Though they do appreciate how much he improved the heating system for the flame pit.
Demons [Explained]
Transcript Under the Cut
[Three demons, Cueball-like in general appearance but with horns and pointed tails, are standing together while surrounded by flames. The leftmost demon is holding a pitchfork and the next one has his hands down. They are looking at the third to the right standing a bit apart from them. This last demon, Maxwell's demon as given in the caption, holds his palms up while looking at the other two.]
Demon with pitchfork: What's our plan for the souls today? Boil them in oil?
Middle demon: We could cast them into the flame pit.
Maxwell's demon: What if we set up two rooms with a door in between, but– get this– we only let them go through it one way!
[Caption below the panel:] Maxwell's Demon had trouble fitting in with the others.
I think about it for a moment. “You know there’s this old…thought experiment. Maxwell’s Demon.”
Tamika looks puzzled. “You’re still talking about physics, right?”
“Physicists were more poetic in the nineteenth century. Anyways, the thing is that thermodynamics emerge from the statistics of large numbers of particles; not on a particle-by-particle basis.”
“I…think I understand.”
“Yeah. And this guy, Maxwell; he wonders: what happens if you manipulate a gas particle by particle, instead of all at once? What if you had a little demon, say, who could let all the fast-moving particles pass through a wall and stop all the slow-moving ones?”
“Go on?”
“Well…the upshot is that, if you do it that way, it gets colder on one side and hotter on the other. Entropy—the amount of wasted heat in the system—goes down and you can actually do work with it. Assuming you have a little invisible demon selectively sorting through trillions of particles, of course.”
“Is that what you think you are? Maxwell’s Demon?”
“It…makes sense. But I don’t know what the mechanism is. I’m certainly not aware of sorting through billions of particles.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily matter.”
“How do you mean?”
They sit down again. “Well, when I move my finger, there must be billions of things happening in my body: nerves electrifying, blood flowing, muscles twitching. But I’m not aware of any of it. For me, it just feels like I’m moving my finger. Maybe that’s how it is for you. Autonomous. You don’t even think about it.”
I consider this. “It fits…I think we’re onto something.”I think about it for a moment. “You know there’s this old…thought experiment. Maxwell’s Demon.”
Tamika looks puzzled. “You’re still talking about physics, right?”
“Physicists were more poetic in the nineteenth century. Anyways, the thing is that thermodynamics emerge from the statistics of large numbers of particles; not on a particle-by-particle basis.”
“I…think I understand.”
“Yeah. And this guy, Maxwell; he wonders: what happens if you manipulate a gas particle by particle, instead of all at once? What if you had a little demon, say, who could let all the fast-moving particles pass through a wall and stop all the slow-moving ones?”
“Go on?”
“Well…the upshot is that, if you do it that way, it gets colder on one side and hotter on the other. Entropy—the amount of wasted heat in the system—goes down and you can actually do work with it. Assuming you have a little invisible demon selectively sorting through trillions of particles, of course.”
“Is that what you think you are? Maxwell’s Demon?”
“It…makes sense. But I don’t know what the mechanism is. I’m certainly not aware of sorting through billions of particles.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily matter.”
“How do you mean?”
They sit down again. “Well, when I move my finger, there must be billions of things happening in my body: nerves electrifying, blood flowing, muscles twitching. But I’m not aware of any of it. For me, it just feels like I’m moving my finger. Maybe that’s how it is for you. Autonomous. You don’t even think about it.”
I consider this. “It fits…I think we’re onto something.”
Lester and Tamika return, now with lengthy discussions of thermodynamics. That's "An Invocation for Maxwell's Demon", this week in Reality's End!
great news everyone! life stopped kicking my ass quite as hard, so we’re back and better than ever! or at least, more employed than ever. still, that means Grailfinders is back on the menu, and to celebrate we’re solving that little tie we left off with by making both of them!
first off, we have the impossible servant, Maxwell’s Demon, a nigh-immortal impossible thought experiment that can produce infinite energy. the nigh-immortal part is actually pretty easy, that’s a regular tuesday for most wizards. the hard part is going against WotC’s entire design ethos to make a character that can’t use any of his own magic.
obviously making a character that can’t help himself in D&D is impossible, but we picked spells so you can at least have plausible deniability. outside of the immortality stuff, all your spells can’t deal direct damage and/or can be used to empower your party members. that means the most powerful buffs like Tenser’s Transformation are off the table since they only work on the caster, but we've still got plenty to work with.
anyways, Maxwell’s Demon is a Transmutation Wizard to buff the party with near-infinite magical power, and a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer to reflect that he’s more part of a thought experiment than an actual person.
check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet here!
(also idk where else to put this, but we’re not using the new ruleset for builds atm. maybe after more options come out?)
Species and Background
Maxwell’s background is a bit weird, but you got your life’s goal from your “father” for better or worse, so we’re torturing the Inheritor background to fit for proficiency in Survival and Arcana.
unfortunately, demons still aren’t a playable species in D&D, but while Tieflings are technically the closest thing, I’m instead going to make Maxwell’s Demon a Fire Genasi. y’know, on account of the thermodynamics. as such, he gets +2 Constitution and +1 Intelligence, as well as some Darkvision to clown on humans with their dumb human eyes, Fire Resistance so you don’t die in the process of spiting the second law, and your only offensive capabilities for quite some time, Reach into the Blaze. if Max can control thermodynamics he should be able to set fire to just about anything, but I’m not going to argue this point too much. we’re using the rules from the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion here, so that means you get Produce Flame for free, as well as Burning Hands once a day at third level, both of which use your Constitution. normally this is a bit awkward for casters, but today…
Ability Scores
we’re still using the standard array- you can roll if you want to, just keep that intelligence and charisma above 13. that being said, your highest score is actually Constitution. since all your spells are for your allies, we really don’t have to care about being “good” at “casting” them in this build, which is surprisingly freeing. we do still need Charisma and Intelligence next, in that order, for multiclassing. infinite energy is inherently charismatic, a lot of people want it. after that, Dexterity. I know Maxwell’s immortality comes from people not being able to hit him, but we have magic for that. that means your Strength is pretty low, but we’re dumping Wisdom. as of the time of writing, the second law of thermodynamics still stands strong, so Maxwell’s Demon is an impossibility. so him existing probably screws around with common sense a bit. maybe that’s why GudaGuda’s like that…
Class Levels
1. Wizard 1: starting off strong, Maxwell is a Wizard, which gets him proficiency with Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as History and Insight. he is literally a part of history as all servants are, but he’s also literally someone’s insight. kind of.
but that’s not all! wizards also get Spells! god, do they get spells. six spells now, plus two more every time you level up, plus whatever other spells you toss into your spellbook from other wizards! you can only prepare spells based on your Intelligence, so you can’t use every spell everywhere all at once, but you can swap your prepped spells every day. you also get Arcane Recovery, letting you regain some spell slots on a short rest instead of the usual long one.
and we are going over every spell in the build this time, since making sure you can’t actually fight things is pretty important. that means the wordcount for this build is gonna be huuuge. starting off, you get cantrips like Prestidigitation to use your infinite power in itty-bitty ways, as well as Message to charge a cellphone and call people, and Mending. the discovery of infinite power will be like a second industrial revolution, and that’s all the justification I need to give you some building spells. also because wizard has entirely too many spells for me to just do buffs.
for your spells, Distort Value can make any item look worth more or less money for a short while- perpetual motion machines look cool, but they’re actually bullshit. still, that’s the buyer’s problem. you also get the standard suite of low-level buffs, Feather Fall, Jump, Longstrider, and Mage Armor, which I obviously expect you to only use on others as per the build’s guidelines. also, you can Detect Magic like basically every servant can, somehow.
2. Wizard 2: second level wizards can learn from the school of Transmutation, making them Transmutation Savants. that means adding transmutation spells into your book from sources other than your level-ups are cheaper and faster. yet again, why they incentivize every wizard to not grab the spells they specialize in, I’ll never know.
but at least you also get Minor Alchemy, letting you turn nonmagical wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver into another material from that list. it takes a while to turn anything, and it only lasts an hour, but it’s not like this was a major part of the build anyway. it’s just a stepping stone on the way to bigger and better things!
speaking of, you can now cast the only debuffs I grabbed this build, purely bc most 1st level spells are focused on things like “actually being able to fight” and nonsense like that. Color Spray lets you power on a tv to blind people who were sitting too close, and Charm Person tricks people into thinking they can defy the second law of thermodynamics, so they’ll be friendly to you for a bit. but of course, eventually reality sets in and they’ll know they’ve been had.
3. Wizard 3: third level wizards get second level spells. Enhance Ability gives someone advantage on one kind of skill check for a minute, and Enlarge/Reduce can make one person smaller, or more importantly bigger. you might not be able to turn the main villain into a giant goo monster yet, but you can turn them into a giant. that’s 1/3 of the way there. progress, baby!
4. Wizard 4: at fourth level you get your first Ability Score Improvement, and the Resilient feat will both round out your Constitution score and give you proficiency with Constitution Saves, so you’re less likely to drop support spells you set up! spells like, say, Light, or more likely Magic Weapon or Darkvision. the former gives a flat bonus to the damage and accuracy of a weapon for an hour, while the latter gives a creature darkvision for up to eight hours, a spell usually so useless I literally didn’t know it existed until today.
5. Wizard 5: third level spell time! Haste is a classic, doubling your target’s movement speed, giving them an extra action each turn (with some caveats tbf), adding to their AC and giving advantage on dexterity saves, all for the low low cost of making them waste a turn when the spell ends. we don’t really have a way to deal with that, but you can also use Catnap to speed up a short rest, turning an hour-long snoozefest into a pulse-pounding ten minutes.
6. Wizard 6: sixth level trans wizards can create the Transmuter’s Stone over the course of eight hours. upon creation you can make its wielder gain Darkvision, proficiency in Constitution Saves, extra movement, or resistance to one kind of elemental damage. and of course, this can then be given to another party member, though while it’s on your person you can cast a transmutation spell to swap the bonus.
you also get more spells like Fly! again, not allowed to use this on yourself, but flight is super useful. you can also Dispel Magic, which usually does a lot more, but today it’s just to make your party members make their saves on long-lasting spells.
7. Wizard 7: seventh level wizards get fourth level spells like Polymorph! boom, giant goo monsters are now on the table. and the floor, and everywhere, that’s kind of how giant goo monsters work. you can also cast Blink… on yourself! The scandal! it just means that every time you end your turn, there’s a fifty percent chance you cease to exist as far as most enemies are concerned. it doesn’t even use concentration, so you can buff and disappear at the same time!
8. Sorcerer 1: bouncing over to sorcerer now for another list of Spells. you don’t need to prep these, but they use your Charisma instead of intelligence. also, since you’re a Clockwork Soul, you get Clockwork Magic for even more free spells! though now that you’re multiclassing, you’ll have to check the player’s handbook to see how many spell slots you’ve got each level.
as a start, you get plenty of cantrips like Blade Ward for even more survivability, and then True Strike, Mold Earth, and Shape Water, the lacroix of magic. if you focus, it’s almost like a cantrip. as for actual magic, Silvery Barbs technically makes an enemy worse, but you can argue it just makes your ally better twice, and that’s a good deal. you can also Absorb Elements now, which can technically deal damage but again it’s here for survivability.
also, your clockwork magic gets you Alarm and Protection from Evil and Good for free to protect your party from evil and good. and also neutral, with alarms.
you can also Restore Balance as a reaction, which is the exact opposite of what Maxwell’s Demon does, but if he can do it, he can probably undo it. basically, you make your party’s rolls that would be at disadvantage be at regular amounts of vantage. you can also counter the advantage of an enemy, but that breaks rule 1 of Demoning, so don’t do that! wink.
anyways, you can do that proficiency times a short rest.
9. Sorcerer 2: a second level sorcerer is a Font of Magic, so you can now spend Sorcery Points to recharge spell slots as a bonus action, or turn spell slots into points. you only have enough points to recharge one 1st level slot and the points do nothing else, so it’s not super interesting just yet.
you can also… Disguise Self? I guess? every servant in the world can sense magic but the infinite power glitch was hidden until the final boss fight, so you had to have some way of hiding yourself.
10. Sorcerer 3: third level sorcerers get Metamagic, a way to make sorcery points fun! now you can spend them to add extra effects to your spells, and thanks to the way they’re worded, they work on wizard spells too! most of them only care about fightin’ spells, but the ones we want are still super useful- Twinned and Extended Spells- these double the number of targets (from 1 to 2) or the duration of the spell, respectively. we’re not grabbing any warlock slots, so it’s important that we use our finite power well enough to make it look like infinite power.
speaking of, you can now cast Invisibility which does exactly what you’d think, as well as Aid to give allies extra HP, or Lesser Restoration to remove minor status effects from them. and only them. don’t even think about using it on yourself.
11. Sorcerer 4: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for some extra AC. that’s also why we’re grabbing the Gust Barrier cantrip, to make ranged attacks have disadvantage to hit you. and… I guess Levitate? I mean, it’s not as good as fly, but it still gets people out of harm’s way. and it’s cheaper!
12. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers get Magical Guidance, letting them spend sorcery points to reroll skill checks. don’t use this for that though, your points will be at a premium the whole time. and with third level spells you can get… Water Breathing? I guess? Sorcerer really isn’t nearly as chockablock with support spells as wizard, and it’s starting to show. still, you get another way to cast Dispel Magic, freeing it from preparation purgatory, and Protection from Energy.
13. Sorcerer 6: sixth level clockwork souls have the whole reason we dipped into sorcerer, the Bastion of Law. congrats, you now have infinite protection to match your infinite power! and by infinite, I mean you can protect yourself for 5d8 damage at most, if you spend almost all your sorcery points in one go.
also you get Water Walk! I mean Jesus could do it, and you’re kind of a walking holy grail, right?
14. Wizard 8: finally back in wizard, and now we can get another ASI for even more Dexterity. if that’s not enough added toughness, you can use Stoneskin to give yourself or an ally resistance to all physical damage, or give them Greater Invisibility to stay unseen even while attacking.
15. Wizard 9: ninth level wizards get fifth level spells. Fabricate makes you a one-man industrial revolution, turning raw materials into finished goods pretty dang fast. on the support front, Skill Empowerment lets you turn one ally’s proficiency into expertise for up to an hour. I don’t know why that’s worth a 5th level spell slot, but it’s support!
16. Wizard 10: tenth level trans wizards are Shapechangers, so now once per short rest you can cast polymorph on yourself for free, as long as you pick a beast of CR 1 or less. again, not really your deal, but it’s technically extra HP?
more on brand, you get Dancing Lights, your last cantrip. it’s like Like, but dancing! you can also give your allies Rary’s Telepathic Bond, or let them speak in Tongues. it’s not turning into a giant goo monster, but it’s still neat. it’s less neat when you realize you’re spending more magic and it doesn’t even eclipse a 4th level spell, but still.
17. Wizard 11: we’ve got sixth level spells, and that means we have actual support spells again! Fizban’s Platinum Shield gives an ally half cover (aka +2 to AC and dex saves), resistance to all elemental damage, and evasion. or you can give an ally True Seeing, to peek past any illusions, shapechangers, or the like. both really good support spells to have in your back pocket.
18. Wizard 12: use your last ASI of the build to become Tough. that’s an extra 36 HP now, and +2 more every time you level up from here on out. your HP’s already pretty nice, but it’s not “functionally immortal” nice.
of course, first your enemies have to get past your Guards and Wards that you set up in your home base, and if worse comes to worse you can always Remove Curses. there’s not really a post-curse save people can make, but that just makes you empowering them to break through it even more special.
19. Wizard 13: thirteenth level wizards get seventh level spells, and tbh we don’t care about any of ‘em. we wouldn’t be able to use sorcery points with them anyway, so who cares. instead, we’re getting Creation to make raw materials out of nothing (infinite energy equals infinite mass, thanks Einstein!) , and we’re also getting Nystul’s Magic Aura for another way to hide your infinite power away from the protagonists until the big reveal.
20. Wizard 14: with our final level of trans wizardry, we become a Master Transmuter, letting you destroy your transmuter’s stone for big bursts of supportive power. they kind of.. forgot. that you can give this to another player by this point, but that’s no biggy. with this, you can use Major Transformation to turn a non-magical object into another, similar, less expensive one, a Panacea to cure all curses, diseases, and poisons affecting one creature, as well as restoring all their HP, Restore Life to a creature without spending a spell slot, and presumably taking the place of the diamonds? idk, or you can Restore Youth to a creature, which doesn’t actually affect its lifespan. not all of them are winners, but for a class that doesn’t usually get healing spells Panacea is a game changer.
also we finally broke down and got you a damaging spell. Dragon’s Breath is technically okay because you can foist it onto another creature so they’re dealing the damage instead! and I guess we’ll pick up one seventh level spell with Etherealness to practically make you invincible for up to 8 hours. you can’t do much while in the ethereal plane, but at least it won’t interrupt your buffs.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
you walk away from this build with 16 AC and over 200 HP, which is just a silly amount of hp for a wizard. you’re tougher than some of the frontline fighters we’ve built over the years, and that’s before you get into the emergency I Am Impossible To Hit spells you’ve got on hand.
you’ve also got even more magic than most pure wizards do with access to sorcery points and quickened short rests to recharge your arcane recovery. it’s not quite a sorlock, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either.
Cons:
it turns out deliberately ignoring the main conceit of the game you’re playing sucks. supportive spells are nice to have, but you’re generally supposed to have other stuff to do between casts. and a decent chunk of the spells we grabbed aren’t even good, they’re just there to keep you from getting offensive spells! it was a fun challenge to try and build it this way but like, please don’t actually play this build. you’ll feel bad bc you have nothing to do on your turns after you cast whatever you’re concentrating on, your party’ll feel bad because they’re expecting you to bring fireballs and stuff to fights, it won’t be a good time.
