D&D 5E DMs - How often to wild surge?

[DocSun]

I love it and I have it currently set to go off on 25% with increasing chance 1% every time resetting on use. My player loves it... his fellow players love/hate it one to many fireballs almost killing the party lol.

 

[JWO]

You can also look it the other way around:

As a player, ask your DM "are you okay with Tides of Chaos triggering a Wild Surge (and resetting my advantage) each and every time I cast a non-cantrip spell?"

If the answer is anything else than a clear "yes, always"; then the subclass simply won't operate at full efficiency, and frankly, becomes one of the weakest subclasses in the game.

Advantage is your only edge. If you don't get to roll many rolls with advantage, you should probably consider another subclass or class.

As a Wild Mage, you need to view surges as nothing more than a by-product to getting advantage. If your DM thinks the surges are their own reward, carefully consider your choice of class.

Remember, the Wild Mage has the potential to gain advantage X+1 times a day, where X is the total number of non-cantrip spell slots you have. Which, for a sorcerer, is a lot of slots.

Any day you don't come close to that many rolls with advantage, is the same as a day where the Barbarian doesn't rage.

I'm actually the DM so d'you think that I should be triggering a surge whenever they've used up their Tides of Chaos ability?

 

[Blue]

In 2nd Edition my GM let me develop a 1st level spell that let me roll on the wild surge table and choose the number rolled or the option below it. I don't recall it ever being useful but it was glorious.

Wow, nostalgia lane. We had a wild mage in the party when I played AD&D 2nd as well. I remember a low level spell that just surged, nothing else. And IIRC at high levels the character had something (item, long lasting spell, special ability?) that let them reverse the d10s used for the % roll and pick either, so a 2 and a 7 could be 27 or 72. They were lots of fun to game with, and not just for the times things went right.

Thanks for the memories.

 

[I'm A Banana]

You can also look it the other way around:

As a player, ask your DM "are you okay with Tides of Chaos triggering a Wild Surge (and resetting my advantage) each and every time I cast a non-cantrip spell?"

If the answer is anything else than a clear "yes, always"; then the subclass simply won't operate at full efficiency, and frankly, becomes one of the weakest subclasses in the game.

Advantage is your only edge. If you don't get to roll many rolls with advantage, you should probably consider another subclass or class.

As a Wild Mage, you need to view surges as nothing more than a by-product to getting advantage. If your DM thinks the surges are their own reward, carefully consider your choice of class.

Remember, the Wild Mage has the potential to gain advantage X+1 times a day, where X is the total number of non-cantrip spell slots you have. Which, for a sorcerer, is a lot of slots.

Any day you don't come close to that many rolls with advantage, is the same as a day where the Barbarian doesn't rage.

This is an interesting look at the numbers, thanks!

I wonder how that applies to spells that don't benefit from advantage (spells that require saves, for instance)? Is that wasting slots or summat?

 

[CapnZapp]

This is an interesting look at the numbers, thanks!

I wonder how that applies to spells that don't benefit from advantage (spells that require saves, for instance)? Is that wasting slots or summat?

What you need to do is put you in a situation where advantage is... well, actually advantageous. (Goad the monster into casting his Save or Suck spell at YOU!)

When you have used up your advantage, it's time to cast a non-cantrip spell. This returns advantage to you (assuming you survive the wild surge).

Rinse and repeat.

In the ideal case, you "use" advantage in each and every round; between casting one spell and casting the next.

The most reliable way to accomplish this is of course to make an action where advantage is useful, such as casting a spell that is an attack roll. Unfortunately, there are very few non-cantrip sorcerer spells, so you can't really depend on those.

Instead, you need to get creative with skill use. If anyone is the skill monkey, it's you, since you can make any roll with advantage!

And you need to sacrifice yourself for your friends, so you can make saves instead of them (to the benefit of the group, since you have advantage while they don't).

I'm not saying this is easy, or even workable in practice. It could be that you have picked the least mechanically powerful subclass in the game.

But I am saying that if you don't (re-)gain advantage (and thus trigger wild surges) early and often, I'm sure you have picked the least mechanically powerful subclass in the game.

 

[I'm A Banana]

What you need to do is put you in a situation where advantage is... well, actually advantageous. (Goad the monster into casting his Save or Suck spell at YOU!)

When you have used up your advantage, it's time to cast a non-cantrip spell. This returns advantage to you (assuming you survive the wild surge).

Rinse and repeat.

In the ideal case, you "use" advantage in each and every round; between casting one spell and casting the next.

The most reliable way to accomplish this is of course to make an action where advantage is useful, such as casting a spell that is an attack roll. Unfortunately, there are very few non-cantrip sorcerer spells, so you can't really depend on those.

Instead, you need to get creative with skill use. If anyone is the skill monkey, it's you, since you can make any roll with advantage!

And you need to sacrifice yourself for your friends, so you can make saves instead of them (to the benefit of the group, since you have advantage while they don't).

I'm not saying this is easy, or even workable in practice. It could be that you have picked the least mechanically powerful subclass in the game.

But I am saying that if you don't (re-)gain advantage (and thus trigger wild surges) early and often, I'm sure you have picked the least mechanically powerful subclass in the game.

I like that this encourages my wild sorcerer to be a reckless little bugger. "I drink the poison.....so I CAN WILD SURGE!"

 

[Bupp]

More surges the better.

I had a wild mage in my group back in 2e as well. I forget the issue, but Dragon Magazine had some alternate Wand of Wonder tables in one issue. I think like 4 different versions. I used them as wild surge tables as well.

 

[PnPgamer]

I speak as a player, but ive discussed that we trigger chaos everytime it has been used and i cast a noncantrip, while each time i cast a noncantrip i have rolling d20. I have a poasibility of getting two surges, and i think ive encountered such thing actually.

Using chaos is the main forte of wild sorcerer. Use it everytime you can, even offbattle.
I was very disappointed in our first session when dm didnt ask me to roll. He forgot, and i thought he didnt want for me to.

Dms should compare it to what the other sorcerer gets, and trigger it accordingly. Imo it should be constantly, and always.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, but allow me to rephrase for clarity:

Advantage is the main forte of the wild mage sorcerer. Wild surges is just a necessary by-product. Perhaps a cool one, but still it needs to be viewed as merely a by-product.


I just wish there were a few more competitive* ranged attack spells in the PHB, preferably one each of third, fourth and fifth level**.

*) spells balanced mainly by a the need to hit, which of course is what advantage is meant to take care of

**) since up-leveled spells rarely are as good as spells designed for your slot's level

 

[PnPgamer]

Yes, but allow me to rephrase for clarity:

Advantage is the main forte of the wild mage sorcerer. Wild surges is just a necessary by-product. Perhaps a cool one, but still it needs to be viewed as merely a by-product.


I just wish there were a few more competitive* ranged attack spells in the PHB, preferably one each of third, fourth and fifth level**.

*) spells balanced mainly by a the need to hit, which of course is what advantage is meant to take care of

**) since up-leveled spells rarely are as good as spells designed for your slot's level

To me the advantage is the byproduct. I mean really, wild sorcererwouldnt be much of a wild if it didnt have surge tables and such.