Has anyone tried playing a Draconic Sorcerer where the Draconic Heritage is for a Gem Dragon?
Would it be too powerful to allow Gem Dragons as an option?
Do you have something specific in Mind? In terms of Draconic Sorcerer it already exists in that just say Draconic Bloodline: Gem, and agree suitable damage type with your DM.
I was wondering if it would be overpowered to use the Gem Dragons from the UA as an option.
It's not overpowered in the slightest. The spells that it would work with would be more ore less rare depending on the damage type but it's nothing really all that different from what metallic and chromatic dragons already do. The UA already gives you elements for each of the kinds of Gem Dragons.
The reality is thta other than the availability of spells that count and the change in damage types. Nothing really changes for you to use them for it to even come close to being Overpowered in any way.
Just make sure your DM is ok with it since it is UA material.
As Fateless said not OP except for one minor exception (below), though the point of UA is to playtest and find out so its up to your DM in the end, they can tweak something if it turns out to be OP later on. Have fun finding out, its what its all about after all.
Minor exception:
Amethyst / Force damage. Some builders come up with varied ways to get extra damage onto a Magic Missile (Ie. hex spell), which usually costs a feat or multi-class dip. Simply choosing this as race then waiting for the lvl 6 Draconic Sorc ability would be a very cheap (as in costs nothing) way to do it, making it potentially OP.
MM Roll: 1d4+1+5 per missile (x3 for lvl1 slot), cannot miss and almost never resisted, it trebles the effectiveness of this spell (min:21 max:30 guaranteed dmg, adding 7-10 for each spell slot higher).
Anything else in that damage bracket usually requires an attack roll to hit or a save for half damage, and still might roll lower damage (Ie. Chromo Orb is 3d8+5, when coupled with lvl 6 ability). Though this does depend on how your DM rolls, RAW MM is one damage roll (hence the above) but your DM might roll different on it, up to them really.
As Fateless said not OP except for one minor exception (below), though the point of UA is to playtest and find out so its up to your DM in the end, they can tweak something if it turns out to be OP later on. Have fun finding out, its what its all about after all.
Minor exception:
Amethyst / Force damage. Some builders come up with varied ways to get extra damage onto a Magic Missile (Ie. hex spell), which usually costs a feat or multi-class dip. Simply choosing this as race then waiting for the lvl 6 Draconic Sorc ability would be a very cheap (as in costs nothing) way to do it, making it potentially OP.
MM Roll: 1d4+1+5 per missile (x3 for lvl1 slot), cannot miss and almost never resisted, it trebles the effectiveness of this spell (min:21 max:30 guaranteed dmg, adding 7-10 for each spell slot higher).
Anything else in that damage bracket usually requires an attack roll to hit or a save for half damage, and still might roll lower damage (Ie. Chromo Orb is 3d8+5, when coupled with lvl 6 ability). Though this does depend on how your DM rolls, RAW MM is one damage roll (hence the above) but your DM might roll different on it, up to them really.
Have fun!
It's still not really all that OP unless your also using other now defunct UA materials like Circle of Twilight and it's totally busted charges mechanic. Partly because of the cost of higher level spell slots. it's also actually one of the easiest spells to block if DM's are having trouble with it. It's not even the only ability in the game that adds such damage Evocation Users have been doing it since the PHB has been released for example even if they happen to get it at 10th level. And they have other things to add into the mix.
So I took that all into account and it's still not broken even with force based damage on one of the dragons.
The Truth is that the Damage is not really anything super special or even entirely out of place if the Draconic UA is the only one that your using. This has all been in the game before. It's been tested many times. You have to go out of your way to find materials to combine to break it.
So I took that all into account and it's still not broken even with force based damage on one of the dragons.
Anything that makes a spell better than Disintegrate has the potential to be OP.
Eg (Using Ave die rolls for ease, like 3.5 for a D6)
L6 Disintergrate = 75 Force Dmg, on successful DEX save does ZERO dmg. L6 MM (as above) = 68 Force dmg, no save, no attack roll, no partial cover.
Over 3 rounds it gets better:
L6 Dis = Either 0 dmg (3 saves), 75dmg (2 saves), 150dmg (1 save) or 225 (If very very lucky) L6 MM = 204 dmg
Other lower spells don't come close:
L4 Blight = 36 ave necro dmg (18 dmg on save) L4 MM = 51 dmg (No attack roll or save needed)
L1 Chromo Orb = 13.5 ave, 18.5 with +5. +4.5 per spell slot used (Elemental dmg) L1 Witch bolt = 6.5 ave, 11.5 with +5. +6.5 per spell slot used (Lightning) L1 Ice Knife = 12.5 ave, 18.5 with +5 (Reduced by both an attack roll AND save for half). +3.5 per spell slot used (Piercing/cold)
For kicks: L1 Inflict Wounds = 16.5 ave (Melee range, Melee spell attack roll). +6.5 per spell slot used. (Necro)
L1 MM (as above) = 25.5 ave. +8.5 per spell slot used. Ignores cover. Never misses. No save.
Pretty obvious its a big power-up for the Sorc, but as I said it's play test so see how it goes, your DM can always nerf if they feel the need.
Disintegrate is not really some kind of super powered measuring stick. It's severely underpowered in this version of the game. It's a spell that used to outrigh kill.
There are better spells that can get these same kinds of Boosts either from maximizing large numbers of attack dice or Adding static damage on top or both. The Math is still really not that special. It's overblown. To cast 3 level 6 Magic Missiles is impossible. So the Math is lower. Two Disintegrates can be made by various means to do their maximum damage. But the maximum potential damage on those two disintegrates is far higher as well. Either way this can only be done at level 19. When there are plenty of creatures that have well over 200 hp.
Disintegrate can also be twinned because it's single target. Magic Missile cannot. So Disintegrate can potentially be hitting 4 separate targets or 2 targets twice over the same 2 rounds as Magic Missile is doing a little under a 140 damage (maybe enough to kill a mage assuming they don't use one of those pesky shield spells) to a single target by putting all of the darts into one person.
Disintegrate also has other synergies. Since it is a save spell it can be combined with any number of tactics to lower or disadvantage saves to make the damage more likely.
Disintegrate can be used with Warcaster to be used as a reaction.
Disintegrate also deals with walls of force. Magic Missile is simply stopped by them. It's an interaction governed by Wall of Force that says it doesn't care that Magic Missile automatically hits.
And there are plenty of others that I'm sure I'm forgetting but i'm honestly not thinking too hard about it right now.
Ok, a little tired after back to back 13.5hr shifts, but here goes . .
@Sandancer101
If you come across anyone with an Amethyst Dragon/Draconic sorc that has also dipped (Via feat or class) to get the HEX spell, then they are power-gaming the fek outta this UA.
Magic Missile was never meant to do the same damage than other spells, let alone more than because it doesn’t miss. This is why its 14d+1, for balancing. Because:-
MM bypasses high AC, high saves AND legendary resistances.
As I specified in above post the MM spell on a non-hex build is already doing around 50% more damage with sub lvl 6 slots than ANY other single target spell. If the other spell misses or makes a save, that gap gets even wider.
If you upcast MM, the gap also gets even wider as this MM gets ave 8.5 extra damage (12 if hex is on) per spell slot used. Its an extra 1d6 with most other spells is 3.5, 1d8 is 4.5.
EG:
Blight - 4th = 8d8 36 ave necro dmg (18 dmg on save). for 5th level add 4.5 ave for 40.5/21 on save. MM - 4th = 51 dmg (Force, no att/save), for 5th level add 8.5 for 59.5 dmg.
With Hex on MM is 72 ave dmg @ lvl 4, 84 dmg @ lvl 5 (Bye bye Disintegrate, who needs a lvl 6 slot).
@ lvl 6 when you get this perk that’s 60 burst force dmg with a lvl 3 slot, cannot miss, no attack roll, no save. Fireball ave dmg is 33 including +5 from perk (28 without), so you have to be hitting 3 or more targets for fireball to do more damage collectively (Unless they all make their save, don’t have fire resist, the most common resist, or are in water)
Obviously against a single target this MM is king of these spells.
Wall of Force? Disintegrate it first round then save that other 6 lvl spell slot for later, a 5th lvl hex MM as above does more damage anyway and wont miss, or do you really want to risk doing no damage at all for those 2 rounds?
Plant Based? Blight max damage is 64 @ lvl 4, 72 @ lvl 5, MM still beats it even if it fails the save, if it does make its save, that's 32/36 compared to 72/84 with hex on.
Full damage Disintegrate max is 100 dmg, 5 lvl hex MM is 84. You really wanna use that other lvl 6 slot and risk doing ZERO damage for the chance to do just 16 more?
7th Level – Finger of death ave is 75 with hex (Save for half). FOURTH level MM+hex = 72 ave dmg. 9th lvl – Power Word Kill – 100 HP or less and it dies, no att roll or save. 100+ hp = no effect. 9th lvl MM +Hex = 132 ave Force dmg, no att roll or save.
A first level spell was never meant to compete like this. At the campaign sweat spot of lvl 6-11 it dwarfs all other options because it stacks up damage on one roll, applied to all targets (ie each missle).
That said if the whole party is power gaming the fek out their classes the DM might already be upscaling everything already. In your average party, yeah, way OP.
L6 MM (as above) = 68 Force dmg, no save, no attack roll, no partial cover.
What?? No, I think you're misinterpreting Elemental Affinity.
"Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you can add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell."
You don't add CHA to every missle. Just one. So level 6 MM would be average 33, not 68.
But didn’t devs say that MM is supposed to be just one roll with them all doing the same damage? Yes, scorching Ray is it’s own damage roll, but MM for evocative Wizards gets +INT for each missile
L6 MM (as above) = 68 Force dmg, no save, no attack roll, no partial cover.
What?? No, I think you're misinterpreting Elemental Affinity.
"Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you can add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell."
You don't add CHA to every missle. Just one. So level 6 MM would be average 33, not 68.
Magic Missile can't be legally cast, in the general case, so every DM is forced to homebrew it; the popular homebrew on this forum is to copy Jeremy Crawford. For simplicity, I will assume Magic Missile is being cast with 3 darts, which is sufficient to demonstrate the issue.
By the same definition, if you cast Magic Missile with 3 darts at 1 target, you must roll 3d4 to determine how much damage the target takes, for the same reason Fire Bolt rolls multiple dice at higher levels, not just one die. This means anything you add to 1 roll only happens once across the spell, not 3 times.
By the same definition, if you cast Magic Missile with 3 darts at 2 targets, you have no legal way to roll the dice, because you must roll the damage once for both targets, even though each target is taking a different amount of damage - Magic Missile is the only spell in the game capable of delivering different amounts of damage to two targets simultaneously, so this is a unique rules paradox. Here are the ways out of the problem:
Jeremy Crawford solution: You always roll using method 1 - you make 1 damage roll, and multiply it by the number of darts each target is hit by. This violates the standard rules for damaging a single target, but is consistent.
You could always roll using method 2: roll once per dart and add up. This violates the standard rules for damaging multiple targets simultaneously, but is consistent.
You could hybridize: use methods 1 and 2 whenever all targets are being hit by the same number of darts (so if you shot 3 targets with 2 darts each, you roll 2d4 for 2 darts, and everyone takes that), and whenever the number of darts is not equal, tiebreak using method 1 or method 2 (so this is 2 homebrew solutions, not 1). This fails the bag of rats test, as do many 5E abilities: an adventurer is much more powerful under these rules with a bag of rats, as they can deliberately shoot a rat with a missile to force the algorithm to change to the one that's better for them.
Since all of these methods violate the RAW anyway, you could invent your own method from whole cloth. For example, in this situation, you could roll 2d4 as one roll for the amount the 2-dart target takes, then halve it for the amount the 1-dart target takes. There's no real benefit to this method, but it's not like it's less legal than the other options.
Because the JC answer is the popular one, the majority of tables have been letting Evocation wizards (who have a similar rule) apply their ability to every MM dart ever since the JC tweet.
Looking at the spells available to the sorcerer by element:
Amethyst Force (6 spells) Crystal Radiant (5 spells first one is 4th level) Emerald Psychic (10 spells) Sapphire Thunder (8 spells) Topaz Necrotic (6 spells). I don't think that the allowance of gem as an origin would be imbalance, but I think the lack of support from the spell list is more limiting and would hurt the player of such a subclass choice.
Even without taking Gem Dragonborn into account all the damage types except for force and thunder are already available for resistance (aasimar get both radiant and necrotic so I don't think either option is considered that strong).
Yeah I wouldn’t allow it, purely because of magic missle. A draconian sorceror cant even use like, two of the other gem ancestries, and probably has like, 5 spells that work with the others.
If anyone is interested in homebrew that includes the gem dragon types I published my Draconic Sorcerer overhaul which is Draconic Bloodline with more ancestry types, a spell list and some tweaked features (see my first comment for a list of changes, for some reason it appears last instead of first).
For that sub-class I allow swapping of damage type when a spell is learned for certain ancestries; for example, if you take the Battle or Sapphire (Thunder) ancestry then whenever you add a spell that can deal bludgeoning or lightning damage, you can choose to swap the damage type to thunder instead. This is not a choice when casting the spell however; the damage type is set when you add the spell, so it will remain thunder damage until you unlearn the spell (while levelling up).
I made no special provision for Magic Missile; while Elemental Affinity (Draconic Affinity in the homebrew) can make it pretty strong, there are spells that will do more damage at higher levels. While it's strong/good value I'm not convinced that it's overpowered; plus D&D is a DM led game so if they feel you're abusing it they can always tell you to stop (or start giving enemies the Shield to force you to). My main issue with magic missile is that it's boring for all involved to just pick one spell and spam it over and over 😝
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I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
No, there is no published material that has a list of Draconic Sorcerer types outside of Metallic and Chromatic dragons.
I personally do not have any balance issue with adding them myself, and I am currently playing an Emerald Draconic Sorcerer and experiencing nothing to out of bounds with the modifier being added to my psychic damage spells. Honestly, even the force damage upgrade to Magic Missile would not be too OP, and you could always state that the damage bonus is locked to a single damage roll. Most AoE spells are a single damage roll and Magic Missile is usually rolled per dart in the games I have been in. It clearly states that you create 3 darts that all hit simultaneously. That is 3 unique damage rolls and Elemental Affinity clearly states to add your CHR modifier to one damage roll of that spell.
3d4+3+CHR on a single target
or
1d4+1+CHR to one target
1d4+1 for each additional target
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Has anyone tried playing a Draconic Sorcerer where the Draconic Heritage is for a Gem Dragon?
Would it be too powerful to allow Gem Dragons as an option?
You would probably need to homebrew it.
Gem dragons tend to be much more psionic, and aside from damage resistances/buffs it wouldn't really live up to the name/powers.
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.
Do you have something specific in Mind? In terms of Draconic Sorcerer it already exists in that just say Draconic Bloodline: Gem, and agree suitable damage type with your DM.
Or have you seen the new Draconic options in UA and have a Q about that? (https://media.wizards.com/2021/downloads/Unearthed-Arcana-2021-Draconic-Options.pdf)
I was wondering if it would be overpowered to use the Gem Dragons from the UA as an option.
It's not overpowered in the slightest. The spells that it would work with would be more ore less rare depending on the damage type but it's nothing really all that different from what metallic and chromatic dragons already do. The UA already gives you elements for each of the kinds of Gem Dragons.
The reality is thta other than the availability of spells that count and the change in damage types. Nothing really changes for you to use them for it to even come close to being Overpowered in any way.
Just make sure your DM is ok with it since it is UA material.
Thank you to you all for the advice.
As Fateless said not OP except for one minor exception (below), though the point of UA is to playtest and find out so its up to your DM in the end, they can tweak something if it turns out to be OP later on. Have fun finding out, its what its all about after all.
Minor exception:
Amethyst / Force damage. Some builders come up with varied ways to get extra damage onto a Magic Missile (Ie. hex spell), which usually costs a feat or multi-class dip. Simply choosing this as race then waiting for the lvl 6 Draconic Sorc ability would be a very cheap (as in costs nothing) way to do it, making it potentially OP.
MM Roll: 1d4+1+5 per missile (x3 for lvl1 slot), cannot miss and almost never resisted, it trebles the effectiveness of this spell (min:21 max:30 guaranteed dmg, adding 7-10 for each spell slot higher).
Anything else in that damage bracket usually requires an attack roll to hit or a save for half damage, and still might roll lower damage (Ie. Chromo Orb is 3d8+5, when coupled with lvl 6 ability). Though this does depend on how your DM rolls, RAW MM is one damage roll (hence the above) but your DM might roll different on it, up to them really.
Have fun!
It's still not really all that OP unless your also using other now defunct UA materials like Circle of Twilight and it's totally busted charges mechanic. Partly because of the cost of higher level spell slots. it's also actually one of the easiest spells to block if DM's are having trouble with it. It's not even the only ability in the game that adds such damage Evocation Users have been doing it since the PHB has been released for example even if they happen to get it at 10th level. And they have other things to add into the mix.
So I took that all into account and it's still not broken even with force based damage on one of the dragons.
The Truth is that the Damage is not really anything super special or even entirely out of place if the Draconic UA is the only one that your using. This has all been in the game before. It's been tested many times. You have to go out of your way to find materials to combine to break it.
Evocation Wizards don't have Meta's (Like Quicken) to do other funky stuff in the same round.
Anything that makes a spell better than Disintegrate has the potential to be OP.
Eg (Using Ave die rolls for ease, like 3.5 for a D6)
L6 Disintergrate = 75 Force Dmg, on successful DEX save does ZERO dmg.
L6 MM (as above) = 68 Force dmg, no save, no attack roll, no partial cover.
Over 3 rounds it gets better:
L6 Dis = Either 0 dmg (3 saves), 75dmg (2 saves), 150dmg (1 save) or 225 (If very very lucky)
L6 MM = 204 dmg
Other lower spells don't come close:
L4 Blight = 36 ave necro dmg (18 dmg on save)
L4 MM = 51 dmg (No attack roll or save needed)
L1 Chromo Orb = 13.5 ave, 18.5 with +5. +4.5 per spell slot used (Elemental dmg)
L1 Witch bolt = 6.5 ave, 11.5 with +5. +6.5 per spell slot used (Lightning)
L1 Ice Knife = 12.5 ave, 18.5 with +5 (Reduced by both an attack roll AND save for half). +3.5 per spell slot used (Piercing/cold)
For kicks: L1 Inflict Wounds = 16.5 ave (Melee range, Melee spell attack roll). +6.5 per spell slot used. (Necro)
L1 MM (as above) = 25.5 ave. +8.5 per spell slot used. Ignores cover. Never misses. No save.
Pretty obvious its a big power-up for the Sorc, but as I said it's play test so see how it goes, your DM can always nerf if they feel the need.
Disintegrate is not really some kind of super powered measuring stick. It's severely underpowered in this version of the game. It's a spell that used to outrigh kill.
There are better spells that can get these same kinds of Boosts either from maximizing large numbers of attack dice or Adding static damage on top or both. The Math is still really not that special. It's overblown. To cast 3 level 6 Magic Missiles is impossible. So the Math is lower. Two Disintegrates can be made by various means to do their maximum damage. But the maximum potential damage on those two disintegrates is far higher as well. Either way this can only be done at level 19. When there are plenty of creatures that have well over 200 hp.
Disintegrate can also be twinned because it's single target. Magic Missile cannot. So Disintegrate can potentially be hitting 4 separate targets or 2 targets twice over the same 2 rounds as Magic Missile is doing a little under a 140 damage (maybe enough to kill a mage assuming they don't use one of those pesky shield spells) to a single target by putting all of the darts into one person.
Disintegrate also has other synergies. Since it is a save spell it can be combined with any number of tactics to lower or disadvantage saves to make the damage more likely.
Disintegrate can be used with Warcaster to be used as a reaction.
Disintegrate also deals with walls of force. Magic Missile is simply stopped by them. It's an interaction governed by Wall of Force that says it doesn't care that Magic Missile automatically hits.
And there are plenty of others that I'm sure I'm forgetting but i'm honestly not thinking too hard about it right now.
Ok, a little tired after back to back 13.5hr shifts, but here goes . .
@Sandancer101
If you come across anyone with an Amethyst Dragon/Draconic sorc that has also dipped (Via feat or class) to get the HEX spell, then they are power-gaming the fek outta this UA.
Magic Missile was never meant to do the same damage than other spells, let alone more than because it doesn’t miss. This is why its 14d+1, for balancing. Because:-
MM bypasses high AC, high saves AND legendary resistances.
As I specified in above post the MM spell on a non-hex build is already doing around 50% more damage with sub lvl 6 slots than ANY other single target spell. If the other spell misses or makes a save, that gap gets even wider.
If you upcast MM, the gap also gets even wider as this MM gets ave 8.5 extra damage (12 if hex is on) per spell slot used. Its an extra 1d6 with most other spells is 3.5, 1d8 is 4.5.
EG:
Blight - 4th = 8d8 36 ave necro dmg (18 dmg on save). for 5th level add 4.5 ave for 40.5/21 on save.
MM - 4th = 51 dmg (Force, no att/save), for 5th level add 8.5 for 59.5 dmg.
With Hex on MM is 72 ave dmg @ lvl 4, 84 dmg @ lvl 5 (Bye bye Disintegrate, who needs a lvl 6 slot).
@ lvl 6 when you get this perk that’s 60 burst force dmg with a lvl 3 slot, cannot miss, no attack roll, no save. Fireball ave dmg is 33 including +5 from perk (28 without), so you have to be hitting 3 or more targets for fireball to do more damage collectively (Unless they all make their save, don’t have fire resist, the most common resist, or are in water)
Obviously against a single target this MM is king of these spells.
Wall of Force? Disintegrate it first round then save that other 6 lvl spell slot for later, a 5th lvl hex MM as above does more damage anyway and wont miss, or do you really want to risk doing no damage at all for those 2 rounds?
Plant Based? Blight max damage is 64 @ lvl 4, 72 @ lvl 5, MM still beats it even if it fails the save, if it does make its save, that's 32/36 compared to 72/84 with hex on.
Full damage Disintegrate max is 100 dmg, 5 lvl hex MM is 84. You really wanna use that other lvl 6 slot and risk doing ZERO damage for the chance to do just 16 more?
7th Level – Finger of death ave is 75 with hex (Save for half). FOURTH level MM+hex = 72 ave dmg.
9th lvl – Power Word Kill – 100 HP or less and it dies, no att roll or save. 100+ hp = no effect.
9th lvl MM +Hex = 132 ave Force dmg, no att roll or save.
A first level spell was never meant to compete like this. At the campaign sweat spot of lvl 6-11 it dwarfs all other options because it stacks up damage on one roll, applied to all targets (ie each missle).
That said if the whole party is power gaming the fek out their classes the DM might already be upscaling everything already. In your average party, yeah, way OP.
What?? No, I think you're misinterpreting Elemental Affinity.
"Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you can add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell."
You don't add CHA to every missle. Just one. So level 6 MM would be average 33, not 68.
From the Player's Handbook Errata (which has been codified into D&D Beyond):
Elemental Affinity (p. 102). The damage bonus applies to one damage roll of a spell, not multiple rolls.
https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PH-Errata-V1.pdf
So no, this isn't even close to OP.
But didn’t devs say that MM is supposed to be just one roll with them all doing the same damage? Yes, scorching Ray is it’s own damage roll, but MM for evocative Wizards gets +INT for each missile
Magic Missile can't be legally cast, in the general case, so every DM is forced to homebrew it; the popular homebrew on this forum is to copy Jeremy Crawford. For simplicity, I will assume Magic Missile is being cast with 3 darts, which is sufficient to demonstrate the issue.
Because the JC answer is the popular one, the majority of tables have been letting Evocation wizards (who have a similar rule) apply their ability to every MM dart ever since the JC tweet.
Looking at the spells available to the sorcerer by element:
Amethyst Force (6 spells) Crystal Radiant (5 spells first one is 4th level) Emerald Psychic (10 spells) Sapphire Thunder (8 spells) Topaz Necrotic (6 spells). I don't think that the allowance of gem as an origin would be imbalance, but I think the lack of support from the spell list is more limiting and would hurt the player of such a subclass choice.
Even without taking Gem Dragonborn into account all the damage types except for force and thunder are already available for resistance (aasimar get both radiant and necrotic so I don't think either option is considered that strong).
Yeah I wouldn’t allow it, purely because of magic missle. A draconian sorceror cant even use like, two of the other gem ancestries, and probably has like, 5 spells that work with the others.
If anyone is interested in homebrew that includes the gem dragon types I published my Draconic Sorcerer overhaul which is Draconic Bloodline with more ancestry types, a spell list and some tweaked features (see my first comment for a list of changes, for some reason it appears last instead of first).
For that sub-class I allow swapping of damage type when a spell is learned for certain ancestries; for example, if you take the Battle or Sapphire (Thunder) ancestry then whenever you add a spell that can deal bludgeoning or lightning damage, you can choose to swap the damage type to thunder instead. This is not a choice when casting the spell however; the damage type is set when you add the spell, so it will remain thunder damage until you unlearn the spell (while levelling up).
I made no special provision for Magic Missile; while Elemental Affinity (Draconic Affinity in the homebrew) can make it pretty strong, there are spells that will do more damage at higher levels. While it's strong/good value I'm not convinced that it's overpowered; plus D&D is a DM led game so if they feel you're abusing it they can always tell you to stop (or start giving enemies the Shield to force you to). My main issue with magic missile is that it's boring for all involved to just pick one spell and spam it over and over 😝
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Pardon me for bumping this -
So Gem Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers are still not RAW allowed?
No, there is no published material that has a list of Draconic Sorcerer types outside of Metallic and Chromatic dragons.
I personally do not have any balance issue with adding them myself, and I am currently playing an Emerald Draconic Sorcerer and experiencing nothing to out of bounds with the modifier being added to my psychic damage spells. Honestly, even the force damage upgrade to Magic Missile would not be too OP, and you could always state that the damage bonus is locked to a single damage roll. Most AoE spells are a single damage roll and Magic Missile is usually rolled per dart in the games I have been in. It clearly states that you create 3 darts that all hit simultaneously. That is 3 unique damage rolls and Elemental Affinity clearly states to add your CHR modifier to one damage roll of that spell.
3d4+3+CHR on a single target
or
1d4+1+CHR to one target
1d4+1 for each additional target
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.