Would It Be The Worst Thing To Give Classes More Spells?

[Floorlock]

Hey everyone. I've been on and off pondering the philosophy behind some of the class structure when it involves magic and spell selection ever since the Sorcerer Unearthed Arcana was released not so long ago.

See...one of my players is essentially playing the Favored Soul archetype...but, the old one from before this UA. I went into this knowing that the consensus was that it was an overpowered sorcerer origin, disregarding the issues and allowing it anyways on the basis of how well it fit her character that she was trying to make. I'm usually of the mindset to buff more than I nerf...raising the power level in some areas for the players and then going in and cranking up the difficulty of enemies where it's needed. So far...this has been a worthwhile excursion...so I didn't mind that the archetype was initially branded as OP.


However, I have recently found myself unsure as to WHY people thought that it was overpowered. At first, I saw that everyone claimed that it's overarching power came from the fact that it obtained spells that were kept normally away from sorcerers due to their use of metamagic. A sorcerer with the ability to twin so many healing and reviving abilities essentially bumped itself towards being a better healer than the Cleric in some instances. But, now...with the recent sorcerer UA, I've noticed that everyone seems somewhat pleased with the new Favored Soul...although it does have the ability to do, essentially, the same thing. I then noticed that the reason that everyone gave, nowadays it seems, for the old Favored Soul's power...was the addition of extra spells as opposed to a wider spell selection.

But, I've began to wonder....Will increasing the number of spells known for a class like Sorcerer by 10 or so, really push it into the territory of being Overpowered? And more importantly...IF the Favored Soul WAS in too advantageous of a position compared to other sorcerers...could another solution be to simply give the same type of buff to all other sorcerer origins? For example...would it have been so bad to keep the extra spells from the Storm Sorcerer Unearthed Arcana as opposed to ripping them away as they did in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide? Or would this put Sorcerers in general in an overpowered position?

On that same note...would it be too much of an issue to also increase Ranger spells as they've been doing with their new archetypes? Like...the Deep Stalker, Horizon Walker, and Primeval Guardian all receive 1 extra spell at certain levels...adding a total of 5 extra spells known to their repertoire. Would it be an issue to retroactively add this feature to both the Beast Master and Hunter archetypes? With spells that made sense for those archetypes of course...?

I'm asking all of this...not to necessarily argue a position...but, to genuinely ask if all of this would throw out game balance. I want to know just how big of an issue it might be. The answer won't change how I personally run my games...as I've long ago began to buff my other players to balance out the potential power level resulting from specific players. I'm also allowing one of my players to run a Way of Tranquility monk...so I've already committed myself into this High-Powered campaign. I've simply adjusted a few things to compensate for the power level.

[GraakosGraakos]

I've given a unique spell list to all the Sorcerers and all it has done is make people want to play it instead of wizard.

[BigONotation]

Sorcerers deserve more spells and/or more/better meta-magic. I let them choose a wizard school of spells to know.

[bid]

I have no opinion on whether 15 spells known is enough, but...

As a DM, you could give magic items with "known" spells. For instance, a ring of mirror image which allows you to spend a slot to cast the spell even if you don't know it.

That way, you don't have to change the mecanics to adjust balance.

[SharkForce]

there are those who felt the favoured soul was too powerful.

personally, i felt it was probably fine overall, but very obviously was dramatically stronger than the PHB archetypes. which, for that matter, is about how i feel (mostly) about the new sorcerer UA: overall, probably not ridiculously powerful when compared to a wizard or druid or cleric, but definitely much more powerful than any archetype currently in the PHB.

i think you could give the PHB sorcerers a few more spells without it being completely overboard. how many spells depends a lot on what you're giving extra. if you gave spells like feather fall and jump, which a sorcerer would almost never choose on their own, you could give more than if you handed out spells like fireball or shield.

as to the question in general rather than as it relates to sorcerers in particular... yes. giving wizard more spells would be too much. giving druids or clerics more spells seems completely ridiculous to me. bards have a ton of stuff going on for them in addition to knowing a lot of spells. warlocks probably need more variety in spell slots more than they need more spells. paladins are fine. rangers i don't necessarily know about getting more spells at once, but having a few added to their lists (in general, not just for the archetype... their list is tiny) and being able to switch out on a long rest (ie becoming prepared spellcasters) would be nice.

i would also rather see some changes to eldritch knights and arcane tricksters. i think it's pretty silly that an eldritch knight needs to use up a special spell selection on enlarge, fly, or haste, and i think it equally silly that an arcane trickster needs to spend one on levitate, spider climb, or alter self.

[Squibsallotl]

Yes, it would be.

In 4e combat (especially high level combat) was painfully slow because PCs had too damn many abilities to choose from. Even imposing time limits to keep things moving, each PC would have to decide between:
3-4 at-will abilities
3 encounter abilities
3 daily abilities
3 utility abilities
Magic item abilities

This was everyone, regardless of martial, divine, or arcane. Given 12-15 different things they could be doing each round, combat becomes about going through pages of character sheets, umming and ahhing to decide how to use your resources. If you're a really organised player and know all your abilities really well you might be able to decide quickly and efficiently, but most players would often forget their abilities between sessions and have to read back through them (during combat) to figure out what to do.

In 5e we have some classes with lots of book-keeping and abilities available, and some with few. This is a good design choice, allows the really organised player to pick, say, a Wizard (who gets 25 spells prepared and has 22 slots available at max level and intelligence, before magic items) and the more casual player or roleplay-focused player to pick, say, a Sorcerer, Warlock, Champion Fighter, Barbarian, or so forth.

The classes with restricted spell lists are that way for a reason. They cater to a particular type of player. If you want more spells, go Wizard (or Cleric). From a balance perspective, the more restrictive classes also usually provide passive buffs (champion improved crit range, barbarian auto-advantage and damage resistance, sorcerer metamagic and dragon skin, warlock eldritch invocations and so on).

[Asmotherion]

Sorcerers deserve more spells and/or more/better meta-magic. I let them choose a wizard school of spells to know.

Sorcerer is a very strong class by they core mechanics. All they lack is a viable offensive cantrip, and that gets compensated via dipping Warlock.