Remember, that you can't just compare the cantrip in a vaccum. Compare it to what you'd be doing with other cantrips (namely fire bolt) as well as remembering that you're only allowed 1 meta-magic per spell; which you'll need to keep free for the empowered. So, like, even if Mind Sliver deals less damage, I have the option to quicken it for some nasty combos with other spells while Sorcerous Burst I either have to keep it open for Empowered to have a chance of tapping into the new rolls or using another Metamagic and forsaking empowering it all together.
It really is a trap. Because with almost any other decent cantrip you're either dealing more consistent damage or gaining some other effect. I'd almost say that I'd rather invest levels/feats in warlock stuff to tap into EB or something instead of using SB if I REALLY needed damage
Small correction empower spell can be used in conjunction with another meta magic. It is the exception to the one meta magic per spell rule.
Good point, though I will say I am not a fan of empower. It is only 1 point so I wont say it is unbalanced but I'd rather have a metamagic that cost 2 or 3 and have it feel more impactful when increasing damage. Maybe I just don't like how weak it is compared to 3es or something, I don't know, but rerolling 1-5 dice just feels meh. It doesn't feel like a empower and more a save a really bad roll spell, because those rare times when you roll 5 1s on your fireball and only do like 16 damage sucks or something. It's the graze of metamagics. Which while useful, is just boring imo.
He is right. Don't know how I missed that. However, I do want to point out that it's still a point cost for something that's not even really that potent. Firstly, you have to take the new roll, so if you rolled a 4 or 5 and decided to reroll and got a 2 or 3, you'd need to keep it. Even if you do get an upgrade you're not guarenteed the 6 you need for it to explode. So spending a sorc point for a whopping maximum of 4 damage (if it doesn't explode. Going from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5) is a huuuuuuuge wiff.
I wouldn't be so hard on it if SB just had... SOMETHING... to make me want to actually USE it over other cantrips. Mind sliver targets a save (flexibility) and can penalize a save if it hits. Firebolt does a d10 instead of a d6. Acid Splash has a small AoE effect. Frostbite has an uphill battle considering it's targeting CON, but it's presenting me with an option and if it works it's effect is actually decently useful. Greenflame is pretty niche in it's use and you'd need a very specific built to capitalize on it, but if you did it's a pretty nifty spell. Stuff like Light and Shape Water has utility use. But SB? It's pure damage but if I wanted damage I'd either go firebolt or something that gives me just... some other utility. Heck, even if a foe has a weakness, if damage is what I want, I'll probably be better off casting an actual spell instead. The MAX it can deal is 8d6 which is the same as a fireball. Except that this requires me to be level 17+ while Fireball just requires me to be level 5, is an AoE, and deals half on a save (as opposed to SB's complete fail if a miss). Make SB take a bonus action, or have the next source of damage that deals damage of the same element deal an additional d4, or... I don't know. Just SOMETHING!
Also, currently multiclass with Warlock for EB is not worth, you should be mostly Warlock.
Remember that you make use of Empowered after rolling damage, so at level 5 when you roll 2d6, can reroll 1 or even both if are low results, improving much the probability to get a 6, that you could reroll too if that new d6 result would be low. Nothing forces you to use each round, but if you roll 2 low results, is a good chance to apply 2 improvements, increase damage + chance to get a 6.
Compared to Mind Sliver, well it gives ST penalty, but what about if I don't require it?. And now for me is much better to use HEIGHTENED than MS + QUICKENED if you want to improve the SV stuff.
And well, have to mention again, you choose the damage type, that means if you know the target weakness/resistances it doubles its effectiveness. If the target have fire immunity, Fire Bolt is useless, while SB can always bypass it and/or take advantage of target vulnerabilities.
So as single attack damage cantrip it is nice, as is always valid, then is perfect to give to the Sorcerer as can live with that single attack cantrip, choosing others utility. Later you are free to use your known cantrips to get other attack ones.
Small correction empower spell can be used in conjunction with another meta magic. It is the exception to the one meta magic per spell rule.
Small correction to your small correction, but since Seeking Spell is in the UA as well then Empowered is no longer the only exception; you can do a Quickened Spell, then when you inevitably miss with it (I always do) you can burn even more sorcery points on Seeking Spell to try again, and probably also miss, but if you don't you can then do Empowered Spell as well. 😉
That's one of the other problems with Sorcery Incarnate actually, as the most common Metamagics you'd want to use together already work, which means you're left with far more situational combos like Distant + Subtle to get a far away guard without revealing your position, or Heightened + Transmuted to push a failed save against an enemy you know is immune to the spell's normal damage type, as well as most Metamagics + Quickened Spell.
It's not a terrible bonus to have but it's highly situational how much benefit two Metamagics actually is; great if you hit one of those situations and can benefit multiple times, but I do wonder if it just makes more sense as a class feature where you can spend an extra Sorcery point to use a second Metamagic or something, so you can just do it when you need to rather than having to cast a 5th-level spell first.
A solution to Sorcery Incarnate could be applying the Barbarian Rage method, the effect lasts if you cast a spell (including cantrips) or use your Bonus Action (so you can cast Bonus Action spells), during 1 minute.
A solution to Sorcery Incarnate could be applying the Barbarian Rage method, the effect lasts if you cast a spell (including cantrips) or use your Bonus Action (so you can cast Bonus Action spells), during 1 minute.
Instead of concentration? That would be cool; would feel more like a mini "avatar state" that way, lasting as long as you're drawing on that surge of power.
Make SB take a bonus action, or have the next source of damage that deals damage of the same element deal an additional d4, or... I don't know. Just SOMETHING!
Maybe sorcerer spells in general should have a reduced metamagic cost. Like metamagic costs 1 less when used on sorcerer spells, min one most likely, but maybe not. .
Also, currently multiclass with Warlock for EB is not worth, you should be mostly Warlock.
Remember that you make use of Empowered after rolling damage, so at level 5 when you roll 2d6, can reroll 1 or even both if are low results, improving much the probability to get a 6, that you could reroll too if that new d6 result would be low. Nothing forces you to use each round, but if you roll 2 low results, is a good chance to apply 2 improvements, increase damage + chance to get a 6.
Compared to Mind Sliver, well it gives ST penalty, but what about if I don't require it?. And now for me is much better to use HEIGHTENED than MS + QUICKENED if you want to improve the SV stuff.
And well, have to mention again, you choose the damage type, that means if you know the target weakness/resistances it doubles its effectiveness. If the target have fire immunity, Fire Bolt is useless, while SB can always bypass it and/or take advantage of target vulnerabilities.
So as single attack damage cantrip it is nice, as is always valid, then is perfect to give to the Sorcerer as can live with that single attack cantrip, choosing others utility. Later you are free to use your known cantrips to get other attack ones.
Just some probability for you, chance of seeing a 6 on 2d6 is 30%, rerolling both and effectively getting 4d6 is a 50% chance of getting a 6.
If you burn sorcery points rerolling and get a 6 for a third die your average is gonna be like 13 damage.
Average of 2d10 for a firebolt is 11 dmg.
This is why sorcerous burst is a trap spell.. even if you GET a 6, your average damage is jank cuse it's 2d6 vs 2d10. The 6 isn't a feel good moment it's just getting you to where firebolt would of been anyway, and anytime you don't get a 6 (70% of the time) you would of been way better off with bolt.
The only time this cantrip is almost worth something is with draconic exhalation, but it's a lvl 10 ability which basically amounts to casting scorching ray, and I don't see anyone excited for scorching ray at lvl 10, and it's worse since it only has a range of 15 feet..
This is why sorcerous burst is a trap spell.. even if you GET a 6, your average damage is jank cuse it's 2d6 vs 2d10. The 6 isn't a feel good moment it's just getting you to where firebolt would of been anyway, and anytime you don't get a 6 (70% of the time) you would of been way better off with bolt.
While the damage isn't amazing (reliant on the 6's like you say), there is value in having a choice of damage types; against an enemy that's resistant or immune to fire, fire bolt will require you to spend Sorcery Points to break through with Transmuted Spell, pick up Elemental Adept for fire as a feat, or spend another cantrip choice on something else (assuming you had fire bolt instead of sorcerous blast, not in addition to, in which case it's already costing an extra cantrip choice).
I wouldn't like to spend the Sorcery Point on Empowered Spell on it in its present form, except maybe once it gains its final dice after a mostly bad roll, but I think it's okay as a workhorse cantrip as you'll almost always have a damage type you can use.
Yeah, I love exploding dice. Earthdawn, deadlands, some kind of exploding chain of doom is fun. But I kind of feel like they didn't do that math on this one. Like I get they didn't want it to match EB as supposedly EB is all powerful and therefor warlocks need to be weak otherwise.(again bad assumptions on their part) but it shouldn't be worse than almost every other cantrip. Maybe if it was 2d4 and scaled 2d4 at each step, but i have not done the math on that either.
The problem with that 'overcoming resistances/hitting weaknesses' thing is that it's dependent on your enemy HAVING a weakness/resistance. This isn't pokemon where almost every mon has something it resists and something it's weak too. The vast majority of monsters, especially at lower levels when cantrips are more important, simply don't have any. Some of the more common monsters are zombies (immune to poison), skeleton (immune to poison, weak to bludgeoning), Bandits (nothing), Goblin (nothing), wolves (nothing), Orc (nothing), Cultists (nothing), and Bugbears (nothing). I won't deny monsters like grey oozes exist or that fire is the most commonly resisted element. I'm just saying that not only is that not very relevant at the levels where you'd really be relying on SB for damage, it's not like every other foe has a fire resistance.
I think letting Sorcerous Burst get free Metamagic (with an exception for quickened) might be an interesting boost, although it could make it strictly better than other options, which wouldn't be good. I guess that's the thing with Sorcerous Burst... either it's worse than other cantrips and nobody ever uses it, or it's better and nobody ever uses the other options. Kinda points to a bigger flaw in forcing people to get specific spells, doesn't it?
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
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Maybe allowing to reroll 1's with no need of metamagic, increasing its average damage even if the top is lower than others. So both the 1 and 6 would be special cases for this cantrip, allowing to reroll a total number of dice equal to your ability score bonus.
I think letting Sorcerous Burst get free Metamagic (with an exception for quickened) might be an interesting boost, although it could make it strictly better than other options, which wouldn't be good. I guess that's the thing with Sorcerous Burst... either it's worse than other cantrips and nobody ever uses it, or it's better and nobody ever uses the other options. Kinda points to a bigger flaw in forcing people to get specific spells, doesn't it?
Hmmm... Careful, Extended, Heightened, transmuted, and fail!twinned would be useless/pointless. Distant would have rare use at best. Empowered, of course, would be great. Quickened is potent as always. Seeking is alright. Subtle will teeter between 'useless' and 'OMGWTFOPED'. Being able to always quicken would be stupidly OP for any cantrip. Maybe reducing the Sorc point cost by 1 to a minimum of 1? That way you'd still need to pay for quickened.
Edit: Let me also add that what you're saying is not true. The issue is that there's only so many ways to deal damage that, if the only thing a cantrip brings to the table IS damage, it's going to lose out to whatever the best damaging cantrip is unless it becomes the best. Earlier I pointed to several other cantrips and, while I probably wouldn't want all of them on the same character, having two of those would actually be good and both would likely see use.
For example, let's assume I took Fire Bolt. It does decent damage and targets AC. But I can then also take Acid Splash. That targets dex and can hit multiple targets. So now I have two options. If I suspect my foe has relatively lower AC and/or a lot of HP, I can lob firebolt. But if I suspect they either have a higher AC and a weaker dex save or need to hit two targets instead of just one, I can use Acid Spash instead. Even if I use FB more often there will be situations where Acid Splash comes in useful. That's also why SB is so irritating. Because it's 'niche' is so extremely situational (foe has a weakness/resistance to fire) where it's better than probably the single most BnB cantrip in the game and the one thing it actually does (damage) it's only slightly better than other cantrips at doing. If it offered basically ANYTHING else it would be different; but as-is, combined with other stuff, it makes it feel like Wizards is careless and doesn't understand their own game. Just... make what seems like it's clearly meant to be the sorcs go-to cantrip actually a cantrip we'd want to 'go-to' and all my complaints about it would vanish in an instant.
I think letting Sorcerous Burst get free Metamagic (with an exception for quickened) might be an interesting boost, although it could make it strictly better than other options, which wouldn't be good. I guess that's the thing with Sorcerous Burst... either it's worse than other cantrips and nobody ever uses it, or it's better and nobody ever uses the other options. Kinda points to a bigger flaw in forcing people to get specific spells, doesn't it?
I like this idea; if you just made the Metamagic cost 1 less Sorcery Point for it, and made sure this couldn't stack, then this prevents Quickened from becoming free, but still gives it added value (only costing 1 sorcery point). It would also pair really well with Sorcery Incarnate giving two Metamagics, as for a single sorcery point you could quicken a burst and empower them both.
The magic within you blooms, transforming you into a glimmering being of magical energy for the duration. You regain 1d4 +1 Sorcery Points. Until the spell ends, you also gain the following benefits:
Taking damage will not cause loss of concentration from this spell.
You can use up to two of your Metamagic options on each spell you cast, provided you pay the Sorcery Point costs.
You have attack rolls, damage, heal (SORCEROUS VITALITY) and saving throw of every spell you cast increases by the same amount as the Sorcery Points recovered by the spell.
SORCEROUS VITALITY:
Casting Time: Bonus Action (or reaction)
You draw on your innate magic to fill yourself with vitality. You regain a number of Hit Points equal to 2d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier + your Constitution modifier, and if you have any of the following conditions, they end on you: Blinded, Deafened, natural disease or and Poisoned.
SV needs a serious buff as well. The problem is that it costs a level 3 spell slot yet heals, well, 2d6. Even with SCCC's suggested change the most you could heal is 22 which... is not only endgame since you'd need 20 CHA and CON for that, but kinda lackluster. It's basically a healing word that can only target yourself. Not the WORST, but for a class feature, you can do better. I have some suggestions of my own.
1) The most straight-forwards. The only change here is that the amount it heals has been increased from 2d6 to 4d6.'
1a) Possibly rerolling nat 1's as well?
1b) Or double the stat bonus?
2) SV now heals Blinded, deafened, poisoned, natural diseases (like SCCC suggested), and I want to tack on silenced as well.
2a) Possibly removing any vocal components so that it can be used to clear silenced easily.
3) This is probably the most unusual, but make it a bonus action but have the amount you heal be based on the amount of damage you deal on your next spell cast. Like half rounded down, min 1.
4) Alternatively, give it some form of offensive bonus to their next spell cast. Like, 2d6+CHA healing and +1d6 damage to the next spell cast.
SV needs a serious buff as well. The problem is that it costs a level 3 spell slot yet heals, well, 2d6. Even with SCCC's suggested change the most you could heal is 22 which... is not only endgame since you'd need 20 CHA and CON for that, but kinda lackluster. It's basically a healing word that can only target yourself. Not the WORST, but for a class feature, you can do better. I have some suggestions of my own.
1) The most straight-forwards. The only change here is that the amount it heals has been increased from 2d6 to 4d6.'
1a) Possibly rerolling nat 1's as well?
1b) Or double the stat bonus?
2) SV now heals Blinded, deafened, poisoned, natural diseases (like SCCC suggested), and I want to tack on silenced as well.
2a) Possibly removing any vocal components so that it can be used to clear silenced easily.
3) This is probably the most unusual, but make it a bonus action but have the amount you heal be based on the amount of damage you deal on your next spell cast. Like half rounded down, min 1.
4) Alternatively, give it some form of offensive bonus to their next spell cast. Like, 2d6+CHA healing and +1d6 damage to the next spell cast.
Why would you use it to clear silenced? Silence is an AoE it doesn't target an individual, and Sorcerers get Subtle Spell which allows you to circumvent silence for 1 SP, far far cheaper than a 3rd level spell.
Good point, though I will say I am not a fan of empower. It is only 1 point so I wont say it is unbalanced but I'd rather have a metamagic that cost 2 or 3 and have it feel more impactful when increasing damage. Maybe I just don't like how weak it is compared to 3es or something, I don't know, but rerolling 1-5 dice just feels meh. It doesn't feel like a empower and more a save a really bad roll spell, because those rare times when you roll 5 1s on your fireball and only do like 16 damage sucks or something. It's the graze of metamagics. Which while useful, is just boring imo.
He is right. Don't know how I missed that. However, I do want to point out that it's still a point cost for something that's not even really that potent. Firstly, you have to take the new roll, so if you rolled a 4 or 5 and decided to reroll and got a 2 or 3, you'd need to keep it. Even if you do get an upgrade you're not guarenteed the 6 you need for it to explode. So spending a sorc point for a whopping maximum of 4 damage (if it doesn't explode. Going from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5) is a huuuuuuuge wiff.
I wouldn't be so hard on it if SB just had... SOMETHING... to make me want to actually USE it over other cantrips. Mind sliver targets a save (flexibility) and can penalize a save if it hits. Firebolt does a d10 instead of a d6. Acid Splash has a small AoE effect. Frostbite has an uphill battle considering it's targeting CON, but it's presenting me with an option and if it works it's effect is actually decently useful. Greenflame is pretty niche in it's use and you'd need a very specific built to capitalize on it, but if you did it's a pretty nifty spell. Stuff like Light and Shape Water has utility use. But SB? It's pure damage but if I wanted damage I'd either go firebolt or something that gives me just... some other utility. Heck, even if a foe has a weakness, if damage is what I want, I'll probably be better off casting an actual spell instead. The MAX it can deal is 8d6 which is the same as a fireball. Except that this requires me to be level 17+ while Fireball just requires me to be level 5, is an AoE, and deals half on a save (as opposed to SB's complete fail if a miss). Make SB take a bonus action, or have the next source of damage that deals damage of the same element deal an additional d4, or... I don't know. Just SOMETHING!
Also, currently multiclass with Warlock for EB is not worth, you should be mostly Warlock.
Remember that you make use of Empowered after rolling damage, so at level 5 when you roll 2d6, can reroll 1 or even both if are low results, improving much the probability to get a 6, that you could reroll too if that new d6 result would be low. Nothing forces you to use each round, but if you roll 2 low results, is a good chance to apply 2 improvements, increase damage + chance to get a 6.
Compared to Mind Sliver, well it gives ST penalty, but what about if I don't require it?. And now for me is much better to use HEIGHTENED than MS + QUICKENED if you want to improve the SV stuff.
And well, have to mention again, you choose the damage type, that means if you know the target weakness/resistances it doubles its effectiveness. If the target have fire immunity, Fire Bolt is useless, while SB can always bypass it and/or take advantage of target vulnerabilities.
So as single attack damage cantrip it is nice, as is always valid, then is perfect to give to the Sorcerer as can live with that single attack cantrip, choosing others utility. Later you are free to use your known cantrips to get other attack ones.
Small correction to your small correction, but since Seeking Spell is in the UA as well then Empowered is no longer the only exception; you can do a Quickened Spell, then when you inevitably miss with it (I always do) you can burn even more sorcery points on Seeking Spell to try again, and probably also miss, but if you don't you can then do Empowered Spell as well. 😉
That's one of the other problems with Sorcery Incarnate actually, as the most common Metamagics you'd want to use together already work, which means you're left with far more situational combos like Distant + Subtle to get a far away guard without revealing your position, or Heightened + Transmuted to push a failed save against an enemy you know is immune to the spell's normal damage type, as well as most Metamagics + Quickened Spell.
It's not a terrible bonus to have but it's highly situational how much benefit two Metamagics actually is; great if you hit one of those situations and can benefit multiple times, but I do wonder if it just makes more sense as a class feature where you can spend an extra Sorcery point to use a second Metamagic or something, so you can just do it when you need to rather than having to cast a 5th-level spell first.
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A solution to Sorcery Incarnate could be applying the Barbarian Rage method, the effect lasts if you cast a spell (including cantrips) or use your Bonus Action (so you can cast Bonus Action spells), during 1 minute.
Instead of concentration? That would be cool; would feel more like a mini "avatar state" that way, lasting as long as you're drawing on that surge of power.
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Maybe sorcerer spells in general should have a reduced metamagic cost. Like metamagic costs 1 less when used on sorcerer spells, min one most likely, but maybe not. .
Just some probability for you, chance of seeing a 6 on 2d6 is 30%, rerolling both and effectively getting 4d6 is a 50% chance of getting a 6.
If you burn sorcery points rerolling and get a 6 for a third die your average is gonna be like 13 damage.
Average of 2d10 for a firebolt is 11 dmg.
This is why sorcerous burst is a trap spell.. even if you GET a 6, your average damage is jank cuse it's 2d6 vs 2d10. The 6 isn't a feel good moment it's just getting you to where firebolt would of been anyway, and anytime you don't get a 6 (70% of the time) you would of been way better off with bolt.
The only time this cantrip is almost worth something is with draconic exhalation, but it's a lvl 10 ability which basically amounts to casting scorching ray, and I don't see anyone excited for scorching ray at lvl 10, and it's worse since it only has a range of 15 feet..
While the damage isn't amazing (reliant on the 6's like you say), there is value in having a choice of damage types; against an enemy that's resistant or immune to fire, fire bolt will require you to spend Sorcery Points to break through with Transmuted Spell, pick up Elemental Adept for fire as a feat, or spend another cantrip choice on something else (assuming you had fire bolt instead of sorcerous blast, not in addition to, in which case it's already costing an extra cantrip choice).
I wouldn't like to spend the Sorcery Point on Empowered Spell on it in its present form, except maybe once it gains its final dice after a mostly bad roll, but I think it's okay as a workhorse cantrip as you'll almost always have a damage type you can use.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Yeah, I love exploding dice. Earthdawn, deadlands, some kind of exploding chain of doom is fun. But I kind of feel like they didn't do that math on this one. Like I get they didn't want it to match EB as supposedly EB is all powerful and therefor warlocks need to be weak otherwise.(again bad assumptions on their part) but it shouldn't be worse than almost every other cantrip. Maybe if it was 2d4 and scaled 2d4 at each step, but i have not done the math on that either.
The problem with that 'overcoming resistances/hitting weaknesses' thing is that it's dependent on your enemy HAVING a weakness/resistance. This isn't pokemon where almost every mon has something it resists and something it's weak too. The vast majority of monsters, especially at lower levels when cantrips are more important, simply don't have any. Some of the more common monsters are zombies (immune to poison), skeleton (immune to poison, weak to bludgeoning), Bandits (nothing), Goblin (nothing), wolves (nothing), Orc (nothing), Cultists (nothing), and Bugbears (nothing). I won't deny monsters like grey oozes exist or that fire is the most commonly resisted element. I'm just saying that not only is that not very relevant at the levels where you'd really be relying on SB for damage, it's not like every other foe has a fire resistance.
I think letting Sorcerous Burst get free Metamagic (with an exception for quickened) might be an interesting boost, although it could make it strictly better than other options, which wouldn't be good. I guess that's the thing with Sorcerous Burst... either it's worse than other cantrips and nobody ever uses it, or it's better and nobody ever uses the other options. Kinda points to a bigger flaw in forcing people to get specific spells, doesn't it?
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Maybe allowing to reroll 1's with no need of metamagic, increasing its average damage even if the top is lower than others. So both the 1 and 6 would be special cases for this cantrip, allowing to reroll a total number of dice equal to your ability score bonus.
Hmmm... Careful, Extended, Heightened, transmuted, and fail!twinned would be useless/pointless. Distant would have rare use at best. Empowered, of course, would be great. Quickened is potent as always. Seeking is alright. Subtle will teeter between 'useless' and 'OMGWTFOPED'. Being able to always quicken would be stupidly OP for any cantrip. Maybe reducing the Sorc point cost by 1 to a minimum of 1? That way you'd still need to pay for quickened.
Edit: Let me also add that what you're saying is not true. The issue is that there's only so many ways to deal damage that, if the only thing a cantrip brings to the table IS damage, it's going to lose out to whatever the best damaging cantrip is unless it becomes the best. Earlier I pointed to several other cantrips and, while I probably wouldn't want all of them on the same character, having two of those would actually be good and both would likely see use.
For example, let's assume I took Fire Bolt. It does decent damage and targets AC. But I can then also take Acid Splash. That targets dex and can hit multiple targets. So now I have two options. If I suspect my foe has relatively lower AC and/or a lot of HP, I can lob firebolt. But if I suspect they either have a higher AC and a weaker dex save or need to hit two targets instead of just one, I can use Acid Spash instead. Even if I use FB more often there will be situations where Acid Splash comes in useful. That's also why SB is so irritating. Because it's 'niche' is so extremely situational (foe has a weakness/resistance to fire) where it's better than probably the single most BnB cantrip in the game and the one thing it actually does (damage) it's only slightly better than other cantrips at doing. If it offered basically ANYTHING else it would be different; but as-is, combined with other stuff, it makes it feel like Wizards is careless and doesn't understand their own game. Just... make what seems like it's clearly meant to be the sorcs go-to cantrip actually a cantrip we'd want to 'go-to' and all my complaints about it would vanish in an instant.
I like this idea; if you just made the Metamagic cost 1 less Sorcery Point for it, and made sure this couldn't stack, then this prevents Quickened from becoming free, but still gives it added value (only costing 1 sorcery point). It would also pair really well with Sorcery Incarnate giving two Metamagics, as for a single sorcery point you could quicken a burst and empower them both.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Remember that empower does not count for limit, so could do that without Sorcery Incarnate.
But adding to Sorcery Incarnate the feature of reducing 1 point cost for metamagic (min 1) would be an extra to use concentration for it.
Changes:
SORCERY INCARNATE:
The magic within you blooms, transforming you into a glimmering being of magical energy for the duration. You regain 1d4 +1 Sorcery Points. Until the spell ends, you also gain the following benefits:
Taking damage will not cause loss of concentration from this spell.
You can use up to two of your Metamagic options on each spell you cast, provided you pay the Sorcery Point costs.
You have attack rolls, damage, heal (SORCEROUS VITALITY) and saving throw of every spell you cast increases by the same amount as the Sorcery Points recovered by the spell.
SORCEROUS VITALITY:
Casting Time: Bonus Action (or reaction)
You draw on your innate magic to fill yourself with vitality. You regain a number of Hit Points equal to 2d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier + your Constitution modifier, and if you have any of the following conditions, they end on you: Blinded, Deafened, natural disease or and Poisoned.
SV needs a serious buff as well. The problem is that it costs a level 3 spell slot yet heals, well, 2d6. Even with SCCC's suggested change the most you could heal is 22 which... is not only endgame since you'd need 20 CHA and CON for that, but kinda lackluster. It's basically a healing word that can only target yourself. Not the WORST, but for a class feature, you can do better. I have some suggestions of my own.
1) The most straight-forwards. The only change here is that the amount it heals has been increased from 2d6 to 4d6.'
1a) Possibly rerolling nat 1's as well?
1b) Or double the stat bonus?
2) SV now heals Blinded, deafened, poisoned, natural diseases (like SCCC suggested), and I want to tack on silenced as well.
2a) Possibly removing any vocal components so that it can be used to clear silenced easily.
3) This is probably the most unusual, but make it a bonus action but have the amount you heal be based on the amount of damage you deal on your next spell cast. Like half rounded down, min 1.
4) Alternatively, give it some form of offensive bonus to their next spell cast. Like, 2d6+CHA healing and +1d6 damage to the next spell cast.
Why would you use it to clear silenced? Silence is an AoE it doesn't target an individual, and Sorcerers get Subtle Spell which allows you to circumvent silence for 1 SP, far far cheaper than a 3rd level spell.
I could have sworn there were other ways to inflict it. If not then my GM's been hitting me with homebrew spells without me realizing it.