Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I am just exited to have an evil themed sorcerer subclass. What are your thoughts?
"There are few problems that cannot be solved through the application of overwhelming arcane firepower" Mephistopheles
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Mixing an evil themed charater with a neutral and/or good players usually ends badly with the evil charater taking the interpetion they can be 100% anarchy and do things that go against the party, While in theory it sounds fine to have an evil charater, reality on the tabletop is always very differnt.
A lot of that depends on player maturity. I've seen more players do what you describe playing the CN alignment than ones playing an evil alignment.
Maturity level, yes that was a word I was grasping for but couldn't catch it, thanks for that.
Yes CN does a lot of generic anarchy.
Oddly there is nothing more evil about this sorcerer compared to others. Dragon sorcerers have the chaotic colors, Aberrant sorcerers are touched by the far realm and I can’t think of any good coming from there. Wild Magic is sourced from the fey and has plenty of evil within it. Having Demonic bloodline doesn’t make this more evil than any other sorcerer.
Outside of the lvl 18 capstone, anything in this subclass can easily be reflavored without altering a single mechanical effect. Even as is, it looks like it would be great on a Tiefling - this is the magic of their heritage, and whether or not they embrace evil is up to them.
1/3 of the Tieflings, anyway. It does say that it is specifically demonic, rather than devilish or Cthonic. That said, this whole UA does appear to be meant as evil character options. And while that has the potential to be problematic, the right table can make this work beautifully.
Also, I think flumphs come from the far realm, do they not? They were the only thing I could think of that were not "evil" from there.
I’m pretty sure Flumphs are under dark natives. They might technically be alien to FR, but nothing ties them to the Far Realm. Also my main point is that the Evil Sorcerer class isn’t actually inherently evil. The other subclasses in the UA are evil coded, but a Sorcerer is hard to code because it’s just a bloodline and not a moral choice.
Ohh, yeah. They probably are. I just saw the creature type as "aberration" and immediately placed them in the Far Realm.
It's nice to see them hitting the classic touchstone of "manifesting magic from an Evil Outsider lineage"; Shadow had some too, but there's something to be said for an explicit Down-Below relation.
Mechanically, the level 3 feature to either get some extra offense or defense any time you use Metamagic is nice- rewards using the points to help keep people from hoarding them "Until They Really Need Them". Spell list is mostly utility, but some good stuff and grabbing some fun stuff from others' goodie bags at 9th level. The aura effect is interesting, though they could stand to do a little more for the Sorcerer's staying power if they plan to encourage it to be up in melee range. Got some good potential, but I think this one needs some more reworking so it's less of a gamble to use the aura.
I didn't care for the subclass. In general, I am not a fan of evil PCs/parties. I've been playing since the 80s and never had a good experience with evil parties.
That said, I'll break down my dislike of the features, rather than the theme. TL/DR? This subclass doesn't offer any features I find appealing. Fine for thee perhaps, but not for me. I'll pick something else for my edgelord sorcerers.
Abyssal manifestations: I generally dislike this kind of feature. There's nothing /wrong/ with it, but if I was forced to play one I'd constantly have frostbitten fingers. It's the least bad option imo. For full disclosure, I don't like horns and tails on my tieflings, either. I throw that in there to help manage expectations.
Now into real content that's not just bad fluff.
Abyssal Rupture is pretty solid. Demonic Lash is crappy damage, but the forced movement could be very useful. Fiendish Carapace is also pretty solid, particularly if someone gets in your face. Demonic Spells are pretty decent picks. I like some better than others, but nothing makes me say awful, just awful. All in all, level 3 is the high point as far as I am concerned.
Abyssal Aura. Hate this. I dislike random effects strongly, and that's what this is. I'm never, ever going to look forward to rolling on a table to see what happens. At least you can't hurt your teammates with it. Effects are situational. Sometimes, you may even get the right effect for the situation. I'd more likely be frustrated by this than excited by it.
Abyssal Conduit. Having to wait til level 14 to double down on a feature I already dislike, and simply make it perhaps suck a bit less? yeah, not at all pleased with this.
Summon Fiend: Waiting til level 18 to get a big pet? Bleh. Not fond of managing pets, though it's not as hateful as random auras.
I probably think that this is the second most interesting subclass presented behind Hell Knight, but the bar's pretty low. Whatever book these subclasses are released in would have to find something pretty compelling for me to drop the coin. Fortunately, my DM dislikes evil parties even more than I do, so I am likely to never have to deal with any of this content.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Only the hell knight and cleric are coded evil. There is nothing more villainous about this sorcerer. It’s just another ancestry. Evil has to be a moral choice.