D&D 5E What should a Sorcerer do?

[Zelc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfxIoJgSMeU

The Sorcerer vs. Wizard thread brought up something I've been thinking about. I don't think the role of the Sorcerer is well-defined. Fighters are good at hitting stuff and taking hits, Rogues are good at skills and hitting stuff, Wizards are good at utility and AOE. I think WotC did a fantastic job developing these classes.

On the other hand, If we asked the 5E Sorcerer what he does, what would he say? The Dragon Sorcerer is a dragon and the Wild Mage is random, but that's not what they do. What does a dragon or a random guy do for the party? What abilities do they have which support it?

Now suppose you were the developer of D&D pre-5E, and you could create the 5E Sorcerer any way you like. How would you distinguish the Sorcerer mechanically? What should a Sorcerer's role be?

Sorry if this treads familiar ground .

 

[Katmandoo122]

I disagree. I think that Sorcs are the ultimate nukers and break-in-case-of-emergencies. They are the ones that hold their twinned/empowered fireball until the BBEG or employ wild magic when things go pear shaped. I do wish wild magic were skewed to be 90% very positive and 10% very bad because then it would be more likely to taken. As it is now, no one plays wild magic Sorcs, which is too bad, because there are a ton of dragon Sorcs (although they make sense for RP too).

 

[Mephista]

Now suppose you were the developer of D&D pre-5E, and you could create the 5E Sorcerer any way you like. How would you distinguish the Sorcerer mechanically? What should a Sorcerer's role be?

It frankly depends on the subclass. And what option within subclass, sometimes. An Avenger Paladin is going to be a heavy damage front line character, while an Ancient Paladin is more defensive, protecting allies. A Light cleric is a back row caster, while the War Cleric is a melee machine. Classes don't have a defined role anymore. Subclasses apparently do, but I wont' say classes as a whole do.

Dragon sorcerers are basically evokers, usually fire themed. One man artillery. Favored Souls are gish-like, with a lot of Twinned buffing and healing spells going around, almost paladin-like in feel to me with the Domains I used. I have a custom Psion subclass that I've used to great effect with appropriate spells. There's a lot here that works beautifully with different roles.


The only constant role is "full spellcaster." After that? Sky is the limit.

 

[Zelc]

It frankly depends on the subclass.

Fair point, but it's still usually easy to distinguish between the classes. For instance, Wizards vs. Warlocks or Fighters vs. Paladins. Wizards rely on more heavily lvl 1+ spells and have more flexibility and power in those spells, while Warlocks rely more heavily on cantrips and their spells recharge after a short rest. Fighters have more damage, while Paladins can burst for more and have more support for their team.

It feels to me like it's really hard to define what Sorcerers have over Wizards, especially since Sorcery Points are so limited. There's a lot of power in the Sorcerer's archetypes but they don't feel very cohesive to me.

 

[Ashrym]

Metamagic really is quite good and sorcery points can create some versatility in spell application even without the spell selection. It's unique to sorcerers and a reason to play them.

A person shouldn't confuse international overlap with a lack of unique options. Sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards have overlap in functionality. Fighters, paladins, and barbarians have overlap in functionality. Bards, clerics, and druids have overlap in functionality. The similarities don't remove the differences.

In the sorcerer's case, there are some differences in the spell list. There are definite differences in the mechanics with spells known vs prepared, sorcery points vs arcane recovery, rituals vs more reliance on ability checks, metamagic vs tradition abilities per school, and such.

Roles are less defined by class and more defined by character build choices. This can be seen in spell selection, feat selection, background selection, etc. It's easy for a sorcerer to take on the party face role, for example, or a healer with FS background.

IE Classes can be better at some roles than others but roles are neither defined by nor limited to a specific class in 5e. There is no specific wizard or sorcerer role.

 

[famousringo]

Sorcerers explode. Not necessarily literally. As long as they have slots and sorcery points, they pump out magical power faster than any other class through clever use of Twin Spell, Quicken Spell, and Heighten Spell.

My goodness, in a single round, a wild mage might use his movement to line up some foes, use his action to throw a bolt from a currently running Sunbeam, cast a Quickened Lightning Bolt on same foes for good measure (Empowered too, if you like), get a lucky wild surge that heals him back to full health, then use his reaction to Counterspell an enemy wizard, with advantage on the check courtesy of newly refreshed Tides of Chaos.

Boom.

That's what sorcerers do.

 

[Mephista]

It feels to me like it's really hard to define what Sorcerers have over Wizards, especially since Sorcery Points are so limited. There's a lot of power in the Sorcerer's archetypes but they don't feel very cohesive to me.

Metamagic. Seriously, that's the real power in the Sorcerer. Learning to mix and match spells with the metamagic. If you're gishy? You Twin Cast your buffing spells. Psionic controller style? Heighten that Dominate spell, don't fail it. Evoker style? Quicken and cast a cantrip along with that fireball.

Power comes from metamagic, flavor and spell options from subclass.

 

[Minigiant]

The Sorcerer is the hammer. All they got is The Big Hammer. And when all you got is a Big Hammer....

When you need a small subset of spells done very well and very reliably, you bring a sorcerer.

The Sorcerer's job is to drop nukes and cast Charm/Dominate Person/Monster on dudes, dudettes, and dudemons like that blankity blank went outta style. With metamagic. Because they can't do jack else. Nothing to second guess.

Q: Obstacle?
A: Make Charisma Check or cast spell.

Q: Cast spell?
A: Nuke, charm, NUKE, or CHARM.

 

[Larac]

Also it seems the more you wait the better Sorcerers become.
The two UA classes have access to many more spells.

 

[Sunseeker]

Personally I find the single-target glass cannon Sorcerer to be quite awesome.