Wild Magic Sorcerer

[Starchild7309]

So I am going to have to reroll in the next session or two and I have always like the idea of wild mage from 3.5 and now I am thinking of trying the wild magic sorcerer. I haven't rolled anything at all yet so I don't have stats, but what I would like from you all is any advice on making it the most viable character it can be. I understand the draconic background has gotten a lot more interest, but I am going wild magic so any tips from people that have played it or any suggestions to make it better are welcome. I talked to the DM and he explained that the wild magic roll 1d20 would come after casting any spell of 1st or higher with metamagic. Also that it would come with every use of Tides of Chaos to be able to get that ability back.

That being the case what can I do either through multiclassing, feat selection etc. to make this character fun and exciting to play...as if a fireball centered on me looming over our heads wasnt exciting enough. I will be starting out at 6th level.

[Dalebert]

I talked to the DM and he explained that the wild magic roll 1d20 would come after casting any spell of 1st or higher with metamagic.

It's normally after any spell of 1st or higher with or without metamagic, but that's not a big deal since it's so unlikely anyway.


Also that it would come with every use of Tides of Chaos to be able to get that ability back.

This one is much more important. Without it, Tides of Chaos is sad. I would be reluctant to play a wild mage if the DM didn't clarify this up front. Also, the main benefit of a wild mage IMHO is the wild surges. They can give you some really cool stuff. Yes, they do bad things too, but on the whole the odds are in your favor.


That being the case what can I do either through multiclassing, feat selection etc. to make this character fun and exciting to play...as if a fireball centered on me looming over our heads wasnt exciting enough. I will be starting out at 6th level.

Consider a mountain dwarf for the armor. Sorcerers don't get enough spells known to justify mage armor and you don't (effectively) get it for free since you're not a draconic sorcerer. Your AC will be abysmal if you don't do something about it. Alternatively, you could consider a level of cleric and get some nice armor and weapon options while also beefing up your 1st level spells know and potentially getting some nice metamagic combos with cleric spells. At least your spell slots wouldn't take a hit.

[Starchild7309]

I was actually considering two levels of tempest cleric for the channel divinity ability and the armor.

[eastmabl]

I was actually considering two levels of tempest cleric for the channel divinity ability and the armor.

It's a good thought - but consider bard as well. While cleric is nice, you need a 13 Wisdom that you might not otherwise be inclined to have.

Bard only requires Cha, which synergizes well with Sorcerer and keeps you out multiple attribute dependency.

Also, I'll iterate this - make sure that your DM is willing to gives you Tides of Chaos. If you have a DM that's gun shy of wild magic, the wild magic sorcerer is not a good class to play.

[Temperjoke]

Things to bear in mind:

1. Positioning is crucial for wild magic sorcerers. Stand too close, and a bad effect could hit the whole party (can be amusing as well, but might lead to frustrated teammates). Stand too far away, and you could get separated and hit for a lot of damage.

2. What types of damage are you looking to do? This pairs up with the first one, and it also depends on your party, and will affect what multiclassing you might benefit from. If you want to blast, then it's not going to do you much good to have a variety of melee range spells, or be proficient in a ton of weapons. Armor would be less of a concern too, if you're not in melee range. If you don't have casters with utility, then you might want to focus on filling the gaps.

3. If your DM allows feats, that can be a good way to help fill in gaps in your character's abilities too, such as Ritual Caster to expand the spells you have available for outside combat, or War Caster for it's benefits.

[RaynorReynolds]

I was actually considering two levels of tempest cleric for the channel divinity ability and the armor.

This is one of my favorite sorcerer multi classing options. Might even go all the way to 6 sonce they are both considered full casters.

[Starchild7309]

I am not sure I want to go 6 levels, but second level does look real good at least.

[Starchild7309]

My other option I was thinking of going maybe a level of fighter for the fighting style of defense and the armor. I just hope I roll better than last time.

[EvilAnagram]

If you're worried about armor, 2 levels of Warlock will give you Armor of Shadows, plus Eldritch Blast and two extra 1st level spell slots that regenerate on a Short Rest, plus a pact feature. And on top of all that, it totally makes sense for a Wild Magic Sorcerer to lease out his soul.

Check my guide if you want more specific advice.

EDIT: Also, I wouldn't be too concerned about AC. My Wizard barely even gets attacked. Granted, he rarely casts a spell directly harming the enemy, but still.

[Starchild7309]

If you're worried about armor, 2 levels of Warlock will give you Armor of Shadows, plus Eldritch Blast and two extra 1st level spell slots that regenerate on a Short Rest, plus a pact feature. And on top of all that, it totally makes sense for a Wild Magic Sorcerer to lease out his soul.

Check my guide if you want more specific advice.

EDIT: Also, I wouldn't be too concerned about AC. My Wizard barely even gets attacked. Granted, he rarely casts a spell directly harming the enemy, but still.

Usually I wouldn't be to concerned with ac but my DM is very big on swarm tactics so there are always a few baddies that find their way over to the wizards and soft targets. He is a big fan of glass cannon swarms...

[Gastronomie]

These sorts of threads (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?468899-GUIDE-Playing-Dice-with-the-Universe-A-Slant-Guide-to-Wild-Magic-Sorcerer) exist for pretty much every single class in D&D. Googling some bit is enough to net you a lot of good information.

[Dalebert]

If you're worried about armor, 2 levels of Warlock will give you Armor of Shadows...

For the life of me, I don't understand the appeal of Armor of Shadows. Warlocks already have light armor proficiency so it's just 1 more point of AC than they would otherwise have from studded leatehr. That seems petty for the price of an invocation. If they could cast it on others, that would help justify it a little. And then if you find magic light armor later, you're stuck with it because you're not continuing to advance in warlock which would otherwise give you a chance to switch it out.

On top of that, I like the idea of wearing any kind of armor because it makes you seem a little less likely to be a full caster and thus to be targeted as a perceived glass cannon.

[Starchild7309]

These sorts of threads (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?468899-GUIDE-Playing-Dice-with-the-Universe-A-Slant-Guide-to-Wild-Magic-Sorcerer) exist for pretty much every single class in D&D. Googling some bit is enough to net you a lot of good information.

Thanks for this link. I saw this awhile ago and could not seem to find it again. I had been looking for it, but either I just skipped over it or for whatever reason it escaped me.

[Oramac]

I was actually considering two levels of tempest cleric for the channel divinity ability and the armor.

I did this with my Storm Sorcerer, and it's all kinds of fun, especially with the Metamagic shenanigans.

That being said, it's probably not quite as good for Wild Magic since you most likely won't have as much stuff that deals Lightning/Thunder damage. Unless you specifically go for those spells, in which case I ask, why not just play Storm?

[Starchild7309]

Ok so another question. Since my wild surge will go off every time I use tides of chaos, aside from scorching ray, what other spells (levels 1-4) are pretty decent to use with tides of chaos?

[Oramac]

Ok so another question. Since my wild surge will go off every time I use tides of chaos, aside from scorching ray, what other spells (levels 1-4) are pretty decent to use with tides of chaos?

Well, Tides actually gives you advantage on spell attacks, ability checks and saving throws, so I'd say use it as much as you want with whatever you like.

The only real caveat is that for spells, it has to use an attack roll. So it won't trigger on buff spells or spells that require an enemy saving throw.

Personally, I'd use Chromatic Orb since you can Twin it, or Scorching Ray with Quicken. But there's plenty of other options too, depending on how you want the character to feel.

[Starchild7309]

Ok so I spoke to my DM today and rolled stats. Went with half elf and ended up with stats that look like this:

Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 11
Wis: 14
Cha: 20

I took the faction agent background for the skills and the r/p lean it gives. Proficient in Insight, Perception, Deception and Persuade. I know I want to go with Quicken, but not positive what other meta magic to go with. I was thinking Heighten.

[EvilAnagram]

Heightened is a really good choice. I've rated them in the guide in my sig, but Heightened is absolutely one of the top contenders.

[Paeleus]

If you want to be an armored, weapon swingin'/spell slingin' arcane time bomb, fighter and paladin are good starting points for multiclassing with sorcerer.

The paladin is a preferred melee-caster choice due to Charisma spellcasting, spells, channel divinities, and smites. If SCAG cantrips are legal, a tactic could be to enter battle, burn Tides, and on the next turn cast a 1st level Smite spell, a Wild Surge roll, and then a Greenflame or Booming Blade.

Fighter has some interesting options through archetypes, skills, and Action Surge, which is a very powerful thing. All in all, fighter has its place but is probably less optimal than paladin.

[Starchild7309]

If you want to be an armored, weapon swingin'/spell slingin' arcane time bomb, fighter and paladin are good starting points for multiclassing with sorcerer.

The paladin is a preferred melee-caster choice due to Charisma spellcasting, spells, channel divinities, and smites. If SCAG cantrips are legal, a tactic could be to enter battle, burn Tides, and on the next turn cast a 1st level Smite spell, a Wild Surge roll, and then a Greenflame or Booming Blade.

Fighter has some interesting options through archetypes, skills, and Action Surge, which is a very powerful thing. All in all, fighter has its place but is probably less optimal than paladin.

As you can see going through my thoughts on this I was considering going with heavy armor, possibly with fighter or cleric, but I looked at our party and there are already two heavy armored mage types. One is a sorcerer with a little fighter, though I believe he will be going more fighter from this point on and the other is a wizard with a little fighter and he will be going mostly wizard from now on.

I have also always been the type to try out weird and different combos of things, never play the same character type twice. I am just going squishy mage armor and shield with mirror images for protection, counting on all the heavy armor guys to protect me. Prototypical glass cannon. Also, since I have been playing with the same DM for about 20 years he wants to use my character as like an inside mole for the Lords Alliance in Rise of Tiamat.

Regardless of all that my hope with the wild magic sorcerer is to cause wild magic to happen as often as possible. I understand thats not really an optimized way of doing things, but our party has enough "optimizers" already. I want to play the wild card, the loose cannon that can swing the direction of the play wildly in different directions. I think its kind of boring to run the same strategy every combat.

I am not sure how the party will handle this new addition, but like I said I want to set off wild magic as much as possible. That being said the rules for that as per my DM are I would roll 1d20 every time I use meta magic and it would automatically happen with the next spell cast after tides of chaos. So other than using metamagic as often as possible what other things can I do to make it happen more? What are all the things tides of chaos can be used for? Some of them are beyond my control (ie having to make a saving throw), but things like using tides of chaos for Dex initiative in the beginning of combat is one thing. What else can it be used for?

[Ace Jackson]

Tides of chaos can be used for any saving throw, ability check, or attack roll. This means that, unless there's one or two esoteric exceptions I'm forgetting, if you are throwing a d20 as a player, you can use tides of chaos.

A sage advice article published on April 30th, 2015, clarified the three types of rolls, principally over confusion over what hex did and didn't cover, here's the URL if you want to be able to reference it yourself:

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/ability-check

Skill checks are just augmented ability checks, and valid targets for tides of chaos. The game engine is your oyster as a wild magic sorcerer, so long as you can take the punches that come with it, you effectively always have an inspiration point in your pocket to make any check, to do anything, with advantage.

Granted this assumes you always have a spell to cast to trigger the surge and recharge, but still.

Best of luck with this new character! Make them someone to remember!

[Zalabim]

As the simplest example of those two principles, you can cast Firebolt and use Tides of Chaos then cast a quickened spell. As mentioned, you can use Tides of Chaos for initiative then lead off the fight with a Web. Make it Careful, if you like.