SORCERERS: An Origin Story
Sorcerers are born with power. They don’t study it in books like Wizards, pledge themselves to another influence like Clerics, Paladins and Warlocks, or even learn to appreciate a natural affinity like Druids. In your daily life, that means you worry less about finding new spells for your spellbook, praying to a source or communing with nature. Roleplaying is less about the minutia, and perhaps more about the broader strokes of the power within.
HOW IS THE POWER MANIFESTED
Just about all Subclasses/Origins can be categorized into two divisions - it’s either a power that carries on through your bloodline, or due to something that happened to you at the moment of your birth.
Let’s say you choose to go down the bloodline origins. Here are some questions you might ask yourself during backstory creation. Were you raised with the knowledge of your ancestral line? Instead of reading books on the arcane, were you forced to learn the deep histories of your ancestors, including their great deeds and heartbreaking missteps? Your family could be local heroes given free drinks in every tavern or a salary to keep the town safe.
Or, is your family magic a deep, dark secret? Did your parents hope you wouldn’t inherit their perceived curse, and the small town persecution that was inevitable to come with it? You could have been encouraged to hide your abilities, or brought before many shamans, priests and hags in an attempt to get them removed.
Now let’s say you choose to go the power surge route. Whether its a flare of the moon, a storm of immense power or a surge of Wild Magic, the moment of your birth can be an incredible story to weave into your background. Some questions to ask yourself include: Did your mother also acquire powers, or suffer a worse fate? Was it a wide-swept storm that affected all the children in town in various ways or are you unique? Was it done on purpose as sort of an experiment gone horribly wrong or very right?
No matter what you choose as your origin story, the holes purposely left in that tale can lead to great Roleplaying moments as you strive for the goal to discover who you are. You might even consider your origin being a complete mystery. Your DM would greatly enjoy if you had only a torn page out of a family lineage book or a fragment of a story your mom muttered to your on her deathbed. And now it’s up to you to unravel where you came from so you can make peace with who you want to be.
““No one chooses sorcery; the power chooses the sorcerer.””
METAMAGIC
What sets the Sorcerer apart form other spell casters is your ability to alter a spell to fit your needs. Most players will select options and choose only to utilize their sorcery points for combat purposes, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Tough, you can also flavor some of your choices to match your backstory choices.
If you were raised to be afraid of your powers, then the Subtle, Distant, and Careful options make sense. Hiding your casting by not using any verbal or somatic components, or from afar would be useful for someone who doesn’t want to be caught. If you learned that others in your bloodline injured innocent people by accident, then using the Careful option to protect those you don’t want hurt might be the very first thing you’re taught as a child.
Alternatively, you might have been raised to consider yourself an offensive weapon against your enemies. Twinned, Heightened and Empowered options could be your bread and butter as you display your power in a frightful way.
CONCLUSION
In all, a major component of how you choose to Roleplay a Sorcerer character can come down to how you feel about your powers. And this opinion about yourself can shift as you level up. Learning to control your abilities, more of your family history, or learning harsh lessons in restraint can shape your outlook. Your arc can be one of self discovery and coming to terms with who you are.
