It's wording seems to imply its the players choice, but I would personally rule it is involuntary. After all, your magic is wild, you don't get to choose when it might happen! That's against the point.
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Why do ships ship cargo and cars carry shipments? Why do we have fingertips but not toetips and can tiptoe but can't tipfinger. These are all the questions of the universe.
It's wording seems to imply its the players choice, but I would personally rule it is involuntary. After all, your magic is wild, you don't get to choose when it might happen! That's against the point.
It was very deliberately changed in the 2024 version to be the player's choice rather than the DM's choice. Changing that is changing a pretty fundamental aspect of how the subclass is intended to be played, so it's not something I would do lightly.
Keep in mind that if you use the Tides of Chaos feature to grant advantage on a d20 test (which is a core feature of the subclass that you're probably going to use a lot) then a wild magic surge automatically happens, without even a roll, the next time you cast a spell with a spell slot.
I'm currently playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer, and I can roll whenever I want. The official Wild Magic table is heavily skewed in the player's favor, so my DM and I decided to keep the same balance of good, bad, and neutral outcomes, but we created unique effects for each roll between 1 and 100. It's been a lot of fun so far—I just hit level 4. The worst thing that's happened to me, though, was a roll that nearly killed me: 'A flock of spectral chickens appears and attacks you, dealing 1d4 damage every turn for 10 turns.' It was a nod to Zelda, but it ended up knocking my character out mid-fight!"
In 5e2024 it is the player's choice, and the table of effects has been completely redone so that it is in the character's best interest to want to roll on it.
In 5e that wasn't the case, and it was a 50/50 chance of getting a bad result.
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Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
How do you guys handle the 2024 Sorcerer wild magic source "... once per turn you can roll 1d20 immediately after you cast a spell ..."?
Is this a "can", meaning the player decides, or does this happen always when a spell is cast?
Thanks for helping clarify:-)
Player decides. If it were mandatory, it would say something like "immediately after you cast a spell, roll... this only happens once per turn"
It's wording seems to imply its the players choice, but I would personally rule it is involuntary. After all, your magic is wild, you don't get to choose when it might happen! That's against the point.
Why do ships ship cargo and cars carry shipments? Why do we have fingertips but not toetips and can tiptoe but can't tipfinger. These are all the questions of the universe.
It was very deliberately changed in the 2024 version to be the player's choice rather than the DM's choice. Changing that is changing a pretty fundamental aspect of how the subclass is intended to be played, so it's not something I would do lightly.
Keep in mind that if you use the Tides of Chaos feature to grant advantage on a d20 test (which is a core feature of the subclass that you're probably going to use a lot) then a wild magic surge automatically happens, without even a roll, the next time you cast a spell with a spell slot.
pronouns: he/she/they
I'm currently playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer, and I can roll whenever I want. The official Wild Magic table is heavily skewed in the player's favor, so my DM and I decided to keep the same balance of good, bad, and neutral outcomes, but we created unique effects for each roll between 1 and 100. It's been a lot of fun so far—I just hit level 4. The worst thing that's happened to me, though, was a roll that nearly killed me: 'A flock of spectral chickens appears and attacks you, dealing 1d4 damage every turn for 10 turns.' It was a nod to Zelda, but it ended up knocking my character out mid-fight!"
In 5e2024 it is the player's choice, and the table of effects has been completely redone so that it is in the character's best interest to want to roll on it.
In 5e that wasn't the case, and it was a 50/50 chance of getting a bad result.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Tanks everyone for helping clarify.
Actually the player chose the 2014 table over the 2024 version, which I allowed.