u/realagadar

Hello. We're about to start an Odyssey campaign, for which we are all very excited. Looking at the subclasses of the book however, it seems that one subclass in particular seems incredibly over-tuned, namely the Divine Sorcery Sorcerer.

At level 3, you effectively get two free level 1 spell casts and two free level 2 spell casts per short rest, if I understand it correctly. Now, even though you cannot cast those spells with your own slots, these spells are easily applicable to many combat scenario's, so you will likely be using these free castings almost fully every short rest. Assuming even a singular short rest per day, that means you are effectively increasing your spell slot 'pool' from just 4 level 1 slots and 2 level 2 slots, to a whopping 8 level 1 slots and 6 level 2 slots! And as you increase in level, you get higher and higher free castings.

Now on top of getting that insane number of spells to sling right from level 3, you also get a free advantage on concentration saves, because why not.

The higher level features are also top tier to the point of broken: Empowered Magic is a better Twinned Spell, Divine Resistance is straight-up Legendary Resistance on a short rest recharge, and the level 18 feature is also stupidly good.

The entire package just seems incredibly loaded with power to the point where another sorcerer, or full caster, or really any other character will probably feel weak compared to yours. The DM will have to balance encounters completely around your character, not the party as a whole. It just seems to me that in order for a Divine Sorcery Sorcerer to work in a campaign, it needs to be nerfed quite massively.

Am I correct in my assessment of the subclass? Or am I perhaps misreading something? Is it supposed to be overpowered, being effectively demigods?

Tongue-in-cheek title, but anyway:

Another book, another lackluster Rogue subclass. The Phantom Rogue, while scaling off of dexterity (instead of intelligence like the Scion, thank Lathander), is still too little too infrequently. Not only is it incredibly mechanically underwhelming compared to every other subclass in the book, it also manages to be underwhelming compared to the existing Rogue subclasses, which are already quite terrible generally.

Not only is the math not mathing (a handful of necrotic damage a few times per long rest...) it is also not exciting at all, as it is just boring design at lvl 3, and completely fails to deliver on the flavor the subclass promises. While the level 9 is flavorful and mechanically decent, that's level 9! Most campaigns will have ended before then, so in the rare best case scenario where you actually reach that level, you will be waiting a LONG time before your Phantom Rogue actually feels like, you know, a Phantom Rogue. Until that time, your Phantom Rogue isn't really doing anything Phantom-y at all: a bit of necrotic damage and a skill proficiency are so basic and bland, they could've been sauced with literally any flavor.

You're better off playing an Arcane Trickster or a Soulknife if you want to play a Phantom Rogue, as they are better from levels 3 to 9 at doing Phantom-y stuff than the actual Phantom Rogue is (that goes similarly for the Scion Rogue, but we've complained enough about that disaster of a subclass already).

It's such a shame, because while the Rogue chassis is mechanically underwhelming, it is really fun to play. It just needs bangers for level 3 subclass features, but for some reason they are denied this completely by WotC for reasons we don't know, because the thoughts of the designers on the matter have never been shared with us.

I suppose there is a small silver lining: as I already mentioned, Phantom scales off of dexterity instead of intelligence like the Scion. Hopefully this means WotC has finally realized (after much complaining from the community) that martial subclasses should scale off of their primary ability score, not random secondary or tertiary scores. Finally the martials get to enjoy something the casters have been enjoying since 5e's conception!