The Sorcerer in the 2024 Player’s Handbook is a master spellcaster, manipulating magic on a whim and brimming with new arcane power. The class now benefits from additional spells, features that allow you to unleash your inner magic, and a revamped capstone. And you didn’t even have to memorize incantations or dedicate your soul to a higher power to get it!
Let’s take a look at the key changes for the Sorcerer in the new Player's Handbook. If we don’t cover a feature, such as Font of Magic, that means that it remains unchanged.
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2024 Sorcerer Class Features Overview
Spellcasting — Level 1
The Sorcerer’s Spellcasting feature grants you more spells and flexibility, and has seen some slight tweaks to nomenclature.
First, everybody "prepares" spells now. But this change is a stylistic one for the Sorcerer. You still edit your spell list when you level up and can only change one spell on your list at a time.
The most significant change to Spellcasting for Sorcerers in the 2024 Player’s Handbook is they can prepare more spells than their 2014 counterparts could learn. In fact, once they reach level 3, Sorcerers now prepare just as many spells as the Druid, Bard, Cleric, and Wizard! (The Wizard, as Mystra’s favorite, pulls ahead of the pack at level 14.)
Lastly, Sorcerers can now change one cantrip when you level up. This is in addition to swapping one spell from your prepared spell list.
Innate Sorcery — Level 1
Magic is in your blood; and some of your enemies may have to learn that the hard way.
With Innate Sorcery, you can use your Bonus Action to surge in magical power for 1 minute. During that time, your spell save DC for Sorcerer spells increases by 1, and you have Advantage on attack rolls for Sorcerer spells. You can use this feature twice per Long Rest.
Metamagic — Level 2
Metamagic, the Sorcerer’s trademark feature, has seen some upgrades: You now get this feature at level 2 instead of level 3, and you learn two additional Metamagic options at level 10 and 17 instead of one. You can also change one Metamagic option when you level up. Additionally, the two optional Metamagic options introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything have now been incorporated into the core class.
Six of the ten Metamagic options were tweaked. If you don’t see a Metamagic option in the list below, it remains unchanged from the 2014 Player’s Handbook.
- Careful Spell: Now protects your allies from taking half damage on a successful save. Next time your Barbarian is surrounded, throw a Fireball at their feet without fear of harming your friend.
- Extended Spell: You now also have Advantage on saving throws made to maintain Concentration on spells affected by this Metamagic.
- Heightened Spell: Costs 2 Sorcery Points instead of 3. Now also affects all subsequent saves a target makes against the heightened spell. (Hello, my old friends: Hold Person and Slow.)
- Seeking Spell: Costs 1 Sorcery Point instead of 2. You can still use this Metamagic option even if you are using another one on that same spell.
- Subtle Spell: Now allows you to ignore Material components as well, as long as those Material components do not have a cost specification and are not consumed by the spell.
- Twinned Spell: This Metamagic option has been reconfigured. Now, Twinned Spell applies to spells that can be upcast to target an additional creature, such as Banishment, increasing the spell’s effective level by 1. It also only costs 1 Sorcery Point. So, for example, if you are level 7, you can’t yet cast Banishment at the 5th level slot necessary to target another creature, but you can cast it at 4th level and spend 1 Sorcery Point to twin it!
Sorcerer Subclass — Level 3
Sorcerers now get their subclass at level 3 instead of level 1, just like all the other classes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.
Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Sorcery were largely unchanged from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Wild Magic was only slightly altered, and Draconic Sorcery was given a … breath of new life. (Get it? Because dragons breathe—oh, never mind.)
- Aberrant Mind: Aberrant Mind saw some minor changes. Psionic Spells can no longer be replaced with Divination or Enchantment spells from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell list. Psionic Sorcery no longer affects Material components that have a specified cost.
- Clockwork Sorcery: Clockwork Sorcery underwent only two changes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Clockwork Spells can no longer be replaced with Abjuration or Transmutation spells from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell list. Restore Balance is now tied to your Charisma modifier instead of your Proficiency Bonus.
- Draconic Sorcery: This iconic sorcerer subclass has significantly improved, granting you new spells and stronger, more dragon-like features. You gain ten additional spells as you level up, including Command, Fear, Charm Monster, and Legend Lore. Draconic Resilience’s new AC calculation includes your Charisma modifier (10 + DEX + CHA), and the new capstone feature, Dragon Companion, allows you to cast the new Summon Dragon spell once per day without using a spell slot, Material components, or Concentration.
- Wild Magic Sorcery: Wild Magic surges now trigger on a 20 instead of a 1, and the Wild Magic Surge table has been reorganized, but its effects are all familiar. The Wild Magic Surge table itself has undergone quite the makeover, organizing similar effects into their own mini-rollable tables. (Don’t worry, you can still be transformed into a potted plant!) Casting a spell after using Tides of Chaos now automatically triggers a Wild Magic Surge. Bend Luck costs 1 Sorcery Point instead of 2. The subclass’ new capstone feature, Tamed Surges, allows you to trigger a Wild Magic Surge effect of your choice once per day.
Sorcerous Restoration — Level 5
Once per day, you can regain expended Sorcery Points (equal to half your Sorcerer level, rounded down) on a Short Rest. Now when the party Warlock asks for a Short Rest, you’ll get a little something out of it too!
Consider when to use this feature and how to strategically manage your Sorcery Points. For example, let’s say you are level 10, and you have 8 Sorcery Points remaining. If your party is taking a Short Rest before confronting a boss, you can regain up to 5 using Sorcerous Restoration. Before taking that Short Rest and using this feature, consider using Font of Magic to convert 3 Sorcery Points into a level 2 spell slot. This way, you’ll still be able to face the boss with all 10 of your Sorcery Points, but you’ll also have an extra level 2 slot.
Sorcery Incarnate — Level 7
Innate Sorcery wasn’t even your final form. With Sorcery Incarnate, you can regain a use of Innate Sorcery by spending 2 Sorcery Points. In addition, Innate Sorcery now allows you to use up to two Metamagic options on each spell.
Fighting two powerful foes? Cast a Twinned and Heightened Hold Monster to set your Paladins and Rogues up for Critical Hits. Sticking to long range? Reach for a Quickened and Distant Blindness/Deafness on an enemy 60 feet away, then follow it up with a Fire Bolt.
Epic Boon — Level 19
Time to select an Epic Boon feat, a new type of feat that is reserved for characters of level 19 or higher. Take a look through your twelve options and choose whichever you like best. You can also take a regular feat if that suits your build better. The 2024 Player’s Handbook recommends:
- Boon of Dimensional Travel: Increase one ability score by 1 (up to a maximum of 30), and immediately after you take the Attack or Magic action, you can teleport up to 30 feet.
Arcane Apotheosis — Level 20
Your Innate Sorcery feature is taken to new heights.
When Innate Sorcery is active, you can use one Metamagic option per turn without expending Sorcery Points. If you’re using multiple Metamagics on a turn, be sure to make the most expensive one free! (In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Quickened Spell and Heightened Spell cost 2 Sorcery Points each, while the rest of the Metamagic options only cost 1.)
This feature also grants you more strategic flexibility. For example, if you are headed into an important battle low on spell slots, you might normally hesitate to spend Sorcery Points to create new slots because you also want to use Metamagic during the upcoming fight. But if you know that Arcane Apotheosis will allow you to use some Metamagic for free, you have more freedom to use your Sorcery Points to enable you to cast spells.
Fated for Greatness
The 2024 Player's Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
The 2024 Player’s Handbook better delivers on the vision of the Sorcerer as an arcane powerhouse: someone destined to twist magic to suit your needs, to make it do tricks for your amusement. New Sorcerers who take off on an adventure will be bringing along extra spells, more (and improved) Metamagic options, and the ability to temporarily surge with magical power via Innate Sorcery—so start thinking of clever Metamagic combinations!
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!
Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.
This article was updated on August 13, 2024, to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features and subclasses:
- Sorcerer Subclass (Aberrant Mind): Removed inaccuracy surrounding the conditions causing Telepathic Speech to drop.
I failed that challenge a long time ago my friend
Yeah somehow they did this but then Ranger bad even though it was a great class in Tasha’s
These are my exact thoughts as well, and they have been throughout the whole UA period. No way the same people who came up with "Sorcerer gets wish for free and doesn't expend a 9th level slot for copying an 8th level spell" and now "Sorcerer gets to do free metamagic" for capstones thought that "can cast hex at will" or "grovel and beg for 1 whole minute to get your 4 spell slots back" are in any way 20th level features.
I like a lot of the new sorcerer features, but still heavily disagree with the subclass at 3rd level, for reasons we shouldn't have to repeat now after having said it all multiple times during the playtest period.
Making Clockwork Sorcerer and Aberrant Mind unable to swap out their subclass spells when they previously could feels like a really odd nerf. Let's make the class with the most limited spell list remain starved for different spell options, I guess.
A bit miffed about Twinned Spell as it is fun as hell, but I kind of understand where the nerf was coming from. Will need to see the full sorcerer spell list and see how many spells the metamagic can now be used with, and how many of them are good enough to warrant picking it up.
Very thankful for Draconic Sorcerer updates. It heavily suffered from "2014 PHB base subclass"-syndrome and desperately needed the buffs.
Rip Aberrant Mind. Butchered so hard it's gone from one of the best subclasses in 2014 to clearly the worst in the new PHB.
Though i like the changes overall, this is definitely not backwards campatible for the Aberrant mind. The subclass was pretty much dependant on the spell changing options for it to be worthy; I would get restricting the clockwork soul, since it was a little busted, but the aberrant mind felt more balanced; it also makes your level 6 feature feel worse now. Imagine having the amazing option of casting RARY'S TELEPATHIC BOND, a ritual spell, with 5 sorcery points once you reach 9th lvl. This will also impact heavily players on ongoing campaigns who had already swapped their spells and liked casting tasha's mind whip with 2 points or whatever.
EDIT 1: ALSO stop pretending this is a minor change as if it won't affect gameplay experience. Not adressing it properly makes it seem like you guys didn't do it out balance but because you couldn't fix swapping spell on dndbeyond.
It felt so cool, flexible and flavoured before. Now it feels a little meh
I’m really happy for the Draconic sorcerer, I think it will be my first choice to play with the 2024 rules. Regarding the Aberrant and Clockwork subclasses, my favorites I just house rule to allow them to swap their spells.
This is so amazing. I'm really excited for the changes to meta-magic. Twinning for 1 sp?! INSANE.
sorcerer is the best class
Most changes are good but twin spell is bulshit,(the whole reason it was picked, was to do no other class can which is twine spells that normally are single target, like haste that was worse than bless when used on a single target), and aberant mind/clockwork the biggest reason they were considered the best was due to the malleable spell list, like I'd ever want goddamn alarm or protection from energy on my spell list.... Oh no the op feature of negating advantage will be too op with a proper spell list, oh cool I get like 2 spell which will be used to replace like 4 spells you woulda swapped out from the spell lists
Dragonborn Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a great fit thematically and plays pretty well, especially if you play as a Chromatic, Gem, or Metalic Dragonborn from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
Overall, there are benefits to playing a Dragonborn Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, no matter what race or class you choose to play as, and there are some really good flavor and backstory options. I'm currently building a Metalic Dragonborn Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer who has a Bronze Dragonborn father and Silver Dragon mother. Her scales have a vitiligo-esque pattern to them, with patches and specks of bronze and silver all over her body. Her racial features come from her father's heritage, while her subclass features stem from her mother's heritage.
Really sad that you made “small” changes to Clockwork and Aberrant Mind. Those are actually HUGE changes that really affect the versatility of the class spells. It was my favorite class and now not so much. I just hope you change the psonic spells to get ride of some of the junk spells so make up for it! Also, now I have to save up gold for a stupid item to cast summon Aboration . Really nerfed the class I already own with Tasha’s.
The new Twinned Spell should technically be called Heightened Spell since it is basically allowing your to heighten your casting level by 1 for certain spells. But I guess that would be confusing since only those who played older editions would remember Heightened Spell functioning in that manor. Also they would have to come up with a new name for the metamagic that gives the target disadvantage. I would have went with Focused Spell. They honestly only kept it Twinned Spell to make sure the new rule over rights the old for balance reasons. They should have just scrapped the Twin Spell name and since Heightened is taken maybe Increased Spell works as a name of the new feature they offer instead. The old Twin spell wasn’t balanced at all so I understand it going away, but they shouldn’t have named the new feature Twin Spell, because it’s not.
Agree. Why do I want to pay for classes I already own that are now worse?
You summed it up. Definitely NOT “Aberrant Mind saw some minor changes”
A huge nerf to Aberrant Mind is there 6th level feature relies on their psionic spells. Hopefully they changed that feature to work with all your divination or enchantment spells, but I doubt it. It’s a clear nerf for no reason.
Agree! That is what I did. Changed to psychic vs tentacles. Really sad they changed it. I will just have to stick to my Tasha’s version i own
I love this!
So, if I'm a divine soul does everything else just stay the same? How does backwards compatible work with that? I'm using the whole 2014 sorcerer or am I using the 2024 base sorcerer and the 2014 subclass?