Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Guide for optimized Sorcerer
By Sorxores, as originally published on the Wizards of the Coast message boards
This is a guide I’m writing to make the most optimized sorcerer possible following the rule in the PHB. This sorcerer will be optimizing for:
- a general campaign in which you are going to face all kind of creature and challenge.
- a party of 4 containing one protector type character, one support type character one skill master and yourself as the arcane caster.
- Using the Adventure league rules
- A conventional spell caster who deals damage, control the battlefield and support his allies from behind, protected by the protector of the group, and maybe even by the cleric.
If you want to help me please provide me with CONSTRUCTIVE arguments, and keep it to a generalize setting where you could face any kind of monster and any kind of challenge. If I do a mistake or you disagree with my interpretation, please put your reference in your comment and I’ll edit the OP.
The sorcerer uses 2 resources in combat: spell slot (SS) and sorcerer point (SP). He learn a very limited amount of spell when he level up and can change one of them only when he’s gain a new level. When you exchange a spell you can choose a spell of any level, as long as you can cast it (so at level 5, if you can forget burning hand and learn fireball instead)
The sorcerer specialize within the very limited amount of spell he know, transforming those spell making them more powerful than any other spell caster could even dream of doing. The sorcerer if build for certain purpose can nova easily doing a lot of damage in a single round, but a very limited amount of time per long rest.
The sorcerer does not benefit from short rest (until level 20) other than to recover HP with Hit Dice.
Sorcerer subclass:
Dragon bloodline – Best subclass by default since wild is too random for optimization.
Dragonic ancestor: (level1) choose a dragon type. (see below for more detail on the different dragon type), you learn the dragonic language, and you double your proficiency bonus using Cha when using it against a dragon.
Draconic Resilience: (level 1) 1hp/level, AC=13+dex (do NOT stack with mage armor nor with unarmored defense from barbarian nor monk), stack with magical item giving +X to AC (like ring of protection or bracer of armor or the staff of defense). Always useful to survive attack able to bypass the protector (AoE spell, range etc…) or when the protector fall in battle or is too far away from you. Specially usefull at low level, letting you have protection without using a feat/multiclass for armor or a spell slot for mage armor.
Elemental Affinity or even Gold if your DM let you use +CHA on every ray from scorching ray: (level 6) This is the bread and butter of the dragon sorcerer, your damage boost, the reason whey you choose a dragon type earlier. You can add you Charisma modifier on the spell with the same elements as your dragon ancestry type. Untill we see an official response from WotC, this ability is dependent on the interpretation of your DM. For spell with multiple attack (like Scorching ray) some people say that you can add the +Cha only on the first ray, other interpreted it as you can add the +Cha on EVERY ray, and other says that you can add it once per monster per round.I believe that the correct interpretation is that EVERY rays receive the +Cha and I’ll do this guide according to this interpretation, if you play with a different variation, then you might have to revise some of my decision. You can also spend 1 Sorcerer point to gain resistance to your dragon element for 1 hour.
NOTE: resistance feature: I would say that since most spell in the PHB are fire spell, most enemy spell caster will cast fire spell including everyone favorite: Fireball. I don’t have access to the Monster manual from 5e but IIRC based on previous edition there is slightly more fire type creature then other type of creature, making fire resistance the most useful resistance. Even if you want to be a tiefling or a dragon born (fire) you already have fire resistance, I would still choose a fire dragon for reason that I’ll explain shortly. According to the dragon ask in HotDQ if you have resistance to the same thing from 2 differents sources,, you gain immunity to it, then you get healed if you get resistance a 3rd time.
Dragon wing: (level 14) you can fly at your current speed. This is a free concentration spell lvl 3 that you can activate at will without using your concentration. Very useful to get out of reach of most attack but still able to rain down your magical wrath on the battlefield. Depending on your DM interpretation of: equipment made to accommodate your wing, this power could be very difficult of limiting to use. With regular clothing, it’s not very important; it’s fairly easy to cut two holes in the back. But with armor, do those 2 holes will reduce the AC of your armor? If you have a magical chest piece (Magi robe or a magical leather armor) does cutting 2 holes ruined the magical enchantment?
Draconic Presence: (level 18) by spending 5 SP the draconic Sorcerer can charmed or frightened every HOSTILE CREATURE within 60ft of the sorcerer (your party is immune to this effect but everyone else will be affected, unlike charm person who charm only humanoid) for 1 minutes if they fail a Wisdom save. This can be a very powerful power, ideal to crowd control or win a popularity contest, but the cost of 5SP will prevent you from using it too often. This feature is very situational
Now what type of Draconic sorcerer should you be - Optimization wise, the important factor is the element of your dragon, there is no difference between a red/gold or Brass dragon since all 3 are fire. The only real choice here is a FIRE dragon type, the sorcerer spell list contain 10 fire spell (to synergize with your elemental affinity. Compare to only 2 acid spells, 3.5 poison spell (one does no damage), 4 cold spell and 6 lightning spell (3 are level 1). If your DM let you change the element of a
Fire: The BEST CHOICE: the sorcerer PHB spell list got mainly fire spell. Fire bolt. Burning hand/chromatic orb, scorching ray, fireball, wall of fire, delayed fireball, Firestorm 7d10 (39.2), incendiary cloud, meteor swarm (only half is fire). And for this reason I believe that even if you want to be a tiefling of a dragonborn (fire) it’s still better to be a fire dragon and that way you will save your precious SP since you won’t have to activate your fire resistance when you need it.
Acid: VERY BAD CHOICE: Acid splash and chromatic orb and there is no other acid spell in the player hand book accessible to the sorcerer at my knowledge. Only 2 acid spell Acid splash is a good cantrip able to affect up to 3 targets. Chromatic orb is very weak (1d8+1d8/spell level). Scorching ray is far more superior. Even if you really want to RP an acid dragon, you going to be able to cast only 2 acid spell, no real RP value here, if you want to play an Acid sorcerer, buy some vinegar and shoot it in the face of your opponent lol^^. Or try house rule something with your DM where you can change some fire spell into acid spell and the fire spell that burn stuff, would melt that stuff instead.
Cold: Decent choice: Ray of frost is a good cantrip ideal for kiting a monster. Chromatic orb, Ice storm, only part of it is ice and cone of cold is very good spell. If you really want to play a cold dragon you still have a good variation of spell and you can upgrade cone of cold to do decent damage at higher level. I would still avoid taking chromatic orb since even with your elemental affinity and elemental adept (cold), a unbuff scorching ray still deals more damage than a fully buffed Chromatic Orb.
Lightning: Decent choice: shocking grasp, need to be in melee range or need to use a familiar to deliver the touch). Chromatic orb, Thunderwave do a lot of noise so can be very dangerous, alerting the entire dungeon. Witch bolt is a great spell; with a single casting you can do 1d12+1d12/spell level automatically every round. Shatter is thunder not lightning so doesn’t count. Lightning bolt and chain lightning are both great spell to target multiple creature without touching your allies.
Poison: VERY BAD CHOICE: limited with only 3 damaging spell. Poison spray (very close range, 10 feet cannot be cast by the familiar) then chromatic orb, stinking cloud (no damage) and cloudkill.
For people who say that they can upgrade chromatic orb all the way to level 9 to keep it competitive let’s compare chromatic orb buffed with elemental affinity and elemental adept (feat). Buffed chromatic orb as a spell lvl 9 would deal 11d8+5 (55.875), compare to a regular scorching ray without any bonus that would deal: 10x(2d6) (70). Both spell are a ranged touch spell and if you miss you do 0damage, for scorching ray each ray are roll separately but each ray that miss deal 0. Chromatic orb got 2 advantages over scorching ray, you can adapt it, if you face a creature immune to fire, Scorching ray is useless, but you can change the elemental type of Chromatic orb (but Chromatic orb will also lose the benefit of elemental affinity and elemental adept). The other advantage will depend on your DM interpretation of the metamagic Twinned spell; under certain interpretation Scorching ray cannot be twinned, while Chromatic Orb can always be twinned, but even twinned, that would give Chromatic sphere an average potential of 56 damages on 2 creature, compare to Scorching ray average potential of 35 damage on 2 creatures, but to twinned Chromatic orb lvl 9 will cost you 9 SP and I believe there is more efficient way to use 9 SP.
Wild Magic- Wild magic is as the name say, wild, chaotic, random, you never know what will happen and there for is very hard to optimize. Just imagine, your first day as an adventurer, sorcerer level1, you are with your party ready to go on an adventure. You cast Mage armor, to be ready for the long day ahead, random roll, you also cast fireball centered on you doing 8d6 damage to yourself and all your party around, GG TPK. On the other hand, your team is down on the ground surrounded by goblins who ambushed you you cast your last magic missile, hoping to kill the leader of the goblin hoping that they might retreat if you succeed, wild magic kick in and you drain everyone around you for 1d10 HP killing all the goblin and getting fully healed back to max HP. Wild magic sorcerer can be very fun to play, but because of the nature of their randomness, cannot be the optimized choice, since you never know when you’ll roll on the wild magic surge table and you never know which of the 50 choices you’ll get. Yes Wild magic can be very powerfull, you can play with the chance of your opponent and ally and I'm sure that someone could create a powerfull wild magic sorcerer.
Metamagic:
Careful Spell: make your friend take just half damage, instead try to avoid your friend from the start, and hope they succeed their own dex save.
Distant spell: double the range of spell or transform a touch spell into a 30ft spell. This can be very useful especially with touch spell like vampiric touch, but I don’t really see the point of a 300ft fireball range.
Empowered spell: can be cast after you roll damage, when you saw that you roll 5 1’s for example. Can also be use on top of other metamagic. This is VERY powerful IMO, should be taken at level 10.
Extended spell: double spell with a duration of 1minutes+. Can be good with certain spell especially delayed fireball if you are able to wait without losing concentration to create a massive 32d6 damage.
Heightened spell: might cost 3 SP but giving disadvantage to the target can be very good when you want to make sure your spell will land, like a spell level 9 disintegrate ray. Should be taken at level 17 because of the cost of being so high.
Quickened spell: casting an extra cantrip, you can read this as add an extra Xd10+5 if you are a fire dragon casting firebolts, or Xd8+5 slow the target by 10ft if you’re a cold dragon etc… some spell have continuous effect costing you an action to activate (like witch bolt) and you can quicken a non cantrip spell and keep that spell activated, so while you keep restraining 2 targets using twinned telekenisi, you can cast a quicken fireball to take care of weaker monster. should be taken at level 1
Subtle spell: can be very useful when you need to be stealthy or to escape being tie up.
Twinned Spell: doubling the potential of single target spell (like disintegrate) double the number of person you can control using single target control spell (like hold person, telekenisis) double the number of person dying from power word kill etc… Or even double the amount of buff people you can target (casting polymorph or haste on both the fighter and the rogue for example. This should be taken at level 1
Stats:
Strenght: Unless you are going for a gish (which is not the objectif of this build) strength is your dump stats and should stay at 8. The only reason to increase this stat is if you are stuck with only 1 point left to distribute and everything is already an even number, then increasing Strenght to 9 will let you carry more weight.
Dexterity: Good for your AC, help you to have a higher initiave, since you want to cast your fireball before the fighter run in the middle of the group or cast Haste on the barbarian before he attacks. Also good against most AoE effect (fireball, chain of lightning, burning hand, dragon breaths) that can deal a lot of damage. Also improve Stealth, since you shouldn’t have an armor, you might be viable to stealth around to back up the scout if need be, or just for general movement within a dungeon without alerting the enemies. Also useful for acrobatics helping you pass obstacle without expending spells.
Constitution: Very good stats, give you more HP which help you survive against all damage source (Dex save spell, sword, arrow etc…). The higher HP also help you resist HP based spell like sleep, power word stun/Kill. High Contitution also help you keep concentration on your spell, and improved your constitution save which when you fail them can be very dangerous (finger of death, contagion, Max HP drain, nauseated, poison etc…)
Intellect: Intellect will protect you against a very dangerous spell: Feeblemind which reduce your intellect AND Charisma to 1 and you prevent you from casting any spell. It will also improve your investigation skill and knowledge skills (arcana, religion, history, nature etc…) If you have extra point to spare this can be a good place to drop them.
Wisdom: will boost your wisdom save which usually can make you turn against your group, which could be very dangerous if while being dominated you decide to cast fireball centered on yourself with the archer, and the healer at your side. Wisdom also help you with perception, insight, if you are going to be voice of the group, speaking with people because of your high Charisma, might as well have a chance to detect if they are lying to you (insight). Perception will help you see the rogue type monster hiding so you can aim your fireball to affect him as well (and denying there advantage they would have from attacking you being hidden)
Charisma: This is your main stats, no question about it, you boost it to 20 ASAP. Your Charisma will increase the DC of your spell making them harder to resist. It’s also increase chance to hit with your ranged/melee attack spell, and it also increase the damage of your elemental affinity spells. Plus from the playtest, it allows you to become attune to more powerful magical item, it give you better social skills (deception, persuasion, Intimidation etc…)
The distribution of the stats is dependent on your race choice. If you take a race that give you +2 Charisma then 14 in Charisma is enough (letting you save 2 point that can go elsewhere) if your race only give you +1 then 15 is a must. If you take a race giving you +0 Charisma (I would avoid that) then take 14 Charisma to save 2 point that you can put elsewhere. Why doing it this way? Very simple: there is only 2 feats giving you +1 Cha: Actor: which help you become impersonate someone, but if you want to do that disguise or alter self can do a great job and won’t cost you a feat. Resilience give you +1 in the stats of your choice and proficiency with the same stat save, but you are already proficient with Charisma save, so useless, Other people are telling me that if you get 17 you can then spend 1 point on Cha and one point elsewhere and get 1 +1 bonus. Well I prefer to get 16 in Charisma, and with the 2 points I saved I can go get my other +1 right now instead of at level 4 (unless you are a mountain dwarf with 17 Strength and Constitution, but then you are not playing a conventional sorcerer, you are playing a gish)
You should go for 14/15Cha (+2/+1racial to reach 16), 14Con, 14Dex, 10Int, 8Str. Try to keep even number (so if you get +1 Constitution, you could increase the 14 to a 15 to end up with 16, or decrease 14dex to13dex to end up back to 14dex. I put 10 in Intellect just to avoid penalty on Intellect save because of the Feeblemind spells.
Race:
Dwarf: doesn't give Cha so a bad choice from the start:
Pros: +2 Con, Darkvision, Dwarven resilience, +1HP per level. +1 Wis
Cons: slow speed make it harder to kite/ stay away from enemies, combat training; you are not using weapon so who cares about weapon profiencies? Tool profiencies, if you really want it, you can take a background giving them. If you really want armor badly, Stunecunnig, you have a low Intellect, leave this to the wizard with a higher intellect. +2 Strength (dumb stats) armor proficiency; as a draconic sorcer you get a free 13 AC so the equivalent of a chain shirt without restriction and without weight. If you are a wild magic sorcerer, you can cast mage armor giving you the same chain shirt (13) then you have your chest piece available to wear a magi robe later on.
Elf: The Drow can be a good choice because of +1 Cha, the drow magic give you 1 cantrip and 2 spell that you can cast 1 per day EACH. They are spell, so you can affect them with metamagic and twin faerie fire for example. If the sun bother you too much, cast spells without ranged attack so you cannot have disadvantage on a spell without an attack roll.
Pros: +2Dex, Speed 30 (35), Darkvision (60/120), Keen sense, Fey ancestry, Trance, Free cantrip (high), +1Wis (Wood), Mask of the wild (wood) or if you are proficient in stealth, +1 Cha (drow), Drow magic,
Con:Elf/Drow weapon training, you are not using weapon, +1 Int(high), sunlight Sensitivity (Drow)
Halfling: Lightfoot would be the best subrace because of the +1 Cha. Stout doesn’t give Cha. Lightfoot can be really good if you want to go for a stealthy sorcerer
Pros: +2Dex, Lucky, Brave, Halfling nimbleness, +1Cha (lightfoor), Naturally stealthy (light foot), +1Con (Stout) Stout resilience.
Cons: slow speed, Halfing nimbleness, you are a range spellcaster, why do you want to run between the leg of the big enemy?
Human: Variant is the best option for human since the regular human only offer +1 Cha, +1Dex and +1 Con and maybe +1 Wis that is interesting. Variant offer a free feat (elemental adept which is a must have for any draconic sorcerer since we specialize in a single element or war caster for a wild sorcerer). You still get +1 cha and +1 Con and an extra skill.
Dragonborn: the +2 strenght is a waste, +1Cha, the draconic ancestry do not have to be the same as your dragonic ancestry from sorcerer (you can be a bastard gold/blue dragon if you wish lol) The breath weapon is nice if you take a line shape, the cone shape force you to go very close to target. Damage resistance is interesting, but situational and can be replace by a spell.
Gnome:
Pros: Darkvision, Gnome Cunning, +1dex/Con, minor illusion as a cantrip, speak with small beasts,
Cons: +2 Int is a waste, speed 25ft, artificer Lore, Tinker the town can be mimic with a minor illusion, fire starter with prestidigitation and the music box with minor illusion.
Half elf: Imo the best sorcerer race available. +2 Cha, +1 to 2 other stat of your choice (Dex and Con), darkvision, Fey ancestry, 2 extra skills, what else do you want? An extra feat lol?
Half Orc:
Pros: +1 con, DArkvision, Relentless Endurance and Intimidation
Cons: +2 Strenght useless, Savage attack only work with weapon, so useless,
Tiefling: Very good choice, giving you access to a cantrip reserve to divine caster, a fire spell (specially for fire dragon) and darkness to control the battlefield.
Pros:+2 Cha, Darkvision, Fire resistance (save you 1 SP) thaumaturgy, hellish rebuke and darkness. They are spell that can be affected by metamagic. Hellish rebuke is also a fire spell, so ig you are a fire dragon you add your Cha on the damage, and with elemental adept 1=2
Cons: +1 Intellect,
Feat and stat boost:
Unless you know you are going to face a lot of creature with resistance to your elemental type, bring your Cha to 20 ASAP (lvl 4 and 8) since this will increase you damage (especially if you’re a fire dragon with scorching ray) your chance to hit with your ranged spell, and increase the DC of your other spells.
Then at level 12 take elemental adept.
At level 16 take spell sniper (you can choose eldritch blast for the free cantrip giving you a force spell to deal with creature immune to fire)
At level 19 lucky.
Why do I not take Warcaster? Because Sorcerer have proficiency with Con save and Constitution should be your 2nd best stat. and with the support of your group, you should not get attack very often, so should be able to succeed the few save you’ll get, and if you are about to fail it, you got lucky to reroll it. Doing somatic with weapon/shield in both hands, you don’t have proficiency with shield and you don’t need 2 weapons. Using spell when monster move out of your threaten zone, monster shouldn’t get close to you, so it won’t happen often.
Spell:
as a sorcerer you will know a maximum of 15 known spells and 6 cantrips. So you must choose those 15 spell carefully . Remember a low level spell can usually be cast at a higher level slot, spell like Scorching ray is a great single target spell even at higher level so this is a scallable spell that will satisfy your need for a single target spell from level 3 to level 20 for example. You also should only have 1 spell known fullfilling a purpose specially if they both require concentration, take the one with the most utility. For example, between haste and polymoprh just take one. I got a good imagination, so I can usually think of great imaginative way to use spell like minor illusion or creation to have multiple useful purposes out of them.
Here are my favorite 6 cantrip:
-Firebolt (if you are a Fire dragon, otherwise, take the offensive cantrip of your elemental type)
-Acid Splash (unless you already took as your first cantrip if you are an acid dragon, then I would suggest a single target spell like Firebolt of Ray of frost
-Minor illusion is a great multiporpuse spell able to create distraction, created hidding place (create a wall with murder arrow slit, then cast firbolt with advantage for being hidden) mimic a voice, create illusion light that still illuminate the room, create a black box target on the head of your ennemies to make them blind, even if they know it's an illusion, it's still darken there views (from 100% concealment you go down to 3/4concealment), etc... if you got a good DM and you use your imagination Minor illusion can be VERY powerful.
-Prestidigitation an other multipurpose spell, that can do a lot. from lighting up a torch to making you win a cooking contest lol^^
-True strike: Quicken this before a ranged attack spell like high level scorchign ray or disintegrate to reduce your chance of a miss. If your DM let you hide behind the minor illusion wall, then you don't need true stike
-Mage Hand: Very useful spell to manipulate small item from a distance
If you don't need True strike (or if you don't my other choices) Mending can be good to repair your equipment mid quest, Message to transfer short distance messages, light so your team doesn't need a torch. Friends can be very usefull but your Charisma should be high enought, if you want to have "friends", you can simply do a deception, intimidation or persuassion check which ever you took as a skill. Blade ward offer resistance to damage to self only for 1 round, if you are disparate enought to use blade ward, it's because your team is in real trouble. I do not suggest to take a 3rd offensive cantrip, those offensive cantrip are very narrow in there use, damage and slow down or damage and remove reaction or damage and cannot be healed.
Now for the spell lvl 1+: I am doing the list for a fire dragon sorcerer. If you decided to take a different elemental dragon type, you can change some of the fire spell for spell of your dragon elements.
1 - Magic missile and Sleep: your spell DC is still very low (13) so it is a big gamble to use DC spell at this level. Magic missile is a sure thing that will hit every time and can hit multiple target if need be. Sleep is a good spell that doesn't require a DC effectively controlling between 5 and 40Hp worth of monster, on average 2 or 3 goblin/cultist. that will stay on the ground untill the fighter everyone ready an action to kill it with simultaneous attack.
2 - Shield offer you some protection if for some reason you don't need shield (you got a staff of defense for example) Charm Person can be a good alternative but you have high Charisma, so you can emulate the purpose of charmed person with
3 - Invisibility you can only cast spell lvl 2 twice so taking invisibility give you some utilities and if you need more damage magic missile upgrade to level 2 still fair pretty well
4 - Enlarge/Reduce great buffing spell for your fighter/barbarian or you can make the ennemy weaker. Particularly good on a monk who got multiple attacks and the extra 1d4 apply on each one of them
5 - Fireball. Also your spell DC should be 15 by now so you can drop sleep (even powered up at level 3 it only affect 9d8 so on average 40HP) Fireball will kill minion with low enough HP to be mass affected by sleep. Instead of Sleep, you can take Mage armor if you are not a dragon sorcerer or Misty step can be quite usefull to reach hard to reach places.
6 - Counterspell or Dispel magic, one will prevent that fireball to kill the party, the other will remove those buff on the ennemy making him near unkillable. Also forget Magic missile and replace it with Scorching ray. At this point you might only have 1 spell lvl 1 left, even if you reach 0 spell lvl 1 know, you can alway transfer those spell slot into sorcerer point. If your expect a lot of Fire resistant/immune creature keep magic missile instead of Scorching ray, but in most campaign, if you face a fire resistant/immune monster you can still spend your action doing haste, dispel magic, attack the other non fire resistant monster or use Acid Splash to kill the little minions.
7 - Haste, great buff spell to support a party member... Since Haste serve the same purpose as enlarge/reduce you should replace E/R with Greater invisibility which will give you advantage on all your attack spell or give advantage/to a party member.(like the rogue). Invisibility is still usefull for when you need invisibility for a long period of time,
8 - Dispel magic or coutnerspell (depending which one you took at level 6)
9 - Telekinesis, Strenght check or restrained a target, bring a target 60 ft in the air, let it drop prone on the ground and take 6d6 falling damage or keep it restraint. This spell can be used with a quicken cast of an other spell high level spell or be twinned to control 2 targets. The spell can also be used as a power up version of Mage hand.
10 - Creation: even if it's just 5 foot cube, do you know how much rope you can filled in a 5 foot cube? so here a long solide rope to cross the Chasm, you need to trick the merchant by giving him a gems or precious metal, you'll be good for 10 minutes. You need a tool for a job, here you go,
11 - Disintegrate: very powerfull single target spell (especially if you dm rules that your Cha bonus apply only on 1 ray from Scorhing ray) also can be used to create door dispel wall of force. The spell also do Force damage so you can deal damage to monster resistant
12 -
13 - Reverse gravity: This spell has no save to control the enemy. the dex save is to grab something as they fall up. cannot attack back since they need to hold to the thing they grabed. Indoor this is enought to send everyone take falling damage to the roof, then falling damage back on the ground. Since Greater invisibility and Haste serve the same purpose (buff the team) and both require concentration, choose one of the 2, then replace it with Plane shift, a spell that can be use for both utility (moving around across planes) and for offensive ability: melee spell attack roll(easy to achieve with greater invisibility) and a charisma save without concentration.
14 -
15 - Dominate Monster to make your opponent part of the team.
16 -
17 - Meteor Swarm: Power word kill is great, but you need to know that your target is under 150hp, Meteor swarm do on average 140 damage no matter what and it's a AoE spell instead of a single target. I used to love time stop in 3rd edition casting 5 delayed fireball and watching all 5 exploding at the same time fo insane damage, but now that delayed fireball is concentration you can only cast it once with a regular spell to have 2 spell cast in the "same turn" Wish can be a good choice as well basically giving you access to all the lower leve sorcerer spell, and in big emergency for a super cool effect, but be carefull witht his super cool effect since you might be unable to cast Wish ever again, in this case, next level change it for Meteor Swarm, just be carefull with Wish at level 20.
18 -
19 -
20 -
Final spell list:
Cantrip: Firebolt, Acid splah, Minor illusion, Prestidigitation, True strike, Mage hand
Shield, Invisibility, misty step, Scorching ray (AC), Fireball(Dex), Dispel Magic, Counterspell, Greater invisibilty, Telekinesis (Str), Creation, Disintegrate(Force), Reverse gravity (Dex), Plane shift (AC+Cha), Dominate monster(Wis), Meteor Swarm
Some spell are very situational (like wish, comprehend language, teleport, clairvoyance, darkvision etc...) but very usefull in those situation. If you are the only one who can cast them, you should try to get some scroll of those spells. if you have a ritual spell caster (cleric, druid, warlock of the tome) in your team let him take care of ritual, otherwise you might want to change some of the spell for some usefull rituals. I do not believe that ritual caster feat is worth it, specialy since the soonest you could take it would be at level 16 (no matter what you need your 20 Charisma and elemental adept.
I don't really have intention to do a complete multiclass section because that would be way too long. But I can show some dipping options. A sorcerer got no reason to go past 18 and is greatly encourage to take 2 level in a different full caster: ( only loosing 2 SP, a feat at 19, and the ability to regain 4sp on a short rest at lvl 20). I would suggest to wait to be sorcerer level 5 before considering to multiclass, since you want your fireball as your main AoE spell.
Warlock: you loose 2 caster level by taking Warlock, but the eldritch blast, If your DM rules that you can add your Cha on every eldritch blast ray, dipping 2 level in warlock to get eldritch blast with agonizing blast and Repelling Blast. This also give you 2 spell level 1 that refresh on a short rest (so 2 extra SP on a short rest) Also gain 3 spell lvl 1 including Hex, Hellish Rebuke and Witch bolt. for your patron, I like the Fey one, let you charm or frightened everyone 10 ft around you, a weaker version of the dragon lvl 18 feature but doesn't cost 5SP to do it. The fiendish pact would give you only 7 (or 9 if you go 4 level) Temp HP when you kill a target which is very small. The great old one give you telepathy which can also be a great ability.
To gain this, you will loose Sorcerous Restoration (gainign 4 SP per rest) but you are gaining the ability to get 2 SP per rest, so you really just loosing half of it.
Going all the way to warlock 4, will give you back the feat, give you 5 spell known luo to level 2 instead of just 3 spell lvl 1. You will regain 2 spell lvl 2 so 4 SP on a short rest, replacing the Sorcerous Restoration. Pact of the tome would give you access to ritual spell. But for those 4 level, you will lose 1 spell lvl 5, your only spell lvl 9, your origin feature lvl 18, one spell known and 2 more SP.
I'm not a big fan or armored sorcerer since the dragon already give you a 13 AC, you got a easy to cast armor with mage armor, and your team should be able to protect you and keep you away from AC attack. multiclassing into cleric will require you to have at least 13 Wisdom so you might have to reduce your Constitution or Dex slightly to reach 13, and you might want a tad higher then 13 since many 1st level domain benefit require Wisdom.
Cleric: But if you really want armor, cleric is the best way to go since the only thing you'll lose from dipping 1 cleric level is: 1 SP, and sorcerous restoration. And you will gain
3 cantrip not on your sorcerer list, Guidance, resistance and spare the dying are my personal 3 favorites.
Able to prepare at least 2 cleric spell +domain
Access to lvl 1 rituals
Domain: My persoanl favorite includes:
Life: you can metamagic and upgrade your healing all to way to level 9, so you could cast a twinned cure wound lvl 9, with disciple of life, that is a lot of healing.
Light: Give you access to faeri fire, and warding light for some protecting (only WisMod/day).
Trickery: give advantage to the rogue before he go ahead to scout can be very usefull... or you can cast invisibility as a spell lvl 2
don't be tricked, wrath of the Strom from the tempest domain is NOT a spell so it will not benefit from the elemental affinity nor elemental adept feat. But if take 2 cleric of tempest level, once per day you'll be able to do maximum damage with one lightning spell at the cost of a feat and a 1 aditional SP
Knowledge give you 2 language and 2 knowledge skill, considering that Intellect is now your 5ft stats, you should probably let someone else be the smart one.
Nature: 1 druid cantrip and 1 skill between Animal handling, Nature or survival also heavy armor. You don't really need druid cantrip since you already got 3 cleric cantrip)
War give you an extra attack (not action)
Wizard: not a bad choice but I would dip 2 level to gain a school tradition. you only lose 2 SP a feat and Sorcerous restoration and will gain and you will need to have at least 13 Intellect which mean you'll probably need to reduce your dex Con and or Wis.
Access to ritual,
Prepare minimum 3 spell level 1
School bonus:
Evocator give you a great perks, Scultp spell which is a upgrade from Carefull spell and doesn't cost SP.
Necromancer: If you plan on having a lot of necromantic spell, the necromancer school can be really good to regain HP, even if cast mostly evocation gaining back twice the spell level is very interesting.
Diviner: Knowing 2 roll in advance, knowing that the super important spell you cast will land for sure, or making sure that the half orc barbarian in your team will crit can be very powerful.
Illusionist: If your DM is very liberal with your minor illusion abilities, being able to have a visual and auditible cue with a single cast will open even more door.
Abjuration: give you a protective bubble when you cast a abjuration spell
wizard to gain ritual casting and the specialization bonus (evocation give you a free to use improved carefull casting metamagic on your evocation, necromancer give you back HP whenever you kill a target with your spells (even if not necromantic spells) spell or the most powerfull one IMHO portent: you know 2 dice per day.
The wizard path also allow you to exchange all your level 1 spell for higher level spell, since you can transcribe all spell level 1 in your spellbook and as long as you take no-DC spell level 1 (sleep, detect magic, alarm, find familiar, identify, shield, mage armor, comprehend language, longstrider, expeditious retreat, jump etc...) you only need 13 intellect
Bard give you bardic inspiration which let you give +1d6 to any d20 roll an ally do. and share the same main stats as your sorcerer: Charisma. The second level (jack of all trade and song of rest) can be interesting, but I would prefer 1 bard/1cleric/18 sorcerer over 2bard/18 sorcerer.
Druid: In my opinion the weakest multiclass option for a 2 level dip: access to cantrip similar to the cleric list. druidic language, wild shape can be interesting giving you flexibility without using your limited spell slots. For circle, as oddly as it seems, I would take the moon circle to improve the wildshape abilities, since circle of land give you an extra cantrip, and the ability to recover 1 spell level 1 on a short rest.
other multiclassing is possible, but then you are no longer a sorcerer, you would be a monk/sorcerer or a kind of Eldritch knight or ARcane tricker using Cha instead of intellect but not longer within the scope of this guide.
By Sorxores, as originally published on the Wizards of the Coast message boards
This is a guide I’m writing to make the most optimized sorcerer possible following the rule in the PHB. This sorcerer will be optimizing for:
- a general campaign in which you are going to face all kind of creature and challenge.
- a party of 4 containing one protector type character, one support type character one skill master and yourself as the arcane caster.
- Using the Adventure league rules
- A conventional spell caster who deals damage, control the battlefield and support his allies from behind, protected by the protector of the group, and maybe even by the cleric.
If you want to help me please provide me with CONSTRUCTIVE arguments, and keep it to a generalize setting where you could face any kind of monster and any kind of challenge. If I do a mistake or you disagree with my interpretation, please put your reference in your comment and I’ll edit the OP.
The sorcerer uses 2 resources in combat: spell slot (SS) and sorcerer point (SP). He learn a very limited amount of spell when he level up and can change one of them only when he’s gain a new level. When you exchange a spell you can choose a spell of any level, as long as you can cast it (so at level 5, if you can forget burning hand and learn fireball instead)
The sorcerer specialize within the very limited amount of spell he know, transforming those spell making them more powerful than any other spell caster could even dream of doing. The sorcerer if build for certain purpose can nova easily doing a lot of damage in a single round, but a very limited amount of time per long rest.
The sorcerer does not benefit from short rest (until level 20) other than to recover HP with Hit Dice.
Sorcerer subclass:
Dragon bloodline – Best subclass by default since wild is too random for optimization.
Dragonic ancestor: (level1) choose a dragon type. (see below for more detail on the different dragon type), you learn the dragonic language, and you double your proficiency bonus using Cha when using it against a dragon.
Draconic Resilience: (level 1) 1hp/level, AC=13+dex (do NOT stack with mage armor nor with unarmored defense from barbarian nor monk), stack with magical item giving +X to AC (like ring of protection or bracer of armor or the staff of defense). Always useful to survive attack able to bypass the protector (AoE spell, range etc…) or when the protector fall in battle or is too far away from you. Specially usefull at low level, letting you have protection without using a feat/multiclass for armor or a spell slot for mage armor.
Elemental Affinity or even Gold if your DM let you use +CHA on every ray from scorching ray: (level 6) This is the bread and butter of the dragon sorcerer, your damage boost, the reason whey you choose a dragon type earlier. You can add you Charisma modifier on the spell with the same elements as your dragon ancestry type. Untill we see an official response from WotC, this ability is dependent on the interpretation of your DM. For spell with multiple attack (like Scorching ray) some people say that you can add the +Cha only on the first ray, other interpreted it as you can add the +Cha on EVERY ray, and other says that you can add it once per monster per round.I believe that the correct interpretation is that EVERY rays receive the +Cha and I’ll do this guide according to this interpretation, if you play with a different variation, then you might have to revise some of my decision. You can also spend 1 Sorcerer point to gain resistance to your dragon element for 1 hour.
NOTE: resistance feature: I would say that since most spell in the PHB are fire spell, most enemy spell caster will cast fire spell including everyone favorite: Fireball. I don’t have access to the Monster manual from 5e but IIRC based on previous edition there is slightly more fire type creature then other type of creature, making fire resistance the most useful resistance. Even if you want to be a tiefling or a dragon born (fire) you already have fire resistance, I would still choose a fire dragon for reason that I’ll explain shortly. According to the dragon ask in HotDQ if you have resistance to the same thing from 2 differents sources,, you gain immunity to it, then you get healed if you get resistance a 3rd time.
Dragon wing: (level 14) you can fly at your current speed. This is a free concentration spell lvl 3 that you can activate at will without using your concentration. Very useful to get out of reach of most attack but still able to rain down your magical wrath on the battlefield. Depending on your DM interpretation of: equipment made to accommodate your wing, this power could be very difficult of limiting to use. With regular clothing, it’s not very important; it’s fairly easy to cut two holes in the back. But with armor, do those 2 holes will reduce the AC of your armor? If you have a magical chest piece (Magi robe or a magical leather armor) does cutting 2 holes ruined the magical enchantment?
Draconic Presence: (level 18) by spending 5 SP the draconic Sorcerer can charmed or frightened every HOSTILE CREATURE within 60ft of the sorcerer (your party is immune to this effect but everyone else will be affected, unlike charm person who charm only humanoid) for 1 minutes if they fail a Wisdom save. This can be a very powerful power, ideal to crowd control or win a popularity contest, but the cost of 5SP will prevent you from using it too often. This feature is very situational
Now what type of Draconic sorcerer should you be - Optimization wise, the important factor is the element of your dragon, there is no difference between a red/gold or Brass dragon since all 3 are fire. The only real choice here is a FIRE dragon type, the sorcerer spell list contain 10 fire spell (to synergize with your elemental affinity. Compare to only 2 acid spells, 3.5 poison spell (one does no damage), 4 cold spell and 6 lightning spell (3 are level 1). If your DM let you change the element of a
Fire: The BEST CHOICE: the sorcerer PHB spell list got mainly fire spell. Fire bolt. Burning hand/chromatic orb, scorching ray, fireball, wall of fire, delayed fireball, Firestorm 7d10 (39.2), incendiary cloud, meteor swarm (only half is fire). And for this reason I believe that even if you want to be a tiefling of a dragonborn (fire) it’s still better to be a fire dragon and that way you will save your precious SP since you won’t have to activate your fire resistance when you need it.
Acid: VERY BAD CHOICE: Acid splash and chromatic orb and there is no other acid spell in the player hand book accessible to the sorcerer at my knowledge. Only 2 acid spell Acid splash is a good cantrip able to affect up to 3 targets. Chromatic orb is very weak (1d8+1d8/spell level). Scorching ray is far more superior. Even if you really want to RP an acid dragon, you going to be able to cast only 2 acid spell, no real RP value here, if you want to play an Acid sorcerer, buy some vinegar and shoot it in the face of your opponent lol^^. Or try house rule something with your DM where you can change some fire spell into acid spell and the fire spell that burn stuff, would melt that stuff instead.
Cold: Decent choice: Ray of frost is a good cantrip ideal for kiting a monster. Chromatic orb, Ice storm, only part of it is ice and cone of cold is very good spell. If you really want to play a cold dragon you still have a good variation of spell and you can upgrade cone of cold to do decent damage at higher level. I would still avoid taking chromatic orb since even with your elemental affinity and elemental adept (cold), a unbuff scorching ray still deals more damage than a fully buffed Chromatic Orb.
Lightning: Decent choice: shocking grasp, need to be in melee range or need to use a familiar to deliver the touch). Chromatic orb, Thunderwave do a lot of noise so can be very dangerous, alerting the entire dungeon. Witch bolt is a great spell; with a single casting you can do 1d12+1d12/spell level automatically every round. Shatter is thunder not lightning so doesn’t count. Lightning bolt and chain lightning are both great spell to target multiple creature without touching your allies.
Poison: VERY BAD CHOICE: limited with only 3 damaging spell. Poison spray (very close range, 10 feet cannot be cast by the familiar) then chromatic orb, stinking cloud (no damage) and cloudkill.
For people who say that they can upgrade chromatic orb all the way to level 9 to keep it competitive let’s compare chromatic orb buffed with elemental affinity and elemental adept (feat). Buffed chromatic orb as a spell lvl 9 would deal 11d8+5 (55.875), compare to a regular scorching ray without any bonus that would deal: 10x(2d6) (70). Both spell are a ranged touch spell and if you miss you do 0damage, for scorching ray each ray are roll separately but each ray that miss deal 0. Chromatic orb got 2 advantages over scorching ray, you can adapt it, if you face a creature immune to fire, Scorching ray is useless, but you can change the elemental type of Chromatic orb (but Chromatic orb will also lose the benefit of elemental affinity and elemental adept). The other advantage will depend on your DM interpretation of the metamagic Twinned spell; under certain interpretation Scorching ray cannot be twinned, while Chromatic Orb can always be twinned, but even twinned, that would give Chromatic sphere an average potential of 56 damages on 2 creature, compare to Scorching ray average potential of 35 damage on 2 creatures, but to twinned Chromatic orb lvl 9 will cost you 9 SP and I believe there is more efficient way to use 9 SP.
Wild Magic- Wild magic is as the name say, wild, chaotic, random, you never know what will happen and there for is very hard to optimize. Just imagine, your first day as an adventurer, sorcerer level1, you are with your party ready to go on an adventure. You cast Mage armor, to be ready for the long day ahead, random roll, you also cast fireball centered on you doing 8d6 damage to yourself and all your party around, GG TPK. On the other hand, your team is down on the ground surrounded by goblins who ambushed you you cast your last magic missile, hoping to kill the leader of the goblin hoping that they might retreat if you succeed, wild magic kick in and you drain everyone around you for 1d10 HP killing all the goblin and getting fully healed back to max HP. Wild magic sorcerer can be very fun to play, but because of the nature of their randomness, cannot be the optimized choice, since you never know when you’ll roll on the wild magic surge table and you never know which of the 50 choices you’ll get. Yes Wild magic can be very powerfull, you can play with the chance of your opponent and ally and I'm sure that someone could create a powerfull wild magic sorcerer.
Metamagic:
Careful Spell: make your friend take just half damage, instead try to avoid your friend from the start, and hope they succeed their own dex save.
Distant spell: double the range of spell or transform a touch spell into a 30ft spell. This can be very useful especially with touch spell like vampiric touch, but I don’t really see the point of a 300ft fireball range.
Empowered spell: can be cast after you roll damage, when you saw that you roll 5 1’s for example. Can also be use on top of other metamagic. This is VERY powerful IMO, should be taken at level 10.
Extended spell: double spell with a duration of 1minutes+. Can be good with certain spell especially delayed fireball if you are able to wait without losing concentration to create a massive 32d6 damage.
Heightened spell: might cost 3 SP but giving disadvantage to the target can be very good when you want to make sure your spell will land, like a spell level 9 disintegrate ray. Should be taken at level 17 because of the cost of being so high.
Quickened spell: casting an extra cantrip, you can read this as add an extra Xd10+5 if you are a fire dragon casting firebolts, or Xd8+5 slow the target by 10ft if you’re a cold dragon etc… some spell have continuous effect costing you an action to activate (like witch bolt) and you can quicken a non cantrip spell and keep that spell activated, so while you keep restraining 2 targets using twinned telekenisi, you can cast a quicken fireball to take care of weaker monster. should be taken at level 1
Subtle spell: can be very useful when you need to be stealthy or to escape being tie up.
Twinned Spell: doubling the potential of single target spell (like disintegrate) double the number of person you can control using single target control spell (like hold person, telekenisis) double the number of person dying from power word kill etc… Or even double the amount of buff people you can target (casting polymorph or haste on both the fighter and the rogue for example. This should be taken at level 1
Stats:
Strenght: Unless you are going for a gish (which is not the objectif of this build) strength is your dump stats and should stay at 8. The only reason to increase this stat is if you are stuck with only 1 point left to distribute and everything is already an even number, then increasing Strenght to 9 will let you carry more weight.
Dexterity: Good for your AC, help you to have a higher initiave, since you want to cast your fireball before the fighter run in the middle of the group or cast Haste on the barbarian before he attacks. Also good against most AoE effect (fireball, chain of lightning, burning hand, dragon breaths) that can deal a lot of damage. Also improve Stealth, since you shouldn’t have an armor, you might be viable to stealth around to back up the scout if need be, or just for general movement within a dungeon without alerting the enemies. Also useful for acrobatics helping you pass obstacle without expending spells.
Constitution: Very good stats, give you more HP which help you survive against all damage source (Dex save spell, sword, arrow etc…). The higher HP also help you resist HP based spell like sleep, power word stun/Kill. High Contitution also help you keep concentration on your spell, and improved your constitution save which when you fail them can be very dangerous (finger of death, contagion, Max HP drain, nauseated, poison etc…)
Intellect: Intellect will protect you against a very dangerous spell: Feeblemind which reduce your intellect AND Charisma to 1 and you prevent you from casting any spell. It will also improve your investigation skill and knowledge skills (arcana, religion, history, nature etc…) If you have extra point to spare this can be a good place to drop them.
Wisdom: will boost your wisdom save which usually can make you turn against your group, which could be very dangerous if while being dominated you decide to cast fireball centered on yourself with the archer, and the healer at your side. Wisdom also help you with perception, insight, if you are going to be voice of the group, speaking with people because of your high Charisma, might as well have a chance to detect if they are lying to you (insight). Perception will help you see the rogue type monster hiding so you can aim your fireball to affect him as well (and denying there advantage they would have from attacking you being hidden)
Charisma: This is your main stats, no question about it, you boost it to 20 ASAP. Your Charisma will increase the DC of your spell making them harder to resist. It’s also increase chance to hit with your ranged/melee attack spell, and it also increase the damage of your elemental affinity spells. Plus from the playtest, it allows you to become attune to more powerful magical item, it give you better social skills (deception, persuasion, Intimidation etc…)
The distribution of the stats is dependent on your race choice. If you take a race that give you +2 Charisma then 14 in Charisma is enough (letting you save 2 point that can go elsewhere) if your race only give you +1 then 15 is a must. If you take a race giving you +0 Charisma (I would avoid that) then take 14 Charisma to save 2 point that you can put elsewhere. Why doing it this way? Very simple: there is only 2 feats giving you +1 Cha: Actor: which help you become impersonate someone, but if you want to do that disguise or alter self can do a great job and won’t cost you a feat. Resilience give you +1 in the stats of your choice and proficiency with the same stat save, but you are already proficient with Charisma save, so useless, Other people are telling me that if you get 17 you can then spend 1 point on Cha and one point elsewhere and get 1 +1 bonus. Well I prefer to get 16 in Charisma, and with the 2 points I saved I can go get my other +1 right now instead of at level 4 (unless you are a mountain dwarf with 17 Strength and Constitution, but then you are not playing a conventional sorcerer, you are playing a gish)
You should go for 14/15Cha (+2/+1racial to reach 16), 14Con, 14Dex, 10Int, 8Str. Try to keep even number (so if you get +1 Constitution, you could increase the 14 to a 15 to end up with 16, or decrease 14dex to13dex to end up back to 14dex. I put 10 in Intellect just to avoid penalty on Intellect save because of the Feeblemind spells.
Race:
Dwarf: doesn't give Cha so a bad choice from the start:
Pros: +2 Con, Darkvision, Dwarven resilience, +1HP per level. +1 Wis
Cons: slow speed make it harder to kite/ stay away from enemies, combat training; you are not using weapon so who cares about weapon profiencies? Tool profiencies, if you really want it, you can take a background giving them. If you really want armor badly, Stunecunnig, you have a low Intellect, leave this to the wizard with a higher intellect. +2 Strength (dumb stats) armor proficiency; as a draconic sorcer you get a free 13 AC so the equivalent of a chain shirt without restriction and without weight. If you are a wild magic sorcerer, you can cast mage armor giving you the same chain shirt (13) then you have your chest piece available to wear a magi robe later on.
Elf: The Drow can be a good choice because of +1 Cha, the drow magic give you 1 cantrip and 2 spell that you can cast 1 per day EACH. They are spell, so you can affect them with metamagic and twin faerie fire for example. If the sun bother you too much, cast spells without ranged attack so you cannot have disadvantage on a spell without an attack roll.
Pros: +2Dex, Speed 30 (35), Darkvision (60/120), Keen sense, Fey ancestry, Trance, Free cantrip (high), +1Wis (Wood), Mask of the wild (wood) or if you are proficient in stealth, +1 Cha (drow), Drow magic,
Con:Elf/Drow weapon training, you are not using weapon, +1 Int(high), sunlight Sensitivity (Drow)
Halfling: Lightfoot would be the best subrace because of the +1 Cha. Stout doesn’t give Cha. Lightfoot can be really good if you want to go for a stealthy sorcerer
Pros: +2Dex, Lucky, Brave, Halfling nimbleness, +1Cha (lightfoor), Naturally stealthy (light foot), +1Con (Stout) Stout resilience.
Cons: slow speed, Halfing nimbleness, you are a range spellcaster, why do you want to run between the leg of the big enemy?
Human: Variant is the best option for human since the regular human only offer +1 Cha, +1Dex and +1 Con and maybe +1 Wis that is interesting. Variant offer a free feat (elemental adept which is a must have for any draconic sorcerer since we specialize in a single element or war caster for a wild sorcerer). You still get +1 cha and +1 Con and an extra skill.
Dragonborn: the +2 strenght is a waste, +1Cha, the draconic ancestry do not have to be the same as your dragonic ancestry from sorcerer (you can be a bastard gold/blue dragon if you wish lol) The breath weapon is nice if you take a line shape, the cone shape force you to go very close to target. Damage resistance is interesting, but situational and can be replace by a spell.
Gnome:
Pros: Darkvision, Gnome Cunning, +1dex/Con, minor illusion as a cantrip, speak with small beasts,
Cons: +2 Int is a waste, speed 25ft, artificer Lore, Tinker the town can be mimic with a minor illusion, fire starter with prestidigitation and the music box with minor illusion.
Half elf: Imo the best sorcerer race available. +2 Cha, +1 to 2 other stat of your choice (Dex and Con), darkvision, Fey ancestry, 2 extra skills, what else do you want? An extra feat lol?
Half Orc:
Pros: +1 con, DArkvision, Relentless Endurance and Intimidation
Cons: +2 Strenght useless, Savage attack only work with weapon, so useless,
Tiefling: Very good choice, giving you access to a cantrip reserve to divine caster, a fire spell (specially for fire dragon) and darkness to control the battlefield.
Pros:+2 Cha, Darkvision, Fire resistance (save you 1 SP) thaumaturgy, hellish rebuke and darkness. They are spell that can be affected by metamagic. Hellish rebuke is also a fire spell, so ig you are a fire dragon you add your Cha on the damage, and with elemental adept 1=2
Cons: +1 Intellect,
Feat and stat boost:
Unless you know you are going to face a lot of creature with resistance to your elemental type, bring your Cha to 20 ASAP (lvl 4 and 8) since this will increase you damage (especially if you’re a fire dragon with scorching ray) your chance to hit with your ranged spell, and increase the DC of your other spells.
Then at level 12 take elemental adept.
At level 16 take spell sniper (you can choose eldritch blast for the free cantrip giving you a force spell to deal with creature immune to fire)
At level 19 lucky.
Why do I not take Warcaster? Because Sorcerer have proficiency with Con save and Constitution should be your 2nd best stat. and with the support of your group, you should not get attack very often, so should be able to succeed the few save you’ll get, and if you are about to fail it, you got lucky to reroll it. Doing somatic with weapon/shield in both hands, you don’t have proficiency with shield and you don’t need 2 weapons. Using spell when monster move out of your threaten zone, monster shouldn’t get close to you, so it won’t happen often.
Spell:
as a sorcerer you will know a maximum of 15 known spells and 6 cantrips. So you must choose those 15 spell carefully . Remember a low level spell can usually be cast at a higher level slot, spell like Scorching ray is a great single target spell even at higher level so this is a scallable spell that will satisfy your need for a single target spell from level 3 to level 20 for example. You also should only have 1 spell known fullfilling a purpose specially if they both require concentration, take the one with the most utility. For example, between haste and polymoprh just take one. I got a good imagination, so I can usually think of great imaginative way to use spell like minor illusion or creation to have multiple useful purposes out of them.
Here are my favorite 6 cantrip:
-Firebolt (if you are a Fire dragon, otherwise, take the offensive cantrip of your elemental type)
-Acid Splash (unless you already took as your first cantrip if you are an acid dragon, then I would suggest a single target spell like Firebolt of Ray of frost
-Minor illusion is a great multiporpuse spell able to create distraction, created hidding place (create a wall with murder arrow slit, then cast firbolt with advantage for being hidden) mimic a voice, create illusion light that still illuminate the room, create a black box target on the head of your ennemies to make them blind, even if they know it's an illusion, it's still darken there views (from 100% concealment you go down to 3/4concealment), etc... if you got a good DM and you use your imagination Minor illusion can be VERY powerful.
-Prestidigitation an other multipurpose spell, that can do a lot. from lighting up a torch to making you win a cooking contest lol^^
-True strike: Quicken this before a ranged attack spell like high level scorchign ray or disintegrate to reduce your chance of a miss. If your DM let you hide behind the minor illusion wall, then you don't need true stike
-Mage Hand: Very useful spell to manipulate small item from a distance
If you don't need True strike (or if you don't my other choices) Mending can be good to repair your equipment mid quest, Message to transfer short distance messages, light so your team doesn't need a torch. Friends can be very usefull but your Charisma should be high enought, if you want to have "friends", you can simply do a deception, intimidation or persuassion check which ever you took as a skill. Blade ward offer resistance to damage to self only for 1 round, if you are disparate enought to use blade ward, it's because your team is in real trouble. I do not suggest to take a 3rd offensive cantrip, those offensive cantrip are very narrow in there use, damage and slow down or damage and remove reaction or damage and cannot be healed.
Now for the spell lvl 1+: I am doing the list for a fire dragon sorcerer. If you decided to take a different elemental dragon type, you can change some of the fire spell for spell of your dragon elements.
1 - Magic missile and Sleep: your spell DC is still very low (13) so it is a big gamble to use DC spell at this level. Magic missile is a sure thing that will hit every time and can hit multiple target if need be. Sleep is a good spell that doesn't require a DC effectively controlling between 5 and 40Hp worth of monster, on average 2 or 3 goblin/cultist. that will stay on the ground untill the fighter everyone ready an action to kill it with simultaneous attack.
2 - Shield offer you some protection if for some reason you don't need shield (you got a staff of defense for example) Charm Person can be a good alternative but you have high Charisma, so you can emulate the purpose of charmed person with
3 - Invisibility you can only cast spell lvl 2 twice so taking invisibility give you some utilities and if you need more damage magic missile upgrade to level 2 still fair pretty well
4 - Enlarge/Reduce great buffing spell for your fighter/barbarian or you can make the ennemy weaker. Particularly good on a monk who got multiple attacks and the extra 1d4 apply on each one of them
5 - Fireball. Also your spell DC should be 15 by now so you can drop sleep (even powered up at level 3 it only affect 9d8 so on average 40HP) Fireball will kill minion with low enough HP to be mass affected by sleep. Instead of Sleep, you can take Mage armor if you are not a dragon sorcerer or Misty step can be quite usefull to reach hard to reach places.
6 - Counterspell or Dispel magic, one will prevent that fireball to kill the party, the other will remove those buff on the ennemy making him near unkillable. Also forget Magic missile and replace it with Scorching ray. At this point you might only have 1 spell lvl 1 left, even if you reach 0 spell lvl 1 know, you can alway transfer those spell slot into sorcerer point. If your expect a lot of Fire resistant/immune creature keep magic missile instead of Scorching ray, but in most campaign, if you face a fire resistant/immune monster you can still spend your action doing haste, dispel magic, attack the other non fire resistant monster or use Acid Splash to kill the little minions.
7 - Haste, great buff spell to support a party member... Since Haste serve the same purpose as enlarge/reduce you should replace E/R with Greater invisibility which will give you advantage on all your attack spell or give advantage/to a party member.(like the rogue). Invisibility is still usefull for when you need invisibility for a long period of time,
8 - Dispel magic or coutnerspell (depending which one you took at level 6)
9 - Telekinesis, Strenght check or restrained a target, bring a target 60 ft in the air, let it drop prone on the ground and take 6d6 falling damage or keep it restraint. This spell can be used with a quicken cast of an other spell high level spell or be twinned to control 2 targets. The spell can also be used as a power up version of Mage hand.
10 - Creation: even if it's just 5 foot cube, do you know how much rope you can filled in a 5 foot cube? so here a long solide rope to cross the Chasm, you need to trick the merchant by giving him a gems or precious metal, you'll be good for 10 minutes. You need a tool for a job, here you go,
11 - Disintegrate: very powerfull single target spell (especially if you dm rules that your Cha bonus apply only on 1 ray from Scorhing ray) also can be used to create door dispel wall of force. The spell also do Force damage so you can deal damage to monster resistant
12 -
13 - Reverse gravity: This spell has no save to control the enemy. the dex save is to grab something as they fall up. cannot attack back since they need to hold to the thing they grabed. Indoor this is enought to send everyone take falling damage to the roof, then falling damage back on the ground. Since Greater invisibility and Haste serve the same purpose (buff the team) and both require concentration, choose one of the 2, then replace it with Plane shift, a spell that can be use for both utility (moving around across planes) and for offensive ability: melee spell attack roll(easy to achieve with greater invisibility) and a charisma save without concentration.
14 -
15 - Dominate Monster to make your opponent part of the team.
16 -
17 - Meteor Swarm: Power word kill is great, but you need to know that your target is under 150hp, Meteor swarm do on average 140 damage no matter what and it's a AoE spell instead of a single target. I used to love time stop in 3rd edition casting 5 delayed fireball and watching all 5 exploding at the same time fo insane damage, but now that delayed fireball is concentration you can only cast it once with a regular spell to have 2 spell cast in the "same turn" Wish can be a good choice as well basically giving you access to all the lower leve sorcerer spell, and in big emergency for a super cool effect, but be carefull witht his super cool effect since you might be unable to cast Wish ever again, in this case, next level change it for Meteor Swarm, just be carefull with Wish at level 20.
18 -
19 -
20 -
Final spell list:
Cantrip: Firebolt, Acid splah, Minor illusion, Prestidigitation, True strike, Mage hand
Shield, Invisibility, misty step, Scorching ray (AC), Fireball(Dex), Dispel Magic, Counterspell, Greater invisibilty, Telekinesis (Str), Creation, Disintegrate(Force), Reverse gravity (Dex), Plane shift (AC+Cha), Dominate monster(Wis), Meteor Swarm
Some spell are very situational (like wish, comprehend language, teleport, clairvoyance, darkvision etc...) but very usefull in those situation. If you are the only one who can cast them, you should try to get some scroll of those spells. if you have a ritual spell caster (cleric, druid, warlock of the tome) in your team let him take care of ritual, otherwise you might want to change some of the spell for some usefull rituals. I do not believe that ritual caster feat is worth it, specialy since the soonest you could take it would be at level 16 (no matter what you need your 20 Charisma and elemental adept.
I don't really have intention to do a complete multiclass section because that would be way too long. But I can show some dipping options. A sorcerer got no reason to go past 18 and is greatly encourage to take 2 level in a different full caster: ( only loosing 2 SP, a feat at 19, and the ability to regain 4sp on a short rest at lvl 20). I would suggest to wait to be sorcerer level 5 before considering to multiclass, since you want your fireball as your main AoE spell.
Warlock: you loose 2 caster level by taking Warlock, but the eldritch blast, If your DM rules that you can add your Cha on every eldritch blast ray, dipping 2 level in warlock to get eldritch blast with agonizing blast and Repelling Blast. This also give you 2 spell level 1 that refresh on a short rest (so 2 extra SP on a short rest) Also gain 3 spell lvl 1 including Hex, Hellish Rebuke and Witch bolt. for your patron, I like the Fey one, let you charm or frightened everyone 10 ft around you, a weaker version of the dragon lvl 18 feature but doesn't cost 5SP to do it. The fiendish pact would give you only 7 (or 9 if you go 4 level) Temp HP when you kill a target which is very small. The great old one give you telepathy which can also be a great ability.
To gain this, you will loose Sorcerous Restoration (gainign 4 SP per rest) but you are gaining the ability to get 2 SP per rest, so you really just loosing half of it.
Going all the way to warlock 4, will give you back the feat, give you 5 spell known luo to level 2 instead of just 3 spell lvl 1. You will regain 2 spell lvl 2 so 4 SP on a short rest, replacing the Sorcerous Restoration. Pact of the tome would give you access to ritual spell. But for those 4 level, you will lose 1 spell lvl 5, your only spell lvl 9, your origin feature lvl 18, one spell known and 2 more SP.
I'm not a big fan or armored sorcerer since the dragon already give you a 13 AC, you got a easy to cast armor with mage armor, and your team should be able to protect you and keep you away from AC attack. multiclassing into cleric will require you to have at least 13 Wisdom so you might have to reduce your Constitution or Dex slightly to reach 13, and you might want a tad higher then 13 since many 1st level domain benefit require Wisdom.
Cleric: But if you really want armor, cleric is the best way to go since the only thing you'll lose from dipping 1 cleric level is: 1 SP, and sorcerous restoration. And you will gain
3 cantrip not on your sorcerer list, Guidance, resistance and spare the dying are my personal 3 favorites.
Able to prepare at least 2 cleric spell +domain
Access to lvl 1 rituals
Domain: My persoanl favorite includes:
Life: you can metamagic and upgrade your healing all to way to level 9, so you could cast a twinned cure wound lvl 9, with disciple of life, that is a lot of healing.
Light: Give you access to faeri fire, and warding light for some protecting (only WisMod/day).
Trickery: give advantage to the rogue before he go ahead to scout can be very usefull... or you can cast invisibility as a spell lvl 2
don't be tricked, wrath of the Strom from the tempest domain is NOT a spell so it will not benefit from the elemental affinity nor elemental adept feat. But if take 2 cleric of tempest level, once per day you'll be able to do maximum damage with one lightning spell at the cost of a feat and a 1 aditional SP
Knowledge give you 2 language and 2 knowledge skill, considering that Intellect is now your 5ft stats, you should probably let someone else be the smart one.
Nature: 1 druid cantrip and 1 skill between Animal handling, Nature or survival also heavy armor. You don't really need druid cantrip since you already got 3 cleric cantrip)
War give you an extra attack (not action)
Wizard: not a bad choice but I would dip 2 level to gain a school tradition. you only lose 2 SP a feat and Sorcerous restoration and will gain and you will need to have at least 13 Intellect which mean you'll probably need to reduce your dex Con and or Wis.
Access to ritual,
Prepare minimum 3 spell level 1
School bonus:
Evocator give you a great perks, Scultp spell which is a upgrade from Carefull spell and doesn't cost SP.
Necromancer: If you plan on having a lot of necromantic spell, the necromancer school can be really good to regain HP, even if cast mostly evocation gaining back twice the spell level is very interesting.
Diviner: Knowing 2 roll in advance, knowing that the super important spell you cast will land for sure, or making sure that the half orc barbarian in your team will crit can be very powerful.
Illusionist: If your DM is very liberal with your minor illusion abilities, being able to have a visual and auditible cue with a single cast will open even more door.
Abjuration: give you a protective bubble when you cast a abjuration spell
wizard to gain ritual casting and the specialization bonus (evocation give you a free to use improved carefull casting metamagic on your evocation, necromancer give you back HP whenever you kill a target with your spells (even if not necromantic spells) spell or the most powerfull one IMHO portent: you know 2 dice per day.
The wizard path also allow you to exchange all your level 1 spell for higher level spell, since you can transcribe all spell level 1 in your spellbook and as long as you take no-DC spell level 1 (sleep, detect magic, alarm, find familiar, identify, shield, mage armor, comprehend language, longstrider, expeditious retreat, jump etc...) you only need 13 intellect
Bard give you bardic inspiration which let you give +1d6 to any d20 roll an ally do. and share the same main stats as your sorcerer: Charisma. The second level (jack of all trade and song of rest) can be interesting, but I would prefer 1 bard/1cleric/18 sorcerer over 2bard/18 sorcerer.
Druid: In my opinion the weakest multiclass option for a 2 level dip: access to cantrip similar to the cleric list. druidic language, wild shape can be interesting giving you flexibility without using your limited spell slots. For circle, as oddly as it seems, I would take the moon circle to improve the wildshape abilities, since circle of land give you an extra cantrip, and the ability to recover 1 spell level 1 on a short rest.
other multiclassing is possible, but then you are no longer a sorcerer, you would be a monk/sorcerer or a kind of Eldritch knight or ARcane tricker using Cha instead of intellect but not longer within the scope of this guide.
