Sorcerer House Rules?

[Archade]

Hi all,

A related thread is discussing something, and it made me think -- I know a *lot* of people who give Sorcerers Eschew Materials as a bonus feat. I'm curious how pervasive this or other house rules regarding the Sorcerer are.

If you have any other house rules regarding the Sorcerer, feel free to post them here.

 

[Kerrick]

FWIW, here's our version, but I'm thinking of doing a serious rework, which will probably end up being an alt base class (i.e., we'll have our alt sorcerer, and the alt alt sorcerer ). The sorcerer as written has been slightly changed already, and will undergo some more (get rid of Innate power III, probably dreams of power, and add a couple other goodies).

The increased number of spell slots came about because of arcane burn (which incurs the risk of having slots burned out) as well as feats where you can burn spells to gain an effect, and our house ritual rules, which require the contribution of open spell slots.

I was looking at the poll options, and I thought they already got UMD as a class skill - then I looked in the book and realized they didn't. WTF? I didn't vote for it because I looked at it afterward, but I'd definitely give it to them.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Other: I've generally run the sorcerer as-is, but recently I've made a few tweaks to a number of classes, so I thought I'd modify the sorcerer as well. I give them 0 spells of the next spell level a level early (the same time wizards get access), usable only for lower-level spells (with metamagic, if desired) since they don't get extra known spells.

Edit: I also change their skills to Concentration, Craft, Profession, and any two.

 

[Thanee]

Voted everything but the bonus feats.

I give them Eschew Materials at 1st level, 4 skill points per level, and Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (the planes), Use Magic Device as class skills.

The first just fits with my image of the sorcerer and is an incredibly minor benefit, anyways, while the second is because of the class flavor; they have more time for learning other things (the explanation given in the PHB why they have Simple Weapon Proficiency, which I consider a sad joke as a benefit over the wizard for having more time not spent learning spells).

I have considered giving them a bonus metamagic or draconic feat every 5 levels, but havn't done that, since it enhances their primary ability, unlike the other changes, which only give them secondary abilities.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Victim]

In one game I'm in, Sorcerers can use metamagic without the casting time penalty, and thus can use Quicken Spell.

 

[the Jester]

Eschew Materials at 1st level and bonus metamagic feats every 5 levels. Also, get rid of the stupid "spontaneous metamagic takes a full round action" rule. I think it was a reaction to the number of spells per day a sorc gets. However, the real offset is that they get spell levels one level later than a wizard. IMHO, of course.

 

[SteelDraco]

We give sorcerers a free bloodline feat, which gives them access to one extra spell known at each level, at the cost of limiting what kind of spells they can learn and cast. For example, someone with the Celestial bloodline can't learn any spells with the Evil descriptor.

Seems to work pretty well, and does a lot to link sorcerers with the source of their magic.

 

[Archade]

I love the bloodline feats! I've played with the idea of giving a free feat at 1st level of this, but I think I'll just leave it as a great feat choice for a sorcerer, much like Weapon Focus is for fighters (obvious, but not necessary).

 

[Greg K]

In our group we give
1) eschew materials at first level
2) bonus metamagic at 5,10,15,20
3) Use Magical Device
4) diplomacy and intimidate as class skills

 

[irdeggman]

You didn't include a "none" choice for those who feel they are fine (and balanced) aa written.