New Sorcerer Archetype: Instinctual

[FormerlyHemlock]

Nah. A class that can negate enemy spells is bad enough. A class that can negate enemy spells, then use their spells to power your metamagic... yikes.

That's exactly what a Staff of the Magi does. (Or really it's about 10% of what a Staff of the Magi does.)

I'm interested to hear how it would affect your playstyle. Would you play an Instinctual Sorcerer preferentially in hopes of getting the 14th level Magic Eater ability? Would it prevent you from dipping Warlock until after you'd already acquired it? Would you rather be a magic eating sorcerer than a luck bending Paladin/Wild Mage? If an enemy mage wraps you up in a Wall of Force and renders you helpless, are you still going to feel that your investment in Magic Eater was worthwhile?

If you want to discuss balance, put on your powergamer hat and let's discuss implications. My powergamer instincts say it's not that exciting. You're still going to have to learn Counterspell anyway; but every once in a while you may gain some free sorcery points. It's more "cool" than powerful. (Inspired by Thorned Namshiel BTW.)

 

[flametitan]

That's exactly what a Staff of the Magi does. (Or really it's about 10% of what a Staff of the Magi does.)

It's much easier to fend off the effects of overcharging, though you'll be risking them more frequently. At its most potent, it's only a save DC of 14, and can be fended off with a greater restoration spell. This is compared to the Staff of the Magi's 50% chance to either instantly die (If you know a way to survive 800 points of force damage reliably, then hats off) or be warped to a random plane, depending on which still gives a decent chance of dying horribly.

Not to mention the staff is an end game item that (assuming random rolls, and no ability to buy magic items) should only show up in 7-8% of all games, meaning relying on getting one is more foolhardy than relying on something you know you can get by that time.

EDIT: I'm not implying that the current feature is bad (though certainly in need of on the field deployment) but the differences in the magnitude of effects is important to consider.

 

[transtemporal]

I'm interested to hear how it would affect your playstyle. Would you play an Instinctual Sorcerer preferentially in hopes of getting the 14th level Magic Eater ability? Would it prevent you from dipping Warlock until after you'd already acquired it? Would you rather be a magic eating sorcerer than a luck bending Paladin/Wild Mage? If an enemy mage wraps you up in a Wall of Force and renders you helpless, are you still going to feel that your investment in Magic Eater was worthwhile?

If you want to discuss balance, put on your powergamer hat and let's discuss implications. My powergamer instincts say it's not that exciting. You're still going to have to learn Counterspell anyway; but every once in a while you may gain some free sorcery points. It's more "cool" than powerful. (Inspired by Thorned Namshiel BTW.)

It's a pretty kickass ability but I guess it only applies to spells, doesn't help your allies much and it doesn't protect you from spells that aren't targeted at you. So fair enough. And I guess on the whole I'd still rather have luck bend.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It's much easier to fend off the effects of overcharging, though you'll be risking them more frequently. At its most potent, it's only a save DC of 14, and can be fended off with a greater restoration spell. This is compared to the Staff of the Magi's 50% chance to either instantly die (If you know a way to survive 800 points of force damage reliably, then hats off) or be warped to a random plane, depending on which still gives a decent chance of dying horribly.

BTW: I can think of three ways off the top of my head.

(1) A high-level half-orc Barbearian can have 200+ HP pretty easily. But I find Barbarians boring so let's say instead that it's a Con 16 Warbearian (Barbearian 3/Fiendlock 17) with the Tough feat, for 211 HP, with potential temp HP on top of that. When Raging, or when he sets his warlock immunity to Force, he will take only 400 HP of force damage from the explosion. Now, even a normal PC would have a chance to make his death saves and live (especially if you're Lucky), but because he's a half-orc, he doesn't even go unconscious, he just drops to one HP.

(2) Monk of Long Death (level 11+) just says "Nope" and spends a ki point, remaining at 1 HP.

(3) Death Ward. Yes, that plus the (no-concentration 8 hour) duration is why Death Ward is a must-have spell for high-level adventuring. It's your insurance against nasty surprises.

 

[Altrelo]

Has anyone recommended being skin stitching? You could take costly material components and have your sorc absorb it. It could work as a subset of the Made of Magic ability. Say for example you find a bunch of dragon parts worth 6k gold. You'd have a 6k gold pool you can use to cast the costly spells from your 'core' while the spells that consume components subtract from your gold/magic core.

 

[Caliban]

Every ability seems far too good - their very first ability (Instinctive Casting) makes them immune to Counterspell. (If you can't seem them casting a spell, you can't counter it.)
-basically giving them a no-cost metamagic on every single spell they cast.

The Made of Magic ability is way, way overpowered. It has a slow recovery time, but they can easily go "Nova" cast twice or three times as many spells as a normal caster, then spend a few days resting up.

The 14th level ability is also crazy good - automatically countering a spell targeting them, no matter the spell slot? And then turning it into sorcery points for more free spells and/or metamagic? The downside is negligible - either don't counter the spell if it would put you over (use the actual Counterspell instead), and gives you further incentive to spend your sorc points like water - you can always refill them by countering a spell or trading HP.

So we have a caster whose spells cannot be countered, can automatically counter a spell targeting them every round (and gain sorc points from it!), plus they can easily double or triple their sorcery point total by sacrificing HP for for sorc points. Not even getting into the 18th level ability.