D&D 5E Tell me about Sorcerers
- Thread starter mips42
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Gargoyle
Adventurer
BaDOOOOOOOM!!!!
Oh, you want more detail.
There are two subclasses, called origins for the sorcerer: draconic bloodline and wild magic.
There is a preview of sorcerer here.
And there is a preview of wild magic here.
That's about half of it. The other three pages list:
A table with spell slots, spells known, cantirps known, their sorcery points, and features.
hit dice are 1d6
Weapons and armor like wizards
Con and Cha are saving throw proficiencies
Font of Magic: You can use sorcery points to create spell slots, and you can turn spell slots into sorcery points. You can spend sorcery points on metamagic effects such as careful, distant, empowered , extended, heightened, quickened, subtle and twinned. Similar to earlier edition feats, but a much more flexible system. You can't stack them, except for empowered.
The draconic bloodline origin gives you a extra hp and AC, and a bonus to damage for spells with the same damage type as your draconic heritage. You can see the draconic wings and presence on the preview link above.
Oh, you want more detail.
There are two subclasses, called origins for the sorcerer: draconic bloodline and wild magic.
There is a preview of sorcerer here.
And there is a preview of wild magic here.
That's about half of it. The other three pages list:
A table with spell slots, spells known, cantirps known, their sorcery points, and features.
hit dice are 1d6
Weapons and armor like wizards
Con and Cha are saving throw proficiencies
Font of Magic: You can use sorcery points to create spell slots, and you can turn spell slots into sorcery points. You can spend sorcery points on metamagic effects such as careful, distant, empowered , extended, heightened, quickened, subtle and twinned. Similar to earlier edition feats, but a much more flexible system. You can't stack them, except for empowered.
The draconic bloodline origin gives you a extra hp and AC, and a bonus to damage for spells with the same damage type as your draconic heritage. You can see the draconic wings and presence on the preview link above.
One thing that stands out is that the Sorcerer's spell list is considerably different from the Wizard's. There are some flashy evocations (like Earthquake) that it shares with the Druid and/or Cleric, but it lacks all of the named spells (Mordenkain's thingamajig or Otiluke's whatchamacallit) and a lot of necromantic and conjuration spells. Also, if there's an elaborate and weirdly specific spell, they probably don't get it.
I've been thinking about the Sorcerer and how I feel about them compared to Wizards, so I'll give this a go.
Overall, they're very similar to Wizards. I'd say that the differences between Wizard and Sorcerer are no larger than the differences between subclasses in some other classes. So, starting from the Wizard (which you can see in the Basic Rules):
Sorcerers have a smaller spell list. They generally keep all of the Wizard combat spells (and many others), but the Sorcerer spell list takes ~2.5 columns while the Wizard spell list is over 4 columns. That's not small -- the Cleric spell list is shorter than the Sorcerer's -- it's just that the Wizard spell list is huge.
Sorcerers have sorcery points, which can be used for metamagic or turned into extra spell slots. The extra spell slots you can get from them are roughly equivalent to the Wizard's Arcane Recovery feature, so no big difference there. You can also shuffle around your spell slots by converting them to/from sorcery points, but the exchange rates are bad enough that you generally won't want to.
Metamagic has some nice effects. Overall, I'd say the main benefit is action economy -- you can pack more into each spell but cast fewer spells total (since you're using sorcery points for metamagic instead of spell slots). You can't get any effects as strong as, say, casting two fireballs per round, but you can get a bit of extra oomph (duration, damage, range, etc.).
Finally, you get to choose a bloodline: draconic or wild magic. Dragon Sorcerers make good combat casters. They get extra AC, hit points, and damage with a specific element. Overall, I'd say they're strong competition for evocation Wizards. Tougher and somewhat more damage, but you lose out on Sculpt Spells, which is huge.
Wild magic Sorcerers have a couple minor luck-affecting abilities, but mostly the point seems to be the wild magic surge table. There's lots of fun stuff in there, but it only ever happens when the DM asks for it.
Overall, they're very similar to Wizards. I'd say that the differences between Wizard and Sorcerer are no larger than the differences between subclasses in some other classes. So, starting from the Wizard (which you can see in the Basic Rules):
Sorcerers have a smaller spell list. They generally keep all of the Wizard combat spells (and many others), but the Sorcerer spell list takes ~2.5 columns while the Wizard spell list is over 4 columns. That's not small -- the Cleric spell list is shorter than the Sorcerer's -- it's just that the Wizard spell list is huge.
Sorcerers have sorcery points, which can be used for metamagic or turned into extra spell slots. The extra spell slots you can get from them are roughly equivalent to the Wizard's Arcane Recovery feature, so no big difference there. You can also shuffle around your spell slots by converting them to/from sorcery points, but the exchange rates are bad enough that you generally won't want to.
Metamagic has some nice effects. Overall, I'd say the main benefit is action economy -- you can pack more into each spell but cast fewer spells total (since you're using sorcery points for metamagic instead of spell slots). You can't get any effects as strong as, say, casting two fireballs per round, but you can get a bit of extra oomph (duration, damage, range, etc.).
Finally, you get to choose a bloodline: draconic or wild magic. Dragon Sorcerers make good combat casters. They get extra AC, hit points, and damage with a specific element. Overall, I'd say they're strong competition for evocation Wizards. Tougher and somewhat more damage, but you lose out on Sculpt Spells, which is huge.
Wild magic Sorcerers have a couple minor luck-affecting abilities, but mostly the point seems to be the wild magic surge table. There's lots of fun stuff in there, but it only ever happens when the DM asks for it.
Daern
Explorer
I'm a little underwhelmed by the Wild Mage. I've always loved the concept, but in this case it seems a little tame. Not wild enough. My first thought was that rather than have the DM call for a 5% Wild Surge check at some later date, how 'bout this: Wild Magic allows you to gain Advantage on an Attack roll, ability check, or Saving Throw, but if a 1 is rolled on EITHER die, a roll on the Wild Magic Surge table is required. This makes things a lot more unpredictable, but also adds the Bonus action cost.
If the player and DM both want lots of wild surges, it's easy to make that happen. The wild mage can use Tides of Chaos for advantage on a roll, and after that the DM can trigger a guaranteed wild surge on any spell the sorcerer casts. That resets Tides of Chaos, so then you can repeat the whole cycle.
If the player doesn't use Tides of Chaos, wild surges can happen no more than 5% of the time. And if the DM doesn't ask for wild surges, they never happen at all. But if both the player and DM want it, it's possible to have a wild surge for every single spell cast by the sorcerer.
If the player doesn't use Tides of Chaos, wild surges can happen no more than 5% of the time. And if the DM doesn't ask for wild surges, they never happen at all. But if both the player and DM want it, it's possible to have a wild surge for every single spell cast by the sorcerer.
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