Looking for Ideas for a melee sorcerer build. Actually, more of a gish type, really. Sorcerer only. thought about using shadow blade or flame blade for the weapon. What spells and feats would you use to be able to go toe to toe with many of the monsters in 5.24? Starting from level 1.
Firstly, I will say that ruling out all multiclassing is going to make this a tough niche to fill. Sorcerers won't have a reliable way to make more that one attack per turn, but there are a couple things you can do to get around that. Here are some suggestions that might help maximize the build:
Be a Draconic Sorcerer for the extra AC and HP. At 20 Dexterity & Charisma, you would have a solid 20 AC baseline. If you can get a couple magic item or two like a [magicItems]Cloak of Protection[/magicIems], you should be fine with the enemies taking a few swings at you.
Maximize Dexterity first over Charisma for better attacking. This will let you use a light finesse weapon in one hand and Shadow Blade in the other (note that Shadow Blade uses Dexterity or Strength to attack where Flame Blade using your Charisma).
In combat, you can use your action to Attack with your Shadow Blade, then quicken Booming Blade to hit with your physical weapon as a bonus action. Sadly, you can't use Shadow Blade with the cantrip because it require an actual weapon with a monetary value of 1sp+. If you want to conserve resources, you could also forgo Booming Blade to simply make an attack with your weapon using you bonus action thanks to the Light property on Shadow Blade
As far as feats go, I would look at Defensive Duelist for an at-will AC boost against melee attacks without using spell slots on Shield. Warcaster would of course be a great fit to make sure your don't lose your Shadow Blade. The last one I would consider is Rune Shaper to get ability to cast the spell Armor of Agathys. The temp HP from the spell scales with the spell slot used, and is a good way to deal damage back at the enemy who hits you.
Alternative Idea: Instead of a Draconic Sorcerer using Shadow Blade and Booming Blade, be a Divine Soul Sorcerer, then use True Striketo attack with your weapon while concentrating and using your bonus action on [spells]Spiritual Weapon[spells]. In this case, you would be Charisma-based, and would have less AC/HP, but it could still be a viable alternative with the scaling from the spells.
For a really gish build, make sure your ability to be in melee isn't dependent on spell slots, or you'll eventually have to retreat. Draconic Sorcery gives you the defensive features needed automatically, so let's look at how to be consistently useful in melee.
The easiest way for any caster to excel in melee is to start with Shillelagh (taking Magic Initiate: Druid at level 4 feat, with the human feat, or through the Guide background) to get a bonus cantrip and Cure Wounds or Healing Word, which can all use your CHA modifier.This gives you access to an excellent melee weapon at level 1 which deals magical damage, and a healing spell to save you or a friend in a pinch.
Club for 2x attacks/turn.
A club is a light weapon even with Shillelagh. You can use the light property without any class features, so Shadow Blade works with Shillelagh to give you 2x attacks if you're really wanting extra attacks, but then you don't get your bonus action for spells.
True Strike for big hits.
If you want to cast spells and attack on your turn, you can use True Strike to double-dip damage. Starting at level 5, the combination of Shillelagh and True Strike outstrips Shadow Blade and Flame Blade in terms of base damage. (1d10+CHA+2d6) This means you don't have to keep concentration on a Blade spell. Your minimum damage goes from 2+DEX psychic (shadow) or 3 Fire (flame) to 3+CHA Force and Radiant damage.
Because True Strike is a Sorcerer Cantrip, Innate Sorcery buffs its attacks, so that feature can be used to pump up your hits. All this keeps you using cantrips for your bread-and-butter damage. (Due to True Strike being Radiant and Shillelagh being Force, your Elemental Affinity won't boost these attacks, but Shillelagh replaces that feature, so you don't lose any damage).
All your spell slots are still there to get Gishy. Quicken spells to deal a crap ton of damage, healing, or utility. Because you got a healing spell from Magic Initiate: Druid, you never need to worry about a healer being nearby or healing someone else. If you'd rather focus on pure survivability, you have access to the best 3 defensive spells: Misty Step, Mirror Image, and Blur. (Only Blur needs Concentration, and you'll be a nightmare to hit).
Your party will be glad you're in melee. Your melee hits will matter, and so will your spells. If you take Spare the Dying as your other cantrip from Magic Initiate, you'll have more options to support other melee combatants at critical times.
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"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol "Failure means you've tried." -RB
Getting 2 attacks per turn RAW is messy but a lot of DMs will house rule something easier
Shilelagh has V/S components so unless you have warcaster you need a hand free to cast it therefore it has to be before you cast shadow blade (or at least when it is not in your hand, for example because you threw it the previous turn)
Shillelagh only works on clubs and quarterstaff so attacks with a flame blade have to be using dex (or str), Rory probably meant this but when I first read through it I thought he was saying you could cast shillelagh on a flame blade
While holding the flame blade and a club you will not be able to cast spells with material components because you do not have a free can to hold the material component or your spell focus. (This also applies if you have warcaster)
Getting 2 attacks per turn RAW is messy but a lot of DMs will house rule something easier
Shilelagh has V/S components so unless you have warcaster you need a hand free to cast it therefore it has to be before you cast shadow blade (or at least when it is not in your hand, for example because you threw it the previous turn)
Shillelagh only works on clubs and quarterstaff so attacks with a flame blade have to be using dex (or str), Rory probably meant this but when I first read through it I thought he was saying you could cast shillelagh on a flame blade
While holding the flame blade and a club you will not be able to cast spells with material components because you do not have a free can to hold the material component or your spell focus. (This also applies if you have warcaster)
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason. True Strike and Shillelagh both have Somatic components, as do a huge number of Sorcerer spells, so it's better to just skip the light weapon interaction and double down with True Strike. If you so take War Caster, you're really getting the ability to cast True Strike as a reaction, double-dipping on the damage you can deal as a Reaction in melee.
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"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol "Failure means you've tried." -RB
If you want to do a pure gish sorcerer, you'll need to sacrifice spell power to do so. Here's one option:
Point Buy: STR 8 | DEX 15 +1 | CON 15 | INT 8 | WIS 8 | CHA 15+2 Custom Background : +1 DEX, +2 CHA, Origin Feat: Tough (+2 HP) Species: Orc or Goblin - Orc gives you by far the best survivability bonuses of any species if you want to be more of a tank, whereas Goblin enables a hit-and-run playstyle similar to a rogue.
Level 1: Sorcerer Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Shocking Grasp, Green Flame Blade (if available) + whichever utility spells you want. Spells: Mage Armour, Shield. Equipment: Shortbow + 2 Handaxes. Playstyle : cast Mage Armour at the start of each adventuring day (AC = 16), then alternate between True Strike + Shortbow + Blade Ward / Adrenaline Rush, or dual wielding handaxes.
Level 3: Draconic Sorcerer : Retrain your Mage Armour spell, Take Shadow Blade to pair with your Handaxe.
Level 4: Warcaster - brings your CHA up to 18, and allows you to cast True Strike as your AoO
Level 6: Choose Fire for your Elemental Affinity to allow you to add your CHA to the extra damage with Green Flame Blade, you should now be using GFB as your primary attack and can forget about Shadow Blade unless your DM allows it to combo with GFB. True Strike + Shortbow remains your long-range option.
Level 8: Take +2 DEX, boosting your weapon attacks.
Level 12 & 16 ASIs are spend maxing out your DEX and CHA.
Spell Choice Notes: Once you reach level 5, you'll start off combat with Blade Ward (Action) + Quickened Concentration spell (BA), then moving into melee for subsequent turns. Appropriate concentration spells are Flaming Sphere (benefits from your Elemental Affinity), Enlarge (extra damage to your weapon attacks), Blur, Ashardalon's Stride, Haste, Minute Meteors, Storm Sphere, or Bigby's Hand.
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
Getting 2 attacks per turn RAW is messy but a lot of DMs will house rule something easier
Shilelagh has V/S components so unless you have warcaster you need a hand free to cast it therefore it has to be before you cast shadow blade (or at least when it is not in your hand, for example because you threw it the previous turn)
Shillelagh only works on clubs and quarterstaff so attacks with a flame blade have to be using dex (or str), Rory probably meant this but when I first read through it I thought he was saying you could cast shillelagh on a flame blade
While holding the flame blade and a club you will not be able to cast spells with material components because you do not have a free can to hold the material component or your spell focus. (This also applies if you have warcaster)
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason. True Strike and Shillelagh both have Somatic components, as do a huge number of Sorcerer spells, so it's better to just skip the light weapon interaction and double down with True Strike. If you so take War Caster, you're really getting the ability to cast True Strike as a reaction, double-dipping on the damage you can deal as a Reaction in melee.
May not be worth the Metamagic Choice and Sorcery Point costs, but Subtle Spell could route around the Somatic Components for Shillelagh.
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🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
There’s always Warcaster. I mean, you have to wait until level 4 to get it, but still…
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
There’s always Warcaster. I mean, you have to wait until level 4 to get it, but still…
If the Shillelagh in question is a quarterstaff, it counts as a spell focus. That means it works for Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock.
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"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol "Failure means you've tried." -RB
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
There’s always Warcaster. I mean, you have to wait until level 4 to get it, but still…
If the Shillelagh in question is a quarterstaff, it counts as a spell focus. That means it works for Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock.
There's a super-annoying bit of Rules-As-Written pedantry, though: The Spell Focus feature of the Spellcasting feature for all of those listed classes (or subclasses in the case of the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster) only works for the spells that belong to those individual Classes. An example from the Sorcerer Class Features in the 2024 Free Rules Follows:
Spellcasting Focus. You can use an Arcane Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Sorcerer spells.
Unless you actually have levels in Druid (or some other feature that makes Shillelagh one of your Class spells, such as obtaining it through the 2024 Pact of the Tome Warlock Invocation, or the Ranger's Druidic Warrior Fighting Style), you can't use a Spell Focus to cast it.. If you obtain it from Magic Initiate (Druid), even though you have it always-prepared, it's still a Druid Spell.
That said, a Wooden Staff Druidic Focus or Arcane Focus can be used as a Quarterstaff, but is not the same as a mundane Quarterstaff; presumably there's some sort of extra crafting that goes into the focuses that makes them worth 25 times as much.
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🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
i wouldn't use shadowblade with a draconic bloodline its a trap ..... shadowblad blocks you from using haste, and from lvl 9 - lvl 17 also blocks you from using summon dragon
cantrips : truestrike, booming blade or greenflame blade ( if DM allows them ) use either a finese weapon ( if you take martial weapon mastery ) or magic initiate druid and quarterstaff ( works only on truestrike tough )
shadowblade will only be better from lvl 5-9, and equial on lvls 9-17 after lvl 17 its not even close shadowblade cast at highest lvl is only going to beat BB by 9 pts, as soon as you have a magic weapon and / or a weapon that adds something to dmg, shadowblade falls behind BB already, with GFB ( or transmute ) its only 4 pts
If you want to do a pure gish sorcerer, you'll need to sacrifice spell power to do so. Here's one option:
Point Buy: STR 8 | DEX 15 +1 | CON 15 | INT 8 | WIS 8 | CHA 15+2 Custom Background : +1 DEX, +2 CHA, Origin Feat: Tough (+2 HP) Species: Orc or Goblin - Orc gives you by far the best survivability bonuses of any species if you want to be more of a tank, whereas Goblin enables a hit-and-run playstyle similar to a rogue.
Level 1: Sorcerer Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Shocking Grasp, Green Flame Blade (if available) + whichever utility spells you want. Spells: Mage Armour, Shield. Equipment: Shortbow + 2 Handaxes. Playstyle : cast Mage Armour at the start of each adventuring day (AC = 16), then alternate between True Strike + Shortbow + Blade Ward / Adrenaline Rush, or dual wielding handaxes.
Level 3: Draconic Sorcerer : Retrain your Mage Armour spell, Take Shadow Blade to pair with your Handaxe.
Level 4: Warcaster - brings your CHA up to 18, and allows you to cast True Strike as your AoO
Level 6: Choose Fire for your Elemental Affinity to allow you to add your CHA to the extra damage with Green Flame Blade, you should now be using GFB as your primary attack and can forget about Shadow Blade unless your DM allows it to combo with GFB. True Strike + Shortbow remains your long-range option.
Level 8: Take +2 DEX, boosting your weapon attacks.
Level 12 & 16 ASIs are spend maxing out your DEX and CHA.
Spell Choice Notes: Once you reach level 5, you'll start off combat with Blade Ward (Action) + Quickened Concentration spell (BA), then moving into melee for subsequent turns. Appropriate concentration spells are Flaming Sphere (benefits from your Elemental Affinity), Enlarge (extra damage to your weapon attacks), Blur, Ashardalon's Stride, Haste, Minute Meteors, Storm Sphere, or Bigby's Hand.
these Spell choices won't work : Blade Ward ( Concentrate ), if you cast another conc spell the blade ward cast is useless 1st - 4th lvl i would conc on blade ward sure 5th - 8th lvl i think haste is the conc of choice 9th - 17th lvl Summon Dragon !!!! 18th+ probaly haste will be your best choice again, and cast Summon Dragon ( with your lvl 18 Ability so it doesnt need conc ) + depending on DM you could also cast another summon dragon normaly as your conc spell + RAW you can cast it mutiple times and have multiple Dragons up, RAI it is not intended to work that way imho :) so depends on DM
Is Haste worth the Prepared Spell Selection for a Melee character? Even with the Concentration Save Bonus from Warcaster and the Sorcerer CON Proficiency, losing Concentration on Haste is pretty terrible (Target of spell is Incapacitated and has Speed 0 until the end of their Next Turn), and it seems better used by a compatriot who's a support caster, and staying behind cover.
Or was the assumption that you'd be casting Haste on someone else in the party?
Yeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
There’s always Warcaster. I mean, you have to wait until level 4 to get it, but still…
If the Shillelagh in question is a quarterstaff, it counts as a spell focus. That means it works for Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock.
There's a super-annoying bit of Rules-As-Written pedantry, though: The Spell Focus feature of the Spellcasting feature for all of those listed classes (or subclasses in the case of the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster) only works for the spells that belong to those individual Classes. An example from the Sorcerer Class Features in the 2024 Free Rules Follows:
Spellcasting Focus. You can use an Arcane Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Sorcerer spells.
Unless you actually have levels in Druid (or some other feature that makes Shillelagh one of your Class spells, such as obtaining it through the 2024 Pact of the Tome Warlock Invocation, or the Ranger's Druidic Warrior Fighting Style), you can't use a Spell Focus to cast it.. If you obtain it from Magic Initiate (Druid), even though you have it always-prepared, it's still a Druid Spell.
That said, a Wooden Staff Druidic Focus or Arcane Focus can be used as a Quarterstaff, but is not the same as a mundane Quarterstaff; presumably there's some sort of extra crafting that goes into the focuses that makes them worth 25 times as much.
Yeah, rules about Foci and components, specifically M components, frustrate me to no end. The Harry Potter fantasy of casting all your spells through a wand is not RAW by 5e or 5.24e rules. Since most evocation spells don't require M components, you can't use a focus to cast those spells. This invalidates my arcane archer build with anything other than artificer (and they have an awful spell list for evocation spells). Valor Bards can use weapons as spell foci, and warlocks can use their pact weapon as a spell focus, but not with spells that don't have M components. Artificer's spells all have a special M component that requires using your tools or other foci for spellcasting. But that's another build. Sorry for the tangent.
So, the best ideas I've seen is Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh and Cure Wounds, Prioritize Dex and Cha (Con as a third) for max AC, use a club Shillelagh to cast true strike (or booming blade), use mirror image or blur (or both) for defense, use true strike w/ shortbow for ranged (until you get scorching rays), does that about sum it up? Pretty good for a non-tank.
If you want to do a pure gish sorcerer, you'll need to sacrifice spell power to do so. Here's one option:
Point Buy: STR 8 | DEX 15 +1 | CON 15 | INT 8 | WIS 8 | CHA 15+2 Custom Background : +1 DEX, +2 CHA, Origin Feat: Tough (+2 HP) Species: Orc or Goblin - Orc gives you by far the best survivability bonuses of any species if you want to be more of a tank, whereas Goblin enables a hit-and-run playstyle similar to a rogue.
Level 1: Sorcerer Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Shocking Grasp, Green Flame Blade (if available) + whichever utility spells you want. Spells: Mage Armour, Shield. Equipment: Shortbow + 2 Handaxes. Playstyle : cast Mage Armour at the start of each adventuring day (AC = 16), then alternate between True Strike + Shortbow + Blade Ward / Adrenaline Rush, or dual wielding handaxes.
Level 3: Draconic Sorcerer : Retrain your Mage Armour spell, Take Shadow Blade to pair with your Handaxe.
Level 4: Warcaster - brings your CHA up to 18, and allows you to cast True Strike as your AoO
Level 6: Choose Fire for your Elemental Affinity to allow you to add your CHA to the extra damage with Green Flame Blade, you should now be using GFB as your primary attack and can forget about Shadow Blade unless your DM allows it to combo with GFB. True Strike + Shortbow remains your long-range option.
Level 8: Take +2 DEX, boosting your weapon attacks.
Level 12 & 16 ASIs are spend maxing out your DEX and CHA.
Spell Choice Notes: Once you reach level 5, you'll start off combat with Blade Ward (Action) + Quickened Concentration spell (BA), then moving into melee for subsequent turns. Appropriate concentration spells are Flaming Sphere (benefits from your Elemental Affinity), Enlarge (extra damage to your weapon attacks), Blur, Ashardalon's Stride, Haste, Minute Meteors, Storm Sphere, or Bigby's Hand.
these Spell choices won't work : Blade Ward ( Concentrate ), if you cast another conc spell the blade ward cast is useless 1st - 4th lvl i would conc on blade ward sure 5th - 8th lvl i think haste is the conc of choice 9th - 17th lvl Summon Dragon !!!! 18th+ probaly haste will be your best choice again, and cast Summon Dragon ( with your lvl 18 Ability so it doesnt need conc ) + depending on DM you could also cast another summon dragon normaly as your conc spell + RAW you can cast it mutiple times and have multiple Dragons up, RAI it is not intended to work that way imho :) so depends on DM
Is Haste worth the Prepared Spell Selection for a Melee character? Even with the Concentration Save Bonus from Warcaster and the Sorcerer CON Proficiency, losing Concentration on Haste is pretty terrible (Target of spell is Incapacitated and has Speed 0 until the end of their Next Turn), and it seems better used by a compatriot who's a support caster, and staying behind cover.
Or was the assumption that you'd be casting Haste on someone else in the party?
if you are doing melee you use haste on yourself, it is only used on lvl 5-8 and lvl 18+ in avg on lvl 5-8 you need to roll a 5 ( +2 con, +3 prof. = +5 ) with warcaster that is about a chance of 9% of failure you need to take a single hit of more then 20 for the chance to get higher to fail
if you want to lower that chance you can cast shield +5 ac or cast mirror image at 18+ its ( +2 con, +6 prof, +1 item = +9 ) => 2+ roll on d20 -> 5% failure chance you need to take a single hit of more then 22 for the chance to get higher to fail
however you could just forego the haste part and instead concentrate on something else, since it doesn't incr. your dpr so much
So, the best ideas I've seen is Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh and Cure Wounds, Prioritize Dex and Cha (Con as a third) for max AC, use a club Shillelagh to cast true strike (or booming blade), use mirror image or blur (or both) for defense, use true strike w/ shortbow for ranged (until you get scorching rays), does that about sum it up? Pretty good for a non-tank.
shield spell as a reaction when you get hit :)
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Looking for Ideas for a melee sorcerer build. Actually, more of a gish type, really. Sorcerer only. thought about using shadow blade or flame blade for the weapon. What spells and feats would you use to be able to go toe to toe with many of the monsters in 5.24? Starting from level 1.
Firstly, I will say that ruling out all multiclassing is going to make this a tough niche to fill. Sorcerers won't have a reliable way to make more that one attack per turn, but there are a couple things you can do to get around that. Here are some suggestions that might help maximize the build:
Be a Draconic Sorcerer for the extra AC and HP. At 20 Dexterity & Charisma, you would have a solid 20 AC baseline. If you can get a couple magic item or two like a [magicItems]Cloak of Protection[/magicIems], you should be fine with the enemies taking a few swings at you.
Maximize Dexterity first over Charisma for better attacking. This will let you use a light finesse weapon in one hand and Shadow Blade in the other (note that Shadow Blade uses Dexterity or Strength to attack where Flame Blade using your Charisma).
Pick Booming Blade for an attack cantrip, but Green-Flame Blade would work as well. Take both if you are feeling spicy
Take spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Mirror Image, and Blink for better survivability.
In combat, you can use your action to Attack with your Shadow Blade, then quicken Booming Blade to hit with your physical weapon as a bonus action. Sadly, you can't use Shadow Blade with the cantrip because it require an actual weapon with a monetary value of 1sp+. If you want to conserve resources, you could also forgo Booming Blade to simply make an attack with your weapon using you bonus action thanks to the Light property on Shadow Blade
As far as feats go, I would look at Defensive Duelist for an at-will AC boost against melee attacks without using spell slots on Shield. Warcaster would of course be a great fit to make sure your don't lose your Shadow Blade. The last one I would consider is Rune Shaper to get ability to cast the spell Armor of Agathys. The temp HP from the spell scales with the spell slot used, and is a good way to deal damage back at the enemy who hits you.
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Alternative Idea: Instead of a Draconic Sorcerer using Shadow Blade and Booming Blade, be a Divine Soul Sorcerer, then use True Striketo attack with your weapon while concentrating and using your bonus action on [spells]Spiritual Weapon[spells]. In this case, you would be Charisma-based, and would have less AC/HP, but it could still be a viable alternative with the scaling from the spells.
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InsiderFor a really gish build, make sure your ability to be in melee isn't dependent on spell slots, or you'll eventually have to retreat. Draconic Sorcery gives you the defensive features needed automatically, so let's look at how to be consistently useful in melee.
The easiest way for any caster to excel in melee is to start with Shillelagh (taking Magic Initiate: Druid at level 4 feat, with the human feat, or through the Guide background) to get a bonus cantrip and Cure Wounds or Healing Word, which can all use your CHA modifier.This gives you access to an excellent melee weapon at level 1 which deals magical damage, and a healing spell to save you or a friend in a pinch.
Club for 2x attacks/turn.
A club is a light weapon even with Shillelagh. You can use the light property without any class features, so Shadow Blade works with Shillelagh to give you 2x attacks if you're really wanting extra attacks, but then you don't get your bonus action for spells.
True Strike for big hits.
If you want to cast spells and attack on your turn, you can use True Strike to double-dip damage. Starting at level 5, the combination of Shillelagh and True Strike outstrips Shadow Blade and Flame Blade in terms of base damage. (1d10+CHA+2d6) This means you don't have to keep concentration on a Blade spell. Your minimum damage goes from 2+DEX psychic (shadow) or 3 Fire (flame) to 3+CHA Force and Radiant damage.
Because True Strike is a Sorcerer Cantrip, Innate Sorcery buffs its attacks, so that feature can be used to pump up your hits. All this keeps you using cantrips for your bread-and-butter damage. (Due to True Strike being Radiant and Shillelagh being Force, your Elemental Affinity won't boost these attacks, but Shillelagh replaces that feature, so you don't lose any damage).
All your spell slots are still there to get Gishy. Quicken spells to deal a crap ton of damage, healing, or utility. Because you got a healing spell from Magic Initiate: Druid, you never need to worry about a healer being nearby or healing someone else. If you'd rather focus on pure survivability, you have access to the best 3 defensive spells: Misty Step, Mirror Image, and Blur. (Only Blur needs Concentration, and you'll be a nightmare to hit).
Your party will be glad you're in melee. Your melee hits will matter, and so will your spells. If you take Spare the Dying as your other cantrip from Magic Initiate, you'll have more options to support other melee combatants at critical times.
"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol
"Failure means you've tried." -RB
Getting 2 attacks per turn RAW is messy but a lot of DMs will house rule something easier
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InsiderYeah, you do have to cast Shillelagh with a free hand, which isn't a problem unless you're determined to have two weapons as a caster for some reason. True Strike and Shillelagh both have Somatic components, as do a huge number of Sorcerer spells, so it's better to just skip the light weapon interaction and double down with True Strike. If you so take War Caster, you're really getting the ability to cast True Strike as a reaction, double-dipping on the damage you can deal as a Reaction in melee.
"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol
"Failure means you've tried." -RB
If you want to do a pure gish sorcerer, you'll need to sacrifice spell power to do so. Here's one option:
Point Buy: STR 8 | DEX 15 +1 | CON 15 | INT 8 | WIS 8 | CHA 15+2
Custom Background : +1 DEX, +2 CHA, Origin Feat: Tough (+2 HP)
Species: Orc or Goblin - Orc gives you by far the best survivability bonuses of any species if you want to be more of a tank, whereas Goblin enables a hit-and-run playstyle similar to a rogue.
Level 1: Sorcerer
Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Shocking Grasp, Green Flame Blade (if available) + whichever utility spells you want. Spells: Mage Armour, Shield.
Equipment: Shortbow + 2 Handaxes.
Playstyle : cast Mage Armour at the start of each adventuring day (AC = 16), then alternate between True Strike + Shortbow + Blade Ward / Adrenaline Rush, or dual wielding handaxes.
Level 2: Sorcerer, Metamagics: Quickened Spell, Extended Spell.
Level 3: Draconic Sorcerer : Retrain your Mage Armour spell, Take Shadow Blade to pair with your Handaxe.
Level 4: Warcaster - brings your CHA up to 18, and allows you to cast True Strike as your AoO
Level 6: Choose Fire for your Elemental Affinity to allow you to add your CHA to the extra damage with Green Flame Blade, you should now be using GFB as your primary attack and can forget about Shadow Blade unless your DM allows it to combo with GFB. True Strike + Shortbow remains your long-range option.
Level 8: Take +2 DEX, boosting your weapon attacks.
Level 12 & 16 ASIs are spend maxing out your DEX and CHA.
Spell Choice Notes: Once you reach level 5, you'll start off combat with Blade Ward (Action) + Quickened Concentration spell (BA), then moving into melee for subsequent turns. Appropriate concentration spells are Flaming Sphere (benefits from your Elemental Affinity), Enlarge (extra damage to your weapon attacks), Blur, Ashardalon's Stride, Haste, Minute Meteors, Storm Sphere, or Bigby's Hand.
Unlikely to apply to a sorcerer but also means you can not use it on a sword and board build unless one can act as a spell focus. I did have a concept of a Paladin attacking with Charisma via Shillelegh but it didn't work because you can not cast it while wielding a shield.
May not be worth the Metamagic Choice and Sorcery Point costs, but Subtle Spell could route around the Somatic Components for Shillelagh.
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
There’s always Warcaster. I mean, you have to wait until level 4 to get it, but still…
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InsiderIf the Shillelagh in question is a quarterstaff, it counts as a spell focus. That means it works for Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock.
"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol
"Failure means you've tried." -RB
There's a super-annoying bit of Rules-As-Written pedantry, though: The Spell Focus feature of the Spellcasting feature for all of those listed classes (or subclasses in the case of the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster) only works for the spells that belong to those individual Classes. An example from the Sorcerer Class Features in the 2024 Free Rules Follows:
Unless you actually have levels in Druid (or some other feature that makes Shillelagh one of your Class spells, such as obtaining it through the 2024 Pact of the Tome Warlock Invocation, or the Ranger's Druidic Warrior Fighting Style), you can't use a Spell Focus to cast it.. If you obtain it from Magic Initiate (Druid), even though you have it always-prepared, it's still a Druid Spell.
That said, a Wooden Staff Druidic Focus or Arcane Focus can be used as a Quarterstaff, but is not the same as a mundane Quarterstaff; presumably there's some sort of extra crafting that goes into the focuses that makes them worth 25 times as much.
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
i wouldn't use shadowblade with a draconic bloodline its a trap .....
shadowblad blocks you from using haste, and from lvl 9 - lvl 17 also blocks you from using summon dragon
cantrips : truestrike, booming blade or greenflame blade ( if DM allows them )
use either a finese weapon ( if you take martial weapon mastery ) or magic initiate druid and quarterstaff ( works only on truestrike tough )
shadowblade will only be better from lvl 5-9, and equial on lvls 9-17
after lvl 17 its not even close
shadowblade cast at highest lvl is only going to beat BB by 9 pts, as soon as you have a magic weapon and / or a weapon that adds something to dmg, shadowblade falls behind BB already, with GFB ( or transmute ) its only 4 pts
ASI : Warcaster, +2 chr, martial weapon master, light armor, epic boon
- AC : 19 + shield+? = 21 + shield spell = 26
this setup w/o shadowblade let you reach >100 dpR ( sustained ) adj. to hit %
these Spell choices won't work :
Blade Ward ( Concentrate ), if you cast another conc spell the blade ward cast is useless
1st - 4th lvl i would conc on blade ward sure
5th - 8th lvl i think haste is the conc of choice
9th - 17th lvl Summon Dragon !!!!
18th+ probaly haste will be your best choice again, and cast Summon Dragon ( with your lvl 18 Ability so it doesnt need conc )
+ depending on DM you could also cast another summon dragon normaly as your conc spell
+ RAW you can cast it mutiple times and have multiple Dragons up, RAI it is not intended to work that way imho :) so depends on DM
Is Haste worth the Prepared Spell Selection for a Melee character? Even with the Concentration Save Bonus from Warcaster and the Sorcerer CON Proficiency, losing Concentration on Haste is pretty terrible (Target of spell is Incapacitated and has Speed 0 until the end of their Next Turn), and it seems better used by a compatriot who's a support caster, and staying behind cover.
Or was the assumption that you'd be casting Haste on someone else in the party?
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
Yeah, rules about Foci and components, specifically M components, frustrate me to no end. The Harry Potter fantasy of casting all your spells through a wand is not RAW by 5e or 5.24e rules. Since most evocation spells don't require M components, you can't use a focus to cast those spells. This invalidates my arcane archer build with anything other than artificer (and they have an awful spell list for evocation spells). Valor Bards can use weapons as spell foci, and warlocks can use their pact weapon as a spell focus, but not with spells that don't have M components. Artificer's spells all have a special M component that requires using your tools or other foci for spellcasting. But that's another build. Sorry for the tangent.
So, the best ideas I've seen is Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh and Cure Wounds, Prioritize Dex and Cha (Con as a third) for max AC, use a club Shillelagh to cast true strike (or booming blade), use mirror image or blur (or both) for defense, use true strike w/ shortbow for ranged (until you get scorching rays), does that about sum it up? Pretty good for a non-tank.
if you are doing melee you use haste on yourself, it is only used on lvl 5-8 and lvl 18+
in avg on lvl 5-8 you need to roll a 5 ( +2 con, +3 prof. = +5 ) with warcaster that is about a chance of 9% of failure
you need to take a single hit of more then 20 for the chance to get higher to fail
if you want to lower that chance you can cast shield +5 ac or cast mirror image
at 18+ its ( +2 con, +6 prof, +1 item = +9 ) => 2+ roll on d20 -> 5% failure chance
you need to take a single hit of more then 22 for the chance to get higher to fail
however you could just forego the haste part and instead concentrate on something else, since it doesn't incr. your dpr so much
shield spell as a reaction when you get hit :)