The distinction between Sorcerers and Wizards in fantasy fiction is a pretty complicated one (indeed, Warlocks and Witches get thrown into the mix there as well). Ironically, Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, is very clearly a Wizard if we're using D&D terms, as he attained his magical ability through research and training, whereas a figure like Scarlet Witch is closer to D&D's Sorcerer, as her powers were imbued into her. Indeed, in The Falcon and the Winter Solder, they land on the definition that a Wizard is a Sorcerer with a hat.
Well, D&D makes the distinction pretty clear. Wizards involve training and Sorcerers effectively have superpowers. Actually, one of the things I find kind of interesting is that you can pretty easily take the lore of a Warlock and re-skin the Sorcerer that way without breaking much - if you made a deal with a powerful entity to imbue you with powerful magic, that could explain your Sorcerous powers (indeed, I've been considering if I ever play my Great Old One Warlock again possibly rerolling him as an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer).
But that connection between the Sorcerer and the Wizard is an important one because of the myriad similarities between the two classes. Both have zero armor proficiencies. Both have d6 hit dice. Both are pure spellcasters, and there is a very broad overlap in the spells they can learn. They both pretty much play similar roles within the party... to an extent.
The thing is, the Sorcerer is much more limited when it comes to their spells. Wizards have a huge number of available spells, and while a Sorcerer gets some of the iconic ones, they don't have quite the large toolbox that is available to their scholarly counterpart. But that might be something of a guardrail for the class, because of all pure spellcasters, Sorcerers get the fewest spells known - only fifteen. Warlocks also technically have 15 spells known, but their Mystic Arcanum feature means they effectively get to know four more (and many invocations allow them to cast additional spells as well).
So, a Sorcerer can't actually learn more than one spell of every spell level. And unlike Wizards, they can't swap them out at any point.
As I see it, and as I've seen it described by designers at WotC, is that Sorcerers are built to be more combat-focused spellcasters. While a Wizard brings broad utility in their spells (though they can still launch a fireball when they want to,) the Sorcerer is supposed to be the master of blasting foes with devastating magic.
And I think that you see a kind of philosophical distinction in the design of the Sorcerer from the Wizard. The Wizard's most important class feature is its spell list (well, and its spellbook). And the class doesn't actually get much else in the way of features. Sorcerers, however, get to complexity of Sorcery Points and Metamagic.
Now, I haven't really gotten into what I would change here. I actually played a Sorcerer up to level 7 in Adventurer's League, but that was years ago at this point, and so despite a Sorcerer being my third character I ever played, I actually feel less qualified to really see what needs shoring up.
But let's try anyway.
One thing we saw in the Tasha's subclasses is that they're playing around with adding subclass spells to Sorcerers. Honestly, I think this is always a welcome feature. Even if a subclass has spells that are niche, it's nice to know that that character will always have them when they come up. Given how few spells Sorcerers get to learn normally, adding ten additional ones through the subclass is extremely welcome. I also think it's interesting how the Clockwork and Psionic spells can be swapped out in a pretty generous manner. And then the Aberrant Mind gets to do unusual things with its Psionic Spells, which is cool.
I think some of the Metamagic options should be slightly adjusted to better reflect what players think they do - specifically, Careful Spell. This lets you choose allies to automatically succeed on saving throws against your spells, but it doesn't work like the Evocation Wizard's Sculpt Spell feature - the latter allows you to safely drop a fireball in the middle of your party and anyone you designate will be completely unaffected. Unless the friendlies you hit with the Fireball using Careful spell are level 7 Rogues or Monks, it's not going to actually prevent them from taking any damage.
Now, let's talk subclasses.
There are only two subclass options in the PHB for the Sorcerer. I don't know that either of them really feels like the "iconic" one.
Wild Magic Sorcerers, I have very mixed feelings about. On one hand, putting that much chaos into the game can be very fun. On the other hand, there was a story going around on social media about a campaign that suffered a TPK in the first ten minutes after the Sorcerer used Detect Magic while meeting the suspicious Rogue, rolled a 1 on the check for the Wild Magic Surge, and then rolled the result that dropped a fireball on themselves, hitting the whole party for enough damage to kill them all.
On one hand, that's hilarious. But on the other hand, it's a subclass that is prone to friendly fire. Again, I'm torn here - part of me thinks that the chaos makes for a madcap and unpredictable game. But on the other hand, you're potentially bringing a real hinderance to the party. (Basically, DMs should be very generous with NPCs who can resurrect characters if this sort of thing happens).
Draconic Bloodline makes a lot of sense as a Sorcerous origin, and I think there are just a couple nitpicks I'd make regarding it, like how I think the level 6 feature should just give you resistance to the appropriate damage type instead of making you spend resources for it. This is just one of those subclasses that needs another pass from a modern design perspective.
Now, again, I think every class should get a minimum of three subclasses in the PHB. And I think that the answer for Sorcerers is obvious - the Storm Sorcerer. This is iconic and classic. The subclass could use a few tweaks, to be sure, but I think its fundamentals are awesome, and I love its level 18 Wind Soul feature. The one thing I'd ask for this, though, is actually some greater flexibility in spells. Currently, I believe that every cantrip that does lightning or thunder damage only does so within melee range (Lightning Lure has a 15-foot range, but it only does damage if it successfully drags the target into melee range). A ranged lightning cantrip doesn't seem like it would be too hard to make.
And again, I'd like to see the subclass bonus spells like what were given to Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul sorcerers become a regular feature for all Sorcerer subclasses.
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