Can you talk a bit about the difference between a rogue and a knight? I consider myself a rogue of heart but Iâm having trouble telling the difference via the identity denying things in rogues and knights. I donât want to be as cold and serious and guarded as a knight of heart would be, but I do feel that accepting myself would be a better arc than just⌠whatever a rogue is supposed to do. I assumed a while ago that rogues are supposed to accept their aspect in themselves and let themselves keep some, but apparently the rogues arc is more like⌠just shut up and deliver the papers. I wish it was explained in the books how roxys arc ended because you have to extrapolate everything yourself with the base story.
Let's go over the complete basics of what Rogues and Knights actually mean as a class.
By my definition:
Knight - passive exploitation class, one who serves aspect, or serves through aspect for others.
Rogue - passive stealing class, one who steals aspect, or steals through aspect for others.
A Knight is often someone who pushes their problems away, in order to manage caring for others instead of themselves. They are not the therapist friend, but they are the friend who's willing to drop everything to help someone.
Something that Knights and Rogues share in common is that in some way, they have to accept their aspect, but in different ways.
I assume you're talking about being a Heart aspect player, and fortunately, I'm also a Heart player, so I know a little bit more in this area.
I will tell you that Knights of Heart are not consistently guarded or cold. A Knight of Heart is your friend who keeps their emotions and feelings restricted or even locked away, shoving whatever they feel under the rug in order to look more orderly and to seem like they know what they're doing.
On the other hand, a Rogue of Heart is someone who'd have to accept the fact that they have these feelings and thoughts in the first place. They might push away their feelings because from their experience, they have none. They do.
Heart as an aspect is all about feeling. A Knight of Heart tends to push their feelings away in order to focus on something/someone else, while a Rogue of Heart is more inclined to deny that these feelings exist in the first place and have them return full force later.
Knights and Rogues share a lot of similarities for sure, though.
Again, a lot of classpecting is a little over a decade or so of speculation, so don't be afraid to break the boundaries a little of what each classpect means. Nobody is linear, and since there are only 144 base classpects (not counting master classes), obviously nobody is going to fit into one classpect entirely.
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Since itâs introduction in 3rd Edition, the Sorcerer has always had a dogged existence. Back in that edition, when a wizard cast a spell, the knowledge of that spell would disappear from their heads once it was over, which is why Wizards always had their heads in their spellbooks: they had to, in order to keep spells in their heads! This was a system called Vancian Casting. Sorcerers, by contrast, used a new system of magic, called Spontaneous Casting. In this system, the knowledge of a spell would not leave the casterâs mind after expending all of their spell slots. This shook up the world of casting, and a few of the writers for WoTC were not pleased. As such, life for the Sorcerer was rough: they didnât get nearly as many cool prestige classes, metamagic was harder for them to pull off, and there was more or less little reason to play a Sorcerer.
Two editions came and went, leaving us with the current rendition of the Wizard and Sorcerer classes. Opinions are divided on the current state of Sorcerers, some saying that theyâre just as powerful as they were in 4th edition, where they received a significant power boost. Other say that things havenât really changed since the days of 3rd, with WoTC keeping the class down on purpose. So... whatâs new, and what changed?
Leave some, take a lot:
In 5e, Sorcerers got something that theyâve been clamoring for since 3rd edition: exclusive access to metamagic! Metamagic, for the uninitiated, is a way to customize spells on the fly, making them safer for allies, shoot farther, or shoot faster, letting the sorcerer cast multiple spells in one turn! To do this, sorcerers would call upon Sorcery Points, which was a special pool that fueled their metamagic.
However, things were not all sunshine and rainbows for the Sorcerer. In fact, them getting metamagic may arguably be the only good point they got in 5e. You see, when they got metamagic, they also took a lot of the punch out of the metamagic system in general. For one, there are really only two metamagics really worth considering: Quickened Spell and Twinned Spell. Quickened Spell lets you cast multiple spells per turn... in the past. In 5e, there is a hard cap of one spell and one cantrip per turn, so chances are, the most youâll be doing is hard casting one spell, and then quickened casting a cantrip. Which isnât bad, but not nearly as abusable as the Quickened Spell of the past. Twinned Spell does exactly what it says on the tin: it lets you double cast a spell. This is really good, not only for offense but for defense as well. Twinning Haste for your melee friends will give you many pats on the back, and itâs pretty much the best trick you can pull off for levels to come. All of the other metamagics are usually too situational, or only come up in fringe cases, leaving a big power gap between the two mentioned earlier for an offensively minded Sorcerer. For more controlling Sorcerers, youâre still going to be picking up Twinned Spell, since itâs just that good.
In addition, Sorcery Points, the thing used to fuel metamagic, is also stretched way too thin. In addition to fueling metamagic, Sorcery Points are also used to grant additional Spell Slots, letting the sorcerer (sort of) cast more spells per day. The problem comes with trying to tie in both at the same time. If you use a bunch of metamagic, you wonât have any extra spell slots later in the day! And if you use a bunch of spell slots, well you donât get to use cool metamagic! Combined with the fact that Sorcery Points only refresh during long rest up until the level 20 capstone, this leaves the Sorcerer at a Catch-22 compared to other casters. Most other casters only have to worry about Spell Slots every day, while the Sorcerer is left in a dilemma. If you are too liberal in your usage of Sorcery Points, then youâll run out of gas very quickly compared to other casters. If youâre too frugal with your Sorcery Points, then youâre sort of missing the point of playing a Sorcerer in the first place!
Adding onto this, Sorcerers are also often criticized for not being able to make enough individual decisions throughout their career. They get a measly 15 spells known, and they canât swap their spells until they level up. They also have a lot of âdeadâ levels, where they donât get much besides an extra spell slot, another spell, and maybe an origin feature and a metamagic choice. Yes, Wizards have about as many dead levels, and yes, Warlocks only get 15 spells as well. But the inflexible selection of spells for Sorcerers sets them apart from both of them. Wizards can swap their spells at will every night, letting them flip their role anytime they want. Warlocks get plenty of pact features, invocations, and Mystic Arcanum to pad their levels.
A lopsided battle:
Things are already dire for the Sorcerer, but things get even worse when you compare them to the other full casters, especially Wizards. The Sorcerer spell list is essentially the Wizard spell list, but with a lot of spells taken out. In fact, Sorcerers only get one exclusive spell: the inconsistent, but fun Chaos Bolt, introduced in Xantharâs Guide to Everything. By comparison, Wizards get 32 exclusive spells, not including spells granted by subclasses. Combined with the fact that Sorcerers are the only full caster (depending on how you define Warlock) that does not get ritual casting, and Sorcerers are by and far the worst utility caster.
The main claim to fame in the past was that Sorcerers could cast more spells per day, in exchange for their lackluster spell list. In 5e, this is technically true, but only under two conditions: 1. The Sorcerer does not use any metamagic and 2. The party does not take a short rest. I already discussed the implications of the first point, but the second point is a curious case. Almost every single class has some sort of short rest feature. For Warlocks and Wizards, they can recover spell slots. Sorcererâs donât get this feature at all. They donât even get any short rest benefits until level 20, where they finally get the ability to recover... 4 Sorcery Points every short rest. This is pathetic, especially compared with a level 18 wizard, who gets to recover a 9th level spell slot or lower for free every short rest. You canât even recover a spell slot above level two with this feature, and besides that, Sorcerers have an arbitrary limit of restoration at fifth level spells anyway!
Sorcerers are also tied with Bards as the slowest growing full caster class. Both Bards and Sorcerers started with a mere two subclasses, getting three more in the future. Compare that with Wizards, who started with eight subclasses and got two more in the future. At the very least, Sorcerers tend to get more Unearthed Arcana content compared to Bards and Warlocks, and they did get a throwaway origin in the Plane Shift: Kaladesh article. On the subject of subclasses...
Kick in the teeth: Lore Master Wizards
Most content found in Unearthed Arcana has a good chance of making it to the full release of a published book. Such was the case for the Divine Soul Sorcerer, which is a sort of Cleric Sorcerer based around healing people. The Lore Master Wizard is also a subclass found in Unearthed Arcana, but it has a zero percent chance of making it to a book. I dare say that the Lore Master Wizard is the most universally hated UA subclass ever published by WoTC. It showed how little they cared for the Sorcerer, and how much they loved the Wizard (surprise surprise that a company that has âWizardâ in their name would be biased towards Wizards).
So, how bad was this subclass to nab it that dubious title? Well, for starters, the subclass does not mention the word âmetamagicâ once, instead opting to give the subclass a lot of âpseudo metamagicâ. Some of the features are straight up stolen metamagic that uses spell slots instead of Sorcery Points. Because of that distinction, they can sculpt their spells more widely, more powerfully, and more often compared to Sorcerers. On top of that, itâs a straight up overpowered class. At level two, they can change the typing of any spell with a damage type to any other damage type. This would be bad enough, since this feature used to be a metamagic that is surprisingly absent from the Sorcerer class. Add to the fact that one of the damage types you can swap to is Force damage, the best damage type in the game, and the fact that you get to change the saving throw on your spells, at no cost, you get the most front loaded caster subclass to date. Hell, Sorcerers donât even get metamagic proper until level three, and this subclass out does them in versatility for levels to come!
At level six, Lore Masters get to do a bunch of the aforementioned pseudo metamagic by spending spell slots. Just one level one spell can net you extra force damage (which is the best type of damage), and for another spell slot level, you can do Extended Spell, without having to take Extended Spell, which is a normally fringe metamagic. A third level spell slot lets you increase the DC of a spell saving throw. At level ten, you get the biggest slap in the face possible: you can just swap out any prepared spell for any other spell on your list. The biggest downside to a wizard, completely gone! Their capstone ability is just milking it: at level 14, you get to cast a spell from any spell list. Yeah, ANY SPELL FROM ANY SPELL LIST. Nevermind that wizards have the most bloated spell list of any full caster, they get to steal the Rangerâs spells too!
People, especially fans of the Sorcerer were outraged. In just one subclass with six features, they managed to out do an entire class proper, and they managed to be a great deal better than many of the Wizardâs own subclasses! People flooded their social media accounts to complain, and they never looked back until they made the School of Invention Wizard, a sort of âLore Master v2âł. That subclass is an arguably better Wild Magic Sorcerer, but it has the distinction of taking the âerudite, wizened master of magicâ that the Lore Master was, and turned it into a âbumbling madman.â It even goes so far as to mock the old Lore Masters, saying that âwizards of other traditions often think of them as lunatics.â
Not all doom and gloom
Despite all of the weaknesses of a Sorcerer, they still garner plenty of fans. Hell, they managed to charm me, which is saying something, since Iâm usually down for taking the most optimal choice when possible. Sure, theyâre the worst full caster, but itâs not by a horribly large margin like in older editions. In fact, the power gaps in 5e are mostly small in comparison. Sorcerers make for a distinct, fresh take on full casting, that feels much more defined than the pyrrhic Wizards. Theyâre also much more fun to roleplay as than the stick in the mud that keeps their nose in a book all day. Given the choice between the two, Iâll take Sorcerer any day of the week.
Page of space + heir of blood + knight of heart + maid of mind?
Either the Sylph or the Sage of Psyche; youâre right between the two. One who heals with or one who knows how to heal with the aspect ofâŚalright, I donât have a nice descriptive for this one.Â
I do know how it functions, though. Of all the therapy classpects, these are the ones practically built for it. As a Sage, youâll take a more scholarly approach; as a Sylph, youâll be more personally concerned; but either way, you heal psychesâminds, souls, the human ego.
As a Sage, you heal by understanding how your coplayers think. You learn their points of views and find what makes them tick; once you get all of the background knowledge, you can draw up a plan to help your friends work through their issues, set up coping mechanisms for them to try.
As a Sylph, youâre more inclined to talk about it; you use your own psyche to heal othersâ. You donât figure out every aspect of their psyches like the Sage; instead, you talk about what works for you, and offer piles of resources that might help.Â
Sylphs are often more compassionate and tend to take less time than Sages, since they arenât tangled up in researching the issues first. Sages, however, do tend to learn their aspects more thoroughly, and as a result their methods tend to be more efficient (thought not necessarily more effective).
Either way, youâre a great asset to your session; congrats.
