I am looking for other players who are using the Wild Magic bloodline for the Sorcerer. Especially if you are using it in Adventurer's League.
How well do you think the ability works? As written, if the DM is distracted or whatever, then you have to tell him that you are casting a Sorcerer spell and can trigger Wild magic. Or, if the DM just doesn't want you to use wild magic, he can just not tell you to roll for it. However, that means that I am not using the main feature of my subclass and would be tantamount to the DM not allowing a Monk to spend Ki points to use flurry of blows after an attack.
Basically, this breaks the majority of what it means to play a wild magic bloodline Sorcerer. The Wild Surge ability says that the DM tells you to roll a d20 after you cast any Sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher. I believe that rolling the d20 is enough and it shouldn't be up to the DM.
Now, with Tides of Chaos, I can see that being up to the DM, because it gives me back the ability to give myself advantage on an attack roll, skill check, or ability check. However, the standard Wild Surge should have a chance to happen after any Sorcerer spell.
Anyone else playing this class agree or disagree? Or am I the only one who is having to remind their DM that my character has this ability?
As a DM, I intend to keep a printed out reference sheet for wild magic surges behind my screen any time I have a player that is playing a wild mage so that I will be reminded to incorporate that aspect of the player's character.
Were I playing a wild mage, I would provide said reference to my DM, and would have no problem asking the DM if they would mind rolling, or if they don't wish to be bothered with it if I can roll for wild surges myself - assuming of course we are talking about an organized play situation in which the leage rules, rather than the individual DM, are in charge of what character options are allowed.
If it were a home game and the DM didn't want wild magic to be a part of the game, I'd expect there to be a conversation about that which would prevent any case of playing a wild mage without the wild magic because the DM refuses to include it, even though that would likely just mean that playing in that campaign meant agreeing that wild mage wasn't a valid character option.
As a DM I tell the player they can claim the roll for casting a spell when every they cast one. and if they don't then I will sometimes insist on a roll. My main disappointment with wild mage is that cantrips don't trigger it. One of my players asked if it could trigger on cantrips and all spells, and the roll is based on the level of the spell. So a 3rd level spell with go wild on a roll of 1-3 on a D20. How do peopel feel about that, too powerful/ random/ distracting?
We have a Gnome Wild Magic Sorcerer that has turned herself blue. The other night she had a chance at 4d10 to up to three targets off of a ToC, but didn't have any enemies within range. Myself and one of the other DM's love the idea of Wild Magic and usually have to remind her to make the roll.
I would just roll it myself after every spell cast, if I got a 1 I'd roll on wild the table myself. 5e loves to have the DM do everything, and it really just bogs the game down.
Krusk wrote:
One way to handle the situation is, whenever there could be a DM adjudicated Wild Surge, roll a die. On an odd (or even) the surge happens. If the DM agrees to that method, it fits within the framework of of DM permission required in the Wild Surge description.
That allows the surges to happen on a semi regular basis and removes the need for bookkeeping from the DM.
OP:
I would sit down with the DM beforehand and explain this odd feature of my character class' rules, and ask if he wants to handle the rolls, or if I should do it myself. Be prepared to explain why it matters. If your DM wants a sticky note with a reminder, indulge him. If he doesn't want to deal with it at all, then work out a Wild Magic sub-chart with events that won't mess with the flow of play.
One poster has a thread where the wild surge messed with a combat: it brought a Modron into the middle of a hostage rescue. "Help There's A Modron In Our Midst", DM issues section of the boards. Don't do this to an AL table, because you hog the spotlight and mess with the time constraints.
Also: don't turn into a rules lawyer and stifle your own fun over who is supposed to be rolling dice. Figure out how to flow with the situation.
In a game I was playing in we had some trouble remembering to use the wild surge recharge ability, but we were good about making him roll each time he casts a 1st level spell
during one of our boss battles the gm made him roll to give him back his advantage. He rolled 100% and ended up with multiple effects the turn after getting another effect from rolling a nat1. the end result was our sorcer levitating into the air, teleporting randomly, and streams of butterflies coming out of him. Also the occasional magic missile/ray of frost but that was his actual combat rounds.
We had an artist friend draw a rendition of the battle it was the highlight of the campaign
In order to not have to think about it and keep a little bit of randomness and unpredictability, i'd have the player roll to determine a Wild Surge, say rolling 1-2 on a d6 triggers one. Like this the burden of remembering and determining a Wild Surge remains in the player's hands, and i can think about other stuff. As a player that's what i'd like too i think. 
No need to have them roll on a d6, since the feature includes a way to check for a wild surge built into it. The problem I have is that it says the DM has to tell you to make the d20 roll to determine if a surge happens. Or, in the case of the Tides of Chaos feature, they have to tell you to roll on the percentile table.
Again, I can understand leaving Tides of Chaos in the hands of the DM since that would recharge your ability to give yourself advantage on an attack, skill, or ability check. However, the standard Wild Surge d20 roll (with the wild surge happening on a 1) should be in the player's hand. If the DM doesn't want to deal with wild magic, then they should disallow it as an option.
I use Maptools to run my campaign and we've baked the roll into the spell macros so it spits out a response to the DM only if wild magic occurs and what it is.
If I was on tabletop I'd just get my player(s)into the habit of rolling a special (colored or whatever) d20 every time they cast a spell so it becomes habit.
Undrhil wrote:
I never understood why the surges were specified in the PHB to be "DM option." Ya cast a spell as a wild mage, and you roll a D20 to see if it surges. Period. The DM doesn't ned to track it, you just let him know if your spell surged. What kinda ass of a DM is gonna micro-manage the surges of his wild mage player? What's the point? An extra effect that happens 1 time in 20 and has a slightly better than average chance of helping the player is a long ways off from a gamebreaking ability.
Huntsman57 wrote:
As a general rule - I have found the following to work best:
- Have the Wild Mage check for surge results every time they cast a 1st level (or higher) spell/use tids of chaos.
- Upon triggering a wild surge, the character cannot check for a wild surge result until after they have completed a long rest, or until the start of a new game session (which ever comes first).
This allows the player to gain the benefits of their wild surge once/session on average (rarely twice) - thereby preventing the character from hogging the limelight, but at the same time, not penalizing the player for their class feature.
Keep in mind - if the player chose to play a Wild Mage, they did so because they enjoy the randomness of the class features. As a DM we must be mindful to make certain everyone at the table is having fun. This includes the wildmage. As such, we must give them opportunities to enjoy the randomness of their class features, while at the same time being mindful that they do not become overly disruptive.
Limiting Wildmages to 1/surge per session is perhaps the easiest way to adjudicate this.
Kalani wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
"Undue disruption"? This is a class feature, we are talking about.
Is the Rogue's Cunning Action "undue disruption"? The Divination Wizard's ability to swap a die roll for a pre-determined value?
I find it really sad that we are given a playable option and people are saying "Nope. We don't want you to use that too often. It's disruptive of *our* fun."
Undrhil wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Undrhil wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Huntsman57 wrote:
So there's two points that were brought up in the past few posts that I'd like to reiterate.
1) Use of Wild Magic as a table-griefing or attention-seeking tactic. Yes, it is a class feature, but unlike the other class features mentioned...it has a MUCH HIGHER potential to disrupt the enjoyment of other players, and the DM has a MUCH LOWER ability to compensate. We're not talking (or shouldn't be talking) about a player who can be trusted to recognize that the fact that their spells might cause a surge means that they should be more careful about when they cast spells. We're talking about players who cast spells as often as they can, and at points in time when a surge would be SIGNIFICANTLY detrimental to the party.
- Example: the party is sneaking through the enemy camp, and the WM sorcerer is casting 1st level spells as often as he can, until the DM lets him roll on the surge chart. A burst of white light illuminates the party's position and lets the bad guys know that someone's actually there.
- Example: the party is in the latter half of a big fight. The sorcerer surges and kills two party member when he detonates in a fireball.
Show me how the other class features can be that disruptive in a way the DM can compensate (without saying "that doesn't happen".) Yes, a class feature could allow a single character to dominate a fight against a single foe, leaving other players feeling useless. But the DM can compensate for that, by adding more foes or otherwise preparing the encounter.
2) What kind of table (and therefore player) are we talking about? The OP originally mentioned AL, which implies we were talking about a "pick-up" group, where people show up with whatever character they feel like, and may have put drastically different levels of effort into planning them out. In my home game, I would feel more comfortable with a WM sorcerer, since there's typically more thought into how characters fit together and less anonymity, which *implies* more accountablity for not being a schmuck.
But at an AL table, where someone shows up with a WM sorcerer? That's a completely different dynamic.
I don't think that disallowing WM is the answer. I think you need to look at who is looking to play the WM sorcerer. If you're concerned that it's going to be an attention seeking player, or worse, one who's just looking to grief the table, and you don't want to (or can't) prevent them from playing that character, then think outside the box. The language about when the surge table is used is clearly to give the DM some control. You might take it a step further, and try something like.
- YOU roll on the chart, not the player. Do it behind your screen and use 2d10 instead of d100, and don't announce the result until you decide which it is. This allows you to invert or otherwise fudge the numbers if it the result would cause too much "suckage" for the other players.
- Randomize the effect's target. A lot of the beneficial effects happen to the WM sorcerer. When such an effect happens, roll a die. On an odd value, the sorcerer is the target, on an even number, the last creature the sorcerer cast a spell at is the target. If you are so inclined, make it more complex than that.
- Create your own effects. On the fly, or make a variant of one of the items on the table. Keep them at about the same level of power as the ones in the chart (no "YOU AND YOUR NEXT SIX CHARACTERS DIE!!!" results.
I've prepped a deck of cards which include all the results from the chart as well as some variants. I do not allow players to peruse it ahead of time, which makes the surge as unpredictable to them as it should be. For example, I have both the result which reduces a 1 Action casting time to 1 Bonus Action, as well as a new one which increases it to 1 Action PLUS 1 Bonus Action.
When I did this, the WM sorcerer suddenly became more situationally aware. Surges still occur, which makes him happy. But because he doesn't know exactly what's in the deck, he's not trying to trigger a surge every 5-10 minutes. (And I'm SURE it has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the fact that two of my players started talking about the nasty stuff in the Deck of Many Things There's nothing particularly nasty in there...but he doesn't have to know that.)
Please keep in mind, that any entry on the table has a 1/50 chance of occuring. This means that on any given spell check, you have a 1/1000 (0.1%) chance of triggering the fireball for example. The odds of achieving this at 1st level are negligable, but increase with level (and spells cast).
Avross wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Allowed Rules (ALPG p3)
Characters originating during the Tyranny of Dragons storyline season can use the following rules for character options:
- D&D basic rules (all rules except rolling ability scores and hit points, some alignment restrictions)
- D&D Player’s Handbook™ (all rules except rolling ability scores and hit points, some alignment restrictions)
- Hoard of the Dragon Queen™ appendix A
Official documentation, such as a D&D Adventurers League certificate, might provide exceptions to the allowed rules.
Kalani wrote:
Avross wrote:
Wild Magic is most harmful at low levels. Fireball, party dies. For a non-wild magic "disruption", look at low level sleep. Party wants to fight an encounter because itd be fun, Wizard casts sleep, encounter over. Sometimes the raging barbarian mops the place up before the skirmisher can get into position, or instead of the party face talking their way out of it. Sometimes these things happen.
Wild Magic should be allowed, but I wish it was controlled randomness...something like rolling evens or odds, etc. Leaving it up to the DM is extra work on him, and takes your main class ability out of your hands (as was the big complaint about Favored Enemy back in the day).
I have a player who loves the wild mage. So i have been changing the target number depending on her level. IE say at level 1 if she rolled a 1-18 she would get a wild surge. Level 2 the number would drop say 1-16 and so forth. Also casting higher level spells increased that number. Say a 3rd level character (1-14) cast a 2nd level spell it would be 1-15. This would give it more of a wild surge of energy that the sorcerer has not been able to control. As they gain levels they gain more control over it and it happens less often.
Another aspect I have been concidering is having the player write down X amount of numbers at the start of the day. If one of those numbers is rolled then the wild magic goes off. Higher levels means more control over it too.
So the night before our game session we were joking around talking about unicorns and their farts and so forth. Yes sometimes we lose our maturaty , I dont know how it started in our chat but it did. So come to our session we playing the horde of the dragon queen and one of the "boss" fights the sorcerer ends up rolling on the summoning of the unicorn.
My group loves the wild magic happening. So far all good. But they tend to also enjoy the roleplay aspect and keep everything fun.
What i am getting at with looking at most of these posts is that its ok for some people to have fun and have a good experiance of what they play as long as its not a wild sorcerer. You know what sometimes things in life just dont go your way. Why are you all wanting to limit someones enjoyment with their class? Can people not roll with the punches and take the good with bad anymore. Everything has to be just about them and everything that happens at the table has to be good?