Thinking of a 5.5e Sorcerer subclass themed around blocking, manipulating or absorbing magic - to protect from magic, bend luck, enhance themselves, or siphon magic to make it theirs.
I only focused on mechanics and loosely, and haven't started on any names or such, so help with those is appreciated. Also concerns about balance and so on. My brain is very foggy so it's difficult for me to iron out details and analyse my own stuff like I used to. Help and feedback is very much appreciated.
This is very rough, I will need to tidy wording up and tool-tip add flavour text and all that. I just need the base skeleton set before I work on the flesh - as it were.
3rd level: Extra Spells
When you reach a Sorcerer level specified in the Extra Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
My Notes: I'll obviously rename this when I can think of what to call it. Tried to focus on spells that are more on theme, that will pair well with the 6th level feature. I specifically wanted to avoid usual "combat spells", and instead be more utility or protective in ways that fit the theme.
3rd level feature
When a creature you can see makes a d20 Test roll you can use your reaction to spend 2 sorcery points and provide a magical bonus or penalty of 1d4 to that roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum 1 times, and regain all spent uses when you complete a Long Rest.
My Notes: Not a strong feature but I wanted to avoid the heavy front-loading Sorcs already have due to Innate Sorcery and Metamagic. It doesn't scale much since it's very flexible and combines well with Innate Sorcery since you can give 1d4 to your own spell attacks that will also have advantage or 1d4 penalty to a saving throw against your spells when your save DC is already being boosted. Since Innate Sorcery already gets boosted later on normally as well as due to a 6th level subclass feature , making this scale with it is a bit much. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
6th level feature - Magic Resistance
While you have your Innate Sorcery feature active you have advantage on saving throws made to resist spells and spell attacks made against you have disadvantage.
6th level feature -
When you cast any level 1+ spell from your Extra Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of Sorcery Points equal to the spell’s level. If you cast the spell using Sorcery Points it requires no Verbal, Somatic or Material components.
My Notes: similar to aberrant mind. I removed the extra bit about m components with cost/consumed because the only spell affected is Nondetection which has a small gold cost - at low levels you're using up a good chunk of your slots/SP resources anyway and at higher levels when you have a lot more resources, even to cast on whole party, the tiny gold amount is too easy to come by anyway - and casting on a whole party still eats a lot of your slots/SP.
Level 14 feature
As an action you can touch one creature or magic item in an attempt to take magical essence from it.
If the target is a creature it must make a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC. If it fails and the creature has the Spellcasting feature or trait, or the Pact Magic feature or trait, it loses a random unspent spell slot of 5th level or lower or loses one use of any spell of 5th level or lower that it cannot cast at-will. You gain an extra spell slot equal to the spell's level. This extra spell slot lasts until either: you spend it, you complete a Long Rest or after 1 day has passed. If the creature doesn't have the spell slots or spell uses available when you use this then you instead gain 5 sorcery points and the creature gains 3 levels of Exhaustion.
If the target is a magic item that has unspent charges it loses (as if spent but without effect) a number of unspent charges up to a maximum of 5 charges (you may choose the number but if it has less than the number chosen it only loses what it has left) and you gain an extra spell slot equal to the number of unspent charges the magic item lost. This extra spell slot lasts until either: you spend it, you complete a Long Rest or after 1 day has passed.
Once you have used this feature you cannot do so again until you complete a Long Rest.
Level 18 feature
You can sense the casting of spells around you even if the casting is imperceptible or the origin invisible. Unless you are Incapacitated, when a spell is cast within 60 ft of you and the caster is not behind total cover at the time of casting then you will immediately know a spell was cast and where it was cast from. You may, at that time, choose to cast Counterspell and target the casting you sensed even if you cannot see the caster or if the casting was being made without spell components (including through a magic item) or both. However, in such circumstance the caster has advantage to save against your Counterspell if a saving throw is needed.
Whenever you successfully use Counterspell to interrupt a creature from casting a spell and causing their spell to dissipate without effect you gain Sorcery Points equal to half their spell's level rounded up.
Whenever you use Dispel Magic to successfully end a spell on a target you gain Sorcery Points equal to half that spell's level rounded up. If the target had multiple spells upon it that you ended with this use of Dispel Magic, use the highest level spell you successfully ended to determine the Sorcery Points gained.
My Notes: This one may be strong? But it's 18th level, only relevant in certain circumstances, will more often net you less SP than what you spent for dispel/counterspell especially since with counterspell the target doesn't lose their spell slot/use, so can try again and it's a Con save which is most likely for enemies to succeed on. But, I dunno. Should restrictions be made?
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
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Thinking of a 5.5e Sorcerer subclass themed around blocking, manipulating or absorbing magic - to protect from magic, bend luck, enhance themselves, or siphon magic to make it theirs.
I only focused on mechanics and loosely, and haven't started on any names or such, so help with those is appreciated. Also concerns about balance and so on. My brain is very foggy so it's difficult for me to iron out details and analyse my own stuff like I used to. Help and feedback is very much appreciated.
This is very rough, I will need to tidy wording up and tool-tip add flavour text and all that. I just need the base skeleton set before I work on the flesh - as it were.
3rd level: Extra Spells
When you reach a Sorcerer level specified in the Extra Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
3rd Level: False Life, Detect Magic, Enhance Ability, See Invisibility
5th level: Counterspell, Dispel Magic
7th level: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Nondetection,
9th Level: Dispel Evil and Good, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum
My Notes: I'll obviously rename this when I can think of what to call it. Tried to focus on spells that are more on theme, that will pair well with the 6th level feature. I specifically wanted to avoid usual "combat spells", and instead be more utility or protective in ways that fit the theme.
3rd level feature
When a creature you can see makes a d20 Test roll you can use your reaction to spend 2 sorcery points and provide a magical bonus or penalty of 1d4 to that roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, minimum 1 times, and regain all spent uses when you complete a Long Rest.
My Notes: Not a strong feature but I wanted to avoid the heavy front-loading Sorcs already have due to Innate Sorcery and Metamagic. It doesn't scale much since it's very flexible and combines well with Innate Sorcery since you can give 1d4 to your own spell attacks that will also have advantage or 1d4 penalty to a saving throw against your spells when your save DC is already being boosted. Since Innate Sorcery already gets boosted later on normally as well as due to a 6th level subclass feature , making this scale with it is a bit much. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
6th level feature - Magic Resistance
While you have your Innate Sorcery feature active you have advantage on saving throws made to resist spells and spell attacks made against you have disadvantage.
6th level feature -
When you cast any level 1+ spell from your Extra Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of Sorcery Points equal to the spell’s level. If you cast the spell using Sorcery Points it requires no Verbal, Somatic or Material components.
My Notes: similar to aberrant mind. I removed the extra bit about m components with cost/consumed because the only spell affected is Nondetection which has a small gold cost - at low levels you're using up a good chunk of your slots/SP resources anyway and at higher levels when you have a lot more resources, even to cast on whole party, the tiny gold amount is too easy to come by anyway - and casting on a whole party still eats a lot of your slots/SP.
Level 14 feature
As an action you can touch one creature or magic item in an attempt to take magical essence from it.
If the target is a creature it must make a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC. If it fails and the creature has the Spellcasting feature or trait, or the Pact Magic feature or trait, it loses a random unspent spell slot of 5th level or lower or loses one use of any spell of 5th level or lower that it cannot cast at-will. You gain an extra spell slot equal to the spell's level. This extra spell slot lasts until either: you spend it, you complete a Long Rest or after 1 day has passed. If the creature doesn't have the spell slots or spell uses available when you use this then you instead gain 5 sorcery points and the creature gains 3 levels of Exhaustion.
If the target is a magic item that has unspent charges it loses (as if spent but without effect) a number of unspent charges up to a maximum of 5 charges (you may choose the number but if it has less than the number chosen it only loses what it has left) and you gain an extra spell slot equal to the number of unspent charges the magic item lost. This extra spell slot lasts until either: you spend it, you complete a Long Rest or after 1 day has passed.
Once you have used this feature you cannot do so again until you complete a Long Rest.
Level 18 feature
You can sense the casting of spells around you even if the casting is imperceptible or the origin invisible. Unless you are Incapacitated, when a spell is cast within 60 ft of you and the caster is not behind total cover at the time of casting then you will immediately know a spell was cast and where it was cast from. You may, at that time, choose to cast Counterspell and target the casting you sensed even if you cannot see the caster or if the casting was being made without spell components (including through a magic item) or both. However, in such circumstance the caster has advantage to save against your Counterspell if a saving throw is needed.
Whenever you successfully use Counterspell to interrupt a creature from casting a spell and causing their spell to dissipate without effect you gain Sorcery Points equal to half their spell's level rounded up.
Whenever you use Dispel Magic to successfully end a spell on a target you gain Sorcery Points equal to half that spell's level rounded up. If the target had multiple spells upon it that you ended with this use of Dispel Magic, use the highest level spell you successfully ended to determine the Sorcery Points gained.
My Notes: This one may be strong? But it's 18th level, only relevant in certain circumstances, will more often net you less SP than what you spent for dispel/counterspell especially since with counterspell the target doesn't lose their spell slot/use, so can try again and it's a Con save which is most likely for enemies to succeed on. But, I dunno. Should restrictions be made?
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.