#clocksmith

Bonus:

(art by Marcel Mercado on Artstation)

 Oof, this one.

Well, I suppose I had to do it eventually. I’ve made it clear repeatedly in these various archetypes from Construct Handbook that I dislike the angle that most of the archetypes took in that book, most focusing on destroying them or emulating their power. I even said that the arcane tinkerer archetype for arcanists was the poster child of that very thing.

But today’s subject is perhaps the one that vexes me the most, and it’s the only one with inbuilt abilities tied to building your own constructs, the one thing that I was actually hoping for with character options from this book!

Essentially, the clocksmith is a wizard specializing in the crafting of clockwork constructs, perfecting the magic needed to animate them as well as the mechanical engineering that powers their motion. Hell, this archetype has the fastest turnaround of learning craft construct, giving it to you at first level, bypassing the prerequisites!

So what’s the problem?

The problem is, the drawback of having an early to mid-level feat at the start of your journey is the stipulation that while you can craft clockwork constructs just fine, all other construct types cost 1.5 times as much gold to craft, which makes most other constructs pretty much non-viable to craft without some serious investment, pretty much limiting you to clockworks. HOWEVER, the thing about clockwork constructs is, they are difficult to make, and not just because they have a subtype ability called “difficult to create” in the name which makes them more expensive than other constructs of their CR anyway.

No, clockworks are difficult to make because NO MATTER WHAT THE CR OF THE CLOCKWORK IS, THE MINIMUM CASTER LEVEL TO CRAFT ANY CLOCKWORK CONSTRUCT IS ALWAYS AT LEAST 12. Yes, even for low-CR stuff like Clockwork Goblin or Clockwork Songbird!

Which means, dear reader, that by taking this archetype at first level, you’ve basically got a dead feat for what could be most of, or even the entirety of the campaign, relying entirely on what other benefits the archetype gives you, and when you finally start getting able to use it, every non-clockwork construct in the game is now just as expensive as a comparable CR clockwork construct.

So honestly, I can only recommend this archetype if you like the idea of a customizable construct familiar, but even that isn’t as good as it seems, as we’ll see below. Still, this archetype is, I suppose, a thematic option should you find yourself at mid-level, and like having a neat familiar.

 The first thing that this path does offer is a construct familiar, which mimics pretty much any normal familiar you could take, and even grants a limited version of that form’s bonuses. However, unless you make one and take improved familiar, it is very specifically not a clockwork familiar, using the base stats for the basic familiar instead, albeit modified for being a construct.

They also are intimately familiar with how clockwork constructs operate, that knowledge helping them to resist the abilities of clockworks much better and letting their spells be more effective against them.

Additionally, as mentioned above, they gain access to the ability to craft constructs early in their career (for all the good it does them).

A major upside of this archetype, however, is that they periodically upgrade their familiar, increasing the number and complexity of their modifications as time goes on, as well as changing them as they gain mastery.

This archetype… honestly feels like it was either made by a freelancer who didn’t fully understand the penalties for making constructs, or it was bogged down by at least one person on the creative team being afraid of what game-breaking could be done with powerful construct minions, which is fair, but the compromise we got out of this archetype was… not good. It’s probably only worth taking if you’re starting at mid-level and therefore don’t have to slog through the levels with it, or if you really, really want to have a familiar with free eidolon evolutions. It also lets you keep your arcane school, but also replaces the arcane school abilities, which depending on the school in question, may or may not be worth it, especially in the early game. It really is an archetype that wants to look like it’s designed for the construct-loving player, but really isn’t at all. If you’re in it for the master craftsman that builds their own powerful minions for others or themselves, you’re better off working with a vanilla wizard with the arcane builder focused subschool of universalist. Still, if you think you can make it work and just really like the flavor and the custom familiar, or are playing in a campaign where clockworks are common enough to make the bonuses worth it, go for it.

 Clocksmiths focus on the mysteries of engineering more so than they do arcane secrets, so I’d imagine they get along quite nicely with alchemists and even 2nd edition’s inventors, though outside of their mystical clockwork-making circles they might find themselves alienated among other arcane spellcasters. Such peers might view them with curiosity, or even disdain.

  All concepts exist in some form in the fey realms, including clockwork wonders the material world has never seen. The Timeless Mechanism is a whole city devoted to strange wonders that do not exist anywhere else, including things like fully mechanical jubjub birds and others replicas of the Tane. A clocksmith wizard would do nearly anything to study such wonders for even one day.

 Kobolds have long prided themselves on their engineering, so it would only make sense that they take to clockwork mechanisms with ease. Such is the case with the newly founded nation of Brasswing, which hopes to establish itself as a country that must be taken seriously by it’s neighbors, but they have many enemies, some who will not suffer kobolds to ascend to the same table as their kind, and some who want their innovations for themselves.

I’m going to put the headcanons for the Shapeshifter first below the cut, in case anyone’s just interested in him, but if anyone wants to read about the Badge Seller’s I recommend checking out the ones I have for Hat Kid’s homeworld first, as some of them will only make sense with those in mind.  That said, here we go: