The second of two brand-new subclasses in the Arcane Subclass Unearthed Arcana, Ancestral Sorcery gives the origin of your Sorcerer abilities as a powerful ancestor. While not explicit, the obvious example is Simon, from the recent Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a movie that was actually quite good but I don't think did very well at the box office, and thus, if there is any justice in the world, will be discovered by teenagers twenty years from now who have just started playing D&D, and will be watched in their parents' basement while they eat pizza and drink soda and become a cult classic.
The point is, Simon, played by Justice Smith, is the descendent of Elminster, the extraordinarily powerful Wizard and famed hero of the Forgotten Realms. Simon is not a Wizard, though: he's a Sorcerer, and thus has only a fleeting sense of control over his magic.
It's a fun movie. Do check it out if you haven't already. It's the kind of nerdy movie where if you do play D&D, you'll get all the deep-cut references and well-observed, subtle jokes that operate on many levels, but if you don't, it's still perfectly enjoyable as a fantasy adventure flick.
But let's talk about this subclass! Somewhat like the Arcana Domain for Clerics, this is a little bit of the "Wizard"-themed Sorcerer. That might sound like nothing given how Wizards and Sorcerers overlap so much in their aesthetics and capabilities, but we'll get into it.
Lineage Spells:
Cantrips: Guidance, Resistance
1st: Command, Protection from Evil and Good
2nd: Locate Object, Spiritual Weapon
3rd: Magic Circle, Spirit Guardians
4th: Divination, Locate Creature
5th: Legend Lore, Yolande's Regal Presence
Admittedly, there are actually quite a few Cleric spells here, but I think the key is that it adds a lot of utility spells to a class that often wants to focus on damage spells. Getting some extra cantrips is also kind of interesting.
Level 3:
Ancestor's Lore allows you to add your Charisma modifier (minimum of +1) to any Intelligence check you make. You also gain proficiency in your choice of Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion.
A bit like the Thaumaturge and Magician options for Clerics and Druids, respectively, this lets you actually be good at knowing about what your class does. However, this one's a bit more extensive, effectively turning any Intelligence check into a Charisma check, or even better if you also have a positive Intelligence modifier (if you have a negative, then at least it's mitigated).
Visage of the Ancestor gives you advantage on any ability check you make as part of the Influence action when your Innate Sorcery feature is active.
This gives you a potential out-of-combat use for "Sorcerer Rage." The flavor of this is that your ancestor manifests as a spectral haze around you (and they suggest the ancestor could take various forms - like a ghostly version of themselves or perhaps a symbolic creature - like Mushu from Mulan!)
Level 6:
Superior Spell Disruption adds two more 3rd level spell beyond your Lineage spells, granting you both Counterspell and Dispel Magic. While you have Innate Sorcery active, you can cast each of those spells without expending a spell slot once per long rest, and when you do so in this way, targets of Counterspell have disadvantage on their Con save (remember that Counterspell works differently now) and you get advantage on ability checks to end ongoing spells when you use this with Dispel Magic.
So, it's a little funny: you need to be in Innate Sorcery to do this and then also it's a limited use per day, but you still also just have these two spells prepared and can spend spell slots on them as normal. Personally, I'd drop the Innate Sorcery aspect of this, as I don't think we really need it - these features are already limited. These spells are good in any counter-magic situation, and so, getting the dice to roll more in your favor is certainly nice, though this is going to be more useful in a mage-vs-mage situation than just fighting more conventional monsters.
Level 14:
Ancestral Majesty causes Innate Sorcery to produce a 5-foot emanation magical aura. When a creature ends their turn within that emanation or enters it, you can force them to make a Charisma saving throw, and on a failure, you can make them drop prone or give them the frightened condition until the end of your next turn. They only make the save once per turn.
We're clearly leaning into everything being tied to Innate Sorcery, and while that's a core Sorcerer feature, I don't love having everything tied to the same limited-use feature. This is clearly something that can help you out of a jam, but only if they're already right up upon you.
Steady Spellcaster prevents damage from breaking your concentration on Sorcery spells.
...Wait, what? Ok, I take back any worry I had about this subclass being too tied to a limited-use feature. This just... they cannot break your concentration without incapacitating you now, or I guess dispelling your spell. You get hit by an Ancient Red Dragon's breath and take 94 damage, and you're like, "nah, that Fly spell is not going anywhere." Not any specific school, not of any particular level. Just... concentration saves? Nah, we don't need to worry about that.
This is a good feature. In case that wasn't clear. It's very, very, very good.
Level 18:
Ancestor's Ward gives you advantage on saving throws against spells while your Innate Sorcery is active. Once per use of Innate Sorcery, if you fail a saving throw against a spell, you can choose to succeed again.
So, yeah: it really comes down to how often you're fighting creatures that actually cast spells, rather than having some other bespoke spell-like-but-not-quite-spell effect. Admittedly, I think they found a way to incorporate more genuine spells into monster design, like the part of the Adult and Ancient Dragons' multiattack. But this subclass clearly is best in a mage-vs-mage kind of campaign.
Overall Thoughts:
I think there's something solid here. The best feature doesn't come until level 14, but I think there is enough going on here that you could have a very helpful party member here. Again, this subclass is best-sutied to a campaign in which you have to deal with spellcasting adversaries, but in such a campaign, this should be very good.
Next, we'll re-re-visit the Hexblade, which is getting a second revision after its rather awful showing in the Horror Subclasses UA. At least from my initial reading, this is definitely an improvement over that one, though I suspect fans of the Xanathar's original version might still be underwhelmed.
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