Sorcerers: How to RP Classes in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM

hey there YouTube I'm Pruitt and this is Jim Davis and on today's episode we're gonna help you hone that innate creativity that bursts forth from within and talk about role playing in sorcerer's on web DM let's talk about sources let's let's talk about a subject that comes from within comes from where they're not learned it's innate it's within you somewhere on the Internet's I'm not sure how I wonder why people got the impression that I hate sorcerers all over again yeah absolutely took a big steaming pile all over the Sorcerer's and some of the criticisms I've read are perfectly valid and I agree with the criticisms I guess you're absolutely right for instance not a lot to talk about the beauty that is subtle spell we're not here to talk about mechanics however I would like to clear the air a bit I do not hate sorcerers I find the thematic power of sorcerers to be very appealing yeah the themes in the story of the sorcerer class is it like said very appealing to me and and I like that I have issues with the mechanical implementation of the fifth edition sorcerer and I think it could be changed I've discussed them at length elsewhere and even work with some people on I'm sort of inspired like extra spell lists and things like that thank you very much clay that aside the mechanics of the whole thing aside what I like about the sorcerer is is the fact that they're innately magical yeah they were born with power right and I used to see like second edition wizards in this way I used to struggle when I was playing and running in second edition of being like how in the world would you multi class or dual class or something into wizard outside of firstly you pretty much have to pick wizard at first level and I sort of saw Wizards as a combination of wizard and sorcerer that they have innate power within them that has to be honed and trained through training and the spell book and everything like that the third edition separating out those two archetypes created a bit of a dilemma for me because I liked combining the two of those things and so looking at like the fifth edition sorcerer what I liked the most about it is that sort of x-men style power discovery where you you have you have this within you and and your your you're born with it and unlike say a wizard it was to train for years to get that or warlock who has to seek an outside power source the the sorcerer is just like yeah I've always been like this yes this is always my magic has always been there and even if they had to train under someone to to harness their natural talents and bring them under control they didn't need an external source of magic in the first place no that's what's that's what's strong about the Sorcerer's and that's why regardless of the mechanical stuff that whatever just fix it the do it everyone that geez the theme of it is what what ultimately makes me go like yeah I wish it was different but I'm not I don't want to get rid of sorcerers wouldn't want to discourage someone from playing a sorcerer certainly because there's so much to offer for a player with their with their sorcerer well yeah because I mean you have to think like where does that power originate right and that's what you know all the subclasses it's a different thing whether it's been wild or whatever not a lot for you what what what what intrigues you for a sorcerer playing a sorcerer like what what's something that maybe we could see in the future of a source of power I kind of like a generic source for me and just sort of like I for a while you could kind of see it as in divine soul of sort of squinted and didn't choose to make clear things I know that they say and while the the wild sorcerers that if you read the flavor text for it it's sort of like this can represent any number of inherently magical powers that you might have maybe you live too close to the FEI wild maybe you just were you know we're born at the confluence of magical ley lines and it parted you at a moment maybe you were bathed in magical energies at a particular moment in your life and and sort of became a source or afterwards which is something that I think can happen yeah why not I could see something like let's really like make a subclass that really cranks it up in terms of what you can do with madam really like takes the sorcerer in goes we're not gonna give them extra stuff no wings no base armor class something like that we're just gonna make them a better magic user that's kind of a subclass that I that I could see getting behind yeah that said the options that are available are very thumb attic and and offer a lot for the role player who's looking for an our chemist who has to deal with say a journey of self-discovery or anarchist who is on the run from from people fearing and mistrusting them because of how long it took them to gain control of their powers and for those players who are looking for that the sorcerer is like come on in we got everything you need yeah see I'm sitting here thinking like I would love to play a sorcerer whose source of power and source of adventure come from the same place but for two different reasons what if he was while his mother was pregnant like right in the ninth month uh-huh a dragon attacks the village and breathes fire and burns her alive doesn't kill the baby the killaby up and so that infusion of dragon fire they have come along and all the sudden it's kind of a little gross but a baby like pops out like oh my god here's this child and all of a sudden they're developing they're developing these powers there's ice orb that energy and now as they grow up and they learn the story of what happened to now they have to seek out the source of their own power and deal with their own nature right like that let's see we're talking like a red dragon here presumably so they're presumably a red dragon sorts were and like what does that mean for themselves do they see their their power is this dark painful thing that they don't know what kind of use a curse right like that they would have rather have had a mother and a family and a unhhhh tumultuous childhood as opposed to these powers and so like it offers those those moments of like like you're saying like a cursed you're cursed with power in some ways and and that is like rich in role-playing potential and and growth right like the whole point of are doing these series is to like let people know that that the the big draw for role-playing is like to watch your character grow to learn new things to develop their beliefs to develop their ideals to to fail and have to recover yeah you have to deal with adversity and overcome and that's really awesome though right like having to learn to come to grips with something you see as a curse you're having to turn that into an asset yeah I mean and you know in other systems like say like exalt it I mean it's kind of you could you could kind of play it that way where all of all of those that are exalted or usually sought out because they have this power from birth and you have to like stop because let it destroy the world yeah and so I don't know I mean you could you could pour it a little bit of that over yeah and to offer as a DM offer a little bit of I mean there's some there's some recourse that you have to deal with just by virtue of being born absolutely and and like to continue to borrow sort of ideas from exalted that the idea that with power comes madness and with power comes a curse that that you can't exercise this power without eventually at taking a toll on either yourself or others around you and I can see you doing that with a sorcerer I can see it being like their magic horses through them particularly if their one works like they've always been magical and that's not like an accident happened and they became magical it's like they've always been that way then what how does that affect who they are as a person how does that affect their reactions to things their perceptions of things are they maybe like you know someone who's who's of reactions to two different stimuli in their environment is always over the top yeah and they not only have to learn to control their magic but they have to learn to control their reactions and maybe they retreat into sort of like a meditative sort of state where they where they gain control over themselves or maybe they're more like say the Vulcans where they've developed this elaborate sort of floss of logic and and a way of making decisions and seeing the world to avoid the extremes that they know they're capable of yeah volatility of their nature it's just inherent but it's also controllable it's also controllable and and playing through that particularly when your ears start if we assume you start at first level where it's like you've got the first little smells and your can trips you must have some control already yeah but role playing through a journey of learning to really harness that power and as you learn to really harness it unlocking more and more within yourself it's something that you're not really able to do with the warlock in the wizard that if you want that concept coupled with the arcane magic sorcerers where it's probably where you best find that yeah cuz I mean if you've manifested your power from let's say birth yeah home dude in Incredibles Jack Jack yes yeah machine laser beams are turn into metal and catching on fire it's I this is terrible what do we do yeah it could be that like that kind of person is sent to the nearest place that that people were people who know how to deal with that kind of thing our sin and so what if your sorcerers like raised by wizards constantly butting heads with these with these nerds with their books they want you to read what you read but it gets a source of conflict right because one of the things about these classes is like it we're asking the Dungeon Master's to think about how the class fits into their world and in the class the sorcerer class demands the the DM answer some questions what are what are the common people think about those that manifest sorcery with without any provocation or incident just happens right like those who have like a dragon several generations back or a fairy lord or something like that how do the the common people react to that are they seen with fear and mistrust and as dangerous people that need to be contained are they celebrated as touched by the divine touched by the fantastic and and and and people look at that ago yeah it's gonna make life more complicated for us as this person learns to to harness that but what a wonderful thing to have happen to our child and so like those are questions the DM is gonna want to ask and that will inform how the player plays their character I'm this one was where I would let the player take the lead on that that I would let the player determine like well regardless of like what's going on in the world where I was from this is how the people reacted and then if that's different than what the DM has decided that it's up to the DM and the player to reconcile those two differences and whatnot but here's my thing is that should be the way it is because then that gives a chance for character growth and character development absolutely is your you know hey you grew up and they were fine with you and everything and you walk into the world and wider world is it ready for you yeah no they're like you need to go back to be Fe with your worth of whatever your hedge magic is that you get so cool yeah or you can even flip the script on that and it could be that you grew up in a place where you were feared and loathed and and the the calamity that you brought as you learned to control these powers made people resentful and mistrustful of you and now you're in a wider world where people are like yeah no big deal plenty of people that have powers and now you're having your characters having to deal with with overcoming that that that sense of always being on the outside and that could be an interesting you know way to take your character as well as they go off an adventure and meet new people and monsters and all this other stuff so that's one thing like the the sorcerer really offers the player a chance to go through that sort of journey of self-awareness yeah learning more about themselves and and learning more about the magic that they're that's infused in them yeah so speaking of that learning learning about themselves the players have options in Santa thar's like we've been covering here like they they have these great little backgrounds so let's go through the Sorcerer's okay so I think like the Sorcerer's one that's got like four it's like seems like a lot I have three little little sort of role-playing springboards that you can use and Sorcerer's got four so we've got first off starting with the arcane origin and that's really like asking the players say where does your magic come from the player could be like my character doesn't know but I know the player could just be like neither myself know character knows me yeah it's entirely up to diem to sort of spring on them and let them know but is it is it this is a fantastic beast or monster or something that is the point of origin for that was it an event in your life that that's effused you with magic or something was it a deal made by your parents you know while while while you were either an infant or have yet to be born that causes this change in you but it's worth considering that because it really was color sort of what you're gonna do with the the magic that you have is this a curse is this a blessing then someone impose this on you did you choose it was this an accident or on purpose that's all the different kinds of things you can think of that will inform your characters decisions how you choose to play over me yeah yeah cuz I mean what I've thought about for elvadine my divine soul is you know somewhere in his past one of his one of his ancestors helped a planet are yeah Lost Planet are lost a wing therefore couldn't learn it seems to me lost a feather in their wings so the imbalanced made it where they could not reinter heaven and the imperfection the imperfection and this ancestor found this feather and returned it to the planet R and was thus blessed nice just planet are kissed them on the forehead and then returned to heaven but later on now you have a bunch of divine sorcerers just like walking around spreading the love yeah and it's complete surprise it might take a couple of generations to manifest or it might be immediate all right it could just be that that this thing immediately manifests but there's so many different ways that you can think about it and and all of those things can be used by the dungeon master to create a little side treks and side quests and things like that or even influence them the main the main adventure that they've got going on what if the entity that was responsible for this is still around what if the what if like let's take a look at the draconic sorcerers forget like let's assume that for a second that draconic sorcerers are come about in the sort of the same way that like half dragons do or you know it's like a dragon is polymorphed into a humanoid shape and it has a bunch of offspring with with mortals and little later on they've begin to manifest - these Joe conic powers what if your character lives in a region of the world where there's a powerful dragon living nearby and every draconic sorcerer that that that it manifests the dragon comes to collect them yeah that those are part of that dragons minions that they are the dragon looks at that and goes yeah you're mine you don't you don't get a choice in the matter and now there's sort of this foil that's antagonist it's constantly pursuing the characters they're on the run from this dragon or that they go sure sure I'll be a dragon I'll be a servant of a dragon and now they're on maybe a mission for it you kind of get that pact that patron kind of relationship with that but let's not let the warlocks have all the fun so you can have this kind of relationship with the source of your magic power what if it's a force what if it's just an arcane foursome magic maybe you seek out places where that magic manifests the most in order to learn more about yourself to help harness the powers that you have yeah so moving on from your your arcane origin let's uh let's let's hit the second one here so the the the second one of a reaction we kind of touched on this a minute ago but but it's really worth thinking about how others in the world react to to the presence of sorcerers magic so I'm working on a campaign setting right now that I hope to use in both live streams and for home games where arcane magic is taboo forbidden it's responsible for the destruction of the world and and the remaining people on the world know that and the druidic order which has taken it upon themselves to keep everything going long enough so that civil the light of civilization doesn't snuff out has basically been like yeah any arcane magic in the lands that we control is forbidden yeah and to them sorcerers are the most dangerous of that because number one they're innocent so that means that you know if they catch a sorcerer they're having to punish an innocent person and it could be anyone and so in the context of this setting sorcerers are feared and mistrusted and and actively sought out whereas it's like no one knows any Wizards no one's seen a spell with a wizard in this setting is on their own they got no one to teach them magic I would imagine most people turn to warlock magic because it's like we'll just contact a powerful patron and they'll just give it to us in exchange for services rendered and so like that it's very contextual in terms of the campaign but it could be others it could be that it's seen as a blessing more we're not a big deal or you know this happens to your kid and you send them off to Hogwarts or wherever you know yes like yeah okay oh we got a sorcerer in our midst let's send them to a place where they can learn how to how to use this without without it burning down the house and that's gonna inform a lot of how the character moves about the world particularly like in the low levels where what what peasants think of you still matters the remaining two are kind of like manifestations of the magic itself like how it comes about how it comes about like what's it look like is what they're really asking is is someone able to look at you when you're not casting spells and tell that you're a sorcerer right do you have glowing eyes is there an air of arcane mysticism about you are your is your hair always blowing from an unseen breeze and unfelt breeze all phrases are unseen unless there's dirt anything sure or you know do you do shock every person that you shake hands with you shotgun like storm sorcerers always go that static charge I don't know I one of it that's one of the things that I like the most about the shadow sorcerer is it's got that little quirks table of things like yeah people have seen you got you they you've seen you take a wound but no one's seen you bleed right or you breathed some time last week blinked or something bred taking a breath early like the particularly the one where it's like when you're asleep people can't tell if you're alive or dead this is another one that I really like you could have that for all of the sorcerers and like using those shadow sorcerer inspirations if you pick another sorceress option you can kind of use those to inspire you and say like yeah what if my draconic sorcerer is always smells faintly of there the breath weapon associated with that dragon bores down for fire right or what if my wild magic sorcerer just being around the house things just break like you get some picture falls off the wall or that cup that was set down mysteriously is on the edge and is gonna fall off milk just spoils the milk just sort of spoils the flowers wilt you know that kind of randomness for someone's hair grows a foot while you're talking to them or something like those kind of manifestations again depending on what campaign world you're in those might be seen as signs of a blessing of the gods or they may be things that you attempt to hide you don't want other people to find out and then the final was a sign of sorcery is there something different about the way your magic is cast and this is one of those things where a dungeon master happen if the dungeon master has a solid grasp on the the physics of magic in their campaign world how magic works what's the origin of magic how does it how does it influence the daily lives of people how do spell casters tap into it if you think about those kinds of things then it could be that sorcerers are just why is their magic tied to spells that sometimes that's the question I asked myself about sorcerers is like wizards need to learn spells because they have to develop a technique for spell casting clerics say prayers you know druids manifest the forces of nature but what is a spell to a sorcerer do they understand it in the same way that a wizard or a warlock does are they are they in fact learning all like a fireball from all three is that the same fireball or is it different for those others and you're just sort of using the spells for the mechanics but the flavor of how you describe the spell being cast is completely different for for the three different classes well yeah I mean because like you said I mean sorcerers at least to me always seemed more like x-men or superheroes right yeah something like that yeah those two tracing things like a sorcerer just it just happened he's not do it yeah the magics are almost like explodes out of you without without it being it looks like trying to hold a firehose that it's on full blast yeah and and I kind of like that and in that respect I would allow a sorcerer much more Lee in terms of light here's how my magic works as opposed to a wizard from like Wow for wizard you know yeah the same gestures you use to cast that spell are the same ones another wizard used to cast it because the spell is the spell is the spell whereas a sorcerer it's like they can produce this effect and it might not always look the same as when another spell caster uses it and that's how another way I would distinguish between the two classes in terms of what their magic means yeah for the world so here's the thing do you think you could play a sorcerer who actually doesn't really understand that they are a sorcerer and just happens like they're running there with the party and they're like oh we need to get up there and they have fly on their spell list right and they just know like I need to get up there first I'm like their fifth level and they start flying I think that's an interesting take and I'd certainly work with a player who you know that's where they wanted to go with it I think there's you'd have to have some detachment because of the action economy and the way spells work but if it's just a matter of like describing things and the reaction of the NPC's especially if they've got something like subtle spell where the effects just kind of happened and there's no obvious location of origin for it I think so cuz I kind of like that idea right where you don't quite know maybe the source maybe it's being around other people that that tips the sorcerer off that something's happening like a wizard or someone comes and goes hey I know does this happen perhaps you you know whatever or or a cleric of Arcana in the party can can sort of like help guide the sorcerer through their magical tre they're not invested in a particular form of spell casting they're conclude some a god of god or goddess magic I think also like the sorcerer who is out is not in control of their powers where mechanically maybe nothing has changed but the way you describe things the way the player and maybe even the player like randomly determines some of the spells that they have or randomly determines which spell they cast just by rolling on their list of spells that they know that can be another way of sort of a lot without having to dig deep and make a whole bunch of new mechanics to support that ya know I love the idea of a sorcerer who like let's the DM or just rolls his spells randomly yeah and the DM knows his spell list and I mean it's a little bit extra work for the DM yeah but as play goes on he slowly starts to discover the things that he can do yeah and it could be a situation where you know the DM has the spell list and then of course the player will know which ones they've cast before well yeah it could just be like well I i'd like to attack this person yeah with the magic and maybe the player rolls a die to determine what spell level is being cast right so like if it's low levels are flipping a coin maybe but they can they can I just roll the d-10 zeroes can't rip one through nine there you go boom they can't reroll otherwise they can just tell the DM okay I want to attack with my magic mind my character panics boom they're gonna let out all the magic and they rolls every Timmy yeah I'm reaching out with their with their magic and touching someone with it and then the player or than the DM perhaps what if it's like the spells aren't even chosen until they decide to do that players sort of like okay I'm going to attack with my magic then the DM knows okay you've got like four spells known you still haven't selected and then the DM rolls on a table of offensive magic to see what manifests in that moment for the sorcerer and then the sorcerer has that thing they know they now know okay I can cast a gross or scorcher yeah I can cast whatever you'd have to have a lot of trust I think a lot of players don't want to relinquish that trust or or diems don't want to have to deal with that kind of thing yeah it could be a really rewarding experience well yeah I mean if we're talking about role-playing here yeah I mean that's that's about as random and because you know I mean in the in a meta since you know you're picking your spell's before your character everybody knows that they can cast them right yes and so you know like in x-men they don't ever know it's just a situation arises yeah that is stressful it's dramatic and they reach out with her and then oh my god they can teleport right they can you know like fireflies out and strike somebody right whatever like I just think that that's that's a lot of fun I think it could be a really fun fun concept especially if as the campaign progresses you start reserving things you like well all right I cast burning hands that first time I'm gonna work on my fire magic right and then and then maybe the player says like yeah for this one spell spells known I'm gonna take scorching rain yeah something like that cuz I'm working on refining my fire magic yeah I want to focus it down to a narrow beam uh-huh that's what you can doing and you can start with the with you know begin to cast the spell of Bernie hands and of the minute focusing into a tight rave of pure you know burning fire right right so what are what are maybe some some types of like off type of sorcerer like what would you I mean the one kind of just described it's a little bit different a little bit like that yeah what do you think I like the idea it's not necessarily off playing against type or anything like that but it's the divine offspring like a literal demigod yeah and it could be that you're playing a divine soul sorcerer because of that but it could be any of the other sorcerers as well depending on how what God you're talking about and and the type of the man absolutely I kind of like that and that this character is the is the direct offspring of one of the many deities in a forgotten realms or sorry not forgotten realms but just a Dungeons and Dragons world now you've got a parent who's a god you have to deal with and all the kind of crazy things that Hera and Zeus make Hercules do diem could just go read about those things and they'll just mess with your character right perhaps not having your character kill all their children and then have to go on a bunch of quests to atone for that but maybe right you never know you never know and so I think that's kind of one way before the divine soul and the favorit soul kind of came out that was one of the concepts that I sort of liked for it I kind of liked the concept of someone who's like an untrained like like they started the wizard training found out that they had this themselves they had this magic and themselves and so they're a very bookish and and scholarly were they understand that what they're doing is is a spell casting and that spells are these formulas that are used for generations and generations and generations of magic users and they have a very have a wizard's understanding of their sorceress magic yeah and and and that lets them fill both the sage and the archanis role a hearty and just kind of like gives it a bit of a twist I think right right yeah I mean we mentioned in the last one but that sounds a little little Jonathan strange a little bit of power but he's using spells and I start studying with a wizard a little bit more scholarly but he's bookish and his bookish eye I think the best way to to replicate the kind of magics have thought about it a bunch since we talked about it last time is like really just have specific books that are arcane foci for a specific spell yeah so it's like you need this spell book to cast fireball you don't need an orb or a wand or a staff you have it anything you need the book in your hand to cast the spell that's kind of how I would do it and and it keeps that sort of the the the usefulness of magical tones and codices and things like that even for the sorcerer but also gives them I don't know gives them a reason to collect books yeah and to keep a large library of magic and yet there are those times when a sorcerer can just jump the book out and focus on their raw magic and not have to worry about it yeah because who doesn't like to have a nice library right sure for me the sort of the final one is is a is a sorcerer who's a a cursed magical creature or a magical creature who has become a humanoid for a brief time period so we kind of discussed it a bit in our show about dragon born the idea of say like a draconic source for being a dragon that took an oath to live as a human for a certain period of time yeah that they are or a bet right like there I had an npc and uh in a one-shot campaign sort of solo campaign with with my players where there was a red dragon who was just a red dragon sorcerer and the point of it was was that the player had challenged the red so the red rose like yeah I bet you can't live a year as a human like I just bet you can't do it you jerk yeah and then the red dragon being arrogant and and full of themselves like I'll take that bet and then now they they you know polymorph themselves into a human and and now it's a red dragon sorcerer and I suppose at any time the player could if this was a player they could decide to NPC their character and become a dragon again and fly away but as long as they're a player character that dragon is a human and will suffer all the limitations for it and and just have to manifest their Draconis the Erik but there's others that lots of different monsters and everything that you can model with the various the sorceress origins and you can just feel like yeah my character is uh is one of these monsters that's taken on a humanoid form and then they have an eight magic and and they'll adventure for a while until I retire them and they become a monster again yeah so yeah that's that's kind of where my head goes when I started thinking about to think about sorcerers mmm see everybody I don't hate them yeah like sorcerers they're fun I like them I just wish everybody had meta magic you fighters what [Music] in television the feature a Faustian bargain the devil of Daniel Webster okay bedazzled yeah totally yeah holy that's that's perfect okay yeah Elliott Reynolds spittin glasses acid yes okay huh there's a movie with all the cold the Mephisto waltz for his piano player so soul to devil played music better I've heard of ever I've never heard of that oh oh yeah okay do it the price paid by your loved ones that's another good run for warlocks it's like what a Little Mermaid the price the little mermaid mermaid well like she gives up her voice yeah to be human but she gets power but she gets found she she gets turned into a human she can walk around she can sign her name so why don't you just sign a note that says hey I'm that mermaid that saved you if you kissed me we can be together forever signed Ariel the movie ends the movie was really good Constantine is a great one Constantine is one where that's the one pistol where he's like yeah I'm dying of lung cancer and so I'm gonna sell my soul of three Devils yeah not the movie I like the TV show TV showing too bad I'm sorry this was fun I'm sorry that it got canceled I really like it that it's actor you know they you know they brought him back on the CW right I'd heard that but I haven't watched those episodes yet he's oh yeah he's on a couple of episodes it they did they did the one where Lance who had brought been brought back by the Lazarus pool was going crazy as she was dead too long and so he basically had to she was a ravenous spirit or some all in a row yeah this was on arrow but he was also on episode of Legends and there has been talk like yeah it was it was really a I haven't seen it I just saw I saw a blurb that's like Constantine's coming to Legends or some storylines yeah that's kind of on crap but I think that there was talk of bringing Constantine on to the CW I always fly it out for you yeah those guy read those columns for years they're great and the one where he goes to America and he gets sent to prison and he just like at by the end of the trade paperback he's like started by doing nothing he just does nothing just shows people some picture and just like he his magic is subtle to the point where you can't tell when he's doing his magic but it's it's really great all those are really great constant time rhymes with wine

Channel: Web DM

Views: 184,611

Keywords: Dungeons, Dragons, Role, Playing, Tabletop, Game, 5e, Web, DM, WebDM, D&D, DND, dungeons and dragons, d&d sorcerer, dungeons and dragons sorcerer, dungeons and dragons sorcerer guide, dnd sorcerer, how to play a sorcerer 5e, role play, how to rp, dnd sorcerer 5e, dungeons and dragons gameplay, how to play dungeons and dragons, D&D character, 5e sorcerer, roleplay, player character, sorcerer 5e, sorcerer build, 5e character creation, d&d character

Id: HQg09N5C2iE

Length: 34min 53sec (2093 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/benyoda95]

I really like Web DM. They do a great job of opening my eyes to different possibilities. They take D&D out of a box

[u/69001001011]

You guys need to stop every time that I watch one of your videos I want to play that character. Now I'm wanting to play a wild mage like jack-jack, but as an adult and after being imprisoned for two eecades before escaping. He doesn't know what's happening and it's terrifying.

[u/Grimku]

I'm surprised Elsa didn't get brought up as a 'wild magic' sorcerer.

[u/Ianoren]

Bards always get to act as the face of the party, but you know a bard would be much more successful if he used subtle meta magic to enchant his audience. So the class has a lot of potential to be the best social fop especially with 2 expertise just a 1 level dip in rogue away (or get 1 expertise with prodigy)

Metamagic gives so much flexibility to play a proper gish. I can't wait to see the revision of the Stone Sorcerer where you can really combine martial and magic on the same turn with quicken. Playing a Sorcadin for a while, it was absolutely insane what twin casting booming blade with smites could do.

[u/XanTheInsane]

I prefer playing Sorcerers over Wizards but damn I hate being "the face of the party" simply because my caster stat is Charisma.

It's why I always prefer to have a bard in the party or someone else who wants to be the face.

[u/Satyrsol]

I like mining older editions (such as 3.5) for roleplaying inspiration. One aspect of this that surprised me was that according to Races of Stone, dwarves consider dwarf sorcerers to be blessed by Moradin (Page 9).

Another good option from that edition is from the Class Acts article for Sorcerers in Dragon 336: it's a mechanical aspect to sorcerers but had primarily roleplaying benefits. The options were called Poltergeists, and they were effectively aspects of magic that stuck to the sorcerer based on how they were raised or how they first manifested magic. You'd sacrifice cantrips known for cool effects, and one that struck me as great for a sorcerer is Fanfare. Fanfare manifests itself a flourish of glorious sounds and pyrotechnics when you make an appearance or entrance to a scene. It gives you a bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks, but is hard to hide this effect.

I think something like that would be good to consider when making a sorcerer: magic manifests in a unique way around and from you, but also could help shape the way your character lives.

This was a good episode though, I really liked it, even if this series is more of a discussion instead of really referring to any published material in particular (aside from XGTE, which I think was mentioned).

[u/AlexisDeTocqueville]

A character I'm excited to play in an upcoming game is a draconic bloodline (Green dragon) sorceress. Green dragons are manipulators, so it's a good fit with a character that is outwardly good but secretly evil. Since Sorcerers are a CHA class, you're in a good spot to pump up the social skills and the subtle metamagic option can be really useful with enchantment spells like Suggestion.

[u/Animation]

I would like to see a Sylar (Heroes) approach to learning new spells. When you've leveled up and have unselected spell slots, you can only fill them by killing other arcane magic users (of any type) with your magic. Then you can pick a spell they knew as your next spell if you want to. You could be good and so this in self defense only but it would be tough. A less evil option would be that you can only pick spells you've seen cast by others, and then you have to touch the person (or creature) to copy the spell. Either option could be fun.

[u/Seraphim333]

Jim mentioning a more metamagic-themed sorcerer is exactly what I’ve been wanting; personally not liking the flavor of most of the sorcerer subclasses, I’d try to see if my DM would work with me home brewing a subclass around being a true metamagician.