The Sorcerers Potential is being WASTED (D&D 5e)
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- The sorcerer in DND 5e has so much potential... We just need to grab it!
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Cringe Soyjack RUclipsr lol
You thought you could hide in the sea of comments didn't you, ReykuTheDefiler?
Our actions have consequences my good man. "Be careful using the power of cringe, for the only ones weak to it, are the cringe themselves." - Jerma, 1478
@@PlayYourRole come fight me on IFunny where the rest of my kind hale from 😆
@@ReykuTheDefiler IFUNNY?!?!?!?! How dare you speak this cursed name
tru!!
@@PlayYourRole What in the world is Rekyu the Defiler
This has made me think more on my own sorcerer and her brother. They're twins, and both of them were born as sorcerers, but an accident happened when they were 10 that caused the brother to give up his sorcery in order to save her. Them being Shadow Magic sorcerers caused this to warp and rather than saving her life with no side effects, it turned her into a type of undead called a Graftling (homebrew). She's physically stuck at age 10 but not mentally and has to wear a hat of disguise to look human. Her brother went on to become a wizard so he could get some version of his magic back and help her get through life afterwards. Because of the type of undead she became, she eats bones, and her brother developed a fascination with them, so both of their spells are flavored to include bones whenever possible.
This is such a cool story so forgive me for this, but I immediately thought of Wizards of Waverly Place when you talked about a sibling giving up their magic for the other
@@PlayYourRole I haven't seen a lot of that show. Honestly, I made the brother's sheet first and wanted a way to explain why they weren't both the same class when I made his twin sister's. I also wanted an excuse to make a Graftling and the twins I came up with after reading a science joke at 3am seemed the best fit. Anna the sorcerer and Tommy the wizard.
If your campaign is going to continue for a while longer, maybe check out steinhardt's guide to the eldritch hunt for its osteomancy (bone magic). It's got some cool stuff.
@@PlayYourRole that series finale went hard
@@masonchapple7669 I haven't heard of that one before. I'll have to look it up. Though the campaign I'm currently playing Tommy in looks like it will end soon. It's a side story of the main campaign my DM is running, so there might be more opportunities even after it's over, especially since said DM was the one telling me to make Anna's sheet. Yes, those are their names. Spot the pun if you want.
My take is that fundamentally the journey a wizard takes is outward, examining the world, gaining deeper undstanding and knowledge and growing in power through that.
Sorcerers conversely takes a journey inwards, gaining power through introspection, gaining deeper understanding of themselves and their place in the world.
I think this video is a great example of using a story to explain the mechanics. Not letting ourselves get stuck in just "I rage" or "I cast", but having that element of character to your rage or your casting. Very well done.
Thank you very much! That remains one of my absolute favorite parts about roleplaying, and I love talking about it
@PlayYourRole something I'd love to say for you then was something I did on a Divine Soul sorcerer. It mentions your power comes from the divine, but not that it has to be good. Played there was a dual corruption of sorts. Spirit guardians would spawn cherubim and imps to attack, for example.
This is exactly what drew me to the sorcerer class, and made it my second favorite in the game. So much of D&D magic comes from intensive study and training, or some entity granting it externally, so sorcerer magic being "inherent" and even potentially unwanted is fascinating. I'm currently playing a character that started out as a lore bard, but later multiclassed into divine soul sorcerer. Mechanically I was just after some spells and a smidge of metamagic, but it ended up filling a gap in his backstory so well I wish it was intentional. He was always strangely gifted as a musician before receiving any training, and bardic magic just kind of came to him on instinct. In the beginning it was volatile and difficult to control. Turns out his magic was always sorcery, but it initially expressed itself as bard magic because it was awakened with his affinity for music.
My favorite kind of roleplaying is figuring out something I want mechanically, but than realizing 'hey... This could make for a real good story'. It's why I love multi-classing!
The Sorcerer is also phenomenal for telling a classic Bildungsroman (or coming of age story). You literally have a magical person gifted with insane powers beyond their understanding and you’re telling me their whole arc ISN’T going to be all about learning to accept and master their abilities?
6:02 This was actually the premise behind the first full spellcaster I ever created, a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. A child prodigy at magic, he was obsessed with learning as much as he could, but growing up he was taught about the disdain Wizards have for Sorcerers because Sorcerers don’t have to “put in the work” for their magic. When he ends up getting expelled from an Arcane Academy for creating a Warforged - something no normal Wizard had been able to accomplish in years - he began having a massive identity crisis. He worked his butt off to learn his magic, same as everyone else. If not more so than everyone else, even. And now he finds out he never earned it to begin with - it was all just because of a chance drop of Dragon blood?
God I NEED to talk about coming of age stories in DND. That's such a fun topic. Thanks for the idea!
Also, the concept between Wizards and Sorcerers having a rivalry is SO fun to me. I had a player who was a sorcerer ask a wizard to mentor them and it was so fun to explore
You hit the point on the head, at least in my opinion! My favourite of all the characters I've created was exactly like that - a young Phoenix Soul sorcadin named Brigid, who took on her paladinhood, and later her Oath of the Crown, in an attempt to suppress the sorcerous fire that had her terrified and guilt-ridden (having run away from home after killing her mother, the only unconditionally loving and supportive person in her life up to that point, by setting their house ablaze during a nightmare). Her journey consisted of learning that her power was one of life and creation as well as death and destruction (which the Phoenix Soul's ability progression fits _beautifully_ ) and that she needed to find her own way in service of the divine rather than holding to an oath that she had sworn in fear of herself (which my DM was kind enough to work out with me in terms of some level-switching).
That character _absorbed_ me - had a 35-song (and still growing) playlist and a 5.5k-word character analysis essay attached to her by the end of the campaign - and she wouldn't have had nearly as much flavour and meaning without the particular confluence of her classes and subclasses.
I have a sorceress named Ashley who I described as having a toxic bloodline. Being a tiefling with the draconic subclass, her bloodlines were never meant to cross and so her very blood is in constant battle with itself. Between her chaotic evil demonic side with fire and brimstone and her chaotic evil black dragon side with acid and venom she is having a constant internal conflict. as we all know two different kinds of evil, no matter how similar, just simply cannot coexist by nature.
Not only is she in physical turmoil but she was raised by elves so her mind is also volatile. She is neutral good but the chaos in both her bloodlines is amplified ×2 full making her physical appearance much different then both her parents. Her inate chaos and evil manifests as a repressed psyche. Essentially when she is her normal good self she has no control over her powers as her caustic green fire was not meant to be wielded by that version of her.
Instead of controlling her powers it is entirely dependent on what she is feeling, when she is embarrassed she casts Invisibility on herself, when she's angry she casts thamaturgy breaking glass, flaring flames and shooting fire. When she is in danger her powers defend her body but otherwise act indifferent to her wishes. When she is pushed to the brink her alter ego kicks in switcher her alignment to chaotic evil and giving her the ability to use her spells on purpose to blast, burn, and melt everything that could be a threat or simply tickels her sadistic fancy.
To manifest these themes in game I limit my magic to only the lower half of her spell levels, (rounded up to be more fair and lenient.) And she only casts them as a reaction to her emotions changing or to her environment, such as if she is about to get clubbed to death by a troll. However if she is below half health, a friend is knocked unconscious, or something similarly traumatic happens she becomes evil and gains use of her higher spell levels to hopefully destroy the problem, not reverting to normal until after she runs out of spell slots or is knocked unconscious, so she becomes a problem if she successfully destroys the problem and still has spell slots left to burn.
All of there rules are personal ones so I don't have to change RAW or do anything crazy like homebrew, but I wish there was a way to exemplify this Jean grey style of play in the rules, like gaining temporary spell slots when you pet loose in exchange for a temporary alignment change and a few points of exhaustion or some such, but I don't want to worry about that.
TLDR: made a set of roleplay rules to make my sorcerous more interesting and emotional, love the video and totally agree. 😊
Recently got back into TTRPGs (I was one who retreated to Pathfinder during the dreaded reign of 4e) and decided to pick up 5e. Immediately drawn to the Sorcerer (it was one of my favorite classes in 3.5e).
Wild Magic helped me decide my character should be a Tiefling whos home was in Limbo.
An accident involving magic and the chaotic energies of that place ended up with him being lost on the Material Plane.
Growing up alone and outcast as a barely teenage orphan, he gravitated to the city where he felt more at home in the chaotic hustle, and wouldn't stick out as much as he would in a rural village.
He grew up mostly fending for himself, using a little charm and a little magic to get by. He learned to use his gifts to decieve, distract, gamble, and scheme.
Eventually becoming known to many by another identity; the son of wealthy duchess from a port town near The Border Kingdoms.
He knows he misses his parents, but in the ararchy of Limbo, who knows if they're even alive anymore.
His home is here now, like it or not, and he's usually glad he's got his magical gifts to help him get by. But they are a constant reminder of his other-ness.
Maybe he'll find a way back to Limbo one day. Or maybe one day he'll find a way to become an actual aristocrat from that port town by The Border Kingdoms like he keeps trying to convince everyone.
Maybe he's lying to himself most of all.
I have one character who was ripped through planes, mutating part of her into an Aberrant Mind Sorceress, something she is still trying to come to terms with, and when she appeared in her new plane she was unceremoniously dumped into the sea, far from land; while trying to not die she (more so the magic leaking from her thanks to that jaunt across planes) attracted the attention of a kraken like aboration (not an aboleth, but close) who offered her the deal of being his servant on land in return for saving her life.
She only adventures because of the commands from said patron, trying to live a normal life and coming to terms with what she has become during her "off time"
So I very much agree, the story can make so, so, much difference
The thumbnail and opening lines made me think of a super hero elementalist I have. The energy he uses is emotion based.
Air is when he is calm.
Cold/Ice is when he's angry.
Acid/Corrosive is when he's afraid
Fire is for when he's happy or passionate.
These choices are almost all based on phrases about emotion. Cold fury, fear eating away at you, spark of joy/fiery passion, and take a breath (to calm down). I was quite happy with it.
I'm running a DND campaign where the villains are (mechanically) players.
One villain is a divine soul sorcerer who is basically an experiment created by a god to see what should happen if the full power of a god was contained in a mortal body. Long story short, this character has too keep their emotions under control otherwise his magic will end up hurting himself and others.
Oh I'm here for muscle man references. Great job 👏🏻
You were one of the 3 people the joke was made for I'm so happy it reached its intended audience
So, this is more about my writing, but it bleeds into my character creations: A lot of my characters’ fighting styles and magic are themed around how they cope with trauma and/or a key characteristics.
- Galath is a pyromancer who never suffers silently. He’ll roar and shine like the fire he makes to let everyone know that he’s hurting.
- Vayikra is a brawler who brute forces his way past issues (and also hits the bottle pretty frequently).
- Tamian is a Necromancer who can’t let go of the past, and constantly uses that hurt to influence his actions. He’ll use the abilities of past enemies to fight his current ones.
I have something I call rage casting, it functions like an incredibly violent wild surge but it can happen to anyone with magical talent. Explosive rage is now a more literal phrase, and because it’s so broken I only allow it in non combat situations. It writes entire chapters in half a second as a result.
My 'villain' in the campaign I'm DMing right now is a wild magic sorcerer whose mother accidentally cheated on his father with a Fae that was disguised as him. She didn't tell the son until he started to show his magic abilities, and by then it's too late. He eventually gives up trying to control the magic and embraces the chaos. He's not necessarily a bad guy, he just lost the battle to control the magic within and it just happens to have consequences he no longer notices/cares to understand.
The sorcerer used to be a blaster/ spammer. Where they could cast more spells per day than a wizard, and have a better familiarity with those. This was at the cost of fewer known spells, sacrificing the overal bredt and variety of spells for rrequent uses and always having their full "spell-book" available on short notice as long as they still had unspent spell slots available.
But with the introduction of the warlock, who had a similar but less varied role, WOTC re-structured the sorcerer. But it ended up like a half-assed mix of a wizard and a warlock (with meta-magic in place of automatic upcasting) and with bloodlines that served a similar function as the clerics domain abilities.
So the core of the 5e sorcerer feels like a hybrid class with the restrictive role of a dedicated caster class.
Okay, there is something that I believe was, overlooked with how the sorcerer is described. PHB page 99 the last sentence “A sorcerer’s magic wants to be wielded l, and it has a tendency to spill out in unpredictable ways if it isn’t called on.” And then they give absolute no mechanics for this. This is where I find sorcerers interesting, because this idea that they must use there magic or suffer the consequences is incredibly interesting.
On the subject of "not wanting the power"
My one and only sorcerer was for a short campaign. For context, it is a campaign in a world where gods are ultimately weird dyson sphere like entities that feed off of the stars as well as their divine aspects. For a variety of reasons, sometimes people become divine soul sorcerers but, left untreated, it will consume them. That said, there is a treatment for it that lets one utilize divine soul powers without consequences but the rarer the god is, the more challenging it becomes. My sorcerer was a kid who had the misfortune of becoming attuned to the remnants of a dead god by pure circumstance and as a dead god the cure for it is vanishingly small.
She left her home at an early age due to a desire to find a cure and guilt for her family going into debt in an attempt to cure her despite never having the economic means to support those attempts. By the time of the short campaign, she was nearing a point where she only had a few years left if that to find the cure as the entirety of her body was slowly crystalizing, the god incapable of speaking to her outside of vague emotions. If a cure was not found, she would turn into crystal and, with the god unable to feed on her energy anymore, it would crumble.
Yo reminds me of two of my sorcerer characters. One is a phoenix sorcerer who views her magic as a curse, something that makes her a destructive monster, something she's deeply afraid of. She makes a warlock pact just to try to avoid, or at least dampen, her own innate magic. The other is a shadow sorcerer who grew up completely cut off from the world due to the circumstance of her birth, and has been through some really awful stuff but just doesn't realize it. Her magic only started manifesting after she left the home she was previously trapped in, and so now she's having to learn to master and understand what her magic means.
My word. If you wouldn't mind, please feel free to glance at my comment in the replies to @NerdEnthusiast's post, because I think we may have created slightly different spins on the *exact same character!*
@@Existential_Tempest Oh wow, that's pretty neat. :) I hope you had fun playing your character! I certainly have a ton written about my phoenix sorcerer/hexblade girl, Avery, as well! She was a character I'd had way before I got into D&D though. Her classes just added a little bit of fantasy spice to her narrative, and I thoroughly enjoy playing her in one of my current campaigns.
@@Royalbluelemonz Ah, fair enough - good to hear it!
This is why sorcerers are my favorite class. They are a person who has magic intertwined with their very blood and soul.
As aasimar divine soul sorcerer is a very cool concept to me because they essentially have so much divine power within their very being that they could almost be a celestial.
Then, if you wanted to take it even further, you could multiclass into cleric (yes, it'd not be the greatest option, but it's narratively cool), or gestalt for it. In that way, you devout yourself to your god or God's to become even closer to those who have blessed you with so much, and you can call on their aid in your most dire times.
It's someone who is so "divine" that they might even feel like they shouldn't be in this body. It might feel like a cage trapping their soul in a world that doesn't understand them and could never know them like a celestial could, like their god does.
Sorcerer was already my favorite fullcaster class. Thank you showing me another reason to love it.
I haven't even watched the video yet but I could not agree more. They just feel like discount wizards with cool flavor. Please teach me how to use them properly, oh wise D&D RUclipsr man
Truthfully, they need some love mechanics wise but hopefully I can help with roleplay! I did actually release a supplement of sorcerer only spells a while back to try and make them feel a bit more unique
I am currently playing a black dragonborn draconic sorcerer (who has most of their spells described as chemicals he can produce as combination of transmuted spell and the acid breath) who is the moral compass of the group who cares about what he and those around him can do and try to fill in for any weaknesses due to his planning. In reality all he wanted to do was open a shop or business where he could use the chemicals for different things but with a critically ill sister and unhelpful parents he has become this mercenary that powers on despite what he can or cannot do
Characters who have the ability to do something fairly mundane, but are forced to use that ability for something greater, are some of my FAVORITE types
That being said, he is also the most powerful member of our group, a pyromaniac wizard, kleptomaniac power hungry rogue and fathomless warlock, antisocial circle of sheperds druid and an amnesiac elemental monk being the other members for comparison.
The most ironic thing is that despite the fact that he is as strong as he is, his ac WITH ac boosting items, is 12
Oh absolutely. One of the players in the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign I'm running captures this really well. His character is a Phoenix Sorcerer who actively struggles to control his fire magic, which has lead to a lot of accidents and harm upon others that he actively tries to prevent. But because his power is woven into his very being, it's directly influenced by his strong emotions, which are incredibly difficult for him to contain, as his ADHD causes him to struggle with emotional dysregulation.
We've worked some homebrew mechanics into the game to tie into this, such as making him roll Wisdom saves against his spell DC if his emotions flare up in order to keep from firing off a spell or activating his Mantle of Flame or Ignite abilities involuntarily, and his Mantle manifesting as a sort of externalization of his most prominent emotion when he activates it, essentially forcing them out of his body and leaving him observing it from the inside in a sort of emotionally dissociative state.
5:30 The downside is that since you're a charisma class you're sort of pigeonholed into what sort of person you're expected to be.
Let it be known. The moment I heard "My mom" repeated, in my heart I knew. and I thank you.
I played a game where I was an old worm level silver dragon, who simply got bored and wiped his own memory after transforming into a human. So I had these phenomenal powers but had no idea I did. I was naturally able to understand dragons and use draconic artifacts though which the DM worked in.
The best thing about playing a sorcerer is your powers are not bound to you personality type. You could have been a chef in a podunk village when your kitchen explodes, could be a mechant that picked up the wrong book, trained as a spy your whole life when a divine light pours over you. In my opinion its the most freedom in roll playing because everything is a blank canvas from where your character starts to how it ends.
Great video with some fun edits.
I agree. Sometimes players put a lot of effort into thier backstory and they forget to let it also flavor their abilities. Its a real missed opportunity for some awesome stuff.
Thank you for the encouragement! I put a lot of effort into learning what sort of editing I want to do so it's nice to see it recognized!
I play my bard more like a sorcerer, with him having learned magic and innate magic. Through his story he's beginning to discover the different types of magic, including a deep connection with primal magic, and as he continues into more powerful sources, he will eventually discover his own true potential, finding that though he once relied on the magic he was taught, he has magic deep within him, connecting him physically to the world.
Also, my bard is also named Jasper.
You have helped me make a new character concept my backstory I love to make characters even if I will never use them
But a sorcerer born into a family of sorcerer's but is a disgrace to their whole family because they are not the same type sorcerer as the others
They flee home hoping to make a name of themselves while also tossing their family name aside
The plan is that if I ever play this character it might end up like Sanji in one piece how they have to face their past to grow as a person and sorcerer and who knows maybe the dm might make the family see their wrong
We also have to consider the story and setting. I ran a sorcerer with homebrew blood magic bloodline that’s an inheritance that occurs only every few generations, and she just so happened to be the daughter that was born with that gift, or rather curse. Through the generations the gift of their matriarch was one that slowly came to be reviled as they adopted different customs and attained higher status, the children who had that were often hidden away but kept close as they still had uses. That being said, Solania, my sorcerer was not that fortunate, the moment she displayed her innate power, her parents arranged for her to be sold to a nobleman who had a vested interest in acquiring and studying rare power. For a time her expertise was very split, being both an experiment and a treasured possession, so it lead to issues with her own sense of self and identity. Eventually she was able to escape, but can’t openly utilize her magic as blood magic is rare and extremely taboo. So now she’s wrestling with her own identity, personhood, fighting against the belief that she is inherently wrong, accidentally becoming an adventure and realizing it could serve to help her avoid capture or lead directly to, and learning to trust others and herself through. She’s definitely an interesting character to play, and her interactions are very awkward as she doesn’t really know how to properly socialize.
Originally, the reason I chose Sorcerer for my half kender fire mage back in 3rd edition was because I didn't want to prepare spells and I liked the idea of power from within. But I hated that in 3e it was mostly just a "must have dragon's blood" explanation for them, and I created a whole elaborate explanation for his powers that had nothing to do with dragons and everything to do with drunken fairies. I love how 5e has so many more options for the origins of the power (although still no drunken fairy origin subclass, lol). I'm big into the story explaning the mechanics, but yeah, I wish some of the sorcerer mechanics had more flavor attached to them. Like if maybe they could manipulate magic more. Metamagic's cool, but if it could warp things by combining spells or even manipulating the magic of others, that would be really cool.
I also have a draconic bloodline warforged whose whole job is to drain magic from evil dragons while trying to regain it's silver dragon form due to a curse that turns him into a warforged when he gets too old at some way to trick dying at old age
I used to have a lot of contempt for the Sorcerer class, because I was of the myopic opinion that them not "earning" their magic like other classes somehow made them undeserving.
It took years of experiencing feelings of inferiority, like I was never good enough no matter how much I accomplished, that I started to appreciate the Sorcerer fantasy. That maybe you HAVE something special that's just inherent to you, that you have value without needing to prove it to the world every single day. That maybe what you are is not only enough, it's beautiful and deserving of the good things you have.
My sorcerer was kept sequestered in her home for most of her life, bc her ancestors had misused their draconic powers and one of them almost burned down their town by mistake. After that, they began enforcing strict rules on themselves to avoid making that same mistake again.
Sorcerers are one of the hardest characters for me to make so I really appreciate this!
I’ve always thought they embody the idea of having greatness thrust upon you
Multiclass in Wizard.
A Wild Sorcerer would want to master their power, so they would want to learn to control it.
Obtain the versatility of a Wizard with the power of a Wild Mage.
You said the Sorcerer was gifted with a power they did not want and I had a thought, most of the classes are split into two categories, not martials and casters but gifts vs grit. The Sorcerer was gifted their power, it's always there and they didn't have to work for it(at least in a mechanical sense) but The Wizard spends hours upon hours and mountains of gold to learn all the spells they want to learn. The Barbarian has attained a powerful rage for whatever reason and it has made them a beast in combat but The Fighter has trained and trained and trained to be a Fighter(battle master is a perfect example). Bards have a gift for performance so incredible that they can use magic and Monks are training their minds and bodies to find enlightenment. Rogues and Rangers are both grit characters, they hone their abilities with dexterity and knowledge(Int and Wis). The complicated ones are The Cleric, The Warlock, The Paladin and The Druid. They all get much of their power from some higher being or purpose, but they all have to work hard to foster the connection. The Druid protects nature and nature protects them, The Paladin follows their oath and their oath guides them, The Warlock obeys their patron and their patron gives them power, The Cleric worships their deity and their deity brings them light(or dark depending on the subclass).
DND is an amazing game
Jay you make an awesome point. Using the mechanics and story from the class or ancestry of a character is such an amazing use of the material. Plus it frames the kind of character we want to have and where we want to go with our characters. I need to go and play a sorcerer again now!
I like to think of sorcerers being constantly magical. With wild magic sorcerers there is the uncontrolled moments on casting but that should be around somewhat all the time. If they are roleplaying emotional moments or suffer a painful attack the DM could get them to roll a constitution save to control their powers and if they fail elements of their power spontaneously occur. A shadow sorcerer may accidentally have a hound of ill omen appear targeting them or make shadows randomly teleport the party. A draconic sorcerer may become more dragon-like temporarily. A storm sorcerer...well, that's pretty self-explanatory. A sorcerer has the magic of a level 20 character but only the control of their current level.
Currently playing a sorcerer in a campaign heavily based off of Highschool DxD. (But toned back on the fan service thank goodness!) this character spent most of his life up until this point being the outsider/loner and that he never really belonged anywhere. Then he awakened to his powers after getting ambushed by a monster. He had power, he was special…and was told by other supernatural beings in this world that if he ever gets caught using blatant magic in front of a mortal, it would bring an end to an interdimensional ceasefire between the heavenly and hellish factions. He hates this feeling of having all this power at is fingertips but being repeatedly told that he’s not really allowed to use it outside of specific circumstances. It’s breed resentment between him and the equivalent of his boss, and may make him a prime target to get recruited by an anarchist faction that believes that the supernaturals of the world shouldn’t have to hide in the shadows trying to keep this peace that everyone knows is never gonna last. What’s scarier is that it’s starting to get to the point where he might accept their invitation and usher in the end of days just so that he can do what he wants with the powers he’s been blessed with
Pathfinder does sorcerers well, especially with the Cathartic mage dedication.
I've often given my sorcerer players a trait called instability. The player (not the character mind you) can choose what that score is. Anywhere between 1 and 10. The score acts as a permanent upgrade to your total sorcery points (2 times instability), but whenever you cast a spell, you have to make a wisdom save against the score. Failure results with rolling on a custom wild magic table (yes this replaces the wild magic feature) that I've written tailored to each sorcerer. And not all the effects are negative. The first 5/20 options on the table I write always cast the spell to completion, just with an added effect (cast as if with a slot one level above, cast and roll 2 random effects ignoring this one, cast and temporarily increase instability by 1).
It's statistically worse to try and boost the hell out of wisdom to get more free points when charisma is way better at improving all of your spells. The best examples I've seen of this are with characters who voluntarily took a negative wisdom modifier to increase the chances of this happening.
To make this gel more with the emotional aspect, I will sometimes request them to roll the save at disadvantage when their mental state isn't ideal. You can also request that characters make a DC 15 charisma save during extremely tense moments, increasing their instability by 1 permanently on a failure.
Additionally, you can spend a bonus action to temporarily increase you instability score by 1 in exchange for two sorcery points. The score is reset on a long rest.
There are a number of sorcerer types and personalities that tell a story. The cursed sorcerer who was touched by necromantic power and now sees his own life as a mistake or feels guilty because he survived. His power is chaotic and misunderstood even by him, even to the point that he is the only limitation to his power. the savant is a character type that has great power and skill but is tempered by some quirky personality. They may be autistic, making them kind hearted and innocent to the ways of the world but when push comes to shove they will do anything for their friends because they are loyal to a fault. Then you have the disenfranchised or persecuted sorcerer who strives for the approval of others but is also their own worse judge. They seek the love that they were denied as a child.
Yet another sacrifice to the algorithm, may your pact grow ever stronger.
The thing that hurts me about Sorcerers is I always want to play one who isn’t defined by their charisma. The fact that they are one of the only classes that takes advantage of this born great, the power is in you archetype we see so often in fiction excites me! But since its a class with Cha casting & the smallest HD in the game, I feel funneled into playing a skinny charmer. I don’t want to play someone who feels born to be a celebrity: I want to play someone who feels ludicrously normal sans the magic that has come to define them
High Cha doesn't mean you have to exude arrogance, confidence or sex appeal mate. It just means you're good at getting people to see things your way.
You can play a shy bard or an introverted sorcerer. They too can be charming without being a walking, talking cliche of people's twisted notion of what charismatic means...
@@goji253 One of the most charismatic people I've ever known in life was was also one of the ugliest. He didn't exude arrogance or confidence: he just was very friendly guy who had everyone hanging on his every word as a fun, kindly, & safe man. It wouldn't be until months of knowing him that anyone would start to realize what a manipulative sociopath he was, and just how he used a tangled web of lies to shape the views of himself & every mutual friend. Trust me when I say I know exactly what you mean when you convey that Charisma doesn't need to look like its often stereotyped to. Hell, I'd go so far as to say many stereotypically charismatic characters (looking at seductive bards in particular) would not have an oz of Charisma without the dice rolls to prove it. Many people like that IRL are just not convincing at all. So on that note, trust me when I say stereotypical portrayals of Charisma have *nothing* to do with my main complaint with Sorcerer. When I say I want to play someone who is I want to play someone who is "...ludicrously normal sans the magic..." I don't mean I want to play someone who is a charming introvert: I want to play someone who is not charming at all. I want to be able to play someone who has to work hard to convince anyone of anything. The simple fact is that when all social encounters are mechanically easier for you your roleplay options are limited, and when you have a class that is doing the heavy lifting for a trope that covers honest to god most magicians in fiction its frustrating to see this design limitation
@@Thunderscreamer You can simply not take proficencies in the corresponding skills then.
Even +5 to charisma is quickly outweighed by far better options.
Hell I'd even argue that sorcerers are not even remotely the best option to be a party face anyway.
Bards, rogues, redemption paladins, hell even fey wanderer rangers, banneret fighters and samurai fighters all far outweigh the simple max charisma after one point or another.
The next thing is that, if your goal is to mimic the stereotypical "the power was inside you all along" narrative, you can purposefully start out with lower charisma and build it over the game.
Most lof those narratives literally work that way, with the characters starting to believe in themselves over the course of their story.
Even the DnD movie did exactly that.
Being a charisma caster does not prevent this. And any other mental stat would not even remotely make sense for a caster whose powers come from themselves.
I feel like the Sorcerer in the D&D movie is a good example of this. Simon has a natural talent for magic, but he hasn't mastered it. Not because he's lazy or stupid, but because he doesn't have the experience needed to fully control the Weave. He _can_ use the full extent of his Sorcerer powers, but only instinctually, like how your body will react before your brain can respond whenever you're in danger.
I have two characters that I plan on playing one is a storm sorcerer blood hunter who got these powers because she touched a portal that opened up the air elemental plane and resulted in her home being destroyed. She not only has powers but was also was adopted by a previous character of mine and fought with her and her cousin (who funny enough is a sorcerer) who raise her as a mercenary. And she leaves the company because she wants to see if she's good enough to make it on her own. She wants to use her powers to make sure that other people don't lose their homes.
My second character is a wild magic sorcerer. She comes from a long line of evil sorcerers so whenever she tries to use it for good her spells tend to backfire. But she wants to do good a make her uncle proud of her so she's going to go to a magic school and what she hopes to learn to control her magic. She's with her uncle because her mother was stopped by her uncle and father along with a few others and many believe her mother to be dead but is actually alive and her Father left her when she was young so now it's her uncle that's raising her. When I play her she's actually going to be attempting to do her first year again because she blew up the gym and got suspended for it. And because her magic backfires a lot she prefers to attempt things diplomatically instead of just blasting her way through.
My firs ever sorcerer, back in the Pathfinder 1e, was celestial sorcerer... His mom was High Prestress and dad was... Celestial dragon...
I legit hadn't thought of it like that before. I like your take.
One thing sorcerers could and should be in both lore and abilities: someone who use their magic in extremely unorthodox manners. wizards are restricted by academic logic to think magic can only be used a certain way, so wizards can learn almost any spell they come across(provided they have high enough level) but can only use existing spells. warlocks, clerics, and druids whose magic are restricted by the source of their magic. bard who are...bard. sorcerers is restricted in a sense they can only use one type of magic, but they should be able to use it in the most creative manner, they don't have the rigid mind of an academic, they probably aren't bound by belief to a certain values, so they are kind of free to make their magic they may or may not want do anything really. like using fire magic from draconic bloodline to fight as a melee fighter, or use shadow magic as an assassin, or go full barbarian with a wild magic rage
My draconic bloodline tabaxi nightwish (it's a band reference)
Everyone: horney bard joke incoming
Nightwish: my mother was a bard my dad is a dragon
Everyone: wait what so instead of dragon slayer or layer she got laid by a dragon
Nightwish: yes and my dad asked first
Everyone: bad trope possibly done right
Also nightwish was a sole survivor of a destroyed town while her dad was on a flight around the continent have yet to play her but the dad is mad when he finds out
I just finished our Curse of Strahd campaign as my sourcelock, Wyatt Greythorne. It was honestly a really sweet coming of age story about two brothers whos bond was seriously tested.
Me, getting invited to join a group that just formed the night before the first session, pirate direction so I started with race and choose a water genasi for fun and I've never done magic as soon as I had that thought I jumped into sorcerer without even looking at my options, built a back story that ended up going perfectly with that of a divine soul and now level 4 took magic initiate for some extra spells, I choose off of the warlock list (iykyk)
Agreed. When making a character, make everything about that character cohesive. The backstory should build into the build, define the roleplay, and even provide the DM with a future potential character arc or plot hooks.
Long story below, about how I showed a casual friendly player the merits to “power gaming,” or a form I prefer to call RoleMaxing (MinMax based off roleplay).
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When I went to D&D in a Castle, one of my fellow tablemates came from a mindset of using D&D to explore different traits and develop aspects of your own personality. They were non-binary, so it made sense to me. I think they might have groaned a bit when I said I had MinMaxer traits, but we hadn’t met up in person yet.
But several things changed that.
- Before we met up at the table, we had a chat room. They claimed the role of party chaos gremlin (Elf, but that was their alignment), and another guy claimed Lawful Stupid Paladin. I immediately said “I wanted to play as a Gaston, but that wouldn’t balance the roleplay well. So I’ll make him the voice of reason and balance. Let me just rewrite the backstory a bit…”
- When we met up, the DM asked us who we were, how we met up, and what was likely the inciting incident for the campaign. Chaos Elf said their male character likely befriended the Grung out of curiosity, and then stole something from me. I immediately offered a zulkoon. They didn’t know what it was, but then I showed a video of a lap organ with a pump in the back, and they immediately loved it. As they explained their escape, I countered with how I used Misty Step, Spider Climb, Genasi’s ability to ignore difficult terrain, and Bladesinger’s improved movement to outpace him. That got immediate shock, followed by good fun laughs.
- As a Halloween campaign, we began Curse of Strahd by meeting a traveling caravan that worshipped Strahd. While the party roleplayed, I used Detect Magic and signaled to the Chaos Elf where to snoop after his 4-hour long rest was done. The next day, I asked over porridge how the mission went. They decided to stay up the first shift and party with the gypsy dancers, and forgot to check out the wagon after waking up. I then said “Well, at least you had a _hot_ time.” As soon as the conversation was over, I said “When I said Hot, I laced Prestidigitation into that word. Your porridge is now super spicy.” The table had a minor eruption of laughs. Their face went into shock, surprise, anger, and then bemusement. I immediately restored the porridge, but the line was drawn. That began the Pun Prestidigitation War.
- When the party met the caravan’s fortune teller, I let the party be serious. But after everyone left, I lingered and turned around. I said “I do have one more question about the future. There’s somebody I left behind. Will I see them again.” I told the DM that he could make up any names for my home town, girlfriend, and rival lord. Instead, the DM asked me for anything personal from “him or her,” and gave a noncommittal response when I handed over a love letter. As soon as I left and closed the door, I immediately said “Wow, that con artist really has mastered cold reading!” Which contrasted with two other Fate-believers for a roleplay moment.
And that was just the first four hour block of the event.
Over the next 2.5 days, I continued to be both the voice of reason and the strategist. To the Lawful Stupid Paladin, I demonstrated how to get information without lying about what and why. To the nervous GrungBarian, I was backup and support. To the Chaos Elf, I was a voice of both restraint and safer pranks.
On the final day, we gave compliments like a Thanksgiving activity. They gave me a compliment about how they never played with a “power gamer” before.
The next morning, I wondered if it was a back-handed compliment, and asked over breakfast. They immediately apologized and explained themselves. They came from a group where fun times and personality exploration came first. And they amended on how they perceived power gamers as those who try to win, not caring about backstory and roleplay. They emphasized that they complimented how my backstory was integral to both my build and my roleplay; I wasn’t perfectly optimal in combat, my strategy was as a supportive front line instead of a full DPS or a Wall, and I would roleplay without taking away from anybody else’s characters or time.
Thank You for this. This is a great take on a class. I love to play against type and there are some classes that I never played simply bc I didn't have an Idea for them. Sorcerer is one of those classes.
The Regular Show meme was perfect lmao
This is very well spoken. I feel the mechanics should have narrative weight because then they feel like people, not just an avatar for the player. One of the players in my game is playing a barbarian whose rage is tied to his emotions and he's woven in through his backstory. The character had to learn to use his emotions wisely lest they cause him to hurt someone either because of his sheer size or a lapse in judgement.
My sorcerer character in Pathfinder 1E involves some homebrew due to part of his backstory . . .
He was an ordinary guy who wanted to be an adventurer, like his parents. Then he stumbled upon a Wabbajack-esque magical Macguffin. Not knowing any better, he messed with it and it blew up in his face. Now he's a Wild Magic Sorcerer.
This is giving me food for thought on a Sorcerer/wizard multiclass I'm going to be playing starting this upcoming week. I was debating on starting Sorcerer, and transition to Wizard, but now I'm thinking about just making it a couple of levels into Wizard and just going back to Sorcerer
I've not had the opportunity to play as a Sorcerer yet (mainly because I've not been able to be in any games) but this video definitely makes me more excited to play one! I love the ideas you present here especially the cursed version. I'm always into horror related themes and I'd say a Sorcerer who thinks he is a curse is horroresque in nature. Also having Regular Show AND Don't Hug Me I'm Scared in the same video!?! My goodness Jay... You're evolving before our very eyes!!! Also also day 182746 asking for a John Cena and/or WWE related video lol! Keep up the amazingly fantastic work Jay!
Thanks Corey! I uh... I'll try and see if there is anyway I can connect John Cena to a video.
I wouldn't hold my breath but... I'll try lmfao
Absolutely. This is exactly the thought that I had about sorcerers lately! Lots of people want Sorcerers to be Con casters cause its coming from my body. But Cha can be such a cool flavor way of handling Sorcerers! Emotion and creativity being the source and focus for magic.
It can't be con. It would immediately be the literal most broken class of all time. There's a reason caster can only use the mental stats and not physical ones. ESPECIALLY Con.
@@C._Bradford Sure, that's a fair argument. I disagree strongly, but I understand what you're saying.
But my comment wasn't really about the mechanical balance of Con being their casting stat. It was about the flavor.
Great video! My next character will probably be a sorcerer!
My upcoming sorcerer is probably about to result in a lot of gifted-kid-trauma exploration away from the table; nevertheless, very excited to get into the curse/blessing bull they'll be having to deal with. Characters reluctant to fall into their natural abilities can be so fun to run, hoping I do it justice.
Disney‘s Encanto is a REALLY GOOD source of further inspiration if you want to see how expectations and talents form you!
To put a follow spot on their innate abilities and natural magic inclined being, I usually offer to my sorcerer players to use spell points instead of spell slots, makes them even more flexible and in control.
For my sorcerer for me it’s about how do I make magic an extension of themselves. As a part of them it would be a natura extension of their body like a tail or such.
Oh, and their mom was an Angel :P
Wanna know who else likes a good my mom joke?
MY MOM!!! WHOOOOOO
I have a sorcerer who got her powers, than had no fucking clue what to do with them, just knowing she wanted freedom from her parents.
I came here for dnd advice not an existential crisis over my need to write stories but fear of becoming a starving artisy
my sweet little heart-of-the-story tabaxi sorcerer moon takes place in the world of exandria because of course she does lol we wanted to run call of the netherdeep, point is i went the imogen route with making her ruidus-born and accidentally conflicted the actual cr lore with every aspect of moon's being; whoopsie. but point is that i wrote her sorcerous origin into her entire character arc, character traits, character backstory, moon is not moon without having been ruidus-born, it seeps into every aspect of her life. love my little baby muah muah the only good alignment in our party LMAO
It WAS worth it!
Lets GOOOOO!
Do you know what else is worth it?
@@acepizzaguy2278 please...you don't have to do this...
@@OccultCuts do you know who else don’t have to do it?
I was one of the people the joke was for.
Thank you
I loved the aberrant mind mechanics and developed a story to justify them. So my sorcerer was a bounty hunter who stumbled on a cult of an elder evil. He interrupted a ceremony and accidentally inherited the psionic power meant for the high priest. Now the cult hunts him and they occasionally pop up in our group’s adventures. Sometimes our group goes after a cult cell or leader. It’s been pretty sweet.
I think I should return to my Sorcerer I’ve been playing and utilize her in a way that works. Her talent for preaching is likely improved due to the level in Bard she took last level. However, these past couple of sessions have been a) more physically oriented or b) nights where I was absolutely spent and didn’t want to RP.
I recognize that this is entirely unrelated for the most part, but I have to say it anyways. One of at least my favorite character types is the average mundane. Someone who is just a guy and recognizes that he's out of his depth, surrounded by grand magics and paragons of strength and the like.
Speaking of being stuck with a gift you may or may not want, you have somehow gotten stuck with a commentor who reminds you to EAT YOUR BEANS.
2:18 I understood that reference
Also, having some form of inherited or ingrained magic isn't limited to Sorcerers either. I play a Horizon Walker Ranger in a Descent into Avernus campaign, and his planar powers are "explained" by being unexplained. Even though he was set up to be a Horizon Walker from the start, even having melee + shield focus, the Abilities of a Horizon Walker were awakened after his Trance during a Long Rest.
He even intends to learn the source of it, though he kind of went down to hell before that.
It’s the easiest class for a noble character The nobles of our world interbred and mixed blood with powerful families to maintain their power. Sorcerers blood lines would have been monopolized by the aristocracy.
I didn't think regular show was that niche a reference.
Im not sure if anyone has commented about this yet, but thank you for the regular show joke lmfao
Muscle Man Jokes!!!!! love it!!!
Subscribing solely for the Muscleman joke.
If you want to put that into mechanic - you get roleplaying restrictions World of Darkness style.
If you do - it would suck to play Sorcerer even more than Paladin.
If you don't - what would stop players from saying "I use my emotions to empower my spells" all the time?
My guy just got caught up on Mob Psycho lmao
I've never watched actually is it good?
@@PlayYourRole phenomenal, basically apply your video and ideas to an aberrant mind sorcerer and set it in the modern day.
I think more people are gonna know Regular Show than DHMIS
IF IT WAS A JOKE FOR THREE PEOPLE, I AM ONE OF THEM
then there's the non-tragic side: the noble/folk-hero Sorcerer who thinks that ppl owe her stuff because she is living magic.
Yea! Regular Show!
I love the standed-up style, lets you be a lot more mobile and expresive. The dition isn the vidio is flawless too. Im really liking this style, just as much as i loved the more raw first videos.
Fuck capitalism too, cheers and good luck :D
It *was* worth it.
IT WAS WORTH IT INDEED
Reawakening long buried Don't Hug me I'm Scared trauma 😅
The word sorcerer was 14th century slang for gay
Im still looking for a good sublcass for a Fire Genasi Sorcerer. Felt drawn to the Wild Magic Subclass, but I would like to have something more elemental thta plays with that: Well your father is a genie and your mother an efl - now go cope with that.
Phoenix sorcerer (unearthed arcana?) Maybe?
What ticks me off so much about the 5e sorcerer is how underwhelming the support for it has been. The crux of it from a mechanical and a lore perspective is the subclasses, yet we barely have any of them. Even 4th edition managed to have wild magic, dragon magic, cosmic magic and storm magic, and Pathfinder 1st edition has roughly several *dozen* different bloodlines, and yet, what has 5e managed in a decade plus of publishing? 8 sorcerer subclasses? The wizarde *debuted* with eight subclasses, and got more over time!
The mages of Dragon Age are sorcerors. They are born with the gift of magic, but that gift is feared and heavily scrutinized. Knights take kids away from their familys and lock them in a tower. A tower for mages where they can study and learn about their "gift." Some mages see their magic as a gift, a blessing of power. Some see it as a curse that they cannot remove. It's interesting the world they created where Sorcerors are the driving force of magic and how the world responds to it. Mages cannot be legally free, or they are hunted down and killed in fear of being a blood mage and consorting with demons. I feel like Dragon Age handled sorcerors a lot better then dnd, but thats also because someone who wasnt born with magic cannot use it. There are no wizards or warlocks. You cannot learn it or earn it, and it is a random curse. Familys with no magical history can randomly have a magical child, to be taken away to a Tower, hidden as an illegal mage, or killed.
you know those were real bees and Nicolas Cage was actually being stung there not acting he almost died from that