[Sorcerer] Feats and class features should focus more on bloodlines

[Cyrad]

Sorcerer bloodlines should have a greater impact on how the class plays, especially when they are central to the class's flavor.

When building my sorcerer for Gen Con, I was surprised by the lack of options and focus on bloodlines. Almost all of the feats focus on metamagic, which are kind of boring and feel like options that all full casters should have access to. Most of the bloodlines have fairly uninteresting powers that do little to impact how the class plays. Aside from setting your spell list, bloodlines don't even affect how you cast spells.

I also feel like there's a large disparity between sorcerers versus the bard and druid. The druid I played before my sorcerer had a similar build and a lot more going for it. The druid got more class features, better selection of feats, access to their entire spell list, and way more equipment proficiencies. I had to multiclass into fighter just to compete with it.

My playtest notes are here.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts about this?

[Kodyboy]

Cyrad wrote:

Sorcerer bloodlines should have a greater impact on how the class plays, especially when they are central to the class's flavor.

When building my sorcerer for Gen Con, I was surprised by the lack of options and focus on bloodlines. Almost all of the feats focus on metamagic, which are kind of boring and feel like options that all full casters should have access to. Most of the bloodlines have fairly uninteresting powers that do little to impact how the class plays. Aside from setting your spell list, bloodlines don't even affect how you cast spells.

I also feel like there's a large disparity between sorcerers versus the bard and druid. The druid I played before my sorcerer had a similar build and a lot more going for it. The druid got more class features, better selection of feats, access to their entire spell list, and way more equipment proficiencies. I had to multiclass into fighter just to compete with it.

My playtest notes are here.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts about this?

I feel that the druid is quite weak and that the sorcerer is even worse off. Wildshape and animal companion are way to nerfed to be useful and summon spells are screwed.

I feel that if the sorcerer received 2 more feats, could use their bloodline powers at will (most are meh at best) and get access to the five spontaneous castings a day that they would be good.
In addition they should be able to dip into other spell lists than their main 1 for maybe a spell per level to give them something special.

[Cyrad]

My biggest issue with the wild shaping druid stemmed from polymorph spells replacing your statistics and having very limited durations with few to no options on extending them. Human shape isn't even useful for disguising yourself because it will likely not last for a whole social encounter.

Sorcerer definitely needs more. I'd like to see them get more abilities from their bloodline. Even the druid gets two feats for free from their druidic order.

[Voss]

In their current state, I think they should focus less on bloodlines. The bloodlines, essentially, are the major problem with the class.

They eat the feats and to add insult to injury, they're also fairly terrible effects. The first level imperial bloodline may be the least worst, since it at least directly supports a playstyle (save based spells). Most of the rest do too little for too little time- so many 1 round durations, which makes burning 2 actions to cast them really questionable action economy.

[Gabby the Ferocious]

I think the easiest solve is to make more Sorcerer feats that benefit a Sorcerer that took a particular bloodline. It seems a lot of these feats are ill-designed to work with all 4 spell lists, and the bloodlines don’t seem to give enough to define your character outside of their spell list.

[Cyrad]

Voss wrote:

In their current state, I think they should focus less on bloodlines. The bloodlines, essentially, are the major problem with the class.

They eat the feats and to add insult to injury, they're also fairly terrible effects. The first level imperial bloodline may be the least worst, since it at least directly supports a playstyle (save based spells). Most of the rest do too little for too little time- so many 1 round durations, which makes burning 2 actions to cast them really questionable action economy.

Then why not make the bloodlines better? Bloodlines are what sets the class apart from others.