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.
Your innate magic comes from the dragon blood coursing through your veins, passed to you by a patron or your ancestors. Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their descent back to a mighty sorcerer of ancient times who made a bargain with a dragon or who might even have claimed a dragon parent. Some of these bloodlines are well established in the world, but most are obscure. Any given sorcerer could be the first of a new bloodline, as a result of a pact or some other exceptional circumstance.
Draconic Ancestor
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You can speak, read, and write Draconic, and whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with dragons, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check. In addition, you must choose one type of dragon as your ancestor, its associated damage type will be used at later levels.
Amethyst (Force)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is force. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals psychic or thunder damage, you may swap its damage type to force for your character.
Black or Copper (Acid)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is acid.
Blue or Bronze (Lightning)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is lightning.
Brass, Gold or Red (Fire)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is fire.
Crystal (Radiant)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is radiant. In addition whenever you learn a spell that deals necrotic or psychic damage, you may swap its damage type to radiant for your character.
Emerald or Purple (Psychic)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is psychic.
Green or Mercury (Poison)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is poison. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals acid or necrotic damage, you may swap its damage type to poison for your character.
Sapphire (Thunder)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is thunder. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals bludgeoning or lightning damage you may swap its damage type to thunder for your character.
Shadow or Topaz (Necrotic)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is necrotic. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals psychic or radiant damage, you may swap its damage type to necrotic for your character.
Silver or White (Cold)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is cold.
Draconic Magic
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Draconic 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.
In addition, the spells Elemental Bane, Thaumaturgy, and True Polymorph are added to your sorcerer spell list. However, True Polymorph may only be used to transform yourself, and only into a dragon of the basic type as your Draconic Ancestor (Black, Gold etc.).
Draconic Toughness
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
Your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
Draconic Affinity
6th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
Whenever you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor, you deal extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). You also gain the following metamagic options in addition to those that you already know:
Metamagic: Draconic Fury
When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor to a single target, you may spend one sorcery point to make a single weapon attack or unarmed strike against the same target as a bonus action.
Metamagic: Draconic Resistance
When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor you may spend one sorcery point to gain resistance to that damage type for one hour.
Draconic Flight
14th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You can sprout or dismiss a pair of dragon wings from your back as a bonus action, gaining a flying speed equal to your current speed. You cannot manifest your wings while wearing armor unless the armor is made to accommodate them, and clothing not made to accommodate your wings may be destroyed if you manifest them.
In addition, you may spend five sorcery points as a bonus action to increase your winged flying speed to 60 feet for one hour.
Draconic Form
18th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You gain the ability to unleash the full power of your draconic ancestry! You learn the True Polymorph spell if you do not already know it, though it still may only be used to transform yourself into a dragon of the same basic type as your Draconic Ancestor (green, topaz etc.). When you do so, you may spend 10 sorcery points to gain the following additional benefits:
You may retain any worn equipment that can accomodate your new form, otherwise items merge with your form as normal.
You gain access to any Legendary and Lair Actions of your new form. Your Legendary Actions are regained only at the end of a short rest. To establish a lair you must spend at least an hour each day for a month within a suitable terrain feature. Any existing lair begins to return to normal once a new lair is established, once True Polymorph ends for you, or if you have spent less than twenty fours inside your lair during the last month.
You may cast sorcerer cantrips and spells up to 5th level using your own Spellcasting feature, casting modifier, spells etc., ignoring uncosted material components, but may not have costed material components. Spells of 1st to 5th level cast in this way consume a Legendary Action instead of a spell slot.
Draconic Avatar
When you use True Polymorph to transform yourself into a dragon, you may choose to use the Draconic Avatar stat block below:
Adaptable. You have a burrow speed or swim speed equal to your walking speed, chosen to match your ancestor. You can breathe both air and water if you have a swim speed.
Damage Immunity. You are immune to the damage type determined by your Draconic Ancestor.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If you fail a saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead.
Telepathy: If you had any natural telepathic ability (not from equipment or a spell) before transforming, then you will retain access to it in this form.
Actions
Multiattack. You can use Frightful Presence, one bite and two claw attacks as a single action.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage, plus 9 (2d8) damage of your Draconic Ancestor's damage type.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d6 + 8) slashing damage.
Tail Attack.Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6).You exhale destruction in your choice of a 60-foot cone, or a 90-foot line that is five feet wide. Each creature in that area must take a Dexterity saving throw (DC 21), taking 66 (12d10) damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The damage type is determined by your Draconic Ancestor.
Frightful Presence.Each creature of your choice within 120 feet and aware of you must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Frightful Presence for 24 hours.
Legendary Actions
You can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. You regain spent legendary actions at the start of your turn.
Wing Attack (Costs 2 Actions). You beat your wings. Each creature within 10 feet of you must succeed on a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw or take 15 (2d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. You can then fly up to half your flying speed.
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), and this unfortunately excludes some options (like Dragon's Breath) although I've also tried to avoid any elemental as none of them cover all of the damage type that I want to cover. On which note, I've opted to include a few new types that feature in the UA Draconic Races, specifically the Gem Dragons. Locate Creature is probably the one I'm most unsure about, but there aren't a lot of other good choices that fit the theme with the limits on sources, and this gives you a way to "hunt". Also of note is the addition of True Polymorph to the spell list (it's not an unlocked spell, you still need to pick it if you want it before 18th level); this is because it's simply ridiculous that a Draconic Sorcerer cannot turn into a dragon at all, even though the party's Bard or Wizard can do so; this is limited by targeting self only, and it must be an appropriate type of dragon.
Elemental Fury is now Draconic Fury, and largely unchanged except that when you spend your sorcery point following a damage spell of your ancestor's type, you now have an additional option; to make an attack against the same target as a Bonus Action. This is actually something a sorcerer can already do by attacking as an action and using Quickened Spell to cast as a Bonus Action (for two sorcery points), so really this addition just makes this option cheaper, but more restricted (must be your ancestor's damage type, and must be one of the same targets as the spell). The intention is to make it easier for a Draconic Ancestry sorcerer to play aggressively, and it can enable some paladin-like damage in short, high resource cost bursts (but without the other benefits of being a paladin when your enemies hit you back).
Dragon Wings is unchanged; while it's not an obviously strong feature, permanent flight can be insanely useful depending upon how you play (and how permissive your DM is) so I didn't think it needed to be changed, though I did add the ability to spend sorcery points to increase the speed for an hour (so it can fully replace Fly).
18th level is a big change as Draconic Presence is super "meh" (for fightening it's basically just a somewhat better Fear… for essentially the cost of just casting Fear 😒) and is basically pointless with the ability to just be a dragon with a real Frightful Presence ability. Draconic Avatar instead adds True Polymorph (still restricted to dragons of the correct type). In addition, you can spend a high amount of sorcery points to gain additional benefits.
Lastly, there's an added Draconic Form which you can choose from when using True Polymorph to turn into a dragon; this is basically just a generic form of the Adult Gold Dragon so that you don't have to feel weaker for going with Brass or White dragon ancestry, it also provides options for ancestries that do not have a current premade stat-block (though shadow ancestry are strongly recommended to follow the normal shadow dragon template from the Monster Manual if your DM allows it, as this will push you into a similar CR range).
While this variation is a lot of fun to play, balance is probably questionable; I've tried not to go overboard, but this is very much a work in progress, and I want it to feel like you're descended from a dragon. 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).
You have some intersting idea going one with the spell list choice and the bonus action options, it allows for the Gishiness we or more likely I want from this subclass. I especially Love the capstone feature of this subclass and i aboslutley agree that it makes no sense that a dragon sorcerer can't turn into one! Much much better than the orginal option given, Excellent work!
I didnt know about the homebrew rules you stated so my version of Revised Draconic Sorcerer was just about adding any and all spells that let you pick the elemental damage type and ones that semmed dragony/gishy.
Edit: checked my spell picks on my version, I actually have 4 PHB spells in there, the ones of note that I think could be slotted in well into your list are Elemental Weapon and Glyph of Warding, yes they dont cover all the elemental damage types but both provide utiltiy for a Gish approuch and nongish as well.
Yeah I kind of leant away from elemental effects since some of the new types from the gem dragons aren't a match, though I did introduce elemental swapping for those with the fewest available spells. Glyph of Warding is a good pick, though it's hard to decide which of the other 3rd levels I'd swap it in for, as Fear and Fly both seem appropriate; maybe Fly, since the 14th level will eventually make it redundant, and it's a sorcerer spell anyway if you want to take it before then? Fear I think I need to keep since I've eliminated Draconic Presence.
Making the sub-class a bit more gishy was definitely part of the aim; sorcerers can already sort of do it using quickened spell, but it burns through sorcery points really quickly. Halving that cost with some limits means it's still somewhat short-term unless you convert spell slots to fuel it over an adventuring day, but hopefully allows for bursts of paladin nova-like aggression.
In playtesting I realised there was a possible exploit using Twinned Spell combined with Draconic Fury's bonus action attack; it allowed for some nasty combos such as twinned Shocking Grasp followed by a Shadow Blade attack against one of the targets, and it only gets nastier once you include spells learned through feats such as Inflict Wounds (via Magic Initiate, Shadow Touched etc.). Twinned higher level inflict wounds plus a higher level shadow blade could allow for some huge single turn melee damage that could make a high level Fighter or Paladin jealous, and that's just the combo I thought of!
My fix for this has been to take Draconic Fury's two bonus actions and change them into additional metamagic options (on top of the ones you can pick yourself), this way they can't be stacked with other metamagics. So basically the feature is now Draconic Affinity (add CHA to ancestor spell damage), with the Draconic Fury metamagic (after casting a single target ancestor damage spell, one sorcery point to bonus action attack same target) and the Draconic Resistance metamagic (after casting ancestor damage spell, one sorcery point to gain resistance). Also I realise I suck at coming up with names for features on this sub-class, as literally everything has the word Draconic in it. 😉
I'm also considering adding Elemental Bane to the sorcerer spell list for this class; this means it wouldn't be granted automatically, but a sorcerer favouring one of its elements (or able to swap them) could take it if they wanted to this way.
So after some more playtesting these changes have been a lot of fun.
I've tried to simplify and tone down Draconic Form though, it was too complicated and came in too many parts.
You can still gain the same benefits (retain suitable worn equipment, short rest limited Legendary Actions, can establish a lair) and you can choose to retain limited spellcasting, but it's a bit simpler and you need to spend 10 sorcery points no matter how many of the benefits you actually intend to use. It's still fairly powerful but you're losing half your sorcery points, and it's most effective when you can concentrate for the full hour, as otherwise it's a lot of sorcery points to lose if your concentration is broken.
I've nerfed the limited spell casting quite a bit; it now costs a Legendary Action (remember these only come back on a short rest), to cast a spell of 5th level or lower using your own casting modifier. You still can't cast spells with costed components, Bonus Action or Reaction, or that target yourself. Basically you go from full casting to somewhat weaker Warlock style casting (without cantrips), but as a dragon, which I think keeps it reasonably reigned in. Crucially this gives you a way to still cast Dispel Magic if you make the transformation persistent. Orignally this feature still used your own spell slots, but that introduced difficulties with regards to how you get them back, so making it Legendary Actions/Warlock style seems a good compromise. This is should still be consistent with other classes True Polymorphing into a spellcaster (such as an Archmage) and gaining additional spell slots as a result.
Update: Oh, and I also tweaked Draconic Flight; it still only grants flight equal to your walking speed as standard, but you can now spend five sorcery points to increase the speed to 60 feet for an hour. This makes it possible to swap out Fly if you had used it previously, but still have the option of going at the same speed as the spell. The cost is five sorcery points to make it consistent with casting the 3rd level spell, but lasts for an hour without concentration.
This is only tangentially related, but I am trying to figure how to add extra spells that don't count against spells known for my player's sorcerer, and I'm having a hell of a time figuring it out. It seems this is built using the built in home-brew system. How do you do it?
This is only tangentially related, but I am trying to figure how to add extra spells that don't count against spells known for my player's sorcerer, and I'm having a hell of a time figuring it out. It seems this is built using the built in home-brew system. How do you do it?
For sorcerers you have to add them manually to a feature.
Create your feature (Draconic Magic in this case) then under Spells add an entry for each spell, entering the spell you want, remember to set Available at Character Level (so higher level spells don't appear early), set Consumes Spell Slot to Yes, Counts as Known Spell to No and Always Prepared to Yes. To add the nice spell-list table you'll need to copy and edit it into the feature's description; copy/pasting from a page that has a spell list (such as the Aberrant Mind or Clockwork Soul sorcerer origins) should work in most browsers.
If you just want to add spells to the spell list (as I did with Elemental Bane, Thaumaturgy and True Polymorph) you can add these to the Basic Information of the class itself (under Additional Spells Known).
The homebrew system is a bit weird in that regard, as I think cleric sub-classes add their extra spells using Additional Spells Known, it must have something to do with the type of caster (prepared vs. known)? Also Available at Character Level seems to actually mean class level, nice and confusing!
"When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor to a single target, you may spend one sorcery point to make a single weapon attack or unarmed strike against the same target as a bonus action."
Did you mean for the wording to state only a "single weapon attack or unarmed strike"? Was this supposed to be "a single attack" so Sorcerers can use a cantrip or a spell as a bonus action?
"When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor to a single target, you may spend one sorcery point to make a single weapon attack or unarmed strike against the same target as a bonus action."
Did you mean for the wording to state only a "single weapon attack or unarmed strike"? Was this supposed to be "a single attack" so Sorcerers can use a cantrip or a spell as a bonus action?
This ability is specifically intended to be a weapon attack or unarmed strike so a Draconic Sorcerer can be more aggressive in bursts if they want to be, as you already have plenty of options if you want to be a magical blaster. If you have a cantrip that deals your ancestor's damage type, you can use this feature to cast a cantrip and attack in the same turn similar to a Bladesinger, but at a cost of 1 sorcery point rather than the 2 required to do this using Quickened Spell as other sorcerers would need to.
But it does allow some stronger combos as well since it works for any spell, not just cantrip + attack. For example, I used this with a black shadow dragonborn draconic sorcerer (black ancestry as a dragonborn, shadow ancestry as sorcerer) to be able to cast inflict wounds (from the Shadow Touched feat) and attack using (an already summoned) shadow blade in the same turn which made for a vicious, but costly, close ranged option when cornered. Narratively this was him growing claws the size of an actual dragon and just ripping enemies to pieces.
Aaah, so this would pair well with those spells that turn the sorcerer into more of a gishy type in situations where they can blast and close distance? Or if someone comes into their threat range, be able fend them off better?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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 thread is for my homebrew Draconic Bloodline variant Draconic Ancestry (I also have one for Wild Magic)
This has now been released, see can it (and add it) here.
Your innate magic comes from the dragon blood coursing through your veins, passed to you by a patron or your ancestors. Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their descent back to a mighty sorcerer of ancient times who made a bargain with a dragon or who might even have claimed a dragon parent. Some of these bloodlines are well established in the world, but most are obscure. Any given sorcerer could be the first of a new bloodline, as a result of a pact or some other exceptional circumstance.
Draconic Ancestor
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You can speak, read, and write Draconic, and whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with dragons, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check. In addition, you must choose one type of dragon as your ancestor, its associated damage type will be used at later levels.
Amethyst (Force)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is force. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals psychic or thunder damage, you may swap its damage type to force for your character.
Black or Copper (Acid)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is acid.
Blue or Bronze (Lightning)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is lightning.
Brass, Gold or Red (Fire)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is fire.
Crystal (Radiant)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is radiant. In addition whenever you learn a spell that deals necrotic or psychic damage, you may swap its damage type to radiant for your character.
Emerald or Purple (Psychic)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is psychic.
Green or Mercury (Poison)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is poison. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals acid or necrotic damage, you may swap its damage type to poison for your character.
Sapphire (Thunder)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is thunder. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals bludgeoning or lightning damage you may swap its damage type to thunder for your character.
Shadow or Topaz (Necrotic)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is necrotic. In addition, whenever you learn a spell that deals psychic or radiant damage, you may swap its damage type to necrotic for your character.
Silver or White (Cold)
Your Draconic Ancestor's damage type is cold.
Draconic Magic
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Draconic 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.
Draconic Spells
In addition, the spells Elemental Bane, Thaumaturgy, and True Polymorph are added to your sorcerer spell list. However, True Polymorph may only be used to transform yourself, and only into a dragon of the basic type as your Draconic Ancestor (Black, Gold etc.).
Draconic Toughness
1st-level Draconic Ancestor feature
Your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
Draconic Affinity
6th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
Whenever you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor, you deal extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). You also gain the following metamagic options in addition to those that you already know:
Metamagic: Draconic Fury
When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor to a single target, you may spend one sorcery point to make a single weapon attack or unarmed strike against the same target as a bonus action.
Metamagic: Draconic Resistance
When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor you may spend one sorcery point to gain resistance to that damage type for one hour.
Draconic Flight
14th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You can sprout or dismiss a pair of dragon wings from your back as a bonus action, gaining a flying speed equal to your current speed. You cannot manifest your wings while wearing armor unless the armor is made to accommodate them, and clothing not made to accommodate your wings may be destroyed if you manifest them.
In addition, you may spend five sorcery points as a bonus action to increase your winged flying speed to 60 feet for one hour.
Draconic Form
18th-level Draconic Ancestor feature
You gain the ability to unleash the full power of your draconic ancestry! You learn the True Polymorph spell if you do not already know it, though it still may only be used to transform yourself into a dragon of the same basic type as your Draconic Ancestor (green, topaz etc.). When you do so, you may spend 10 sorcery points to gain the following additional benefits:
Draconic Avatar
When you use True Polymorph to transform yourself into a dragon, you may choose to use the Draconic Avatar stat block below:
Draconic Avatar
Gargantuan dragon
Armor Class 19
Hit Points 256 (19d12 + 133)
Speed 40 ft., fly 80 ft.
Saving Throws DEX +8, CON +13, WIS +8, CHA +13
Skills Insight +8, Intimidation +13, Perception +14
Senses Blindsight 60 ft., Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 24
Languages (shares your languages)
Challenge 17 (18,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +6
Adaptable. You have a burrow speed or swim speed equal to your walking speed, chosen to match your ancestor. You can breathe both air and water if you have a swim speed.
Damage Immunity. You are immune to the damage type determined by your Draconic Ancestor.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If you fail a saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead.
Telepathy: If you had any natural telepathic ability (not from equipment or a spell) before transforming, then you will retain access to it in this form.
Actions
Multiattack. You can use Frightful Presence, one bite and two claw attacks as a single action.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage, plus 9 (2d8) damage of your Draconic Ancestor's damage type.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d6 + 8) slashing damage.
Tail Attack. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6). You exhale destruction in your choice of a 60-foot cone, or a 90-foot line that is five feet wide. Each creature in that area must take a Dexterity saving throw (DC 21), taking 66 (12d10) damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The damage type is determined by your Draconic Ancestor.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of your choice within 120 feet and aware of you must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Frightful Presence for 24 hours.
Legendary Actions
You can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. You regain spent legendary actions at the start of your turn.
Detect. You make a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Attack. You make one attack with your tail.
Wing Attack (Costs 2 Actions). You beat your wings. Each creature within 10 feet of you must succeed on a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw or take 15 (2d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. You can then fly up to half your flying speed.
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), and this unfortunately excludes some options (like Dragon's Breath) although I've also tried to avoid any elemental as none of them cover all of the damage type that I want to cover. On which note, I've opted to include a few new types that feature in the UA Draconic Races, specifically the Gem Dragons. Locate Creature is probably the one I'm most unsure about, but there aren't a lot of other good choices that fit the theme with the limits on sources, and this gives you a way to "hunt". Also of note is the addition of True Polymorph to the spell list (it's not an unlocked spell, you still need to pick it if you want it before 18th level); this is because it's simply ridiculous that a Draconic Sorcerer cannot turn into a dragon at all, even though the party's Bard or Wizard can do so; this is limited by targeting self only, and it must be an appropriate type of dragon.
Elemental Fury is now Draconic Fury, and largely unchanged except that when you spend your sorcery point following a damage spell of your ancestor's type, you now have an additional option; to make an attack against the same target as a Bonus Action. This is actually something a sorcerer can already do by attacking as an action and using Quickened Spell to cast as a Bonus Action (for two sorcery points), so really this addition just makes this option cheaper, but more restricted (must be your ancestor's damage type, and must be one of the same targets as the spell). The intention is to make it easier for a Draconic Ancestry sorcerer to play aggressively, and it can enable some paladin-like damage in short, high resource cost bursts (but without the other benefits of being a paladin when your enemies hit you back).
Dragon Wings is unchanged; while it's not an obviously strong feature, permanent flight can be insanely useful depending upon how you play (and how permissive your DM is) so I didn't think it needed to be changed, though I did add the ability to spend sorcery points to increase the speed for an hour (so it can fully replace Fly).
18th level is a big change as Draconic Presence is super "meh" (for fightening it's basically just a somewhat better Fear… for essentially the cost of just casting Fear 😒) and is basically pointless with the ability to just be a dragon with a real Frightful Presence ability. Draconic Avatar instead adds True Polymorph (still restricted to dragons of the correct type). In addition, you can spend a high amount of sorcery points to gain additional benefits.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.
You have some intersting idea going one with the spell list choice and the bonus action options, it allows for the Gishiness we or more likely I want from this subclass. I especially Love the capstone feature of this subclass and i aboslutley agree that it makes no sense that a dragon sorcerer can't turn into one! Much much better than the orginal option given, Excellent work!
I didnt know about the homebrew rules you stated so my version of Revised Draconic Sorcerer was just about adding any and all spells that let you pick the elemental damage type and ones that semmed dragony/gishy.
Edit: checked my spell picks on my version, I actually have 4 PHB spells in there, the ones of note that I think could be slotted in well into your list are Elemental Weapon and Glyph of Warding, yes they dont cover all the elemental damage types but both provide utiltiy for a Gish approuch and nongish as well.
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah I kind of leant away from elemental effects since some of the new types from the gem dragons aren't a match, though I did introduce elemental swapping for those with the fewest available spells. Glyph of Warding is a good pick, though it's hard to decide which of the other 3rd levels I'd swap it in for, as Fear and Fly both seem appropriate; maybe Fly, since the 14th level will eventually make it redundant, and it's a sorcerer spell anyway if you want to take it before then? Fear I think I need to keep since I've eliminated Draconic Presence.
Making the sub-class a bit more gishy was definitely part of the aim; sorcerers can already sort of do it using quickened spell, but it burns through sorcery points really quickly. Halving that cost with some limits means it's still somewhat short-term unless you convert spell slots to fuel it over an adventuring day, but hopefully allows for bursts of paladin nova-like aggression.
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.
Yeah i agree that should keep Fear since it does the same thing as draconic presseance.
In playtesting I realised there was a possible exploit using Twinned Spell combined with Draconic Fury's bonus action attack; it allowed for some nasty combos such as twinned Shocking Grasp followed by a Shadow Blade attack against one of the targets, and it only gets nastier once you include spells learned through feats such as Inflict Wounds (via Magic Initiate, Shadow Touched etc.). Twinned higher level inflict wounds plus a higher level shadow blade could allow for some huge single turn melee damage that could make a high level Fighter or Paladin jealous, and that's just the combo I thought of!
My fix for this has been to take Draconic Fury's two bonus actions and change them into additional metamagic options (on top of the ones you can pick yourself), this way they can't be stacked with other metamagics. So basically the feature is now Draconic Affinity (add CHA to ancestor spell damage), with the Draconic Fury metamagic (after casting a single target ancestor damage spell, one sorcery point to bonus action attack same target) and the Draconic Resistance metamagic (after casting ancestor damage spell, one sorcery point to gain resistance). Also I realise I suck at coming up with names for features on this sub-class, as literally everything has the word Draconic in it. 😉
I'm also considering adding Elemental Bane to the sorcerer spell list for this class; this means it wouldn't be granted automatically, but a sorcerer favouring one of its elements (or able to swap them) could take it if they wanted to this way.
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.
So after some more playtesting these changes have been a lot of fun.
I've tried to simplify and tone down Draconic Form though, it was too complicated and came in too many parts.
You can still gain the same benefits (retain suitable worn equipment, short rest limited Legendary Actions, can establish a lair) and you can choose to retain limited spellcasting, but it's a bit simpler and you need to spend 10 sorcery points no matter how many of the benefits you actually intend to use. It's still fairly powerful but you're losing half your sorcery points, and it's most effective when you can concentrate for the full hour, as otherwise it's a lot of sorcery points to lose if your concentration is broken.
I've nerfed the limited spell casting quite a bit; it now costs a Legendary Action (remember these only come back on a short rest), to cast a spell of 5th level or lower using your own casting modifier. You still can't cast spells with costed components, Bonus Action or Reaction, or that target yourself. Basically you go from full casting to somewhat weaker Warlock style casting (without cantrips), but as a dragon, which I think keeps it reasonably reigned in. Crucially this gives you a way to still cast Dispel Magic if you make the transformation persistent. Orignally this feature still used your own spell slots, but that introduced difficulties with regards to how you get them back, so making it Legendary Actions/Warlock style seems a good compromise. This is should still be consistent with other classes True Polymorphing into a spellcaster (such as an Archmage) and gaining additional spell slots as a result.
Update: Oh, and I also tweaked Draconic Flight; it still only grants flight equal to your walking speed as standard, but you can now spend five sorcery points to increase the speed to 60 feet for an hour. This makes it possible to swap out Fly if you had used it previously, but still have the option of going at the same speed as the spell. The cost is five sorcery points to make it consistent with casting the 3rd level spell, but lasts for an hour without concentration.
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.
This is only tangentially related, but I am trying to figure how to add extra spells that don't count against spells known for my player's sorcerer, and I'm having a hell of a time figuring it out. It seems this is built using the built in home-brew system. How do you do it?
For sorcerers you have to add them manually to a feature.
Create your feature (Draconic Magic in this case) then under Spells add an entry for each spell, entering the spell you want, remember to set Available at Character Level (so higher level spells don't appear early), set Consumes Spell Slot to Yes, Counts as Known Spell to No and Always Prepared to Yes. To add the nice spell-list table you'll need to copy and edit it into the feature's description; copy/pasting from a page that has a spell list (such as the Aberrant Mind or Clockwork Soul sorcerer origins) should work in most browsers.
If you just want to add spells to the spell list (as I did with Elemental Bane, Thaumaturgy and True Polymorph) you can add these to the Basic Information of the class itself (under Additional Spells Known).
The homebrew system is a bit weird in that regard, as I think cleric sub-classes add their extra spells using Additional Spells Known, it must have something to do with the type of caster (prepared vs. known)? Also Available at Character Level seems to actually mean class level, nice and confusing!
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.
I noticed that you said:
"When you cast a spell that deals the damage type of your Draconic Ancestor to a single target, you may spend one sorcery point to make a single weapon attack or unarmed strike against the same target as a bonus action."
Did you mean for the wording to state only a "single weapon attack or unarmed strike"? Was this supposed to be "a single attack" so Sorcerers can use a cantrip or a spell as a bonus action?
I’d swap in cause fear instead of identify, but it’s a close call as both kinda fit the dragon theme. That’s just my opinion though.
This ability is specifically intended to be a weapon attack or unarmed strike so a Draconic Sorcerer can be more aggressive in bursts if they want to be, as you already have plenty of options if you want to be a magical blaster. If you have a cantrip that deals your ancestor's damage type, you can use this feature to cast a cantrip and attack in the same turn similar to a Bladesinger, but at a cost of 1 sorcery point rather than the 2 required to do this using Quickened Spell as other sorcerers would need to.
But it does allow some stronger combos as well since it works for any spell, not just cantrip + attack. For example, I used this with a black shadow dragonborn draconic sorcerer (black ancestry as a dragonborn, shadow ancestry as sorcerer) to be able to cast inflict wounds (from the Shadow Touched feat) and attack using (an already summoned) shadow blade in the same turn which made for a vicious, but costly, close ranged option when cornered. Narratively this was him growing claws the size of an actual dragon and just ripping enemies to pieces.
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.
Aaah, so this would pair well with those spells that turn the sorcerer into more of a gishy type in situations where they can blast and close distance? Or if someone comes into their threat range, be able fend them off better?