D&D 5E Why do Sorcerers have so few spells compared to other full Casters

[Illithidbix]

Spells known is the topic
Clerics & Land Druids get 20 spells, plus modifier bonus, plus bonus spells making over 30 spells known.
Moon Druids know 25 (more if wisdom over 20)
Wizards know 20, plus Intelligence modifier. At higher levels, can cast low level spells with no loss of spell slots
Paladins know 15, plus wisdom modifier, plus bonus spells which can make 23 to over 28
Warlocks know 15, plus 1 each of levels 6-9, and with invocations, know potentially 37 spells

Sorcerer at 15. Yes we have Metamagic which can be quickly depleted and not always useful depending on situation.

I would say increase number to 20 known spells. That is not overpowering. And still less than Lore Bard at 24

I think it's a wider problem with Prepared vs Known spell casters in 5E.

Unless they go out of their way to make their spellcasting ability a dump stat, prepared spellcasters have the flexibility of preparation AND have more spells immediately to hand than known spell casters do.
Clerics, Circle of the Land Druids and Paladins then also get their domain/land/oath spells autoprepared.

I personally think a better paradigm would be for Sorcerers and Bards to know more spells than Clerics, Druids and Wizards can have prepared, but prepared spellcasters have the flexibility of their larger pool to prepare from.

It's not a massive problem, but I feel Mearls and co' slightly dropped the ball on this one.

The sorcerer kinda gets it the worst, even if they do have a fairly good number of cantrips.
One of the few house rules I apply is that a poor Ranger automatically know Hunter's Mark, since their spells known is spectacularly bad when compared to a Paladin.

 

[Li Shenron]

Half Caster spells are equal in number to the Sorcerer, while all the other full casters far exceed the Sorcerer.
I initially thought that the Warlock shared the same limitations, but then realized I was mistaken.

The Warlock has 15 known spells. Through Mystic Arcanum, they gain 1 additional spell of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level for an additional 4 spells. Then through Invocations, they could gain at will usage of 11 spells and once per long rest of 7 spells.
In total they have potentially 37 spells available to them based on the Invocations selected. Yes they have 4 spell slots for spells at 5th level, but they regain them after a short rest.

So why the strict limitation on the Sorcerer?

Short answer: because the Sorcerer was not playtested publicly.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think it's a wider problem with Prepared vs Known spell casters in 5E.

Unless they go out of their way to make their spellcasting ability a dump stat, prepared spellcasters have the flexibility of preparation AND have more spells immediately to hand than known spell casters do.
Clerics, Circle of the Land Druids and Paladins then also get their domain/land/oath spells autoprepared.

I personally think a better paradigm would be for Sorcerers and Bards to know more spells than Clerics, Druids and Wizards can have prepared, but prepared spellcasters have the flexibility of their larger pool to prepare from.

It's not a massive problem, but I feel Mearls and co' slightly dropped the ball on this one.

The sorcerer kinda gets it the worst, even if they do have a fairly good number of cantrips.
One of the few house rules I apply is that a poor Ranger automatically know Hunter's Mark, since their spells known is spectacularly bad when compared to a Paladin.

Very much.

There are still a lot of people who think in terms of 3e and say "the Sorcerer knows fewer spell but doesn't need preparation!" as if the latter is actually an advantage. It was an advantage in 3e because those who prepared spells needed to fix the number of each of them in advance. But in 5e preparing spells makes them available just like they are for Sorcerers, so the preparation-based casters are basically like Sorcerers who also can change their list every day if necessary.

 

[CapnZapp]

It's a restricting factor.

A bad and unfun one but there you have it.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Simple answer: They goofed.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Short answer: because the Sorcerer was not playtested publicly.

This times eleventy billion. The once-a-day Warlock invocations (and the fiddly, kinda-needs-charop nature of the Blade Warlock) is a similar thing IMO.

Not getting any real public playtest time hurt both classes. I don't know for sure if it would have fixed all the issues I have with them (seeing as it didn't fix the issues I have with Fighters), but I'm pretty sure it would've helped. As the UA for Storm Sorcerers illustrates, I'm pretty sure they would've given every Sorcerer a set of bloodline-specific spells. Personally, I still think they should add such spells; blastery spells for Dragon Sorcerers, for instance (I have no idea what kind of spells would be appropriate for Chaos).

 

[Uchawi]

There is the length of play testing to consider for any class in regards to how well it meshes with others. The other thing to consider with 5E is designing a class to be different just for the sake of being different. Just like the fighter was developed just for the sake of being simple. What the true balance is for developing classes in any system is a moving target. You could have the opposite effect like 4E where the AEDU system was developed just for the sake of being the same. So 5E and 4E are on opposite sides of that equation. I would have preferred a system somewhere in the middle where you could dial up or down the complexity of any class using maneuvers, spells, skills and feats.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Sorcerers have the potential to have more spell slots than most other casters, so they don't also get to have just as many (or worse, more) options for what to have those spell slots do.

It's a scant handful more than wizards have with arcane recovery -- usually only one more of the highest slot available through about 10th, and then one more 5th and one lower slot. And to do this they have to completely ignore their most powerful class feature: metamagic. So, for a sorcerer to cast more than a wizard of the same level, he has to ignore his best class feature AND then barely outpaces the wizard.

I don't know if that's a serious issue with sorcerers (I think it is, the whole class is hobbled) or with arcane recovery (which is a powerful utility ability for wizards).

 

[MoonSong]

Well,for the record, notice it wasn't me who started it this time. See I'm a special snowflake but I'm not the only one.

Sorcerers have the potential to have more spell slots than most other casters, so they don't also get to have just as many (or worse, more) options for what to have those spell slots do.

This is a huge lie. Simply not true. Wizards have the most slots, you can't beat "at will leveled spells" by any meassure. And no, no "but that is a high level ability", because this "more slots that anybody via sorcery points" can only happen at high level. At second level sorcerers can get only an extra bonus slot, that the wizard also gets on top of the fancy school abilities and spells known.

 

[TwoSix]

This times eleventy billion. The once-a-day Warlock invocations (and the fiddly, kinda-needs-charop nature of the Blade Warlock) is a similar thing IMO.

Not getting any real public playtest time hurt both classes. I don't know for sure if it would have fixed all the issues I have with them (seeing as it didn't fix the issues I have with Fighters), but I'm pretty sure it would've helped. As the UA for Storm Sorcerers illustrates, I'm pretty sure they would've given every Sorcerer a set of bloodline-specific spells. Personally, I still think they should add such spells; blastery spells for Dragon Sorcerers, for instance (I have no idea what kind of spells would be appropriate for Chaos).

The little bit of playtesting they got actually HURT the sorcerer, since I still need to pour one out for my initial playtest Sorcerer friend.