Best Wild magic sorcerer builds?

[Rfkannen]

Was thinking about classically "bad" subclasses, and how to make the best of them. Wild magic sorcerer is often considered the worst sorcerer subclass what with being able to accidentally tpk at low levels. What do you think are the best ways to build a wild magic sorcerer? How do you take advantage of what the subclass has to offer? Are there any dips, metamagics, spells, or feats that combo well with subclass?

[sayaijin]

For reference, if you look at the entire wild magic table, there's only like a ~20% chance of something bad happening. Most effects are beneficial or "neutral".

If your DM lets you get advantage on most of your saving throws in order to keep rolling then it can be a very good class. Honestly if you have a table open to the chaos then it's fantastic... it's just that many people don't like that.

[Droppeddead]

Was thinking about classically "bad" subclasses, and how to make the best of them. Wild magic sorcerer is often considered the worst sorcerer subclass what with being able to accidentally tpk at low levels. What do you think are the best ways to build a wild magic sorcerer? How do you take advantage of what the subclass has to offer? Are there any dips, metamagics, spells, or feats that combo well with subclass?

There's always the "Paragon of Luck" concept that I love and will some day hopefully play. Besides that, it's not really a bad subclass. Like sayaijin said, it's a very low risk of something terrible happening. Playing a halfling or taking the lucky feat is a good (and rather fitting) way to counter the downsides. :)

[elyktsorb]

I don't know if it's 'best' but the last time I played a Wild Sorcerer I played a Yuan-ti, mainly for the magical resistance, if I'm going to accidentally cast stuff on myself, at least I'll have advantage against it.

It was still one of the most fun times I've ever had because while playing this, I not only died, but I rolled the 91-92 on the surge table during that combat which is 'If you die within the next minute, you immediately come back to life as if by the reincarnate spell.' and I got Reincarnated as a Stout Halfling, which is even more hilarious because I went from being immune to poison, to being resistant to it.

Imo, the best way to play Wild Sorcerer is to just lean into it and expect things to go south.

Playing a Halfling is also a lot of fun, because then whenever you roll a 1 for your spells you can attempt a re-roll if that spell hitting is very important, or if it's not too important that the spell misses, you can take your chance and see if the wild magic table does anything cool.

Also I would not recommend playing Wild Sorcerer unless you ask your DM if you can be in charge of your Tides of Chaos and he says yes, because if he does it himself you're likely not going to have as much advantage as you want, and it's like the whole draw of this subclass imo.

[ScoutTrooper]

Asking your DM to roll a different die instead of D20 for Wild Magic Proc. All to up the chance to proc the wild magic surge.
As a DM who approved use of Wyrmwood's High Variance D20 3x 1's (15% chance to proc)

[jojosskul]

So, one of the issues with Wild Magic Sorcerer is finding the right way to use your abilities. Yes, the Wild Magic table is the big draw, and if you can't get DM buy in on using it regularly, don't play the class.

The other feature you can expect to have access to for a decent portion of your career is Bend Luck.

Now, Bend Luck SEEMS expensive, but the nice part about it is you only use it when you need it. And with a certain Tasha's cantrip, you can basically make it so you have the effects of heighten spell without ever having to actually TAKE heighten spell as a meta magic. And with Sorcerer's saving a metamagic choice is a big deal.

Step one: Take Mind Sliver as a cantrip.
Step two: Take Quicken as a Metamagic (be honest with yourself, you probably would have anyway)
Step three: Double down on some good old save or suck spells.

So let's say, for example, you grab Enemies Abound as a level 3 spell. Cast Mind Sliver as a cantrip, if it fails, likely wait. No sorcery points spent, no spell slot wasted.

If it succeeds (and if this is a creature you're targeting with Int saves it probably will), spend two sorcery points and quicken Enemies Abound. If they fail with the initial -1d4, GREAT! If not, spend two more sorcery points, and subtract another 1d4 with Bend Luck.

Essentially, with those two combined you can give an average of a -5 save to any saving throw, but only if you NEED it. For when you REALLY want something to stick, this is fantastic. And it's cheaper than Heighten plus Bend Luck (which would be 5, and 3 if the initial save failed and Bend Luck wasn't needed), and you get some psychic damage on top.

Look for other little ways you can use Bend Luck to edge situations in your, and your parties, favor. It's extra dice manipulation, and combined with other dice manipulation tactics can make you feel more like a divination wizard than a divination wizard until the sorcery points run out.

I would recommend taking Metamagic Adept, possibly as Variant Human at level 1. Can't use it on Bend Luck, but can use it on Quicken. And by the time you're level 3 having 4 metamagics is great. Personally? I'd lean into the 'controlling the odds' aspect and take Empower as one of them. And Twin is always fun. Beyond that, just because you're a WILD mage, I'd never take Subtle or Careful. Subtle is great and Careful has it's uses, but there's nothing WILD about them :smallbiggrin:

[follacchioso]

You should definitely consider a race with Fire Resistance, especially at low level, given the chance of fireballing yourself.

[Rfkannen]

What party role do you think they fill best? Like, what sort of party would a wild magic sorcerer fit best into?

[sayaijin]

What party role do you think they fill best? Like, what sort of party would a wild magic sorcerer fit best into?

Honestly they're like most Sorcerers. Good AOE and blaster potential, but the lack of spells known means you have to specialize.

Like was says above, you have a really great potential to hit enemies with save or suck, so maybe controller?

The main things that have been mentioned here are:
1) The table is cool with random things happening. It can be hilarious and exciting, but if there are people who don't like random things happening (getting turned into a plant), then it's not for your table.
2) If DM does not let you use tides of chaos with just about every saving throw, then it's nerfed a lot.

[TalksAlone]

I feel there is little to be said on building a WMS specifically. Because in every regard, except those you can't control as a player, you are just like any other Sorcerer. You can do minor things to improve your PC, but there isn't really you can do to have huge improvement of efficiency like you'd have when taking Polearm Master and Sentinel with a Fighter.

What I'd say you can do are these three things:

1- Improve your understanding of spells and metamagics. Make well-researched decisions and make every selection, switch and application count for efficiency. Sorcerer has A LOT of room for mistakes in those areas and can be hampered rather harshly by them.

2- Recognize the value you can get by taking all the extra spells you can get your hands on. Especially because they are often Cha-based.

3- Optimize what you can in order to diminish the downsides of WMS. Fire resistance and Dex saves come to mind for the self-inflicted fireball.

Otherwise, just general PC optimization still stands.

[Dalinar]

Wild Magic is one of those heavily context-dependent subclasses. I've never taken a close look at it, myself, so I cracked my PHB open and wrote this post about my impressions.

I feel like, since there are two results I can see that are potentially catastrophically bad (polymorphing yourself--thus letting smart opponents kill your buddies while you're helpless--and fireballing yourself, which is likely an instant KO or even outright death at low levels and will likely take your friends' characters with you), and a couple others that are either negative or situationally problematic (the potted plant one, the one that makes you frightened, the Astral Plane shift one, the piercing damage vulnerability one, the mass invisibility one, etc), you should play Wild Magic in situations where you don't mind those results happening to you so much.

Wild Magic lends itself to zany one-shots, obviously, but outside of that I think it might combine well with Ancients Paladin 7 -- much has been said about sorcadins in 5e's time, but this particular combination gives you a CHA-based bonus to all saving throws as well as resistance to spell damage, both of which will help a lot with the two catastrophic options, and you'll have enough hit points by then to tank a stray Fireball anyway. Not getting Controlled Chaos is unfortunate, though. I wouldn't call this an optimal sorcadin build by any stretch, but if you're interested in playing Wild Magic specifically this seems like a great way to mitigate the downsides.

[Mastikator]

For reference, if you look at the entire wild magic table, there's only like a ~20% chance of something bad happening. Most effects are beneficial or "neutral".

If your DM lets you get advantage on most of your saving throws in order to keep rolling then it can be a very good class. Honestly if you have a table open to the chaos then it's fantastic... it's just that many people don't like that.

So with a 5% chance of a wild surge, there's really only a 1% chance of a bad surge?

You'd need to cast about ~70 spells to have a 50% chance of a bad wild surge.

Likely to happen eventually in a long campaign. Unlikely in a one-shot.

Edit

Math
1-(0.99^70) = 0.5051613404 (50.5%)

[EdenIndustries]

It's outdated, but still one of the best 5e guides I've read with a ton of fantastic advice for Wild Magic Sorcerers: https://www.enworld.org/threads/guide-playing-dice-with-the-universe-a-slant-guide-to-wild-magic-sorcerer.468899/