What do you guys think of tying the wild magic surge to the Sorcerer points? Any time they use sorcerer points for either meta magic or a spell slot they roll for the wild magic. So that it cuts back on my having to remeber when to do it, since I have 8 players and that keeps me busy.
K-Ray
I just have my player's wild mage roll a d20 every time they cast a spell.
Haven't had enough sessions yet to see how bad it is ... if it gets too out of hand I was thinking I would just implement a "cool-down" period.
Like OoftaMeg, I have my sorcerer player roll a d20 every time he casts a non-cantrip and let me know if it's a 1. It's a bit silly for the DM to ask for the roll each time as described in the rule. I will ask if I don't want them to roll.
However, if my case, my player uses Tides of Chaos and rolls on the table pretty frequently. Always fun! 
I'd say talk it over with the Player first. It sounds like a neat houserule, and player's who love the Chaos Sorcerer's randomness might find it a hoot, but be sure that they're on board with it first.
Sounds fine to me K-ray. I'd go with either that or the non-cantrip method Zortch uses, they both seem like reasonable frequencies.
Nevvur wrote:
It always comes back to that dreaded random fireball wiping the party, doesn't it? I've seen one random fireball surge in all my years of playing, and it just so happens the party knew not to turtle around the f#$%face wild mage when he starts slinging spells, so we made it out just fine. I'm sure it has happened to people, but it's a statistical anomaly, while people talk about it like an inevitability.
My DM merely made it a roll of 1-5 on the d20 to confirm a Wild Surge. The player said that they were tired of picking this archetype and still not seeing it happen. Quote: "I picked this class to see some crazy @#$% happen when I cast spells. The fact that it's not happening is a bit underwhelming."
Also, I haven't had a wild mage around lately, but I've thought about house ruling them to roll % everytime they cast a 1st level or higher spell, with a surge % chance = to the spell slot level. Reduces the chance of surges happening at lower levels, and I like the increased chance when they really start ripping apart reality with those higher level spells.
The problem with tying it to sorcery points, is that a player is most likely to use them when they really need them. This is precisely the worst time to throw chaotic happenings into the mix if you don't want to inadvertently kill your Wild Mage.
In my opinion, the best time to use Wild Magic surge is in simple, easy encounters to spice things up, or if your PCs are kicking the butt of the BBEG that was supposed to be a challenge. That way you get the flavour with much less risk.
As I DM, I usually forget to ask my sorcerer to roll... He's probably made 10 wild magic surge rolls in his adventuring career. So far no 1s. I feel like, if I don't ask him to roll every spell, we'll never have a surge.
Actually, maybe have him roll once for every spell, but also roll once for each sorcery point spent.
When the wild mage had a potential for a surge at level 2 I stopped it because of the potential of the fireball killing the entire party. However, also at level 2 I allowed several wild surges because that risk of a fireball would have been very entertaining. At least one of the party members would have survived and stabilized the rest of the not dead party members. Once the character reached level 3 I no longer stop wild surges.
I leave it to my player to determine when a surge happens, i.e. she rolls a 2nd d20 on every non-cantrip spell used. I feel that the power of the sub class is in the table; therefore, I feel the character should be able to surge as often as is possible. There have been a couple memorable surges:
1. At second level a Chromatic Orb also resulted in bubbles coming out of the casters mouth for a minute when they tried to talk.
2. At 4th level in the Lost Mines a unicorn was summoned and it helped defeat a room of zombies and skeletons.
There have been other surges that have been less memorable.
I wouldn't tie it to sorcery points, but I do like the idea of tying it to the player's decision to push their luck.
As I discussed in a similar thread, I'm toying with a house rule such that the player opts into a +1 bonus to their Spell Attack/Save DC - and it is that decision that increments the Wild Surge counter.
So the counter starts at 1. Each time the sorcerer decides to push their luck for that +1 bonus, the counte ris incremented by 1. If, when the spell is cast, they roll under the counter on a d20, a Wild Magic Surge is triggered. Once a surge happens, the counter drops to 1.
If I go with this rule, I would have to edit the table of surge to slant it a bit more toward the negative (since the +1 bonus itself is the positive benefit).
Illk
The Wild Mage would be a very weak subclass if it weren't for one thing: getting advantage through Tides of Chaos.
The subclass offers the potential for getting advantage once for each spell slot you have (roughly).
If your table and your DM does not allow this, that's perfectly fine. It really is. But do not choose to play a Wild Mage at that table.
The Wild Magic Surge feature is almost a trap, dazzling us to make us misread the subclass. It sets expectations that comes nowhere close to the actual potential for the subclass.
In fact, if the DM never uses the Wild Magic Surge feature because he or she always lets you use Tides of Chaos, that is your best case scenario, and this is when the Wild Mage can hope to compete against the Draconic Sorcerer (and other classes entirely).
To spell it out: at fifth level, you have 4+3+2=9 spell slots, meaning you could get Advantage thru Tides of Chaos TEN TIMES that day (thirteen if you convert all your six spell points into more spell slots). Read the ability. Then read it again.
And yes, that means rolling on the Wild Surge table NINE TIMES each day (twelve with spell points) already at fifth level.
If you keep levelling, statistics tell us that Wild Surge Fireball should happen almost EVERY OTHER DAY. And that's the average - you will certainly see days with two fireballs without this being very unlikely. (Already at level ten, you can use Tides of Chaos twenty times. Considering how the fireball result is one in fifty, at that level that means a fireball every two and a half days on average)
And yes, this is how you squeeze the power out of the subclass. Make sure your DM and your fellow players are onboard with all of this before you select the Wild Mage.
Otherwise, go play the draconic subclass or something.
my personal rules:
-roll for every spell cast, getting a surge when you roll the spell's level or lower (focusing more magical energy should logically result in a much higher chance of magical mishaps)
-wild magic fireball can only roll as many damage dice as the caster has hit dice