The 2024 D&D Sorcerer Was SO Close | 2024 Player's Handbook  

NOTE ON INNATE SORCERY: I’ve had a lot of comments disagreeing with me but funnily enough I mostly agree with the disagreements. Something I should have been more clear about is that I don’t think that Sorcerers should have tons of uses of Innate or have 100 Sorcery Points. I should have been *much* more clear that I truly love the design they took with the new Sorcerer and just wish that they had gone even further with it. I would have loved to see more ways of using Innate Sorcery and ways that integrate with the subclass. Even if that means toning down what it currently does. This would really help give a unique identity to the class: Right now, there aren’t really any mentions in the subclass of using Sorcery Points and none that take advantage of Innate Sorcery: as a result, the subclasses can potentially feel disconnected from the main class. On top of that though( it paints the design team into a bit of a corner. If they do decide at some point in the future that new subclasses WILL get to use SP or Innate Sorcery uses in some capacity, then the 4 PHB subclasses will likely feel a bit left behind. So because of this design choice, they effectively limit future subclass design. Sorcerers are very powerful. Innate Sorcery is really cool. I just wish they explored it more. Hopefully that clears some things up.

Just from what Treantmonk and Nerd Emersion have said about the Clockwork and Aberrant subclasses I’m fairly confident the change is their ability to switch out the spells from their “Clock work spells” and “Aberrant Spells” list for options from other schools. The way it’s being discussed the same change was made to both subclasses. And besides access to an expanded spell list It’s the only feature that both of the subclasses share.

This is the first video im gonna have to respectfully disagree. Love all the changes and sorcerer is probably my go to spellcaster now. Still great video as always.

My only real complaint so far with sorcerer is the dragon sorcerer capstone. Now don't get me wrong, I actually really like being able to summon a dragon for free and without concentration, it's very useful and can have neat flavoring if you do it right (projecting your own inner draconic power, summoning an echo of your draconic ancestor, or even just teleporting in a dragon sibling to come help out). But what I really want for draconic sorcerer is just the ability to finally turn into a dragon. It always irked me in 5E that sorcerers did not get true polymorph, meaning a draconic sorcerer could never become a full dragon while a wizard or bard could. I'd find it pretty interesting if the capstone allowed you a free usage of true polymorph but limited to only dragon monsters, or alternatively you can choose between casting true polymorph (limited to dragons) or summon dragon for free once per long rest. If true polymorph is finally added to the sorcerer spell list proper then I'll ultimately be fine with the capstone how it is, but if true polymorph isn't on the spell list it'll be pretty disapointing and make the draconic capstone feel like a huge missed opportunity.

I think everyone forgets that Officially all content from 5e will be in 5.24e This means things like the planar shards are in the game. Wildmagic sorcerers can use the surge table 5 times a turn. Also, Mage Rage is an insane feature. It seems small, but look at it in other ways: 1 level gives Rogue a better way to use their gish cantrip builds, combining it with Heighten Spell makes Sorcerer the best lock down class in the game, and since it levels so effectively, it works to combo with things like the planar shards to make it the last balanced feature... well almost. The least balanced thing is you can retoll wildmagic surges with heroic inspiration. As a sorcerer main this was the fixes I want (except I would have liked an upgraded metamagic list at high levels. Examples: Widen spell in increase area of effect, dual cantrip to cast 2 cantrips with an action, ect)

So the sorcerer blog post on DnD beyond just dropped and sorcerous restoration now works where you can regain sorcerer points equal to half your sorcery points on a short rest once per day. I personally like this and effectively means by level 20 you would have 30 sorcerer points without exhausting your spell slots

I don’t mind the state of the Sorcerer. The 2014 Sorcerer is absolutely fantastic and this new version of the class is even stronger. Sure, Innate Sorcery is more limited than I’d like but it’s a powerful buff on a strong class, if it was too abundant it could easily have been overpowered.

I’ve been playtesting the sorcerer in a Curse of Strahd game and never had the thought cross my mind that I should save my Innate Sorcery for a later use, because we simply do not have several encounters per adventuring day. Even for parties that do have tons of encounters, I feel like you’ll know the best times to use the ability, unless you’re playing a super difficult game with many very tough fights per day. One thing that I do think is not being mentioned nearly enough was the various cost reductions for features using sorcery points. Almost all Metamagic options cost 1 point, and only a few cost 2. They did mention the resistance feature in the Draconic sorcerer no longer costs points, but the Wild Magic feature Bend Luck also got a reduction for 2 points to 1. One thing I think they did miss on is deciding to not give an expanded spell list to Wild Magic. Their explanation that the Wild Magic table is their expanded spell list doesn’t track to me, because expanded spells are always available for you to use (if you have spell slots, of course). There are so many chaos themed spells you could make a spell list from, and maybe if they cast a spell from that list, they have to roll for a wild magic surge with 2 or more d20s instead of 1. I’m also a bit concerned about Tides of Chaos, because if you have Innate Sorcery active, you can effectively only use Tides of Chaos it on ability checks or saves. This makes it a bit out of your control to expend, and if you can’t expend it, you can’t regain it to cause a Wild Magic Surge.

Very good video and analysis, but I disagree with you on giving more resources or uses to sorcerer points. Sorcerer is a full caster, with a pretty long list of very good and strong spells, if you are giving them even more stuff to do and to choose you will: 1. Slow down the game, 'cause there's already metamagic, point conversion and magical effects from spells 2. Enlarge the gap between martials and casters, where martials gain lots of features, full casters are gaining lots of spells. 3. Create a gap with other casters, where the majority of them have few class features with limited effects (bardic inspiration, wild shape, channel divinity, arcane recovery...) and sorcerer would have plenty of more magic power, a lot of choice for spells, and even more features to exploit. Finally, I think that at higher level you are gonna dump at least half your lower level spell slot to gain additional high level slots or a ton of sorcery points, so the problem persists only at lower levels, but they would be at the same level of other casters.

So i don't agree with your assessment on the number of uses on Innate Sorcery. If it was more available, then it would feel like it HAS to be on. By allowing two uses, you can use the first one "when you feel like it", perhaps if an fight looks tough, or if you decide you're going to spam attack roll cantrips this battle. You still have your second use in your back pocket for a potential boss fight, night time ambush etc. At 7th, you now just have more slots and things you can do with your sorcery points. If you are leaning into attack rolls, well now you can have more uses of Innate Sorcery if you like. There are quite a few things in 5.24 that im not the biggest fan of, but I think they got this one spot on, because they didnt have a huge amount of room to buff the sorcerer.

disagree on innate sorcery, two free usages before needing to use resources per long rest sounds perfectly fine for what is a power up ability that isn't outright necesary for the majority of the class to function (unlike barbarian's rage). That resource pool only deepens as you level up, so the downside of using said resources only decreases as time goes on. A super saiyan power up loses some of it's special oomf when you can just have it always active for free in every fight. By level 20 that resource issue practically no longer exists, because for the cost of 2 sorcery points (if already out of usages) you can now for 1 minute continually cast your spells with heightened spell (which would normally cost 2 SP for every use) for free.

Have you seen Treantmonk's hack of the new sorcerer? If the features are the same as the UA, the trick is to convert all your sorcery points to slots to take advantage of the features that give you extra when you don't have any. The design is to force players to use font of magic a lot more. As a sorcerer player myself, I have to admit that I rarely convert my points to slots and back again. We'll have to see 8/1 when the gag comes off TM and the other early reviewers.

I've been playtesting the UA Sorcerer up to level 14 for a few months now and I can say it's not as clunky as you may fear it to be. The Inmate Sorcery transformation feels similar to the fighter's Action Surge. You use it when you want to go super saiyan and it feels soooo good- especially with Cantrips. The new sorcerer cantrip is especially powerful with this feature. Sorcery points management feels relatively the same but the additional known spells had the biggest impact. Sorcery Incarnate is an alright feature for those situations when you're in multiple combat encounters in a single day. I've only used it once or twice. But to your point there wasn't a drastic overhaul of the sorcerer like to the Warlock. Just enhancements similar to the wizard.

I fundamentally disagree about your description of Innate Sorcery and Sorcery Incarnate, the former is the main feature and the first 2 times you use it you gain an additional advantage if you'd get some good use out of a second metamagic. However the actual effect of the latter is that you can use some spare sorcery points to give you that DC increase or permanent advantage on spell attack rolls! It's a good synergy imo!

I really want a revamped storm sorcerer

back in march when I first I first saw the sorcerer incarnate feature a friend pointed out to me that since you only have two meta magics, if one of them was something you could already combine then you couldn't use the sorcerer incarnate feature, and I came to the realization that there is also a problem with meta magics that some meta magics can't be combined because they are inherently contradictory. For example, twinned can not be combined with careful because there's no overlap on the venn diagram of AOE and twinnable spells. I made a spreadsheet to check if this is a serious problem, and out of the 45 combinations of 2 meta magics, 19, can not benefit from sorcerer incarnate in any way what so ever. 2 can be used on rare archtypes of spells (such as elemental damage with a duration), 6 can be used on entire common archetypes of spells (such as aoe that is also damage) and only 18 can be combined in such a way where if it is possible to use one of your meta magics it's always possible to use the other. For almost half, 42% of sorcerers to not have a functional 7th level feature feels very bad to me. and for a sorcerer to have only one possible combination of two meta magics kind of spits in the face of "on the fly flexibility" as well. Though the solution to both of these problems is to just have more access to different meta magics than that starved quantity of two. Maybe they'll do the first sorceror playtest of letting them prepare meta magics, or make you start with 3, but they'll probably just bring the sorcerer initiate feat to the phb and call it good

By 7th level I was usually cannibalize my 2nd level slots for sorcery points anyways. Giving up 3, 2nd level slots to get to 5 uses of the new ability is not that bad. Still leaves you with 7 points for your 4, 1st level slots, 3, 3rd level slots, and 2, 4th level slots. If I'm right and they reduced the cost of meta magic abilities then I love this

I see your points. Sorcerers lack sorcery points at early levels. I feel like this problem, as you said, self-resolves at around 10ish level. But since most campaigns don't start but rather end at that level, it's a bit of a problem. Generally speaking, D&D's balance is at an optimum from levels 5-10.

At my table, we play with the Spell Point Variant rule from the DMG... This way, Spell Points can just be added to Sorcery Points, for one big, versatile, easy to track, resource. And if you can cast Sorcery Incarnate with Sorcery/Spell Points... It's equivalent to a first level spell... Pretty good for that price. P.S. We also allow Everyone to use the -5/+10 from GWM and Sharpshooter with any weapon attack to help balance the Martial/Caster divide, which is enhanced by the added flexibility.

I like the streamlining but even with Treantmonks conversion trick, I agree with you that they go too fast. I would homebrew to allow sorcerous restoration to divide by 4 or 3, and make the total SP equal to sorcerer level + CHA mod

Sorcerous Restoration = Spell Slots via Font of Magic Conversion

The feature that requires you to deplete all your sorcery points has likely been changed to remove that requirement, if the monk is anything to go by.

Innate sorcery costs 2 sorcery points to recover, so... basically, you get 4 extra sorcery points at each level, but can only use them on sorcery incarnate, to not make the other sorcery point uses too powerful, such as spell slot creation Also, assuming wording changes, and assuming you get to use the 5th level feature once per day, you now have 1 extra sorc point per day at 5th level, 2 per day at 10th level, 3 per day at 15th level, and 4 per day at 20th level This change is actually very important, before, the sorcerer couldn't use all their points for fear of running out completely, but now you can fire off all your sorcery points initially, and then always have at least some left over in the rest of the day Granted, if your table gets only 1 rest per day half way through the day, you won't get to use this feature basically ever, as you should have used about half your points by halfway through the day, and the sorcerer was already balanced around this, like, they aren't just adding this as a way that sorcerer simply has infinite sorcery points, because sorcerers are not warlocks, they do not go back to full power on a short rest But, after a short rest, they will always have at least 1 sorcery point remaining starting at level 5 Back loaded features, all they do, is if you have 1 sorcery point remaining, you might as well spend the last one, At 20th level, if you have 4 remaining, just turn it into 2 1st level slots or a second level slot, easy Starting at level 10, after a short rest, you can *always* use sorcery incarnate Also, if you are level 10, you are about to take a short rest, and have 3 points left, you can just spend them to recover a 2nd level slot, then go back up to 2, effectively giving you a discount on the last few points of the day, granted at level 5 when you get this initially, if you have 2 sorc points before a short rest, your option isn't as good, but you can spend both on a 1st level slot, then get 1 back, This just gives extra mileage to those last few slots At level 20, you have 5 points remaining, spend 5 for a 3rd level slot, then get 4 back, again, just making sure those last few sorcery points stretch as far as humanly possible

still mad that subclass prgression is the same as 2014 other than all classes starting at level 3. When i last looked at a playtest all classes had the same progress and some had more so Bards, and Rogues felt like they had a subclass. 😠Just watched this to see that they are not going through with it is sad.

Sorcerer is always a fun class to balance given how close they are to wizards. You obviously want them to have as many spells as they can have, but too many and you can’t really give them many features or else they’re just wizards with more class features and a better casting ability. Personally I think they did a solid job of balancing giving sorcerer defining features without making it feel like they have 0 spell variety, but I get there are a few things they could have hit better on a few subclasses

It feels like given the direction of the martial classes, metamagic would’ve been a bonus action that doesn’t expend the resources as much. I like the mage rage, but a +2 would’ve been nice over a +1. Also it’s WILD that OF COURSE the caster gets a temporary boost that DOESN’T require or cut off concentration. Of course. Though I also just don’t think core features should have long rest limits (like rage and mage rage). Or at least kill those “if you have nothing left features” and replace them with “first use per short rest is free” or you have a “temporary resource” after each short rest.

I feel like pact magic should use the variant spell points instead of spell slots. This way you could use lower level spells more often or burn through points faster with higher level spells.

lol, do you want the bigest joke? Jeremy said HIMSELF that innate sorcery was like the barbarian rage... and he made it work EXACTLY like the barbarian rage of 2014, the one that they made ure that your barbarian would ALWAY have one ready in combat so they gave the barbarian a free recharge of rage on initiative... They learn the leason with the barbarian, then they copied the flawed system and put it on the sorcerer and they realised it was like a barbarian rage but failed to see the flaw... lol

I think the designers are terrified that the players will use these 'regain x when you roll initiative features' to essentially get all their points back by fighting rats or something which is why they do the 'when you have none left' clause. I think it would be more elegant to instead say 'When you roll initiative you gain x temporary points, when combat ends any unspent temporary points are lost.' That way you can have the little boost to make sure you can use your feature without having to worry about problematic tables trying to refill points through pointless combat.

They didn't mention whether they are keeping the buff where you can turn spell slots into points as a free action

Seems like a lot of people disagree with you on innate sorcery and I have to say I disagree too haha. I feel like it's very different than Pact Slots because being in the innate sorcery state isn't vital to the class. You can still be very effective without having advantage on attacks. Also, you can save one for the big bad and use the other one as desired. I really like the feature because it solidifies Sorcerers as the blasters. I think this will probably make quickened spell the best meta magic by far since your cantrips will be so reliable. (Or if you have a barbarian dong trip attacks all the time then it'll be at least as reliable as before lol)

I'd pretty much ignore that 7th level feature Maybe there's a broken metamagic spell combo I'm missing but using 2 options at time doesn't seem worth it But I'd absolutely trade a second level slot for the sorcery points to re up innate sorcery That feature is very strong

We gotta give this man 10k subs yall

Well, if Sourcerous Restoration will only triggers with no points remaning, i think every optimizer Sorcerer will start their days by transforming every point into a spell slot just to gain some more.

I enjoy the changes that they've made to the sorcerer. The sorcery point pool issue is a thing that i always homebrew anyway where i usually have the sorcerer regain a d6 of metamagic points on a short rest. This stacks if they have a bloodwell vial which restores 5 on the first sort rest (except i allow the restoration at every short rest up to their charisma modifier). All this to say that I think they've done good work here, yea it's not perfect but the issues can very easily be homebrewed away- like it's as easy as: "oh you've had a short rest? Then add back these sorcery points".

My only wish about Sorcerer is maybe an additional Sorcery point every other level. I just always had the feeling that I wish I had a few more without needing to convert spellslots

Draconic dissapointed me simply because they didn't understand the fantasy of having Draconic powers. I wanted to become a dragon, like a wildshape or how poly spells work. Instead they just focused on giving us a summon.

I'm enjoying your insights on 2024 updates. Your analysis is always professional and insightful. Keep up the good work!

Home rule that Sorcery incarnate gets another use at 10th level for 3 total or at 7th or 15th level for 4 uses. JC compared it to rage make it so

I may have an unpopular opinion but I liked that sorcerers had a unique cantrip in One D&D. Just feels like fun flavour.

Firstly: I never bother watching the official D&D videos. I always wait for your videos to just explain it clearly. :D Secondly: Top tip for everyone, use the spell points variant rule from the DMG for sorcerers. It makes the sorcerer feel much different. It makes you more flexible, although you don't get as many spells L6 and above, but it's nonetheless amazing. Suddenly, it doesn't matter that much you don't have that many spells since you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to choosing which spells to cast. Some people combine it with sorcery points, but my group doesn't bother and it's still amazing.

I wish they improve divine soul or shadow sorc. Also, would love to see more spells for sorc, similar to wizard, cleric, and Druid.

After seeing the Cleric, it seems like Ranger is only one WotC continues to do dirty in both player's handbooks.

The reveal was very short on details. Either they skipped all the middle level abilities for wild sorcerer or they get nothing.

Sorcerer is a great class… to multiclass your Warlock in. 3 level of draconic sorcery and 9 of Warlock and you got a top tier build.

I think that making the wings non-permanent makes the feature significantly less cool. It goes from being an innate power your character simply has to being an upgraded free casting of fly once in a while. Also not a fan of the "free summon spell" features, like.. If I wanna summon I'll summon. If you wanna give me a companion dragon, give me an actual companion. Don't tell me its a companion, only to just give me a temporary summon. I feel like they are just taking spells and pretending their are actual class features. I get it's concentration free, but the actual outcome isn't something new and unique. These features feel entirely focused on their impact in combat where having something temporary is not a big deal, but it significantly lessens the impact on your characters general identity when exploring the world.

I agree it could be better, but spending a 2 level slot for the extra rage it's not that bad. And at least it's easier for the sorcerer to burn their points for slots to recover some, but 1/5 level is silly small

I think the sorcerer is fine. Except for wild magic, of course.

Weirdly, Sayans, despite being very Martial, feel like Sorcerers to me.

Love your channel dude, thanks for the great content.

Druids just got more wildshapes then sorcerer got the innate sorcery it’s like they’re an edition late or something

Does innate sorcery apply to booming blade? If so, an Eldritch knight can use extra attack and use booming blade with advantage if he dips on sorcerer?

This new Sorcerer is Tops.

Why the hell would wotc put such inane restrictions on these features? If you have 1 SP left when you complete a short rest, you gain nothing. But if you have 0, you regain some? Or you can't spend to SP for Sorcery Incarnate unless you've used up all your uses? These are so needlessly stupid. Just make SI cost 2 SP _or_ one of your free uses. Just recover level/5 SP no matter what. FFS.

Seems like this entire Chanel is just riding the wave of needing EVERYTHING to be bad. It’s all doom and gloom in this toxic online dnd community. Every one of your videos are just click baiting to the trending of saying “everything is wrong and I’ll tell you why”. If you think every aspect of this hobby is not good enough, why make content for it?

Is it just me or does innate sorcery sound like a discount version of DC20 sorcerer’s spell break?

You keep saying that a feature is bad without giving a reason why it’s bad. In fact, you repeatedly say you LIKE the specific tension eg where important resource choices have to be made. But then you just say it’s bad, with no reason given. That makes this video feel like a waste of time.

2024 is the era of flying mounts

Are all spellcasters still preparation spellcasters?

I will forever stand by that sorecery points are the WORST way to give sorcerers metamagic and they should have rethought the whole thing.

Annoyed that we get to "summon" a dragon instead of BE one.

Two words: Coffee lock. You can get around a lot of the issues with Sorc and Warlock multi-class unless they did something that stops the multiclass interactions. If they didnt this, combo is going to be great. To prove I dont hate everything you say, and the above is not a hate comment either just a way to address the issue raised, I agree with you on the "run out of X to regain" and i simply told my players to ignore any such restriction. Its a very very simple fix for those who think this is dumb. Apparently we do agree on one thing... I DONT take Jeremy's word that they ddnt wreck something in Clockwork or Aberrant mind...they have said in the past "we tweaked" and then proceeded to ruin a feature or subclass. So reserving judgement there. The wild magic table should have been modeled after the Barbarian table in that they should be benefits to the character, not negatives. I now a small subset of players like to mess with their party and/or their own characters like that but I think most just avoid the subclass and/or the feature. So....ya, my guess is that table needs to be redone if someone at my group wants to do it...I want the choas to be fun not frustrating for all involved....

After looking over another RU-vidr covering Sorcerer changes, you kind of have to be smoking crack to not give the 2024 Sorcerer an S ranking. 😅😂😅 Me likey the 2024 Sorcerer. They kept Quicken Spell unchanged so that's great. Then you have Sorcerer Incarnate that ups all your Spell DCs by +1 AND you get Advantage on all your attack roll spells AND you can now use two metamagics on one spell... Distance + Heighten Blindness/Deafness = OP Twin + Heighten Banishment on two different targets = OP Heighten is cheaper (2 instead of 3 Sorc points) and it effects all saves afterwards. Ouch! OP You can literally stack Advantage + 1DC increase on a Hold Monster spell and that effect lasts the entire length of the spell... That's OP. And the last thing everyone is sleeping on is the buff to Subtle Spell. You can now cast any spell, as long as it doesn't have a listed cost for spell components that are consumed by the spell, without V,S AND material...WTF! Now you can Subtle Cast so many more spells that can't be countered with Counterspell. Sorcerer might be the new meta for casters in the new books. I'm definitely a fan.

This feels to me like more evidence that 5.5 was rushed to meet the 2024 deadline that they’re already missing with that monster manual

Draconic Sorcerer should be centered around polymorphing into a dragon template. Anything else is indefensible.

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Frustratingly, Sorcerer was supposed to be the Wizard, but with less paperwork. Now it looks like the Wizard, but with more math. Conversion rates, multiple resources, etc etc. I also don't like innate sorcery. Why not instead just give them more spells known, an easier way to regain sorcery points, and more expensive meta-magic options? Simpler fixes, fewer resources, more fun. But we can't always get what we want, and Sorcerer is probably still going to be my favorite class.

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