Welcome back! My fellow magicians, there is no delay. There have been many delays already.
But this space is One 2 rows.
Barbarian | Fighter | Sorcerer
Magician
The story of the Sorcerer remains the same – you’re filled with magic and there are many reasons for it (such as an event that leads you to discover your powers) – but the mechanical changes are significant.
Innate magic is a new feature at level 1, a mode that powers you up for one encounter. As a bonus action, you get +1 to your spell save DCs for sorcerer spells and advantage on attack rolls (just to be clear, there are no more arcane spells, there is only the sorcerer spell list). You enter this boosted mode twice per long rest. The latter two features relate to your use of innate magic. There are essentially two problems with this. First, when a lot of your combat is 2-3 spells total, a +1 to your spell save DC is often not enough to change the outcome. It’s odd to see this here, since 5e.14 seemed to go to great lengths to avoid features and magic items that gave short-term +1/-1 modifiers to rolls. I’m not opposed to things that increase the DC, but something like this might not bother me. Secondly, in 2/LR (where later features depend on picking the right encounter to use this feature) it screams “And when you finish a short rest, you regain one expended use of this feature.” Please, give sorcerers one thing to recover on a short rest. Spellcasting is unchanged except that there is again a separate sorcerer spell list. Looking at the past few UA releases, there seems to be an inevitable trend of more and more spells becoming class-locked over time, but none of that is a reason to switch. Stay tuned for the Warlock article in this series, where I’ll go into a bit more detail on that. With the spell list back at 5e.14, can we stop talking about sorcerers having “prepared spells” that they can change when they level up? These are known spells, and if they have some degree of compatibility with feats and features, this phrasing will go more smoothly. Font of Magic at level 2 is mostly unchanged except that the bonus action required to melt a spell slot to gain Sorcery Points is now free. There’s no visible narrative beat there, and no need to slow down the conversion process by a round, so… that’s good. The bonus action required to convert Sorcery Points to spell slots isn’t much, but… it’s fine. Metamagic at level 2 is back to 5e.14 scaling. Two options at level 2, another at 10, and a fourth at 17. The PH 5 packet tried to give you three at level 2, but no more. You can also change one Metamagic option every time you level up. I’ll go ahead and explain the Metamagic changes as well. Distant Spell is back to doubling range, instead of some weird range super-extension by a fixed amount. Seeking Spell’s Sorcery Points re-roll of a failed spell attack roll has been reduced from 2 to 1. Looks good. Subtle Spell is now clearer on what it does with the consumed material components. Twinned Spell is trying to be good, but not ridiculously OP (like it was in 5e.14). Now it only works on spells that normally add additional targets when upcasting, with the benefit being that you can add targets by Sorcery Points instead of spell slot level. It’s a pretty narrow range spell, but oh well. Sorcerers get subclass features at levels 3 (this will never go away, sorry), 6, 14 (also not great, but you can’t fix this unless you have a time machine in 2014), and 18. Ability score increases at the standard ability score increase levels. Gone is the Sorcerous Vitality self-healing spell, and the ability to grant it. I kinda liked that. Instead, you get Sorcerous Restoration at level 5, which is a Sorcery Point currency modifier that replenishes 1/5 your Sorcerer level of Sorcery Points if you don’t have any when you roll initiative or finish a short rest. It’s annoying that you have to be out of Sorcery Points to use this feature, and the 1-2 Sorcery Points benefit until level 14 means that you don’t get much out of this feature. Sorcery Incarnate at level 7 was previously the feature that gave you the power-up mode spell, Sorcery Incarnate. Now it can be connected to the Innate Sorcery feature, stacking two Metamagic options on one spell. It also lets you buy additional uses of Innate Sorcery for 2 Sorcery Points per use. This is… nice, but it reminds me that Sorcerous Restoration needs to be about 1 point generous. I think rounding up instead of down would fix the whole thing. Arcane Apotheosis at level 20 gives you one free Metamagic option each turn while you’re using Innate Sorcery. This is very nice, but as always with level 20 features, most characters can’t get close to this. This feature moved from 18 to 20 and Epic Boon was discontinued. But if you’ve been following this series this far, you know about the discontinuation of Epic Boon in 20.
Overall, Sorcerers are in a better position than they have been in the past, but I think they can do better. Innate Sorcery is boring and could be better (and 2/Long Rest, which is less of a usage restriction than 2 SP for an extra use), and Sorcerous Restoration is barely useful. There are good reasons to keep the policy that Sorcerous Restoration only works when you have 0 Sorcery Points (it has to do with turning Sorcery Points into spell slots and repeating Short Rest), so you could fix this in a way like (round up) or change the formula to (1 + 1/5 Sorcerer level).
Dragon Magic
This is one of the most important things to get right, because there is probably no other subclass more iconic for a Sorcerer than this – after all, it was the default theme for 3.x Sorcerers and one of the two original Sorcerer types in 4e, though it was awful in 5e.14.
Draconic Resilience at level 3 is unchanged from the previous packet – +1 hit point per level, AC = 10 + Dex modifier + Cha modifier. This is good. Still, it’s very odd that there’s no mention of the type of dragon (chromatic, metallic, gem, or a color within these groups). This seems like a lot of thematic work to leave out. It’s nice that this gives you extra survivability, but it’s not particularly active. Nor does it allow you to safely get close to melee combat often. It also lets you speak, read, and write dragon language, and dragons can always understand you even if you don’t speak dragon language. This is a strange addition, but I’m not digging into Monsters of D&D Beyond to find out where it matters. My guess is that it’s there to emphasize the point that knowledge of dragon language and the ability to communicate with dragons is fundamentally magical, but not in a way that would be shut down in an anti-magic realm. Elemental Affinity at level 6 is the first time the mechanics have a connection to the dragon’s color. You choose Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Poison, gain resistance to that type, and add your Cha modifier to a single damage roll for spells that deal that damage type. This is obviously meant to encourage a strong representation of damage types in your spell choices. But if you want to choose from a decent range of spell types, Acid and Poison are a no-go, but spells like Chaos Bolt, Arcane Eruption, and Sorcerous Burst are at the top of the list for any choice. Dragon Wings at level 14 are mostly back to 5e.14 rules, since they don’t require a spell to create. The only big difference is that they are lost when neutralized, which is fine in the spectral form but seems odd in the physical form (you can choose either). Draconic Presence at level 18 is back to 5e.14 rules, but it no longer requires concentration, but is lost when neutralized. It’s also a bonus action instead of an action, which helps quite a bit. I haven’t researched every monster in Tier 4, but I’ll be making guesses about which ones aren’t affected by Charmed and Frightened, and I think I’ll guess wrong in many cases.
Mechanically, this is good up until level 6, but it doesn’t scale at all, and wings and draconic presence are more of a nice-to-have than directly contributing to a consistent playstyle. I’d also like to see some subclass-specific draconic-flavored spells appear at level 6 or 14.
Wild Magic Sorcery
Funny thing is, this was also terrible in 5e.14 – it was voted the subclass most likely to wipe out a party in a 1st level non-combat encounter, and as the PCs in my 4e campaign are still waiting for their Chaos Sorcerer to return from an unplanned trip to Limbo, I want to make it fun.
Level 3 Wild Magic Surge has been redesigned to no longer require DM permission. You can make the chance of rolling Wild Magic Surge 5%. The effect of Wild Magic Surge is added to any spell you cast, but the effect is as good as bad, so it’s probably a questionable decision at best. This feature also establishes that spells from the surge don’t require concentration and aren’t affected by metamagic. Level 3 Tides of Chaos lets you choose to gain advantage on a d20 test (I think this is better as a reroll, just saying), 1/long rest. The next time you use a spell slot to cast a sorcerer spell, you can roll on the Wild Magic Surge table and use this feature again. Is that advantage worth it? In other words, be the Chaos Gremlin your heart desires. But don’t be surprised that the party will bag you rather than risk casting the spell. Bend of Luck at level 6 lets you adjust other characters’ d20 tests by +/-1d4. It now costs 1 point instead of 2. It’s good to have a feature that is clearly beneficial to the user by level 6. Controlled Chaos at level 14 lets you choose two results on the Wild Magic Surge table. This is helpful, but I don’t think it helps enough to increase the chances that a Wild Magic Surge will improve the situation. Wild Bombardment at level 18 finally makes Wild Magic Surge resolve to an advantage choice. When you use a spell slot to cast a sorcerer spell, you can immediately choose to cast the spell or a surge effect that restores all your sorcery points. You must wait a long rest of 1d4 before you can use this again.
If you’re just looking for randomness and potentially ruining everyone’s fun for the night, get the party’s consent before you start. Players who want to feel effective should never use the level 3 feature. Please, change this to use innate sorcery somehow. Or… something. I don’t know.
Clockwork Sorcery seems like a strange inclusion in 5e.24 PH. I’d like to see a revision of Storm Sorcery, but I’m a big fan of Aberrant Mind. The Tomb of Annihilation campaign I played had an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and he was awesome.
Despite my criticisms of the Draconic and Wild Magic subclasses, this is the best version of the Sorcerer class and subclasses to date, and if a book with this version of Wild Magic appears in print, I will continue to play it, just as many people have not played it before.
Next up: Warlock!
