Constitution Focused Sorcerer

[Garfunion]

I’ve been pinball-ing the idea on how to maximize the effectiveness of the Eberron feat
Aberrant Dragonmark and the sorcerer class. The feat allows you to use constitution as your spellcasting ability for the cantrip and 1st level spell you choose with it.

There are many sorcerer spells that don’t require you to have a high charisma for the effects to work like magic missile, sleep, shield, and others.

So the question really is, can you make an affective sorcerer who puts all their stat points into constitution (maybe some dex) instead of charisma?

As a sidenote; what would make this feat even better for sorcerer is if the giant soul actually becomes a subclass.

[leogobsin]

This thread (https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-compilation-of-useful-spell-lists-leugren.471765/) has a bunch of lists of spells with various qualities, including spells that either don't at all or only partially rely on spellcasting ability modifier. It's from 2015, so doesn't include spells from Xanathar's and other sourcebooks released since then, but i'm sure it would be a good start.

[CheddarChampion]

"Stone Sorcerer with no offensive spells" is the first thing that comes to mind for me.
But that requires your DM allows an old UA.
Maybe Mountain Dwarf for 17/10/17/10/11/10, grab +1 Str/+1 Con at Level 4. Twin spell for buffs, booming blade for tanking... eventually Resilient (Wisdom)...?

[RogueJK]

It'd be most doable with a multiclass like a Paladin 5 or 6/Sorcerer, or Fighter 5/Sorcerer, where the focus wasn't offensive spellcasting, but instead martial ability with some defensive/utility spellcasting. Sort of like a multiclass Sorcerer-based Eldritch Knight.


As for a single class Sorcerer that could be effective with a high CON and a middling CHA, you could do it as something like a STR/CON-focused Mountain Dwarf Divine Soul Sorcerer, using the racial weapon and armor proficiencies to wear Medium Armor and two-hand a Warhammer or Battleaxe. You'd need to be converting many of your higher level spells slots into Spell Points to be able to use Booming Blade + Quickened Booming Blade on most rounds to keep up with the lack of Extra Attacks after Tier 1. Most of your other spell slots would be used on defensive spells, like Absorb Elements, Shield, Bless, Protection from Good/Evil, Aid, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Haste, etc.

Stats would be something like 15/14/15/8/10/8, with +2 to STR and +2 to CON.

The same above concept could be done with a Githyanki, wearing Medium Armor and wielding a Greatsword. Lower starting CON, but higher damage from the Greatsword (2d6 vs 1d10), and a few useful additional spells.


Or if you want DEX-based instead of STR-based, you could do a Hobgoblin, using a Rapier and wearing Light Armor. Lower starting DEX than either of the above STRs, and less weapon damage, but also less MAD and with some useful racial abilities.

Stats could be something like 10/15/15/9/12/10, with +2 CON and +1 INT.

Could also be a Variant Human Draconic Sorcerer with the Weapon Master feat at 1st level. +2 DEX and +1 CON, plus martial weapon proficiency, and Draconic Sorcerer gets you Natural Armor equivalent to Light Armor and a small HP boost.

Also doable as a Variant Half Elf Draconic Sorcerer. Variant Half Elf gets you Elf Weapon Training for Shortsword proficiency, though you'd be doing slightly less damage than Hobgoblin or Variant Human with Rapier, and noticeably less damage than the STR-based versions.

Stats would be something like 10/15/15/10/12/9, with +1 DEX, +1 CON, and +2 CHA.

[Garfunion]

Definitely some interesting builds here. But I was thinking more like variant human(high con) with aberrant dragonmark(shocking grasp and mage armor) X Sorcerer.

[RogueJK]

Ah. I missed the fact that it was a feat. I don't play Eberron.

In that case, it'd have to be a Variant Human DEX-based build. That gets you that feat at 1st level.

Stats would be 8/15/15/8/14/10, with +1 DEX and +1 CON, plus another +1 CON from the feat.

You'd have a 16 AC with Draconic Natural Armor or 17 AC with Mage Armor, which isn't terrible in Tier 1, but isn't great much past that. Especially for a melee character. And you'd have to rely on Shocking Grasp as your "weapon", so hope you don't run into anything with Lightning Resistance/Immunity.

Might be fun for a low level one-off, or a short Tier 1 campaign, but I think you'd struggle at higher levels.

I'd also suggest picking a 1st level spell other than Mage Armor for your feat option. According to the feat text, unlike Magic Initiate, Aberrant Dragonmark's 1st level spell refreshes on a short rest. So it's usable more than once per day. It also uses CON as its spellcasting ability, which Mage Armor doesn't benefit from at all. So I'd go with something more frequently useful, and that would get some use from a high CON, like Chaos Bolt, Chromatic Orb, Ice Knife, or Id Insinuation. That gives you at least one good ranged damage spell per short rest, since you can't rely on any of your normal CHA-based Sorcerer ranged spells. You could then use the Draconic Natural Armor to boost your AC instead. Or go with a different subclass like Divine Soul and just take Mage Armor as one of your normal Sorcerer spells, since it isn't dependent on your CHA score.


Still, as I said, it's not optimal. But it's a fun thought experiment.

[Lille]

If you're willing to wait until a bit later to take the dragonmark, IIRC the Genasi has CON-based racial spellcasting, giving you a bit more in the way of options.

[XmonkTad]

Definitely some interesting builds here. But I was thinking more like variant human(high con) with aberrant dragonmark(shocking grasp and mage armor) X Sorcerer.

While variant human gets you the feat earlier, dont ignore Fire Gensai. They get "produce flame" based on con, and +2 con.

[stoutstien]

While variant human gets you the feat earlier, dont ignore Fire Gensai. They get "produce flame" based on con, and +2 con.

And a con based burning hand once/LR at lv 3. A while back I had a thread talking about trying to make an effective con based caster. While sorcerer can work the artificer has a ton of utility and party support without needing to buff int and then at lv 10 they can make the headband of int to make up for boosting con first.

[Crucius]

If you're willing to wait until a bit later to take the dragonmark, IIRC the Genasi has CON-based racial spellcasting, giving you a bit more in the way of options.

This!

I play a con-focused fire genasi stone sorcerer and it is... busted. Don't know what you can do with the dragonmark, but I have 19 AC at level 4 and the highest HP in the party, while further improving my defenses with Mirror Image, all while casting con-based produce flames and burning hands.