Hey Reader!
Welcome back to the Zurn blog! Today we are looking at the new sorcerer subclass, built off of someone with an immortal lineage. While the Divine Soul Sorcerer is a person with divine blood, the anointed sorcerer is someone with immortal blood, and thus could be the son or daughter of a naiad, demigod, or a being from another plane, not necessarily a divine source.
While the Divine Soul Sorcerer focuses on resilience, healing, and flying from your divine nature, this subclass is more of a utility subclass, using its immortal essence for a variety of things ranging from detection of enemies, to added damage, to bright light emanating from you as your divine nature flares within you.
Anointed Sorcerer: Theme and Inspiration
Based off of demigod heroes from ancient mythology, the Anointed Sorcerer takes what the Greeks and Romans did and asks the question, "What would it look like if this person were in a world with magic?" I opted not to go with any of the "I was dipped in the River Styx as a child" shenanigans because those are already present in the Divine Soul Sorcerer, but instead focused on how a demigod who did not know that he was part immortal would discover his lineage (as that's a big part of sorcerer lore: you discover this power, and that begs the question of how).
So this led to a few guiding questions that shaped the formation of the subclass. The first sign would be some sort of telltale feature of the god, like a zap (very small zap) of lightning revealing that one is the son of Zeus, or the ability to breathe underwater as a sign of nymph/naiad lineage. Percy Jackson's ability to manipulate water is his telltale feature, indicating a sea god heritage (in this case, Poseidon).
Next, we would need some sort of supernatural ability that would prove that the nature of the power is from another plane instead of just a "natural connection" to the world around you (tending toward druidism), so we will need some freedom to customize your options based on your divine heritage.
Next we thought about how the immortal essence of the person could be channeled to aid the party or harm a foe, as the character by this point would be pretty aware of their lineage. Since we couldn't borrow from hit point regeneration, bonuses to saving throws, wings, etc. because that's already in the Divine Soul Sorcerer, the idea of enhanced perception due to a divine nature, or the ability to channel your immortal essence could add to damage or be used to heal, based on the disposition of the sorcerer toward the target.
And then finally we wanted something that brings on the "god mode" for the player character, more so than just a, "you recover half your hit points" (which, admittedly, is a big boon for a sorcerer, but felt a little less than optimal for the concept). So we thought about the images of heroes wreathed in radiance, striding like angels to the fray, putting fear in their enemies as they manifest the power of their lineage.
And as we wrapped it up, we had a sorcerer.
Anointed Sorcerer: Mechanics
You can find the details of the subclass here, easily printable for your game master to consider if desired thanks to the team at Homebrewery. The subclass starts off at 1st level by adding 1d4 of damage to your cantrips, allowing you to channel your inner immortal essence to lend strength to your magical attacks. The damage starts as radiant damage, but can be changed out for a different damage type to reflect your immortal lineage.
So instead of doing radiant damage (a divine source), it could deal necrotic damage (for an underworld ancestor), lightning damage (from a sky entity), poison (from a natural entity), fire (from a forge or fire entity), or cold (from a frost or ice entity) damage. This damage then later appears later in the subclass.
As you progress, you gain the ability to see through disguises, magical darkness, and illusions when you roll an 11 or higher on a Perception or Investigation check (note: the roll, not the total, must be an 11 or higher to trigger this effect), allowing you to see through the wiles of a charlatan like a boss (or a demigod, in this case).
As you reach 14th level you gain the ability to channel your immortal essence to heal an ally or strike an enemy. You can spend sorcery points to deal damage or heal the target for each sorcery point spent in this way. It's worth noting that you do not roll to hit when dealing damage in this way: if the target is within 30 feet of you and you nominate it, it will take the damage (using the damage you chose at 1st level). So this is a useful way (albeit at the cost of sorcery points) to put reliable damage on a foe when you need it, or to heal an ally if everything is going south.
And to cap off the class, you can emanate a divine light as a bonus action, inflicting disadvantage on attacks against you and targets within 10 feet of you if the attacker can see (so blind targets are not affected), and if they force you or a target within 10 feet of you to perform a saving throw the target gains advantage on the saving throw.
It is worth noting that if an ally attacks a person within 10 feet of you they will also suffer disadvantage on the attack. You are not affected by the brilliant light, but all other targets on the battlefield are. So this provides a unique control ability that is different from other classes that aptly conveys the brilliance and radiance of your immortal nature shining through your physical body.
Conclusion
This subclass is a little more damage-oriented than the others, but it also rounds out the sorcerer in really nice ways. You get more opportunities to be able to see your targets (which is huge for sorcerers as a lot of your spells require line of sight to cast the spell), gain some nice control elements to keep you and your allies alive, and add a bit of healing to the build (albeit not too early lest the sorcerer become the most powerful mage in the game).
It is not as strong as the Draconic Bloodline, and in some ways it's not as strong as the Divine Soul Sorcerer either. But I think this subclass offers a unique take that is useful in ways that no other subclass is, so if you are interested, check out the Anointed Sorcerer.
In our next post we will be looking at the first of three warlock subclasses as we come down the home stretch to the final two classes, looking at our take on "blood magic" through a pact made in blood to an extraplanar entity.
Until next time,
Aaron