D&D 5E Is the major thing that's disappointing about Sorcerers is the lack of sorcery point options?

[Miladoon]

The Wild Sorcerer is definitely a build whose core engine is DM optional.

Therefore you need to ask your DM before you roll up one.

Unless you get Tides of Chaos on each and every casting on a spell, don't bother with the sub-class. You will only get the disappointing results recounted above.

The problem with the design, then, is:

They failed to make it abundantly clear that the power of the subclass relies on you the DM being maximally generous.

I think that is an over exaggeration. I do agree that it is wise to discuss with your DM any class before building a character. I tend to have a similar nit pick with the UA Ranger BM and DM input with the companion selection.

IMO, a DM that hands out Inspiration will be more likely to refresh ToC. They are essentially the same thing.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I might be surprised by the Big Book of Crunch, but I think Mike Mearls has said that their focus for sorcerers will be adding more subclasses (and the majority of spells added post-PHB have been added to the sorcerer's list). I haven't seen anything to suggest that more metamagic is coming (or that new invocations are coming for the warlock or new ki powers for the monks for that matter).

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

In my opinion there isn't a lot to mechanically differentiate between a sorcerer and a wizard to make sorcerer's stand out. With 5e's new take on prepared magic the wizard became a lot more flexible in how they can use their spell slots throughout the day, which was previously only in the realm of the sorcerer. Compared to the wizard the sorcerer gets less spells known than the typical wizard can prepare in a single day. The sorcerer gets access to metamagic and sorcery points, but the wizard gets ritual casting (the best variation in the game) and arcane recovery which are arguably features that are just as strong as the sorcerer's toys.

The problem is further compounded by the sorcerer's small number of sub classes, neither of which do very much to aid the sorcerer's spellcasting.
-The dragon bloodline gives access to CHA on damage but that's it, the other features don't relate to spellcasting at all. The evocation wizard can make for a better blaster a lot of the time.
-The wild magic bloodline gives access to a large table of weird effects, but the mechanic is DM dependent so many players feel like they aren't in control of what they can do. The nature of the class is also fundamentally about being super random which I and many others just dislike on principle.

I've always like wizards more than sorcerers so this isn't a large problem for me, but I have seen sorcerer fans make many of these same observations. If I were to try to make the class more appealing I'd start by adding in more bloodlines that have a stronger mechanical cohesion. The pathfinder sorcerer has tons of bloodline options (but being pathfinder some are total dung mechanically) that I'd love to see. Bloodlines for aberrations, celestials, demons, devils, the elements, undead, etc.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I might be surprised by the Big Book of Crunch, but I think Mike Mearls has said that their focus for sorcerers will be adding more subclasses (and the majority of spells added post-PHB have been added to the sorcerer's list). I haven't seen anything to suggest that more metamagic is coming (or that new invocations are coming for the warlock or new ki powers for the monks for that matter).

I sure wish Sorcerers had access to Absorb Elements! It seems so appropriately thematic, and the fact that they can't access it by RAW mystifies me. As a DM of course I have no problem with letting a sorcerer research Absorb Elements for himself.

-The dragon bloodline gives access to CHA on damage but that's it, the other features don't relate to spellcasting at all. The evocation wizard can make for a better blaster a lot of the time.

IMO, Dragon Sorcerer needs a rewrite. Elemental Affinity at 6th level should be this (new text in bold):

Elemental Affinity

Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals damage of a type listed on the draconic ancestry table, you can opt to transform the spell's damage type to that of the type associated with your draconic ancestry. If it is already that type of damage, you can instead add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell. At the same time, you can spend 1 sorcery point to gain resistance to that damage type for 1 hour.

Thus, a White Dragon Sorcerer could cast 8d6 Frostball instead of Fireball, but his Cone of Cold would be 8d8+CHA. A Black Dragon Sorcerer could cast 8d6 Acidball or an 8d6 Acidbolt or create a persistent acid mist with 5d8-per-round Acid Cloud (nee Cloudkill); whereas the Green Dragon Sorcerer can declare that he's chucking little bombs of nerve gas in his 8d6 Poisonball.

It's not really all that powerful a change, but IMO the awesome factor is high. High enough that I would probably enjoy playing a Black Dragon Sorcerer as much as or more than a Wild Sorcerer or Red Dragon Sorcerer.

 

[Cognomen's Cassowary]

I know that the 2nd least satisfying class after the Ranger, has been the Sorcerer.

Is this just your own sentiment, or have polls been taken somewhere? Personally, I find druid, monk, and warlock to be less satisfying, if "satisfying" means having a solid gameplay hook while still allowing a variety of viable approaches to character background, role-play, and combat tactics.

Sorcerer doesn't have nearly the mechanical shortcomings of ranger. The dragon subclass is uninspired and lacks mechanical punch until 14th level, but the other subclasses are fine. I do think that one of the metamagic options (probably quickened spell) should have been baseline for the class, to give it a stronger unifying feature. On the other hand, when the class's greatest strength is flexibility, maybe it doesn't need unification. There are enough features competing for sorcery points, with each PC having 2-4 metamagics, flexible casting, and usually a subclass feature or two using them. Resource management isn't interesting enough for there to be more strain on sorcery points than that.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Is this just your own sentiment, or have polls been taken somewhere? Personally, I find druid, monk, and warlock to be less satisfying, if "satisfying" means having a solid gameplay hook while still allowing a variety of viable approaches to character background, role-play, and combat tactics.

I seem to remember the subject of sorcerer being brought up from the feedback of that big classes survey they had. I could be mis-remembering things though. I do seem to remember Elemental Monk being brought up too.

 

[Jago]

Is this just your own sentiment, or have polls been taken somewhere? Personally, I find druid, monk, and warlock to be less satisfying, if "satisfying" means having a solid gameplay hook while still allowing a variety of viable approaches to character background, role-play, and combat tactics.

To be fair, this thread alone is indication that people are unhappy with the class, and before The Crash, the Sorcerer was a pretty popular topic in "How do we fix this", right after the Ranger.

I've never seen anything similar to this for Druids, Warlocks, and Monks; most people seem to be quite satisfied with those 3 classes, especially Warlock, where I generally see at least 1 per game. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a thread on EnWorld or reddit or anything like that talking about the Monk or the Warlock being unsatisfying, though I do know that the Land Druid is often pretty poorly regarded compared to the Moon Druid.

 

[Yunru]

There's the EleMonk, but I think people's opinions on "how do we fix this?" Was "we can't". (My answer would be make the spells bonus action (and maybe slightly more expensive for it).)

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I sure wish Sorcerers had access to Absorb Elements! It seems so appropriately thematic, and the fact that they can't access it by RAW mystifies me. As a DM of course I have no problem with letting a sorcerer research Absorb Elements for himself.


I was surprised by that myself. I suspect that if the favored soul sorcerer (supposed to be the gish sorcerer subclass) has "officially" been released, it would have been added to the sorcerer's list. Sometimes I think they just forgot things (like the text for planar ally is more warlock than cleric in theme, warlock's allies were a big thing in 4e, but somehow it didn't make it to the warlock's Mystic Arcanum).

I would be good with a change element metamagic/subclass ability as long as it contained the following phrase: if the target had resistance or immunity to the original damage type of the spell, it has the same resistance or immunity to the damage type of the spell changed by this metamagic. You guys must think WotC and DM's are slow--like no one noticed that every fifth monster has some kind of fire protection, but almost none have acid protection.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I know that the 2nd least satisfying class after the Ranger, has been the Sorcerer.

I feel it's lack of satisfaction may have to do with sorcery points not having many neat options. As I feel they should be able to do more with them, though metamagic is a good start.

But it might just be the wild mage that's causing a lot of dissatisfaction with the class.

Speaking as someone who has played a wild sorcerer from 4-10 (so far), I'm satisfied! Sorcery Points are fine (a lot of subclass features use them, and I burn through them pretty quick on a typical day). I want to surge more than I do, but the surge itself is amusing whenever it happens. I'm more than comfortable with the spell selection. No complaints!