I thought about putting this in the sorcerer forum, but I think it is better here.
Sorcerers have barely any unique spells. This is the main point of the thread. Here are some examples.
Wizard gets Tenser's Transformation, Find Familiar, Bigby's Hand, and many other unique spells.
Same for the Warlock, they get Hellilsh Rebuke, Hex, Armor of Agathys, Hunger of Hadar, and many many more.
What do sorcerer's get? Chaos Bolt. That is it.
Not only do they have a lack of unique spells, but they also learn very few spells, can only change one when they level up, and run out of sorcery points super quickly.
I'm currently playing a lvl 8 Draconic Sorcerer and I've loved it, but the glaring weaknesses of the class compared to our wizard (we have an evoker who doesn't take evocation spells... it's fine) are just sad. I'm min-maxing as much as possible and trying to stay the course, but that two-level dip into warlock is seeming more and more enticing....
As far as solutions go, I'd suggest a combination of some, but not all of the following:
Spell Versatility
More Metamagics Known
Metamagic Versatility
Capstone (Sorcerous Restoration) brought down to somewhere in the 5-7 level range (short rest sorcery point recovery)
New Capstone: Sorcerous Might or something like that. Charisma and Constitution scores and their maxima both increase by 4, to a maximum of 24.
Expanded Spells Known lists based on sorcerous origin
I do think they should have added known spells, not just added spells to the spell lists. I just think they should have more unique spells, and be a better spellcaster more defined from the other 2 arcane classes.
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Unseen servant can be learned by bards and warlocks as well as wizards, but wizards do have a lot of spells unique to them.
The main draw of sorcerers is their metamagic and being able to do stuff with spells no one else can. Also for sorcerers, subclass is a lot more important for how it plays than it is for wizards.
Base sorcerer is a little more bland than base Wizard, but their subclasses are a lot better. Warlock has a metric ton of options in both its base and sub classes, but its spells are limited (sure it has a few unique spells, but not many other spells). And wizards get all the spells, but its class features are (usually) less impactful.
Another thing to consider when comparing wizards to sorcerers is how much more impactful charisma is than intelligence.
Sorcerer's need more metamagics and more metamagic options. I also think metamagic options should include the ability to effect spells cast other than yourself. Kinda embrace the magical hacker feel the sorcerer is supposed to have.
I also think giving them a pool of 5 extra spells known but they are learned once you get effected by a spell rather than being chosen. Perhaps use the counterspell mechanic to determine whether or not you learn the spell. I would also allow these spells to come off of any spell list since they are not chose by the player
i think they are perfectly balanced if you take out arcane recovery.
Or rather give sorcerers arcane recovery, but for sorcery points. Seems like a good level 5 feature: "once per long rest, recover all sorcery points on short rest."
Completely invalidates the capstone though, guess they would need to get a better on of that too. Maybe select a metamagic, you don't need to use sorcery points to use it.
I think a lot of capstones need to be reworked (the Wizard one is so bad I took a level of rogue at 20 for expertise). But I think the base class of sorcerer is just fine. I really like that with 5e you really have to make concessions on whatever class you choose. There isn't one that can do everything better than everyone else, and that's a good thing. A sorcerer is not going to have as good of a spell list as a wizard and lose the versatility of ritual casting all those spells. A sorcerer will be more durable, be able to have a lot more flexibility with their spells with sorcery points, have charisma so being a face can actually be a thing, not have to worry about a spellbook, and have spells that cannot be countered. It's all in the play style you want and picking the class that best reflects it. I have a lvl 20 Wizard and a 15 Sorcerer and they both are awesome to play in their own way but are extremely different.
A sorcerer is not going to have as good of a spell list as a wizard and lose the versatility of ritual casting all those spells.
True. Even with an Origin Spells feature a'la the Aberrant Mind, which all Sorcerous Origins desperately need, sorcerers don't have half the spell list of any competent wizard.
A sorcerer will be more durable,
How does this work, exactly? Sorcerers and wizards have the exact same pithy d6 hit die, they're the ONLY classes stuck with a pithy d6 hit die, neither have armor proficiencies, and the supposed 'durability' of the Draconic Bloodline subclass has to be compared to stuff like War Magic or Abjuration since it's not base sorcerer. Sorcerers don't take hits any better than wizards do, and they have much reduced spell-based resources to deal with it.
be able to have a lot more flexibility with their spells with sorcery points,
For the one to three spells their sorcery points last for, perhaps. Sorcerers gain very few sorcery points, their Metamagic selections are severely curtailed, and most subclasses don't bother giving you anything else you can do with sorcery points. People like to point to Sorcery Points and say "See? Sorcerers are fine! It's WIZARDS that are underpowered! Do you even see all these metamagic things wizards can't do?! That's totally unfair!", whilst completely neglecting the fact that a sorcerer's metamagic is only very rarely critical or defining for a game. Sorcerers will, once every few sessions, come up with some way that their ability to much with spells is a Key Moment. Wizards do that every third time they cast due to being able to load up on The Perfect Spell every time and thus never needing to modify their casting.
have charisma so being a face can actually be a thing,
Nothing is stopping a wizard from having high Charisma if they want to be chatty.
not have to worry about a spellbook,
While a valid point to consider academically, how often has losing their spellbook or being required to work from a backup ever really come up for a PC wizard? I don't think I've ever heard of a case where it's happened. I'm sure it has, of course, but it's the sort of thing that requires a very specific group/game set-up or an ******* DM, since it's effectively removing the wizard's core class feature.
On the gripping hand, how often has a PC wizard been able to greatly benefit from pilfering other people's spellbooks, in a way sorcerers can never do? Unless the DM wants to rule that a sorcerer eating the brain of another sorcerer gets to expand their spell list, in which case I have a new idea for an Aberrant Mind.
In short: I'd rather have to worry about spellbooks after all, if it means I can copy other people's frickin' spellbooks the way wizards get to.
and have spells that cannot be countered.
What? How do sorcerers have uncounterable spells? If you're talking Subtle Spell, then that's hotly debatable and many DMs would rule against it. Counterspell is one of any DM's biggest bugbears; you can bet your bottom biscuit that if a villainous NPC Sorcerer started using Subtle Spell to cast "uncounterable" spells on the players, the entire group would be here five minutes after the game ended *****ing mightily about their horrible unfair cheating dirtbag DM and how he was killing them for no reason.
It's all in the play style you want and picking the class that best reflects it. I have a lvl 20 Wizard and a 15 Sorcerer and they both are awesome to play in their own way but are extremely different.
I love sorcerers. They're one of my favorite classes, I very much enjoy running them. I strongly prefer sorcerers to wizards. That does not mean they don't need some help, or that they're somehow so much better than wizards.
A sorcerer is not going to have as good of a spell list as a wizard and lose the versatility of ritual casting all those spells.
True. Even with an Origin Spells feature a'la the Aberrant Mind, which all Sorcerous Origins desperately need, sorcerers don't have half the spell list of any competent wizard.
A sorcerer will be more durable,
How does this work, exactly? Sorcerers and wizards have the exact same pithy d6 hit die, they're the ONLY classes stuck with a pithy d6 hit die, neither have armor proficiencies, and the supposed 'durability' of the Draconic Bloodline subclass has to be compared to stuff like War Magic or Abjuration since it's not base sorcerer. Sorcerers don't take hits any better than wizards do, and they have much reduced spell-based resources to deal with it.
be able to have a lot more flexibility with their spells with sorcery points,
For the one to three spells their sorcery points last for, perhaps. Sorcerers gain very few sorcery points, their Metamagic selections are severely curtailed, and most subclasses don't bother giving you anything else you can do with sorcery points. People like to point to Sorcery Points and say "See? Sorcerers are fine! It's WIZARDS that are underpowered! Do you even see all these metamagic things wizards can't do?! That's totally unfair!", whilst completely neglecting the fact that a sorcerer's metamagic is only very rarely critical or defining for a game. Sorcerers will, once every few sessions, come up with some way that their ability to much with spells is a Key Moment. Wizards do that every third time they cast due to being able to load up on The Perfect Spell every time and thus never needing to modify their casting.
have charisma so being a face can actually be a thing,
Nothing is stopping a wizard from having high Charisma if they want to be chatty.
not have to worry about a spellbook,
While a valid point to consider academically, how often has losing their spellbook or being required to work from a backup ever really come up for a PC wizard? I don't think I've ever heard of a case where it's happened. I'm sure it has, of course, but it's the sort of thing that requires a very specific group/game set-up or an ******* DM, since it's effectively removing the wizard's core class feature.
On the gripping hand, how often has a PC wizard been able to greatly benefit from pilfering other people's spellbooks, in a way sorcerers can never do? Unless the DM wants to rule that a sorcerer eating the brain of another sorcerer gets to expand their spell list, in which case I have a new idea for an Aberrant Mind.
In short: I'd rather have to worry about spellbooks after all, if it means I can copy other people's frickin' spellbooks the way wizards get to.
and have spells that cannot be countered.
What? How do sorcerers have uncounterable spells? If you're talking Subtle Spell, then that's hotly debatable and many DMs would rule against it. Counterspell is one of any DM's biggest bugbears; you can bet your bottom biscuit that if a villainous NPC Sorcerer started using Subtle Spell to cast "uncounterable" spells on the players, the entire group would be here five minutes after the game ended *****ing mightily about their horrible unfair cheating dirtbag DM and how he was killing them for no reason.
It's all in the play style you want and picking the class that best reflects it. I have a lvl 20 Wizard and a 15 Sorcerer and they both are awesome to play in their own way but are extremely different.
I love sorcerers. They're one of my favorite classes, I very much enjoy running them. I strongly prefer sorcerers to wizards. That does not mean they don't need some help, or that they're somehow so much better than wizards.
I agree with nearly everything said here.
Main point is, not only can Wizards have more spells, and be able to cast spells almost as often as sorcerers, they also have more unique spells that set them way better off than the base sorcerer.
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The durability is from draconic bloodline. Extra AC, another hit point per level, and resistance is pretty strong. Free flying at 14 is cool too :)
As far as being a face, yes a wizard can take charisma and be one as well. What attribute will you be sacrificing to do so? With a Sorcerer you have Char to 20 as soon as possible which is your casting and social stat, a win win. Then you have con and dex for ac and health. Other than that, it's just whatever ya like. With a Wizard you have to get Int to 20 as soon as possible, then you'd go con and dex for the same reasons as the sorcerer, but won't have near the charisma. Or you could sacrifice another stat for the charisma which wouldn't be very wise.
Subtle spell absolutely cannot be counterspelled RAW and confirmed with sage advice. Now if a DM doesn't allow it, you have a bad DM that isn't reading the rules correctly. Quicken spell is great for fireball then cast a firebolt right behind it at a beastie, very nice lol.
Not having a spellbook if you get abducted and thrown in jail is just great. I don't know of any character that I have gotten to a higher level that at some point hasn't had it's gear taken either temporarily for security reasons or from being thrown in jail. Disintegrate is a thing too, watch out for those evil DMs.
I'm not saying either is better, just that they are different and play a lot differently than most people think. If you like one style of play over the other, go with that one. I originally went Sorcerer as it was easier to learn than Wizard, at least for me. Less spell options for someone who never played a caster before was appealing. I made my Wizard afterward and found out quickly they were completely different even though they are both arcane casters.
The durability is from draconic bloodline. Extra AC, another hit point per level, and resistance is pretty strong. Free flying at 14 is cool too :)
Also the fact that all Sorcerers get proficiency in Constitution Saving throws innately helps for maintaining concentration. Wizards have to give up an ASI to get that.
Quicken spell is great for fireball then cast a firebolt right behind it at a beastie, very nice lol.
You can use your action for all sorts of things. Dodge, Disengage, Dash after a big fireball is surely going to help your characters survivability, something Wizards can't do.
i think they are perfectly balanced if you take out arcane recovery.
Or rather give sorcerers arcane recovery, but for sorcery points. Seems like a good level 5 feature: "once per long rest, recover all sorcery points on short rest."
Completely invalidates the capstone though, guess they would need to get a better on of that too. Maybe select a metamagic, you don't need to use sorcery points to use it.
Honestly, just give them every metamagic as the capstone. It’s 20th level, who cares anymore.
Again - Draconic Bloodline is a subclass, not base Sorcerer. You can't (fairly) compare a class+subclass to a base class and say one is fine. Yes, Draconic Bloodline sorcerers are going to be marginally tougher than no-subclass wizards. How many wizards don't pick a school at 2nd? Compare Draconic Bloodline to one of the schools that grants the wizard defensive benefits - Abjuration, War Magic, Bladesinging. Hell, we'll even omit Bladesinging because it's objectively overpowered and utterly ridiculous. Compare Draconic Bloodline to Abjuration or War Magic.
As for "but Con saves! Concentration!" A'ight. Wizards get Wisdom saves, which lets them avoid being held or subverted by the multitude of mind-affecting abilities that crop up in later levels. Sorcerers have to give up an ASI to get that; otherwise they're no harder to charm than your average barbarian. Overall a wash, I'd say.
Charisma saving throws are practically useless. I can count the amount of time that I've asked a player to make a Charisma saving throw on one hand. Sure, it helps in certain instances, but they're nowhere as useful as Wisdom Saving throws, and Intelligence is still better than Charisma for saving throw proficiency.
Sure, your sorcerer has good Charisma. But does that matter for combat or spells? You don't get to know more spells because of high charisma, you just get higher DC's and spell attack bonuses. You could build a sorcerer completely around not needing charisma by taking spells that don't use them. You can't do that with wizard, they need intelligence to prepare spells. This makes Charisma effectively worse than Intelligence for the Sorcerer. Roleplaying doesn't help a class, that is a player thing.
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Again - Draconic Bloodline is a subclass, not base Sorcerer. You can't (fairly) compare a class+subclass to a base class and say one is fine. Yes, Draconic Bloodline sorcerers are going to be marginally tougher than no-subclass wizards. How many wizards don't pick a school at 2nd?
Everyone, I would like to announce a new Wizard subclass I'm working on, the Dropout. Your spell attacks and spell save DC each get a -2 modifier, and every spell you cast has a 50/50 chance of failure. Also, you roll on the Wild Magic table every time you cast a spell, cantrips included. As your level 14 capstone, your penmanship improves. Slightly.
In seriousness, I have to agree that the base sorcerer is...lacking The only area I can really say it's better is it gets more cantrips than most other classes, aside from Pact of the Tome Warlocks. Hell even some of their metamagic options kinda suck (lookin' at you, Careful Spell), and don't even get me started on their spell slot-spell point conversion ratio. Now, I do intend to play a sorcerer sometime in the future, but I also kinda want to play a battlerager barbarian as well so I wouldn't call that a point in its favor...
EDIT: I will say, the (fairly) recent Class Feature Variants UA did raise the possibility for making some improvements to the sorcerer, but that's not exactly official material everyone can pop into their game, now is it?
Again - Draconic Bloodline is a subclass, not base Sorcerer. You can't (fairly) compare a class+subclass to a base class and say one is fine. Yes, Draconic Bloodline sorcerers are going to be marginally tougher than no-subclass wizards. How many wizards don't pick a school at 2nd?
Everyone, I would like to announce a new Wizard subclass I'm working on, the Dropout. Your spell attacks and spell save DC each get a -2 modifier, and every spell you cast has a 50/50 chance of failure. Also, you roll on the Wild Magic table every time you cast a spell, cantrips included. As your level 14 capstone, your penmanship improves. Slightly.
In seriousness, I have to agree that the base sorcerer is...lacking The only area I can really say it's better is it gets more cantrips than most other classes, aside from Pact of the Tome Warlocks. Hell even some of their metamagic options kinda suck (lookin' at you, Careful Spell), and don't even get me started on their spell slot-spell point conversion ratio. Now, I do intend to play a sorcerer sometime in the future, but I also kinda want to play a battlerager barbarian as well so I wouldn't call that a point in its favor...
EDIT: I will say, the (fairly) recent Class Feature Variants UA did raise the possibility for making some improvements to the sorcerer, but that's not exactly official material everyone can pop into their game, now is it?
Exactly, they get more cantrips, but you only need about 4-5 cantrips to be good (depending on race and so on), and their Class Feature Variant Metamagic options aren't official. They also didn't add many new abilities to Sorcerers in that UA that was made to fix classes. They need to fix certain classes that aren't as good as they should be. Some of their metamagics are superpowerful in certain situations, but wizards seem to be able to pull off some crazy trick more than sorcerers can.
Sorcerers are awesome from a flavor and roleplaying aspect, but they need a serious overhaul in order to match up with Wizards, as they are supposed to. The Wizard/Sorcerer parallel is very similar to the Paladin/Ranger parallel. Both of these pairs of classes are meant to be equal in power but with some key differences, and this causes one of the classes in the pair to be severely less desirable than the other.
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Like DxJxC said, if they had some kind of better recovery mechanism for Spell Points, I think that would go a *long* way towards making this a better class. Also, their capstone sucks and should be changed anyways.
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I thought about putting this in the sorcerer forum, but I think it is better here.
Sorcerers have barely any unique spells. This is the main point of the thread. Here are some examples.
Wizard gets Tenser's Transformation, Find Familiar, Bigby's Hand, and many other unique spells.
Same for the Warlock, they get Hellilsh Rebuke, Hex, Armor of Agathys, Hunger of Hadar, and many many more.
What do sorcerer's get? Chaos Bolt. That is it.
Not only do they have a lack of unique spells, but they also learn very few spells, can only change one when they level up, and run out of sorcery points super quickly.
Sorcerers suck.
Any thoughts?
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"I'll take Sorcery Points for $1000, Alex"
I'm currently playing a lvl 8 Draconic Sorcerer and I've loved it, but the glaring weaknesses of the class compared to our wizard (we have an evoker who doesn't take evocation spells... it's fine) are just sad. I'm min-maxing as much as possible and trying to stay the course, but that two-level dip into warlock is seeming more and more enticing....
As far as solutions go, I'd suggest a combination of some, but not all of the following:
Spell Versatility
More Metamagics Known
Metamagic Versatility
Capstone (Sorcerous Restoration) brought down to somewhere in the 5-7 level range (short rest sorcery point recovery)
New Capstone: Sorcerous Might or something like that. Charisma and Constitution scores and their maxima both increase by 4, to a maximum of 24.
Expanded Spells Known lists based on sorcerous origin
Edit: Clarified this last point
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
I do think they should have added known spells, not just added spells to the spell lists. I just think they should have more unique spells, and be a better spellcaster more defined from the other 2 arcane classes.
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Yep, that's what I meant. Changing original post to reflect that. :)
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
Unseen servant can be learned by bards and warlocks as well as wizards, but wizards do have a lot of spells unique to them.
The main draw of sorcerers is their metamagic and being able to do stuff with spells no one else can. Also for sorcerers, subclass is a lot more important for how it plays than it is for wizards.
Base sorcerer is a little more bland than base Wizard, but their subclasses are a lot better. Warlock has a metric ton of options in both its base and sub classes, but its spells are limited (sure it has a few unique spells, but not many other spells). And wizards get all the spells, but its class features are (usually) less impactful.
Another thing to consider when comparing wizards to sorcerers is how much more impactful charisma is than intelligence.
i think they are perfectly balanced if you take out arcane recovery.
Sorcerer's need more metamagics and more metamagic options. I also think metamagic options should include the ability to effect spells cast other than yourself. Kinda embrace the magical hacker feel the sorcerer is supposed to have.
I also think giving them a pool of 5 extra spells known but they are learned once you get effected by a spell rather than being chosen. Perhaps use the counterspell mechanic to determine whether or not you learn the spell. I would also allow these spells to come off of any spell list since they are not chose by the player
Or rather give sorcerers arcane recovery, but for sorcery points. Seems like a good level 5 feature: "once per long rest, recover all sorcery points on short rest."
Completely invalidates the capstone though, guess they would need to get a better on of that too. Maybe select a metamagic, you don't need to use sorcery points to use it.
I think a lot of capstones need to be reworked (the Wizard one is so bad I took a level of rogue at 20 for expertise). But I think the base class of sorcerer is just fine. I really like that with 5e you really have to make concessions on whatever class you choose. There isn't one that can do everything better than everyone else, and that's a good thing. A sorcerer is not going to have as good of a spell list as a wizard and lose the versatility of ritual casting all those spells. A sorcerer will be more durable, be able to have a lot more flexibility with their spells with sorcery points, have charisma so being a face can actually be a thing, not have to worry about a spellbook, and have spells that cannot be countered. It's all in the play style you want and picking the class that best reflects it. I have a lvl 20 Wizard and a 15 Sorcerer and they both are awesome to play in their own way but are extremely different.
True. Even with an Origin Spells feature a'la the Aberrant Mind, which all Sorcerous Origins desperately need, sorcerers don't have half the spell list of any competent wizard.
How does this work, exactly? Sorcerers and wizards have the exact same pithy d6 hit die, they're the ONLY classes stuck with a pithy d6 hit die, neither have armor proficiencies, and the supposed 'durability' of the Draconic Bloodline subclass has to be compared to stuff like War Magic or Abjuration since it's not base sorcerer. Sorcerers don't take hits any better than wizards do, and they have much reduced spell-based resources to deal with it.
For the one to three spells their sorcery points last for, perhaps. Sorcerers gain very few sorcery points, their Metamagic selections are severely curtailed, and most subclasses don't bother giving you anything else you can do with sorcery points. People like to point to Sorcery Points and say "See? Sorcerers are fine! It's WIZARDS that are underpowered! Do you even see all these metamagic things wizards can't do?! That's totally unfair!", whilst completely neglecting the fact that a sorcerer's metamagic is only very rarely critical or defining for a game. Sorcerers will, once every few sessions, come up with some way that their ability to much with spells is a Key Moment. Wizards do that every third time they cast due to being able to load up on The Perfect Spell every time and thus never needing to modify their casting.
Nothing is stopping a wizard from having high Charisma if they want to be chatty.
While a valid point to consider academically, how often has losing their spellbook or being required to work from a backup ever really come up for a PC wizard? I don't think I've ever heard of a case where it's happened. I'm sure it has, of course, but it's the sort of thing that requires a very specific group/game set-up or an ******* DM, since it's effectively removing the wizard's core class feature.
On the gripping hand, how often has a PC wizard been able to greatly benefit from pilfering other people's spellbooks, in a way sorcerers can never do? Unless the DM wants to rule that a sorcerer eating the brain of another sorcerer gets to expand their spell list, in which case I have a new idea for an Aberrant Mind.
In short: I'd rather have to worry about spellbooks after all, if it means I can copy other people's frickin' spellbooks the way wizards get to.
What? How do sorcerers have uncounterable spells? If you're talking Subtle Spell, then that's hotly debatable and many DMs would rule against it. Counterspell is one of any DM's biggest bugbears; you can bet your bottom biscuit that if a villainous NPC Sorcerer started using Subtle Spell to cast "uncounterable" spells on the players, the entire group would be here five minutes after the game ended *****ing mightily about their horrible unfair cheating dirtbag DM and how he was killing them for no reason.
I love sorcerers. They're one of my favorite classes, I very much enjoy running them. I strongly prefer sorcerers to wizards. That does not mean they don't need some help, or that they're somehow so much better than wizards.
Please do not contact or message me.
I agree with nearly everything said here.
Main point is, not only can Wizards have more spells, and be able to cast spells almost as often as sorcerers, they also have more unique spells that set them way better off than the base sorcerer.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
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The durability is from draconic bloodline. Extra AC, another hit point per level, and resistance is pretty strong. Free flying at 14 is cool too :)
As far as being a face, yes a wizard can take charisma and be one as well. What attribute will you be sacrificing to do so? With a Sorcerer you have Char to 20 as soon as possible which is your casting and social stat, a win win. Then you have con and dex for ac and health. Other than that, it's just whatever ya like. With a Wizard you have to get Int to 20 as soon as possible, then you'd go con and dex for the same reasons as the sorcerer, but won't have near the charisma. Or you could sacrifice another stat for the charisma which wouldn't be very wise.
Subtle spell absolutely cannot be counterspelled RAW and confirmed with sage advice. Now if a DM doesn't allow it, you have a bad DM that isn't reading the rules correctly. Quicken spell is great for fireball then cast a firebolt right behind it at a beastie, very nice lol.
Not having a spellbook if you get abducted and thrown in jail is just great. I don't know of any character that I have gotten to a higher level that at some point hasn't had it's gear taken either temporarily for security reasons or from being thrown in jail. Disintegrate is a thing too, watch out for those evil DMs.
I'm not saying either is better, just that they are different and play a lot differently than most people think. If you like one style of play over the other, go with that one. I originally went Sorcerer as it was easier to learn than Wizard, at least for me. Less spell options for someone who never played a caster before was appealing. I made my Wizard afterward and found out quickly they were completely different even though they are both arcane casters.
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Honestly, just give them every metamagic as the capstone. It’s 20th level, who cares anymore.
Again - Draconic Bloodline is a subclass, not base Sorcerer. You can't (fairly) compare a class+subclass to a base class and say one is fine. Yes, Draconic Bloodline sorcerers are going to be marginally tougher than no-subclass wizards. How many wizards don't pick a school at 2nd? Compare Draconic Bloodline to one of the schools that grants the wizard defensive benefits - Abjuration, War Magic, Bladesinging. Hell, we'll even omit Bladesinging because it's objectively overpowered and utterly ridiculous. Compare Draconic Bloodline to Abjuration or War Magic.
As for "but Con saves! Concentration!" A'ight. Wizards get Wisdom saves, which lets them avoid being held or subverted by the multitude of mind-affecting abilities that crop up in later levels. Sorcerers have to give up an ASI to get that; otherwise they're no harder to charm than your average barbarian. Overall a wash, I'd say.
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Charisma saving throws are practically useless. I can count the amount of time that I've asked a player to make a Charisma saving throw on one hand. Sure, it helps in certain instances, but they're nowhere as useful as Wisdom Saving throws, and Intelligence is still better than Charisma for saving throw proficiency.
Sure, your sorcerer has good Charisma. But does that matter for combat or spells? You don't get to know more spells because of high charisma, you just get higher DC's and spell attack bonuses. You could build a sorcerer completely around not needing charisma by taking spells that don't use them. You can't do that with wizard, they need intelligence to prepare spells. This makes Charisma effectively worse than Intelligence for the Sorcerer. Roleplaying doesn't help a class, that is a player thing.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Everyone, I would like to announce a new Wizard subclass I'm working on, the Dropout. Your spell attacks and spell save DC each get a -2 modifier, and every spell you cast has a 50/50 chance of failure. Also, you roll on the Wild Magic table every time you cast a spell, cantrips included. As your level 14 capstone, your penmanship improves. Slightly.
In seriousness, I have to agree that the base sorcerer is...lacking The only area I can really say it's better is it gets more cantrips than most other classes, aside from Pact of the Tome Warlocks. Hell even some of their metamagic options kinda suck (lookin' at you, Careful Spell), and don't even get me started on their spell slot-spell point conversion ratio. Now, I do intend to play a sorcerer sometime in the future, but I also kinda want to play a battlerager barbarian as well so I wouldn't call that a point in its favor...
EDIT: I will say, the (fairly) recent Class Feature Variants UA did raise the possibility for making some improvements to the sorcerer, but that's not exactly official material everyone can pop into their game, now is it?
Exactly, they get more cantrips, but you only need about 4-5 cantrips to be good (depending on race and so on), and their Class Feature Variant Metamagic options aren't official. They also didn't add many new abilities to Sorcerers in that UA that was made to fix classes. They need to fix certain classes that aren't as good as they should be. Some of their metamagics are superpowerful in certain situations, but wizards seem to be able to pull off some crazy trick more than sorcerers can.
Sorcerers are awesome from a flavor and roleplaying aspect, but they need a serious overhaul in order to match up with Wizards, as they are supposed to. The Wizard/Sorcerer parallel is very similar to the Paladin/Ranger parallel. Both of these pairs of classes are meant to be equal in power but with some key differences, and this causes one of the classes in the pair to be severely less desirable than the other.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Like DxJxC said, if they had some kind of better recovery mechanism for Spell Points, I think that would go a *long* way towards making this a better class. Also, their capstone sucks and should be changed anyways.