Warbound Soul (martial sorcerer subclass)

[KittenMagician]

Just a rough draft of a martial subclass for sorcerer I'm working on. haven't figured out names for all the features yet.


Lore: You might be the reincarnation of some warrior from the past, or perhaps you were blessed by a god of war, cursed more like, or maybe you just have incredibly bad luck, good if you are from certain cultures. Regardless, everywhere you go, you always seem to find battle. You seem drawn to it or it is drawn to you. You seem to have an almost unnatural prowess on the battlefield and the flow of combat resonates with you strongly.

Level 1: You gain proficiency with simple weapons and 1 martial melee weapon of your choice. You also gain the Mage Armor spell, which doesn't count against your spells known and you may cast it as a bonus action.

(I was thinking of an expanded spell list to include some more melee style spells like a smite or something)

Level 6: Extra attack. Additionally whenever you land a melee attack you may expend a number of sorcery points up to your Cha Modifier. For each sorcery point you spend this way you deal an extra d4 of damage. This extra damage is of a type of your choice from lightning, fire, cold, acid, thunder, or force. You may only use this ability once per turn.

Level 14: Whenever you take the attack action you may expend 4 sorcery points to make a single additional melee attack (3 total). Additionally, whenever you roll initiative you may expend 2 sorcery points to give yourself advantage

(havent quite worked out how i feel about the initiative part.)

Level 18: Whenever you die, you are lifted to your feet and returned to life with 10 hit points. When you use this feature you may expend any number of sorcery point to increase the amount of hit points you return to life with, gaining an additional 10 hit points per sorcery point spent. Once you use this feature you cannot do so again for 3 days.



Let me know what you guys think.

[supercereal]

Seems overall fine, I would probably give it proficincy in light weapon at level 1 instead of bonus shield. I would change one of the 6th or 14th level ability that gives you extra damage by spending sorcery point (extra d4 damage or third attack) for something that gives a little bit more survaivability/bulk as I feel the subclass right now feels like a glass cannon. This can also be accomplished by an expended spell list with a couple of defensive spells. Also the 18th level feature maybe works better if it trigger when you reach 0 hp instead of when you die.

[KittenMagician]

Seems overall fine, I would probably give it proficincy in light weapon at level 1 instead of bonus shield.

im not quite sure what you mean


I would change one of the 6th or 14th level ability that gives you extra damage by spending sorcery point (extra d4 damage or third attack) for something that gives a little bit more survaivability/bulk as I feel the subclass right now feels like a glass cannon. This can also be accomplished by an expended spell list with a couple of defensive spells.

what would be some good defensive combat spells for an expanded spell list? my friend suggested avoiding to much tank stuff as it kinda takes away from the idea of what a sorcerer is.
also what would be some decent spells to add to make melee combat more viable for a sorcerer?


Also the 18th level feature maybe works better if it trigger when you reach 0 hp instead of when you die.

I think you are right here.

[supercereal]

I meant giving proficiency in light armor instead of giving the ability to cast the spell shield as a bonus action.

For cool spells:

Defensive -

Armor of Agathys, False Life, Heroism, Aid, Stoneskin (temp hp and resistances)
Shield, Blur, Mirror Image (higher AC)

Offensive -

Compelled Duel, Hunter's Mark, Spiritual Weapon, Haste, Guardian of Nature
All the smites :smallbiggrin:

I think that a warbound soul should play more as a baby barbarian rather than a baby warrior, so having a mediocre AC but a lot of HP (well a lot for a sorcere nonetheless!) to "soak" damage. I agree that is a tight rope to walk on, but if you are making a subclass for a melee oriented sorcer you are already taking away a little bit the idea of a sorcer in my opinion.

[KittenMagician]

I meant giving proficiency in light armor instead of giving the ability to cast the spell shield as a bonus action.

i see the advantage of this and concede that it is a good idea (also it was mage armor not shield)



For cool spells:

Defensive -

Armor of Agathys, False Life, Heroism, Aid, Stoneskin (temp hp and resistances)
Shield, Blur, Mirror Image (higher AC)

Most of these spells are already available to sorcerers. although i like heroism a lot for this subclass


Offensive -

Compelled Duel, Hunter's Mark, Spiritual Weapon, Haste, Guardian of Nature
All the smites :smallbiggrin:

haste is already available to sorcerers and i dont think guardian of nature or spiritual weapon quite fit but tenser's transformation and tasha's otherworldly guise fit in line with what i was thinking. i do like compelled duel, hunter's mark and the smites fit strongly.


I think that a warbound soul should play more as a baby barbarian rather than a baby warrior, so having a mediocre AC but a lot of HP (well a lot for a sorcerer nonetheless!) to "soak" damage. I agree that is a tight rope to walk on, but if you are making a subclass for a melee oriented sorcer you are already taking away a little bit the idea of a sorcerer in my opinion.

i agree that this is meant to be more like a mini-barbarian rather than a mini-fighter. i picture this would be kinda like what achilles might have been.

your recommendations and comments have been very helpful. thanks. hope you are looking forward to Warbound soul 2.0

[Giegue]

As-of Tasha's, all future sorcerer subclasses get "origin spells" that can be swapped out for spells from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell of specific magic schools fitting for the bloodline when you level. Thus, to keep this in line with that new convention for sorcerer subclass design, I'd add that in. Likewise, while the extra attack feature you have is -ok-, the Bladesinger Wizard was recently revised to get a MUCH better version that lets them cast a cantrip in place of making the second attack. While a sorcerer can do this already by quickening a cantrip, that costs a sorcerery point. The feature you have likewise costs EVEN MORE sorcery points than just quickening a cantrip and does worse damage than a cantrip. This means that the extra attack you have here is straight up worse in all possible ways than the Bladesinger one, and as a result I feel this is one of the cases where just poaching the same mechanic the Bladesinger uses. Why? Because your 1st level is way too weak, even by sorcerer standards. Thus, I'd not be "getting rid" of the sorcery point smite, but instead moving it down to level 1 along with the bonus spells, and making it able to be keyed off sorcery points or spell slots, and upping the damage to proper d8s when used with your slots.

So, with that out of the way, I'd recommend the following level 1 features, and the following level 6 feature:

War Magic

Starting at 1st level, you learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in the Sorcerer class, as detailed below. Each spell counts as a Sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of Sorcerer spells you know. These spells can’t be replaced when you gain a level in this class. Whenever you gain a Sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level. The new spell must be an Abjuration or Evocation spell from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell list.

1st: Armor of Agathys, Wrathful Smite, Green Flame Blade
3rd: Aid, Magic Weapon
5th: Fireball, Haste
7th: Staggering Smite, Stoneskin
9th: Banishing Smite, Cone of Cold

Warblooded

Also starting at 1st level, the use of weapons and armor, and the art of war, come easily and naturally to you. You gain proficiency with heavy armor, shields, and martial weapons. Additionally, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend a spell slot of 4th level or lower to deal 2d8 extra damage to that creature. For each slot level above 1st, this extra damage increases by 1d8, to a maximum of 5d8 damage with a 4th level slot. This extra damage is of a type of your choice, chosen from lightning, fire, cold, acid, or thunder. You may only use this ability once per turn. Also, starting at 2nd level you can spend Sorcerery points up to 5 Sorcerery points instead of a spell slot to add this extra damage. When you do so, the extra damage is equal to 1d4 per-point spent instead of the normal amount. When you do this, the extra damage is of a type of your choice chosen from lightning, fire, cold, acid, or thunder (the once per-turn use limit still applies as-normal).

Extra Attack

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks.



With both these changes, the subclass should hopefully work as-intended. I have no idea of Warblooded is TOO good, though. If somebody else here thinks Warblooded might be too strong, please let me know!

[supercereal]

I disagree with giving this sorcer subclass heavy armor and a smite (expecially at first level). On the other hand, I think you are right that the the 1st level ability and the 6th level damage are e little bit on the underpower side. Maybe a little bit of bulk could be added at first level (e.g. an extra 1hp as the draconic sorcer). The 6th level could be replaced with the bladesinger one, but I liked more the idea of an "Elemental Smite" powered by sorcery points as it is an unique mechanics of the sorcer (unlike spending spell slot for extra damage), maybe buffing the damage to d8s and capping the maximum number of extra dices could be a solution.

[Yakk]

The class features are all "fight gooder".

Have a mixture of combat and utility.

Thematically, "reincarnation" is not typical sorcerer fluff, and the source of power is usually non-humanoid.

Sorcerers can already quicken booming blade, so at level 14 they are getting 4 attacks/round at the cost of 6 sorcery points/round.

The class features don't encourage using spells. You are a sorcerer.

Level 6 feature is both extra attack and a smite. The sorcerer-smite also stacks with divine smite and smite spells. That could get silly?

Examine a Hex1/Paladin2/Warsorc X and see how ridiculous it gets. Traditionally you'd need to go Pal 5/6 or Hex 5 to get extra attack in the Sorcadin build, this breaks that; we now have a level 20 sorcadin with 9th level spells and extra attack, significant power creep, and it comes online much earlier.

(The traditional path might be Paladin 2/Hex 1/Paladin 6/Sorc X; here you only start getting full-caster levels at level 8. In the above, you can Paladin 2/Hex 1/Sorc X, and start scaling sorcerer levels at level 4. This delays your extra attack to level 9 I'll admit.)

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I'd strip out the fluff and stick in new ones and use some of the mechanics. An earth-elemental themed sorcerer might get similar abilities, for example, and you'd have something to hang non-combat utility on top of, instead of just "fight gooder".

Or find some other outsider that is all about fighting, and make it that-outsider-blood. That should also provide something to hang non-combat abilities off of.