D&D 5E (2024) Wizard vs Sorcerer (a Campaign Experience)

[FrogReaver]

Campaign
Currently I am playing a campaign where I am a Wizard and a friend is a Sorcerer. Last session we just hit level 4 and I thought I'd share my impressions so far. But first here's some necessary background.

The campaign is set a bit post apocolypic. Something happened, the sun turned dark and towns suddenly became overrun by aberration and/or undead style monsters, killing most of the townspeople. Our introduction was encountering the first town this happened and we have since found small remnants of survivors and cleared out a small town (we just hit level 4, started at level 1).

Our Party

• Gnome Runeknight Fighter (using booming blade and push mastery).
• Gnome Mercy Monk
• Gnome Wild Magic Sorcerer (focused on blasting)
• Human Bladesinger Wizard (focused on control)

While we don't have a traditional healer my human Wizard did take magic initiate druid and picked up goodberry as well as guidance. I use the goodberry spell to stock up on goodberries the night before giving us high out of combat healing most of the next adventuring day.

The experience so far:

• I just recently got the incense component to make a familiar. It's made a world of difference in scouting.
• Detect magic as a ritual as a ritual so far allowed the Wizard (me) to find a magic item we would have otherwise missed.
• The Sorcerer with Chromatic Orb, Innate Sorcery and font of magic and has been really impressive. Probably dealt more damage than the monk and fighter combined.
• However, the Sorcerer is achieving this by using a spell slot virtually every combat turn. We often end the day with my wizard having used maybe 1-2 slots and the sorcerer being completely out of everything.
• My Wizard's Tasha's Laughter and Web have really shined. Our most recent combat had web lock down virtually everything, it turned what may have otherwise been an impossible encounter for us into a very easy one. Tasha's has done the same a few times. Looking down a Spectator for 3+ turns in one encounter.
• True strike with a crossbow has been really impressive. There have been low level encounters where my wizard rolled decently well and was outdamaging the monk and fighter in them.
• My Wizards jump spell has been useful as well. It helped us retreat once and really helped our low movespeed fighter in one combat.
• Wild magic has been crazy. Some encounters it makes so easy. Some it makes super difficult. Many times it just adds some flavor. We are using a custom wild magic table instead of the 2024 one though, so take this point with a grain of salt.
• Gnome's Magic Resistance and Darkvision have both already proven really useful this campaign.

Predictions

• The familiar scouting is going to continue to feel like one of the most OP abilities in this campaign.
• At some point we will either be attacked or choose to continue on after the sorcerer has ran out of spell slots. At lower levels it aligned that others often really wanted to rest when he was out of or really low on slots. I think this will happen less in the future. Though at least he should start to make it through 1 encounter with spell slots remaining now. Probably not 2 though.
• The Wizards control playstyle will at some point really overtake the Sorcerers Blasty playstyle in effectiveness. Per resource use I think it already has, but using 2-3x the resources tends to level that playing field.
• Outside fireball style AOE damage, I look for the martials to start dealing more damage than the sorcerer. Especially once magic weapons start coming into play.

Your Thoughts
What do you all think, does my campaign align with your experience? Do you all have any other predictions?

 

[Lazybones]

Similar experiences with 2024 arcanists. Innate Sorcery and Chromatic Orb is an excellent combo, but Sorcerous Burst is plenty fine when you run out of spell slots. I got an 8+8+6 shot on a low-level boss that was fun; at higher levels the chances of rolling an 8 on at least one die become quite significant. One of my groups is running a group that doesn't have a single fighter-type (6 PCs, currently fifth level); they are relying on a dwarf monk to maintain the front line and he can absorb an insane amount of punishment. They have a wizard who uses True Strike with a crossbow and it's been quite effective.

 

[Distracted DM]

Why does a wizard using to True Strike to shine with a ranged weapon make me smile? 3e, light crossbow! 2e, whip'em with that sling!

 

[Zardnaar]

Sorcerer blasting is a playstyle thing. Not a class issue. Invoker doing same thing would have the same issue.

Sorcerers better at control and blasting. Chromatic Orb scales even better lbl 3 and 4 slots.

Wizards better at rituals and summoning and higher level spell combos.

Told everyone Chromatic orb is good long ago.

Hex is also really good on a blasting Sorcerer. 3 ways to get it onto a Sorcerer.

Player skill also. Sorcerer should have twin and empower. Elemental adept feat is great with CO. Empower and energy substitute if youre acid build or something similar.


Control Sorcerer twin and heighten spell.

Depends how smart the players are and the subclasses. Illusionist and Bladesinger are decent. Dragon and Aberrant mind are good. Spellfire Sorcerer is good.

Best Sorcerer is Elf with elven accuracy.

 

[FrogReaver]

Told everyone Chromatic orb is good long ago.

I don't know why you always do this or try to frame things this way. Your previous claims on chromatic orb are quite varied and have gone something like:

• It's better than fireball.
• That it's really good regardless of what class you take it with.
• Nor is my post in any way evidence of that or any of your other claims about it.

More Importantly
This thread is not about Chromatic Orb, it's about actual play of Wizard and Sorcerer in the same party in the same campaign. Or from your campaigns if you want to share that.

 

[TerraDave]

Familiar scouting was also a thing in 2014. (As a DM you have to remember their limits, and there are limits). 2024 Warlock with pact of the chain can get a little wild.

And so can the 2024 Sorcerer. Yes innate sorcery + chromatic orb + meta magic can be very effective. Meta magic only becomes more important as the sorcerer levels. And spells other than chromatic orb will also come into play. Elemental adept is nice.

If the sorcerer always runs out of spells there could be consequences, at least in my game.

You haven’t mentioned intelligence. Is it good being the smart character?

 

[ECMO3]

Campaign
Currently I am playing a campaign where I am a Wizard and a friend is a Sorcerer. Last session we just hit level 4 and I thought I'd share my impressions so far. But first here's some necessary background.

The campaign is set a bit post apocolypic. Something happened, the sun turned dark and towns suddenly became overrun by aberration and/or undead style monsters, killing most of the townspeople. Our introduction was encountering the first town this happened and we have since found small remnants of survivors and cleared out a small town (we just hit level 4, started at level 1).

Our Party

• Gnome Runeknight Fighter (using booming blade and push mastery).
• Gnome Mercy Monk
• Gnome Wild Magic Sorcerer (focused on blasting)
• Human Bladesinger Wizard (focused on control)

While we don't have a traditional healer my human Wizard did take magic initiate druid and picked up goodberry as well as guidance. I use the goodberry spell to stock up on goodberries the night before giving us high out of combat healing most of the next adventuring day.

The experience so far:

• I just recently got the incense component to make a familiar. It's made a world of difference in scouting.
• Detect magic as a ritual as a ritual so far allowed the Wizard (me) to find a magic item we would have otherwise missed.
• The Sorcerer with Chromatic Orb, Innate Sorcery and font of magic and has been really impressive. Probably dealt more damage than the monk and fighter combined.
• However, the Sorcerer is achieving this by using a spell slot virtually every combat turn. We often end the day with my wizard having used maybe 1-2 slots and the sorcerer being completely out of everything.
• My Wizard's Tasha's Laughter and Web have really shined. Our most recent combat had web lock down virtually everything, it turned what may have otherwise been an impossible encounter for us into a very easy one. Tasha's has done the same a few times. Looking down a Spectator for 3+ turns in one encounter.
• True strike with a crossbow has been really impressive. There have been low level encounters where my wizard rolled decently well and was outdamaging the monk and fighter in them.
• My Wizards jump spell has been useful as well. It helped us retreat once and really helped our low movespeed fighter in one combat.
• Wild magic has been crazy. Some encounters it makes so easy. Some it makes super difficult. Many times it just adds some flavor. We are using a custom wild magic table instead of the 2024 one though, so take this point with a grain of salt.
• Gnome's Magic Resistance and Darkvision have both already proven really useful this campaign.

Predictions

• The familiar scouting is going to continue to feel like one of the most OP abilities in this campaign.
• At some point we will either be attacked or choose to continue on after the sorcerer has ran out of spell slots. At lower levels it aligned that others often really wanted to rest when he was out of or really low on slots. I think this will happen less in the future. Though at least he should start to make it through 1 encounter with spell slots remaining now. Probably not 2 though.
• The Wizards control playstyle will at some point really overtake the Sorcerers Blasty playstyle in effectiveness. Per resource use I think it already has, but using 2-3x the resources tends to level that playing field.
• Outside fireball style AOE damage, I look for the martials to start dealing more damage than the sorcerer. Especially once magic weapons start coming into play.

Your Thoughts
What do you all think, does my campaign align with your experience? Do you all have any other predictions?

I find a lot of wide variety in play styles. I think Sorcerer lends itself better to high damage, especially if multiclassed with Rogue. Twin spell is the cornerstone here as it essentially doubles damage. Even if you are just rocking Truestrike at level 11 that si going to be 2xWeapon+4d6 with quicken spell and you have a ton resources to use it pretty much at will. Add in a 3 level Rogue dip (Sorc8/Rogue 3) Sneak Attack and ready action and now it is 2xweapon+8d6 essentially at will.

Wizards rely more on their subclass IME. I think in 2024 subclass often defines the Wizard role. All of the Bladesingers I've seen in 2024 are hard melee, either tanks or multiclassed rogue strikers (unlike Sorc they don't do Rogue well IMO). The control Wizards I see tend to go for Enchantment or Illusion or if they want to be a little Gishy without being mostly a martial then they take War-Wizard or Abjuration. Nothing wrong with a control Bladesinger, just pointing out my experiences.