D&D 5E Build Advice for Draconic Sorcerer

[MonkeezOnFire]

I don't know about Heighten at 10th... it's ok but expensive. Again more for builds that are focused on getting people to fail saves (hold person, charm, web, etc) more than blasting.

Heighten is good if you plan to take the single target big damage spells like Disintegrate or Finger of Death. At the level you are casting those sacrificing a 3rd level spell slot to give your biggest spells a bit of an edge isn't a hard pill to swallow. I do wish heighten had the option to give disadvantage to multiple targets though. Maybe 3 points + 1 or 2 points beyond the first disadvantage.

 

[Ashrym]

There are depressingly few AoE spells that give a single save on the turn you cast it and don't do anything on a successful save. It's Hypnotic Pattern and Fear, and then ... Confusion, but that's just a worse HP, and Reverse Gravity, but that's too high level for this campaign. I think that's it? That said, HP is so good that it might be worth taking Careful just for that.

Confusion is already party friendly. That's one of it's plus points over hypnotic pattern.

Hypnotic pattern was obviously one of my thoughts on it. Careful and hypnotic pattern is a strong combo.

Even less damage on a save can be useful but careful plays nice with evasion or shield master. The rest of the party is also a consideration.

My advice was to consider it. I still think that's worthwhile.

 

[Esker]

Confusion is already party friendly. That's one of it's plus points over hypnotic pattern.

because of the slightly smaller AoE? Slow is completely party-friendly, and HP is a stronger debuff. I guess if the foe you really care about disabling has scrub allies who will use actions to shake them out of HP then maybe confusion has a place, but it's tough for me to see it coming up often.

Even less damage on a save can be useful but careful plays nice with evasion or shield master. The rest of the party is also a consideration.

That's a good point.

My advice was to consider it. I still think that's worthwhile.

I agree. At least if you are willing to have HP+Careful be your best round 1 option in a whole bunch of fights. It's a really good combo, since it takes one of the best spells for its level in the game and removes one of its main disadvantages.

 

[Esker]

Heighten is good if you plan to take the single target big damage spells like Disintegrate or Finger of Death. At the level you are casting those sacrificing a 3rd level spell slot to give your biggest spells a bit of an edge isn't a hard pill to swallow. I do wish heighten had the option to give disadvantage to multiple targets though. Maybe 3 points + 1 or 2 points beyond the first disadvantage.

I have a hard time justifying taking spells like those, though, when for the most part they're replicating (or in some cases even falling short of) what martial characters can do at lower resource cost. Even with Heighten, Disintegrate is likely doing less on average than a fighter archer using action surge and the relevant feats... and they can do on a short rest refresh, whereas you only get one 6th level slot. It seems to me that as a spellcaster you want to be filling a niche that your martial allies are less suited to: namely, either cleaning up scrubs with AoEs (blaster), controlling the battlefield (CC), or acting as a force multiplier (buffer).