This is probably the biggest question anyone asks when making a character, and is essentially what most of the guide is trying to sell. If you want a more simple sell though on why they make such a great pick though, I suppose I can do that. In essence Sorcerers trade defensive options (armor and shields), as well as a limited amount of spells you can know at any given time, for access to their unique Metamagics. Metamagics enable strategies that other classes simply don’t have access to and enable you to get more value out of your spells than anyone else. 

While you can certainly pick up more utility spells or spells with a greater variety of uses than combat, Sorcerer’s main downside is that you end up having to be pretty stingy with what spells you decide to take. The lack of ritual caster also hurts your prospects in this regard. Communicate with your party, but if there is any other full caster then try to get them to take utility instead of you as every other class can afford to do so more.

The only stats you need to care about are Charisma (primary casting stat that everything scales from as well as social skills), Dexterity (AC, Initiative, common save, skills), and Constitution (Health, common save, and concentration saves). Everything else is up to you or distribution but these are the three that actually matter. Remember if you plan to multiclass to have a 13 in the prerequisite ability score.

Some classes are designed to get resources back on short rests, but you aren’t one of them. The only benefit you can really gain from them is just rolling hit dice, meaning you should try and plan around your adventuring day and budget your spell slots for when you might need them much like most full casters do.

In this case the question is more about spacing, and the answer is in as little danger as possible. Sorcerers are one of the most squishy classes in the game with the lowest hit dice, and no armor proficiencies. The existence of a handful of good defensive spells end up as a bit of a drain on your precious spell slots to use, so try to keep out of danger as best you can.

Sorcerers have no real cause to want to use weapons in combat, as cantrip selection can cover any need that a weapon might solve in combat.

As a question more about what you actually DO, the answer is complicated and modular. As a Sorcerer what you do depends on what spells you choose to know, and what metamagics you choose to have. The main four categories they can fulfill are Blasters (These are the kind that would spam Fireball and the like), Battlefield Control (Spells that are about turning terrain and battle conditions to the party’s favour), Buffer (As it says on the tin, these would be about passing out the spells that make the rest of the party better), and Debuffer (Making the enemies weak or stopping them with things that aren’t just damage). I’ll cover each of these separately for why they are good.

This tends to be the default many people look at, partially because this might have been what Sorcerers used to be really good for and because big damage numbers look great. While most Sorcerers should have at least a few damage spells up their sleeve, ignoring a few specific combinations I actually think this isn’t what you are good for. Most Metamagics synergize a lot more with spells that aren’t just about doing damage, and if you aren’t using your Metamagics you aren’t actually any more special at casting those spells than any other caster.

This would cover a wide variety of spells, and has a lot of overlap with the Debuffer and Blaster. In this case, your job is more about affecting large swathes of the battlefield either with group debuffs or more directly affecting the terrain to make it harder for your enemies. Things like a Cloud of Daggers, or a Sleet Storm would fall under this category. Metamagics that really help here are Careful Spell and Distant Spell.

It’s a fairly simple concept and likely what the Sorcerer is best at, or at least the best Buffer is a Sorcerer. You have a decent variety of spell options for buffs and being supportive to your team, but the reason a Sorcerer is so good for the job is the Metamagic Twinned Spell. 5e has the limitation on spellcasters that they can only have one concentration spell active at any time, but thanks to Twinned spell you can partially bypass this by making potent single target buffs like Haste apply to two people instead of one, doubling the value of it.

Similar to the Buffer and Battlefield Controller, Metamagics helps to set you apart from other spellcasters. While perhaps not THE best debuffer in the game (I’d want to give that to Eloquence Bards), You have a great array of options, that are then helped by the fact you can ignore friendly fire when using them. Single target options like Hold Person or Blindness/Deafness can benefit greatly from Heightened Spell, while more group options like Hypnotic Pattern or Stinking Cloud benefit from Careful Spell.

Sorcerers can work well with just about any combination with the right spell selection, and you want to pick around party synergy. If you have a Druid in the party for example, then perhaps a spell like Gust of Wind to push enemies into dangerous terrain would be a great pick. If the party has a number of melee attackers, then using things like Web or Hold Person to help enable those teammates is the best use of your time. Party lacking in some magical offense or ways to deal with hordes, just grab Fireball. As you play with your party you should be able to get a hang on what is missing or what aspects you wish to bolster.

This is a bit of a tricky question, because each full caster class has different aspects they excel in. You lack healing, so you aren’t able to compete in that. You also don’t have much flexibility in what you can cast at a given time, so you aren’t going to win any competitions regarding that either. What you ARE good for though, is using your metamagics to remove limitations or considerations other casters might need to care about. The Druid may have amazing battlefield control, but you are able to make sure you never catch your allies in those negative conditions thanks to Careful Spell.

This somewhat depends on your group, but I would say less than you generally expect. 5e made martial characters have a fairly good single target damage output, and many other casters have ways to deal with swathes of enemies. People might look at you a bit funny for not taking Fireball, but when you consider there are spells of the same level that could take enemies out of combat like Hypnotic Pattern without having to worry about their health, you start to realize damage isn’t everything. Enemies don’t get less dangerous the lower their health is, 100 or 5 hp makes no difference, but making that group of enemy reinforcements unable to move closer to your group does significantly reduce the danger.

I’d say pray, but you aren’t a Cleric. Sorcerers are capable of a great many things, but your influence on combat tends to be much more preemptive than reactive.

Dragonborn : Strength is wasted as a stat unless you are multiclassing for heavy armor, some of the feats tied to the race might draw your interest though.

Hill Dwarf : If you want to be durable, this is how you maximize your health.

Mountain Dwarf : Medium armor is better than mage armor and doesn’t cost a spell slot.

Duergar : Invisibility is really all you get out of this, and while it’s a nice spell a once per long rest cast isn’t nearly as good as the other dwarves.

High Elf : If the baseline elf wasn’t so good, this would get red. The subrace basically gives you nothing of worth. It’s unique racial feat is ok but powercrept by Tasha’s.

Wood Elf : Bonus movement speed and easier stealth, not exactly stand out features. It’s racial feat is stupendous though and justifies the race choice.

Drow : Charisma bonus and some racial spells you might actually use, Sunlight Sensitivity isn’t an issue if you just don’t use spells with attack rolls.

Eladrin : Charisma bonus is nice, but I don’t think the Fey Step is all that good. 

Sea Elf : Constitution is nice, if your campaign ever has water then this might actually be at least an ok choice. 

Shadar-kai : What the Eladrin wishes it could be, resistance to all damage for an entire round is nothing to sneeze at.

Half Orc : A free Deathward and free intimidation proficiency is decent.

Human : A bonus to everything when you only care about two or three means a lot of waste.

Variant Human : Free feat can be pretty great since there are some great options to have early on.

Svirfneblin : Baseline gnome has half magic resistance, but the only reason to pick this subrace is the amazing feat tied to it.

Forest Gnome : There are other races that do everything this does but much better.

Rock Gnome : Just play an Artificer if you want the flavour of this race, it does nothing for Sorcerers.

Half Elf : Bonuses to all the stats you care about, plus two free skills to round off anything you are missing, simple but great.

Aquatic Half Elf : If you care about water in a campaign it’s ok, but you are having to sacrifice two skills for it. 

Drow Half Elf : You sacrifice a lot for a free Darkness cast.

High Half Elf : You get enough cantrips as a Sorcerer, and you don’t use weapons.

Wood Half Elf : Asking a lot for some pretty meh features. 

Lightfoot Halfling : Halflings are a personal favourite race of mine, and this is the one that gives a bonus to charisma.

Stout Halfling : I guess if you’re worried about poison damage from enemies.

Ghostwise Halfling : Telepathy can be cool if your party doesn’t have a good mix of races, take with Comprehend Languages for a cheap version of Tongues.

Asmodeus/basic Tiefling : Fire is a common resistance and a +2 to your primary casting stat, the racial spells are pretty good.

Variant Tiefling : The other spell list options are trash, but a free inherent fly speed is OP.

Aarakocra : 50 feet of fly speed and Dex for AC, being able to ignore melee enemies as a spellcaster and outrun most things you’ll ever fight is OP/

Air Genasi : Levitate is nice, but it is basically your entire racial feature and it isn’t that good.

Earth Genasi : Better races have Pass without Trace access.

Fire Genasi : Just a worse Tiefling.

Water Genasi : Probably the worst aquatic option, and most of them aren’t even that good when it’s an aquatic setting.

Goliath : You are a pure arcane caster, none of this helps you.

Fallen Aasimar : Close range fear effect when you are a class that hates being near enemies means this is a poor option compared to the other subraces.

Protector Aasimar : Decent resistances, inrace healing, and a mode that lets you have flight and significant bonus damage on your spells makes this a pretty great choice.

Scourge Aasimar : Close range pitance damage that can also hit friendlies that ALSO damages you while the mode is active, worse than Fallen.

Firbolg : Everything here is useless to you or there are better races that give you access to what is here.

Kenku : Just play a Half Elf, the unique race features are extremely niche and other races can do them fine anyway.

Lizardfolk : Just play a Mountain dwarf, free Mage armor is the only feature here that really does anything for you as a Sorcerer.

Tabaxi : Increases to two stats you care about, a free dash effect, and some ok bonus proficiencies makes this pretty solid.

Triton : +1 to two stats you care about and a cold resistance, the spells are garbage.

Bugbear : A niche race that applies to things Sorcerer doesn’t do.

Goblin : Bonus action to escape from melee, and a decent scaling bonus damage makes this a pretty solid race.

Hobgoblin : Once a short rest bonus to stuff is pretty solid.

Kobold : Pack Tactics is great if you bother with attack roll spells, some of which synergize well with metamagic.

Orc : Why are you moving TOWARDS the enemy?

Yuan-ti Pureblood : The only thing that might be better than inherent flight is advantage on all saves against spells, combine that with a damage immunity that isn’t uncommon and a +2 to your primary stat makes this an amazing race.

Changeling : Bonuses to your primary stats, at will shapechanging, and two social skills makes this a great face.

Kalashtar : Niche damage resistance, Wis save advantage, and a solid telepathy. Good for certain types of campaigns.

Beasthide Shifter : A small AC bonus and you get a little extra health, the stat bonuses and proficiency are pretty meh.

Longtooth Shifter : All that is useful is the proficiency and there are plenty of other races that can give it to you.

Swiftstride Shifter : The stat bonuses are ok and your shift gives you some extra mobility to outrun basic enemies. 

Wildhunt Shifter : You don’t care about any of this.

Warforged : A flat AC bonus, an extra skill proficiency, and ok stat increases. Everything else is tasty gravy.

Mark of Warding Dwarf : You get to have some nice out of combat spells, but nothing there actually does much with metamagic.

Mark of Shadow Elf : Best choice with a bonus to your primary casting stat, a stacking bonus to your stealth, invisibility as an innate spell, and an expanded spell list with some good spells you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

Mark of Finding Half Orc/Human : Bonuses to a bunch of stuff that isn’t your job, skip.

Mark of Handling Human : While many of the bonuses aren’t very useful, Speak with Animals and Conjure Animals are great spells to be able to access.

Mark of Making Human : Bonuses to things you don’t care about and a weak expanded spell list.

Mark of Passage Human : Bonuses to things you might actually use, boosted movement speed, and a list full of great utility that you don’t have access to as a sorcerer.

Mark of Sentinel Human : Most of this is worthless for you, but a free shield cast and a few good spells if you don’t have a cleric make this ok.

Mark of Scribing Gnome : Just play a wizard if you want the spells here you don’t get as a Sorcerer.

Mark of Detection Half Elf : Nothing here is useful to you and is a blight on the name of Half Elf.

Mark of Storm Half Elf : Just play the basic half elf, since most of the bonuses are redundant for Sorcerers.

Mark of Healing Halfling : If you don’t intend to play Divine Soul but still want healing magic.

Mark of Hospitality Halfling : A stacking bonus to persuasion means that this can make you the best at being a friendly face, a couple spells that might see use that aren’t already on your spell list is just gravy.

Leonin : You aren’t a fighter type.

Satyr : The only thing this doesn’t give you is a fly speed. Bonus movement, non humanoid typing, good free skill proficiencies, magic resistance, and optimal stat increases. May be THE best race choice.

Githyanki : You trade bad stat increases compared to the Mountain Dwarf, but get an extra language, skill proficiency, and some ok inherent spells. 

Githzerai : None of this is really useful or there are other races with the useful parts and other bonuses.

Baalzebul Tiefling : Spells are fairly bleh.

Dispater Tiefling : Dex is better than Int, but the spells are worse.

Fierna Tiefling : Just a worse spell list.

Glasya Tiefling : Dex bonus, and good utility spells.

Levistus Tiefling : Armor of Agathys means you get an extra 10 hp, prebuff before combat to take advantage since your action has better use during combat.

Mammon Tiefling : Arcane Lock for free once a day can be pretty great.

Mephistopheles Tiefling : I don’t like the spell list much, Flame Blade isn’t useful since melee is basically suicide for most Sorcerer.

Zariel Tiefling : Smites don’t really do anything for you since you shouldn’t be in melee using weapons if you can help it.

Tortle : 17 AC is solid, and you don’t need to invest anything else for it, the rest of the race is useless but that alone makes it pretty great.

Grung : I’d say this isn’t something great for a Sorcerer, since the highlight feature would only ever come into play against melee creatures with natural weapons.

UA

Dhampir : Keep some pets around or some willing party members to be able to bite things as you need for a sizable bonus to important skill checks, interesting mobility options are also pretty great.

Hexblood : Magic Token is pretty niche, and most of those are able to be filled with a familiar.

Reborn : Most of these are ribbons, but being able to essentially Bardic Inspiration yourself can help push you to success.

Fairy : Non humanoid creature type is sometimes useful or detrimental, but then you also add on a 30 foot fly speed and a freely assignable stat bonus for a pretty great race.

Hobgoblin (fey) : So this race is sort of borked, because the designers forgot that when you are helping on an attack roll you target the enemy and not the ally, meaning that the bonuses here would actually affect the enemy. The reason this gets blue though is that between combats for no resources you can grant everyone in the party 6 temp hp by just spamming the help action until you roll a 6 and moving on.

Owlfolk : Innate flyspeed and a freely assignable stat bonus are already pretty great, but then you also get a great skill proficiency and at will Detect Magic to be really great.

Rabbitfolk : Proficiency in initiative can help you do any needed control faster in combat order, and a small bonus to dex saves is pretty nice.

Dwarves : Hill and Mountain both shoot up in viability. Hill’s extra health is kind of nice, but Mountain giving you +2 to two stats as well as medium armor is amazing.

Gnomes : These are suddenly not quite as bad, mental saves tend to be pretty important. Most of the race features aren’t hugely useful to you though.

Half Orc : I would say these are actually a somewhat viable pick now, a free Deathward effect as well as a good free proficiency.

Aarakocra : Still amazing, but slightly more so now.

Genasi : Still terrible, their issues aren’t just poor stat distribution.

Goliath : Nothing’s really changed here.

Firbolg : Actually jump in viability, especially if you find a way to get Speak with Animals. Some campaigns you can actually get a good bit of mileage out of talking to animals, so advantage on those checks are nice.

Kenku : A bit better, their racial features are oriented around social stuff so adding a Cha bonus makes those more viable for you.

Goblin : Slightly better now with a better stat spread, the racial features are pretty nice.

Not much actually changes here for any of this except maybe Warforged, which still isn’t significantly impacted.

Technically all of these shoot up in viability, pick ones where you think you can get actual mileage out of the expanded lists. Note that Sorcerers are pretty limited in the amount of spells known so your spells need to be pretty high impact.

Mark of Handling : Goes from a pretty lame Wis race, to enabling you to talk to animals or other strange creatures. Conjure Animals is also a VERY strong spell to gain access to.

Mark of Healing : If you want healing but don’t want to be stuck as a Divine Soul, this can enable you to at least function as a secondary healer for the group. 

Mark of Warding : Some decent spells here, and the free ones are pretty nice. This suddenly increasing more useful stats makes it feel pretty nice as an option.

Githyanki : Like Mountain Dwarf, but you trade a +1 attribute score for a free language and skill proficiency.

Everything else : Nothing really changes in viability.

Tortle : 17 AC is equivalent to having 18 Dex and a Mage Armor, this was already great without useful stat increases.

All the UA stuff was already essentially using the Tasha's variant rule so...

Draconic Resilience : Always having Mage Armor for free and a little extra health to make up for your D6 hit die helps a bit with how squishy you are, don’t mistake this for making you actually able to tank anything.

Elemental Affinity : A +4 / 5 to a Fireball can be decently significant, but you should plan ahead on what spells you might take in the future for damage and then realize than any choice other than fire and maybe cold is a waste of time. 

Dragon Wings : Congratulations on having a passive fly spell at half the speed, I wish this was cooler than it was since there are plenty of races that have had this or better since level 1.

Draconic Presence : This feature is so pointless and terrible that I think it’s equivalent to you just not getting a feature at this level at all. Cost too high, effect is pathetic at this level, takes your concentration for some reason.

As a PHB option that wasn’t well player tested, it could have been worse. It isn’t what I’d call STRONG by any means, the only really decent feature is the Elemental Affinity which gets hampered by a poor selection of spells for anything that isn’t fire.  

Wild Magic Surge : Oh boy it’s lol random time where you have a 1 in 50 chance whenever you cast a spell of instantly knocking out anyone near you including yourself with a Fireball at lower levels. Am I salty for when half the party got wiped during combat? Maybe. Why does the feature say the DM can make you do things, why not make it a passive effect?

Tides of Chaos : Being able to arbitrarily get advantage on rolls is great, but why does the feature put the control in the DM’s hands and not just let you choose to do it yourself?

Bend Luck : Oh boy you get to spend a bunch of sorcery points on a worse Bardic Inspiration, this is such a great use of your time.

Controlled Chaos : I wish this was the level 6 feature instead, but better late than never. Advantage on the table rolls helps alleviate the likelihood of destroying yourself and being more of a detriment to the party than an asset, and there are some pretty good results on this table to aim for.

Spell Bombardment : While TECHNICALLY more useful than the Draconic equivalent, that is a very low bar. At this level an extra d6 of damage on your spells really isn’t going to impact anything meaningfully.

I rate this as green with the assumption the GM just lets you roll the table whenever you like, because a player feature that requires the GM’s permission to do is just stupid. With that caveat in mind I still don’t really like the random magic table’s ability to single handedly win or ruin an encounter. Call me a fun killer but the LOL I’m so random aspect just doesn’t draw me in or make me want to recommend such a suicidal choice. Getting past that though Tides of Chaos is pretty great, makes you able to be a good skill monkey since you can always have advantage.

Divine Magic : The reason you picked this, you wanted to be a discount Cleric with Metamagic access. This basically doubles the size of your spell list, and with actually good spells too. Twinned Raise Dead or other high value single target spell can be great. 

Favoured by the Gods : Once a short rest to maybe not mess up an important save is a nice and simple feature.

Empowered Healing : Spending a Sorcery Point on this instead of metamagic has to feel bad, but I guess if you rolled really bad it might be justified? 

Otherworldly Wings: Draconic is that you? See what I said there since it’s the same feature.

Unearthly Recovery : Essentially a 50% increase to your total hp as long as you get a turn to use it, at the very least you might actually use this feature in an impactful way at this level.

Divine Soul is pretty cool, the cleric list has some decent spells in it that can benefit off of your Metamagics to actually justify this over just playing a Cleric. Unfortunately the rest of it is fairly meh, so you better do your best to take advantage of that Divine Magic so you didn’t just waste your time.

Eyes of the Dark : Inbuilt Darkness Devil Sight combo is pretty good, you become untargetable by a number of spells and any attacks have disadvantage on you.

Strength of the Grave : Being able to generally ensure you live at least an extra hit in combat is obviously useful, as long as you don’t get hit again you can teleport away and cast another day. Consider if it is worth spending your one use if there are a lot of turns between you getting hit and when your next turn would start.

Hound of Ill Omen : It’s a bonus action summon that has a decent amount of bulk and damage to it that also debuffs your target with the same effect as the Heightened Spell Metamagic, oh and it also costs the same as that metamagic too.

Shadow Walk : If you aren’t in the situation of outdoor combat during day time or in a remarkably well lit building, there is likely to be dim light about, and with your Eyes of the Dark you essentially have an at will 120 ft teleport as a bonus action to stay out of danger. 

Umbral Form : Resistance to nearly everything is pretty great, but at this level it’s a lot of Sorcery Points for not that much gain. At least you can actually imagine using this feature.

Shadow Magic was the best choice until Tasha’s came out, and is still pretty great. All the features are solidly good, though it is still a bit lacking in some aspects. I also just love the bonus flavour table that come with it.

Tempestuous Magic : Bonus action to escape from melee if you cast a spell, decent use of it since you often don’t have a good use for your bonus action. You shouldn’t really be getting into melee often though.

Heart of the Storm : I really wish this was better, but the damage resistances are very uncommon and the actual selection of spells that trigger the feature are pretty small. It isn’t even very good since you only do a pittance of damage to enemies that are already far closer than you should ever allow.

Storm Guide : Basically just a ribbon, cute for if you are ever sailing and wind is somehow a factor. 

Storm’s Fury : If you get hit by a melee attack at this level someone is likely doing something wrong or the enemy just teleported. If it’s the former then the knockback is probably the best part of this since they might not have enough movement to reach you again this turn. 

Wind Soul : Niche damage immunities, but an actual innate Fly spell effect is great, and being able to share a fly speed to the members of your party who don’t easily have access to it is nice. At this level though if a creature can’t deal with flight then your GM needs to buff the encounter.

My biggest issue is that this origin tries to incentivize you into going into close quarters combat to use many of the features, but such an idea is borderline suicidal. You don't have the durability to actually survive being near an enemy for an extended period of time.

Psionic Spells: Our first Purple feature, this gives you a bunch of known spells that you can switch out as you want to for other spells that are likely utility. Some of these are quite good too like Dissonant Whispers, Hold Person, or Black Tentacles.

Telepathic Speech : Allows for splitting the party without it being a terrible idea due to lack of communication. At the very least it can act like a Tongues spell for communication with exotic creatures.  

Psionic Sorcery : Better efficiency spell slot conversion that also gives them a subtle spell effect, can be great utility or just gives you extra spell castings.

Psychic Defenses : Niche defensive bonuses, but there are times where it will be useful in a lot of campaigns.

Revelation in Flesh : While one of the options is equivalent to Dragon Wings with a point cost, it wings as an actually solid feature by also having a lot of other decent utility you might use on top of it.

Warping Implosion : Decent escape tool you get to use for free once, simple feature at this level but useable. 

Overall, I love how Aberrant Mind actually approaches dealing with some of the big weaknesses of the class, mainly the lack of spell choices and spell slots. Good flavour, good power, nice access to spells that can work well with Metamagic all make this probably the strongest choice of origin.

Clockwork Spells : In the same way Psionic Spells does, this feature gives you a bunch of extra spells known slots for lower level spells. Differently from Psionic Spells this time it’s a lot of great support and warding spells.

Restore Balance : If you aren’t spending your reaction to cast Shield, this can be a pretty good way to spend it.

Bastion of Law : Not a big fan of this one, there are better ways to spend your Sorcery Points than on a damage shield that relies on dice for efficacy. 

Trance of Order : A bit of the format of many older level 18 features, but also actually really good. A minimum roll of 10 means that if you are invested in whatever the roll is you can likely succeed at this level. 

Clockwork Cavalcade : A free 100 hp heal that you can divide up specifically to maximize effectiveness as well as an AOE dispel magic against anything that is below level 7, which is most spells. A decent support ability for this level, touch I don’t think I’d want to spend the points to recover the use of it.

Clockwork Soul is the support oriented cousin to Aberrant Mind. There are some great buffs that you don’t normally get that you can suddenly use Twinned on for extra effectiveness. Access to a lot of strong Wizard out of combat spells to reinforce locations when there isn’t a Wizard to do them. 

Careful : While at a glance this doesn’t seem like it would be rated so highly, when you consider how much this impacts you at a tactical level it can completely change how you play. Consider how many spells there are that control an area but have friendly fire, spells like Web, Gust of Wind, Sleet Storm. Suddenly the party’s Fighter/Paladin/Barbarian is no longer a liability to your spell casting, but the rock upon which the enemies will crash against like ineffective waves because of how debilitating your control is. 

Distant : It’s a niche option that you might eventually pick out at higher levels, but there are a few situations I can imagine this being great for. One of the biggest would be Counterspell, since the base range is only around the medium and a lot of powerful spells can work at further range being able to extend it to be able to interrupt those casts can be crucial. Other silly options would include things like extreme range bombardment from 300 ft with Fireball. 

Empowered : This really feels like an option that you would only take at higher levels, it’s an option meant to correct bad rolls. Consider that it has to compete against other options that all significantly alter the way you might use the spell, and choosing a damage reroll option seems a lot less tempting.

Extended : A fairly situational option, that really depends on the campaign to get value out of it. In a middle of a combat rich environment the extra minute might mean the buff lasts an extra combat or two, and there are a few higher level spells that can have their potency drawn out a bit longer with this. If you’re picking out some spare options at high levels and you actually have spells you’d like to spend a point to extend, it’s worth at least a consideration.

Heightened : Costly, only surpassed by Twinned used with higher level spells. Against strong enemies with magic resistance though, it can be the difference between entirely wasting a spell. Imagine spending a 6th level slot on Disintegrate only for the enemy to dodge and you’ve wasted your turn. Maybe not the greatest at level 3 but subsequent times this is certainly a strong contender.

Quickened : This would be purple, if not for a certain rule in the spell casting section. By RAW you aren’t actually able to cast two leveled spells on the same turn. This means that either you just cast a cantrip on top of whatever you are doing, you prepare a spell as a reaction to make use of your action, or you just take a non spell action like disengaging or dashing. A lot of GMs do homebrew away this restriction though, so you can always just ask about it. Still pretty good with the rule in place though since it manipulates the action economy.

Subtle : There are three strong reasons to love this metamagic. Not making noise or actually requiring any physical sign of casting means that you can cast in a social setting without it being obvious that you’ve done so, combine that with some good social rolls to let you shift the blame and you’re golden. Stealth is also important, since enemies might hear you having to speak your verbal components; this lets you cast without being detected and possibly blowing your party’s cover. Final consideration is counterspell, if you have a GM who actually throws competent casters at you with this spell you will understand how annoying it is.

Twinned : Another game changer nearly as significant as Careful, this allows you to duplicate any buff or debuff spell to double the intended targets. Things like Crown of Madness or Haste or Banishment suddenly become a lot stronger when you can target two people, though repeated uses of this will drain your points quickly.

Seeking : This might be me missing something, but there really aren’t a lot of spells I’d take off the list that require an attack roll where a single miss is so important as to spend as many points as a Quickened. Maybe you could make a build around this but I just don’t really see it.

Transmuted : I’m happy that this exists, I really am, but 5e monsters rarely have vulnerabilities to really take advantage of modular damage type options. This means that the only other real use is being a Draconic origin that isn’t fire, so you can take advantage of your Elemental Affinity. Also might be good if you are in a campaign featuring a lot of extraplanar creatures who might have immunities to certain good spells.

Aberrant Dragonmark : You’re already a Sorcerer so getting an extra cantrip and first level spell is kind of beyond redundant for you. Gets a green for the possibility at level 10+

Actor : In a social campaign where station and identity will be important, can be a solid choice.

Alert : Landing your control spells is very impactful for how combat can go, and being able to do it ahead in turn order is a good idea.

Bountiful Luck : It’s a cute support feat, and there might be times when you can use it, but it takes an entire feat slot and I don’t think it’s good enough to justify it.

Defensive Duelist : It’s sort of like a free shield, eventually, for a single attack.... Except when it gets to that level everything has multiattack and your AC won’t matter unless you heavily invested into it despite being a squishy caster.

Dragon Fear : As a half feat, it’s not the worst choice. PHB Dragonborn’s breath weapon is pretty garbage and being able to have a 30 ft range fear that specifically doesn’t let them approach you is great. 

Dragon Hide : Inherent mage armor is obviously redundant with Draconic Origin, and probably isn’t worth it for the other origins too.

Eldritch Adept : A lot of the invocations you have access to are actually already feats, but things like Devil Sight are pretty cool. 

Elemental Adept : The ignoring damage resistance gets different mileage by your campaign. Rerolling your dice helps though when you cast Fireball and roll 4 1s and you just want to die. 

Elven Accuracy : Not enough good spells that use attack rolls to take advantage of this, let alone ones you would cast with advantage.

Fey Touched : Misty Step is already on your list, and if you want those enchantment or divination spells just pick up Magic Initiate.

Flames of Phlegethos : Fire Elemental Adept but without ignoring resistances, might be better than it if you aren’t worried about resistances. The damage aura is a waste of time.

Infernal Constitution : Some campaigns, these resistances are actually really good, Tiefling is already a good race so it bears consideration in those circumstances.

Inspiring Leader : Party wide health bonus can be pretty great, you can generally expect the health to absorb one or two attacks decently well. If you want to support the party this can be a nice choice.

Lucky : I as a player and GM dislike this feat, but I can’t deny how good 3 free rerolls is to anyone. Note that this doesn’t really work as well offensively since it can’t be used on enemy saving throws.

Metamagic Adept : Extra resources on your main class feature and more Metamagic options that normally you’d have to wait forever for, this is a great feat to just help you do more of the good stuff you do.

Prodigy : It’s been power crept by Tasha’s, if you aren’t including those though it’s a good way to gain expertise. Consider how much you care about a +1 to a stat against a tool proficiency and language.

Resilient : A nice way to round off an odd score, you already get Con saves so it’s less useful to you compared to other casters.

Ritual Caster : Access to ritual casting can be pretty nice if your party lacks a Wizard to cast a lot of the spells you also have access to, worthy of consideration if you want some good utility spells to cast for the party.

Second Chance : Not the worst half feat that you could take, but you probably rather use your reaction for Shield. 

Shadow Touched : Invisibility is already on your list, but if you want the half feat for a few free spell castings.

Skill Expert : Expertise in your social skill of choice, have a great time.

Skilled : If you didn’t get the skills you wanted from your class, background, and race and it’s more than 1, you still probably want Skill Expert for that juicy expertise.

Svirfneblin Magic : All the spells here are great, and permanent Nondetect can be amazing if you have ever dealt with a GM that actually uses divination on you. 

Telekinetic : A half feat that lets you shove as a bonus action at range can be pretty nice, either to push enemies away to not get opportunity attacks on you or working with your team to do some interesting things.

Tough : If you want more health but don’t want to increase your Con, but Con gets you concentration saves so it’s a ‘tough’ sell.

Warcaster : Advantage to keep your best spells up is why you’re here, since you hopefully aren’t ever in a situation where you would be making opportunity attacks, at least it’s there for that worst case scenario.

Wood Elf Magic : While not the best way to gain access to it, Pass without Trace enables party wide stealth strategies to approaching problems and having it in the party can actually be worth the feat. The other spells likely won’t be of much use to you though.

While pretty MAD with an Int requirement, if you can afford it this is actually a surprisingly good dip. The initial level investment into the class gets you shield and medium armor proficiency to help pull what is likely a lower AC into a respectable range. The second level gets you the Infusion feature, letting you get things like +1 AC, +1 bonus to your spell attacks, or an item that lets you auto succeed on concentration saves. At third level I think your best choice is the Armorer, because it lets you now use full plate without a strength requirement, plus a shield, and any defensive infusions to also increase your AC. Go party on the front lines as a still squishy but at least high AC caster, maybe even make some use of features that require you to be suicidally close to your enemies.

At most worthy of a two level dip, Barbarian really doesn’t have much that can help you since Rage prevents you from doing any Sorcerer spellcasting. Things that are useful though would be Unarmored Defense if your Con ever got to 18 and you had more than a +2 Dex mod, and Danger Sense helping you avoid any Fireballs and the like.

While likely the weakest of the charisma casters as an option, Bard can offer a bevvy of benefits to any interested Sorcerers. Gaining access to things like Bardic Inspiration, Skill Expertise, and powerful archetype features. My personal picks for the best choices of college would be the College of Creation, College of Eloquence, and the College of Glamour. College of Creation’s Motes help make your Bardic Inspirations more impactful and hopefully helps people remember that they have them. College of Eloquence pulls double duty with it’s impressive buff to any social encounters you might be dealing with as the party face, as well as being able to significantly debuff any enemy’s saves against your potent control spells. College of Glamour is for the real battlefield control support, if you have a smart team and play combats tactically the ability to let the party reposition in the middle of the round can be a godsend.

The best non charisma class that you could multiclass into, most of the power comes from your domain. The base class does give you some pretty solid utility in access to Healing Word and Guiding Bolt and some good armor proficiencies. The two top picks are the Tempest and Order Domains. Tempest Domain, other than the free heavy armor proficiency, has one of the strongest offensive buffs you could possibly get. Destructive Wrath even at lower levels can let you have that Lightning Bolt spell lancing through a line of enemies do just shy of 50 damage, and the ability to maximize your dice gets even scarier if you ever reach the point of having Chain Lightning. Notably also makes the Transmute Metamagic quite powerful for the ability to suddenly maximize nearly any damage spell you have access to. Order Domain is, by contrast, far more support focused. This time only really needing a 1 level dip, you get heavy armor, as well as a free skill proficiency. You also gain the ability to let anyone you target with your buffs or recently acquired healing to take an extra attack, which synergizes extremely well with any party Rogues as they get their Sneak Attack damage again if they land the hit.

While not a lot of synergy between the two classes, Druid remains a powerful caster with a variety of great control and supportive options. Going 3 levels in for 2nd level spells is a good idea to gain access to Pass Without Trace for the team. As far as which of the Circle to choose, the only one to really catch my eye was the Circle of Stars. Access to Guidance and free castings of Guiding Bolt, and the Dragon Starry Form helping to prevent you from failing most concentration saves.

While I would suggest starting in Fighter first for heavy armor, even as a dip it’s pretty solid. Grab Defense Fighting Style, use Action Surge for extra cantrip casting, and grab Battlemaster for some good utility Maneuvers. Tasha’s gave you some pretty great choices like Ambush, Commanding Presence, and Evasive Footwork.

I can’t think of a significant reason to care about anything Monk makes available that isn’t better gotten from other classes. Too MAD and if you are using Monk features you aren’t using the much better spells you get as a Sorcerer.

As a small dip, I think that this is a subpar choice. If you intend to invest more heavily into it though, and really try to get that martial prowess going 6/7 levels in, it makes you an excellent frontliner who should get lots of spell slots and utility by combining it with Sorcerer. Also of note is how some people like to combine all the charisma casters together and use Divine Smite to make up for some lackluster power in spell selection because it gimps your spells known progress.

I tried really hard to think of any reason to attempt such a combination, and even with the buffs from Tasha’s I can’t think of anything. Fighter, Paladin, even Barbarian gives you more useful features.

While there are some solid reasons behind investing into Rogue, Cunning Action, Expertise with 1 level, and Swashbuckler for an initiative bonus, I just don’t think it’s as worthwhile a choice compared to some of your other options. If you just want the Expertise it isn’t the worst single level dip though.

This is probably the best dip for anyone who can afford it in the game, Warlock has tons of goodies you can get with only a few levels. You have patron options that can give you healing, grant you good uses for your bonus action, interesting spell selection, and just some solid passives. There’s quite a few solid invocations like Devil Sight, Eldritch Mind, or Mask of Many Forms. The Pact Boons also add in plenty of great utility in either strong familiars, ritual casting, or the new Pact of the Talisman. Noteworthy synergy with you being a Sorcerer, convert your Warlock slots into Sorcery Points before you short rest to gain back some resources for further Metamagics.

 I’m not a huge fan about most of the Wizard options, and the spell list is mostly the same as what you’d get if you didn’t delay your multiclassing progression. A few of the schools are pretty cool, Divination and War Magic mostly, but there is nothing here to inspire you to put more than 2 levels into it, because otherwise you should have just played a Wizard to start with instead of mixing the two.

Acid Splash : A decent early game option, the damage isn’t great but if your GM throws grouped up enemies at you at low levels this can be a nice way to whittle down their health for your party to pick off.

Blade Ward : Costs your action and a cantrip slot you never get back, just use the dodge action if you have to.

Booming Blade : They try to give you some ok stuff for melee, but they give no tools to actually survive very well at that range. I’ve seen too many overconfident spellswords try to run into melee and get destroyed in a round or two.

Chill Touch : Anti healing isn’t often that needed for most campaigns, but this is pretty great if you deal with a lot of enemy healing or undead.

Control Flames : It’s a flavour cantrip, as far as more impactful use you could always use it to leave temporary messages in fire.

Create Bonfire : You look at this spell at first and think “Oh so this would be good at holding chokepoints” and then realize it’s a concentration spell.

Dancing Lights : The fact this is concentration means that if you need an actual light source the Light spell is better. Possible shenanigans though for you sending this ahead and possibly eating a prepared reaction attack.

Fire Bolt : Sometimes the simplest spel is the best, and while this is no “I cast FIST” this is no nonsense I just want to do damage.

Friends : Could have maybe been good if they didn’t realize later, but unless you are just placating an enemy so the rest of the group can murder them without much of a fuss this isn’t very useful.

Frostbite : Vicious Mockery’s big cousin, Con saves tend to be high on the types that make weapon attacks but if you want to debuff them this is an ok idea.

Green-Flame Blade : Same issues as Booming blade, melee is pretty suicidal for you.

Gust : While as a combat option this is extremely situational, there are a handful of niche situations where moving something 5 ft can be useful, it not doing damage means allies are also fine targets if they need help.

Infestation : Sort of a similar situation as Gust, but this does some damage. 

Light : If you are a race without darkvision, either you should take this spell or make sure a party member has it.

Lightning Lure : Similar situation as the Blade cantrips, but you might have some use for forcing them through terrain to reach you.

Mage Hand : To be honest, I’ve only ever seen this get used in any meaningful way a handful of times. It’s a fun quality of life spell for RP though if you care about that sort of thing.

Mending : Plenty of times where being able to fix stuff has been useful, it’s a common cantrip though and redundancy doesn’t do much.

Message : Situational spell that really depends on what kind of people are in your party, but sometimes a discount Sending to talk to the party scout is worth the cantrip slot.

Mind Sliver : If you aren’t the only caster in the party that has some serious debuffs, this can be a pretty great set up to help them land it. Intelligence saves tend to be quite low on most enemies so easy to land.

Minor Illusion : Mileage will vary by group and how creative you can be, sometimes it’s great sometimes it isn’t. At the very least being able to magic up some basic cover that is larger than the small races is useful.

Mold Earth : Near instant pitfall traps and quick message writing that disappears, great out of combat utility and helps set up ambush locations.

Poison Spray : I guess if an enemy gets close enough to you this does a good bit of damage, but that’s a dangerous place to be for only 1 extra damage compared to Firebolt.

Prestidigitation : Great quality of life cantrip, and there are a few situations where being able to instantly clean or dirty something is quite useful.

Ray of Frost : Shorter range and less damage than a Firebolt, but the movement speed drop can be useful to prevent enemies from running at you as quickly.

Shape Water : Not as useful as the other Elemental Evil cantrips, might be able to do something interesting with water messages though.

Shocking Grasp : If you are in melee, you should try to escape, not try to punch them in the face.

Sword Burst : Combine needing to be in suicidal range of enemies with needing to be fighting a horde, and you have a spell that is too situational for general use.

Thunderclap : This is the same thing as Sword Burst but is also extra loud to make stealth impossible.

True Strike : The meme cantrip that nobody should take. If you don’t understand why just by looking at it, you have very few attack rolling options and you have to waste an entire turn for advantage instead of just attacking twice. 

Absorb Elements : While there are tools to help increase your AC, as needed resistance to common damage types is an excellent tool for fighting other casters.

Burning Hands : At lower levels, this can be a solid option against mobs of enemies when you lack the mobility and survivability you get from higher level spells. Later levels swap out for more standard defensive spells.

Catapult : Enemies in a line? Enemies far away? This spell is tied for highest damage among the 1st level spells and you get multiple chances to hit things in a line, making it an excellent damage option even at higher levels.

Chaos Bolt : It’s decent damage, but it’s subpar unless you get lucky and hit the bonus hit in a situation where there is another target.

Charm Person : 1 hour can either be a long time or not long at all depending on the circumstances you find yourself while attempting to use this spell. At low levels though it might help grease some wheels.

Chromatic Orb : The pay to win spell (50 gp buy in to unlock it for the material components), for a single target damage that is the same as Catapult.

Colour Spray : A 15 ft cone and Blind is a far worse combination than 20 ft radius at 90 ft unconscious, just a worse sleep.

Comprehend Languages : In some campaigns where languages might matter, you are still at the bottom of the list for people who should take this since you lack ritual caster.

Detect Magic : The only class that doesn’t get this is Warlock, so unless you are somehow the only spellcaster in the group, best left to someone else.

Disguise Self : In a social campaign, an instant disguise that lasts for a reasonable amount of time can be pretty useful.

Earth Tremor : A small radius around you for low level cantrip damage and possible friendly fire.

Expeditious Retreat : I’ve never seen a situation where this would be worth using by basically anyone, let alone specifically Sorcerers.

False Life : Warlocks have an invocation that lets them cast this at will which is still considered not worth using, so imagine using actual resources for it.

Featherfall : Really depends on your campaign, but falling damage can be pretty nasty when the GM plays around it.

Fog Cloud : An instant smokescreen can be used in some decently creative ways, and many spells require the target to be actually visible.

Grease (T) : A decent early game area control spell that actually scales pretty well since it doesn’t cost you concentration and has a good range.

Ice Knife : While the damage isn’t spectacular, it can be thrown from a good distance to hit grouped up enemies and has a solid niche for a low level Sorcerer’s repertoire.

Jump : Never seen a situation to use this in any official or homebrew adventure.

Mage Armor : For most Sorcerers this is a +3 AC that lasts the entire day, the only reason to not bother is if you have another feature that gives you a better AC calculation.

Magic Missile : It’s guaranteed damage, even if it isn’t high. Basically just useful for dealing with highly evasive enemies.

Ray of Sickness : It requires an attack roll AND a save to be good, but poison is a decent status condition. Note that a lot of more powerful enemies tend to be immune to the damage and condition.

Shield : If you get attacked by someone actually using an attack roll, 5 AC tends to be enough to make them miss if you have a decent AC.

Silent Image : Creative illusion usage can let you get some pretty great effect out of this spell. 

Sleep: This spell can clear out entire encounters at low level. Doesn’t scale great.

Tasha’s Caustic Brew : It’s concentration for some small damage over time, unless you can somehow catch a lot of enemies in a line I think it’s not very good. Upcasted damage is actually pretty good though.

Thunderwave : Great for if you get swarmed and need to get away, or the party is trying to hold a line and there is some dangerous terrain to push the enemy into.

Witch Bolt : Short range and basically just cantrip level damage, maybe you could do some sort of crazy build that lets you upcast this and use a bunch of extra actions to do damage but at that point just cast a Fireball or something.

Aganazzar’s Scorcher : Not enough damage and poor range in a line. 

Alter Self : In a social campaign it can be a better disguise than Disguise Self, but the options it actually grants are pretty weak.

Blindness/Deafness : Pretty solid single target debuff, doesn’t cost concentration.

Blur : If you want a decent defensive buff, this is basically equivalent to a dodge action every turn. Hand this out to allies likely to be targeted by attacks for decent effect. 

Cloud of Daggers : Pretty great way to block a doorway, especially if you have allies who can put enemies into the danger area. 

Crown of Madness : Can be a great way to sow confusion among enemies, and is especially potent if you combine with Subtle Spell while stealthed.

Darkness : Unless combining this with Devil’s Sight, this is a pretty big debuff for you as well as your allies, since a lot of spells require line of sight to target. You might be able to do some sort of build where you combine this with some non targeting spells, but I think just taking the feat/dip for Devil’s Sight is better.

Darkvision : If someone is stuck as a race without this inherently, the Light spell can cover a lot of their needs. Only really useful if stealth is a priority and they can’t handle themselves.

Detect Thoughts : Pulls double duty as a decent detection tool as well as being extremely useful in more social settings.

Dragon’s Breath : Temporarily gives a creature an at will Burning Hands, the damage options would be better if 5e actually bothered to have enemies with damage vulnerabilities. Interesting possibilities if combined with animals that the enemy don’t expect to vomit Acid.

Dust Devil : The damage is meh, and I’d rather use the concentration on a spell that is actually dangerous or impactful to the battlefield.

Earthbind : Sometimes the party is just full of Barbarians/Paladins/Hexblades who can’t hit anything that is 10 feet off the ground, and you need to help bring that dragon down to their level. 

Enhance Ability : For when the help action won’t be available and you really need that extra chance of success on an important check.

Enlarge Reduce  : I’m not really sold on this spell, I think that you can do a lot more with other spells of the same or even lower levels. Biggest plus I think is actually the size category change for party grapplers.

Flame Blade (T) : It’s a melee spell that doesn’t actually do much damage and requires concentration, meaning that if you actually get hit in melee you have a chance of just losing the spell that incentivized you to be at that range to begin with.

Flaming Sphere (T) : Pretty great option as a damaging AOE that you can shift around for a little extra damage. I’ve seen this used a decent amount of times just running it through a corridor with enemies to great effect.

Gust of Wind : Actually a pretty great spell to keep enemies from advancing down corridors, and synergizes amazingly with other party casters who can make areas dangerous.

Hold Person : Paralyzed is probably the most dangerous status condition in the game, an enemy failing their save on this spell generally means the melee can clean them up on their turn.

Invisibility : Pretty great way to sneak into places the GM would normally say you can’t, and you can always have the invisible gnome crouch behind someone so they trip over when they get pushed.

Knock : While I’d say the Bard or Wizard should take this instead of you, there are a few times in modules I’ve seen some specific usage for this spell.

Levitate : In an open area or just against enemies that don’t have range, this can be a pretty great in combat spell as either a buff or debuff. Utility out of combat may vary but is still also worth noting. 

Magic Weapon (T) : Even if you weren't in a class with a very small list of spells you can have at any time, I still wouldn’t bother with this spell.

Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp : Restrained is a pretty good debuff, and you can spend subsequent turns to keep attempting it on enemies.

Mind Spike : Tracking niche is very niche, there might be some point to this if you are concerned the enemy might use something like Dimension Door or that keeps using Invisibility. Note that this doesn’t help much against Greater Invisibility since you need to see them to target them initially.

Mirror Image : A great non concentration buff for yourself that lets you have an extra chance to have attacks miss you beyond just your AC.

Misty Step : Amazing spell to help you escape from melee, sometimes also has utility to get to hard to reach places.

Phantasmal Force : I’d much rather a Hold Person, but Intelligence saves are normally quite low for most enemies.

Pyrotechnics : You need a pre existing source of fire for effects that really aren’t worth writing home about.

Scorching Ray : Good damage that can get split up between multiple enemies and has a chance to crit, I think at later levels it’s best swapped out for more control or defense.

See Invisibility : Highly situational and someone else should take it if you think it’s worth bothering. There are some uses for this in soem adventure modules and against enemies using Greater Invisibility.

Shadow Blade : You fold like a wet noodle in melee and it works off your Dexterity.

Shatter : Decent radius and damage, useful at lower levels to clear out mobs or deal with barricades and cover.

Snilloc’s Snowball Storm : I’d prefer Shatter over this.

Spider Climb : Requires concentration for an effect I think Levitate can cover fine and without the possible offensive utility.

Suggestion : With some creativity this spell can be pretty great, but in combat there are better choices.

Tasha’s Mind Whip : OK damage targeting Int that steals actions from the enemy that can be used at significant range, great spell for an offensive minded Sorcerer. Pairs well with a decent number of Metamagics. 

Warding Wind : Really depends on party composition, but extending disadvantage to mundane ranged opposition without debilitating your allies puts your party ahead in any ranged engagements.

Web : Pair this with Careful Spell for the bane of any enemy melee character, top pick for any control oriented Sorcerer.

Blink :  A coin flip to be invincible when it isn’t your turn, that also doesn’t use concentration, means this is an amazing defensive self buff that every Sorcerer should at least give thought to taking.

Catnap : When you have a party of characters who get resources back on short rests, this can help them actually do so in situations they might otherwise not be able to.

Clairvoyance : Situationally useful spell, but it’s pretty common so leave it for some other caster to do.

Counterspell : If you fight enemy casters, this is the biggest middle finger you can give to them.

Daylight : I guess if you planned to fight vampires, but you can just let someone else cast it if that’s the case.

Dispel Magic : Plenty of times in adventures where removing a magical effect can be significantly beneficial, and outside of those times stripping spell buffs from enemies who use them is good.

Enemies Abound : Has some ok synergy with subtle spell as a way to disrupt enemies, and Int saves are normally low.

Erupting Earth : It’s a smaller range, area of effect, and damage than a fireball. It makes up for these significant downsides by being a non concentration difficult terrain generation tool to synergize with dangerous AOE spells.

Fear : It’s a bit too short range and has friendly fire on it for me to rate this highly, but the debuff can be pretty solid to disrupt enemy formations.

Fireball : The classic spell that all other offensive and some non offensive spells get compared to. Great damage on a large radius with high range.

Flame Arrows : A concentration spell that does a maximum of 12d6, except it’s all single target, has to rely on someone shooting a bow a lot, and they can waste the arrows if they miss.

Fly : Decent use of concentration, 60 ft flyspeed is enough to outspeed a lot of threats and many enemies will have less dangerous ranged options compared to melee. Also obviously useful if you want to somewhat literally throw the barbarian at the flying dragon.

Gaseous Form : I’ve seen this spell used once, it wasn’t by a sorcerer, and honestly they probably could have accomplished it without the spell. 

Haste : Already considered to be one of the best buffs you can give to a martial party member, Sorcerers get to enjoy the unique synergy with their Twinned Metamagic to double the value of the buff.

Hypnotic Pattern : Good range and area spell that has a solid save or suck effect, can wipe out entire sections of encounters.

Intellect Fortress : I’m not really sold on this spell, but if you know what you’ll be dealing with psychic damage and mental saves a lot, can help shore up a party member’s low saves.

Lightning Bolt : When you think Fireball is too mainstream, know a lot of your enemies resist fire, worried about catching allies in a Fireball, or took Tempest Cleric. 

Major Image : There are some great uses for this spell with a little creativity, imitating spell effects, random hazards, or pretend reinforcements. You probably aren’t the best caster to take the spell, but you might have it anyway.

Melf’s Minute Meteors : Personal preference I’d rather just toss a Fireball, but given a few turns you out damage a Fireball using your bonus actions. It does have a smaller AOE and requires your concentration, which are reasons towards it’s low rating.

Protection from Energy : There ARE situations this is useful, but I think they are few and far between, and you want spells that you can actually use most of the time. Leave for another caster to take.

Sleet Storm : Combine with Careful Metamagic, and you have an ice rink only for the enemies, can be pretty devastating against melee enemies attempting to rush you.

Slow : Wisdom save on a spell that is clearly targeting martial enemies is nice, and it’s a pretty significant debuff against most martial enemies of any threat.

Stinking Cloud : Combine with Careful Metamagic, and suddenly it’s only your friendly melees who can do things in the death cloud.

Thunder Step : It’s a pretty interesting spell, combining mobility that can include an ally with some decent damage. The actual travelled distance is pretty good though so even as just an escape tool it’s significant.

Tidal Wave : Damage isn’t great, but the actual area that this spell covers is MASSIVE. Combine with Careful Metamagic to not worry about catching your allies with anything more than just a little damage.

Tongues : As a possible party face, this helps cover any interspecies communications if you don’t have telepathy. Obviously useless if you aren’t dealing with exotic species or the GM doesn’t let you talk your way out of things.

Vampiric Touch (T) : It adds a little survivability in melee, but you could also use a fireball for double the damage and is also an AOE. You might be able to swing this as an out of combat healing spell if you keep some pets to sacrifice for HP.

Wall of Water : Blocking the enemy archers can be useful, but I think the spell is a little niche compared to what you can actually do, and there are other classes who can access this spell.

Water Breathing : How often do campaigns actually care about water unexpectedly? It’s on a lot of spell lists and is also a ritual spell, leave it to them.

Water Walk : Ditto with Water Breathing. But at least this also has some alternative utility to help avoid some hazards.

Banishment : An uncommon save to completely remove an enemy from combat, also notably ends any spellcaster’s concentrations.

Blight : There are very few plant creatures that justify a single target spell of this level, and otherwise it only does slightly more damage than a Fireball.

Charm Monster : I think it’s telling that this spell didn’t even make the cut for PHB, Also consider that you might not even share a language with a lot of the creatures this spell might be used for.

Confusion : I can think of a lot of spells I’d rather use as a control than this that are also lower level, but it isn’t useless.

Dimension Door : I can remember at least a half dozen times this spell has saves a squishy caster from the jaws of death, sometimes quite literally from a creature’s jaws. 

Dominate Beast : Obviously quite campaign dependent, and it IS a somewhat common spell, but there are some decently strong Beasts in various campaigns to justify taking this spell.

Fire Shield (T)  : A short duration damage resistance isn’t really great, and doing damage to enemies who hit you in melee actually requires you letting enemies be in melee with you.

Greater Invisibility : Thinking selfishly for uses of this spell, lots of spells require the caster to see the target and it gives disadvantage to nearly any enemies trying to hit you with weapons. On the side of this being a buff to hand out, it’s advantage to hit most creatures with your attack rolls, disadvantage to getting hit, and also being untargetable by many spells. Prime but expensive target for a Twinned Metamagic.

Ice Storm : It’s like a slightly more damaging Erupting Earth, but the terrain only sticks around for 1 turn and it’s a spell level higher. Depending on GM generosity could be used to damage people on higher floors in buildings.

Polymorph : Yet another classic, change your allies into Giant Apes or Dinosaurs, or act as a discount Banishment. The flexibility this spell enables is great, though it is a pretty common spell.

Sickening Radiance : This spell, with proper party synergy, can melt enemies who get stuck. Consider combining with Careful Metamagic and a grappler to hold an enemy in it, a druid generating difficult terrain via assorted spells, or someone using Dissonant Whispers to force the enemy to run back into the light if they escape.

Stoneskin : It’s a common spell that isn’t that great an effect, that also requires your concentration.

Storm Sphere : While it’s a pretty interesting spell, and it certainly isn’t a bad spell, I just dont think it’s very good either. The complexity of the spell isn’t really rewarded in the damage numbers. Placement also is pretty important given it’s a fixed area that can’t be moved.

Vitriolic Sphere : A sort of upcasted Fireball that has a different damage type, fairly great damage, but if the enemy makes the save they take only a third of the damage they would if they failed.

Wall of Fire : Great damage on a defensive area spell, it also blocks line of sight for ranged enemies.

Watery Sphere : It’s a fun spell, and quite entertaining to gobble up enemies leaving them helpless. Unfortunately doesn’t really do anything to synergize with any Metamagic options.

Animated Objects : Action economy and summoning spells are often some of the strongest spells in the game, and Animated Objects lets you tap into that design space. 

Bigby’s Hand (T) : Another summoning spell, but this time only being able to summon one big option. The hand is great for control, able to block most enemies or force them into dangerous situations.

Cloudkill : The mustard gas spell that depends greatly on your campaign. Poison damage and Con saves aren’t exactly the best options, and it blocks line of sight on anyone actually in the cloud. 

Cone of Cold : One of the only combative 5th level spell that isn’t concentration, but I do have to wonder if you would actually often want this spell over just upcast Fireball with the spell slot.

Control Winds : A very situational spell, that Druids and Wizards can easily slot in if those situations ever actually came up.

Creation : Maybe there are interesting things you could create using this, but I have to wonder if anything those would accomplish you couldn’t just do with a lower level spell anyway. The upcasting could enable some more interesting options.

Dominate Person : Obviously Campaign dependent since many might not have good targets for this spell at this level, but if you are actually fighting humanoids, especially casters, this is great.

Enervation : If you took Witch Bolt, combined that with Vampiric Touch, then boosted the range this is what you would get. Not a big fan of this spell, but you can combine it with Quicken Metamagic and maybe multiclass into Fighter for the Action surge to get a decent damage output. Even with that in mind though the value out of that is pretty low unless you’re missing health.

Far Step : A sort of at will misty step spell, but I do have to wonder if you would often actually rather spend the 5th level slot AND concentration instead of just using Misty Step as you needed it.

Hold Monster : While it’s quite a bit more costly than Hold Person, paralyzed is so debilitating a condition to apply that it can actually be worth the cost.

Immolation : It has the initial damage of a Fireball, and you can spend concentration to continue to do half a Fireball’s damage each turn, but this really isn’t an effective use for your concentration or 5th level slots.

Insect Plague : It’s decent damage and makes difficult terrain, but at this level I kind of expect a little more. Note that few enemies can resist this damage since they specify nonmagical weapons.

Seeming : On a surface viewing you might just assume this is a party wide Disguise Self, but you could also use this mid combat as a serious disruption tool by making everyone look like different people. By RAW this spell requires an Investigation check to actually determine what has happened.

Skill Empowerment : It’s a VERY high level for what this amounts to, there is also the obvious question of if they really wanted expertise why didn’t they just take a feat or a dip into Rogue for it.

Synaptic Static : Take a Fireball, give it a much better save target, better damage type, and give it a non concentration serious debuff to basically anything. 

Telekinesis : It’s a decent way to hold a threatening enemy at a safe distance, but I do have to wonder why you would use this over Bigby’s Hand if you have Tasha’s.

Teleportation Circle : Obviously depends on campaign, and you are the lowest priority person who has access to the spell who wants to take it. That being said, in the right campaign without an alternative caster the burden may just fall onto you.

Wall of Light : I’ve only seen this spell get used twice and both instances were pretty underwhelming. That said, I can see how this might be useful as a sort of offensive support for a party with a lot of martials.

Wall of Stone : A solid physical barrier that takes at least a little effort to break through, it’s not all that impressive for that use alone when you consider how many other options that can be used to similar effect. The interesting use is out of combat as a construction tool, building stone structures quite quickly compared to more mundane methods.

Arcane Gate : It’s an interesting spell, but the actual applications are so limited that I wouldn’t suggest actually keeping the spell on your list.

Chain Lightning : Pretty good damage that gets applied to a decent number of nearby enemies, that also doesn’t have to worry about friendly fire. Becomes amazing if you bothered with Tempest Cleric.

Circle of Death : Hordes getting so large your Fireballs can’t wipe them all out? Just triple the radius size.

Disintegrate : Very high damage, but remember that some NPCs might be carrying loot that you want that isn’t magical.

Eyebite : Another spell that, while it has an interesting effect, really isn’t worth concentration for what it does.

Flesh to Stone : After failing the first save, the target will be restrained for at least three turns or you drop concentration. Actually landing the petrification is pretty unlikely and very niche in usefulness. 

Globe of Invulnerability : Sometimes your GM will realize that one of the most effective attacks on the party is just to have a group of weaker casters pelt you with Fireballs and Control spells. This spell helps stop that.

Investiture of Fire : Fire immunity can be pretty great in some circumstances, but it’s VERY campaign dependent, and the rest of the spell is pretty useless.

Investiture of Ice : Cold immunity is useful in a lot less situations than fire, but it makes up for this by having a somewhat ok active that can work well with teamwork.

Investiture of Stone : The resistances are ok, and the active is at least useful as a spacing tool. The real highlight of this though is the fact you can walk through stone walls and harrass enemies in an indoor environment.

Investiture of Wind : Combine Fly and Warding Wind, and a situational active that you could use to shove enemies into danger. 

Mass Suggestion : In a more urban campaign, you can use this to set up all sorts of interesting shenanigans, basically falls under a similar umbrella as illusion magic that this spell scales with how creative you can be with it. Otherwise in combat can possibly end it with the right suggestion.

Mental Prison : While it’s a pretty high level single target spell, the damage actually ends up around the same, if not better than, Disintegrate. The bonus effects and targeting Int on this spell are some delicious gravy.

Move Earth : I’d suggest letting someone else with access to this spell take it, since it lacks any in combat applications. Quite useful for combat preparations though.

Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere : Just double the range on Fireball, triple it’s radius, and change the damage type to one less often resisted. Has some pretty great synergy with some water spells, or even just in a wet environment.

Scatter : An interesting spacing tool that has both offensive and defensive applications. Drop those enemies into hostile areas or just as far away from you as possible.

Sunbeam : While it takes a few turns to get good value out of this, it adds up to being decently useful and situationally great depending on campaign.

Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise : Disregard the martial portion of this spell. Bonus AC, flight, and some great options for condition and damage immunities makes it better than the Investiture spells.

True Seeing : Truesight is a pretty niche buff, and this spell is on a lot of lists who can afford such a situational spell more than you.

Crown of Stars : This spell lasts for a long time, meaning you can cast it a good bit before an expected combat. It’s solid damage that can crit, and works off of your bonus action, enabling you to still sling all your other spells alongside it.

Delayed Blast Fireball : Just upcast a Fireball instead and save yourself from having to actually know this spell.

Dream of the Blue Veil : This is a plot device spell, don’t bother.

Etherealness : I guess you can use this to escape a rocks fall everyone dies moment, but the actual usefulness of this spell is pretty low.

Finger of Death : The damage is a bit lower than many other options around this level, but it does create a permanent follower even if they aren’t actually that strong.

Fire Storm : It’s basically just an anti army spell, combine with Distant Metamagic for some great effect.

Plane Shift : A plot device spell that can actually be used in combat. Acts as a Banish spell that just doesn’t have concentration, for better and worse.

Power Word Pain : If an enemy has so little health, just use a spell that actually does damage. 

Prismatic Spray : An actually decent random spell, with a chance for very high damage.

Reverse Gravity : In an outdoor area, can be pretty effective to just lift up a bunch of enemies and not give them an easy way to actually get down. When it drops or when they enter then you can get. 

Teleport : Get out of jail free card, or you could use it offensively in combination with divination.

Whirlwind : Interesting choice of spell, that can let you gobble up enemies and keep them away from you.

Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Withering : I love the image this spell can invoke, but the damage behind it is somewhat lacking when you consider what level you can actually take this spell.

Demiplane : Great quality of life spell, but it’s best use is just as a storage area for items or people. Possibly great use in combination with Finger of Death zombies you store inside.

Dominate Monster : Being able to mind control just about anything is pretty great, and honestly this level there isn’t much competition.

Earthquake : More of an anti army or anti structure spell, but sometimes you just want that image of the spellcaster raising their hands and a city crumbles around them. Combine with Careful Metamagic to keep some allies from getting knocked prone.

Incendiary Cloud : I think this would have been better if it was a level lower, but as is I think I’d rather just use a more utility spell than this.

Power Word Stun : Stunned is a decent condition, and this spell can help take out more minor high level threats for a few turns.

Sunburst : Big aoe, with good damage, a decent status condition, and doesn’t require concentration. Combine those with being effective against at least one common enemy type for a solid choice of offensive spell at this level.

Blade of Disaster : At first glance this spell seems pretty meh, especially considering what else occupies this tier. When I thought about it though, given a few turns using your bonus action the damage can end up quite high against single targets.  

Gate : Lots of shenanigans you can accomplish with this spell, especially in conjunction with a few other spells from other casters to prepare an arena. Pull powerful extraplanar creatures in to harvest them for parts, or even just use this as a way to move large amounts of people into locations you discovered via Scrying or to escape bad situations.

Mass Polymorph : Not especially sold on this spell, but you might be able to use this to an interesting effect as a defensive tool by giving your allies an extra hundred temp health to absorb a Meteor Swarm. 

Meteor Swarm : Average damage of just shy of 150 with an absurd range to let you blast enemies from a safe distance.

Power Word Kill : Just use Meteor Swarm, only situation where this is plausibly useful is against an enemy with effects that prevent it from dying, such as if your GM has you fighting a Long Death Monk.

Psychic Scream : A non friendly fire multi target stun that targets a normally low saving throw that doesn’t require concentration to keep the debuff up. Where Meteor Swarm is the king of damage, this is one of the best debuff spells in the game.

Time Stop : Sometimes you just need a chance to catch your breath and use a few buff spells before combat, this helps you get that chance.

Wish : The ultimate utility spell. Beyond the obvious “wish for anything but risk never doing it again” bit, the actual best use of this spell is a once per day replication of ANY utility spell of 8th level or lower. Start making clones, layering defensive wards, etc.