I’ve been playing a sorcerer in one of my dnd 5e groups, and I fell in love with metamagic. The idea that spells can be modified in ways to make sorcerers stand out is really cool. There is a metamagic to cover most situations, but as most of you who have played a sorcerer knows, we often wonder to think about what other cool ways we could modify spells with homebrew metamagic for Sorcerers.
I did just that one day, and wanted to share these with you. I don’t claim to know how balanced these are, and some may be overpowered, too expensive, or underpowered when compared to other metamagic options already available. However, that isn’t the point – I just enjoy creating things.
Maybe you like these – talk with your game master to see if they could be implemented. They will help to balance out some of the stronger options, and you can create a more unique sorcerer.
Overcharge Spell – Homebrew Metamagic
Cost – 5 Sorcery Points
Sorcerous Origin: Any
The sorcerer channels excess magic within themselves, allowing them to overcharge the spell. An overcharged spell will delay the casting of their spell by one turn but outputs three times its normal power in the next turn. Cannot be used with Concentration spells.
Inspiration for Overcharge Spell
This Metamagic effect was born from my character’s desire to steal all of the glory. Being a Sorcerer/Bard, he loved to be the center of attention, and one thing he loved most of all, was to get the last hit on whatever he fought. That, and of course, how anime magic always looks so over the top when the protagonist overcharged a simple spell. (See Megumin Explosion for the birth of this Metamagic effect idea.)
“If I hit it really really hard, maybe it will die before the others have a chance to even know who I’m targeting!” He would think to himself. And so, he created the Overcharge Spell.
It’s Probably Overpowered
This can let you cast a triple damage 9th level spell for a single spell slot if you’re willing to wait a round of doing nothing. I’m not blind to this. However, I tried to balance this with the high sorcery point cost to compensate – At most, you can do it four times (At 20th level).
If you guys have any balancing suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Enlarge Spell
Cost – 2 Sorcery Points
Sorcerous Origin: Any
The sorcerer channels their inner magic, increasing the area of effect of the spell by 10 feet. Spells like Lightning Bolt do not increase beam width but do reach further out in a line.
Inspiration for Enlarge Spell
Who doesn’t like bigger booms? Got the idea from how Dynamite AOE works.
That’s it; that’s the inspiration.
This is Probably Very Situational
Fireball in a room, anyone?
Reaching Spell
Cost – 1 to Max Sorcery Points
Sorcerous Origin: Any
The sorcerer weaves magical lattices into their spell, increasing its casting range by 10 ft for every sorcerer point spent. Touch spells start at 15 ft for the first point spent, increasing by 5 ft for every point spent afterward. Does not affect self-casting.
Inspiration for Reaching Spell
Look, I know Distant Spell exists. Yes, I know it doubles the range of the spell. In most cases, the base Reaching spell will be worse in every way than Distant Spell Metamagic. However, if you’re willing to shell out the Sorcery points, you can hit really, really far out with things that aren’t eldritch blasts.
Shielded Spell
Cost – 1 Sorcery point
Sorcerous Origin: Any
The sorcerer weaves a complex array of magic into the spell, shielding it. A shielded spell cannot be affected by counterspell.
Inspiration for Shielded Spell
This one time, I cast a spell at a guy, right? He used counterspell on me, and a party member got the kill with his sword. Like, how rude is that?! I told you, my character likes those glory-stealing shenanigans.
Shifting Spell
Cost – 1 Sorcery point
Sorcerous Origin: Wild Magic
The sorcerer weaves magic to shift the fabric of the spell they cast, changing it into another spell entirely. Roll a D100 to determine the spell used.
D100 | Spell |
---|---|
01-10 | Witch Bolt |
11-20 | Magic Missile |
21-30 | Firebolt |
31-40 | Healing Word |
41-50 | Fog |
51-60 | Create Bonfire |
61-70 | Flameblade |
71-80 | Ice Lance |
81-90 | Fireball |
91-100 | Your choice of spell from any class at or below the level of spell you cast. |
Inspiration Behind Shifting Spell
Nothing against my DM, but I picked up wild magic as my Sorcerous Origin for a reason. Not being able to access those silly effects when I want them to happen is kind of frustrating. Being restricted to when the DM says kind of goes against the chaotic nature I wanted my Sorcerer to be.
This little metamagic gives me a little bit of control over that chaos. With it, I can, at will, choose when the chaos happens. The limit being, of course, is the fixed number of times you can enact the will of chaos per long rest. At lower levels, this balances out a bit more, but it makes sense that a more developed Sorcerer is able to enact chaos more per day.
This is also the HomeBrew Metamagic effect that originated the idea for this post to begin with, so… yeah.
Hey! I think these are pretty amazing. Shielded seems pretty strong but it just seems to stop it from being counterspelled, which is very nice. I really like the flavor some of these have too.
Hey, thanks for the feedback!
I was under no illusion that these weren’t powerful. But so is counterspell, and getting counterspelled at a pivotal moment in a campaign is very frustrating for players when the DM tries to use it.
Expending a Sorcery point like a voucher saying “Don’t ruin my fun, DM” to make sure a critical spell hits when it needs to is balanced, and DMs are free to adjust the cost of the metamagic effect if they want to limit this capability.
Of course, the DM could also turn the tables on the party and use the same metamagic against them – which could lead to interesting results. You have been warned!