SorceReview: 5e Origins
A friend of mine made a comment about origins last night which got me digging through them. All of them. I feel...grossly enlightened? Like, more disgusting for my knowledge, as if I’m caked in something. ;P
There are two main types of origin: ones that give you extra spells or abilities that work like spells (effectively a thematic list of spells known; I’ll call these ones “themed”) and ones that alter how the class plays (I’ll call these ones “cake” for lack of a better term). Most origins do a little of both but focus on one over the other.
Aberrant Mind (themed, TCE): telepathy, tentacles, telekinesis. The cake comes at 6th level; Psionic Sorcery (MP) could work as a variant for the base class, like in older editions. Very functional. A
Clockwork Soul (themed, TCE): Abjuration. The flavor is intentionally anti-Wild Magic, but you could set the banality of Mechanus¹ aside and be a support caster. Hates others having advantage. V. Situational. B
Divine Soul (themed, XGE): The Favored Soul. Red Bull This origin gives you wings and a variety of disjointed abilities with a generic cleric flavor. The 6th-level cake wants you to be good-aligned. Cleric spells include lots of nifty Divinations! B, but with little synergy
Draconic Bloodline (cake, PHB): The Dragon Disciple. It’s a gish, but you’re going to need both Dex and Con for it to work. The late-level abilities are themed, but overall play is cake. C
Giant Soul (cake, UA): All about making your spells do more. You select a flavor of giant and get matching abilities (trickery [Cloud], Strength [Hill], defense [Stone], an energy type [the rest]). Gishy, but only if you can afford growing. B; don’t use underground/indoors
Phoenix Sorcery (themed, UA): entirely about self-immolating (fire shield + a self-rez). For a change of pace, the 14th-level ability (Nourishing Fire) is cake; handy and tasty cake, but late to the game. Doesn’t give you much survivability in melee, even though it wants you to be in it. D
Pyromancy (cake, Plane Shift: Kaladesh): I thought this was a wizard subclass (because the iconic pyromancer is a wizard; I didn’t realize he was a Pathfinder gobrin, tho). All about dealing extra fire damage, either to nearby opponents or by bypassing resistances.² A, but Paradox hits you with Backlash, so you’re burnt and take psychic damage.
Sea Sorcery (cake, UA): You’re a Water Elemental/Vaporeon using Acid Armor. Most of your abilities are related to movement or defense, but unlike with most water-themed archetypes they work equally well in a landlubber campaign. A
Shadow Magic (themed, XGE): This one is all over, but it’s mainly about movement (seeing in the dark, shadowwalking, turning into a shadow, etc.). Pretty cool and incredibly useful in a dungeon. A
Stone Sorcery (cake, UA): Another gish. This time, it only wants you to have a high Con, but you’ll probably want Str to hit things, too. I don’t know how well it works in play, though. C for uncertainty
Storm Sorcery (themed, XGE): Mostly about flight and lightning/thunder damage. 6th level is all about not suffering adverse effects due to weather. B
Wild Magic (cake, PHB): This one embodies one of the more popular explanations for magic (probability manipulation). Its abilities are functionally spells (themed), but differ wildly from normal play (cake). More broadly applicable than any other origin, but at a cost. S
¹ This isn’t me as a chaotic person, this is me as someone who thinks Modrons, Inevitables, and such are dreadfully boring. Couldn’t they have drawn on any of the numerous Earth mythologies that are all about law fighting off chaos?
² This gets paradoxical in a way that irks me. How can you burn something that is made out of fire? Why should the game pander to you for that?
