Sorcerers: Wild Magic

In the first post about this new class, I noted that Sorcerers can become imbued with magic for many reasons. Being born of a draconic bloodline is one such reason, and another is the innate ability to harness the wild forces of chaos. This wild form of magic is unpredictable, and very powerful.

Wild Magic is a new subclass of Sorcerer, joining Draconic to make two options for your Sorcerer characters.

Subclasses

Of course, at this point you may be wondering just what a subclass is. A subclass is a path that your character takes that defines their powers, similar to a specialization. Your Sorcerers will have several spells common across all subclasses, and these can be thought of as class powers. In addition to those are a set of powers unique to your subclass. For Sorcerers, most of their utility spells come from their class, with their combat powers coming from their subclass.

You can change your subclass once every real life hour at any inn, using the new class command. Type help class in game for details.

Safety First!

First things first. If you're familiar with Wild Magic in tabletop roleplaying, you may know that it's infamous for randomly causing harm to the caster and their group. That can be a lot of fun sitting around a table, but I don't think it's right for Toril. Here, Wild Mages do have a lot of chaos to deal with, but it won't hurt anyone except for their enemies. There's also a big focus on harnessing that chaos, rather than being subjected to its whims.

Spell Procs

Wild Magic introduces a new mechanic to spell casting in the form of spell interactions, or, as more commonly known "procs". Many of the Wild Magic spells have a chance to proc a special effect. For example, when casting the spell entropic blast, there is a high chance to proc chaos infusion which causes you next chaos bolt to fire a much stronger chaos barrage instead. There are also many chances to proc a "free" spell. A free spell bypasses recharge requirements, casting time, and combo point requirements.

These interactions help make the Wild Magic power rotation unpredictable, and hopefully fun. The goal is to involve the player in making choices and reacting to events. And again, the focus is on harnessing this unpredictability to unlock greater power.

To help see when you have a spell proc available, the powers prompt for that spell will turn bright cyan.

Wild Magic Spells

Combat spells

Chaos Bolt: Fires a bolt of chaos at an enemy. Builds sorcery points.
Entropic Blast: Corrupts a small amount of magic and unleashes it as a blast of entropic energy at an enemy. Has a chance to proc chaos infusion. Builds sorcery points.
Prismatic Sphere: The caster sends a brilliant sphere of shifting light at their target. Has a chance to afflict the target with a random condition, and can also proc prismatic reaction. Builds sorcery points.
Torrent of Power: The caster channels a burst of wild magic into a torrent of energy directed at a target for heavy damage.. Can proc conflux of chaos. Spends sorcery points.
Chaos Storm: The caster warps residual magic in the area in to a wild maelstorm that lashes targets in the area. Can proc tempest surge. Spends sorcery points.
Prismatic Explosion: An explosion of wild magic and prismatic light hits multiple targets in the area, causing damage with a chance to inflict a random condition.

Utility

Note: Most utility spells come from the Sorcerer bae class, with these exceptions.

Chromatic Disc: Summons a multicolored disc for the caster to fly upon.
Prismatic Shield: A multicolored shield of light absorbs a set amount of damage before dissipating.
Wild Magic Surge: Expends the roiling chaos building inside of the caster and applies a random effect. Can grant one of the following procs: chaos infusion, wild magic storm, wild magic healing, wild magic shield, entropy vent, or energized chaos.

Spell procs

Note: In case you missed it above, these procs aren't spells - they're reflexive affects that can be applied by your main spells. You don't have to cast these, you just get to use them when they happen.

Chaos Infusion: When affected by this, your next chaos bolt is transformed into a more powerful chaos barrage.
Prismatic Reaction: When affected by this, you may cast a free prismatic explosion.
Conflux of Chaos: This proc may grant either a chaos infusion or a prismatic reaction.
Tempest Surge: When affected by this, you may cast a free wild magic surge.
Wild Magic Shield: An unstable shield grants the Sorcerer some damage reduction for a short time.
Wild Magic Healing: The Sorcerer is healed instantly, even over their maximum hit points.
Wild Magic Storm: This allows the Sorcerer to cast a free chaos storm.
Entropy Vent: This affect causes the Sorcerer's wild magic spells to do additional damage.
Energized Chaos: When affected by this, the Sorcerer will generated double Sorcery Points.

Release

As befitting the chaotic nature of this new subclass, it will of course release today, with the main Sorcerer class. This means that Sorcerers will have two subclasses to choose from at launch.

It bears repeating that there are a lot of new mechanics involved in both the Sorcerer class and Wild Mages in particular. There were even a few times through development that the Wild Magic got away from me, and I had some fun time dealing with infinite chaos storms and chain reaction wild magic surges. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but there's still a lot of in here that could go wrong, so I'll be relying on your feedback and bug reports. Thanks in advance for your patience while I get it all worked out.

Finally, I hope this class is as fun to play as it was to build. Onwards!