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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Sorcerous Origin: Archmage's Heir (pls PEACH)



BerzerkerUnit
2019-06-28, 11:44 AM
Sorcerous Origin: Archmage’s Heir
You are descended from a line of wizards that focused on a particular school of magic. The diligence of their study has been passed down to you as an incomparable potential for magic allowing you to seamlessly mesh the study of your preferred school with the sorcerous power of your blood.

Focused Talent
Beginning at first level you choose a school of magic such as transmutation or necromancy. You learn one additional spell of 1st level from that school that must be chosen from the Wizard list. These spells count as Sorcerer spells for you.


Each time you gain a level in this Class after you acquire a scroll or spellbook containing a spell of your preferred school, you may learn 1 additional spell from your chosen school. You must have a slot of the spell’s level to learn it. You can learn a number of these spells equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you have already learned the maximum number of spells you can know in this way, you can replace one of the other spells you learned through this feature. When swapping a spell known, you must study the new spell for 2 hours per spell level of the spell.

Arcane Duelist
At 6th level your talent for the art of wizardly dueling blossoms. You learn either Counterspell or Dispel magic if you don't know them already. You add half your Proficiency bonus to the checks made as part of these spells. checks to dispel or counter spells of your preferred school gain your full bonus.

Esoteric Applications
By 14th level you master one of the most iconic abilities your ancestor's Tradition had. You gain the 2nd or 6th level feature of your preferred school’s Arcane Tradition. If the 6th level feature is dependent on the level 2 feature, you must acquire the earlier feature first (through multiclassing or a boon, etc.).

Legendary Arcana
At 18th level your mastery of magic is unparalleled and you can not only see the threads of magic as they are pulled and woven into spells, but bind them in place. You can spend 5 Sorcery Points to ready a spell of 1st to 5th level without specifying a trigger. The spell no longer requires your Concentration to remain ready, you can trigger the spell as a reaction at any time. You can have only one such spell readied at a time.

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I think this is okay mechanically, am I missing some glaringly obvious flaw? I think, based on the wording, you could multiclass as any other full caster and as long as you have 4+ levels of this at the end you could potentially still learn a small number of high tier spells from a single school. I see that as an unintended bonus that reinforces the theme of the subclass and I think you'd have to work hard to make it that much better than 4+ more levels of that class (especially since Sorcerer's strength is metamagic, so every level lost is power lost).

Lil Mordecai
2019-08-02, 04:59 PM
I like esoteric applications giving you an ability that isn't directly related to spells.

For the other abilities, be careful you don't add too many spells on top of how many a sorcerer usually gets.

Segev
2019-08-02, 05:05 PM
Looks okay, though gaining Int-mod extra spells known is pretty beefy for a Sorcerer. You may want to let them pick any sorcerer spell they could cast if they already know Dispel Magic or Counterspell, though, so that it's not a "feature" that's forcing them to wait for something they feel is iconic.

Amechra
2019-08-02, 06:18 PM
I like esoteric applications giving you an ability that isn't directly related to spells.

For the other abilities, be careful you don't add too many spells on top of how many a sorcerer usually gets.

Don't listen to Mordecai - give Sorcerers all the spells!

In all seriousness, one of the big complaints about sorcerers is their lacklustre number of known spells. You could probably get away with upping their spells known to Charisma + Level as a 1st-level subclass feature...

Composer99
2019-08-03, 09:25 AM
Sorcerous Origin: Archmage’s Heir
You are descended from a line of wizards that focused on a particular school of magic. The diligence of their study has been passed down to you as an incomparable potential for magic allowing you to seamlessly mesh the study of your preferred school with the sorcerous power of your blood.

Focused Talent
Beginning at first level you choose a school of magic such as transmutation or necromancy. You learn one additional spell of 1st level from that school that must be chosen from the Wizard list. These spells count as Sorcerer spells for you.


Each time you gain a level in this Class after you acquire a scroll or spellbook containing a spell of your preferred school, you may learn 1 additional spell from your chosen school. You must have a slot of the spell’s level to learn it. You can learn a number of these spells equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you have already learned the maximum number of spells you can know in this way, you can replace one of the other spells you learned through this feature. When swapping a spell known, you must study the new spell for 2 hours per spell level of the spell.

Arcane Duelist
At 6th level your talent for the art of wizardly dueling blossoms. You learn either Counterspell or Dispel magic if you don't know them already. You add half your Proficiency bonus to the checks made as part of these spells. checks to dispel or counter spells of your preferred school gain your full bonus.

Esoteric Applications
By 14th level you master one of the most iconic abilities your ancestor's Tradition had. You gain the 2nd or 6th level feature of your preferred school’s Arcane Tradition. If the 6th level feature is dependent on the level 2 feature, you must acquire the earlier feature first (through multiclassing or a boon, etc.).

Legendary Arcana
At 18th level your mastery of magic is unparalleled and you can not only see the threads of magic as they are pulled and woven into spells, but bind them in place. You can spend 5 Sorcery Points to ready a spell of 1st to 5th level without specifying a trigger. The spell no longer requires your Concentration to remain ready, you can trigger the spell as a reaction at any time. You can have only one such spell readied at a time.

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I think this is okay mechanically, am I missing some glaringly obvious flaw? I think, based on the wording, you could multiclass as any other full caster and as long as you have 4+ levels of this at the end you could potentially still learn a small number of high tier spells from a single school. I see that as an unintended bonus that reinforces the theme of the subclass and I think you'd have to work hard to make it that much better than 4+ more levels of that class (especially since Sorcerer's strength is metamagic, so every level lost is power lost).

Overall, I like the subclass, both thematically and mechanically.

I'm not quite sold on the wording of the second paragraph of Focused Talent, especially the first sentence. It just seems a little wonky, which I think has to do with the use of the word "acquire" and the structure of the sentence around it. Might I suggest something more like:

Each time you gain a level in this class, you may learn one additional spell from your chosen school of magic, which must be of a level for which you have spell slots. In order to do so, you must possess that spell in written form, such as a scroll or inscribed in a spellbook. [...]

Also, I'm not fond of the fiddliness of Esoteric Applications. I think it would be better if, for each school of magic, you either chose a feature from each arcane tradition that you think would be suitable for a 14th-level sorcerer to gain or brewed up a new benefit.

Finally, I daresay there should be some kind of time limit on how long you can have a "readied" spell available with Legendary Arcana. The closest equivalent spell effect, contingency, has a duration of 10 days, along with an expensive material component and a few more restrictions on the kind of spell you can "ready" using its effects (along with burning a 6th-level slot to cast contingency in the first place). The only thing contingency has over this feature is that it doesn't use your reaction. Perhaps the readied spell from Legendary Arcana is lost after you finish a long rest?



Looks okay, though gaining Int-mod extra spells known is pretty beefy for a Sorcerer. You may want to let them pick any sorcerer spell they could cast if they already know Dispel Magic or Counterspell, though, so that it's not a "feature" that's forcing them to wait for something they feel is iconic.

That's the 6th level feature, so I don't believe it would be possible for a sorcerer to know both spells by then. You could pick up one of them with your 5th level spell pick, and then by default get the other one with this feature.