Author: Richard Tavadon / Tatersalad810
The HexClock
With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Sorcerers were gifted one of the strongest subclasses in the entire game to date: the Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. The Clockwork Soul is the most powerful and versatile Sorcerer subclass because of its Clockwork Magic feature. This feature directly addresses one of the weaknesses of the base Sorcerer class—its low number of spells learned—by giving it access to ten additional spells known from a powerful list that includes two of the strongest spell schools: Abjuration and Transmutation (which grants us access to potent spells like aid, rope trick, transmute rock, and wall of force). The result is a well rounded spell list that covers niches other sorcerers could only dream of filling. (The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, also released in Tasha’s, also comes with additional spells known, but has a much less versatile and powerful expanded spell list.)
To the Clockwork Soul Sorcerer base, this mathematical magus adds a potent Hexblade Warlock dip for sharply improved Armor Class and at-will resourceless damage and control via eldritch blast.
This build is a robust, jack-of-all-trades caster—except that jack-of-all-trades would imply that the build sacrifices potency for versatility, when in fact HexClock is possibly our most straight-up powerful Flagship Build to add to any party. This build can dish out the best control spells in the game, most of the best buff spells in the game, and at high levels, damage comparable to that of some of the best damage dealers in the game. It can contribute efficiently and it can nova hard. Warlock/Sorcerer multiclasses have long been known for their strength, and HexClock takes this to the next level by having an excellent spell to cast in just about any situation.
So before we move on, which version of the build would you like to see?
Custom Lineage (Default)
Custom Lineage grants us 18 Charisma and gift of alacrity right at level 1 via the Fey Touched feat.
Our spells will be more potent right out of the gate, and gift of alacrity is a force multiplier for you and your party. Both builds eventually have this capability, but you get to move every ASI ahead by four levels, the impact of which should not be underestimated.
If neither race is available to you, you could play a Variant Human version of the build using this option as a template.
Mark of Shadow Elf (Variant)
The Mark of Shadow variant gets you a slew of great racial abilities, such as Trance which grants you additional spells to cast via short rest Warlock spell slot conversion into sorcery points and minor illusion which can come in handy.
However, our key takeaway from this race is pass without trace which we can get as early as level 3 if we so desire, but we grab it at level 4 to shore up our personal defenses first. Pass without trace is a game breaking spell that grants your entire party +10 to Stealth checks, making the likelihood that everyone (including the clunkers in heavy armor) can pass Stealth checks much much higher which is why we rate it highly. This spell simply breaks bounded accuracy, and if your DM runs Stealth RAW, then this build will convert your party into murder machines. Human (Mark of Passage) also adds pass without trace to your spell list, but Trance’s short rest and rest casting synergy pushes Mark of Shadow to the top.
If you are playing this build with a different +2/+1 race, you could potentially use this choice as the foundation, choosing different spells where required.
Race: Custom Lineage
Ability Score Increases – +2 Cha.
Feat – Fey Touched (+1 Cha). We’re taking Fey Touched here to supplement our excellent selection of spells. We select gift of alacrity as our first level spell, and get misty step as well. Remember you can cast each of these once without expending a spell slot, but you can expend spell slots on them if you have the available slots to cast the spell you desire. Gift of alacrity is particularly great for rest casting.
Variable Trait – Darkvision. Darkvision with a range of 60 feet is essential for any adventurer delving into dark dungeons full of monsters.
Size – Medium. This allows us to use dimension door to get a Medium-sized ally out of harm’s way effectively. If your whole party is Small, as an all Flagship party likely would be, or if you would spend little or no time at level 10 or above and thus never actually get to cast dimension door, you should be Small instead, in order to ride Medium sized mounts and fit through small spaces.
Languages – Common and Elvish. The language choice doesn’t really matter, as it is campaign dependent and should be discussed with the DM. It can be useful to speak different languages from the rest of the party, or to have one obscure language that the entire party shares, so you can converse without the NPCs knowing what you’re talking about.
Race: Mark of Shadow Elf
Ability Score Increases – +2 Cha, +1 Con.
Darkvision – Darkvision with a range of 60 feet is essential for any adventurer delving into dark dungeons full of monsters.
Keen Senses – We get Perception for free here which allows us to pick up Deception later.
Fey Ancestry – Advantage against charm is decently good late game when it comes up.
Trance – Trance allows you some extra time to potentially gain some extra spells to cast each day by short resting for an additional 4 hours while your party is still sleeping.
Languages – Common and Elvish. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything allows you to swap your language proficiencies for others, so choose whatever fits your campaign best. The language choice doesn’t really matter, as it is campaign dependent and should be discussed with the DM. It can be useful to speak different languages from the rest of the party, or to have one obscure language that the entire party shares, so you can converse without the NPCs knowing what you’re talking about.
Cunning Intuition – d4 on Performance checks, which isn’t a common skill check but at least synergizes with our best ability score, and Stealth checks, which this build will make everyone in your party excel at.
Shape Shadows – Minor illusion can come in handy, but since the main build takes it, this is essentially just an additional cantrip known.
Spells of the Mark – The main reason we take this race in the variant. Here we get access to pass without trace.
Class: Sorcerer
Skills – Arcana, Persuasion. Arcana is useful as a “knowledge” skill, but we take it so that we can craft spell scrolls using our hard-earned gold when we have some downtime. You can read more about this here, or listen to Pack Tactics’s awesome video about it here. The spell list of this build has some spells that work phenomenally as spell scrolls, and some that have niche uses, so we only take them for a short time, expecting you to be able to scribe them as scrolls, since it only takes a day of downtime for 1st level spells. If you play with the spell identification variant rule from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, proficiency in Arcana becomes even more important. Persuasion is a commonly used skill based on Charisma, which we will have at 20 pretty swiftly.
Sorcerous Origin – Clockwork Soul. We will receive two additional spells known right away and have ten by the time we take nine levels in Sorcerer. Additionally we pick up a solid subclass ability right away as well.
Clockwork Magic (Clockwork Soul Feature) – This is the key feature of Clockwork Soul Sorcerers. This feature takes a caster with a limited number of spells known and grants it ten extra spells by level nine, almost double what you would normally have. Additionally, every time we gain a Sorcerer level we can replace one of the additional spells we learned for another of the same level as long as it is from the schools of abjuration and transmutation and on the Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard spell lists. Some of the spells we learn automatically are great, but we will be making liberal use of spell swaps to learn the best spells we possibly can.
Restore Balance (Clockwork Soul Feature) – Our second level 1 feature is another enormous boon that can be used offensively or defensively. Right now we’ll mainly be using it on attack rolls because hostiles (and we) don’t generally have dangerous mechanics tied to saving throws early on. Later on, however, the ability to remove advantage (mainly against enemies with the Magic Resistance trait) or disadvantage (on ourselves or allies) on saving throws will be absolutely crucial and will be the primary use of this feature. This feature makes us better at casting save or suck spells on enemies that would typically gain advantage.
Spellcasting – The bread and butter of our class. Typically Sorcerers have a limited number of spells known compared to the rest of the full spellcaster classes, but as noted above, this subclass is an exception. Since we are still a spells known class, we will swap out spells when we level up to maintain the flexibility of our available spells.
Cantrips: fire bolt, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: gift of alacrity, grease, sleep.
2nd Level: misty step.
1st Level: alarm, protection from evil and good.
Cantrips: fire bolt, mage hand, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: grease, sleep.
1st Level: alarm, protection from evil and good.
Misty step FT – This is your spell to escape enemy reach, break out of grapples, and get past inaccessible terrain with just a bonus action and without having to Disengage to fully retreat. This is a very important insurance policy to have. It also helps us escape a web or wall of force. Remember that until level 3, you don’t have the spell slots to cast this more than once per long rest, which is afforded to you through your feat.
Alarm – Sorcerers can’t ritual cast spells, so this isn’t a great spell for Sorcerers. As such, we will be replacing it as soon as we can. If protecting your camp from intrusions is especially important, you can cast this with a leftover spell slot, but using that slot for rest casting gift of alacrity would be our recommendation.
Gift of alacrity FT – Increasing our chance to go first in initiative increases the likelihood that we can take away enemy actions with disabling spells before they have a turn to attack. Remember to make full use of rest casting when available, as this is a fantastic spell to rest cast.
Grease – This is an excellent and cheap crowd control spell. In this guide we don’t keep it forever, but it can maintain effectiveness throughout the game as an additional stopper, even while concentrating on stronger spells such as web or wall of force.
Protection from evil and good – This spell is highly situational, but highly effective in said situations. Disadvantage on attack rolls against the spell’s target as well as immunity from being charmed or frightened can turn a difficult encounter against a vampire or aboleth into something survivable. That being said, we will be replacing this spell as well when we get the chance, as its use cases are too narrow to be generally useful compared to our other options.
Sleep – This is our most powerful spell at this level. Though it will quickly fall off in efficacy, at first and second level a single casting of this spell ends encounters.
Fire bolt – Fire bolt is our most damaging cantrip for the moment, and it is a permanent addition to our repertoire because unlike most spells, it explicitly states it can damage objects. Feel free to pick something else if your DM runs object targeting less strictly.
Minor illusion – Versatility limited chiefly by imagination and in some cases, DM fiat.
Mind sliver – Most monsters have bad Intelligence saving throws. The damage is nice to have, but the rider is what we’re really after. Capitalize on that and combo this with a debilitating spell you know an allied caster is going to cast and improve their chance of success. To have better control over the timing of the save penalty, you could use your action to Ready a Spell, casting it on your turn and releasing it right before the turn of an allied caster to guarantee the rider will affect the correct spell, provided you’re not concentrating on another spell already (which, unless you deviated from our spell picks already, you shouldn’t be at this stage in the game).
Mold earth – Right now our defenses are very poor, and we have to protect ourselves as best as we can before we get medium armor proficiency and shield with our Warlock dip. Use this cantrip in combat to gain total cover from enemy archers.
Alarm – Sorcerers can’t ritual cast spells, so this isn’t a great spell for Sorcerers. As such, we will be replacing it as soon as we can. If protecting your camp from intrusions is especially important, you can cast this with a leftover spell slot, but using that slot for rest casting gift of alacrity would be our recommendation.
Grease – This is an excellent and cheap crowd control spell that you can use throughout the game as an additional stopper, even while concentrating on stronger spells such as web or wall of force.
Protection from evil and good – This spell is highly situational, but highly effective in said situations. Disadvantage on attack rolls against the spell’s target as well as immunity from being charmed or frightened can turn a difficult encounter against a vampire or aboleth into something survivable. That being said, we will be replacing this spell as well when we get the chance, as its use cases are too narrow to be generally useful compared to our other options.
Sleep – This is our most powerful spell at this level. Though it will quickly fall off in efficacy, at first and second level a single casting of this spell ends encounters.
Fire bolt – Fire bolt is our most damaging cantrip for the moment, and it is a permanent addition to our repertoire because unlike most spells, it explicitly states it can damage objects. Feel free to pick something else if your DM runs object targeting less strictly.
Mage hand – We get mage hand early due to getting minor illusion from Mark of Shadows. Open doors that may be trapped, activate traps from far away. There’s a lot of good utility to come from this cantrip, but as always, cantrip selections can be pretty much anything, so pick what you want.
Minor illusion MoS – Versatility limited chiefly by imagination and in some cases, DM fiat.
Mind sliver – Most monsters have bad Intelligence saving throws. The damage is nice to have, but the rider is what we’re really after. Capitalize on that and combo this with a debilitating spell you know an allied caster is going to cast and improve their chance of success. To have better control over the timing of the save penalty, you could use your action to Ready a Spell, casting it on your turn and releasing it right before the turn of an allied caster to guarantee the rider will affect the correct spell, provided you’re not concentrating on another spell already (which, unless you deviated from our spell picks already, you shouldn’t be at this stage in the game).
Mold earth – Right now our defenses are very poor and we have to protect ourselves as best as we can before we get medium armor proficiency and shield with our Warlock dip. Use this cantrip in combat to gain total cover from enemy archers.
Ability Scores
8 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 15+2+1 Cha
Our Charisma stat is odd when we select our race and point buy, but the half-feat rounds it up to a nice even number right away. We want 14 Dexterity as we will be picking up medium armor proficiency quite soon, and this maximizes our Dexterity bonus to AC from the get-go. Starting as a Sorcerer means we won’t be picking up Resilient (Constitution), so we will start and end with 14 Constitution. The rest of our points go into Wisdom, which be increased later on with Resilient (Wisdom) to make us more likely to make some of the most debilitating saves in the game. Unfortunately, this does mean we end with an odd number here, but c’est la vie.
Background (Custom)
Skills: Stealth, Perception. Proficiency in both Perception and Stealth is very handy for dungeon exploration and surprising monsters.
Tools: Smith’s tools, Cobbler’s tools. We can use smith’s tools to make early money by repairing and selling off broken weapons and armor you retrieve from the battlefield. Later, smith’s tools and fabricate allow us to obtain a lot of gold before we swap it out again. Clockwork Soul Sorcerers don’t have any particular tool synergies, so our additional pick will be cobbler’s tools. Cobbler’s tools are not the flashiest tools in the game, but the ability to increase movement speed in the exploration phase can very easily come in handy and hiding things can help you carry contraband (or your arcane focus) into cities. As always, tool usage and downtime activity can vary heavily from table to table, so talk to your DM before you commit to anything. You can read more about tools and what might fit your campaign better here. Cobbler’s tools aren’t at all essential to the build, so feel free to choose a language here if you feel that it will assist you better such as in coordinating a “secret” language that everyone in the party knows.
Feature – Historical Knowledge. Background features don’t generally have a significant mechanical impact on the game (with several exceptions, such as the Wanderer background’s Outlander feature). Archaeologist’s feature however, is one that can come in handy. Being able to correctly ascertain the value of items you find in dungeons can be useful in games where the DM conceals this sort of information. Additionally, if a dungeon has been taken over by Kobolds, it is obvious to see what something is currently used for, but this feature allows you to see the original purposes of rooms. However, if another background feature fits your table better, then feel free to choose that.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW. The PHB on page 125 states, “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and role playing suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Archaeologist feature. Like always, we do not include any information about character traits because we believe that flavor is free and that you should roleplay the character the way you feel about it.
Ability Scores
9 Str, 14 Dex, 13+1 Con, 8 Int, 13 Wis, 15+2 Cha
Our Charisma stat is odd when we select our race and point buy, but we will be taking a half-feat (Fey Touched) as soon as possible to even this out. We want 14 Dexterity as we will be picking medium armor proficiency soon, and this maximizes our Dexterity bonus to AC from the get-go. Starting as a Sorcerer means we won’t be picking up Resilient (Constitution), so we cap at 14 Constitution. The rest of our points go into Wisdom to get it up to 13, and it will be increased to 14 later on with Resilient (Wisdom) to make us more likely to make some of the most debilitating saves in the game. Our last point goes into Strength to reduce our chances of instantly dying to a Shadow.
Background (Custom)
Skills: Stealth, Deception. Stealth is great, especially when augmented with pass without trace. In the main build we took Perception here, but because we get that from being an Elf we take Deception instead. If you want something else for any reason, take that instead, Deception and Persuasion are typically similar. Performance would line up with your racial abilities but is generally less common.
Tools: Smith’s tools, Cobbler’s tools. We can use smith’s tools to make early money by repairing and selling off broken weapons and armor you retrieve from the battlefield. Later, smith’s tools and fabricate allow us to obtain a lot of gold before we swap it out again. Clockwork Soul Sorcerers don’t have any particular tool synergies, so we our additional pick will be cobbler’s tools. Cobbler’s tools are not the flashiest tools in the game, but the ability to increase movement speed in the exploration phase can very easily come in handy and hiding things can help you carry contraband (or your arcane focus) into cities. As always, tool usage and downtime activity can vary heavily from table to table, so talk to your DM before you commit to anything. You can read more about tools and what might fit your campaign better here. Cobbler’s tools aren’t at all essential to the build, so feel free to choose a language here if you feel that it will assist you better such as in coordinating a “Secret” language that everyone in the party knows.
Feature – Historical Knowledge. Background features don’t generally have a significant mechanical impact on the game (with several exceptions, such as the Wanderer background’s Outlander feature). Archaeologist’s feature however, is one that can come in handy. Being able to correctly ascertain the value of items you find in dungeons can be useful in games where the DM conceals this sort of information. Additionally, if a dungeon has been taken over by Kobolds, it is obvious to see what something is currently used for, but this feature allows you to see the original purposes of rooms. However, if another background feature fits your table better, then feel free to choose that.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW. The PHB on page 125 states, “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and role playing suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Archaeologist feature. Like always, we do not include any information about character traits because we believe that flavor is free and that you should roleplay the character the way you feel about it.
Equipment
Sorcerer Starting Equipment
- Light crossbow with 20 bolts. Ranged attacks are good, so let’s take a crossbow.
- Component pouch or an arcane focus. Both will work; if your DM uses a house rule that requires you to scavenge for the right components, use an arcane focus. Best to buy both and a bunch of back up pouches later on.
- Dungeoneer’s pack.
- Two daggers.
Archaeologist Background Starting Equipment
- A wooden case containing a map to a ruin or dungeon.
- Set of traveler’s clothes.
- A bullseye lantern, a miner’s pick, a shovel, a two-person tent, and a trinket recovered from a dig site.
- Pouch containing 25 gp.
Purchasing Goals
- Medium armor and a shield. Buy these as soon as possible, you should try and have these available to wear as soon as you hit level 2. Ask your DM about selling starting equipment to have access to this immediately or ask about taking armor off a slain enemy and fixing it up with your smith’s tools.
- Backup arcane foci and component pouches.
- Healer’s kit, potions of healing.
- Quills, inks, parchment, and other items necessary to scribe scrolls. While the rules in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything do not explicitly require these items, the rules do incur a gold cost which is implied to be on these things. If your DM allows you to simplify this by just spending 25g and getting a 1st level spell scroll, save your money for that, otherwise just buy the required items while in town. Your downtime days should be spent scribing scrolls like feather fall to have your bases covered and afford you extra flexibility with your spell slots. Remember that the DC on spell scrolls is static so if you use a scroll offensively it will not use your spell DC, but the DC of the scroll, see the Dungeon Master’s Guide (pg 199-208).
- Cobbler’s tools and smith’s tools.
- Ways to offload carrying capacity, such mules or carts.
Level 1 Strategy
At level 1, we are already a powerful character due to the Fey Touched feat and Sorcerer’s innate access to the sleep spell. Sleep disables multiple enemies in an area with no saving throw, limited only by the number of hit points we roll. From there, ourselves and our party members can deal with the enemies left awake (if any), then proceed to pick off the sleeping foes one-by-one through focus fire. At this level your durability is very poor, so it is extremely important to play as carefully as possible. From now until the end of your career as an adventurer, you should be on the lookout for times when you can effectively rest cast gift of alacrity on your party members for the effectively free initiative buff. Sleep is good now, so use it while you can, as it swiftly gets outpaced by increasing enemy hit points. Whenever you have downtime, you should consider scribing scrolls of gift of alacrity and misty step. At later levels we’ll note additional spells to scribe on days when you’re not adventuring.
Level 1 Strategy
Even without Fey Touched at level 1, we are already a powerful character due the Sorcerer’s innate access to the sleep spell. Sleep disables multiple enemies in an area with no saving throw, limited only by the number of hit points we roll. From there, ourselves and our party members can deal with the enemies left awake (if any), then proceed to pick off the sleeping foes one-by-one through focus fire. At this level your durability is very poor, so it is extremely important to play as carefully as possible. Sleep is good now, so use it while you can, as it swiftly gets outpaced by increasing enemy hit points.
Level 2: Warlock (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 1)
Expanded Spell List (Hexblade feature) – Shield is an excellent spell at every level. Wrathful smite is the best of the smite “family” of spells, but we won’t be picking it up here.
Hex Warrior (Hexblade feature) – Charisma to weapon attacks might be relevant for other builds, but we don’t really care about that. We’re here for the medium armor and shield proficiency, which gives us a solid AC and is a huge upgrade from Sorcerer’s base defenses.
Hexblade’s Curse (Hexblade feature) – We are never going to be the biggest damage-dealer, but as eldritch blast scales to additional beams and our proficiency bonus increases, this will eventually become a good nova option for extra damage. Use this when you are mostly eldritch blasting a target. At later levels, Quickened Spell eldritch blast combined with this is potent.
Pact Magic – Warlock’s spell slot progression is unique and recharges on a short rest. We are not taking more than 2 Warlock levels for this build, but you will use plenty of 1st level spells throughout the adventuring days in your career, so getting 1-2 of those slots back on a short rest is nice. Ideally, your party should be amenable to short resting at least once, preferably twice on an adventuring day. Always use your Pact Magic spell slots first.
Spell Changes: +eldritch blast, +magic stone, +shield, +unseen servant.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: gift of alacrity, grease, shield, sleep, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step.
1st Level: alarm, protection from evil and good.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: grease, shield, sleep, unseen servant.
1st Level: alarm, protection from evil and good.
Shield – Shield is a must-have spell for any serious build. +5 AC for a whole round is huge, and is often the difference between taking the full brunt of a monster’s attacks and going unscathed, taking no damage at all. Do not be afraid to use this, but when you do, think about what you could’ve done differently, such as using cover, hiding behind a corner, or making better use of your crowd control spells, to avoid spending the valuable slot, especially at these lower levels.
Unseen servant – Create a mindless, shapeless force which acts at your command within 60 feet of you for an hour. This can solve a lot of problems and prevent a lot of headaches. Another spell that you should use as it has great utility in dungeons and combat. Unfortunately, the Warlock’s 1st level spell list is quite barren, so even though this spell is a ritual spell, and thus better cast by ritual casters like a Bard or a Wizard, there is not much of an opportunity cost lost by you taking it. If you feel that you do not need this spell, you can take armor of Agathys now and then expeditious retreat at your 2nd Warlock level.
Eldritch blast – The staple cantrip of Warlocks. This spell has great range, its damage type is rarely resisted, and it becomes a great control ability through Repelling Blast. Use this when you are not casting leveled spells. At this level not much separates this from fire bolt other than the damage type, but next level it will do more damage than magic stone due to your Eldritch Invocations.
Magic stone – With Hexblade’s Curse and the rare misty step being the only other use of your bonus action, this spell is free to cast most of the time even before considering the ability to precast it before combat. If you have an NPC tagging along with the party, this can be used to make them relevant in combat by giving you some extra bonus action damage. If your party members have summons, they can use these stones too. Lastly, they can also provide some much-needed assistance to melee martials (if you have any in your party) that don’t have other ranged options and are unable to close the gap, especially on that first turn). It is currently your strongest at-will damage option, over eldritch blast, until you get Agonizing Blast. Later on you can hand these out to servants from tiny servants for additional DPR. Keep in mind that you can cast magic stone and also eldritch blast on the same turn because both of them are cantrips.
Level 2 Strategy
At level 2 we go from squishy to sturdy. We are now rocking medium armor, donning a shield, and have access to the crucial shield spell. At this point our AC is as good or better than anyone else in the party. Our suite of offensive cantrips is excellent, with mind sliver being joined by magic stone and eldritch blast, and we have access to a solid variety of spells to choose from as our combat winners. Sleep can still be good at this level, but you also have grease as a more consistent crowd control option as enemies get larger health pools. Be sure to scribe scrolls of shield when you have the opportunity.
Level 3: Warlock (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 2)
Note: The editorial team was split on what they believed was the best progression for the next 3 levels. Some of us thought that the second Warlock level could be delayed until level 5, and that rushing to Sorcerer 3 for 2nd level spells was more important.
The main benefit of taking your second level in Warlock now is that it provides you with a slightly smoother power curve because you get your hands on two powerful Eldritch Invocations (Agonizing and Repelling Blast) earlier. Comparatively, delaying your second Warlock level until level 5 means getting access to the game-changing web at level 4, but means level 3 is a fairly “dead” level, where you have neither 2nd level spells nor Agonizing Blast + Repelling Blast.
At levels 3 and 4, our allies are the source of most of Repelling Blast’s power, both overtly in the form of allied casters with spells like web and spike growth, but also more subtly in the form of their willingness simply to move away from melee monsters that you push back in order to waste their actions. If you have a party with neither of these benefits, racing to Sorcerer 3 for access to powerful 2nd level spells is preferable.
From a casting perspective, going Sorcerer 2 at level 3 gives you a better spell list from earlier Sorcerer learned spell swaps, plus extra spell slots each day without short resting and the ability to “Tealock” (see below) one level earlier. (Warlock 2 at level 3 can still have the slot advantage if you don’t Tealock but have 2 or more short rests throughout the day). More importantly, at level 4 delaying the Warlock level allows you to have the game changing web a level early, which is a huge draw of delaying Warlock 2 until later.
For the sake of the guide, the main option we recommend is to take the second level of Warlock immediately, but your leveling order here depends on your party and table. When building your own Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, take into consideration how many short rests you expect in a day, how well Repelling Blast may combo with your teammates, if you can Tealock, and how quickly you would like access to second level spells. If you do choose to take Warlock 2 at 5th level, you’ll line back up with the main build then. (Of course, note that this is simply a reshuffling of what order you take your levels from levels 3 to 5. If you think that doesn’t seem like a big deal, just pick one!)
Eldritch Invocations – Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast.
Agonizing Blast – Agonizing Blast gets you some additional damage dealt and puts you at a solid baseline for damage when not casting your big spells.
Repelling Blast – Repelling Blast makes that solid damage a great crowd control ability as well. Push enemies back into web and grease and laugh as they try to get into range of the party.
Spell Changes: +armor of Agathys.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, grease, shield, sleep, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step.
1st Level: alarm, protection from evil and good.
Armor of Agathys – Armor of Agathys is a decent spell that provides us some defense through temporary hit points, and some punishment to our enemies when hit in the form of cold damage. This is mostly for when you have additional spell slots you feel comfortable spending on a slight survivability buff. Remember that temporary hit points don’t stack so if your party has a source of temporary hit points, consider taking hex for a concentration option at lower levels, protection from evil and good for a situational defensive option or expeditious retreat for out of combat mobility instead. (Keep in mind that you would have protection from evil and good from two sources until you swap it out next level). None of these are amazing options, but they are the best options you have from the Warlock spell list. Of note, the temporary hit points from armor of Agathys have a specific duration tied to the duration of the spell, which is different from other sources of temporary hit points that last until a long rest.
Level 3: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 2/Warlock 1)
We will be taking Sorcerer levels 3 and 4 immediately here in order to gain access to pass without trace as soon as possible. We didn’t go straight Sorcerer because the boost to AC from Hex Warrior is too good to pass up and we’d rather have good AC for as long as possible—no point in delaying this.
Font of Magic – Sorcery points are what makes the Sorcerer class unique, but we don’t have a very good use for them at this level. Next level, we get some nifty use out of this.
Flexible Casting – Flexible Casting is an expensive option for our sorcery points but right now it’s all we have. This is essentially another 1st level slot at this level, but it’s important to note we can convert unused Warlock slots into sorcery points before we short rest and possibly regain some 1st level slots from our Spellcasting feature. As mentioned above, we are assuming that sorcery point creation will be our main use of Flexible Casting, not spell slot creation (we believe this build is self-sufficient enough without snorting diamond dust). Once we get our Metamagic options we will use this to convert the occasional unused Warlock slot into a sorcery point, but otherwise we will very rarely use this.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +feather fall , +silvery barbs, –sleep.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +absorb elements, –alarm.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: feather fall, grease, shield, silvery barbs,
1st Level: absorb elements,
Absorb elements – With medium armor, the ability to wield a shield, and the shield spell, our defenses are already quite solid. This spell rounds out our key defensive needs, covering us against non-weapon sources of damage such as breath weapons from dragons, elemental spells, and other hostile area of effect spells. That list of scrolls to scribe when you have downtime? Add this to it.
Feather fall – A situational spell, but one of the strongest situational spells in the game. It swiftly becomes very cheap, and can be a lifesaver, or at least save the party quite a lot of hit points. We get rid of this after a few levels so make sure to make some spell scrolls of this while you can.
Silvery barbs – This is a brand new spell that is both potent and flexible. With this spell you primarily inflict a debuff on a target without an attached saving throw, and then if that wasn’t good enough for a first level spell, you simultaneously buff an ally as well. We will mostly be using this to make spells that are reliant on enemies failing their saving throw land more. The advantage you grant to an ally is less important, but it’s nice regardless. This is a must pick for anyone that can get it. If your game doesn’t allow Strixhaven content, pick up fog cloud instead.
Level 4: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 2/Warlock 2)
Font of Magic – Sorcery points are what makes the Sorcerer class unique, but we don’t have a very good use for them at this level. Next level, we get some nifty use out of this.
Flexible Casting – Flexible Casting is an expensive option for our sorcery points but right now it’s all we have. This is essentially another 1st level slot at this level, but it’s important to note we can convert unused Warlock slots into sorcery points before we short rest and possibly regain some 1st level slots from our Spellcasting feature. As mentioned above, we are assuming that sorcery point creation will be our main use of Flexible Casting, not spell slot creation (we believe this build is self-sufficient enough without snorting diamond dust). Once we get our Metamagic options we will use this to convert the occasional unused Warlock slot into a sorcery point, but otherwise we will very rarely use this.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +feather fall , +silvery barbs, –sleep.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +absorb elements, –alarm.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, feather fall, gift of alacrity, grease, shield, silvery barbs,
2nd Level: misty step.
1st Level: absorb elements,
Absorb elements – With medium armor, the ability to wield a shield, and the shield spell, our defenses are already quite solid. This spell rounds out our key defensive needs, covering us against non-weapon sources of damage such as breath weapons from dragons, elemental spells, and other hostile area of effect spells. That list of scrolls to scribe when you have downtime? Add this to it.
Feather fall – A situational spell, but one of the strongest situational spells in the game. It swiftly becomes very cheap, and can be a lifesaver, or at least save the party quite a lot of hit points. We get rid of this after a few levels so make sure to make some spell scrolls of this while you can.
Silvery barbs – This is a brand new spell that is both potent and flexible. With this spell you primarily inflict a debuff on a target without an attached saving throw, and then if that wasn’t good enough for a first level spell, you simultaneously buff an ally as well. We will mostly be using this to make spells that are reliant on enemies failing their saving throw land more. The advantage you grant to an ally is less important, but it’s nice regardless. This is a must pick for anyone that can get it. If your game doesn’t allow Strixhaven content, pick up fog cloud instead.
Level 4: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 3/Warlock 1)
Metamagic – Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. The ability to cast spells without using verbal or somatic components with Subtle Spell is often described as useful for discretion. This is accurate, but more importantly it prevents an enemy from using counterspell on our spells and allows us to overcome the effect of silence. While we probably won’t run into this too often right now, we’ll need this at higher levels, especially when we learn counterspell and use it against enemy casters without components. Soon, twinning gift of alacrity or longstrider will let you share the wealth. These are great spells to twin, and you get even better twinnable spells later.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +pass without trace, +web, -grease.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +aid, +rope trick, –lesser restoration.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: feather fall,
2nd Level: pass without trace, web.
1st Level: absorb elements, protection from evil and good.
2nd Level: aid,
Aid – The cooler (though technically hotter) Daniel to armor of Agathys, aid allows you to grant your party members additional hit points that stack with temporary hit points. This is a fantastic buff and you should be using this on your party members, especially if no one else can, especially considering that its 8 hour duration makes it another great rest casting target.
Pass without trace – Pass without trace is a spell that absolutely demolishes dungeons. +10 to Stealth effectively means guaranteed surprise, as most monsters in the game will be unable to spot you with their low passive Perception. This is the whole reason we became an Elf in the first place and someone in every party should have this spell ready.
Rope trick – Create an extradimensional refuge as an action. The best 2nd level defensive spell in the game. Once you’ve cast a concentration spell, maintaining concentration should be your highest priority, and rope trick helps you do that far better than something like mirror image ever could. Allies can also join you in the refuge when necessary. If you want to be able to enter into the portal in the same turn you cast the spell, make sure your rope is only 15 feet long at most so that you can climb the whole way, since climbing costs double movement.
Web – As mentioned in the main build, web is phenomenal. Web creates a 20 foot cube of webbing which restrain enemies and is one of the most potent spells in the game, period. Right now, this is the biggest thing we can do, but even as we reach high levels, we’ll continue to use web for its value-in-slot, and it’ll continue to be effective. For you video-minded folks, our friend Pack Tactics discusses the power of web here.
Level 4 Strategy
Now that you have second level spells you should be placing web down on corridors and on clumps of enemies. Your first level slots should mostly be saved for shields and the occasional silvery barb. As of this moment, you have exceptional crowd control, solid damage, and are rocking a strong defensive chassis of Constitution save proficiency, medium armor and a shield, and access to the game’s key defensive spells: shield and absorb elements. As a cherry on top, you have pass without trace to cast when not in combat in order to force surprise on the vast majority of the game’s monsters, allowing your party to gain additional turns in combat.
Level 5: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 3/Warlock 2)
Metamagic – Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. The ability to cast spells without using verbal or somatic components with Subtle Spell is often described as useful for discretion. This is accurate, but more importantly it prevents an enemy from using counterspell on our spells and allows us to overcome the effect of silence. While we probably won’t run into this too often right now, we’ll need this at higher levels, especially when we learn counterspell and use it against enemy casters without components. Currently, twinning gift of alacrity will let you share the wealth, and next level we will be able to add longstrider to the list of spells to twin. We will also discuss twinning phantasmal force below. These are great spells to twin, and you get even better twinnable spells later.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +phantasmal force, +web, -grease.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +aid, +rope trick, –lesser restoration.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, feather fall, gift of alacrity,
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, web.
1st Level: absorb elements, protection from evil and good.
2nd Level: aid,
Aid – The cooler (though technically hotter) Daniel to armor of Agathys, aid allows you to grant your party members additional hit points that stack with temporary hit points. This is a fantastic buff and you should be using this on your party members, especially if no one else can, especially considering that its 8 hour duration makes it another great rest casting target.
Phantasmal force – This is a very strong and twinable effect that can severely impair one (or two if twinned) enemies. A classic use is something covering the target– a bucket on their head, a cloaker, a swarm of biting insects– that blocks their vision and subjects them to heavy obscurement while potentially also dealing damage, but the sky’s the limit on other potential uses. It initially targets an Intelligence save, usually the weakest for monster stat blocks, and on subsequent turns, it is an Investigation check, something only 17 monsters throughout all official published material have proficiency in (if you look at just the Monster Manual and Volo’s Guide to Monsters, that number drops to 2!), making the spell as a whole very hard to stop. Note illusion-based spells tend to have fairly high amounts of variance in how they are run table to table, so make sure to have a chat with your DM on how monsters will react to this spell first. If you feel that this spell won’t be a useful combat spell, Tasha’s mind whip (also twinnable), suggestion, or Rime’s binding ice are all excellent alternatives.
Rope trick – Create an extradimensional refuge as an action. The best 2nd level defensive spell in the game. Once you’ve cast a concentration spell, maintaining concentration should be your highest priority, and rope trick helps you do that far better than something like mirror image ever could. Allies can also join you in the refuge when necessary. If you want to be able to enter into the portal in the same turn you cast the spell, make sure your rope is only 15 feet long at most so that you can climb the whole way, since climbing costs double movement.
Web – As a level 5 character, your first thought may be to be sad you do not have hypnotic pattern or fireball. But have no fear, web is here! Web creates a 20 foot cube of webbing which restrain enemies and is one of the most potent spells in the game, period. Right now, this is the biggest thing we can do, but even as we reach high levels, we’ll continue to use web for its value-in-slot, and it’ll continue to be effective. For you video-minded folks, our friend Pack Tactics discusses the power of web here.
Level 5 Strategy
Now that you have second level spells you should be placing web down on corridors and on clumps of enemies and utilizing the Repelling Blast feature of eldritch blast to keep them there, saving phantasmal force to deliver the hurt against encounters with only one or two main threats. Your first level slots should mostly be saved for shields or the occasional silvery barbs. As of this moment, you have exceptional crowd control, solid damage, and are rocking a strong defensive chassis of Constitution save proficiency, medium armor and a shield, and access to the game’s key defensive spells: shield and absorb elements.
Level 5: Warlock (Sorcerer 3/Warlock 2)
Eldritch Invocations – Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast.
Agonizing Blast – Agonizing Blast gets you some additional damage dealt and puts you at a solid baseline for damage when not casting your big spells.
Repelling Blast – Repelling Blast makes that solid damage a great crowd control ability as well. Push enemies back into web and laugh as they try to get into range of the party.
Spell Changes: +armor of Agathys.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, feather fall, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: pass without trace, web.
1st Level: absorb elements, protection from evil and good.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
Armor of Agathys – Armor of Agathys is a decent spell that provides us some defense through temporary hit points, and some punishment to our enemies when hit in the form of cold damage. This is mostly for when you have additional spell slots you feel comfortable spending on a slight survivability buff. Remember that temporary hit points don’t stack so if your party has a source of temporary hit points, consider taking hex for a concentration option at lower levels, protection from evil and good for a situational defensive option or expeditious retreat for out of combat mobility instead. (Keep in mind that you would have protection from evil and good from two sources until you swap it out next level). None of these are amazing options, but they are the best options you have from the Warlock spell list. Of note, the temporary hit points from armor of Agathys have a specific duration tied to the duration of the spell, which is different from other sources of temporary hit points that last until a long rest.
Level 6: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 4/Warlock 2)
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Lucky. This gives us a way to reroll failed saves. These might be important concentration saves, or saves against debilitating effects, which target Wisdom or more rarely, Intelligence, both of which are a bit of an Achilles heel for us. A bit of a spoiler here, but after Lucky we chose Resilient (Wisdom), +2 Charisma, and War Caster. As usual, you can tweak your feat choices to your table. If you obtain a nice magical staff early in a game that runs spell components strictly, grabbing War Caster first is likely better. If you find yourself leaning more into the eldritch blast playstyle, upping your to-hit by pumping Charisma might be the move.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +Rime’s binding ice, +Tasha’s mind whip, +mage hand, -feather fall.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +longstrider, –protection from evil and good.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys,
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider,
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
Rime’s binding ice – The recently released Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons included a bunch of new spells, and while most of them are pretty uninteresting, Rime’s binding ice is a stellar option. It delivers significant area-of-effect control and damage on a level comparable only to web at this spell level. It’s less sticky than web, but doesn’t use your concentration, so it makes for a great sidegrade or nova depending on the situation.
Tasha’s mind whip – Tasha’s mind whip allows for extra control while concentrating on a stronger spell such as polymorph or hypnotic pattern (when you gain access to them). It has the additional use of cheaply burning an enemy’s legendary resistances. On top of that, it’s also twinnable. If an enemy has to live with it, it allows the whole party to move away for free. Note that unlike phantasmal force, our other twinnable single-target spell, Tasha’s mind whip can be upcast for more targets.
Longstrider – Longstrider is a useful buff that grants additional movement, and is cheap to boot, costing only a 1st level slot and no concentration. Use this to assist allies in kiting away from melee enemies, or to assist your friend who insists on playing melee to move closer into the enemies, and towards their untimely demise. Note that this is a good spell to make spell scrolls with during downtime.
Mage hand – We get mage hand as Sorcerers learn an extra cantrip at this level, and use this to grab things from a safe range. Open doors that may be trapped, activate traps from far away. There’s a lot of good utility to come from this cantrip, but at this point, cantrip selections can be pretty much anything, so pick what you want.
Level 6 Strategy
Much the same as level 5, but with two new non-concentration toys to play with. Tasha’s mind whip is a useful spell that can force enemies to burn legendary resistances, and has Twinned Spell and upcasting value. Rime’s binding ice presents us with another layer of control that we can layer on top of our existing web. Web will generally be better, but combining these two spells for really tough encounters can be devastating.
Level 6: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 4/Warlock 2)
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Fey Touched (+1 Cha). We’re taking Fey Touched here to supplement our excellent selection of spells. We select gift of alacrity as our first level spell, and get misty step as well. Remember you can cast each of these once without expending a spell slot, but you can expend spell slots on them if you have the available slots to cast the spell you desire. Gift of alacrity is particularly great for rest casting.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +misty step FT, +phantasmal force, +gift of alacrity FT, +message.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +longstrider, –protection from evil and good.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, feather fall, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, web.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider,
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
Misty step FT – This is your spell to escape enemy reach, break out of grapples, and get past inaccessible terrain with just a bonus action and without having to Disengage to fully retreat. This is a very important insurance policy to have. It also helps us escape a web or wall of force.
Phantasmal force – This is a very strong and twinable effect that can severely impair one (or two if twinned) enemies. A classic use is something covering the target– a bucket on their head, a cloaker, a swarm of biting insects– that blocks their vision and subjects them to heavy obscurement while potentially also dealing damage, but the sky’s the limit on other potential uses. It initially targets an Intelligence save, usually the weakest for monster stat blocks, and on subsequent turns, it is an Investigation check, something only 17 monsters throughout all official published material have proficiency in (if you look at just the Monster Manual and Volo’s Guide to Monsters, that number drops to 2!), making the spell as a whole very hard to stop. Note illusion-based spells tend to have fairly high amounts of variance in how they are run table to table, so make sure to have a chat with your DM on how monsters will react to this spell first. If you feel that this spell won’t be a useful combat spell, Tasha’s mind whip (also twinnable), suggestion, or Rime’s binding ice are all excellent alternatives.
Gift of alacrity FT – Increasing our chance to go first in initiative increases the likelihood that we can take away enemy actions with disabling spells before they have a turn to attack. Remember to make full use of rest casting when available, as this is a fantastic spell to rest cast.
Longstrider – Longstrider is a useful buff that grants additional movement, and is cheap to boot, costing only a 1st level slot and no concentration. Use this to assist allies in kiting away from melee enemies, or to assist your friend who insists on playing melee to move closer into the enemies, and towards their untimely demise. Note that this is a good spell to make spell scrolls with during downtime.
Message – This is a simple cantrip to allow you to slyly communicate with allies in non-combat situations. One might say that others can see you casting the spell but this spell works through barriers and can travel around corners and through openings. This will not come up often, but it’s a decent utility cantrip.
Level 6 Strategy
Much the same as level 5, but you now have phantasmal force to deliver the hurt against encounters with only one or two main threats.
Level 7: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 5/Warlock 2)
Magical Guidance (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – This is a handy tool to improve your ability checks. Keep in mind that you can choose to spend the sorcery point after you see the result of your roll, allowing you to better control when you use this. Remember, dispel magic and counterspell against spells higher level than yours require you roll an ability check using your spellcasting modifier. Unfortunately, you cannot “fail” an initiative check, so you can’t use this on those. If you’re casting a spell scroll of a higher level than what you can normally cast, you can use this on the Charisma check if you fail it. As noted before, if you play with the identifying a spell variant rules from XGtE, you can use Magical Guidance on that Arcana check as well.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +fireball, +hypnotic pattern, –Tasha’s mind whip.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +counterspell, +dispel magic, –protection from energy.
Magical Guidance (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – This is a handy tool to improve your ability checks. Keep in mind that you can choose to spend the sorcery point after you see the result of your roll, allowing you to better control when you use this. Remember, dispel magic and counterspell against spells higher level than yours require you roll an ability check using your spellcasting modifier. Unfortunately, you cannot “fail” an initiative check, so you can’t use this on those. If you’re casting a spell scroll of a higher level than what you can normally cast, you can use this on the Charisma check if you fail it. As noted before, if you play with the identifying a spell variant rules from XGtE, you can use Magical Guidance on that Arcana check as well.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +fireball, +hypnotic pattern, –feather fall.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +counterspell, +dispel magic, –protection from energy.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice,
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, dispel magic,
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys,
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, dispel magic,
Counterspell – A simple must-have for defense, we can trade out protection from energy obtained via Clockwork Magic as soon as we reach level five. Remember this and Subtle Spell combine quite well. You are one of the premier counterspell casters by virtue of being able to keep your counterspell from being counterspelled, and being able to reroll Charisma checks via Magical Guidance. Don’t hesitate to use it when an enemy spellcaster is in range. This is about the level when you should start to see spellcasters that this can counter. If playing with the variant rule where identifying a spell costs a reaction, see if you can plan ahead of time with your other party members to discuss who can, or should, be making identification checks vs. casting counterspell.
Dispel magic – Important to have in any party, and made more reliable by way of our Magical Guidance feature. Remember that you can dispel multiple magical effects on one target, be they debuffs on an ally or buffs on an enemy.
Fireball – A signature spell of Wizards and Sorcerers. As a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, we have the luxury of taking this right at Sorcerer level five. We have it a few levels later than typical due to our Warlock dip, but this spell remains a staple at all levels, even though it won’t end encounters instantly for long. Depending on the enemy’s positioning, this can make for a great turn 1 cast despite not being a concentration spell. You can read more about fireball here.
Hypnotic pattern – This is one of the best spells for its level in the game, becoming our biggest play in hard fights. It incapacitates and immobilizes creatures in a 30 foot cube who fail a Wisdom save, and they don’t get any additional saves on subsequent turns. Their allies can use an action to break them out of it, but even if they do, that’s more creatures doing things with their turns that aren’t attacking you. The biggest limitation of this spell is that it doesn’t work on creatures immune to being charmed.
Level 7 Strategy
We now have a huge boost in power with third level spells and hypnotic pattern is absolutely going to be a decisive play in a lot of encounters. After round 1 we can push enemies 20 feet back using Repelling Blast, or hit two different enemies for 10 feet each. Our ability to control the battlefield and keep enemies in crowd control effects like web is now even better and remember you can use this to group enemies up for an allied spellcaster to debuff as well, the combos do not end with just you. Additionally, because we have Lucky, we can cast our big crowd control spells and have further concentration protection, in addition to the other defensive protection Lucky affords. Try not to use your Luck points frivolously; save them for critical hits and important saving throws.
We now have a huge boost in power with third level spells and hypnotic pattern is absolutely going to be a decisive play in a lot of encounters. After round 1 we can push enemies 20 feet back using Repelling Blast, or hit two different enemies for 10 feet each. Our ability to control the battlefield and keep enemies in crowd control effects like web is now even better and remember you can use this to group enemies up for an allied spellcaster to debuff as well, the combos do not end with just you.
Level 8: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 6/Warlock 2)
Bastion of Law (Clockwork Soul feature) – There’s not a whole lot going on here regarding this ability. Allowing yourself or an ally to reduce damage on a single attack by an average of 4.5 damage per sorcery point is not a good trade. We will not be using this ability in our build, as we have plenty of far better uses for sorcery points.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +Tasha’s mind whip.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +tiny servant, -dispel magic.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell,
Tiny servant – Tiny servant is an interesting spell that works really well if you’re creative. The servants can throw the stones you imbue with magic stone. They can carry and throw nets to restrain enemies or use certain items like ball bearings, caltrops, vials of acid, alchemist’s fire, or dynamite. Extra actions add hazards in the battlefield that impede enemy movement and pepper damage adds up to a very useful party member. We go into more uses for controllable summons in our Spell Spotlight: Find Familiar. Like aid, there is a ton of value with rest casting this. If your table looks unfavorably upon magical servants in combat, then you could keep dispel magic, or grab sleet storm and take something else at level 9.
Level 8 Strategy
This is similar to the last level, but now that you have tiny servant a few new options open up. You can use your tiny servants with magic stone to deal some bonus action damage, and throw nets/caltrops/ball-bearings and other environmental hazards around the enemies for additional control.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +Rime’s binding ice.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +tiny servant, -dispel magic.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Rime’s binding ice, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell,
Tiny servant – Tiny servant is an interesting spell that works really well if you’re creative. The servants can throw the stones you imbue with magic stone. They can carry and throw nets to restrain enemies or use certain items like ball bearings, caltrops, vials of acid, alchemist’s fire, or dynamite. Extra actions add hazards in the battlefield that impede enemy movement and pepper damage adds up to a very useful party member. We go into more uses for controllable summons in our Spell Spotlight: Find Familiar. Like aid, there is a ton of value with rest casting this. If your table looks unfavorably upon magical servants in combat, then grab sleet storm and take something else at level 9.
Rime’s binding ice – The recently released Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons included a bunch of new spells, and while most of them are pretty uninteresting, Rime’s binding ice is a stellar option. It delivers significant area-of-effect control and damage on a level comparable only to web at this spell level. It’s less sticky than web, but doesn’t use your concentration, so it makes for a great sidegrade or nova depending on the situation. An alternative non-concentration option would be Tasha’s mind whip.
Level 8 Strategy
This is similar to the last level but now that you have tiny servant a few new options opened up. You can use your tiny servants with magic stone to deal some bonus action damage, and throw nets/caltrops/ball-bearings and other environmental hazards around the enemies for additional control. Rime’s binding ice presents us with another layer of control that we can layer on top of our existing web. Web will generally be better, but combining these two spells for really tough encounters can be devastating.
You might have noticed that we have a lot of powerful 2nd level spells (and we haven’t even learned Tasha’s mind whip yet). If you find yourself running low on 2nd level spell slots, this level would probably be the best point to consider going Sorcerer 3/Warlock 3 instead to get 2nd level pact slots. The best Pact choice here is Pact of the Chain, as it is the best “out of the box” (meaning, it doesn’t require additional Invocation—and thus Warlock level— investment to be useful). Check out our guide on find familiar to see how you can get the most use out of the Pact of the Chain’s strong list of familiar options.
Now where does rest casting come into play? Obviously, on adventuring days we do not want to consume all of our sorcery points to make three tiny servants. You can, however, very easily convert sorcery points into fourth level spell slots and then lower level spell slots into sorcery points during a long rest and upcast tiny servant over and over, provided we do not spend an hour doing this and ruin our long rest. When you math out the total number of sorcery points to be gained from this we end up with the following:
Level 6 = 6 SP from level, 18 SP from spell slots, 24 total SP = 4 casts of tiny servant at 4th level, 1 cast of tiny servant at 3rd level = 13 tiny servants
Level 7 = 7 SP from level, 23 SP from spell slots, 30 total SP = 4 casts of tiny servant at 5th level = 20 tiny servants
Level 8 = 8 SP from level, 27 SP from spell slots, 35 total SP = 5 casts of tiny servant at 5th level = 25 tiny servants
Obviously not all tables will be comfortable with your Sorcerer rolling into the adventuring day with over a dozen tiny servants, but you can very reasonably have five tiny servants at your side via rest casting. Three to throw magic stones, and two to throw nets, administer potions, or drop caltrops around the battlefield.
Level 9: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 7/Warlock 2)
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +sleet storm.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +freedom of movement, +polymorph, –summon construct.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level:
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph,
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Rime’s binding ice, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level:
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph,
Freedom of movement– This is an “in case of emergency, break glass” spell we get via our Clockwork Magic feature. It’s not going to see ubiquitous use but it is a handy option to counter whatever just paralyzed your ally.
Polymorph – This is still powerful and versatile at this level. You’ll primarily use this on an ally to turn them into a giant ape, mammoth, tyrannosaurus rex, or huge giant crab. This both buffs their offense and gives them a big pool of hit points to absorb any damage they take before their own health is touched. This spell has a very long duration, so if your party has scouted ahead and knows a fight is coming you can cast this proactively and have your allies begin combat immediately as polymorphed beasts, and you can use Twinned Spell on this for a massive power spike. Polymorph is also versatile in that you can instead use it to try and take enemies out of a fight by turning them into creatures that are irrelevant, most notably those with significant hit points but a walking speed 0, like killer whales. This ability to take creature actions away in their entirety without taking the chance of a charm immunity or an ally walking them up is good to have in the back pocket and much like the buff version, it can be Twinned.
Sleet storm – Create difficult terrain, heavy obscurement, and an ongoing save-against-prone effect in a massive area. This is best used to split up approaching enemy forces while incidentally making life hell for their casters. As we level we begin to more likely see lots of enemies immune to being charmed, so sleet storm gives us a reliable 3rd level option besides hypnotic pattern.
Level 9 Strategy
We have a strong pseudo-heal and damage-boost option in polymorph, which is twinnable, and you should consider this your trump card. We have several area of effect spells that can handle the vast majority of encounters, and we have some strong single target debuff options that we can use while concentrating on another spell. Bear in mind while we have a lot of options for Twinned Spell, the cost can add up very quickly, so monitor your sorcery points like any other resource.
Level 10: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 8/Warlock 2)
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient (Wis). Several of the nastiest effects in the game at high level are tied to Wisdom saving throws, so let’s shore up that weakness now. An odd score, but other Custom Lineage Ability Score distributions would’ve been weaker up until this point, so we’re happy to live with the odd Wisdom now in the second half of our career.
Spell Changes: +dimension door.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph.
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient (Wis). Several of the nastiest effects in the game at high level are tied to Wisdom saving throws, so let’s shore up that weakness now. A welcome bump for our formerly odd Wisdom.
Spell Changes: +dimension door.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Rime’s binding ice, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph.
Dimension door – Teleport up to 500 feet with few restrictions, bringing a willing creature with you if you like. Sometimes you need to get out of dodge and/or rescue an ally.
Level 11: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 9/Warlock 2)
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +synaptic static.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +transmute rock, +wall of force, –greater restoration.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph.
5th Level:
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Rime’s binding ice, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: freedom of movement, polymorph.
5th Level:
Synaptic static – It’s like fireball, but targets a better save and comes with an extremely debilitating rider. It is also a much less frequently resisted damage type. Since it delivers damage and control in an area of effect without using our concentration, this spell is actually more comparable to something like Rime’s binding ice than it is to fireball. Wall of force should be your default plan for your 5th level slots, but depending on the situation synaptic static can make for an excellent nova.
Transmute rock – Another non-concentration area of effect control spell. Similar to plant growth, but with the potential to restrain creatures in the area on a failed Strength save, a bit like entangle or web. Creatures can end the restrained condition with an action, but that cost means they have basically no way of leaving the affected area aside from flight or a teleport such as misty step (dimension door still works because they can still cast spells with somatic components while restrained). Since you never want to use this spell on flying creatures, teleports are one of the only reliable ways for creatures to escape. Pair this with web or any other crowd control spells to create a zone of death. Additionally, you can push enemies that do manage to escape back in with eldritch blast.
Wall of force – Create either a wall, a sphere, or a dome of indestructible force which cannot be dispelled and gives enemies no saving throw to avoid or escape. This spell is absolutely game-changing, and will open up the possibility of defeating enemies that would be otherwise unrealistic. The typical use of this spell that most players are aware of is splitting an encounter into two much easier ones. Many also know about the technique of “microwaving” enemies by locking them in a wall of force with an ongoing damage effect such as sickening radiance. Depending on the situation, any of these techniques can allow your party to win an encounter with little risk and no saving throws, which is why wall of force is your ultimate weapon.
Level 11 Strategy
You now have access to staple fifth level spells like synaptic static and wall of force. With fifth level spells and the plethora of third and fourth level spell slots our power has shot through the roof. You should comfortably be able to use a big spell like hypnotic pattern or wall of force and follow it up with non-concentration control options if the encounter has several particularly dangerous foes. Eldritch blast at this point has three beams and cements your battlefield control and forced movement abilities.
Level 12: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 10/Warlock 2)
Metamagic – Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. Quickened Spell is moderately expensive at a cost of 2 sorcery points, but we can afford it at this level, and it serves as an extremely versatile and potent nova. The most basic and well-known use is eldritch blast + Quickened eldritch blast, which can temporarily give us a single target damage output on par with an optimized Fighter’s, as well as 6 chances to land Repelling Blast for some potent control. In general, though, you should consider Quickening for an extra action or eldritch blast in any situation where you have the resources to burn and the combat seems particularly challenging. In particular, consider combining eldritch blast with Quickened area of effect control spells such as web or hypnotic pattern to herd more enemies into the area.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +fog cloud, +message.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +banishment, –polymorph.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, fog cloud, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement,
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Banishment – This is comparable to the debuff half of polymorph, but with a few significant upsides. Its Charisma save is often better to target than Wisdom at this level, and its effect can become permanent if the target is not native to the Material Plane, or whatever goofy plane you may be on at the time. (Note that due to how 5E is, a creature’s native plane can be difficult to ascertain and isn’t always logical). It also upcasts decently, and if you can’t upcast it you can twin it instead, though note that it’s usually cheaper to upcast this than it is to twin it, since you can sell a 4th level slot for 4 sorcery points and create a 5th level slot for 7 to effectively twin the spell for a cost of 3 sorcery points instead of 4. Because Flexible Casting doesn’t limit the level of the slot you can make based on the levels spell slots you can regain on a long rest, you could have upcast this spell even before we got 5th level slots. We drop polymorph here because its relative potency as a buff (being far above the curve at mid-tier 2) is falling off, and banishment is a superior debuff.
Fog cloud – We pick this spell up because it’s cheap and we don’t have many other options. Note that fog cloud has a unique upcasting benefit of increasing its area of effect, which can cover the entire battlefield your encounter with a beholder might take place on.
Message – This is a simple cantrip to allow you to slyly communicate with allies in non-combat situations. One might say that others can see you casting the spell, but this spell works through barriers and can travel around corners and through openings. This will not come up often, but it’s a decent utility cantrip. As before, though, at this point your cantrip picks can be whatever you want them to be.
Metamagic – Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. Quickened Spell is moderately expensive at a cost of 2 sorcery points, but we can afford it at this level, and it serves as an extremely versatile and potent nova. The most basic and well-known use is eldritch blast + Quickened eldritch blast, which can temporarily give us a single target damage output on par with an optimized Fighter’s, as well as 6 chances to land Repelling Blast for some potent control. In general, though, you should consider Quickening for an extra action or eldritch blast in any situation where you have the resources to burn and the combat seems particularly challenging. In particular, consider combining Quickened eldritch blast with area of effect control spells such as web or hypnotic pattern to herd more enemies into the area. If you find yourself wishing your pass without trace lasted another hour, though, then by all means consider Extended spell instead, which would also allow you to extend several of our non-concentration buff spells such as gift of alacrity, tiny servant, and aid when rest casting.
Spell Changes (Sorcerer/Warlock): +Tasha’s mind whip, +mending.
Spell Changes (Clockwork Magic): +banishment, –polymorph.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement,
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Banishment – This is comparable to the debuff half of polymorph, but with a few significant upsides. Its Charisma save is often better to target than Wisdom at this level, and its effect can become permanent if the target is not native to the Material Plane, or whatever goofy plane you may be on at the time. (Note that due to how 5E is, a creature’s native plane can be difficult to ascertain and isn’t always logical). It also upcasts decently, and if you can’t upcast it you can twin it instead, though note that it’s usually cheaper to upcast this than it is to twin it, since you can sell a 4th level slot for 4 sorcery points and create a 5th level slot for 7 to effectively twin the spell for a cost of 3 sorcery points instead of 4. Because Flexible Casting doesn’t limit the level of the slot you can make based on the levels spell slots you can regain on a long rest, you could have upcast this spell even before we got 5th level slots. We drop polymorph here because its relative potency as a buff (being far above the curve at mid-tier 2) is falling off, and banishment is a superior debuff.
Tasha’s mind whip – Tasha’s mind whip allows for extra control while concentrating on a stronger spell such as hypnotic pattern. It has the additional use of cheaply burning an enemy’s legendary resistances. On top of that, it’s also twinnable. If an enemy has to live with it, it allows the whole party to move away for free. Note that unlike phantasmal force, our other twinnable single-target spell, Tasha’s mind whip can be upcast for more targets.
Mending – Mending is a small item restore cantrip that can come in handy. Feel free to grab any other cantrip here, the world is your oyster.
Level 12 Strategy
Congratulations! At this point all of the major elements of the build have come together. You already know most of your combat winning spells: web, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm, wall of force. Any one of these spells can win a combat on their own, even into higher levels, and paired with non-concentration options like Quickened eldritch blast, Tasha’s mind whip, Rime’s binding ice, fireball, and synaptic static, you can respond with overwhelming force if the situation escalates further. The biggest thing to keep in mind from here on out is that wall of force is your trump card, so you should think very carefully before spending a slot of 5th level or higher on something else. Enjoy the cool new show-stopper spells as you continue to level 20.
Level 13: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 11/Warlock 2)
Spell Changes: +dispel magic, +scatter, –Rime’s binding ice.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, fog cloud, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force,
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement.
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Scatter – Scatter is a great way to get the entire party out of dodge while simultaneously moving enemies into your party’s crowd control abilities, or just away from the group if you really need to. We take it for when we need to restart the battle and regroup.
Dispel magic – Important to have in any party, and made more reliable by way of our Magical Guidance feature. Remember that you can dispel multiple magical effects on one target, be they debuffs on an ally or buffs on an enemy. Rime’s binding ice gets dropped here as monster Constitution saves are increasing and damage has long passed the “negligible” stage.
Spell changes: +dispel magic, +scatter, -Rime’s binding ice.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace,
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement.
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Scatter – Scatter is a great way to get the entire party out of dodge while simultaneously moving enemies into your party’s crowd control abilities, or just away from the group if you really need to. We take it for when we need to restart the battle and regroup. Mass suggestion is also a good alternative pick here, but has some DM fiat baked in, so we went with the unambiguously useful scatter. Remember that there is nothing wrong with using your 6th level spell slots on a wall of force.
Dispel magic – Important to have in any party, and made more reliable by way of our Magical Guidance feature. Remember that you can dispel multiple magical effects on one target, be they debuffs on an ally or buffs on an enemy. Rime’s binding ice gets dropped here as monster Constitution saves are increasing and damage has long passed the “negligible” stage.
Level 14: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 12/Warlock 2)
Ability Score Improvement – +2 Cha. We choose to increase our Charisma here primarily to increase our Spell Save DC, though added bonuses to our Spell Attack Bonus and skill checks are an added bonus. We pick up War Caster later, but if you get a really nice magical staff and your DM is a stickler for casting component rules, you should grab it here instead.
Level 15: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 13/Warlock 2)
Spell Changes: +plane shift.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, fog cloud, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement.
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Plane shift – Take your party to a general location of your choice on another plane (which requires a tuning fork attuned to that plane, whatever that means). You could also try to send an enemy to another plane, but that shouldn’t be your primary use of this spell. This spell serves as both an escape plan for the party and a way of getting around. It’s better than teleport because it doesn’t have a chance of failure, and you can use it to go somewhere on the plane that you’re on by entering the extradimensional space of a rope trick first, as you are no longer on the same plane.
Level 16: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 14/Warlock 2)
Trance of Order (Clockwork Soul feature) – This is a very good feature. First of all, this ability is quite good at protecting concentration. A minimum roll of 10 means that your minimum concentration saving throw is 17, meaning that for any damage dealt to you under 35, you automatically succeed. Additionally, it allows you to negate advantage on attackers targeting you that normally would have advantage. A minimum of 10 to your spell attacks means you will also always hit any enemy with an AC of 20 or lower, which is most enemies. The cherry on top is that this is a bonus action to use, meaning you can trigger it after casting a very crucial concentration spell and keep that additional protection for the rest of the encounter.
Level 17: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 15/Warlock 2)
Spell Changes: +demiplane.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, fog cloud, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, pass without trace, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement.
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Demiplane – It’s like a bag of holding, but large enough for furniture, a house, or a dragon’s hoard. If you have a Bard, Cleric, or Wizard in the party, they can use a high level spell slot on planar binding and then store whatever is bound in here.
Level 18: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 16/Warlock 2)
Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – War Caster. War Caster is one of the strongest feats in the game, and we take it late here because there were so many more goodies to get earlier on. Feel free to grab it earlier if you would like. War Caster offers concentration protection in the form of advantage, but crucial to this is the ability to cast spells while both hands are full. Typically this won’t matter, but by now we likely have a magical item we’d like to have in our hands and so this allows us to carry that nice item and a shield. If your DM doesn’t follow those rules precisely, and you don’t find your concentration ever to be at risk, you can get away with taking Alert instead. Holding your reaction for shield or absorb elements is probably preferable to casting a spell in the rare, rare situation that an enemy provokes an opportunity attack from you, but mind sliver is a nice cheap setup option for an ally if this does happen.
Level 19: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 17/Warlock 2)
Metamagic – Extended Spell, Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. The power of this metamagic comes from extending our plethora of buff spells that do not require concentration like aid, gift of alacrity, and tiny servant when rest casting. If nothing else, it’s less bookwork to have stuff last for 16 hours instead of 8. However, this choice is pretty marginal at this level so you could easily take something like Heightened Spell or Careful Spell instead.
Spell Changes: +meteor swarm, +wish, –fog cloud.
Metamagic – Extended Spell, Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell, Twinned Spell. The power of this metamagic comes from extending our plethora of buff spells that do not require concentration like aid, gift of alacrity, and tiny servant when rest casting. If nothing else, it’s less bookwork to have stuff last for 16 hours instead of 8. However, this choice is pretty marginal at this level so you could easily take something like Heightened Spell or Careful Spell instead.
Spell Changes: +meteor swarm, +wish, –phantasmal force.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys,
2nd Level: misty step, phantasmal force, Tasha’s mind whip, web.
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
9th Level: meteor swarm, wish.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: misty step,
3rd Level: dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm.
4th Level: dimension door.
5th Level: synaptic static.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
9th Level: meteor swarm, wish.
1st Level: absorb elements, longstrider.
2nd Level: aid, rope trick.
3rd Level: counterspell, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, freedom of movement.
5th Level: transmute rock, wall of force.
Meteor swarm – Deal a lot of damage to a lot of creatures. Sometimes this is the solution. This is the king of the blasts, and while it is not the best spell in the game, it can sometimes be as good as casting the best spell in the game. Check with your DM on how they handle this spell potentially damaging and destroying worn items, as that ruling makes this spell even more devestating.
Wish – This lets us cast any spell, on any list, with any cast time, of 8th level or lower, with a single action and no material component cost. Remember, it’s almost never worth it to use one of the “alternate” uses for the spell that has a chance of preventing you from casting it ever again. Good spells to replicate include simulacrum, mirage arcane, clone, and find greater steed, but you can read all about the various applications of wish in its Spell Spotlight!
Level 19 Strategy
We’re finally here at 9th level spells, and while our strategy is largely unchanged, we’ve got a lot more sorcery points to play with and plenty of good uses for them. With wish there are a lot of spells you can now cast that were previously unavailable and Quickened Metamagic will allow you to deal very strong damage whenever you feel like it. Cast simulacrum with wish, and use Twinned Spell Metamagic to target two people and make two simulacra in one casting. You’ll likely have some very nice magic items to use your actions on so use some quickened metamagics to place spells on top of it. Of course, Subtle Spell remains the trump card against counterspell and we have plenty of options we do not want countered. You’re a tier four character, so play like one; just don’t forget to keep some high level slots in your back pocket in case of an emergency.
We’re finally here at 9th level spells, and while our strategy is largely unchanged, we’ve got a lot more sorcery points to play with and plenty of good uses for them. With wish there are a lot of spells you can now cast that were previously unavailable and Quickened Metamagic will allow you to deal very strong damage in a pinch with eldritch blast. Cast simulacrum with wish, and use Twinned Spell Metamagic to target two people and make two simulacra in one casting. You’ll likely have some very nice magic items to use your actions on so use some quickened metamagics to place spells on top of it. Of course, Subtle Spell remains the trump card against counterspell and we have plenty of options we do not want countered. You’re a tier four character, so play like one; just don’t forget to keep some tricks up your sleeve as a contingency plan. Keep in mind that sometimes pass without trace is still just gamebreakingly good, even at this level which is why it’s still rated 5 stars for a bard’s magical secrets even at 18th level here.
Level 20: Sorcerer (Sorcerer 18/Warlock 2)
Clockwork Cavalcade (Clockwork Soul feature) – Your capstone is up to 100 hit points of healing to whomever you want, item repair, and the mother of all dispel magics. The healing means this is always useful, and the dispel can situationally be extremely strong. You are now level 20, feel the power.
Many Sorcerer subclasses might take the third level of Warlock here, but Clockwork Soul is an exception in the relative usefulness of their level 18 feature. If you would really prefer the higher level spell Warlock spell slots, you can essentially replicate the Sorcerer 20 capstone via sorcery point conversion.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: absorb elements, armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, longstrider, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: aid, misty step, phantasmal force, Tasha’s mind whip, rope trick, web.
3rd Level: counterspell, dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, dimension door, freedom of movement.
5th Level: synaptic static, transmute rock, wall of force.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
9th Level: meteor swarm, wish.
Cantrips: eldritch blast, fire bolt, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth.
1st Level: absorb elements, armor of Agathys, gift of alacrity, longstrider, shield, silvery barbs, unseen servant.
2nd Level: aid, misty step, pass without trace, Tasha’s mind whip, rope trick, web.
3rd Level: counterspell, dispel magic, fireball, hypnotic pattern, sleet storm, tiny servant.
4th Level: banishment, dimension door, freedom of movement.
5th Level: synaptic static, transmute rock, wall of force.
6th Level: scatter.
7th Level: plane shift.
8th Level: demiplane.
9th Level: meteor swarm, wish.
And that’s a wrap on our first Flagship Build! Hopefully, you now see that the HexClock delivers on its promise of being a truly multifaceted, multipurpose caster that fulfills every role with aplomb. The HexClock is the Flagship with the largest “floor-raiser” potential of the seven, being the best suited to the role of “carrying” a group to victory.
Remember how way back at the beginning of this article, you had to choose a race? If you want to a slight variation on this build, go back and click the other button! We ended up in mostly the same place, but that single decision cascaded into some significant branching along the way. Look forward to more pivotal decisions in rest of the series! The race choice will not always be what varies.
What did you think? Any questions, comments, or things you would have done differently? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord!
How does MoS elf get +2 Cha? Isnt it +2 Dex and +1 Cha?
As discussed in the Introduction to the series, we are using the Customizing Your Origin rules introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. One aspect of that variant is flexible starting ASIs for races.
holy shit are you the real kobold
Depends on what you mean? I am not Bagpipes from Pack Tactics. I am not actually a kobold. But I do use the name kobo1d.
Kobo1d – if campaign goes to only level 12 max- would you take Lucky or War Caster as first ASI?
Lucky vs War Caster considerations:
Do you think you will get a sweet magic staff in the campaign? War Caster lets you hold it.
Do you need to make a *lot* of concentration checks each day? War Caster never runs out of uses.
Do you only need to make a few concentration checks each day? Lucky is more flexible to apply to other types of rolls, and thus more powerful in some games.
Depending on how you treat Crawford tweets, you may not be able to gain the benefit of a short rest when it is nested within a long rest, as seems to be what is suggested in your tealock tech.
See https://www.sageadvice.eu/can-a-pc-benefit-from-short-rests-during-a-long-rest/
The intention for Tealock tech is not to short rest at the same time as a long rest. In original Sorlock multiclasses (coffee/cocaine) you would just not long rest at all and for the Tealock we just reccomend using otherwise blocked out time to take short rests.
Now if you are playing the Mark of Shadows variant, things get interesting.
“Trance.
Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
If you meditate during a long rest, you finish the rest after only 4 hours. You otherwise obey all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed.”
If you play the elf variant you get a free 4 hours of short rests every night while the rest of your party sleeps. This is due to the new errata that explicitly states that your long rest lasts only 4 hours. This means that you spend 4 hours long resting, 4 hours short resting for a total of 8 hours. We were pretty close to changing the variant to a 3 level warlock dip as well so that you can use these short rests to cast aids on the party or just gain an additional 8 sorcery points a day as well but we prioritized access to high level spells so we ended up not going that route, though we might end up changing it after some more debate. (Plus you can basically just use the 4 short rests to make sorcery points to cast aid with anyways so you dont really need the second level slots to return on short rest). I think this is what you meant by your comment. If not, feel free to respond.
Hope you enjoyed the build!
To clarify, (after rereading I realize I was unclear) the additional sorcery points I mention are to convert into spell slots with asyou cannot go over Sorcerer Level sorcery points per day.
Ah thank you for the clarification. I didn’t quite appreciate the difference between the Mark of the Shadow’s meditation and the normal elves.
Your techs are interesting, which is why I’m subjecting them to rigorous scrutiny.
This errata is for all elves. It came out with Tasha’s if I remember correctly. This is one of those moments where Crawford says something on twitter and then it gets errata’d out.
Tealocking is not “taking short rests while long resting”. It is “using your 1st level slots to slap gift of alacrity/aid/other low level buff spells on allies and then short rest a few times to get the slots/sorc points back”. An example is, “I go to sleep at 10 PM, get up at 6 AM, cast gift of alacrity on my party and rest three times or whatever to recharge my resources. Then we all go into the spooky dungeon ”
The Mark of Shadows build does this much better because they finish a long rest in 4 hours so you can start at 2 AM in the example above.
In regards to the invulnerable servant tech, I want to offer the following analysis.
First the unseen servant does not fit the definition of an object because it is animate (DMG Chapter 9). Crawford would agree with your observation that unseen servant is not a creature: https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/943276218148966400?
The description of the spell includes the following passages:
“The servant springs into existence in an unoccupied space on the ground within range.”; “Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object.”
Together, my interpretation of the spell is that the unseen servant occupies a location, and that it cannot move into occupied space.
In the basic rules, and the PHB, the targeting options for an attack are: creature, object or location. The interaction between unseen servant occupying a location, and an attack targeting a location appear to allow attacks to target the space occupied the unseen servant. This explains why the spell description provides a basis for providing the AC and hit points for the spell.
Following the interpretation guideline of “spells do what they say the do” then I agree that most AOE spells will not affect the unseen servant, because the descriptions specify how creatures and objects are affect by the spell, but are silent on locations. Nevertheless, I think that it would be reasonable for an adjudicator to depart from strict RAW and infer that forces would also be affected by such a spell.
Hence I would suggest that the tech works primarily with spells, rather than attacks, if it is permitted to work at the table at all.
“In the basic rules, and the PHB, the targeting options for an attack are: creature, object or location. The interaction between unseen servant occupying a location, and an attack targeting a location appear to allow attacks to target the space occupied the unseen servant. This explains why the spell description provides a basis for providing the AC and hit points for the spell.”
You found the appropriate section of the rules, but you’re missing one very important link in your argument: Where is the part of the rules that says because you attacked a location, you now hit the non-creature non-object within it? (it isn’t there)
Neither does the rules explain how to perform arithmetic. And yet we still are able add and subtract in order to make sense of the rules.
I think from my example above that we can agree that the PHB and DMG cannot be expected to spell out every single logical step in order to simulate and resolve actions in the game.
What we do have is a rule that allows the targeting of a location, an inference that the unseen servant occupied a location, and a system that resolves whether an attack hits (i.e. attack rolls and armor class).
If you wish to press an interpretation which renders a part of the spell description meaningless and superfluent, you are free to do so. However, this would run contrary to any generally accepted guidelines for resolving ambiguity, i.e. the interpretation which gives meaning to the text is preferred.
In a sane world, find traps would find traps, disintegrate would actually be able to target a wall of force, and see invisibility wouldn’t be worse than fog cloud at helping you hit invisible targets. Alas.
If we’re talking about high end optimization, would you consider a 1 level peace cleric start instead of the 2 points in hexblade, depending on party comp, as a workable alterative? You’d just take Res CON instead of Res WIS at some point in the build.
Very viable due to the raw power of Emboldening Bond, although you wouldn’t have as much synergy or offensive power. Wouldn’t be a bad build at all.
Curious as to your thoughts on Warlock 1 Sorcerer X using the eldritch feat? Thinking a making a pathfinder kineticist using genie warlock dao and crusher.
dao crusher is already a feat starved build, you’re way better off investing a second level into warlock than taking another feat
also the feat only gives one invocation, but you really want both agonizing blast *and* repelling blast
First of all, amazing build. I agree that Clockwork Soul came to save Sorcerers reputation.
I get it starting as a Sorcerer to have CON prof since day 1, but you are actually worrying about important concentration spells from level 5+ onwards. Since you are planning to get Resilient WIS anyways, for the sake of improving the progression, I think I would start as a Hexblade keeping an odd CON score to round up with the first ASI by level 6, you get relevant concentration spells only at level 5 (Sorcerer 3), so it’s basically just one level suffering more or less with concentration. I believe it promotes a more straightforward progression as you start your career as a basic Hexblade which has much better survivability at dangerous low levels.
What do you think?
Hello, Ironsoul! First off, thank you for reading.
Our general assessment is that Con saves are more frequent than Wis saves in tier 1, though your point about concentration saves is definitely on point. Still, web is one of our strongest plays and we do get that at level 5 (sorc 3), so there’s also one level where you have zero investment in concentration protection other than good AC. Additionally, we generally think having sleep at level 1 (where it is at its strongest) is better than the benefits of Hexblade, but you could argue those are pretty thin margins since level 1 shouldn’t last all that long anyway.
It’s definitely a very reasonable progression, and it was something that was discussed, we just opted for Sorc 1 in the end.
I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on how Strixhaven modifies this build. Presumably Silvery Barbs and Vortex Warp would both make the list – is it worth switching to Aberrant Mind for the cheap casting?
What are your thoughts on a peace cleric dip (replacing hexblade)? You get the same ac, faster spell progression and emboldening bond, which is like a mini paladin aura. You lose short rest spell slots and eldritch blast. Is it worth it?
Also, if someone in your part already has gift of alacrity, and someone else has pass without trace, what should you do with your race?
Thank you!
We think Peace is slightly worse, but still very viable and strong due to the raw power of Emboldening Bond.
Can you play a flying race? Winged Tiefling for example. Always a supremely powerful pick. Other options for Custom Lineage Fey Touched beyond gift of alacrity now include silvery barbs, freeing up a spell known for something you will definitely be able to use an extra slot on each day.
Correction:
In Level 19 Strategy, the guide suggests using wish to cast simulacrum with Twinned Spell. However, the wish spell has a range of Self and thus can’t be twinned. When you cast wish, you don’t then also cast the duplicated spell; the duplicated spell just comes into effect. So in this combo you are never actually casting simulacrum (which can be twinned in normal circumstances, of course).
In the description of Phantasmal Force, the author writes the following:
“A classic use is something covering the target– a bucket on their head, a cloaker, a swarm of biting insects– that blocks their vision and subjects them to heavy obscurement while potentially also dealing damage, but the sky’s the limit on other potential uses.”
This is not RAW. The spell does not inflict any conditions on the target, and so the target would not be blinded or subjected to heavy obscurement. The spell does exactly what it says it does. If you were to create the illusion of a bucket on a target’s head, they would immediately realize that they *can*, in fact, still see normally. Since the spell says the target still treats the illusion as real (unless they take an action to see through the illusion) and rationalize any illogical outcome, the target would simply rationalize that “the bucket has some holes in it that let me see normally” or something similar.
The best-case scenario is the target being forced to use its free object interaction on its turn to try to remove the bucket. It won’t be able to since it’s an illusion, but the target would also still be able to see normally. So then maybe the rationalization is “the bucket had some other outer surface on it, and I took that off, but can still see through some holes on it”.
If you want to blind the target, then you have to use blindness/deafness or some other magic.
I understand that this site encourages communication with the DM and that illusion spells have a lot of variance in how they are run, but this site also likes to go by RAW and squeeze everything they can out of any loophole even if we all know it’s an exploit (e.g., stacking death wards). I’m not disparaging the site about that, but there seems to be inconsistency. Phantasmal Force just does not do what the authors here have suggested.
A better use is making an illusory pit or the illusion of a hostile creature. In that case, the target would probably use its action to attack the creature, or run away from the creature, or walk around the pit, or something similar. Those forced behaviors *are* RAW and are still powerful since they can force wasted turns. But the spell simply does not inflict any conditions like blinded. The nice thing about an illusory creature is that it can also possibly cause a little bit of chip damage and it might lead to more than just one wasted turn if the DM is very generous. (For instance, if the attack on the illusion would have missed anyway, e.g., a natural 1, the target of the spell probably rationalizes that they missed or the creature dodged, and they might just try to attack it again on the next turn.)
This is a good build but all of these flagship builds try to stretch the rules in their favor. If you use much of the tech listed most GM’s will probably throw you out of the game. Best to take a conservative approach to everything and if you get more, then great. I wouldn’t even ask the DM unless you think it might be that type of game. These builds are good enough without stretching the rules.
You mentioned this build can do reasonable damage, but a hexblade 2 /Sorc 9 once it gets enough Sorc points (spell slots) lvl 11 and above can easily be the highest single target damage in the game. This strategy should be used vs a boss fight that has legendary saves.
Strategies listed in the guide work well. Slightly adjusting the build below optimizes single target damage for a boss fight.
Use buff spells vs. a boss as legendary saves are usually too difficult to break through. Damage is the best approach. Haste, Polymorph (Utility) or Greater Invisibility.
Consider choosing the feat Elven Accuracy can give you triple advantage when invisible/(darkness if can see) or anytime you have advantage. Instead of Fey Touched, depends how many boss fights you might have and if you can get the initiative boosting spell (gift of alacrity)
Strategy:
1st turn
Cast a buff like twin Greater Invisibility. If fighters do a lot of damage, then twin haste them instead.
Bonus action Hexblade curse boss
2nd turn + beyond
Eldritch blast + quicken Eldritch blast. This is 6-8 attacks d10 + Charisma + Curse damage. With extended crit range and possible triple advantage, this makes for a highly accurate attack vs. a likely high AC boss.
Thanks,
Fun guide.
What part of the rules allows you to create cover with Mold Earth? I’m not finding a way to justify it to my dm while in a dungeon.
Pretty simple, you can move a 5′ cube of dirt so you can dig a trench and jump in vs. ranged attacks. Unfortunately this takes your action in combat and usually there is a tree or a wall to hide behind anyhow.
I would like to call attention to ‘subtle teleport’. This spell combination is the only one that I can think of that can instantly save the whole party from a tpk thanks to it’s 10f range and can only be countered by loss of sight or antimatic fields.
Yes plane shift might do sth similiar but linking hands is kinda annoying to pull of in a fight. Teleport just instantly takes away anyone in it’s area.
Any chance yall can make a guide for a gunslinger clockwork sorcerer? Or clockwork with the gunnerfeat? Im trying to make a Tanya the Evil character for a campaign
This one is great, im playing a version of this, currently 11th level, shadar kai, and picked pact of the chain
(i just love find familiar), i also dropped aid for immovable object, ( yes, i know its not in the wizard spell list, despite being a wizard spell, but my dm allowed it) so having a touch invisible machine its just so great; having 4 hours to generate a spells slots after a long rest is nice, i grabbed alert feat and recently fey toched: command since i have my 2 melee rogues being happy with haste, i just have the enemy fleeing away to not invest in haste, i also have vortex warp instead of phantasmal force, since my dm will just randomly drop enemys to my archers for surprised condition (reason why i took alert) and let me take them out without any concerns of injures
I know this was commented on before, but delaying 3rd, 4th and 5th level spells by a whole level for hexblade 2 just doesn’t feel right to me.
I would much rather skip fey touched and pick up the eldritch adept feat for agonizing blast at level 5, move lucky down to level 1 and have better spell slot progression.
Is repelling blast and fey touched really worth being a whole level behind in spell progression?
Note that flagship builds are built around the assumption of a powerful party trying to make objectively good choices; they are not built for carrying weak characters.
With competent party members, repelling blast will allow you to double dip on powerful control effects like Web and Spike Growth; in combination with kiting (which optimized parties absolutely should be doing) Repelling Blast also will case monsters to lose their action because they need to Dash instead due to the knockback. Meanwhile fey touched is basically worth 1~2 entire actions per fight, which is incredibly impactful contribution *if your party’s actions are worth something*.
If you’re trying to carry, it might be worth to delay the second warlock level, though spending a feat on eldritch adept is definitely not worth it, just get the second level a bit later. However, sorcerer doesn’t have the spell slot efficiency to carry a party through an entire day, so you’ll break your back unless we’re talking about 1~3 encounter days. For carrying, you’ll want to look to the efficiency of Conjure Animals and Spirit Guardians, which *can* in fact last you an entire day.
I Thought you only gained light armor and simple weapon proficienies from the warlock dip. Atleast according to PHB rules. Am i reading this wrong or does this come from some other rulebook?
The Hexblade patron is the source of additional proficiencies (Hex Warrior)
How do you take grease at level 1?
I thought grease was a Wizard spell.
Grease was added to the Sorcerer list via the expanded spell lists in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
if you’re laying webs down why take lucky at 6 and not alert? i don’t understand why all your builds suggest alert so late, i would think it’s more impactful earlier on
Fantastic build – really appreciate the depth of thought that’s gone into this, and the consideration for how optimisation works at the level of DM interaction (i.e. talking to the table about whether a strategy is appropriate and fun for everyone).
One question I have – what are the thoughts on Winged Tiefling (WT) here instead of CL? I raise it because WT is the preferred race for the Chronurgy wizard which plays very similarly.
Pre-level 6 you go from 18 to 17 cha, and lose the ability to twin Gift of Alacrity on the party at level 5 in exchange for flight.
Post level 6 the difference is just losing lucky in exchange for flight, which seems like a very desirable exchange (although lucky is obviously excellent).
Flight seems particularly significant in this build because of how useful it is for helping us maintain concentration, which is probably even more important for this build than the Chronurgy wizard. You also get hellish resistance, which shouldn’t be underestimated.
If we agree that WT is at least an equally valid option to Custom Lineage, it opens up a further option of Grasp of Hadar instead of repelling Blast. Is this a reasonable alternative?
Grasp of Hadar allows us to pull targets 10 feet into their air with eldritch blast, adding d6 fall damage and dropping them prone for our martials, which is a fantastic debuff. Indeed, with standard rules allowing diagonal moves for 5 feet, you don’t even necassarily lose out on horizontal distance travelled for control compared to repelling. Indeed, dropping targets prone in web will likely reduce many enemies to just 5 feet of movement. The only limitation to this is that if we drop a target prone on our first blast, our others will be at disadvantage. This won’t matter in tier 1 where this trick will be most useful, but could require more careful consideration of when we pop it in higher tiers.
By comparison, repelling blast can trigger on every ray, and is much easier to pull off, because it doesn’t require you being above or behind your enemy for maximal effectiveness.
Do people think grasp of Hadar is a reasonable alternative as a whole? If not, are there any tiers where it is debatably more viable (e.g. tier 1)?
Amazing build! One question though. At level 6 (4 sorcerer/2 warlock), you jump from three (misty step + 2) to five (misty step + 4) level 2 spells, but the sorcerer spell table only shows you as allowed 3 spells lvl 2 spells at level 4. How are you getting the “extra” level 2 spell at level 4 sorcerer? Thanks!
It seems like you might be mixing up spell slots with spells known, your spell slots for each level don’t have any relationship with the number of spells you can know of each level.
How does a sorcerer take grease?
Grease was added to the Sorcerer spell list in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
I think the issue is that it still doesn’t show up in DNDBeyond as a valid option. The spell itself is still tagged as Wizard and Artificer. There is no Sorcerer tag. I made a homebrew but not having the rules up to date on there after this many years is quite annoying.
Yeah we have to tell people on many of these builds that DDB just doesn’t work rules as written. Spells you can’t swap out despite the book saying you can, ASI swapping from TCE Customizing your Origin isn’t functional either or so I am told. We do not particularly care for DDB
Interesting build but you cut Bastion of Law short if you’re just thinking of the damage limitations to it. If you reduce that damage then your Armor of Agathys lasts that much longer doing much more damage to melee combatants. It’s not worth it in many instances but to keep AoA active it definitely is.
How would the effectiveness change if you went Sorc 12/Hexblade2/Conquest Pal 6?
You’d want to base such a thing off of the flagship paladin build on the site, at which point it’d be slightly stronger than flagship paladin before that build reaches paladin 7 and a good bit weaker afterwards – this is assuming you properly utilize the channel divinity + keeping at range to make frightened melee monsters useless.
All this assumes you’re taking your paladin levels before your chunk of sorcerer levels. If you’re finishing a sorcerer + warlock build with 6 levels of paladin in later tier 3 and tier 4, then that’d be pretty garbage cause you have no power gain whatsoever for 5 levels.
I believe that Silvery Barbs deserves its place here.
Great build! As mentioned by other commenters here and the internet. There is an interesting interaction between Armour of Agathyst of Bastion of Law. May I ask what led the team to believe that this interaction is not worth the resource investment?
If you use your Warlock slots to cast AoA and BoL to keep it up then you’re burning sorcery points in order to maximize the number of times you can deal 5 damage to something, which by level 8 – when you get BoL – most things one would expect to encounter would do enough damage where a d8’s worth of damage reduction still eats through the 5 temp HP anyway. The same expected monsters very likely have multiattack so you’re taking full damage on subsequent hits or other monster’s turns. If you cast shield, you’re potentially blocking more than one attack and taking no damage, protecting yourself from other monsters taking their turn in initiative before yours and taking no damage instead of reducing incoming existing damage, 24 AC is nothing to sneeze at.
If you cast it at a higher level you’re trading a web/Rime’s binding ice, a hypnotic pattern/fireball, etc for the opportunity to do 10+ cold damage to something in melee and burning through your sorc points to be able to do it more than once. The spell is underwhelming when upcast compared to other options on this spell list of similar levels and using sorcery points to twin spells or quicken spells is going to impact the field a lot more than rolling a d8 to reduce damage.
With all of the cc spells, repelling blast, and defensive measures this build takes getting hit in melee isn’t something that happens very often; it’s very hard to meaningfully close the gap against this build. Finally, using AoA and BoL with the intent of going into melee and trying to get hit isn’t something we recommend because the monsters as a general rule do less damage afar than they do up close.
Armor of Agathys and Bastion of Law should be used as a meaningful way of defense. When in combat I start focusing on using the best control or damaging spells I can in the biggest area. This is the moment when the mobs usually see me as a threat and try to disrupt me. Sometimes I get my self in dangerous situations. This is when I use all my defense resources just to thornmail them. Spamming AoA + BoL + Blade Ward or any other way of reducing damage will make you live longer while concentrating on something else and while tanking for your friends.
You should use this strategy situationally. Because if you just spam it, the enemy will just ignore you. They have to get a good reason to attack you.
Would this build still be high op if I would replace Clockwork for Aberant Mind for the Psyonic Sorcery feature?
I’m currently playing a 19th Level HexClock right now. The standout feature (for me) and what makes this build so powerful at higher levels is Trance of Order, which you won’t get with Aberant Mind. With Trance of Order in place you don’t miss on EB attacks and never lose concentration*. I think Aberant Mind with Warlock is still powerful and fun though.
* Character has +16 to hit, so AC 26 minimum and +11 to Con saves, so needs to take 46+ damage in a single hit in order to require a roll.
Thank you
Yes, it may not be quite as strong due to not getting as strong a spell list but the Aberrant Mind subclass is still powerful.
I am rather confused by how many spells this build has available by level 6.
In comparison my attempt at a variation of the build with the Divine soul Subclass, allows up to 5 sorcerer spells by level 6 (lvl 4 sorcerer + 2 level warlock).
I am having trouble understanding where the extra spells beyond the Clockwork spell list (where it says that the clockwork spells cannot be replaced by leveling)
Warlock 2 has 3 spells known: armor of Agathys, shield, unseen servant.
Sorcerer 4 has 5 spells known: silvery barbs, phantasmal force, Rime’s binding ice, Tasha’s mind whip, web
Fey Touched feat gives 2 spells known: gift of alacrity, misty step
Great guide! Thanks a lot!
With the release of new background containing feats, eg Rewarded and Ruined among others. Would you change the archeologist background when going the Mark of Shadow Elf route?
And which feat would be better? Going Ruined with Alert of Rewarded with Lucky? Or are there other backgrounds giving better options?
Can anyone tell me how this character gets access to tiny servent and unseen servant? Isn’t it on the wizard list? I can’t see it on the clockwork soul or sorcerer lists
It comes from the Hexblade dip.
Unlike other flagship builds I’ve seen so far, this one is fairly straightforward and doesn’t involve heavy multiclassing, which I personally appreciate a lot. I think this speaks to the strength of the Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, as this class can compete with other flagship builds.
There are a few questions though. First of all, you’re giving up a lot of powerful high-level crowd control spells in favor of Scatter, plane shift, demiplane. . While these spells are very cool, they don’t do much in combat aside from probably Scatter. Shouldn’t you take spells like
Level 6 Mass Suggestion, Sunbeam
Level 7 Reverse Gravity, Whirlwind
Since with a spell list like yours, you’re effectively limiting yourself to a level 11 repertoire in combat, even though the abilities I’ve outlined can be decisive in combat.
I’d also consider swapping out some low-level spells for the sake of having more high-level options, even if I can’t use both high-level options in the same day.
Of the spells you outline, only Mass Suggestion is truly worth considering:
Sunbeam is just not enough damage to warrant your concentration, and both Reverse Gravity and Whirlwind don’t actually do as much as one would expect to peculiarities in their wording about when they trigger and how long you are affected – as well as what kinds of enemies they are good against (melee enemies that you were dunking on for half the campaign already).
For the most part, there’s not much these spells will offer you in combats which isn’t covered by Sleet Storm, Hypnotic Pattern, and Wall of Force – thus the choice to diversify in unprecedented forms of utility i made instead.
If your campaign features much shorter adventuring days, it can be worth it to swap out lower level spells to have a bigger toolkit with your high level slot burst – especially Mass Suggestion – at the cost of efficiency (a lot of the lower level spells do 90% of what the high level spells do for vastly less cost). In most campaigns you’ll be very happy with just spending 8th level slots on Wall of Force and getting a better result out of it than casting Whirlwind