D&D: ‘Heroes of Krynn’s New Lunar Magic Sorcerer Waxes Gibbous With Power
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer subclass out of the new Heroes of Krynn Unearthed Arcana is pretty strong. Check it out.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer shows just how far Sorcerers have come since the beginning of D&D 5th Edition. They’ve always had a little bit of a struggle to stand out – they have a more limited spell selection and the number of spells known. Every spell on a Sorcerer’s list has got to count. And for a while, there were limited options.
Then came Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The biggest thing that Tasha’s Cauldron did was add Sorcerer subclasses that come with bonus spells. This feature alone makes them more powerful Sorcerers than their PHB compatriots. The other class features they have are great, sure, but when spells are your primary way of interacting with the game? Anything that adds to that adds to you.
And the more “modern” subclasses – I say this because 5th Edition is 8 years old now, it has eras – acknowledge this. Every last one of them, including the new Lunar Magic Sorcerer adds bonus spells to the list.
But, as you’ll see, the Lunar Magic Sorcerer does so much more. They wax and wane (mostly wax though) with power. And it’s all based on the cycle of Krynn’s magic moons.
What’s Up With All These Moons
Okay, so, first you have to understand that magic, on Krynn, is tied to the moons. There are three moons altogether: Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari. Conveniently enough, these are also the names of the deities of magic on Krynn. And it’s literally black and white morality – there’s a white moon, a red moon, and a black moon. The white moon is associated with “light magic” the red moon with “neutral magic” and the black moon with “dark magic.”
Is it problematic that white = good, black = bad, red = kind of in between? Probably! But that’s not what we’re here for.
Those are the moons, they each correspond to a school of High Magic on Krynn and they will come up a lot, since we’re talking about a Lunar Magic Sorcerer.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer
But you know what, for all that Lunar Magic Sorcery originates on Krynn, it’s actually pretty easy to take the Lunar Magic Sorcerer out of Dragonlance. Lunar Magic can come up on any world where the moons are revered. Selûne in the Forgotten Realms, for instance. Or on Eberron, the Draconic Prophecy tracks the twelve different moons.
Moons and magic just go hand in hand. And Lunar Magic Sorcerers are the natural extension of that:
“You, or someone from your lineage, has been exposed to the concentrated magic of the moon (or moons) of your world, imbuing you with lunar magic.”
There are a number of possibile ways for this to happen. But basically Lunar Magic Sorcerers wield magic in the name of the moon.
Honestly this feature is the most underrated feature in any Sorcerer subclass, because it makes your character cool. But this one, especially, knocks it out of the park.
And you might be wondering, what about actual game mechanics? Well, first, that is an actual game mechanic. You can totally use that in a roleplay situation. But don’t worry let’s look at what you get as your low-level features.
Lunar Magic Sorcerer – Low Level Features
First up, Moon Fire, a feature that adds sacred flame as a spell that Lunar Magic Sorcerers get for free, outside of the spells/cantrips known table. It’s just an extra cantrip – BUT THEN ALSO:
“When you cast the spell, you can target one creature as normal or target two creatures within range that are within 5 feet of each other.”
That’s twice the targets for the same great price. What a boon for a sorcerer to have! And sure, sacred flame just does a d8, targets a commonly decent save, and has no other effect. But this gives it a boost.
I’d honestly love to see tech like this for future subclasses. Modify a cantrip that already exists and use that to give them more flavor. This is such a neat bit of subclass design. It’s flavorful, it’s powerful but not broken. You really can’t go wrong with it.
Lunar Spells
Speaking of cool features though, Lunar Embodiment is the bonus spells feature for this variety of Sorcerer. It gives them access to this spell list, which is actually three spell lists:
Now, already you can see where this is going. There’s three spell lists that all tie to phases of the moon… and you’d be exactly right. Every time a Lunar Magic Sorcerer finishes a long rest, they can decide what phase of the moon they’re aligned with.
But there’s more. Lunar Magic Sorcerers also get the ability to cast one spell fro the list, once, without expending a spell slot. So one extra free spell of up to their highest level (from the chosen list) per long rest. That’s a very powerful feature. I think WotC is looking to explore what they can do with features like this – where can they bend, where do they break, etc.
Finally at 6th level, Lunar Magic Sorcerers get two more features: Waxing and Waning, which lets them take a bonus action to spend 1 sorcery point to swap their lunar phase on the fly. Handy. And Lunar Boons are a set of passive buffs that reduce the Metamagic cost for spells of an associated school by 1. You can only use the reduced cost up to your proficiency bonus times per long rest, but that’s still pretty cool.
High Level Features
Now let’s talk about real power. At 14th level, Lunar Magic Sorcerers gain Lunar Empowerment. This feature gives them three different buffs, each one active when they’re in a given lunar phase.
And at 18th level, Lunar Phenomenon, lets the Sorcerer spend a bonus action to shift into a lunar phase and activate a bonus power associated with that phase:
- Full Moon: Each creature of your choice within 30 feet must save or be blinded until the end of its next turn. Heal one creature in the area 3d8 hit points.
- New Moon: Each creature of your choice within 30 feet must save or take 3d10 necrotic damage and be reduced to 0 speed until the end of their next turn. Also you tur invisible until the end of your next turn, or until you attack or cast a spell.
- Crescent Moon: Teleport to an unoccupied space within 60 feet and gain resistance to all damage until the start of your next turn.
Each bonus action power can be used once per long rest, or until you spend 5 sorcery points to use it again.
Final Thoughts
All in all, the Lunar Magic Sorcerer is pretty strong. Which is about where they need to be. WotC is paving the road for slightly more powerful class features. More and more we’re seeing features that can be used “your proficiency bonus times per short/long rest.” which is a cool way of limiting powerful features but also giving you room to have something akin to encounter powers out of 4th Edition.
Will this be tuned? Almost certainly. But I bet it will still be a popular, powerful choice even when the class is finalized.
Happy Adventuring!
