Where do baby sorcerers come from?

[Scalenex]

Origins
1-Sorcery is a random occurance involving the metaphysics of a world with magic in it
2-Sorcery is a blessing gifted to or afflicted on individuals who the gods want to play with their own inscrutable reasons
3-Sorcery is a throwback to a more magical ancestor
4-Combine 2 and 3, sorcery is a by-product of gods mating with mortals
5-Combine 1 and 3, sorcery only manifests with the right heritage and some particular kind of mystic disturbance

Finally, how likely is a sorcerer to have a sorcerer offspring? What if anything, could dilute the power of sorcery if it's is indeed hereditary.

There are many implications

Would this lead to sorcerers amassing power? If two sorcerers could consistently produce another sorcerer by mating, then sorcerers could "recruit" large numbers through arranged marriages and create a hereditary line of rulers with the mystical power to back up their claims.

Would it lead to magicide? Sorcerers are hunted down so they don't pass on their taint, this particularly possibly if wizards and clerics are in power.

[Dhavaer]

Bazareene, in the Ghostwalk setting, is ruled by the Sherem-lar, a noble class of female sorcerers. They're slightly more powerful than vanilla sorcerers, and the elite, the Sherezem-lar, are more powerful still. The male equivalent are monks, and I don't remember what they're called. The Sherem-lar were created by a spell that would presumably be an Epic spell, and are only born in Bazareene. The Sherem-lar trait is heriditary, Sherezem-lar are something that happens every few generations, often in great numbers.

[Jannex]

In some settings, don't sorcerors believe that their power comes from distant draconic ancestry?

[Sardia]

In my campaign, dark elves aren't born, they are created through the blessing of Lolth. If they breed out with normal elves, the offspring is a normal elf. If two dark elves reproduce together, however, there's a good chance the offspring will be a little too blessed-- tendency toward sorcery and generally evil (even by dark elf standards).
Otherwise, if you want magic, crack a book.

[Thomas]

In some settings, don't sorcerors believe that their power comes from distant draconic ancestry?

That's the default, although even then it's just some sorcerers. And some may get their powers from a similar connection to outsiders or fey.

[Maryring]

If sorcery comes from Dragons, then why is a 20th level Sorcerer a better spellcaster than a Great Wyrm?

[Altair_the_Vexed]

I'd go for option 3, with a non-theistic dose of 2.

Sorcery is a throwback to some distant ancesteral blood of celestial / abyssal / spirit / whatever-your-campaign-has origin.

As for dragons being crappy sorcerers, they can always take levels in it. Seems to me that a Great Wyrm that was a 20th level sorcerer as well as being a big, scaled, death-breathing, smart monster would be a little more impressive than a 20th level human sorcerer.
The stats in the MM are just the default - or at least that's how I read it.

[Thomas]

If sorcery comes from Dragons, then why is a 20th level Sorcerer a better spellcaster than a Great Wyrm?

Because the default great wyrm has made no effort to improve its abilities. The great red wyrm Sor10, however...

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Sorcerer is pretty much the most common class given to dragons, as far as I can tell.

Up until they equal the wyrm's (prodigious) Hit Dice, those Sorcerer levels only add 0.5 to CR each.

[Sardia]

If sorcery comes from Dragons, then why is a 20th level Sorcerer a better spellcaster than a Great Wyrm?

Hybrid vigor? Or the Dragon's wasting all his magical mojo powering his flight and breath weapon, etc, etc. Or his spell resistance interferes with it.

[clericwithnogod]

The male equivalent are monks, and I don't remember what they're called.

The whipped?

The kihu-sherem guardians are males magically altered in the womb (via a sizth level spell) to better protect their sorceror rulers...by getting +2 to the DC of their monk abilities (as opposed to the +4 to effective CHA a female sorceror can get with the two sherem/sherezem feats).

Bazareene...the new Drow.

And what once may have been an epic spell now requires only a sixth level spell (though it would suck to be the Sorceror that had to burn a slot on it).

[Variable Arcana]

I'm playing a character now who comes from a long line of wizards, but who for backstory reasons was denied training by all of his clan's wizards -- so his talent emerged as sorcery instead.

In general, though, I like the idea of sorcery being related to mixed-blood (dragon, fey, celestial, fiend...).

[Swordguy]

Eh, I just tend to ignore the whole "draconic heritage" aspect of sorcerers, claiming instead that they are those people whom have the force of will/personality to force the winds of magic to bend to their will (as opposed to using workarounds like spellbooks). It's the ultimate of taking charge of your own fate.

RAW, though, you're looking at 1 of 4 options for the origin of a sorcerer.
1) Forced intercourse with a dragon
2) Consensual intercourse with a dragon
3) Some sort of wonky demonic pact
4) Idiotic multiclassing to get spell levels (Oh look! Somebody in my past must have had sex with a dragon, and it just now manifested! How utterly convenient that I was just about to pick a new class in which to take a level!)

[Swordguy]

Oh, and sarcastically,

Where do baby sorcerers come from?

Their mothers.

[Skydiving_Ninja]

Where do baby sorcerers come from?

You see Scalenex, when a human and a dragon wuv each other very very much...

Now for a real answer: I thought the PHB said they were descended from dragons and had a tiny physical aspect that proved it, like Hennet's claws. Or it depends on the campaign setting.

[Maroon]

Sorcery, in my setting, is the result of a racial memory; energy patterns encoded into the mind of the sorcerer through heritage, that have to be explored and activated. Most people cannot reach these areas of their brain, even if they have them (non-casters), while some can imprint spells into them while they do not have sorcerous powers (wizards). Even others can channel the energy from someone else's mind to their minds (spellthieves). Some open the areas earlier than others, resulting in the ability to multiclass to sorcerer.

The reason a sorcerer cannot cast all spells from birth is because (s)he has to find them first through meditation (the spells need to be uncovered), the reason a wizard can only cast a limited number of spells is because he can only dig so deep at a time. In other words, sorcerers have generators they need to find while wizards have capacitors they need to make.

In most magical creatures some patterns are close to the surface, resulting in spell-like abilities (such as gnomes and dragons). But ultimately, sorcerous powers as the class comes down to heritage, a single ancestor that knew every arcane spell possible. Wizards are those with enough mental power to copy the patterns and imprint them in their minds, and even hold it in writing. In short, minds are like computers, only with hidden partitions you get from your parents. And scrolls are floppy disks.

That's how I see it, anyway.

[Amphimir Míriel]

Origins
1-Sorcery is a random occurance involving the metaphysics of a world with magic in it
2-Sorcery is a blessing gifted to or afflicted on individuals who the gods want to play with their own inscrutable reasons
3-Sorcery is a throwback to a more magical ancestor
4-Combine 2 and 3, sorcery is a by-product of gods mating with mortals
5-Combine 1 and 3, sorcery only manifests with the right heritage and some particular kind of mystic disturbance

It's number 5 in my campaign world. I don't allow people to multiclass into sorcerer, though... Sorcerer must be the first class.

Same thing with Psionics... I don't buy the "but it was in me all this time, only that it just manifested itself"

You see Scalenex, when a human and a dragon wuv each other very very much...

You rule!

[Titanium Dragon]

Am I the only one who wonders if a closet furry worked on 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons?

More seriously though, dragons are very charismatic, so it makes sense that they'd have lots of, er, unique offspring. Plus, if you've ever seen furry, er, "pictures" *coughs*, you'd know dragons are constantly at it with other species. Besides, if dragons really reproduced as often as they do according to the Draconomicon (up to a clutch a year) the world would be overrun with them.

IMC generally people claim draconic/fey/(insert magical creature here) ancestry, but they don't really know if it is true generally.

[Bears With Lasers]

Sorcery is like fish.

[Swordguy]

Am I the only one who wonders if a closet furry worked on 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons?

One did.

No, I can't elucidate. My uncle would shoot me for telling his "worked at TSR" stories.

[Neo]

You may think dragons breed like crazy, but do you know how many a lvl20 party can go through in an afternoon?

Way I see it sorcerors come from any lineage involving naturally magical creatures.

[Bears With Lasers]

Or from lineage involving plot.

...we need a "half-Plot" template.

[Seffbasilisk]

Sorcery is like fish.

PRECISELY!

[Mewtarthio]

It's number 5 in my campaign world. I don't allow people to multiclass into sorcerer, though... Sorcerer must be the first class.

Same thing with Psionics... I don't buy the "but it was in me all this time, only that it just manifested itself"

Well, psions are Int-based casters, so I'd be more than willing to buy that somebody can spend a whole lot of intensive study to become a psion (like the Second Foundationers in the Foundation series).

Am I the only one who wonders if a closet furry worked on 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons?

More seriously though, dragons are very charismatic, so it makes sense that they'd have lots of, er, unique offspring. Plus, if you've ever seen furry, er, "pictures" *coughs*, you'd know dragons are constantly at it with other species. Besides, if dragons really reproduced as often as they do according to the Draconomicon (up to a clutch a year) the world would be overrun with them.

IMC generally people claim draconic/fey/(insert magical creature here) ancestry, but they don't really know if it is true generally.

Don't you mean, uh, "scaleys"?

Sorcery is like fish.

You mean its healthy for you but you can choke on all those nasty bones if you're not careful?

[Dhavaer]

Sorcery is like fish.

Je suis poisson.

For some reason this was considered hilarious in my year 8 French class.

[Seffbasilisk]

I am fish?

[Jack_Simth]

Because the default great wyrm has made no effort to improve its abilities. The great red wyrm Sor10, however...

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Sorcerer is pretty much the most common class given to dragons, as far as I can tell.

Up until they equal the wyrm's (prodigious) Hit Dice, those Sorcerer levels only add 0.5 to CR each.

Not according to the Improving Monsters guidelines (as least, as presented in the SRD)

A spellcasting class is an associated class for a creature that already has the ability to cast spells as a character of the class in question, since the monster’s levels in the spellcasting class stack with its innate spellcasting ability.

[Bears With Lasers]

You mean its healthy for you but you can choke on all those nasty bones if you're not careful?

Give a man a sorcery, and he'll be fed for a day; teach a man to sorcery, and he'll be fed for a lifetime.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Here's how I run it: this is my interpretation of the Eberron setting, but I'd probably adapt it to most others:

The world is innately magical. There is ambient magical energy just like Earth has ambient magnetic energy (Eberron has this as well, but that's unrelated). The Weave, The Force, call it what you will - it exists, and in Eberron, it physically expresses itself in Dragonshards and other innately magical things. Many theories have been posited about why it exists: the souls of the ancient Progenitor Dragons that supposedly make up Eberron, Khyber, and Syberis, the harmonic motion of the moons, the Gods' will. No one's completely certain of the why. All they know is the what.

Sorcerers can manipulate this energy in various forms through force of will. When a Sorcerer casts a spell, he's mentally drawing from the innate magic of the world and shaping it to his will. Sorcerers do this through strict mental training, similar to yet wholly distinct from that of Wizards, who draw and shape magic by learning and applying the physical laws that govern it. Sorcerous power is not innate, although it is easier for some than others - some consider this a "spiritual descent" from the Progenitor Dragons, but no non-Dragon is claiming a physical draconic ancestor. People that do are considered madmen, and usually, some offended dragon's lunch.

So basically, 1), with the caveat that anyone can do it if they try hard enough.

[Vaynor]

It's number 5 in my campaign world. I don't allow people to multiclass into sorcerer, though... Sorcerer must be the first class.

Same thing with Psionics... I don't buy the "but it was in me all this time, only that it just manifested itself"

That's how I tend to rule it in all of my campaigns.

I generally tend to think of sorcerer as an innate magical ability gained from mixed blood, generally blood from an ancient ancestor of magical ability.

[Draz74]

Because the default great wyrm has made no effort to improve its abilities. The great red wyrm Sor10, however...

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Sorcerer is pretty much the most common class given to dragons, as far as I can tell.

Up until they equal the wyrm's (prodigious) Hit Dice, those Sorcerer levels only add 0.5 to CR each.

As someone else mentioned, this last part is wrong -- Sorcerer levels are associated levels for dragons.

The best part about a dragon with levels in Sorcerer, though? A familiar with MASSIVE saves, HP, and BAB. Too bad it still does practically no damage, although it can deliver some mean touch spells, or if you can get its Strength up to 13 somehow, maybe you can get it to take Power Attack.