You are a sorcerer. Magic courses through your veins, and you alone have the power to control it. You were born with this power or discovered it after being exposed to a powerful source of magic. Perhaps it first manifested when you were angry, and sparks flew from your fingertips, or when you were scared and you seemed to melt into the shadows. The magic within you is alive, and it could come from anywhere. Some sorcerers trace their magic back to a powerful ancestor, like a dragon, a celestial, or a djinni. Others can delineate their magic to an extraplanar source, such as the shrouded lands of the Shadowfell or the roiling chaos of Limbo.
The sorcerer is an excellent class for players who want to cast spells and manipulate the rules of magic. This guide will serve as your introduction to the sorcerer in D&D. We'll cover class features, explain how to play a sorcerer, and more, with a focus on material found in the Basic Rules and Player's Handbook. We'll focus on your early-level options so as not to overwhelm you.
- Building a Sorcerer
- Sorcerer Class Features
- Sorcerer Spells
- Sorcerer Subclasses
- How to Play a Sorcerer
Building a D&D Sorcerer
To unlock the true potential of the sorcerer class, you should already have a solid understanding of the general rules of D&D and the rules of spellcasting. Sorcerers take this a step further by using Metamagic to bend the rules of casting spells and manipulate the laws of magic in their favor. Classes that allow you to cast spells, like sorcerers, wizards, and bards, are generally more complex than their nonmagical counterparts, like barbarians, fighters, and monks. If you want to play a character that expands the laws of magic through sheer force of will, then welcome! The path of the sorcerer holds the power you seek.
When you're ready, head over to D&D Beyond's character builder. Below, we'll discuss the options you'll be presented during your sorcerer's character creation.
Step 1: Choose a Species
While any species can be a good sorcerer, the most powerful sorcerers tend to be from species that improve your Charisma score. Charisma is your most important ability score because it determines the power of your spells.
- Tieflings are excellent sorcerers because of their natural +2 bonus to Charisma. In addition, their fiendish heritage grants a few extra spells that they can use once per day, which gives you a few extra chances to use spells to use between rests. Playing a tiefling also grants you fire resistance, which is usually useful but might be redundant if you're playing a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer.
- Half-elves gain an innate +2 bonus to Charisma, and their Skill Versatility and Fey Ancestry traits are advantageous bonuses to any character. Half-elves are generally a supremely versatile species!
- Many other species have a +1 bonus to Charisma and also make for fantastic sorcerers. It makes sense for dragonborn to be a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, though their overlapping damage resistances can cause some redundancy. And, of course, humans are always a fine choice for any class, thanks to their incredible versatility.
Step 2: Choose Your Class
Choose sorcerer as your class (unless you want to be beholden to books, gods, or nature spirits for your source of magic). This will grant you some class features right off the bat. We'll touch on all of these features in the Sorcerer Class Features section. For now, let's focus on your two skill proficiencies.
- Choose skills that reflect the sorcerer you want to play. Most sorcerers choose to be proficient in a social skill, like Persuasion, Deception, or Intimidation, and an Intelligence-based skill, like Arcana or Religion.
Step 3: Ability Scores
Now it's time to set your ability scores! These stats provide a baseline bonus to every roll your sorcerer will make over their adventuring career.
- Place your highest ability score in Charisma. This is your spellcasting modifier, meaning the higher your Charisma is, the more potent your spells will be.
- Next up, prioritize either Dexterity or Constitution. Dexterity will boost your Armor Class (AC), making it harder for you to be hit. Constitution determines your hit points and allows you to concentrate on spells while being attacked.
- Place your third-highest score in whatever option you didn't choose, between Dexterity and Constitution.
- Fill in the rest as you see fit. Typically, sorcerers can get by with a low Strength score because they have spells to back them up. Wisdom and Intelligence are commonly used in skill checks, which can help your sorcerer be more well-rounded.
Step 4: Description
Choose any background that fits your character concept. This is your chance to create a backstory that defies convention. What was your sorcerer like before they realized they had innate magical power? Were they a rank-and-file soldier in some unknown army or a guild artisan apprenticed to a master in a far-off city? Or maybe a local sage realized their magical potential at a young age and trained them since birth as an acolyte.
Step 5: Equipment
Finally, determine your equipment. For an easy selection, click "EQUIPMENT" when prompted to "Choose EQUIPMENT or GOLD." Fortunately, it's hard to go wrong when choosing equipment as a sorcerer since most of your power comes from your spells, not armor, shields, or swords. Pick whatever equipment suits your vision of your character. If you have gold left over, consider investing 50 gp into a simple diamond. This gives you access to chromatic orb, one of the most powerful damage-dealing spells at low levels.
Sorcerer Class Features
1st Level
Spellcasting: You learn four cantrips and two 1st-level spells from the sorcerer spell list at this level. You don't get to change your cantrips, so choose wisely. On the other hand, the spells you've chosen aren't permanent. Each time you gain a level in the sorcerer class, you can swap out one of your known spells for another one. We go into detail on which spells sorcerers might want to take a look at in our Sorcerer Spells section.
Sorcerous Origin: The sorcerer's subclass choices (also called Sorcerous Origins) are all filled to the brim with significant combat and non-combat features. They're all reasonably balanced between offense and defense, with a little bit of utility thrown in, so taking a particular subclass won't pigeonhole your sorcerer to a particular archetype. The Draconic Bloodline from the Basic Rules gives you dragon-like damage resistances, eventually culminating in growing dragon wings and gaining the ability to charm or frighten foes. From the Player's Handbook, Wild Magic gives you a giant table of random effects that might go off when you cast a spell. We'll discuss these more in the Sorcerer Subclasses section.
2nd Level
Font of Magic: Your Font of Magic feature grants you sorcery points. These will eventually fuel your Metamagic, but you don't get that till 3rd level, so you won't be able to do much with them yet. At this level, the best use for these resources is to transform them into spell slots! Right now, you have two sorcery points, and creating a 1st-level spell slot costs two points. So essentially, you can use an extra 1st-level spell once per day. Not much, but it's a bit of extra spellcasting for you!
3rd Level
Metamagic: This potent ability is the sorcerer's core class feature and lets you warp the rules of magic to suit your needs. You can only choose two Metamagic options at 3rd level, but you have plenty of options:
- Careful Spell can be useful if you're casting lots of spells with an area of effect, as it allows you to mitigate the damage they could cause your allies.
- Distant Spell doubles the range of your spells. While this can be useful for hitting retreating enemies with a fire bolt, it can also extend the range of touch spells to 30 feet.
- Empowered Spell allows you to spend 1 sorcery point to reroll damage dice for your spells.
- Extended Spell can give your buff and debuff spells more bang for your buck by doubling their duration.
- Heightened Spell is one of the more expensive options. But it's incredibly powerful, allowing you to force enemies to roll saving throws with disadvantage.
- Quickened Spell will let you cast most spells as a bonus action, freeing up your action to cast a cantrip or perform another action, such as Dodge or Disengage.
- Subtle Spell will help you stay quiet while casting. It also makes it impossible for enemy casters to counterspell your spell.
- Twinned Spell allows you to hit a second target with a spell as long as it normally only targets one creature. This can be very effective for single-target damage spells like chromatic orb.
4th Level
Ability Score Improvement (ASI): At this level, you can increase one ability score by 2 or increase two ability scores by 1. Most sorcerers want to maximize their Charisma score as quickly as possible to increase their spells' potency, but you may wish to choose a feat to accentuate your role in the party. Feats are an optional rule discussed in the Player's Handbook, so talk to your Dungeon Master before picking one up. In exchange for your ASI, a feat grants you other permanent benefits. Consider the following options:
- Elemental Adept: If you're heavily investing in a single damage type, like with the Draconic Bloodline origin, this feat allows you to ignore damage resistances for your chosen element.
- Magic Initiate: Want more spells? The Magic Initiate feat allows you to pick two cantrips and a 1st-level spell from any class spell list. It'd be best to choose the warlock or bard spell list, as they cast spells with Charisma, just like sorcerers.
- Spell Sniper: This doubles the range of spell attacks, just like the Distant Spell Metamagic option, but it also allows you to ignore half cover and three-quarters cover. It also allows you to learn a spell that requires an attack roll. Eldritch blast is a famously good spell for these purposes if you're interested.
- War Caster: When you're concentrating on a spell and take damage, you need to roll for concentration to see if you can maintain the effects of your spell. If you want advantage on these checks, War Caster is a great choice. It also allows you to use spells as opportunity attacks, but you won't be in the fray often, so you likely won't use this very much.
Sorcerer Spells
Magic is everything to a sorcerer. It flows through you like the blood in your veins, and you can even use your force of will to bend the rules of magic to your whims. While your selection of spells is relatively limited compared to a wizard's, your versatility in the heat of the moment is more than able to make up for it.
Cantrips
You should choose at least one offensive cantrip so that you always have an at-will attack to fall back on:
- Fire bolt: Awesome range and does the most damage of any sorcerer cantrip at 1d10.
- Frostbite: Inflict cold damage and impose disadvantage on the target's next attack.
- Shocking grasp: Helps you escape tough situations by preventing the target from making an opportunity attack.
You should also pick at least one utility cantrip to round out your skill set:
- Blade ward: A damage-mitigating cantrip, which could come in handy when you're in a tough spot.
- Friends: If you need to get information out of an NPC, this can help make them amenable (you might need to hoof it after, though).
- Mending: Fix everyday wear and tear on mundane objects.
- Prestidigitation: Do various small, magic-y things.
1st-Level Spells
- Burning hands: One of the better area of effect options at 1st level.
- Chromatic orb: If you have gold to spare at character creation, investing in the one-time cost of a diamond worth 50 gp can allow you to cast this powerful and versatile damage-dealing spell at low levels.
- Color spray: Releases a spray of colorful light, potentially blinding targets.
- Fog cloud: Creates a thick cloud of fog that makes the area heavily obscured.
- Ice knife: Launch a shard of ice at a target that explodes on impact, dealing cold damage to those around them.
- Mage armor: Form protective wards around yourself, increasing your AC for long periods of time.
- Magic missile: Fires three (or more, if it is upcasted) magical missiles that automatically hit targets and deal force damage.
- Ray of sickness: Sickens your target with an acidic green ray, causing poison damage and possibly poisoning them.
- Shield: Briefly create a magical shield to protect you from incoming attacks.
- Thunderwave: Creates a shockwave that ripples outward in a circle, potentially blasting away foes.
2nd-Level Spells
- Blindness/deafness: Causes the target to become either blinded or deafened for the duration, posing a massive disadvantage in combat.
- Blur: Surrounds you in a magical blur which makes it difficult for enemies to hit you in combat.
- Crown of madness: Forces your target to act erratically, potentially attacking their own allies.
- Hold person: Immobilizes a humanoid target, making them easy prey in combat.
- Invisibility: Renders you invisible until you attack or cast a spell.
- Mind spike: Deals psychic damage and allows you to track your target's location.
- Scorching ray: Fires three (or more, if upcasted) fiery rays at multiple targets.
- Shadow blade: Creates a blade of solidified darkness, dealing psychic damage and giving you advantage on attacks in dim light or darkness.
3rd-Level Spells
- Animate dead: Particularly sinister support sorcerers could choose animate dead, which would give your party a literal meat shield for the party—and ultimately lets you command up to four zombies or skeletons as you gather more undead servants.
- Bestow curse: A mighty debuff spell with a variety of potent effects.
- Blink: Allows you to phase between reality and the Ethereal Plane. Most importantly, it doesn't require concentration, allowing you to cast a powerful concentration spell and then wink out of existence for a bit so that no one can interfere.
- Counterspell: A game-changer when fighting powerful enemy spellcasters. If you can counter their fight-ending powerhouse spell, you can seriously swing the fight in your party's favor.
- Fireball: A straightforward and powerful choice that is one of the top damage-dealing spells in the game.
- Haste: Great for support builds, haste can turn an ally into a lightning-fast warrior.
- Sleet storm: Could be useful as a battlefield control option if you have enough raw damage already.
- Slow: Foil the defenses of even the most dangerous monsters.
Sorcerer Subclasses
Alongside other spellcasting classes like bard, cleric, and wizard, the sorcerer is one of the most complex and choice-heavy classes in D&D, thanks to the wide variety of spells you'll have to choose from when constructing your character's arsenal. You'll also be choosing a Sorcerous Origin that will give you additional tools to fill out your character's powers.
Together, your choice of subclass and your spell selection will define how you contribute to your party. Do you want to take on the role of offense, using high-powered spells and blasting your opponents apart? Or do you want to focus on the more balanced role of defense, using magical wards to keep yourself alive and wearing down your enemies over time? Or would you instead choose the path of support and use healing, buffing, and debuffing magic to control the battlefield and empower your allies?
In the below table, we provide a brief description of each of the sorcerer subclasses. Beyond that, we go into detail on the Draconic Bloodline origin (found in the Basic Rules) and the Wild Magic origin (found in the Player's Handbook).
Sorcerous Origin | Description | Strengths |
Aberrant Mind | Influence and dominate others with psionic powers and otherworldly abilities. | Utility |
Clockwork Soul | Wield the cosmic force of order. | Probability Manipulation |
Divine Soul | Your divine ancestry gives you access to cleric spells. | Support |
Draconic Bloodline | Gain dragon-like abilities to terrorize your foes. | Offense/Defense |
Lunar Sorcery | Harness the power of the moon to gain various abilities. | Utility |
Shadow Magic | Your innate magic allows you to manipulate shadows. | Defense/Stealth |
Storm Sorcery | Gain mastery over wind, thunder, and lightning. | Offense/Defense |
Wild Magic | Unpredictable magic flows through your veins and could explode out any time you cast a spell. | Probability Manipulation |
Draconic Bloodline
This sorcerer subclass gains dragon-like abilities based on some connection to a dragon in their past. Its primary features revolve around your dragon ancestor, granting resistance to a damage type and allowing for extra damage on spells of that type.
Playstyle: Draconic Bloodline sorcerers are versatile casters who channel the magical might of dragons with their arcane power. They have a higher baseline AC than other sorcerer subclasses thanks to their Draconic Resilience, making them more durable without spending resources on mage armor. They can also gain resistance to a certain damage type and deal extra damage with spells of that type. This makes Draconic Bloodline sorcerers perfect blaster casters, even before their late-level abilities.
Key Benefits: Higher AC and damage resistances are extremely useful when you only get a d6 hit dice. You'll also gain a flying ability at 14th level, allowing you to stay out of combat more effectively. This allows you to focus your efforts purely on offense, which will be supplemented by your Elemental Affinity ability.
Wild Magic
This sorcerer subclass is all about embracing the unpredictability of wild magic, with a primary feature that can trigger a random magical effect whenever they cast a spell of 1st level or higher.
Playstyle: It's hard to rely on your Wild Magic Surge with any regularity, even when you get access to Controlled Luck at 14th level. Wild Magic sorcerers are best served sitting back from combat and using their fate-manipulating resources at pivotal moments.
Key Benefits: Wild Magic sorcerers can be both exciting and risky, as their magic can have unpredictable effects for themselves, their allies, and their enemies. Beyond their random Wild Magic Surges, they can use their chaotic abilities to twist the fate of creatures in their vicinity. This can allow them to gain advantage on certain rolls or add bonuses and penalties to the checks made around them.
How to Play a Sorcerer
Sorcerers are defined by the spells they choose to learn, as much as where their magical power originated from. You learn new spells whenever you level up and can cast any spell you know at any time, as long as you have an appropriate spell slot. This differentiates you from spellcasting classes like wizards and druids, who have access to a wide array of spells but must prepare a small selection of them whenever they complete a long rest.
Like other spellcasters, you also have a selection of cantrips you can cast without expending spell slots. Use these like a fighter would use a sword or crossbow and save those powerful leveled spells to make them really count!
Speaking of timing your resources effectively, your Metamagic is a potent force that allows you to go "nova" when you need the extra damage. Twinning powerful spells like disintegrate, or even power word kill, will sap a lot of your resources but can swing the tides of battle from utter defeat to potential victory.
Sorcerers may not have a solution for everything like wizards or be able to take a hit like a barbarian, but they're able to tailor their spell list to a few specific strengths and become a powerhouse in those aspects.
A Sorcerer of Your Own
Sorcerers are one of the most thematic classes in D&D, and the wealth of options presented to them is a blessing, even if it may sometimes seem like a curse. No matter what this guide says, the only right way to play a sorcerer is the way you want to play one. As long as you're having fun and helping your friends have fun, you're doing it right.
James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) is the former lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and theCritical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and is also a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and two wilderness defenders, Mei and Marzipan.
This article was originally published on November 26, 2018, and was updated on March 15, 2023.
The usage of "They" for a single person gender anonymous designation is a very recent development in the English language. Your statement of "is also used anytime the gender is unspecified" seems to purport that this has been long standing which is just frankly not true.
"You" as a plural is only correct when given with a plural adjective or descriptor along with it such as "you fools" or "you ladies".
I really wish people would just use the newly given non-gender specific pronouns rather than amalgamating existing language. It's my only pet peeve when I listen to Critical Role as Mercer uses "They" for gender anonymity all the time but also as a plural all the time and it gets very confusing. 1st world problems though in the grand scheme of things lol.
According to Merriam Webster on the subject:
"We will note that they has been in consistent use as a singular pronoun since the late 1300s; that the development of singular they mirrors the development of the singular you from the plural you, yet we don’t complain that singular you is ungrammatical; and that regardless of what detractors say, nearly everyone uses the singular they in casual conversation and often in formal writing."
I think it is sad that in using they as a pronoun here, it has distracted from the original intent of the article. It bothers me that people care enough to point "they" out as much as it bothers me that this article was not written in first person. Elves are androgynous. Knowing that the main character is a half-elf is subtle enough that people would pick up on the fact that no specific gender would be given when written first person. Writing it this way is more sledgehammer in that your attention is diverted from the original purpose of the article: "Badass sorcerer forces dragon back through sheer badassery" to "I notice the word "they" was used alot in these last two paragraphs".
Fair point- my apologies as I should have been more clear. It's been in use off and on for a long time but considered to be in error by most prominent grammar and style guides up until very recently. In 2015 it gained some acceptance when it was voted word of the year and The Post style guide accepted it but many style guides including the prominent Chicago Manual of Style and literary authorities still consider it in error. It personally just grates on my ear.
The most current edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, which is used by the D&D team, permits the singular, gender-neutral they. "A writer (or speaker) may also use they to refer to a specific, known person who does not identify with a gender-specific pronoun such as he or she. [...] Chicago accepts it even in formal writing."
Wow! Consider me corrected. I had not purchased a 17th edition yet and was going off my previous version. Still going to be a while before it sounds right in my ear but this middle aged grammarian will no longer correct it. Thanks James!
I have to agree with the others: the use of a traditionally-plural pronoun in this situation still came across as incredibly, jarringly clunky. A few uses of it would have merely been a little distracting, while still getting the point across--two dozen uses of the pronoun became outright annoying, derailing the feel of the story and killing any sense of how impressive the sorcerer was supposed to be portrayed as.
It seems that that permitted usage by the style manual simply led to less-clear writing here.
I'd say it would be just as clunky if the sorceror was female and they both had the pronoun of "she." Pronouns are clunky. If you are not used to seeing the word they used as a singular, perhaps it was confusing at first, but it would have been far more confusing if they used a pronoun that none of us ever heard of.
I honestly don't understand how everyone seems to think this is confusing. The passage was easy to follow and the writer's usage of "they" was not any different from other pronouns used.
Just advocating for the devil.
You honestly don't see the confusion of using the gender-less plural pronoun they when referring to a single gender-less being? When you see a single puppy playing around do you honestly say "they look like they are having so much fun!"? If you witnessed a single person in a hoodie (i.e. no known gender) commit a crime would you honestly tell the police "They ran that'a'way!"? If a single spider landed on your lap and you freaked out would you honestly say "They came out of nowhere! They were huge!"?
I've honestly not thought this deeply about grammar in a long time. I would like to know what they think (and in case the use of they is ambiguous in that last sentence I mean you).
I get inclusion and being respectful of one another but shaming anyone for not using a new set of rules for referring to people that are not widely adopted is "virtue signalling" at best and outright pretentious at worst.
Yes, I would.
Your blatant facetiousness is amusing.
And where did I ever shame anyone?
As for your argument that "they" is a plural pronoun, you obviously haven't read any of the previous threads, as that debate has already been settled.
It wasn't confusing, it was jarring. Inelegant. Heavy handed.
Using a made up word (this is fantasy after all) or a currently acceptable word for this androgynous spell-slinger would not have been confusing. Tolkien made up the word Uruk-hai and nobody seems to have trouble reading his works. I would go so far as to say that using "Uruk-hai" rather than "ur-orc" or "Big goblin" adds to the feel and flavour of his prose. I suspect few of us don't know what a katana is. Thirty years ago it would have been a katana, but now it is no longer a mysterious blade from the east, but just a slightly curved longsword. Thirty years ago very few people had heard the word
jihad but now it is common parlance. Even thirty years ago it wasn't confusing - the reader read the word, wondered what it was, grabbed a dictionary, et voila! Clarity returns.Merely giving the sorcerer a name and using that would have avoided this whole discussion. Any name.
I watch "The Mentalist" where the title character is called "Jane." It doesn't confuse me that Jane appears to be a man. And a good looking one at that! I don't think it confuses anyone.
His boss/partner is called Lisbon - I don't get confused and think she is the capital of Portugal.
The word "they" was used repeatedly with the sole purpose of excluding a large portion of the readership. To make it obvious that they were not supposed to associate with that character. I'm sure James' intentions were good but they certainly seem missguided. (A store that deliberately excludes half the population based solely on gender!)
I am confused about how some people can be binary while other people aren't. Think about that.
While I am on a soapbox regarding language, why is it that so many GMs say "it almost seems like..." on live streams?
Ok, it almost seems like that, so what does it actually seem like?
Stop being vague, GMs! Stop sounding unsure of the facts. Why does it almost seem like something???
"It almost seems like they are playing poker..."
Did you mean to say "They are playing a card game" or maybe "They have cards in their hands, but nobody is moving. They almost seem to be waiting for something, almost like a showdown at that time when the sun is high overhead in the blue non-ground above the town's head"?
Unless the actual game they are playing is relevant, why make it mysterious? And if you make something mysterious, you are merely pulling attention away from what should be the focus. Now if the card players were acting suspicious to draw your attention away, then fine, but most of the time they are just window dressing.
If the PCs are taking enough time to notice that NPCs "almost seem..." to be doing something, then the PCs are probably going to look suspicious to the NPCs.
Perhaps that is why the card players are being shifty - they are deliberately looking to trap the PCs into doing something offensive so that the NPCs can take offense and draw iron.
There is a time to be vague and a time to say exactly what the audience sees.
When the most memorable thing about a description is the vagueness of the language you have to wonder if someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
Oh, did anybody get confused when I used the word "iron" instead of "their guns"?
Edit "steel" for "their swords" would probably have been better for this audience, but I have recently got into Deadlands.
You do make a very good point! However I don't agree with this being exclusionary when there is so little nonbinary representation in media, while Male- and female-identifying peoples are represented in the vast majority of all works.
...I thought the article was good, which pronoun was used during the introduction didn't really change much, cause halfway through you forget about it because you start thinking of the various Sorcerer characters you want to use in future campaigns.
Thank you for the curt response.
In the immortal words of Kel Mitchel "I'm a dude, He's a dude, She's a dude, We're all dudes." The article would have read much better if "they" was replaced with "dude" IMO
Ironically, James has provided much more guidance on how to be a sorcerer than most sorcerers start with:
"Wow, I just shot fire out of my finger!"
"Yeah, my cousin Jody used to do that. Right up until they got drowned for witchering. Eat yer porridge."
I know this wasn't addressed at me, but I would like to answer your question. Yes, I would honestly say those things about the puppy and the hooded criminal. Whenever I think of a new D&D character concept, I use "they", both in my head and on the page, if I haven't decided on the gender of the character just yet. I constantly think of any person whose gender I do not know, and a good amount of animals whose gender isn't apparent, as "they", instead of as "he", "she", or "it". It might be because I'm a non-native speaker who has learnt English only in the last few years and considers that use of it normal, but to me, "they" is the default pronoun for some being you don't know the gender or level of sapience of. New, made-up words, such as "xir" or "zir", as a third-person singular gender-neutral pronoun sound jarring to me in context, and are endlessly confusing in their illogical he/him/his/himself-style bending. Yet, I don't feel the need to berate people who prefer using them. Why do you feel the need to do just that with "they", which, in my experience, is far more accepted and far more widely used than "xir" or "zir", or any of the other ones whose names I don't remember or care for?
And saying "they" is a plural pronoun only, because using it as a singular pronoun as well would double up, be weird and confusing, is not a valid argument either. Just look at your language's use of "you". It's second-person singular, and second-person plural! Yet, you neither complain about it, nor seem to even care. That's because it isn't actually confusing, if you use context and sentence structure to make it clear whether you're talking about one person, or multiple - which applies to singular "they/them" as well. Why do you care so much about "they", then?
And why do you not like the word being used in the first place? You haven't mentioned it in your post. Please explain, I'd genuinely like to understand your reasoning.
My reasoning, on that note, is that using an existing word such as "they" is a much smaller step than inventing a completely new one as well as its various forms would be. It's less jarring to see it on the page, it's easier to get used to, and, most importantly, it appears to be the pronoun most commonly claimed by non-binary people who are averse to using either "he" or "she". They should be the ones to decide; after all it's them who'll be referred to by it. If you don't like it, don't use it, unless you're being a ****** by calling a person who explicitly stated the pronouns they would like to be referred to by something else. Inclusion in literature, casual inclusion in any form of media, is paramount to normalizing non-binary people in the eye of the public, because they are real and present and more numerous than most people think, yet have been practically invisible until the last couple years or decades. Some people still aren't even aware they exist, so articles like this one that use a non-binary narrator are so important. If more articles like this one are written, more forms of media change things up a little and begin reflecting reality more accurately in their gender demographics, your main argument against the use of "they" - that it's new, and not widely adopted, and people shouldn't be "shamed" for not using it - will become less and less true every day, and eventually, in the none-too-distant future, completely moot, as "they/them" will have become commonplace, and as normal as "he/him" or "she/her".
On a completely different note, and to get back to your post, calling JohnRA's polite enough expression of their opinion and their genuine confusion about some comments on this article "shaming" and "virtue-signaling" is uncalled for. As far as I know, those terms do not apply to simply stating one's opinion without even directing a word at anyone else, as they did. Some other comments advocating for the use of they as a third person singular gender-neutral pronoun on this article could reasonably be called "virtue-signaling", though I don't like that term itself at all, but the one you quoted has zero shaming, signaling, or even criticism in it. It seems to me like you are projecting.
Lastly, it's quite rich of you to call someone else's post "outright pretentious, at worst", when your own is being so condescending I can smell it a continent away. Try to be less hypocritical if you want an actual discussion, please. And do not take this post the wrong way. I am not attacking you or your opinion, I'm simply stating mine and asking for the reasons behind yours, as well as answering your question and setting straight some ill-advised terminology pertaining to JohnRA's comment, which you used.
Exactly what he said.
Given how the subclass features are spread out, 14/6 is the ideal split for getting all the Hexblade features and the Hound of Ill Omen.
Multiclassing tip: Subtle Spell is a great way of getting spells off in a social environment or while sneaking, providing much of the functionality of a Rogue. Taking three levels in Bard with College of Lore will grant you a smattering of low-level spells, four additional skill proficiencies and Expertise as well, giving you a great mundane skillset to base your spells on. You won't miss out on spells known on your Sorcerer class, which are now free to take a lot more high-level spells. And you will still be able to get all your subclass features and four metamagic options.