Where is the line between Sorcerer Origin and Race?

[gyor]

Isn't Sorcerer Origin and race kind of overlap somewhat. I mean how different in nature is a Good Affinity Divine Soul and an Aasimar or a Evil/Lawful Affinity Divine Soul and a Tiefling? Dragonborn and Dragonblooded Sorcerer?

 

[Tallifer]

Since according to the PHB,
"Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. One cannot study sorcery as one learns a language, any more than one can learn to live a legendary life.

No one chooses sorcery; the power chooses the sorcerer. Magic is a part of every sorcerer, suffusing body, mind, and spirit with a latent power that waits to be tapped. Some sorcerers wield magic that springs from an ancient bloodline infused with the magic of dragons. Others carry a raw, uncontrolled magic within them, a chaotic storm that manifests in unexpected ways.

The appearance of sorcerous powers is wildly unpredictable. Some draconic bloodlines produce exactly one sorcerer in every generation, but in other lines of descent every individual is a sorcerer. Most of the time, the talents of sorcery appear as apparent flukes. Some sorcerers cannot name the origin of their power, while others trace it to strange events in their own lives. The touch of a demon, the blessing of a dryad at a baby’s birth, or a taste of the water from a mysterious spring might spark the gift of sorcery. So too might the gift of a deity of magic, exposure to the elemental forces of the Inner Planes or the maddening chaos of Limbo, or a glimpse into the inner workings of reality."

I think it is more individual than race. The member of a D&D race has an entire culture surrounding him with all its expectations, helps, hinderances and lore; even if a sorcerer's power is not a freak influence from beyond, yet his bloodline is a very personal or at most familial thing. Much like Vampirism in Vampire the Masquerade.

 

[5ekyu]

Isn't Sorcerer Origin and race kind of overlap somewhat. I mean how different in nature is a Good Affinity Divine Soul and an Aasimar or a Evil/Lawful Affinity Divine Soul and a Tiefling? Dragonborn and Dragonblooded Sorcerer?

Avoiding any touchy real world tie ins - i tend to see sorcerer as a case where the link is much more a magical manifestation than a physical issue of genetics and chemistry. more a manifestation of the "power" than the form.

in a comics sense - rough and vague correlation - more hulk or spider-man than Cyclops or Iceman - just maybe some generations removed.

So that means the "family tree" of a sorcerer is highlighted by exceptional things within their own "community of insert race here) while the family tree of dragonborn might well be unremarkable for a dragonborn community.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

5e is less specific about sorcerous origin than 3e, which made them all have draconic ancestry. In 5e there are numerous ways a sorcerer can acquire their abilities. The only limitation is it's not through study or training.


They are basically the superheroes of D&D, each with their own secret origin story. They may have been born different, like the X-men, or be the result of an experiment, like Captain America, or a magical accident, like Spider Man.

 

[gyor]

Avoiding any touchy real world tie ins - i tend to see sorcerer as a case where the link is much more a magical manifestation than a physical issue of genetics and chemistry. more a manifestation of the "power" than the form.

in a comics sense - rough and vague correlation - more hulk or spider-man than Cyclops or Iceman - just maybe some generations removed.

So that means the "family tree" of a sorcerer is highlighted by exceptional things within their own "community of insert race here) while the family tree of dragonborn might well be unremarkable for a dragonborn community.

So more a Spiritual/Arcane race then a physical one.