Wild Magic Sorcery taps into the chaotic nature of the arcane, trading the risk of unpredictable surges of magic with the power to twist fate in your favor. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the Wild Magic Sorcerer’s features have become more affordable and easier to use, and Wild Magic Surges themselves can be more easily triggered. There’s also a brand new capstone feature, Tamed Surge, that grants limited but powerful control over these bursts of power.

There is a pure, undiluted joy that can only come from causing a little chaos—just ask your cat after they knock something off your table. Below, we explore the unexpected as we divulge what’s new for the Wild Magic Sorcerer in the 2024 Player’s Handbook!

• Wild Magic Sorcerer: Chaos is Power
• Wild Magic Sorcerer Features

Wild Magic Sorcerer: Chaos is Power

The Sorcerer class embraces the odder side of magic, the twists and turns. If you want to lean into this further and add a little “who knows where it came from and who knows what it’ll do” to your sorcery, then Wild Magic is calling!

The Wild Magic Sorcerer is well-suited to players who enjoy unpredictability and randomness. There’s something tantalizing about knowing you have the perfect spell for a situation but not knowing whether casting it will cause you to Levitate. I have played in social scenes where I thought I was extremely clever by Subtle-casting an Enchantment spell, only to sprout a beard of feathers. Though they may manifest at inopportune times, these surges can often be helpful, allowing you to teleport, regain Hit Points, or cast defensive spells like Mirror Image on yourself!

Wild Magic can also be utilized to twist fate in your favor, with features like Tides of Chaos, Bend Luck, and the new Tamed Surge. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Bend Luck is easier to use, Tides of Chaos is more rewarding, and Tamed Surge ensures you can experience your favorite parts of the updated Wild Magic Surge table!

Wild Origins

The Wild Magic Sorcerer is a chaotic, unpredictable spellcaster imbued with the raw and uncontrolled power of the cosmos. While the Wizards studied, the Warlocks negotiated their pacts, and the Bards spun performance into magic, you were … well, what were you doing? Wild Magic can come from anywhere: Did you drink from a Fey stream? Did you visit Limbo in your dreams and wake up with chaos in your blood?

So, what kind of Wild Magic Sorcerer are you? Are you at the whims of chance, or are you the master of your fate?

Subclasses at Level 3

All classes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook now receive their subclass at level 3. Don’t worry. Each class whose subclass features have been moved around now receives new abilities at earlier levels. So while your Wild Magic Sorcerer won’t be able to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table at level 1 anymore, they will be able to use their Innate Sorcery feature.

Before playing at levels 1 and 2, work with your DM to determine if your Sorcerer knows where their magic comes from yet or if they are on a journey of discovery.

Wild Magic Sorcerer Features

Artist: Ekaterina Burmak

Wild Magic Surge — Level 3

This subclass’s trademark Wild Magic Surge feature is nearly identical to the 2014 Player’s Handbook. However, there were two notable tweaks:

• In the 2014 Player’s Handbook, the DM decided whether you rolled the 1d20 to see if you’ve triggered a surge of wild magic. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, you (the player) can roll 1d20 after casting a Sorcerer spell with a spell slot.
• Now, when rolling the 1d20 to determine whether you must roll on the Wild Magic Surge table, a 20 triggers a surge. Formerly, it was triggered by a 1. This doesn’t change your odds of rolling on the table, but it does reframe the table’s relationship with wild magic.

Reorganized Wild Magic Surge Table

The new Wild Magic Surge table has been streamlined, making it easier to navigate without sacrificing variety.

At first glance, the new table looks like it’s shed half its size. However, upon closer glance, you’ll see that many surges from the old table have been condensed into fewer entries on the new table, which triggers a die roll to determine a more specific effect. The new table takes up less space on the page but contains practically the same number of possible effects as the old table (49 vs 50).

Why do this? Well, under the prior table, there was an 18% chance that wild magic would cause you to cast a spell, a 6% chance that creatures were summoned in your immediate vicinity, and a 12% chance of a harmless but obvious effect like blue skin or illusory butterflies that follow you around. The new table, with individual “cast a spell” or “goofy visible effect” entries, is balanced so that each unique flavor of Wild Magic Surge has an equal chance of occurring.

Tides of Chaos — Level 3

Tides of Chaos allows you to grant yourself Advantage on one D20 Test of your choice. This feature is now less dependent on your DM’s memory and discretion. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, casting a spell after spending Tides of Chaos automatically triggers a Wild Magic Surge and recharges your use of this ability.

Previously, the DM could decide whether casting a spell triggered this surge. Having run games for and played as Wild Magic Sorcerers, I personally am grateful for this switch. The previous structure took a fact that the player is most likely to remember—“Did the Sorcerer use Tides of Chaos recently?”—and made it the DM’s responsibility to remember every time the Sorcerer cast a spell. The DM has enough going on! This new arrangement is much easier to run.

Bend Luck — Level 6

Whenever anybody you can see rolls a d20 for a D20 Test, you can use your Reaction to spend 1 Sorcery Point to roll 1d4 and add or subtract it to the roll. Previously, this ability cost 2 Sorcery Points.

Use your innate power to manipulate chance and fate—this time, for half the cost!

Controlled Chaos — Level 14

Controlled Chaos is unchanged from the 2014 Player’s Handbook. When you roll a Wild Magic Surge, roll twice and pick your preferred result.

So, which will it be? Turned into a potted plant, or Polymorphed into a Goat?

Tamed Surge — Level 18

Tamed Surge is an entirely new feature, replacing the 2014 Player’s Handbook’s Spell Bombardment. With Tamed Surge, you can choose to trigger a Wild Magic Surge effect of your choice once per day. If you choose an effect that requires a die roll (e.g., to determine what type of creature is summoned or what spell you cast), you must roll it as normal. So if you wanted a free Fireball, you would also be risking a casting Grease or Levitate instead. I like this because it preserves some degree of chaos, even at higher levels.

If you find yourself low on health and surrounded by enemies, trigger a Wild Magic Surge when you cast Shield and the surge effect that damages nearby enemies and heals you for the amount of damage they take. If you need to escape an ambush, choose the surge effect that grants you and three allies the Invisible condition, or choose the effect that instantly allows you to teleport 60 feet.

Friend of Fate

The Wild Magic Sorcerer from the 2024 Player’s Handbook gets a sleeker Wild Magic Surge table, a more affordable Bend Luck feature, and a bit more control over the powers of chaos. Tweaks like allowing the player to decide when to risk a Wild Magic Surge and reorganizing the Wild Magic Surge table have made the subclass easier to run for both the DM and player.

However you stumbled across your wild magic—whether you stepped into the wrong magic circle or made a deal with the right archfey—power over fate is a part of you now. When the moment counts, with the Lich nearly defeated and the fate of the world on the line, will the unpredictable forces of the cosmos lend you an extra action… or will they give you a beard made of feathers?

A lot has changed in the 2024 core rules revisions, and we’re excited to share more of what you can expect. Stay tuned for additional class guides for the 2024 Player’s Handbook and more!

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.