I'm fascinated by the idea of a rage mage, but all of the homebrews I've come across want to come at it as a barbarian subclass. This is a reasonable approach (rage is their thing), but I'm interested in a pure spellcaster whose magic is drawn from the same raw emotional power which barbarians are able to use to achieve incredible feats of strength.
I would picture a spell caster who could utilize more touch spells and short area cones to get in a monster's face, and would have the hp to do it without dying in one round. I'm thinking this caster rage could grant benefits to spells with attack rolls, but I'm not sure how many spells that would benefit. I don't think there are that many good touch spells, and I'd rather not have this caster reliant on ranged attacks without some kind of ability to remove disadvantage for making a ranged attack next to an enemy.
Has anyone seen any attempts at something like this? The more I think about it, the harder it is to achieve a short-range/melee spellcaster without editing the sorcerer spell list for this subclass.
D&D designer Mike Mearls has been doing a Giant Soul Sorcerer for a few Happy Fun Hours now. It involves a "spell rage" mechanic, and is likely to pop up in a UA soon. You can see the finished product (along with the Cleric's Order domain) here.
Has anyone seen any attempts at something like this? The more I think about it, the harder it is to achieve a short-range/melee spellcaster without editing the sorcerer spell list for this subclass.
I made up a Meta-magic option for it, rather than a subclass.
While I think the Giant Soul is interesting and has some good ideas, I feel like it would still play either “Gish-y” or still ranged spellcasters with little benefit from the increased size bonuses. Not sure if this forum or the home brew forum is where this belongs but this is what I am thinking for a “Raging Soul Sorcerer”:
Rage is described as having its own power that is able to grant Barbarians the ability to perform incredible feats of strength and endurance. I’d like to see what this source of power could do if used as the source of arcane power in the hands of a sorcerer. This example is an amalgamation of the Draconic sorcerer and the Berserker barbarian with an emphasis on creating a spell caster who is more reliant on area spells which originate from the caster (cones, lines etc. and touch spells). Unfortunately, there aren’t many offensive touch spells available to the sorcerer. I’ve come up with an example of a feature to try and resolve this. Here we go:
Furious Resilience(1st): AC = 13 + Con HP max increases by 2 at 1st lvl and 2 again whenever you gain a level in this class.(Keeps sorcerer alive when engaged in frontline attacking)
Rage(1st): You may enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing armor: You have advantage on intimidation checks as well as Charisma and Constitution saving throws. When you cast a spell that deal damage, increase a damage roll of that spell by its spell slot level. Can only cast spells of range “Self” or “Touch”. (This allows blast and touch spells, keeping the Rage Sorcerer engaged in front line attack as much as possible.)
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t made a melee or ranged spell attack against a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your range on your turn as a bonus action. Rages per day similar to barbarian table.
Up-close-and-personal Spell(2nd): When casting a spell, you may change the range of the spell to “touch” and require a melee spell attack. The spell effects apply only to the creature hit. (A metamagic style feature, sorcery point cost 1sp? Because this limits the spell to only effecting one target, it opens a spell effect like fireball to being twinned; albeit at a range of touch to two adjacent enemies, still cool imo.)
Reckless Spellcasting(6th): When you make your first spell attack on a turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on spell attacks this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Vengeance(14th): When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature. (Similar to Warcaster feat, maybe a sorcery point cost if deemed too powerful)
Enduring Rage(18th): Your rage ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.
the thing with there not being alot of touch spells is a defiant problem. iv been trying to create a rage sorcerer for a while now and from what iv seen others do and thought of for my own, iv seen that giving them access to the smite spells of the paladin would be a bonus for more "touch" or melee attack spells because iv always loved the idea of a mage that gets up in the enemies face and beats them with the arcane ceaselessly with no debuffs like disadvantage due to it being a ranged spell or being caught in their own AOE. another idea for a few more spells is perhaps taking and giving access to spells like magic weapon and elemental weapon and such, saying that maybe their rage magic fuses with their weapon, powering it up with arcane ferocity. either way i dont think creating a unique "rage" sorcerer will be an easy path XDD but im on the wild train and wont stop trying to make this dream of mine a reality. hope you find some more answers than the ones i gave, or already found some seeing as this was 4 yrs ago abt! ^^
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Alize the Gnoll
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I'm fascinated by the idea of a rage mage, but all of the homebrews I've come across want to come at it as a barbarian subclass. This is a reasonable approach (rage is their thing), but I'm interested in a pure spellcaster whose magic is drawn from the same raw emotional power which barbarians are able to use to achieve incredible feats of strength.
I would picture a spell caster who could utilize more touch spells and short area cones to get in a monster's face, and would have the hp to do it without dying in one round. I'm thinking this caster rage could grant benefits to spells with attack rolls, but I'm not sure how many spells that would benefit. I don't think there are that many good touch spells, and I'd rather not have this caster reliant on ranged attacks without some kind of ability to remove disadvantage for making a ranged attack next to an enemy.
Has anyone seen any attempts at something like this? The more I think about it, the harder it is to achieve a short-range/melee spellcaster without editing the sorcerer spell list for this subclass.
D&D designer Mike Mearls has been doing a Giant Soul Sorcerer for a few Happy Fun Hours now. It involves a "spell rage" mechanic, and is likely to pop up in a UA soon. You can see the finished product (along with the Cleric's Order domain) here.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
While I think the Giant Soul is interesting and has some good ideas, I feel like it would still play either “Gish-y” or still ranged spellcasters with little benefit from the increased size bonuses. Not sure if this forum or the home brew forum is where this belongs but this is what I am thinking for a “Raging Soul Sorcerer”:
Rage is described as having its own power that is able to grant Barbarians the ability to perform incredible feats of strength and endurance. I’d like to see what this source of power could do if used as the source of arcane power in the hands of a sorcerer. This example is an amalgamation of the Draconic sorcerer and the Berserker barbarian with an emphasis on creating a spell caster who is more reliant on area spells which originate from the caster (cones, lines etc. and touch spells). Unfortunately, there aren’t many offensive touch spells available to the sorcerer. I’ve come up with an example of a feature to try and resolve this. Here we go:
Furious Resilience(1st):
AC = 13 + Con
HP max increases by 2 at 1st lvl and 2 again whenever you gain a level in this class.(Keeps sorcerer alive when engaged in frontline attacking)
Rage(1st):
You may enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing armor:
You have advantage on intimidation checks as well as Charisma and Constitution saving throws.
When you cast a spell that deal damage, increase a damage roll of that spell by its spell slot level.
Can only cast spells of range “Self” or “Touch”. (This allows blast and touch spells, keeping the Rage Sorcerer engaged in front line attack as much as possible.)
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t made a melee or ranged spell attack against a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your range on your turn as a bonus action.
Rages per day similar to barbarian table.
Up-close-and-personal Spell(2nd):
When casting a spell, you may change the range of the spell to “touch” and require a melee spell attack. The spell effects apply only to the creature hit. (A metamagic style feature, sorcery point cost 1sp? Because this limits the spell to only effecting one target, it opens a spell effect like fireball to being twinned; albeit at a range of touch to two adjacent enemies, still cool imo.)
Reckless Spellcasting(6th):
When you make your first spell attack on a turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on spell attacks this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Vengeance(14th):
When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature. (Similar to Warcaster feat, maybe a sorcery point cost if deemed too powerful)
Enduring Rage(18th):
Your rage ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.
the thing with there not being alot of touch spells is a defiant problem. iv been trying to create a rage sorcerer for a while now and from what iv seen others do and thought of for my own, iv seen that giving them access to the smite spells of the paladin would be a bonus for more "touch" or melee attack spells because iv always loved the idea of a mage that gets up in the enemies face and beats them with the arcane ceaselessly with no debuffs like disadvantage due to it being a ranged spell or being caught in their own AOE. another idea for a few more spells is perhaps taking and giving access to spells like magic weapon and elemental weapon and such, saying that maybe their rage magic fuses with their weapon, powering it up with arcane ferocity. either way i dont think creating a unique "rage" sorcerer will be an easy path XDD but im on the wild train and wont stop trying to make this dream of mine a reality. hope you find some more answers than the ones i gave, or already found some seeing as this was 4 yrs ago abt! ^^
Alize the Gnoll