D&D 5e - Sorcerer UA

New Unearthed Arcana is up, this time for the sorcerer class. Link

Nice!

I like all 4. Obviously there's an overall theme there, and kinda gave me ideas for a wizard class I've been toying with (Rune Mage, and by extension, a warrior variant, Rune Knight). Favored Soul seems to play really neatly, but I kinda feel like the "take spells from sorc or cleric" thing needs to be better defined, unless I'm misunderstanding it and it's only take spells from cleric but as a sorc?

I read it as when it comes time to choose a new spell at level gain, you can select one from the cleric list or from the sorcerer list. If you choose one from the cleric list, it becomes a sorcerer spell (uses your spellcasting ability, for example).

Yeah, I really like it aside from that... that just seems excessively powerful, in my opinion

It may seem powerful, but sorcerers have a very limited number of spells. Their known spells caps at 15, with 6 cantrips. Sacrificing a sorcerer spell for a cleric seems like an even trade-off, at least on paper.

Yah, that's how I interpreted it as well. And the "overpowered"ness is what I meant by undefined. I wonder about playing a variant that casts like a sorc, but can only pick out of the cleric list? But even this version seems worth checking out.

I should put more work into my wizard variant, but I get lazy when it comes to spell lists, heh.

I guess I don't see the issue between having two lists to choose from, when you are restricted to a handful of spells. When it comes time to pick a 3rd-level spell, for example, do I choose Lightning Bolt or Revivify? Counterspell, or Mass Healing Word? Once I make that choice, I have to wait until I gain another level to either swap out that spell for another, or pick a new spell if I'm able.

Versatility is a big one. Also, in this case a concern is metamagic. They may be able to pick fewer spells, but they can stretch out what they do a little bit more. In my opinion, having versatility IS power in its own way.

I have a player in my D&D 5e game that is a multiclassed Land Druid/Nature Cleric who has an unbelievable number of spells to pick from, and I've got to agree that versatility is power. He almost always has an answer for whatever the group runs up against.

I agree that Sorcerer just getting the Cleric spell list on top of its own seems iffy on its fairness. But then again, they did just release the Artificer, which was iffy itself :P Think of all the healing spells that can be twinned without having to multiclass between Sorc and Cleric now. You can Heighten all of the cleric debuff and control spells.

I do see CancerMan's point though. Given its not a spell book, more choices means more versatility when leveling, but also locked in. Take a healing spell and don't need it too bad, it's what you got.