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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Unbalanced Sub-classes and how to fix them
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<blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 7325920" data-attributes="member: 6932123"><p>I'd put Storm Sorcerer (and Sorcerer in general) in the problematic list. Part of the problem is the name: 'storm' is the term used for lightning-based segmentation (eg: Storm Genasi), so from a certain point of view it makes sense that it's all based around lightning. On the other hand, an entire subclass is expected to encompass a complete theme, and from that perspective, you'd expect a Storm Sorcerer to encompass all things weather/storm related (all the way up to the Control Weather spell, which Sorcerer doesn't get access to).</p><p></p><p>But it doesn't. It's just a sorcerer that focuses on lightning instead of fire (which is its own kettle of unbalanced fish). It has some kinda nice traits, but there's a reason you don't have elemental specialization as a subclass option among the various spellcasters. It's just too narrowly focused a theme. If you want to be a sorcerer with a lightning theme, just get lightning spells (of the pathetic handful that are available). </p><p></p><p>Of course the original UA release included bonus spells, and those spells included things like Sleet Storm and Cone of Cold. So perhaps even the original design revolved around 'storms', and not just 'lightning'. Yet they ended up stripping it down to something far more trivial, because they had to make it possible for it to function within the ludicrously limited Sorcerer spell restrictions. The Sorcerer is just not capable of supporting that theme while also having enough spells to actually be able to survive and do anything mundane.</p><p></p><p>The only way I've been able to make it work is by giving it back the bonus spell slots, and pulling liberally from 3rd party sources for more spells that actually fit within the theme of a master of storms. (Note: Not the wiki homebrew spells; I've drawn from "The Middle Finger of Vecna"'s webpages, and "Elminster's Guide to Magic", which both seem pretty well designed and balanced.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kinematics, post: 7325920, member: 6932123"] I'd put Storm Sorcerer (and Sorcerer in general) in the problematic list. Part of the problem is the name: 'storm' is the term used for lightning-based segmentation (eg: Storm Genasi), so from a certain point of view it makes sense that it's all based around lightning. On the other hand, an entire subclass is expected to encompass a complete theme, and from that perspective, you'd expect a Storm Sorcerer to encompass all things weather/storm related (all the way up to the Control Weather spell, which Sorcerer doesn't get access to). But it doesn't. It's just a sorcerer that focuses on lightning instead of fire (which is its own kettle of unbalanced fish). It has some kinda nice traits, but there's a reason you don't have elemental specialization as a subclass option among the various spellcasters. It's just too narrowly focused a theme. If you want to be a sorcerer with a lightning theme, just get lightning spells (of the pathetic handful that are available). Of course the original UA release included bonus spells, and those spells included things like Sleet Storm and Cone of Cold. So perhaps even the original design revolved around 'storms', and not just 'lightning'. Yet they ended up stripping it down to something far more trivial, because they had to make it possible for it to function within the ludicrously limited Sorcerer spell restrictions. The Sorcerer is just not capable of supporting that theme while also having enough spells to actually be able to survive and do anything mundane. The only way I've been able to make it work is by giving it back the bonus spell slots, and pulling liberally from 3rd party sources for more spells that actually fit within the theme of a master of storms. (Note: Not the wiki homebrew spells; I've drawn from "The Middle Finger of Vecna"'s webpages, and "Elminster's Guide to Magic", which both seem pretty well designed and balanced.) [/QUOTE]
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