D&D 5E Can't decide whether to play a sorcerer, a wizard, or a druid.

I’ve played all three and honestly it comes down to what you want to do. I had the most fun with the Sorcerer, high charisma and the character was a bit of a flame lover so the class fit the character.

If you want to blast things and be the face and have a few other tricks the Sorcerer is the way to go.

If you want to have a little bit of everything at your command then go with the wizard.

If you want to be able to be a tank, be a healer, and be a support/battlefield controller than the druid fits your build.

While I love the concept of a druid, to be honest in play it just isn’t as fun as it should be. I don’t really know why.
 

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I can't speak for druid as I never played one. But between Sorcerer and Wizard, I can tell you how to decide.

I've played a Wild Mage sorcerer, and it was a mixed bag. On one hand, its fun to Surge if you love randomness, and your luck is decent. But on the other hand, they are very DM dependent. My DM would start off being rather liberal to my Surges, allowing me to surge whenever I use Tides+Spell. Later on, he realised that my surge was totally dependent on his call, so he would not let me Surge until combat is over. Some of the Surge effects are permanent too, like the one affecting age. My Half-elf lady sorc got that twice which reduced her age to 6, which made it quite memorable since me being the party face, getting comments from NPC that I was looking younger, and eventually wondered why is a little girl talking to them in an adult manner.

I'd be wary of picking spells that are too situational like those you mention, if you plan on playing Wild Mage. Charm Person and Silent Image aren't very useful in combat, and if you don't cast spells, you can't Surge. If your campaign is combat heavy, Chromatic Orb is a must. It benefits greatly from Tides of Chaos, which reduces the chance of missing and wasting your spell slot.

For Wizard, I can comfortably say they are far better than Sorcerers in terms of power level. Not being restricted to a tiny spell list, ability to learn more spells, having better archetypes and more utility in ritual casting, totally trumps anything a Sorcerer can do. The only way a Sorc can make a Wizard jealous is Twinned Spell. Plus, if you're the only caster in the party (which I almost always am), they are mostly relying on you for 2 things: Arcana checks and Detect Magic, which Sorcerers are somehow terrible at.
 


Land Druid could make you wish you were playing a Moon Druid. That said...

Druids are rad. They're the perfect "tool kit" to add to any party. They have a wealth of combat, battlefield control, information and healing magics. Land Druids can add even more of the same to their arsenal depending on which Land you pick - Mountain, Underdark and Grassland tend to be popular choices.

Also, even if you Land druid, you still have the option to change shape into various critters twice a short rest. Some of those critters have improved movement, heightened senses, or are just plain too small to notice. The wolf gives you advantage if you're fighting an engaged opponent and has a trip option, panther has a 40' move and a charging "rake" attack, wolf spider can climb on ceilings and has a restraining web attack, and a horse can carry one of your friends. On top of all that, you get a buffer of extra HP when you're in animal form; if your animal drops to 0, you return to whatever HP you had as a Druid before you changed (but any extra damage above what your animal form had carries over). So many options... for free!
 
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If you can't decide between the class abilities and spells, here's another way of looking at it: how do you like paying the game from an abilities perspective?

If you enjoy playing a "Face" (e.g. a character that talks a lot with NPCs, likes to achieve success in social interactions), go with the sorcerer. You'll be Charisma-high, which means you'll stand a solid chance of succeeding with Deception, Intimidation, Performance and Persuasion even if you're not trained in those skills. I personally tend to be the most talkative at my table in NPC interactions, and it's quite frustrating to have the perfect gambit or response ruined by a -1 untrained ability modifier for a Cha 8 wizard. I can't remember the last character I played that didn't have positive Cha, and it's much easier if you're going with a class where it's going to be your high stat anyway.

If you want to play a knowledge-resource and detective, go with a wizard. In addition to all the divination spells, you're likely going to have good chances of succeeding at Investigation checks... and you'll be able to better analyze the information, items and creatures you find (Nature, History, Arcana, Religion). This suits a play-style where you like quickly determining the answers to things, finding out potential weaknesses of creatures, locating and identifying magical items, etc.

The druid is more of an all-rounder. Wild shape is amazingly flexible for adventuring situations (tight space? squirrel... wide chasm? hawk... rushing river? salmon...). But also consider the ability scores. Wisdom will be your high stat, so your Perception is going to be excellent. This means you'll rarely be surprised. You will have decent Insight, Animal Handling, Medicine and Survival. These are all useful skills, but none of them particularly lend themselves to puzzle-solving, treasure-finding or NPC interactions. You'll get best mileage out of the character if you simply prefer adventuring - dealing with wilderness challenges, healing your companions, figuring out if the situation ahead of you is a trap (Perception finds the pit; Insight determines the trapped NPC is actually a doppelganger).

My advice is to consider the primary ability scores first and pick something that best supports your play-style and character concept (face, brains, or wilderness competence). Once you've determined that, use the class abilities and spells to fill any gaps or further flesh out your concept.

This is fantastic character creation advice that I wish was more front and center in general. Choose the abilities you'd like to role-play, and then find the class that best utilizes those abilities. (Or not, if you like purposely handicapping your character by playing a high charisma, but only moderately intelligent wizard.)
 



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