D&D (2024) 4/26 Playtest: The Sorceror

[Asisreo]

Only those don't consumed material components can be Subtled away.

Yeah, I forgot that simulcrum consumes its material. But a spell like Imprisonment is actually free for the sorcerer to cast.

Also, very notably Forcecage.

Yeah, in fact, now your Sorcerer can go from Forcecage to Imprisonment for the extra cost of 2 sp.

 

[Asisreo]

they already did that with Aberrant mind sub class and Psionic Sorcery feature.
Works great with Summon aberration.

Yeah, but now sorcerers have access to almost the same spell pool as wizards, which changes the dynamics by quite a bit.

 

[Nadan]

Yeah, I forgot that simulcrum consumes its material. But a spell like Imprisonment is actually free for the sorcerer to cast.

Also, very notably Forcecage.

Yeah, in fact, now your Sorcerer can go from Forcecage to Imprisonment for the extra cost of 2 sp.

As long as don't consumed, I don't think prices is that important at late stage of play, I will say that part of Subtle just some small niche.

 

[Asisreo]

As long as don't consumed, I don't think prices is that important at late stage of play, I will say that part of Subtle just some small niche.

Its not really the price itself that had me concerned. Its usually how out-of-the-way actually getting the material required is.

Sure, you might be able to convince a DM that the jeweler has a pearl or ruby dust, but its much less likely that they have a minitature prison made out of jade or a tuning fork tuned to the plane of the Nine Hells.

 

[Horwath]

Its not really the price itself that had me concerned. Its usually how out-of-the-way actually getting the material required is.

Sure, you might be able to convince a DM that the jeweler has a pearl or ruby dust, but its much less likely that they have a minitature prison made out of jade or a tuning fork tuned to the plane of the Nine Hells.

Too me, it's just a cool factor to the spell description.

Not to be a quest of it's own to get the spell focus/components.

I agree on some spells having a cost, but that should be paid in gold or similar currency if it is a point of game balance.
If true resurrection has a cost of 25000GP, I really do not care if it's accumulated in diamonds, emeralds, mithril ingots, gold crowns, or a truckload of copper pieces. Or any combinations of trade goods. The cost has been paid.

 

[Asisreo]

Too me, it's just a cool factor to the spell description.

Not to be a quest of it's own to get the spell focus/components.

I agree on some spells having a cost, but that should be paid in gold or similar currency if it is a point of game balance.
If true resurrection has a cost of 25000GP, I really do not care if it's accumulated in diamonds, emeralds, mithril ingots, gold crowns, or a truckload of copper pieces. Or any combinations of trade goods. The cost has been paid.

Wow, that's very different from how we play our games. I imagined that the weird requirements being a PITA to gather was the whole balancing factor.

Like, sure, you can easily buy cheap and common materials, but even 2000gp of ruby dust is impractical to just purchase in a day without the DM pulling some immersion strings. Even if a country had that many rubies, it would be time-consuming and risky to have it transported to you. And going out to grab them yourself is...unreliable especially if you're relying on the teleport spell which might give you an impromtu close-up of marine life by throwing you a few miles away from your destination.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I don't necessarily agree. I think EB is good for the warlock but what makes it great isn't that its above all other cantrips, its because it interacts so well with the warlock's base class.

Right now, most of these spells barely have interaction with the sorcerer's class. Incarnate only interacts with the draconic subclass at level 14. Everything else isn't exactly leaning into the sorcerer's abilities all that much. You can tell there's an attempt at metamagic compatibility, but there isn't such a link where, say, the sorcerer that casts empowered sorcerous burst is now doing about as much damage as a first-level spell.

Eh, not really. If you were a charisma caster, you wanted Eldritch Blast. And if you could pick the ability score... you wanted eldritch blast. Four attacks is just better than one big attack, every time.

Then, on top of that, Eldritch Blast was given synergies that made it better.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Wow, that's very different from how we play our games. I imagined that the weird requirements being a PITA to gather was the whole balancing factor.

Like, sure, you can easily buy cheap and common materials, but even 2000gp of ruby dust is impractical to just purchase in a day without the DM pulling some immersion strings. Even if a country had that many rubies, it would be time-consuming and risky to have it transported to you. And going out to grab them yourself is...unreliable especially if you're relying on the teleport spell which might give you an impromtu close-up of marine life by throwing you a few miles away from your destination.

We never bothered with those either. By the time we got high enough level to finally cast those spells, we were far more interested in the story than taking a side quest to go and get some random piece of art that gated the spells. If we wanted that storyline, it would end up being a McGuffin, not a normal spell component.

 

[Asisreo]

We never bothered with those either. By the time we got high enough level to finally cast those spells, we were far more interested in the story than taking a side quest to go and get some random piece of art that gated the spells. If we wanted that storyline, it would end up being a McGuffin, not a normal spell component.

Well, yeah. And that's why it was more balanced in general.

Nobody took spells like Plane Shift or Imprisonment mostly because nobody really wanted to bother getting them, unless they really wanted them, in which case that can be delegated to downtime.

I mean, I think casters have too much power in their RAW form, but I'm not going to hand them more power and let them run wild with obviously broken spells without some form of difficulty.

 

[Asisreo]

Eh, not really. If you were a charisma caster, you wanted Eldritch Blast. And if you could pick the ability score... you wanted eldritch blast. Four attacks is just better than one big attack, every time.

Then, on top of that, Eldritch Blast was given synergies that made it better.

I don't know...

If a player took Magic Initiate Eldritch Blast, I'd be more inclined to agree. But typically I see it being dipped into for two levels because Agonizing Blast turns it from okay to extremely good.