- Base class: Roughly the same as UA. Crawford confirmed some noncore metamagic options have been made core, presumably these are the same ones from the UA like Seeking Spell.
Subclasses:
- Aberrant: Roughly the same as Tasha's (including bonus spells.)* - Clockwork Soul: Roughly the same as Tasha's (including bonus spells.)*
*Treantmonk did mention that both subclasses had some kind of power reduction since Tasha's, but Crawford didn't give specifics so neither can he.
- Draconic: Now has its own bonus spell list like the first two. This includes Dragon's Breath and Summon Dragon, a retooled version of Summon Draconic Spirit from Fizban's. Draconic Resilience and Elemental Affinity made it out of the UA intact. The capstone lets them cast Summon Dragon without concentration and without a costly component.
- Wild Magic: will NOT be getting bonus spells, because the Wild Magic Surge table has been redesigned and now contains more good options. It's still a d100, however there are options on the table that involve additional rolls, which means you actually end up with more than 100 different outcomes. Treantmonk also confirmed there are still options on the table that are pure flavor, however you have a higher chance of something mechanically beneficial happening than before. There are also still negative outcomes, however the chances of those negative outcomes annoying/harming your allies has been greatly reduced. In addition, when buffs happen on the table, you still don't have to concentrate on those.
I also feel subclasses from earlier books need a 5.5 edition so excited to think of edits to Spirit Bard from Van Richten
Pay for the DLC in 2026 and you might be able to get it
Redesigning subclasses takes work; designers deserve to get paid for their work. So yes, future updated subclasses will have a cost associated with them.
(Besides, I definitely want the next round of subclasses to have art on par with the 2024 core ones.)
My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
Curious that he said "summon a dragon" and not "summon draconic spirit". I'm excited to see the rest of the spell list for draconic sorcerers and will be waiting patiently for the article, which will hopefully expand on some things. He didn't say anything about Draconic Presence, as far as I could tell, so maybe they replaced it completely with that "no concentration" version of the summon dragon spell? Or maybe they moved it earlier?
The one thing I really wanted to hear them talk about, but didn't expect based on the warlock video, was how they justify waiting until level 3 for subclasses from a roleplaying perspective.
I can see that levels 1-2 are the "self discovery" coming into their own as heroes levels. Sorcerer knows they have some magic and coming to terms with that, _why_ they have that magic gets revealed to them at L3. That's problematic with something like clockwork sorcerer, but I think most of the other origins can handle it. It's almost a Percy Jackson thing.
Warlocks, I can see the levels 1-2 are more a time of studying pathways to pact making. 2nd order offerings of power from a variety of sources, and the true pact with a patron isn't made till 3.
I really don't see these realignments or aligning of classes as a a problem. Though I never minded out of sync levels, I can see this being more in line with the trend in party milestone progression play.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
That and maybe fewer subclass spells, say 5? Because getting an increased 22 base + 10 more + racials seems like it would be a lot...!
I can see that levels 1-2 are the "self discovery" coming into their own as heroes levels. Sorcerer knows they have some magic and coming to terms with that, _why_ they have that magic gets revealed to them at L3. That's problematic with something like clockwork sorcerer, but I think most of the other origins can handle it. It's almost a Percy Jackson thing.
Warlocks, I can see the levels 1-2 are more a time of studying pathways to pact making. 2nd order offerings of power from a variety of sources, and the true pact with a patron isn't made till 3.
I think in 5.5 we'll need to separate the name from the features. You get a new set of abilities at 3rd level -- just because you're "choosing" a "subclass" at a player level doesn't mean the character didn't know it was there the whole time
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Why is the article for this going to be posted later this week? All the other ones were posted same day, right? I've been refreshing all day so I can go over the breakdown.
My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
But this made up for the extremely limited spell selection of the base class (and don't even try to argue that metamagic does that. "I cast the same spell, but faster/harder/farther" does not compare to the differences in utility and functionality of different spells), and allowed them to take some actual flavorful spells without giving up the spells required to fulfill their role.
If you wanted to be a psionic sorcerer but not a weird gross aberrant space creature, you could at least replace the tentacle-fetish spells with something like Sleep for a very different vibe. Some of these lists can be thematically pigeonholing, and you can't afford to just ignore them when you get so few other spells.
Maybe with the other new features of sorcerer it's not needed as much. I hope so. But I would have rather they allowed the swaps for everyone rather than taking them all away. It was a must-take for the old sorcerer because it was a much-needed fix for a badly designed base class.
Overall, big fan of the changes to the class. The Sorcerer rage equivalent will go a long way toward giving the class a unique identity, particularly alongside meta magic.
Decidedly unimpressed with the Draconic Sorcerer update. To me, the fun of a draconic bloodline was not “dragons are fun” - but rather the fact that your own blood gave you some cool dragon options. With the new update, you just… get a dragon pet. An external manifestation of your magic antithetical to the “your power comes from within” flavor of the entire class.
Fortunately, it probably will be easy enough to port the old version to the new rules. Some slight level adjustments, the new spell list. Perhaps swapping around some features.
You don’t “get a dragon pet.” Summon Dragon is just part of the expanded spell list. What you describe in your final paragraph is exactly what the revision is doing.
The word "pet" is a specific term of art within tabletop gaming - it refers to an additional monster, beyond your character, that you control. Beastmaster Ranger, Necromancer Wizard, etc. are all pet subclasses. Because it summons a dragon, the recently announced summon dragon spell is, definitionally, a pet spell. Under the new version of the subclass, rather than have your character take on draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic, you get an external dragon. It is not your bloodline transforming you; it is just you using magic to summon a dragon.
From a flavor point, I think that is a misstep - Sorcerers are all about what comes from within, so having a significant class feature of a popular class be something you summon from without feels off. From a mechanics standpoint, pet classes are problematic - there is a reason Wizards is reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game. Wizards has explicitly acknowledged that pets can bog down gameplay, resulting in slower turns for the pet user (and bored other players).
My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
But this made up for the extremely limited spell selection of the base class (and don't even try to argue that metamagic does that. "I cast the same spell, but faster/harder/farther" does not compare to the differences in utility and functionality of different spells), and allowed them to take some actual flavorful spells without giving up the spells required to fulfill their role.
If you wanted to be a psionic sorcerer but not a weird gross aberrant space creature, you could at least replace the tentacle-fetish spells with something like Sleep for a very different vibe. Some of these lists can be thematically pigeonholing, and you can't afford to just ignore them when you get so few other spells.
Maybe with the other new features of sorcerer it's not needed as much. I hope so. But I would have rather they allowed the swaps for everyone rather than taking them all away. It was a must-take for the old sorcerer because it was a much-needed fix for a badly designed base class.
In the UA the sorcerer got 50% more spells known baseline, and on top of that things like racial spells and Magic Initiate are also added to your spells known. If those things are true in the final, they'd be fine even without the bloodline spells, those are gravy now.
The word "pet" is a specific term of art within tabletop gaming - it refers to an additional monster, beyond your character, that you control. Beastmaster Ranger, Necromancer Wizard, etc. are all pet subclasses. Because it summons a dragon, the recently announced summon dragon spell is, definitionally, a pet spell. Under the new version of the subclass, rather than have your character take on draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic, you get an external dragon. It is not your bloodline transforming you; it is just you using magic to summon a dragon.
From a flavor point, I think that is a misstep - Sorcerers are all about what comes from within, so having a significant class feature of a popular class be something you summon from without feels off. From a mechanics standpoint, pet classes are problematic - there is a reason Wizards is reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game. Wizards has explicitly acknowledged that pets can bog down gameplay, resulting in slower turns for the pet user (and bored other players).
"Pet" is not a "specific term of art." It's a pretty vague term that most people just kind of intuitively understand because it more less is what it says. But its meaning is entirely irrelevant. I feel like you didn't read my post, and if you did, you're still entirely missing the point. It's just a spell that's on the subclass's spell list. The subclass still has all its features that grant the sorcerer "draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic": the AC-boosting scales, damage resistance (which seems permanent now), wings. In addition to all the stuff it already has, they now also get an expanded spell list, which among at least four other spells, includes one that summons a dragon. All sorcerers have that spell as an option. So do wizards and druids.
And Wizards aren't really "reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game." They added a bunch of new summon spells in Tasha's (and Fizban's, which is where this dragon summon originated), all of which are being made core in the new PHB. They're reworking the conjure spells because the new summons create a redundancy. It's not "we need fewer summon spells because they're disruptive and we want people casting them less." They want people to use these summon spells, because they're fun. But the new summon spells and the old conjure spells do pretty much the same thing, except the new summon spells do it better. They've spoken at length about this.
honestly its all good in my eyes for the sorcerer tho im not sure how i feel about the draconic sorcerer lossing its unlimited flight and only getting charges. i know they said its alot faster but it depends on how many charges you get. if its tied to short or long resting. how long does it last?
The word "pet" is a specific term of art within tabletop gaming - it refers to an additional monster, beyond your character, that you control. Beastmaster Ranger, Necromancer Wizard, etc. are all pet subclasses. Because it summons a dragon, the recently announced summon dragon spell is, definitionally, a pet spell. Under the new version of the subclass, rather than have your character take on draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic, you get an external dragon. It is not your bloodline transforming you; it is just you using magic to summon a dragon.
From a flavor point, I think that is a misstep - Sorcerers are all about what comes from within, so having a significant class feature of a popular class be something you summon from without feels off. From a mechanics standpoint, pet classes are problematic - there is a reason Wizards is reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game. Wizards has explicitly acknowledged that pets can bog down gameplay, resulting in slower turns for the pet user (and bored other players).
"Pet" is not a "specific term of art." It's a pretty vague term that most people just kind of intuitively understand because it more less is what it says. But its meaning is entirely irrelevant. I feel like you didn't read my post, and if you did, you're still entirely missing the point. It's just a spell that's on the subclass's spell list. The subclass still has all its features that grant the sorcerer "draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic": the AC-boosting scales, damage resistance (which seems permanent now), wings. In addition to all the stuff it already has, they now also get an expanded spell list, which among at least four other spells, includes one that summons a dragon. All sorcerers have that spell as an option. So do wizards and druids.
And Wizards aren't really "reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game." They added a bunch of new summon spells in Tasha's (and Fizban's, which is where this dragon summon originated), all of which are being made core in the new PHB. They're reworking the conjure spells because the new summons create a redundancy. It's not "we need fewer summon spells because they're disruptive and we want people casting them less." They want people to use these summon spells, because they're fun. But the new summon spells and the old conjure spells do pretty much the same thing, except the new summon spells do it better. They've spoken at length about this.
The other thing is the old conjure spells could pull up multiple creatures, and the statblocks were in other books. When someone cast one of the old ones, unless they were a highly prepared player, the game came to a screeching halt as they figured out what they wanted to summon, then wrote down some stuff, then took a half dozen turns. The new summons have an easy to figure stat block that is calculated from the spell description itself, and never results in more than one additional creature in the field of play.
I used a Summon Shadowspawn in my last session, and the only thing about it that slowed down play was the DM recalculation his plans as he thought he had a clear path to the casters until a new meat shield appeared out of thin air. Game speed wise, they are major improvements. And that's huge for everyone else at the table.
Why is the article for this going to be posted later this week? All the other ones were posted same day, right? I've been refreshing all day so I can go over the breakdown.
I don't have the answer to that question, but there was a delay with the Warlock article two weeks ago as well.
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Curious that he said "summon a dragon" and not "summon draconic spirit". I'm excited to see the rest of the spell list for draconic sorcerers and will be waiting patiently for the article, which will hopefully expand on some things. He didn't say anything about Draconic Presence, as far as I could tell, so maybe they replaced it completely with that "no concentration" version of the summon dragon spell? Or maybe they moved it earlier?
The one thing I really wanted to hear them talk about, but didn't expect based on the warlock video, was how they justify waiting until level 3 for subclasses from a roleplaying perspective.
I can see that levels 1-2 are the "self discovery" coming into their own as heroes levels. Sorcerer knows they have some magic and coming to terms with that, _why_ they have that magic gets revealed to them at L3. That's problematic with something like clockwork sorcerer, but I think most of the other origins can handle it. It's almost a Percy Jackson thing.
Warlocks, I can see the levels 1-2 are more a time of studying pathways to pact making. 2nd order offerings of power from a variety of sources, and the true pact with a patron isn't made till 3.
I really don't see these realignments or aligning of classes as a a problem. Though I never minded out of sync levels, I can see this being more in line with the trend in party milestone progression play.
I also just reminded myself that they are pushing veteran players to start play at level 3 anyway, so that kind of mitigates the need for coming up with RP reasons for not having subclass features that, from a background standpoint, should have always been there in the........ background. In any case, the only problem I would have with it is if they use the phrase "choose your subclass" as some kind of character choice instead of a player one. Subclass is only a choice for some characters and classes, not all by a longshot (though it is always a player choice).
Also just wanted to comment tangentially about how Clerics effectively get the capstone Wish spell that was scrapped for the sorcerer because it was thought too powerful?? I guess it was the fact that a sorc then had, potentially, two wishes, but it's still fairly humorous...
There is a rumor out there that the 2024 PHB PDF sent out to creators is getting an update. If true, I suspect there was a change to one of the features, and they want to update the preview article.
I agree. You've made a pact as a Warlock and are looking for more power. At level 3, you've found your new source of power by finding and selecting a patron. Same thing with a Cleric. You've already selected your god, and at 3rd level you specialize in one of your god's domains having studied/etc. to learn what aspect of your god's power you are going to focus on. It is fairly easy to fit in the narrative even if a little more awkward if you are focused on the mechanics of old vs. new.
In any case, it was needed to get their sub-classes to level 3 like the rest of the gang.
The word "pet" is a specific term of art within tabletop gaming - it refers to an additional monster, beyond your character, that you control. Beastmaster Ranger, Necromancer Wizard, etc. are all pet subclasses. Because it summons a dragon, the recently announced summon dragon spell is, definitionally, a pet spell. Under the new version of the subclass, rather than have your character take on draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic, you get an external dragon. It is not your bloodline transforming you; it is just you using magic to summon a dragon.
From a flavor point, I think that is a misstep - Sorcerers are all about what comes from within, so having a significant class feature of a popular class be something you summon from without feels off. From a mechanics standpoint, pet classes are problematic - there is a reason Wizards is reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game. Wizards has explicitly acknowledged that pets can bog down gameplay, resulting in slower turns for the pet user (and bored other players).
"Pet" is not a "specific term of art." It's a pretty vague term that most people just kind of intuitively understand because it more less is what it says. But its meaning is entirely irrelevant. I feel like you didn't read my post, and if you did, you're still entirely missing the point. It's just a spell that's on the subclass's spell list. The subclass still has all its features that grant the sorcerer "draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic": the AC-boosting scales, damage resistance (which seems permanent now), wings. In addition to all the stuff it already has, they now also get an expanded spell list, which among at least four other spells, includes one that summons a dragon. All sorcerers have that spell as an option. So do wizards and druids.
And Wizards aren't really "reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game." They added a bunch of new summon spells in Tasha's (and Fizban's, which is where this dragon summon originated), all of which are being made core in the new PHB. They're reworking the conjure spells because the new summons create a redundancy. It's not "we need fewer summon spells because they're disruptive and we want people casting them less." They want people to use these summon spells, because they're fun. But the new summon spells and the old conjure spells do pretty much the same thing, except the new summon spells do it better. They've spoken at length about this.
The other thing is the old conjure spells could pull up multiple creatures, and the statblocks were in other books. When someone cast one of the old ones, unless they were a highly prepared player, the game came to a screeching halt as they figured out what they wanted to summon, then wrote down some stuff, then took a half dozen turns. The new summons have an easy to figure stat block that is calculated from the spell description itself, and never results in more than one additional creature in the field of play.
I used a Summon Shadowspawn in my last session, and the only thing about it that slowed down play was the DM recalculation his plans as he thought he had a clear path to the casters until a new meat shield appeared out of thin air. Game speed wise, they are major improvements. And that's huge for everyone else at the table.
"Highly prepared" is a bit of a stretch, and the preparation itself is not a difficult ask with the advent of D&DB; a solid number of the Conjure options were a part of the Basic Rules, so literally anyone with an internet connection could prep the sheets ahead of a session. Yes, some guidance like a sidebar along the lines of "make a list of options and have them ready before the session starts" would have been a helpful cue, but the basic premise of players calling on stat blocks is viable and WotC has basically acknowledged that, given Wildshape, regular familiars, and Pact of the Chain are all still using them. Now, 4+ summons could create a serious time sink, so I can agree that part needed pruned, but imo the full-on eradication of Conjuring is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
There is a rumor out there that the 2024 PHB PDF sent out to creators is getting an update. If true, I suspect there was a change to one of the features, and they want to update the preview article.
I would take any rumors of that kind with a heavy grain of salt.
Creators who got preview access to the PHB have nothing to do with our article process.
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
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There is a rumor out there that the 2024 PHB PDF sent out to creators is getting an update. If true, I suspect there was a change to one of the features, and they want to update the preview article.
I would take any rumors of that kind with a heavy grain of salt.
Creators who got preview access to the PHB have nothing to do with our article process.
If there's an update going out, it'll be because they accidentally sent out "phb_final_final.pdf", instead of "phb_final_final_final.pdf" :)
At two months out, the books are already at the printers (or maybe on cargo ships), and they aren't making changes.
My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
...
I also heard a theory that they were taking away the Wizard's spell list and just leaving the Warlock's and the Sorcerer's; I don't like the idea of that possibility either.
I'm crossing my finger's that it's just the loss of the optioin to use part of the Warlock's spell list. (or something else small that I wouldn't mind, if the change is not about swapping spells)
I don't think there's any validity to this. They've referenced the Wizard's Spell List in several videos now. In fact, I think they mentioned it as one of the main 3 in the Bard Video (wizard, cleric, and druid, representing arcane, divine, and primal magic, respectively) as the ones they were going to be "borrowing" from, if any class is going to do that.
I'm assuming the spell swapping is something that will probably be addressed in the article, whenever it comes out.
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My guess is that the Two from Tasha's can no longer swap out their subclass spells. No other spellcasting subclass that I am aware of ever got that kind of flexibility with choosing bonus spells, and it transformed those two from merely being the best two sorcerer options into "all other choices are wrong."
I can see that levels 1-2 are the "self discovery" coming into their own as heroes levels. Sorcerer knows they have some magic and coming to terms with that, _why_ they have that magic gets revealed to them at L3. That's problematic with something like clockwork sorcerer, but I think most of the other origins can handle it. It's almost a Percy Jackson thing.
Warlocks, I can see the levels 1-2 are more a time of studying pathways to pact making. 2nd order offerings of power from a variety of sources, and the true pact with a patron isn't made till 3.
I really don't see these realignments or aligning of classes as a a problem. Though I never minded out of sync levels, I can see this being more in line with the trend in party milestone progression play.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
That and maybe fewer subclass spells, say 5? Because getting an increased 22 base + 10 more + racials seems like it would be a lot...!
I think in 5.5 we'll need to separate the name from the features. You get a new set of abilities at 3rd level -- just because you're "choosing" a "subclass" at a player level doesn't mean the character didn't know it was there the whole time
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Sorcerer is my favorite class and this update gives me a very positive feel for them going forward.
Why is the article for this going to be posted later this week? All the other ones were posted same day, right? I've been refreshing all day so I can go over the breakdown.
But this made up for the extremely limited spell selection of the base class (and don't even try to argue that metamagic does that. "I cast the same spell, but faster/harder/farther" does not compare to the differences in utility and functionality of different spells), and allowed them to take some actual flavorful spells without giving up the spells required to fulfill their role.
If you wanted to be a psionic sorcerer but not a weird gross aberrant space creature, you could at least replace the tentacle-fetish spells with something like Sleep for a very different vibe. Some of these lists can be thematically pigeonholing, and you can't afford to just ignore them when you get so few other spells.
Maybe with the other new features of sorcerer it's not needed as much. I hope so. But I would have rather they allowed the swaps for everyone rather than taking them all away. It was a must-take for the old sorcerer because it was a much-needed fix for a badly designed base class.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The word "pet" is a specific term of art within tabletop gaming - it refers to an additional monster, beyond your character, that you control. Beastmaster Ranger, Necromancer Wizard, etc. are all pet subclasses. Because it summons a dragon, the recently announced summon dragon spell is, definitionally, a pet spell. Under the new version of the subclass, rather than have your character take on draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic, you get an external dragon. It is not your bloodline transforming you; it is just you using magic to summon a dragon.
From a flavor point, I think that is a misstep - Sorcerers are all about what comes from within, so having a significant class feature of a popular class be something you summon from without feels off. From a mechanics standpoint, pet classes are problematic - there is a reason Wizards is reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game. Wizards has explicitly acknowledged that pets can bog down gameplay, resulting in slower turns for the pet user (and bored other players).
In the UA the sorcerer got 50% more spells known baseline, and on top of that things like racial spells and Magic Initiate are also added to your spells known. If those things are true in the final, they'd be fine even without the bloodline spells, those are gravy now.
"Pet" is not a "specific term of art." It's a pretty vague term that most people just kind of intuitively understand because it more less is what it says. But its meaning is entirely irrelevant. I feel like you didn't read my post, and if you did, you're still entirely missing the point. It's just a spell that's on the subclass's spell list. The subclass still has all its features that grant the sorcerer "draconic traits as your bloodline ignites with magic": the AC-boosting scales, damage resistance (which seems permanent now), wings. In addition to all the stuff it already has, they now also get an expanded spell list, which among at least four other spells, includes one that summons a dragon. All sorcerers have that spell as an option. So do wizards and druids.
And Wizards aren't really "reworking the conjure spells to minimize the number of pet spells in the game." They added a bunch of new summon spells in Tasha's (and Fizban's, which is where this dragon summon originated), all of which are being made core in the new PHB. They're reworking the conjure spells because the new summons create a redundancy. It's not "we need fewer summon spells because they're disruptive and we want people casting them less." They want people to use these summon spells, because they're fun. But the new summon spells and the old conjure spells do pretty much the same thing, except the new summon spells do it better. They've spoken at length about this.
honestly its all good in my eyes for the sorcerer tho im not sure how i feel about the draconic sorcerer lossing its unlimited flight and only getting charges. i know they said its alot faster but it depends on how many charges you get. if its tied to short or long resting. how long does it last?
The other thing is the old conjure spells could pull up multiple creatures, and the statblocks were in other books. When someone cast one of the old ones, unless they were a highly prepared player, the game came to a screeching halt as they figured out what they wanted to summon, then wrote down some stuff, then took a half dozen turns. The new summons have an easy to figure stat block that is calculated from the spell description itself, and never results in more than one additional creature in the field of play.
I used a Summon Shadowspawn in my last session, and the only thing about it that slowed down play was the DM recalculation his plans as he thought he had a clear path to the casters until a new meat shield appeared out of thin air. Game speed wise, they are major improvements. And that's huge for everyone else at the table.
I don't have the answer to that question, but there was a delay with the Warlock article two weeks ago as well.
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I also just reminded myself that they are pushing veteran players to start play at level 3 anyway, so that kind of mitigates the need for coming up with RP reasons for not having subclass features that, from a background standpoint, should have always been there in the........ background. In any case, the only problem I would have with it is if they use the phrase "choose your subclass" as some kind of character choice instead of a player one. Subclass is only a choice for some characters and classes, not all by a longshot (though it is always a player choice).
Also just wanted to comment tangentially about how Clerics effectively get the capstone Wish spell that was scrapped for the sorcerer because it was thought too powerful?? I guess it was the fact that a sorc then had, potentially, two wishes, but it's still fairly humorous...
There is a rumor out there that the 2024 PHB PDF sent out to creators is getting an update. If true, I suspect there was a change to one of the features, and they want to update the preview article.
I agree. You've made a pact as a Warlock and are looking for more power. At level 3, you've found your new source of power by finding and selecting a patron. Same thing with a Cleric. You've already selected your god, and at 3rd level you specialize in one of your god's domains having studied/etc. to learn what aspect of your god's power you are going to focus on. It is fairly easy to fit in the narrative even if a little more awkward if you are focused on the mechanics of old vs. new.
In any case, it was needed to get their sub-classes to level 3 like the rest of the gang.
"Highly prepared" is a bit of a stretch, and the preparation itself is not a difficult ask with the advent of D&DB; a solid number of the Conjure options were a part of the Basic Rules, so literally anyone with an internet connection could prep the sheets ahead of a session. Yes, some guidance like a sidebar along the lines of "make a list of options and have them ready before the session starts" would have been a helpful cue, but the basic premise of players calling on stat blocks is viable and WotC has basically acknowledged that, given Wildshape, regular familiars, and Pact of the Chain are all still using them. Now, 4+ summons could create a serious time sink, so I can agree that part needed pruned, but imo the full-on eradication of Conjuring is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
I would take any rumors of that kind with a heavy grain of salt.
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If there's an update going out, it'll be because they accidentally sent out "phb_final_final.pdf", instead of "phb_final_final_final.pdf" :)
At two months out, the books are already at the printers (or maybe on cargo ships), and they aren't making changes.
I don't think there's any validity to this. They've referenced the Wizard's Spell List in several videos now. In fact, I think they mentioned it as one of the main 3 in the Bard Video (wizard, cleric, and druid, representing arcane, divine, and primal magic, respectively) as the ones they were going to be "borrowing" from, if any class is going to do that.
I'm assuming the spell swapping is something that will probably be addressed in the article, whenever it comes out.