D&D 5E The Void Origin, For Sorcerers Who Ever Hunger

[Herosmith14]

The ink for this subclass has yet to dry, but I think I'm on to something here. I had an idea for this subclass a while ago, and I think this is far simpler and more balanced than my paper-and-pen rough draft. The basic idea is that Void sorcerers "eat" magic. They draw the energy of spells and other magics into themselves to replenish their own stores and health. Strategically, I sketched this out to be a tankier sorcerer, capable of self-healing, and reducing the damage taken from spells. I can see complaints about the number of sorcery points restored with Inanimate Prey, but, in my eyes at least, that really only gets up into the very powerful numbers with Very Rare+ items, and really, who's gonna feed their Very Rare, Legendary, and Artifact magic items to the magic glutton so he can get a temporary regen. Then again, I am not as experienced with DnD or number crunching as some people here, so.

My goals with this subclass

• Make it a bit tankier
• Don't make it broken
• Implement balanced ways to drain magic items and enemy casters
• Give it it's own flavor

Alright, here it is, the Void Origin for Sorcerers(alternate link)

PS. Can I just say, this would make for a great villain troll class. Gets a hold of parties magical storage, Inanimate Prey, there goes all the equipment.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

With Drain Magic, I'm wondering about letting the target choose the spell slot. I would think they would always choose a 1st level slot unless they were out of those slots. I presume you thought it was too powerful/unfair if the sorderor got to choose the level. Maybe make the slot level determined at random?

 

[merwins]

This sounds like a class I'd make. That's a backhanded compliment, btw.

Magic Resistance at 1stlevel seems disproportionate to me. Paladin (Ancients) doesn't get it until 7th. The Abjuration specialist! wizard doesn't get it until 14th.

5E rarely allows perma effects with no save. And magic items are insanely difficult to come by in my campaign. I'd temper Inanimate Prey a bit. Perhaps more of a vampiric effect? You drink magic, but the victim/item doesn't "die." It just goes dormant -- becomes a mundane item of its type. If it's destroyed while dormant -- well, then it doesn't come back.
But after a day, the dormant item reasserts its connection to the Weave. Contents of "carry" items are lost if they go dormant, but the magic does return. This makes the power more like a capstone regen, except that it consumes your action and potentially takes an item out of play temporarily. I'd say that's a decent trade.

In fact, I'd give the class Inanimate Prey at first level and make it level-based. The table should give you access to what grade of item you can eat at each level, as well as a potential maximum draw at each level. Each grade of item should also have a maximum possible draw. For example, your potential maximum draw at level 20 might be 20d4 HP, but a common item has a maximum possible draw of 4 HP.

This puts the ability more on par with Wild Shape healing.


If you want to permadrain items, I'd suggest that be an 18th level ability, and still allow a saving throw, with a bonus dependent on the grade of the item. The additional benefit is that you draw the maximum possible number of BOTH HP and SP from the item when it is drained. An item that makes its saving throw is immune to further assault for a full day.

The Drain Magic ability is better modeled after Spell Thief from Arcane Trickster and given to the sorcerer at 14th level. Basically, it's a better version of Counterspell. Unlike Arcane Trickster, you don't get the spell (just HP or SP), and the target can't cast it for 8 hours. Once per short rest.