Just a quick comment... you say other players will pick up the role of the face, but as a sorcerer of ANY subclass, you will want your CHA to be your highest stat regardless. Unless you have a bard or warlock in the party as well, you may end up taking over that role anyway.
You will end up the face with a Sorcery, as any Charisma Class ends up being a face. But you can RP shy if you want, just shy but presents well when dice are rolled.
Your Stat weight:
Charisma- This empowers your magic, you want to get as close to 20 as possible. odds are you'll start 15 ~17 that's fine every 4 levels you geta new feat/ASI
Constitution- This is so your Concentration spells have a better chance being maintained if you get hit, Concentration spells are a limit to one at a time, and do powerful things for you.
Dexterity- This will improve your AC, if you have no armor your dex will give you AC and you can avoid AOE easier.
Wisdom, Intelligence are good for RP and out of combat skill checks.
Strength - this allows you to carry more, and if you hit with a Quarterstaff without True strike or Shillelagh it will modify your damage. I usually have 1d6-1 for melee. As Strength is my usual dump stat.
Species, Halflingfor Lucky... any option is good, but if you are new Lucky is an excellent choice, also going humanfor the extra feat is nice.
If you take Human also take one of those three, as 2024 allows multiple Magic Initiate feats as long as you don't take the same one twice.
Spells You want from Magic Initiate - True Strike (Sage), Shillelagh (Guide), Spare the Dying (Acolyte)
True Strike and Shillelagh make using your Quarterstaff worthwhile, so you can melee if needed, Spare the Dying will save a player from dying at low levels.
For the rest, the Spells from your class:
You will have a lot of good combat options, but always pick an RP cantrip as well, they come into play often if you have a good DM.
Elementalismwas the one I picked on my example character:
You exert control over the elements, creating one of the following effects within range.
Beckon Air. You create a breeze strong enough to ripple cloth, stir dust, rustle leaves, and close open doors and shutters, all in a 5-foot Cube. Doors and shutters being held open by someone or something aren’t affected.
Beckon Earth. You create a thin shroud of dust or sand that covers surfaces in a 5-foot-square area, or you cause a single word to appear in your handwriting in a patch of dirt or sand.
Beckon Fire. You create a thin cloud of harmless embers and colored, scented smoke in a 5-foot Cube. You choose the color and scent, and the embers can light candles, torches, or lamps in that area. The smoke’s scent lingers for 1 minute.
Beckon Water. You create a spray of cool mist that lightly dampens creatures and objects in a 5-foot Cube. Alternatively, you create 1 cup of clean water either in an open container or on a surface, and the water evaporates in 1 minute.
Sculpt Element. You cause dirt, sand, fire, smoke, mist, or water that can fit in a 1-foot Cube to assume a crude shape (such as that of a creature) for 1 hour.
Nice fun spell to use in RP.
For combat Cantrips - FireBolteasily one of the better combat ranged cantrips (Outside of Warlocks), as long as they are not fire Immune or Resistant to fire, something you can adapt to in the future BTW.
You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or an object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 Fire damage. A flammable object hit by this spell starts burning if it isn’t being worn or carried.
Cantrip Upgrade. The damage increases by 1d10 when you reach levels 5 (2d10), 11 (3d10), and 17 (4d10).
The Next Cantrip is purely choose something not fire that you like, me I took Sorcerous Burst
You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged attack roll against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 damage of a type you choose: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder.
If you roll an 8 on a d8 for this spell, you can roll another d8, and add it to the damage. When you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d8s you can add to the spell’s damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier.
Cantrip Upgrade. The damage increases by 1d8 when you reach levels 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), and 17 (4d8).
It's nice because you can pick the damage type so you can aim for weaknesses.
For leveled spells, take your time to think these out, as they are a limited resource.
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
Everything else is just what you want, but Magic Missiles is nice, no to hit but its the weakest damage in the game. Useful for burning NPC wizards spell slots though. See Shield.
As a Sorcerer you will also want Chromatic Orb:
You hurl an orb of energy at a target within range. Choose Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, or Thunder for the type of orb you create, and then make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 3d8 damage of the chosen type.
If you roll the same number on two or more of the d8s, the orb leaps to a different target of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Make an attack roll against the new target, and make a new damage roll. The orb can’t leap again unless you cast the spell with a level 2+ spell slot.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 1. The orb can leap a maximum number of times equal to the level of the slot expended, and a creature can be targeted only once by each casting of this spell.
this is a good spell at the mid game.
Past level 1, the sky is the limit, choose wisely, take your time ask yourself what do you want to do for each level.
Also and this is important have fun with it.
edit: Chromatic Orb is auto with Dragon Sorcery so no need to pick it. But it is a great spell.
Background: Entertainer. The Musician feat is really good.
Also, Human, because the Alert feat is also very good.
Other backgrounds to consider: Charlatan (for Skilled), Merchant and Wayfarer (for Lucky)
Ask your DM if you can create a custom background. You might want to change your proficiencies.
17 CHA so you can boost it to 18 at your next level with a half-feat. If you really plan on focuqing exclusively on Fire Damage, you unfortunately have to get Elemental Adept, maybe not at lvl4 but definitely at lvl8. So many creatures resist Fire Damage. ("Unfortunately" because there are much better feat, despite the buff it received in 2024)
14 DEX for AC, initiative, and help with the very common Dexterity saving throws.
14 CON for HP and Concentration saving throws.
Dump Strength, obviously.
You don’t need much Wisdom or Intelligence, but Wisdom saving throws are more common so I put it a bit higher.
Draconic Magic: It’s about blasting, authority, and transformation.
Cantrips:
Fire Bolt (higher damage than Sorcerous Burst), plus some minor utility.
Light (instead of Dancing Lights) so it doesn’t drop when casting another concentration spell.
Prestidigitation to keep your clothes clean and for flavor (fits the Entertainer background).
Minor Illusion for shenanigans.
Level 1 Spells:
Chromatic Orb for single-target blasting (Draconic Sorcery).
Burning Hands for AoE damage.
Command has been nerfed but the 5 orders all have their place.
Fog Cloud for battlefield control.
Shield is always incredible.
Detect Magic is always useful.
Level 2 Spells:
Misty Step because, while Draconic, you’re still squishy. Repositioning is crucial.
Suggestion is broken in 2024—it no longer needs to be reasonable.
Blaster with some utility. Not trying to be the face of the party, other players will pick up that role.
Unless somebody else is picking up a Charisma class (Paladin, Bard or Warlock), you'll probably end out being the party face. Charisma helps a lot in most social encounters and Sorcerer is Charisma based.
Blaster with some utility. Not trying to be the face of the party, other players will pick up that role.
Spell and Metamagic choice will help a lot with blaster, utility is harder for sorcerer than Wizard due to slightly more limited spell choice. Picking up ritual spells can help, magic initiate (wizard) is a good way to get there as an origin feat, I'd recommend picking up a ritual spell with it, find familiar is a good one. Alternatively going magic initiate (cleric) allows picking up guidance if you lack another character with that spell, as it helps a lot and can then pick up detect magic as a ritual spell.
The level 6 ability allows you to choose fire for Dragonic which gives you resistance to fire damage and the ability to add Charisma to a single damage roll of any spells that inflict fire damage. Additionally the elemental adept feat is a good choice for somebody who wants to specialise in fire and also allows picking up an extra +1 Charisma.
Races were replaced by species in 2024 Most species would work but I'd recommend against red/gold Dragonborn or Infernal Tiefling as they also give fire resistance and resistances do not stack, thus wasting one of the biggest upsides of those choices.
The best choices are probably Human, Elf or Tiefling.
Human - an extra origin feat can go a long way, be that another magic initiate or taking something like tough or alert.
Tiefling / Elf - extra spells and dark vision. As mentioned previously not Infernal Tiefling as you'll have a wasted fire resistance. High Elf is however a particularly good choice, it gives Detect Magic at level 3 which is a ritual and misty step at level 5, it also has the ability to switch around a cantrip between the various wizard cantrips during a long rest.
Of the 2024 backgrounds, Charisma is a must which limits the list too: Acolyte, Charlatan, Entertainer, Hermit, Merchant, Noble & Wayfarer
Of those, I'd suggest Acolyte, Entertainer or Merchant.
Acolyte is the most problematic of the three as it's choices are Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma where insight and religion are also not great skill choices but gives magic initiate (cleric) which is more spells.
Entertainer gives the ability to take both Charisma and Dexterity with Musician feat which is more utility. for skills, Acrobatics is okay and performance is good (given it's charisma)
Merchant gives the ability to take both Charisma and Constitution with the lucky feat. For skills, animal handling is mediocre but persuasion is good (given it's charisma)
Charlatan is also a fair choice, with the choices of Charisma and dexterity, skilled can give more utility in skills but is more in line with a more rogue like sorcerer. For skills, Deception is good (charisma) and Slight of hand is okay.
Not going to give a breakdown here but you want a mixture of blaster spells, defensive spells (i.e. shield/absorb elements) and utility spells with more of a focus on the blaster side as you do not have the ability to be switching around or learning spells like a wizard.
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
I was just about to say that you didn't need Mage Armor as a Draconic Sorcerer, but upon closer inspection it seems that they now stack in 2024! Draconic gives Base Armor Class + DEX mod + CHA mod, and Mage Armor modifies the Base Armor Class. Cool buff!
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
I was just about to say that you didn't need Mage Armor as a Draconic Sorcerer, but upon closer inspection it seems that they now stack in 2024! Draconic gives Base Armor Class + DEX mod + CHA mod, and Mage Armor modifies the Base Armor Class. Cool buff!
This is incorrect. Draconic Resilience says your base armor class is 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Charisma modifier. It does not stack with other ways of determining your base armor class, such as Mage Armor.
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
I was just about to say that you didn't need Mage Armor as a Draconic Sorcerer, but upon closer inspection it seems that they now stack in 2024! Draconic gives Base Armor Class + DEX mod + CHA mod, and Mage Armor modifies the Base Armor Class. Cool buff!
This is incorrect. Draconic Resilience says your base armor class is 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Charisma modifier. It does not stack with other ways of determining your base armor class, such as Mage Armor.
Lets look at RAW
Mage Armor:
2024:
Mage Armor
Level 1st Casting Time 1 Action
Range/Area Touch Components V, S, M * Duration 8 Hours School Abjuration Attack/Save None Damage/Effect Buff (...)
You touch a willing creature who isn’t wearing armor. Until the spell ends, the target’s base AC becomes 13 plus its Dexterity modifier. The spell ends early if the target dons armor.
Draconic Resilience:
2024:
Level 3: Draconic Resilience
The magic in your body manifests physical traits of your draconic gift. Your Hit Point maximum increases by 3, and it increases by 1 whenever you gain another Sorcerer level.
Parts of you are also covered by dragon-like scales. While you aren’t wearing armor, your base Armor Class equals 10 plus your Dexterity and Charisma modifiers.
so...
my Bad, I always forget about Draconic Resilience, I usually don't play Dragon Sorc, as it's kind of boring IMO. But RAW they both modify the Base Armor Class, and do not stack. So only take Mage Armor if your Chr is below 16 as a Dragon Sorc. Otherwise wasted slot.
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
I was just about to say that you didn't need Mage Armor as a Draconic Sorcerer, but upon closer inspection it seems that they now stack in 2024! Draconic gives Base Armor Class + DEX mod + CHA mod, and Mage Armor modifies the Base Armor Class. Cool buff!
This is incorrect. Draconic Resilience says your base armor class is 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Charisma modifier. It does not stack with other ways of determining your base armor class, such as Mage Armor.
You are correct. I got too excited to read properly, it seems :).
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Played a few times many years ago. Going to start a campaign in a few days and I need help building a Draconic Sorcerer.
DM is only going to use 2024 PHB.
I picked the Draconic Subclass.
Blaster with some utility. Not trying to be the face of the party, other players will pick up that role.
If I had to choose an element, it would be Fire.
What Race and Background do you recommend?
Which Cantrips and Spells to pick?
Thanks for the help!
Just a quick comment... you say other players will pick up the role of the face, but as a sorcerer of ANY subclass, you will want your CHA to be your highest stat regardless. Unless you have a bard or warlock in the party as well, you may end up taking over that role anyway.
Well OK I'll Bite, since It's your first post I'll even play nice.
This is my Suggestions: https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/139446173
You will end up the face with a Sorcery, as any Charisma Class ends up being a face. But you can RP shy if you want, just shy but presents well when dice are rolled.
Your Stat weight:
Charisma - This empowers your magic, you want to get as close to 20 as possible. odds are you'll start 15 ~17 that's fine every 4 levels you geta new feat/ASI
Constitution - This is so your Concentration spells have a better chance being maintained if you get hit, Concentration spells are a limit to one at a time, and do powerful things for you.
Dexterity - This will improve your AC, if you have no armor your dex will give you AC and you can avoid AOE easier.
Wisdom, Intelligence are good for RP and out of combat skill checks.
Strength - this allows you to carry more, and if you hit with a Quarterstaff without True strike or Shillelagh it will modify your damage. I usually have 1d6-1 for melee. As Strength is my usual dump stat.
Species, Halfling for Lucky ... any option is good, but if you are new Lucky is an excellent choice, also going human for the extra feat is nice.
Background, you have 3 I always pick with casters
If you take Human also take one of those three, as 2024 allows multiple Magic Initiate feats as long as you don't take the same one twice.
Spells You want from Magic Initiate - True Strike (Sage), Shillelagh (Guide), Spare the Dying (Acolyte)
True Strike and Shillelagh make using your Quarterstaff worthwhile, so you can melee if needed, Spare the Dying will save a player from dying at low levels.
For the rest, the Spells from your class:
You will have a lot of good combat options, but always pick an RP cantrip as well, they come into play often if you have a good DM.
Elementalism was the one I picked on my example character:
You exert control over the elements, creating one of the following effects within range.
Nice fun spell to use in RP.
For combat Cantrips - FireBolt easily one of the better combat ranged cantrips (Outside of Warlocks), as long as they are not fire Immune or Resistant to fire, something you can adapt to in the future BTW.
The Next Cantrip is purely choose something not fire that you like, me I took Sorcerous Burst
It's nice because you can pick the damage type so you can aim for weaknesses.
For leveled spells, take your time to think these out, as they are a limited resource.
Mage Armor is a go to if you done wear armor or have a species buff to unarmored defense. but it's use is limited to the early game. Likewise the next most chosen spell is Shield, a reaction to gain +5ac for a turn, stops Magic Missiles as well.
Everything else is just what you want, but Magic Missiles is nice, no to hit but its the weakest damage in the game. Useful for burning NPC wizards spell slots though. See Shield.
As a Sorcerer you will also want Chromatic Orb:
this is a good spell at the mid game.
Past level 1, the sky is the limit, choose wisely, take your time ask yourself what do you want to do for each level.
Also and this is important have fun with it.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/139465004/mISfLK
Background: Entertainer. The Musician feat is really good.
Also, Human, because the Alert feat is also very good.
Other backgrounds to consider: Charlatan (for Skilled), Merchant and Wayfarer (for Lucky)
Ask your DM if you can create a custom background. You might want to change your proficiencies.
Draconic Magic: It’s about blasting, authority, and transformation.
Cantrips:
Level 1 Spells:
Level 2 Spells:
Unless somebody else is picking up a Charisma class (Paladin, Bard or Warlock), you'll probably end out being the party face. Charisma helps a lot in most social encounters and Sorcerer is Charisma based.
Spell and Metamagic choice will help a lot with blaster, utility is harder for sorcerer than Wizard due to slightly more limited spell choice. Picking up ritual spells can help, magic initiate (wizard) is a good way to get there as an origin feat, I'd recommend picking up a ritual spell with it, find familiar is a good one. Alternatively going magic initiate (cleric) allows picking up guidance if you lack another character with that spell, as it helps a lot and can then pick up detect magic as a ritual spell.
The level 6 ability allows you to choose fire for Dragonic which gives you resistance to fire damage and the ability to add Charisma to a single damage roll of any spells that inflict fire damage. Additionally the elemental adept feat is a good choice for somebody who wants to specialise in fire and also allows picking up an extra +1 Charisma.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/phb-2024/feats#ElementalAdept
Races were replaced by species in 2024 Most species would work but I'd recommend against red/gold Dragonborn or Infernal Tiefling as they also give fire resistance and resistances do not stack, thus wasting one of the biggest upsides of those choices.
The best choices are probably Human, Elf or Tiefling.
Human - an extra origin feat can go a long way, be that another magic initiate or taking something like tough or alert.
Tiefling / Elf - extra spells and dark vision. As mentioned previously not Infernal Tiefling as you'll have a wasted fire resistance. High Elf is however a particularly good choice, it gives Detect Magic at level 3 which is a ritual and misty step at level 5, it also has the ability to switch around a cantrip between the various wizard cantrips during a long rest.
Of the 2024 backgrounds, Charisma is a must which limits the list too: Acolyte, Charlatan, Entertainer, Hermit, Merchant, Noble & Wayfarer
Of those, I'd suggest Acolyte, Entertainer or Merchant.
Acolyte is the most problematic of the three as it's choices are Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma where insight and religion are also not great skill choices but gives magic initiate (cleric) which is more spells.
Entertainer gives the ability to take both Charisma and Dexterity with Musician feat which is more utility. for skills, Acrobatics is okay and performance is good (given it's charisma)
Merchant gives the ability to take both Charisma and Constitution with the lucky feat. For skills, animal handling is mediocre but persuasion is good (given it's charisma)
Charlatan is also a fair choice, with the choices of Charisma and dexterity, skilled can give more utility in skills but is more in line with a more rogue like sorcerer. For skills, Deception is good (charisma) and Slight of hand is okay.
Not going to give a breakdown here but you want a mixture of blaster spells, defensive spells (i.e. shield/absorb elements) and utility spells with more of a focus on the blaster side as you do not have the ability to be switching around or learning spells like a wizard.
As a sorcerer you are likely going to be one of the faces of the party with your necessary Charisma stat and synergy with skills.
If you really don't want to go that route, try Wizard.
I was just about to say that you didn't need Mage Armor as a Draconic Sorcerer, but upon closer inspection it seems that they now stack in 2024! Draconic gives Base Armor Class + DEX mod + CHA mod, and Mage Armor modifies the Base Armor Class. Cool buff!
This is incorrect. Draconic Resilience says your base armor class is 10 + your Dexterity Modifier + your Charisma modifier. It does not stack with other ways of determining your base armor class, such as Mage Armor.
pronouns: he/she/they
Lets look at RAW
Mage Armor:
2024:
Draconic Resilience:
2024:
so...
my Bad, I always forget about Draconic Resilience, I usually don't play Dragon Sorc, as it's kind of boring IMO. But RAW they both modify the Base Armor Class, and do not stack. So only take Mage Armor if your Chr is below 16 as a Dragon Sorc. Otherwise wasted slot.
You are correct. I got too excited to read properly, it seems :).