D&D 5E The Frostmage; for Cold Hearted Sorcerers

[Herosmith14]

Before anything, I apologize for the cheesy reference in the lore section (you'll see it). I wanted to have a dramatic phrase to finish of the fluff, so I was running through things like "frost is in your veins," or "your heart is cold as winter." Then I thought of that, and figured why the heck not? It's not the only reference in here, but it's most definitely the cringiest one (and most obvious).

That aside, this was inspired by one of my friends. He was a frost mage character on WoWC (and also was frustrated with the sorcerer's lack of spells known). I thought that was a fun concept, and tried homebrewing one out.

I'm not too big on Wintery Armor or the latter half of Cold Emperor, but I'd figure I'd run them by you guys. I have a replacement idea for Wintery Armor already (which involves lowering movement speeds), but I have no idea what I could do for Cold Emperor.

Alright, here it is:

Sorcerer: Frostmage​

It is not uncommon for those with innate magic to have gained their gifts from elemental powers. Some wield the fury of the storms they were born in, others take to the field of combat, harnessing their mastery of the earth. You, however, have been granted a rarer element. You control the powers of ice, of cold, of winter. What you do with these powers is up to you, but one thing is guaranteed. The cold never bothered you anyway.

[h=1]Tongue of the Frostdwellers[/h]At 1st level, you learn 1 language from the following: Yeti, Winter Wolf, or Giant.

[h=1]Wintery Armor[/h]Starting at 1st level, you have learned to conjure up the cold forces to protect you. As an action, you may summon this armor of ice around you, making your Armor Class 16 if it is not already higher. While you have this armor up, however, you have weakness to fire damage. The armor disappears after 1 minute.
Once you have used this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before you can do so again.

[h=1]Bleak Midwinter[/h]At 6th level, you gain resistance to cold damage. In addition, whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher that deals cold damage, you release a storm of frost magic. All creatures you can see within 10ft of you take cold damage equal to half your sorcerer level.

[h=1]Frosty Secrets[/h]Starting at 14th level, you learn three spells that deal cold damage. These spells count as sorcerer spells for you, but do not have to be from the sorcerer spell list. These spells do not count against the number of sorcerer spells (or cantrips) you can know.

[h=1]Cold Emperor[/h]At 18th level, you gain immunity to cold damage.
Additionally, you may spend 6 sorcery points as an action to make one creature you can see within 60ft of you vulnerable to cold damage for the next minute.

 

[TwoSix]

Before anything, I apologize for the cheesy reference in the lore section (you'll see it). I wanted to have a dramatic phrase to finish of the fluff, so I was running through things like "frost is in your veins," or "your heart is cold as winter." Then I thought of that, and figured why the heck not? It's not the only reference in here, but it's most definitely the cringiest one (and most obvious).

I'll be honest, I don't know if I can let it go.

 

[77IM]

Do you want to build a snow man?

It doesn't have to be a snow man.

 

[77IM]

It's not bad. Some feedback:

Tongue of the Frostdwellers
Giant is way better than the other choices here. I'm not sure how to improve this. Actually, I think you could probably give out all 3 languages, for free, and it would probably be balanced (since winter wolf and yeti will come up so rarely).

Wintery Armor
Kinda weak. You're basically giving them barkskin on a short rest and it doesn't require concentration -- but it gives vulnerability to fire damage. Contrast something like the dragon sorcerer's AC 13 + Dex, which is probably around AC 15-16, but lasts forever and doesn't require an action and doesn't give fire vulnerability.

A mild suggestion is to make this a bonus action so it doesn't use up your turn. OR have it last much longer -- say, "8 hours, or until you take 1 or more points of fire damage."

A more extreme suggestion would be to model this on the abjurer wizard's arcane ward; you can create it for free, but it regenerates when you cast cold spells, rather than abjuration spells. The ward itself might be resistant to cold and vulnerable to fire, rather than granting that to you.

Also, I feel like this class needs something at 1st level to make it actually better at cold spells. Even something simple like, "You learn the ray of frost cantrip. It doesn't count against your number of spells known."

Bleak Midwinter
This looks fine; it's pretty similar to the Storm sorcerer's level 6 ability.

Note though that the Storm sorcerer gets another ability at 6th level, too.

Frosty Secrets
Not bad, but I would apportion these out gradually at 1st, 6th, and 14th level. I think this would address how few abilities this class has at 1st and 6th level.

Then I'd give some sort of cool movement/utility power at 14th level, maybe costing sorcery points. My best idea:

Ice Structures. As an action, you can create shapes out of solid ice in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet, or reshape existing ice you can see within 30 feet. You can only make solid connected objects, like stairs, walls, or archways; moving parts or loose objects are not possible. This costs 1 sorcery point per 5-foot cube created or shaped. Each 5-foot cube has AC 12 and 10 hit points, and is vulnerable to fire damage. Ice created in this way melts after 1 hour, unless the ambient temperature is below freezing, in which case it is permanent.​

So it's like a super-weak wall of ice which is a 6th-level spell, but more oriented towards building stairs, bridges, or giant palaces on mountain tops.

Cold Emperor
I actually like this ability, but it seems too strong. Imposing vulnerability is incredibly powerful. You might want to make this a "save ends" type of effect but I'm not sure what saving throw is really appropriate. This ability does cost your action which is a major sacrifice, and is a bummer if the creature makes its save to shake off the vulnerability before you can even hit them.

I think limiting this to one single time is probably enough -- "the next time the creature takes cold damage within the next minute, it is vulnerable to that cold damage." Then you don't need to do "save ends" and you're guaranteed at least one double-damage attack. I'd also specify that this effect does not work on creatures that are immune to cold damage.

 

[Herosmith14]

It's not bad. Some feedback:

Tongue of the Frostdwellers
Giant is way better than the other choices here. I'm not sure how to improve this. Actually, I think you could probably give out all 3 languages, for free, and it would probably be balanced (since winter wolf and yeti will come up so rarely).

Wintery Armor
Kinda weak. You're basically giving them barkskin on a short rest and it doesn't require concentration -- but it gives vulnerability to fire damage. Contrast something like the dragon sorcerer's AC 13 + Dex, which is probably around AC 15-16, but lasts forever and doesn't require an action and doesn't give fire vulnerability.

A mild suggestion is to make this a bonus action so it doesn't use up your turn. OR have it last much longer -- say, "8 hours, or until you take 1 or more points of fire damage."

A more extreme suggestion would be to model this on the abjurer wizard's arcane ward; you can create it for free, but it regenerates when you cast cold spells, rather than abjuration spells. The ward itself might be resistant to cold and vulnerable to fire, rather than granting that to you.

Also, I feel like this class needs something at 1st level to make it actually better at cold spells. Even something simple like, "You learn the ray of frost cantrip. It doesn't count against your number of spells known."

Bleak Midwinter
This looks fine; it's pretty similar to the Storm sorcerer's level 6 ability.

Note though that the Storm sorcerer gets another ability at 6th level, too.

Frosty Secrets
Not bad, but I would apportion these out gradually at 1st, 6th, and 14th level. I think this would address how few abilities this class has at 1st and 6th level.

Then I'd give some sort of cool movement/utility power at 14th level, maybe costing sorcery points. My best idea:

Ice Structures. As an action, you can create shapes out of solid ice in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet, or reshape existing ice you can see within 30 feet. You can only make solid connected objects, like stairs, walls, or archways; moving parts or loose objects are not possible. This costs 1 sorcery point per 5-foot cube created or shaped. Each 5-foot cube has AC 12 and 10 hit points, and is vulnerable to fire damage. Ice created in this way melts after 1 hour, unless the ambient temperature is below freezing, in which case it is permanent.​

So it's like a super-weak wall of ice which is a 6th-level spell, but more oriented towards building stairs, bridges, or giant palaces on mountain tops.

Cold Emperor
I actually like this ability, but it seems too strong. Imposing vulnerability is incredibly powerful. You might want to make this a "save ends" type of effect but I'm not sure what saving throw is really appropriate. This ability does cost your action which is a major sacrifice, and is a bummer if the creature makes its save to shake off the vulnerability before you can even hit them.

I think limiting this to one single time is probably enough -- "the next time the creature takes cold damage within the next minute, it is vulnerable to that cold damage." Then you don't need to do "save ends" and you're guaranteed at least one double-damage attack. I'd also specify that this effect does not work on creatures that are immune to cold damage.

Thanks for the feedback. Like I said in the original post, I have a replacement idea for Wintery Armor, that involves movement speeds, and us somewhat based on Armor of Agathys.


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[Gadget]

I second most of [MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION] 's critiques, and would add that maybe an ability to ignore difficult terrain based on ice and snow, or perhaps even a Spider Climb like ability for ice and snow covered terrain.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I'm a fan thematically. Last month I posted a similar concept for warlocks: Patron: The Ice Queen

 

[Horwath]

lvl1: One with the frost;

*you ignore diffcult terrain of ice and snow. You do not fall into deep snow unless you want to.

*you can climb ice walls and packed snow at half your speed.

*you can conjure Ice armor around your self as a bonus action. Your AC becomes 12+dex mod+half your prof bonus(round down). While it is active you have resistance to cold damage and vulnerability to fire damage.

lvl6: Frost focus;
*while your Ice armor is active your Cold spells deal +1 damage per damage die.

*when you cast any spell with Acid,fire,Lightning or thunder damage, you can spend 1 sorcery point to turn that damage into Cold damage.

lvl14: arctic gale;

*you can cast control weather spell at-will. New conditions starts after 10 min(not 1d4×10 min). You can only make weather colder and winds faster.

lvl18: Cold perfection;

*you Ice armor now gives you Cold immunity and you have Cold resistance without Ice armor.

*your Cold spells ignore Cold resistance.

*you Arctic gale can now shift weather 2 steps at a time.