Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Sorcerers: Favored Souls, Phoenix Sorcery, Sea Sorcery, & Stone Sorcery

Favored Soul (again), Phoenix Sorcery, Sea Sorcery, Earth Sorcery.

Could this be the start of Elementalists?

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I've been reading on another forum, and if I hear people talking about the potential uses for the Sea Curse, they tend to focus on the forced movement or mention the extra lightning damage. Both are cool, but I wanted to think more about the cold, and I had a thought.

I know that Ray of Frost activating the curse only reduces by 15 ft, but maintains the curse. I also know from previous discussions that the general consensus is that Quickening Ray of Frost does not stack the movement penalty because it is the same spell offering the same effect.

What about Ray of Frost to lay the curse and Ice Knife to activate it? It is not the same spell giving the same effect, and the only limit on the curse is that if the spell already reduces movement, you use the higher. Ice Knife does not naturally reduce movement.

So, is that a reduction of 25 ft of movement? Possibly to 2 adjacent targets by Twinning the Ray?

If the Ray activated and maintained the curse for 15, and then you quicken Ice Knife and the curse, is that 15 or 30?

I think the 25 ft works, but since Curse would need to stack with Curse the 30 might not.

One interaction that would definitely work would be stacking the curse with difficult terrain effects. Ice-storm would be a great pick up for the cold damage to activate + difficult terrain for a turn.

And of course the difficult terrain spells with longer duration like web and evard's black tentacles also play great with forced movement and movement lockdown effects.

 

[gyor]

Sea Sorceror is basically a big puddle of water in humanoid form, I mean every feature is just you becoming more puddle like, even curse of the sea is you conducting heat and electricity like a puddle of water.

Wild Elves and Tabaxi benefit a lot from this subclass.

Good mobility and resistants to damage seem to be the main themes. I think with shocking grasp and curse of the sea plus shifting form, you can rush into combat, hit someone with Shocking Grasp, and then run away, it's leans melee, but more hit and run tactics.

A dip into monk for speed and going Tabaxi or Wild Elf for more speed works well with this.

Phoenix Sorceror love the flavour of this to pieces. I echo others and say Mantle of the Phoenix should be short rest.

Phoenix Sorcery is great for fire themed races that get fire resistance, which often makes fire themed subclasses fire resistance redundant.

So a Tiefling makes for an amazing Phoenix Sorceror, it's fire resistance is still valuable, at higher levels casting the tiefling's hellish rebuke actually will heal you.

So someone hits you, you unleash hellish rebuke as a reaction and you end up healing yourself with it. Makes the spell nicer.

Stone Sorcery or as I like to call it, Metal Sorcery, is a swordmage obviously, but a really nice update to it.

It doesn't get extra attack, but if you have Greenflame Blade and Booming Blade, you don't need it. Quicken Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade, and you hit someone with two blade attacks, and at higher levels both benifit from bonus force damage, nasty.

Smites, Compelling Dueling, Magic/Elemental Weapon, Haste, Mirror Image, Green Flame Blade, Booming Blade, Martial Weapons, and magic armour, your really, really good in a fight, but you really want high con and strength, and Charisma so your vulnerable to MAD.

Animate Objects fits the theme so it's a good pick, you van animate stone statues, boulders, even your sword!

You might want to get find familiar from a feat as well, as if no other PCs are around you can at least project you Aegis onto the familiar.

Best designed I'd say in this order:

Stone Sorcery- Amazing update to the Swordmage

Favoured Soul- Basically an update to the Mystic of 2e era, they just called it a Favoured Soul because Mystic was taken, you can gain a familiar via feat. Cleric + Sorceror Spell list makes it highly veristile. A massive charisma skill monkey equal to Bards and Rogues in those specific areas, you can gain expertise in 4 skills, musical instruments, and certain games set effectively. So many potential builds it's crazy.

Sea Sorceror- Your very good at being a puddle of water, but that ends up cooler then it sounds, go for lots of hit and run tactics, you can afford to get enemies to burn their reactions on trying to hit you at higher levels.

Phoenix- if they make mantle short rest, it would be higher then Sea Sorcery. Awesome flavour. Goes great with Tiefling.

 

[gyor]

All of these are amazing for Changelings.

Favoured Soul grants access to both Sorceror Spells and Cleric spell, allowing you to impersonate any type of spell caster, no armour means nothing to get in the way of your shape shifting, you gain the Deception skill prof, which FS makes into expertise at level 6.

sea Sorceror plays up the Changeling mutability.

Phoenix Sorceror makes it easier to impersonate Fire Genasi.

Stone Sorcery allows the Changeling to have good armour without hiding the shape shifting behind physical armour.

 

[gyor]

I don't get why people are complaining about losing simple weapons, Extra Attack, and light armour.

The best simple weapon for the favoured soul is Staff, which they already get! Don't forget, simple weapons don't include swords or any of the really good or even okay weapons anymore, aside from staffs. No big lose.

Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade don't work with extra attack.

Cast mage armour instead of using leather armour.

A melee favoured soul is better off either if single classed using a staff (which can be used as an implement) with green flame blade or booming blade, Image Armour, and Haste, and when needed favour of the gods.

Or multiclass Fighter and have everything you need as a single level dip.

Simple weapon Prof was nothing to miss.

Also a none fighter Priestly Class was missing, as others have pointed out.

 

[TwoSix]

Sea Sorceror is basically a big puddle of water in humanoid form, I mean every feature is just you becoming more puddle like, even curse of the sea is you conducting heat and electricity like a puddle of water.

View attachment 80988

 

[DaviMMS]

I don't get why people are complaining about losing simple weapons, Extra Attack, and light armour.

They also lost medium armor and shield.

The best simple weapon for the favoured soul is Staff, which they already get! Don't forget, simple weapons don't include swords or any of the really good or even okay weapons anymore, aside from staffs. No big lose.

People like options. I for example find silly the image of using a staff one handed. Especially when combined with a shield. Even with the staff being the best option, when I played a favored soul, I used a spear.

Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade don't work with extra attack.

Extra attack is more effective than using those unless the secondary damage triggers (something rare in my experience), at least before 11th level. And extra attack is more fun IMO.

Cast mage armour instead of using leather armour.

Again, they also had medium armor and shields.

A melee favoured soul is better off either if single classed using a staff (which can be used as an implement) with green flame blade or booming blade, Image Armour, and Haste, and when needed favour of the gods.

Or multiclass Fighter and have everything you need as a single level dip.

Having to multiclass to get something they had for standard don’t pleases me.

Simple weapon Prof was nothing to miss.

If it does not improve power, there is no reason NOT to give something that adds to the theme.

Also a none fighter Priestly Class was missing, as others have pointed out.

Agreed, they should do one. But don’t pick a name that represents another thing to do it. They made a completely different subclass and gave the same name.
I like the new incarnation of the Favored Soul. But it does not represent what the last subclass was and neither what the class was in the previous edition. Therefore, it should have another name.

 

[MoonSong]

I don't get why people are complaining about losing simple weapons, Extra Attack, and light armour.

Maybe you can easily ignore fluff and replace it with what you want without dropping a sweat. A lot of us are apprehensive about certain things that might be cosmetic to you, but for us are important. To me, freely rewriting fluff is akin to freely rewriting your own character rules. One thing is easier to do than the other, but both are cheating (IMO).

The best simple weapon for the favoured soul is Staff, which they already get! Don't forget, simple weapons don't include swords or any of the really good or even okay weapons anymore, aside from staffs. No big lose.

Spears are cool, and shortbows are equally cool -and shortbows are not a bad weapon-. Losing the one weapon that is universal across all cultures known is a downer.

Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade don't work with extra attack.

Under the two-book rule, Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade won't work with Favored soul either. They have no bearing on balance because the class pught to work without them.

Cast mage armour instead of using leather armour.

A melee favoured soul is better off either if single classed using a staff (which can be used as an implement) with green flame blade or booming blade, Image Armour, and Haste, and when needed favour of the gods.

Try to fit all that and still do something useful, good luck with only two spells per level.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe you can easily ignore fluff and replace it with what you want without dropping a sweat. A lot of us are apprehensive about certain things that might be cosmetic to you, but for us are important. To me, freely rewriting fluff is akin to freely rewriting your own character rules. One thing is easier to do than the other, but both are cheating (IMO).


Spears are cool, and shortbows are equally cool -and shortbows are not a bad weapon-. Losing the one weapon that is universal across all cultures known is a downer.


Under the two-book rule, Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade won't work with Favored soul either. They have no bearing on balance because the class pught to work without them.


Try to fit all that and still do something useful, good luck with only two spells per level.

The PHB and DMG both recommend and encourage changing fluff: his can that be conceived as "cheating" if it is in the rules?

Sent from my BLU LIFE XL using EN World mobile app

 

[DaviMMS]

The PHB and DMG both recommend and encourage changing fluff: his can that be conceived as "cheating" if it is in the rules?

Sent from my BLU LIFE XL using EN World mobile app

Refluffing is normally under DMs discretion. It is always preferable not having to do it, as something that is allowed in one table is not always allowed in other.
While it does not make much mechanical difference by using a spear or a quarterstaff other than the damage type , I can easily see a DM saying no to someone refluffing his quarter staff as a spear by simply saying "You are not proficient with a spear so you can`t use it".

 

[Parmandur]

Refluffing is normally under DMs discretion. It is always preferable not having to do it, as something that is allowed in one table is not always allowed in other.
While it does not make much mechanical difference by using a spear or a quarterstaff other than the damage type , I can easily see a DM saying no to someone refluffing his quarter staff as a spear by simply saying "You are not proficient with a spear so you can`t use it".

I suppose, but that would be lame on the DMs part. Still not "cheating" in any sense of the word, since it is specifically part of the rules that it is fine to do so.

Sent from my BLU LIFE XL using EN World mobile app