The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is a powerful caster with an incredible spell list, various ways to spend Sorcery Points, and generically strong magic access. It primarily caters to divination and enchantment magic, but can also use other spells. Starting at 1st level, the sorcerer’s aberrant nature changes their mind in subtle but profound ways. They learn additional spells when they reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the Psionic Spells table.
The Sorcerer can already retrain one known spell every time they gain a level, but Psionic Spells allows them to retrain the spells granted by the feature. The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer has 10 extra spells known and one additional cantrip, making it an impressive font of magic. Some recommended spells for the sorcerer include Arcane Eye Charm Monster Confusion* Divination Dominate Beast, Arms of Hadar, dissonant whispers, mind sliver, calm emotions, detect thoughts, hunger of Hadar, sending, and Evard’s black…
The Psionic Spells feature takes the sorcerer’s power to another level by expanding into other class spells. The sorcerer can already retrain one known spell every time they gain a level, but Psionic Spells also allows them to retrain the spells granted by the feature.
In conclusion, the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer brings psionics to the forefront of Dungeons and Dragons’ sorcerer class, offering a wide range of spells and abilities to enhance their psychic abilities.
📹 You Might Be an Aberrant Mind | Sorcerer Subclass Guide for DND 5e
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Can any wizard take dunamancy spells?
The objective of dunamancy spells is to facilitate accessibility to two specific wizard subclasses in the immediate future. However, there is also the possibility of implementing these spells for other spellcasting classes, with the intention of earning or rewarding them.
Can Eldritch Knight cast two spells?
As an Eldritch Knight, you have learned to cast spells and follow the rules outlined in the Player’s Handbook. You have two cantrips of your choice from the Wizard spell list, which can be replaced with another one when you gain a Fighter level. The Eldritch Knight Spellcasting table shows the number of spell slots you have to cast your spells of level 1 and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher.
You prepare a list of spells of level 1 and higher available for you to cast with this feature. You start by choosing three level 1 spells from the Wizard spell list and increase the number as you gain Fighter levels. You can change your prepared spells whenever you gain a level in this class.
You learn a ritual that creates a magical bond between yourself and one weapon. This ritual can be performed over an hour during a Short Rest, and the weapon must be within your reach. The bond fails if another Fighter is bonded to the weapon or if the weapon is a magic item to which someone else is attuned.
Once you have bonded a weapon to yourself, you cannot be disarmed of it unless you have the Incapacitated condition. If the weapon is on the same plane of existence, you can summon it as a Bonus Action, causing it to teleport instantly to your hand. You can have up to two bonded weapons, but can only summon one at a time with your Bonus Action. If you attempt to bond with a third weapon, you must break the bond with one of the other two.
What does aberrant mind Sorcerer do?
As an Aberrant Mind sorcerer, one may utilize the manipulation of opponents into illusory prisons, which effectively results in their banishment from reality and the instillation of fear within their hearts. However, the browser in use does not support cookies or JavaScript, which is causing the application to malfunction.
Can you cast aberrant dragonmark spells with spell slots?
The text discusses various spells and abilities in the game, including Absorb Elements, Burning Hands, Catapult, Chaos Bolt, Charm Person, Chromatic Orb, Color Spray, Ritual Caster, Disguise Self, Distort Value AI, Earth Tremor, False Life, Feather Fall, Fog Cloud, Ice Knife, Jump, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Ray of Sickness, Shield, Silent Image, Sleep, Tasha’s Caustic Brew, Thunderwave, and Witch Bolt.
Absorb Elements is a defensive option that saves life when encountering unpredictable elements or spells. It has bonus damage on your next attack, but it doesn’t stay relevant as you level. Burning Hands is tempting for martial characters, but its damage won’t feel impressive at high levels. Catapult is unimpressive, and Chaos Bolt requires an empty hand to cast. Charm Person is a useful skill for changelings or races, while Disguise Self is a situational novelty.
False Life is a good way to improve durability, but it might be better served by the Tough feat. Feather Fall is important in any party, but it shouldn’t be used often enough to justify its use. Fog Cloud is situational but a decent escape mechanism and negates Advantage if enemies have the upper hand. Ice Knife is not great, and Jump is too situational. Mage Armor increases AC by +1 over light armor, but it doesn’t stay relevant as you level. Magic Missile doesn’t stay relevant as you level, but it interacts with damage boosts like Arcane Firearm and Hexblade’s Curse.
Ray of Sickness is generally not a great spell, with little damage and short duration. Shield is reliable but has somatic components and no material component, so most characters need an empty hand to cast it. Silent Image is versatile but doesn’t stay relevant as you level.
Can aberrant mind sorcerer get Eldritch blast?
The Aberrant Mind can borrow from Warlocks, including the Hex spell, by taking the Spell Sniper feat at first level. This allows them to access the Eldritch Blast cantrip, doubling its range and ignoring half and three-quarters cover on their ranged spell attacks. Eldritch Blast is particularly effective when combined with the Eldritch Invocation Agonizing Blast. At level four, players can take the Eldritch Adept feat to pick up Agonizing Blast for themselves.
Playing a Sorcerer with Warlock powers is enhanced by the Quicken Spell Metamagic, a signature ability of the Sorcerer class. Quicken Spell makes any spell a bonus action, allowing them to cast two spells in the same round. This allows for a powerful combo of Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Hex, resulting in a significant amount of damage.
Can sorcerers use all spells?
The Sorcerer shares many spells with the Wizard, but they have a limited number of known spells and cannot cast rituals. To adapt to any situation, they must learn to rely on a smaller number of spells and master metamagic. A good sorcerer must also know when to cast spells using a higher-level spell slot, as using higher-level slots can be just as effective as learning a new high-level spell. Staples like Fireball remain useful even after their first level, making them ideal for those with limited spell knowledge.
What do aberrant sorceries scale with?
The Albinauric Staff is a crucial piece of equipment in the Elden Ring Aberrant Sorceries build guide. It scales with Arcane and Intelligence, but its unique ability to enhance Bleed buildup is what sets it apart. This staff is essential for maximizing blood buildup from Aberrant Sorceries. However, it sacrifices higher base damage compared to the Carian Regal Scepter for more Bleed buildup. The Albinauric Staff allows for Seppuku to be applied to melee weapons, granting substantial bleed buildup to complement sorcery.
This adds versatility to your build, allowing you to use both spells and melee weapons with significant bleeding potential. The Dragon Communion Seal enhances the status effect buildup of spells and incantations, and offers decent damage if you add damaging incantations to your build. This allows you to include both sorceries and incantations with effective status effect buildup and solid scaling.
Can sorcerers cast two spells?
Sorcerers may utilize the Quickened Spell ability to cast a standard 1-action spell as a bonus action, thereby enabling them to employ their action for a different purpose. Nevertheless, the casting of spells is constrained to cantrips, and Twinned Spell can be employed in conjunction with the cantrip.
Is Eldritch Blast worth it?
Eldritch Blast is an indispensable component of any warlock configuration, as it can be utilized as the primary or exclusive attack methodology, reserving other spells for specific instances. It is regarded as one of the most beneficial patrons for warlocks in the DnD series, and its effectiveness is anticipated in the Dungeons and Dragons context due to its considerable strength.
Can sorcerers have wands?
Sorcerers don’t need a wand to use their Impulse abilities, as they originate within them. Wands don’t increase Impulse quantity like orbs, but they can create powerful, varied, and focused attacks. Wands are highly valuable to sorcerers as their battle skills depend on synchronization with Impulse flow. Users often state their wand names before initiating attacks. Wands can be integrated into a user’s wardrobe or carried in the open. They lack an Impulse signature, allowing users to catch opponents off guard with unexpected wands.
Can a warlock use the same spell twice?
The Thief of Five Fates is capable of casting the bane spell on a single occasion via the utilisation of a warlock spell slot. However, this ability is contingent upon the Thief of Five Fates having undergone a period of rest, which must exceed a minimum duration. In order to utilize the Thirsting Blade, a character must possess the 5th-level Pact of the Blade feature, which enables them to attack twice with a pact weapon.
📹 How to Play an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons 5e
MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to …
When I first saw Arabella from BG3 coming from the shadow lands almost unscathed, manipulating vines and plants and fighting the shadows, I thought she was a Druid, but later, with all that talk with her and Withers and the “let the weave guide you” thing, she seemed more like a Sorcerer to me. That’s when I realized that the things that happened in the Druid’s Grove awakened her innate magical powers. Maybe she is a Druid-themed Sorcerer after all.
So, I’m heavily biased as someone who enjoys H.P. Lovecraft stories and the Cthulhu mythos, but I LOVE this subclass. I commented this on the community post as well, but my longest-running character – currently level 17 – is (mainly) Aberrant Mind. Even started back when it was still Unearthed Arcana! (We play every other week. It’s been a loooong campaign.) And YMBA’s right, it’s a VERY powerful subclass! I sadly haven’t had a whole lot of use for it, but thanks to the psionic spellcasting and Sending, you can become a living communications hub in more social-focused games/sessions! If you funnel your spell slots into sorcery points, you can easily cast Sending upwards of 6 or 7 times as early as levels 7 or 8. And that’s not even touching on the power you can wield in combat with things like synaptic static that can’t be counterspelled! It plays like a dream!
Interesting sub, even if Cthulhu seems to be the only representation of cosmic horror that is explored for some reason. I made a character who re-flavors many of these abilities as he draws his powers from the energy that constitutes Nyarlathotep. His “Revelation in Flesh” manifests as his body appearing to be like a negative photograph; distorted slightly in space-time by seeming taller & leaner than he is, almost 2 dimensional at certain angles
The tentacle and slime motifs are likely because of the Eldrich/Lovecraftian origins of the subclass flavor. The whole “I was exposed to a cosmic horror thing from the far realm and now my mind is altered in some way” defiantly has a Cathulu Cultist vibe. Even the fishy mutations of the Revelation in Flesh seem to take a page from Degon and the deep one hybrids.
yep you got to love this subclass, granted i love the eldritch stuff so it’s quite literally made for me, and it’s made even better with Tasha’s also giving you the Telekinetic and Telepathic feats. Like sure you’re not going meta with them (not that Aberrant Mind is needing any help) but they add to it’s flavor so well while only being half feats to boot.
I think a lot of the goo theme for this subclass comes from the abberation that it most closely models from, especially at those higher levels: aboleths. Older than the gods, bastions of psionic might not unlike the mind flayers, and secreting a mucus that transmits a disease that turns the skin of humanoids into goo and forces them to breathe water instead of air.
Mind alteration was so much more broken back in 3.5… they didn’t have to deal with a charmed creature realizing it had been manipulated the moment the spell duration expires for a start, and at the highest levels it was possible to rewrite someone’s memories so hard a freaking wish was required to undo it (if you wanted to actually alter their personality you left it open to a remove curse doing the job), if the never-formally-updated pizza cutter 3.0 dark book was allowed.
Yeah you can easily powergame this subclass, or you can make a Drow Interplanet Janet with Crown of Stars, Dancing Lights, Melf’s Minute Meteors, and Faerie Fire. Drow entertainer is great synergy statwise, and additional dex and charisma means you can blast people for allies to clean up. Finally, her mental discussions allow her and her troupe to pull off feats which require radio silence and some means of communication. You have a crossbow, tie a rope to it and let the rogue climb up while you let him know when and if trouble is coming to spot them, thanks to Telepathic Speech and 120 ft of Darkvision. Whether you slotted stats for combat, for exploration, or for roleplay, the Interplanet Janet build is a valuable asset to any team.
What… 18th level is great but the 20th capstone is Meh…? That means 2 level dip time! 2 levels in Divination Wizard gives portent, which is not only powerful metagaming but fits in perfectly with the flavour of the class. And there’s the option of one of the other charisma based classes (Hexblade, Paladin, Bard) with better armour, so you won’t be so squishy.
I’ve been playing an Aberant Mind Sorcerer for the past 2 years and he has been my favorite character ever. Tasha’s Mind Whip and Hypnotic pattern have been clutch in numerous encounters. He also has the Actor feat so I’ve been speaking into people’s minds in their loved ones voices. or voices of their supperiors. It’s wreaked all sorts of havoc.
There’s another feat I think works really well with Aberrant Minds and that’s Eldritch Adept for Misty Visions – free castings of silent image. Think how much you can mess with people by talking in their heads and making a ghost illusion? Or making a picture on the wall start moving and talking to someone in their head? It’s great.
I usually only listen to these while at work or when I’m busy, but I actually had a chance to watch this one. The back and forth during spell selection felt more casual and fun than your typical articles. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Seemed more like a couple friends having fun talking about a class they really like instead of a hard analysis of the spells available.
I think Calm Emotions can be a pretty strong spell in the right situations. It can be used in two ways, and there’s no limit on the number of humanoids it can affect. Turning hostile creatures indifferent can avoid a fight, and being able to influence them subtly an added benefit. Removing charmed or frightened condition from your whole party (and suppressing the cause) is also a good use of a second level spell. And the spell is very thematic. Even if it’s only a situational, Aberrant Mind has so many Spells Known that they can afford to keep some situational spells at hand.
Aberrant Mind is one of my favorite ways to play 5e period. My current character is a blend of Aberrant Mind, Psi Warrior, and Hex Blade. Blending action surge, psionic casting, and quickened spell I’ve ended up with a very versatile blaster that can pull out some formidable control and social skills as well. It’s been very fun, with alot of good flavor!
Played one of these as kobold charlatan and paired up with our noble arcane trickster goblin, we got a reversible cloak, started 2 people in a trench coat. With disguise kits, subtle magic and a ton of guile, every town we drew a crowd as buskers, choirs, pseudo bards. Very quickly we were had a small repitoire of persona, games and rumours we spread across the kingdom. Great times. Glad to see this class getting some coverage.
I play a psionic class similar to this subclass, and I use Calm Emotions semi-regularly. Recently, I used it to keep a bar fight from happening that would have caused a rift between us and a much needed ally faction. I’ve also used it within the last few months to counteract a rage poison and calm down an interrogation target who started panicking. My character is a psychologist, so the spell fits their personality despite not being universally applicable. They also try not to use mind control if they don’t have to
You should always cast your Psionic Spells with Psionic Sorcery and Sorcery Points, even if you actually rather want to use a Spell Slot from your resources. You can convert the very same Spell Slot to the same number of Sorcery Points as a Bonus Action. You have gained having the shell cast super Subtle, and you could have added other Metamagic options on the top. If you are tight on Bonus Actions in combat, you can do a bit of planning and do the conversion before or after the combat, depending on your Sorcery Point pool.
Calm emotions suppresses charm effects and fear effects. It depends on the campaign, but there are times when your cleric can’t afford to give up their concentration, but you can. Additionally, it allows you to have an alternative for infiltrations – your whole party just walks by the guards at the front gate and they don’t care because they are indifferent to you.
Since I was taking spells like Hypnotic pattern which can have friendly fire in many situations, as well as some other area save spells, I took careful spell. I found it worked pretty well with confusion, since if I or a party member or me had a cluster of foes around them, it made an excellent place to hit multiple targets with confusion, which is something that its small area of effect sometimes makes difficult.
I’m currently playing an aberrant mind/Echo Knight focused on battlefield control. And holy hell it’s fun. I took a lot of the options you guys laid down. I’m currently 4/4. On the fighter, I’ve got the great weapon fighting style with a maul, and Sentinel; and that’s powerful enough on its own. For the sorcerer, subtle and twinned for metamagic, and war caster for the feat to not have to choose between casting or swinging. I swapped spells for Hex, Identify, and Suggestion. Spell highlights are Booming Blade for when Echo can’t swing, Shield, Misty Step, and Vortex Warp. It’s awesome to be a tank that can go from Hexing, then blowing action surge and Echo swings for 4 hexed attacks (3d6 each, reroll first 1’s and 2’s) to the next turn Twinning Vortex warp to get my rogue out of trouble and a baddie in a bad spot. Plus all the utility that comes with a subtle Detect Thoughts, Identify, or Twinned Suggestion
I just finished a campaign where I played a Plasmoid Aberrant Mind Sorcerer (I made them 12 to avoid the inevitable tentacle jokes as I could). His name was Wally and he looked similar to Oz from Monster Prom. I made them to be the most adorable yet horrifying creature on the planet. For example, whenever he casted Hunger of Hadar, he would actually turn the area into “portal” directly into his stomach. Each time he killed someone with it, he would unleash the cutest burp and excuse himself. Whenever he casted Vortex Warp on an enemy, tentacles of darkness would spawn out of their own shadow and drag them down through it. He also had a weird obsession with muffins.
I just started playing an aberrant mind sorcerer and I single handedly took a demilich out of the fight by using sorcery points to cast telekinesis just held him 60 ft up in the air. After that I used quicken spell to deceive him and his minions into thinking I hadn’t cast the spell turning a hard encounter into a walk in the park
In our main campaign we started like 18 months ago at level 3, I’m playing a Custom Lineage Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. We’re currently level 12. I built my spell list around Subtle Spell. All of my spells can be cast without any components if I want to do so. None of my non-psionic spells have material components. Basically, uncounterable when I want. My DM was generous enough to give me a Staff of Power, which helps cover me in some of the damage departments. It also gave me my favorite spell: Wall of Force. I love the thematic elements of this subclass. Casting without casting has been a blast.
I found a lot use of Twinned Spell on lower levels with Mindwhip and Dissonant Whispers, more than Quickened Spell. Calm Emotions I would keep (but in the reguler Sorcerer roster) to suppress charm and frighten effects. It should be more and more useful at later levels (I have no experience with those).
Even with no sorcercy points, pretend you had a 2nd level spell slot… you want to cast a 2nd level psionic spell? Bonus action to turn the 2nd level slot into 2 sorcery points, then use those sorcery points to cast the spell and now you don’t need any components and lost literally NO resources you wouldn’t already have lost.
Played one, had the meat magic that allowed me to change elemental types. Fireball became Thunderball, etc. Used Arms of Hadar as battlefield control, slorped up some baddies. We stealthed in behind some baddies at one point, and got off a twin Disintegrate on enemy casters, which was just rather cool.
You know I had this concept for a Clockwork Sorcerer who is an Changeling actor who uses his shape changing to get parts in plays he might otherwise get passed over. And I went with Clockwork because I thought the flavor would be fun that he sees his control spells as a play (IE Misty Step is him exiting stage left). But after this article I think I might switch him to Aberrant because I also see him as the character who also avoids conflict through subtle manipulation and infiltration. Like he would love to take on a new roll by stealing a uniform and playing Steve the guard for a while and the ability to subtly charm and read minds seems right up that alley.
I’ve been playing one for a little over a year now. I decided to not take any spells with material components and I subtle cast everything. Command is by far the best 1st level spell to swap. Also confusion is super underrated. I use it to great effect often. One other point is if you have the option never cast an AM spell subtly with a slot+1 SP. just convert the slot to points.
Flexible Casting lets you convert spell slots into Sorcery Points (as a bonus action) at the same rate that Psionic Sorcery uses to cast them. Using both, the Sorcery Points end up cancelling out, so in effect, you can spend a bonus action to remove all components from a spell you cast using a spell slot. You don’t have to use the bonus action on the same turn to even things out, but it does simplify things. Plus I like that you’re taking that extra moment to concentrate and manifest the spell from your mind alone.
My aberrant mind was ‘Githzerai’; custom lineage, telekinetic feat (starting with 18 cha is great), add the 6th level subclass features and you get every single one of it’s racial abilities, so it’s a great fit. I think viewing the psionic sorcery as a ‘discount on creating spell slots’ is an odd way to look at it and greatly underselling the feature. It’s more like your psionic spells can pull from a massive pool consisting of sorcery points+spell slots*lvl (given the 1:1 conversion). At level 10, you have a pool of 51 (10sp+41slot lvls), so you can cast synaptic static 10 times, or mind whip 25 times, or silvery barbs 51 times (etc), and all of them will be uncounterspellable. No other caster else can do this. Also, you mention it not really being a blaster, but after playing it I think it can be one of the best blasters in the game. I took the typical dip with two levels in hexblade for armor and eldritch blast with agonizing blast, and that pairs great later on with Summon Aberration. At level 11, on each turn you can cast/quicken two eldritch blasts and have a beholderkin firing eyebeams (which is actionless) for a total of 8 attacks, at level 17 with 8th lvl beholderkin this goes up to 12 attacks, and you have enough sorcery points to do this all day (not that stuff lives long with this combo).
My Aberrant Mind sorlock probably has one of the best backstories I’ve ever made. She was part of a mercenary squad that hunted an Elder Brain dragon. The hunt went horribly wrong, with my character being the only one to survive ceremorphosis and become an Aberrant Mind. But now she has to hunt down her former allies turned mind flayers and put them down.
If you can use level 6 psionic sorcery with swapped spells, which I think is RAW, you can cast silvery barbs all day. Even more if you dip warlock. Also, I really like calm emotions, I kept it on my AM sorcerer and took it on my lore bard. I’ve used it several times on a dominated ally. Its really good in RP situations when emotions start to run high, the party had to move in the opposite direction of a crazed crowd and another while new in a unfriendly town bad rolls things were about to turn ugly against us.
Scrying is a sorcerer spell, but it also has a VERY costly component that is not aways easy to carry around. Psionic Sorcery lets you ignore M components, even those that have a gold cost, as long as it is not consumed. So you can use scrying anywhere at any moment and people don’t even see you do it
Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is my Favorite Sorcerer sub-class as well. One thing to mention, with the ability to switch out the spells from the expanded spell list, an aberrant mind sorcerer can allocate many great control and utility spells into the expanded spell list. This means an aberrant mind sorcerer can easily be built to be a battlefield controller AND a blaster. Also multiclassing an aberrant mind sorcerer allows them to pick up many powerful abilities that allow them be built into an array of powerful and useful roles, often times they are even able to be top tier as blaster, utility and battlefield control all at once. There are some drawbacks to some of the viable multiclassing options, but that is always the case when multiclassing any class.
I created an aberrant mind sorcerer, he was a dispater tiefling and a spy, using those psychic powers and charisma, to lie cheat, and deceive. reading minds, making illusions, charming and suggesting through social interactions like a pro. I used him once in a basic battle arena session, but before the guards took us to the arena to start fighting, I convinced a guard to release me and that his friend was a thief. it turned a battle session into a prison break. The best ever.
I have a build for this which is a weird melee build. I went Mountain Dwarf for the armor, it can use booming blade with a Warhammer. You get a bunch of reaction spells, including getting Silvery Barbs as a psionic spell to choose (or Hex). The extra constitution gives decent hit points. Breastplate or Half Plate gives an AC of 17 with +2 Dex. You can have the option of Shield and Absorb Elements as well. This is just the 1st level spell options. If you still need more 1st level spells, you can multi class with warlock.
Personal experience – Streaking Plasmoid / Aberrant Mind with Telekinetic feat. Spells only with V, S, and bypass M with Sorc Point usage. Once a day swallows a crystal ball for a moment (looks like slime core) to cast Mage armor. Wiggle, wiggle – counterspell, wiggle, wigle, – firebolt. An amorphous blob that does not understand need for worldly possessions and privacy of ones mind.
13:03 I actually once came up with the concept for a Deep Gnome Aberrant Sorcerer, mind you it’s setting specific. In this setting, there are large psychic crystals made from dead Gem Greatwyrms around the place that psionic races connect to in order to contact their ancestors. This sorcerers parents connect to it, but the ancestors place a psychic spark in their unborn child. Because o this, the sorcerer occasionally hears the whispers of their ancestors.
It’s a great subclass. As DM I built one for an important NPC, possible DMPC, but turned her over to a new player when we recruited him. Serious mind-f*”&3ry potential, was my thought. The new player tried to make her into a blaster, but also got a lot of mileage out of calm emotions, Tasha’s and Raorhim’s psychic damage spells. In the final BBEG battle (lvl 9) used telekinesis to pop a demi lich into another PC’s bag of holding for several rounds, which won them the fight. Can’t sleep on spells without saving throws!!
Played an Abberant Mind in Tier 3 – used subtle spell Detect Thoughts on an entire pirate ship in interrogations. I do recommend arcane eye too. Great for dungeon crawls. Also Scrying is a nice pickup for 5th level – super useful and cheap for this character and not a usual Sorcerer spell unless I’m missing something.
My Deep Gnome Aberrant mind sorcerer took a 2 level dip into warlock for Mask of Many Faces and Agonizing blast, and I took the Actor Feat as well. This allowed for a super fun character to change appearance at will for infiltration, and other shenanigans, like the Faceless Men from Game of Thrones. But due to my size being small, I could only change appearance into other small races or a child of a medium size race. So a lot of time I pretended to be a young child of one of my companions. Also, for flavor, I made it so my appearance wasn’t really being changed, but it was just being changed in the observers’ brain. I also took Quicken Spell to cast Eldritch blast twice in a turn. That made my single target DPS fantastic, so I limited all my other spell choices to Illusion and Divination. I love this character, playing him is so much fun.
Awesome article. Currently playing a Fighter 3(Echo-Knight), Warlock 2(Hexblade), Sorcerer 7(Aberrant Mind), and its going great! He has decent to great reliable damage from Eldritch Blast, and great options for defense, utility, and control thanks to all the classes. My only concern (should we continue the game into the upper levels) is whether I’m going to continue all Sorcerer, or take that one more level into Fighter (this will set back my magic significantly = no 8th level slot but yet another feature) then return to Sor. Anyway, take care all.
I am currently playing a half elf Aberrant mind sorcerer in my Dungeons of Drakkenheim Campaign! it’s amazing because in a campaign so focused on political faction rivalry and never knowing who to trust, having a character who can just read people’s minds is SO busted! Also as many of the enemy creatures are pretty mindless (like the dregs and haze hulks), spells that have enemies roll intelligence saving throws is very helpful cause a lot of them can’t literally pass the save!
I think the most important part of the level 6 feature was a little glossed over. Subtle spell doesn’t bypass M components, meaning you can still be detected while casting spells, even using Subtle (unless the spell has no M components, obviously). Spells cast with the level 6 feature bypass everything. You are completely undetectable. Social situations become your playground. Toss Heightened Enemies Abound (since you’re not using Subtle, you can use something else on the spell!) on the King’s most trusted advisor after telling him he’s plotting to murder him. Now the King trusts you. In a RP heavy campaign, Aberrant Mind is king.
Currently playing a Tiefling Hexblade/Aberrant Mind and at Lv 1/8 I have Cantrip Prestidigitation, Create Bonfire, Frostbite, Mage Hand, Thaumaturgy, Eldritch Blast, Green-Flame Blade, Firebolt, Lv 1 Dissonant Whispers and Silvery Barbs on the SP casting, Absorb Elements on Sorcerer, Shield and Armor of Agathys on the Warlock (and 1 casting of Hellish Rebuke from tiefling) Lv 2 Gift of Gab and Tasha’s Mind Whip on the SP casting, Vortex Warp, Rime’s Binding Ice, Wither and Bloom, and See Invisibility (Plan to remove it when I get to 14 Sorcerer) Lv 3 Sending and Tongues on the SP casting, Melf’s Minute Meteors, Fireball and Counterspell Lv 4 Summon Aberration and Raulothim’s Psychic Lance on the SP casting, and Fire Shield I took the two Tiefling Racial feats Flames of Phlegethos and Infernal Constitution so I am sitting on a total of 8, 14, 16, 10, 10, 18 for the stat line but the idea is currently to use Hexblades Curse and Melf’s Minute Meteors on turn one and then go into Eldritch Blast and M’sMM to deliver 2-4 hits to activate the Hexblade’s Curse but also with Fire Shield, Flames of Phlegethos, and Armor of Agathys up the Cursed creature is going to have to hit for 35 damage before they break even against the basic retribution (15+2d8+4+1d4+4) damage which is quite funny not to mention I can Hellish Rebuke, Shield, or Silvery Barbs and I am Innately Resistant to Fire, Psychic, Poison, and Cold and then I have Absorb Elements for an extra Acid, Lightning, and Thunder resistance.
On Calm Emotions, In my campaign (which recently hit 100 sessions!) we were having an arc where the antagonists in question were hags, and were siphoning power from strong emotions in order to charge an obelisk that would revive a Dracolich. This arc was centered around our parties Barbarian, who is kind of a mix between Grog from CR and Kratos, and in the encounter where we began to fight the hags, I made major use of the Calm Emotions spell so that I could prevent him from Raging. I had this spell up as concentration during the fight, and the hags kill the barbarians mother in front of him… to which our DM had him make a charisma save in order to end calm emotions… and of course, he rolls a natural 20. And what is my aberrant mind sorcerers spell save DC? 20. The dice were on his side, and while we failed in preventing the resurrection of the Dracolich, man that was a cool moment. Obviously this is a VERY specific arc where Calm Emotions is a useful spell to have, but I have used it in the past to calm down NPC’s who are panicked because they saw something they weren’t supposed to see, or some PC’s and NPC’s are arguing and things are about to get violent. The spells utility honestly is entirely contingent on the player finding the situations where you can get mileage out of it. If an NPC is prone to make rash decisions when offended or angered, or otherwise excited, you can make good use of it. There was another scenario where, we were traveling as a party for long stretches of time underground, and we were making saving throws to not go insane, so I used calm emotions in order to keep our wits.
25:25 Scrying is available to regular Sorcerers, but if you take it with the psionic sorcery and spend sorcery points to cast it, you skip the material components. I just imagine you stiintng in a tavern, over your mug of beer and without anyone noticing, you use that beer as your scrying pool and watch someone in the rooms upstairs.
As much as the Dudes pointed out how great Psionic Sorcery is, I think they STILL undersold it. As an example, at level 9, you can swap out one of the 5th level spells for Synaptic Static. You can, throughout the day, convert ALL your spell slots to Sorcery Points, for an additional 36 Sorcery Points. This gives you a total of 45 Sorcery Points, assuming you didn’t take Metamagic Adept. That is 9 casts of Synaptic Static per long rest. A Warlock has to short rest 5 times per day to achieve that at the level 9. So good.
I really like your article guys, got a crap ton of tips and ideas for both characters and my dming. Curious as to when you will continue with your class tier rankings series with sorcerer, warlock and wizard. Reason, I ask is that I’m playing BG3 and I loved the ideas you gave for multiclassing barbarian to rogue. Thanks again for your “calm” manner in which you analyze classes as I’m not a fan of the super hyper style so youtuber’s use.
I’m playing an abbertant sorcerer in curse of strahd campaign and some spells you proposed are so juicy! The only thing that I kinda dislike about the abberrant is that it relies too much on spell with saving throws. Be unlucky with dice and half of your slots are gone for nothing… Guess you’ve to counterbalance your true strength yet sometimes feels bad
13:58-14:08 Just came up with a fairly reasonable way to handle this problem: If a character has double (or triple, or quadruple, etc.) resistance to a particular damage type, that character (after halving damage) takes none of that damage type if it is equal or less than their proficiency modifier. This represents an immunity to petty sources of that damage type, but not outright being broken by granting full immunity. This way a player won’t shy away from a particular race or class just because one of its features overlaps with another in the player’s character build. Just a thought.
A couple of other thematic ancestries would be aasimar (you were born of a mad angel, or, in a spelljammer campaign, your pregnant parent crewed on a ship that passed too close to the dreaming eldritch corpse of a dead god) or, if you want to go full Innsmouth, triton/water genasi. I kind of like triton because I feel like fog cloud goes real nicely on this spooky oceanic character, and cold resistance feels more thematic than acid resistance (though both are damage types dealt by Hunger of Hadar, so honestly both work). Maybe throw in a couple levels of Fathomless Warlock to round out the picture.
I think for swap out at level 2 suggestion is better and picking up mind whip the normal way. My reasoning is that it is more likley that you want a subtle suggestion and the psionic sorcery does not help with twin which is the way to go for with mind whip most of the time. I’m at two minds about Detect Thoughts and Telepathic Bond with this sorcerer. Problem is the Int based oposed ability check for detect thoughts (I’m lucky and my DM made allowed me to swap it to Cha for my sorcerer against Int of the other side). As for the Telepathic Bond, sorcerers are not ritual casters. So you actually have to pay the 5th level spell slot. That may be worth it at some point, but I don’t feel like it is worth it right away (when you only have that one 5th level spell slot and a weaker soloution for telepathic communication already in place).
And just a over month before this episode came out my Aberrant Mind Sorcerer died before even getting to level 3. They at least died saving the party. Everyone else way on Death Saves while I was barely up. I was successful in giving one of my downed allies my last Potion of Healing. After that the enemy took me down and I failed my last death save before anyone could heal me. After that though I started playing a Thri-Kreen Ranger that likes food, and would eat anyone given the opportunity (especially the Elf Druid in the Party).
I am currently playing an aberrant mind sorcerer in an Ice Wind Dale campaign, and absolutely loving it! Early on I leaned heavily on Hideous Laughter. Twinning it is cheap and even worth it at higher levels from time to time. Sometimes I just used it to knock an enemy prone for my party to beat on. Mind Whip and Hypnotic Pattern have both been fantastic. Vortex Warp has done insane things for encounters where maneuverability was key. Relatively cheap to twin, probably my new favorite spell. I’ve always loved Sending, and Summon Aberration has exceeded my expectations on multiple occasions. I multi-classed into undead warlock for Form of Dread plus EB and Repelling Blast. Pushing an enemy away, then frightening them is a great combo on a cantrip, and a great way to conserve resources and still contribute meaningfully in a fight. I am looking forward to using it in conjunction with Telekinesis. A frightened creature will have disadvantage on the ability check from Telekinesis, which will then restrain them giving you advantage on the EB attack you use to frighten them.
An idea for Kelly since he wanted to do a scimitar based barbarian,u build a path of the old gods barbarian/rogue which,with the exception of light property weapons, he can give any other weapon the heavy property,that means u can wield a scimitar which only has the finesse property,turn the damage to a d12 and give it the heavy property and now that means u can attack with great weapon master and not only that but because it’s a finesses weapon that means u can activate sneak attack too cause to activate sneak attack u need a weapon with the finesse or range property,not only that but the barbarian lacks some roleplay considering his proficiencies and a rogue can fill this up,u don’t even need to start as a barbarian u can start as a rogue to grab the dexterity saving through proficiency and the 4 skill proficiencies and then go 5 levels of barbarian for the extra attack and goodies. Kelly,if u hadn’t thought of this, ur welcome 😁
Currently I am playing an AM sorc 8/Undead Warlock 2 Started Vhuman with Telekinetic. Took Meta Adept at 8. This article fails to mention a fantastic power of this Sorc subclass. You can swap for silvery barbs with your psionic spells and then, if you need more 1st level slots, you can literally trade a single 4th level slot for 4 caatings of barbs or shield. This subclass is versatile as hell and my all time favorite subclass across the game
Why would you ever want to subtle spell on the psionic spells? You can just straight up convert the spell slot into sorcery points, use those exact sorcery points for the spells, and get the subtle effect for free. Converting spell slots into sorcery points is great with this feature since you can start mixing and matching spell slots of different levels
Unless I am getting something that I really want to keep that isn’t on the sorcerer spell list, I tend to swap out most of the Psionic spells. While I’ll keep Detect Thoughts as a Sorcerer spell, for example, being able to cast suggestion subtly multiple times seems a better use. I tend to take the subtle spell metamagic anyway, so I can still use that for the less-frequently-required Detect Thoughts. Since it is also basically an “improved” subtle spell that also doesn’t require material components when cast (so long as they components don’t have a value/cost, if I remember right), so I look for spells like that to put in the psionic spells list…
I know they have herd of Imogen and FCG on CR and the utility they have gotten out of Calm Emotions 😅 I see Aberrant Mind Sorcerer as a Feat heavy class because I want Fey and Shadow touched with Telekinesis. Because no matter if you are in a heavy RP or Combat group this sub class does both too well 😅
I would love to give this character a military background, and ask if I can Rule of Cool his chess set to be an Arcane Focus. Modify Memory is a great way to interrogate an NPC, then wipe their memory so they have no recollection of being questioned. It’s also a great “get out of jail free” card when you realized you painted yourself into a corner, and the person across the table from you has every intention of ratting you out to the villain
I’m doing a sub optimal watcher pali 13/ aberrant mind 7 in the end. Just 2 lvl into sorcerer. I’ve got a ton of forced movement from race and feats . Next lvl I’ll be able to reduce a creature movement by 30ft with sentinel in case I don’t land everything I need. For now I took bane to help out my parties monk and evocation wizard with the 20 dc. I planning on taking spell that will synergize with find greater steed as upcasting aid and armor of agathys does a ton to improve the survivability of my pegasus or griffon. I’m curious to see how quickly we tear though enemies when I quicken haste on my self and the monk. I know we probably tpk if I drop concentration on that but, I did pass a dc 27 check last combat then took absorb element so it less likely I’ll have to pass a check that high in the future.
Okay, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist as a jock/twink wizard (rolled stats high; STR is +1). Kept the stone of Golorr after the alley and made it back to Trollskull tavern. Finished night flair bartending with Telekinesis and unseen servant, picked up hot dwarf to smash for the night, tossed Stone to Paladin for safe keeping. He sensed evil in the stone and gave to Druid to dig deeper into our excavated basement and hide stone. Gopher formed and dug down before getting possessed by the stone, clawing his stomach open and inserting the stone before wound heals. Second shift of underground lab excavating finishes later, we have a friendly, training wrestling match; my +1str wizard vs his bear form. I win initiative, grapple, dodge his attack, I shove prone, and then he hears a voice and bites me in the face. I disengage grapple, punch him in the head and then throw my hands up and call out to calm him. He shifts back to Elven form, apologising and not knowing why he lashed out before we ended the session. It was fucking amazing 😍
Aberrant Mind would be fun to try. Especially pulling from the dark side of psychology where the patient hears voices after being lobotomized for thier own well being. Perhaps spin that dark procedure into something in fantasy. Just want to use some of my psych degree in character creation and not creepy campaigns.
General question: Do you have any tips for new DMs? as our DM has a new job, we wont be able to do our usual weekly sessions and my DM said that out of the whole group, I should be the one to replace him. I’ve never DMd before and my friends are kinda pressuring me and I dont want to let them down with my lackluster storytelling. Thanks
The one downside to a controller type character is the save or suck aspect of their spells…anything with legendary resistancrles will eat through your spell slots. Not to mention charm and fear immunities exist. Ive tried playing the controller types, but they get walled pretty often in my experience
The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is the best Warlock going. (ducks) This is my concept. Reborn Aberrant Mind Sorcerer concept that’s Eldritch related, and full body horror. Imagine an adventuring party who stumble upon an Eldritch relic of some kind. Ancient. Powerful. Unknowable. They close on it out of curiousity and greed. The first one to touch it triggers a pulse of energy, blowing everyone to bits. Body parts everywhere. Then the relic glows again, and random parts crawl together to form one being. What arises is a single humanoid figure, welded together from the remains of five people. Multiple skin tones, two different eyes, patchwork hair, mix of masculine and feminine parts. When they talk, the voice is a chorus of every person. They use “We” as a singular pronoun. They suffer flashbacks of the explosion, and scattered memories of their collected past lives. The name they collectively refer to the relic is an ancient one from a past language forgotten in time. No one knows the name now. It’s pure gobbledygook. But if one DID know the tongue, it’s nature would be revealed to be an Old One by another name. Learning the truth of this could be a goal, as well as reconciling, say, any goal that one or more body parts had from their past lives (lost family members, revenge, finding something or someone, etc) The background for the character is this and no more, as it should be a mystery that unfolds. So it’s a past-as-prologue. Not sure what a proper background would be for this.
It’s just a freaking POWERHOUSE! I am currently playing an Aberrant Mind Sorceress Eladrin Elf who got her powers through the trauma of loosing her twin brother by the deathflames of a Red Dragon, whilst they were out picking mushrooms at home in the Feywild. Who doesn’t love a tragic backstory 😅😅😅 also, it gave her a motivation to leave the Feywild & use her newfound Blaster Caster Psionic Powers to seek vengence for her lost brother in Faerun, where the Red Dragon came from 🤷🏼♀️ Our Party calls themselves the Dragonslayers & to the trauma of loosing her brother has since been added the death of two Party Members (both played by the same unlucky Player)… and we only reached Level 4 last Session!!! 😅😅 So yeah, what I wanna say I guess, the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer gives you A LOT of potential for interesting backstory stuff like which lifechanging event fucked up your brain that much, that it sparked up with magic 😅 so I guess my tip is go wild on your backstory & enjoy the ride 😀
Excuse me. I am going to have to come to the defense of Calm Emotions guys. It is a boss utility spell. The fact that it can suppress Charm spells and a target can choose to fail the save means a character can literally reset a Charmed PC. Also yes the suppress hostility can totally “Jedi Mind Trick” a bunch of guards for those botched infiltration attempts.
I loved The Dudes, but they are extremely “hide bound” in their DnD opinions. Its like going to a great local restaurant with a chef created and eclectic menu….and ordering the same burger and fries served at a diner down the street. For instance, Kelly’s shadow sorcerer (Sebastian Crowe) is the least “shawdow” shadow sorcer ive even imagined. Just like all his sorceres, effectuvely the same spell list, same feats and same play style. They are too caught up in “the best” options or, at least the most comfortable and traditional options.
Wish shouldn’t be a 9th level spell, it should be the only 10th level arcane spell, accessible at caster level 19. It should also be individualized such that each mage researches it for themselves in an expensive process that requires special materials. If it burns out, you have to research a new form. It’s all academic really, as the campaign will have fallen apart or dwindled away long before getting there. If you want a high-level game that’s functional, you’ll probably have to leave D&D 5e behind.
Franklin Richards aberrant mind custom lineage telekinetic darkvision charlatan background Deception persuasion intimidation slight of hand forgery and disguise kit 8 14 14 10 10 18 Lvl 1 telekinetic mage hand x2 mind sliver shocking grasp minor illusion firebolt add dissonant whisper arms of hadar mage armor sleep Lvl 2 add shield change arms of hadar for tashas hideous laughter Lvl 3 quicken twin add web detect thoughts calm emotions change sleep for misty step Lvl 4 asi chr add mold earth change calm emotions for tashas mind whip lvl 5 add slow hunger of Hadar sending change detect thoughts for suggestion Lvl 6 add hypnotic pattern change sending for enemies abound Lvl 7 add polymorph evards black tentacles summon aberration Lvl 8 metamagic adept heighten add banishment change summon aberration for raluthaim psychic lance Lvl 9 add hold monster telekinesis rarys telepathic bond Lvl 10 add shape water animate objects change rarys telepathic bond for synaptic static. Lvl 11 add disintegrate