I've had reasons to consider revising the sorcerer class, and have reviewed a number of variants that people have proposed. This is most heavily influenced by
this thread, which was based on a long thread of commentary based on a poll about how people felt about the various classes here on EN. I felt there were some problems with it, though, and thought there were other avenues which could help push things along in a better direction.
So I'm curious about people's thoughts on this take on a sorcerer class revision.
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Primary Sorcerer Elements:
- Innate magic
- Specialization
- Magic manipulation
Problem:
1d6 hit die on a class that has Constitution as a proficiency doesn't make sense. Lack of any armor proficiencies is horribly limiting, yet 'fixed' for (only) Draconic Sorcerers, the most common subclass, by giving them free Mage Armor and extra HP.
Revision:
[Background description] The constant flow of magic through your body has helped strengthen it in unusual ways. Unfortunately this causes you to depend more on your magic than on physical development, which leads to a lowered ability to endure damage and recover normally.
[Ability, Level 1] Unarmored Defense: When you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.
[Reason] The sorcerer grew up with this magic. It invades and pervades everything he does, replacing more mundane developments that non-sorcerers would be dependent on. The reason to not develop skill in armor is because the sorcerer depends on his magic for that. The reason for the lower Hit Die is because the sorcerer depends so heavily on magic, he ends up less resistant on the purely physical side of things.
[Adjustment] Remove Draconic Resilience from the Draconic Bloodline subclass.
Problem:
The sorcerer is called a specialist class, yet has been so tightly limited that it's not actually possible to be a proper specialist and do
anything else. There are plenty of useful spells, however you can't get those spells and have room to build a theme character, or build a theme character and have room for those spells. If you have all the 'best' spells,
you're not a sorcerer. Please tell me what origin gives you Haste and Disintegrate and Polymorph other than, "My daddy was a wizard."
Revision:
Broaden the utility and flavor of specializing. Note that this runs very much in parallel with the Sorcerous Origin, but gives a little more focus to the character's magic.
[Description] A sorcerer's magic tends to be specialized, and comes most naturally when it falls within that specialization.
[Ability] Specialist: Pick a narrow specialization (theme) when creating a character (commonly related to the Sorcerous Origin), and create a restricted list of bonus/domain spells at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 (for spell levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively), selecting (one spell?) (two spells?) at each level that you will learn automatically. These spells do not count against the normal "spells known" progression. These spells might be drawn from outside the standard sorcerer spell list (eg: Divine Soul and cleric spells). These spells may not be replaced during the normal level advancement process.
* Aside: Creating a suitably narrow theme can sometimes be difficult. Work with your DM on this. [Possibly provide a chart of examples.]
[Reason] Sorcerer's "spells known" limit is horribly limiting, and also heavily influenced by chosen Metamagics (dealt with later). A specialist within a theme should be able to make use of that theme in reasonably flexible ways, while not being completely incompetent otherwise. Thus, more spells are necessary. However, because these spells are explicitly derived from the sorcerer's innate magic, they must be defined beforehand (with DM approval), and cannot be swapped out over time.
The single most commonly recommended spell that sorcerers get at endgame is Wish. Why? To completely bypass the horrendous "spells known" limit to freely cast any 8th level or lower spell. Sure it's only one spell per day, but it's also clearly recommended to fix a frustrating imbalance. Likely suggest that Wish be removed from the sorcerer's spell list, unless you have a genie bloodline or something.
[Creativity] Spells don't have to be explicitly written to match the specialty. An ice sorcerer could reasonably pick up Slow as a specialty spell, as that fits the general theme, and it's easy to see how to create the effect using the specialty element.
[Alternative] Possibly invert the idea, and make the standard 15 chosen spells be required to be in the specialty, and the bonus list be spells from outside the specialty (granted via special study). Non-specialty spells really should be in the minority, and this would also automatically dodge the Wish issue, since non-specialty spells couldn't be from higher than level 5.
[
Note] The character's chosen Specialty will affect other aspects of the character:
[Ability] Natural Magic: You may use magic that falls within your theme for non-combat, narrative purposes. Essentially, you have something similar to Prestidigitation, or the various elemental manipulation cantrips, as an ability. (Range and exact effects are up to DM discretion.) This may be used in combat as a bonus action (eg: flaring a cloak of flame as part of an Intimidation attempt). This does not count as a spell for the purpose of counting how many spells may be cast each turn.
[Reason] A specialization should add flavor to the character outside of combat. Someone who grew up with magic in her should have that magic manifest in everything she does (giving a more obvious reason for the Reactions table in Xanathar's). This is largely a free cantrip that can be customized to the character, and used as an ability.
[Ability, Level 6] Resistance: At 6th level you gain resistance to a single element or effect type related to your specialization.
[Ability, Level 18] Immunity: At 18th level you gain immunity to the effect type you gained resistance to at 6th level.
[Reason] These options are given in subclasses anyway, and ought to more generally apply to the selected specialization.
Problem:
The sorcerer's magic is innate, yet still requires the use of external material components or a spellcasting focus.
Revision:
The sorcerer can use his or her own body as a spellcasting focus, if casting a Specialty spell.
[Adjustment] Spellcasting Focus: You can use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus for your sorcerer Spells. Alternatively, you may use your own body as a focus for your sorcerer Spells if they fall within your specialization, but doing so will manifest a visible personal magical effect related to your specialist theme. Examples might be electrical sparks arcing across your body, or your eyes being replaced by black pools of nothingness.
If cast in this way, you may revise the way verbal and somatic components are expressed compared to the 'standard' version of the spell. If so, you impose disadvantage on attempts to identify the spell during casting for people who have not seen you cast the spell before.
[Limits] Material component restrictions on a specialty spell can be removed entirely, but doing so makes the spell obvious and non-subtle (even if Subtle Spell was used to remove the verbal and somatic components for other reasons). Does not remove restrictions on non-specialty spells.
[Reason] Remove the need for material components without making the combination potentially overpowered. Also, adds flavor for spellcasting effects other than babbling and waving your hands around. Only applies to spells within the sorcerer's theme. A fire sorcerer doesn't get to use this when casting Invisibility, as that's a spell outside his specialty, and thus not something he can cast instinctively.
Likewise, you can make your casting methods unique, so that they are not easily identifiable by those trained to recognize standardized versions of spells.
Problem:
Flexible Casting is more complicated than it needs to be.
Revision:
[Adjustment] Flexible Casting: When you cast a Sorcerer spell, instead of expending a spell slot, you can spend a number of Sorcery Points equal to the spell's level + 1. You cannot cast spells over fifth level in this way. Additionally, as a bonus action on your turn, you can convert an unused spell slot into a number of Sorcery points equal to the spell slot's level.
If there's a reason to want to create a spell slot, rather than just cast a spell (paladins?), you can use the same cost and a bonus action instead.
[Reason] The original methodology requires both a bonus action to covert spell slots to Sorcery Points, and convert Sorcery Points to spell slots. And the numbers used to convert each way are different and unintuitive. This significantly simplifies both the bookkeeping and the action, which is an annoyance that shouldn't be needed in combat.
[Note] The reference post used a 1:1 conversion rate, with 1 Sorcery Point giving you a 1st level spell. If additional Sorcery Points are available, this tends to quickly overpower low level characters. A 2nd level character could (using the best Charisma mod boost) cast up to 10 1st level spells, rather than the baseline 3, or the Wizard's 4. Alternatively, 5 spells could be cast while applying metamagic to every one of them.
Problem:
Sorcery Points are a fundamental aspect of how the class can be used, yet can seem limited to such a degree as to be difficult to actually
use, particularly at low levels.
[Note] The reference post adjusted this by increasing the number of Sorcery Points by the sorcerer's Charisma modifier. However, after evaluating the effects that increase would have on what you could do (ie: how many spells you can modify, how many more spells can be cast, particularly with the 1:1 Flexible Casting ratio, but even without that), this seems overpowered at low levels.
At best, I would give an extra +1 Sorcery Point, so that the total is the [sorcerer level + 1] instead of [sorcerer level]. I'll allow it for now.
Revision:
[Adjustment] Sorcery Points: Starting at 2nd level, you have a number of sorcery points equal to your sorcerer level + 1.
Problem:
Metamagic is horrendously limited, and forces narrowly specific character designs on players.
[Note] Metamagic is
already limited by Sorcery Points, by the fact that you can only use one metamagic per spell (other than damage rerolls), and by the fact that there are severe limitations on which spells each metamagic can be used on. It doesn't need the additional limit of "known" metamagics.
It could be that, aside from limiting the number of metamagics to dip-multiclassing, it was intended to be 'balanced' by the fact that the few metamagics available to you were only applicable to a fraction of all your spells.
Instead, it has become a requirement that you only learn spells that can be used together with the metamagics known. IE: You will always be able to use metamagics with the spells you know because the spells you know are limited to what works with your metamagics.
The selection of spells ought to be more bound to the specialty of the sorcerer, not the metamagic loadout. As such, get rid of this barrier entirely.
Revision:
[Adjustment] Metamagic: You gain access to all metamagic manipulations at level 3.
[Note] Dip-multiclassing may make this overpowered. However, the fact that half the metamagics were considered too underpowered to ever be worth selecting implies that it actually won't have much effect on this aspect of play. If you want to be sure, though, restrict metamagic usage to only sorcerer spells, or spells in the sorcerer's specialty (which might come from outside the sorcerer spell list).
