Level Up (A5E) sorcerers evolving manifestation: fire

[TerranHirons]

the level 12 evolving manifestation for fire needs some work. while i like the idea behind the feature; getting extra resources from your spell slots is a cool idea, unfortunately the implementation is rather lacking.you dont get the manifestation until 12 lvl, your cantrip is dealing 3d10 damage by then, meaning on anything less then a 4th lvl spell the manifestation is worse then just using a cantrip, it also costs an action next turn, meaning i pay the cost now and hope its still useful next turn. i understand that the idea of the manifestations may have been balanced around how common the damage type is, but considering you can just change any of the other damage types into the one you specialize in i don't see why this is necessary.
most other manifestations allow you to add some additional effect to the spell itself, don't cost an action, and aren't literally worse then a cantrip when used with a spell bellow 4th lvl

 

[W'rkncacnter]

yeah, it's even worse since level 12 poison just gets a better version of level 2 fire and it's level 2 feature ignores resistance/treats immunity as resistance. i don't really know how to make it better - maybe make it a bonus action, or just (say, 3d8) extra damage tacked onto the spell itself?

 

[lichmaster]

I agree, it should be at most a bonus action to cast the secondary flame given the low damage.
In general though I find it deeply unsatisfying that many level 1 spells get outclassed by cantrips.