Fear of limiting a Sorcerer

[PaganUniform]

So I'm starting a new 5e campaign and playing my first sorcerer. From his background he has his power from finding a fossilized blue dragon egg so I was thinking he could only cast lightning (+ thunder and wind) evocation spells. My worry with that is I'm be limiting my consistent damage without firebolt and only dmg cantrip being shocking grasp. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this I'd appreciate it, my character will have decent dex, so he will probably be using a light crossbow as his main attack at the lower levels.

[EvilAnagram]

If your patron egg gives you storm powers, why can't you take Ray of Frost? It seems thematically appropriate to me.

[PaganUniform]

well its a blue dragon which are typically lightning. ray of frost would be ice. but I could try to broaden it that way.

[JellyPooga]

You can stick to your theme without crippling yourself. Sure, take the likes of Thunderwave and Shocking Grasp, but be sure to remember that Blue Dragons are desert dwellers, have a burrow speed, frightful presence and can fly, not to mention whatever (optional) spellcasting it might have. Oh, it's a friggin' Dragon too; a silver tongue is practically mandatory.

This opens up a slew of options, not only those that are lightning themed; I would consider all of the following appropriate spells myself.

Cantrips
Friends, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Minor Illusion (mirage)
1st Level
Charm Person, Chromatic Orb, Colour Spray, Comprehend Languages, Disguise Self, Feather Fall, Magic Missile, Silent Image, Sleep
2nd Level
Alter Self, Blur, Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Levitate, Mirror Image, See Invisibility, Shatter, Suggestion
3rd Level
Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fly, Haste, Hypnotic Pattern, Major Image, Protection from Energy, Slow, Tongues

There's plenty of options there without negatively impacting your theme or combat potential.

[EvilAnagram]

well its a blue dragon which are typically lightning. ray of frost would be ice. but I could try to broaden it that way.

You can also take Spell Sniper to use Shocking Grasp as a ranged spell.

[JellyPooga]

If your patron egg gives you storm powers, why can't you take Ray of Frost? It seems thematically appropriate to me.

Blue Dragons aren't Storm Dragons...they're Digital Age Dragons (sand -> silicon -> electricity). Anything cold or ice based is right out, thematically. Fire would be more thematic, given they're desert dwellers.

[PaganUniform]

Well I'm thinking more mechanically limiting. I went draconic sorcerer with blue (lightning) bonuses. Just worried about my damage scaling up. But knowing blue dragons are more desert makes me want to include some of the wind spells. what spells would silicon apply? hah

[EvilAnagram]

Blue Dragons aren't Storm Dragons...they're Digital Age Dragons (sand -> silicon -> electricity). Anything cold or ice based is right out, thematically. Fire would be more thematic, given they're desert dwellers.

Digital dragons, eh?

Perhaps a focus on social, illusion, and charming spells are called for, themed as projecting holograms and utilizing a stellar social networking image and so forth.

[JellyPooga]

Digital dragons, eh?

Perhaps a focus on social, illusion, and charming spells are called for, themed as projecting holograms and utilizing a stellar social networking image and so forth.

Blue Dragons are ambush predators, so anything that falls into the stealth and deception categories would also be appropriate, but I like the conclusion you've drawn here. Definitely seems appropriate to me, given the various descriptions of Blue Dragons I've read over the years.

Oh, one other thing; Blue Dragons are particularly fond of gems and precious stones. Maybe the OP could find a way to incorporate that into their character too (colour spray, prismatic spray, etc.)?

[Strill]

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_dragon

Blue dragons get their laughs from playing with the puny lesser races by using illusion spells to trick them into drinking sand or walking miles out of their way. Towards lesser creatures they're more manipulative than murderous, and among their own kind have an orderly society.

[Vogonjeltz]

If I recall correctly lightning lure from SCAG would offer another lightning based cantrip

[PaganUniform]

not sure I like the idea of dragging enemies towards me, plus the attack only does damage if they are within 5ft

[JellyPooga]

not sure I like the idea of dragging enemies towards me, plus the attack only does damage if they are within 5ft

Lightning Lure + Quickened Thunderwave to pull-me-push-me could work, especially if your allies have some nasty environmental spells like Spike Growth active. As a Draconic Sorcerer, you're a little bit tougher than your average Sorcerer, so you can afford to get a bit closer than you might think. Just be sure not to get isolated from your companions.

[Pex]

Use flavor text and take whatever non-damage spells you want. Spells are changed descriptively not mechanically.

Examples:

Slow - Streaks of lightning hit your enemies. The electric shock staggers them slowing them down.

Dispel Magic - A bright bolt of lightning hits the target blasting away all magic.

Misty Step/Dimension Door - You briefly turn into lightning and move with lightning speed to your destination.

[PaganUniform]

oh I mean I'm not really worried about teh non damage spells, but those are great ideas :D I just want to make sure im not severely gimping my dmg output . but thanks for all the advice guys!

[SharkForce]

just so you know, there is also a thunderclap cantrip in the elemental evil supplement. it's loud, and short range, but it is also AoE if that helps (the main problem being it's AoE around yourself, and hits all creatures rather than only allies... although careful spell can help with that, not that it's a good idea to require constant use of metamagic just to use your default actions).

[Specter]

What about Thunderclap? Not too strong, but should help against hordes.

[Grod_The_Giant]

My first thought is to ask your DM if you can have a "Thunderbolt" cantrip that's just a lightning damage version of Firebolt.

Secondly, Shocking Grasp is more plausible than you might think. Dragon Sorcerers are actually pretty tough, with a base AC of 13 and the bonus health, and Shocking Grasp lets you retreat again on a successful hit.

Looking a bit farther abroad... have you considered Booming Blade? You'd have to shuffle things around a bit, because you'd be in melee, but it's well-scaling thunder damage (works out pretty similar to Extra Attack, most of the time). What race were you thinking of playing? Drow would give you rapier proficiency, boosting your melee damage decently, and Variant Human could give you a feat-- Mobility and Spell Sniper both work wonders with Booming Blade, the former letting you hit-and-run and the latter letting you rock a reach weapon to strike without opening yourself up.

[PaganUniform]

I made my character half elf, and tahts kinda tied into his backstory so its too late to change that. I like booming blade though. With mobile thats awesome but I can see myself using quicken spell to do booming and shocking grasp in the same turn to help avoid the opportunity attacks. I really think itll come down to how crowded our front line is, if its too crowded idk how well slipping in and out will go. Alot of people have suggested the thunderbolt cantrip, ill have to bring that up with my dm.

[ruy343]

Just a note: shocking grasp is incredibly fun with the "Find Familiar" spell - maybe your familiar is a little blue lizard that hatched from the dragon egg and hasn't grown to full size yet. You'd be able to cast shocking grasp through your lizard in addition to your other spells.

[PaganUniform]

I would have to take ritual caster to use that though right? i think find familiar is a wizard ritual spell

[Fflewddur Fflam]

So I'm starting a new 5e campaign and playing my first sorcerer. From his background he has his power from finding a fossilized blue dragon egg so I was thinking he could only cast lightning (+ thunder and wind) evocation spells. My worry with that is I'm be limiting my consistent damage without firebolt and only dmg cantrip being shocking grasp. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this I'd appreciate it, my character will have decent dex, so he will probably be using a light crossbow as his main attack at the lower levels.

Yeah, I don't think you should do this. You're a sorcerer that has some tiny, infinitesimally small amount of blue dragon in him, you are NOT a blue dragon. Sorcerers are limited enough compared to wizards, don't limit him further. There's just not enough lightning damage spells out there to warrant it. Get other damaging spells too. The fact that you eventually add your CHA to lightning damage is enough of a nod to your ancestry.

[PaganUniform]

Yeah, I don't think you should do this. You're a sorcerer that has some tiny, infinitesimally small amount of blue dragon in him, you are NOT a blue dragon. Sorcerers are limited enough compared to wizards, don't limit him further. There's just not enough lightning damage spells out there to warrant it. Get other damaging spells too. The fact that you eventually add your CHA to lightning damage is enough of a nod to your ancestry.

thanks, yeah that is a good point

[Laserlight]

So I'm starting a new 5e campaign and playing my first sorcerer. From his background he has his power from finding a fossilized blue dragon egg so I was thinking he could only cast lightning (+ thunder and wind) evocation spells. My worry with that is I'm be limiting my consistent damage without firebolt and only dmg cantrip being shocking grasp. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this I'd appreciate it, my character will have decent dex, so he will probably be using a light crossbow as his main attack at the lower levels.

Ask your DM to let you refluff spells to your chosen element--for example, erase the name Fire bolt, insert Lightning Bolt or Ice Bolt or what have you. Since it's more common for monsters to resist Fire than most other elements, he might elect to weaken your spells slightly, either directly ("you do 7d6 instead of 8d6"), or by fiddling with the monsters. Or he might not bother--it's been a while since I've played a sorc but as I recall, my fire spells ignored Resist anyway.

[Socratov]

how about this:



Fire BoltShooting Spark
Evocation cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 120 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Instantaneous

You hurl a mote of fireSpark of electricity at a creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 fireelectricity damage. A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn’t being worn or carried. (Hey, elctric sparks can ignite stuff too, so you can even leave this in. This spell’s damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10).

Text taken from http://ephe.github.io/grimoire/spells/fire-bolt alteration (strikethroughs and italics) mine.

Ther eyou have it, a firebolt, but reworked to electricity

On another note, I think that with the set-up 5e has given us that palyerside and GM side alterations should be encouraged, especially if it increases the fun had.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

If your DM doesn't allow you to change the element, you could take firebolt and flavour it as using lightning to propel superheated grains of sand at people.

[MrStabby]

Ask your DM to let you refluff spells to your chosen element--for example, erase the name Fire bolt, insert Lightning Bolt or Ice Bolt or what have you. Since it's more common for monsters to resist Fire than most other elements, he might elect to weaken your spells slightly, either directly ("you do 7d6 instead of 8d6"), or by fiddling with the monsters. Or he might not bother--it's been a while since I've played a sorc but as I recall, my fire spells ignored Resist anyway.

Yeah, re-fluffing fire to lightening is not something I would do as DM. Simply fire is commonly resisted and lightening less so. Cold, radiant, psychic damage... I would be happy to allow spells that do those to be re fluffed.

It is hard to know what other DMs would do if asked, but if I were your DM I would certainly let you swap out other spells from the spell list to make space fore more thematic spells before re-fluffing. It might not extend to particularly iconic spells that are almost class features (destructive wave, call lightening)

[Grod_The_Giant]

On another note, I think that with the set-up 5e has given us that palyerside and GM side alterations should be encouraged, especially if it increases the fun had.
But... but... the perfect, intricate balance, so wonderful it cannot be dispensed with, and so delicate it can be shattered by the smallest change from holy RAW!

[JellyPooga]

But... but... the perfect, intricate balance, so wonderful it cannot be dispensed with, and so delicate it can be shattered by the smallest change from holy RAW!

Praise be the holy RAW!

[Socratov]

But... but... the perfect, intricate balance, so wonderful it cannot be dispensed with, and so delicate it can be shattered by the smallest change from holy RAW!

And here I thought we were discussing 5th edition instead of 4th...

[WereRabbitz]

Am I the only one questioning the effectiveness of being Blue in a desert? Brown/Tan/... these might be quite a bit more effective. I would pick red or yellow even before i'd pick BLUE!

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Am I the only one questioning the effectiveness of being Blue in a desert? Brown/Tan/... these might be quite a bit more effective. I would pick red or yellow even before i'd pick BLUE!

You're assuming the Dragon wants to hide...


"The uniforms hides of the Imperial Guard lesser beasts are camouflaged in order to protect their wearers by hiding them from sight.
The principle is that what the enemy cannot see he cannot kill. This is not the way of the Adeptus Astartes dragon. A Space Marine’s armour dragon's scales is bright with heraldry lustre that proclaims his devotion to his Chapter kind and the beloved Emperor of Mankind Tiamat. Our principle is that what the enemy can see, he will soon learn to fear…"

[CursedRhubarb]

You should be fine for damage with thunder and lightning for your main source. Adding a supplement of cold wouldn't break theme either. One of the worst things about getting caught in a big thunderstorm in a desert area isn't the rain or lightning. It's the wind and the possibility for those storms to have hail with little to no cover to hide under. Huge hail. Hail ranging from golf ball sized to softball size or larger.

Desert storms suck

[SharkForce]

Am I the only one questioning the effectiveness of being Blue in a desert? Brown/Tan/... these might be quite a bit more effective. I would pick red or yellow even before i'd pick BLUE!

iirc they can burrow. blue is good for hiding in the sky, and if they're not in the sky, they're underground covered in 10 feet of sand and you can't see what colour they are anyways.

[Strill]

You're assuming the Dragon wants to hide...They do in fact want to hide. Blue dragons hide under the sand, and use illusion magic to trick and confuse passing humanoids for their own amusement.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

They do in fact want to hide. Blue dragons hide under the sand, and use illusion magic to trick and confuse passing humanoids for their own amusement.

Oh. Well then, they're under a load of sand and they have illusions. Doesn't really matter much what colour you are then.

[Strill]

Oh. Well then, they're under a load of sand and they have illusions. Doesn't really matter much what colour you are then.

Well, that's how they were characterized in previous versions. D&D 5e makes magic-using dragons a variant option rather than the default.

[NNescio]

You can also take Spell Sniper to use Shocking Grasp as a ranged spell.

No, you can't. This isn't BB or GFB which have ranges of 5ft that can be extended to 10ft for use with a reach weapon. Shocking Grasp has a range of touch. Doubling it goes nowhere.

Distant Spell (the metamagic) can let you Shocking Grasp at range, but that's a terrible waste of Sorc points considering how little the Sorcerer gets.

(Sorlocks can get a lot of them, but they already have EB, so they don't bother.)