D&D 5E [GUIDE] Power Overwhelming: A Sorcerer Guide

bottleface · Jan 7, 2019

The ability mentioned no longer exists as Favoured Soul from the Unearthed Arcana series was changed to Divine Soul in Xanathar's Guide to Everything and that ability was altered. I was a bit confused too. If you click the link to google docs at the start of the guide it does take you to an updated version of this guide which uses the Divine Soul.

Introbulus · Jul 14, 2019

I joined this forum JUST to say!

...You forgot Tidal Wave in 3rd level spells.

Blue · Jul 14, 2019

Introbulus said:
I joined this forum JUST to say!

...You forgot Tidal Wave in 3rd level spells.

Welcome to the forum, but that was not the most impressive first post. It ignores the bolded and large beginning of the post:

As originally published by RhaegarT on the Wizards of the Coast message boards

This was saved when the WotC forums shut down is 2015. It has not been taken over by the owner and Mistwell isn't trying to claim RhaegarT's work as his own and update it.

Tidal Wave came out in Xanathar's Guide to Everything that was published in 2017, would most definitely not be there. Nor would any of the other XGtE spells that Sorcerers get, a fairly large list which you missed in your criticism.

Alternately, if you looked at the Google Docs version, which is getting maintained, you will notice that Tidal Wave is listed:

Xanathar’s Guide (Some were also previously in the EE Player’s Companion):
Catnap: Can give willing targets a short rest in only 10 minutes. Very DM- and campaign-specific but could be nice if your DM makes it hard to do normal short rests.
Enemies Abound: Sort of a single-target confusion/fear. Not bad but there are better spells.
Erupting Earth: AoE for some damage and difficult terrain.
Flame Arrows: Great to cast on your ranger’s arrows, but requires concentration and there are better buffs to cast, like haste.
Melf’s Minute Meteors (Fire Dragon): Requires concentration but could be helpful to improve burst damage and bonus-action economy (when not using Quicken). A 3rd-level concentration spell hurts when there are so many other good options though.
Thunder Step: An escape teleport combined with a nice AoE damage effect.
Tidal Wave: AoE damage and prone effect, that also douses flames. Could have good situational uses.
Wall of Water: Decent wall spell.

Regardless of the history, a more positive introduction to the community would be "Hey, I noticed this spell isn't there so here's a write-up and a rating so we can improve this". Community feedback is common, take a look at the various guides here.

As it is, it comes across as bragging that the only reason you bothered to create an account was to call out someone's mistake. Which really wasn't one.

Looking forward to having you as a positive member of the community.

Introbulus · Jul 14, 2019

Blue said:
Welcome to the forum, but that was not the most impressive first post. It ignores the bolded and large beginning of the post:

This was saved when the WotC forums shut down is 2015. It has not been taken over by the owner and Mistwell isn't trying to claim RhaegarT's work as his own and update it.

Tidal Wave came out in Xanathar's Guide to Everything that was published in 2017, would most definitely not be there. Nor would any of the other XGtE spells that Sorcerers get, a fairly large list which you missed in your criticism.

Alternately, if you looked at the Google Docs version, which is getting maintained, you will notice that Tidal Wave is listed:

Regardless of the history, a more positive introduction to the community would be "Hey, I noticed this spell isn't there so here's a write-up and a rating so we can improve this". Community feedback is common, take a look at the various guides here.

As it is, it comes across as bragging that the only reason you bothered to create an account was to call out someone's mistake. Which really wasn't one.

Looking forward to having you as a positive member of the community.

Thank you for the heads up - sorry for coming off abrasively, I hadn't realized there was a google doc version of it, nor that this was an archived post.

delph · Sep 13, 2019

I was reading it twice, and I'm pretty sure, I can use quickened spell, to cast one spell as bonus action and then cast (same) spell twined -> so I can cast treetimes per round (good with cantrips. It cost only 2 spellpoints.

Bit it sounds too much good for 3th lvl...

And a other question: when I cast twined or quickened spell on XGoE cantrips, As Green flame Blade can I attack twice with weapon? Or I need to ve able Attack twice too? Hexblade with thirstling blade and 3 lvl of sorcerer sounds good.

Adamago · Aug 14, 2020

I have no idea if anyone still looks at this forum, but I consider myself something of a sorcerer expert (though I'm a DM of 19 years and rarely a player). I joined this forum just to add something that may have been overlooked about certain metamagic options that don't get enough love.

Distant Spell -- Its power is not about doubling the distance of your longer range spells, but rather your short to medium range spells. Touch to 30 feet is useful for high level save or die (ish) spells like plane shift, but it's more applicable to use that function for buffing allies you can't get close to for tactical reasons. But more importantly, increasing a range from 30 feet to 60 feet or 60 to 120 can make a HUGE difference in the kinds of encounters I run, where environmental effects are a factor, or entering the range of enemies is highly dangerous. You can stay safely out of range while still casting powerful spells into the combat. The most clutch use of distant spell, though, is for doubling the range of counterspell. Your DM might hate you, but you can counter out to a range of 120 feet while staying out of the counterspell range of enemy casters.

Subtle Spell -- Yes, situational, but I don't think it's getting enough credit. There are plenty of times that casting spells unnoticed before a combat breaks out is valuable, and while you mention RP uses, I think you downplay their significance. Creative sorcerer players will get a lot of use out of this. The other value of subtle spell is that you can use it to cast V, S (and V, S, M depending on your arcane focus) spells without the risk of being countered. Because there is nothing to see about your spellcasting, a caster looking to counterspell has nothing to react to. I know counterspell becomes a big issue in a lot of campaigns, and this is another use that might frustrate the DM but can keep you from wasting spells against enemy mages.

Oh, one edit: Great guide by the way! I like to compare my own conclusions to yours. It seems we tend to think alike, even about silly things like loving prismatic spray despite being sub-optimal. But yes, awesome work!

delph · Aug 19, 2020

Hi Adamango, I'm much more shorter player, and playing sorcerer for first time now.
Distant spell - agree with everything and add one - when you are on open word, dealing with enemies on fields, roads, seas - combined distant spell with Spellsniper is great! When GM is used to say "an enemy is running away out of your distant" you have usually 2 rounds to send something to his back. Or before they came to you.

Subtle spell - agree with every word. For all other campaign where I'm rogue fighter, but sorcerer is there (or cleric), we start every second battle from surprise. How many times we said "aaah, we can't cast any buff spells because Voice compound of spell"