The following is a video transcript
Todd Kenreck: Many gnomes are known for making different instruments and inventions, and among the most interesting and amazing of those are the clockworks.
Adam Lee: Clockworks are gnome creations, and gnomes are just endlessly inquisitive about things, and how things work, and the need to tinker and make stuff. And as gnomes sort of are exploring all the different avenues, they create these animal-like creations. You get all these different kinds of clockworks, and in Mordenkainen's, we go over a few of them, possibilities. One is the ... I think it's the iron cobra, and it's like, here's what a gnome tinkerer would ... a gnome tinkerer's take on what a cobra would look like.
So, to create a cool cobra, not only do you have to create the snake body and how it moves, and what it does, but then you would also have to create the venom. So you have like, you know, when one of these cobras strikes, you've got all these different kinds of venoms that could come out and attack you, so it's like the gnomes are even thinking about, "How do we create a realistic venom for this clockwork snake?"
There's the iron bolter, which is sort of an arbalest clockwork that goes around, and it shoots out different kinds of arrows. Some are exploding, and some do different kinds of damage, but again, it's sort of like gnomes would be looking at human beings, and then see a human being with this strange contraption, shooting a crossbow, and they're like, "Ooh. We could make that into something, and why don't we do a living thing?"
Another thing about the clockworks is that you are seeing sort of the successes. Like, these were the successes. There were tons of failures that were just ... You know, gnomish labs were blown to bits, or one of these clockworks went on a rampage, you know, and they were trying to bash it with pots and pans. These things that you're seeing are the successes, so once a gnomish success is made, then they make a blueprint of it, and then they're reproducing it.
There's a clockwork defender in there, that they've probably seen ... Maybe they saw an animated armor or some kind of magical thing, and they were like, "Okay, we want to make a ..." or they Modron, and they were like, "Oh, we want to make something that looks similar to that, or that does the same thing, that defends our little burrow."
So all these sort of clockworks have come out of gnomish curiosity, and how can we make something that looks like that, and does the same kind of stuff, but we've built it out of just pieces and parts? In Mordenkainen's, we give you a couple cool ideas, and then feel free to make your own gnomish clockwork. If you want to run your own clockwork human, or half-orc analog, whatever you want, feel free. Roll it up and try to find your creator.
There are clockwork benefits and malfunctions, so there's these charts that we have there that you can roll on, and it will show you, "Oh, you know, there's a cool way that you can add on some armor class to your clockwork," or, "Here's a cool way to add on some hit points," or if one malfunctions, you can roll on a chart and it'll tell you how spectacularly it blows up, or it falls apart, or goes on a rampage. So there are a few charts we've put in there to sort of enhance that experience of a clockwork, but as far as creating your own clockwork, yeah, that is up to your imagination.
Gnomes the gmad scientists of the D&D world! The optional tweaks and quirks in MTOF really adds some 'personality' the the constructs too.
Cool I'll have to use some of these in a campaign soon.
So, in this vein, when will the Artificer class be ready for official use?
Oh man now I want to play a gnomish inventor...
D&D Beyond has absolutely 0 control over D&D decisions by Wizards of the Coast. They are two separate entities. DDB is owned by Curse, not Wizards of the Coast.
I was looking at Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and there are a lot of specialty ogre classes. I want to create an ogre army with them but an entire army of them would be to OP for my players. What should I do?
Nerf them, or provide your players with some kind of environmental advantage. Or you can have two armies of ogres battling each other and your players stumble upon them.
Wish there was more rules content regarding this in MToF. How can my gnome specifically create these?
I really just love this stuff. Can't wait to run a campaign coming up soon focused on Clockworks and similar tech from Kaladesh.
Well Rock Gnomes get it the ability to create small clockwork items as a racial ability. If you use UA then theres the Artificier class and if not the Forge Cleric is the closest official material. Otherwise you can work with your DM to make a system for it.
You as a player have to talk to your Dungeon Master about it and work together on your expectations and desires.
This has nothing to do with the post but who wants high rollers additional content. Like the way they did the critical role additional content?
Yes
I recommend this recent article as a source of ideas for your party's battles with the ogre army: Alternatives to Fighting: Creative Win Conditions in D&D. You can give your party goals that are a small part of a larger battle, perhaps waged by a dwarven army fighting the ogres. Ask them to take out an ogre howdah or a pair of ogre battering rams. It seems like there are lots of small but fun tasks a party might take on as a part of a larger war.
I have a homebrew clockwork race that I want to flesh out now that official clockwork are here. I had a few ideas to use these Enhancements and Malfunctions (like instead of dying, the player gets a malfunction instead). I'm wondering if I use these tables, can I then publish my character to the larger community? Or, is there a way to say my homebrew content requires MTOF to use?
You know how an artificer construct can be anything beast CR 2 or lower? Do you think if you picked something lower than 2 could you even it up by rolling on the construct benefit table? I'm not sure if any of those effects would constitutes a significant rise in CR though... Like how many rolls would you need to raise a 1.5CR to a 2? Thoughts...
Oh man, I want to read this, but if you're going to make an article out of a transcript then please don't make it verbatim. It's really ******* annoying to read.
That said, I care about goblins and clockwork so I'll still read, but just food for thought.
That's typically a sidebar conversation between you and the DM. if you are the DM then I suppose you could have the conversation with yourself but that would be beside the point MY suggestion would be to discuss it with your DM above board and let them determine the likelyhood of being able to create one in game. I have no problem letting players create things in game, clockworks or otherwise. i just always know that a player created item is almost always going to be of inferior quality to a DM created one for game advancement vs RP enjoyment.
Who are you talking to GhostManX?
hoho, ideas be flowin'!!!!!