House rules for triggering Wild Magic more often.

[YCombinator]

Hey everyone,

I'm DMing for group with a Wild Magic Sorcerer and I find that Wild Magic is just not triggering enough. She is only level 2, so granted we're not seeing all that many spells being cast. I remind her of Tides of Chaos, so yes, we're making the most of that. It just doesn't come up all that often though. I am wondering if anyone has come up with any house rules for triggering Wild Magic more often.

I saw on Reddit a rule where the roll on the d20 depended on level of the spell. Level 1 spells triggered on 20 and they scale up in changes until level 9 spells trigger on 16-20. This is a nice one. Does anyone else have any?

[uraniumrooster]

In a game I'm running with a Wild Mage, I house-ruled it so she makes an Int (Arcana) check whenever she casts a spell using a spell slot. The DC is 10 + the spell's level, +1 for every Sorcery point expended on Meta-Magic to affect the spell, and if she fails she gets a Wild Surge.

I was a bit worried the DC would be too easy, but I find it works pretty well. Sorcerers tend not to have high Int scores, so it works out to be fairly well balanced.

[Starchild7309]

Hey everyone,

I'm DMing for group with a Wild Magic Sorcerer and I find that Wild Magic is just not triggering enough. She is only level 2, so granted we're not seeing all that many spells being cast. I remind her of Tides of Chaos, so yes, we're making the most of that. It just doesn't come up all that often though. I am wondering if anyone has come up with any house rules for triggering Wild Magic more often.

I saw on Reddit a rule where the roll on the d20 depended on level of the spell. Level 1 spells triggered on 20 and they scale up in changes until level 9 spells trigger on 16-20. This is a nice one. Does anyone else have any?

I am currently playing a wild mage sorcerer too. I spoke with my DM and since my character is all about chaos It has a possibility to trigger anytime I use metamagic...anytime I use the ability to regain spells through SP or vice versa. And Tides of Chaos or Bend Luck always trigger wild magic. I use Tides for EVERYTHING. Now granted I think knowing it will work with a certain ability is not really in the spirit of the wildness, at the same time if you leave it to a 5% chance all the time, more likely than not you are running a sorcerer thats not using their main class feature. Though, while I have been lucky thus far, there are some happenings that can be very bad in combat so having it go off every time a spell is cast is a little much. Much of the wild mage/DM thing is trying different things till you find a happy medium and agreeing that if you make a ruling as a DM, that you might change it later if it seems too overpowered or underpowered and the player being ok with that.

[Roughishguy86]

Rather then it triggering on a 20 make the player pick a number between 1-20. then every 5 spells they cast without a trigger they pick another number and roll another d20. Thats how we play at my table. i wild magic all the freaking time its awesome.

[Alerad]

Last session I DMed, I put the party against a Chaos (wild) sorceress, a barbarian leader and a demon (that one from MM which looks like red and blue gorilla). As they were trying to summon the forces of Chaos, the air was heavy with wild magic. Both the players and the enemies could draw spell slots from the very air each round. I rolled 1d4 every time to determine the spell slot. But! If you decide to use the chaos slot instead of your own it always triggers a wild magic effect.

Honestly, it was the most fun I've ever had. We hit feathered beards twice, regeneration, our sorceress turning into a potted plant, mass confusion (our sorceress was safe being a plant), the players even summoned a unicorn!

If you want to see more wild magic, create a situation where it's invoked more often. Like, every round. Most effects are fun and it will give your player chance to use Tides of Chaos more often that encounter.

[Markoff Chainey]

Our houserule:

Wild Magic Surge and Tides of Chaos
Whenever you cast a spell, roll a d20. If the result of the d20 is equal to or less than the spells level, you must roll on the wild magic chart. Immediately after you do so, you regain the use of your Tides Of Chaos ability, if you have this ability and have already expended it.

[Gastronomie]

Honestly it should have been a 1d10 or something, activating when the result is equal to or lower than the level of the spell slot consumed. Right now it's not really wild.

[Eldamar]

I've had one Wild Magic Sorcerer so far in my games, and they asked if they could use it each time they cast a 1st Level or higher spell.

The emphasis on how truly chaotic and dangerous this sort of magic is was great for that setting in particular, and I rather like it triggering this way. It'll probably be the same in my other games.

[Giant2005]

If you are making use of the Tides of Chaos ability then there will be a surge on every level 1 or higher spell she casts anyway. So if you want more surges you would either have to have more than 1 surge per spell, or have cantrips trigger the surge too (I'd recommend the latter).

[TheTeaMustFlow]

If you are making use of the Tides of Chaos ability then there will be a surge on every level 1 or higher spell she casts anyway. So if you want more surges you would either have to have more than 1 surge per spell, or have. cantrips trigger the surge too (I'd recommend the latter).

That's not how Tides of Chaos works.


Any time before you regain the use of this feature, the DM can have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher. You then regain the use of this feature..

In fact...


Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, the DM can have you roll a d20. If you roll a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.

Whether Wild Surges happen is entirely up to the whim of the DM. If he wants, they can never happen.

[Zalabim]

If Tides of Chaos is always used before a spell is cast, then there can be an average of ~1.2348 surge effects per spell slot used if the DM wants to use every possible RAW surge chance.

2% chance for 10 surges effect so a 1.2X modifier on number of surges, 1.05 surges possible per spell (tides of chaos is one and then 1 out of 20 for the random), with a 98% chance of any other effect since the multisurge doesn't do anything by itself, and it's 1.2*1.05*.98=1.2348 for a maximum. Since it lasts for a minute, some portion of the surges between 1.05 and 1.2348 will happen outside of combat or after combat has ended.

So rate of using/restoring Tides of Chaos is the biggest knob on surge frequency. You could say roll a d20, if it's a 1, surge. If it's an even number and tides of chaos has been used, restore tides of chaos and surge. That would be 5%-55% surge chance per spell, which works out to about half as many effects as I just calculated as its maximum.

If you instead want to see even more surges, then the only thing to do is increase the base chance to surge or the opportunities to use Tides of Chaos between each spell. If you go from surge on one to surge on odd, it goes from 5%-105% to 50%-150%. Or maybe you'd do surge on odd, surge and restore tides of chaos on even for 50%-100%.

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Anyway. Figure out how often surges come up, tides of chaos gets used, and tides of chaos gets restored currently then decide how often you'd like them to happen and it'll be easier to determine what house rule you want to use to reach your goals. And always reserve the right to veto any effect that on the spot would be too much, like exploding in front of the king when you cast enhance ability. Either don't call for a surge at those times or reroll the effect.

[Giant2005]

Whether Wild Surges happen is entirely up to the whim of the DM. If he wants, they can never happen.

It is the DM that is asking the question! He is already using that ability and it isn't enough to satisfy. He wouldn't be here asking how to get more Wild Surges out if he wasn't already reaching the limit of what the books allow, he would just choose to have Tides of Chaos proc more often.

[ryan92084]

Lets see we
1) removed the DM control over tides of chaos control and gave it to the player
2) Sorcerer always rolls the d20 after a 1st or higher level spell
3) Each time they cast a spell and a surge isn't triggered the number to roll under increases by 1. Resets to 1 once it is triggered.

[WilliamWallace]

We just started Out of the Abyss so we haven't had a chance to playtest it yet but our houserule for wild magic surges is basically that the chance increases each time there isn't a surge and then resets.

So if there isn't a surge when you roll a d20 for a 1, the next roll a surge happens on a 1 or 2, then a 1, 2 or 3 and so on. RP-wise we imagine this to be the wild magic building up and getting closer to the surface with each spell cast.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

It is the DM that is asking the question! He is already using that ability and it isn't enough to satisfy. He wouldn't be here asking how to get more Wild Surges out if he wasn't already reaching the limit of what the books allow, he would just choose to have Tides of Chaos proc more often.

I am aware of that. The 'problem' is the player not using Tides of Chaos enough. If that's just due to a lack of leveled spells, then it will sort itself out in time.

I'd consider allowing the player to auto-trigger a wild surge on next casting as a bonus action.

[Talanos]

In the campaign I'm running, magic is just returning to the world. So, there's a very raw and chaotic feel to the environment.

I have the Wild Mage roll for a surge after casting any spell, including Cantrips.

There's nothing funnier than watching the other players cringe when he carelessly casts Prestidigitation to light the campfire. :biggrin: