Restraint? Never heard of it. A Wild Magic Build for 5e
There is a subset of players who have no regard for their own safety or consistency. Players who love this game based on the dice rolls alone, who live for that moment when those polyhedral plastic (or metal if you’re fancy) shapes hang in the air. In that moment, anything is possible. The Wild Magic Sorcerer aims to fulfill that fantasy, and fumbles the bag so spectacularly that it’s a wonder it ever made it through playtesting. Oh, it’s not because the subclass is weak, any character that relies on this much random chance is inevitably going to be less than optimal.
No, the problem stems from the fact that we never get to roll on that wonderful wild magic table unless our DM says that we can. Specifically, if our DM lets us, we roll a d20 whenever we cast a leveled Sorcerer spell, and if we roll a 1, we trigger wild magic. Also, we can use Tides of Chaos to gain advantage on an ability check, saving throw or attack roll once per long rest, but we can recharge that advantage by casting a leveled Sorcerer spell and rolling on the wild magic table, but only if our DM lets us. I want to build a character around rolling on that table almost every turn, but we need to have a talk with our DM first before we can play this subclass in general. Honestly, your DM will probably get very annoyed at you constantly asking if you can play your character, so I would discuss just letting your abilities activate at every possible opportunity. This is not overpowered in the slightest, as the volatility of the wild magic table is well known. Also, maybe be careful playing this character below level 3. No party likes to randomly TPK from a Fireball centered on yourself. That’s enough preamble though, let’s just get into the build.
Race: Custom Origin
This is a feat hungry build, and this gives us both a +2 to a stat and a feat at level 1, meaning we can start with our Charisma as an 18 if we pick a feat that boosts that stat.
Feat: Gift of the Gem Dragon
This feat improves our Charisma and gives us a reaction proficiency bonus times per day to force a creature away from us when they hit us with an attack, dealing a bit of damage as well. We will be in melee, and we will be casting Booming Blade, meaning that this push will force a creature to take the extra damage from BB if they want to hit us again or move away. We will have other reaction options like Shield and Absorb Elements, so we won’t be using this every turn, but that’s fine because we can’t do that anyway. Fey Touched is also a perfectly suitable option as well.
Ability Scores:
8/14/14/8/11/18 (+2 Charisma from race, +1 Charisma from feat)
Dump Strength, 14 Dex for medium armor, 14 Constitution, dump Intelligence, 11 Wisdom to be rounded up later, 18 Charisma as it is our main stat.
Level 1: Sorcerer 1 (Wild Magic)
I’ve already explained wild magic, so let’s talk spells.
Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Mold Earth
Fire Bolt gives us a decent ranged option that importantly, is an attack roll and can be boosted by Tides of Chaos. The others are my picks for the best utility options, but if you have something else you would prefer, pick that instead.
1st level spells: Silvery Barbs, Sleep
Silvery Barbs is just such a good reaction for us, as we will be casting spells that trigger saving throws, and we even have a number of options on the wild magic table that force saves. Being able to cast a spell as a reaction is also great for letting us recharge Tides of Chaos every turn. Sleep is the best control spell at low levels, but loses its effectiveness at around level 3, so we will swap it out then, but casting it will be our primary job in combat for levels 1-2.
Level 2: Sorcerer 1, Warlock 1 (Hexblade)
A single level of Hexblade Warlock gives us medium armor, shield, and martial weapon proficiency, Hexblade’s Curse (which we will sometimes use if we know we will be attacking the same creature for many rounds), a pact slot, more cantrips (pick your favorites), and a few more known spells. The most important feature is the ability to attack with our Charisma, meaning we can dump Strength and largely ignore Dexterity.
Warlock Spells:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Prestidigitation
1st level spells: Shield, Armor of Agathys
Booming Blade is the center of our combat strategy. We will never get extra attack, so it will let us somewhat keep pace with those who do. We also won’t be using Great Weapon Master for this build, so we should expect our sustained damage to be less than your average martial who takes that feat. We will make up for this by also being a full caster and casting some of the best control spells in the game, and occasionally lightning will shoot out of our butt and deal a bit more damage. Shield is our primary defensive option, and I’m actually quite glad that it being a Warlock spell means we can’t trigger wild magic when we cast it. This is helpful as we really don’t want to trigger a bad effect from that table when we are trying to actively avoid damage. We’ll have plenty of other ways to recharge Tides of Chaos. Armor of Agathys is helpful because we will be engaging in melee combat and we should expect to get hit occasionally. It boosts our survivability and deals some extra damage back to our attackers. Don’t cast it at less than 2nd level though, it’s not worth it as a 1st level spell.
Level 3-5: Sorcerer 4, Warlock 1
We’re going strictly Sorcerer from here on out. Don’t be tempted by 2 Paladin levels for smites, it’s not worth delaying our spell progression and we will find that we are casting a ton of spells every combat, so we really don’t have many spare slots to smite with. Our big pickup here is Metamagic and Sorcery Points. Our priority is Quicken Spell, allowing us to cast a spell as a bonus action for 2 points. We won’t be able to do this very frequently at first as we don’t have many sorcery points, but we will continue to get more as we level up. I’d recommend that on turn one, we attack with Booming Blade (or Firebolt if we can’t get in range), gaining advantage from Tides of Chaos, then cast a Sorcerer spell with our bonus action using Quicken Spell, triggering a wild magic surge. This strategy allows us to have advantage on most, if not all our attacks once we get the points to do it consistently, and at low levels means that we have a very explosive turn 1, sometimes literally, then can swap between Booming Blade attacks and spellcasting as we deem necessary.
Spells: Absorb Elements (swapped with Sleep), Suggestion, Web, Rime’s Binding Ice
Absorb Elements helps us survive that inevitable Fireball centered on ourselves (along with all other elemental damage), Suggestion is an amazing spell both in and out of combat. A simple suggestion of “flee” will generally be enough to completely remove an enemy from an encounter as long as we can hold concentration, and Binding Ice is a wonderful blast spell with a really cool restraining effect that we can cast while concentrating on something else. Web is our first bomb control spell, enabling us to seriously hamper the movement of a whole group of enemies (and also combos really well with a Binding Ice on the next turn). To review, we will cast Booming Blade with our action, get advantage through Tides of Chaos, quicken either Suggestion or Web (probably Web) to cast it as a bonus action, and recharge our Tides of Chaos by rolling on the table. This is our combo, and we will continue to improve upon it as we grow.
Feat: War Caster
At Sorcerer level 4, we take War Caster to galvanize our concentration, which is vital as we will be in melee frequently. The other points of this feat are also appreciated, as we have a lot of trouble casting spells with our hands full of a weapon and shield. Opportunity attacks with spells is also really cool. Of course we can just use Booming Blade for a ton of extra damage, but we might get creative with something like Suggestion if the situation calls for it.
Level 6-9: Sorcerer 8, Warlock 1
New spells: Fireball, Counterspell, Polymorph, Hypnotic Pattern
A note about Fireball, if you are casting it on a group of enemies caught in a Web, transmute it into a different damage type with the Transmute Spell metamagic. Never burn your web, 5 average damage is not nearly equal in value to restraining that enemy. The other selections are just the best spells of their level, however if you do not commonly face spellcasters, swap Counterspell for a different spell. I recommend Thunder Step, as it is basically an upgraded Misty Step since we don’t really care if it’s an action or bonus action. If you find you run into a lot of charm immune enemies, Fear is also a good option to replace Hypnotic Pattern, or you could just continue using Web. Polymorph doubles as a debuff for enemies or a buff to allies by turning them into a Giant Ape or Trex (Ape has ranged attacks, Trex can restrain targets, pick your favorite). Polymorph is also the best healing spell in the game, as it can suddenly give your 1hp fighter over 100hp, as they adopt the hit points of their new form.
Feat: Metamagic Adept
2 more Sorcery points means we can do our big combo more frequently, and more metamagic options expands our versatility. Seeking Spell let’s us reroll to hit a target we missed if we really need to hit something, Twinned Spell works great with Suggestion, Extend Spell has niche uses, and Empower Spell is always a good standby for when you need a bit of extra damage. Pick your favorite.
Level 10-13: Sorcerer 12, Warlock 1
New Spells: Summon Draconic Spirit, Tasha’s Mind Whip (replacing Binding Ice), Synaptic Static (replacing Fireball), Banishment, Mass Suggestion (replacing Suggestion)
We want as many Sorcery points as possible, so we stick with Sorcerer. Binding Ice is becoming unreliable as it forces a Constitution save, so we will swap it for the much more reliable Mind Whip, as it also has better upcasting, doesn’t require concentration, and severely limits its target’s options on their turn. Fireball’s damage is not cutting it anymore, so we will swap it out for a spell with the same damage but targeting a better save and inflicting a very devastating debuff at the same time, all without requiring concentration. Summon Draconic Spirit is the only summoning option that Sorcerers normally get, so we will take it and be very happy. It’s a great spell for combats where a more traditional control spell like Hypnotic Pattern won’t work due like when our opponent has legendary resistance. Banishment is another great control option, working especially well in combats with 2-4 opponents. It allows us to set one enemy aside for later (or more if we upcast), and even completely banish an extraplanar enemy, removing them from the fight permanently. Our strategy is unchanged, but improving in effectiveness at each level. With more points we can cast both Booming Blade and another spell more turns, increasing our control and damage output. Booming Blade also keeps scaling, meaning our damage actually starts to catch up to martial classes as we get into higher levels.
Feat: Resilient Wisdom
This bumps our Wisdom from a 11 to 12, and makes us actually pretty good at the most important save going into high level play. It would be really bad for this character to get mind controlled and start throwing their best spells at their teammates all while punishing their movement and sometimes also blowing up randomly.
Levels 14-17: Sorcerer 16, Warlock 1
New Spells: Reverse Gravity, Scatter, Dominate Monster
Reverse Gravity is just such a beating of a spell. It hits a massive area and doesn’t really care if the enemies fail their save or not. Their options are to fall upwards or be dangling by whatever they have ahold of, probably in no great condition to be fighting. If there’s a high enough ceiling, then this does falling damage, and if we’re out in the open, they’re just stuck in the air unable to move. Scatter is a mass-teleport that can completely reposition your entire team in the middle of combat, place enemies where they don’t want to be, or both! I’m not usually a fan of high level spells like Dominate Monster, but through a combination of Heightened Spell and Silvery Barbs, we can actually make the spell pretty consistent, just don’t bother to use it on anything with legendary resistance.
Ability Score Improvement: +2 Charisma
This gets our Charisma to a 20, improving a lot of our core abilities.
Level 18-20: Sorcerer 19, Warlock 1
New Spells: Wish
Yeah no big surprises here. Wish is the best feature that a character can get in this game and it’s not even close. The ability to replicate the effects of any spell of 8th level or lower largely negates the Sorcerer’s weakness of limited spell choice. I’d also argue that someone as unstable as us casting Wish should probably trigger a wild magic surge automatically.
Feat: Lucky
Because you have to have been Lucky to make it to level 20 with this crazy concoction. It’s also a good feat so there’s that too.
I admit, this build requires a bit of DM and table by in. Not every table is willing to roll with this level of unpredictably, but for those who embrace the chaos, I hope this build delivers. By mid levels we should be triggering a surge nearly every single turn, and at early levels we should be able to do so at least every other turn. If playing a living bomb of magical potential is something that sounds like a good idea to you, you’re probably a little crazy, but you should have fun with this. I know what I’ll be playing for my next campaign, and I can’t wait to Fireball myself in the face.
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