Sorcerer - Class or Theme?

[Greg K]

Actually, Mearls is on record as hating 2E. He felt TSR was telling him his approach to gaming was badwrongfun. He's all about 1E and BD&D.

With the exception of the Book of Iron Might, I think TSR was right based upon what I have seen of Mearl's work and thoughts of what he considers to be fun and not fun

 

[gyor]

I'd keep the sorceror as a class but focus more on the bloodline, with less vancian magic. I'd like the bloodline to be more then just arcane spells or powers, but actual incremental apothesis. So you'd get some spells and powers, but more importantly you'd be slowly evovling into something. Like if you picked dragon bloodline, piece by piece you'd be evovling into a dragon of your choice, so by high level play, so are a dragon, with an ability to take on a verson of your mortal form.

If you take the the infernal bloodline, in time you actually become a unique devil.

If you take elemental bloodline you become an elemental, trait by trait.

 

[Sunseeker]

I'd keep the sorceror as a class but focus more on the bloodline, with less vancian magic. I'd like the bloodline to be more then just arcane spells or powers, but actual incremental apothesis. So you'd get some spells and powers, but more importantly you'd be slowly evovling into something. Like if you picked dragon bloodline, piece by piece you'd be evovling into a dragon of your choice, so by high level play, so are a dragon, with an ability to take on a verson of your mortal form.

If you take the the infernal bloodline, in time you actually become a unique devil.

If you take elemental bloodline you become an elemental, trait by trait.

Sorcerer bloodlines was one of the few things in Pahtfinder that struck me as both a really cool mechanics and flavor concept. I absolutely favor sorcerers with a bloodline system in 5e.

 

[Greg K]

Sorcerer bloodlines was one of the few things in Pahtfinder that struck me as both a really cool mechanics and flavor concept. I absolutely favor sorcerers with a bloodline system in 5e.

I liked the concept of Pathfinder bloodlines, but not the execution.

 

[Sunseeker]

I liked the concept of Pathfinder bloodlines, but not the execution.

Well certainly I should hope Wizards doesn't copy them word for word, but the overarching themes and style of them would be nice.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Im hoping that 5e classes get back to the idea of the 4 "core" class (Fighter,Mage,Theif,Cleric) and from that point the other more specific classes become optional variants on this. So, for instance, Im all for sorceror being a mage variant rather than a theme or a class unto itself.

Is there really a difference? In 2e, Bards were a "subclass" of thief, and yet they had spells and were just as different from thieves as the 3.x bard was. The same was true of the druid and cleric, fighter and ranger, etc. Whether or not something is a class or a "sub-class" really is only a matter of presentation and organization.

 

[Greg K]

Well certainly I should hope Wizards doesn't copy them word for word, but the overarching themes and style of them would be nice.

But it is not as if tying bloodlines to sorcerer abilities originated with Pathfinder. Eschew Materials and bonus metamagic feats to reflect Sorcerers being innately magic was a house rule that circulated around the internet from the early days of 3e. Origin based starting spells and bloodline feats by sorcerer origin/bloodline appeared in Dragon Magazine. WOTC's , Unearthed Arcana introduced bloodlines and various other book had heritage feats. There were, probably, third party supplements during 3e that did similar things.

Paizo just took ideas that were there and built them into their sorcerer base class when doing the redesigns for Pathfinder (which was a good idea to do).

 

[Sunseeker]

But it is not as if tying bloodlines to sorcerer abilities originated with Pathfinder. Eschew Materials and bonus metamagic feats to reflect Sorcerers being innately magic was a house rule that circulated around the internet from the early days of 3e. Origin based starting spells and bloodline feats by sorcerer origin/bloodline appeared in Dragon Magazine. WOTC's , Unearthed Arcana introduced bloodlines and various other book had heritage feats. There were, probably, third party supplements during 3e that did similar things.

Paizo just took ideas that were there and built them into their sorcerer base class when doing the redesigns for Pathfinder (which was a good idea to do).

For the most part, I didn't overly utilize UA or Dragon at any given point in my play. I don't count the metamagic feats in this regard because that's all about enhancing spell-casting from a gameplay stance. Bloodlines were more about the fluff and theme.

But when I say I want to see bloodlines, I want to see fully developed ones, not a few feats here and there.

 

[LordArchaon]

I'm continuing my blogging on the concept of Sorcerer with a new blog.
As of now I wrote only about fluff, and fluff that would make Sorcerers different from just "Wizards that get their spells via bloodlines and cast spontaneously". I'm trying to really pin a unique niche.

The Next Sorcerer - As I would like it