Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)

Dragon Disciple. A sub-class of sorcerers that avoid being squishy.

Sorcerers are a core playable class in Dungeons & Dragons since Third Edition. Prior to Fourth, they are really just simpler versions of their Wizard brothers, able to cast spells on the fly without morning preparation or a spellbook. The drawback is that they can only know a few distinct spells per spell level. In essence, they are "easier to play" wizards for people who have short attention spans and/or don't want to muck around with strategy.

Critics claim there are several additional problems with the class:

• Fewer feats than the wizard.
• No class skills except Bluff use Charisma, the sorcerer's casting stat.
• Inferior Prestige classes compared to the wizard (think Tome and Blood).
• Cannot obtain as much benefit from spell scrolls and spellbooks as a wizard can.

Advocates argue that:

• Some of the prestige classes are pretty good (exalted arcanist, archmage) if you have the right splatbook (Book of Exalted Deeds, Heroes of Horror, Draconomicon).
• Sorcerers got a mild buff in 3.5, allowing them to vary some spells between levels to make up for their limited spell selection.
• Not having to prepare their spells does offer some advantages (casting flight or invisibility on the whole party off-the-cuff without prior preparation).

In addition, the self-contained nature of the sorcerer is useful to counteract a difficult DM:

• A sorcerer doesn't depend on an external, potentially destructible object to prepare his spells (i.e. the wizard's spellbook).
• A wizard may not obtain or be able to afford the spells he wants to add to his book, while a sorcerer is granted his new spells at each level-up.
• Unlike most casters, a sorceror needs neither 8 hours of rest nor 1 hour of spell preparation to recover his spells. (this is wrong)

Each day, sorcerers and bards must focus their minds on the task of casting their spells. A sorcerer or bard needs 8 hours of rest (just like a wizard), after which he spends 15 minutes concentrating. (A bard must sing, recite, or play an instrument of some kind while concentrating.) During this period, the sorcerer or bard readies his mind to cast his daily allotment of spells. Without such a period to refresh himself, the character does not regain the spell slots he used up the day before.

Schools of Thought

Sorcerers are really just single-minded versions of their Wizard brothers, able to cast spells spontaneously (e.g. without preparation in the morning).

Players of sorcerers (not to be mistaken with Saucerers) often enjoy the dragon blood fluff, and use it in some vague attempt at roleplaying, but we all know that deep down inside they're just playing a sorcerer because they want to throw more fireballs per day than the wizard. But then again, with the right specialization and PrCs, a wizard can have more spells per day than the sorcerer, rendering him useless. This is especially true when you realize that the wizard gets things like bonus feats, further pushing his power well past anything the sorcerer can accomplish without a prestige class.

It's a well-known fact that Skip Williams, one of the developers of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition, absolutely despised the sorcerer class and is famous for saying in a now-notorious thread on the Wizards of the Coast forums that sorcerers weren't worthy of being called spellcasting classes. The findings of most of the balance team for 3.5 regarding the sorcerer were steadfastly ignored by WotC, which is why the sorcerer doesn't get bonus feats, skills that actually use his main stat (except for Bluff), or the full benefits of metamagic; you know, all the things wizards get and take for granted. About the only buff they got in 3.5 is that they can now vary some spells up between levels to make up for how limited their spell selection is. All of this is painfully obvious if one cracks open a copy of the Tome and Blood, which is widely-regarded as being for wizards what the current-edition Space Marine Codex was for Ultramarines. All of the sorcerer-specific classes in the book were horrifically underpowered, whereas a number of wizard builds offered via T&B were incredibly, gob-smackingly powerful.

Sorcerers are, to put it simply, underpowered compared to wizards: they make sacrifices in the number of spells they can know at any one time in order to be able to cast two more spells of every level per day than wizards, who can still very easily surpass a sorcerer's spells per day with the right builds. If your group is a hack-and-slash, combat-centric group, you're probably going to want to roll a sorcerer. If your group actually does anything besides kick in doors and behead goblinoids/innocent dwarves/the Tarrasque (haha, beheading the Tarrasque, it'd just grow a new head before you could blink), then consider the wizard's immense versatility an advantage.

On the other hand, a sorcerer represents the chaotic side of magic, free to face the encounter with all that he knows, ever ready to adapt and prevail. Wizards represent the methodical, logical, and lawful mechanics of magic. So long as they have planned accordingly the night before and morning of, they can face any situation as it comes. But any one unpredictable thing comes along and the sorcerer gets to loot the wizard's corpse. Of course, the sorcerer also has to plan ahead because he prepares his spells once and doesn't get to change them until he gets to the next level, so you can't afford to have shitty spells.

...Which isn't to say it's all bad news. The sorcerer qualifies for a number of prestige classes that dramatically improve the power of the class. Exalted arcanist (from Book of Exalted Deeds) gives the class access to a few clerical spells and gives the class a surprising bit of versatility; fiend-blooded (from Heroes of Horror) seems outwardly similar to the dragon disciple class from Tome and Blood in that you trade levels for what's functionally a template, but unlike the dragon disciple, offers full spell progression, access to spells you can't normally get, familiar boosts, and the ability to load up a spell to be even more destructive a few times a day - just for example; the Draconomicon also has a bunch of useful sorcerer buffs, including sorcerer-specific feats and PrCs. Additionally, the sorcerer can also easily latch onto (and take advantage of) a number of wizard-exclusive prestige classes; seeing what this class can do with archmage is nothing short of hilarious.

But as far as a base class goes? No reason to bother. Prestige out of this class ASAP; all you have to lose is familiar progression. You'll likely find the result far more effective than a sorcerer by its lonesome.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder gave every class a unified system of feat progression, removing one problem with the wizard comparison right there; it also offers traits to let them make the charisma-based skills they should always have fucking had in-class into class skills, and indirectly helps them out by making prestige classes much rarer and more corner-case. It also added a series of "bloodline powers" to let the player customize them a little and to make them a little less like weaker versions of wizards; it does a good job of that, though they still lack some of the wizard's raw versatility. Those bloodlines show what monster in your ancestry is the source of your powers, making it the class equivalent of half-elf or half-orc or whatever. It's possible to be descended from an undead or an aberration; best not to think about how, though at least some undead are generally considered quite attractive and a number of them derive from exposure to mutating magical forces rather than good ol' fashioned breeding. Either way, said bloodlines dramatically increase the power of the sorcerers: each bloodline gives you a list of bonus feats, bonus spells, and "bloodline powers" which range from mediocre (1d6 blast) to getting even moar bonus spells, +6 str, having all of your internal organs shifted so that you are immune to critical hits and cannot be backstabbed, and casting metamagic without increased casting time.

Core bloodlines are pretty standard, being classic themes as Abyssal/Infernal/Celestial/Dragonkin/Fey/etc, with the aberration and undead being kind of oddballs, the destined being hilarious, and the arcane pretty boring but obviously the most powerful, as it is clearly the most viable option in the entire game for metamagic users. Yes, now munchkins can be sorcerers too. Then Paizo started printing all of its "Ultimate X" stuff and things kept going weird(er), with sorcerers descending from nearly everything that can sport a reproductive system, including (but not limited to) Cthulhu-like abominations and plant monsters. To get an idea of how weird things can get, here is the full list:

• Aberrant: Your ancestor messed around with an Aboleth, Beholder or something similar.
• Abyssal: Your ancestor messed around with a demon.
• Accursed: Your ancestor was cursed, possibly by a Hag.
• Aquatic: Your ancestor messed with an aquatic creature like a Merfolk, Triton... or a Deep One.
• Arcane: Your ancestor was a wizard, and a powerful one at that.
• Boreal: Your ancestor was Indrick Boreale a creature living in cold regions up north.
• Celestial: Your ancestor was touched by an angel in that way.
• Daemon: Your ancestor messed around with a life-hating daemon.
• Deep Earth: Your ancestor messed around with a creature of the earth.
• Destined: Your family was destined for greatness, and it produced you. Better deliver the goods, kiddo.
• Div: Your ancestor messed around with one of the nihilistic div.
• Djinni: Your ancestor messed around with a Djinni, an air genie.
• Draconic: Your ancestor got fucked by a dragon.
• Dramspun: Your family has always been able to mess around with dreams, and now it's your turn.
• Ectoplasm: Your family is somehow linked to ectoplasm, which does not have to mean they fucked ghosts, but probably does.
• Efreeti: Your ancestor messed around with an Efreeti, a fire genie.
• Elemental: You're the avatar, master of all four elements.
• Fey: Your ancestor messed around with a fairy, and not of the homosexual kind.
• Ghoul: Your ancestor probably ate a bit too much long pig, and now you're a bit ghoulish.
• Harrow: Your ancestor played too much with their not-Tarot deck, which nets you magical powers linked to this not-Tarot.
• Imperius: Your ancestor was so much into Humanity Fuck Yeah it gained you magical powers to secure a future for the human race. For humans only.
• Impossible: You're here to kick reason to the curb and do the impossible.
• Infernal: Your ancestor messed around with a devil.
• Kobold: You carry the blood of dragons inside you, which other kobolds are really impressed with. As expected, it's for kobolds only.
• Maestro: Your ancestor was way into music and sound, like a bard, trumpet archon, lillend or something less wholesome like a harpy or even a Gibbering Mouther.
• Marid: Your ancestor messed around with a Marid, a water genie.
• Martyred: Your ancestor died for their beliefs, which nets you powers courtesy of grandpa Jesus.
• Nanite: Your ancestor messed around with NANOMACHINES, SON! They grant you magical powers.
• Oni: Your ancestor messed around with one of the hedonistic Oni.
• Orc: Your ancestor messed around with an orc, which gives you rage powers. Not actually limited to orcs or humans, meaning that you could be an elf with this bloodline.
• Pestilence: You are a disturbed individual who's down with the sickness and gains magical powers through your blighted soul.
• Possessed: You're kind of a Spiritualist: you have a spirit riding your soul who gets you magical powers, except you get casting like a sorcerer.
• Protean: Your ancestor messed around with a Protean, the Slaad standins of Pathfinder.
• Psychic: Your family includes many psychics, and you're too.
• Rakshasa: Your ancestor messed around with a Rakshasa, making them a furry.
• Salamander: Your ancestor messed around with a Salamander, giving you all sorts of neat fire and smithing powers.
• Serpentine: Your ancestor messed around with one flavor or another of snek, meaning you have snake powers.
• Shadow: Your ancestor messed around with edgy powers, and now you have a shadowy soul and matching powers.
• Shaitan: Your ancestor messed around with a Shaitan, an earth genie.
• Starsoul: Your ancestor traveled through space, and instead of getting irradiated and dying their descendants gained magical powers.
• Stormborn: Your ancestor messed around with House Targaryen a creature of storm and electricity.
• Undead: Your ancestor has something to do with death, which nets you magical powers.
• Verdant: Your ancestor messed around with plants, making being Poison Ivy a hereditary trait to your family.

Still, sorcerers are really an interesting, entertaining choice and can be tailored and customized to be whatever the fuck you may desire, with great opportunities for roleplaying. Even the lack of spells is less severe - you get one free spell among your bloodline ones every odd level beyond the first, and a good chunk of races has a favored class bonus that nets you 1 bonus spell each level, even if it has to be one level lower than your highest spell's level. If you don't mind being a special snowflake, check out the "build your own spells" Words of Power system from "Ultimate Magic." The sky's falling in on our heads, 'cause someone in a 3.X game actually put in an alternate casting system that favors sorcerers over their spoiled rotten cousins. Think on how some of the elemental bloodlines boost power for any spell with the right elemental subtype. Think how easy it is to slip a level zero cold snap or spark keyword into a larger spell. Engage trollface, because you just made the best "blaster" mage in 3.X history.

Also in Pathfinder, sorcerers make arguably better mystic theurges than wizards because they can choose to multiclass in Oracle. The oracle is a divine equivalent of the sorcerer that uses charisma as his casting stat, thus avoiding being MAD, or can take the empyreal bloodline and swap their casting stat with Wisdom, making it a perfect multiclass option for druids or clerics that want to go theurge. Obviously, this advantage becomes moot when you notice that Pathfinder theurges suck pretty bad, and one of their (few) features only works for prepared spellcasters. Oops!

4e's Attempts

The green vapors do lightning and acid damage, the blue ones cold and thunder damage.

4th edition kept the sorcerer out of the first PHB precisely because the developers wanted to come up with a way to make it more useful and distinct, especially since it could no longer fall back on a different spellcasting mechanism to justify its uniqueness. Instead, it came out in the PHB2 with a stunning new redesign.

Keeping the idea that the sorcerer is an intuitive, innate caster rather than a studied, deliberate arcanist or a pact-bound channeler, the 4e Sorcerer is an Arcane Striker who has basically taken up the Evoker niche. Their spells focus on dealing large amounts of elemental damage, often multiple types simultaneously, over a close-ranged area - in essence, taking up a midway point between the 4e wizard and the 4e warlock.

Furthermore, the 4e sorcerer finally distinguished just where its magic came from, in contrast to the nebulous and vague fluff of 3rd edition. By the time 4e was cancelled, four distinct power origins were presented; draconic magic, wild magic, storm magic and cosmic magic. Each of these granted its sorcerer some unique magical traits.

• Wild Magic sorcerers would randomly gain either +1 AC or a free saving throw at the start of each round, had energy resistance that changed randomly with each long rest, could slide their target around & knock it prone on a natural 20, and shoved away every creature within 5 squares on a natural 1.
• Dragon Magic sorcerers gain one form of energy resistance from a list of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning and Poison, can determine their AC bonus with the highest of their Strength, Dexterity or Charisma modifiers, and gain +2 AC whenever they are Bloodied.
• Storm Magic sorcerers are resistant to thunder & lightning damage, and get to push their target and then fly a short distance on a natural 20.
• Cosmic Magic sorcerers can determine their AC bonus with the highest of their Strength, Dexterity or Charisma modifiers, and can choose which of the three cosmic phases they are aligned with after completing a rest; the phase they're in gives them a special bonus. The Sun phase grants Cold resistance and inflicts Fire & Radiant damage on all nearby enemies. The Moon phase grants Psychic resistance and +1 AC per conscious enemy adjacent to you, making you super tanky. The Stars phase grants Radiant resistance and the ability to teleport as a free reaction if an enemy takes a swing and misses. Additionally, you can choose to change to the next phase in the cycle (Sun-Moon-Stars-Sun) each time you cast a sorcerer daily, although you're forced to switch to the next one along when you get Bloodied.

For all sorcerers, emphasizing their raw power, they have the unique ability to ignore the elemental damage resistance of enemies who share their elemental affinity. So a sorcerer with Fire resistance ignores the Fire resistance of its foes.

Meanwhile, in 5th Edition...

In 5th Edition, opinions on sorcerers is... decidedly mixed. Some argue that they're just as useful and viable as they were in 4e, others argue they've gone right back to being the redheaded bastard children of the family.

See, someone finally realized that sorcerers should get something unique: metamagic, torn from the screaming hands of the most pampered brats of 3rd edition. They now have exclusive access to metamagics, of which they can eventually get four, and can alter any of their spells on the fly using a resource pool called Sorcery Points (which is basically a stupider name for a mana system). They get more as they level up, and can also use them to regain spells. These mechanics are important, because with the reworks to prepared spellcasting, the complaint that sorcerers prepare their spells once and can't easily swap them out is more true than ever.

Sorcerers get to choose their bloodline power at first level: Dragons or something vague and chaotic. The dragon bloodline gives them natural armor (which doesn't stack with actual armor, naturally) and one more hit point per level. Eventually they get dragon wings, resistance to, and affinity for, their chosen dragon's element, and the ability to use SP to activate an aura that either scares people or inspires them, depending on which the sorcerer wants it to do.

The second bloodline option is that the sorcerer has "Wild Magic." This means that whenever they cast a spell, the DM can ask them to roll a D20, and on a 1, random magical effects happen. However, given their probable frequency, they are now less devastating (none that instantly kill you, the worst it gets is turning you into a plant for one round or casting grease on your location, though we can't forget the chance to drop a fireball on yourself). In fact, many are helpful, and later the wild mage actually uses this to their advantage (whenever they have a surge, they can roll twice on the chart). Oh, and they have a D6 hit die now, like in Pathfinder. I guess WotC got sick of spellcasters whining about not having enough HP to do anything.

Finally, their class skills include lots of Charisma-based choices, like in 4e, which is just one more sweet, sweet improvement.

Their four major weaknesses (and they are all, admittedly, doozies) are thus:

• That the heavily-reworked magic system took a lot of the punch out of their spontaneous casting, and made the wizard's tremendous versatility even more of an advantage, since now every caster has access to all memorized spells of a given level whenever they cast for a slot.
• That they are the only full-caster in the game without access to ritual casting, further preventing them from being good "utility" people.
• That they gain access to about as many spells as the goddamn quarter casters, and, unlike the paladin and ranger, neither of whom is at the pinnacle of this edition's tier list, they don't have any unique spells, with their list being, essentially, a gimped-as-fuck version of the wizard's.
• That they don't gain any short rest benefits until their fucking capstone, meaning that for most of his career the sorcerer is going to lag behind the wizard in terms of spells per day as well as spells known. And the only way to avoid that involves eating into the same resource pool that feeds metamagic.

The metamagic still helps make them unique, and definitively gives them access to a number of things the wizard simply cannot do, but they really could stand to have access to greater access to more total spells and/or some sort of short-rest recovery mechanic if you're the sort that likes to homebrew fixes. Perhaps in the form of a set of additional "bloodline" spells attached to each archetype choice? Fuck's sake, Mike, even Paizo figured that one out, and they couldn't even be bothered to fix their skill list! I know you thought about it because it's attached to both the "playtest" bloodlines!

The sorcerer has been arguably the slowest-growing arcane class in 5th edition; Unearthed Arcana has done what it can to give sorcerers more options, but WoTC's repeated bungling has kept the development of good Sorcerer subclasses slow. So far, only three new Sorcerous Origins have been added since the PHB came out; Divine Soul, Shadow Magic and Storm Sorcery.

Divine Soul is basically a rebrand of the Favored Soul from 3e; a sorcerer with divine magical affinities. It took WoTC four goes before they finally posted this in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and gamers still argue about whether it's any good. At 1st level, they pick up the Divine Magic and Favored By The Gods features. Divine Magic allows sorcerers to learn Cleric spells as they level up, and gives them a bonus clerical spell that doesn't count against their normal list of spells; this is taken from a short list that masquerades as a facade of the Cleric Domain aspect (Good - Cure Wounds, Evil - Inflict Wounds, Law - Bless, Chaos -Bane, Neutrality - Protection from Evil & Good), but you can swap it out for another clerical spell later. Favored By The Gods, in comparison, lets you add a +2d4 roll to the result of a failed saving throw or attack roll once per short rest, which can turn a failure into a success. Level 6 gives Divine Souls the Empowered Healing trait, which basically lets them spend a sorcery point to reroll any number of dice in a healing spell cast by themselves or an ally within 5 feet, though they can only do this once per turn. Level 14 comes with Otherworldly Wings, which lets them sprout spectral wings that give them Fly speed of 30 feet as a bonus action. Finally, at level 18, they pick up Unearthly Recovery, where they can heal themselves back from half health or lower potentially to full health once per day.

Shadow Magic is a sort of mix-up of Dread Necromancer and Shadowcaster. Its level 1 features are Eyes of the Dark (gain Darkvision 120 feet, gain a Darkness spell that doesn't count against spells known at 3rd level, can cast Darkness with 2 sorcery points and see through it if you do) and Strength of the Grave (1/day, can make a Charisma save against an attack that would drop you to 0 HP to only drop to 1 HP, but this doesn't work on radiant damage and critical hits). Level 6 lets them summon a ghostly Hound of Ill Omen. Level 14 grants them the ability to Shadow Walk, teleporting at will from one patch of dim light or darkness to another that is within 120 feet. Finally, at level 18, Umbral Form lets them assume a shadow-like ghostly form for up to 1 minute at the cost of 6 sorcery points, during which time they are resistant to all damage types bar force and radiant and have the Incorporeal Movement trait (can pass through creatures & objects as if they were difficult terrain, but ending your turn inside one inflicts 5 Force damage on you). This showed up in Xanathar's Guide.

Storm Sorcery is a kind of elementalism based on affinity for storms, and a nod back to their 4e options. It's got two fluff-only features (level 1's Wind Speaker lets you speak Primordial, the elemental language, whilst level 6's Storm Guide lets you manipulate the path of wind blowing around you and keep yourself from getting wet in the rain), but the rest of it is solid crunch. Tempestuous Magic (level 1) lets you ride a gout of wind whenever you cast a level 1 or higher spell, which lets you fly 10 feet without provoking an opportunity attack. Heart of the Storm (level 6) grants you resistance to lightning & thunder damage, and lets you inflict lightning or thunder damage equal to half your sorcerer level on any enemy within 10 feet whenever you cast a 1st level or higher spell dealing lightning/thunder damage. Storm's Fury (level 14) lets you use a reaction to inflict lightning damage equal to your sorcerer level on anyone who hits you with a melee attack, as well as potentially knocking them up to 20 feet away from you if they fail a Strength save. Finally, Wind Soul bumps your lightning/thunder resistance to full-blown immunity and gives you a fly speed of 60 feet, which you can choose to drop down to 30 feet for a hour once per short rest in order to give (3 + Cha modifier) allies a fly speed of 30 feet for an hour. This first appeared in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but was then reprinted completely for Xanathar's Guide.

Whilst unofficial, there's a Fire Elementalism Sorcerous Origin, the Pyromancer, in the Plane Shift: Kaladesh article. This one, unlike the Phoenix Soul, is all about the burninating of shit in your way. Its first feature means all fire spells you cast technically become area spells, as any enemies within 10 feet of you take some fire damage when you cast a fire spell. Then it grants you both Fire Resistance and the ability to negate Fire Resistance in others when you're flinging flames everywhere. It can retaliate against melee attacks by inflicting fire damage on them if they successfully hit the Pyromancer, and finally, they upgrade Fire Resistance to Fire Immunity and can now sling flames so hot that Fire Immune targets only count as being Fire Resistant, in addition to burning normally Fire Resistant foes for full damage. It's considered to be a lot better than the Phoenix Soul Sorcerous Origin from Unearthed Arcana.

Yes, Sorcerers do get some subclasses in Unearthed Arcana - the Storm, Shadow and Divine magics all began there and were later promoted to official status. Other UA Sorcerer branches that haven't had that luck yet consist of:

• Phoenix Soul: A strange mixture of fire elementalist and tanky sorcerer, with its abilities revolving around a 1/day "phoenix form" the player can assume.
• Sea Soul: A water elementalist. Surprisingly good, makes for a viable melee sorcerer.
• Stone Soul: Actually, no, not an earth elementalist but a weird-ass homage to the Swordmage.
• Giant Soul: Some bonus spells based on the different giant breeds, combined with the ability to make yourself row into a giant at the highest levels.

Gallery

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  Sorcerer *is* a Charisma-based class after all.

The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition
Core Classes:	Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard
Advanced Player's Guide:	Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch
Advanced Class Guide:	Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest
Occult Adventures:	Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist
Ultimate X:	Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante