While none can match the insanity of the Wild Magic sorcerer, we saw a general increase to power with the subclass options in Xanathar's, even the SCAG-originating Storm Sorcery (which admittedly doesn't become insanely awesome until level 18, when you can single-handedly dominate an Elder Tempest). Moving on, we come to the two options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Here, we get the Aberrant Mind and the Clockwork Soul. These two touch on two of my favorite elements of fantasy RPGS - cosmic horror on one side and constructs on the other.
The Aberrant Mind has you derive your power from some deeply alien force, likely from the Far Realm (the unreality outside the outer planes).
At 1st level you get one of the new features for sorcerers, which is Psionic Spells. Nearly every spellcaster class in Tasha's gets bonus spells, which is something I'm generally in favor of. Sorcerers in particular benefit from this given the very small number of spells they can learn. While this gives you two spells per level (plus an additional cantrip at level 1) you can also swap these out for any divination or enchantment spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list, meaning that even if the spells on this list aren't to your tastes, you have a lot ways to optimize it.
The spells in question are Arms of Hadar, Dissonant Whispers, Mind Sliver (this one is a cantrip,) Calm Emotions, Detect Thoughts, Hunger of Hadar, Sending, Evard's Black Tentacles, Summon Aberration, Rary's Telepathic Bond, and Telekinesis. There's an obvious theme here. Summon Aberration is fantastic (and will get even better when we talk about Psionic Spellcasting.) Rary's Telepathic Bond is almost redundant with the next subclass feature, but a good potential backup, or if you really need to be able to talk with a whole group.
Also at 1 you get Telepathic Speech. You can form a telepathic connection between you and another creature you can see within 30 feet as a bonus action. You can speak telepathically back and forth while you're within a number of miles equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1.) You will need to share a language to communicate. This lasts for a number of minutes equal to your Sorcerer level, and ends early if you are incapacitated or die or if you use this again on a different creature. This is, basically, a much better version of the Great Old One Warlock's awakened mind, allowing two-way communication and also not having to stay within range the whole time. I doubt that a creature will be able to get far enough away from you in order to get beyond the range in miles (unless they teleport,) but this is fantastic for when you want to send the Rogue scouting ahead and keep in touch.
At level 6, you get Psionic Sorcery. If you cast a spell of 1st or higher level from the Psionic Spells feature, you can cast it by expending sorcery points equal to the spell's level (remember that you can always get those sorcery points by just converting a spell into SP, which you get 1 to 1). When you cast it this way, the spell does not require verbal or somatic components, or material components that aren't consumed by the spell. This has many benefits.
One is that most DMs rule that Counterspell requires you to be able to see that someone is casting a spell in order to counter it. Without any verbal incantation, somatic gestures, or material component being presented, the spell should have gone off before someone can realize they need to counter it. This effectively makes it a Subtle Spell, and is also great for if you're in some social situation where you can't be seen to be casting spells. Also, if you get captured and your component pouch or arcane focus is taken, you can just psionically pop out a Beholderkin through Summon Aberration that will start zapping guards.
Also at 6, you get Psychic Defense. You have resistance to psychic damage and advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened. This is all nice to have, and is just a cherry on top of Psionic Sorcery.
At 14, you get Revelation in Flesh. As a bonus action, you can spend 1-4 sorcery points to get one of the following benefits for each point you spent for 10 minutes.
A: You can see invisible creatures within 60 feet if they aren't behind total cover. B: You gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed and can hover. C: You gain a swimming speed equal to twice your walking speed and can breathe underwater. D: You and any equipment you're wearing or carrying can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing, and you can spend 5 feet of movement to escape from nonmagical restraints or being grappled. Each of these come with an appropriately gross cosmic horror physical transformation. Any of these on their own might be a little underwhelming, but as a bunch of options, this makes you very versatile with a lot of options for different situations.
At level 18, you get Warping Implosion. As an action, you can teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 120 feet. Immediately after you disappear, every creature within 30 feet of the space you left has to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, they take 3d10 force damage and are pulled to the space you left, ending as close to it as they can in an unoccupied space. If they succeed, they take half damage and aren't pulled. You can use this once per long rest for free, or spend 5 sorcery points to do it again. Overall, I think this is a great "get out of dodge" ability, though you'll need to be very careful not to hit allies with it, as a 30-ft radius is a very big sphere. Properly timed, this could be a really great move to turn the tide in a battle, and if a lot of monsters get pulled in, you could also, of course, do a quickened fireball as a parting gift.
Overall, I think we've got a very flavorful and pretty strong subclass. Getting so many additional spells is extremely welcome for a Sorcerer, and I think Psionic Sorcery is good enough purely for the fact that you can cast several more spells per long rest through it, let alone the benefit of lacking components.
Next up, from alien madness we go to cosmic order with the Clockwork Soul. Of all the Outer Planes, I think Mechanus is the one I'd most like to run an adventure in. The Clockwork Soul has your power derive from the fundamental force of law in the multiverse, almost as a total opposite of the Wild Magic sorcerer.
At 1st level, like the Aberrant Mind, you get additional spells in the form of Clockwork Magic. These don't count against your spells known. Also, like with the Aberrant Mind, you can swap these out when you level, replacing one spell each level up (if you want to) with an abjuration or transmutation spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard list.
The spells are Alarm, Protection from Evil and Good, Aid, Lesser Restoration, Dispel Magic, Protection from Energy, Freedom of Movement, Summon Construct, Greater Restoration, and Wall of Force. Naturally, these tend toward a defensive/restorative theme. Any of the Tasha "summon" spells are great, though Construct does admittedly suffer from doing nonmagical damage (while summoned from a spell, the construct itself does nonmagical bludgeoning - or at least I assume so because that would make one of the Druid Circle of Shepherds features pointless.)
At 1 you also get Restore Balance. When a creature within 60 feet of you is about to roll a d20 with advantage or disadvantage, you can use your reaction to prevent the roll from being affected by advantage or disadvantage, which you can do a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. This will, I think, require DMs to be a bit more up front about how they're rolling to give you the option to actually use this, though I imagine in most cases it'll be used to help allies make straight rolls when they'd normally be at disadvantage (helping the pour paladin sneak around, for example.)
At level 6, you get Bastion of Law. You can spend 1-5 sorcery points as an action to give a ward to yourself or a creature within 30 feet of you. The ward lasts until you finish a long rest or use this feature again. For each Sorcery Point spent, the creature gets a d8. If they take damage, they can expend any number of those dice, roll them, and reduce the damage taken by the total rolled. I think that using this will be a big judgment call, but if you have a player who needs to concentrate on a really important spell or just have a character who is in more danger of being taken down, this could be a lifesaver.
At level 14, you get Trance of Order. As a bonus action, you go into a trance-like state with your mind attuned to the calculations of Mechanus. While active, attack rolls against you can't benefit from advantage, and whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can treat any roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10. You can do this once per long rest for free, and can spend 5 sorcery points to use it again.
Now this is a big deal. Being unable to roll below a 10 on all d20 rolls for a full fight is crazy good - you'll likely be hitting with every attack roll and making most saving throws. Notably, this one does not end if you're incapacitated, so even if you get stunned, a creature isn't going to be able to hit you with advantage. This is definitely worth saving some Sorcery Points for.
At 18, you get Clockwork Cavalcade. As an action, you summon spirits of modrons or other constructs to swarm a 30-ft cube originating from you (which means you're at any point on its surface, not its center). The spirits restore up to 100 hit points, divided as you choose among any number of creatures you choose in the cube. Any damaged objects entirely in the cube are instantly repaired. And every 6th level spell or lower ends on creatures and objects of your choice within the cube. (This last one require a little bit of judgment - if your ally has both bless and hold person on them, you'll need to decide whether it's worth losing bless to get rid of the paralyze effect.) Once you use this action, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest, or if you spend 7 sorcery points to do it again.
I think the 100 hit points is probably the most important part of this ability, which is still a pretty substantial heal even at level 18.
Overall, I think the Clockwork Soul is another strong subclass. The additional spells granted by the Tasha's subclasses are a huge boon. Flavor-wise, I love both of these.
Now, overall, what do we think? Sorcerers don't rely so much on the strength of their subclasses to be useful, even if they don't have the expansive toolbox of a Wizard, they can still hurl fireballs and other powerful spells. My sense is that the subclasses generally get more powerful the later they came out, though the Divine Soul is a stand-out among the Xanathar-era ones. Personally, I'd be drawn to either the Aberrant Mind or Clockwork Soul. I think I like Aberrant Mind slightly more mechanically, though I really just wish the Great Old One Warlock were mechanically better, as I'd prefer to play that flavor of eldritch magic. I really love the concept of the Clockwork Soul, in part because I think so often Sorcerers can be pigeonholed as chaotic characters (that being said, you could easily play a chaotic Clockwork Soul character.)
This concludes the overview of Sorcerer subclasses. I'll give some thought as to what I want to do next - likely a non-spellcasting class, maybe the Barbarian or Monk.
No comments:
Post a Comment