My favourite two sorcerer sub-classes are weirdly the two that come in the Player's Handbook; Draconic Bloodline and Wild Magic. Problem is, both of these are a bit weak compared to later sub-classes, especially because they lack a spell list, which severely limits their casting options at lower levels; in addition, while both have decent early features, the later level features are a bit "meh". So I decided to have a go at home-brewing some changes to these sub-classes.
This is currently unavailable as it got rejected as too similar to Wild Magic (even though it has major changes). You can view what it looked like below:
The forces of chaos lying beneath the order of creation are the source of your magic. You may have been exposed to raw magic, perhaps through a planar portal to Limbo, the Elemental Planes, or the Far Realm. Perhaps you found yourself blessed by a fey being or cursed by a demon. Or your magic could be a fluke, with no apparent cause. However it came to be, this magic churns within you, awaiting an outlet.
Wild Magic
1st-level Wild Sorcery feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Wild Magic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
You can manipulate the forces of chance and chaos. Whenever you roll an attack roll, ability check or saving throw you may either choose to roll it with advantage by spending a single use of this ability before the roll, or you may instead re-roll the dice by spending two uses of this ability after rolling (but before determining the result).
You have a number of uses of this ability equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses following a long rest, or d3 uses whenever you trigger a Wild Sorcery Surge. If you have used two or more of your Tides of Chaos uses, your DM may choose to trigger an automatic Wild Sorcery Surge when you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher.
Manipulate Luck
6th-level Wild Sorcery feature
You have the ability to twist fate using your wild magic. Whenever you roll on the Wild Sorcery Surge table, you can roll twice and choose which result to use.
In addition, whenever another creature you can see makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to roll 1d4 and apply the number rolled as a bonus or penalty (your choice) to the creature’s roll. You can do so after the creature rolls but before any effects of the roll occur. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all spent uses after completing a long rest.
Wild Magic Unleashed
14th level Wild Sorcery feature
After casting a 1st level or higher spell as an Action, you may spend a sorcery point to do one of the following as a Bonus Action:
Re-roll any number of duplicate damage/healing dice for the spell – you must use the second roll.
Teleport to a safe, unoccupied space at least 10 feet away, and no more than 30 feet away, chosen by your DM.
Turn partially invisible until the start of your next turn – while enemies cannot see you as normal, they remain aware of your general location and so can pursue you, attempt to attack you (with disadvantage) etc.
If the spell you cast triggered a Wild Sorcery Surge, the effect is resolved after the Bonus Action has been taken.
Master of Wild Magic
18th-level Wild Sorcery feature
You have gained an intuitive understanding of the flow of wild magic around you, enabling you to pluck at the threads of raw sorcerous power as you please. You can now attempt to cast a spell even if you do not know it, provided it has a casting time of one Action or longer, you have the necessary spell slot to cast it, and you can meet any component requirements. You may not use metamagic options on a spell cast using this feature.
Before resolving the spell's effect(s) you must first roll an Intelligence or Wisdom check (whichever is worse) with a DC of 10 + the spell's level. Before rolling, you may spend any number of sorcery points in order to add a +2 bonus to the roll for each point spent. On a success, the spell takes effect as normal as if it were one of your known sorcerer spells, while on a failure any spell slots and components are consumed as normal but nothing happens.
Regardless of whether the spell is successfully cast or not, you will trigger an immediate Wild Sorcery Surge.
Changes
The first big change is the addition of a spell list, granting additional known spells at certain levels; I had a bit of a tough time with this as there are a few that I would have liked to include but don't currently meet D&D Beyond's homebrew limits (Basic Rules and Elemental Evil Player's Companion only), which is why I couldn't include the very appropriate Chaos Bolt (Xanathar's Guide to Everything). While I was looking in particular for spells from other spell lists, a few spells are already available to sorcerers but just seemed too thematically appropriate to not include them; this still frees up room in a player's list for other choices though.
Next up, Tides of Chaos is now a re-roll rather than advantage (which makes it stronger) and you will get more uses of it at later levels (it's half proficiency rounded up, so you get a 2nd use at 5th level, and a 3rd at 13th level.
I decided to merge Bend Luck and Controlled Chaos into the 6th level Manipulate Luck, and the Bend Luck component is now proficiency bonus uses per long rest. While it might feel like it steps on a Bard's toes a bit, Bards should have more uses overall (CHA uses per short rest from 5th level) and get a better die, so it's hopefully not too much.
At 14th level there is now a new feature "Wild Magic Unleashed" which enables you to take one of three bonus actions for a sorcery point whenever you cast a spell; one lets you re-roll duplicate dice (so it's most likely to be usable for especially bad rolls), another lets you teleport but your DM picks the spot within range (has to be safe though), and the third gives you a round of invisibility but enemies still know roughly where you are (so the benefit is being hard to hit). I'm tempted to add more, but I feel like three is a manageable number.
Finally the 18th level Master of Wild Magic feature enables you cast spells that you don't know; you still have to meet all the spell's requirements, use a slot etc. as normal, and then you roll an INT or WIS check (your choice) to see if it succeeds, with the option to burn sorcery points on improving your chances. This is great for those situations when you know there's an ideal spell for what you want to do, but nobody has it, and I think it's a lot of fun, though it does require the player to have a good awareness of spells (or access to filterable spell search, like on DDB). You can't use metamagic with spells cast in this way (because twinning certain non-sorcerer spells could be OP).
While I'm fairly happy with the playability, balance is currently questionable; I've tried not to go overboard, but this is very much a work in progress. Please give feedback, or share your own ideas for features! I'm also particularly interested if there are any spells I've missed for the spell list; remember these need to be Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Guide only for public homebrew (I intend to share it when it's done).
Edit: Whoops, looks like I forgot to update the spell list table on my sub-class, and so I copied the wrong set of spells over to here; basically I swapped a number of spells that are already on the sorcery lists for some that aren't so it broadens out the list a bit more. There are still a few like the 2nd level spells Alter Self and Enhance Ability which I've kept because they're both spells that fit the theme really well, but aren't necessarily ones you'd spend a spell choice on, so getting them for free seems a good compromise.
Update: I've changed Tides of Chaos to be proficiency uses per long rest, as it isn't possible to implement half proficiency on D&D Beyond (Limited Use options are scaled by class level, not character level, and fractions aren't allowed when using proficiency); to balance this, you can still retroactively re-roll a result for two uses of the ability, or preemptively roll with advantage for one.
Had a chance to play-test this a bit, and we ended up tweaking the Master of Wild Magic feature; it now uses the worse score of INT or WIS for the check, but each sorcery point you spend on the roll adds a bonus of +2, so unless your INT and WIS are the same you'll have a slightly harder base roll, but it's less expensive to boost it.
This means you can drop 5+ sorcery points to tip the odds in your favour when casting a 9th level spell you don't know, which is in line with other high level sorcery features, though more likely you'll want to drop 7 or more to make it more of a sure thing (since you get nothing for your trouble other than a surge if the roll fails), unless your INT and WIS scores are both good. For spells of 1st to 3rd level however it only takes one or two points to make them likely to succeed, and three or four to all but guarantee them, so you can fairly reliably call upon the spell that you need when you need it using the feature, or blow a load of sorcery points on something really powerful (or some mixture in between). Using this with lower level spells can also be used to trigger a surge on purpose for regaining uses of Tides of Chaos, though it's still a bit of a risky thing to do.
It doesn't feel overpowered, since sorcerers already have some really strong picks for their higher level slots, and you're not gaining spell uses through this (you're actually losing them, since you'll usually want to spend some sorcery points), the benefit is flexibility with an element of risk, rather than raw strength or anything else too abusable (I hope), especially with the no metamagic restriction (so this won't allow you to twin cast True Polymorph or such), but means that in a pinch a Wild Magic Sorcerer can cast True Resurrection when no-one else can.
Manipulate Luck feels okay despite combining two features; the bonus/penalty effect is limited to long rest and the surge protection comes up fairly rarely so I think they're fine as one combined feature, rather than two not very good ones.
Wild Magic Unleashed is just fun. I considered whether to make it a bonus metamagic (so it can't be combined with another) but it already takes a bonus action, and I think none of the effects are strong enough to warrant it; while the damage bonus is kind of like a free (to learn) version of Empowered Spell, it's limited to duplicate rolls, so it works best on spells with high dice counts that rolled poorly, the DM controlled teleport to safety is good for keeping away from enemies, but not as good as casting a full Misty Step to a space of your choice, and the invisibility makes you harder to see, but not find.
My favourite two sorcerer sub-classes are weirdly the two that come in the Player's Handbook; Draconic Bloodline and Wild Magic. Problem is, both of these are a bit weak compared to later sub-classes, especially because they lack a spell list, which severely limits their casting options at lower levels; in addition, while both have decent early features, the later level features are a bit "meh". So I decided to have a go at home-brewing some changes to these sub-classes.
This is currently unavailable as it got rejected as too similar to Wild Magic (even though it has major changes). You can view what it looked like below:
This thread is for my homebrew Wild Magic variant Wild Sorcery (I also have one for Draconic Bloodline):
The forces of chaos lying beneath the order of creation are the source of your magic. You may have been exposed to raw magic, perhaps through a planar portal to Limbo, the Elemental Planes, or the Far Realm. Perhaps you found yourself blessed by a fey being or cursed by a demon. Or your magic could be a fluke, with no apparent cause. However it came to be, this magic churns within you, awaiting an outlet.
Wild Magic
1st-level Wild Sorcery feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Wild Magic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Wild Magic Spells
Wild Sorcery Surge
1st-level Wild Sorcery feature
See Wild Magic Surge.
Tides of Chaos
1st-level Wild Sorcery feature
You can manipulate the forces of chance and chaos. Whenever you roll an attack roll, ability check or saving throw you may either choose to roll it with advantage by spending a single use of this ability before the roll, or you may instead re-roll the dice by spending two uses of this ability after rolling (but before determining the result).
You have a number of uses of this ability equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses following a long rest, or d3 uses whenever you trigger a Wild Sorcery Surge. If you have used two or more of your Tides of Chaos uses, your DM may choose to trigger an automatic Wild Sorcery Surge when you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher.
Manipulate Luck
6th-level Wild Sorcery feature
You have the ability to twist fate using your wild magic. Whenever you roll on the Wild Sorcery Surge table, you can roll twice and choose which result to use.
In addition, whenever another creature you can see makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to roll 1d4 and apply the number rolled as a bonus or penalty (your choice) to the creature’s roll. You can do so after the creature rolls but before any effects of the roll occur. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all spent uses after completing a long rest.
Wild Magic Unleashed
14th level Wild Sorcery feature
After casting a 1st level or higher spell as an Action, you may spend a sorcery point to do one of the following as a Bonus Action:
If the spell you cast triggered a Wild Sorcery Surge, the effect is resolved after the Bonus Action has been taken.
Master of Wild Magic
18th-level Wild Sorcery feature
You have gained an intuitive understanding of the flow of wild magic around you, enabling you to pluck at the threads of raw sorcerous power as you please. You can now attempt to cast a spell even if you do not know it, provided it has a casting time of one Action or longer, you have the necessary spell slot to cast it, and you can meet any component requirements. You may not use metamagic options on a spell cast using this feature.
Before resolving the spell's effect(s) you must first roll an Intelligence or Wisdom check (whichever is worse) with a DC of 10 + the spell's level. Before rolling, you may spend any number of sorcery points in order to add a +2 bonus to the roll for each point spent. On a success, the spell takes effect as normal as if it were one of your known sorcerer spells, while on a failure any spell slots and components are consumed as normal but nothing happens.
Regardless of whether the spell is successfully cast or not, you will trigger an immediate Wild Sorcery Surge.
Changes
The first big change is the addition of a spell list, granting additional known spells at certain levels; I had a bit of a tough time with this as there are a few that I would have liked to include but don't currently meet D&D Beyond's homebrew limits (Basic Rules and Elemental Evil Player's Companion only), which is why I couldn't include the very appropriate Chaos Bolt (Xanathar's Guide to Everything). While I was looking in particular for spells from other spell lists, a few spells are already available to sorcerers but just seemed too thematically appropriate to not include them; this still frees up room in a player's list for other choices though.
Next up, Tides of Chaos is now a re-roll rather than advantage (which makes it stronger) and you will get more uses of it at later levels (it's half proficiency rounded up, so you get a 2nd use at 5th level, and a 3rd at 13th level.
I decided to merge Bend Luck and Controlled Chaos into the 6th level Manipulate Luck, and the Bend Luck component is now proficiency bonus uses per long rest. While it might feel like it steps on a Bard's toes a bit, Bards should have more uses overall (CHA uses per short rest from 5th level) and get a better die, so it's hopefully not too much.
At 14th level there is now a new feature "Wild Magic Unleashed" which enables you to take one of three bonus actions for a sorcery point whenever you cast a spell; one lets you re-roll duplicate dice (so it's most likely to be usable for especially bad rolls), another lets you teleport but your DM picks the spot within range (has to be safe though), and the third gives you a round of invisibility but enemies still know roughly where you are (so the benefit is being hard to hit). I'm tempted to add more, but I feel like three is a manageable number.
Finally the 18th level Master of Wild Magic feature enables you cast spells that you don't know; you still have to meet all the spell's requirements, use a slot etc. as normal, and then you roll an INT or WIS check (your choice) to see if it succeeds, with the option to burn sorcery points on improving your chances. This is great for those situations when you know there's an ideal spell for what you want to do, but nobody has it, and I think it's a lot of fun, though it does require the player to have a good awareness of spells (or access to filterable spell search, like on DDB). You can't use metamagic with spells cast in this way (because twinning certain non-sorcerer spells could be OP).
While I'm fairly happy with the playability, balance is currently questionable; I've tried not to go overboard, but this is very much a work in progress. Please give feedback, or share your own ideas for features! I'm also particularly interested if there are any spells I've missed for the spell list; remember these need to be Basic Rules or Elemental Evil Player's Guide only for public homebrew (I intend to share it when it's done).
Edit: Whoops, looks like I forgot to update the spell list table on my sub-class, and so I copied the wrong set of spells over to here; basically I swapped a number of spells that are already on the sorcery lists for some that aren't so it broadens out the list a bit more. There are still a few like the 2nd level spells Alter Self and Enhance Ability which I've kept because they're both spells that fit the theme really well, but aren't necessarily ones you'd spend a spell choice on, so getting them for free seems a good compromise.
Update: I've changed Tides of Chaos to be proficiency uses per long rest, as it isn't possible to implement half proficiency on D&D Beyond (Limited Use options are scaled by class level, not character level, and fractions aren't allowed when using proficiency); to balance this, you can still retroactively re-roll a result for two uses of the ability, or preemptively roll with advantage for one.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Had a chance to play-test this a bit, and we ended up tweaking the Master of Wild Magic feature; it now uses the worse score of INT or WIS for the check, but each sorcery point you spend on the roll adds a bonus of +2, so unless your INT and WIS are the same you'll have a slightly harder base roll, but it's less expensive to boost it.
This means you can drop 5+ sorcery points to tip the odds in your favour when casting a 9th level spell you don't know, which is in line with other high level sorcery features, though more likely you'll want to drop 7 or more to make it more of a sure thing (since you get nothing for your trouble other than a surge if the roll fails), unless your INT and WIS scores are both good. For spells of 1st to 3rd level however it only takes one or two points to make them likely to succeed, and three or four to all but guarantee them, so you can fairly reliably call upon the spell that you need when you need it using the feature, or blow a load of sorcery points on something really powerful (or some mixture in between). Using this with lower level spells can also be used to trigger a surge on purpose for regaining uses of Tides of Chaos, though it's still a bit of a risky thing to do.
It doesn't feel overpowered, since sorcerers already have some really strong picks for their higher level slots, and you're not gaining spell uses through this (you're actually losing them, since you'll usually want to spend some sorcery points), the benefit is flexibility with an element of risk, rather than raw strength or anything else too abusable (I hope), especially with the no metamagic restriction (so this won't allow you to twin cast True Polymorph or such), but means that in a pinch a Wild Magic Sorcerer can cast True Resurrection when no-one else can.
Manipulate Luck feels okay despite combining two features; the bonus/penalty effect is limited to long rest and the surge protection comes up fairly rarely so I think they're fine as one combined feature, rather than two not very good ones.
Wild Magic Unleashed is just fun. I considered whether to make it a bonus metamagic (so it can't be combined with another) but it already takes a bonus action, and I think none of the effects are strong enough to warrant it; while the damage bonus is kind of like a free (to learn) version of Empowered Spell, it's limited to duplicate rolls, so it works best on spells with high dice counts that rolled poorly, the DM controlled teleport to safety is good for keeping away from enemies, but not as good as casting a full Misty Step to a space of your choice, and the invisibility makes you harder to see, but not find.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.