Sorcerer

Golden eyes flashing, a human stretches out her hand and unleashes the dragonfire that burns in her veins. As an inferno rages around her foes, leathery wings spread from her back and she takes to the air.

Long hair whipped by a conjured wind, a half-elf spreads his arms wide and throws his head back. Lifting him momentarily off the ground, a wave of magic surges up in him, through him, and out from him in a mighty blast of lightning.

Crouching behind a stalagmite, a halfling points a finger at a charging troglodyte. A blast of fire springs from her finger to strike the creature. She ducks back behind the rock formation with a grin, unaware that her wild magic has turned her skin bright blue.

Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. One can’t 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.

Raw Magic

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 can’t 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.

Sorcerers have no use for the spellbooks and ancient tomes of magic lore that wizards rely on, nor do they rely on a patron to grant their spells as warlocks do. By learning to harness and channel their own inborn magic, they can discover new and staggering ways to unleash that power.

Variant Sorcerer | Homebrew by /u/damnedmage

Quick Build

You can make a sorcerer quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution. Second, choose the hermit background. Third, choose the light, prestidigitation, ray of frost, and shocking grasp cantrips, along with the 1st-level spells shield and magic missile. Finally, choose draconic bloodline as your sorcerous origin.

Class Features

As a sorcerer, you gain the following class features.

Innate Spellcasting

An event in your past, or in the life of a parent or ancestor, left an indelible mark on you, infusing you with arcane magic. This font of magic, whatever its origin, fuels your spells. See chapter 10 of the Player's Handbook for the general rules of spellcasting, and chapter 11 for the sorcerer spell list.

Sorcerous Origin

Choose a sorcerous origin, which describes the source of your innate magical power: Draconic Bloodline, detailed at the end of the class description, or one from another source.

Your choice grants you features when you choose it at 1st level and again at 2nd, 6th, 14th, and 18th level.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Raw Magic

Beginning at 5th level, you can tap directly into the magical wellspring within you to bring forth raw magic, shaped to your will. As an action on your turn, you can cast a sorcerer spell which you don't already know. This spell must be of a level equal to or less than your max spell level, and you still gain strain based on the spell level. Once you have used this feature, you must complete a long rest before you can use it again.

Strain. As long as you have at least 13 strain, raw magic flickers around you. You add your Charisma modifier to the damage roll of your sorcerer cantrips.

Lose Yourself

Beginning at 10th level, you are able to lose yourself in the flow of magic. You can attempt to create a spell slot to cast a sorcerer spell even if it would exceed your strain limit. In order to successfully cast the spell, you must make a Charisma check against a DC equal to 10 + the strain cost of the spell slot. On a success, you cast the spell as normal. On a failure, you gain a level of exhaustion.

Once you successfully cast a spell using this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Ancestral Spell

At 11th level, choose one 6th-level spell from the sorcerer spell list as an ancestral spell. You know the chosen spell, and it is included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Sorcerer table. At higher levels, you learn additional spells in the same manner: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level.

Additionally, at 11th-level, you gain one 6th-level spell slot. You gain additional spell slots at higher levels: one 7th-level spell slot at 13th level, one 8th-level spell slot at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell slot at 17th level.

Expended uses of your Ancestral Spell slots are regained when you finish a long rest.

Power Unleashed

At 20th level, when casting a spell of 5th level or lower, you can create a spell slot of a level higher than 5th. The Power Unleashed table summarizes the strain costs.

Strain. As long as you have at least 35 strain, you can create 1st level spell slots without gaining strain.

Power Unleashed

Spell Level	Strain Cost
6th	9
7th	10
8th	11
9th	13

Variant Sorcerer | Homebrew by /u/damnedmage

Sorcerous Origin

Different sorcerers claim different origins for their innate magic. Choose from one of the many variations listed below.

Draconic Bloodline

Your innate magic comes from draconic magic that was mingled with your blood or that of your ancestors. Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their descent back to a mighty sorcerer of ancient times who made a bargain with a dragon or who might even have claimed a dragon parent. Some of these bloodlines are well established in the world, but most are obscure. Any given sorcerer could be the first of a new bloodline, as a result of a pact or some other exceptional circumstance.

Draconic Resilience

As magic flows through your body it causes physical traits of your dragon ancestors to emerge. Beginning at 2nd level, your hit point maximum increases by 3 by another 1 whenever you gain a level in this class.

Strain. As long as you have at least 3 strain, your scales begin to radiate with the energy of your draconic ancestor. Anyone who hits you with a melee attack takes damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry equal to half your Charisma modifier (rounded up).

Elemental Affinity

Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, add your Charisma modifier to that damage.

Strain. As long as you have at least 16 strain, you gain resistance to that damage type.

Draconic Might

At 14th level, your claws become as deadly as your magic. As a bonus action on your turn, when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can also make an unarmed attack against a creature you can see that is within range.

Strain. As long as you have at least 32 strain, a pair of draconic wings sprout from your back. You gain a fly speed of 60 feet as long as you are unencumbered and not wearing heavy armor.

Draconic Presence

Beginning at 18th level, you can use a bonus action to polymorph into an adult dragon of the type associated with your draconic ancestry. The transformation takes your concentration as if it were a spell, and lasts for up to 1 hour, or until you drop to 0 hit points or die. Your game statistics, except your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, are replaced by the statistics of the dragon. You retain your alignment and personality, and any of the class features gained from the Sorcerer class.

You assume the hit points of your new form. When you revert to your natural form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. If you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. As long as the excess damage doesn't reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren't knocked unconscious.

You can take any action which a dragon can take, including speaking and casting spells. Your gear melds into the new form. You can't activate, use, wield, or otherwise benefit from your equipment, except to cast spells with your components or arcane focus.

Strain. As long as you have at least 35 strain, channel the dread presence of your draconic ancestor, causing those around you to become awestruck or frightened. As an action, you can gain 5 strain to draw on this power and exude an aura of awe or fear (your choice) to a distance of 60 feet. For 1 minute or until you lose your concentration (as if you were casting a concentration spell), each hostile creature that starts its turn in this aura must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed (if you chose awe) or frightened (if you chose fear) until the aura ends. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw is immune to your aura for 24 hours

Fae Touched

When a child is born by a fey crossing open at the full moon, had lord or lady of the fey smile upon them, or has a distant ancestor of a woodland nymph, they sometimes manifest as a sorcerer. These sorcerers are connected to the magic of the Feywild, a twilight realm of emotion and primal forces of nature that underlies the material plane, the barrier between the two worlds thin in many locations.

Sylvan Magic

Your link to the Feywild gives you a special connection to the primal forces of nature. You learn one 1st-level spell from the Fae Touched Spell List, below. The chosen spell counts as a sorcerer spell for you, and does not count against your limit of spells known. When choosing your Sorcerer spells known at 1st level and higher, you can choose spells from this list, in addition to choosing spells from the Sorcerer spell list.

You learn an additional spell of a level you can cast from the Fae Touched Spell List at 3rd level, and again at 5th, 7th, and 9th level.

Leyline Travel

When you reach 14th level, you learn the fey's hidden means of using leylines, invisible channels of magic that flow through the natural world, to carry you and your friends vast distances instantly.

You learn the teleport spell if you don't already know it, which doesn't count against your number of sorcerer spells known. If you already know it, you can learn one sorcerer spell that doesn't count against your number of sorcerer spells known, obeying all the restrictions for selecting a spell at this level.

When you cast teleport, your innate connection to the leylines allows you to have a heightened accuracy with the spell. When the DM rolls 1d00 to determine if you have arrived at the chosen location successfully, the DM treats any roll of 49 or lower as 50.

Strain. As long as you have at least 32 strain, you empower this feature, and gain the ability to take shorter jaunts along the leylines. On your turn, you can forfeit up to 30 feet of your movement to teleport that same distance. You must teleport to an unoccupied space you can see.

Majesty of the Feywild

Starting at 18th level, you can gain 6 strain as a bonus action to magically take on the guise of the true fey. In this form, you have resistance to all damage except force and necrotic damage, and you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 5 necrotic damage if you end your turn inside an object.

You remain in this form for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.

Strain. As long as you have at least 35 strain, whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, targets that are hit by an attack or fail a save as part of the spell are also Charmed or Frightened (your choice) until the end of your next turn.

Starborn

The celestial bodies of the heavens work in mysterious ways, very occasionally granting power to individuals that bask in their light. Whether you were born in the wake of a falling star, viewed a solar eclipse without blinking away the dazzling light, or a nearby universe coalesced into the power that runs through your veins, the stars have gifted you with their elusive arcane power.

The Starborn instinctively know the paths of the stars, and draw power from their light. They use their connection with the heavens to seek guidance, read the future, and twist fate.

Bend Space

At 6th level, your cosmic reach allows you to collapse the distance between two points. As an action, you can gain two strain to force a creature you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, is magically teleported up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space of your choice which you can see. A willing creature can choose to forgo the saving throw.

Strain. As long as you have at least 16 strain, the space around you begins to warp. As a reaction when you are hit by an attack, you can gain four strain to reduce the damage from this attack to 0, and magically teleport yourself into an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you that you can see.

Stellar Divination

At 14th level, whenever you complete a short or long rest you may perform a ritual with your arcane focus, granting you insight into the future. You ask a single question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity to occur before your next rest. The DM offers a truthful reply. The reply might be a short phrase, a cryptic rhyme, or an omen.

Stellar divination doesn't take into account any possible circumstances that might change the outcome, such as the casting of spells or the loss or gain of a companion.

Strain. As long as you have at least 32 strain, you begin to see and manipulate the possibilities around you. Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you rolls an attack, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to gain 2 strain and grant advantage on the triggering roll.

Perfect Fortune

At 18th level, your ability to view and alter your destiny is nearly absolute. You have advantage on Initiative checks, attack rolls against you have disadvantage, and you have advantage on saving throws against spells or effects which include you as a target.

Strain. As long as you have at least 35 strain, you can extend your revision of destiny to others near you. Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes a saving throw, you can spend 2 strain to grant advantage or disadvantage (your choice) to the roll.

Why a Sorcerer Variant?

As written, the sorcerer of the Player's Handbook isn't bad, per se. It's mechanically and thematically "acceptable". The problem is, it isn't actually interesting. It has stolen the ideas of other, better classes and tried to kitbash them together in some limited form that just results in a class which is overwhelmingly average.

During the original playtest packets of D&D Next (now D&D 5e), Sorcerer had a far more interesting life, however. It wasn't a dramatic shift from the Sorcerer of today, but it was something unique, something special which emphasized the raw, barely controlled nature of the sorcerer's theme. It wasn't about what you know, it was about how much control you had. And the more you used, the more dangerous you became.

This is an attempt to recapture that feel, to put Sorcerer back on a pedestal of "Awesome" where it can stand beside Warlocks, Wizards, and Bards and say "Yes, I really do belong here."

Art Credits

• The Flame Sorcerer (pg. 1) - from the Player's Handbook
• A sorcerous landscape (pg. 1 and 2) - from the Player's Handbook
• Temporal Sorcerer (pg. 4) - by Montjart.
• A draconic sorcerer (pg. 7) - from the Player's Handbook
• Ninfas (pg. 8) - by Shimizu You
• Star Mage (pg. 10) - by SappphireART

Credits

• Original Sorcerer design by Wizards of the Coast
• Variant Sorcerer by /u/damnedmage
• The Elementalist's Pocketbook by /u/caelreader
• With inspiration and assistance from the Society of Silliness, The Discord of Many Things and the MCDM Discord. Thanks for the help!
• And inspired by The Sorcerer by /u/devikyn

Design Goals

• The Sorcerer must be a "full caster" arcane spellcasting class which fills a unique niche, separate from Bard, Psion, Warlock, and Wizard.
• The Sorcerer must not rely on the crutch of "metamagic" as its defining feature.
• The Sorcerer must emphasize the raw and barely controlled nature of their magical power.
• The Sorcerer must have a risk and reward mechanic inherent in their means of casting magic.
• The Sorcerer must not exceed the Bard's limit of spells known.
• The Sorcerer must fit on no more than 4 pages, including artwork. Sorcerous Origins must take up no more than 1 to 2 pages.

Design Notes

Version 0.9.2 (19th January 2020)

The basic premise of the sorcerer is that it gains strain to cast and modify spells, and the more they are strained, the weirder they become.

When designing a new Sorcerous Origin, there are a few key points to keep in mind:

• Sorcerers have an extremely limited spell selection. Every subclass should provide them with an additional spell known at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level. Similar to a Cleric's domain spells, these spells should reinforce the theme of their sorcerous origin, and need not be limited to the Sorcerer Spell List.
• Most of the features of a Sorcerous Origin are in fact two features in one: a power or utility feature which provides a measure of power, and a ribbon which is activated when a certain amount of strain has been gained. As a guideline, these should activate when the user has about half their strain limit when they gain the feature.
• Sorcerous Origin features should aim to provide utility or defenses to the sorcerer. They should not (generally) improve a Sorcerer's damage.

Changelog

• 0.9.2 (19th January 2020) - Fixed the wording of Ancestral Spell so that Sorcerers can choose to replace the spell learned at higher levels.
• 0.9.1 (13th January 2020) - Changed Fey bloodline spell list to a static list, rather than partial Druid spell list.
• 0.9.0 (2nd December 2019) - Redesigned Fey bloodline. Removed Calming Release. Moved secondary Sorcerous Origin features from 3rd level to 2nd.
• 0.8.0 (7th August 2019) - Added Starborn bloodline
• 0.7.7 (23rd July 2019) - Changed the wording of Strain-based casting to allow the creation of slots for abilities other than casting spells (for use with Paladin smite interaction).
• 0.7.6 (12th July 2019) - Added a minimum to the temporary hit points gained by the strain effect of the 6th level Empowered Healing ability for the Divine Soul origin.