The Best Sorcerer Subclasses Ranked in DND

Summary

• Wild Magic sorcerer offers unexpected and fun Wild Magic Surge effects with luck manipulation.
• Storm sorcerer provides tempest-themed damage spells, flight, and resistance to elemental damage.
• Runechild sorcerer incorporates runic magic for defense, and runes for buffs and enhancing skills.

Sorcerers in Dungeons & Dragons are great for players who want to have the reality-shaping cosmic power of a wizard but aren’t too keen on the whole “books” thing. Sorcerers come with innate powers and the potential for a dramatic backstory that might include a divine ancestor or a traumatic childhood experience.

You’ll have a sorcerer subclass that is the source of your magical powers, with perks and shortcomings influencing your playstyle. The best sorcerer subclass depends on several factors, including the kind of sorcerer you want to build and the Skills and Feats you choose to complement your overall talent base.

Updated January 7, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, some rules for certain sorcerer subclasses have changed. We’ve updated this list to include these changes and added the Runechild subclass from the Tal’Dorei Reborn campaign setting.

9

Wild Magic Sorcerer

Make no mistake; Wild Magic is fun. It’s unexpected, and the Wild Magic Surge effects will bring some levity to the table, making it a good choice for a lighthearted campaign. There’s also a small chance that you can kill your entire party in a fiery explosion at level one through no fault of your own.

As you continue to level up, you’ll gain more control over your Wild Magic surges, to the point where, at 18th level, you can actually choose an effect for yourself from the table. However, you can only do this once per long rest, so watch out for surprise second surges later down the line.

8

Storm Sorcerer

Storm Sorcery lets you embody the tempest, which means you get to do a lot of thunder and lightning damage. At higher levels, you get resistance and eventually immunity to both thunder and lightning damage, as well as the ability to deal guaranteed thunder or lightning damage in a small radius around you whenever you cast a thunder or lightning spell – great for forcing concentration checks on enemy casters.

This sorcerer subclass begins with Tempestuous Magic, allowing you to fly into the sky after an attack as a bonus action without provoking an attack of opportunity. It’s disengage as a bonus action for a spell caster, which can come in handy more often than you’d think. At level 18, you even get the ability to fly twice as fast as some other Sorcerous Origins and even let your friends come along with you. Overall, it’s a very niche but still effective subclass.

7

Runechild Sorcery

From the continent of Tal’Dorei, Runechild Sorcery incorporates elements of runic magic to create a far less squishy sorcerer build. In essence, the conceit behind Runechild Sorcery is that as you cast spells and take damage, you’ll gain and expend a certain number of natural runes that lay on your skin.

Gaining and using these runes grants you certain buffs. For example, at sixth level, you can channel your runes to buff your skills and other capabilities. You can use a charged rune on your person to enhance your Strength, Dexterity, or Consitution, for example. Combining this subclass with Mage Slayer is a great idea. This will make you a hearty combatant in battle who can make use of runes to break concentration on enemy spellcasters and deal heavier damage to them.

The Runechild subclass has a different level progression than the sorcerer class as presented in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Work with your DM to determine how to incorporate this subclass into a 2024 5E campaign.

6

Lunar Sorcery

This class is more defensive and crowd-control-oriented than some of the other 5E sorcerer subclasses. While most subclasses focus on one type of magic, lunar sorcerer allows you to do all six types of magic – abjuration, divination, evocation, necromancy, divination, and transmutation.

While the mechanic is tied to the changing of the moon phases, this is the only subclass that will allow you to access spells outside of your prepared list and change them between leveling up. Additionally, most of your skills will revolve around making the enemy perform saving throws against your natural moon effects to their detriment. You can also switch between the types of saves the enemy will need to make as a bonus action, making you versatile on the fly to adjust to giving the enemy disadvantages that will be relevant to them.

5

Divine Soul Sorcerer

Divine Soul lets you be a sorcerer in cleric’s clothing. Whenever you gain spells, you can choose them from the sorcerer or cleric spell lists, effectively giving you potential access to almost twice as many spells. Although the access to cleric spells that can be cast using sorcerer metamagic is the main draw of the class, the other abilities aren’t worthless.

Plus, you get one extra cleric spell that doesn’t count against the number of spells you know based on your deity’s alignment. The ability to add 2d4 to attack rolls or saving throws in tough situations, the ability to boost your and your allies’ healing, and the spectral wings that grant you the power of flight all come in handy. At level 18, you can even massively heal yourself if you are under half of your max HP. If your party is looking for a versatile secondary healer, Divine Soul is a good choice.

4

Clockwork Soul Sorcery

Clockwork Soul is a unique blend of machinations, defense, and healing. Aside from the flavor of how this subclass presents itself visually, you’ve got a few different options when it comes to your position in the party. Access to extra spells is always a boon, and the Clockwork spells from the sorcerer, wizard, or warlock spell lists have a variety of purposes, from healing to resourceful such as dispel magic.

On top of extra spells, you get the unique opportunity to shield yourself or an ally from damage, similar to granting temporary hit points, reducing the damage taken for the shielded creature. You can also summon spirits to both heal your party and end spells affecting others.

3

Draconic Sorcery

Draconic Bloodline works well with the classic blaster sorcerer build. It lets you deal extra damage and temporarily resist a damage type associated with your bloodline.

You get to choose the type, giving you more build options than the lightning and thunder of Storm Sorcery. Additionally, at level 14, you can cause draconic wings to manifest on your back. These last for one hour or until dismissed. The only drawback is that your flight is slightly less effective than the flight of Divine Soul or Storm Sorcery since it will literally tear off your clothes when you use it.

2

Aberrant Mind Sorcery

This is the sorcerer subclass for you if you like having lots of options for gameplay. If you enjoy the versatility of a druid and being able to adapt to multiple situations, Aberrant Mind provides all the necessary components to create a character that’ll be useful no matter the situation you find yourself in.

With this subclass, you’ll gain access to psionic spells and telepathic speech, beginning at third level. Further along, you’ll be able to cast these psionic spells by using sorcery points rather than spell slots. This allows for a ton of variety in terms of spellcasting. Couple this with an expanded spell list, changing your spells to reflect the role you wish to play, and you’ve got one of the most versatile subclasses useful for roleplay and gameplay alike.

1

Shadow Magic Sorcery

As a sorcerer imbued with the unholy magic of the Shadowfell, your sorcerous powers are linked with darkness and undeath. You get Darkvision to 120 feet from level one. At third level, you get the spell Darkness, which you can cast using sorcery points instead of a spell slot, and since you can see through it, you have advantage against most enemies in the area.

At level 18, you can even turn into a shadowy form immune to most types of damage. Overall, this class is very powerful fairly early on and only gains more utility as you level up. With a free pet, teleportation, and resistance, it’s easy to see how this class has the potential to be a strong damage dealer with survivability.