Hi all! Me being a noob is only partly true. I've been roleplaying since 2nd edition and dipped my toes into everything from Star Wars rp tabletop to Rifts to Vampire, The Masquerade. That being said I have rarely DMed and certainly never made a homebrew subclass. I'm excited about the idea though, so here I am!

The idea behind the Somatic Wizard subclass is that they have figured out a way to fuse the material and verbal components of a select few spells into just somatic elements. I have a lengthy backstory for how and why they figured this out. I'm thinking they start with a certain (very low, 1-3 maybe) amount of spells they can fuse into just somatic components. This being because the body can only hold a certain amount of fused material components without starting to fail. And maybe for their level 10 feature they can add to that list to make it a total of around 3-5. I was also thinking that transmutation of these spells into only somatic components and the character's intense study of these very few spells would allow them to cast them with more potency. Maybe + to attack/dmg or spell dc, whichever is applicable. Maybe extra spell slots, just for those spells.

So I guess what I need help with is other creative ideas for flavor with the features and some advice on how to make sure it stays balanced. I'm not looking to show up to a session (all of this will be run by whichever one of my buddies is DMing at the time) with some nonsense op homebrew. I just think it would be a really fun subclass to rp. 

Thanks all!

Well, for one thing the only spells with M components that I would allow to be “fused” are spells where the M components don’t have a specific price listed, and are not consumed. The expense associated with those M components is part of what keeps those spells balanced. For another thing, I would restrict it to spells of 5th-level or lower. Wizards (currently) get their subclass features at 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th levels. If it were me, I would probably consider allowing them to fuse two 1st-level spells at 2nd level when they get the subclass, and then one additional spell at each of the subclass levels. The spell they could fuse at 6th level would be a 2nd-level spell, the spell they fuse at 10th level would be a 3rd-level spell, and the one they fuse at 14th level would be a 4th-level spell. That’s a solid 2nd level subclass feature right there, remember, not needing V components either is also a major boon since it prevents blowing stealth, and bypasses silence. And if you want to make the feature more flexible then you can let them swap out fused spells whenever they gain a level as long as the new spell is the same level as the old one.

For the 6th level feature, you could allow them to cast each fused spell once without spending a spell slot. That’s no joke right there, as they will only have 4 1st-level spell slots and 3 2nd-level spell slots at 6th level, so adding 3 free castings on top of that is fairly significant. And the feature will scale as they fuse their 3rd- & 4th-level spells too.

A solid 10th level subclass feature would be to upgrade those free castings to be automatically Upcast by 1 level. That will help keep those 1st-level spells relevant to a certain degree, and it’ll scale at 14th level when they fuse a 4th-level spell since they will then be able to cast it once per day for free as a 5th-level spell.

Finally, for a solid capstone at 14th level, lift the restriction against M components with a listed price for one fused spell of their choice. That may not seem like a lot, but with all the other features automatically scaling again at this level it should probably be enough.

That’s at least where I would start with it at any rate. I hope it helps.

Thanks so much! A lot of awesome stuff! The backstory, to make a long story short, is based on a war from a previous campaign where casters were being kidnapped all over the place. A certain sect of wizards developed this proposed technique in order to escape and help gain the upper hand. I hadn't necessarily looked at it from a stealth angle though. Ninja Wizard! Haha. 

To flesh out the M component more, I was planning on components with a price being ok because like many other classes/subclasses this would be a part of a morning ritual/preparation. So they still have to obtain whatever the actual material component is and through ritual/preparation fuse it into their body. If the M component is consumed in the casting you would need to fuse more of it in. I have not, however, figured out the next step of that. Can you fuse more of the material into yourself in the morning in order to cast that spell multiple times? Is there a limit to to how much you can fuse in? Feels like there should be. And what does this look like as you scale? 

Thanks again!

Ahh…. I was under the impression that the fusion was a one-time thing and lasted indefinitely

Yeah, if they have to fuse again every morning then it should be okay. In that case I might let them refuse a previously fused spell after a short rest too. Much of the rest of what I wrote will be less useful in this case though.