In all the years I’ve been playing roleplaying games, my character has been either somebody who is good at cleaving their foes into pieces or wait for it…sneaking around and striking from the shadows.
But! Oh how I’ve matured. I’ve finally discovered the joys of magic. This is great. It now means that rather than using cold steel and pointy things, I can burn, electrocute, freeze, disease and turn to stone. Awesome. Admittedly I got off to a rough start playing a sorceress as she was killed on campaign. Valiant effort as it was and the fires and bolts really did fly it wasn’t enough to prevent her dying. So, take two and I’ve created another one. Further on and in a different branch of the campaign. Thus far, I’m loving it. I found both my previous character and current one a joy to play. Part of me feels vulnerable knowing that I’m at risk of being hit easily (heavy robes only, this is DnD 5e!) and I don’t have many hitpoints. Also, once my spell slots have been used up for the day I’m relying on my cantrips then and at the low levels whilst they are useful they are not hugely powerful.
But the sheer power. Ray of Sickness? Scorching Ray? Witchbolt? Whilst these are the lower levels and I’m still finding my feet, I’ve found so far they’ve been great. I love the idea that the sickness weakens my foes over time. I can keep frazzling my enemies like Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. Something else I’m loving with my new Sorceress ; as a class that relies on its charisma as a main stat, it’s the ability to persuade or intimidate. It’s wonderful! Whilst throwing magic around is fun, to be able to either convince or scare people into what you want to do can be a valuable asset in my humble opinion. That guard refusing to let you see an important Lord? Hmm maybe the magic might be a bit unsubtle here but whats wrong with a bit of extra persuasion?
Its early days yet in terms of character development but as someone who has never tried playing a casting class before I’m loving it! Maybe back in the day when I first ever played DnD in the 80’s Mages as I remember had a rough time of it, no cantrips, hardly any spells and a whopping 4hp. Magic that was used in the Middle Earth Roleplaying game was a bit more potent with some excellent spells flying around. However and please correct me if I’m wrong, there was a risk of corruption which grew stronger the more magic was used and would sooner or later attract the dark and powerful forces of Mordor.
Fantasy Scribbles 