probably want it with your regular selections. Just be careful using this against enemy blasters. A single fireball, and about half of those things are gone.
Telekinesis ****: At first glance, this spell doesn’t seem that impressive, but it’s actually quite good for you. Every round, you pick a target, and have to beat them in a contest to hold and restrain them. Not only is this a long-lasting spell, it’s based on ability checks, not saving throws (so no legendary resistance), and as a Tasha-boosted sorcerer, you can reroll skill checks if you fail. Probably not worth it if you think your foe rolled really high, but if you rolled real low and wanna spend a sorcery point, it could be worth it. And of course it has the added versatility of moving heavy things, and acting as a rich man’s fly: have the party step onto a big rug, use this spell on the rug, and you have a temporary, budget flying carpet.
Note too that this spell works pretty well with your Trance of Order ability at 14th level, and Quicken spell. If you’re feeling gimmicky, you could even combine this with the magic stone+tiny servant trick I mentioned above: hold the bad guy in place while your servants throw rocks at them. What a humiliating way to kill something.
Transmute rock ****: This is a great control spell, and it’s non-concentration. You turn rock to sludge, or you turn sludge to rock; if you turn rock to sludge, you can slow enemies down or restrain them, or bring the roof down on their heads (or both, the wording is unclear); if you turn sludge to rock, you can trap them. Either option is good, and this is one of few spells—along with hypnotic pattern and fear that careful spell works decently for. Not a lot of casters have access to this spell, so you should strongly consider it.
Skill empowerment **: I don’t think this is a good option—it’s actually mathematically worse than enhance ability, which comes at a much lower level—but the two spells do stack, and giving a character expertise on an important skill check might just make the difference, especially as proficiency bonuses are getting big. If none of the spells above appeal to you, this is worth considering.
As you can see, the Clockwork Magic feature is just wonderful and gives you a wealth of choices. On its own, it would make Clockwork Soul one of the premier sorcerers—but wait! We get other subclass abilities, and some of them are pretty great!
Restore Balance ***
This is a good ability! You can use your reaction to prevent a roll from being made with advantage or disadvantage—so if your rogue is lying prone and a bear is about to maul them, you can cancel that advantage, or if your bard is trying to convince the guards of an outlandish lie, you can cancel that disadvantage. There will often be enough circumstances during the day that you will want to use this at least a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. What keeps this from being green for me is that it uses your reaction, and as a sorcerer, you have a number of uses for your reaction: shield, absorb elements, counterspell… Using this means you aren’t using any of those. That said, this is a good ability, that you’ll be using for your entire career, and it doesn’t require sorcery points or anything like that.
Bastion of Law ***
My perspective on this feature has seen a bit of whirlwind. At first I was very excited thinking that it was an all-day buff that you could use over and over again. Then I realized the points are expended when you use them and got quite dispirited. Finally I realized that this ability actually works quite well with armor of Agathys, which you are quite likely to swap out one of your first level Clockwork spells for. So you can combine this with that spell, combine it with aid, to get a fairly beefy sorcerer, which is pretty unique.
Trance of Order ****
It takes a long time to get here, but boy, is this a fun ability! You use your bonus action to enter this trance, and now you can’t be attacked at advantage (pro tip: lie down if enemies are attacking at range. Ranged attacks will have disadvantage against you, and melee attacks won’t benefit from advantage), plus all of your attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws are a 10 at minimum.
This is marvelous. While this is up, you will make almost all Constitution saving throws, including concentration saves. You will make most ability checks, and most attack rolls (you probably don’t make attack rolls, though you might—see the section on multiclassing with warlock). On top of all that, you can use this more than once a day by spending 5 sorcery points—expensive, but potentially worth it. You can even use this outside of combat to reliably overcome skill challenges and navigate social rolls. You can use this with spells like telekinesis and counterspell that rely on ability checks—it probably won’t turn a failed counterspell into a successful one, but then again, it might! With telekinesis, this is great synchronicity. Marvelous ability, well worth the wait.
Clockwork Cavalcade ****
Well, look at that. We went from game-changer to good ability to crap to good ability to good ability! With one glaring exception, this subclass just gives and gives and gives. This ability isn’t a knockout or anything, especially compared to getting wish at level 17, but it’s a decent capstone, and you don’t have to use sorcery points on it. You get to restore 100 hit points, distributed as you like (contrast this with the 6th level heal, which restores 70 points to one creature), get to repair damaged objects… Yeah, that’s useless. Ah well. And you can end all spells on creatures and objects of your choice. That’s circumstantial, but it’s reliable; you don’t have to take a chance on it, like with dispel magic. Say a party member has been petrified with flesh to stone? Congrats, you didn’t need greater restoration after all. Enemy cast haste on themself? That’s over, and now they’re incapacitated for a round, no ability check, no option for a counterspell. Animated objects harassing you? Not anymore. You can even end a magic jar spell, if your DM is mean enough to use that on your party! All in all, this isn’t a flashy capstone, but it’s significant and significantly good, and you can even repeat it if you really need to for seven (oof) sorcery points—that converts to a 4th level spell slot, and this is significantly better than that.
So that’s everything the Clockwork Soul has to offer; now let’s talk about the sorcerer’s specialty: metamagic. How do the abilities you’ve gained affect what kinds of metamagic you want?
Careful spell: This probably wasn’t a metamagic you wanted, but it’s not a bad choice at high levels if you want to combine it with transmute rock. Prior to this, the only sorcerer spells it really worked well with were hypnotic pattern and fear, so this is a step up.
Distant spell: Still bad.
Empowered spell: This isn’t a sorcerer that lends itself to a lot of blasting, but if you want to tack some on to your spell list, this is a cheap metamagic. I wouldn’t expect it to work with spells like animate objects and summon construct, but you can ask your DM.
Extended spell: Still, still bad. I guess you can use it to extend a fly, or lengthen a polymorph or armor of Agathys through a short rest.
Heightened spell: As good as it would be for any sorcerer, though to be honest, playing a Shadow Sorcerer and relying on the Hound of Ill Omen kinda soured me on this one. Keep in mind that a number of your spells—telekinesis, animate objects—don’t benefit from this. This actually works quite well in combination with Restore Balance if you’re facing a monster with magic resistance; they go from having advantage on their save to having disadvantage. No other sorcerer can do that. No other character can do that, because of how advantage and disadvantage normally cancel each other out. Do check with your DM to make sure that Restore Balance wouldn’t cancel out the creature’s disadvantage, though; the wording leaves room for interpretation.
Quickened spell: Good as it would be for any sorcerer, though combining this with telekinesis can have some nice effects; you cast telekinesis and engage your trance of order on round one, then throw some non-concentration spells in on subsequent rounds. Note that this works quite well with the sorlock build we’ll be talking about in the multiclassing section.
Seeking spell: Bad.
Subtle spell: Good, but this doesn’t give this kind of sorcerer any unique advantage; plus, your spellcasting will be obvious regardless if you go along with the flavor text under your Clockwork Magic feature. Besides, most of your spells, it won’t matter whether they’re cast subtly or not.
Transmuted spell: This metamagic tends to work a lot better for blaster sorcerers, and you’re probably not a blaster. If you want to pick up flaming sphere at level 3, you might take this to turn your sphere into acidic sphere, and you can swap it back out with your Sorcerous Versatility.
Twinned spell: Glorious as ever. This subclass does give you access to a number of great spells that don’t twin, however: wall of force, counterspell, telekinesis, transmute rock, slow, aid. Still, there are plenty of spells you can take that twin plenty well, and a couple from this subclass—polymorph sticks out—that do.
Spell selection
We already went over the Clockwork Magic, and other guides have covered sorcerer spell picks more extensively, but it’s worth noting just how much Clockwork Magic frees you up to take other sorcery spells, including the additional ones from your Optional Class features.
First—or perhaps last—having such a solid low-level spell list means that, once you get access to 6th level spells and above, you have more freedom to expend your valuable spell selections on them. Want both mass suggestion and chain lightning? You can probably afford it! Want wish and meteor swarm? Go for it, you lucky sonuvagun, and congrats on reaching tier 4!
Also, having many of your bases covered by Clockwork magic means you can pick some spells that sorcerers ordinarily don’t pick. You’ll want your essentials, of course: mirror image and misty step, hypnotic pattern or fear, dimension door, and so on—but maybe you want to branch out a big and pick some unusual ones. Suggestion, web, and flaming sphere are all options that are open to you. Fireball can give you some blasting fun. Have fun with it. Luxuriate in your expansive spell list. Don’t get too crazy, though—your selections are still incredibly valuable. You probably want to pick up mind sliver, by the way; you can really knock down the bad guys’ good saving throws, and a fair number of your good spells require concentration, so you may be casting some cantrips.
Multiclassing
When it comes to sorcerers, there are a number of good multiclasses. The paladin is one notable example. When it comes to the Clockwork Soul, though, I want to narrow our focus to two classes that I think are well-suited for this subclass: the bard and the warlock.
We don’t want to do really extended multiclasses, because we just get so much good stuff from Clockwork Soul; is going 6 levels in paladin worth it when you can get so many great spells and abilities? Let’s talk about the warlock first, because everyone I know is talking about it.
So for the warlock, it’s your standard sorlock build. If you don’t know what I’m talking about—it’s long-standing practice for optimizers to take two levels of warlock for the eldritch blast cantrip and the Agonizing Blast Eldritch Invocation, then quicken those eldritch blasts for two, then four, then six, then eight beams a turn. A well-built sorlock can do this quite a bit, turning a sorcerer—which normally prefers blasting over single-target striking—into a striker powerhouse. With Tasha’s Cauldron, you actually don’t even need the second level in Warlock; take the first for eldritch blast, and take the Eldritch Adept feat for Agonizing Blast. You can also take magic stone if you want to make use of the tiny servant gimmick, or toll the dead if you want a reliable damage cantrip in melee.
If you are going to go the sorlock route, I recommend either the Hexblade or the new Genie warlock. Hexblade offers more advantages—medium armor and shields, the Hexblade’s Curse (though I’ll note that the latter uses your bonus action, and you’re going to be pretty bonus-action-hungry). Genie, though, gives you a nice little damage boost that doesn’t rely on your bonus action, plus a fun little hidey hole for you to take short rests in. It also gives you access to the sanctuary spell—a personal favorite of mine—if you choose the Dao patron; and really, if we look in our heart of hearts, aren’t we all tired of every warlock being a Hexblade? The advantages of this multiclass are obvious; armor proficiency, so no need for mage armor, and of course your standard sorlock eldritch blast quickening mischief, but where this gets really good is at very high levels, and it’s for this reason that I recommend only a one level dip if you can get away with it.
See, eldritch blast happens to synergize exceptionally well with your level 14 Trance of Order. If you can set that up, then against almost all enemies, you’re going to hit with every beam you fire, which takes your damage from fairly good into the stratosphere. That said, you have to be, at minimum, level 15 before you can access this combination, and that’s an awful lot of being just another sorlock.
A combination I actually like a bit better than this is bard; specifically, two levels in bard. You get your light armor, you get your extra skill proficiency, you get your bardic inspiration and song of rest—that’s all secondary to getting Jack-of-all-Trades, and this ability turns you into a counterspelling, telekinesis-ing monster.
Jack-of-all-Trades lets you add half your proficiency bonus to any ability check that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus. That includes ability checks like the charisma check to counterspell, or contest an enemy with telekinesis. Consider; you were already going to have a fairly good chance at those rolls thanks to Magical Guidance and, at very high levels, Trance of Order. Jack-of-all-Trades will make your success almost certain. On top of this, you get access to some decent 1st level spells and cantrips, and can maintain your regular spellcasting progression. If you want, you can even go three levels in bard for some medium armor and shields from Valor, and expertise in a couple of skills; I don’t know if that’s worth delaying your spell progression by three levels and, eventually, cutting you out of Clockwork Cavalcade, but it’s certainly a valid choice. One level of bard probably won’t do much for you, though.
And that’s pretty much all I have to say on the Clockwork Soul! Enjoy your new characters, and keep an eye on the time! :) Yep… Yeah, that’s all I’ve got, sorry. Is it time for me to go? I’ll go.
Aid should be green (good) and not purple (decent). You said it yourself, "Aid is a good spell".
More importantly, Aid can be used in combat to bring back up three unconscious, 0hp allies. It sorts of work like a Healing Word on steroid, on top of granting a +5 max hp buff for 8 hours.
That's a great point! There are some things I'm thinking about changing in this guide, aid among them.
Hey! Great guide. I have a question for ya. Would Metamagic Adept be a good feat for this subclass? I'm starting to think that it isnt the best choice.
I am creating a Clockwork Sorcerer and Im taking a level in Order Cleric for the ability to give my allies an attack when I cast spells on them. With so many buff spells here it makes sense. Anyway, our DM is allowing a free feat at level 1 and I was considering Metamagic Adept. Fey touched wouldnt be great cuz my character is Eladrin elf which means he already kinda has Misty Step. I guess I should consider Shadow Touched. I also like the idea of Alarm on this character. Not sure. What do you think?
Thanks for reading! Metamagic adept is a great feat for sorcerers, those sorcery points are just so valuable and you don't have enough options to spend them. The problem is lessened for an Aberrant Mind sorcerer because they get what is essentially free Subtle Spell at level 6; for Clockwork though, we want Twinned Spell, Subtle Spell, Quickened Spell, Heightened Spell, and Extended Spell, and we'll never get all of them.
That said, Shadow-Touched would be an okay option. Telekinetic and Skill Expert are also strong considerations. If you plan to take alarm, I should warn you that as a sorcerer you can't cast spells as rituals, so alarm is going to be less useful for you than for other casters.
I should also say that Treantmonk, the undisputed master of wizards, recently did a build guide for the Clockwork/Order combo; if you haven't had a chance to look at it, I strongly suggest you do.
greater restoration can be good for sorlocks, because it allows you to be a coffeelock. If you have the money (which is very DM dependant obviously), you can stock up on 5th level spellslots
Yeah, that's a little too far into theoretical optimization territory for me, but if your DM is cool with it, that is one way to go!
Does Clockwork Cavalcade automatically repair animated objects (within the cube) used in the Animate Objects Spell?
Animated objects are creatures, funnily enough. However, Clockwork Cavalcade would heal the construct created by Bigby's hand.
So, animated objects are not creatures, the are objects.
Clockwork Calvacade does repair them specifically because they are objects and doesn't count toward the 100 HP total for creatures. This would count for both Animate Objects and Bigby's Hand, but the distinction is important.
Someone took after Treantmonk and his style of guides.
Keep it up, this is nifty.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Question: it says we can change out our Clockwork spells as we go, but I can't find any way to do this on dndbeyond (the app nor the website). Anyone know how to do this, or is this feature missing at the moment?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/87774-tashas-cauldron-of-everything-issues-and-support first post of the thread. Make a homebrew copy of the class swap out the spells, profit.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Thanks for your help! Hopefully they'll get this working as it should without workarounds eventually lol
So another stupid question... how do I do that? Lol I created a copy of clockwork soul sorcerer subclass, edited "clockwork magic" to change out the spells I wanted, & edited the description to list the correct spells I had added (just to be thorough). Now when I create a character and set that as my subclass though, it still lists (in the description) and adds (in the spells list) the default spells. I've gone and made sure that my changes to the subclass saved, so why aren't those changes appearing on my character? Sorry for my noobness 😅
Have you turned on Homebrew Content and selected your homebrew copy of the subclass? because if you have not, you'll only see the original one.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I have yes, and I'm able to set my subclass to "COPY_OF_Clockwork Soul". And the only thing I changed was those Clockwork Spells; it just didn't seem to actually set them. Idk. First time ever trying to do anything with homebrew honestly
since it's a *new* homebrew it shoulda gone through immediately... Someone better at it than me should take over from here, and probably not in this thread since this is the guide still! :D
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
On that note, I play with the Homebrew system a whole bunch and it can take (in my experience) up to 15 min for updates to go through to the Character Sheet. So, when I make a change to the homebrew creation, I click the Save button on every screen I'm on (Basic info, modifier, action, etc.) before moving on to another screen or going back to a previous one. Then, after that, I watch a YouTube video or something and check back on it afterwards. It always gets updated, but sometimes, it takes a while.
You're right! I just checked it again, and the spells are right now :) Thanks to both of you for the help!