I really appreciate that you explain the reasons behind each decision and the benefits of each spell, even if they’re things you’ve said many times before.
That's a cool interaction, and it got me thinking I could give them to my familiar so even if I'm incapacitated I can still cast spells through the familiar.
I think the Artificer's access to Faerie Fire is an underrated benefit of taking a level of Artificer. This spell is usually a death sentence for any creature that fails the save.
In the early game, absolutely. By the mid game, you have far better uses for your concentration than mere advantage on attacks against the limited number of creatures you can catch in such a small area. The part about preventing invisibility is wildly circumstantial.
@@dylandugan76 I still like Faerie Fire in T3+ because, like Bless, it's still very strong for its level and not all encounters require you to go BEAST MODE with your L3+ spells. Definitely worth keeping around and even using (unlike, say, Levitate or Wall of Fire), even if it becomes less of a staple as the game progresses.
Faerie Fire is significantly better than Sleep ...if your whole team has effective ranged or ranged spell attacks and is optimized to use them. An articron with high initiative can Faerie Fire a pack of opponents. But you need to keep your team back making ranged attack with advantage while the enemy charges you. If you can get three other players to make ranged attacks, the spell will usually land one attack that would have missed, and if they’re properly concentrated, you’ve got a decent chance of dropping one opponent, collectively, before they close to melee. The way encounters are usually balanced, dropping one opponent before they can make an attack is pretty close to winning. It works just as effectively at higher levels. The more spell options you have, the less likely it’s the best choice...but it’s always worth the slot and worth the concentration. Sleep straight up stops being effective by 5th level because every target has too many HP or so few that you shouldn’t use a spell. I still cast Faerie Fire, even mid level. At L1 and L2, it’s a spell for the big fight. At L8, it’s a spell for the little fight. You still want to use your concentration in the little fight and there isn’t a better L1 spell to use...especially now that fighters and Lock builds have multiple high damage attacks. Nothing my character is going to do with a L1 slot is going to be better than helping to land the vastly higher damage of my team. Statistically, that spell lands a few attacks that drop a couple opponents a round earlier meaning a couple less hits on us. Indirectly, therefore, you can think of it as the most effective cure spell you can cast.
Since I discovered 5e a few years ago, I've wanted to play a wizard obsessed with the idea of controlling the flow of time. The idea being that elements like fire, ice etc were child's play, and that it was about time wizards set their aspirations a bit higher. I'm so glad we got a subclass aimed around it, even if it's potentially setting-restricted.
Me too! If you havent seen it, I highly recommend campaign 2 of critical role - one of the PCs is a wizard with that exact obsession, and this campaign is the first time anyone had seen or used dunamancy spells in DnD.
Also, huge thing for magic jar, find a way to get into a creature immune to exhaustion. Convergent future with no exhaustion cost. Get that immunity before shapechange.
I talked to my DM for the Chronurgist I'm making, and we agreed to tweek a few things. First, we greatly reduced the gold cost for Fotune's Favor. 100 gold that is consumed seemed way to steep to both of us for a 2nd level spell. In exchange, we nerfed the ability to have familiars have familiars, and specifically said that you can't cast Leomund's Tiny Hut in a single action (we made it take 4 actions if cast in that way).
After reading this, I think I'll still lime Arcane Abeyance to an action, bonus action or reaction spell casting time, but I'll give my Player the opportunity to like, research arcane Abeyance for spells woth a a higher casting time then listed and exclude the op familiars and leomonds tiny hut
I’ve been waiting for this one, Chris. For my chronurgy build, I went with halfling for the race’s lucky feature; a 1-level dip into peace domain cleric for emboldening bond, bless, and guidance; bountiful luck; lucky; gift of alacrity; fortune’s favor; and Jim’s glowing coin. He’s a luck mage and is OP in all the right ways: support. ‘Pip’ tested. DM approved.
I basically made this character for my newest campaign just a few days ago! Almost all the same decisions without using a guide. I feel validated! Haha great content! Keep it up!
Again something that’s probably too strong to not be fun, but there’s some humanoids that are immune to exhaustion, you can magic jar into one of them, and then you can use convergent future all you want without exhaustion stacking up
Just a tiny little thing but at first level with the Fey Touched feat and 18 intelligence, you actually get 4 starting spells instead of 3! I'm not sure why dndbeyond doesn't update the feat's +1 to intelligence until you view your character page and then go back into to editing your character
I have been playing with one chronurgy mage when the class was released but don't fell like was using her full potential... For my sake, the campaing got a pause, so i have time to see your video and wow, your build and explanation of what to pick up for what, helped me so much! Thank you 🙌
Portent = Use it ahead of time to ensure a very unlikely result. Chronurgy feature = Use it to get a good chance at erasing a highly probable event that went wrong.
Good video and build! Small note -- it won't matter at most tables, but all artificer spells require a material component (even if the spell normally is just V and/or S), and a standard arcane focus cannot replace it. If your DM is very strict about that, you'd probably want to take firebolt and absorb elements as wizard spells, otherwise they will be annoying to use. Doesn't affect the build really - just worth noting.
Every time I used Chronal Shift, it was because a member of the party nat 1'd. When they re-rolled, it was always a 20. The party started calling my character god.
I just made an ArtiDiv (Artificer + Diviner) for The Rime of the Frost Maiden. Got a Forest Gnome in scale male and a shield so his starting AC was 18 and has Minor Illusion, Speak with Small Beasts, and Gnome Cunning for advantage in Int/Wis/Cha saves versus magic. Still at Artificer 1 + Wizard 3 and going to get the War Caster Feat at Wizard 4 and Lucky at Wizard 8. Lucky + Portent is fire! I have 5 Artificer level-1 spells prepared and 7 Wizard spells of either 1st and 2nd level spells. My total cantrips are 6 and my owl familiar is a better scout than the Rogue or Ranger of the party!
Momentary Stasis seems like a great spell to use on an enemy spellcaster. Usually spellcasters don't have a high constitution score and since this is not a spell it cannot be counterspelled. If you have another ally spellcaster in the party after you he or she can safely cast a spell, because the spellcaster will be incapacitated by Momentary Statis.
I feel like an opportunity was missed to get Foresight/Metamagic Adept (Extended). Casting just before a long rest ends. This would leave you w/ Wish to cast the next day, but so long as you remain relatively safe, you continue the trend each morning. When the big day comes, similar to the lvl 14 ability, you need some extra downtime to get back to full power. Seems fun and thematically fitting. I bring this up, as I'm getting ready to build upon a very similar plan :-D (Mine is running in Eberron, w/ Jorasco Halfling w/ healing themed around "Rapid recovery")
If you extend a Foresight it'll last 16 hours, 8 of which will be spent sleeping, so only the next 8 hours will really gain the benefit of Foresight. 8 hours might last a typical adventuring day, but only if you do all your adventuring in the morning. There's often some travel to-and-from the dungeon, and mornings spent RPing, and all that jazz. With stuff like Gift of Alacrity you usually have the advantage of casting right before you enter a dungeon, so you'll have the full benefit for all 8 hours, and none of the duration will be eaten up during breakfast, or while getting the quest from the king, or while walking there. But if you're starting the timer from the moment you wake up, then by the time you get to the dungeon you might only have 5-3 hours of duration left. And anything that happens late in the day is out of the question - Foresight will absolutely be gone by then. Of course, if you're casting Foresight then you're probably able to Teleport wherever you want, so you can initiate combat on your own terms. And in those cases this trick is still pretty potent. But it's got some noticeable gaps, especially if you want that 9th level slot open for emergencies.
You don't cast at the start of the rest, you cast in the final minutes. And cheeky... Yes and no I guess. But... This entire subclass is more cheeky that this, and RAW is perfectly fine. Only 1 hour of casting/etc breaks the rest
This seems like as good a video as any to ask fellow commenters, what are your favorite combinations for a two, three, four, or five round Time Stop? One of mine would be: 1. Programmed Illusion. Make an image of yourself, set to trigger when time resumes, with a scripted performance lasting a few rounds of "you" using movement and actions that are both plausible for the current combat and avoid danger, so that the illusion might avoid suspicion for multiple rounds. 2. Greater Invisibility. Be capable of hiding as soon as time resumes. 3. Blindness. Finish with an upcast Blindness to further confuse as many enemies as possible and really sell the illusion, especially since you are already invisible and likely on the opposite side of the enemies or behind full cover. Now you can conceivably collect the macguffin, or disrupt the ritual, or bypass/escape the encounter, or whatever, before the enemies even realize that they aren't fighting you. This is as sneaky as it gets. Eat your heart out, Rogue.
If you know that enemy is in the next room/area you can cast time stop and enter/teleport to the room without any resistance. This is specially good for scrying based assassination attack. Note that this works only inside 1000 feet radius from original casting. One idea to do something fancy might be cast wall of force top of your enemies. Next use stone shape to drop big rocks from the roof to the wall top of your enemies. When time stop ends end the wall of force. The benefit of this trick is that the damage bypasses immunities against weapon damage, most special magical immunities and anti magic fields.
@@SystemLordNemo Interesting. I've rarely considered using it preemptively. It always strikes me as a woefully inadequate use of a 9th level slot to stop time before you even encounter the enemy. I wonder what options there are for that use. I always figure it functions best as a defensive countermeasure that you can deploy if you get caught out by an extremely dangerous situation that you and your party were completely unprepared for. As for offensive uses, I'd consider using your favorite damage over time spell (Faithful Hound has the distinction of not using your concentration) plus a Forcecage plus Etherealness (potentially upcast to include two party members) so that you have virtually foolproof protection from which to watch the show.
@@dylandugan76 Sometimes your opponent is so dangerous that giving it a chance to win initiative is kind of out of question. Now you will land the first hit, cast first debuff, dispel its protective magics, hug your opponent with antimagic field around you both or steal / activate the artifact of immense power for your benefit. If you teleport in during the time stop steal the artifact and teleport out still during the time stop nobody can stop or even see you regardless of true sight or blind sight etc. A perfect crime. Also while you are attacking party if your time stop is not long enough for the plan you can call off the attack and possibly try again later.
I think the creature "or object" specification is a somewhat trivial one. I run a very rules-centric campaign, I'm very rules lawyer-y, but even I would not say that you can't launch an eldritch blast at a rock, or use ray of frost to chill your wine. That's just... kind of dumb, to take it to that extreme.
I agree entirely, but it also isn't clear that all damage types that harm creatures would have meaningful effects against most objects. So I definitely think a DM should allow you to target an object with ray of frost to chill it, but I don't expect it would harm most objects in a meaningful way.
Absolutely, just recently in a campaign we ended up trapped in a room where the rocks melted into the door, blocking us in. The DM let me just repeatedly attack the blockage with eldritch blast and we were out
While I agree with your point I would say that using the ray of frost to chill your wine is kinda extreme... It is like trying to bake a cake using a gun and incendiary ammunition. In best case scenario it won't be that nice of a cake
Where this often plays is Bigby's Hand, which has hitpoints and AC but is an object, and therefore can only take damage from spells/cantrips that can damage an object.
The targeting system is build around differentiating between creatures, objects, and points in space. Targeting an object with an effect that that isn’t designed to include that target can have large ripples that effect gameplay. Some subclass features are based on this, like the artillerist artificers Eldritch cannon being an object. This means it’s not a valid target for most AOE spells, so it usually has to be whittled down by melee attacks to take it out. PHB page 185 goes over basic object rules in regard to damage types and saving throws. DMG pg 246 gives for ether guidance about object interaction in regard to hitpoints, object size, facility or hardness, and even damage thresholds. This information can put into perspective how powerful spells that actually target objects are meant to be.
Even with Warcaster, the Artificer still requires tools in hand to cast their spells, including cantrips, since all artificer spells are considered to have a Material Component of their tools, and they have no infused items to act as Foci with a one level dip. And those same tools can't also be a Wizard's Arcane Focus. And Warcaster doesn't allow you to Provide Material Components with your Hands full. So, if you're using a shield, you would have to Draw or Stow your tools to swap between being able to cast Artificer and Wizard spells if using a component pouch. And wouldn't be able to wield anything else in that hand like a staff or other focus without losing access to the Artificer spells. Just something to keep in mind, especially when taking your Primary attack roll cantrip from Artificer.
Alternatively, you could just keep a grip of cook's utensils or weavers' tools and use your Interact With An Object action to draw them. You'll become a litterbug, but that's basically what my low-level Bladesinger did to get their TWFing action on without Warcaster.
Negative, once you turn wizard slots are slots and available to be cast as normal, it works the same as other multiclass spellcasters. Even if your DM rules against it for some reason which would make no sense. The only spell affected is cure wounds. If your unsure its the same reason cleric/wiz doesn't need a holy symbol to cast or focus etc...
@@msolace580 The Nature of the Slot is Irrelevant. I agree a slot is a slot, but it's the spell list you prepare from that's important. RAW, a Wizard can only use their Arcane focus to cast Wizard spells, and an Artificer MUST use their tools to cast any Artificer spell. A Wizard/Cleric would still need a Holy Symbol to cast any spell prepared from their cleric spell list too. And cure wounds isn't the problem spell for that, it's the ever important Guidance, and the fact that this particular build picked up it's main attack cantrip from an Artificer Level, making it TECHNICALLY an artificer spell. Case in point if a multiclass with two different casting stats offers you the same spell on both lists you have two options to prepare it, each using a different modifier, despite being the same spell.
@@AsheandCinders Guidance has no M, But I stand corrected RAW mentions needing the focus for each. it, I just don't know if it matters anymore with the new 5e rules about free drawing/ picking up. Also as a DM It sounds like to much effort for something so little. Cheers
This is going to be the next character I play. Right now I'm playing your Voice From Beyond Warlock, giving the whole group the creeps! As a warlock, you're always wishing for the spell slots tho, so this will be a refreshing change. That said, I'll miss all the at will spells!
You might also consider Magic Stone as your attack cantrip. The range is shorter (60’) but still adequate. Very little is resistant or immune to magical bludgeoning damage. The damage is slightly higher, but the key is the minimum with INT 18 is 5 points of damage on a successful hit. Fire Bolt can be annoying when you hit a Kobold or Goblin for 1 point of fire damage and it gets killed by a melee combatant the next round - I often don’t feel like the hit contributed. There are a lot of very low CR vermin and creepers that are certain to be incapacitated by 5 points of damage. This makes spending the action on an attack more attractive. I’ve also usually found that there is often another support/caster like a bard or cleric that would have a better attack bonus using my INT modifier, better and more consistent damage, and better range using one of my stones. Usually I’ll BA cast, throw one, and then hold the other two behind me in an open hand. My party member moves past me and collects them, throws one, and has the other for next round. I know that the spell doesn’t scale. But, by 5th Level a wizard can already change cantrips every long rest. I find at that point I’m usually using Mind Sliver to ding an enemy ST for a follow up from a companion. The 5 point minimum on 2 attacks that have such a high hit chance was too good to pass up. Our party milked that for L1, L2, and most of L3 as a go to whenever I and the Cleric were either concentrating or not willing to expend the slots. You do need to talk to your DM about M-Tool components if you’re using an Artificer attack cantrip. My DM allowed me to pre-work a couple dozen oversized leaded glass marbles and then strike them against a tool from my tinkers kit...essentially, I needed to have one free hand for all of the components...but a DM might rule the tools and the pebbles are separate kinds of components...it’s unclear if the “any MS requires one hand for both” or “artificer spells all require M which must be Tools” take priority. Of course, Fire Bolt is similar but less problematic. You’ll always have to keep that one hand empty if you want to cast Shield.
Tasha's really did make iffy cantrips like Magic Stone a lot more viable long-term. I'd have never taken that cantrip unless I was a Necromancer otherwise, but with it it's quite nice for T1.
@@maltheopia Agreed. When TCE dropped a table I played with had just started a new campaign and we were less than 1/2 through L1. To say our DM “allowed” us to respec our characters implies there would have been a game otherwise, as every player at the table didn’t even pretend to gesture towards “roleplaying” sophistry and rationalization. My comment on our group email was “It’s only power creep if someone doesn’t use it, so I expect some A-game min/max. Otherwise, I’m going to feel dirty.” Of course, then I read Twilight Cleric and was like...300’? And you can hand it out to everyone else? I mean...I get it, “I can’t see” sucks...but, this over-solves at low level for small cost. If you have a Twilight Cleric in your party, everyone takes Custom Lineage without DV for the extra skill...except for the satyr, of course, as only one thing beats a feat a first level. But, then, doesn’t that mean that every cleric is required to be a Twilight Cleric (subsection 21, ...player shall always choose options to allow fellow players to optimize, unless this conflicts with Rule 1...)? And then, it just went on from there. That is a lot of temp HP. And then...I mean, damn. Mic drop. But, I get it. Nobody in the groups I DM jumps at playing the Cleric and I don’t either. I am a Wizard since I was 8 years old until the day I die, and sometimes a Lore Bard. In 5e they’re essentially specialist Wizards with better manners (which matters a lot these days...geez, all the thespians...back in the 80s we also did that role playing thing...but, you only used dice to kill things). I know players that are forever PAM-somethings, it’s just a question of how they’re going to add more dice this time. I know people that love Bards...which, yeah, probably best all-round class. Going to play a one-character game? Bard. Going to show up to a table with no idea what anyone else is playing, just the level? Bring a Bard (do the Hexblade 2L dip...yeah, but now you’re super-flexible and can contribute no matter what everyone else is playing). Even a party of 4 Bards probably benefits as much from another Bard as it could from anything else. I would also always be a Bard, except I have this addiction to abusing spell mechanics. No, that is the exact wording of that spell description and I have a reference from JC saying it was intended that way. Well, I don’t know if he thought about what would happen if you cast Wall of Force parallel with the floor at a height of 2 feet. Well, size medium creatures can fit under there...squeezing, sure...but, they’re not going to take damage. I would guess they could try to jump upwards...but none of them are spellcasters, so how do they know? I’m guessing it just sort of forms everywhere all at once except where they are, and then they get shoved to one side or the other...I mean, if you want me to describe how...it begins as a really elastic tangle of ectoplasmic noodles that appear distributed across the whole area. Then, an instant later, all the noodles touch each other, lock into place, and there is the flash as it transforms from a whispy spaghetti through successive stages of order and rigidity until it snaps into a wall, shoving things to one side or another depending on the exact gestures of the spell...of course...that entire thing would be invisible...so, I think what it would look like would be as if all of them were simultaneously seized by some weird inertia and then shoved downwards over the course of a couple seconds...slow, then, faster, then...snap! Mime convention...everyone pretend we’re under an invisible wall. And, I know people that love Rogues. Those people, I only sort of get. Yes, sneak attack is a lot of dice, and you don’t need to worry as much about limited abilities. But, that’s like saying I’m never sure when to call in the artillery strike, so I traded that in for increased fieldcraft for my infantry units. There is nothing you can trade for artillery that compensates for not having artillery. But, the only thing I could think of is...wow, this evidence indicates that people do not like to play Clerics. It’s got to be the RP thing because Bards are even more support/indirect than Clerics and playing a Wizard - no HP, bad social skills, and the moment anybody on the enemy team identifies you, you’re the priority target. But, neither a Bard nor Wizard ever needs to imagine being obedient in their own heart. You can lie to people. You can lie to yourself. You can’t lie to your God. It’s pretty confined as a role in a fantasy.
I've been playing almost the same build this week, (but I rolled stats so it is a bit better in that regard) from level 1 to 3. I gotta say that I've never felt so good playing a low level mage. The artificer's tools and spellcasting make for great roleplay, heal wounds and that high AC are soooooooooo good and fairie fire made my paladin crit like 4 times and the echo knight made 4 attacks with advantage and crit twice as well. We've managed to already kill a young white dragon and we are just starting
ב"ה With this build you have the cure wounds spell, so a contingency of cure wounds upcast to level 5 when you drop to 0 hitpoints could be a decent emergency possibility.
I just want to point out: originally fortune's favor didnt have the "consumes a 100gp pearl" material component. That is because wotc cannot design spells, and hated that someone made something better than they did, so they just ruined it
I don't even mind the addition of a material component. What bothers the absolute shit out of me is that it *consumes* the 100gp pearl. I get that it's ridiculously strong with no component cost, but I think just requiring the pearl without consuming it is a better compromise
Remember that when you up your Intelligence you also gain another preparation of a 1st level Artificer spell. You might want to consider taking absorb elements as a wizard, since in order to cast it as a reaction you will need to be holding your artificer focus (or at least that is how my table rules it). You dont need to take misty step as a second level spell, you know it already and you dont need to have it prepared to cast it using spell slots because of Fey Touched. Otherwise this was interesting to watch since until level 7 it was a description almost step by step of a character I have been working on since Tasha's came out. It gave me a lot of ideas, great video!
I definitely get the artificer dip for constitution and it fits the theme...personally for my chronurgist I'm taking dip into twilight cleric. It fits the theme of the story better (we're doing Curse of Strahd), but also with Vigilant Blessing. I have a +6 to initiative at advantage and then get to add the d8 from gift of alacrity to that at level 5.
@@theeye8276 Different strokes for different folks. The game i'm in limits the darkvision to 30ft. Personally I find clerics are just broken in general and make for an insanely good level dip :P
Lol, two of the broken subclasses multiclassed 'because it's fits the theme of the story'. The more they bring out the more apparent power creep is so clear. Multiclassing needs more limitations or just not be in the game.
A few minor mistakes. First, at level 1, you should have 4 spells prepared, as you can prepare INT + artificer level spells, rounded down. Second, at level 3, you do have a second level spell: misty step.
Depends wildly on the dm. I've had dms who give out gold by the thousands and others that give a level 7 party 150gp total for a several session quest.
@@ATMOSK1234 I'm level 7 in my game and we're getting 100 gold for a several session quest :P Edit: 100 total, so 25gp each, and also the DM blew up our 15gp cart, then we had to spend 50gp for information and 45 on a wagon to replace the cart, which mending wouldn't work on because the damage was too severe So actually we're losing money xD
I can't wait to stea- um, draw inspiration from this build, only with an Astral Elf. Still get the free teleport, but also other stuff, and I think there's a lot of overlap between how we measure time based on the cosmos.
That Shapechange combo is pretty ingenious. Scarlet witch in dnd. It effectively makes your spells with saving throws selectively over-powered. This who build is like a demigod group. Simulacrum plus Clone means your essentially (more like potentially) immortal and can have a huge number of Copies with the Simulacrum loop.
None of the DMs I've played with in my local area are particularly open to creative uses of Illusion magic... Or even bog-standard uses like creating an illusion of a rock to hide behind (because "they know there's not a rock there, so they aren't going to be fooled," usually followed by "it's just a cantrip, don't get greedy"). Under those conditions, Minor Illusion becomes a LOT less valuable.
If you're taking resilient wisdom as a feat anyways, at higher levels there isn't a huge difference between taking Artificer at 1 and taking it later on in your progression. Just replace resilient Wis with Con and you'll be in the same spot by level 9. This could let someone who started at level 5 get their 3rd level spells immediately and then add on Medium Armor and shields later.
10:03 No, you get four prepared spells. It's equal to your Intelligence modifier (plus half your artificer level rounded down but that will always be zero for this character). I'm really not sure how DND Beyond came up with 3 before you'd even assigned your ability scores, tbh. Perhaps you had the same bug as I did, where the +1 from Fey Touched wasn't registering until I exited out of the character sheet and returned.
Real quick on the Artificer spells. In the video, you get 3 prepared spells, this means that your intelligence modifier is +2. This doesn't make sense because (I am assuming you did point buy or standard array) your intelligence score should be 15+3=18 due to your race and feat. In this case you should have 5 prepared artificer spells and when you eventually boost your intelligence to 20 you should have 6 prepared artificer spells. This build just got a little more OP, if I am correct.
You are correct, but there aren't that many good 1st level Artificer spells. Faerie Fire and Cure Wounds are the important ones that aren't on the Wizard spell list. (Purify Food and Drink could also see some play.) It frees you up from having to put Absorb Elements, Feather Fall, or Grease in your spellbook, but you're not replacing them with anything super powerful, just some added utility. Unfortunately, Artificer's ritual casting specifically states you still have to prepare the rituals to cast them (unlike a Wizard). So you'd still have to put spell like Detect Magic and Alarm in your spellbook. (Unless you don't mind actually preparing them as an Artificer.)
Ahh. My J’zargo build is now at its best. 😉 Oh, yes. J'zargo hopes to find things that will make him a more powerful mage here. Hopefully small things that fit inside pockets, and will not be noticed if they are missing.
@@CaitSith87 He started as an evoker and had many reincarnations. J'zargo can learn magic from these men and elves, but they cannot learn to be as dashing as he. J'zargo comes out on top.
@@GuyRusso yeah he was aslo my companion on my last playthrough but sadly i lost him on a fast travel. Also he carried a lot of my legendary gear, so where ever he is money will not be one of his problems. ;) It was an engaging hunt.
chronurgy/peace (1 level dip) is crazy powerful I’m playing a Vedalken adv, on Int, Wiz, and Cha, saves, and peace gives my proficiency with medium armor and a Shield, plus I can add 2d4 to saving, attack, and skill checks for me and my party. With emboldening bond, and bless.
Leomund's tiny hut is not impenetrable. It blocks objects and spells. Certain monster features will go right through it. For example, Dragon's breath passes through it. Also, don't forget that Dispel Magic removes Leomund's. If my players try to pull stuff like this mid-combat without talking to me first, I am having the enemy archmage appear to disrupt their shenanigans. The rule for Arcane Abeyance should be that it is limited to spells that cost 1 action to cast. This doesn't affect a prepared Leomund's but affects spells like Magnificent Mansion that has a 1 minute casting time.
I would just have the bad guys move to the next room and get reinforcements while the party either sits in their tent doing nothing or wastes the spell by leaving it behind to pursue. Doubling up on offensive concentration spells seems like it's almost always going to be better than Tiny Hut to me.
What do you mean you don't get anything good at Wizard 18? You can pick a 1st and 2nd level spell to cast at-will. Shield and Fortune's Favor sound perfect for those choices.
I'm pretty shocked that Chris picked many of the same spells I did in my Artichron build when I played it in my DMs high level campaign. Very cool build. Also totally agree on the self-policing aspect around Arcane Abeyance....holy shit that's powerful! Also small note on the Simulacrum spell, it would not have a 7th level spell slot. So unless you're 20th level, your simulacrum wouldn't be able to loop the spell as you described.
18th level. The way the Simulacrum loop works is you use your 7th level slot to cast Simulacrum on yourself after you have 9th level slots and have prepared the wish spell. Your Simulacrum casts Wish (Simulacrum) on you, creating another Simulacrum. That Simulacrum casts Wish (Simulacrum) on you, creating another Simulacrum - etc. You can technically do it by having your Simulacrum use an 8th level slot to cast Simulacrum, but then you are stuck with the long casting time and material cost.
I personally think you underrated faerie fire at higher levels. Getting group advantage on a group of creatures is huge. Your Rogue, Paladin, Fighter etc. Will all thank you.
Arcana proficiency is required to create scrolls using the Xanathar's rules, and creating low level scrolls is very cost effective especially considering this wizard can create cure wounds and gift of alacrity scrolls, so if slots are going to be a big deal or if some of your good spells are on other character's lists an arcana proficiency could be really good.
It wouldn't be quite as good, but War Wizard can stack well on the benefits gained from an Artificer dip. Between the Constitution Save Proficiency, Medium Armor + Shield, the War Caster Feat, and the War Wizard's abilities and you'll have near-unparalleled concentration.
I actually think the Chronurgist is slightly worse than the Necromancer and post-Tasha's Evoker and significantly worse than the Illusionist in late T3/T4, but no one plays at those levels. Malleable Illusions + Illusory Reality is way too strong, you can upend whole encounters with minimal resource expenditure. And it only gets better as you add Wish and Spell Mastery to your arsenal. Necromancer has the option of Command Undead + True Polymorph + Simulacrum. And Evoker can grab Metamagic Adept + two levels of Storm Cleric for maximized Meteor Swarms/Prismatic Walls/Incendiary Clouds. Or putting an Overchanneled Spirit Shroud in a Contingency + Jim's Magic Missile/Scorching Ray. The latter of which can also be Overchanneled/Metamagic Adepted.
And to end it....Wizard to 18 with Mirror Image and Shield selected to cast for free for extra defense....and to make a fake Chronurgist Capstone that falls in line with Chronal Shift....Level 1 Peace Cleric :D
Someone else probably said it before, but you can't Ready a Haste Action, because the Ready is not an action in the list of what the Haste Action can do. What a Hasted Rogue wants to do, is attacking with their Haste Action, getting Sneak Attack, and then Ready their normal Action to attack a second time outside of their turn.
I did the cantrips a little differently, mainly because "Spare the Dying" available to artificer is critically useful in saving PC's (and NPC's for questioning etc) (note, my party does not have a cleric). For the wizard cantrips, I took firebolt, mending, and minor illusion. I wish I could take more.
i am playing D&D not very long .. several years and in our party we had wizard few times . It is evocation/evocation/evocation/evocation result . I made my friend play abjurator , he did it up to 2nd level , and then asked GM to change to evocation :)
Remember that Shapechange planetar doesn't give the 200hp, unless that is lower than current, last line of the spell text, but its still amazing to spam Convergent Future without exhaustion, its pretty much god mode
The Simulacrum unlimited requires a glyph of warding or to have wish. At Level 13 a wizard can store a simulacrum spell in a glyph then go to sleep and the copy gets all your spell slots.
I believe Simulacrum does not trigger in an infinite loop right at the level you gain it. Since the illusion gains the statistics of the creature you target. If you target yourself, it will not have a 7th level spell slot since you used it to cast the spell. Also, it can't regain any spell slots, even if by other means, so there is a reduced effectiveness over time. If you have other spell slots above 7th then you can get more illusions but their potency will be reduced since they will each have to use their higher level slots to do so.
Collapse that time stop, give it to any martial class that uses sharpshooter (rogues or fighters especially), then watch as the enemy suddenly turns into a pin cushion. At least if your dm rules the missles stop in the air when you stop touching them. Then for good measure use telekenesis to drop a steamroller on them.
Sure. When you haste the rogue, they can use the hasted action to attack (with sneak attack), they can then use their normal action to ready an action to attack once their turn is over, because this is now a different turn, they may use sneak attack again.
@@TreantmonksTemple Thanks Chris. I was guessing it had to do with sneak attack but, not being familiar with rogues, I was thinking it was limited to once per round, not once per turn. As always, you've been very helpful. I can see why you've gained such popularity.
@@Loopy_D_Loop Commander's Strike on a Battlemaster is especially potent compared to other possible strikes for the same reason, and Order Clerics are especially nice with Rogue allies.
what's great about wizard is the arguably have the best utility in the game and also the highest damage and people wont tell you ,you shouldn't be able to damage becuase you have utility. Unlike what they unironically say of the monk because you have a 1 in 20 chance of stunning a boss if you spam all your ki in stunning strike.
Excellent guide, as always! I'd love to play an artichron, but I don't think it is worth it compared to straight chronurgist in my particular case for an upcoming game - the DM is having our party time/level jump and we're playing at 3rd level, then jumping to 5th, and then finally up to 9th. Due to this, if I dip a level of Artificer, I lose out on spells known spell access at every jump (2nd at 3rd, 3rd at 5th, and 5th at 9th), and I don't know that that is a good trade off, since we won't be playing the interim levels where the sting of being a spell level behind wouldn't be felt so keenly. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this optimization conundrum. Cheers!
at level 1 artificer would you not get 5 spells prepaired? int=4+ half artificer level rounded down (minimum of 1) makes 5 not 3? or am i missing something?
@@lugh.i no you're close to right, it's 4 spells. 4 from int, 0 from artificer levels, minimum of 1 spell total. You prepare the list of artificer spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the artificer spell list. When you do so, choose a number of artificer spells equal to your Intelligence modifier + half your artificer level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
So you only go up to level 18 with this build as written. Better to ride it all the way with chronurgist, or would dipping back into artificer for a subclass be good? If so, which one might you recommend?
Couple things. Fortune's favor seems very expensive until you can upcast it to hit multiple targets for the cost of one pearl. At lower levels 100gp might be the entire reward for several quests combined. I really think Alert is undervalued as a maybe for 18th level. Without a weapon of warning the surprise condition could be devastating to a high initiative wizard. I would be tempted to take alert or intellect 20 over Resilient Wisdom, though I would want to get it eventually. In addition, I think with shapechange I don't know if you keep the planetar's spellcasting, even though you keep your class features.
Actually divination wizards must replace the value before the results is shown if he waits for dice to be rolled it is already too late to use the feature. Other that that all the information here is golden
Hi @Treantmonk's Temple Fortune's Favor doesn't seems to work as described: you cannot dismiss it on a failed check, but you should dismiss it before making the roll, in order to roll twice and be able to choose the better.
If you swap Custom for a race with martial proficiency, you can make a great gish build out of this (at the cost of a feat). I especially like Hobgoblin for the save buffs.
If I were to DM, I would automatically house-rule that going to a different dimension auto breaks concentration, unless you are concentrating on a spell that gets you/someone else to said different dimension. Playing a Cronurgist now at Level 10 (1 level cleric) and I have already decided not to bother telling the DM of the game-breaking potential I unlock at 11th level. ( I don't intend to act on it)
35:00 I would argue that "Ready" is not one of the allowed actions for Haste, also no mention of casting with your hands full? (Shield+Artificer tool+Component pouch/arcane focus for wizard) EDIT: As corretcly pointed out you can take the ready action as your regular action, and use the haste action for attack on your turn.
@@Quintal100kg I see my mistake on the haste action, War caster does not solve the issuse of casting with you hands full, as is not the somatic component the problem, is the material one, Artificer spells all have material components by definition, and you can't have access to both material components and a shield at the same time. (Which you could solve if your dm is fine with:"Dropping my tools to ground or grabbing material components from my pouch is not an object interaction so i can do both, then pick up my tools and have all reactions up for the round", but this removes the possibility of using one of the +1/2/3 arcane focuses from tasha's and having access to shield)
Q1: How to conquer forgotten realms? A: Be high level mage. Cast simulacrum to replicate yourself. Make simulacrum cast simulacrum by wish and replicate you close to whatever arbitrary number. Memorize true polymorph. Polymorph half of your replicas gold dragons and half to beholders. Remember that dragons breath works in anti magic cone and this cone protects your army from dispel magic. If dispel magic works no worries your simulacrum still has your remaining spells and you can true polymorph it again later. Q2: What is the best excuse for DM to not allow this?
The ones turned into Adult Gold Dragons can also access a fair amount of spellcasting using the Change Shape ability. They could access about 140 spells as of early 2020, potentially an unlimited number of times per day. That number doesn't count the cantrips they could access or using the feat from transforming into a Custom Lineage/Variant Human to pick up Magic Initiate or Artificer Initiate or Ritual Caster.
I really appreciate that you explain the reasons behind each decision and the benefits of each spell, even if they’re things you’ve said many times before.
It's only fitting that a Chronurgist build be posted at a different *time* than usual
it was actually posted at the same time.
it was just shifted afterwards.
you see time isnt some sort of fabric, it's more like a rug......
A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
If you take the 3rd level Xanathar's spell Catnap you can get a second Arcane Abeyance active at the same time.
Taking an hour long nap in ten minutes also fits the Time Lord flavor perfectly.
That's a cool interaction, and it got me thinking
I could give them to my familiar so even if I'm incapacitated I can still cast spells through the familiar.
As long as I can still speak to give commands
Yall see game-breaking exploits with infinite familiars. I see the start of a Postal Service.
I mean, depending on setting, that could be pretty world changing, to have a Harry Potter-esque owl Postal Service just appear out of nowhere.
But like homing pigeons were a thing 0.0
I think the Artificer's access to Faerie Fire is an underrated benefit of taking a level of Artificer. This spell is usually a death sentence for any creature that fails the save.
In the early game, absolutely. By the mid game, you have far better uses for your concentration than mere advantage on attacks against the limited number of creatures you can catch in such a small area. The part about preventing invisibility is wildly circumstantial.
@@dylandugan76 I still like Faerie Fire in T3+ because, like Bless, it's still very strong for its level and not all encounters require you to go BEAST MODE with your L3+ spells. Definitely worth keeping around and even using (unlike, say, Levitate or Wall of Fire), even if it becomes less of a staple as the game progresses.
Faerie Fire is significantly better than Sleep ...if your whole team has effective ranged or ranged spell attacks and is optimized to use them.
An articron with high initiative can Faerie Fire a pack of opponents. But you need to keep your team back making ranged attack with advantage while the enemy charges you. If you can get three other players to make ranged attacks, the spell will usually land one attack that would have missed, and if they’re properly concentrated, you’ve got a decent chance of dropping one opponent, collectively, before they close to melee.
The way encounters are usually balanced, dropping one opponent before they can make an attack is pretty close to winning.
It works just as effectively at higher levels. The more spell options you have, the less likely it’s the best choice...but it’s always worth the slot and worth the concentration. Sleep straight up stops being effective by 5th level because every target has too many HP or so few that you shouldn’t use a spell. I still cast Faerie Fire, even mid level. At L1 and L2, it’s a spell for the big fight. At L8, it’s a spell for the little fight. You still want to use your concentration in the little fight and there isn’t a better L1 spell to use...especially now that fighters and Lock builds have multiple high damage attacks. Nothing my character is going to do with a L1 slot is going to be better than helping to land the vastly higher damage of my team. Statistically, that spell lands a few attacks that drop a couple opponents a round earlier meaning a couple less hits on us. Indirectly, therefore, you can think of it as the most effective cure spell you can cast.
@@3phemaral And think of how well Faerie Fire combines with Elven Accuracy and Sharpshooter. What a fast and efficient way to kill your foes.
Can't say I was expecting this at 2 am, but hey, not gonna say no to another Wizard build!
Since I discovered 5e a few years ago, I've wanted to play a wizard obsessed with the idea of controlling the flow of time. The idea being that elements like fire, ice etc were child's play, and that it was about time wizards set their aspirations a bit higher. I'm so glad we got a subclass aimed around it, even if it's potentially setting-restricted.
Me too! If you havent seen it, I highly recommend campaign 2 of critical role - one of the PCs is a wizard with that exact obsession, and this campaign is the first time anyone had seen or used dunamancy spells in DnD.
You've come to love Gift of alacrity, as I did.
I managed to roll a 33 a couple of sessions ago, for initiative (I also used Guidance).
Also, huge thing for magic jar, find a way to get into a creature immune to exhaustion. Convergent future with no exhaustion cost. Get that immunity before shapechange.
I talked to my DM for the Chronurgist I'm making, and we agreed to tweek a few things. First, we greatly reduced the gold cost for Fotune's Favor. 100 gold that is consumed seemed way to steep to both of us for a 2nd level spell. In exchange, we nerfed the ability to have familiars have familiars, and specifically said that you can't cast Leomund's Tiny Hut in a single action (we made it take 4 actions if cast in that way).
After reading this, I think I'll still lime Arcane Abeyance to an action, bonus action or reaction spell casting time, but I'll give my Player the opportunity to like, research arcane Abeyance for spells woth a a higher casting time then listed and exclude the op familiars and leomonds tiny hut
Honestly, it is even great if you can use it only on 1-action/bonus-action spells
I’ve been waiting for this one, Chris. For my chronurgy build, I went with halfling for the race’s lucky feature; a 1-level dip into peace domain cleric for emboldening bond, bless, and guidance; bountiful luck; lucky; gift of alacrity; fortune’s favor; and Jim’s glowing coin. He’s a luck mage and is OP in all the right ways: support. ‘Pip’ tested. DM approved.
Can’t forget alert, a stone of good luck, and, heaven forbid, a luxon beacon
I basically made this character for my newest campaign just a few days ago! Almost all the same decisions without using a guide. I feel validated! Haha great content! Keep it up!
Again something that’s probably too strong to not be fun, but there’s some humanoids that are immune to exhaustion, you can magic jar into one of them, and then you can use convergent future all you want without exhaustion stacking up
Just a tiny little thing but at first level with the Fey Touched feat and 18 intelligence, you actually get 4 starting spells instead of 3! I'm not sure why dndbeyond doesn't update the feat's +1 to intelligence until you view your character page and then go back into to editing your character
shouldn't that be 5? +4 from INT modifier +1 for half artificer level rounded down... i am so confused at this XD
@@luigidimarino6406 it is
@@luigidimarino6406 Half of one rounded down is 0, so it should just be 4 :)
@@kcallumb4785 I'd have to go find the ability, but most are set for a minimum of 1 so it may still be 5
Thanks for making a video I can point my players at when they ask why I'm not allowing Wildemount content!😄
I have been playing with one chronurgy mage when the class was released but don't fell like was using her full potential...
For my sake, the campaing got a pause, so i have time to see your video and wow, your build and explanation of what to pick up for what, helped me so much! Thank you 🙌
Oi Érika!
I've been waiting for this video since WIldemount came out.
Portent = Use it ahead of time to ensure a very unlikely result.
Chronurgy feature = Use it to get a good chance at erasing a highly probable event that went wrong.
Ray of frost slows enemies just reflavor it to ray of time slow
Good video and build! Small note -- it won't matter at most tables, but all artificer spells require a material component (even if the spell normally is just V and/or S), and a standard arcane focus cannot replace it.
If your DM is very strict about that, you'd probably want to take firebolt and absorb elements as wizard spells, otherwise they will be annoying to use. Doesn't affect the build really - just worth noting.
Every time I used Chronal Shift, it was because a member of the party nat 1'd. When they re-rolled, it was always a 20. The party started calling my character god.
That’s why I took halfling for my chronurgy build. Bountiful luck is a perfect thematic match
I just made an ArtiDiv (Artificer + Diviner) for The Rime of the Frost Maiden. Got a Forest Gnome in scale male and a shield so his starting AC was 18 and has Minor Illusion, Speak with Small Beasts, and Gnome Cunning for advantage in Int/Wis/Cha saves versus magic. Still at Artificer 1 + Wizard 3 and going to get the War Caster Feat at Wizard 4 and Lucky at Wizard 8. Lucky + Portent is fire! I have 5 Artificer level-1 spells prepared and 7 Wizard spells of either 1st and 2nd level spells. My total cantrips are 6 and my owl familiar is a better scout than the Rogue or Ranger of the party!
Momentary Stasis seems like a great spell to use on an enemy spellcaster. Usually spellcasters don't have a high constitution score and since this is not a spell it cannot be counterspelled. If you have another ally spellcaster in the party after you he or she can safely cast a spell, because the spellcaster will be incapacitated by Momentary Statis.
Player: I've brought this cool Time Lord built that-
DM: Exterminate!
Warforged Barbarian
Yep
I appreciate the timey whimey thumbnail
I feel like an opportunity was missed to get Foresight/Metamagic Adept (Extended). Casting just before a long rest ends. This would leave you w/ Wish to cast the next day, but so long as you remain relatively safe, you continue the trend each morning. When the big day comes, similar to the lvl 14 ability, you need some extra downtime to get back to full power. Seems fun and thematically fitting.
I bring this up, as I'm getting ready to build upon a very similar plan :-D (Mine is running in Eberron, w/ Jorasco Halfling w/ healing themed around "Rapid recovery")
isn't the "casting just before a long rest ends" a bit cheeky? i think my dm wouldnt allow that :D
If you extend a Foresight it'll last 16 hours, 8 of which will be spent sleeping, so only the next 8 hours will really gain the benefit of Foresight. 8 hours might last a typical adventuring day, but only if you do all your adventuring in the morning. There's often some travel to-and-from the dungeon, and mornings spent RPing, and all that jazz. With stuff like Gift of Alacrity you usually have the advantage of casting right before you enter a dungeon, so you'll have the full benefit for all 8 hours, and none of the duration will be eaten up during breakfast, or while getting the quest from the king, or while walking there. But if you're starting the timer from the moment you wake up, then by the time you get to the dungeon you might only have 5-3 hours of duration left. And anything that happens late in the day is out of the question - Foresight will absolutely be gone by then.
Of course, if you're casting Foresight then you're probably able to Teleport wherever you want, so you can initiate combat on your own terms. And in those cases this trick is still pretty potent. But it's got some noticeable gaps, especially if you want that 9th level slot open for emergencies.
You don't cast at the start of the rest, you cast in the final minutes. And cheeky... Yes and no I guess. But... This entire subclass is more cheeky that this, and RAW is perfectly fine. Only 1 hour of casting/etc breaks the rest
Surprised not to see hypnotic pattern or fear ever. I think that's a first for Chris :O
This seems like as good a video as any to ask fellow commenters, what are your favorite combinations for a two, three, four, or five round Time Stop?
One of mine would be:
1. Programmed Illusion. Make an image of yourself, set to trigger when time resumes, with a scripted performance lasting a few rounds of "you" using movement and actions that are both plausible for the current combat and avoid danger, so that the illusion might avoid suspicion for multiple rounds.
2. Greater Invisibility. Be capable of hiding as soon as time resumes.
3. Blindness. Finish with an upcast Blindness to further confuse as many enemies as possible and really sell the illusion, especially since you are already invisible and likely on the opposite side of the enemies or behind full cover.
Now you can conceivably collect the macguffin, or disrupt the ritual, or bypass/escape the encounter, or whatever, before the enemies even realize that they aren't fighting you. This is as sneaky as it gets. Eat your heart out, Rogue.
If you know that enemy is in the next room/area you can cast time stop and enter/teleport to the room without any resistance. This is specially good for scrying based assassination attack. Note that this works only inside 1000 feet radius from original casting.
One idea to do something fancy might be cast wall of force top of your enemies. Next use stone shape to drop big rocks from the roof to the wall top of your enemies. When time stop ends end the wall of force. The benefit of this trick is that the damage bypasses immunities against weapon damage, most special magical immunities and anti magic fields.
@@SystemLordNemo Interesting. I've rarely considered using it preemptively. It always strikes me as a woefully inadequate use of a 9th level slot to stop time before you even encounter the enemy. I wonder what options there are for that use.
I always figure it functions best as a defensive countermeasure that you can deploy if you get caught out by an extremely dangerous situation that you and your party were completely unprepared for. As for offensive uses, I'd consider using your favorite damage over time spell (Faithful Hound has the distinction of not using your concentration) plus a Forcecage plus Etherealness (potentially upcast to include two party members) so that you have virtually foolproof protection from which to watch the show.
@@dylandugan76 Sometimes your opponent is so dangerous that giving it a chance to win initiative is kind of out of question. Now you will land the first hit, cast first debuff, dispel its protective magics, hug your opponent with antimagic field around you both or steal / activate the artifact of immense power for your benefit. If you teleport in during the time stop steal the artifact and teleport out still during the time stop nobody can stop or even see you regardless of true sight or blind sight etc. A perfect crime. Also while you are attacking party if your time stop is not long enough for the plan you can call off the attack and possibly try again later.
I think the creature "or object" specification is a somewhat trivial one. I run a very rules-centric campaign, I'm very rules lawyer-y, but even I would not say that you can't launch an eldritch blast at a rock, or use ray of frost to chill your wine. That's just... kind of dumb, to take it to that extreme.
I agree entirely, but it also isn't clear that all damage types that harm creatures would have meaningful effects against most objects. So I definitely think a DM should allow you to target an object with ray of frost to chill it, but I don't expect it would harm most objects in a meaningful way.
Absolutely, just recently in a campaign we ended up trapped in a room where the rocks melted into the door, blocking us in. The DM let me just repeatedly attack the blockage with eldritch blast and we were out
While I agree with your point I would say that using the ray of frost to chill your wine is kinda extreme... It is like trying to bake a cake using a gun and incendiary ammunition. In best case scenario it won't be that nice of a cake
Where this often plays is Bigby's Hand, which has hitpoints and AC but is an object, and therefore can only take damage from spells/cantrips that can damage an object.
The targeting system is build around differentiating between creatures, objects, and points in space.
Targeting an object with an effect that that isn’t designed to include that target can have large ripples that effect gameplay.
Some subclass features are based on this, like the artillerist artificers Eldritch cannon being an object. This means it’s not a valid target for most AOE spells, so it usually has to be whittled down by melee attacks to take it out.
PHB page 185 goes over basic object rules in regard to damage types and saving throws.
DMG pg 246 gives for ether guidance about object interaction in regard to hitpoints, object size, facility or hardness, and even damage thresholds.
This information can put into perspective how powerful spells that actually target objects are meant to be.
YES!!!! THE BUILD I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!
I would love to see an update on this build!! Amazing!!
Chris I have watched this video 4 time's now and every time I get some new trick that I need to not let my players do LOL
Even with Warcaster, the Artificer still requires tools in hand to cast their spells, including cantrips, since all artificer spells are considered to have a Material Component of their tools, and they have no infused items to act as Foci with a one level dip. And those same tools can't also be a Wizard's Arcane Focus. And Warcaster doesn't allow you to Provide Material Components with your Hands full.
So, if you're using a shield, you would have to Draw or Stow your tools to swap between being able to cast Artificer and Wizard spells if using a component pouch. And wouldn't be able to wield anything else in that hand like a staff or other focus without losing access to the Artificer spells.
Just something to keep in mind, especially when taking your Primary attack roll cantrip from Artificer.
Alternatively, you could just keep a grip of cook's utensils or weavers' tools and use your Interact With An Object action to draw them. You'll become a litterbug, but that's basically what my low-level Bladesinger did to get their TWFing action on without Warcaster.
Take the Feat: Artificer Initiate and use it's 3rd bullet-point ability. Intelligence, who knew?
Negative, once you turn wizard slots are slots and available to be cast as normal, it works the same as other multiclass spellcasters. Even if your DM rules against it for some reason which would make no sense. The only spell affected is cure wounds. If your unsure its the same reason cleric/wiz doesn't need a holy symbol to cast or focus etc...
@@msolace580 The Nature of the Slot is Irrelevant. I agree a slot is a slot, but it's the spell list you prepare from that's important. RAW, a Wizard can only use their Arcane focus to cast Wizard spells, and an Artificer MUST use their tools to cast any Artificer spell. A Wizard/Cleric would still need a Holy Symbol to cast any spell prepared from their cleric spell list too. And cure wounds isn't the problem spell for that, it's the ever important Guidance, and the fact that this particular build picked up it's main attack cantrip from an Artificer Level, making it TECHNICALLY an artificer spell. Case in point if a multiclass with two different casting stats offers you the same spell on both lists you have two options to prepare it, each using a different modifier, despite being the same spell.
@@AsheandCinders Guidance has no M, But I stand corrected RAW mentions needing the focus for each. it, I just don't know if it matters anymore with the new 5e rules about free drawing/ picking up. Also as a DM It sounds like to much effort for something so little. Cheers
This is going to be the next character I play. Right now I'm playing your Voice From Beyond Warlock, giving the whole group the creeps! As a warlock, you're always wishing for the spell slots tho, so this will be a refreshing change. That said, I'll miss all the at will spells!
You might also consider Magic Stone as your attack cantrip. The range is shorter (60’) but still adequate. Very little is resistant or immune to magical bludgeoning damage. The damage is slightly higher, but the key is the minimum with INT 18 is 5 points of damage on a successful hit. Fire Bolt can be annoying when you hit a Kobold or Goblin for 1 point of fire damage and it gets killed by a melee combatant the next round - I often don’t feel like the hit contributed. There are a lot of very low CR vermin and creepers that are certain to be incapacitated by 5 points of damage. This makes spending the action on an attack more attractive.
I’ve also usually found that there is often another support/caster like a bard or cleric that would have a better attack bonus using my INT modifier, better and more consistent damage, and better range using one of my stones. Usually I’ll BA cast, throw one, and then hold the other two behind me in an open hand. My party member moves past me and collects them, throws one, and has the other for next round.
I know that the spell doesn’t scale. But, by 5th Level a wizard can already change cantrips every long rest. I find at that point I’m usually using Mind Sliver to ding an enemy ST for a follow up from a companion. The 5 point minimum on 2 attacks that have such a high hit chance was too good to pass up. Our party milked that for L1, L2, and most of L3 as a go to whenever I and the Cleric were either concentrating or not willing to expend the slots.
You do need to talk to your DM about M-Tool components if you’re using an Artificer attack cantrip. My DM allowed me to pre-work a couple dozen oversized leaded glass marbles and then strike them against a tool from my tinkers kit...essentially, I needed to have one free hand for all of the components...but a DM might rule the tools and the pebbles are separate kinds of components...it’s unclear if the “any MS requires one hand for both” or “artificer spells all require M which must be Tools” take priority. Of course, Fire Bolt is similar but less problematic. You’ll always have to keep that one hand empty if you want to cast Shield.
Tasha's really did make iffy cantrips like Magic Stone a lot more viable long-term. I'd have never taken that cantrip unless I was a Necromancer otherwise, but with it it's quite nice for T1.
@@maltheopia Agreed. When TCE dropped a table I played with had just started a new campaign and we were less than 1/2 through L1. To say our DM “allowed” us to respec our characters implies there would have been a game otherwise, as every player at the table didn’t even pretend to gesture towards “roleplaying” sophistry and rationalization. My comment on our group email was “It’s only power creep if someone doesn’t use it, so I expect some A-game min/max. Otherwise, I’m going to feel dirty.”
Of course, then I read Twilight Cleric and was like...300’? And you can hand it out to everyone else? I mean...I get it, “I can’t see” sucks...but, this over-solves at low level for small cost. If you have a Twilight Cleric in your party, everyone takes Custom Lineage without DV for the extra skill...except for the satyr, of course, as only one thing beats a feat a first level. But, then, doesn’t that mean that every cleric is required to be a Twilight Cleric (subsection 21, ...player shall always choose options to allow fellow players to optimize, unless this conflicts with Rule 1...)? And then, it just went on from there. That is a lot of temp HP. And then...I mean, damn. Mic drop.
But, I get it. Nobody in the groups I DM jumps at playing the Cleric and I don’t either. I am a Wizard since I was 8 years old until the day I die, and sometimes a Lore Bard. In 5e they’re essentially specialist Wizards with better manners (which matters a lot these days...geez, all the thespians...back in the 80s we also did that role playing thing...but, you only used dice to kill things). I know players that are forever PAM-somethings, it’s just a question of how they’re going to add more dice this time. I know people that love Bards...which, yeah, probably best all-round class. Going to play a one-character game? Bard. Going to show up to a table with no idea what anyone else is playing, just the level? Bring a Bard (do the Hexblade 2L dip...yeah, but now you’re super-flexible and can contribute no matter what everyone else is playing). Even a party of 4 Bards probably benefits as much from another Bard as it could from anything else. I would also always be a Bard, except I have this addiction to abusing spell mechanics. No, that is the exact wording of that spell description and I have a reference from JC saying it was intended that way. Well, I don’t know if he thought about what would happen if you cast Wall of Force parallel with the floor at a height of 2 feet. Well, size medium creatures can fit under there...squeezing, sure...but, they’re not going to take damage. I would guess they could try to jump upwards...but none of them are spellcasters, so how do they know? I’m guessing it just sort of forms everywhere all at once except where they are, and then they get shoved to one side or the other...I mean, if you want me to describe how...it begins as a really elastic tangle of ectoplasmic noodles that appear distributed across the whole area. Then, an instant later, all the noodles touch each other, lock into place, and there is the flash as it transforms from a whispy spaghetti through successive stages of order and rigidity until it snaps into a wall, shoving things to one side or another depending on the exact gestures of the spell...of course...that entire thing would be invisible...so, I think what it would look like would be as if all of them were simultaneously seized by some weird inertia and then shoved downwards over the course of a couple seconds...slow, then, faster, then...snap! Mime convention...everyone pretend we’re under an invisible wall.
And, I know people that love Rogues. Those people, I only sort of get. Yes, sneak attack is a lot of dice, and you don’t need to worry as much about limited abilities. But, that’s like saying I’m never sure when to call in the artillery strike, so I traded that in for increased fieldcraft for my infantry units. There is nothing you can trade for artillery that compensates for not having artillery.
But, the only thing I could think of is...wow, this evidence indicates that people do not like to play Clerics. It’s got to be the RP thing because Bards are even more support/indirect than Clerics and playing a Wizard - no HP, bad social skills, and the moment anybody on the enemy team identifies you, you’re the priority target. But, neither a Bard nor Wizard ever needs to imagine being obedient in their own heart. You can lie to people. You can lie to yourself. You can’t lie to your God. It’s pretty confined as a role in a fantasy.
I've been playing almost the same build this week, (but I rolled stats so it is a bit better in that regard) from level 1 to 3. I gotta say that I've never felt so good playing a low level mage. The artificer's tools and spellcasting make for great roleplay, heal wounds and that high AC are soooooooooo good and fairie fire made my paladin crit like 4 times and the echo knight made 4 attacks with advantage and crit twice as well. We've managed to already kill a young white dragon and we are just starting
ב"ה
With this build you have the cure wounds spell, so a contingency of cure wounds upcast to level 5 when you drop to 0 hitpoints could be a decent emergency possibility.
And unlike Polymorph, you can still cast and concentrate on spells, which is pretty good when you have an enemy trapped in a Maze spell.
I just want to point out:
originally fortune's favor didnt have the "consumes a 100gp pearl" material component.
That is because wotc cannot design spells, and hated that someone made something better than they did, so they just ruined it
It seems they never miss an opportunity to disappoint (looking at you Ranger’s Favored Foe).
@@williambennett7935 and yet they designed the whole game so they can't be that bad.
@@matiasrostworowski5141 5e is good, but it could have been great
I don't even mind the addition of a material component. What bothers the absolute shit out of me is that it *consumes* the 100gp pearl. I get that it's ridiculously strong with no component cost, but I think just requiring the pearl without consuming it is a better compromise
@@MightBeCale It's still ridiculously strong even *with* consuming the pearl. Especially since it still only costs a single pearl when upcasted.
Remember that when you up your Intelligence you also gain another preparation of a 1st level Artificer spell.
You might want to consider taking absorb elements as a wizard, since in order to cast it as a reaction you will need to be holding your artificer focus (or at least that is how my table rules it).
You dont need to take misty step as a second level spell, you know it already and you dont need to have it prepared to cast it using spell slots because of Fey Touched.
Otherwise this was interesting to watch since until level 7 it was a description almost step by step of a character I have been working on since Tasha's came out. It gave me a lot of ideas, great video!
I definitely get the artificer dip for constitution and it fits the theme...personally for my chronurgist I'm taking dip into twilight cleric. It fits the theme of the story better (we're doing Curse of Strahd), but also with Vigilant Blessing. I have a +6 to initiative at advantage and then get to add the d8 from gift of alacrity to that at level 5.
I banned twilight and peace cleric, since i don't think they are balanced well
@@theeye8276 Different strokes for different folks. The game i'm in limits the darkvision to 30ft. Personally I find clerics are just broken in general and make for an insanely good level dip :P
Lol, two of the broken subclasses multiclassed 'because it's fits the theme of the story'.
The more they bring out the more apparent power creep is so clear. Multiclassing needs more limitations or just not be in the game.
This might be the build I apply to my White Rabbit. 😁
yeah i made a white rabbit based character too lol. his arcane focus is a pocket watch
Early release, great to have with a cup of coffee, mahalo!
A few minor mistakes. First, at level 1, you should have 4 spells prepared, as you can prepare INT + artificer level spells, rounded down.
Second, at level 3, you do have a second level spell: misty step.
Thank you for bringing the detailed build videos back!
Fortune's Favor costs 100g to cast.... you could say that's a fortune at lower levels.
Depends wildly on the dm. I've had dms who give out gold by the thousands and others that give a level 7 party 150gp total for a several session quest.
Aren't you thinking of Immoveable Object? (requires 100gp of gold dust)
Fortune's Favour requires a pearl. Or is the value of the pearl 100gp?
@@mduckernz It requires a pearl worth 100gp which it consumes.
@@ATMOSK1234 I'm level 7 in my game and we're getting 100 gold for a several session quest :P
Edit: 100 total, so 25gp each, and also the DM blew up our 15gp cart, then we had to spend 50gp for information and 45 on a wagon to replace the cart, which mending wouldn't work on because the damage was too severe
So actually we're losing money xD
I can't wait to stea- um, draw inspiration from this build, only with an Astral Elf. Still get the free teleport, but also other stuff, and I think there's a lot of overlap between how we measure time based on the cosmos.
That Shapechange combo is pretty ingenious. Scarlet witch in dnd. It effectively makes your spells with saving throws selectively over-powered. This who build is like a demigod group. Simulacrum plus Clone means your essentially (more like potentially) immortal and can have a huge number of Copies with the Simulacrum loop.
None of the DMs I've played with in my local area are particularly open to creative uses of Illusion magic... Or even bog-standard uses like creating an illusion of a rock to hide behind (because "they know there's not a rock there, so they aren't going to be fooled," usually followed by "it's just a cantrip, don't get greedy"). Under those conditions, Minor Illusion becomes a LOT less valuable.
Thanks for the video, Chris. Been waiting a long time for this one. You absolutely did not disappoint!
If you're taking resilient wisdom as a feat anyways, at higher levels there isn't a huge difference between taking Artificer at 1 and taking it later on in your progression. Just replace resilient Wis with Con and you'll be in the same spot by level 9. This could let someone who started at level 5 get their 3rd level spells immediately and then add on Medium Armor and shields later.
@@gamecavalier3230 you do
Great build,my next character will surely be influenced by this
10:03 No, you get four prepared spells. It's equal to your Intelligence modifier (plus half your artificer level rounded down but that will always be zero for this character). I'm really not sure how DND Beyond came up with 3 before you'd even assigned your ability scores, tbh. Perhaps you had the same bug as I did, where the +1 from Fey Touched wasn't registering until I exited out of the character sheet and returned.
Real quick on the Artificer spells. In the video, you get 3 prepared spells, this means that your intelligence modifier is +2. This doesn't make sense because (I am assuming you did point buy or standard array) your intelligence score should be 15+3=18 due to your race and feat. In this case you should have 5 prepared artificer spells and when you eventually boost your intelligence to 20 you should have 6 prepared artificer spells. This build just got a little more OP, if I am correct.
You are correct, but there aren't that many good 1st level Artificer spells. Faerie Fire and Cure Wounds are the important ones that aren't on the Wizard spell list. (Purify Food and Drink could also see some play.)
It frees you up from having to put Absorb Elements, Feather Fall, or Grease in your spellbook, but you're not replacing them with anything super powerful, just some added utility.
Unfortunately, Artificer's ritual casting specifically states you still have to prepare the rituals to cast them (unlike a Wizard). So you'd still have to put spell like Detect Magic and Alarm in your spellbook. (Unless you don't mind actually preparing them as an Artificer.)
Still waiting with bated breath for the Scribe Wizard build.
Ahh. My J’zargo build is now at its best.
😉
Oh, yes. J'zargo hopes to find things that will make him a more powerful mage here. Hopefully small things that fit inside pockets, and will not be noticed if they are missing.
Have you mastered the Expert level destruction spells yet?
Why is J‘zargo a chronurgist? Probably more an Evoker? :) may you walk on warm sands.
@@CaitSith87
He started as an evoker and had many reincarnations.
J'zargo can learn magic from these men and elves, but they cannot learn to be as dashing as he. J'zargo comes out on top.
@@GuyRusso yeah he was aslo my companion on my last playthrough but sadly i lost him on a fast travel. Also he carried a lot of my legendary gear, so where ever he is money will not be one of his problems. ;)
It was an engaging hunt.
@@CaitSith87
If you’re playing on PC you can use console command to bring him back 😉
Maybe I'm missing something, but when you're at character level 3 can you not spend your level 2 slots on Misty Step that you got from Fey Touched?
Yes, you can, good point.
I’m playing a chronurgist/peace cleric right now.
I hope you're proud of yourself.
"slow claps" this man won D&D
Yikes!
chronurgy/peace (1 level dip) is crazy powerful I’m playing a Vedalken adv, on Int, Wiz, and Cha, saves, and peace gives my proficiency with medium armor and a Shield, plus I can add 2d4 to saving, attack, and skill checks for me and my party. With emboldening bond, and bless.
@@skymanta1222 the doctor really generally tries to not be the aggressor
The irony of picking carpenters Tools is that the doctors screwdriver doesn't work against wood.
Leomund's tiny hut is not impenetrable. It blocks objects and spells. Certain monster features will go right through it. For example, Dragon's breath passes through it. Also, don't forget that Dispel Magic removes Leomund's. If my players try to pull stuff like this mid-combat without talking to me first, I am having the enemy archmage appear to disrupt their shenanigans.
The rule for Arcane Abeyance should be that it is limited to spells that cost 1 action to cast. This doesn't affect a prepared Leomund's but affects spells like Magnificent Mansion that has a 1 minute casting time.
I would just have the bad guys move to the next room and get reinforcements while the party either sits in their tent doing nothing or wastes the spell by leaving it behind to pursue.
Doubling up on offensive concentration spells seems like it's almost always going to be better than Tiny Hut to me.
What do you mean you don't get anything good at Wizard 18? You can pick a 1st and 2nd level spell to cast at-will. Shield and Fortune's Favor sound perfect for those choices.
I'm pretty shocked that Chris picked many of the same spells I did in my Artichron build when I played it in my DMs high level campaign. Very cool build. Also totally agree on the self-policing aspect around Arcane Abeyance....holy shit that's powerful!
Also small note on the Simulacrum spell, it would not have a 7th level spell slot. So unless you're 20th level, your simulacrum wouldn't be able to loop the spell as you described.
18th level. The way the Simulacrum loop works is you use your 7th level slot to cast Simulacrum on yourself after you have 9th level slots and have prepared the wish spell. Your Simulacrum casts Wish (Simulacrum) on you, creating another Simulacrum. That Simulacrum casts Wish (Simulacrum) on you, creating another Simulacrum - etc. You can technically do it by having your Simulacrum use an 8th level slot to cast Simulacrum, but then you are stuck with the long casting time and material cost.
@@TreantmonksTemple Ooh that makes more sense. You’ll always have the spell slot since you haven’t spent it.
I personally think you underrated faerie fire at higher levels.
Getting group advantage on a group of creatures is huge.
Your Rogue, Paladin, Fighter etc. Will all thank you.
Arcana proficiency is required to create scrolls using the Xanathar's rules, and creating low level scrolls is very cost effective especially considering this wizard can create cure wounds and gift of alacrity scrolls, so if slots are going to be a big deal or if some of your good spells are on other character's lists an arcana proficiency could be really good.
Ohh familiars with familiars, sounds fun
My DM outlawed Wildmount sub classes. Too OP
It wouldn't be quite as good, but War Wizard can stack well on the benefits gained from an Artificer dip. Between the Constitution Save Proficiency, Medium Armor + Shield, the War Caster Feat, and the War Wizard's abilities and you'll have near-unparalleled concentration.
I actually think the Chronurgist is slightly worse than the Necromancer and post-Tasha's Evoker and significantly worse than the Illusionist in late T3/T4, but no one plays at those levels. Malleable Illusions + Illusory Reality is way too strong, you can upend whole encounters with minimal resource expenditure. And it only gets better as you add Wish and Spell Mastery to your arsenal. Necromancer has the option of Command Undead + True Polymorph + Simulacrum. And Evoker can grab Metamagic Adept + two levels of Storm Cleric for maximized Meteor Swarms/Prismatic Walls/Incendiary Clouds. Or putting an Overchanneled Spirit Shroud in a Contingency + Jim's Magic Missile/Scorching Ray. The latter of which can also be Overchanneled/Metamagic Adepted.
And to end it....Wizard to 18 with Mirror Image and Shield selected to cast for free for extra defense....and to make a fake Chronurgist Capstone that falls in line with Chronal Shift....Level 1 Peace Cleric :D
Oh no, not the familiar familiars! XD
I play a level 6 Chronurgist Wizard so any ideas for future stuff to take is welcome!
Someone else probably said it before, but you can't Ready a Haste Action, because the Ready is not an action in the list of what the Haste Action can do.
What a Hasted Rogue wants to do, is attacking with their Haste Action, getting Sneak Attack, and then Ready their normal Action to attack a second time outside of their turn.
I did the cantrips a little differently, mainly because "Spare the Dying" available to artificer is critically useful in saving PC's (and NPC's for questioning etc) (note, my party does not have a cleric). For the wizard cantrips, I took firebolt, mending, and minor illusion. I wish I could take more.
Thanks Chris
i am playing D&D not very long .. several years and in our party we had wizard few times . It is evocation/evocation/evocation/evocation result . I made my friend play abjurator , he did it up to 2nd level , and then asked GM to change to evocation :)
abjurator is amazing if you have armor of agathist
@@theeye8276 i argee ! any build can be made very interesting and unique .. but a bit more damage on fireball is just 2 much of temptation
An hour long video right before a long rest? Eh, what’s one less hour of sleep anyway?
A short rest......
Remember that Shapechange planetar doesn't give the 200hp, unless that is lower than current, last line of the spell text, but its still amazing to spam Convergent Future
without exhaustion, its pretty much god mode
The Simulacrum unlimited requires a glyph of warding or to have wish.
At Level 13 a wizard can store a simulacrum spell in a glyph then go to sleep and the copy gets all your spell slots.
I noticed you forgot/didn't show that you can eventually select 5 artificer spells and start with 4 because of the 18 int.
We really need a written version of these. Just a bulleted decision tree without the explanations. Has anyone done anything like that?
I believe Simulacrum does not trigger in an infinite loop right at the level you gain it. Since the illusion gains the statistics of the creature you target. If you target yourself, it will not have a 7th level spell slot since you used it to cast the spell. Also, it can't regain any spell slots, even if by other means, so there is a reduced effectiveness over time. If you have other spell slots above 7th then you can get more illusions but their potency will be reduced since they will each have to use their higher level slots to do so.
Right, you do it at 18th level and the copy gets your Wish spell to keep the chain going.
I'm currently playing an artificer 1, chronurgy wizard 10. My AC is better than the party fighter :p
Collapse that time stop, give it to any martial class that uses sharpshooter (rogues or fighters especially), then watch as the enemy suddenly turns into a pin cushion. At least if your dm rules the missles stop in the air when you stop touching them. Then for good measure use telekenesis to drop a steamroller on them.
Arcane abeyance only works with up to a 4th-level spell
Could you explain why you suggested to caste Haste on a rogue, and especially the part about them readying the action?
Sure. When you haste the rogue, they can use the hasted action to attack (with sneak attack), they can then use their normal action to ready an action to attack once their turn is over, because this is now a different turn, they may use sneak attack again.
@@TreantmonksTemple Thanks Chris. I was guessing it had to do with sneak attack but, not being familiar with rogues, I was thinking it was limited to once per round, not once per turn. As always, you've been very helpful. I can see why you've gained such popularity.
@@Loopy_D_Loop Commander's Strike on a Battlemaster is especially potent compared to other possible strikes for the same reason, and Order Clerics are especially nice with Rogue allies.
yeah, 2 am is a lot earlier than i thought, i had to double take when i saw posted 3 minutes ago
what's great about wizard is the arguably have the best utility in the game and also the highest damage and people wont tell you ,you shouldn't be able to damage becuase you have utility. Unlike what they unironically say of the monk because you have a 1 in 20 chance of stunning a boss if you spam all your ki in stunning strike.
You had me at Tom Baker.
Thanks Patrons!
Example on 9:19 are you in a Rise of the Runelords game :)
Excellent guide, as always! I'd love to play an artichron, but I don't think it is worth it compared to straight chronurgist in my particular case for an upcoming game - the DM is having our party time/level jump and we're playing at 3rd level, then jumping to 5th, and then finally up to 9th. Due to this, if I dip a level of Artificer, I lose out on spells known spell access at every jump (2nd at 3rd, 3rd at 5th, and 5th at 9th), and I don't know that that is a good trade off, since we won't be playing the interim levels where the sting of being a spell level behind wouldn't be felt so keenly. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this optimization conundrum. Cheers!
at level 1 artificer would you not get 5 spells prepaired? int=4+ half artificer level rounded down (minimum of 1) makes 5 not 3? or am i missing something?
I'm thinking the exact same thing!
@@lugh.i spell slots are not spells prepared
@@crunchevo8974 Misread! You're right!
@@lugh.i no you're close to right, it's 4 spells. 4 from int, 0 from artificer levels, minimum of 1 spell total.
You prepare the list of artificer spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the artificer spell list. When you do so, choose a number of artificer spells equal to your Intelligence modifier + half your artificer level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
So you only go up to level 18 with this build as written. Better to ride it all the way with chronurgist, or would dipping back into artificer for a subclass be good? If so, which one might you recommend?
It's about time
Couple things. Fortune's favor seems very expensive until you can upcast it to hit multiple targets for the cost of one pearl. At lower levels 100gp might be the entire reward for several quests combined. I really think Alert is undervalued as a maybe for 18th level. Without a weapon of warning the surprise condition could be devastating to a high initiative wizard. I would be tempted to take alert or intellect 20 over Resilient Wisdom, though I would want to get it eventually. In addition, I think with shapechange I don't know if you keep the planetar's spellcasting, even though you keep your class features.
Actually divination wizards must replace the value before the results is shown if he waits for dice to be rolled it is already too late to use the feature. Other that that all the information here is golden
Tried checking out the Artichron guide you linked. My eyes are still bleeding from the gifs he has.
Hi @Treantmonk's Temple Fortune's Favor doesn't seems to work as described: you cannot dismiss it on a failed check, but you should dismiss it before making the roll, in order to roll twice and be able to choose the better.
If you swap Custom for a race with martial proficiency, you can make a great gish build out of this (at the cost of a feat). I especially like Hobgoblin for the save buffs.
I have been waiting to make this comment. Archon + magic jar can capture an arch druid and make themselves immune to exhaustion
It's also possible for a Changeling to start with a +4 Intelligence!
If I were to DM, I would automatically house-rule that going to a different dimension auto breaks concentration, unless you are concentrating on a spell that gets you/someone else to said different dimension. Playing a Cronurgist now at Level 10 (1 level cleric) and I have already decided not to bother telling the DM of the game-breaking potential I unlock at 11th level. ( I don't intend to act on it)
35:00 I would argue that "Ready" is not one of the allowed actions for Haste, also no mention of casting with your hands full? (Shield+Artificer tool+Component pouch/arcane focus for wizard)
EDIT: As corretcly pointed out you can take the ready action as your regular action, and use the haste action for attack on your turn.
Rogue attacks with a haste action and ready an ordinary action. Casting with hands full is taking care of with War Caster
@@Quintal100kg I see my mistake on the haste action, War caster does not solve the issuse of casting with you hands full, as is not the somatic component the problem, is the material one, Artificer spells all have material components by definition, and you can't have access to both material components and a shield at the same time. (Which you could solve if your dm is fine with:"Dropping my tools to ground or grabbing material components from my pouch is not an object interaction so i can do both, then pick up my tools and have all reactions up for the round", but this removes the possibility of using one of the +1/2/3 arcane focuses from tasha's and having access to shield)
Q1: How to conquer forgotten realms? A: Be high level mage. Cast simulacrum to replicate yourself. Make simulacrum cast simulacrum by wish and replicate you close to whatever arbitrary number. Memorize true polymorph. Polymorph half of your replicas gold dragons and half to beholders. Remember that dragons breath works in anti magic cone and this cone protects your army from dispel magic. If dispel magic works no worries your simulacrum still has your remaining spells and you can true polymorph it again later.
Q2: What is the best excuse for DM to not allow this?
One correction. Dispel magic removes also the simulacrum.
The ones turned into Adult Gold Dragons can also access a fair amount of spellcasting using the Change Shape ability. They could access about 140 spells as of early 2020, potentially an unlimited number of times per day.
That number doesn't count the cantrips they could access or using the feat from transforming into a Custom Lineage/Variant Human to pick up Magic Initiate or Artificer Initiate or Ritual Caster.