Originally posted this in Sorcerer forum, but was looking for any feedback:
While I think the Giant Soul is interesting and has some good ideas, I feel like it would still play either “Gish-y” or still as a ranged spellcaster with little benefit from the increased size bonuses. This is what I am thinking for a “Raging Soul Sorcerer”:
Rage is described as having its own power that is able to grant Barbarians the ability to perform incredible feats of strength and endurance. I’d like to see what this source of power could do if used as the source of arcane power in the hands of a sorcerer. This example is an amalgamation of the Draconic sorcerer and the Berserker barbarian with an emphasis on creating a spell caster who is more reliant on area spells which originate from the caster (cones, lines etc. and touch spells). Unfortunately, there aren’t many offensive touch spells available to the sorcerer. I’ve come up with an example of a feature to try and resolve this. Here we go:
Furious Resilience(1st): AC = 13 + Con HP max increases by 2 at 1st lvl and 2 again whenever you gain a level in this class.(Keeps sorcerer alive when engaged in frontline attacking)
Rage(1st): You may enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing armor: You have advantage on intimidation checks as well as Charisma and Constitution saving throws. When you cast a spell that deals damage, increase a damage roll of that spell by its spell slot level. Can only cast spells of range “Self” or “Touch”. (This allows blast and touch spells, trying to keep the Rage Sorcerer engaged in front line attack as much as possible, but leaving some flexibility for some blasting)
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t made a melee or ranged spell attack against a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your range on your turn as a bonus action. Rages per day similar to barbarian table.
Up-close-and-personal Spell(2nd): When casting a spell, you may change the range of the spell to “touch” and require a melee spell attack. The spell effects apply only to the creature hit. (A metamagic style feature, sorcery point cost 1sp? If designated as an official metamagic feature, then it may help to allow this feature to be used with other metamagics as well. Because this limits the spell to only effecting one target, it opens a spell effect like fireball to being twinned; albeit at a range of touch to two adjacent enemies, still cool imo. This is an attempt to resolve the lack of offensive touch spells.)
Reckless Spellcasting(6th): When you make your first spell attack on a turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on spell attacks this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Vengeance(14th): When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature. (Similar to Warcaster feat, maybe a sorcery point cost if deemed too powerful)
Enduring Rage(18th): Your rage ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.
I think that while raging in 5E means you can't cast spells, if you're trying to alter this rule in some way, I would just allow the spells of "self" and "touch", but would not increase the damage roll any. While this seems like a normal thing to do for a rage, it almost makes it to where players might think "Well if I can rage this way and get buffed spells, then why would I even choose barbarian at all?" and the obvious answer would be physical weaponized combat vs magic, I would say that spellcasters have such a more wide array of spells that in a solo combat between an equal leveled wizard and barbarian, I would say the wizard wins most of the time. So making this variant of raging, magically inclined is okay, I just think it's too overpowered as opposed to normal raging, that there should be other drawbacks to this form of raging that the standard barbarian rages do not have, and if there are already different drawbacks that I have missed then please let me know!
Originally posted this in Sorcerer forum, but was looking for any feedback:
While I think the Giant Soul is interesting and has some good ideas, I feel like it would still play either “Gish-y” or still as a ranged spellcaster with little benefit from the increased size bonuses. This is what I am thinking for a “Raging Soul Sorcerer”:
Rage is described as having its own power that is able to grant Barbarians the ability to perform incredible feats of strength and endurance. I’d like to see what this source of power could do if used as the source of arcane power in the hands of a sorcerer. This example is an amalgamation of the Draconic sorcerer and the Berserker barbarian with an emphasis on creating a spell caster who is more reliant on area spells which originate from the caster (cones, lines etc. and touch spells). Unfortunately, there aren’t many offensive touch spells available to the sorcerer. I’ve come up with an example of a feature to try and resolve this. Here we go:
Furious Resilience(1st):
AC = 13 + Con
HP max increases by 2 at 1st lvl and 2 again whenever you gain a level in this class.(Keeps sorcerer alive when engaged in frontline attacking)
Rage(1st):
You may enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing armor:
You have advantage on intimidation checks as well as Charisma and Constitution saving throws.
When you cast a spell that deals damage, increase a damage roll of that spell by its spell slot level.
Can only cast spells of range “Self” or “Touch”. (This allows blast and touch spells, trying to keep the Rage Sorcerer engaged in front line attack as much as possible, but leaving some flexibility for some blasting)
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t made a melee or ranged spell attack against a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your range on your turn as a bonus action.
Rages per day similar to barbarian table.
Up-close-and-personal Spell(2nd):
When casting a spell, you may change the range of the spell to “touch” and require a melee spell attack. The spell effects apply only to the creature hit. (A metamagic style feature, sorcery point cost 1sp? If designated as an official metamagic feature, then it may help to allow this feature to be used with other metamagics as well. Because this limits the spell to only effecting one target, it opens a spell effect like fireball to being twinned; albeit at a range of touch to two adjacent enemies, still cool imo. This is an attempt to resolve the lack of offensive touch spells.)
Reckless Spellcasting(6th):
When you make your first spell attack on a turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on spell attacks this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Vengeance(14th):
When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature. (Similar to Warcaster feat, maybe a sorcery point cost if deemed too powerful)
Enduring Rage(18th):
Your rage ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.
I think that while raging in 5E means you can't cast spells, if you're trying to alter this rule in some way, I would just allow the spells of "self" and "touch", but would not increase the damage roll any. While this seems like a normal thing to do for a rage, it almost makes it to where players might think "Well if I can rage this way and get buffed spells, then why would I even choose barbarian at all?" and the obvious answer would be physical weaponized combat vs magic, I would say that spellcasters have such a more wide array of spells that in a solo combat between an equal leveled wizard and barbarian, I would say the wizard wins most of the time. So making this variant of raging, magically inclined is okay, I just think it's too overpowered as opposed to normal raging, that there should be other drawbacks to this form of raging that the standard barbarian rages do not have, and if there are already different drawbacks that I have missed then please let me know!
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