“It’s a reawakening”: Marieya’s Sorcerous Progression

Marieya is only 2710XP away from her next level up, meaning it came time for me to make a recurring decision now that her sorcerous nature is (mostly) in the open: do I continue speccing her into Cleric, and get my Level 6 domain feature on this level up? Or do I finally let part of her power reawaken properly as she gains access to a whole new world of spells.

Well, given some events that have happened in the campaign, I think now is the right time for her to realise that suppressing this power is no longer an option.

Background

So, these events are supposed to be Marieya stories, hence why they will only be covered in minor detail here as opposed to doing a more in-depth look at why these events have lead to this conclusion:

• Meeting a fellow Shadow Fey who knew of the incident involving Marieya’s magic, and an out-of-game discussion with her leading to some level of acceptance
• A Wind Dragon sent by Corvus ambushing the party, making Marieya realise that her divergence from the Mharoti path means dragons will be somewhat common in her path now

Beginning on her path to forgive herself properly and knowing that her new friends are in danger means she feels less apprehension at utilising her innate power, but also means she will be utilising it in a way more befitting of her personality post-incident, reflected in the choice of spells/cantrips.

Subclass

The subclass is the only aspect of this multiclassing that did not require much thought put into it, as it has been well established in stories that Marieya is a “Phoenix Soul” Sorcerer.

This version of Phoenix Soul is specifically from the “Sorcerer, Tweaked” homebrew by SwordMeow. When I initially wrote “Marieya’s Screw Up” I actually did not have an origin in mind, as I never considered multiclassing out properly. This changed once my DM showed me this subclass and I read the flavour around it, especially the line of “If a fire breaks out in town, a phoenix sorcerer had best flee, whether guilty or not.”

At 1st level, Marieya would be getting two subclass features and potentially an origin spell depending on how my DM wants to handle using this homebrew.

Ignite is something that Marieya will not be using often, as not only does she feel it is a disaster waiting to happen, she has too much love and respect for Seggotan to go around starting fires with just a touch of her hand. It will definitely find some use during the campaign, but it will likely sit as a backburner feature… pun moderately intended.

Phoenix Mantle is a similar use case as well, as Marieya will only have a small number of spells that deal fire damage. That said, I do have a couple of roleplay based ideas with how to utilise this feature, perhaps combined with Thaumaturgy for a terrifying display of power combining both the divine and the innate as the normally reserved shadow fey spreads wings of fire wide as her voice booms out to her foes.

As for the origin spell, having Burning Hands as a spell that does not count towards the maximum number of spells known would be nice, but even then it would see very little use due to wanting to keep Marieya’s usage of fire down to a minimum. And as will be shown in the next section, the spells selected are more versatile than that.

Spells

Being able to only pick two 1st level spells certainly made deciding what to pick a bit difficult. Going into this I wanted to pick up something good for defense, and something good for offense, with a good payoff if I decide to upcast it using the higher level spell slots earned from being so far into Cleric.

Shield was my first thought for something defensive, as it is a universally useful spell that would bump Marieya up to an AC of 24 in response to a melee attack, making her incredibly difficult to hit and extending her longevity even further.

However, when considering the nature of dragons, one of their main offensive options are their breath weapons, which are usually elemental in nature and which force a saving throw of some kind, which Shield would not be helpful against. Taking this into account, it is more thematic for the defensive spell to be Absorb Elements.

Triggering in a similar manner to Shield, Absorb Elements would make Marieya more likely to stay standing if she failed a save against a breath weapon, or to shrug it off better if she passed the save. The extra damage on the next turn’s melee attack is appreciated but ultimately inconsequential when considering other offensive options.

As for the offensive spell itself, Chaos Bolt was considered and dropped pretty quickly. Whilst it is a Sorcerer exclusive spell and upcasts quite well, the random elemental nature of the attack makes it ill-suited for fighting dragons, as an attack could roll into the element the dragon is immune to thereby wasting a turn.

The ever reliable Magic Missile was considered for longer, especially as its long range and guaranteed hit would allow for nailing fleeing dragons without having to worry about how low Marieya’s spellcasting modifier is.

In the end though, I went for something that I felt had good upcast ability and provided versatility against the potential of elemental resistance/immunity that dragons carry: Chromatic Orb.

Whilst Marieya’s Charisma is nowhere near where it should be for a casting class, a +5 to hit is not the worst modifier to have, especially in situations where advantage can be applied. The option to select what type of damage the orb is dealing gives greater control than Chaos Bolt, and upcasting something with a d8 damage die is nothing to sneer about.

Cantrips

Picking two spells presented a set of challenges, picking four cantrips presented an entirely different set of challenges, especially as the cantrip list for sorcerers is almost three times as long as the list for clerics, providing a lot of choices to pick from.

One that was fairly easy to pick was Shape Water, given Marieya is now a cleric of the water god Seggotan, it made sense that she would be using her innate magical power to be doing something more aligned with her god. Shape Water itself seems a very useful cantrip, especially as the option to freeze water (without creatures in it) opens up a lot of alternate avenues to problem solving.

Next came a pick that was influenced by equal parts mechanical and flavour applications, Mind Sliver. Mechanically, Mind Sliver is a great cantrip. It has good damage output, inflicts a debuff that can make or break the result of an enemy saving throw, and is a damage type that is infrequently resisted (psychic). 

In terms of flavour though, this is Marieya attempting to inflict fear upon draconic foes. As time passes and more dragons sent by Corvus are defeated, it is logical that the Mharoti are going to get nervous about how powerful Marieya is, leading to the psychic spike from Mind Sliver being a literal bolt of fear against a dragon, playing to their uncertainty if they will survive an encounter with this humble shadow fey.

Ray of Frost seems like an odd choice compared to Frostbite, but given the low DC that Marieya’s sorcerer spells will be working with and the fact that Constitution saves on higher CR monsters are quite difficult to win, the ranged attack roll won out. The speed reduction effect will also help against dragons, as it means they will not be able to move as far away when doing a hit-and-run attack.

And finally, a fairly basic spell in the form of Fire Bolt. It is there solely for flavour on Marieya’s origin, but it is a long range cantrip with an impressive d10 damage dice.

Future plans

This just covers what Marieya is going to look like as a 1st level sorcerer multiclass, so what rough plans do I have for her progressing as a sorcerer?

Right now it feels like I will be putting my focus back onto cleric, especially as I want to unlock the rest of my domain spells before deciding on how I might want to progress as a sorcerer.

That said, it is looking quite likely that my 8th cleric level feat will be “Metamagic Adept”, to further reflect Marieya’s power reawakening. “Distant Spell” is going to be a must-take in my opinion, as it will be invaluable in long range conflicts. “Quickened Spell” is also fairly high up on the priority list, as the ability to cast a spell as a bonus action leaving an action free to Dash to cover/to spread out seems useful.

In any case, Marieya now knows she can use her power for good, and protecting her friends from the wrath of dragons is a worthy cause to break out of her self-imposed restraint.