1) I think that having scaling damage for the ability would definitely be the way to go.
2) Im not sure the 7d6 damage + incapacitated from psychic lance following a failed save is necessarily much better than 4d10 + 12d10 damage or 4d10 + being frightened, and blinded, and charmed or 4d10+8d8 where you also regain 8d8 hit points, or any of the other combinations that could be fostered. Granted, I acknowledge there is a steeper setup for the EB since you have to hit with all 4 attacks, but I think by the level where things start getting wacky you probably have a decent spell attack modifier. In any case, I think that Psionic Sorcery + Psychic Lance is a very powerful combo and probably shouldnt be the benchmark by which the balance of an ability is judged, even if both are available to sorcerers.
3) I understand the comparisons drawn to other 9th level spells available to other classes, but in this case its more than just an extra 9th level spell known. Its an extra 9th level spell that is also cast for free every day, so its basically an extra 9th level spell slot as well. Even if the saving throws arent spectacular, having an extra meat bag with 130 HP & 20 AC that can soak up damage or deal an extra 4d8 + 48 damage per turn {assuming the Beholderkin using its Eye Ray 4 times} is nothing to sneeze at. I also disagree with your statement that 130 HP & 20 AC {at 9th level} would leave much to be desired and be disabled quickly. That sort of HP is comparable to a full caster at level 20 (assuming they did not invest heavily in their Con score) and the 20 AC is even better than what those casters will get using Mage Armor or even wearing Plate.
1) what scaling would you suggest here? Also, it is quite important here that the enervation ray deals less damage than the other two damaging options. Having various damage scalings wihtin a table would be quite finnicky? Do you think I should replace the "roll twice and choose the number" with increased damage at level 14 or keep it *and* implement scaling damage in some way?
2) It is. An incapcaitated creature can't do anything. A frightened and blinded creature still can do stuff, and quite a lot of that actually, unless its important abilities rely on it having line of sight. Also, there's the risk of rolls being wasted and doing nothing if the monster is immune to the rolled effect. From my experience of playing aberrant mind sorcerers, completely disabling enemies with psychic lance at such a low cost is a game winner and allows you to defeat creatures you should lose to even if you have to burn through legendary resistances first. Intelligence saves suck, even for many powerful monsters... ^-^ I agree the damage needs to be reduced upfront a bit, which I will do, but I think you are overestimating the effectiveness here.
3) I still disagree here. A level 18 ability should be something special and powerful. It is the last ability the sorcerer gains from their subclass, it is something to look forward to. I still believe the 9th level summon aberration is fine here. Indeed I think there are other examples for sorcerer level 18 abilities out there that would really need some buffs, such as the Aberrant Mind sorcerer's levle 18 ability, which is just a slightly buffed thunder step - a 3rd level spell they could've cast from level 5 onwards. I do not want to make the same mistake, I don't want to give the player something at level 18 they basically could have done much earlier. They could take summon aberration from level 7 onward and cast it at 4th level. However getting a free cast of summon aberration at 9th level is something to look forward to, and it can be used creatively considering the ability explicitely allows the creature to have basically any shape. Want to dream up a copy of a specific individual for infiltration purposes or to scare someone? Want to dream up an eyedrake? Want to dream up a corrupted pit fiend after defeating one the day before? All that is fine with this ability.
I think it is best to not think of that ability as a "free 9th level spell each day", but rather as "wow, I can dream a creature of my imagination into existence, and that creature actually is decently useful!".
In terms of maths, we are looking at 90 HP, not 130 (40 at 4th level, plus 10 per level of the spell above 4th; maybe you looked at the UA version of the spell?). An ancient red dragon for example breathes for 96 damage average and the summon has no chance of succeeding the saving throw. And no way to mitigate the damage. Imagine how quickly the summon would die if it was cast at 4th level and had just 40 HP... :-) Also, 20 AC does not mean much against attack bonuses of +15 and more (and player characters typically have more AC at these levels, unless they use two-handed weapons and have no shield spell nor AC-boosting magic items). Furthermore, we are looking at saving throw modifiers of +3, 0, +2, +3, 0, -2 here. That is on par with a level 1 standard array player character without saving throw proficiencies. Considering how many dangerous saving throws high-level monsters force, the spirit won't do much in challenging encounters.
Indeed, the lack of scaling defenses is an issue of summons and pets in general, it is not specific to summon aberration or to this subclass ability. The sweetspot for summons and pets probably is in T2 and early T3, then they fall off quickly. When I played a Battlesmith artificer, even in late T2 I already noticed the steel defender's weak saving throws and defenses, it got killed quite quickly by AoEs or disabled by a failed saving throw, particularly against fear.
1) what scaling would you suggest here? Also, it is quite important here that the enervation ray deals less damage than the other two damaging options. Having various damage scalings wihtin a table would be quite finnicky? Do you think I should replace the "roll twice and choose the number" with increased damage at level 14 or keep it *and* implement scaling damage in some way?
That’s why I only included one eye ray that does damage for my Warlock subclass.
I also agree with the others about the 9th-level spell being a bit OP.
1) what scaling would you suggest here? Also, it is quite important here that the enervation ray deals less damage than the other two damaging options. Having various damage scalings wihtin a table would be quite finnicky? Do you think I should replace the "roll twice and choose the number" with increased damage at level 14 or keep it *and* implement scaling damage in some way?
Firstly, I think that keeping the ability to roll twice and choose the number is nice, but not if the sorcerer can apply this ability to every attack. If it were a once per turn thing, then Id be all for adding a way to make the ability feel less random. If it can be applied to up to 4 attacks per turn, then there is already alot of chances to get the effect you want. So, if the desire is for this to be used multiple times per turn, I would say just increase the damage at level 14.
Secondly, if you go with the recommendation of only increasing the damage at 14, then you can use that as your scaling. Its more of a step function than a gradual increase, but will keep things the simplest. I think the best approach would be to try and tie all of them to the same level of die and just give fewer to the Enervation Ray starting out. So maybe at 6th level you get (for example) 3d4, 2d4, and 1d4 for options 4, 5, and 6, and then at level 14 the damage for all of these options doubles to 6d4 (for pure damage), 4d4 (for damage + potential disintegration), and 2d4 (plus a heal). If we consider the Eldritch Blast to be our "gold standard" of the type of attacks youll be applying this to, then it will also naturally scale with the number of attacks you make (i.e at 11th and later 17th level the damage per turn for every ability will go up as well).
Another idea that would require less dice balancing would be to tie the extra damage to the level of the spell cast. Maybe, for example, its something like your Charisma modifier + the spell's level extra damage (maybe only add half the spell's level to the enervation ray). That way you get a flat bonus for your EB attacks and can get insane numbers if you invest, say, a 6th level spell slot as part of the attack. Then the damage naturally progresses with your spell progression.
In terms of maths, we are looking at 90 HP, not 130 (40 at 4th level, plus 10 per level of the spell above 4th; maybe you looked at the UA version of the spell?).
I honestly just messed up the math in the moment, lol. Its definitely 90 HP. Still nothing to sneeze at though, in my opinion. Having something that can sit on a battlefield every day and soak up several attacks (even from high CR monsters) while also dealing consistently high damage is pretty powerful.Even if all it buys you is 1 round worth of dealing damage and 1 round of the BBEG's turn absorbing damage before dying, that still puts your party at a huge advantage for their fights. On the other hand, if the monsters you are fighting dont focus fire this thing, then this monster is just as capable of being healed and can even heal outside of combat during a short rest (since it has Hit Dice). Even at 18th level, not every fight the DM puts in front of you is going to be against world-ending CR 30+ monsters. There will still be "lesser fights" this summons will be more than capable of surviving the duration of.
Idk, the way I see it its gonna be annoying from a DM side. The additional creature in each combat is going to slow things down, and in this case it will slow things down for every combat it survives since it can participate in fights for up to 8 hours. A DM could deal with a player who cast the normal version of the spell by breaking the spellcaster's concentration if they did not want to try to melt the summons. That option isnt available here. The DM has to commit monsters and resources to fighting this thing, which will either result in easy victories OR in the DM just adding more monsters (or health or damage) to account for the added combatant at which point its a wash.
From the player's side, as fun and flavorful as it is, it could be annoying to use as well. You get the monster for 8 hours and it pops into existence immediately after you complete a long rest. It wont help the player with combats that take place 9+ hours after their rest, unless they rely on magic or have information to predict when the fight will be so they can plan their rest accordingly, which itself can be annoying. It might feel bad that you dont have much real control over when the summons appears and when it vanishes.
I will update it later this day with scaling damage for the eye rays. All these suggestions are good.
Regarding the summon, what would you suggest? The familiar summoned by Vivid Dreams is there for only 8 hours too. 8 hours duration from my understanding is intended to cover the entire day (note there's no spell with a 12 hour duration), so they'd only not have their summon if an encounter interrupts their long rest. Not having exact control over one's dreams and therefore over the timing for the summon makes sense to me. I still could change the time it lasts to 24 hours if you think this is better.
I also don't think a single summon is annoying for the DM to handle. At level 18, there are other much more serious things to worry about for the DM.
Since a few others also mentioned the "free 9th level speitg is OP": Guys, please, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. It is not a "free 9th level spell". It is an ability that reflects how a beholder literally can dream creatures into existence - which is how the sorcerer themaelves came to be - and for that, it uses the mechanics of a 4th level spell upcast to 9th level. It does so to be a good, useful level 18 ability, one that is worth to take the level for.
Several other high-level abilities are equal to lower-level spells upcast to 9th level too, they just don't state it outright unlike this one. The Divine Soul sorcerer's and Clockwork sorcerer's level 18 abilities for example can easily heal as much as a heal spell upcast to 9th level, on top of other benefits. The Storm sorcerer's level 18 ability is aequivalent to a non-concentration fly upcast to 9th level with an increased duration. And so forth.
The only difference is, again, that my subclass's ability outright states that you cast a 4th level spell at 9th level without a spell slot.
I will update it later this day with scaling damage for the eye rays. All these suggestions are good.
Regarding the summon, what would you suggest? The familiar summoned by Vivid Dreams is there for only 8 hours too. 8 hours duration from my understanding is intended to cover the entire day (note there's no spell with a 12 hour duration), so they'd only not have their summon if an encounter interrupts their long rest. Not having exact control over one's dreams and therefore over the timing for the summon makes sense to me. I still could change the time it lasts to 24 hours if you think this is better.
The thing is, a creature cannot benefit from a long rest more than once in a 24 hour period, so 8 hours after you complete a long rest you cannot take another long rest. At the very least, if you sleep 8 hours every day there will be a 16 hour period between rests. If you want to have a spell effect that lasts for the full duration between long rests, I would look at the Open Hand Monk's Tranquility feature for inspiration.
I was thinking about it more, because I really do love the intent of the ability, what if it was modeled closer to something like the Shadow Sorc's Hound of Ill Omen (with some buffs since its a higher level). It starts with a Dire Wolf's stat block, but then gets some extra buffs (like temp HP) to help it last longer in combat without getting all sorts of extra attacks on top of its normal stats. In this way, maybe you could even open it up to allow the player to have a choice of some base state blocks to build from (like a Veteran or Archer). These NPCs are generally weaker, but you could add a few extra buffs (again, like temp HP or a bonus to their saves) that would allow them to feel strong without necessarily having all of the extra HP, AC, and # of attacks an upcasted summons would have.
OR, maybe your ability to "dream summon" isnt as potent as a Beholder. Maybe your summon comes out as some incorporeal creature, and you could therefor say that its immune to taking damage (allowing it to stay around for the full day). In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
Third idea (and please forgive me at this point, I promise I am not trying to take control of your homebrew), but isnt there some bit in Beholder lore about them accidently summoning a copy of themselves through their dreams? Maybe your dream summons could be a reflection of your own character, and rather than being a "creature" in and of itself is more like a pool of extra resources (sorcery points and maybe a few extra spells known). Maybe while you are within a certain distance of your dream copy you gain the benefits of the Mirror Image spell as well, or something.
Just a few thoughts. I am excited to see what you can come up with, because everything else is so flavorful and feels fun to play.
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Here's an update with rebalanced eye rays. I took one damage die away for each damaging option. I beiieve that should be fine now, considering most spells that have attack rolls are pretty sub-par compared to most other spells. At level 14, I took the "roll twice, choose the number" ability away, instead, as a means of damage scaling, whenever the sorcerer uses an Eye Ray, the spell attack deals additional damage equal to the Charisma modifier. This makes eye rays somewhat more reliable, making them do something even if the target ends up being immune to the rolled effect.
I also adjusted the duration of the summons of both Vivid Dreams and Reality-Twisting NIghtmares to "until the start of your next long rest". Thanks for the tip with the Tranquility feature!
I like the idea of summoning a twisted copy of oneself too, it certainly fits Beholder lore. You could flavor the summon aberration like that too. When I wrote the feature initially, it was a free cast of Simulacrum (of a creature you have seen before, including possibly yourself) at the end of a long rest. I was considering adding an ability check to control the Simulacrum. However, I felt that would be too much considering how powerful Simulacrum as a spell is. Your idea goes a lot into the Simulacrum direction.
Another idea was True Polymorph on a random object close to them, but True Polymorph allows objects to be turned into creatures up to CR 9, and that is more powerful than the upcast summon aberration.
Using a different statblock could work too, but which one? What I like about the summon aberration way is that it allows for a lot of flexibility with its three options while not being complicated at the same time, and it is a statblock that is available to players anyways. It can be flavored in many ways, whether it is an actual beholderkin, a copy of the sorcerer themselves, some other character, an eyedrake or other monster they have seen/fought before or something entirely different.
. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
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. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
The antimagic field is only on when they choose to activate it, and at the start of each of their turns, the sorcerer can choose which direction the cone faces and whether it is active this round. They can avoid hittng their own summon with it. Also afaik summons do not disappear permanently when hit by an antimagic field, they just are gone as long as the antimagic field affects their space.
. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
The antimagic field is only on when they choose to activate it
!!!
So it's better than a beholder's own antimagic cone?
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. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
The antimagic field is only on when they choose to activate it
!!!
So it's better than a beholder's own antimagic cone?
No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
I see, I misunderstood how the Antimagic Field affects summons.
On this more recent note, how is the ability not at will? I know we had discussed adding a restriction, but in your most recent version there is no time limit or limit to how often it can be used, just that you choose its activation status at the start of each of your turns which is the same as how a normal Beholder activates it.
Edit. I will also add that having the range be restricted to 30 feet instead of 150 feet will also work pretty well to your advantage. You have a 30 foot antimagic shield on one side of you to protect yourself from incoming magical effects, but are still able to target creatures on that side with you Eye Ray EBs or other spells so long as they are 40+ feet away. If the cone were 150 feet, that would be a stronger antimagic effect, but you would also basically be unable to target any of the creatures in that direction with any of your magic. The smaller range offers you a still pretty powerful area of antimagic while not undercutting your ability to use magic as a blaster (which is basically the role youll want to fill if this subclass builds around EB). The inability to target creatures in the antimagic area with their more potent attacks is usually the down side to a Beholder using the ability.
. In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
The antimagic field is only on when they choose to activate it
!!!
So it's better than a beholder's own antimagic cone?
No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
Sorry, for some reason I thought the antimagic cone was always on for a beholder, and that it had no way to turn it on or off
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No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
I see, I misunderstood how the Antimagic Field affects summons.
On this more recent note, how is the ability not at will? I know we had discussed adding a restriction, but in your most recent version there is no time limit or limit to how often it can be used, just that you choose its activation status at the start of each of your turns which is the same as how a normal Beholder activates it.
Edit. I will also add that having the range be restricted to 30 feet instead of 150 feet will also work pretty well to your advantage. You have a 30 foot antimagic shield on one side of you to protect yourself from incoming magical effects, but are still able to target creatures on that side with you Eye Ray EBs or other spells so long as they are 40+ feet away. If the cone were 150 feet, that would be a stronger antimagic effect, but you would also basically be unable to target any of the creatures in that direction with any of your magic. The smaller range offers you a still pretty powerful area of antimagic while not undercutting your ability to use magic as a blaster (which is basically the role youll want to fill if this subclass builds around EB). The inability to target creatures in the antimagic area with their more potent attacks is usually the down side to a Beholder using the ability.
There was a restriction, but for some reason, it got lost. Now it should be there again. When you open the central eye as a bonus action, you get the antimagic cone for 10 minutes. To use it again once that time has passed, you need to spend 5 sorcery points or finish a long rest.
From my understanding, no, you cannot shoot spells through an antimagic field, the antimagic field would nullify them. At least that is how I would rule it.
No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
I see, I misunderstood how the Antimagic Field affects summons.
On this more recent note, how is the ability not at will? I know we had discussed adding a restriction, but in your most recent version there is no time limit or limit to how often it can be used, just that you choose its activation status at the start of each of your turns which is the same as how a normal Beholder activates it.
Edit. I will also add that having the range be restricted to 30 feet instead of 150 feet will also work pretty well to your advantage. You have a 30 foot antimagic shield on one side of you to protect yourself from incoming magical effects, but are still able to target creatures on that side with you Eye Ray EBs or other spells so long as they are 40+ feet away. If the cone were 150 feet, that would be a stronger antimagic effect, but you would also basically be unable to target any of the creatures in that direction with any of your magic. The smaller range offers you a still pretty powerful area of antimagic while not undercutting your ability to use magic as a blaster (which is basically the role youll want to fill if this subclass builds around EB). The inability to target creatures in the antimagic area with their more potent attacks is usually the down side to a Beholder using the ability.
There was a restriction, but for some reason, it got lost. Now it should be there again. When you open the central eye as a bonus action, you get the antimagic cone for 10 minutes. To use it again once that time has passed, you need to spend 5 sorcery points or finish a long rest.
From my understanding, no, you cannot shoot spells through an antimagic field, the antimagic field would nullify them. At least that is how I would rule it.
I suppose you are correct about the EB's. I was imagining them curving around the field, but admittedly there is no reason for that sort of thing to occur. Just some game breaking flavor in my head, lol.
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Reduced the eye ray damage but added a damage buff as part of Many-Eyed Menace (kept the dice sizes as a Beholder uses the same dice for its death/enervation/disintegration ray) and limited use of the antimagic cone from Eye of the Beholder. Also clarified the flavor text of Reality-Twisting NIghtmares, as someone thought others could not long rest near the sorcerer, which was not my intention.
I kept the summon as it is though. I don't think there is another way to do that, buidling upon Vivid Dreams like that, keeping it simple to understand, powerful enough to be useful in fights against world-ending threats you get into as a level 18 character and allowing for that many options in terms of flavor. Using simulacrum instead, saying "any spell that conjures one creature" or using a specific statblock would all be either more restrictive or result in more powerful summons. I think the only options here are keeping it as is or scrapping it and replacing it with something entirely different - but what? Something related to madness maybe?
1) what scaling would you suggest here? Also, it is quite important here that the enervation ray deals less damage than the other two damaging options. Having various damage scalings wihtin a table would be quite finnicky? Do you think I should replace the "roll twice and choose the number" with increased damage at level 14 or keep it *and* implement scaling damage in some way?
2) It is. An incapcaitated creature can't do anything. A frightened and blinded creature still can do stuff, and quite a lot of that actually, unless its important abilities rely on it having line of sight. Also, there's the risk of rolls being wasted and doing nothing if the monster is immune to the rolled effect. From my experience of playing aberrant mind sorcerers, completely disabling enemies with psychic lance at such a low cost is a game winner and allows you to defeat creatures you should lose to even if you have to burn through legendary resistances first. Intelligence saves suck, even for many powerful monsters... ^-^ I agree the damage needs to be reduced upfront a bit, which I will do, but I think you are overestimating the effectiveness here.
3) I still disagree here. A level 18 ability should be something special and powerful. It is the last ability the sorcerer gains from their subclass, it is something to look forward to. I still believe the 9th level summon aberration is fine here. Indeed I think there are other examples for sorcerer level 18 abilities out there that would really need some buffs, such as the Aberrant Mind sorcerer's levle 18 ability, which is just a slightly buffed thunder step - a 3rd level spell they could've cast from level 5 onwards. I do not want to make the same mistake, I don't want to give the player something at level 18 they basically could have done much earlier. They could take summon aberration from level 7 onward and cast it at 4th level.
However getting a free cast of summon aberration at 9th level is something to look forward to, and it can be used creatively considering the ability explicitely allows the creature to have basically any shape. Want to dream up a copy of a specific individual for infiltration purposes or to scare someone? Want to dream up an eyedrake? Want to dream up a corrupted pit fiend after defeating one the day before? All that is fine with this ability.
I think it is best to not think of that ability as a "free 9th level spell each day", but rather as "wow, I can dream a creature of my imagination into existence, and that creature actually is decently useful!".
In terms of maths, we are looking at 90 HP, not 130 (40 at 4th level, plus 10 per level of the spell above 4th; maybe you looked at the UA version of the spell?). An ancient red dragon for example breathes for 96 damage average and the summon has no chance of succeeding the saving throw. And no way to mitigate the damage. Imagine how quickly the summon would die if it was cast at 4th level and had just 40 HP... :-) Also, 20 AC does not mean much against attack bonuses of +15 and more (and player characters typically have more AC at these levels, unless they use two-handed weapons and have no shield spell nor AC-boosting magic items). Furthermore, we are looking at saving throw modifiers of +3, 0, +2, +3, 0, -2 here. That is on par with a level 1 standard array player character without saving throw proficiencies. Considering how many dangerous saving throws high-level monsters force, the spirit won't do much in challenging encounters.
Indeed, the lack of scaling defenses is an issue of summons and pets in general, it is not specific to summon aberration or to this subclass ability. The sweetspot for summons and pets probably is in T2 and early T3, then they fall off quickly. When I played a Battlesmith artificer, even in late T2 I already noticed the steel defender's weak saving throws and defenses, it got killed quite quickly by AoEs or disabled by a failed saving throw, particularly against fear.
That is an awesome sorcerer subclass. I think it is really good, but I agree that the 9nth level spell slot might be overpowered.
That’s why I only included one eye ray that does damage for my Warlock subclass.
I also agree with the others about the 9th-level spell being a bit OP.
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I honestly just messed up the math in the moment, lol. Its definitely 90 HP. Still nothing to sneeze at though, in my opinion. Having something that can sit on a battlefield every day and soak up several attacks (even from high CR monsters) while also dealing consistently high damage is pretty powerful.Even if all it buys you is 1 round worth of dealing damage and 1 round of the BBEG's turn absorbing damage before dying, that still puts your party at a huge advantage for their fights. On the other hand, if the monsters you are fighting dont focus fire this thing, then this monster is just as capable of being healed and can even heal outside of combat during a short rest (since it has Hit Dice). Even at 18th level, not every fight the DM puts in front of you is going to be against world-ending CR 30+ monsters. There will still be "lesser fights" this summons will be more than capable of surviving the duration of.
Idk, the way I see it its gonna be annoying from a DM side. The additional creature in each combat is going to slow things down, and in this case it will slow things down for every combat it survives since it can participate in fights for up to 8 hours. A DM could deal with a player who cast the normal version of the spell by breaking the spellcaster's concentration if they did not want to try to melt the summons. That option isnt available here. The DM has to commit monsters and resources to fighting this thing, which will either result in easy victories OR in the DM just adding more monsters (or health or damage) to account for the added combatant at which point its a wash.
From the player's side, as fun and flavorful as it is, it could be annoying to use as well. You get the monster for 8 hours and it pops into existence immediately after you complete a long rest. It wont help the player with combats that take place 9+ hours after their rest, unless they rely on magic or have information to predict when the fight will be so they can plan their rest accordingly, which itself can be annoying. It might feel bad that you dont have much real control over when the summons appears and when it vanishes.
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Thank you a lot!
I will update it later this day with scaling damage for the eye rays. All these suggestions are good.
Regarding the summon, what would you suggest? The familiar summoned by Vivid Dreams is there for only 8 hours too. 8 hours duration from my understanding is intended to cover the entire day (note there's no spell with a 12 hour duration), so they'd only not have their summon if an encounter interrupts their long rest. Not having exact control over one's dreams and therefore over the timing for the summon makes sense to me. I still could change the time it lasts to 24 hours if you think this is better.
I also don't think a single summon is annoying for the DM to handle. At level 18, there are other much more serious things to worry about for the DM.
Since a few others also mentioned the "free 9th level speitg is OP": Guys, please, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. It is not a "free 9th level spell". It is an ability that reflects how a beholder literally can dream creatures into existence - which is how the sorcerer themaelves came to be - and for that, it uses the mechanics of a 4th level spell upcast to 9th level. It does so to be a good, useful level 18 ability, one that is worth to take the level for.
Several other high-level abilities are equal to lower-level spells upcast to 9th level too, they just don't state it outright unlike this one. The Divine Soul sorcerer's and Clockwork sorcerer's level 18 abilities for example can easily heal as much as a heal spell upcast to 9th level, on top of other benefits. The Storm sorcerer's level 18 ability is aequivalent to a non-concentration fly upcast to 9th level with an increased duration. And so forth.
The only difference is, again, that my subclass's ability outright states that you cast a 4th level spell at 9th level without a spell slot.
The thing is, a creature cannot benefit from a long rest more than once in a 24 hour period, so 8 hours after you complete a long rest you cannot take another long rest. At the very least, if you sleep 8 hours every day there will be a 16 hour period between rests. If you want to have a spell effect that lasts for the full duration between long rests, I would look at the Open Hand Monk's Tranquility feature for inspiration.
I was thinking about it more, because I really do love the intent of the ability, what if it was modeled closer to something like the Shadow Sorc's Hound of Ill Omen (with some buffs since its a higher level). It starts with a Dire Wolf's stat block, but then gets some extra buffs (like temp HP) to help it last longer in combat without getting all sorts of extra attacks on top of its normal stats. In this way, maybe you could even open it up to allow the player to have a choice of some base state blocks to build from (like a Veteran or Archer). These NPCs are generally weaker, but you could add a few extra buffs (again, like temp HP or a bonus to their saves) that would allow them to feel strong without necessarily having all of the extra HP, AC, and # of attacks an upcasted summons would have.
OR, maybe your ability to "dream summon" isnt as potent as a Beholder. Maybe your summon comes out as some incorporeal creature, and you could therefor say that its immune to taking damage (allowing it to stay around for the full day). In the same way, though, its actions it could take would be limited to things like taking the Help action or using some action that imposes a penalty on an enemy's attacks or saves, and could not attack.
Third idea (and please forgive me at this point, I promise I am not trying to take control of your homebrew), but isnt there some bit in Beholder lore about them accidently summoning a copy of themselves through their dreams? Maybe your dream summons could be a reflection of your own character, and rather than being a "creature" in and of itself is more like a pool of extra resources (sorcery points and maybe a few extra spells known). Maybe while you are within a certain distance of your dream copy you gain the benefits of the Mirror Image spell as well, or something.
Just a few thoughts. I am excited to see what you can come up with, because everything else is so flavorful and feels fun to play.
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Here's an update with rebalanced eye rays. I took one damage die away for each damaging option. I beiieve that should be fine now, considering most spells that have attack rolls are pretty sub-par compared to most other spells. At level 14, I took the "roll twice, choose the number" ability away, instead, as a means of damage scaling, whenever the sorcerer uses an Eye Ray, the spell attack deals additional damage equal to the Charisma modifier. This makes eye rays somewhat more reliable, making them do something even if the target ends up being immune to the rolled effect.
I also adjusted the duration of the summons of both Vivid Dreams and Reality-Twisting NIghtmares to "until the start of your next long rest". Thanks for the tip with the Tranquility feature!
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NNmVyWMtrwON22H9n9K
I like the idea of summoning a twisted copy of oneself too, it certainly fits Beholder lore. You could flavor the summon aberration like that too. When I wrote the feature initially, it was a free cast of Simulacrum (of a creature you have seen before, including possibly yourself) at the end of a long rest. I was considering adding an ability check to control the Simulacrum. However, I felt that would be too much considering how powerful Simulacrum as a spell is. Your idea goes a lot into the Simulacrum direction.
Another idea was True Polymorph on a random object close to them, but True Polymorph allows objects to be turned into creatures up to CR 9, and that is more powerful than the upcast summon aberration.
Using a different statblock could work too, but which one? What I like about the summon aberration way is that it allows for a lot of flexibility with its three options while not being complicated at the same time, and it is a statblock that is available to players anyways. It can be flavored in many ways, whether it is an actual beholderkin, a copy of the sorcerer themselves, some other character, an eyedrake or other monster they have seen/fought before or something entirely different.
That is what a familiar does. And this sorcerer gets a familiar at level 1 :-)
True enough, but it was just some very general ideas to start from. The idea would be to give the special incorporeal summon some specific sort of unique action, bonus action, or reaction options that may not be available to other summons that would reflect the unique beholder flavor.
As a separate note, looking at your Eye of the Beholder feature again, with the "always on" antimagic field does that mean the player has to be extremely aware of their summons at all time or risk erasing it? Combat is one thing, of course, but if you are walking through a hallway with your summons, doesnt that mean the player always needs to be looking sideways or something to avoid erasing their summons?
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The antimagic field is only on when they choose to activate it, and at the start of each of their turns, the sorcerer can choose which direction the cone faces and whether it is active this round. They can avoid hittng their own summon with it. Also afaik summons do not disappear permanently when hit by an antimagic field, they just are gone as long as the antimagic field affects their space.
!!!
So it's better than a beholder's own antimagic cone?
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No, it is weaker, it covers a smaller area and cannot be used at will.
I see, I misunderstood how the Antimagic Field affects summons.
On this more recent note, how is the ability not at will? I know we had discussed adding a restriction, but in your most recent version there is no time limit or limit to how often it can be used, just that you choose its activation status at the start of each of your turns which is the same as how a normal Beholder activates it.
Edit. I will also add that having the range be restricted to 30 feet instead of 150 feet will also work pretty well to your advantage. You have a 30 foot antimagic shield on one side of you to protect yourself from incoming magical effects, but are still able to target creatures on that side with
you Eye Ray EBs orother spells so long as they are 40+ feet away. If the cone were 150 feet, that would be a stronger antimagic effect, but you would also basically be unable to target any of the creatures in that direction with any of your magic. The smaller range offers you a still pretty powerful area of antimagic while not undercutting your ability to use magicas a blaster (which is basically the role youll want to fill if this subclass builds around EB).The inability to target creatures in the antimagic area with their more potent attacks is usually the down side to a Beholder using the ability.Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Sorry, for some reason I thought the antimagic cone was always on for a beholder, and that it had no way to turn it on or off
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There was a restriction, but for some reason, it got lost. Now it should be there again. When you open the central eye as a bonus action, you get the antimagic cone for 10 minutes. To use it again once that time has passed, you need to spend 5 sorcery points or finish a long rest.
From my understanding, no, you cannot shoot spells through an antimagic field, the antimagic field would nullify them. At least that is how I would rule it.
I suppose you are correct about the EB's. I was imagining them curving around the field, but admittedly there is no reason for that sort of thing to occur. Just some game breaking flavor in my head, lol.
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Here's the current version of my subclass:
GMBinder: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NNmVyWMtrwON22H9n9K
Reduced the eye ray damage but added a damage buff as part of Many-Eyed Menace (kept the dice sizes as a Beholder uses the same dice for its death/enervation/disintegration ray) and limited use of the antimagic cone from Eye of the Beholder. Also clarified the flavor text of Reality-Twisting NIghtmares, as someone thought others could not long rest near the sorcerer, which was not my intention.
I kept the summon as it is though. I don't think there is another way to do that, buidling upon Vivid Dreams like that, keeping it simple to understand, powerful enough to be useful in fights against world-ending threats you get into as a level 18 character and allowing for that many options in terms of flavor. Using simulacrum instead, saying "any spell that conjures one creature" or using a specific statblock would all be either more restrictive or result in more powerful summons. I think the only options here are keeping it as is or scrapping it and replacing it with something entirely different - but what? Something related to madness maybe?
Semako, I haven't the time to read it right now, but you need to be commended for your formatting alone! Bravo!
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