The new Demonic Sorcery subclass out of the Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana is your Sorcerer, powered by the Abyss.
The final of the four new subclasses from the Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana is a brand new Sorcerer subclass. The Demonic Sorcery origin for Sorcerers is all about the corrupting magic of the Abyss warping and shaping your magic and your reality. It’s actually quite a fun concept – and one players of games like 40K or Warhammer Fantasy might be familiar with: as you grow in power, you gain the ability to call upon the reality-warping power of the abyss to reshape the material plane.
It’s got some of the best flavor of any of the classes, and I really like the mechanics as well. It truly does reflect that “the Abyss is a plane of wickedness and disorder, and this chaos echoes in your innate magic.” Starting with the various Abyssal Manifestations that might appear on you when you channel your demonic power, which can include “abyssal fissures” that appear on your body, serving as windows to a vast, demonic realm.
The Demonic Sorcery Sorcerer – Can’t Spell Abyssal Without ‘Slay’
This is a great archetype for someone who’s gone either all in on their villainy, or someone who has been marked by evil powers and is trying to resist them. We all love being a little bit of a horrorshow at times. And the Demonic Sorcery Sorcerer is all about that.
The horrors kick off immediately, 8 o’clock day one (of level 3), with the Abyssal Rupture feature. Whenever you spend at least 1 Sorcery Point as part of a Magic action or a Bonus Action, you can unleash the demonic power of the Abyss. This can take two forms: you can conjure a Demonic Lash, which pulls creatures closer to you and damages them, or you can grow a Fiendish Carapace giving attack rolls against you Disadvantage until the start of your next turn.
Immediately this positions you as a slightly more resilient Sorcerer. You’ll see why the “pull closer” and “protection from attackers” features are necessary at higher levels. The way the class works, you’re going to want to be in the thick of things. At least a little bit – more so than your average Sorcerer to be sure.
At 3rd level you also gain a suite of Demonic Spells. These are additions to your Sorcerer spell list that are always prepared. And I will say, for all that the subclass is rich with abyssal flavor, this is a bit of a disappointment. There are a lot of spells that make sense: Entangle, Gaseous Form, Hallucinatory Terrain, Confusion – but this list feels more like an enchanter’s list than someone who is bleeding demonic power into the real world. It needs some oomph, some bite.
I mean, yeah, you can still supplement this list with whatever you choose on your own. But it’s a bit lacking in power. Though there’s a great deal of utility here. If I were taking the survey, this is definitely one of the sticking points for me.
Especially since at higher levels, the subclass leans even more into the fact that you’re warping reality wherever you go.
Higher Level Aura Farming
Aura farming is something you’ll be doing – literally, because at 6th level a Demonic Sorcery Sorcerer gains Abyssal Aura whenever activating the Innate Sorcery ability. When you do this, you’ll emanate a 10 foot aura of Abyssal power, which can have six different effects, depending on what you roll:
- You can surround yourself in ever-growing sticky webs that follow you around and make Difficult Terrain for your enemies and can possibly Restrained creatures that start their turns in the webbing
- You emit caustic ooze that deals 1d6 Acid damage (no save, and it does more damage at higher levels, as do the other damage types on this list) and knocks creatures Prone if they fail a Dex save
- You are surrounded by psychic screams that deal 1d6 Psychic damage to creatures in the area and Frightens creatures who fail a Wisdom save
- You flood the area with demonic spores that Heavily Obscure creatures of your choice and starting at level 11, creatures in the aura have to save or be Charmed
- You conjure up demonic flora that deals 1d6 Poison damage and Poisons enemies that fail their save
- You call forth enervating, spectral limbs that deal 1d10 Necrotic damage and enemies damaged by this can’t regain Hit Points until the start of their next turn
Like I said, you’ll want to be in the thick of things. You’ll want to keep enemies in your Aura (and in some cases, allies might benefit from it too). What I like is that by and large all of the Aura effects are selective – they only apply to enemies, so you don’t have to worry about being a hazard to your friends.
This plays quite nicely with higher level functions, like level 14’s Abyssal Conduit, which increases your Abyssal Aura to a 20 foot radius, and lets you roll twice to see which effect you get. I do wish that it gave you more, again, level 14 should feel pretty spectacular.
Especially since the level 18 feature, Fiendish Servant feels like it should be the 14th level feature. You can cast Summon Fiend once for free – but it’s only a 6th level spell. It feels like you could easily swap Fiendish Servant for the 14th level feature, and then come up with a better capstone.
All in all though, this is a promising subclass. It fills a cool niche for play, it gives Sorcerers a cool chaotic/evil kind of vibe that they are lacking; and with the survey up, there’s plenty of time to tell WotC what you think.
Check out the Demonic Sorcery Sorcerer and fill out the survey at the link below!!
