Sorcerer 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Innate Magic

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 D&D Sorcerer

A sorcerer weaves fire magic around themselves

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.

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

A sorcerer channels the cosmic force of order in nature

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 InitiateWant 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 SniperThis 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

A sorcerer casting mind spike

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 

A storm sorcerer channels lightning

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.

Sorcerer 201: The Best Magic Items for Sorcerers
by Damen Cook
Sorcerer 101: Wild Magic
by James Haeck
Sorcerer 101: Draconic Bloodline
by James Haeck

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.

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