Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition offers players a wide range of classes to play as, each with their own set of sub-classes and skills they can take on. In this article, we will explore the subclass and guide readers on how to build their own Stone Sorcerer.
If the idea of a mage with incredibly high defenses, the ability to teleport around the map during combat, and high damage output from both spells and melee weapons interests you, then strap in, grab your favorite dice, and pull up your character creation sheet, because this article is for you.
Building your Stone Sorcerer:
Step 1: Choosing the best Race for a Stone Sorcerer
The species, or Race, you choose is important for a variety of reasons. For role-play purposes, the Race a player picks will serve as a starting point for how they view the world, what their backstory is composed of, and how others will interact with them.
Think about immediate advantages
For gameplay purposes, Races are a gateway to immediate advantages and play style options that can benefit the class the player plans to build. Choosing the right Race for your class is important as it will determine how inherently strong your Stone Sorcerer will be.
Best race pick – Hill Dwarf
For this guide, we recommend the Hill Dwarf. Hill Dwarves grant players bonuses to both their Constitution and Wisdom Ability Scores, both of which are important to Sorcerers for their life and defending against enemy spellcasting. Additionally, Hill Dwarves grant resistance against poisons, which further supports the Stone Sorcerer’s durability-focused playstyle.
Second choice – the human
Another option is the Human, and if your Dungeon Master allows it, the Variant Human specifically to boost your Constitution and Charisma. While you will not have the boosted resistances that the Hill Dwarf inherently starts with, the Human will still give important bonuses to what your Stone Sorcerer will want to utilize as they grow stronger with each level up.
Step 2: Miscellaneous Bonuses
We will not be covering backgrounds for building this subclass, as they are mostly inconsequential to your power spikes or class optimization. However, backgrounds and other small parts of character creation can still give advantages if used properly.
If you are looking for pure optimization, take anything that will give you a bonus to your Constitution, Charisma, or Wisdom Ability Scores and any equipment that can give you an edge in simple and martial weapons. Potions are also very strong to take early game if your Dungeon Master will allow you to have some before the campaign even starts.
Step 3: Allocating Ability Scores
Your Ability Scores are the key to your class’ success. Choosing the following two will boost your power early on and will help maintain your strength throughout the campaign:
- Constitution– We pick Constitution as the most important Ability Score for a Stone Sorcerer since it affects your AC through the Stone’s Durability feature, hit points, and concentration checks.
- Charisma– As a Sorcerer, Charisma is your primary casting stat, influencing your spellcasting ability and the DC of your spells.
Step 4: Take “Stone Sorcerery” as your Sorcerous Origin
At 1st Level, players get to choose a Sorcerous Origin, granting Bonus Proficiencies and new abilities that are tailored to how your magic is utilized.
Stone Sorcery, which players can find in Unearthed Arcana or other means, grants players Bonus Proficiencies to shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons, as well as access to a new set of metal and earth-themed spells, as well as the powerful 1st-level ability Stone’s Durability.
In later levels, Stone Aegis, Stone’s Edge, and Earth Master’s Aegis all enhance the Stone Sorcerer, offering important power spikes to the play style.
Exploring the Stone Sorcerer’s Build Abilities:
Metal Magic
Whenever the Stone Sorcerer levels up and is able to learn a new 1st-level or higher spell, the player may take any spell from the Metal Magic list. While not all of these are must-pick choices, they all fit the themes that Stone Sorcerers relate to. Particularly useful spells from the list include 1st-level Searing Smite, 2nd-level Magic Weapon, and 3rd-level Elemental Weapon.
Stone’s Durability
This ability is incredibly powerful to start with, as the longer your player lasts, the stronger it gets. At level 1, you gain 1 point toward your maximum health and gain an additional point with each level gained in this class.
You can also grant yourself an AC of 13 + your Constitution modifier as an action so long as you are not wearing armor, boosting your defenses massively. This effect lasts until you choose to end it as a bonus action, are knocked unconscious, or receive armor from anything other than a shield.
Stone Aegis
Starting at the 6th level, Stone Sorcerers are able to utilize their magic to protect others as well as themselves. You gain the ability to create an Aegis, a dim, gray aura of magic, and can grant it to one allied creature visible and within 60 feet. The Aegis acts like stone armor, reducing any bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage the ally receives by 2 + your sorcerer level divided by 4.
The effect lasts for 1 minute, which is quite long for a single encounter, but it can only be used on one target at a time. Stone Aegis also allows the caster to teleport within 5 feet of an attacker when the foe lands a strike against the aegis. After teleporting, the Stone Sorcerer can make a melee attack check, and on a successful hit, an additional 1d10 of force damage is applied.
This increases by an additional 1d10 at the 11th and again at the 17th level.
Stone’s Edge
Starting at the 14th level, the Stone Sorcerer learns to weave their mastery of the earth into their spells. Whenever you cast a spell that deals damage, an additional amount of force damage is applied equal to half your sorcerer level.
This effect only works on one creature, even if the damaging spell hits multiple targets, and can only be used once per round per spell activation, so damage over time spells do not proc the ability. Still, the additional force damage will add up greatly, considering Sorcerer spells overall tend to do massive amounts of damage normally.
Earth Master’s Aegis
Starting at the 18th level, your ability to control your Stone Aegis expands. When giving an aegis to an ally, up to three other creatures may be chosen to gain the same benefits. This quadruples Stone Aegis’s effectiveness.
Play Strategies
Embrace your durability
Spell casters such as Sorcerers and Wizards tend to be glass cannons- frail beings that deal massive damage but struggle to take hits back. The Stone Sorcerer, however, naturally gains the ability to increase their bulk without suffering drawbacks, both in health and in their Armor Class.
Utilize your increased durability to your advantage by getting close to the action. Your proficiencies with melee weapons allow you to fight as a Monk or Fighter would rather than a caster, offering a unique skill set that your spells can also enhance.
Additionally, take advantage of your durability by casting defense-boosting spells early into the fight, such as Shield and Stone’s Durability, then give a highly targeted ally your Stone Aegis so that you can freely move around the battlefield and become a high-priority target yourself.
Positioning and terrain control
Position yourself and your party such that you are always fighting with an advantage in mind. This can be done a few different ways. One way is to spread yourselves and the enemy out over a wide range, then utilize Stone Aegis to teleport around, forcing enemies to spend their actions moving while you and your ally can focus on single targets together.
Another option is to group enemies together and utilize your earth spells to cover wide areas of effect, always ensuring that you apply the additional force damage to a single target appropriately. Yet another option is to think of an escape route for both you and your enemies, using yours as a last resort and cutting off the enemy’s with your terrain control spells.
Melee combat and Stone’s Edge
Take advantage of the additional force damage Stone’s Edge offers to your spells and the inherent combo potential that comes from your proficiencies in melee weapons. Spells like Elemental Weapon, Booming Blade, or Green-Flame Blade will allow you to proc Stone’s Edge every time you land a strike since these are spells.
Additionally, Stone Aegis again proves to be a key component to the Stone Sorcerer’s combat utility, since teleporting to an ally allows the user to make a melee attack with an additional force damage roll applied.
Add in that the melee attack could come from an Elemental Weapon, and the Stone Sorcerer will start doing almost as much force damage as their normal attack if not more.
If you are low on sorcery points or in a bad spot to combine these attributes, you can still utilize them separately to act as an all-rounder type of class, casting spells and fighting in melee range throughout the battlefield.
Coordinate with your party
Communicate with your party members to ensure you are maximizing your effectiveness on the battlefield. As a player, you have your own strategies on how to fight and what to do for roleplaying, but your team will also have their own ways of playing.
Coordinating together will elevate all your play styles, and this can create interesting combinations that are not possible in other tables. As a Stone Sorcerer, you will have plenty of ways to support your teammates while remaining on the offensive, but you can also manipulate the terrain, which, if you are not careful, can hinder your party’s movement options.
Balance Offense and Defense
While you will have impressive defense as a Stone Sorcerer, do not neglect your offensive capabilities either. When building your character, take spells that complement your playstyle.
Crowd control, damage, and self-sustainment spells can all be combined to create a well-rounded force of nature on the battlefield. If capitalizing on Stone’s Aegis and your weapon combat capabilities, focus on boosting your defense early in combat so that when it is time to cash in on big damage, you will not risk falling in combat yourself.
Conclusion on the Stone Sorcerer build in 5e
With the variety of available races, feats, multi-class opportunities, gear, and skills, there seems to be a nearly infinite combination of possibilities for players to build their own unique characters, and this is before taking into account role-play aspects.
Among these combinations is the incredibly powerful and incredibly fun Stone Sorcerer build which gives players the ability to tap into the raw power of the earth, granting the sorcerer heightened durability and access to stone and rock manipulation.
Unique playing style
This Guide wraps up how we recommend building and playing the Stone Sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. This subclass offers a unique playstyle since it has a large focus on defense- where other spellcasters tend to be allergic to high Armor Class numbers, the Stone Sorcerer embraces them and also increases their Hit Points more often than other mages will.
Think about synergy
By tapping into the power of the earth beneath your feet, you will become an unstoppable force, combining durability, melee combat, and powerful spells to slay your foes. Building a Stone Sorcerer will require you to focus on Constitution and Charisma as well as selecting spells that enhance your defensive capabilities, control the battlefield, and deal significant damage. Remember to always coordinate with your party, embrace your role as a front-line spellcaster, and find the perfect balance between defense and offense.
Use your subclass features
You will also want to use your subclass features with Stone’s Aegis and Stone’s Edge since these allow you to unlock high damage output potential every time your party member is struck and you strike back with a melee weapon. Using spells to create your melee weapons will enhance this combination further, putting forth even more force damage on top of your regular attack rolls.
With all this in mind, you will be able to unleash your inner earthbound power and make your mark as a formidable Stone Sorcerer in your Dungeon Master’s campaigns.