Chaos is a Ladder (to the grave) [coffeelock lite]

[sayaijin]

My DM has been fairly open to using UA material, and I think I've found a flavorful coffeelock [lite] combination.

Race: Reborn (UA)
The important thing here is that this race allows you to finish a long rest in 4 hours. It also has advantage on death saving throws.

3 levels of Undying warlock. This is strictly for flavor reasons as any warlock subclass works. There is actually overlap between the subclass and race ability, but I'm trying for more flavor and less optimization so the idea doesn't get shot down immediately.

Remaining levels all WILD MAGIC sorcerer.

So the character concept is someone who keeps escaping death (or keeps being sent back?) everytime their chaos magic blows up in their face. I'm envisioning a sort of Harvey Dent kind of character who carries a coin or something and makes decisions on chance.

During the party's long rests, this character will take a long rest in four hours then spend the remaining 4 hours completing 4 short rests. That gives them 8 2nd level slots from pact magic which becomes 16 sorcery points.

Since the character is actually taking long rests, they have a cap on number of points, and since the sorcerer subclass is wild magic, there's always a chance that more spells in a day is a bad thing.

Would you let someone play this at your table?
Are there any other ways to make the class more palatable/more flavorful?

[LumenPlacidum]

Remember that you can't actually have more sorcery points than the table indicates in the class description. So, don't forget to "store" those by creating more spell slots. I would be way more comfortable with someone taking this option at my table than a coffeelock otherwise, since otherwise there isn't really a practical limit on their spellcasting slots per day. That said, with someone being at least somewhat abusive of what I consider a rules-loophole, I'd probably sometimes use metamagic options on the wild magic effects, capriciously and... maybe sometimes maliciously.

Besides, if your thought is to cause a little havoc with wild magic, why not let you do what you were planning?

[sayaijin]

Remember that you can't actually have more sorcery points than the table indicates in the class description. So, don't forget to "store" those by creating more spell slots. I would be way more comfortable with someone taking this option at my table than a coffeelock otherwise, since otherwise there isn't really a practical limit on their spellcasting slots per day. That said, with someone being at least somewhat abusive of what I consider a rules-loophole, I'd probably sometimes use metamagic options on the wild magic effects, capriciously and... maybe sometimes maliciously.

Besides, if your thought is to cause a little havoc with wild magic, why not let you do what you were planning?

According to PHB errata, you can't use metamagic on wild magic effects. Otherwise I would just take careful spell for when I fireball myself.

[heavyfuel]

Coffeelock is only truly broken if you decide to never take long rests, and they combine especially well with either Divine Soul Sorc, because they can use slots for healing.

Since you'll actually be 3 levels behind on your spellcasting progression, using your Warlock slots for some extra juice is actually detrimental compared to straight up Sorcerer.

At 5th level, a regular Sorcerer has 5 SP, and 4/3/2 slots. Your char will have - after converting SP to the highest possible slots - 2 SP, and 7 slots (all 1st level). Not only do you have 2 fewer slots, you also cannot cast at higher slots than 1st.

This gets worse by the level. At 11th, a Sorcerer has 11 SP and 4/3/3/3/2/1 slots. You char will have 10 SP and 5/3/3/2/1 slots. Again, 2 fewer slots, but now also 1 fewer SP, and no 6th level spells either.

Honestly, I know you said you were going for flavor as to not get shut down immediately, but if you tell your DM you want to make use of the Coffeelock mechanic but that you'll still take long rests every night, they really shouldn't have any problem, since Sorlocks are considerably weaker than Sorcerers unless you never take Long Rests.

[sayaijin]

Coffeelock is only truly broken if you decide to never take long rests, and they combine especially well with either Divine Soul Sorc, because they can use slots for healing.

Since you'll actually be 3 levels behind on your spellcasting progression, using your Warlock slots for some extra juice is actually detrimental compared to straight up Sorcerer.

At 5th level, a regular Sorcerer has 5 SP, and 4/3/2 slots. Your char will have - after converting SP to the highest possible slots - 2 SP, and 7 slots (all 1st level). Not only do you have 2 fewer slots, you also cannot cast at higher slots than 1st.

This gets worse by the level. At 11th, a Sorcerer has 11 SP and 4/3/3/3/2/1 slots. You char will have 10 SP and 5/3/3/2/1 slots. Again, 2 fewer slots, but now also 1 fewer SP, and no 6th level spells either.

Honestly, I know you said you were going for flavor as to not get shut down immediately, but if you tell your DM you want to make use of the Coffeelock mechanic but that you'll still take long rests every night, they really shouldn't have any problem, since Sorlocks are considerably weaker than Sorcerers unless you never take Long Rests.

Thanks, fuel. I hadn't run the numbers yet. This build would only be good for quickened EB I guess, and that's not the goal of the character. I guess straight WM sorcerer is the way to go.

[heavyfuel]

Thanks, fuel. I hadn't run the numbers yet. This build would only be good for quickened EB I guess, and that's not the goal of the character. I guess straight WM sorcerer is the way to go.

Actually, I did make a mistake in my math because I forgot you'd also take extra short rests during the adventuring day.

Assuming two extra short rests, we have:

5th level: Sorcerer has 5 SP, and 4/3/2 slots. Coffeelite has 2 SP, and 8 slots (all 1st level). So, the same amount of slots, but fewer SP and only 1st level slots.

11th level: Sorcerer has 11 SP and 4/3/3/3/2/1 slots. Coffeelite has 8 SP and 4/3/4/2/1 slots.

Not a huge difference from my original math. You still should have no problem with this build being overly powerful if you take regular long rests.

[LumenPlacidum]

According to PHB errata, you can't use metamagic on wild magic effects. Otherwise I would just take careful spell for when I fireball myself.

Beg pardon, I meant if I were the DM and invoking wild magic. If your character seemed abusive, I would probably spend a point here or there and make the wild magic surges flashier.