You actually have to look at it by level.
If you consider the best subclasses I think Sorcerer is stronger than Wizard at most tier 1 levels. For example
A 1st level Wizard with a 16 intelligence can get up to 2 rituals in their book in addition to what spells they prepare, plus Arcane recovery for an extra slot, but a 1st level sorcerer gets more Cantrips (at least one and possibly two) and a subclass ability that is pretty darn good, usually substantially better than a 1st level spell slot.
Meanwhile the wizard gets rituals. And
Find Familiar doesn't take a slot (and is wizard exclusive (until a warlock poaches it)) and is IME substantially better still. A flying scout whose eyes you can see through,
and that has darkvision and advantage on perception checks is really useful.
Strength of the Grave for example on a Shadow Sorcerer is extremely good at 1st level, arguably OP at this level and this is one of their two subclass abilities.
The other one being Darkvision. But at first level Strength of the Grave is really only an unreliable casting of
Shield that only partially protects you even when it works. So I'm saying that this is at best equal to the wizard's extra spell. At later levels you can layer the two - but when you've only got two first level spells spending one on shield is expensive.
Getting Healing Word and Guidance as a DS is also pretty awesome at 1st level. I don't think any Wizards with point buy are generally the equal of these two subclasses.
I mean sure, if you are going to tank your entire class going forward by picking Divine Soul (the class that doesn't know enough spells getting the "benefit" of having more spells they can't buy added to the shop is not a good benefit).
I'm also going to be blunt about the first level Divine Soul played the way you suggest. When you are unarmoured, have 6+Con mod hit points, have either a bad weapon off your secondary stat or a cantrip attack, and you are spending your two first level spell slots on
Healing Word you are a terrible wannabe caster. Any cleric or druid worth their salt can, if they choose, match your guidance and healing word while hitting harder and being armoured and with a better primary stat for everything other than casting. Meanwhile a wizard or sorcerer who brings something like
sleep can win an entire fight at level 1.
I think any decent wizard should be better than a first level Shadow Sorcerer - while the first level Divine Soul isn't competing with the wizard but failing miserably to be a cleric or druid (or even a bard).
The exception I will make is for the Aberrant Mind. Who even gets another cantrip - but the big thing they gain is Dissonant Whispers, the strongest first level single target damage spell in the game. (It's not the 3d6 psychic damage but the opportunity attack from the raging barbarian on top of that that makes it lethal).
At 3rd and 4th level though the Sorc has metamagic and is ahead again because of what this brings to the table, even when compared to the best Wizard subclasses.
I'm going to disagree here. At 3rd and 4th level the sorcerer has three and four metamagic points per day. Unless they are an Aberrant Mind twinning Dissonant Whispers or are in one of the rare situations that Subtle Spell is useful then the wizard's extra second level or two extra first level spell slots from Arcane Recovery is more useful.
I would disagree there because a high level spell is limited by slots and if cast with metamagic substantially enhances this very few uses available.
Twin Spell in particular gives you essentially double the combat power of your high level spells and you can trade your low level slots to do that every time you cast a high level spell if you want.
Your only "low level slots" you can burn this way are second level. Your first level slots are wanted for things like Shield, Absorb Elements, Mage Armour, and Silvery Barbs, and if you can cast fireball out of it it's not low level. There aren't honestly that many spells higher level than Haste and Polymorph that are worth twinning.
The Wizard does have more 9th level spell variety than any Sorcerer except Divine Soul, but the best Wizard spells of 9th level are available to Sorcerers and Sorcerers are more effective using them because of metamagic.
I'd put the top of the wizard list as Wish, True Polymorph, Shapechange, Time Stop, and Foresight.
Of that list True Polymorph is a
great wizard spell because you don't have to cast it on the day of adventuring, and it, Shapechange, and Foresight aren't on the wizard list - and the wizard loses a whole lot less if they take the stress that prevents them ever casting Wish again.
A Warlock can cast 3 5th level spells per short rest. A Sorcerer at this level who optimizes for 5th level spells can cast 8 5th level spells per day (plus one 6th level spell). I would say that is generally going to outrun the Warlock,
I'd say at this point the sorcerer is completely out of gas. Meanwhile the Warlock has a 3d10+15 Eldritch Blast (possibly backed with a "cheat code hex" that they actually cast before a short rest, and 3d10+3d6+15 is getting into third level spell territory (fourth level if we count Blight)) and a number of at will invocations.
Also the sorcerer has a much smaller collection of fifth level appropriate spells than the warlock. The sorcerer knows only
one more spell than the warlock but they need to spread them across five levels of spell. Meanwhile the warlock can retrain anything that's not appropriate.
especially since the Sorcerer is more flexible (Sorc can use 4 5th level slots before the first short rest and none before the 2nd). The same sorcerer can also flex this to other levels and cast 31 1st level spells
Warlock: If it's first or even second level spells you want I can do this all day. It's called Invocations. (Or for that matter Eldritch Blast is going to be at least second level equivalent). And I can do it all day as well as throwing around my fifth and sixth level spells.
or cast 12 fireballs and still have 4 sorcery points left over or a combination using metamagic.
12 fireballs is rare as a use case. Especially as turning in your fourth level slots gets you less than upcasting into them would, and your fifth only get you one fireball each.
The fundamental issue the sorcerer has playing these games is
metamagic conversion is lossy unless you are an Aberrant Mind. You can buy one first level spell out of second level metamagic. You can buy one fifth level spell out of a fourth and a third level slot. And you can buy one third level slot out of a fifth level slot.
In general the only slots that are worth trading in (as ever other than for an Aberrant Mind) are the second ones; as mentioned you use the first level slots for defence. Third level is a huge leap for Fireball or Twinned Haste.
Eldritch Blast is the most powerful combat cantrip in the game and does give the 11th level Warlock an at-will damage option that the Sorcerer does not generally have, but that does not make up for the leveled spell diversity the Sorcerer does have
The (pre-Tasha's) sorcerer knows
one more spell than the warlock. And the warlock gets to fling around a variety of spells at will if they've avoided the trap invocations. The sorcerer needs to spend far more spells covering its bases than the warlock does. The diversity isn't on the sorcerer's side, and this is a flaw in the 2014 sorcerer.
, especially when Quickened spell comes into play, where the Sorcerer can cast a leveled spell and double dip with a Cantrip or even a twinned cantrip on top of a quickened spell. For example an 11th level Warlock using his bonus and action can go Hex-EB/AB and dole out 3d10+3d6+15 (42), but must burn a 5th level slot at some point to do that (maybe early in the day).
They burn that slot
before breakfast. They then take a short rest at breakfast and have it back because it lasts 24 hours. This is Warlock 101. When Haste starts lasting 8 hours (at third level) or 24 (at fifth) you cast it before a rest. And you have it running until you lose concentration.
An 11th level Sorcerer can spend 3 sorcery points (quicken spell, twin spell) and throw three Firebolts on their turn for 9d10 (49.5).
Of course they need to hit two targets there because Twin Spell. So that's three of their sorcery points (or the equivalent of a second level spell) for 6d10 (33) to one target and 3d10 (16.5) to another. As a rule of thumb you discount damage to secondary targets by half as the only hit point that matters is the last, so that's 33 + (16.5/2) = 41.25. That's exceptionally good single target damage for a second level spell - and very comparable to Eldritch Blast plus hex.
