Two quick notes. With suggestion you would likely still make a verbal suggestion, as the text of the spell certainly implies a verbal suggestion has been made. I also say "Warlock" instead of "Sorcerer" once in this video, though it should be obvious what I meant.
Dude, Psionic sorcery? so anti-magic field wont work against our Psionic spells? please can you confirm that? is it Innate Spellcasting or Psionic that are not hindered by anti-magic field and similar affects ?
@@Deal101 Mechanically speaking it's still just spellcasting. It is just flavoured as psionics. But so far I'm pretty sure there's no official mechanical distinction between psionics and any other form of magic that would allow one to function where the other couldn't. This is likely because they want to keep some freedom for players to reflavour how their magic works for their specific characters.
Hey Chris, what do you think about letting players use the telepathic ability in conjuction with psionic suggestioni? Raw maybe not correct but imo it would fit perfectly with character's concept
Modify memory would also be really cool as a psionic spell. You can just stare at a guy and alter his memory without anyone noticing. It's absolutely diabolical
You can actually take it. "Psionic spells" let you change one of spells from list to another, as long as it's from Enchantment or Divination spells of wizard, sorcerer or warlock. Just swap "Telekinesis" or "Rery's Telepathic Bond" to "Modify Memory" and you're good to go.
This is creepy, I was theory crafting an aberrant mind sorcerer and though “I want treantmonk to make a video on this.” Treantmonk is an aberrant sorcerer confirmed.
@@TreantmonksTemple Imagine the amount of havoc you can create with in an undetectable twinned enemy abound in the right setting. Let say you're a Filblog and use invisibility to walk in the enemy base and aim at the two biggest pudding brain but muscly type in sight. Hide, then do your worst. If the spot you, firblog trait and then DASH LIKE HELL. Or any Tavern, really. Any tense situations. Can also Heightened. Mouhahaha!
Aberrant mind sorcerer + reborn "race" to make a pseudo-frankenstein sorcerer. Woke up in on a slab in an abandoned labratory filled with all variation of autopsied monsters & "failed experiment" cadavers. In your corner of the room there's an autopsied ____ (in this case, a mind flayer, but replace it with anything fitting the class/subclass you want).
I thought you didn’t appreciate Magical Guidance (able to re-roll Counterspell) enough. Not that it’s a bright blue ability, but it’s better than the “meh it’s okay” reaction you had. It’s green IMO. Love your perspectives! 👍
I honestly really like the option of swapping Arms of Hadar for Hex, which you can easily combine with Scorching Ray, where you can cast Hex (potentially through Psionic sorcery to make it even cheaper) on your first turn of combat alongside an attack roll cantrip as your action, then keep spamming Scorching Ray and swap targets on Hex as a bonus action as things die. I might be wrong, but it can be growing more and more powerful as you level up and gain more spell slots as a reasonably cheap nova option.
@O K True, but it allows you to do that kind of concept without multiclassing, especially considering the reputation of the warlock/sorcerer multiclass. Plus, it has the advantage of scaling of a normal full-caster, so you will always have your next biggest spell slot available when you level up, though having short-rest based first level spell slots reserved for Hex can be super handy.
Literally was making an aberrant sorcerer, and wanted to know more about it. Thanks for the suggestions on spell changes, saves some time looking through 3 books and checking each school of magic.
This subclass fits nicely with Changeling, making you more like your Doppelganger ancestors. I recall someone telling me Changelings are now hag related? Nah, not on my watch.
What I did for my character is create a copy of it as a Homebrew subclass and switch out the spells within the subclass. An inconvenience, to be sure, but my character sheet functions correctly now.
I think the value of Transmuted spell is in reducing the number of spells known that you need to spend on damage dealing spells, you can pick up scorching ray and leave it like that and not be useless when fighting fire elementals.
My personal picks for the psionic spells: Cantrips: Mind Sliver: Targets Int, debuffs the targets next save & deals psychic. Only real downside is the D6 damage die. 1st Level: Dissonant Whispers: Good control/damage spell. As Chris says, begging to be twinned. Tasha's Hideous Laughter: Again as Chris said, a good control spell begging to be twinned. OR Hex: This doesn't so much matter for the damage side, but being able to give 2 creatures disadvantage on certain ability checks. This relies more on teamwork (ie. having another caster in your party cast web, & you hex one or two creatures in the area, so they have disadvantage to get out). 2nd Level: See Invisibility: A spell I always like to have. Having it always prepared & being able to cast it using 2 sorcerery points (equivalent cost to a 1st level spell) makes it even better. Hold Person: Somewhat circumstantial, but twinning this can change the outcome of a fight. Again, this effectively costing a 1st level spell slot is very nice. OR Suggestion: This one is self explanatory. 3rd Level: Sending: Great utility. Hunger of Hadar: There aren't many great options for this level. OR Tongues: Again, some nice utility. OR Clairvoyance: It's nice to ignore the component cost I guess? 4th Level (Sorry Chris!) Evard's Black Tentacles: Nice damage/control spell. OR Arcane Eye: A very nice utility spell (depending on the location, can be an excellent scout). Summon Aberration: Do not get rid of this summoning spell! Sorcerers didn't get any of the new Tasha's summoning spells! 5th Level: Telekinesis: A good all around spell. AND/OR Rary's Telepathic Bond: Not too bad since this effectively only costs the equivalent of a 3rd level spell slot, but sucks you can't ritually cast it. AND/OR Hold Monster: Twinning this is nasty, & it isn't nearly as restrictive as Hold Person. Again, this is effectively costing you a 3rd level spell slot, which is very nice. AND/OR Modify Memory: Very campaign dependant, but could be a nice spell to have (especially to cast subtly for free). AND/OR Scrying: Again, campaign specific (& unfortunately you can't ignore the material cost). AND/OR Synaptic Static: A nice blast/debuff spell.
For the 4th-level Psionic spell, I was hoping to trade in Psychic Lance (though I could just learn it outright). 7d6 psychic ranged attack that can go through cover that incapacitates on a failed INT save seems worth it. Clairvoyance is a good spell to swap Hunger of Hadar with to save your party 100gp otherwise
when I made teh comment in one of your earlier videos about "sorcerers getting shafted again", I was referring to a few thigns mainly. 1) There are a ton of spells that should have been available for the sorcerer. Wotc gave very few of these, in a backhanded manner to silence the players legitimate complains 2) wotc went back to buff bladesingers extra attack, but didnt go back to give every sorcerer subclass origin spells - even when every second homebrewer already figured out that sorcerers need those It reeks of wotc acknowledging the problem, but actively refusing to fix it, and such mindset should not be supported. Also wotc completely gave up on psionics and dumped it into a sorcerer subclass, for some reason
@@M0ebius thats their fault as well, but slightly different. Besides, most GMs I played under dont really like this "I start a calss for 1-2 levels then multiclass out" approach, making these builds unfeasable in my experience, and not a crutch to rely on.
@@texteel I mean, optimally you’d start Sorcerer 1 for the CONsave. But I know what you mean. Personally my games tend to start at level 3+ so I just take the Hexblade levels in the skipped levels and roll it into the backstory.
"Also wotc completely gave up on psionics and dumped it into a sorcerer subclass, for some reason" They spread it across a number of subclasses and feats. I'm strongly inclined to think this was because there are so many conflicting ideas of what psionics should be (even within previous d&d editions) that they figured this was the best way to satisfy as many of those ideas as possible.
@@timeforsuchaword FR is the "main setting" for D&D. Psionics have been a thing for a very long time. wotc gave psionic options as subclasses without making a core psion class. These psionic options are bad because they dont have a mechanical conection to an official psion, AND the way they are implemented in 5e, they have no place in the lore, even tho they should have both because they had these for years. Just as the sword coast would be wierd without arcane magic (wizards sorcerers bards) but arcane related subclasses randomly populating it (EK AT), it is equally wierd to have no codified psionics but have psionic related things. The whole thing is just weightless and floats on nothing. Wizard tower needs bodyguards -> trains EKs. Wizard tower needs spies -> trains ATs. Natural progression of why those subclasses exsist. There is no psionic tower to train psi knights and soul blades. So the only reason this could work is because psionics is just being discovered, and there is no concrete order - except this is false because we have had psionics since 3.5, perhaps even earlier than that.
In my mind, the real strength (among other) of psionic sorcery is that it actually allows for "tax free" flexible spellcasting. Spending 1 sorcery point to cast dissonant whispers, is nice... but it is not strong if you then later spend a 1st level spell slot to create that sorcery point... then it is just the same. The real strength (I think) is that you can give up a second level spell and get two casting (or a twinned castin) - or a 5th level spell to get 5 additional castings of that first level spell... Because of the TAX-FREE flexibility of this feature, I think it is really strong - I think the benefit of always being immune to counterspell... is still very circumstantial (though subtle spell is my favourite metamagic feature!! so it just adds to the utility of this feature).
Yes, psionic spells faces the not-enough-versatility issue. Is it good design? I don’t think so. The unique thing about sorcerer design is that they have few spells but they can modify those. Psionic spells breaks this, removing what’s unique of this class compared to other spellcaster concepts. I believe that sorceress should get more metamagic options which costs less, not more know spells.
Hi Matteo, yes I agree, but at the same time I feel that 15 spells total are too few for a full spell caster. Giving thme 10 more is too much, I would have given them 5 more, and more metamagic, and a way to recover sorcery points on a short rest once per day.
Well sorcerers get a lot of cantrips though, and I really think if they should be buffed it should be with more sorcery points or more spellslots. Perhaps some spells known but Sorcerers should be more limited than wizards but better at what they do. These are beings who's power flows in their blood, they have little to no training but magic courses through their veins. I am reminded of Jadis from The Magician's Nephew when she met the eponymous magician, learning that he was someone who had learned magic rather than been born with it called him a common conjurer and claimed "Your kind was made an end of in my world a thousand years ago." Also I am very wary of buffing spellcaster. I really think five bonus spells would have been enough. It's also annoying warlocks don't get their subclass spells automatically know. Really I think the fix is for wizards to not get 6th level spells and up on leveling getting those spells slots but having to actually find and transcribe those spells. That way the power of Sorcerers grow faster but a wizard who finds the right spells can rise higher.
The free subtle spell only applies to the spells in your Psionic sorcery list plus you can’t use it with cantrips as it only applies when you cast with sorcery points.
I disagree about chromatic orb being a poor spell. If you are playing a draconic sorcerer it's a great spell to have for your elemental affinity. Also you have a single spell that can be cast to bypass elemental resistance. Which you have said before sorcerers get few spells, so having this one is great. Also you can twin cast it.
@@sharkforce8147 on average you are doing slightly better than a great sword with max attack. (12) great sword (13.5) chromatic orb. But the range of damage is wider with the spell. (3-24) where as GS is (7-15) again with a 20 strength. Considering the sheer versatility of the spell I think it cannot compare to the GS. And the over shadow bit, that comes with all spells, with the exception of a small few. The upgrade to this spell is "dragons breath"
@@sharkforce8147 for the sorcerer, I disagree. It is a good spell, may not be your go to but still good. For reasons I stated above. Edit: and it is the highest single target damage spell for 1st level in the sorcerer spell list.
I just realized that telepathy has a pretty strong interaction with Friends. You could establish a telepathic connection with a creature, then cast Friends on it (Friends doesn't specify a range, or even that you have to see the creature, so you could be on the other side of the city when you do this), and only interact with it telepathically. The creature would never know who cast Friends on it, so it wouldn't know who to seek revenge on.
@Treantmonk's Temple Hey quick question: In this video around 21:50 you say to not trade out ANY of the 4th-tier psionic spells, which includes summon aberration, yet in your Tasha's Summoning Spell Video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--g78VhqdYAs.html) at around 23:50 you weren't impressed with summon aberration at all, given your comments, and you gave it an orange rating. Is the only reason you're saying to keep summon aberration is because it's the only summon spell that's available to Sorcerers?
Man, I find myself disagreeing with alot the initial insight on what the sorcerer is supposed to be doing and what they were getting in tasha's. I bet most likely this is your battlefield control spell bias that seeps through (judging the sorcerer to be in the same function and versatility as the wizard) instead of focusing on what the sorcerer is supposed to be good at: dealing dmg, casting better versions of spells and repurposing spell levels/slots. I liked seeking spell alot and used it with the 1st sorcerer i played post tasha's. This is because i prefer attack spells over save spells. I can ensure the success of an attack spell better with magical equipment + seeking spell + if i somehow got advantage/bonus to attack rolls vs. save spells which success can be ensured via magical equipment + having an ability that provided a penalty/disadvantage to the save. I found this metamagic as a godsend for one of my bread and butter spells: scorching ray. And I'm sure would be helpful to any other damaging spell based on attack rolls. Not just cantrips. Another thing I liked was the transmuted spell metamagic. I found this as the missing piece for allowing the sorcerer + tempest domain cleric multiclass to perform at a higher efficiency point. For example, turn the aforementioned scorching ray into lightning for maximized dmg via channel divinity and allow you to push back 3x as a 2nd level spell (moreso if you upcast scorching ray). This also makes a sorcerer multiclass dip ideal if you want more control over the element of the spells you cast because you have abilities that trigger off of certain elements such as the ones on the alchemist, celestial warlock and wildfire circle druid. Another one is the low regard of hex for blasting. I agree its not good with single attack spells but this is excelling with scorching ray and other multi-attack spells which can have it add a noteable amount of dmg. rary's telepathic bond I've found to be redundant with telepathic speech and should definitely be swapped out especially since the sorcerer cant cast rituals.
when i see chris videos i tend to ignore most of his analysis on spells, not to sound rude but he really treat every caster as a wizard >.< or think that every caster need to be versatile and have alot of utilities like a wizard.. i got used to it lol ( imagine casting a fireball at a bunch of demons or devils and transmuting the spell to thunder damage instead! its amazing! you have Echoing booooom now! and acidic bomb or a ball of Concentrated poison that EXPLODE dealing a bunch of poison damage to those poor goblins lol ) its really really amazing!
@@Deal101 Agreed. While having some versatility is always good, focus/specialization in a certain niche can be effective as well and should be appreciated/judged as such. I've always thought of the wizard as the controller and the sorcerer as a blaster and i feel with these new options, it does make the sorcerer a better blaster (either in its own class or if another class multiclassed into it because they wanted to be good at blasting). And yes, this doesnt even take into account the possible RPing aspects of having seeking spells or traditional elemental spells defying archetype.
So here is what you say sorcerer should be good at: - Dealing damage. - Repurposing spell slots. - Casting better versions of spells. I wish that was the sorcerer we got, but it isn't. Dealing damage: Control spells are just better than damage spells, even for a sorcerer. They lose some control spells, but they keep hypnotic pattern, which is better to cast than any damage spell in 75 % of cases. Not counting meteor swarm which is a 9th level spell. So basically you will be more effective as a sorcerer controller than as a sorcerer blaster. If you do want to make a blaster, make a warlock. Yes sorcerers have an impressive fireball with empower spell, and if you are doing a 1-shot at level 5-6, that might do great. But they can't do consistent damage. At higher levels, there just aren't many good damage spells. (Until meteor swarm). Repurposing spell slots: Yes, you can turn spell slots to sorcery points, or sorcery points to spell slots. But the rate is pretty inefficient, so you will rarely want sacrifice low level slots for getting more high level slots, or vice versa. So it is pretty much all about giving you more metamagic use. Which is another way of saying, you can burn extra spell slots to give your spells a little more power. But I find that the extra power is rarely worth it, and you can lose all your spells quite quickly if you go too much down that path. Casting better versions of spells: It is true, the sorcerer can do this. But that doesn't help much when the spells that benefit the most from this, are also not very good. For instance, you could cast twined hold person, but web is probably still a pretty comparable effect, without expending sorcery points. You can empower fireball, but hypnotic pattern will still beat it in most scenarios (maybe not right at level 5, where fireball is pretty great, but hit points on monsters scale far faster than damage on spells). Yes you can still heighten the battlefield control spells, but disadvantage to 1 of the targets doesn't make it a much better spell. So the sorcerer isn't casting better spells, they are either casting slightly better spells, or making sub-optimal spells on level with the great spells. It is just too little compared to the versatility of the wizard. I don't want sorcerers to do the same thing as wizards, but because hypnotic pattern is such a good spell, that is what ends up happening. Now the designers could start addressing this with two things in my opinion: 1: New exiting sorcerer only spells. Really good blast ones, at EVERY SPELL LEVEL!!! 2: Better metamagic support for blasting. I guess they did number 2 a teeny tiny bit here, but damn did they drop the ball... I don't know what level you played to, but I think you will be very hard pressed to find good attack based spells past level 5 (character level, not spell level). At level 5 the maritals get extra attack, and they got a feat at level 4. That means at this point a damage focused martial character does more damage than scorching ray, without expending a resource. As far as I can tell, the sorcerer have only 3 spells that require a ranged attack roll, and are higher than second level spells. -Storm Sphere (4th lvl) -Wall of light (5th lvl) -Crown of Stars (7th lvl) All 3 of which are about doing multiple weaker attacks over time. So yes, you could reroll one of those attacks for for 2 sorcery points. But are you sure those 2 sorcery points wouldn't do more damage by just empowering 2 fireballs? I haven't done the math, but my money is on empowering fireball. I don't really see spending 2 sorcery points, on a second chance to do 2d6 damage being good at any level. Maybe if you also use hex, so it is 3d6 I can see it at lower levels. But usually I want to twin, quicken, heighten or subtle spells, much more than I want to reroll an attack for 3d6. Scorching ray is fine when you learn it, but it falls off really really quickly. Just think about how many scorching rays you need to make up for the damage of a single fireball. Remember, fireball does half damage on a failed save. So if you just get 2 creatures in a fireball, it will do more damage on average, than 2 scorching rays with hex. I don't know if you have only played to low levels, or if no one else in your party build for damage, so you didn't have much to compare to. But scorching ray is not a good spell for very long. I can see the transmuted spell being interesting for a tempest cleric. But that is more of a cleric build that happens to be able to use this feature well, than it is a boost to someone who is mainly a sorcerer. If you are mainly a sorcerer, just make sure to have a good fallback spell for when you face resistance to your damage type, haste is good option, twined haste doesn't care if your enemies have resistance to all the elemental types. The sad truth is, the optimal sorcerer is a controller, just like the wizard. Just not as good at it. I wish it wasn't so, and Tasha's doesn't fix it. It makes sorcerers a much better controller, but not a much better blaster, and I think blaster is what most people want sorcerers to be. I am not saying there is an easy fix to this either. Consistent damage from a spell caster is the warlocks stick. And if you give the sorcerer too much burst damage, they will fireball every encounter out of existence. At least battlefield controllers, even if they guarantee victory with a single spell, still leave some hacking and slashing for the rest of the party. A blaster that guarantees victory with a single spell doesn't leave much for everyone else, so it is hard to design well.
@@Deal101 That is not true, if you see his warlock videos, you will see he evaluates spells much differently for a warlock. The thing just is, a sorcerer who tries to imitate a wizard, will still be mechanically stronger than a sorcerer focusing on blasting. The build blasting might be more fun to RP, and fit the sorcerer more thematically, but his spell ratings are judged on mechanical benefit, not how fun they are. If you find fireball more fun that hypnotic pattern, that is great, put it on your sorcerer and have fun. That doesn't mean hypnotic pattern isn't a better spell though. The wizard and the sorcerers main features are spellcasting, and they have almost identical spell-lists. So strategies that work well for one, is very likely to work well for the other. It just so happens the wizards spellcasting feature is better than the sorcerers because they get access to so much more of the spell list at any one time, by ritual casting spells they don't have prepared, and preparing more spells that sorcerers know (at least previous sorcerers).
@@peterrasmussen4428 i've played mostlu into tier 2-3. And yes i"ve used scorching ray into the higher levels and have built around it. You and i have had very different experienced and qualitative analysis about it because of 2 things: 1. You count/value AOE dmg alot. I dont..the campaigns i've played in for a long time, learning to deal.with single target threats quickly via control or damagr is more valuable than dealing with minions and mobs. This is wherr scorching ray shines damage wise (the only competiion really is magic missile). People have to stop comparing to aoe spells mathematically. 2. you value control alot and assume i dont play with optimizers. I dont value control alot. I come from the school of control isnt as needed if the enemy is dead. Generally our combats last 2-3 rounds. I play with optimizers who make it clear what role they want to play in the party so each member can focus on desired role and do it well. So for example: We have 2-3 strikers in the party and 1 controller. Usually the dangerous opponent is badly damaged and controlled or dead as early as the 1st round of combat. Whats usually left are the minions which we can mop up later (regardless of whether they are controlled or not). I do agree that aoe control is better than aoe dmg though. Thats we usually run (hypnotic pattern vs. Fireball). But dmg wise. We always run optimal.single target dmg. Dmg > control for me in this regard because we end up removing targets off the board with the dmg we do (the purpose of contro anyway). For example, in another comment i made here, i did 120 dmg in a single turn with my 10th level shadow sorcerer/fighter/tempest solo (no ally help or even factoring in the turn my hound of ill omen got later). Thats way more than what meteor swarm does on average on a single target (24d6=84 dmg) which is accessible much later. my party members do comparable dmg as well since pretty much most of the strikers in my group run decent initiative alpha strike builds like i do. This is not to refute your experience. This is just to prove to you that these kinds of builds/tables/experiences are out there and make certain spells more valuable than what it seems. Just to add, we rarelu use fireballs. The times it comes up for use is a lot lower than hypnotic pattern. The only time we"d use it is if its assured it takes pieces off the board that are a significant threat (via dmg). Otherwise, we just use hypnotic pattern or other aoe contol/control+dmg type spells or just use single target spells to take out the BBEG. I also found myself converting lower spells slots to higher ones alot at latet levels in between combats and using metamagic. Yes it could get costly but unlike you i found the extra power worth it. My guess here is we might have a disparity on the combats run in between long rests and the amount of short rests gotten per day. Past level 3-5, short rests are very accessible in our table due to someone usually packong catnap/rope trick and our DM would rarely let more than 2 combat encounters pass before allowing us a short rest at lower levels and we would at most run 2-4 combats before a long rest. On certain sessions, we might even have just 1 combat as the session is focused on puzzles, social interactions, exploration. So after a certain # of levels we dont have that attitude of i must save spell slots/sorcery points/resources as we know we only have a few combats to burn them on (i know some tables run 6-8 combats a day with just 1 short rest). As far as the fireball empowering point yes it fireballs does more dmg but agian thats aoe dmg. thst just means i'm killing minions and not bosses/bbeg/lieuntenants. I indeed jsed crown of stars and i upcast scorching ray to the highest level i can. Agsin, theres that thinking of using a resource (the comparison to martials). We dont worry about thst too much because of : 1. I have efficient teammated as well. 2. the next short/long rest is coming soon. I dont have to save for too many combats. we dont burn our best stuff on the 1st combat we run into of course but we do burn our best stuff on the 1st encounter with a dangerous bbeg.
Aberrant is NOT pronounced "a-bear-ant" ... I normally would not give such a pedantic critique to someone over the internet, but sort of made public speaking a full-time job oh, so it would be worth your while to look up how to pronounce words before you say that multiple times to a huge fan base
It was silly they did not put optional rules for an additional spells known for the prior subclasses. Besides the Divine Soul Sorcerer there is no way any of the others subclasses are near as optimal as these two in Tasha's. I am playing a Shadow Magic Sorceress in one campaign and I love her theme and luckily my DM gave me a magic item that provides bonus spells similar to these subclasses, which has made the game much more fun as I now can have several circumstantial spells and non combat spells to play around with in all situations. There has been no balance issues and I highly recommend it to all the DM's out there when they have a player who wants to play the substandard subclasses, especially the PHB subclasses.
That may be true of some of the PHB sorcerers but the Xanathars sorcerers would be very powerful. Imagine the divine soul sorcerer with access to both sorcerer and divine spells lists with 10 extra spells known. You would outshine not only other sorcerers but also most clerics.
Before this came out I made what I call the Bane sorcerer. Took variant human (could use custom lineage as well) to get Fey touched (Cha) and the Bane spell. The idea is you use Mind Sliver and Quickened Bane to give -2d4 to saves and later Tasha's Mind Whip to literally be the bane of your enemy's existence.
My AM Sorc multiclassed into Eloquent Bard a bit; it takes two turns, but Quickened Bane + Mind Sliver (Turn 1) + Unsettling Words + Heightened Spell is just gross. -(2d4) + -(1d6) + disadvantage
I would like to see a an aberrant mind sorcerer build video that is the ultimate spy infiltrator. Actor plus changeling or Actor plus mask of many faces. Use detect thoughts and modify memory type spells.
This subclass works perfectly for a Jedi build I'm working on. Ditching all the flavor text and focusing on the mechanics, of course. Playing Gith for sword (Lightsaber) proficiency and invisible Mage Hand, grabbing the free subtle casting on quite a few "force" themed spells, and those sweet new telekinetic and telepathic feats make a uniquely Jedi feel.
@@studynot757 That doesn’t work. Eldritch Adept does not let you choose invocations with pre-requisites unless you are a warlock, and Repelling Blast has Pre-requisite: Eldritch Blast cantrip. Plus for a jedi concept, dipping Hexblade also lets you use charisma for weapon attack, which is relevant.
The ability to spend sorcery points to cast spells makes me think this one is the better subclass of the two, but without a doubt Tasha's gave new life to the sorcerer in a big way
I agree that the spells the clockwork has access to can be more potent. And for a sorcadin it probably beats the divine sorcerer, but for a straight sorcerer I think Aberrant is better as it will have the ability to play around their sorcery points and slots more easily. Also the lvl 14 abilities are things that very rarely come into play
@@logicseeker3770 I have rarely seen magic resistance, far more often it's legendary saves or counterspell, and the later is suppressed by psionic spell casting and still can be metamagic'd
@@logicseeker3770 I have had lots of DMs that customized their monsters and bosses and it's yeah it's been spellcasting dragons sometimes, or archmages that are vampires or liches
Man, do I feel silly for never realizing that thing about subtle spell and counterspell interacting. It seems so obvious in hindsight and it just never occurred to me that there would be an interaction between those two. Thanks for the unexpected lesson, very eager to try out this subclass.
I think Hex is still a valid option because it's a free way to give anyone disadvantage on an ability check. Silently. For a bonus action. Make an enemy rogue less sneaky. If you think you may fight someone, give them disadvantage on initiative. Make sure the cops can't sense your lies. Make that fighter climbing after you have a hard time climbing. Help your buddy gamble by making their opponent suck.
I like Enemies Abound as a 3rd level psionic spell. You can create havoc on social encounters for the cost of 3 sorcery points. For example, I love the idea of a Queen sucker-punching the King in front of their guests.
I love enemies abound. Social chaos for a distraction. Target an enemy in the back ranks to essentially gain an ally. Target an enemy in the middle of a group and force attack of opportunity. Int save is a great stat to target. Works on ANY enemy. So when you don’t want an AOE, it’s a fantastic spell. And you can twin it and turn an entire fight.
Feels like we can't overlook the telepathic speech lasting "sorc level minutes" with 1 to 20 minutes, which greatly limits it's application and nerfs the near unlimited range though :l
It still holds up through speedbumps like not only range, but line of sight, divination proof rooms (the ol' thin sheet of lead or X inches of stone), even teleportation within a couple miles - druid tree strides from a park tree into a forest on the other side of town? Psi-Walkie-Talkie works. Wizard dimension doors through the walls of a castle? Psi-Walkie-Talkie works. Rogue rolls a 3 on a stealth roll but with his +25 to stealth still disappears from sight? Psi-Walkie-Talkie works.
I'm soo happy for the addiction of the Bigby's hand spell, it fits really well in the caster specialist archetype that the sorcerer take (which is an incredibly cool archetype in my opinion)
also a thought use your telepathic speech for spells like suggestion. since the person you are establishing the bond with doesn't have to be willing you can cast suggestion using psionic sorcery and give them the suggestion telepathically so nobody around you knows what's going on. its could have amazing utility uses.
Aberrant Mind Sorcerer 6 / Warlock 5. Take the Maddening Hex invocation. Psionic cast hex and walk through town killing everyone with no one the wiser.
I'm playing an aberrant mind sorcerer right now and I can't imagine how a clockwork soul would be more powerful. Dissonant whispers breaks grapples and procs AoO. 1sorcery point. 2sp to twin. Calm emotions paused a fight to heal or buff on a Cha save, and cancelling charm or fear is unreal. Tashas hideous laughter for 1sp actually makes me laugh, and twinned is frighteningly cost effective, worth noting it drops a lot of things from the skies if ever they get in range. Suggestion is so strong, the only problem is not abusing it. There's a learning curve to hunger of hadar, but a no-save darkness and difficult terrain is one hell of a wall. Pick a side of the battlefield and deal with it later. Cover your retreat of stop the enemie's. But what really takes the cake is silvery barbs for 1sorcery point. Absolutely disgusting. Cancels advantage, and no need to take heightened metamagic.
Sorcerers in general still got screwed by the choice to include worthless battlemaster builds in Tasha's instead of a page of Sorcerer Origin spell updates for prior Origins. Now we have the option of playing half of an origin with the PHB options, or 2/3 of an origin with the Xanathar's options, or a Full Origin with the Tasha's options. Feels bad man. Feels bad.
I think you're slightly underselling Transmuted Spell, especially for blasters. The amount of times in higher tiers of play where you encounter enemies who are resistant or outright immune to your primary blast spells seemingly keeps increasing which each CR level. Most fiends, for example are at least resistant to fire and frost damage, many are immune. The same is obviously true for dragons and elementals. Now, this still isn't a metamagic that I would pick at low levels or prioritize very highly, but it is certainly one I would choose at 10th level if I know the game will go beyond that level.
Twin dissonant whispers is so good for the cheap cost in spell slots and sorcery points. Combined with warcaster you get a reaction spell off that same round, along with triggering ally OAs. Just crazy.
An option I think it is good for 3rd lvl spells that is usualy bad is Enemies Aboud,as with your six lvl ability gives you an autonatic and better version of silent spell,you can safely heighten or twin the spell to increase the odds of the creature failing it without giving away that something happened at all. This could be used for assasination ,casting it on someone near the guards to get them arested,causing a comotiong to get past guards,or anything really, even in combat. The only problem is that it is a very Dm dependant spell
I hate when they buff a class by releasing new subclasses that leave the others in the dust... Come on! Would it take that much effort to add a spell list for each other subclass!
There's plenty online, but it's pretty easy to homebrew them, just keep the themes in mind, Draconic is "Dragon powers + element", Wild Magic is "raw magical power+chaos", Shadow is "Darkness, Illusion and Teleportation" etc
@@Duranous. If you want to add things like this to a game I think it's best to discuss it with the DM, point out the Aberrant mind and have some options for the bonus spells.
I disagree with your conclusion for Hex. With Hex and Scorching Ray and Transmuted Spell, all my blasting requirements are met, except for crowds. This leaves all my spells available for anything else, giving much me much more flexibility than you would expect from a Sorcerer.
@@aldoushuxley5953 yup. But only if you miss. Which means you'd probably just be spending 1 assuming you max charisma, get a wand of the war mage and somehow get advantage. Its just to ensure you hit. Magic missile on the other had has a lower ceiling as very few things can boost it unlike scorching ray which is an attack (making it fair game for an upcasted spirit shroud, hexblades curse, etc.) Personally, at 10th level i usually had +11 to hit already with each scorching ray without factoring any other bonuses to hit given by allies (like bless) or advantage (coming out of stealth, opponent paralyzed, etc). At this point the ac off most opponents would generally be around 17-18 so i had at minimum 70% chance to hit (therefore only 1 ray woild miss unless i had other aforemention bonuses).
@@aldoushuxley5953 i guess that would depend on what you need at that moment. In the times i've used it has become worth it because the extra little bit of dmg removed an opponent from the board. Most people undervalue the effect of dmg as a term of control. No need to control when enemies are dead. Is it worth if its clear you cant kill the big threat nor help your allies kill it before it can act? No. But if its highly likely that you can kill it or your allies can finish the opponent off then? then yes. Here's an example sequence of how i've used it solo (no ally help). I had a level 10: fighter 2, shadow sorcerer 6, tempest cleric 2 bonus action: hound of ill omen action: hold person with disadvantage action surge: upcast scorching ray to 4th level. Transmute to lightning via transmute spell. I got 10d6 lightning dmg on 5 attack attempts with advantage (now i want all those attacks to hit so i use seeking spell). All hit. Since opponent is paralyzed, all are crits. I have 20d6 now. Use channe divinity to maximize. I deal 120 dmg in one turn. So yup, a single attack that i dont let it hit (in case my attack roll fails), i actually lose 24 points of dmg. Oh and bonus. If the opponent is still hanging on to life my hound of ill omen could actually get in an get more dmg in vs. a paralyzed opponent. In case i wasnt clear about the abovr example, this is worth it when you remove the major threats off the board.
While extra spells are definitely nice, I always thought the biggest problem with a sorcerer was a lack of metamagics known and to a lesser extent lack of sorcery points. This is your primary class feature, practically your only one, and presumably the reason sorcerer doesn't have a lot of spells known or ritual castings, and you only get two lousy metamagics until lvl 10? The metamagic adept feat solves this some what. It kind of sucks that sorcerers have to spend and ASI, but then again they don't need to take a feat to shore up their concentration as badly as other casters. Also, why on earth do sorcerers still not have force cage on their list? Wizards, Bards and Warlocks get it, but Sorcerers are the only "arcane caster" left out in the cold? There's a conspiracy I tell ya!
One question that's been bothering me that I haven't found an answer to yet (Unless I totally missed it in one of your videos which is entirely possible since I have the attention span of a goldfish), is whether or not you can double up on swapping spells on level-up. To clarify, the base Sorcerer class allows you to swap one spell on level-up, "Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the sorcerer spells you know and replace it with another spell from the sorcerer spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.". Additionally, there is a blob of text under the "domain" spells if you will, "Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell you gained from this feature with another spell of the same level. The new spell must be an abjuration or a transmutation spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list.". Since they're different features and don't reference one another, my best guess is that they stack, but I haven't been able to find anything confirming or denying that. Any thoughts?
The huge degree by which this subclass is better than the previous sorcerer subclasses is indicative of power creep. Albeit, much of that seems to come in rectifying errors with the sorcerer core design.
My ideal Abberant Mind is in a social heavy campaign. Literally walk into a banquet with your high charisma (grab telepathic for free subtle detect thoughts!) and all of a sudden you are in near total and complete control over the mood of a room! Suggest someone to liven up the party, twin it so it looks like others are getting into it. Drop someone dead from across the room with literally zero proof it was you (I’d even say divination spells will have a hard time pinning it on you since thoughts seem to be semi-completely private in D&D since stuff like prayer has implications to connecting to divine entities that could pick them up otherwise). You can enthrall any politician or celebrity you set your mind to: they literally won’t be able to tell it’s you! And if such a spell has that clause that they know it’s you, you’re a charisma caster with an alibi that you were literally standing there talking to someone else. Deception rolls out the wazoo! Take a feat for expertise in deception when doing this for near-impossible to crack lies. Just maybe consider resilience wisdom for if the court clerics get involved with circle of truth. Or take subtle spell anyway and counterspell your accuser’s circle of truth (if the system works like that) so they think he’s suspicious instead 😉 There’s no end of tricks for a psionic sorcerer in society!
I like to think that when ever a player plays the Aberrant mind Sorcerer, Great Old one, or Fathomless Warlock subclasses. HP Lovecraft smiles a bit cause he always thought his work would be lost and forgotten, and these subclasses are very much influenced by his work. I know he gets a bad rap for being “racist” but if you look at his later years he questioned and changed a lot of those views, that’s why I will always be fond of Lovecraft.
My first thought with the 18th lvl ability: Bonus action sorcery point for flight & hover. Fly over target/s location to max pull range. Activate Warping Implosion to yank enemies into the air for the 3d10 then they drop for a little falling damage and likely end up prone. It’s not the biggest damage output but it sure lines things up for a massive aoe from a fellow teammate. 👍
I think you're underestimating Warping Implosion. Beyond just having a free teleport once a day to get out of trouble, the pulling effect can allow for some stupid enviromental fun. Imagine being chased to a cliff face, using a sorcery point to gain flight, hovering 10 feet out from the cliff then teleporting 110 feet behind your enemies while pulling them off the cliff. Then there's just using it normal, causing enemies to bunch up, then using quicken spell to fire off an AOE to where you were. You escape, do damage and position your enemies where you want them, then hit them with a powerful spell. All that for nothing more then the cost of the quicken spell. I honestly quite approve of this effect as an 18th level ability. Used properly you can seriously mess with enemies with a FREE once a day ability. I honestly would probably end up using 5 sorcery points to re-use this ability quite often. As soon as I see an enviromental way of messing with people. I wouldn't be able to resist.
Im making a charlatan abberant mind drifter thats deep down scared of his possible power origins and moves from town to town to avoid people discovering his weird ass abilities.
35 years of gameplay earns me a 16th character Half-Elf Aberrant Mind 0- Mage Hand-Mending-Firebolt-Mind Sliver-Minor Illusion-Light-Prestidigitation 1-Detect Magic-Comprehend Languages-Absorb Elements-Shield-Mage Armor 2- See Invisibility(1 hour 2 with extended spell)-Detect Thoughts-Levitate-Misty Step 3-Counterspell-Dispel Magic-Tongues-Sending 4-Raulothim's Psychic Lance-Summon Aberration-Dimension Door-Greater Invisibility 5-Synaptic Static-Scrying-Telekenesis-Wall of Stone 6-Disintegrate 7-Planeshift 8- Sunburst (As it covers a big hole of spell list not being able to deal with multiple Undead until now...) and you can guess what the 9th level would be.... Scream. Silvery Barbs-Polymorph-Wish to OP, should be nerfed/removed.
If you chose hex as one of your psionic spells you could cast it with a single sorcery point, and without the enemy knowing. Also if you are moving hex to a new target you could still cast a leveled spell on the same turn. Scorching ray also scales well because with hex it increases 3 d6 with every level spell slot above second. That's 9d6 as a 2nd level spell of 12d6 as a third level spell. Also an excellent candidate for transmute spell since fire is so highly resisted. Even if your not going sorlock this seems like a great combination for single target damage unless my math is wrong somewhere.
Hey, long time fan ever since the god Wizard guide for 3e. This subclass is indeed very good, and very suitable for a full sorcerer. I must say I think Revelation in Flesh is not okay, its sky blue excellent. Bonus action, non concentration 10 minute buffs with 4 choices, very cheaply, that's not a spell. I don't even have to look at the choices to know it's amazing. Seeing flight in there? Wanna make a GOD sorcerer now.
Love Aberrant Sorc, although I really wish the Warped Being made it into Tasha's, and the Telepathy is really weird... personally, I think you should be able to "feel out" a mind that you're familiar with (party member essentially, or an NPC you know) in the same radius...it just seems useless as is, especially with the language thing.
Subtle Suggestions (even with telepathy) Many spells (Gift of Gab) state the verbal component is the words used. The old 2E power word kill also says the verbal component is the word "kill"
I think summon abberation is a decent spell...but i changed it out for one single reason, I would never use it over the other spells that require concentration.
Revelation in flesh > Last bullet point "...and you can spend 5ft of movement to escape from nonmagical restraints or being grappled." So, this seems to be a conflict with the rules. Grappled sets your speed to 0, therefore you don't have 5ft of movement to escape a grapple. It seems to contradict itself.
Transmuted spell meta-magic plays very well into that Tempest 2/X Storm Sorcerer build you've mentioned from time to time. Transmuted meteor swarm from fire to maxed Thunder/lightning = 120 L/T +20d6 bludgeoning. That's not nothing. Transmuted cone of cold/fireball maxed to lightning/thunder. Fun stuff. :)
Yup. I personally run a lightning scorching ray that hits 120 dmg at level 10. The hero is a fighter/tempest/shadow sorcerer with electrifying rays that deal lots of dmg (for that level). I RP him as a renegade sith/dark jedi.
i've said it before but I'll say it again, I think all the subclasses should get a set of domain spells, but I don't think they should be swappable. It lets every subclass get a set of theme-appropriate spells without going overkill.
Thoughts before watching: I have been theorycrafting this since it came out. Please don't break my heart and convince me to unsubscribe. Post watching thoughts: I would have preferred you highlight a bit more on how many extra casts the cheaper spells from Psionic Sorcery allow. Great video!
@@inMYtimeOFneed92 at level 9, by dumping all your spell slots into points you would have 45 in total. That amounts to 9 castings of Sypnatic Static. Most casters, even the Warlock themselves only can cast up to 1-2 5th level spells at that point, not this class.
As great as the 4th level spells are, I found myself switching one of them for Rautholim's psychic lance when I found an opportunity to. I generally found it hard to pick however, and I usually push out the one that I feel is going to be used the least in that campaign
Is the acquisitions incorporated book not official? Because there are a lot of good enchantment spells in it. Like Jim’s glowing coin and motivational speech.
I've been playing a clockwork soul sorcerer multiclassed with a level of fighter recently and loving it, the extra spells are amazing. The original idea was being a melee sorcerer who with the extra spells can take armour of agathys. I took level 1 in fighter as a variant human and took heavy armour master and play as a kind of proto cyborg trying to find out where he came from. But being able to get armour of agathys and absorb elements as free level 1 spells is great. Currently only level five but hoping to get the lvl 6 feature which will reduce incoming damage making armour of agathys last longer and hence deal more damage as well as absorbing more damage. Heavy armour master and armour of agathys had made him strong against weak crowds so I've been taking spells which are more utility or good against scary bosses.
I have a question. If I remember well, in the video ranking Tasha's spells you did not regard the summon aberration as a great spell, and in this guide you don't think it should be traded at all. Did your perception about the spell itself changed, is it beacause of the limitation on the possible tradeable spells or is it because of something exclusive to the aberrant mind that I don't see? Great vid, can't wait to play a mind mending aberrant mind soon, it is my favorite subclass from Tasha's!
I really want to watch this video but the constant mispronunciation of "aberrant" is driving me insane. Could it be a devious plan to unhinge my mind and drive me to worship the alien powers of the Far Realm?
those extra spells known blow the previous subclasses out of the water, not to mention their subtle & reduced casting cost. So much potential. -One thing that seemed kind of weird though with Revelation in Flesh is that if you are restrained or grappled then your speed is 0, so RAW it seems like you wouldn't have the 5' to spend to escape them...
Longtime fan. Keep up the good work. I'm playing the aberrant sorcerer currently and its been an amazing experience. I love all the built-in control/rp options which have avoided so many lengthy combats altogether.
Taaha's unfortunately doesn't fix my biggest complaint about Sorcerers. Namely: not enough unique spells for the sorcerer spell list. I'd even argue that thematically speaking they shouldn't have any of the named spells since their magic is less learned and more innate. As they are now there is very little to distinguish sorcerers from wizards, in my opinion, which in my mind at least lessens both classes. I will say, I love that the psionic spell caster went to the sorcerer. It just kind of fits in my opinion.
I've always been a proponent of adding things like shadow evocation and shadow conjuration as unique sorcerer spells. This would give sorcerers some of the on-the-fly versatility that they were all about in previous editions.
I don't think they should be unique, I think wizards should be able to learn any arcane spell. That said I also think that wizards should not get spells above spell level 5 automatically from leveling. That should be their trade of, they can learn anything but they have to actually find those spells.
I feel similar regarding the lack of sorcerer exclusive spells. My criteria for sorcerer exclusive spells has them themed around harnessing raw/dangerous magic with a natural finesse or fortitude. -Where it's easier for them to recklessly handle this magic because it's just more intuitive and natural due to their innate magical connection. The way they handle magic they don't really know the risk so they lack hesitation/inhibition and just go with the flow. The spells might be riskier or potentially self destructive -that may kill or maim a wizard who tried to learn them without this innate degree of handling, so they either don't bother or they fail and suffer the consequences. -So spell concepts which kind of lean in to the risky wild magic thematics -but less kooky and more dangerous. Maybe side effects that could risk the caster to lose the ability to speak temporarily, involuntarily banish themselves or suffer damage or levels of exhaustion, fall unconscious, accidental Freaky Friday life-swap?, etc. This is just one idea for sorcerer exclusive spell criteria but I'm sure people could think of others. The thing is, these spells need to be representative of the sorcerer classes thematics and not just an origin's flavor. -And there kinda needs to be a justification for why wizard's or other casters have not learned to reproduce them by this point in history.
@@DaDunge actually pretty good idea, but instead of over 5th level, the wizard has to find every spell to put in their book after character creation. Fuck wizard
Subtle Spell is, in my opinion, extremely overpowered. In combat, it really only protects you from counterspell, but out of combat, you can do things like Suggestion (which can replicate the effects of _tons_ of other spells), modify memory, invisibility, disguise self, sleep, dominate person/monster, and so many other _phenomenal_ non-combat spells without _anyone_ knowing you cast a spell. Think about the implications.
Personally I’d say bigby’s hand isn’t actually an amazing addition. Animate objects and a pocketful of copper is better and has always been available to the sorcerers
Except when you are facing a enemy resistant or immunity to non magical damage, also te point of Bigby's Hand is that it can do a lot of useful combat things not just damage
Magic weapon resistant opponents are a thing but yeah generally animate objects is better, but I love the hand for BBEGs, as you can reflavour the hand as a tentacle (for a far realm themed mage), an undead claw (for a lich or necromancer), or anything else thematic, and it has niche abilities like extra cover or grapple that you don't get with the animate objects.
For fourth level psionic spell swaps I would think about removing summon aberration and replacing it with Psychic Lance (which wasn't out at the time of this video I think). As you will already have a lot of concentration spells at that point. And Psychic Lance is pretty strong and fits the theme. So yes hunt me down ;).
Okay one thing I don’t see ANYBODY talk about with the Psionic Sorcery feature - I’ve read the feature multiple times, and nothing in it prevents you from UPCASTING spells beyond your spellslot levels. What this means is you can take a spell like Hold Monster (or to a lesser extent Hold Person), and upcast it as a 9th level spell again and again and again by converting spellslots into sorcery points as early as Sorcerer 9. By tier 3 you have enough spellslots to do this basically all day even if your table run alot of encounters, and disable a significant chunk of the encounter every single fight. Heck you can even just switch over to warlock after Sorc 9-11ish (after the slot progression slows down) and just build up your pact slot battery and specialize in Hold Monster/Person.
The ability doesn't need to restrict this, because the rules governing upcasting already do this. Upcasting requires you to use a spell slot unless something otherwise gives you explicit permission do so. From "Spell Slots": "When a character casts a spell, he or she expends a slot of that spell's level or higher, effectively "filling" a slot with the spell." From Casting a Spell at a Higher Level: "When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting." Psionic Sorcery says: "When you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Psionic Spells feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level." If you use Sorcery Points to cast the spell, you are not using a spell slot, which means you are not fulfilling the "When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of higher level" requirement detailed in Casting a Spell at a Higher Level. Nothing in the Psionic Sorcery ability gives you the option to upcast. Compare this to other abilities that allow you to cast spells without a slot, like the Four Elements monk. Their Discipline of the Elements ability specifically says "Once you reach 5th level in this class, you can spend additional ki points to increase the level of an elemental discipline spell that you cast, provided that the spell has an enhanced effect at a higher level, as Burning Hands does. The spell’s level increases by 1 for each additional ki point you spend." There is no such text in the Psionic Sorcery ability.
@@aildeokl PHB 201 says “When a spell caster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting. For instance, if Umara casts magic missile using one of her 2nd-level slots, that magic missile is 2nd level.” So you simply cast the Psionic Sorcery spell as a X level spell, and use the Psionic Sorcery feature to expend X sorcery points. Specific trumps general.
The key words you are glossing over are "using a spell slot". You are not using a spell slot, you are using sorcery points. This doesn't apply to spells using Psionic Sorcery.
@@aildeokl I’m not disputing that the general rule says “spell slot”, I’m saying the specific rule of Psionic Sorcery says you can use Sorcery Points in place of spell slots.
@M0ebius Yes you can, but doing so does not provide a mechanism for upcasting. Using your Sorcery Points to cast Hold Person costs 2 sorcery points, because the spell is 2nd level. There is no 3rd level Hold Person you can decide to cast, but if you cast it with a 3rd level slot it would then become a 3rd level spell at that point. There is no mechanism that allows you to spend additional Sorcery Points on a spell. You can only spend equal to the spell's level, which in the case of Hold Person, is level 2. If you were using spell slots, you could use a higher level spell slot to cast it and the spell would assume that level. Upcasting a spell REQUIRES either using a spell slot, or some other ability(like the 4 elements monk) providing you a mechanism with which to cast them at a higher level. You say "you simply cast the Psionic Sorcery spell as a X level spell", but that isn't how spellcasting works. You cant "cast Hold Person as a 3rd level spell," because Hold Person is a 2nd level spell. You cast Hold Person, and as per PHB 201, it BECOMES a higher level spell only -when you use cast a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell-. The spell becoming a higher level is a result of expending the spell slot, not a choice you can make before casting it.
