The title says it. I'm not sure this is stopping Aberrant Mind sorcerers from selecting it (it seems like it used to, at least), but the spell page for Dissonant Whispers is missing the "Available For" tag.
If they add that subclass as a tag for that spell then it would put the spell on the list of spells those Sorcerers could learn, and not treat them like “Psionic Spells” using those special rules.
Sorry. I don’t know what you know, and obviously I already guessed incorrectly once. So I’ma go the whole thing just in case, and then everyone who might see this can too. I apologize in advance if you know most of this already, I tried to write it in a way people could skip ahead if you want to:
It has little to do with D&D as a game itself, that only matters because of the way those rules got implemented by this website at a “1s and 0s” level.
The Game:
With a couple notable exceptions,* there are three main types of Spellcasters in 5e:
Wizards. They’re so iconic to D&D, have so many subclasses, and they have the most inclusive class spell list in the game. They’re the best at what they do, and what they do best is cast spells.
Those which know all of their spells but have to prepare which spells they can cast daily. These are often referred to as “Prepared Casters.”
Those which only ever learn a small number of spells but always have all of them available at all times. These are often referred to as “Spontaneous Casters” or occasionally as “Known Casters.”
*Then there are a couple of individual subclasses: Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster for Fighter and Rogue respectively.
Each base Spellcasting class has a list of spells characters of those classes can cast.
Prepared Casters always count as technically “knowing” every leveled^ spell on their class spell list, and/but get/have to (depending on who you ask) pick and choose after each long rest which ones they want available that day. They have a limit to how many they can “prepare” each day that increases with class level and Spellcasting Ability modifiers. ^Prepared Casters don’t “prepare” Cantrips, nor do they “know” every Cantrip on their class spell list. Prepared Casters must “learn” their Cantrips just like everyone else, and can only “know” so many.
Spontaneous Casters only “know” spells they have “learned,” they can only ever learn so many spells depending on class level chosen from their class spell lists. They never “prepare” their spells.
Wizards are a unique hybrid of Prepared and Spontaneous Casters. The have to “learn” their spells just like Spontaneous Casters, but they can learn a theoretically infinite number of Wizard spells^ in addition to the ones they are granted based on level. However they also choose which spells to “prepare” after each long rest just like Prepared Casters. ^Except for Cantrips, they’re on a fixed budget of “known Cantrips” just like all the other Casters.
For all Casters, if a Spell Scroll contains a spell that is on your class’s spell list, you can use that scroll. If the spell does not appear on your class’s spell list, you can’t.
Wizards
There are no Wizards subclasses the includable subclass specific spells. (Wizards have the largest and most comprehensive class spell list in the game. They have the strongest Spellcasting feature in the game. There’s just no point.)
Prepared Spellcasters: Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins
If you look at the Cleric and Paladin classes you will see the following texts:
Domain Spells
Each domain has a list of spells — its domain spells — that you gain at the cleric levels noted in the domain description. Once you gain a domain spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.
If you have a domain spell that doesn’t appear on the cleric spell list, the spell is nonetheless a cleric spell for you.
Oath Spells
Each oath has a list of associated spells. You gain access to these spells at the levels specified in the oath description. Once you gain access to an oath spell, you always have it prepared. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.
If you gain an oath spell that doesn’t appear on the paladin spell list, the spell is nonetheless a paladin spell for you.
If you look at any of the Artificer Subclasses, or any of the Druid Subclasses that have specific Circle Spells, you will see some variation of the following:
[Specialist] Spells
3rd-level Alchemist feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the [Specialist] Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Circle Spells
Your mystical connection to [Druidic stuff] infuses you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to [Druidic stuff].
Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.
Any spell that appears on a subclass specific spell list for one of the Prepared Casters, those spells are “always prepared” spells specific to those subclasses. The character can never “unprepare” those spells or swap them around, those spells are locked in. Immutable.
Spontaneous Spellcasters (aka “Known Spellcasters”): Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks
Bards
Currently, none of the Bard colleges grant additional spells. (Which is because they don’t need it whatsoever. Their class spell list is already baller and they get Magical Secrets too. They’re sittin’ pretty with Wizards, they don’t need subclass specific spells too.)
Warlocks
If you look at an Warlock subclass you will see some variation of the following text:
Expanded Spell List
The [Patron] lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
That is a distinct difference from the way other classes’ subclass specific spells work for one main reason with multiple ramifications.
For all of the Prepared Casters, subclass specific spells are “Always Prepared.” As you’ll soon see, all of the other Spontaneous Casters, subclass specific spells are automatically “learned” but don’t count against your number of “spells known.” Those other subclasses classes state that “it counts as a [whatever] spells for you.”
But for Warlocks, their subclass specific spells actually get “added to the Warlock spell list for you.” So those spells must be “learned” just like every other Warlock spell, and do count against the number of spells “known.” On the other hand, whenever something refers to a class’s spell list,* a Warlock’s Patron spells would technically count. *(Like the the Magic Initiate feat for example, and those Spell Scrolls I mentioned earlier.)
Rangers
For Rangers, if you look at their newer subclasses that actually have subclass specific spells, you’ll see some variation of the following:
[Ranger Archetype] Magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the [Ranger Archetype] Spells table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.
For Rangers, their subclass specific spells are automatically “learned” but don’t take up room against how many spells they can “know.”
Sorcerers
Those new Sorcerer subclasses are very different from any of those other things. The way they were designed their subclass specific spells are sortakinda like the subclass specific spells that Rangers get as they are automatically “learned” but don’t count against the number you can “know,” but Sorcerers can swap them out for different spells if they want to.
The way it was implemented:
There are actual master lists coded into the system and attached to each base caster class. When a character sheet populates the list for a character when the player taps/clicks “Manage Spells,” it pulls directly from whichever list is coded to the corresponding class.
Many subclasses of both main types have access to spells that do not appear on their class’s spell list though, and those get added and accounted for differently than base class spells. Those spells are not coded to the base classes, and have to be attached to the corresponding subclasses individually in a specific field. If you create any subclass for any class in the homebrewer, you can see and use that field yourself, it is labeled “Additional Specific Spells.”
However, adding spells to that field will work differently, depending on which base class your subclass belongs to. That’s because those two main types of casters I explained have one major difference, and I believe the functionality was specifically keyed off of that. Prepared Casters “knows all spells: Yes” while the Spontaneous Casters “Knows all Spells: No.”
Prepared Spellcasters: Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins
Any subclass for any of these classes will register any spell listed under “additional specific spells” as automatically “known” and “always prepared,” but will not count against the number of spells they are allowed to prepare. But do not put a Cantrip in that field or it messes it all up. That’s because these characters don’t “prepare” their Cantrips like they do leveled spells. Instead, they “learn” and “know” their Cantrips just like the other main type of Casters have to do for all their spells. So if a Cantrip gets listed here it takes up a “known Cantrip” slot and if you try to remove it, the character sheet will crash.
Spontaneous Spellcasters (aka “Known Spellcasters”): Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks
Any spell listed under “additional specific spells” for any subclass belonging to one of these classes will get added to the list that gets queried by the character sheets under “Manage Spells.” When that was designed, the only class this actually applied to was the Warlock, so the technical distinction for warlocks that I mentioned earlier doesn’t seem to have been accounted for in this system.
Sorcerers and Rangers
For these classes, their subclass specific spells were added in a completely different manner so as to account for them being bit automatically “known” while simultaneously not counting against The number of spells they are allowed to “know.”
How it relates to those spell lists tagged on each spell:
The field where those a spell lists get added to each spell don’t just add “tags” to the spells. That field actually interacts with the “additional specific spells” field for every subclass. So if they add the Aberrant Mind to Dissonant Whispers, then the spell will not only get automatically “known” by those characters, but it will also appear in the query for those characters under “manage spells.” They would get more complaints about that than they will this.
The title says it. I'm not sure this is stopping Aberrant Mind sorcerers from selecting it (it seems like it used to, at least), but the spell page for Dissonant Whispers is missing the "Available For" tag.
If they add that subclass as a tag for that spell then it would put the spell on the list of spells those Sorcerers could learn, and not treat them like “Psionic Spells” using those special rules.
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Other spells have tags for specific subclasses. In fact, Dissonant Whispers lists Great Old One instead of Warlock.
I don't understand the distinction you're making.
Sorry. I don’t know what you know, and obviously I already guessed incorrectly once. So I’ma go the whole thing just in case, and then everyone who might see this can too. I apologize in advance if you know most of this already, I tried to write it in a way people could skip ahead if you want to:
It has little to do with D&D as a game itself, that only matters because of the way those rules got implemented by this website at a “1s and 0s” level.
The Game:
With a couple notable exceptions,* there are three main types of Spellcasters in 5e:
*Then there are a couple of individual subclasses: Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster for Fighter and Rogue respectively.
Each base Spellcasting class has a list of spells characters of those classes can cast.
^Prepared Casters don’t “prepare” Cantrips, nor do they “know” every Cantrip on their class spell list. Prepared Casters must “learn” their Cantrips just like everyone else, and can only “know” so many.
^Except for Cantrips, they’re on a fixed budget of “known Cantrips” just like all the other Casters.
For all Casters, if a Spell Scroll contains a spell that is on your class’s spell list, you can use that scroll. If the spell does not appear on your class’s spell list, you can’t.
Wizards
There are no Wizards subclasses the includable subclass specific spells.
(Wizards have the largest and most comprehensive class spell list in the game. They have the strongest Spellcasting feature in the game. There’s just no point.)
Prepared Spellcasters: Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins
If you look at the Cleric and Paladin classes you will see the following texts:
Domain Spells
Each domain has a list of spells — its domain spells — that you gain at the cleric levels noted in the domain description. Once you gain a domain spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.
If you have a domain spell that doesn’t appear on the cleric spell list, the spell is nonetheless a cleric spell for you.
Oath Spells
Each oath has a list of associated spells. You gain access to these spells at the levels specified in the oath description. Once you gain access to an oath spell, you always have it prepared. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.
If you gain an oath spell that doesn’t appear on the paladin spell list, the spell is nonetheless a paladin spell for you.
If you look at any of the Artificer Subclasses, or any of the Druid Subclasses that have specific Circle Spells, you will see some variation of the following:
[Specialist] Spells
3rd-level Alchemist feature
You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the [Specialist] Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.
Circle Spells
Your mystical connection to [Druidic stuff] infuses you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to [Druidic stuff].
Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.
Any spell that appears on a subclass specific spell list for one of the Prepared Casters, those spells are “always prepared” spells specific to those subclasses. The character can never “unprepare” those spells or swap them around, those spells are locked in. Immutable.
Spontaneous Spellcasters (aka “Known Spellcasters”): Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks
Bards
Currently, none of the Bard colleges grant additional spells.
(Which is because they don’t need it whatsoever. Their class spell list is already baller and they get Magical Secrets too. They’re sittin’ pretty with Wizards, they don’t need subclass specific spells too.)
Warlocks
If you look at an Warlock subclass you will see some variation of the following text:
Expanded Spell List
The [Patron] lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
That is a distinct difference from the way other classes’ subclass specific spells work for one main reason with multiple ramifications.
For all of the Prepared Casters, subclass specific spells are “Always Prepared.” As you’ll soon see, all of the other Spontaneous Casters, subclass specific spells are automatically “learned” but don’t count against your number of “spells known.” Those other subclasses classes state that “it counts as a [whatever] spells for you.”
But for Warlocks, their subclass specific spells actually get “added to the Warlock spell list for you.” So those spells must be “learned” just like every other Warlock spell, and do count against the number of spells “known.” On the other hand, whenever something refers to a class’s spell list,* a Warlock’s Patron spells would technically count.
*(Like the the Magic Initiate feat for example, and those Spell Scrolls I mentioned earlier.)
Rangers
For Rangers, if you look at their newer subclasses that actually have subclass specific spells, you’ll see some variation of the following:
[Ranger Archetype] Magic
Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the [Ranger Archetype] Spells table. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.
For Rangers, their subclass specific spells are automatically “learned” but don’t take up room against how many spells they can “know.”
Sorcerers
Those new Sorcerer subclasses are very different from any of those other things. The way they were designed their subclass specific spells are sortakinda like the subclass specific spells that Rangers get as they are automatically “learned” but don’t count against the number you can “know,” but Sorcerers can swap them out for different spells if they want to.
The way it was implemented:
There are actual master lists coded into the system and attached to each base caster class. When a character sheet populates the list for a character when the player taps/clicks “Manage Spells,” it pulls directly from whichever list is coded to the corresponding class.
Many subclasses of both main types have access to spells that do not appear on their class’s spell list though, and those get added and accounted for differently than base class spells. Those spells are not coded to the base classes, and have to be attached to the corresponding subclasses individually in a specific field. If you create any subclass for any class in the homebrewer, you can see and use that field yourself, it is labeled “Additional Specific Spells.”
However, adding spells to that field will work differently, depending on which base class your subclass belongs to. That’s because those two main types of casters I explained have one major difference, and I believe the functionality was specifically keyed off of that. Prepared Casters “knows all spells: Yes” while the Spontaneous Casters “Knows all Spells: No.”
Prepared Spellcasters: Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins
Any subclass for any of these classes will register any spell listed under “additional specific spells” as automatically “known” and “always prepared,” but will not count against the number of spells they are allowed to prepare.
But do not put a Cantrip in that field or it messes it all up. That’s because these characters don’t “prepare” their Cantrips like they do leveled spells. Instead, they “learn” and “know” their Cantrips just like the other main type of Casters have to do for all their spells. So if a Cantrip gets listed here it takes up a “known Cantrip” slot and if you try to remove it, the character sheet will crash.
Spontaneous Spellcasters (aka “Known Spellcasters”): Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks
Any spell listed under “additional specific spells” for any subclass belonging to one of these classes will get added to the list that gets queried by the character sheets under “Manage Spells.” When that was designed, the only class this actually applied to was the Warlock, so the technical distinction for warlocks that I mentioned earlier doesn’t seem to have been accounted for in this system.
Sorcerers and Rangers
For these classes, their subclass specific spells were added in a completely different manner so as to account for them being bit automatically “known” while simultaneously not counting against The number of spells they are allowed to “know.”
How it relates to those spell lists tagged on each spell:
The field where those a spell lists get added to each spell don’t just add “tags” to the spells. That field actually interacts with the “additional specific spells” field for every subclass. So if they add the Aberrant Mind to Dissonant Whispers, then the spell will not only get automatically “known” by those characters, but it will also appear in the query for those characters under “manage spells.” They would get more complaints about that than they will this.
I hope that helps.
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Oh, yeah, thanks. That does make more sense. I appreciate it.