Sorcerous powers can come from all sorts of places. If you get your power from the Abyss, you're... in for a rough ride (unless, I guess, you're into that, which makes sense for a Villainous subclass).
Let's check it out.
Demonic Spells:
1st: Bane, Dissonant Whispers
2nd: Spike Growth, Web
3rd: Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic
4th: Giant Insect, Hallucinatory Terrain
5th: Contact Other Plane, Modify Memory
Some really powerful 2nd level spells here - if you can get some forced movement, Spike Growth can do a ton of damage, and of course Web is a classic.
Level 3:
When you use Innate Sorcery, you create a rupture into the Abyss, which fills a 10-foot radius sphere centered on a point within 30 feet of you. When you activate Innate Sorcery and as a bonus action while IS is active, you can choose one of the following options. Also, you can move the center of the sphere to a point within 30 feet of yourself at the start of each of your turns.
Real quick: I think this means we could use it twice on the turn we activate Innate Sorcery. Not sure if that's intended. Also, nice that no matter how fast you go, you can always put the sphere need you (though less great if you want it farther away from you).
Demonic Lash: Make a melee spell attack against a target within 5 feet of the rupture. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 slashing damage and if it's Large or smaller, you can pull it up to 10 feet toward the center of the sphere.
This pairs nicely with Spike Growth, and can also yoink monsters attacking you away from you.
Terrifying Screams: Each creature within the rupture must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage.
That's a pretty tiny amount of damage. Honestly, not sure we need a saving throw against it. Maybe it should be just "equal to your Cha modifier." I think that Demonic Lash would be the one I use most of the time.
Level 6:
Abyssal Realm:
When you spend at least 1 Sorcery Point as part of a Magic Action or Bonus Action on your turn, you can pull influence from the Abyss. You create a 10-foot emanation around you or fill your Abyssal Rupture sphere with magic, taking magic from one of three layers of the Abyss.
Sorcerer do love spending SP, so you'll probably get these effects quite often.
Gaping Maw's Frenzy: Designate a direction horizontal to you. Each creature in the area that fails a Charisma saving throw must use as much of its movement as possible to move in that direction at the start of its next turn, taking the safest route.
This will never be a huge area, but again, it can potentially get attackers to run away from you.
Maze of Azzatar: Each creature in the area makes an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, you gain the Invisible condition against the target until the start of your next turn.
This is cool, though thanks to Innate Sorcery, we'll already have advantage on our attacks. Still, this can keep them from targeting us with spells and makes it harder for them to attack us - certainly useful. (And Int saves are often a good one to target).
Slime Pits' Haze: Each creature in the area makes a Con save. On a failed save, they have the Charmed or Poisoned condition until the start of your next turn.
Con is a harder thing to target, typically, than Charisma or Intelligence, but these conditions can be quite powerful, and more broadly useful.
Level 14:
Abyssal Conduit:
You gain the following:
Rupture Expansion: The size of your Abyssal Rupture is now a 30-foot radius sphere, and it's difficult terrain for you enemies.
A 30-foot sphere is gigantic, and will cover a huge swath of the battlefield. This is going to let you potentially hit far more targets with its effects, and the difficult terrain can really give you more control over the battlefield.
Fiendish Servant: You always have the Summon Fiend spell prepared. When you cast the spell, you can modify it to not require Concentration, but its spell duration becomes 1 minute for that casting, and you must use the Demon form for the summoned fiend. Additionally, the Fiend has advantage on attack rolls while within your Abyssal Rupture.
Well, the rupture's enormous now, so it will probably get that pretty easily. Notably, I think you can still summon a Yugoloth or Devil if you cast this normally, which is nice if you want a ranged or at least more mobile minion. I also think the advantage should apply to it regardless of its form. Also, you could cast multiple Summon Fiends this way (there's no "it ends if you cast the spell again" rider). That's going to take a lot of high-level spell slots, but you could theoretically have one at 6th level and another at 8th, giving you 7 fiend attacks per turn, likely all at advantage.
Level 18:
Abyssal Explosion:
As a magic action, you fill a 30-foot radius sphere with an explosion of Abyssal energy. Each creature in the sphere makes a Con save. On a failure, if the creature is not a fiend, they take 8d6 force damage and are incapacitated until the start of your next turn. You can use this once per long rest, or you can spend 7 SP to restore your use of it.
I think it must be an error that it doesn't say where you can place the sphere. I doubt this is intended to allow you to drop this in a secret fortress in Pandemonium while you're having tea in Waterdeep. This is a save for none ability, but the effect of a failure is quite powerful. The damage is fine, though low for the equivalent of a 7th level spell, but the main benefit is the incapacitation effect, which I think is well worth it.
Overall Thoughts:
The only real challenge for this subclass is that you'll be managing a lot of pieces. The Abyssal Rupture, a Summoned Fiend, and yourself. But I think you can do some cool stuff here. It is very reliant on Innate Sorcery, but by level 7, you'll have Sorcery Incarnate, which means you'll probably not find yourself running out of uses of IS very often.
The Abyssal Rupture is going to be small and require a lot of management until level 14, but at least it's fairly easy to orient.
That's it for the subclasses in this UA. We will, though, get some new feats to look at.
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