D&D 5E The new UA feats are AWESOME for sorcerers.

[doctorbadwolf]

Every one in my group that's played a sorcerer (including me) agrees with you. I'll nitpick the class on not enough spells known at 12th+ level, and the lack of some more thematic spells for certain subclasses (shadow sorcerer, I'm looking at you), but that's about it. It's a great class.

Yep. Sure, I’d give it as many spells known as it could prepare if it were a prepared caster with a starting 16 Cha, going up to 20 Cha by level 12, and probably...idk, 1 extra SP at each tier? But the class doesn’t need those changes to be good.

 

[Pauln6]

Every one in my group that's played a sorcerer (including me) agrees with you. I'll nitpick the class on not enough spells known at 12th+ level, and the lack of some more thematic spells for certain subclasses (shadow sorcerer, I'm looking at you), but that's about it. It's a great class.

Yes this is very much my observation. At the risk of introducing a feat tax, would a series of half feats with subclasses prerequisites that grant a choice of thematic additional spells known plus some other minor benefit like the ability to convert spell points more cheaply (like shadow sorcerer darkness) plug that hole?

 

[Li Shenron]

The only problem with this is the obvious subclass to take this (shadow sorcerer) already gets darkness as a free bonus spell at 3rd level and gets a special ability when using it, so effectively you only get the first level spell known.

Maybe it needs a line of additional text to give a choice between darkness and another spell or just mirror misty step with shadow step (typically misty step with increased range between areas of dim light or darkness).

Is the Shadow Sorcerer Darkness spell simply added to known spells or does it work separately?

Because if it's a regular Sorcerer spell, when you level up the Sorcerer can replace a known spell with another. So if you already know Darkness, when you take the Shadow Touched feat you replace the previous Darkness with a new spell and simultaneously learn it back from the feat.

 

[Pauln6]

Is the Shadow Sorcerer Darkness spell simply added to known spells or does it work separately?

Because if it's a regular Sorcerer spell, when you level up the Sorcerer can replace a known spell with another. So if you already know Darkness, when you take the Shadow Touched feat you replace the previous Darkness with a new spell and simultaneously learn it back from the feat.

Shadow sorcerers know darkness as a class feature so there is a redundancy there but a human could gain darkness at level one. I'd prefer it if the feat had the choice of knowing two spells e.g. darkness or shadow step.

 

[Remathilis]

Is the Shadow Sorcerer Darkness spell simply added to known spells or does it work separately?

Because if it's a regular Sorcerer spell, when you level up the Sorcerer can replace a known spell with another. So if you already know Darkness, when you take the Shadow Touched feat you replace the previous Darkness with a new spell and simultaneously learn it back from the feat.

Both? Check it out.

When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the darkness spell, which doesn't count against your number of sorcerer spells known. In addition, you can cast it by spending 2 sorcery points or by expending a spell slot. If you cast it with sorcery points, you can see through the darkness created by the spell.

So you learn it like a normal spell, but get a special way to cast it as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

Seriously speaking, how do they balance vs magical adept? One level 1 spell only, 2 cantrips, but no stat increase... I'm not sure.

I definitely think these new feats (and not just the spellcasting ones) do not need the +1 ability bonus.

 

[Pauln6]

I definitely think these new feats (and not just the spellcasting ones) do not need the +1 ability bonus.

At will scaling cantrips and one daily spell vs two daily spells? I'll take the +1 please!

 

[Li Shenron]

Both? Check it out.

When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the darkness spell, which doesn't count against your number of sorcerer spells known. In addition, you can cast it by spending 2 sorcery points or by expending a spell slot. If you cast it with sorcery points, you can see through the darkness created by the spell.

So you learn it like a normal spell, but get a special way to cast it as well.

To me it sounds like this Shadow Sorcerer ability would work fine together with the new Shadow Touched feat. Both let you learn the spell. Both let you cast the spell normally i.e. expending spell slots. Both give you an additional way to cast it: Shadow Sorcerer = by spending 2 sorcery points, Shadow Touched = once per long rest; so if you have both, you have 3 separate methods for casting Darkness.

I don't think these methods are tied to one specific "learning instance" of the spell. You don't learn a specific Shadow Sorcerer version of Darkness, and a specific Shadow Touched version, you simply learn the spell AND acquire a new method for casting such spell.

So I really think that if you have either the Shadow Sorcerer ability or the Shadow Touched feat, and later you acquire the other, you can definitely replace Darkness with another spell at level up, and immediately re-acquire it as a Shadow Sorcerer/Touched, therefore you do not suffer from learning the same spell twice.

 

[Li Shenron]

At will scaling cantrips and one daily spell vs two daily spells? I'll take the +1 please!

I would rather have the feat grant an additional first-level spell instead of the +1, or maybe have the first-level spell recharge on a short rest.

At will combat cantrips are supposedly designed to scale roughly on par with the ranged weapons used by martial characters (both of which are at-will), so I don't think a martial character learning a combat cantrip becomes that much more powerful, only a bit (although if the DM is stingy with magic weapons then the cantrips become more valuable).

An interesting perk of the new feats is that they allow a human variant character to cast a 2nd-level spell already at character levels 1-2. This is probably one reason why they choose specific spells rather than giving a broader choice.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Shadow sorcerers know darkness as a class feature so there is a redundancy there but a human could gain darkness at level one. I'd prefer it if the feat had the choice of knowing two spells e.g. darkness or shadow step.

My request in the survey was for darkness to be replaced with Pass Without Trace, which IMO is just a better spell for the theme.