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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7444664" data-attributes="member: 12731">Maybe I explained poorly. Once GWM/PM and SS/CE are nerfed, or if you run a game without feats, cantrips rule the day. At level 11, a Sorcerer can expect 6d10+10 fire damage, reliably, every round of all but the absurdly longest adventuring day.How? Make the thought experiment where you build a dragon sorcerer focused on defense/survivability and cantrips. You will find that you gain nigh infinite sorcery points once you don't feel compelled to use them for Fireball et al. Once off the lowest levels, you will find that you will have plenty of Shield spells, and still loads of metamagic for twinned Firebolt. At level 11, I believe you can easily spend 60 sorcery points in one day; grotesquely more than, say, the Monk and her 11 ki points. If you're restricted to either [3d8+15 plus +2 AC] or [3d12+15], then the survival benefits of a fighter can no longer compete. The Fire Bolt DPR is nearly twice the DPR of the Longbow, for crissakes!(With my suggestion, we're comparing 28 (3d8+15) missile fire to 33 (6d10). With a greataxe it's even more equal at 34 (3d12+15). Suddenly we have achieved parity, more or less! The sorcerer-as-archer build no longer achieves anything special, so mission accomplished! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Remember, this is before feats - once feats are in, I expect this sorcerer-as-archer loophole to be thoroughly closed, even though Spell Sniper will still make it perfectly viable. (Let's make a short recap. Viable = good. Better than anything else = bad.)  The hit die of a dragon sorcerer is already effectively d8. And this build can easily afford to increase Con (compared to the spellcaster that worries about monsters and save DCs).TL;DR: A sorcerer is balanced around the idea it actually casts spells. But if you create a "magical archer", you can short-circult this.</blockquote>

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