Well, It
can indeed be terrible, but it doesn't have to be. You'd only have two spell seeds for that reason. And you could also have a list of all the most common combinations. Then if you see the need of something different, you'd just try that and if it stays within your power limit, you could do that. In a wilder-like fashion, you could even sometimes "overcharge" and cast something a bit out of your power limits, think Action Point specialty or something...
Anyway, also to address the Blasty McBlasterson problem (cool one, Dausuul
), I first of all think that a sorcerer like this should be able to fill all the 4e combat roles:
- Striker: Blasty McBlasterson, forms such as bolts, small area bursts, lines etc (Fire, Lightning etc, some forms should have more damage than others fo course)
- Controller: specialized in forms such as walls, zones and so on, with wind walls, water whirlpools, earth cages and so on
- Defender: specialized in forms such as melee, shields etc, with cold auras to slow, earth rumbles to prone, blades of ice, electric shock if you attack others and so on
- Leader: specialized in "friendly forms", mainly applying effects to allies, buffs like elemental resistance, energy transference (that cool Artificer power rated sky blue
), free fire weapons for everybody, stoneskin for ally and so on.
That said, I also think more and more they should have a "fundamental spell-seed". There you'd have the most element-neutral and low-power effects for a bit more generalist use. Something to explore, could even become very flavorful.
And another thing I didn't state, I also figured fun out-of-combat uses for on-the-fly creative magic. Pick locks with keys made of pure force would be trivial, conjure bridges of ice, water plus air to create fog, combine elements to form incredible things such as floating force-contained bubbles of water a la Bubble-Bobble, create traps such as mud pits covered by thin layer of solid earth... Creativity is the key! I imagine a sorcerer player interaction with DM being more of the type "can I fly propelled by fire for a bit, to reach that part of the cliff?" - *DM consults his effects-by-level table* - "yes you can, but beware, only 6 seconds of flight and only in a single direction!"... That's the sort of freedom I'd like from a 5e Sorcerer...