D&D 5E Sea Sorcerer from the ground...er, bottom...up

[Guest 6801328]

I filled out the WotC survey on the UA Sorcerer and when it came to the Sea Sorcerer I said that I didn't find the abilities very thematic. Water, Thunder & Lightning, and Cold may all be things that are found at sea, but they don't really evoke (for me) what makes "The Sea" unique. Lakes and rivers have water, thunderstorms can be found anywhere, and I associate mountaintops and arctic areas with cold. (In fact, ignoring water, lightning, thunder, and cold would make more sense for a Mountain Sorcerer, whatever that is.)

Or, from another angle, simply picking the subset of damage types that seems to correlate to a theme and building a sub-class out of that is...unimaginative.

When I think of "The Sea" I think of (this is somewhat off the top of my head)
- Loss, and being lost, and re-discovery.
- Sailors drowning
- Being stranded.
- Sailors' superstitions
- Strange monstrosities out of the depths
- Salt. Corrosion. Decay.
- Things showing up unexpectedly and inexplicably over vast distances. Strange things washed up on the beach, travelers from distant lands, messages in bottles.

(Looking at the above list, it's all kind of included in The Odyssey, isn't it?)

What other connotations does the Sea have? Not absolutely unique, maybe, but with less generality than water, lightning, thunder, and cold.

What kind of Sorcerer could be made with that?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

The moon and the tides. It was much discussed if the last UAs (sorcerer and warlock) that having magic bound to the phases of the moon could be interesting, and they had a good basis in the 4e cosmic sorcerer. I guess it could be fun to have a sorcerer with different bonus effects on his spells depending on the tide's stages: flood, high, ebb, low.

 

[Guest 6801328]

The moon and the tides. It was much discussed if the last UAs (sorcerer and warlock) that having magic bound to the phases of the moon could be interesting, and they had a good basis in the 4e cosmic sorcerer. I guess it could be fun to have a sorcerer with different bonus effects on his spells depending on the tide's stages: flood, high, ebb, low.

Oh, yeah, tides! How could I have left that out?

Disagree about the moon, though. The phase of the moon has no impact on tides (there is a correlation between phase and the time of day that tides change, but no causation).

But tides themselves...yeah. I like it. What if the power of Sea Sorcerers ebbed and flowed. Between Long Rests? Randomly after Short Rests? Somehow...

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I really like the curse mechanic for the sea sorcerer. Apart from keying off of elemental damage types it does play into several of your bullet points. Placing the curse is like branding your target. Curses fall into the category of superstitions of which sailors are prone to. Forced movement and constricted movement can be thematically died to being sucked into a whirlpool and drowning.

So if you want you could keep what's there and just change the trigger.
- Dealing any kind of damage and being able to choose which curse mode is an option that makes the feature quite a bit stronger, could reduce the curses effects to compensate.
- You could also just activate the curse with an action/bonus action. This would make it a bit weaker and might require buffing the curse effects as a result since you're no longer getting the damage along side it.
- For free the turn after the curse is laid, but the curse is consumed. Again a power upgrade.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I really like the curse mechanic for the sea sorcerer. Apart from keying off of elemental damage types it does play into several of your bullet points. Placing the curse is like branding your target. Curses fall into the category of superstitions of which sailors are prone to. Forced movement and constricted movement can be thematically died to being sucked into a whirlpool and drowning.

So if you want you could keep what's there and just change the trigger.
- Dealing any kind of damage and being able to choose which curse mode is an option that makes the feature quite a bit stronger, could reduce the curses effects to compensate.
- You could also just activate the curse with an action/bonus action. This would make it a bit weaker and might require buffing the curse effects as a result since you're no longer getting the damage along side it.
- For free the turn after the curse is laid, but the curse is consumed. Again a power upgrade.

Oh, yes, the "curse" is one of the few bits I liked, just not how the curses manifested as keyed to elemental damage types. Not from balance/mechanics, just from flavor. So same effects (or results, anyway) with different fluff would be cool.