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?

 

[cbwjm]

What about all the spells?

Well sure, spells help as well, no doubt about that, but when it comes to subclass or even class abilities I really don't need to have much in the way of additional abilities beyond skills for exploration or social encounters.

 

[MoonSong]

These are four good subclasses; though the design space for Sorcerer can accommodate many more.

They were pretty clear that after playing with the concept, play testing showed expanding the spells known for Sorcerers is OP, and they won't go there, so that's not a surprise...

No, it didn't have anything to do with playtesting or being OP. Extra spells worked just fine, but it would have invalidated the two subclasses from the PHB. Surveys showed the PHB subclasses were good so they decided to prevent powercreep. Nevermind that these surveys predate the errata to Elemental Affinity, and everybody was playing Dragon sorcerer the wrong -and powerful- way. Now the nerf is on, and we can see how pathetic they were all along.

 

[Parmandur]

No, it didn't have anything to do with playtesting or being OP. Extra spells worked just fine, but it would have invalidated the two subclasses from the PHB. Surveys showed the PHB subclasses were good so they decided to prevent powercreep. Nevermind that these surveys predate the errata to Elemental Affinity, and everybody was playing Dragon sorcerer the wrong -and powerful- way. Now the nerf is on, and we can see how pathetic they were all along.

That doesn't really jive with my experience; given metamagic, the possibilities are multiplied well past the number of spells known versus a Wizard.

The fact that giving new subclasses extra spells known would be power creep demonstrates why it is unseeded for then class: Draconic and Wild Mages contribute fully and pull their own weight in a party as is, expanded spell lists would be no bueno. They tried it out, and it just wasn't workable.

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[MoonSong]

That doesn't really jive with my experience; given metamagic, the possibilities are multiplied well past the number of spells known versus a Wizard.

The fact that giving new subclasses extra spells known would be power creep demonstrates why it is unseeded for then class: Draconic and Wild Mages contribute fully and pull their own weight in a party as is, expanded spell lists would be no bueno. They tried it out, and it just wasn't workable.

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A couple optimal and borderline broken builds don't really mean a lot. Can a Cold, or Lightning or acid sorc really pull their weight? A lot of complaints tell that either you pick the optimal spells to carry your weight or pick the fluffy spells you really want. (Not for me though, my problem is I don't really have access to the fluffy spells I actually want)

There is only so much metamagic can do, more so if you don't really think in terms of damage or Twin/Haste shenanigans...

 

[The Human Target]

Well sure, spells help as well, no doubt about that, but when it comes to subclass or even class abilities I really don't need to have much in the way of additional abilities beyond skills for exploration or social encounters.

And that's great. I disagree and think there is huge potential for non-combat stuff in the game besides skills. But the point is really, 5e doesn't have any more exploration or social stuff than 4e did. Or 3e did.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Well, this is interesting. It doesn't exactly go in the direction I anticipated. Yet my feelings are mostly positive.

The water sorcerer is pretty cool. Basically, you transform into water. To my surprise, it works. Wonder Twin powers, activate!

It's interesting how the fire sorcerer's powers are explicitly linked to a phoenix. Feels like WotC is floating a trial balloon to see how much flavor should be baked into a class. Personally, this goes too far. I think a phoenix is a fun suggestion that should be part of the flavor text. But genies, genasis, azers, dragons and the like could all be equally valid progenitors of this power.

The earth sorcerer is clearly NOT an earth sorcerer. I want stone and sand and all the standard abilities you would expect from getting power from earth.

But all of that's beside the point. I would play this subclass in a heartbeat. It's fun to see the swordmage return in such an unexpected place. And I'm surprised at how elegantly it works. Smites, teleportation, and full spellcasting. Just a handful of really potent, defining abilities. This needs to be called the "steel sorcerer" and you need to look like Colossus. Because awesome.

 

[Sunseeker]

This was very much a big "MEH" for me. Thematically these are interesting, but the features themselves are rather dull, and that rebirth thing the Phoenix Sorc does is a great way to kill your party. I get the idea is that it should go off when you're surrounded by enemies...but if a 6th-level sorcerer is going down, I think the party is taking a whooping too, and they're not going to be happy when you take an arrow to the knee and blow up in a narrow hallway. Likewise, I don't really like the idea of a feature that encourages players to suicide-bomb even enemies, it just makes for gameplay I don't enjoy DMing (reckless behaviour) and gameplay I have no desire to be around (stereotypical jihad-esque cries before death).

There's a lot of neat flavor here though, but none of it strikes me as particularly good.

Oh, and is the Favored Soul the "heart" sorcerer? Because I can't be the only one with the Captain planet theme going through my head.

 

[Ratskinner]

I can't say I'm terribly impressed. I mean, Elemental themes are pretty well-trod ground, and I think they could have been wrapped into a single variable origin. I was kinda hoping for a "green" or plant sorcerer, maybe a psychic.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I like this Favored Soul better, but I'm still not a big fan of the Favored Soul concept, and the fluff still hasn't sold me on it. Unless someone spins it in a way that feels like D&D to me, it's not allowed in my games (and I don't like to disallow classes/subclasses) for thematic reasons.

Some people didn't pick up on it, but the other three classes are intended to balance out four classes based on the four classic elements. Storm Sorcerer from SCAG is Air, and the ones in this UA cover the others.

It's an interesting approach. Instead of just having "<Insert Element> Origin" they give each one built in fluff to make it distinctive. I think it's cool. Now, that doesn't mean that I think they've done them all right so far, which is why we are given this material to critique.

One issue with the specific theme for each class is keeping a consistency along with that. Of the four elemental sorcerer origins, there shouldn't be 2 of them that are potentially children of genies, and 2 of them that aren't, for instance, because that has weird lore implications and is just downright inconvenient for campaign and adventure design. So that bit of lore possibility needs to be mentioned for all of them (since it has already been mentioned for Storm sorcerers).

I don't really like the fact that the Fire sorcerer gets no resistance to fire. I can see what they are doing thematically, but the questions to ask are, "Do most people who want to play a fire sorcerer want to be resistant to fire?" and "Will this presentation of a fire sorcerer change that?" I believe the answers to those questions are "Yes" and "No", which means that they should give them fire resistance.

In fact, they start off very weak. All they get is one ability that can be used 1/long rest, and a ribbon. Compare that to every other sorcerer origin, and they come out bottom of the barrel.

I'd recommend that they give them straight up immunity to fire damage at 1st level. That would be a great way to emphasize the nature of their strong fire connection.

Sea looks like a pretty decent start.

Stone is odd. They seem designed to wade into battle with a shield and martial weapon. Having an earthy sorcerer be a melee type actually makes a lot of sense. There is a problem though in that the rules for spellcasting might cause some DMs to make playing them a real hassle with sword and shield (and they need to be using a shield to have acceptable melee AC).

Like another poster, I noticed the swordmage feature(s) slipped into the design, which is interesting.

I feel like this subclass is a bit too...disorganized...at the moment. It needs a tightening of focus, and an opening up of playstyle options, if that makes any sense. Right now you use a sword and board and play like a swordmage. I'd rather see you be someone that can use weapons, but might prefer a natural unarmed strike (d6?) or a typical close range cantrip blast. I'm not sure the teleportation and the necessary shield usage make a lot of sense for a Stone sorcerer.

 

[Awesome Adam]

Stone’s Durability
At 1st level, your connection to stone gives you
extra fortitude. Your hit point maximum
increases by 1, and it increases by 1 again
whenever you gain a level in this class.
As an action, you can gain a base AC of 13+
your Constitution modifier if you aren’t wearing
armor, and your skin assumes a stony
appearance. This effect lasts until you end it as a
bonus action, you are incapacitated, or you don
armor other than a shield.

This is worded differently than the other AC modifying abilities in 5E.

First it mentions "base AC" and not just AC.
Secondly, the last line implies you can use it with a shield.
Thirdly, most AC determining methods include DEX mod.

So is it ?
AC = 13 + Con Mod
AC = 13 + Con Mod + Shield Mod
AC = 13 + Con Mod + Shiled Mod + Dex Mod

Right now I imagine it's AC = 13 + Con Mod + Shield Mod, but it should be spelled out cleary like it is for other abilities.