Wild Magic Sorcerer 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@Crier Kobold

Wild Magic promises wild, wacky, unexpected magic as its core gameplay. That’s a challenging promise to fulfill at a table playing with standard rules and expectations from class to class. The implementation Wizards of the Coast went with I think managed to deliver enough “anything could happen!” nonsense while not letting it take over the table constantly.

If you want to play a sorcerer who constantly fires off uncontrolled magic that can massively disrupt the table, I’d seriously advise reeling in that character concept just a bit. Wild Magic I find is at its best as a once-per-session or less kind of feature.

Wild Magic Sorcerer is by far the most disruptive option in the game, and I don’t think it's a great fit for every table. Some will adore it. Others will absolutely hate it.

1st Level: Wild Magic Surge and Tides of Chaos

Wild Magic Surge is the reason people play Wild Magic. Having run it a lot, I can say the table certainly has some hilarious potential, but it has far more “meh” abilities that the game moves right on past without any major impact occurring. It can be frustrating to play the Wild Magic sorcerer, ramp up your excitement over the session as you fish for 1s on your dice, and when you finally get one, you can’t become intoxicated for a few weeks.
Wild Magic Surge is gated entirely by the DM; many (myself included) prompt the Wild Magic Surge roll after every spell cast, especially in the low tiers, as there’s only a 5% chance per spell cast of seeing any wild magic happen at all. If you don’t, this often feels like a non-feature.
Should you roll the 1 and trigger Wild Magic Surge, the outcomes range from game-ending to nothing of interest happening which is polarizing, to say the least. Some people revel in both while other players don’t want any chance that the group is Fireballed to death at 1st level.
This implementation certainly has excitement baked into it but can be a chore to constantly run. More than most other features, this is something the DM has to maintain near exclusively and figure out spontaneous wild outcomes on the fly. Sometimes you have to pull up stat blocks for Flumphs. Other times you have randomly determine from 15 creatures which has the inconsequential Fly spell cast on it.
I think I’d personally prefer an option with more frequent random effects with lower severity. “Your skin turns a vibrant shade of blue” and “You grow a long beard made of feathers that remains until you sneeze” both could be attached to every spell cast and deliver on the fantasy more consistently, but you’re as likely to grow a feather beard as you are to make your entire team vulnerable to piercing damage for a minute, swiftly becoming shishkabobs, or summon a Unicorn to solve whatever low-tier fight you’re engaged in.
For what it is, I think Wild Magic Surge can be a fun feature at a table that all agree to use it frequently. If there are discrepancies in who wants to use it and the rate at which its used, it can easily tear a table apart in frustration. Some DMs won’t engage with it at all, literally removing the bulk of your character’s fantasy. Other tables may have other players pulling their hair out over a DM indulging you with as many Wild Magic Surges as you could possibly want.
Tides of Chaos fits more as an additional ability with Wild Magic Surge than its own other feature, as it's one of the few ways you and your DM can ensure you’re rolling on the table. Advantage on anything, with no action costs at all, is excellent if it’s more than once or twice a rest. It can be, should a DM keep tossing it back to you to spin the Wild Magic Surge wheel more often. It also can be a once-per-long rest advantage command. Your mileage may vary, which basically is the motto of this archetype.

6th Level: Bend Luck

Bend Luck costs 2 sorcery points but can have a massive impact on a fight or event. A d4 added to a close result. For this to be worth it, you basically need to know what AC or DC they’re working against to determine if you’re wasting the points or not. If you ever use this and it had no chance of changing the outcome, it’s just wasting two of your precious few sorcery points you need to empower the rest of what you’re doing.
I don’t love features that ask players to figure out exact ACs and DCs to work, and I also don’t like features that compete with others for your resources. This is both. It can be powerful and impactful, though. With access to it, you’ll want to pay close attention to what hits, fails saves, and more to get the most out of it.

14th Level: Controlled Chaos

Selective Wild Magic with Controlled Chaos can’t be the only feature you get as a 14th-level feature, yet it is. Now, you can ensure you’re not turning yourself into a potted plant or Fireballing yourself, but most of the time, you’re still doing little to nothing when you roll Wild Magic. The negative outcomes are just far less common now, and the positive ones, like doubling your next spell damage, are going to show up a bit more.

18th Level: Spell Bombardment

Spell Bombardment might just be the worst version of this effect in the game. Exploding is a mechanic some dice rolling games include where when you roll the highest on a die, you roll that dice again and keep going should you keep rolling maximum. This takes that concept and reels it in to be as minimal as humanly possible. At its best, this reads “Add one die to your damage spells”. That’s not a particularly riveting 18th-level feature.
Fortunately, you’re a full caster in the upper tiers and have access to 8th and 9th-level spell slots, so you don’t need powerful abilities here.

All Together

Beyond the level 1 feature, though, the “wild” doesn’t really ramp up or improve that much. The option I think shines brightest as a low-tier “party-game” option for tables looking for wacky and silly D&D.

It's hard to rate this, as the bulk of its power is wrapped up in the DM deciding how often it gets to work. If it sounds fun to you, I seriously recommend discussing with your DM how they’d run it, and checking with the other players if the frequency you want to be surging matches their expectations as well.

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