Buffing focused aberrant mind support sorcerer?

[Rfkannen]

During dnd today, my party said they didn't think of druids as a good option for support characters, which led to some comments about supports not being great in 5e, as they thought that healing is the best way to support, and healing in 5e isn't great. I brought up the divine sorcerer as a good support, but they said that was just because they had acess to the cleric spell list, as clerics are the best support characters. This lines up with the fact that the casters in this party tend to take blast spells and generally ignore battlefield control or buffing. (For example, we have a level 15 bard who doesn't have ANY buff or control spells)

As someone who likes to play support characters, I want to prove that they are helpful to a party! (and also, I want to have a good time playing a mildly weird support build) So I thought it would be fun to play a support sorcerer in our next 5e campaign. Specifically, I thought of playing an aberrant mind sorcerer, which doesn't get any healing spells. Instead of healing, I would buff my allies, debuff the enemies, and control the battlefield.

For the race, I like the idea of going for one of the bigger monstrous races (Dragonborn, bugbear, orcs, lizardfolk, etc.) to make it surprising that they are a squishy caster, but I have not picked one of them in particular, and I am not tied to the idea. Also, I do not want to dip cleric, as I think it would be fun to avoid healing, but I could be argued into it since I want to build as impressive support as possible.

Any tips on building an aberrant mind support sorcerer? Is this a terrible idea? If it isn't, how would you build it?

[sophontteks]

Frankly everything they said is complete wrong and the divine sorcerer soul doesn't hold a candle to the aberrant mind in any role. I think it's a pretty weak subclass, since the cleric spell list is, surprise surprise, far better on a cleric.

So I'll share my own divine soul support. I'm doing the exact opposite of you for race, but it's pretty spicy...
I'm playing a halfing urchin with skill expert (stealth) and I'll be twinning haste, a lot. With haste on me and a teammate I'm already winning the support competition quite well. Haste is an incredible buff, balanced by you losing a turn if concentration is broken. But icing on the cake. I will then be hiding behind my teammates and casting all spells without breaking my stealth (aberrant at lvl6 no longer need components to cast).

So round 1: twin haste, run, and hide.
Round 2: Upcast tasha's mind whip on 2+ targets without breaking stealth. (I'll explain how we upcast so often below)
Round 3 onwards- switch to Mind sliver if combat is wrapped up. OR Dissonate whispers if you wanna be conservative.
That's the basic idea at mid level...

And if I do not lose stealth on a round (which will happen as things reposition in the battlefield) I have the "Use item" action free every round to assist teammates.

Since Aberrant minds can cast all of their bonus spells using sorcery points, spell slots aren't as important to them, and upcasting is something I recommend. I can cast tashas mindwhip twice over 2 rounds for 4 sorcery points, or I can cast it on 2 targets in 1 round for 3. Upcasting is far more efficent. This gets really nuts as you level up as abberants are just plain casting far more powerful spells more often then any other caster.

Just mulch up your lower level spell slots ahead of time so you have a nice pool of sorcery points. You'll want to cast using sorcery points the majority of the time. But doing it on the fly with a bonus action isn't the end of the world.


EDIT: Just to add as a healing alternative Twinned Polymorph is a great way to breathe a second life into your teammates.

[Rfkannen]

Frankly everything they said is complete wrong and the divine sorcerer soul doesn't hold a candle to the aberrant mind in any role. I think it's a pretty weak subclass, since the cleric spell list is, surprise surprise, far better on a cleric.

So I'll share my own divine soul support. I'm doing the exact opposite of you for race, but it's pretty spicy...
I'm playing a halfing urchin with skill expert (stealth) and I'll be twinning haste, a lot. With haste on me and a teammate I'm already winning the support competition quite well. Haste is an incredible buff, balanced by you losing a turn if concentration is broken. But icing on the cake. I will then be hiding behind my teammates and casting all spells without breaking my stealth (aberrant at lvl6 no longer need components to cast).

So round 1: twin haste, run, and hide.
Round 2: Upcast tasha's mind whip on 2+ targets without breaking stealth. (I'll explain how we upcast so often below)
Round 3 onwards- switch to Mind sliver if combat is wrapped up. OR Dissonate whispers if you wanna be conservative.
That's the basic idea at mid level...

And if I do not lose stealth on a round (which will happen as things reposition in the battlefield) I have the "Use item" action free every round to assist teammates.

Since Aberrant minds can cast all of their bonus spells using sorcery points, spell slots aren't as important to them, and upcasting is something I recommend. I can cast tashas mindwhip twice over 2 rounds for 4 sorcery points, or I can cast it on 2 targets in 1 round for 3. Upcasting is far more efficent. This gets really nuts as you level up as abberants are just plain casting far more powerful spells more often then any other caster.

Just mulch up your lower level spell slots ahead of time so you have a nice pool of sorcery points. You'll want to cast using sorcery points the majority of the time. But doing it on the fly with a bonus action isn't the end of the world.


EDIT: Just to add as a healing alternative Twinned Polymorph is a great way to breathe a second life into your teammates.

Sounds like a ton of fun! Seems like a really cool play style!

Yeah I liked the idea of playing one of the big races, but none of them really synergize with sorcerer, I am tempted to go human or halfling or goblin.

[Gtdead]

Doing this to prove your friends wrong kind of rubs me the wrong way. I also don't get the argument about Clerics being 100% the best supports, especially when Cleric's best spell is Spirit Guardians, unless we are talking Peace and Twilight Clerics. But anyway,

The first thing you should know is that Aberrant is geared more towards offense. For buffs, the whole spell list has like 4 combat buffs. Haste, Fly, Polymorph and the buffing part of Silvery Barbs. Unless you look at Ravnica Backgrounds and Dragonmarks there isn't much else you can do.

You could try and get Bless from Fey Touched, but you really shouldn't. You already have so many concentration spells to cast, and past lvl 6 you will be wanting to cast Twinned Hideous Laughter, Hold Persons etc. You are going to outgrow Bless extremely fast.

Psionic Spells:

Level 1 spells:
You get Dissonant Whispers which will be your go to spell for most of your career. It gets a lot better with the level 6 feature.
With Strixhaven releasing in a few days, Silvery Barbs is also an amazing choice for Aberrant. It's on the Sorcerer spell list, but costing only 1 SP is bonkers. You could use it all the time to give ST advantage to yourself and other casters.
Bane! That's an odd suggestion, but you can cast it for 1 SP. I wouldn't take it, but since you want to go full on support, it's not terrible.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter, another spell that you should cast for the rest of your career.
Borrowed Knowledge, another spell from Strixhaven, proficiency to any skill for 1 sp sounds ok.

My suggestions: Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's, Mind Sliver (change for Silvery Barbs if the spell is allowed)

Level 2 spells:

Tasha's Mind Whip. This spell is really good against melee hard hitters. Taking away their AoOs for 2 rounds and forcing them to choose between attack and move makes them completely useless. Their best option is to dodge.
Hold Person. A spell that normally I wouldn't suggest, but with 2 SP cost it's basically free. It's also a lot better against ranged enemies and casters. If you get Silvery Barbs, with 3 SP you will be able to cast Hold Person, grant disadvantage on the roll and give advantage to your next concentration check. It's huge value.
Suggestion. If your DM is generous with it in combat, you can pick it over the other two. Also if your campaign is very social, with psionic sorcery this is very potent.

Level 3 spells:

You don't get many powerful choices here. Fast Friends is like Suggestion but it allows you more leeway in combat. Enemies Abound is like a mini confusion. There's also Catnap.
I think Fast Friends is ok if you can't use Suggestion to a great effect, otherwise stick with it. I don't like Enemies Abound much but it's an INT save and it can be used on a very powerful enemy. Catnap is only good if you have a lot of short resters. It should increase the average short rests per day in theory, but it depends a lot on your pacing.


Level 4 spells:

The spells offered by default are ok. I love summons, although I don't consider the Aberrations amazing. It's still nice to have a summon as a sorcerer though. I wish they got more.
The other spell is Evard's. It's a spell that I kind of dislike. I tried to like it but it's basically a web with damage on top.
Arcane Eye. Now this is an impactful spell. If you are doing a lot of dungeon delving, this is a must.
Raulothim's Psychic Lance, this isn't bad at all. For 4 SP you can deal 7d6 and cause incapacitation on an INT save that doesn't break on damage. I think it's really good for boss fights and it can be combined with Silvery Barbs.
Confusion, I don't like this spell too much, but it's an aoe control option and we don't have many of these in our psionic list.

My suggestions: Arcane Eye and Raulothim's

Level 5 spells:

Synaptic Static is a fairly good all rounder. It's amazing against swarms since it both damages them and deceases their hit. Really I don't think there is much to be said about this. One of the top blasting spells and you get to cast it with 5 SP.

This is the level where Aberrant can get Modify Memory. Again this is mostly a social spell, but it's really potent, being able to cast it fairly cheaply, with automatic subtle and telepathic speech. Telekinesis is a great spell and it's a given on my spell list, but since it's a long concentration, I think it's better to cast it with your normal Sorcerer spells. If you don't care about Modify Memory then keep it.

Other goods spells:

Level 1:

Your psionic list covers most situations, so you will want to get the usual suspects, like Shield, Absorb Elements. I will also suggest featherfall. Even if you can't fly, it can be combined with Dimension Door to get you high in the sky for a few rounds as a kind of perfect defense. Sorcerer doesn't have many of those. And of course Gift of Alacrity*


Level 2:

Web is the best level 2 control spell and it stays relevant for many levels. Pyrotechnics is really good to combine with Animate Objects, Alert and various Blindfighting feats that your party may have.
There's also Misty Step which you should get from Fey Touched along with Gift of Alacrity. If you can't get GoA I'm not sure that Fey Touched is worth it.


Level 3:

Fireball (no matter if you are a support or not, fireball is amazing to have at lvl 5. You can swap it out when you get Synaptic Static as they have the same cost),
Hypnotic Pattern (personally not a fan but I can't deny it's a good spell, generally I advice to pick either that or fireball)
Counterspell (you may delay getting this, but make sure to get it once you reach mid-high T2. It doesn't come up often, but it's very effective when it does.
Haste. Twin this bad boy and run away. No seriously, if you ever cast this, don't stay around. Dimension Door away if you have to.
Fly. Only get this if you have good ranged dpr. You can twin this on yourself and the ranged dpr and stay safe while attacking from the sky. It can be combined with DD to get really high, out of range of the majority of abilities.


Level 4:

Polymorph, same deal with Haste. Also remember that if you have to, you can self cast this with Quicken and attack in the same round. It's a desperation move, but it's a move non the less. Don't sleep on possible forms. Brontosaurus has a +6 on CON, can attack from 20 ft range and his attacks can prone. Of course TRex is the best form, but you want to cast it on the others and use the safer ones for self casting if the need ever arises.
Dimension Door, a must have on every caster. Especially on one that twins powerful buffs. Just DD away and let the buffed allies kill everything.
There's also Banishment but I think Raulothim's is better. Still, twinning this and running away is a good option, but I really don't like that CHA save. I would avoid.

Level 5:

So many good spells on this level. The only downside is the lack of Wall of Force of course, but that's the reality of being a (non clockwork) Sorcerer.

Summon Draconic Spirit, I love this spell, it's the only Tasha's style summon that Sorcerers get and it's one of the powerful ones. It gives you resistance to an element of your choosing while the summon is active, it has blindsight so it can be deadly inside a pyrotechnics smoke cloud and it's large so you can mount it.
Animate Objects is a common one, and it really does a lot of damage, especially in combination with Pyrotechnics. But so does your Dragon. I think you should pick one or the other and IMO SDS is a better spell.
And of course the poor man's Wall of Force, Wall of Stone. Terrain manipulation spells are always nice.

Won't look into level 6 spells. At this point you should know better than me what to get.

The most important feats for Sorc IMO are Fey Touched (GoA), Alert and Lucky. Get Fey Touched only if you are allowed to grab Gift of Alacrity, otherwise go Alert. Initiative is king. You can "cheese" Silvery Barbs too to gain advantage, although this is very munchkinny. The spell doesn't specify that you have to cast it on hostiles. So you can try a perception check to find your glasses (that you are already wearing) and cast it on yourself, roll with disadvantage, then give yourself advantage. There you go, Initiative Advantage with 1 SP.

For race, I would go for the feat because I just love initiative, but Winged races are also an option.

That's all I can think of.

[Rfkannen]

Doing this to prove your friends wrong kind of rubs me the wrong way. I also don't get the argument about Clerics being 100% the best supports, especially when Cleric's best spell is Spirit Guardians, unless we are talking Peace and Twilight Clerics. But anyway,

Thats fair about it rubbing you the wrong way, I came off a bit more negative in my post than I intended. Instead of wanting to prove that supports are good, it would be better to say that I really like support characters and want to share with my friends how they can be cool and really benefit a party!

Are there any subclasses oud recommend other than abberant mind? I was looking at cloakwork soul, but I couldn't think of any media to use for inspiration for a clockwork mind character.

Love the spell guide! thats super helpful!

[Gtdead]

Thats fair about it rubbing you the wrong way, I came off a bit more negative in my post than I intended. Instead of wanting to prove that supports are good, it would be better to say that I really like support characters and want to share with my friends how they can be cool and really benefit a party!

Are there any subclasses oud recommend other than abberant mind? I was looking at cloakwork soul, but I couldn't think of any media to use for inspiration for a clockwork mind character.

Love the spell guide! thats super helpful!

Just make sure to not shoehorn your character. It is what it is, and there are a lot of support playstyles. For example you could make all your melee martials go with Blindfighting style and they would almost always attack with advantage inside your fog cloud. What better buff than permanent offensive and defensive advantage? If they see Cleric as the quintessential support, they may not get the point of you twinning hastes. After all Cleric has limited access to these types of buffs. He only gets Bless and Holy Weapon, and I'm fairly sure that the second one doesn't see much play.

Divine Soul has a few more options, like Aid + Inspiring Leader. Bless too of course, but as I said, I think that Bless is something that full casters grow out of quickly. It's way better on paladins and cleric dipped martials.

For the Clockwork roleplay I agree, it's kinda hard to find inspiration. Maybe take a look at Axiomites and Aeons from Pathfinder? I don't know if FR has an equivalent. Or perhaps you could refluff if a bit. Keep the mechanical aspect and redirect to something like death perhaps? Like a grim reaper?

[sophontteks]

Ammendum to my original concept: Aberrants can't upcast spells cast with metamagic. This is blatantly OP. Casting them at their level is already extremely strong, as it means these sorcerers can cast more max level spells then any other caster.

Also, just to add, I didn't think your post came off as negative. I love breaking people's preconceived notions of a class. It's not a negative thing, it's an exciting thing. It's a way to impress your friends and be really cool. I do it a lot.

Back to the aberrants...

Yes, it's true that large creatures don't mesh well with casters. It's very challenging to pull off being so intimidating things won't attack you. Typically you'd come off as very conspicuous instead. As a support caster that can cast spells without V, S, or M components, being inconspicuous has a lot more merit. Not even rogues can use their kit without breaking stealth. Like I shown, the sorcerer is able to twin the best support spells, stay out of the enemy's attention, and barrage the enemy with powerful non-concentration CC spells after. When it comes to being a buffer/debuffer/controller they are top notch.

The key to being a support sorcerer is no doubt twinned spell. Casting a copy of your most powerful support spell is just plain spicy. It's why they are a top-tier support caster.

But aberrants also have a top of power in social and non-combat encounters through casting charm spells and divination spells inconspicuously. Phantasmal force bees attacking a bandit leader. Use enemies abound on a domesticated T-rex, or on a guard in the middle of a crowded street. telekineticly use the suggestion spell to sway a target into doing what you want. Or even rewrite someone's memories in plain sight with modify memory.

And on Druids
You can also consider being a druid. They don't sound like they are very aware that druids in 5e are the best healing class in the game, by a pretty far margin at that. Druids have more and better healing spells along with subclass kits that are much better at enhancing them. The shepherd druid with unicorn spirit can cast every healing spell as "mass" healing spell, for example. But they have multiple healing sublcasses, and overall it's just their nitch on top of battlefield control.

If they see Cleric as the quintessential support, they may not get the point of you twinning hastes.

Well, to be fair, I think they'll catch onto the point fairly quickly. It's hard to not to notice the list of buffs it offers. +2 AC, double movement, an extra attack, advantage on dex saves.
I'm sure they'll come around to that.

[sophontteks]

Thats fair about it rubbing you the wrong way, I came off a bit more negative in my post than I intended. Instead of wanting to prove that supports are good, it would be better to say that I really like support characters and want to share with my friends how they can be cool and really benefit a party!

Are there any subclasses oud recommend other than abberant mind? I was looking at cloakwork soul, but I couldn't think of any media to use for inspiration for a clockwork mind character.

Love the spell guide! thats super helpful!

The quintessential clockwork sorcerer in media is probably the American Mcgee version of the Mad Hatter. A mad genius obsessed with time and drawing their power from it.

[stoutstien]

Frankly everything they said is complete wrong and the divine sorcerer soul doesn't hold a candle to the aberrant mind in any role. I think it's a pretty weak subclass, since the cleric spell list is, surprise surprise, far better on a cleric.

So I'll share my own divine soul support. I'm doing the exact opposite of you for race, but it's pretty spicy...
I'm playing a halfing urchin with skill expert (stealth) and I'll be twinning haste, a lot. With haste on me and a teammate I'm already winning the support competition quite well. Haste is an incredible buff, balanced by you losing a turn if concentration is broken. But icing on the cake. I will then be hiding behind my teammates and casting all spells without breaking my stealth (aberrant at lvl6 no longer need components to cast).

So round 1: twin haste, run, and hide.
Round 2: Upcast tasha's mind whip on 2+ targets without breaking stealth. (I'll explain how we upcast so often below)
Round 3 onwards- switch to Mind sliver if combat is wrapped up. OR Dissonate whispers if you wanna be conservative.
That's the basic idea at mid level...

And if I do not lose stealth on a round (which will happen as things reposition in the battlefield) I have the "Use item" action free every round to assist teammates.

Since Aberrant minds can cast all of their bonus spells using sorcery points, spell slots aren't as important to them, and upcasting is something I recommend. I can cast tashas mindwhip twice over 2 rounds for 4 sorcery points, or I can cast it on 2 targets in 1 round for 3. Upcasting is far more efficent. This gets really nuts as you level up as abberants are just plain casting far more powerful spells more often then any other caster.

Just mulch up your lower level spell slots ahead of time so you have a nice pool of sorcery points. You'll want to cast using sorcery points the majority of the time. But doing it on the fly with a bonus action isn't the end of the world.


EDIT: Just to add as a healing alternative Twinned Polymorph is a great way to breathe a second life into your teammates.

Summoning is something the DS excels at even more so than the Tasha options but doesn't take off until the later tiers.

[Gtdead]

Well, to be fair, I think they'll catch onto the point fairly quickly. It's hard to not to notice the list of buffs it offers. +2 AC, double movement, an extra attack, advantage on dex saves.
I'm sure they'll come around to that.

To elaborate, if you equate support with defensive abilities and sustain, then a haste can be compared to a fireball. Why not throw a fireball and do all the damage at once? It becomes a matter of crunching math. They will surely appreciate the buffs, but I wonder if they will change their perception of what a support means. For example I use "support" as they would use it in the military. I consider Fireball a support spell because it's not a sustained way to deal damage, it's in air strike. The martials are the "marines" and the casters provide artillery, logistics etc. It doesn't have to be a boost to the attributes or a control spell. It's just part of the kit.

Of course if the caster is specialized in blasting, that's a different thing. Let's call them special troops or something.

[sophontteks]

To elaborate, if you equate support with defensive abilities and sustain, then a haste can be compared to a fireball. Why not throw a fireball and do all the damage at once? It becomes a matter of crunching math. They will surely appreciate the buffs, but I wonder if they will change their perception of what a support means. For example I use "support" as they would use it in the military. I consider Fireball a support spell because it's not a sustained way to deal damage, it's in air strike. The martials are the "marines" and the casters provide artillery, logistics etc. It doesn't have to be a boost to the attributes or a control spell. It's just part of the kit.

Of course if the caster is specialized in blasting, that's a different thing. Let's call them special troops or something.

The main difference is that you are granting the powers to another player (support) and not doing it yourself (blasting). The military "fire support" isn't the same thing as playing a support.

Which is better, support or blasting, could very well be a numbers game but, the main takeaway here is that you are making your teammates mote powerful and awesome, and enabling them to be even better at what they do.

That's why they'll notice and appreciate it right away. You give a martial another attack, more AC, and let them run twice as fast? They'll more then appreciate you enabling them to have all the glory.

In the OP the desires were to buff teammates, debuff enemies, and use battlefield control.

[Willie the Duck]

You could try and get Bless from Fey Touched, but you really shouldn't. You already have so many concentration spells to cast, and past lvl 6 you will be wanting to cast Twinned Hideous Laughter, Hold Persons etc. You are going to outgrow Bless extremely fast.

I would disagree with this rigorously. Neither this character, nor the game itself, ever really outgrows Bless. It is one of the few spells that works great at any level. That is to say, this is true if and only if there are enough combats per day where you 1) won't want to expend a moderately high level spell slot/slot+SPs, or 2) don't have a specific appropriate concentration spell for the given situation (you run into enemies immune to your main schticks, etc.). I have been having excellent luck with a Fey Touched Vuman Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, and they never dislike having the option to drop Bless as their concentration spell for the fight when trying to conserve higher-level spells. At low levels, there always seem to be at least 3 allies making attack rolls in a round and at higher levels there certainly are 3+ allies worried about their saving throws.

That said, the rest of your advice I agree with. Tashas Laughter/whip, Hold Person, Dissonant Whispers, and then the old standbys of Haste, Fly, Polymorph are a solid support base.

[Guy Lombard-O]

My suggestions: Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's, Mind Sliver (change for Silvery Barbs if the spell is allowed)

Not 100% sure, but I don't think this works? Mind Sliver is a cantrip. Silvery Barbs is a 1st level spell. Psionic Spells says "Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level".

[Mastikator]

The best healing spells are spells that prevent enemies from inflicting damage on allies in the first place. So here are some great healing spells:

1: Grease, Fog Cloud, (only self) Shield, Absorb Elements
2: Calm Emotion, Blur, Hold Person, Invisibility, Levitate, Phantasmal Force, Suggestion, WEB
3: Counterspell, Hypnotic Pattern, SLOW

etc.

I think your group are a bit limited when it comes to strategy, action economy and resource management. And I suspect proving them wrong won't change anyone's mind, you can make a great CC support healer without a single healing spell, but do it for you, not for them.

[borg286]

Check out the Renaissance man build in my signature. It buffs with the best of them. I go into detail on how various spells can be used.

[borg286]

Strongly consider Blindness/Deafness as it is concentration-less way to give a debuff to an enemy and a buff to most allies. Twin it to increase your impact in battles. Use Shadowfell shard to focus effect on BBEG. This rare magic item makes sorcerers so much better at single-target spells than any other caster in the game. Debuffs are stronger than damage as they affect the battle immediately rather than raw damage only having an effect near the end of combat when meaningful monsters die. Buffs are powerful because they take effect 100% of the time. The sorcerer is the best at these because of Twin metamagic. While other classes get cool class abilities, often they take an action to do. Twin lets you frontload your effect. No other class can break the "1 concentration spell at a time" rule which greatly nerfed casters going into 5e. Twin alone gives them the edge. Their main drawback is spell selection, and as can be witnessed with the Renaissance Man build in my sig, this isn't a problem with good planning.

[ATHATH]

In case you need it for future reference, here's a list of all of the spells (that aren't exclusive to specific settings like Wildemount, Strixhaven, etc.) that qualify for being swapped into your Psionic Sorcery list:

Spoiler: Psionic Sorcery Spells

Show

Cantrips:
Friends
Mind Sliver (Default)
True Strike

Level 1:
Arms of Hadar (Default)
Dissonant Whispers (Default)
Charm Person
Command (OCF)
Hex
Sleep
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Identify

Level 2:
Calm Emotions (Default)
Detect Thoughts (Default)
Augury (OCF)
Crown of Madness
Enthrall
Hold Person
Suggestion
Tasha’s Mind Whip
Locate Object
Mind Spike
See Invisibility

Level 3:
Hunger of Hadar (Default)
Sending (Default)
Catnap
Enemies Abound
Clairvoyance
Tongues

Level 4:
Evard’s Black Tentacles (Default)
Summon Aberration (Default)
Charm Monster
Confusion
Divination (OCF)
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Dominate Beast
Arcane Eye
Locate Creature

Level 5:
Rary’s Telepathic Bond (Default)
Telekinesis (Default)
Dominate Person
Geas
Hold Monster
Modify Memory
Synaptic Static
Contact Other Plane
Legend Lore
Scrying

"(OCF)" marks spells that only qualify if your DM allows the "optional" spell list expansions from Tasha's.

If your DM DOES allow setting-specific content like the Strixhaven spells, take Silvery Barbs as one of your Psionic Sorcery spells. It's even better for Aberrant Sorcerers than it is for normal casters, as once they reach 6th level, abbsorcs can sling around ludicrous numbers of 1st level spells each long rest. They also tend to be less reliant on Counterspell than most other casters (due to their Psychic Sorcery spells being Silent Spell'd for free when you cast them with SP), especially if there are no other casters in your party, which frees up their reactions for stuff like Silvery Barbs.

[sophontteks]

If your DM DOES allow setting-specific content like the Strixhaven spells, take Silvery Barbs as one of your Psionic Sorcery spells. It's even better for Aberrant Sorcerers than it is for normal casters, as once they reach 6th level, abbsorcs can sling around ludicrous numbers of 1st level spells each long rest. They also tend to be less reliant on Counterspell than most other casters (due to their Psychic Sorcery spells being Silent Spell'd for free when you cast them with SP), especially if there are no other casters in your party, which frees up their reactions for stuff like Silvery Barbs.

This 100% (also thank you for the useful list there). The spell is so insanely broken on an aberrant mind, who has no limit to their first level spell slots and this really is the only balancing factor the spell has, at all.
It's completely broken. Shouldn't exist, at all. I'm hoping my DM just bans it, but if he doesn't I'll be spamming it all day long.


Authors of the spell, probably- "Well the spell is still balanced by it's limited number of first level spell slots that compete with shield, mage armor, and absorb elements."
Aberrant mind sorcerers:

[Gtdead]

Not 100% sure, but I don't think this works? Mind Sliver is a cantrip. Silvery Barbs is a 1st level spell. Psionic Spells says "Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level".

It wasn't clear to me if it referred to the spell level or the sorcerer level on the list but your reading is probably right. I just assumed that the level 1 list includes cantrips and level 1 spells. If not then probably swapping out one of the other spells depending on party makeup works best. Swap out dissonant if party mostly ranged, Tasha's if mostly melee.

[sophontteks]

It wasn't clear to me if it referred to the spell level or the sorcerer level on the list but your reading is probably right. I just assumed that the level 1 list includes cantrips and level 1 spells. If not then probably swapping out one of the other spells depending on party makeup works best. Swap out dissonant if party mostly ranged, Tasha's if mostly melee.

It is the spell's level, but It's a blessing in disguise. Having a subtle cantrip at-will is super powerful on its own.

This enables my own halfling to attack every round without breaking stealth as an at-will. And technically it'd be hard for an NPC to determine that the attack was caused by him outside combat too. (but thats a but of a nightmare for the DM.)

It could be swapped with other cantrips that you may want to use discretely instead. Though the only one that comes to mind is friends

[Gtdead]

I would disagree with this rigorously. Neither this character, nor the game itself, ever really outgrows Bless. It is one of the few spells that works great at any level. That is to say, this is true if and only if there are enough combats per day where you 1) won't want to expend a moderately high level spell slot/slot+SPs, or 2) don't have a specific appropriate concentration spell for the given situation (you run into enemies immune to your main schticks, etc.). I have been having excellent luck with a Fey Touched Vuman Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, and they never dislike having the option to drop Bless as their concentration spell for the fight when trying to conserve higher-level spells. At low levels, there always seem to be at least 3 allies making attack rolls in a round and at higher levels there certainly are 3+ allies worried about their saving throws.

That said, the rest of your advice I agree with. Tashas Laughter/whip, Hold Person, Dissonant Whispers, and then the old standbys of Haste, Fly, Polymorph are a solid support base.

It's a bit difficult for Aberrant Sorcerer to not have anything to cast past level 7. It has enough resources to twin all it's level 3-4 slots with enough SP left to cast 3 Level 4 Psionic Spells. That's 7 high level spells per day at level 7 and he still has the low level options that should help with expenditure. There are situations where Bless would be the spell to cast, but Sorcerer isn't like the Cleric who can stay in the frontlines and cause interference, while providing support with warding bonds, sanctuaries and healing words. He is a squishy backline caster who has very impactful spells and wants his concentration protected by a bless as much as the offensive casters.

[Rfkannen]

I feel like strixhaven just gave a huge buff to this idea. It gave sorcerer's a healing spell, teleporting your allies is awesome, and silvery barbs combos very well with abberant mind sorcerer's psionic magic feature.

[sophontteks]

I feel like strixhaven just gave a huge buff to this idea. It gave sorcerer's a healing spell, teleporting your allies is awesome, and silvery barbs combos very well with abberant mind sorcerer's psionic magic feature.

Oh, without a doubt. The other spells are good, but silvery barbs casted for 1 sorcery point is broken. We were discussing it prior to our upcoming session 0 and agreed not to use it.
You know it's OP when the spellcasters are the one's saying "Hey guys I think we may want to ban this spell."

[Bobthewizard]

Ammendum to my original concept: Aberrants can't upcast spells cast with metamagic.

Why is this? I don't see anything in the ability that says you can't.

"Psionic Sorcery
Beginning at 6th level, when you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Psionic Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of sorcery points equal to the spell's level. If you cast the spell using sorcery points, it requires no verbal or somatic components, and it requires no material components, unless they are consumed by the spell."

'Equal to the spell's level' shouldn't prevent a spell being upcast. A 2nd level spell cast from a 3rd level slot is a 3rd level spell as a general rule. There are some specific rules that consider spells as their original level even if upcast, but the general rule is that the upcast spell uses the new level.

Edit: I think I see it. In the spell, it says "when you cast the spell using a higher level spell slot" which you can't do with psionic sorcery.