What is sorcerer at this point? Metamagic? A feat nabbed from previous editions at the very last minute which previously all casters had, simply because the first playtest failed.
Bloodlines? Which happen to overlap pretty much completely with warlock patrons.
That's all it is. A wizard with no spellbook and the metamagic feat glued on, who happens to use warlock subclasses rather than wizard ones.
Well, except for the fact that there isn't a fey sorcerer, nor a fiendish sorcerer, nor hexblade, genie, undead, etc.
Further, there isn't a clockwork warlock, nor a draconic warlock, nor lunar, storm, or shadow.
At best you can argue that draconic is vaguely like genie and wild is vaguely like fey, but beyond that the two have almost no overlap in their subclasses.
Which...is pretty much the point a lot of folks are making here. You
don't care about the things that make a Sorcerer different from a Warlock or a Wizard thematically nor mechanically. Others do, particularly the former but also the latter to some extent.
Of course, I already said upthread that the Sorcerer we got was barely a class because of how thin and weak its not-spells class features were. The 5.5e version is a smidge better, but only a smidge. Telling me "Sorcerer sucks because there isn't enough in it" isn't a refutation of my point, it's
agreeing with the point I already made. That
is the reason why the playtest Sorcerer should've been considered--it would have given real mechanical weight and heft to the class, making it distinctive and genuinely incompatible with "a spellbook-free, cha-based Wizard" stuff.
To mollify those aghast at the idea that you get significant class features at level 3 (even though that still happens with multiple classes...again, Druid calling...and Bard...and Warlocks who pick up Blade Pact at 3...), how about this:
Level 1: Manifest Soul
As a Sorcerer, you do not have one soul--you have two. Whether an innate part of you from the moment of your birth, or acquired by accident or intent later in life, your second soul represents the font of power boiling within your body. You may not know its precise origin yet, but you know its power manifests as you draw on your sorcerous energies. Choose one of the following benefits.
- Warring Soul: If you aren't wearing armor nor wielding a shield, your armor class is equal to 10 plus your Dexterity and Charisma modifiers. You gain proficiency with a single martial weapon of your choice.
- Knowing Soul: Pick a single first-level spell from the Sorcerer spell list and add it to your prepared spells. When you reach both Sorcerer level 9 and 17, you may add one additional Sorcerer spell of a level you can cast. When you gain a new level of Sorcerer, you may change one of these spells to any other Sorcerer spell you can cast. Any spell provided by this feature does not count against your limit of prepared spells.
- Skulking Soul: You gain proficiency with the Stealth and Sleight of Hand skills, and with Thieves' Tools.
There. Now you have a starting baseline which prepares any character to be decent in very basic melee combat, very slightly better with spellcasting, or having a solid position for being a sneaky-sneaky type, because of a natural wellspring of power within the soul that manifests these abilities within you. Anyone can take them, so anyone can (for example) make an assassin-leaning Sorcerer by choosing Warring Soul and then Shadow Sorcerer at level 3, or a "deception is in the blood" Sorcerer by choosing Skulking Soul at level 1 and then Draconic (Green or Black, most likely) Sorcerer at level 3.
Each can still produce or foster the "becoming a living embodiment of my sorcerous source" experience, while having a reliable backstop that doesn't suddenly change at 3rd level, but simply evolves. This makes the Playtest Sorcerer
less variable than the existing Bard, Druid, or Warlock, which all see or can see major step change at 3rd level or later.
