D&D 5.5E – Sorcerers Have Rage Now, Plus Other Changes

Sorcerers get some delicious new upgrades in the coming 5.5E ruleset. Mostly this means bonus spells, but there are some other changes too.

Sorcerers are a weird part of D&D. The class only exists because of 3rd Edition D&D – Sorcerers were originally the only spellcasters that didn’t prepare spells. They had a list of spells known and could cast any of them at any time with the right spell slots. Wizards, on the other hand, had to prepare a list.

But now, of course, the lines between Sorcerer and Wizard are a little blurrier. But doubly so the line between Sorcerer and Warlock. Or Sorcerer and Bard. They all have lists of spells known that they get to choose from basically the same way. Most casters don’t prepare spells, it seems.

So what makes the Sorcerer stand out is a question that 5th Edition tried to answer with Metamagic. But 5.5E goes a little further with, giving the beleaguered class some fancy new toys to play with.

The 5.5E Sorcerer – Now with More Power!

Right away there’s a big change to the Sorcerer’s identity: a new feature called Innate Sorcerery which is like a Barbarian’s Rage but for Sorcerers. You spend a Bonus Action to activate your Sorcerous Ultra Instinct and it has the effect of increasing your Sorcerer spell save DCs and giving your Sorcerer spell attacks advantages, which seems like they’re planning around potential multiclass abuse with that specific wording.

At level 2 Font of Magic and Metamagic both hit together, the Metamagic options have been “revisited and fine tuned” incorporating the options from Tasha’s Cauldron, so get ready to do even more with that. Aside from that, you get Sorcery Incarnate, another new feature that lets you spend sorcery points back to refresh your Innate Sorcery, and while Innate Sorcery is active, you can use two metamagic options instead of just one.

It’s a shame we don’t get a look at how these Metamagic options have been “fine-tuned” because Metamagic is going to play a big role in the 5.5E Sorcerer. But not as big a role as the new subclasses!

5.5E Sorcerer Subclasses – More Spells For Most of Them!

One of the biggest changes is now all of the subclasses get bonus spells. Not just the later Sorcerer subclasses, when WotC figured out that they needed a little boost – that’s why you see people saying Sorcerers like the Lunar Sorcerer or the Aberrant/Clockwork Sorcerer are the strongest. Speaking of which, the Aberrant Sorcerer leads the charge in all its scaley gooey glory.

It sounds like the subclass will be familiar enough for those who are familiar with it from Tasha’s Cauldron, though there have been some revisions that could have big implications for the tentacular ones.

Clockwork Sorcerers have also made the jump to the 5.5E Player’s Handbook. And like its other Tasha’s Cauldron counterpart, it is mostly the way you’ve played it before.

Draconic Sorcerers, on the other hand, are substantively different. WotC really wanted to make them feel like dragon descendants. So you get a whole lot more magic stuff than just “always on Mage Armor” and “bonus damage”. You still get that stuff, but, for instance, you won’t have to spend a sorcery point to gain resistance to an element.

But more to the point, Draconic Sorcery means you get more dragon magic. They have a list of bonus spells, including brand new spells like Dragon Breath and Summon Dragon which let you do exactly what they say. So you can summon a dragon friend, or exhale gouts of energy. All good stuff.

You also get better Dragon Wing mechanics. They’re still powered by Sorcery Points, but they give you more speed to play around with, so it’s worth having them over say, just casting Fly or using a Magic Item that gives you flight.

If you make it to 18th level, you get a cool new feature called Dragon Companion, where you just can summon a Dragon and not have to concentrate on it as the spell, to reflect that you just have a dragon friend now. But it’s a toned down “player appropriate” stat block, because the designers want to maintain the illusion that the game is at all even a little bit balanced once you get past level 11. It isn’t. But they like to pretend.

If your DM isn’t a coward, just tell them to give you a dragon from the Monster Manual. None of this “summoned spirit” BS. Just because WotC is afraid to make players feel powerful, doesn’t mean you should be.

Finally, Wild Magic Sorcerers get the biggest change. So much so that WotC would have you believe they’re basically a new subclass, even though they aren’t. What they ARE, is a version of the subclass that feels like it’s not only playable, but actually does all the things that WotC wanted them to do in the first place.

Now, Wild Magic Surges happen with more predictaility. You don’t just have to wait for your DM to remember that you’re playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer to get your class features. A Wild Magic Surge is inevitable when you play one of these.

And the Wild Magic Surge table is where you’ll find this subclass’s bonus spells. Which is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, they’ve revised the Wild Magic Surge, giving a whole list of new effects, mostly positive (though some negative, but let’s be honest, that’s why you’re here) that can really change the way an encounter goes.

They spend a long time talking about how the new table has been redesigned. It’s now “even more chaotic” which appeals to the goblin part of the psyche. You’ll find things that let you summon creatures. Have other spells. You might become vulnerable to damage, but there’s so much more of a chance that something interesting and good will happen.

Which is why so much of the rest of this class is about harnessing your Tides of Chaos, either getting it back more easily, or letting you dip into it more regularly, and even at high levels, controlling which results you get.

So if you want to let the dice gods have their say over everythiing, the new Wild Magic Sorcerer sounds perfect.

All this in the new Player’s Handbook, coming September 17th!

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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