Sorcerer Optional Class Features:
1st: New sorcerer spells added. Most things are reprints from SCAG which is no longer Adventure League legal.
3rd: Metamagic options
Seeking Spell: Honestly not too impressive. Getting to reroll a d20 in nice but 2 sorc points is a lot. But needing to choose it over a different metamagic option just won’t make this worth it.
Transmuted Spell: This is great for flavor though less important mechanically. Not many enemies have resistances and vulnerabilities. But some do and when they do you’re going to be quite glad you have this. With Sorcs being unable to change spells as easily it does help when you want spells like Fireball and can never change. This also helps with people wanting to make element specific sorcerers. It also helps the Draconic lineage as well as the Storm Sorcerer.
Draconic bloodline gets a boost at 6th level too so you can mesh with elemental affinity where they can add their charisma mod to the damage roll of a spell that matches their element.
4th: Sorcerous Versatility. You can change a metamagic option at 4th level and cantrips
We have complaints about metamagic being so locked in and only have 4 options. But we yell about that a lot more in our Sorcerer episode that you can go check out.
5th: Magical Guidance. Not an amazing but it’s nice when you need it. And it’s free.
Overall we’re a little disappointed that they haven’t changed the sorc a bit more. They did so much for the ranger and it feels like those changes were pretty great. Just wish they dedicated some more resources here.
Aberrant Mind
As a bit of correction, I believe the good things I have heard were about the Clockwork subclass. Not this one.
The flavor is neat as it’s like a Great Old One warlock but in Sorcerer form. People really love psionics. This definitely feels unique and has a bit of a cursed feeling to it.
Psionic Spells: This is the first Sorc subclass to actually get more spell options. Jarred doesn’t really care as he thinks that spell choice isn’t the issue with Sorcerers. Known spells isn’t the problem as much as metamagic and sorcery points. Will somewhat disagrees from his experience with sorcerer as he felt it had a pretty shallow spell depth.
The spells they get are all pretty good. But most important is that they can switch out these spells for Sorcerer, Wizard, or Warlock spells from the Divination or Enchantment school.
This is a boost but it just starts to step on wizards more than it helps sorcs.
Telepathic Speech: This is awful. This is such a waste of a class feature. Telepathy is nice. No argument there. But since it is a single creature for a couple of minute and you can do it unlimitedly it just makes you play telepathy telephone. All of the limitations put on this make it so narrow of a use that I just don’t see this getting any use. This is basically beaten by the cantrip “message”
Psionic Sorcery: You can cast spells from your Psionic Spell feature using sorcery points and it doesn’t take VSM components. It does feel like a psionic ability which is cool. But this just gets expensive and generally is not worth it. When it is useful it’s VERY useful. It seems like the spells they give you probably aren’t the best options. But taking some of the wizard ones may make for great out of combat uses.
It does step on the Subtle Spell metamagic. But that still needs material components.
Psychic Defenses: Resistance the psychic damage and advantage on charmed and frightened. No issues. This is good.
Revelation in Flesh:
Bonus action and some sorc points and you can choose some odd features for yourself. Most of them are situational aside from the flying speed. I could see flying in every single combat. But seeing invisible creatures, swimming speed, or squeezing through gaps is just good. I’d expect these to come up quite often.
Warping Implosion: Teleport 120 feet and cause creatures to get pulled in to the space.
This is quite bad for an 18th level feature. Once for free is good. But then 5 sorcery points means this will never get used again. And it affects every creature. So you can’t even save your friends. Not even with careful metamagic as it’s not a spell.
Unless you have quickened as a meta magic. Then you can use this as an action then explode the people behind you. Hoping that none of them are friends.
Thunderstep is a 3rd level spell that does this better. Or at least a similar thing.
Overall: This is a bad subclass. This is a new Shadow Sorcerer with how bad it is. I don’t ever expect to see this at the table and I am disappointed that this made it to publication. If we are missing something that makes this great please let us know.
Clockwork:
A being that embodies lawfullness and loves clocks.
Clockwork Magic: Get some free sorc spells. Not much more to add there. The spells they get are much worse than Aberrant mind. They get alarm which sucks as a sorc spell because they dont get ritual casting. Protection from Evil and Good is alright but loses it’s luster as time goes on as you can concentrate on better spells usually. But it’s specific in use so as a class spell it’s only okay.
A lot of the spells they get seem to step on wizards. They aren’t spells you can manipulate. Just good ones to have.
Restore Balance: Cancel advantage or disadvantage up to your prof bonus and regain on a long rest. Favorite part is that it does not use Sorc points. Great class feature from an MC perspective if you want a small Sorc dip.
Bastion of Law: As an action put a ward on someone by expending Sorc points 1-5. They can later expend those dice to reduce damage done to them by 1d8 per point used. Not a bad amount of damage mitigated.
Trance of Order: Bonus action to enter a state where you can’t roll below a 10. Honestly I think this is great. It removes failure as an option for a minute. It’s totally worth spending 5 sorc points to do it again too. Once you figure out the enemies AC you can turn Scorching Ray into a magic missile and guarantee you hit. Not many things have AC higher than 19 which you’ll have around 14th level.
Clockwork Cavalcade: Heal 100 HP, End 6th level spells affecting creatures or objects of your choice.
It feels a bit weird for a sorcerer. But fitting for clockwork. It’s about restoring order and bringing things back to their expected state.
In comparison to Heal this is great for 7 Sorc points. Also lets you restore a 30ft cube. This has amazing out of combat utility.
This is just good.
Overall: Doesn’t fix the core issues of the sorcerer but it doesn’t add new issues either. Will doesn’t love the clock theme.
