A utility spell you say

[manyslayer]

Our sorcerer (wild magic) forgot to level up before the last game so was doing so befog we began. As he was deciding on a spell he was going down his list:

"I've got flamebolt, magic missile, chromatic orb... what spell do I need?"

"You could always take a utility spell."

Nodding his head he looks up at the DM. "I've got scorching ray now."

[Rerem115]

I mean, it's basically a leveled version of Create Bonfire, right?

[E’Tallitnics]

Our sorcerer (wild magic) forgot to level up before the last game so was doing so befog we began. As he was deciding on a spell he was going down his list:

"I've got flamebolt, magic missile, chromatic orb... what spell do I need?"

"You could always take a utility spell."

Nodding his head he looks up at the DM. "I've got scorching ray now."

Baha ha ha ha ha! Oh my Moradin that's funny...

Never, ever suggest to a Sorcerer that they take utility spells. That's for the Wizard to worry about (with all her pages and pages of spellbook spells and her fancy pants ritual casting stuff...).

[Man_Over_Game]

Baha ha ha ha ha! Oh my Moradin that's funny...

Never, ever suggest to a Sorcerer that they take utility spells. That's for the Wizard to worry about (with all her pages and pages of spellbook spells and her fancy pants ritual casting stuff...).

With how the Sorcerer can cast spells with Subtle or Twin, there's a lot of value that can come from some good planning, especially considering how many spell slots they get.


Enlarge/Reduce come to mind as both tactical and utility.
Catapult does too, especially if you combine it with Enlarge/Reduce. Shrink something to 1/8 its weight (dropping a 40 pound object to 5lbs), then throw it via Catapult. Release Concentration on Enlarge/Reduce for shenanigans and confused DMs.
Suggestion and Levitate are also prime examples of having diverse uses.
Frame someone for mutiny by using Enemies Abound and Subtle Spell.
Gaseous Form and Fly are some honorable mentions.
And Twinning Greater Invisibility has some great value.

[xroads]

To be fair, given that he is a wild mage, it might be a good idea for him not to cast unless it's an emergency. Utility spells would just give him more reason to cast.

After all, there is a chance he could blow himself (and the party) up with a point blank Fireball every time he cast Leomund's Tiny Hut.

[Man_Over_Game]

To be fair, given that he is a wild mage, it might be a good idea for him not to cast unless it's an emergency. Utility spells would just give him more reason to cast.

After all, there is a chance he could blow himself (and the party) up with a point blank Fireball every time he cast Leomund's Tiny Hut.

There's a few things you need to keep in mind, though:


The Wild Magic table is generally more beneficial than harmful, with about a 60/40 split between good and bad.
There's only a 5% chance to roll on the table per individual casting. Consider this with the fact that a Sorcerer can start to cast 20 spells (when he's likely to cause a single Wild Magic roll) at about level 10. This means that, before level 10, and assuming he's spending all of his spell slots at that level, he's rolling on the table less than 1 time per day.
Wild Magic can be forced if the Sorcerer improves a spell, which then allows the GM their own discretion on when to force a roll, which allows the Sorcerer to improve another spell.


Assuming you have a 10% chance to die from an effect from the Wild Magic table, and you're rolling to randomly decide if a spell triggers or not. that's still a 1/200 chance of casting a lethal effect (1/20 and 1/10).

[Vogie]

To be fair, given that he is a wild mage, it might be a good idea for him not to cast unless it's an emergency. Utility spells would just give him more reason to cast.

After all, there is a chance he could blow himself (and the party) up with a point blank Fireball every time he cast Leomund's Tiny Hut.

Maybe... if you read it as "At 1st level, immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher", you wouldn't roll on the table by only using wizard/druid/cleric/bard/warlock ritual spells.

IDK if the errata removed that distinction.

[xroads]

There's a few things you need to keep in mind, though:


The Wild Magic table is generally more beneficial than harmful, with about a 60/40 split between good and bad.
There's only a 5% chance to roll on the table per individual casting. Consider this with the fact that a Sorcerer can start to cast 20 spells (when he's likely to cause a single Wild Magic roll) at about level 10. This means that, before level 10, and assuming he's spending all of his spell slots at that level, he's rolling on the table less than 1 time per day.
Wild Magic can be forced if the Sorcerer improves a spell, which then allows the GM their own discretion on when to force a roll, which allows the Sorcerer to improve another spell.


Assuming you have a 10% chance to die from an effect from the Wild Magic table, and you're rolling to randomly decide if a spell triggers or not. that's still a 1/200 chance of casting a lethal effect (1/20 and 1/10).

Frequent use of Tides of Chaos would increase the odds (and what wild mage wouldn't use that feature as often as possible :smallbiggrin:?).

And on the wild surge table, there is a 2% that the sorcerer has to keep rolling on the surge table each round for an entire minute. :smalleek:

I'm not sure what the odds are, but I've seen it happen. And it proved lethal for my friend. At the tail end of a lengthy battle (so already low on hit points), he gets the above mention result. Ends up having becoming invisible, playing disembodied music (which we all decided was "Ride of the Valkyries"), and casting two point blank fireballs. He literally went out in a blaze of glory! :smallbiggrin:

[sophontteks]

That's a dreadful bad spell list. Probably the worst sorcerer spell selection I've seen yet. All those spells are basically rehashes of the exact same thing.

I mean....best of luck carrying them, and thanks for sharing :smallbiggrin:

[Chronos]

Yeah, even granted that he really likes direct damage, there's nothing on there that offers a save. How about Burning Hands, or Thunderwave, or Shatter?

[Lunali]

Maybe... if you read it as "At 1st level, immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher", you wouldn't roll on the table by only using wizard/druid/cleric/bard/warlock ritual spells.

IDK if the errata removed that distinction.

The distinction is still there, but unless you have ritual caster or another class, you aren't going to be casting many of those.

[Greywander]

The fool. He could have taken the most powerful spell in the game: Illusory Script.

Given the spells mentioned, I'm assuming he's still fairly low level, so only 1st and 2nd level spells are on the table. There's a number of options for both levels that would make for great utility:

1st:
Charm Person
Disguise Self
Feather Fall
Fog Cloud
Silent Image

2nd:
Alter Self
Darkness
Detect Thoughts
Enhance Ability
Enlarge/Reduce
Invisibility
Levitate
Spider Climb
Suggestion

And that's just from the PHB.

Don't forget that sorcs are CHA casters, so social-oriented spells (Charm Person, Detect Thoughts, Disguise Self, Suggestion, etc.) can be good choices, and pair nicely with things like the Actor feat.

I know sorcs tend to be blasty, but really, how many different blasty spells do you really need? And Subtle Spell has a lot of potential for casting in social encounters without being detected. You can be Obi-Wan from A New Hope. "These aren't the droids you're looking for." As someone else pointed out, Twinning utility spells, especially concentration spells, can be amazing.

I'm generally much more of a wizard person, but in a way a sorcerer is just a wizard who knows what spells they want. The strength of a wizard is in being able to change their spells during a rest, but if you can settle on a set list (i.e. if you would never prepare different spells anyway), then a sorcerer becomes much stronger. Poor spell selection is probably what holds back the majority of sorcerers, and the analysis paralysis is probably one of the reasons people like me lean more toward wizard, where we can get all the spells.