Sorcerous Origin: Spellfire

[Nine Hands]

I was playing around this morning while on a boring conference call.

Here is my take on the Spellfire origin for the 5E sorcerer.

Just note that I have not tested this and its pretty rough around the edges.

Spellfire
A rare magical power that is highly coveted by many in Faerun, as it allows its user to absorb spells cast at them, internally convert it to raw magical energy and then use it in a myriad of ways.

Absorb Magic
You can absorb spells that target you. As a reaction, when you are attacked or targeted by a spell, you can absorb the magic, which you can use to later. The maximum spell level you can absorb is equal to the highest sorcerer spell level you can cast. When you absorb a spell, treat it as converting a spell slot into sorcery points and you regain that number of sorcery points. Once you use this ability you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Arcane Healing
You add Cure Wounds and Healing Word to your list of known spells.

Drain Magic Item
Starting at 6th level, you can drain the power from a magic item. The amount of sorcery points you regain is based on the rarity of the item. Consumable magic items (potions, scrolls and items with limited uses) are destroyed but permanent magical items are rendered inert for 1 day. You must meet the minimum level requirements to drain more powerful magic items. Once you drain a magic item, you cannot drain another one until you complete a short or long rest.

Rarity	Sorcery Points Gained	Minimum Level
Common	2	6
Uncommon	3	6
Rare	5	6
Very Rare	6	7
Legendary	7	9
Artifact	9	11

Flight
At 14th level, you can spend 3 sorcery points to cast fly on yourself as a bonus action.

Crown of Fire
Beginning at 18th level, you can channel the power of spellfire into a crown of magical might.
For 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if you were casting a concentration spell), you gain resistance to spell damage and gain advantage on saving throws against spells.

 

[The Shadow]

Very interesting!

I'm a little nervous about letting people drain artifacts, though. At the very least, there should be potential side-effects.

Also, Fly is a 3rd level spell, shouldn't it take more than 3 Sorcery points to cast?

 

[Nine Hands]

Very interesting!

Also, Fly is a 3rd level spell, shouldn't it take more than 3 Sorcery points to cast?

I eyeballed that cost because the Dragon origin can fly around pretty much at will but they can't do it in armor.

Do you have any suggestions as to the cost it should be.

 

[Khaalis]

Absorb Magic
You can absorb spells that target you. As a reaction, when you are attacked or targeted by a spell, you can absorb the magic, which you can use to later. The maximum spell level you can absorb is equal to the highest sorcerer spell level you can cast. When you absorb a spell, treat it as converting a spell slot into sorcery points and you regain that number of sorcery points. Once you use this ability you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

I would make 2 changes to this.
1) I would make it so that you must succeed a saving throw against the spell to absorb it. This makes it a little hearder to absorb magic.
2) As a balance I would remove the 1/encounter restriction and use the already in herent limit of Sorcery Points. Basically you can only absorb up to your maximum Sorcery Points.

As an aside, If you want to give Spellfire a small unique nitch, add in an option that allows them to gain X amount of Sorcery Points beyond their normal maximum limit, but that they must be utilized with Y turns (either by the end of the next turn or something like with a number fo turns equal to your Con mod.).


Drain Magic Item
Really not certain I like this. Now granted this is D&D but 5E has really gone out of its way to make magic items supposed to be much less common than in prior editions where Spellfire existed. Giving the class a pivotal level ability based on something that may or may not ever see play in a game.

Perhaps you could make level 6 about the above mentioned Overpower, then add as an additional option to absorbing spells, absorbing magic items - along the lines that draining a magic item automatically allows you to gian Sorcery Points beyond your normal maximum, but make it so that the points gained this way last longer, say maybe until your next long rest? This makes draining a magic item potent, but it doesn't make the class feature at 6th worthless if you're in a no or low magic item game.

Also as mentioned, I wouldn't allow Artifacts to be drained, at least not at level 11. Maybe as a capstone ability at level 18-20.


Fly
As for this, it should be 5 Sorcery points to activate the Fly spell. See p.101 "Creating Spell Slots" table. Fly is a level 3 spell, thus 5 SP.

Thus I'd word it as:
At 14th level, you can spend 5 sorcery points to cast fly on yourself as a bonus action, even if you don't know the spell.

 

[meMEmeMEme]

I tried to build upon the idea, and that's what I am as of now using in my game:

Sorcerous Origin: Spellfire


Spellfire is a rare magical power that is highly coveted by many in Faerun. Your innate magic comes from the raw energy of the weave: your spellfire ability allows you to absorb spells, internally convert it to raw magic energy and then use it in a myriad of ways.

Arcane Healing
At 1st level, you add Cure Wounds and Healing Word to your list of known spells. These spells do not count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.

Raw Magic Armor
Raw magic flows through your body and surfaces on your skin functioning as a protective layer of armor. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.


Absorb Magic
Starting at 6th level, you gain the ability to absorb the raw magical energy that fuels spells. Add Counterspell to your list of known spells (if you already have Counterspell on your list of known spells, choose and add another sorcerer spell to your list). Whenever a spell is targeting only you (and not with an area of effect) you can choose to absorb it as you cast Counterspell. If you successfully counter the spell you also absorb the magical energy contained in it. Absorbing a spell allows you to convert its spell level into sorcery points. All sorcery points in excess of your sorcery points maximum for your level are lost within 24h.

Drain Magic Item
At 14th level, you gain the ability to drain the power of magic items. As an action, you can absorb the magical energy of one magic item within 60 feet of you and convert it into sorcery points. The amount of sorcery points you gain is based on the rarity of the item. Consumable magic items (potions, scrolls etc.) are destroyed, but permanent magic itens are rendered inert for 1 day. A creature gets to make a Wisdom saving throw to prevent one of its held or carried items from being drained. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

Common items: 1 sorcery point
Uncommon items: 2 sorcery points
Rare items: 3 sorcery points
Very Rare or Legendary items: 4 sorcery points

Crown of Fire
Beginning at 18th level, you gain the ability to channel the power of spellfire into a crown of magical might. As an action, you can spend 10 sorcery points to manifest the crown of fire, which appears as a halo of spellfire around your head and provides light equal to a Daylight spell. For 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if you were casting a concentration spell), you gain magic resistance: you have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Additionally, you gain resistance against bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons. The crown automatically melts all nonmagical weapons that strike you (after inflicting damage, if any).

 

[CyanideSprite]

Cool. I like the Drain Magic Item concept. I'll experiment with this later.

 

[bedir than]

The healing abilities at first level don't feel like they relate to the other abilities, nor the concept.

 

[Erik Westmarch]

(casts Thread Revivify)

I found this via Google Search for Sorcerer origins, and I like it. Here's my take:

1st: Spells Known.
6th: Absorb Magic
14th: Drain Magic Item
18th: Crown of Fire


Spells Known: You learn additional Spells at the specified Sorcerer level. These are in addition to your spells known. All light and flame produced by these spells are Spellfire. The flame/light is always white with marbling of a second color chosen at 1st level (unique to caster).

Lvl Spells
1st Light, Produce Flame, Cure Wounds
3rd Continual Flame, Flaming Sphere
5th Counterspell, Dispel Magic
7th Fly, Fire Shield
9th Flame Strike


Absorb Magic: If you successfully cast Counterspell or Dispel Magic, you absorb a number of Sorcery Points equal to the spell's level. Any Sorcery Points in excess of your maximum SP dissipate in 1 hour if not spent.

Drain Magic Item: You absorb magic from an item. Consumable items are destroyed. Charged items are drained of all charges but not destroyed. They will not regenerate charges for 1d4 days. Permanent items are rendered inert for 1d4 days. You gain 2 SP per rarity type of the item. Any Sorcery Points in excess of your maximum SP dissipate in 1 hour if not spent.

Crown of Fire: One per long rest you can conjure the Crown of Fire, which appears as a bright crown of flame floating 6" above your head. It produces bright light in a 60' radius. You have Resistance to all spells and spell-like effects and Advantage on all Saving Throws vs Spells and spell-like effects. The crown lasts for 1 minute. It is affected by Antimagic but immune to Dispel.

 

[Kevin Togashi]

Spellfire can be used like silver fire to heal others.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Spellfire