Clockwork Servants

These whimsical automata clack and whir as they do your bidding, the mechanical key on their backs winding down the whole time. You can shape their forms however you wish; all you need to do is plug in the magical key, and they come to life!

These servants can be game-changers, and as such, I have built in a few balancing factors that DMs can adjust as they wish. Some notes and further considerations are included at the end of this document.

Constructing a servant first requires obtaining a magical key of the appropriate type, which is the first balancing factor: whether players find these keys and how many is entirely up to the DM. Furthermore, they occupy attunement slots, and cost GP to build and repair (the GP costs can be adjusted, as another balancing factor).

Nevertheless, these definitely have potential to break things, and aren't for every group. Some might consider making and maintaining these things to be a lot of bookkeeping. As much as I tried to balance customizability and simplicity, it probably is still a bit overwrought.

Without further ado, the clockwork servants!

Clockwork Key

Wondrous item, rarity varies (attunement: special)
Simply by plugging this key into a suitable vessel and winding it, you can animate a clockwork servant. The servant is a creature whose stats are determined by the tier of the key, as listed below.

You must provide a suitable vessel to serve as a body for the clockwork servant. The vessel must be made of raw materials worth at least a certain amount, listed below for each tier of key. You can choose the form of the vessel, but the DM determines if the form is suitable.

Activating a clockwork servant requires a ritual that can be performed during a short rest, during which you attach and wind the key and attune to the servant. You can attune to up to 3 tier I servants with a single attunement slot, and you can only attune to 1 tier III servant, no matter how many attunement slots you have.

The clockwork servant serves you until it drops to 0 HP, whereupon the vessel becomes inert and cannot be used again. The key detaches and can be reused. The servant can heal by spending hit dice during a short rest as normal, but it cannot regain hit dice unless you repair it during a long rest, for a cost listed below.

Tier I Clockwork Servant (rare)

Small construct

  • Armor Class 10 + DEX
  • Hit Points 21 (6d6) + 6 x CON
  • Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
— — — 4 (-3) 4 (-3) 4 (-3)
  • Condition Immunities poisoned
  • Damage Immunities poison
  • Senses passive Perception 7
  • Languages Understands 1 language of its creator, but can't speak

Actions

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 + STR or DEX to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) + STR or DEX bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

  • Cost: 120 GP (20 GP per hit die)
  • Repair cost: 5 GP per hit die
  • Stats: The servant's physical ability scores are 14, 12, 10, distributed as you choose. The servant's proficiency bonus is 2.
  • Control: The servant understands one-word commands such as "attack", "defend", or "fetch". You can command any number of your servants as a bonus action. The servant repeats its last order until ordered otherwise.
  • Special Ability: You may give the servant one special feature, such as pack tactics, keen eyesight, false appearance, or another, subject to DM approval.

Choose one of the following archetypes for your servant:

  • Scout: Climb, fly, and swim speeds of 30 ft, swap 1 physical ability score with Wisdom, and learns to speak five words of your choice.
  • Combat: +2 AC (natural armor), +2 to Strength or Dexterity, ranged attack option (DEX-based, 20/60 ft., 1d4), and Multiattack (two attacks).
  • Utility: Expertise in 2 skills, one mental ability score becomes 8, learns to speak three words of your choice, and 2 cantrips from any class that do not involve attack rolls or saving throws.

Tier II Clockwork Servant (very rare)

Medium construct

  • Armor Class 12 (natural armor) + DEX
  • Hit Points 45 (10d8) + 10 x CON
  • Speed 30 ft., climb or swim 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
— — — — — —
  • Saving Throws choose 1
  • Skills choose 2
  • Condition Immunities poisoned
  • Damage Immunities poison
  • Senses passive Perception 10 + WIS
  • Languages 1 language of its creator

Actions

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 + STR or DEX to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) + STR or DEX bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

  • Cost: 1000 GP (100 GP per hit die)
  • Repair cost: 25 GP per hit die
  • Stats: The servant's ability scores are 16, 14, 12, 10, 6, 6, distributed as you choose. The servant's proficiency bonus is 3.
  • Control: The servant is intelligent enough to act on its own. You can issue direct commands as a bonus action.

Choose one of the following archetypes for your servant:

  • Defensive: The servant's natural armor increases by 2, it gains 2 hit dice, and it gains proficiency with shields. As a reaction when an ally within 5 feet is targeted by an attack, it can provide its shield bonus to that ally. Furthermore, when it takes the dodge action, all allies within 5 feet gain the benefit of its shield.
  • Offensive: The servant gains proficiency with simple and martial weapons, which count as +1 magical weapons while it wields them. It gains the multiattack action (two attacks) and can also take advantage of dual-wielding. It also learns the martial adept feat.
  • Spellcaster: Choose one of the following classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. From the chosen class's spell list, the servant learns 2 cantrips which it can cast at will, as well as three 1st level spells, two 2nd level spells, and two 3rd level spells, which it can cast once per long rest each. The servant counts as a 5th level caster.
  • Handyman: The servant gains 2 skills, 2 tool proficiencies, 2 languages (must be known by an ally), 1 special ability (see Tier I description), and 2 Wizard cantrips.

Tier III Clockwork Servant (legendary)

Medium or Large construct

  • Armor Class 12 (natural armor) + DEX
  • Hit Points 63 (14d8) + 14 x CON, or 77 (14d10) + 14 x CON if Large
  • Speed 30 ft., or 40 ft. if Large
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
— — — — — —
  • Skills choose 2
  • Condition Immunities poisoned
  • Damage Immunities poison
  • Senses passive Perception 10 + WIS, blindsight 30 ft.
  • Languages the languages of its creator

Actions

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 + STR or DEX to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) + STR or DEX bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

  • Cost: 7000 GP (500 GP per hit die)
  • Repair cost: 100 GP per hit die
  • Stats: 24 point-buy. You can choose for your servant to be Medium or Large. If you choose Medium, increase all of its mental ability scores by 2. If you choose Large, increase all of its physical ability scores by 2. The servant's proficiency bonus is 4.
  • Control: The servant is completely autonomous, but obeys you.

The servant is a 7th-level member of a class of your choosing, gaining all class features and proficiencies on top of the features already present in the template above. For certain classes, such as Cleric or Warlock, the DM may require that the servant have plausible reason to be a member of that class. The servant does not gain XP or levels, and cannot attune to magical items.

You can also spend up to 6 points on the following features:

  • (1 pt) darkvision 60 ft. (2 pts) 120 ft.
  • (1 pt each) keen eyesight, hearing, or smell
  • (1 pt) ability to emit light at will, up to 30 ft. bright and 30 ft. dim
  • (2 pts) false appearance trait
  • (2 pts each) additional skill, tool, or language proficiency
  • (3 pts) swim and climb speeds equal to its walking speed
  • (4 pts) telepathy 120 ft.
  • (4 pts) resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
  • (5 pts) 50 ft. fly speed
  • (6 pts) magic resistance trait

Miscellaneous Notes

So there we go! As mentioned in the introduction, there's lots of things DMs can do to tweak the balance. In addition, you might decide that the servant is done for forever if it drops to 0 HP, requiring players to protect it and consistently repair it after combat lest they lose it permanently.

Maybe there's no repair cost, and they regain HP and hit dice after a long rest like other creatures. Or maybe they can't regain HP at all, and constantly get destroyed and rebuilt.

Instead of allowing the players to customize their creations extensively, you could pre-build stat blocks for each tier, either following the above templates, using the MM and DMG guidelines, or by your own methods. Furthermore, not all of the options I laid out above have to be available all the time.

You might notice that, other than the clockwork key and the construct typing, there's not that much "clockwork" flavor in the above descriptions. I wanted to focus on the mechanical abilities of the servants, and leave the fluff up to each DM and group's imagination.

However, I do feel like I could perhaps have done something more involving the winding of the clockwork key. Maybe each winding allows the servants to run for a certain amount of time, after which they need some sort of maintenance, which might be costly. Maybe the party can prepare several vessels beforehand and swap the magical key between them, depending on what abilities are needed (this is actually doable already by an interpretation of the above rules).

While this is meant mostly as a concept that each group can customize to kingdom come, suggestions are of course welcome as to how to improve the balance of the above rules. I like numbers, so if you can show me some math I'll probably be more convinced!