Latest / Bards and Barrels / S1 Ep.14 - Class Review: Sorcerer

Transcript

S1 Ep.14 - Class Review: Sorcerer · Bards and Barrels

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Action.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Bards and Barrels, the podcast for Dungeons and Dragons players, new and old.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Phil Boone and I'm joined by my friends and co-hosts Ross Struess and Brett Miller.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be exploring the world of Dungeons and Dragons in each episode, sharing our experiences, offering tips and advice for those who play and run this classic game.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're a new player just starting out or a seasoned veteran looking to get a new perspective on things, Bards and Barrels has something for everyone.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So sit back, grab a drink, and join us as we roll for initiative and embark on an epic adventure.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's the magical time once again.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, fellas.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: How are we doing tonight?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Good, we back.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Good to be back in the saddle.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Loving it.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is, and tonight we are hitting you guys with another class review.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And tonight we are going to take a look at the sorcerer.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do you guys think?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Initial impressions.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, this is gonna be a fun one.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: I I tend to really appreciate the charisma-based classes that you get to speak up at your table and kind of be one of the faces of your party, and this fits that bill.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is one of the magic classes that's probably not that not necessarily the easiest to understand.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh we haven't even gotten to the wizard where it's like spells upon spells, but it's like the easiest to understand in the sense that you don't have to worry about a patron, you don't have to worry about somebody blessing you like in the sense of a cleric and divine magic, and you don't have to learn your magic like a wizard does.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a little bit simplified in some ways.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I like that your magic is your own, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: As a sorcerer, you're not beholden to somebody.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Raw magic, how the book puts it.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Which yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like I if you haven't listened to some of our other other other other episodes, warlocks are have their magic bestowed upon them, wizards learn their magic, and sorcerers are channeling the magic that's already inside of them.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you're saying sorcerers like it raw?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we went there.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: The more you know.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh pros and cons.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: What do you guys think here?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: What'd you like, what didn't you like in the sorcerer realm?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the the first pro for me is actually something that Brett mentioned, is it's that charisma lead for your spellcasting, um, magic your spellcasting ability and stuff like that.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like Brett, I I agree.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I like to be that player who speaks up, that very forward talkie, like to be persuasive uh and just be the deception person if I need to be.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I I like the fact that charisma drives these.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: There are a lot of opportunities for role-playing with a sorcerer.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you have this power innately inside of you, and so you maybe don't necessarily know how to control it or haven't learned all the ins and outs of it.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so you can work with your DM on how does that look for your character?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: Are you learning this stuff for the first time, or how are you improving upon those skills as you level up?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, one of the things I think is funny about this, right?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You the the biggest pro for you guys is uh like the charismatic side, the role-playing side.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I could just tell that I like to play different styles of characters because the number one pro to me is like, hey, sorcerers can hit hard from a distance, right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like they do some, they can do some decent distance damage as a spell caster, and it's that type of magic.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is not healing magic, right?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're in it to hit hard.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just interesting.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: The pieces of those that stick out to us, because that's my pro.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not a charisma player?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my number one.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's my it's usually my dumb stat.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a tough build for me.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'd say one of the cons though is because you're mostly playing at a distance, you're not gonna have a lot of staying power.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: If they focus on you, you're kind of weak.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of my biggest cons, actually, was you you're not a very durable character.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of glass cannon-y.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not as bad as the wizard, but close.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's also in the fact that you know your your weapon proficiency is are in like daggers, darts, slings, again, things that are fairly distance because you can throw all those things.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not like get in there and fight.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Armor proficiency?
• 4:16
  unknown: No.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to get hit.
• 4:18
  unknown: None.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, so the funny thing is is I uh and a wizard says the same thing, so that you have zero armor proficiency, but you can get mage armor.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like there are things, ways to get around that where you're not again getting away from the glass cannon a little bit where you can work your way through some loopholes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, in a traditional sense, you're not gonna be running around with plate armor on or leather armor for that matter.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Another pro that I found as we kind of were looking into this, too.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you look outside of the core rules and the player's handbook, there is a lot of flexibility available when building a sorcerer, more so than I had realized.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think uh that's an interesting point to take because it's it's it's a both a pro and a con.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pro because if you get outside the books, there's a lot of options for you, but it's a con at the same time because if you're going through the the core rules, you have one option.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess also if if that's the route you're playing, this is your first character and you're going the sorcerer route, that one option is nice because you don't have to try to shuffle through things.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can really hone in on that one.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a mix for me.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that's one where it's interesting how some of the different classes have more options at level one in the basic rules or the player's handbook than others.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like this is pretty limited on what you get just for free.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think was it the cleric we were looking at, I think was similar to that too.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't you only get one domain or something like that?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Life domain.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll be curious to see if when we get to wizard, if it's the same.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really only get one choice in a lot of your spellcasting classes?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Brett looked at me, but I don't remember.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Stay tuned.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and what if we take a look at some pop culture references?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I had a hard time with this one.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what do you guys see?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of our pop culture sorcerers?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think there are so many that you know you maybe just don't think of them as a sorcerer.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: You probably think of them as a wizard.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but starting off with in within the kind of DD realm.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: So the new DD movie that came out fairly recently, um, Simon is a sorcerer in that movie.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, other ones um in Disney's or Disney Pixar's um Onward.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, I forgot about Onward.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Ian Lightfoot is a sorcerer, he's got the magic inside of him, his brother doesn't, but he is able to channel that magic uh that he learns throughout the throughout the movie.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh other ones would be like Elsa from Frozen.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: She's got magic inside of her.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but then you get to some of the more interesting ones like Harry Potter.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: I would say Harry in Harry Potter is a sorcerer, but somebody like Hermoni is a wizard.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: Harry's got the power inside of him.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: He just kind of learns things on his own.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't, he's not really a book smart person.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: Hermone, on the other hand, learns her magic.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You make a good point because a lot of a lot of the things Harry does too, he doesn't even know he is doing almost.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It just kind of is almost a reaction.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas, yeah, Hermonia is much more book smart.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: She's learned.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like the uh the purebloods like have that innate that lineage, which that is a word that you will see in the players' handbook of lineage being tied to sorcerers, what that would be where this would come in.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: So even though in Harry Potter he's kill he's called a wizard, you could kind of bend it towards thinking of him as a sorcerer.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: So a misconception in that sense would be thinking that Doctor Strange is a sorcerer, even though he's the sorcerer supreme, he would actually be more of a wizard because he learned his magic versus having it already in him, kind of a thing.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: But then if you stay within Marvel, there are other sorcerer options as well.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Although, although the funny thing is, before before we talk about other Marvel sorcerers, is that uh in God, what is it?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's not in game, Infinity War, uh how uh Tony Stark makes the uh dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: He even notices that they're wizards.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: They call themselves sorcerers, but whatever.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think you can make an argument for Wanda, uh, potentially, because she has that magic within her, but uh Phil, you and I were talking like that she might fit in somewhere else too.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh to me, she even seems maybe even like warlock-y, like is there some sort of maybe patron or you know, some eldritch being or something we're not aware of that she's beholden to?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: So well, and yes, potentially.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's boy, we're gonna go down a road here.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we're opening up some doors to somebody out there, but it's it's like, okay, well, compared to the comic books versus the movies, I I don't know, but especially with the dark side of correct Wanda.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that that muddies it up for sure in her chaos magic, which would definitely feel more warlocky for a sorcerer.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So see, and now I'm still stuck on like now the line is you're a sorcerer, Harry, and I'm just like stuck there.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't roll off the tongue, as well as it does not.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like ruined that line for me.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh any other pop culture references that come to mind that we missed?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh one other one would be pretty much any of the spellcasters in X-Men probably would be considered sorcerers.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, they've got the magic inside of them once they turn, like hit puberty, that starts coming out through that's already inside of them.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's actually probably where Wanda would fall because she's she was one of the original X-Men.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's technically a mutant.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's right.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that makes sense.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: I agree 100%, Brett.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we switch over back into the realm of straight DD now, back to our five East side, uh, looking at the quick build, which would be the suggestion that the basic rules puts out there on how to build this character.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not surprised at all that uh charisma is the suggestion for where you should put your highest score, uh, because it's your spellcasting modifier.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you need it for social situations.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: I completely disagree.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: But yes.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: But it's also the a lot of the skill checks that you'd use most often are charisma-based.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're absolutely right.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a really good combo.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: The interesting one that I thought was that their second suggestion is constitution, but we've kind of talked about how this is not a super durable character.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So do you think you could actually get away with decks?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it would make sense to set decks as your second highest, just because even though you're a ranged fighter, it allows you to go faster in combat, potentially, because that's gonna help your your initiative roles and stuff like that.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: I think it depends a lot on what type of character you're building and also what type of spells you're taking.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: If you're taking a lot of concentration spells, most of the time you're gonna have to have a high constitution in order to keep concentration on that spell.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the the fact that it's one of your saving throws, uh, that you hit that on the head, is that's what you're gonna do to save your constant your concentration is through the constitution.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Holy crap, that was C1s.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: More complex than it needed to be.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: They are rough.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's definitely why they suggest it too, right?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's one of your saving throws.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they're making it your second highest.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, background-wise, they suggest the hermit.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I really I'm not married to that one.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you guys feel about that, but I feel like there's so many other ways you could work in a sorcerer than just saying, oh, they've been a hermit, and yeah.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I mean again, it kinda it kind of comes down to the type of player that you want to be.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because charisma leans so much into different types of backgrounds that you know, if you wanted to be a thief, even though you're not a rogue, it's gonna give you a little bit of that thievery type things going in in that background.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I I agree though.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't care for the hermit.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go for the hermit when we get to our character builds tonight.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just not the way I would go.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think again, backgrounds are tailored to the type of character you want it to be.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that leads us into talking about our characters.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, similar to what we did for our ranger class review, each of us has taken on the creation of a first level sorcerer character.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And let's have uh Ross kick us off by introducing your sorcerer.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: My my sorcerer is Horbin Brushdow, uh, a male lightfoot halfling.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he, even though Constitution is uh my second highest, he only has nine hit points for a first-level character.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's not super duper great.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did uh YOLO roll for this one, and it ended up being not too bad.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I rolled three fifteen's and then kind of trailed off a little bit after that.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, let's see what all I got here for you guys.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um so one of the interesting things is as a sorcerer, you get to choose three first-level spells and two cantrips.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the two cantrips that I chose were Firebolt and Shocking Grasp, which kind of matches up with the Acolyte background that I chose.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and also, probably more importantly, the sorcerer's origin that I took.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I did go with the draconic one, and the back I'm gonna actually I should open this up and read this to you really quick because I wrote an interesting backstory for him.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: So uh his so when you take the draconic background, you get to choose the color of dragon that your lineage comes from.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I took the bronze one, which is lightning, so that's also where uh that cam trip choice came from.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: But uh this is this is his backstory.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it says Horbin knew the ancestral stories and how they told that his family were keepers of the lair for a bronze dragon named Grimwing.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, while Grimwing didn't really need the help of the halflings, he appreciated the company, but more importantly, the information that they could provide him.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: In return, he blessed them with some draconic power, and a lineage of sorcerers was born.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Nearly six centuries ago, that was nearly six centuries ago, Grimwing has long since disappeared from this land, and the last sorcerer of Clan Brushdew was Horbin's great grandfather, dot dot dot, until now.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So first of his clan uh in a long time.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I would kind of view him as being a bit of an awkward, I don't want to say an a-hole, but he very overly confident in himself.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: So he's kind of a I think he'd be a very fun character to play.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, especially with a plus five to per persuasion, he's gonna be a talkative fella.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I also kind of imagine that he probably drinks a lot.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so you know, he he gets to drinking and then starts to talking, he probably con some people out of some money at some point.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but yeah, I think uh Horbin would be an interesting guy.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the things you mentioned, the the sorceress or origin, the draconic bloodline that you went with.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's the one from the basic rules, right?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Correct, yes.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's interesting because the way they describe it, it's almost like you actually have dragon blood in you, but I went more the route that you were they touched you, because I think they want it in the description of a sorcerer, they talk about like being touched by a deity or something like that, that that can lead to sorcerers.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: I went more of that route that you know his ancestors did something and then the dragon gave them some power, blah, blah, blah, versus like the actual blood, which is kind of might come into conflict a little bit because one of the things you get to do with the the draconic bloodline is you get to sprout wings and you have like some scaly things going on.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know how I'd play that off just yet, but I kind of chose to ignore that for the moment.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: That that can be really powerful later on when you get automatic flight sorcerer and you can just fly around a battlefield for sure.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it would be kind of fun, you know, that he's out drinking some night with his party and then all of a sudden sprouts some wings and just creates a very interesting moment for everybody.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think that'd be fun.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think too that like you mentioned that it kind of takes on some of those scale aspects potentially.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the draconic resilience.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: You just start all of a sudden adding like one extra point to your max a max HP every single level.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't realize that.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's handy, yeah, that's very handy.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it starts to add up quickly.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's so that's that's Horbin in a nutshell.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: Brett, how about you?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: All right, I went uh quite a bit different.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: Mine is uh Victoria Yushang, she is a tiefling sorcerer, um, and she uh has the criminal background, so she was coming up from the underground.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um doesn't really know how she has the sorcerer backblood inside of her, but she just is part of it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um and she has um some interesting sorceress origins.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: She has wild magic as her sorcerer origin, uh, which can be very chaotic depending on how you want to play it with your DM.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh because if you cast a spell of first level or higher, um your DM can ask you to roll a d20.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um and if you roll too low, if you roll a one, you have to roll on this wild magic table.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: And then with that, all sorts of crazy things can happen.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: Everything from uh you cast grease centered on yourself all the way to um regaining hit points, to lots of different things.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's like 50 different possibilities in this wild magic table, some of them good, some of them bad.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Casting grease on yourself like that thing at the fair where you try to catch the grease pig.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh pretty much.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you're trying to get out of a sticky situation, trying to run away from somebody, that could come in handy.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: But it's uh it's a random selection of what is going to happen to you.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, so rolling on that table, so when you use the wild magic, if your DM asks you to roll, is that effectively so you're seeing if that person can actually channel the wild magic?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what that is?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's more so like every time you cast a spell, there's a chance that your wild magic surges out of you, like uncontrollably almost, is what happens.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's powers inside of you and you can't handle it.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, you almost can't contain it, so it just spurts out of you.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that that I'm gonna add there, sorry to kind of interrupt your flower, right?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But uh as a DM, one of the things that I dislike is that you could potentially run into a scenario there where as a wild magic sorcerer, you never rolled on the wild magic surge table, which is like no fun.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't know if it's you know once a combat or once a night or you know, something like that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But a DM I feel like should have um a little more play there of hey, you know what, this time you're going to roll on the magic wild surge table, even if you didn't roll a one, you know, just to kind of introduce some of that, because it can be a lot of fun to play.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but even at level one, you get tides of chaos, which gives you once per long rest, you can gain advantage on something, um which it can be really powerful.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: So an attack roll at ability check or a saving throw, having advantage on that whenever you want.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Very strong, especially all the way early on at level one.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh for her for her skills, I went YOLO and rolled for my abilities, and they were not great.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh ended up, thankfully, with a 17 on charisma, um, once I had the extra perfect extra bonuses applied.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but after that, it fell pretty quickly.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: I have 13 on constitution and intelligence.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Dex has 12, wisdom 11, and strength nine.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that was rough.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not great.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: You live by the dice, you die by the dice.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, Vicky.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yikes.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but yeah, uh it's I'm I would definitely play this.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: And she has a lot of the uh persuasion deception proficiencies so that she can talk her way out of a situation.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: What uh what spells did you go with for your first level character?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so some of the same ones that you have.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: I have Firebolt, uh Mage Hand, which is always handy, uh, and then Poison Spray, Ray of Frost, and Thaumaturgy, which is part of being a um part of being a Tiefling, I believe.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then at first level, Magic Missile and Shield.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sweet.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's awesome.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that's something that that we we could throw back in a pro or a con, is that this is probably the first class where you had like 40 spells at first level to go through.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And not not that that's overly intimidating, but if you're a first-time player that like I can just imagine somebody like going through and reading every single one of those, we're lucky because we kind of know what we like and which ones we would go for.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: But also a pro con on top of that is even up to level 20, you're only gonna get 15 spells.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I I would assume at some point that pool increases, though.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like the pool you can choose from, probably.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: You will get you get all the way to ninth level spells, right?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: But at 20th level, you're you only have 15 spells.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: And your um your basic hand trips on top of that.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: But thankfully you can swap them out as you level up.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: You can phase out old ones that aren't powerful enough and replace them with better stuff.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: But compared to like a wizard where you can just get endless spells, it's quite a bit different.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the reason they're going last because we gotta explain spell books when we get it.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the origins, too, offer you some additional spells that you can get too.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just not, I don't think those two.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: From the basic rules and the or the core rules and the basic uh player's handbook.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, one thing that we haven't touched on before we jump to your spell, um after first level, so our characters don't have this just yet, but level two and beyond, you start getting into sorcery points, which is really powerful.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it's a great way to boost a spell or just like upgrade what you're being able to do as needed.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean that's essentially allowing you to buy spell slots, and then you reach a point as a sorcerer that you regain those instead of after a long rest, you regain them after a short rest, so it becomes even more powerful the further you go.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can also you also can use those sorcery points to start doing like meta magic at third level, and you can twist your spells to suit your needs.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're casting an area of effect spell and you want to protect your people that are in that area and only hit the bad ones.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: It starts to give you some of that manipulation basically to impact how you cast your spells, which I thought's pretty cool too.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, Vill, your character.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my character.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I unlike what I usually do, uh, decided to stray quite a bit away from um what I would call just a uh easy entry character.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to just pick something different this time.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I have Oslin, the goblin sorcerer.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I went ahead and picked a it is a playable race, but it does come from um the Mordechinens.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know what the newer book is.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Monsters of the Multiverse is the newer version of the book.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is a playable character that you can use.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um a little differently as well, I took a different origin.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I picked an origin that came out of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's called the Aberrant Mind.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So my magic, um, the innate magic inside of me actually comes basically from some sort of an alien influence that's wrapped itself around my mind.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the power is psionic.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I did write a little bit of backstory to kind of accompany that as well of how I came across that.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um so for Oslin, uh, my first memories are with them.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I was not like them until my third birthday, and they were all I knew until I reached adulthood at age eight.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: As a child, I had an imaginary friend that looked like a flump or a strange platypus-like creature.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: One day it gifted me with psionic powers, which have ended up being not so imaginary.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do not remember if I escaped to or was sent to this odd world.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Weirder still is the fact that I have met others who look like me and have become a part of their clan.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is unclear what my objective is at this point, but time will tell.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I did pick hermit, I just realized, which I know I just criticized before.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, because I felt that it could tie it into that, and that's not like your normal hermit story, but I did pick hermit, so I'm a hypocrite.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I read YOLO'd, and I didn't do great, but I didn't do Vicky bad.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um I I put my 16s, I got two 16s in charisma and constitution um for that plus three modifier there.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've got a 14 in wisdom, a couple 12s in decks and intelligence, and I'm planning on playing this as a non-melee character, so I put my 10 in strength because probably that to somebody else.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not my role in this party.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: So uh spell-wise, I do get a couple extras um from the aberrant mind piece, but uh I picked uh firebolt, poison spray, uh ray of frost, shocking grasp, and um mind sliver is the one I get that's a psionic spell, which I thought was pretty neat.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just a distance attack.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then first level wise, I did get a few there from the uh the origin as well.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: The arms of Hadar, uh Dissonant Whispers, which is pretty cool, and then uh Chaos Bolt and Silvery Barbs, I felt like fits this character the best.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um was where I went there.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some of the other kind of things that come along with the aberrant mind.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So as a bonus action, I can pick someone within 30 feet of me and we can communicate telepathically up to a distance of three miles, which actually I think increases as my proficiency bonus increases, I want to say.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's good for a minute.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um I just want to think there was one other thing that I had liked in here.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh yes, so similar almost to the rogue feature where you can disengage your hide as a bonus action, I've got nimble escape, which lets me try to do those as a bonus action on each of the turns.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then since a goblin is a small creature, uh, when I damage a creature whose size is larger than my own with an attack or a spell, I can do extra damage equal to my proficiency modifier.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice cool.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it'll continue to grow in strength over time as well, which I thought was pretty neat.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: I do feel uh like I've I've been playing DD with you for a while now.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: This might be the the only character I've ever seen from you that only has a plus one in its decks.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you're probably right.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: What can I say?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I like to sneak and stab.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I completely understand that.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just used to you having like a plus four in your initiative and things like that.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Plus twelve distel.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yep.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: So interesting difference between um some of the spells you picked versus Ross and I's um you have primarily only damage dealing spells at least level one.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Very intentional about it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Intentional?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to sit back and shot pot.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: And hope nobody ever looks your way.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I'm hoping, you know, like it's not just a party of the three of us, because if it is, we're screwed.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: We need a barb or we'll just we'll just stand a cleric out there.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: They can take all the hits, and we'll just fire from the back.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: That that's one area that I picked up on like looking through the spells.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, as you continue to level up, being intentional on which ones you pick and getting a good balance is important.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: Getting some damage dealing spells, getting some potentially even healing spells.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: There are ways to do that.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, battlefield control, self-buffing, like defensive spells.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: There's lots of ways that you can continue to bolster your your backlog of spells.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely siloed for sure.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I chose this as well.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: You went strong after I did, yeah.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like almost a sniper-esque type of you know, distance striker is really what I went for, and hoping we have a rounded out party.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um some of the other source uh options, just as um, you know, origin choices, right?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we talked about the core rule or the basic rules, which is the draconic bloodline.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: The player's handbook adds the wild magic choice.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you look to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, you get the aberrant mind, which was the one that Hosselin used.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Tasha's has another one called the Clockwork Soul.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in that one, it's almost like uh the cosmic force of order has suffused you with magic.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot about you know mechanisms, things being orderly, and that's where you draw the power of your magic.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the Xanther's Guide to Everything source book has one called Divine Soul.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: In that one, your magic comes from a divine source that glimmers within your soul, and there's a lot of pieces of this that add that flavor.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Your wings that you sprout at a certain point are very spectral and sparkly, and that it just kind of has that flavor with it.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you could have sparkling wings, Ross.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what your paladin needs.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, another one in Xanthers is shadow magic.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you are a creature of shadow.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, your innate magic comes from the shadow felt itself.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: The coolest feature in this one is that uh at six levels of bonus action, you can spend some of your sorcery points to magically summon a hound of ill omen and target another creature within 120 foot.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, it's like a cool version of a dire wolf, and it spends its turns trying to move towards an attack that target.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's literally what it does the whole time.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought that was pretty cool.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the Sword Coast Adventures Guide has uh the storm sorcery.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh where your innate magic comes from the power of elemental air.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: At a certain point, you can mildly control the weather.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Dragonlance, one of the newer books, Dragonlance, Shadow of the Dragon Queen, it has one uh lunar sorcery.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you were someone in your lineage, lineage was exposed to the concentrated magic of the moon or moons of your world, and that is how you were imbued with lunar magic.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this one's got some pretty cool stuff.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, based on what phase the moon is in, you get different types of boons, and you can sort of change that up um at certain points in time.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's a cool one.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty neat.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great, but I don't keep track of time close enough to tell you what phase the moon is.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's on your DM.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's two full moons this month in real life.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: True, yes.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's on it's on the DM, yeah.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: So one session, it's like five hours later at the next one.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the phase of the moons changed, by the way.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: You actually missed two phases.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh time dilation, it's fine.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Physics.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what that's what's out there um in the other source books as far as um what your sorcery origin choices are.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you guys think?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Final thoughts?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: This is a really fun class.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's it's a lot more approachable of a magic wielding, a main magic dealing class than I thought it was going into it.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's got a lot of spells, but it's a manageable amount.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you're not gonna be overwhelmed with a hundred spells right off the bat, which is good.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_03: You can learn your spells, you can um swap them out over time as you've realized that you don't really use a spell very much anymore.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: You can swap it out for a different one.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think uh you hit it on the head.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's like there's enough flavor at the beginning to where you can pick and choose your spells, which you haven't really been able to do that in past ones, not to this degree anyway.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then also if you have other books available to you, you can really change the flavor based on, you know, whatever you want, really.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I think there's enough pop culture references that are very familiarized.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_03: There's probably even quite a few more that if you think about something pop culture reference of somebody who has magic inside of them and they're just learning how to use it, that's probably a sorcerer.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no one chooses sorcery, the power chooses the sorcerer.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that plays well into those pop culture references.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna do it for this episode of Bards and Barrels.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to past episodes of the show anywhere podcasts can be found.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Want to stay in the loop and not miss the latest from us?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to head over and give us a like and a follow on Facebook at Bards and Barrels.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can now find us on Instagram as well.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you soon.