Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Giant Soul Sorcerer

Gradine · Jun 12, 2018

In Eberron, the dragons were the first mortal practitioners of arcane magic, and the first people they taught were the Giants of Xen'drik. The Giants in turn created a smaller slave race (Elves) and taught that magic to them. They basically invented artificing (to the extent that most of the magical technology associated with Eberron was reverse engineered from stuff the Giants made).

Of course, then the Giants got invaded by literal nightmare creatures and had to blow up a moon in order to save their civilization (long story). Then the Elves decided this would be a perfect time to rebel for their freedom, most of them fled Xen'drik, and the Giants were about to pull out their "blow-up-a-moon" weapon again to stop them, and that's when the Dragons said "Enough!" and blasted them back to stone age, to the extent that most surviving Giants are feral savage creatures and the continent is an unchartable mess of non-euclidian terrain (though that last part might actually be the fault of a god that may or may not actually exist... long story). The elves who stayed behind to fight the Giants became the Drow (who, contrary to popular opinion, have a number of different cultures remaining on the continent, only one of which worships scorpions).

Anyway, I could easily see a number of Elven sorcery traditions that harken back to these times, which could be then be represented by this subclass.

I'm definitely going to use it for a drow NPC or two.

Aaron L · Jun 12, 2018

This would be GREAT for a Norse type Barbarian/Sorcerer mystic warrior.

Inchoroi · Jun 12, 2018

It's so silly, but I love it. You can become Gargantuan for a little while at 18th level.

Enlarge makes you Large, the 14th level feature x1 makes you Huge, and x2 makes you Gargantuan. I want to do it just for that reason alone.

Barantor · Jun 12, 2018

Warlocks can get mage armor through an evocation, I've had several warlock players choose it because of it's usefulness.

Con works for me because it often talks about 'bloodlines' and makes me think of something akin to Harry Potter where you are born with magic rather than learning it like a wizard, making pacts like a warlock, or using the force of personality and voice like the bard.

My ideal would have them able to continue casting spells even after they are out of spell slots by starting to take a toll on their body, like with some sort of exhaustion effect or even losing hit points. Different bloodlines would create different sources of power, be it Dragon, Elementals, Divine/Infernal, etc.

Sorc as a 'wizard but random' just doesn't work anymore IMO.

TwoSix · Jun 13, 2018

Li Shenron said:
Good catch! Indeed, there are too many fiddly bits in these abilities, but this one is really too pathetic not to be an oversight. They must have meant +5ft per point of Con bonus!

Since they used the "+1 foot per Con mod" mechanic twice (cloud giant and hill giant 6th level abilities), I think it was less a typo and more of a "not quite thought through". Which is fine, that's what UA is for.

pukunui · Jun 13, 2018

TwoSix said:
Since they used the "+1 foot per Con mod" mechanic twice (cloud giant and hill giant 6th level abilities), I think it was less a typo and more of a "not quite thought through". Which is fine, that's what UA is for.

You could be right but unfortunately there is now precedent for this sort of mechanic in 5e, thanks to the blade bard in Xanathar's. The Mobile Flourish lets you push someone a number of feet equal to 5 + the result of a Bardic Inspiration die. It was pointed out to WotC during playtesting that the random amount of extra movement would most likely be useless, since most people either use 5' squares or TotM, but they didn't seem to care, as the mechanic made it through to the published book unaltered.

Coroc · Jun 13, 2018

[MENTION=6752135]Inchoroi[/MENTION] is that legit asuming the UA is RAW? Isn't that some sort of game breaking, ceiling braking, floor braking, wall breaking, clothes breaking, armor breaking...

Naked Godzilla just crashed the townhall!!

Rhineglade · Jun 13, 2018

My two cents: Not really a big fan. I think adding new Sorcerer origins is very cool but only to a limited degree in my opinion. Sorcerers are supposed to gain power from the bloodline. With this concept in mind, I naturally ASSUME that means somewhere down the ancestral family tree, one of the player's ancestors must have mated with someone other than human (or of their particular species). I concept of mating with a giant just seems ludicrous to me. There are other bloodline options I would much rather see. Namely- the fae.

Tales and Chronicles · Jun 13, 2018

Rhineglade said:
My two cents: Not really a big fan. I think adding new Sorcerer origins is very cool but only to a limited degree in my opinion. Sorcerers are supposed to gain power from the bloodline. With this concept in mind, I naturally ASSUME that means somewhere down the ancestral family tree, one of the player's ancestors must have mated with someone other than human (or of their particular species). I concept of mating with a giant just seems ludicrous to me. There are other bloodline options I would much rather see. Namely- the fae.

Nothing is said about mating with a specific creatures to gain sorcereous powers down the line. For example, I cannot imagine how someone would mate with ''Chaos'' to create wild sorcerer. Think of it more in term of ''touched by greater powers''. Sorcerers can be the descendant of a warlock pact-maker, or the child of a cursed archaeologist who found a relic of older powers, or can be born under a specific auspice/star etc. I personally hate it when players think that by playing a dragon sorcerer, it allows them to say ''hey, my dad was a dragon'' (same goes with Tiefling. No, your mother is not a demoness.). I keep reminding them that their are not ''half-dragon'', this is not how it works. Maybe your ancestor was, but you're not.

Paul Farquhar · Jun 13, 2018

The 5e sorcerer moves away from the idea of bloodlines as the only way to become a sorcerer. For example, the storm sorcerer may have been born during a fierce storm, the spider sorcerer may have been bitten by a radioactive spider, and so on.