D&D 5E Building a better Sorcerer

[Tony Vargas]

...How else was I going to be recognizable without avatar and signature?(the bold part is a concession to those using white background)1

There's no one else using the name 'MoonSong.' Between your handle, posting style (you have a recognizable 'voice'), status of EN5ider-published content creator, and what you have to say, you're pretty memorable.

 

[clearstream]

So my feelings on building a better sorcerer have evolved to feel that metamagic is too restrictive. The sp cost balance between metamagic and spell slots should allow more metamagic per spell, and more of the metamagic options should be layerable. That is, I believe the most straightforward way to enhance Sorcerer is to let them do more to customise each spell they cast with metamagic. Something like more metamagic, more layering of metamagic, more SP for metamagic, higher SP cost for spell slots - per the below -

Font of Magic (spend hit dice to gain sorcery points)
Amend – At 2nd level, you tap into a deep wellspring of magic within yourself. That wellspring is represented by sorcery points that you replenish from your life force. You can take a bonus action to spend one or more sorcerer hit dice. For each die spent this way, roll that die and add the number rolled to sorcery points. The number of hit dice you can convert to sorcery points is limited by your level. Once you have spent the number listed, you can’t spend more until you finish a long rest. Unspent sorcery points are lost at the end of that rest.

Sorcerer Level......Hit dice
2-3......1
4-5......2
6-7......3
8-9......4
10-11......5
12-13......6
14-15......7
16-17......8
18-19......9
20......10

Creating a spell slot costs the following…

Spell Slot Level Sorcery Point Cost
1........................3
2........................5
3........................8
4........................10
5........................14


Add - Arcane Virtuosity (spend sorcery points to add one additional metamagic to a spell)
When you spend sorcery points to twist a spell with Metamagic, you can spend 1 sorcery point to twist an additional, different Metamagic into that spell. You must also pay the cost of that Metamagic. Once you use Arcane Virtuosity, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Add – Dissuasive Spell (metamagic, prevents Counterspell)
When you cast a spell, you can spend 3 sorcery points to prevent other casters interrupting it with Counterspell. You can use Dissuasive Spell even if you have already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.


Add – Piercing Spell (metamagic, ignores resistance)
When you cast a spell that does damage, you can spend 4 sorcery points to have one target of that spell lose resistance to its damage type until the end of your turn.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I finally settled on my current house rules last night. I'm trying to keep it simple, because I don't want to redesign the class.

1) Pick a spellcasting class other than sorcerer (I might limit the choices a bit). You know a number of additional spells equal to your Cha mod, which can be from that class's spell list or from the sorcerer's spell list. They are sorcerer spells for you.
2) You gain additional sorcery points equal to your Con modifier.
3) *All* sorcery point expenditures cost 1 less than listed. Yes, this makes some metamagic and subclass abilities free. This is intentional.

It's still only partly satisfying, because metamagic just isn't very interesting. If they had made more options (and interesting ones), and they had let you have more of them, it would be a better feature.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

5e made meta-magic the Sorcerer's thing, and it's really not enough of a thing, by itself. IMHO, it needs to be more deeply integrated with the way Sorcerers cast. Maybe they shouldn't even have spells known, for instance, but just describe the effect they want, and then the DM can work out from existing spells and meta-magic whether it can be done and what level slot it would require? Some sort of check might make a lot of sense, too.

That model seems a bit too free-form to work in the D&D style, but I like the mystic model of disciplines for the sorcerer: sorcerers get access to broad families of effects, like "fire" or "time", with a menu of flexible options in each one.

 

[InspetorG]

Man, people love to add more complexity to try to fix the Sorcerer.

I guess im a minimalist...

SP RECOVERY:
LVL 2-5 = 2SP per short rest.
LVL 6-15 = 3SP per short rest
LVL 15+ = 4SP per short rest.
Idea being less recovery than a Wizard but still able to Nova/burst cast at higher rate.

SPELLS KNOWN
Dragon Sorcerer spells known = 15 + 1/2(round down) CHA modifier
Wild Sorcerer spells know = 15, + 1/2 CHA modifier, 3 of which can come from any spell list. Once a spell is know from another list, it cannot be switched out via Sorcerous inspiration.

If the above isnt enough, add in the below.

SORCEROUS INSPIRATION
Once per 7 consecutive Long Rests( once per week in-game) the Sorcerer can swap one known spell for another spell at a level at which they can cast.

META MAGIC:
Only Distant and Extend seem weak to me, i would try these fixes.

Distant Spell = 1Sp for double range or change Touch range into 60ft range(30 foot is a bit too close for squishy caster)

Extend Spell = 1Sp for Double duration, +2 more SP for Triple Duration. Or something like that.