Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Sorcerers: Favored Souls, Phoenix Sorcery, Sea Sorcery, & Stone Sorcery

Favored Soul (again), Phoenix Sorcery, Sea Sorcery, Earth Sorcery.

Could this be the start of Elementalists?

 

[zaratan]

Favored Soul:
Stone's Edge is kind of a waste of a 14th level class feature, as it only adds an extra 7-10 damage per turn throughout the career of the Sorcerer.

In fact, this can add extra 10 for each spell, with warcaster and quick spell, can add up to 30 damage in round. I'm Thinking in sorlock: booming blade +10, quick dissonant whisppers +10 and eldritch blast +10 with reation.

 

[MoonSong]

Are there any obvious cleric spells that combine well with metamagic?

I think this is worth its own discussion

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ine-well-with-metamagic&p=7019060#post7019060

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

In fact, this can add extra 10 for each spell, with warcaster and quick spell, can add up to 30 damage in round. I'm Thinking in sorlock: booming blade +10, quick dissonant whisppers +10 and eldritch blast +10 with reation.

So my calculations were slightly off due to the wording, my bad. However, the reaction-based casting isn't always readily available. Therefore, a more reasonable amount of extra damage per turn throughout the career would be 14-20. Plus, your Sorclock would have a reduced maximum bonus damage of 8-9, depending on the amount of Warlock levels taken.

Still, it feels like it's out of place because it applies to all spells in a subclass that is obviously melee-focused.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Help me understand how spellcasting might work for the stone sorcerer. Can you cast while wielding both a sword and shield? Or is it either a sword or a shield? Is War Caster a required feat? What about two-handed weapons or dual-wielding -- are those viable approaches?

 

[MagicSN]

>Phoenix. I don't think we needed this. Fire is already a dominant strategy, we didn't need another frie focused subclass. More so since this one rewards you for being and acting like a >psychopath.

But many people want to play a fire Caster ;-) Still, I find this one the weakest. I like the homebrew "Fire Sorcerer" we did in our group (balanced around the Storm Sorcerer) much better.

Some of the new Specs are actually good (Favored Soul and Stone Sorc, especially, though being able to generally take Cleric Spells might be a bit strong). Especially for Phoenix the big problem is that the really good stuff is at L14+ and such - and I think most people start a new group at around such levels, might be a style of play issue of course.

Sea Sorcerer might be pretty strong together with Multiclass in Warlock (with the pushback thing of the Blast, at L6 already you could push back a creature by 45 ft., making you
more or less immune to Melees).

​

 

[DaviMMS]

>Phoenix. I don't think we needed this. Fire is already a dominant strategy, we didn't need another frie focused subclass. More so since this one rewards you for being and acting like a >psychopath.

But many people want to play a fire Caster ;-) Still, I find this one the weakest. I like the homebrew "Fire Sorcerer" we did in our group (balanced around the Storm Sorcerer) much better.

Some of the new Specs are actually good (Favored Soul and Stone Sorc, especially, though being able to generally take Cleric Spells might be a bit strong). Especially for Phoenix the big problem is that the really good stuff is at L14+ and such - and I think most people start a new group at around such levels, might be a style of play issue of course.

Sea Sorcerer might be pretty strong together with Multiclass in Warlock (with the pushback thing of the Blast, at L6 already you could push back a creature by 45 ft., making you
more or less immune to Melees).

​

Lots of people would complain if they made Sorcerer's Origins for earth, water, wind and not fire.

And at least I prefer the flavor from the phoenix subclass than for dragon one. But I would still prefer a generic name with mentions to phoenixes.

EDIT: For some reason I could only see your first paragraph when I posted this comment.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

My thoughts

-Favored Soul is a reliable subclass, but I don't find it to be the most impressive. I know having divine spells opens up a lot of possibilities, but I miss them having wings as their last ability.

-Phoenix Sorcerer, is the worst of the bunch. I don't like mantle being a 1/long rest ability especially when a lot of this class is focused around it. Mantle needs to be 1/short rest, and if that means downplaying some of it's abilities then that needs to be done.

-Sea Sorcerer is the worst of the bunch, unlike the Phoenix Sorcerer they can do their special abilities a lot more often. I like that it does encourage a strategy of cantrip followed by using a spell slot, and their abilities to flow like water when moving, it definitely says a lot for "water sorcery".

-Stone Sorcerer, well I like that they're trying to bring the Swordmage back, I don't think much of the Swordmage ever spelt out "Earth" for me. Even more so when this subclass will probably be using those cantrips in SCAG that were originally Swordmage powers, none of those cantrips use much in the way of Earth. Stone's Durability I feel makes the subclass dependent on 3 abilities to feel effective, with Cha, Con and Str/Dex, normally I feel really only having 2 abilities to keep high is a good thing even though Con is usually the 3rd most important ability for almost every class.

 

[gyor]

I don't think this Favored Soul is meant to be another holy warrior. That's what clerics and paladins are for. This Favored Soul is meant to be Gandalf.
I think they both have a place at the table, but I think the Holy Warrior Favored Soul is stepping on the paladin and cleric's toes.

I agree the that making the Favoured Soul a holy warrior is redundant, there are 2 holy warriors already, 3 if you can't that holy Barbarian subclass, five if you pick the holy wizard subclass with the war domain.

I agree, I'd trade the poison immunity for the wings, but otherwise this is a better, more balanced version of the Favoured Soul. Besides the Divine Wizard subclass mugged the Favoured Soul for it's divine domains, so I actually prefer this.

If they give the Favoured Soul his wings back, it actually resembles the original Favoured Soul more, aside from weapon and arm proof.

If you really want the Favoured Soul to be a Gish, take a single level of fighter and Greenflame Blade, done. Or be an Elf or Dwarf.

 

[gyor]

My thoughts

-Favored Soul is a reliable subclass, but I don't find it to be the most impressive. I know having divine spells opens up a lot of possibilities, but I miss them having wings as their last ability.

-Phoenix Sorcerer, is the worst of the bunch. I don't like mantle being a 1/long rest ability especially when a lot of this class is focused around it. Mantle needs to be 1/short rest, and if that means downplaying some of it's abilities then that needs to be done.

-Sea Sorcerer is the worst of the bunch, unlike the Phoenix Sorcerer they can do their special abilities a lot more often. I like that it does encourage a strategy of cantrip followed by using a spell slot, and their abilities to flow like water when moving, it definitely says a lot for "water sorcery".

-Stone Sorcerer, well I like that they're trying to bring the Swordmage back, I don't think much of the Swordmage ever spelt out "Earth" for me. Even more so when this subclass will probably be using those cantrips in SCAG that were originally Swordmage powers, none of those cantrips use much in the way of Earth. Stone's Durability I feel makes the subclass dependent on 3 abilities to feel effective, with Cha, Con and Str/Dex, normally I feel really only having 2 abilities to keep high is a good thing even though Con is usually the 3rd most important ability for almost every class.

It was the first Favoured Souls second last ability.

 

[Gadget]

Favored Soul - Okay I guess. On the one hand, I miss the wings a bit, but on the other hand I'm somewhat tired of the you-grow-wings/are-granted-flight motif. I think access to the cleric spell list rather than just a domain is nice as too many domains duplicate what the sorcerer already has. I'll leave it to others to debate the merits of increasing the spells known for a sorcerer. Unlike others, I don't agree that the Favored Soul archetype requires a separate base class, it has neither the history or strong flavor to require it.

Phoenix Sorcerer - I like the phoenix flavor, much better than too generic me-fire-guy-shoot-flames option. That said, this is the most straightforward of the sub-classes presented, and Mantle needs more uses and to not have such accidentally harm the party potential.

Sea Sorcerer - I like what they are trying to do, but its abilities seem a little too complex and fiddly for me. Also not sure why this sub-class (and most of the others) seems to have melee focused abilities. I could see it in a sub-class that is clearly Gish focused, but I don't see that here. That said, I appreciate that they did not just go "Water blast" "Ice knife" type of Elementalist Sorcerer.

Stone Sorcerer - (Swordmage) I'm not sure why they are trying to do the Swordmage as part of an "Earth Sorcerer", but I guess it is somewhat difficult to do earth-type spells with D&D's spell system. Sure, there are a few spells like Move Earth, Stoneshape, Stoneskin, Flesh to Stone, and the like; but many of those are somewhat high level and hard to do a sub-class around. That said I think the blade 'lock is looking at some of these abilities with a tear in the eye. Not that blade 'locks are that bad (especially if multi-classed or started in fighter or are fiend packs), just that they largely excel by doing what other Warlocks do: maximizing EB and careful spell/invocation selection. I do think WOTC has learned a bit about how to design a Gish in 5e since it has been released.

On a general note: some have lamented the fact that these sub-classes do not offer special uses of Sorcery Points like their PHB counterparts. At first I agreed, but now I don't think that is a good idea. It seems to me that Sorcerers already have too many demands on their limited Sorcery points as it is, and creating another demand on the same resource pool would not only have to be very good to gain traction, but would also dilute the use of meta-magic and the Sorcerer's main schtick. It might even be nice to have a sub-class ability that granted a Sorcery Point when the Sorcerer cast an <appropriate theme> spell of level x or greater. Or when an opponent failed a save vs <appropriate theme> spell of level x or greater. Or when the Sorcerer took <appropriate theme> damage of x hit points or more. May not be tweaked and balanced, just spit balling here.