D&D: Ancestral Sorcery Playtest – Why Not Be A Magical Nepo Baby?
Ancestral Sorcery is one of two new subclasses in the Arcane Subclasses Unearthed Arcana. Harness the power of magical nepotism.
In the new Arcane Subclasses Unearthed Arcana, Sorcerers gain access to a new ancestral source of magical power—their very own ancestors. Look. This one’s a little weird conceptually, since Sorcerers are basically all sort of the same thing. The idea is that somewhere in the bloodline, you had an ancestor of enormous magical power—like a dragon or a unicorn or maybe you had a distant ancestor who was tinkered with by a far realm entity, and so you inherit tentacle powers. But the new Ancestral Sorcery is a much more direct link.
It means that someone a little more directly related to you was a powerful enough spellcaster to pass along their magic to you. So instead of a dragon, it’s just like, your dad or something. And now Ancestral Sorcery Sorcerers can wield the power of having a parent whose name is blue on Wikipedia.
Ancestral Sorcery: For When Generational Trauma Becomes Generational Thauma-turgial Power
I really love the idea here. Because it’s kind of deep in the weeds of splitting magical hairs, D&D-wise. Conceptually every sorcerer has a potent magical ancestor. But yours was big enough to have left some kind of mark on the world. And it works, flavor-wise, whether you go for a distant ancestor or someone a little bit closer.
Either way, you’re harnessing the power of nepotism. Because this subclass is all about being guided by and using the influence of your distant ancestor.
And that’s not just hyperbole, that is literally what the text itself says about Ancestral Sorcery:
“Your innate magic comes from as pecific ancestor who wielded such awesome magical power that a fragment of their personality guides you. The ancestor grants you guidance and direction as you explore your innate magical abilities. You might be the ancestor’s sole surviving descendant, a reincarnation who bears an eerie resemblance to your ancestor, or a victim of a curse gained from handling your ancestor’s personal effects.
Hilarity ensues, or at least can ensue, whichever option you pick. But it’s not just the flavor. The mechanics of the class are all about using the power of your ancestor, which isn’t quite the same as having a trust fund, but it’s as close as most of us are likely to get.
Being a Magical Nepo Baby: A Primer
It all starts at level 3 with a suite of three different abilities. First, your ancestor gives you access to a suite of bonus Ancestral Spells. All of these spells reflect the idea that your ancestor is guiding you. So yu get things like Command, Guidance, Locate Object, Protection from Evil and Good. And at higher levels, Legend Lore, Spirit Guardians: all stuff that could be passed down. I think it would have been cooler if you could pick spells to suggest more about your ancestor, but honestly this isn’t a bad start.
You also gain Ancestor’s Lore, which lets you add your Charisma mod to an Intelligence check, and gives you an extra skill. And Visage of the Ancestor lets you remind everyone who your dad (or whatever) is when you use your Innate Sorcery feature. You take on a spectral haze reminiscent of your ancestro somehow and gain advantage on Influence actions while Innate Sorcery is active.
At level 6, your nepotism levels up. You gain Counterspell and Dispel Magic thanks to your dad (or whoever) and you can cast each of them once per long rest for free whenever your Innate Sorcery is active. A nice boost to your abilities, especially since you gain Advantage on your checks to end spells, and your target has Disadvantage vs. their save against your counter spell.
At level 14 Ancestral Majesty lets yu call upon the reputation of your dad (or whoever) to inspire awe or dread. While Innate Sorcery isa ctive, you have a 5 foot aura that frces creatures to grovel before you like the worms they are (becoming Prone or Frightened) until the end of your next turn if they fail a save. And Steady Spellcaster means you will never lose Concentration from damage—this one’s the real MVP.
At level 18, Ancestor’s Ward caps off your subclass, giving you Advantage so long as Innate Sorcery is active. You can even gain a single Legendary Resistance while we’re at it. Not a bad capstone, not overwhelming, but not bad.
In Conclusion
As you can see, WotC is really hammering home the theme on this one. Mechanically, this class is mostly about popping your Innate Sorcery and then being extra potent while it’s active. Not every Sorcerer subclass does this, so it’s cool to see a unique take. Is it the most powerful subclass? No.
But I think it’s got some fun roleplaying potential, and you can tell from the outset what this one is supposed to be. It’s one of my favorites in the new batch of Unearthed Arcana, and I think with a few tweaks, the designers at WotC could really have something here.
Agree? Disagree? Either way, let WotC know what YOU think on July 3rd by taking the survey—and check out the new subclass at the link below!
