D&D Next Q&A: Weapon Dice, Sorcerer, Warlock, & Feats

NOTE: Phaezen and Sky Roy cleared up a huge misconception on my part. I had assumed that two-weapon fighting reduced the damage dice on both weapons and removed any ability score bonuses, to boot. It turns out that while both attacks take an attack penalty, only the light weapon loses out on the damage bonus, so it is not as bad as I had originally thought. In that case my only criticism is that I think that the attack penalty could be reduced a bit (maybe -1/-1), or at least removed for the primary attack. Seems like a good stress-test opportunity.

Two-weapon fighting in Dungeons & Dragons has almost always been a bad idea. I do not think it was even possible in Basic (barring houserules), but according to 2nd Edition’s Combat & Tactics you could try attack with two weapons, you just took a -2 to the first attack and a -4 to the second. 3rd Edition kind of kept this model, starting you out at a whopping -6 and -10 to attack, which could be reduced to -2 and -2 through the use of lighter weapons and feats.

4th Edition made it more universally applicable through the use of feats and its power system. The Two-Weapon Fighting feat gave you a +1 bonus to damage when you made attacks while wielding two weapons, I guess assuming that you worked the other one in there at some point. Simple, to the point, and stacked with Weapon Focus, though understandably too simple for some, which is why it was nice that several classes–namely barbarians, fighters, and rangers–had access to at-will multi-attack powers (though many higher level attack powers let you hit multiple things, too).

The current take on it in Next is that you have to be wielding a light weapon, you take a -2 penalty to both attack rolls, and you have to use the light weapon’s damage die for both attacks. Oh, you also do not get to add any bonuses. So, as an example, let us say that a fighter with a Strength of 16 wants to hit an orc with a longsword and short sword: she makes both attacks at a net +2, and if she hits both times will deal an average of 7 damage.

What if the fighter just ditches the short sword for a shield? She makes her one attack at a +4, deals an average of 7.5 damage, and has a slightly improved Armor Class. Even if she goes with the short sword her damage is only reduced by a half-point, but she is still way more accurate. If she decides to on a full-offensive and pulls out a greatsword? Her attack bonus still stays at +4, but damage improves to 9.5.

Of course none of this assumes feats, of which three out of the Two-Weapon Fighter specialty are directly applicable:

• Dual Wielding lets you use any one-handed weapon when making your double-attack, which can improve the average damage from 7 to 9 (assuming two longswords, here). You still have the penalty though, so you are spending a feat to make less accurate, slightly less damaging attacks.
• Two-Weapon Defense gives you a slight Armor Class boost, which means that with Dual Wielding you are now doing better-than-longsword damage, with the same Armor Class, but are still less accurate.
• Eventually you can get Two-Weapon Strike, which lets you make one attack with advantage. This is a pretty good payoff because you are also making the attack at your full bonus, and you get to add damage bonuses. The drawback is that you have to spend a feat on Dual Wielding and wait until 9th-level.

I was not a fan of having to plan towards a concept in 3rd Edition, and it is because of this that in my last playtest packet feedback that I voiced by dissatisfaction that a player wanting to wield two weapons is worse off in every way–accuracy, damage, and defense–unless she spends feats. Eventually being able to make a very accurate attack is nice, but that is at least eight levels down the road; in the mean time you will be much better off using a sword and shield, or a two-handed weapon.

My proposal was to allow a character with two weapons that attacks the same target to roll both damage dice, keep the highest result, and add her damage bonus. This makes it so that you get more reliable damage, without exceeding what a character with one weapon can do (or doing more than a character with a two-hander). You could do this as part of a single attack roll, or require that both attacks hit in order to gain the benefit (which has the advantage that the dual-wielder gets another chance at landing an attack, though she will not always get to roll extra dice).

The problem is that this only works against a single target. What about hitting multiple targets? In this case I was thinking of a mechanic where the character can divvy up damage to two or more targets, which would again prevent the dual-wielder from out-damaging the two-hander. This could also require the use of Martial Damage Dice, like the monk’s Flurry of Blows, as the benefit is that the fighter gets to make extra attacks to stack damage, instead of rolling multiple dice and taking the best result.

As for the sorcerer and warlock, I still see no reason why the dragon-sorcerer cannot be a heavy-hitting melee-ish spellcaster type. I really dug the sorcerer mechanic, and hope that future iterations retain the “manifest traits as you cast more spells” shtick. Frankly if they are going to make a warrior mage, why not make a warmage tradition?

D&D Next: Storm Origin Homebrew

Storm Heritage

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You are descended from a storm deity, giant, or titan, or were exposed to magical phenomenon at birth.

Hit Dice: 1d6 per sorcerer level

Hit Points: 6 + your Constitution modifier at 1st level, and 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per sorcerer level gained

Armor and Shield Proficiencies: You are not proficient with any forms of armor or shields.

Weapon Proficiencies: You gain proficiency with basic melee and simple ranged weapons.

Sorcerous Powers: At 1st level, you can spend 1 willpower to use the wind gust power.

Additionally, each day, after you have spent 3 willpower, you are surrounded by gusts of wind. Until you complete a long rest, non-magical attacks made against you suffer disadvantage.

Level 4: You can spend 2 willpower to use the shocking retaliation power.

Additionally, each day, after you have spent 10 willpower, currents of electricity dance across your skin. You gain resistance to electricity and thunder damage.

Sorcerer Spells

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It is recommended that you take shocking grasp for thematic purposes. You can also nab light and shield and give them a “lightning” flavor.

Discharge
Minor evocation

You unleash a small electrical charge against a nearby creature.
Effect: Make a magical attack against a creature within 30 feet of you. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 + 4 lightning damage.

Lightning Strike
1st-level evocation

I like the idea of having generic spells that can be modified as opposed to a bunch of spells with similar effects, but slightly different names. But, until then, here is basically a 1st-level version of lightning bolt.
Effect: One creature within 60 feet takes 3d8 lightning damage, and is knocked prone. If the target makes a Dexterity save, it takes half damage and is not knocked prone.

Sorcerous Powers

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Wind Gust
You unleash a powerful gust of wind, knocking nearby creatures back and allowing you to briefly take to the sky.
Effect: Each adjacent creature must make a Constitution save or take 1d6 thunder damage and be pushed 5 feet away from you. You can then fly your speed. If you do not land on solid ground at the end of your turn, you fall.

Shocking Retaliation 
Requirement: You can use this power only as a reaction in response to taking damage from a melee attack.
Effect: The target takes 5d6 lightning damage, and must make a Constitution save or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

Legends & Lore: Sorcerers and Warlocks

I know that I already talked about the sorcerer and warlock, but today’s Legend & Lore goes a bit more in depth, so I figure I could talk about that (and reiterate some previous points).

As I said before the 3rd Edition version of the sorcerer did not go into much detail, even when a Dragon article added heritages and one of the many spellcaster books added more feats and prestige classes (some that sucked pretty hardcore by all accounts). There was also a lack of spells that made it easy to stick to a theme. 4th Edition was a major improvement in that it added in spell sources from the start (with meaningful benefits), but also lacked enough thematic spells.

The new sorcerer maintains this trend, giving you origin-specific powers that you can use in addition to spells, but introduces a new mechanic in which you gain additional bonuses the more spells you cast in a single day (though, understandably, not many choices).

As I said before much prefer the idea of the sorcerer tapping into her magic just changing her, as opposed to a second soul trying to break free. Do not get me wrong, I do not think that the flavor is bad, just…it could be better. I liken it to Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle (and, to a lesser extend, Nue from Karas); the more he used his magic, the more it would change his shape into a weird-looking bird-thing.

I do like the idea of soul-riven as sorcerers that went too far and can no longer turn back (which sounds like what almost happened to Howl, actually), as well as the adventure hook of an evil wizard tapping sorcerers for arcane energy. Makes me think of Final Fantasy VI (and, again, Nue near the end of Karas).

Minor flavor gripe aside, again I think that the sorcerer should physically drain themselves. If the soul-trying-to-break-free is a bad thing, I would also like to see some drawbacks to over casting magic. What about using a recharge timer, and if the sorcerer uses magic again before the time has elapsed, is penalized in some way (potentially becoming a threat to her allies)? What about taking a penalty when you use up half or all of your Willpower, so that it is a kind of double-edged sword? As it stands the sorcerer only benefits, which kind of contrasts with the flavor (though I will say that I would like to see a kind of soul-riven theme that represents partial, permanent transformations).

Having recently referenced Complete Arcane in order to add in an infernal bloodline, warlocks have gone through a bit more change. Initially the 3rd Edition version were conceptually pretty similar to sorcerers in that they sought to harness magical power that suffused themselves. They differed mechanically in that they basically had even less variety in spells, infinite usage, and built-in class features.

4th Edition borrowed 3rd Edition’s binder, changing them so that they were arcanists that short-cutted the whole learning curve by bargaining power from a powerful entity. This gave them a better identity, and some awesome flavor material to boot (even if it was not really expanded upon).

I like that the flavor focuses more on how the warlock gets to where she is, which was mostly glossed over in 4th Edition, as well as–for now anyway–giving names to the patrons and what they are getting out of the deal. This is the kind, or perhaps depth, of flavor material that was missing, and helps a player understand the concept and better realize the character.

My only real flavor gripe is that the warlock has a spellbook for rituals that are granted to her by the patron. That seems kind of odd. If the patron instills the warlock with the power to perform these feats, why have a spellbook at all? Otherwise I would still like to see a system/guidelines/advice for relationship with the patron, kind of like how artifacts had a Concordance rating. I am interested to see how they handle other invocations, as well as how they scale.

D&D Next: Warlock and Sorcerer Update

There were some things I definately was not expecting during the keynote speech, least of all another playtest update that adds two new classes–the sorcerer and warlock–and an adventure. The good part is that it allows us to fiddle around with two alternative magic systems, on top of having something else to do besides select random caves filled with random humanoid types. The bad part, for me anyway, is that I was just about to post a heavily modified conversion of the first part of Keep on the Shadowfell, as well as update my homebrew warlock to level 5.

Sorcerers
In 3rd Edition it was mentioned that sorcerers have magic in their blood, hinting at exotic ancestry like dragons (back when dragons could bone basically everything). As a bit of an anticlimax, this was just a way to introduce a variant spellcasting system that otherwise directly mimicked wizard spells, from blasting enemies with a handful of magic missiles a day, to summoning unseen servants. Really, there was not a lot of thematic synergies going on, here.

4th Edition gave every class its own list of things to do, and emphasized the bloodline aspect a bit more by giving us spell sources that not only provided unique bonuses, but also boosted specific spells (so a dragon sorcerer turning into a dragon was a bit better at it, and storm sorcerers were a bit better off with lightning/thunder spells). The problem was that, again, it was difficult to maintain a theme.

A did a blog post back in March (there might be more, but this is the big one I could find), where I went over how I would handle various arcane classes were I in charge. For the sorcerer, I mentioned how I would make them heavily defined by their bloodline, giving them limited magic that would not run out, and allowing them to boost it by exhausting themselves. I went on to describe a dragon sorcerer transforming her hands into claws to make melee attacks, use a breath weapon, and hardening her skin into scales.

Which, it seems, is kind of what we have so far.

Sorcerers have limited spells (2 at first level) and an origin that grants you specific powers (in this case dragon strength, breath weapon, and dragon scales). The spellcasting mechanic is basically what it was in 3rd Edition, just renamed. Instead of giving you slots per day, you get Willpower. Willpower is expended on a one-point-per-spell-level basis, and you get it back after a long rest. When you spend enough Willpower in a day, you start to transform, gaining a bonus to damage rolls at first, and eventually gaining damage resistance that varies on your heritage.

While I like that WotC is really trying to emphasize a theme here, I find it a bit odd that sorcerers become mentally exhausted the more they use their magic. Given that it is in their blood, I figured that it would be physically exhausted. I would have also like them to have the option to do the claw/scale bit as needed, though it is pretty fun to have an uncontrollable transformation happen as a result of using too much magic (though I would flavor it more as your heritage manifesting rather than overpowering you).

I also do not like the sorcerer spell list. I can get behind a dragon sorcerer using detect magic in a way that is explained as “smelling” magic, but magic missile and ghoul touch do not really evoke the whole draconic theme. This was a similar issue in 4th Edition, where I would want to make a dragon sorcerer and have to reskin powers with the preferred damage types, invent my own that I felt made more sense, or pick something else whether or not it made sense to me.

So, I would expand upon the sorcerer’s spell list so that there are a number of thematically appropriate options. Sorcerers with black dragon heritage should have some acid stuff, as well as the ability to breath underwater. Blue dragons could have the ability to dehydrate creatures, burrow, and lots of lightning. Green dragons could have some charm effects.

I would also move the Willpower mechanic over to the wizard (at least as a rules module), and give the sorcerer options to cast spells/boost magic by physically exhausting herself, getting nailed with conditions like stunned, or taking a variable amount of damage.

Warlock
I do not remember much about how warlocks were explained in 3rd Edition, but I liked the flavor in 4th Edition, which seems to have been maintained. My issues with 4th Edition were that while you basically got power from something else, there was nothing that even really encouraged you to interact with it, which is a shame. There was also no cost, despite the flavor material kind of hinting at some kind of trade off.

In the same blog post I mentioned above, and in my warlock homebrew, I talked about making the patron a bigger part of the warlock. You would contact it for new spells, and could also ask for aid, a temporary power boost, and other favors. It would also provide a vehicle for adventure hooks, which had the added bonus of social roleplaying opportunities (especially if its interests or demands conflicted with yours, or someone in the party).

So, again, I am glad to see that they are going in a direction that I wanted.

Though there is only one pact and patron to choose from, it at least has a name. You get pact boons from your patron at specific levels, which also cause you to manifest physical signs of your allegiance (which is how I envisioned the Signs class feature to work). You also have invocations (which you might remember from the 3rd Edition warlock), and have access to spells (which are limited to those with ritual versions).

The warlock resource is Favors. You start with two, and they are used to power your lesser invocations and pact boons. Unlike the sorcerer’s Willpower, you regain them during a short or long rest by using a rite to contact your patron. Again, this is something I specifically wanted, and am kind of glad that there is no associated cost (in my version you had to spend like, 5 gp I think).
Basically the warlock has a flexible, encounter-based resource, which I like. I also like that each lesser invocation has a kind of social roleplaying cost associated with it. No hard mechanics, but something to add to your character, though I could see DMs enforcing things from time to time.  The problem is that some of them, like eldritch blast and visage of the summer court, are pretty potent. Eldritch blast deals 3d6 damage from the start, while visage lets you charm everything within 30 feet.

Visage might not be so bad given that creatures that save against it cannot be affected again for 24 hours (another 3rd Edition thing) and costs a Favor, but eldritch blast has no restrictions or limitations. It also scales up to 4d6 at level 3.

Anywho the warlock looks pretty good, though as with the sorcerer I would move away from using wizard spells and just create warlock-specific rituals. I would also remove the spellbook, representing them as things that the warlock just knows how to do. Finally, make enough pact-thematic invocations so we will not have to “settle” on a choice.

Character Concepts: The Thief of Wind

I forgot exactly how and when I came up with this character concept. Maybe it was a character that I would play had I been playing in A Sundered World instead of running it, though it could also be a rad NPC to throw at my party as a part-time antagonist. Like a D&D-based Faye Valentine or Saffron. Basically it is a rogue that managed to swindle a wish from a djinni without it backfiring (or at least, not in an immediately noticeable way), or discovered some kind of item that grants a measure of elemental power, like a could be a djinni’s bottle or air elemental core.

Now I could go with elemental heritage (or even windsoul genasi), but I like the idea of a rogue that managed to actually steal power, as it would ideally give a DM a very definitive adventure hook and a motivation for the character. 

Mechanically you can get away with this by going with a human rogue and multiclassing into wizard for an encounter thunderwave, re-flavoring it to be a gust of wind instead of a thunder clap. The problem is that that gives you one wind-based power, and only on a per-encounter basis at that. I think what I would prefer more is a hybrid rogue/sorcerer. The problem here is that none of the at-wills really have a wind-motif. Well…storm walk is kind of wind-ish, but I would prefer to reskin thunderwave and just make it a Charisma attack instead of Intelligence. 

After that it is a simple matter of divvying up your exploits and spells to taste, and nabbing Hybrid Talent for a sorcerer’s storm soul class feature, artful dodger, or weapon talent if that is your thing. Personally I like storm soul because I imagine the part where you lose your energy resistances as wind shielding you from harm.

Character Concepts: Warforged Sorcerer

Something I thought of while showering, a warforged cosmic sorcerer that has some kind of clock built into its chest which could display the cosmic phases. I imagine it more delicate than its kin (hence the lower Con), and very intricately crafted. A wizard or sage might have built it to assist it on matters of planar cosmology, making it a mobile orrery of the planes (ECS, pg 271).

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Tock, level 1
Warforged, Sorcerer
Spell Source: Cosmic Magic

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 10, Dex 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 8, Dex 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16.

AC: 14 Fort: 14 Reflex: 11 Will: 16
HP: 22 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 5

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +5, Insight +5, Bluff +8, Diplomacy +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Dungeoneering, Endurance +2, Heal, History, Intimidate +5, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth +1, Streetwise +3, Thievery +1, Athletics +4

FEATS
Level 1: Student of the Cosmos

POWERS
Sorcerer at-will 1: Blazing Starfall
Sorcerer at-will 1: Lightning Strike
Sorcerer daily 1: Cosmos Call
Sorcerer encounter 1: Ray of the Moon

ITEMS
Adventurer’s Kit, Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing), Dagger
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

Review: Aberrant Blood

Aberrant Blood is the third product from Silent 7Seven, and its fucking sweet. Like Favored Forms it is cheap, short, and adds specific content to the sorcerer class in the form of an aberrant Spell Source. I’m going to admit that I’m a bit biased on this one, since I am a big fan of Lovecraftian horrors, but this is the best product from Silent 7Seven by far.
Its only four pages, costs only $1.50, but gives you a new class feature, powers, a feat, and a paragon path. Like all three products, it treads on some experimental ground, but even if you think that its terribly broken, and at the least it sparks the imagination and gives you something to work with.

On the tangent of experimentation, one of the features of taking the aberrant Spell Source is that you can shift a bonus from another ability score to Con if you dont have that already. I already know that a lot of people are going to react very harshly to this. My personal thoughts are that its not really necessary, since Con grants the striker bonus and most players are really going to ramp it up, anyway. That being said, if you dont like it, houserule it away. Its not a huge foundation of the class feature.
Perhaps, as a compromise, providing the Toughness feat for free would have been better.

That aside, the other stuff is really good. You get to choose one or two aberrant growths that manifest on your character and grant you acid and psychic resistance when active. If you choose one, then it gets some extra benefits. For example, coiling tentacles causes tentacles to erupt from your body when bloodied, allowing you to make a grapple attack with a reach of 2 as a minor action. If you only took this, then you get a bonus to the attack roll and the enemy takes a penalty on the escape roll. Once you get hit, the manifestation ends.

There arent a huge amount of new powers. Its a bit more like Wizards’ Class Acts articles where you get a handful of new shit spread across a few levels (in this case, 1-9). I like induce mutation, which is the level 1 at-will that deals basic damage with a kicker effect if you are manifesting an aberrant growth. If you took coiling tentacles, then the target grows flailing tentacles that deal Con modifier damage to adjacent enemies when it attacks. Thats. Fucking. Cool.
Also, there’s a level 3 encounter for each growth, which adds a thematic consistency to your character.

The paragon path is called twisted descendant, and lets you mainfest an aberrant growth by burning an action point, even if the conditions arent met or you already did so. You also gain bonus damage while manifesting a growth, and deal half damage even if you miss when using induce mutation as long as you are manifesting a growth. The powers granted are likewise awesome: distortion field lets you teleport and push creatures from your starting and ending locaiton, and warp pulse deals 3d12 damage teleports everyone in the area of effect.

My only complaint (aside from, again, the art) is that there isnt enough here. It works out extremely well for a heroic tier campaign, but once you hit paragon there isnt anything for you. The paragon path is all well and good, but without homebrewing your own powers (or a second release by Silent 7Seven, hint hint) you’re stuck with using existing sorcerer spells. Of course, its a relatively simple matter of reskinning them to make them more thematic.

Its not a huge complaint. It is, after all, a very cheap document to get ahold of. I tend to view a lot of Silent 7Seven stuff as foundation products. They very cheap and personally worth the money, even if you disagree with the mechanics or design (and I did with some of the stuff in Lunar Scrolls). On the other hand, each of them has planted an idea with my head and made me think about a mechanic or concept that I might not have before. I want to make clear that this by itself can make it worth the cash. Both Favored Forms and Aberrant Blood have given me some great ideas that I am going to flesh out for future campaigns and characters.

This is the last review I’ve been slated for, and I want to thank Silent 7Seven for giving me the opportunity to let me review their products. I hope they’ve been satisfactory, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future. I went through each prodoct in the order of release, and I was able to see noticeable growth in the quality and content. They are definitely a third-party company worth checking out.

Phenominal, Cosmic Power

I’ve been extremely pleased with the sorcerer since its release in Players Handbook 2. I played a couple of sorcerers in 3rd Edition, mostly because it was a new class, but never really appreciated it since it was basically a wizard with far less flexibility. Sure, you didnt have to prepare spells, but your selection was pretty sparse and you couldnt use Metamagic feats effectively: stripped-down, spontaneous arcane spellcasters.

The new sorcerer fills in a different role from the wizard (striker), and commands raw magic within her blood. This was always implied in 3rd Edition, but didnt get touched on until later supplements. I’m happy to see that its gotten a better treatment, which saw two spell sources: dragon and chaos. Each relies on a different secondary ability (Strength and Dexterity respectively), but in case those arent enough Wizards has added a third in Arcane Power.

The cosmic spell source is tied to the sun, moon, and stars. Its tied to Strength, so dragonborn again get some love with the sorcerer. What differentiates it from the dragon spell source is that you choose a “phase” during a short/extended rest, each granting you a different benefits. The sun phase deals fire and radiant damage to adjacent enemies at the start of your turn and grants resist 5 cold, the moon phase boosts your AC by the number of adjacent enemies and grants resist 5 psychic, and the star phase lets you teleport when an enemy misses you and grants resist 5 radiant.
Here’s the rub, however: when you first become bloodied in an encounter or use a daily power, your phase goes up to the next phase before starting over at star.

This works well with the concept of cosmic magic: your abilites are in a constant state of flux. This reminds me of the vestige pact, which had a similar degree of complexity since the benefits of your at-will was different depending on the vestige you had active. I think that the sorcerer at its core is a really fun class by itself, but the cosmic spell source will be attractive to more dedicated players since your abilities jump around.

Meet the Sorcerer

I’ve always been a fan of the concept of sorcerers. Shitty skill points, lack of class features, and limited ability to efficiently use Metamagic feats kind of ruined it for me. 4th Edition did a lot in the way of change, pretty much all of which was for the better, and I dont see any of those limitations here.

The role is actually a striker, which is somewhat different from the controller role that basically everywhere thought it was going to be. Instead of comparing this guy to the wizard, I’ll be looking at the warlock as well as what I know about the stiker role (ie, mechanic to deal bonus damage).
Most of everything else about this class is what I expected, except for Strength as a key ability. Apparently it affects the dragon Spell Source, which I’ll talk about in just a moment. Sorcerers only get one class feature that we know about so far, and thats Spell Source. Spell Source is the new term for bloodline, ifin you played 3rd Edition. Out of the gate we only get two–dragon and chaos–though I’m sure Arcane Powers will add one or more to the melting pot (and I’m guessing there are more than a few of you who have your own ideas, recycled or not).

The article goes into more detail than the old class did about the origins of your powers, going so far as to provide a few examples about how you might have “acquired” them. For example, you might have been bathed in dragon’s blood, or born in a place where energies from the Elemental Chaos converged.
The common theme here is that both Spell Sources provide a flat damage bonus equal to another ability score (Strength or Dexterity), and it increases as you level up. This is their striker mechanic, much different than the extra d6 or d8 damage die that we are used to seeing. Thats where the similarities end, however.
Dragon Magic is very defensive in nature. You can get a bonus to your AC, energy resistance, and add your Strength mod to your AC instead of Dex or Int. Wild Magic gives you randomized benefits at the start of each round and short/extended rest, in addition to pushing creatures around when you get a natural 20 or 1.

Sorcerers can use daggers as implements. Since they dont have any kind of Implement Mastery, this is basically cosmetic in nature. It is, however, cool.

After that, its on to powers. Acid orb is like an acid-damage variant of magic missile, except that strictly speaking the average damage is 0.5 higher, and I’m sure one or more people are already on the forums bitching about how the sorcerer is overpowered. There are a total of five at-wills mentioned, and they all seem to be about on par with what I would expect from the warlock. Storm walk is neat in that you can shift before or after the attack (which is similar to one of the ranger at-wills).
One major theme I see with the Wild Magic powers are that it grants you an extra benefit if you roll a even number on your attack rolls. You can slide instead of push, make a secondary attack, target takes an attack penalty, etc.

The class looks very solid. I like that its different from all other arcane classes we’ve seen thus far. People had an identity crisis about the warden and druid, and I was afraid that even I would do the same when I read the sorcerer. Its definitely not a wizard, or even a warlock. Its got its own theme going on, and I just wish that we had more Spell Sources to pick from. If I had a complaint, it would be that I was really hoping for the “bleeding magic” sorcerer that we read about in Wizards Presents: Races and Classes, in that you would get some lingering aura effect after casting spells. Thats not to say that I dislike this class: I think this is going to be the class I first play when Player’s Handbook II comes out (instead of the druid).