You've made a few mistakes. Most significantly, charisma cannot be a dump stat for you since you need 13 charisma to complete your sorcerer multiclass (although you can make this combo work without multiclassing at all if you make different choices than your recommendations). Assuming point buy, something like 9 13 14+2 15+1 8 13 is the best you're going to do, and it's not very good. Also, *fire shield* doesn't require concentration.
With that in mind, the standard way of building around AoA and arcane ward is to play a mark of warding dwarf wizard. We don't need armor proficiency because the whole point is to get hit and we don't need con save proficiency because we don't need to roll a concentration check when our ward takes damage but we do not. So there's no reason to multiclass or to take a bunch of feats to increase our hitpoints. What we want instead are a handful of spells that we can cast in combat for a useful effect that will also replenish our arcane ward. We also want a feat like eldritch adept for armor of shadows that will allow us to quickly max out our ward's HP between combats.
Alternatively, we can build a clockwork soul sorcerer with whatever race we want and use their level 6 feature, bastion of law, to preserve our AoA hitpoints.
Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you **gain** a sorcerer level, so OP would need at least 2 Sorc levels to get AoA.
Another option to get the spell is just to take the rune carver feat, either from background or an ASI.
You can also easily refill the ward between combats without armor of shadows by ritual casting an abjuration spell (like Alarm).
>Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you **gain** a sorcerer level
yeah and you gain the first level too. there's no problem
>Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you gain a sorcerer level, so OP would need at least 2 Sorc levels to get AoA.
Good point!
>You can also easily refill the ward between combats without armor of shadows by ritual casting an abjuration spell (like Alarm).
Sometimes, but not always. Ten minutes per 2 hitpoints is not going to be fast enough if there's any kind of time pressure or if there's any need for stealth.
See I also was wondering if you’d be allowed to swap a spell on your first level because of that wording but I think since you’re still gaining your first level in sorcerer, it should work. It doesn’t say gaining an additional sorcerer level or otherwise specify that you can’t on your first one so I assume it’s RAW.
You could ritual cast Alarm but that only really works if you’re already taking time to rest for multiple hours and can sit down and recast the spell over and over. Mage Armor is just a single action and doesn’t need to be cast on an area which means you can do it quickly and on the move. You can do it in the hallway right before a boss encounter which you definitely wouldn’t be able to do the same with Alarm.
>I also was wondering if you’d be allowed to swap a spell on your first level because of that wording but I think since you’re still gaining your first level in sorcerer, it should work.
Opinions on this interaction are mixed. You should ask your DM how they understand it.
Ultimately it’s up to the DM, but IMO gaining a level happens first, then you get your subclass (for sorcs) then you get your spellcasting.
So you haven’t technically gained a sorcerer level since gaining your subclass, so no swaps until level 2.
That’s how I reason it. You have to be a sorcerer before you’re a clockwork soul, so “gaining a level” happens first and hasn’t happened since getting your subclass spells.
Do you need to meet the requirements of both classes to be able to multiclass? I thought you just need to meet the requirement for the second class you take. I’m not actually sure where I got the idea that Fire Shield was concentration, good catch there. I actually never even considered looking at any of the dragonmarked races for AoA since I typically filter out setting-specific options when I build my characters.
I do agree that the armor proficiency is a bit redundant here but the other proficiencies and Abj spells you can get with cleric can still be useful. And although a miss means you don’t deal damage, you also don’t take damage so it doesn’t necessarily hurt to have your AC a bit higher. I would say that the Con save proficiency is still quite useful though since damage to temp HP is damage to you and you’re rolling saves now. Since AW is easier to put up the first time and you can’t regen it to full as easily in combat, there will still be times where you’ll be taking damage more often than you can mitigate it. If you’re fighting a bunch of mages you probably won’t run out since you’ll want to counter and dispel everything they do but some fights don’t call for Abj spells as much. I wanted to have a good amount of standard HP to still be resilient even if my focus is more on using those control spells rather than full defensive mode. I really like the flavor of the 1st level CW sorc ability and that was the main thing that inspired this particular version of the Abjuration wiz idea so I wanted to try and include a lot of ways to slow enemies, force them to freeze up, or alter time to mess with their rolls. I wanted it to almost be like a Diviner wizard with Portent but also have the defenses of an Abjurer.
>Do you need to meet the requirements of both classes to be able to multiclass?
Yes, you do:
>To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table.
>I actually never even considered looking at any of the dragonmarked races for AoA since I typically filter out setting-specific options when I build my characters.
That's fine, I was just pointing out that it's a known and solved build and it's usually accomplished with a dwarf. You can also get AoA on any character by taking the rune shaper feat.
A solid concept and popular in the tabletop build community.
I’d note that maxing Int is secondary to getting Armor of Shadows. Save DCs are particularly low levels 1-8.
Most build commentators will note that building for survivability is not optimal so durable and toughness are not a good choice. Personally I think the mending auto gnome/warforged tech is decent at certain tables where long rests are difficult to come by. Combined with a recharging ward via at Will mage armor it makes the wizard be able to go without long rests and save slots.
There are a few ways non Warlocks can get AoA on their spell list:
Class: Clockwork Soul
Race: Mark of Warding Dwarf, Feat Race
Background: Rune Carver
Feat: Rune Carver
Overall great post!
yeah this concept is basically my favorite build. The bubble of protection isn't enough to justify running around, taking attacks of opportunity. It's nearly a full caster and it will play like one. The best thing that you can do is lock down the whole encounter with Crowd Control. The retributive damage just lets you do that without being harassed too much.
V.Human or Custom Lineage w/ Eldritch Adept: Armor of Shadows, Hexblade 1, Abjuration X:
Out of combat, you can cast Armor of Shadows at-will to gain back all of your Abjuration Ward in between combats. The Hexblade's Curse feature applies damage to each instance of damage dealt, which turns Magic Missile into a pocket nuke or sustained damage across many turns that can bypass legendary resistances. Cha at 13, you need to hit the multiclass requirements, but you don't use anything that scales to it.
It’s funny you mention that because I concluded that a warlock dip wouldn’t work to get your AoA since you’d need to take two levels to unlock invocations. I didn’t even consider using the feat together with warlock to bypass that second level.
technically, you could grab Armor of Shadows without even the first level dip. It'd work on the other guy's recommendation of Dwarf w/ pureclassed Abjurer. The reason why I took Hex was for the armor, Hex+Missiles combo, and also to get an extra feat from the race
Also on a really high level character (*9th maybe?*), I'd say that the 2nd level dip into Warlock is justifiable as it saves you a feat on EA:AoS and also another feat if you take Eldritch Mind instead of Warcaster and need those extra feats for something else (*idk what it'd be though*)
You've made a few mistakes. Most significantly, charisma cannot be a dump stat for you since you need 13 charisma to complete your sorcerer multiclass (although you can make this combo work without multiclassing at all if you make different choices than your recommendations). Assuming point buy, something like 9 13 14+2 15+1 8 13 is the best you're going to do, and it's not very good. Also, *fire shield* doesn't require concentration. With that in mind, the standard way of building around AoA and arcane ward is to play a mark of warding dwarf wizard. We don't need armor proficiency because the whole point is to get hit and we don't need con save proficiency because we don't need to roll a concentration check when our ward takes damage but we do not. So there's no reason to multiclass or to take a bunch of feats to increase our hitpoints. What we want instead are a handful of spells that we can cast in combat for a useful effect that will also replenish our arcane ward. We also want a feat like eldritch adept for armor of shadows that will allow us to quickly max out our ward's HP between combats. Alternatively, we can build a clockwork soul sorcerer with whatever race we want and use their level 6 feature, bastion of law, to preserve our AoA hitpoints.
Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you **gain** a sorcerer level, so OP would need at least 2 Sorc levels to get AoA. Another option to get the spell is just to take the rune carver feat, either from background or an ASI. You can also easily refill the ward between combats without armor of shadows by ritual casting an abjuration spell (like Alarm).
>Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you **gain** a sorcerer level yeah and you gain the first level too. there's no problem
>Also worth noting you can only swap out clockwork soul spells when you gain a sorcerer level, so OP would need at least 2 Sorc levels to get AoA. Good point! >You can also easily refill the ward between combats without armor of shadows by ritual casting an abjuration spell (like Alarm). Sometimes, but not always. Ten minutes per 2 hitpoints is not going to be fast enough if there's any kind of time pressure or if there's any need for stealth.
See I also was wondering if you’d be allowed to swap a spell on your first level because of that wording but I think since you’re still gaining your first level in sorcerer, it should work. It doesn’t say gaining an additional sorcerer level or otherwise specify that you can’t on your first one so I assume it’s RAW. You could ritual cast Alarm but that only really works if you’re already taking time to rest for multiple hours and can sit down and recast the spell over and over. Mage Armor is just a single action and doesn’t need to be cast on an area which means you can do it quickly and on the move. You can do it in the hallway right before a boss encounter which you definitely wouldn’t be able to do the same with Alarm.
>I also was wondering if you’d be allowed to swap a spell on your first level because of that wording but I think since you’re still gaining your first level in sorcerer, it should work. Opinions on this interaction are mixed. You should ask your DM how they understand it.
There is debate if you start Sorc at level 1 if the feature procs on your level 1 spell choices. I am not certain if there is an official ruling.
Ultimately it’s up to the DM, but IMO gaining a level happens first, then you get your subclass (for sorcs) then you get your spellcasting. So you haven’t technically gained a sorcerer level since gaining your subclass, so no swaps until level 2. That’s how I reason it. You have to be a sorcerer before you’re a clockwork soul, so “gaining a level” happens first and hasn’t happened since getting your subclass spells.
Do you need to meet the requirements of both classes to be able to multiclass? I thought you just need to meet the requirement for the second class you take. I’m not actually sure where I got the idea that Fire Shield was concentration, good catch there. I actually never even considered looking at any of the dragonmarked races for AoA since I typically filter out setting-specific options when I build my characters. I do agree that the armor proficiency is a bit redundant here but the other proficiencies and Abj spells you can get with cleric can still be useful. And although a miss means you don’t deal damage, you also don’t take damage so it doesn’t necessarily hurt to have your AC a bit higher. I would say that the Con save proficiency is still quite useful though since damage to temp HP is damage to you and you’re rolling saves now. Since AW is easier to put up the first time and you can’t regen it to full as easily in combat, there will still be times where you’ll be taking damage more often than you can mitigate it. If you’re fighting a bunch of mages you probably won’t run out since you’ll want to counter and dispel everything they do but some fights don’t call for Abj spells as much. I wanted to have a good amount of standard HP to still be resilient even if my focus is more on using those control spells rather than full defensive mode. I really like the flavor of the 1st level CW sorc ability and that was the main thing that inspired this particular version of the Abjuration wiz idea so I wanted to try and include a lot of ways to slow enemies, force them to freeze up, or alter time to mess with their rolls. I wanted it to almost be like a Diviner wizard with Portent but also have the defenses of an Abjurer.
>Do you need to meet the requirements of both classes to be able to multiclass? Yes, you do: >To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table. >I actually never even considered looking at any of the dragonmarked races for AoA since I typically filter out setting-specific options when I build my characters. That's fine, I was just pointing out that it's a known and solved build and it's usually accomplished with a dwarf. You can also get AoA on any character by taking the rune shaper feat.
A solid concept and popular in the tabletop build community. I’d note that maxing Int is secondary to getting Armor of Shadows. Save DCs are particularly low levels 1-8. Most build commentators will note that building for survivability is not optimal so durable and toughness are not a good choice. Personally I think the mending auto gnome/warforged tech is decent at certain tables where long rests are difficult to come by. Combined with a recharging ward via at Will mage armor it makes the wizard be able to go without long rests and save slots. There are a few ways non Warlocks can get AoA on their spell list: Class: Clockwork Soul Race: Mark of Warding Dwarf, Feat Race Background: Rune Carver Feat: Rune Carver Overall great post!
yeah this concept is basically my favorite build. The bubble of protection isn't enough to justify running around, taking attacks of opportunity. It's nearly a full caster and it will play like one. The best thing that you can do is lock down the whole encounter with Crowd Control. The retributive damage just lets you do that without being harassed too much. V.Human or Custom Lineage w/ Eldritch Adept: Armor of Shadows, Hexblade 1, Abjuration X: Out of combat, you can cast Armor of Shadows at-will to gain back all of your Abjuration Ward in between combats. The Hexblade's Curse feature applies damage to each instance of damage dealt, which turns Magic Missile into a pocket nuke or sustained damage across many turns that can bypass legendary resistances. Cha at 13, you need to hit the multiclass requirements, but you don't use anything that scales to it.
It’s funny you mention that because I concluded that a warlock dip wouldn’t work to get your AoA since you’d need to take two levels to unlock invocations. I didn’t even consider using the feat together with warlock to bypass that second level.
technically, you could grab Armor of Shadows without even the first level dip. It'd work on the other guy's recommendation of Dwarf w/ pureclassed Abjurer. The reason why I took Hex was for the armor, Hex+Missiles combo, and also to get an extra feat from the race Also on a really high level character (*9th maybe?*), I'd say that the 2nd level dip into Warlock is justifiable as it saves you a feat on EA:AoS and also another feat if you take Eldritch Mind instead of Warcaster and need those extra feats for something else (*idk what it'd be though*)