D&D 5E Do you feel like the "Sorcerer" is really lacking in options?

Distant, Careful, and Extended spell are all really weak, though. Even if sorcerers got them for free, I doubt they'd actually get used very often.

The problem with Extended is that spell durations are extremely short for it to be useful, please correct me if I'm wrong, but a sorcerer can rarely have any effect beyond a minute and none beyond an hour, let alone more permanent effects. Longer term magic is sorely missed.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Part of the reason why I'm considering just giving them the lot of metamagic options. Folks are typically going to take the same 4 over and over again - but it's nice to have the others for those corner cases. I really don't think the wheels are going to fall off the game because of it and it gives sorcerers a little more flexibility.
 

Distant, Careful, and Extended spell are all really weak, though. Even if sorcerers got them for free, I doubt they'd actually get used very often.

(Caveat: I'm a simulationist, and I lean strongly towards what Enworld calls Combat as War. Take my comments with a grain of salt if you play balanced encounters and Combat as Sport--especially my comments about Distant Spell, which is ideally suited for turning a fair fight into a turkey shoot, or vice versa.)

I agree with you about Extended, although that's mostly an artifact of the shortened 5E durations. Boosting Fly from 4 hours to 8 hours would be worthwhile for overland flight; boosting it from 10 minutes to 20 minutes, not so much. Extended isn't intrinsically weak, but it doesn't make a qualitative change in the duration, and quantitative changes are subject to handwaving anyway. How many DMs out there actually track when Conjure Elemental is supposed to expire? In a campaign where time is an actual resource, Extended would be really awesome. In fact, if Extended worked on 1-round spells like Shield, it would be worth taking because it would actually affect something worthwhile. The fact that it basically only works on 1 minute+ spells nerfs almost the only real category of usefulness for it under standard 5E play. (It might be potentially useful for keeping Foresight up during all your waking hours, if your DM did track time carefully--except that Sorcerers can't learn Foresight, so this trick would be restricted to multiclass Sorc 3/Wizard 17 combos, and similar. Not worth the price.)

Distant isn't all that weak, and if you got it for free it would be much-appreciated and occasionally-used. Getting up to 5 free rounds of casting against an advancing melee foe is nice; and even if you end up not actually using the capability, it still forces your opponent to honor it. E.g. you can screen the bad guys to keep them holed up in their fortress while you wait for reinforcements, with no fear that they'll simply grab longbows and outrange you. (I'm assuming access to 300-foot spells like Otiluke's Freezing Sphere... which it turns out Sorcs don't actually have. Hmmm. If it turns out that there are no other 300-foot spells besides Meteor Swarm I will withdraw my claim, but there's got to be a few, right? At minimum it would be useful to Sorlocks with Eldritch Spear.)

I know Careful would be fun for certain players if they got it for free, though. The kind who love dropping Fireballs indiscriminately all over the place. It simplifies targeting constraints, possibly allowing you to squeeze in an extra two or ten bad guys into your spell radius without harming allies.
 
Last edited:

For most spells, Careful will still harm allies. It doesn't prevent damage, just makes the save automatic. Perhaps handy for a few spells like Sleep and Confusion, but won't let you indescriminantly drop Fireball while staying friends with your teammates.

I can think of only one really nifty trick to pull off with Extend spell. The conditions have to be just right, but 32d6 Delayed Blast Fireball.
 

Thanks for the correction on Careful. I had forgotten that it's not the same as the Evoker perk Sculpt Spells, which does exempt from them the half-damage-on-save. I'd still use it for Hypnotic Pattern and Confusion, but you're right, that doesn't get me off the hook with Fireball.

That's a cool idea for DBFB, especially since allies will automatically make their Dex save to throw the Fireball. Still pretty situational, but good for Combat As War parties who like to throw ambushes.
 

Well, that might help some, sure. Up to this point I haven't really had an opportunity to explain why I think the sorcerer is a second-class caster compared to the wizard, so I'll try to do so now. First, I'm assuming that a Sorcerous Origin is roughly equivalent to an Arcane Tradition. I don't want to go into the specific origins except to say that I think they are pretty narrow, but really whether one appeals to you or not is a matter of preference. So that leaves the basic class features for comparison.

Both classes have the exact same spell progression and slots per day. However, the Wizard recovers half of his level in spell levels once per day, so this is actually an advantage to the wizard. The wizard will be casting more spells per day than a sorcerer.

In terms of spells known, a wizard has a tremendous advantage. Wizards have access to every spell that a sorcerer does, plus many more. Wizards can also have every possible wizard spell in their spell books, whereas a sorcerer only has 15 spells known, ever. That's roughly 2 spells per spell level. In addition, wizards can cast rituals, which sorcerers cannot do. The number of spells that a wizard casts, and the variety of those spells, far outshines anything a sorcerer might be able to do. The sorcerer does know one extra cantrip, but, eh, I'm not sure how much that really matters.

So what does the sorcerer get in return for crippled access to spells? Sorcery points. These sorcery points can be used for one of two things: to recover spell slots or for using metamagic. Using sorcery points to recover spell slots is actually slightly better for recovering high level spell slots than Arcane Recovery is for a wizard, so in theory a high level sorcerer could get a very slight advantage in number of spells during a day than a wizard. Of course, this is at the cost of slashing the sorcerer's number of spells known and choosing from a stunted list of spells available, and even then the wizard can still cast any number of rituals, against which the sorcerer can never compete. Based on that, using sorcery points is generally a terrible option.

Metamagic must be the equalizer. However, you start with only two options for metamagic, and you don't get another option until 10th level. The most "twists" you'll ever have is 4. You have one sorcery point per level, and you generally have between 1 to 1.5 spell slots per level. So if you choose a metamagic such as Careful Spell, Distant Spell, Empowered Spell, or Subtle Spell, you can pretty much use one of those options on nearly every spell you cast. Unfortunately, since you only start with two choices of metamagic, if you do that, you've essentially said that you want to impose all of the spell selection limitations on yourself just so that you can cast all of your spells silently, or extended, or whatever you chose. If you really want to be a blaster, Empowered might fit the bill here. I don't recall the math, but I think being able to re-roll a die increases the average result for the die by about 1, so Empowered effectively grants you +Cha to any damaging spell - not bad, if you really, really want to be a blaster and nothing else.

For sure, some of the other metamagic options provide some neat abilities. Quicken is pretty nice, for a reasonable cost in Sorcery points, and Heightened Spell can be useful when trying to get a key spell to stick. But the problem is, you can only choose a scant number of these options. If you choose Heighten Spell, don't count on using it more than once per day until 6th level, and don't count on using your other metamagic much on the days when you use Heighten. If you choose Careful Spell, how often is that really going to be useful, and with how many spells?

And that's the crux of the problem. The sorcerer sacrifices so much in terms of spell casting variety and spell casting frequency in return for an extremely narrow and limited set of tools that he can use via Sorcery Points.

So what would I like to see from the sorcerer? Honestly I would have preferred a different casting mechanic altogether so that the sorcerer doesn't seem like just a mentally challenged wizard who only prepares a handful of blasting spells every day, but it's too late for that. Other than that I'm not sure, but the proposal to allow recovery of Sorcery Points might not be a bad idea. Access to more Metamagic options, or even all of the options from the start, might be another idea. Allowing the sorcerer to really focus on what makes him different than a wizard (altering spells) rather than just dabbling in it would do the most at this point to not only differentiate the sorcerer, but also give the class its own space to shine.
I would go the other route.

Instead of fixing the base sorcerer, I'd use the available design space to make wild and wonderful subclasses.

The basics of the class can remain slightly dull and restricted, if only we get some daring subclasses to build upon that solid but non-spectacular foundation.
 

A cool subclass of the sorcerer would be raw magic mage.

Any weapon they hold is magical due to overflowing magic.

They could sway magic out the air Dikembe Mutombo style.

Magical tentacles coming out of the sorcerers back, slapping and grappling Foss and draining their delicious magic.
 


Yes, they do need more options, BUT, as an interesting side note, they are excellent as villains. Really. Try using one.

"Evil wizards" are traditional villains and imho Sorcerers are very, very good in the role, better than frail Wizards. Draconic ancenstry. Chaotic magic. More importantly, some very useful features, especially from draconic blood...

- Augmented HP and AC, which is great for guys whose role is being beaten by swords and magic;
- Some metamagic tricks (notably Quickened and Twinned spells) are great to wreak havok with your limited high level spells. I Twinned a Chain Lightining to great effects once and I still smile thinking of that metamagic moment;
- Being probably higher level than the PCs, limited nr. of spells and limited sorcery points will not be an issue, not going to last long anyway;
- Finally, at high level they can fly and resist some damage which is not bad.

So, great Evil Wizard Villains Sorcerers do, I say.
 

I absolutely want to play Dikembe Mutombo as a sorcerer now.

"No, no, no!" <fingerwag>

You have to fingerwag with mage hand.

"Not in my house."

---

A full "sports" sorcerer would be hilarious.

Throw curveballs with chromatic orb
Teleport to intercept buffs and heals of the enemy.
Jump over the fighter and dunk on the dragon with a cone of cold
Return a lightning bolt with a tennis swing
Use a quick illusion to exaggerate a flop
Create a portal and check a foe temporarily into another dimension.
 

Remove ads

Top