I’m not sure if this has been brought up as a topic before but I did a search and couldn’t find anything. For a little transparency I should say as a player I’ve never played a Sorcerer and as a DM I’ve only ever used one once as an NPC. This is quite a long post so if you find yourself in a TL;DR mood today then scroll down to the red text at the bottom where I’ll try to summarize.
So….what’s your opinion on using sorcery points for things other than creating spell slots and buffing meta magics?...or Shadow Sorcerers casting Darkness...or Draconic Sorcerers gaining resistance….actually does anyone do the Draconic one or do we all just end up home-brewing it so the resistance is always in effect once the Draconic Sorcerer hits 6 level?
I think they are a resource that can be applied to other things aside from meta-magic and the term “Flexible Casting” needs to really live up to its name.
I’m going to use the following hastily thrown together home-brew Sorcerer origin to demonstrate some things I think you could use Sorcery Points for beyond just buffing spells, I make no claim to this being balanced or worth playing, I’m just using it for game mechanic exploration and then there is some justification/explanation for it and a few other option afterwards.
So here we go…..
Background:Demon Origin
This origin is based around you having a Demon from the Abyss involved in your creation, perhaps an ancestor was a warlock in service to the demon and their pact had some small print whereby all their descendants would carry some demonic power, maybe your parents were crazed cultists that asked for a demons blessing at your conception...who knows….
At level 1:
Demonic Messenger: Choose a Demon of CR7 or higher to be the Demon fuelling your power. Should you ever meet this individual they will actually be an extremely powerful version of this Demon with a higher CR. As part of the power granted to you, you learn the spell Find Familiar. However, you can only cast it as a ritual and must expend 1 sorcery point at the start of the ritual in addition to its normal material components, once completed you can summon a familiar but only the Fiend version. If you have level 2 spell slots you can instead expend 3 Sorcery Points at the start of the ritual and summon a Quasit. If you do this the Quasit looks like a tiny version of the Demon you chose.
Schooled in the Blood War: When you have a Fiendish Familiar or Quasit summoned you can expend 1 Sorcery Point to gain advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track Fiends, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them, for 1 hour. When you gain this feature, you also learn Abyssal as a language.
At Level 6:
Summon Ally: When you gain this ability you learn the Summon Lesser Demon Spell but can only perform this as a ritual (requiring 10 mins casting time) and must expend 3 sorcery points at the start of the ritual. If you have level 4 spell slots you can augment this ritual to Summon Greater Demon by expending 4 Sorcery Points (instead of 3) at the time the ritual is started.
At Level 14:
Demonic Fortitude: You gain the ability to tap into the resilience of a Demon. You gain resistance to one of the following energy types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison or Thunder. As part of a long rest you can undergo a meditation to change this resistance but at the commencement of this meditation you must expend 3 Sorcery Points.
At Level 18:
Demonic Form: You gain the ability to you can transform into a Demon with a challenge rating up to CR9. In addition to this you must expend a number of Sorcery Points equal to the CR of the chosen form (minimum 1) to fuel the change. You can maintain this form for up to 1 hour, this otherwise functions as per True Polymorph. You can perform this ability once per Long Rest.
*****
OK so for reasons why I offer expending Sorcery Points to fuel other mechanics:
Demonic Messenger: Using Sorcery Points to cast ritual spells seems like a logical extension of meta-magic and allows the Sorcerer a modicum of ability in situations when expending spell slots may not be prudent or needed. If we extend this theory out then if a Sorcerer knows spells which would have the ritual tag you give them a way of using them without expending their spell slots and can lead to some increased variety of builds and doesn’t necessarily tread on the toes of those classes that can ritual cast and the Sorcerer doesn’t have to pay the feat tax and invest in Ritual Caster or give up a meta magic slot for a home-brewed meta magic ability.
Regarding the “Schooled in the Blood War” ability, I thought this would a nice little flavour way of expressing some mentoring/tutoring you get from your familiar, the expenditure of a Sorcery point could be a way to represent you siphoning off a tiny amount of magical energy to feed the familiar a treat and they in turn give you a little info to help you on your way. And yes it is just a slightly amended version of the Ranger favoured enemy ability…..
Summon Ally: This kind of follows on from the level one ability and becomes a bit more in line with the variant ability in the Monster manual that allows Fiends to summon other fiends to help them. However, as the Sorcerer is a mortal they have to go through a bit more of a rigorous casting, the expenditure of Sorcery Points could in this instance be seen as you offering up a tiny portion of your soul as payment to the Demonic allies you are summoning.
Demonic Fortitude: Fairly simply, you get the first resistance free but there after you need to offer up something to change it, again Sorcery Points could be seen as a sliver of your soul or mote of magical power you give over to the Demon you chose at level one in exchange for changing your resistance. The cost might seem a bit high but that can always be tweaked but is also a representation of the mystical tie that binds you to the Demon.
Demonic Form: The biggie….we’re talking using Sorcery Points to fuel a spell like ability you can’t usually get and a powerful one at that. The reason I feel something like this is a good way to spend your Sorcery Points is simple, its flexibility.
You need to scout out a location? Spend a Sorcery Point and become a Quasit.
Need to tank some damage? Spend some sorcery points to become a Balgura or Glabrazu.
Need some aerial support? Spend them to become a Shadow Demon or Vrock.
TL;DR:
So to summarize, you could obviously tweak these in different ways without going for a full home-brew origin.
As noted above you can use them to fuel class abilities or cast spells in a ritual fashion but...
What about expending Sorcery Points to change a spell as you cast it such as polymorph to change into Elementals or Fey instead of a Beast? Expend 1 Sorcery Point per CR of the Elemental you want to become in addition to the spell slot.
Or what about expending Sorcery Points to gain advantage on an ability check; one point for skills your proficient in, 2 for those you aren’t? Referenced as using your innate power to slightly buff your self for a split second.
How about gaining advantage on a saving throw against a spell? You see a monster cast a spell, the DM describes it as a thin sickly green ray of energy, Sorcerer thinks its likely a Finger of Death or Disintegrate spell and it’ll likely be an instant kill if he doesn’t save so uses his reaction to expend a bunch of sorcery points as a burst of energy, if he expends a number of points equal to the level of the spell he gains advantage on the save or gains a +1 bonus to the save for each Sorcery Point expended. This could also be used if you’ve been affected by a spell with a high DC such as a Hold Person, after all, if you’re dead or incapacitated in some other way then your Sorcery Points are not doing much for you so this would give you another way of using them.
What about allowing Draconic Sorcerer to expend sorcery points to use a breath weapon like a Dragonborn? If you find yourself in an area of silence this could be quite handy.
What about Wild Magic Sorcerers expending Sorcery points equal to the level of a spell slot they are expending to create an automatic Wild Surge to represent they are purposes forcing or overcharging their spell?
Shadow Sorcerers already get a way to buff their Darkness spell but what about expending additional sorcery points to grant allies the ability to see through the magical darkness they create?
What about Divine Soul Sorceres using their sorcery points to turn undead, 1 Sorcery Point per CR of the undead required.
Or what about Storm Sorcerers using their tempestuous Magic ability and being able to fly an extra 5ft per Sorcery Point expended.
My final idea and possible the most contentious one, rather just buffing the class with more spells (although for the record I do feel they should have access to the full Wizard spell list), what about temporarily learning spells from other lists? During a Long Rest sit down with a spell caster and have them teach you a spell, you expend 1 Sorcery Point per level of that spell to add it to you known spells until your next long rest. At low levels it might more beneficial to have a Cleric and a Sorcerer be able to both cast Bless then have a Sorcerer be able to buff a spell or two.
I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have on using your Sorcery Points in creative ways, so ping them below and let’s see if what we can come up with.
Since posting this I've had a few more ideas about extending usage of Sorcery Points to fuel other things, these are things I as a DM feel would be ok. These one are specifically for those currently published Sorcerer Origins (except for UA material as I havent gone through those). If you play a Socerer feel free to see if your DM would allow them and I'd be grateful if you let me know how they go down as I've not had much chance to test anything aside form some general thought exercises.
There are some reasons/justifications after each one...
Draconic Sorcerer:
Toughened Scales: At the end of a Long Rest a Draconic Sorcerer can choose to expend 1-5 Sorcery Points to harden the dragon sclaes they gain at level 1 via Draconic Resilience. The more points expended the more pronounced the scales are and may impeed clothing etc. Expending 1 Sorcery Point calculates AC as 14+ Dex (max +2 Dex bonus), Expending 2 Sorcery Points calculates AC as AC15 + Dex (max +2 Dex Bonus). Expending 3 Sorcery Points Calculates AC as 16, Expending 4 Sorcery Points calculates AC as 17 and as you probably guessed...expending 5 Sorcery Points calculates AC as 18 but there is no Dex bonus allowed to AC if expending 3+ Sorcery Points, that hopefully keeps it in line with medium and heavy armour. These Expended Sorcery Points cannot be regained until your next Long Rest.
Reasons you may do this: There maybe times when spell casting isn't an option, you maybe in a setting, such as Vassleheim in the Tal'Dorai setting, where Arcane magic is prohibited or you may find yourself needing a bit more defence without relying on Shield spells, or you may just like the image of strutting around looking like a Half Dragon.
Breath Weapon: Expanded from note in post above...By expending 1 Sorcery Point you can exhale a breath weapon. This functions as per the Dragonborn ability and you can only use the breath weapon associated with your colour. Calculate the Damage dealt based on your Sorcerer level not your character level.
Reasons you may do this: You may already have a concentration spell up so you don't want to cast or don’t know the spell: Dragon's Breath or you might just need a one off attack and not want to waste a spell slot. Versatility, the aforementioned spell only allows a 15ft cone of damage where this may allow a 30ft line of damage instead and the spell gives a Dex Save whereas this would give a Cons save.
Wild Magic Sorcerer:
Overcharged Spell: Expanded from note above....If you expend a spell slot to cast a spell you can also expend a number of Sorcery Points equal to the level of the spell slot to over charge the spell with WIld Magic and cause an automatic roll on the Wild Magic Surge table.
Reasons to do this: There's a hoops to jump through to get a wild surge normally; 1) cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, 2) DM has to choose/remember to ask you ot roll a d20 and 3) you also have to roll a 1 on that d20 before 4) roll on the table. This way you get to bypass it but not do it for free as it also has the caveat of expending a spell slot and Sorcery Points which the class ability does not and also gives your DM one less thing to remember.
Create Work of Wonder: At the end of a Long Rest you can imbue any number of Sorcery Points you possess into an Arcane Focus. Until your next long rest the focus acts as a Wand of Wonder with a number of charges equal to the number of Sorcery Points you chose to imbue into it. This serves to martial some of the forces within you, whilst you have an arcane focus imbued this way you cannot Wild Surge through casting spells and you cannot regain the imbued Sorcery Points until your next Long Rest. The DC for any saving throw from this item is calculated on your spell DC.
Reasons to do this: Maybe your DM is a little too free with Wild Surges and you are getting bored of them or perhaps you want something to represent your character routinely tries to capture or otherwise harness the powerful energies they have or maybe your DM never let's you wild Surge? Well this give a slightly smaller table to roll on so might be a more acceptable option for them.
Divine Soul Sorcerer:
Channel Sorcery:Where a Cleric or Paladin can channel the divine power of their God, a Divine Soul Sorcerer seeks to channel a small mote of divine power through their Sorcery Points. A Divine Soul Sorcerer can speak a small prayer and expend 3 Sorcery Points to create an effect as per Channel Divinity: Turn Undead, if the Sorcerer has 5 or more levels in Sorcerer this becomes Destroy Undead. At the DM’s option the Sorcerer may instead be able to Command Undead instead of Turn. This can be performed once per Long Rest.
Reasons to do this: Divine Soul Sorcerers already straddle the line between arcane and divine casters so this just takes it one step further and allows them to access a power once per Long rest and potentially turn/destroy undead is a better use of your points then buffing a spell.
Divine Boon: After completing a Long Rest the Divine Soul Sorcerer may speak a small prayer and choose a Cleric Domain or Paladin Oath associated with the Divine Power that fuels them and expend one or more Sorcery Points to access the Domain or Oath spells of that Domain or Oath. For each Sorcery Point expended the Sorcerer can add one spell from that list to their list of spells known, this knowledge lasts until they start their next Long rest at which point the spells fade from their memory. These bonus spells must be “bought” in order starting with the lowest levels and must be of a level the Sorcerer could cast but spells they already know can be skipped. Example: Rob is a level 3 Sorcerer and spends all 3 Sorcery points to access the Light Domain and can then add Burning hands, Faerie Fire and Flaming Sphere to his list of spells known. If he already knew Burning Hands then he could skip that spell and instead add Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere and Scorching Ray to his list of known spells.
Reasons to do this: It seems logical to me that a Sorcerer with a divine connection should be able to bargain for some addition spells and this would represent that. It also means that you give them a bit more flexibility in that a divine power may have more than one oath or domain associated to them so the Sorcerer could pick some bonus spells without being tied to them and effectively “test” them out before swapping out currently known spells when levelling up.
Shadow Sorcerer:
Eyes in the Dark: When Casting Darkness with Sorcery Points you can expend addition Sorcery Points. For each addition Sorcery Point Expended you can grant one creature the ability to see through the Darkness spell you create.
Reasons to do this: It just makes the Darkness a bit more party friendly. You can give an ally the ability to see through the darkness and hand them a rock with Darkness cast on it etc.
Shadow Minion:When summoning their Hound of Ill Omen the Shadow Sorcerer can instead expend an additional Sorcery Point to give the hound the stat block and appearance of a Shadowinstead of a Dire Wolf.
Reasons to do this: Sorcerers do not standardly get access to any way to summon Shadows except via this ability, so gives an alternate form for the hound and remains thematically appropriate to the Sorcerer. The reason to increase the cost in Sorcery Points is really just to reflect that the Shadow has a few extra abilities than a Dire Wolf. I’d normally allow a spell caster to use Animate Dead to summon a single shadow but seeing as Sorcerers don’t standardly get access to that spell this is a close alternative.
Storm Sorcerer:
Storm Discharge: When a Storm Sorcerer uses their Tempestuous Magic ability to move, they can additionally use their Reaction and expend a Sorcery Point to create a discharge of Lightning or Thunder when they move away. Any creature within 5ft of the place where the Sorcerer starts their movement from must make a Dex saving throw against the Sorcerers spell DC. On a Success they avoid the arcs of lightning/blast of thunder. On a failure they take 1d6 Lightning or Thunder damage Damage. This damage increases to 2d6 damage at level 5, 3d6 damage at level 11 and 4d6 damage at level 17. Either use of this power creates an audible “boom” that can be heard up to 100ft away.
Reasons to do this: It’s not a particularly subtle ability but could be a useful, effectively it is tying up all the Sorcerers actions for a turn, Action to cast a spell, bonus action to activate Tempestuous Magic and then Reaction do potentially deal some damage and at least gives them one more option for their damage types.
Step of the Zephyr:When a Storm Sorcerer uses their Tempestuous Magic ability to move they can spend a Sorcery Point to Fly as if they had taken the Dash action instead of moving the 10ft they could normally move. However, this movement must be in a straight line.
Reasons to do this: Maybe you don’t have Expeditious Retreat, maybe the creatures you need to get past have more than a 10ft reach (damn Bugbears with their pole arms!) or maybe you just want to fly from one roof top to the next without casting Levitate or Fly.
I’m not sure if this has been brought up as a topic before but I did a search and couldn’t find anything. For a little transparency I should say as a player I’ve never played a Sorcerer and as a DM I’ve only ever used one once as an NPC. This is quite a long post so if you find yourself in a TL;DR mood today then scroll down to the red text at the bottom where I’ll try to summarize.
So….what’s your opinion on using sorcery points for things other than creating spell slots and buffing meta magics?...or Shadow Sorcerers casting Darkness...or Draconic Sorcerers gaining resistance….actually does anyone do the Draconic one or do we all just end up home-brewing it so the resistance is always in effect once the Draconic Sorcerer hits 6 level?
I think they are a resource that can be applied to other things aside from meta-magic and the term “Flexible Casting” needs to really live up to its name.
I’m going to use the following hastily thrown together home-brew Sorcerer origin to demonstrate some things I think you could use Sorcery Points for beyond just buffing spells, I make no claim to this being balanced or worth playing, I’m just using it for game mechanic exploration and then there is some justification/explanation for it and a few other option afterwards.
So here we go…..
Background:Demon Origin
This origin is based around you having a Demon from the Abyss involved in your creation, perhaps an ancestor was a warlock in service to the demon and their pact had some small print whereby all their descendants would carry some demonic power, maybe your parents were crazed cultists that asked for a demons blessing at your conception...who knows….
At level 1:
Demonic Messenger: Choose a Demon of CR7 or higher to be the Demon fuelling your power. Should you ever meet this individual they will actually be an extremely powerful version of this Demon with a higher CR. As part of the power granted to you, you learn the spell Find Familiar. However, you can only cast it as a ritual and must expend 1 sorcery point at the start of the ritual in addition to its normal material components, once completed you can summon a familiar but only the Fiend version. If you have level 2 spell slots you can instead expend 3 Sorcery Points at the start of the ritual and summon a Quasit. If you do this the Quasit looks like a tiny version of the Demon you chose.
Schooled in the Blood War: When you have a Fiendish Familiar or Quasit summoned you can expend 1 Sorcery Point to gain advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track Fiends, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them, for 1 hour. When you gain this feature, you also learn Abyssal as a language.
At Level 6:
Summon Ally: When you gain this ability you learn the Summon Lesser Demon Spell but can only perform this as a ritual (requiring 10 mins casting time) and must expend 3 sorcery points at the start of the ritual. If you have level 4 spell slots you can augment this ritual to Summon Greater Demon by expending 4 Sorcery Points (instead of 3) at the time the ritual is started.
At Level 14:
Demonic Fortitude: You gain the ability to tap into the resilience of a Demon. You gain resistance to one of the following energy types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison or Thunder. As part of a long rest you can undergo a meditation to change this resistance but at the commencement of this meditation you must expend 3 Sorcery Points.
At Level 18:
Demonic Form: You gain the ability to you can transform into a Demon with a challenge rating up to CR9. In addition to this you must expend a number of Sorcery Points equal to the CR of the chosen form (minimum 1) to fuel the change. You can maintain this form for up to 1 hour, this otherwise functions as per True Polymorph. You can perform this ability once per Long Rest.
*****
OK so for reasons why I offer expending Sorcery Points to fuel other mechanics:
Demonic Messenger: Using Sorcery Points to cast ritual spells seems like a logical extension of meta-magic and allows the Sorcerer a modicum of ability in situations when expending spell slots may not be prudent or needed. If we extend this theory out then if a Sorcerer knows spells which would have the ritual tag you give them a way of using them without expending their spell slots and can lead to some increased variety of builds and doesn’t necessarily tread on the toes of those classes that can ritual cast and the Sorcerer doesn’t have to pay the feat tax and invest in Ritual Caster or give up a meta magic slot for a home-brewed meta magic ability.
Regarding the “Schooled in the Blood War” ability, I thought this would a nice little flavour way of expressing some mentoring/tutoring you get from your familiar, the expenditure of a Sorcery point could be a way to represent you siphoning off a tiny amount of magical energy to feed the familiar a treat and they in turn give you a little info to help you on your way. And yes it is just a slightly amended version of the Ranger favoured enemy ability…..
Summon Ally: This kind of follows on from the level one ability and becomes a bit more in line with the variant ability in the Monster manual that allows Fiends to summon other fiends to help them. However, as the Sorcerer is a mortal they have to go through a bit more of a rigorous casting, the expenditure of Sorcery Points could in this instance be seen as you offering up a tiny portion of your soul as payment to the Demonic allies you are summoning.
Demonic Fortitude: Fairly simply, you get the first resistance free but there after you need to offer up something to change it, again Sorcery Points could be seen as a sliver of your soul or mote of magical power you give over to the Demon you chose at level one in exchange for changing your resistance. The cost might seem a bit high but that can always be tweaked but is also a representation of the mystical tie that binds you to the Demon.
Demonic Form: The biggie….we’re talking using Sorcery Points to fuel a spell like ability you can’t usually get and a powerful one at that. The reason I feel something like this is a good way to spend your Sorcery Points is simple, its flexibility.
You need to scout out a location? Spend a Sorcery Point and become a Quasit.
Need to tank some damage? Spend some sorcery points to become a Balgura or Glabrazu.
Need some aerial support? Spend them to become a Shadow Demon or Vrock.
TL;DR:
So to summarize, you could obviously tweak these in different ways without going for a full home-brew origin.
As noted above you can use them to fuel class abilities or cast spells in a ritual fashion but...
What about expending Sorcery Points to change a spell as you cast it such as polymorph to change into Elementals or Fey instead of a Beast? Expend 1 Sorcery Point per CR of the Elemental you want to become in addition to the spell slot.
Or what about expending Sorcery Points to gain advantage on an ability check; one point for skills your proficient in, 2 for those you aren’t? Referenced as using your innate power to slightly buff your self for a split second.
How about gaining advantage on a saving throw against a spell? You see a monster cast a spell, the DM describes it as a thin sickly green ray of energy, Sorcerer thinks its likely a Finger of Death or Disintegrate spell and it’ll likely be an instant kill if he doesn’t save so uses his reaction to expend a bunch of sorcery points as a burst of energy, if he expends a number of points equal to the level of the spell he gains advantage on the save or gains a +1 bonus to the save for each Sorcery Point expended. This could also be used if you’ve been affected by a spell with a high DC such as a Hold Person, after all, if you’re dead or incapacitated in some other way then your Sorcery Points are not doing much for you so this would give you another way of using them.
What about allowing Draconic Sorcerer to expend sorcery points to use a breath weapon like a Dragonborn? If you find yourself in an area of silence this could be quite handy.
What about Wild Magic Sorcerers expending Sorcery points equal to the level of a spell slot they are expending to create an automatic Wild Surge to represent they are purposes forcing or overcharging their spell?
Shadow Sorcerers already get a way to buff their Darkness spell but what about expending additional sorcery points to grant allies the ability to see through the magical darkness they create?
What about Divine Soul Sorceres using their sorcery points to turn undead, 1 Sorcery Point per CR of the undead required.
Or what about Storm Sorcerers using their tempestuous Magic ability and being able to fly an extra 5ft per Sorcery Point expended.
My final idea and possible the most contentious one, rather just buffing the class with more spells (although for the record I do feel they should have access to the full Wizard spell list), what about temporarily learning spells from other lists? During a Long Rest sit down with a spell caster and have them teach you a spell, you expend 1 Sorcery Point per level of that spell to add it to you known spells until your next long rest. At low levels it might more beneficial to have a Cleric and a Sorcerer be able to both cast Bless then have a Sorcerer be able to buff a spell or two.
I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have on using your Sorcery Points in creative ways, so ping them below and let’s see if what we can come up with.
PS...really sorry...long rambly post….
Since posting this I've had a few more ideas about extending usage of Sorcery Points to fuel other things, these are things I as a DM feel would be ok. These one are specifically for those currently published Sorcerer Origins (except for UA material as I havent gone through those). If you play a Socerer feel free to see if your DM would allow them and I'd be grateful if you let me know how they go down as I've not had much chance to test anything aside form some general thought exercises.
There are some reasons/justifications after each one...
Draconic Sorcerer:
Toughened Scales: At the end of a Long Rest a Draconic Sorcerer can choose to expend 1-5 Sorcery Points to harden the dragon sclaes they gain at level 1 via Draconic Resilience. The more points expended the more pronounced the scales are and may impeed clothing etc. Expending 1 Sorcery Point calculates AC as 14+ Dex (max +2 Dex bonus), Expending 2 Sorcery Points calculates AC as AC15 + Dex (max +2 Dex Bonus). Expending 3 Sorcery Points Calculates AC as 16, Expending 4 Sorcery Points calculates AC as 17 and as you probably guessed...expending 5 Sorcery Points calculates AC as 18 but there is no Dex bonus allowed to AC if expending 3+ Sorcery Points, that hopefully keeps it in line with medium and heavy armour. These Expended Sorcery Points cannot be regained until your next Long Rest.
Reasons you may do this: There maybe times when spell casting isn't an option, you maybe in a setting, such as Vassleheim in the Tal'Dorai setting, where Arcane magic is prohibited or you may find yourself needing a bit more defence without relying on Shield spells, or you may just like the image of strutting around looking like a Half Dragon.
Breath Weapon: Expanded from note in post above...By expending 1 Sorcery Point you can exhale a breath weapon. This functions as per the Dragonborn ability and you can only use the breath weapon associated with your colour. Calculate the Damage dealt based on your Sorcerer level not your character level.
Reasons you may do this: You may already have a concentration spell up so you don't want to cast or don’t know the spell: Dragon's Breath or you might just need a one off attack and not want to waste a spell slot. Versatility, the aforementioned spell only allows a 15ft cone of damage where this may allow a 30ft line of damage instead and the spell gives a Dex Save whereas this would give a Cons save.
Wild Magic Sorcerer:
Overcharged Spell: Expanded from note above....If you expend a spell slot to cast a spell you can also expend a number of Sorcery Points equal to the level of the spell slot to over charge the spell with WIld Magic and cause an automatic roll on the Wild Magic Surge table.
Reasons to do this: There's a hoops to jump through to get a wild surge normally; 1) cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, 2) DM has to choose/remember to ask you ot roll a d20 and 3) you also have to roll a 1 on that d20 before 4) roll on the table. This way you get to bypass it but not do it for free as it also has the caveat of expending a spell slot and Sorcery Points which the class ability does not and also gives your DM one less thing to remember.
Create Work of Wonder: At the end of a Long Rest you can imbue any number of Sorcery Points you possess into an Arcane Focus. Until your next long rest the focus acts as a Wand of Wonder with a number of charges equal to the number of Sorcery Points you chose to imbue into it. This serves to martial some of the forces within you, whilst you have an arcane focus imbued this way you cannot Wild Surge through casting spells and you cannot regain the imbued Sorcery Points until your next Long Rest. The DC for any saving throw from this item is calculated on your spell DC.
Reasons to do this: Maybe your DM is a little too free with Wild Surges and you are getting bored of them or perhaps you want something to represent your character routinely tries to capture or otherwise harness the powerful energies they have or maybe your DM never let's you wild Surge? Well this give a slightly smaller table to roll on so might be a more acceptable option for them.
Divine Soul Sorcerer:
Channel Sorcery: Where a Cleric or Paladin can channel the divine power of their God, a Divine Soul Sorcerer seeks to channel a small mote of divine power through their Sorcery Points. A Divine Soul Sorcerer can speak a small prayer and expend 3 Sorcery Points to create an effect as per Channel Divinity: Turn Undead, if the Sorcerer has 5 or more levels in Sorcerer this becomes Destroy Undead. At the DM’s option the Sorcerer may instead be able to Command Undead instead of Turn. This can be performed once per Long Rest.
Reasons to do this: Divine Soul Sorcerers already straddle the line between arcane and divine casters so this just takes it one step further and allows them to access a power once per Long rest and potentially turn/destroy undead is a better use of your points then buffing a spell.
Divine Boon: After completing a Long Rest the Divine Soul Sorcerer may speak a small prayer and choose a Cleric Domain or Paladin Oath associated with the Divine Power that fuels them and expend one or more Sorcery Points to access the Domain or Oath spells of that Domain or Oath. For each Sorcery Point expended the Sorcerer can add one spell from that list to their list of spells known, this knowledge lasts until they start their next Long rest at which point the spells fade from their memory. These bonus spells must be “bought” in order starting with the lowest levels and must be of a level the Sorcerer could cast but spells they already know can be skipped. Example: Rob is a level 3 Sorcerer and spends all 3 Sorcery points to access the Light Domain and can then add Burning hands, Faerie Fire and Flaming Sphere to his list of spells known. If he already knew Burning Hands then he could skip that spell and instead add Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere and Scorching Ray to his list of known spells.
Reasons to do this: It seems logical to me that a Sorcerer with a divine connection should be able to bargain for some addition spells and this would represent that. It also means that you give them a bit more flexibility in that a divine power may have more than one oath or domain associated to them so the Sorcerer could pick some bonus spells without being tied to them and effectively “test” them out before swapping out currently known spells when levelling up.
Shadow Sorcerer:
Eyes in the Dark: When Casting Darkness with Sorcery Points you can expend addition Sorcery Points. For each addition Sorcery Point Expended you can grant one creature the ability to see through the Darkness spell you create.
Reasons to do this: It just makes the Darkness a bit more party friendly. You can give an ally the ability to see through the darkness and hand them a rock with Darkness cast on it etc.
Shadow Minion: When summoning their Hound of Ill Omen the Shadow Sorcerer can instead expend an additional Sorcery Point to give the hound the stat block and appearance of a Shadow instead of a Dire Wolf.
Reasons to do this: Sorcerers do not standardly get access to any way to summon Shadows except via this ability, so gives an alternate form for the hound and remains thematically appropriate to the Sorcerer. The reason to increase the cost in Sorcery Points is really just to reflect that the Shadow has a few extra abilities than a Dire Wolf. I’d normally allow a spell caster to use Animate Dead to summon a single shadow but seeing as Sorcerers don’t standardly get access to that spell this is a close alternative.
Storm Sorcerer:
Storm Discharge: When a Storm Sorcerer uses their Tempestuous Magic ability to move, they can additionally use their Reaction and expend a Sorcery Point to create a discharge of Lightning or Thunder when they move away. Any creature within 5ft of the place where the Sorcerer starts their movement from must make a Dex saving throw against the Sorcerers spell DC. On a Success they avoid the arcs of lightning/blast of thunder. On a failure they take 1d6 Lightning or Thunder damage Damage. This damage increases to 2d6 damage at level 5, 3d6 damage at level 11 and 4d6 damage at level 17. Either use of this power creates an audible “boom” that can be heard up to 100ft away.
Reasons to do this: It’s not a particularly subtle ability but could be a useful, effectively it is tying up all the Sorcerers actions for a turn, Action to cast a spell, bonus action to activate Tempestuous Magic and then Reaction do potentially deal some damage and at least gives them one more option for their damage types.
Step of the Zephyr: When a Storm Sorcerer uses their Tempestuous Magic ability to move they can spend a Sorcery Point to Fly as if they had taken the Dash action instead of moving the 10ft they could normally move. However, this movement must be in a straight line.
Reasons to do this: Maybe you don’t have Expeditious Retreat, maybe the creatures you need to get past have more than a 10ft reach (damn Bugbears with their pole arms!) or maybe you just want to fly from one roof top to the next without casting Levitate or Fly.