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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marsellus1" data-source="post: 6609846" data-attributes="member: 6794977">We are in agreement on several items: I too feel that draconic bloodline sorcerers would prefer to cast spells of their preferred damage type when feasible and I agree that in many cases the immunities or vulnerabilities of monsters is self evident.  Even if a white dragon sorcerer wanted to cast ice spells as much as possible they would not willingly choose to deal cold damage with chromatic orb cast against an ice elemental.  Even choosing to deal cold damage against, say, a mummy when the character knows the mummy is vulnerable to fire is going to be a tough sell and is absolutely not the optimal choice.  I am not saying a white dragon sorcerer may not still do this for one reason or another, but I feel spell mechanics are best off being balanced while assuming mechanically optimized play.I also recognize that character knowledge is a gray area in the rules, so one campaign where knowledge of weaknesses and resistances is deemed self evident as per your “live in fire” example would see chromatic orb’s value as higher since it effectively ignores resistances, immunities, absorption effects, and always deals more damage to any creature that is vulnerable to any of the 6 damage types available.  Meanwhile in another campaign where such knowledge was not assumed and difficult or impossible to obtain then the worth of choosing damage types drops significantly.  As you say however, most campaigns are going to assume character knowledge of these immunities is self evident and so I look to balance the spells as such.Here is where I stand: if we already have a level one spell that ignores resistances, immunities, absorption effects, and always deals bonus damage to creatures vulnerable to any damage type, then I see no harm in introducing a level 1 variant spell that only ignores resistances and immunities.  Particularly so with Orb, as if it were simply there for the 3d8 damage with no other benefits it becomes next to worthless at level 5 once cantrips deal nearly the same damage as a level 1 orb for no resource cost, and an upcast level 2-9 orb will always be strictly worse damage than a scorching ray cast at the same level.I like the idea of making more wizard spells available to the sorcerer, particularly with the elemental evil guide making it clear that they have moved away from the design decision in the PHB of keeping named spells away from the Sorcerer.  Perhaps a blanket rule of “any spell that deals your element type of damage is on your spell list” wouldn’t be too bad, but I would have to do more research to know the full effects of such a rule before fully endorsing it.I also see the merit of your argument that spell choice alone greatly favors fire dragon sorcerers at the moment.  That being said, even if there were options for the other elements as there is now for Storm Sorcerer I feel there is enough different thematically between, say, a blue dragon sorcerer and a storm sorcerer that discarding the option for one or the other mechanically seems unnecessary.  Better to leave the underpowered option in and either give it a boost in the rules or rely on the DM to adjust accordingly.</blockquote>

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