I've been working off and on towards a full set of chromatic sorcerer sub-classes, specifically for acid, cold, fire and poison, as Storm Sorcerer already covers lightning and thunder pretty well (though it could really do with gaining a spell list). Anyway, these have resulted in the Corrosive Soul, Frozen Soul, Inferno Soul and Toxic Soul sub-classes; the Frozen Soul I've already released, though it has some pending updates to keep it in line with the others (specifically the way in which the 1st-level features scale by class level, not proficiency bonus).
Anyway, here they are, each inside their own set of spoiler tags to keep this post sane:
Corrosive Soul
Your bloodline may include a fiend from Porphatys, the corrosive fifth layer of Carceri, or a black or copper dragon feared for their deadly acidic breath, or you may have been born during an elemental storm as acid rain fell from the skies.
An affinity for acid is fundamental to your being, your corrosive soul – you understand intuitively that acid does not simply destroy, it can reshape and transform materials, enabling you to mould them as you see fit.
Corrosive Magic
1st-level Corrosive Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Corrosive Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Whenever you deal acid damage, you may choose one of your targets to suffer from increased corrosion, causing any non-magical armor they are wearing (including natural armor) to suffer a -1 penalty to AC, and any non-magical weapons they are holding to suffer a -1 penalty to attack and damage rolls. Armor and weapons can suffer multiple levels of corrosion, but no more than once per turn, with a maximum penalty of -3.
Natural armor and weapons reduce their corrosion level by one every 7 days, provided the creature finishes a long rest each day. Crafted armor and weapons remain corroded until they are repaired or replaced, with repairs requiring a smith's tools check of DC 10 + five times the corrosion level, or the services of a skilled armor or weapon maker.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
Caustic Nature
6th-level Corrosive Soul feature
As a result of the increasing levels of acidity in your body you have developed resistance to acid damage.
In addition, whenever you use your Corrode ability on a target, you may also choose to corrode any inanimate, non-magical cover it is currently benefiting from, reducing the cover in size or solidity from total cover to three-quarters cover, three-quarters cover to half cover, or half cover to none. Cover made from a material that is resistant to acid damage will require twice as many uses of Corrode for each level of reduction, while a material that is immune to acid damage cannot be corroded at all.
Cover and Size
If your target is Large or bigger, then for each size class above Medium you need one extra use of Corrode for each reduction in cover (two if Large, three if Huge, or four if Gargantuan). If your target is Small or Tiny, then for each size class below Medium you reduce its cover by one additional step (i.e- a Small in total cover is reduced to half, Tiny to none).
Acidic Surge
14th-level Corrosive Soul feature
Your are able to manipulate the forces of corrosion at a fundamental level, accelerating or slowing it as you wish. Whenever you deal acid damage to a creature you may spend one Sorcery Point to do one of the following:
Ignore the target's acid resistance against the damage.
Reduce the target's acid immunity to resistance against the damage.
Ignore a material's acid resistance or immunity when attempting to Corrode the target's cover.
Grant yourself acid immunity against the same damage.
Avatar of Corrosion
18th-level Corrosive Soul feature
You have gained the ability to unleash the full force of elemental acid against your enemies. As an action on your turn you can transform into a living avatar of corrosion, granting you the following benefits for up to one minute (or until you fall unconscious):
You may use your Corrode ability without consuming its limited uses.
When you use your Acidic Surge, you can spend a second Sorcery Point to apply a second affect.
As an action on your turn you may touch a creature or object you can see within 5 feet to deal 30 acid damage.
Once you use this action you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Frozen Soul
A frozen soul sorcerer has a heart of ice, and their blood runs as cold as death.
Frost Magic
1st-level Frozen Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Frost Magic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Whenever you use your action to cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that deals cold damage, you may use your reaction to cause your body to become coated in magical ice until the start of your next turn. While your Hoarfrost is active you are immune to cold damage and gain a bonus to your armour class equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
Frozen Soul
6th-level Frozen Soul feature
Your skin takes on an icy sheen, granting you resistance to cold damage.
Winter's Rime
6th-level Frozen Soul feature
Calling upon the depths of winter, you are able to freeze your enemies in place. Whenever you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that deals cold damage you may use your bonus action to also cast hold person against one of your targets. Starting from 9th-level you may instead choose to cast hold monster using this bonus action.
You must expend a spell slot and meet all other casting requirements as normal when you do this.
Heart of Ice
14th-level Frozen Soul feature
Cold suffuses your entire being and emotions feel like distant memories, granting you immunity to the frightened condition, and you have advantage on both Insight checks and Wisdom saving throws when taken against attempts to sway you emotionally.
Glacial Aura
14th-level Frozen Soul feature
While your Hoarfrost feature is active you are surrounded by a 10 foot radius area of freezing cold, which other creatures treat as difficult terrain. Whenever another creature starts its turn in this area, or enters it for the first time during its turn, it must take a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the creature suffers cold damage equal to your sorcerer level, or half on a success.
Avatar of Frost
18th-level Frozen Soul feature
Passing through the world like a blizzard, you are the frozen soul of eternal winter made manifest. As an action on your turn, you may transform into an avatar of living frost, gaining the following benefits for one minute (ending early if you fall unconscious):
You are resistant to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
Hoarfrost can be activated as a reaction at the start or end of each of your turns, and does not consume limited uses.
Whenever you cast a cold damage or Frost Magic spell that targets only a single creature, you may instead choose two different targets.
Once you have used this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Infernal Soul
Perhaps you are a red or gold dragonborn realising the full power of your ancestor, or a tiefling awakened to the true strength of your fiendish blood, or you have gained an uncanny power to manipulate the inferno around you. To be an infernal soul is to be a master of fire and flames, able to burn the world to ashes merely for the sake of it, or so that it can be reborn anew.
Infernal Magic
1st-level Infernal Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Infernal Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Your ability to manipulate the strength of your flames allows you to choose to start a conflagration the first time you deal fire damage with a spell that you cast at 1st-level or higher.
A conflagration will ignite a number of 5-foot squares equal to the spell's level, starting with the square containing your most central target (or the centre of the area of effect). Each additional square must be placed as close to the first as possible, and adjacent to at least one other square ignited by the same effect (without crossing significant obstacles).
Any creature that enters an ignited square for the first time on its turn, or starts its turn in one, will suffer d6 fire damage. Ignited squares burn for one minute, and once extinguished cannot be reignited.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional use as you reach certain levels in this class, starting at 5th-level (three), 9th-level (four), 13th-level (five), and finally 17th-level (six).
The damage your conflagration causes increases as you gain levels in this class, increasing to 2d6 at 6th-level, 3d6 at 12th-level, then finally 4d6 at 18th-level.
Spreading Conflagrations
If you start a conflagration (or any fire) in an area that your DM decides is flammable, it may spread at the start of each round. The table below suggests some behaviours, one or more of which may apply:
Flammability
Examples
Effect
Extreme
Accelerants such as oil are present on the ground, soaked into objects, or in the air.
Every space adjacent to a currently ignited space also ignites.
High
Fabrics such as rugs, curtains, or dry wood or vegetation is present.
One space adjacent to each currently ignited space also ignites*.
Low
Fire resistant (but not immune) materials, or damp wood or vegetation.
One space adjacent to one currently ignited space also ignites*.
*If there is a choice of space to ignite, choose one as close to the origin as possible.
In addition, as you gain levels in this class you may target multiple 5-foot cubes when you cast control flames, starting with four at 6th-level, eight at 12th-level, and twelve at 18th-level. All targets must be different, and must be chosen before casting.
Spark the Flames
14th-level Infernal Soul feature
Your innate control of flames renders them harmless to you, and even more fatal to others, granting you immunity to fire damage and the following additional Metamagic:
Metamagic: Spark the Flames
When a spell that you cast deals fire damage, you may spend one sorcery point to transform all of its fire damage into lightning damage instead. If the spell has an area of effect, you may also transform its area into a 5-foot wide line with a length equal to double the radius (cylinder or sphere), width (cube) or length (cone).
Avatar of the Inferno
18th-level Infernal Soul feature
You have learned to unleash the full fury of the inferno that rages within you! As an action on your turn you transform into an avatar of the inferno, gaining the following benefits for one minute (or until you fall unconscious):
You may use Spark the Flames without spending sorcery points.
You emit bright light in a 10 foot radius, and dim light for a further 30 feet. Creatures that enter the radius of this bright light for the first time on their turn, or start their turn within it, suffer 10 fire damage.
When you deal fire damage to a target with fire resistance it will take the full damage, while a target with immunity to fire damage takes half damage.
Once you use this action, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Toxic Soul
Your lineage traces back to Porphatys, the poisonous second layer of Carceri and home to the palace of poison tears, or it may trace back to the machinations of one of the scheming and deadly green dragons, or perhaps to one of the strange creatures of the deep forests or the jungles of chult…
For a toxic soul, poisons are used to hinder or to harm, to incapacitate or to control, and you are very poisonous indeed.
Toxic Magic
1st-level Toxic Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Toxic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
As a bonus action on your turn you may touch one melee weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition, causing them to inflict an additional d4 poison damage on a hit for one minute. If you use this ability on an item you have already applied this poison to the duration is reset but the damage is not increased further.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
As you gain levels in this class you also increase the damage of this feature, increasing to 2d4 at 6th-level, then 3d4 at 8th-level, and finally 4d4 at 18th-level.
Toxic
1st-level Toxic Soul feature
Whenever you are hit by an attacker within 5 feet, it takes poison damage equal to half your level in this class (rounded up).
Extra Attack
6th-level Toxic Soul feature
You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one cantrip that deals poison damage in place of one of those attacks.
Natural Resistance
6th-level Toxic Soul feature
You have built up a natural resistance to poison damage, and have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.
Heightened Toxicity
14th-level Toxic Soul feature
Your body is so accustomed to poisons and toxins, that your natural resistance has improved to total immunity to poison damage. In addition you gain the following additional Metamagic:
Metamagic: Paralytic Poison
When you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that inflicts the poisoned condition on a failed saving throw, you may spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell's level in order to make the poison a paralytic. For as long as a creature is poisoned by the spell it is also paralyzed (if the spell requires an action to repeat its saving throw, a creature may do-so despite being paralyzed).
Toxic Surge
18th-level Toxic Soul feature
As an action you may summon a surge in the natural poisons now coursing through your body, gaining the following benefits for one minute (or until you are unconscious):
Creatures have disadvantage on saving throws taken against being poisoned by you.
If a creature is immune to being poisoned, then any poison damage inflicted by the same effect is maximised. If the creature is also immune to poison damage, it suffers half damage.
You are surrounded by a toxic miasma in a 10-foot radius that causes the area to be lightly obscured except to you. Any creature that enters this area for the first time on its turn, or starts its turn there, suffers 4d4 poison damage.
Once you have used this action you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Notes
Basics
Each of these is structured in a somewhat similar way with 1st-level feature(s) to establish the theme alongside a spell list, progressing into an "avatar state" that gives you a once per day one minute as a pseudo-elemental of your type.
The spell lists are somewhat mixed thematically due to the limitations on D&D Beyond homebrew directly added spells, which can only come from the Basic Rules and Elemental Evil Player's Companion lists, severely limiting the choice; I've tried to add obvious spells to the expanded spell lists where it makes sense, and in a number of cases have branched out towards utility/flexibility. For example, the Corrosive Soul has some utility spells based around the idea of acid "transforming" materials such as tone.
Playtesting
Only the Frozen Soul has received any active playtesting so far and I'm happy with it balance-wise (especially now that Hoarfrost isn't a multi-classing no-brainer due to the proficiency uses it previously had, now it scales strictly by class level). The others are still mostly in development.
Corrosive Soul
The main themes of this sub-class are acid damage and debuffs; corrosion is quite a strong effect, as is the ability to interfere with cover, while acidic surge gives a way to melt even acid resistant or immune targets. The avatar form builds on all of these features by making them free/less costly to use.
Frozen Soul
Built around cold damage and freezing (via hold spells), with Hoarfrost and Glacial Aura being a defensive effect. Its avatar state grants physical resistance, allows Hoarfrost (and Glacial Aura) to be used freely, and allows twinned targeting with cold/frost spells.
Infernal Soul
Infernal because Inferno Soul sounded weird to me; this is built around fire and controlling the spread. The conflagration effect lets you trigger secondary damage from any 1st-level or higher fire spell, which you can either leave to spread out of control, or direct using control flames, which you get a lot better at at higher levels. Spark the Flames is a special Metamagic that lets you transform fire spells into lightning, including transforming the area into an easy to target line. The avatar state makes control the flames and spark the flames easier to use, and dials up the heat to punch through resistant targets (though this is less critical when you have two basic damage types).
Toxic Soul
Themed around poison this sub-class is also a bit gishy; it has no extra durability but can add poison damage to a weapon (though it is limited to simple weapons) and deals poison damage to enemies that hit it in close proximity. It gains Extra Attack with the option of swapping one attack for a poison cantrip, and a special Metamagic enables it to paralyse poisoned targets. Its avatar state makes it harder for targets to resist being poisoned (and potentially paralyzed), punches through immunity, and gives a damaging aura.
I'm quite happy with them conceptually, though there are almost certainly some balance issues; like official UA content they probably lean towards the stronger end of the spectrum and need to be toned down, though I've tried to keep them all roughly balanced along the lines of the Frozen Soul which has played well in testing.
I like these concepts a lot. One issue I'd have though is that if I want to play an acid-based sorcerer, I really want to feel it in my gameplay. And I'm not sure two uses of Corrode for the whole day is going to feel satisfying, or that occasionally gaining one more use is going to feel significant. Each use equates to a 5% change in hitting/getting hit which may very well not make a difference at all given the average monster life span. This could be one of those things were you use an extremely limited resource on a creature and then feel totally bummed out when the fighter kills it on the next turn.
If it were me, I'd keep these limited use level 1 features, but make them minute-long states with benefits during the state. So for two encounters a day, you can feel like a true avatar of your element. Then a lot of these other features could be tweaked to give you additional benefits during that state.
I'd also say that for sorcerer, being a bit overtuned is a good thing. It's just not a well-designed class, and it needs strong options to be viable.
It's definitely tricky to find the right balance on the 1st level features, and even within these there is some variability, but Corrosive is definitely the hardest.
A one minute "corrode" state does seem interesting; would you picture it otherwise functioning the same, i.e- once per turn when you deal acid damage you can pick one target to corrode, and it can still be stacked up during the minute?
It might then make sense to tweak Caustic Nature to have its own separate uses but a choice of effects; either to melt the target's cover or apply an additional layer of corrosion. In this case I'm thinking size should still make it more costly, but maybe allow sorcery points to be spent in addition to the limited uses (so you could still melt cover and double or triple corrode an armoured giant)?
I really like the idea of corroding on this one, but it's such a tricky one to balance heh, will definitely keep thinking on it, as I think I'm happier with the how the others work (though Toxic Soul's Toxic 1st-level feature may be a bit strong, might need limited uses or less damage).
It's also so fiddly to balance against the official sub-classes; Clockwork Soul for example (which is the one I usually copy as a starting point) has an okay 1st-level feature, but with proficiency uses it feels like such multi-classing bait as it's just as good on a single level dip as on a primary sorcerer, in fact I've considered nabbing it on a Rogue a few times for cancelling disadvantage.
I've been working off and on towards a full set of chromatic sorcerer sub-classes, specifically for acid, cold, fire and poison, as Storm Sorcerer already covers lightning and thunder pretty well (though it could really do with gaining a spell list). Anyway, these have resulted in the Corrosive Soul, Frozen Soul, Inferno Soul and Toxic Soul sub-classes; the Frozen Soul I've already released, though it has some pending updates to keep it in line with the others (specifically the way in which the 1st-level features scale by class level, not proficiency bonus).
Anyway, here they are, each inside their own set of spoiler tags to keep this post sane:
Corrosive Soul
Your bloodline may include a fiend from Porphatys, the corrosive fifth layer of Carceri, or a black or copper dragon feared for their deadly acidic breath, or you may have been born during an elemental storm as acid rain fell from the skies.
An affinity for acid is fundamental to your being, your corrosive soul – you understand intuitively that acid does not simply destroy, it can reshape and transform materials, enabling you to mould them as you see fit.
Corrosive Magic
1st-level Corrosive Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Corrosive Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Corrosive Spells
In addition, the spells primal savagery, elemental weapon and glyph of warding are added to your extended spell list.
Corrode
1st-level Corrosive Soul feature
Whenever you deal acid damage, you may choose one of your targets to suffer from increased corrosion, causing any non-magical armor they are wearing (including natural armor) to suffer a -1 penalty to AC, and any non-magical weapons they are holding to suffer a -1 penalty to attack and damage rolls. Armor and weapons can suffer multiple levels of corrosion, but no more than once per turn, with a maximum penalty of -3.
Natural armor and weapons reduce their corrosion level by one every 7 days, provided the creature finishes a long rest each day. Crafted armor and weapons remain corroded until they are repaired or replaced, with repairs requiring a smith's tools check of DC 10 + five times the corrosion level, or the services of a skilled armor or weapon maker.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
Caustic Nature
6th-level Corrosive Soul feature
As a result of the increasing levels of acidity in your body you have developed resistance to acid damage.
In addition, whenever you use your Corrode ability on a target, you may also choose to corrode any inanimate, non-magical cover it is currently benefiting from, reducing the cover in size or solidity from total cover to three-quarters cover, three-quarters cover to half cover, or half cover to none. Cover made from a material that is resistant to acid damage will require twice as many uses of Corrode for each level of reduction, while a material that is immune to acid damage cannot be corroded at all.
Acidic Surge
14th-level Corrosive Soul feature
Your are able to manipulate the forces of corrosion at a fundamental level, accelerating or slowing it as you wish. Whenever you deal acid damage to a creature you may spend one Sorcery Point to do one of the following:
Avatar of Corrosion
18th-level Corrosive Soul feature
You have gained the ability to unleash the full force of elemental acid against your enemies. As an action on your turn you can transform into a living avatar of corrosion, granting you the following benefits for up to one minute (or until you fall unconscious):
Once you use this action you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Frozen Soul
A frozen soul sorcerer has a heart of ice, and their blood runs as cold as death.
Frost Magic
1st-level Frozen Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Frost Magic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Frost Magic Spells
In addition, the spells frost fingers, elemental weapon, elemental bane, freezing sphere, and wall of ice are added your spell list.
Hoarfrost
1st-level Frozen Soul feature
Whenever you use your action to cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that deals cold damage, you may use your reaction to cause your body to become coated in magical ice until the start of your next turn. While your Hoarfrost is active you are immune to cold damage and gain a bonus to your armour class equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
Frozen Soul
6th-level Frozen Soul feature
Your skin takes on an icy sheen, granting you resistance to cold damage.
Winter's Rime
6th-level Frozen Soul feature
Calling upon the depths of winter, you are able to freeze your enemies in place. Whenever you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that deals cold damage you may use your bonus action to also cast hold person against one of your targets. Starting from 9th-level you may instead choose to cast hold monster using this bonus action.
You must expend a spell slot and meet all other casting requirements as normal when you do this.
Heart of Ice
14th-level Frozen Soul feature
Cold suffuses your entire being and emotions feel like distant memories, granting you immunity to the frightened condition, and you have advantage on both Insight checks and Wisdom saving throws when taken against attempts to sway you emotionally.
Glacial Aura
14th-level Frozen Soul feature
While your Hoarfrost feature is active you are surrounded by a 10 foot radius area of freezing cold, which other creatures treat as difficult terrain. Whenever another creature starts its turn in this area, or enters it for the first time during its turn, it must take a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the creature suffers cold damage equal to your sorcerer level, or half on a success.
Avatar of Frost
18th-level Frozen Soul feature
Passing through the world like a blizzard, you are the frozen soul of eternal winter made manifest. As an action on your turn, you may transform into an avatar of living frost, gaining the following benefits for one minute (ending early if you fall unconscious):
Once you have used this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Infernal Soul
Perhaps you are a red or gold dragonborn realising the full power of your ancestor, or a tiefling awakened to the true strength of your fiendish blood, or you have gained an uncanny power to manipulate the inferno around you. To be an infernal soul is to be a master of fire and flames, able to burn the world to ashes merely for the sake of it, or so that it can be reborn anew.
Infernal Magic
1st-level Infernal Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Infernal Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Infernal Spells
In addition the spells produce flame, searing smite, flame blade, flaming sphere, elemental weapon, and elemental bane are added to your spell list.
Conflagration
1st-level Infernal Soul feature
Your ability to manipulate the strength of your flames allows you to choose to start a conflagration the first time you deal fire damage with a spell that you cast at 1st-level or higher.
A conflagration will ignite a number of 5-foot squares equal to the spell's level, starting with the square containing your most central target (or the centre of the area of effect). Each additional square must be placed as close to the first as possible, and adjacent to at least one other square ignited by the same effect (without crossing significant obstacles).
Any creature that enters an ignited square for the first time on its turn, or starts its turn in one, will suffer d6 fire damage. Ignited squares burn for one minute, and once extinguished cannot be reignited.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional use as you reach certain levels in this class, starting at 5th-level (three), 9th-level (four), 13th-level (five), and finally 17th-level (six).
The damage your conflagration causes increases as you gain levels in this class, increasing to 2d6 at 6th-level, 3d6 at 12th-level, then finally 4d6 at 18th-level.
Controlled Burn
6th-level Infernal Soul feature
You have resistance to fire damage.
In addition, as you gain levels in this class you may target multiple 5-foot cubes when you cast control flames, starting with four at 6th-level, eight at 12th-level, and twelve at 18th-level. All targets must be different, and must be chosen before casting.
Spark the Flames
14th-level Infernal Soul feature
Your innate control of flames renders them harmless to you, and even more fatal to others, granting you immunity to fire damage and the following additional Metamagic:
Metamagic: Spark the Flames
When a spell that you cast deals fire damage, you may spend one sorcery point to transform all of its fire damage into lightning damage instead. If the spell has an area of effect, you may also transform its area into a 5-foot wide line with a length equal to double the radius (cylinder or sphere), width (cube) or length (cone).
Avatar of the Inferno
18th-level Infernal Soul feature
You have learned to unleash the full fury of the inferno that rages within you! As an action on your turn you transform into an avatar of the inferno, gaining the following benefits for one minute (or until you fall unconscious):
Once you use this action, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Toxic Soul
Your lineage traces back to Porphatys, the poisonous second layer of Carceri and home to the palace of poison tears, or it may trace back to the machinations of one of the scheming and deadly green dragons, or perhaps to one of the strange creatures of the deep forests or the jungles of chult…
For a toxic soul, poisons are used to hinder or to harm, to incapacitate or to control, and you are very poisonous indeed.
Toxic Magic
1st-level Toxic Soul feature
You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Toxic Spells table. Each of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.
Toxic Spells
In addition, the spell ray of sickness and feign death are added to your spell list.
Poisonous
1st-level Toxic Soul feature
As a bonus action on your turn you may touch one melee weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition, causing them to inflict an additional d4 poison damage on a hit for one minute. If you use this ability on an item you have already applied this poison to the duration is reset but the damage is not increased further.
You can use this feature twice, regaining all spent uses when you finish a long rest. You gain one additional as you reach certain levels in this class, starting with three at 5th-level, four at 9th-level, five at 13th-level, and finally six at 17th-level.
As you gain levels in this class you also increase the damage of this feature, increasing to 2d4 at 6th-level, then 3d4 at 8th-level, and finally 4d4 at 18th-level.
Toxic
1st-level Toxic Soul feature
Whenever you are hit by an attacker within 5 feet, it takes poison damage equal to half your level in this class (rounded up).
Extra Attack
6th-level Toxic Soul feature
You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one cantrip that deals poison damage in place of one of those attacks.
Natural Resistance
6th-level Toxic Soul feature
You have built up a natural resistance to poison damage, and have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.
Heightened Toxicity
14th-level Toxic Soul feature
Your body is so accustomed to poisons and toxins, that your natural resistance has improved to total immunity to poison damage. In addition you gain the following additional Metamagic:
Metamagic: Paralytic Poison
When you cast a spell of 1st-level or higher that inflicts the poisoned condition on a failed saving throw, you may spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell's level in order to make the poison a paralytic. For as long as a creature is poisoned by the spell it is also paralyzed (if the spell requires an action to repeat its saving throw, a creature may do-so despite being paralyzed).
Toxic Surge
18th-level Toxic Soul feature
As an action you may summon a surge in the natural poisons now coursing through your body, gaining the following benefits for one minute (or until you are unconscious):
Once you have used this action you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Notes
Basics
Each of these is structured in a somewhat similar way with 1st-level feature(s) to establish the theme alongside a spell list, progressing into an "avatar state" that gives you a once per day one minute as a pseudo-elemental of your type.
The spell lists are somewhat mixed thematically due to the limitations on D&D Beyond homebrew directly added spells, which can only come from the Basic Rules and Elemental Evil Player's Companion lists, severely limiting the choice; I've tried to add obvious spells to the expanded spell lists where it makes sense, and in a number of cases have branched out towards utility/flexibility. For example, the Corrosive Soul has some utility spells based around the idea of acid "transforming" materials such as tone.
Playtesting
Only the Frozen Soul has received any active playtesting so far and I'm happy with it balance-wise (especially now that Hoarfrost isn't a multi-classing no-brainer due to the proficiency uses it previously had, now it scales strictly by class level). The others are still mostly in development.
Corrosive Soul
The main themes of this sub-class are acid damage and debuffs; corrosion is quite a strong effect, as is the ability to interfere with cover, while acidic surge gives a way to melt even acid resistant or immune targets. The avatar form builds on all of these features by making them free/less costly to use.
Frozen Soul
Built around cold damage and freezing (via hold spells), with Hoarfrost and Glacial Aura being a defensive effect. Its avatar state grants physical resistance, allows Hoarfrost (and Glacial Aura) to be used freely, and allows twinned targeting with cold/frost spells.
Infernal Soul
Infernal because Inferno Soul sounded weird to me; this is built around fire and controlling the spread. The conflagration effect lets you trigger secondary damage from any 1st-level or higher fire spell, which you can either leave to spread out of control, or direct using control flames, which you get a lot better at at higher levels. Spark the Flames is a special Metamagic that lets you transform fire spells into lightning, including transforming the area into an easy to target line. The avatar state makes control the flames and spark the flames easier to use, and dials up the heat to punch through resistant targets (though this is less critical when you have two basic damage types).
Toxic Soul
Themed around poison this sub-class is also a bit gishy; it has no extra durability but can add poison damage to a weapon (though it is limited to simple weapons) and deals poison damage to enemies that hit it in close proximity. It gains Extra Attack with the option of swapping one attack for a poison cantrip, and a special Metamagic enables it to paralyse poisoned targets. Its avatar state makes it harder for targets to resist being poisoned (and potentially paralyzed), punches through immunity, and gives a damaging aura.
I'm quite happy with them conceptually, though there are almost certainly some balance issues; like official UA content they probably lean towards the stronger end of the spectrum and need to be toned down, though I've tried to keep them all roughly balanced along the lines of the Frozen Soul which has played well in testing.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
I like these concepts a lot. One issue I'd have though is that if I want to play an acid-based sorcerer, I really want to feel it in my gameplay. And I'm not sure two uses of Corrode for the whole day is going to feel satisfying, or that occasionally gaining one more use is going to feel significant. Each use equates to a 5% change in hitting/getting hit which may very well not make a difference at all given the average monster life span. This could be one of those things were you use an extremely limited resource on a creature and then feel totally bummed out when the fighter kills it on the next turn.
If it were me, I'd keep these limited use level 1 features, but make them minute-long states with benefits during the state. So for two encounters a day, you can feel like a true avatar of your element. Then a lot of these other features could be tweaked to give you additional benefits during that state.
I'd also say that for sorcerer, being a bit overtuned is a good thing. It's just not a well-designed class, and it needs strong options to be viable.
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
Thanks for the feedback!
It's definitely tricky to find the right balance on the 1st level features, and even within these there is some variability, but Corrosive is definitely the hardest.
A one minute "corrode" state does seem interesting; would you picture it otherwise functioning the same, i.e- once per turn when you deal acid damage you can pick one target to corrode, and it can still be stacked up during the minute?
It might then make sense to tweak Caustic Nature to have its own separate uses but a choice of effects; either to melt the target's cover or apply an additional layer of corrosion. In this case I'm thinking size should still make it more costly, but maybe allow sorcery points to be spent in addition to the limited uses (so you could still melt cover and double or triple corrode an armoured giant)?
I really like the idea of corroding on this one, but it's such a tricky one to balance heh, will definitely keep thinking on it, as I think I'm happier with the how the others work (though Toxic Soul's Toxic 1st-level feature may be a bit strong, might need limited uses or less damage).
It's also so fiddly to balance against the official sub-classes; Clockwork Soul for example (which is the one I usually copy as a starting point) has an okay 1st-level feature, but with proficiency uses it feels like such multi-classing bait as it's just as good on a single level dip as on a primary sorcerer, in fact I've considered nabbing it on a Rogue a few times for cancelling disadvantage.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Yeah I was assuming some tweakage to the features to better fit a 1-min duration. Going from one use to one minute of uses is a big boost.
I do think that level 1 prof-based features are begging for abuse. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get Peace cleric.
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