D&D 5E 20th level Sorcerer vs the world

[Gammadoodler]

To be fair, that is how the OP is building as well. Can't fault you for "loosely" interpreting something...which is why I find the "DM Pwease" dismissal of Divine Intervention frustrating, since that is basically doing the same thing.

Yeah, I don't feel too bad about it. Hell it seems Crawford would allow even more abusive shenanigans.

"The mirage arcane spell gives you tremendous latitude in how you make the affected terrain look and feel. The altered terrain can even hurt someone. You could drown in the spell’s illusory lake, for example, or fall off an illusory cliff."

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Clockwork Sorcerer, with metamagic, the best skill monkey of the game and more spells than Wizard's prepared spells boring? Ok.

My favorite deadly low level build. I always play it. It do what a mage should do. Fireball, but Super Fireball.


Scourge Aasimar Dragon Sorcerer level 8
Feat: Elemental Adept(Fire) feat, Tough feat and 16 con.
82 HP, AC 16 (21 with shield)
Metamagic: Empower, Quicken.

Action Aasimar's skill
Bonus action: Quicken Empowered level 4 Fireball.

Damage: Final damage 55.
Its one shot against Wizards.

Next turn:
Empowered fire bolt for 18 damage.
Quicken Fireball for 55 damage.
total of 73 damage.

All damage ignores resistence and cover.

Simple, Effective, One Shot K.O and tanker.

Once it is corrected that your initial opening is at 150 ft, and that an empowered Fireball is only 46 damage average after Empowerment and Elemental Affinity/Adept, and considering it's OK to have 3 stats at 16 without taking any ASI...


The story of Young Alfred.

One morning of June, at Foggy Bottom Junior High


Wendy: "What are you going to do after Summer?"
Laeriel: "I am going to enroll at Howard's School of Torchbearing. I hear nice things about their curriculum.
Wendy: "And you Alfred? Going to Candlekeep?"
Alfred: "Sure, I am determined to become a master of magic."
150 ft away, a guy of draconic descent (they were called dragonborn in the past but Foggy Bottom JH insisted on using a more inclusive terminology) started foaming at the mouth, yelling at Alfred.
Alfred: "Who's this raving lunatic? A guy from the football team?"
Laeriel: "No, it's ... I don't know his name actually, he never told us during the year. He's a sorcerer or something... always playing with matches"
Alfred: "I see."

At his tender age, Alfred only had three feats: tough, lucky, and elemental adept (acid). And stat STR 8, CON 16, DEX 16, INT 16, CHA 8, WIS 8. Taking 4 on HP rolls, he got 9+7*7+2*8= 74 HP. Before taking on Chronurgy as a major at Candlekeep, he was a bookish Abjuration Wizard, adding 19 HP of magical ward every morning.

Alfred rolled initiative. Thanks to his +3 vs Young Sorcerer +3, he could have gotten first by being Lucky, and he could have fled, of course. But... what would Wendy and Laeriel think of him? He wanted to impress them and not flee from a lowly Sorcerer! So he used his Luck to get the initiative, threw a Vitriolic Sphere at his opponent (a spell which could do 5d4 (average 14) on a successful save or 10d4 and 5d4 on the next round on a failed save (average 42), for an average total of 28 damage (HP 74 vs 54) and stood his ground. Alfred then gritted his teeth.... And it hurt. Struck by a fireball he was, doing an average of 46 damage (ouch!) or at most 62 (double-ouch!). He really hoped one of the girls would volunteer to rub a soothing balm on his back after that... (did I mention that he was low on WIS?) Thanks for Alfred, the actual damage was much lower since the DEX allowed him to meet the spell DC of 14 75% of the time (factoring his second use of Luck, because he really didn't expect the fight to last more than three round...), so he'd only suffer 29 damage on average, wiping his ward and injuring him (he wondered if it was true that girls liked scars...) (HP 64 vs 50).

On the second round, Alfred cast his second and last Vitriolic Sphere, bringing down his opponent to 22 HP. His opponent advanced to 120 ft, then cast an Empowered, Quickened Fireball and was burned by his own radiant shield. (HP 35 vs 18). He also cast a fire bolt, for an average of 2d10 (12). Alfred knew his opponent had spend 6 SP and was down to 4, so he could not recreate a 4th level slot in this round. He was also glad that no spell had a range of more than 150 ft before spells of the 6th level, and those weren't taught at Foggy Bottom JH, even in A-level courses.

On the third and final round, Alfred was out of luck points and of vitriolic sphere, his most potent spell. He suspected it was of no use to cast a fire spell so he resolved to advance to 90 ft and cast a Lightning Bolt, lacking any serious acid opportunity at level 3, inflicting 8d6 (28) on a failed save and 14 on a successful save, for an average of 21, removing Looney Loner from the fight. His victory was quickly soured when he got detention for reducing another pupil to 0 HP.

(To be honest, this fight lies on who gets the initiative and on who fails first a save, showing that Sorcerer can nova well, but not particularly more efficiently than any other nova-oriented build from other classes).

 

[Earth2Carnifex]

Once it is corrected that your initial opening is at 150 ft, and that an empowered Fireball is only 46 damage average after Empowerment and Elemental Affinity/Adept, and considering it's OK to have 3 stats at 16 without taking any ASI...


The story of Young Alfred.

One morning of June, at Foggy Bottom Junior High


Wendy: "What are you going to do after Summer?"
Laeriel: "I am going to enroll at Howard's School of Torchbearing. I hear nice things about their curriculum.
Wendy: "And you Alfred? Going to Candlekeep?"
Alfred: "Sure, I am determined to become a master of magic."
150 ft away, a guy of draconic descent (they were called dragonborn in the past but Foggy Bottom JH insisted on using a more inclusive terminology) started foaming at the mouth, yelling at Alfred.
Alfred: "Who's this raving lunatic? A guy from the football team?"
Laeriel: "No, it's ... I don't know his name actually, he never told us during the year. He's a sorcerer or something... always playing with matches"
Alfred: "I see."

At his tender age, Alfred only had three feats: tough, lucky, and elemental adept (acid). And stat STR 8, CON 16, DEX 16, INT 16, CHA 8, WIS 8. Taking 4 on HP rolls, he got 9+7*7+2*8= 74 HP. Before taking on Chronurgy as a major at Candlekeep, he was a bookish Abjuration Wizard, adding 19 HP of magical ward every morning.

Alfred rolled initiative. Thanks to his +3 vs Young Sorcerer +3, he could have gotten first by being Lucky, and he could have fled, of course. But... what would Wendy and Laeriel think of him? He wanted to impress them and not flee from a lowly Sorcerer! So he used his Luck to get the initiative, threw a Vitriolic Sphere at his opponent (a spell which could do 5d4 (average 14) on a successful save or 10d4 and 5d4 on the next round on a failed save (average 42), for an average total of 28 damage (HP 74 vs 54) and stood his ground. Alfred then gritted his teeth.... And it hurt. Struck by a fireball he was, doing an average of 46 damage (ouch!) or at most 62 (double-ouch!). He really hoped one of the girls would volunteer to rub a soothing balm on his back after that... (did I mention that he was low on WIS?) Thanks for Alfred, the actual damage was much lower since the DEX allowed him to meet the spell DC of 14 75% of the time (factoring his second use of Luck, because he really didn't expect the fight to last more than three round...), so he'd only suffer 29 damage on average, wiping his ward and injuring him (he wondered if it was true that girls liked scars...) (HP 64 vs 50).

On the second round, Alfred cast his second and last Vitriolic Sphere, bringing down his opponent to 22 HP. His opponent advanced to 120 ft, then cast an Empowered, Quickened Fireball and was burned by his own radiant shield. (HP 35 vs 18). He also cast a fire bolt, for an average of 2d10 (12). Alfred knew his opponent had spend 6 SP and was down to 4, so he could not recreate a 4th level slot in this round. He was also glad that no spell had a range of more than 150 ft before spells of the 6th level, and those weren't taught at Foggy Bottom JH, even in A-level courses.

On the third and final round, Alfred was out of luck points and of vitriolic sphere, his most potent spell. He suspected it was of no use to cast a fire spell so he resolved to advance to 90 ft and cast a Lightning Bolt, lacking any serious acid opportunity at level 3, inflicting 8d6 (28) on a failed save and 14 on a successful save, for an average of 21, removing Looney Loner from the fight. His victory was quickly soured when he got detention for reducing another pupil to 0 HP.

(To be honest, this fight lies on who gets the initiative and on who fails first a save, showing that Sorcerer can nova well, but not particularly more efficiently than any other nova-oriented build from other classes).

Dude, I love these stories, it is the only reason I keep coming back to this thread.

 

[Hohige]

Once it is corrected that your initial opening is at 150 ft, and that an empowered Fireball is only 46 damage average after Empowerment and Elemental Affinity/Adept, and considering it's OK to have 3 stats at 16 without taking any ASI...


The story of Young Alfred.

One morning of June, at Foggy Bottom Junior High


Wendy: "What are you going to do after Summer?"
Laeriel: "I am going to enroll at Howard's School of Torchbearing. I hear nice things about their curriculum.
Wendy: "And you Alfred? Going to Candlekeep?"
Alfred: "Sure, I am determined to become a master of magic."
150 ft away, a guy of draconic descent (they were called dragonborn in the past but Foggy Bottom JH insisted on using a more inclusive terminology) started foaming at the mouth, yelling at Alfred.
Alfred: "Who's this raving lunatic? A guy from the football team?"
Laeriel: "No, it's ... I don't know his name actually, he never told us during the year. He's a sorcerer or something... always playing with matches"
Alfred: "I see."

At his tender age, Alfred only had three feats: tough, lucky, and elemental adept (acid). And stat STR 8, CON 16, DEX 16, INT 16, CHA 8, WIS 8. Taking 4 on HP rolls, he got 9+7*7+2*8= 74 HP. Before taking on Chronurgy as a major at Candlekeep, he was a bookish Abjuration Wizard, adding 19 HP of magical ward every morning.

Alfred rolled initiative. Thanks to his +3 vs Young Sorcerer +3, he could have gotten first by being Lucky, and he could have fled, of course. But... what would Wendy and Laeriel think of him? He wanted to impress them and not flee from a lowly Sorcerer! So he used his Luck to get the initiative, threw a Vitriolic Sphere at his opponent (a spell which could do 5d4 (average 14) on a successful save or 10d4 and 5d4 on the next round on a failed save (average 42), for an average total of 28 damage (HP 74 vs 54) and stood his ground. Alfred then gritted his teeth.... And it hurt. Struck by a fireball he was, doing an average of 46 damage (ouch!) or at most 62 (double-ouch!). He really hoped one of the girls would volunteer to rub a soothing balm on his back after that... (did I mention that he was low on WIS?) Thanks for Alfred, the actual damage was much lower since the DEX allowed him to meet the spell DC of 14 75% of the time (factoring his second use of Luck, because he really didn't expect the fight to last more than three round...), so he'd only suffer 29 damage on average, wiping his ward and injuring him (he wondered if it was true that girls liked scars...) (HP 64 vs 50).

On the second round, Alfred cast his second and last Vitriolic Sphere, bringing down his opponent to 22 HP. His opponent advanced to 120 ft, then cast an Empowered, Quickened Fireball and was burned by his own radiant shield. (HP 35 vs 18). He also cast a fire bolt, for an average of 2d10 (12). Alfred knew his opponent had spend 6 SP and was down to 4, so he could not recreate a 4th level slot in this round. He was also glad that no spell had a range of more than 150 ft before spells of the 6th level, and those weren't taught at Foggy Bottom JH, even in A-level courses.

On the third and final round, Alfred was out of luck points and of vitriolic sphere, his most potent spell. He suspected it was of no use to cast a fire spell so he resolved to advance to 90 ft and cast a Lightning Bolt, lacking any serious acid opportunity at level 3, inflicting 8d6 (28) on a failed save and 14 on a successful save, for an average of 21, removing Looney Loner from the fight. His victory was quickly soured when he got detention for reducing another pupil to 0 HP.

(To be honest, this fight lies on who gets the initiative and on who fails first a save, showing that Sorcerer can nova well, but not particularly more efficiently than any other nova-oriented build from other classes).

OMG that is impressive.
Let me show you what makes Sorcerer a sorcerer. The young alfred vs young Bastion. Burning the Alfred Again.

Clockwork Sorcerer:
16 con 16 cha.
Metamagic Adept (Extend, Distant), Spell Sniper, Tough.
72 HP, Extended Aid (16 hours) level 4 (20 Extra HP for you and your team)

72 HP + 23(5d8)Bastion of Law +20 Extended Aid
115 HP.

Action to regain Bastion of Law and quicken a spell. for extra 4d8 HP for 133 HP

Blasting: Empowered: Earth Eruption level 4, 34 damage.
Empowered d12 is average damage is 8,4.
Distant for 240ft range.

Distant Empowered Eldritch Blast:
Empowered d10 is average 6,75. It's 14 damage at 480ft

Distant Empowered Scorching Ray 3th level is 34 damage at 480ft.


Your Wizard has only 11 prepared spells x 17 Clockwork spell known.
The sorcerer is more tanker, versatile, damage dealer and long range casting.
Playing with your team. He can cast extended Summon Construct for a lot of damage and casting freely distant/quicken spells.
It also con prof and Bastion of Law feature avoids concentration check. It's an amazing concentration caster.
You are insane against melee, Bastion of Law feature + Armor of Agathys can trully destroy a melee creatures.
It's a lot of damage.

 

[Hohige]

QpL

 

[Gammadoodler]

OMG that is impressive.
Let me show you what makes Sorcerer a sorcerer. The young alfred vs young Bastion. Burning the Alfred Again.

Clockwork Sorcerer:
16 con 16 cha.
Metamagic Adept (Extend, Distant), Spell Sniper, Tough.
72 HP, Extended Aid (16 hours) level 4 (20 Extra HP for you and your team)

72 HP + 23(5d8)Bastion of Law +20 Extended Aid
115 HP.

Action to regain Bastion of Law and quicken a spell. for extra 4d8 HP for 133 HP

Blasting: Empowered: Earth Eruption level 4, 34 damage.
Empowered d12 is average damage is 8,4.
Distant for 240ft range.

Distant Empowered Eldritch Blast:
Empowered d10 is average 6,75. It's 14 damage at 480ft

Distant Empowered Scorching Ray 3th level is 34 damage at 480ft.


Your Wizard has only 11 prepared spells x 17 Clockwork spell known.
The sorcerer is more tanker, versatile, damage dealer and long range casting.
Playing with your team. He can cast extended Summon Construct for a lot of damage and casting freely distant/quicken spells.
It also con prof and Bastion of Law feature avoids concentration check. It's an amazing concentration caster.
It's a lot of damage.

What level is this exercise at again? If I'm looking at this right, you're somehow using 18 SP.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

OMG that is impressive.
Let me show you what makes Sorcerer a sorcerer. The young alfred vs young Bastion. Burning the Alfred Again.

Clockwork Sorcerer:
16 con 16 cha.
Metamagic Adept (Extend, Distant), Spell Sniper, Tough.
72 HP, Extended Aid (16 hours) level 4 (20 Extra HP for you and your team)

72 HP + 23(5d8)Bastion of Law +20 Extended Aid
115 HP.

Action to regain Bastion of Law and quicken a spell. for extra 4d8 HP for 133 HP

Blasting: Empowered: Earth Eruption level 4, 34 damage.
Empowered d12 is average damage is 8,4.
Distant for 240ft range.

Distant Empowered Eldritch Blast:
Empowered d10 is average 6,75. It's 14 damage at 480ft

Distant Empowered Scorching Ray 3th level is 34 damage at 480ft.


Your Wizard has only 11 prepared spells x 17 Clockwork spell known.
The sorcerer is more tanker, versatile, damage dealer and long range casting.
Playing with your team. He can cast extended Summon Construct for a lot of damage and casting freely distant/quicken spells.
It also con prof and Bastion of Law feature avoids concentration check. It's an amazing concentration caster.
You are insane against melee, Bastion of Law feature + Armor of Agathys can trully destroy a melee creatures.
It's a lot of damage.

You can't benefit from the same spell in effect twice. No double Aid or Bastion.

Also because you weren't within 120', you just blasted a level 1 illusion and it's the hiding wizards turn.

 

[Zio_the_dark]

You can't benefit from the same spell in effect twice. No double Aid or Bastion.

Also because you weren't within 120', you just blasted a level 1 illusion and it's the hiding wizards turn.

Yes but he did so much damage to the illusion that the original caster should be hurt too after all it's a powerful sorcerer vs a puny fat and no charisma wizard...ah yes did I tell you the sorcerer is also a DM with no players because his DMPC killed everyone?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

OMG that is impressive.
Let me show you what makes Sorcerer a sorcerer. The young alfred vs young Bastion. Burning the Alfred Again.

Clockwork Sorcerer:
16 con 16 cha.
Metamagic Adept (Extend, Distant), Spell Sniper, Tough.
72 HP, Extended Aid (16 hours) level 4 (20 Extra HP for you and your team)

72 HP + 23(5d8)Bastion of Law +20 Extended Aid
115 HP.

OK. You're down to 7 sorcerery points.

Action to regain Bastion of Law and quicken a spell. for extra 4d8 HP for 133 HP
Blasting: Empowered: Earth Eruption level 4, 34 damage.
Empowered d12 is average damage is 8,4.
Distant for 240ft range.

Using your action to regain Bastion of Law, the 23 old buffer from the former bastion disappear as specified in the Bastion of Law ability that it lasts until you use the ability again, so you get down to 72 HP, 18 buffer and 20 from Aid. Your Empowered Distant Earth Eruption does 32 damage average on a failed save, half as much on successful save, for an average of 24. You're down to 1 SP.

On his turn, Alfred moves toward you (120 ft) and casts a first Vitriolic Sphere for 28 damage. Sorc down to 72+10 vs 74+19.

Distant Empowered Eldritch Blast:
Empowered d10 is average 6,75. It's 14 damage at 480ft

On your turn, you cast a regular Empowered Eldritch Blast (no need for distant, Alfred is within range and besides, you only have one SP. But as you didn't have a level of Warlock or a Magic Initiate (Warlock) feat, you can't cast the Warlock-specific iconic cantrip, which fizzles.
Alfred moves at 120 ft and cast his second vitriolic sphere. Sorc down to 54 vs 74+19. Alfred starts thinking its a suicide, not a duel.

Distant Empowered Scorching Ray 3th level is 34 damage at 480ft.

You don't have any SP left to empower anything. You're just casting regular scorching rays at level 3. A good spell, which Alfred will counter with Shield to improve his effective AC to 21. An attack at +6 vs AC 21 succeeds 30% of the time, you're doing 4 rays three rounds long that's 4 rays hitting for a grand total of 28 damage, during which the repeated Shield warded Alfred for 6 points. On his three turns, having cast a spell he can only move and casts cantrip, electing to do three Chill Touch for 2d8 (average 9) damage in case of a hit. Hitting 55% of the time against AC 16, Alfred reduced the Sorc to 40 HP vs 71. The Sorc would be reduced to casting 2nd and 1st level spells, while Alfred had expanded 3 1st level slots and his 4th level slots. Moving closer to the Sorcerer on the 3 round, if necesssary Dashing instead of casting one of his cantrip, Alfred finished him over the course of two rounds with lighning bolts on average (for a total of 42 damage), while the remaining Sorc Scorching rays, enventually empowered if he converted as a bonus action 1st level spell slots to get a SP, couldn't take him down (2 scorching rays would be 6 attacks, of which 55% would succeed without a Shield, for a (4,66*6+3.5*6)*.55 = 27 damage. I didn't run the number but I guess casting Protection from Energy early in the fight would have resulted in another sound thrashing.

Hint: doing nothing for two rounds doesn't help your strategy.

Second detention for Young Alfred in a row. As Foggy Bottom Junior High as a policy of three strikes and you're out, Young Alfred would be careful not to pick any more fight until the end of the year. Being expelled would ruin his chances to be admitted to Candlekeep so he took care of always spend recess within eyesight of a teacher (who carried AMF wands, because in those time you actually could find magic items in Foggy Bottom if you were a grownup).

Your Wizard has only 11 prepared spells x 17 Clockwork spell known.

Which does'nt really matter since these fights are usually decided over a few rounds, allowing few casting opportunity. What's useful for the Wizard is their ability to adapt specific spells to the challenge they expect to encounter on the day. You had to change Young Sorcerer build radically while I didn't change Young Alfred at all. The point is not to demonstrate that a Wiz build can beat anything, it's to demonstrate that a Sorc build can beat anything. With a resounding success so far of repeatedly killing a 3rd level noncombattant at level 20.

The sorcerer is more tanker, versatile, damage dealer and long range casting.
Playing with your team. He can cast extended Summon Construct for a lot of damage and casting freely distant/quicken spells.
It also con prof and Bastion of Law feature avoids concentration check. It's an amazing concentration caster.
You are insane against melee, Bastion of Law feature + Armor of Agathys can trully destroy a melee creatures.

Yes, Armor of Agathys, that other warlock staple. Are you suddenly abandonning Sorcerers?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Dude, I love these stories, it is the only reason I keep coming back to this thread.

Thank you! Appreciation motivates me to keep writing them

(plus the idea that the OP rages as all the Foggy Bottom NPC are having happy, healthy lives while his sorc builds somehow brood by themselves all the time).