D&D 5E Is the Wild magic Sorcerer as terrible as it seems?

[Parmandur]

Been playing one; it's pretty awesome.

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[Staffan]

This has as much to do with the mechanics of attacks as anything else--i.e., advantage, chance for a critical, no such thing as proficiency in armor class. WotC rightly recognized that damage-dealing attacks scale in burst potential much faster than save-based spells.

You have a point, but I think there's another culprit as well. Spells use up limited resources (spell slots), and it's unfun to use both an action and a limited resource with no effect. Most damage spells have a save for half damage, and possibly to avoid some debuff. If the spells had attack rolls, they would almost certainly do nothing on a miss (and let's not get into the damage-on-a-miss debate).

 

[Tainted Powers]

[MENTION=61026]tuxgeo[/MENTION] Wow you really summed it all up! That is kinda how I was picturing it.

Mind you that my DM really likes the tactic that in every encounter the enemy thinks the caster should die first. So I constantly use Shield spell. That being a lvl 1 spell does reset ToC and I am free to use it again on my turn.

 

[Barolo]

Lack of trust seems to have a huge impact on how a lot of game features (wild magic, illusions, hiding, favored enemy/terrain, etc) are perceived. I would not expect any of these to be an issue in a table where everybody knows each other for some time.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Wild Sorcerers are basically masters of support, as they can make allies succeed on checks(or enemies fail) as a reaction. They occupy a design space strangely similar to bards, of all things. I like multiclassing them with cleric to pick up Bless as well, so my party gains hyper-accuracy all the time.

The best healer in the game is a multiclassed Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard 6/Sorcerer 3 using Extended Aura of Vitality to heal 240 HP of damage out of a third level slot (plus one sorcery point). By 10th level you can be healing over 2000 HP per long rest.

So yeah, cleric/sorcerer is a nonintuitive but effective combination, and surprisingly gishy too with heavy armor and melee cantrips. Quickened Bless + Booming Blade isn't a bad fight opener.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

1st Round: Use Tide of Chaos to get Advantage on a spell casting using a spell slot. You will have actually "used" your Tide of Chaos only after the effects of the casting are resolved, so the second paragraph (the automatic roll on Wild Surge table) doesn't apply because the situation is still "after you regain the use of this feature," not "before you regain the use of this feature."

I don't follow. I'm AFB so I have to rely on the Internet for the wording, but:

Any time before you regain the use of this feature, the DM can have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher. You then regain the use of this feature.

There is no word "before" except "before you regain the use of this feature". Clearly you haven't regained it yet or you would already have it, but you don't, because you used it, so that "before" clause isn't operative.

Immediately after you've cast your spell (Chromatic Orb?) and used your Tides of Chaos, the DM can have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table (because you just cast a 1st level sorcerer spell), and then you regain Tides of Chaos. Easy as pie.

That assumes you have a DM who's willing to go along with the maximum amount of wild surges, but if you do it works.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, in the optimized scenario, you're supposed to use your advantage between every spellcasting, and get it back with every spell cast.

It's a lot of Wild Surges, but it's clearly that way power lies.

I can understand this to be unpopular, but what I can't forgive is how the text completely fails to clearly explain this to the DM:

"If you don't let the Wild Mage spew Surges out her ears, left and right, always and forever, it is denied a major source of power: lots and lots of advantage."

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[Jack Jones1]

Btw, if you DM wants he can always force you to roll for Wild Magic Surge (Which would be awesome), not only after you played the Tide of chaos.
Wild Magic Surge:
Starting when you choose this origin at 1st level, your spellcasting can unleash surges of untamed magic.Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, the DM can have you roll a d20. If you roll a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.

 

[CTurbo]

Ok it has been 7 months since I made this post and I think I can definitively say that the Wild Magic Sorcerer is *NOT* as bad as I thought it was.

Making this thread helped me realize how poorly the character was being played and we had a little talk with the DM about how it's features were meant to be used, and adjusted from there. He now rolls from his surge table several times a day and gets good mileage out of his Tide of Chaos without the feeling of spamming it. I can say that the player enjoys his character more too.

I still feel like the Draconic Sorcerer is superior, but I do have a new appreciation for the Wild Magic Sorcerer.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, without advantage from tides of chaos, the subclass is irredeemable.

It remains a poor choice, since randomness is the minmaxers bane, and there are too few spells with attack rolls, but at least it's not horrible with a DM that lets you gain advantage after EVERY spell you cast.

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