Brainstorming Storm Sorcery

[Dalinar]

So I've been sitting on a character concept for a Storm Sorcerer ever since I started playing this game early this year. In the intervening time I've learned a lot about what makes a character effective, and Storm Sorcery, well, isn't exactly the pinnacle of magical power. But I still want to do my best to make it work. (Haven't asked my DM about additional spells known.) Our table usually runs T1-early T2 games.

Thing is, there are so many combos that *almost* work. Tempestuous Magic (you can spend your bonus action to fly 10ft without provoking OAs after casting a leveled spell) would work great with Booming Blade, except that it only applies to leveled spells, not cantrips. You could use Polearm Master and War Caster together with Booming Blade, then use Tempestuous Magic to get out of range and repeat--but Booming Blade doesn't work at reach, so you'd want a spear or quarterstaff, but then you have no good way of getting the Booming Blade rider, as it wears off at the start of your turn. You could combine Dissonant Whispers or Command with War Caster/Booming Blade, but 1. you have to go a bit out of your way to get those spells and 2. then there's no point in using Tempestuous Magic.

Basically, I want to maximize the value of being able to move out of OA range with my bonus action after casting a leveled spell. Unsure how to do that.

[RogueJK]

Well, a Storm Sorcerer generally won't be focusing on being in melee anyway... But in general, if you really want ways to more reliably trigger BB's rider by using your Bonus Action to move away, there are options out there:

A) Telekinetic Feat gives you a BA shove effect to attempt to move an enemy 5 feet away


B) 2 levels of Rogue lets you Disengage with your Bonus Action


C*) The Crusher Feat (*which doesn't even require a Bonus Action) lets you shove an enemy 5 feet away when you hit with a Bludgeoning weapon.


D*) The Mobile feat (*which also doesn't require a Bonus Action) lets you negate OAs from any enemy that you've made a melee attack against.



I think you're going to have a tough time optimizing around Tempestuous Magic. It is pretty much intended to be a flavorful emergency escape plan or tactical repositioning ability, not necessarily the core of a character's combat strategy. Sorcerers don't want to stick to the front lines in melee, so if an enemy manages to close into melee range with you, you drop a leveled spell and then hoof it to a better position away from them. And unlike other Sorcerer escape options like Thunderwave or Shocking Grasp (or stuff like the Telekinetic or Crusher feats), it's not dependent on a failed save or successful attack roll to trigger the ability to escape. Merely the act of casting the spell means you can move to safety.

[Sorinth]

You can talk to your DM about crafting new spells. Basically make smite-like spells that work the the way the bladetrips do. Otherwise you are looking at spells that do Aoe to nearby enemies like Burning Hands, Thunderwave.

But it's more of a get out of trouble feature then something to build around offensively. You are probably better with battlefield control spells that make moving around the battlefield tough (Difficult Terrain or other enter the area and get hit by an effect) then you just blast like a normal sorceror except whenever an enemy tries to close the gap with you, you just whiz around the battlefield avoiding the battlefield hazards. So something like Earth Tremor might be more useful to you then it would for others.