Draconic Sorcery Sorcerer: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Embody your inner dragon with this hardy sorcerer subclass.

Draconic sorcerers have the magic of dragons coursing through their veins. How it got there could vary from person to person. You could have actual draconic lineage, an ancient dragon may have bestowed these powers upon you as a boon or perhaps you were transformed by the rituals of a dragon cult.

However your magical abilities came to be, draconic sorcery provides you with some strong powers. These are the toughest of the sorcerous subclasses as well as coming armed with extra elemental damage and temporary flight. This makes draconic sorcerers the toughest of all the sorcerers (though this was a low bar to begin with).

While the draconic sorcery subclass existed in D&D 2014, it has had its power levels increased with the D&D 2024 revision. Below I’ve tackled this revision with tactics and optimisations you can use for your sorcerer.

At a glance

Powerful spellcasting class with enhanced spells
Makes a capable party face
The hardiest of the sorcerous subclasses with increased hit points, AC and flight
Also capable of increased spell damage

4/5 – This subclass substantially increases your resilience levels while making you hit a bit harder and providing decent utility.

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

While the draconic sorcery subclass should still feel familiar to those that used it in D&D 2014, it has had some solid quality of life improvements including:

More dragon themed spells: This includes the likes of dragon’s breath and summon dragon.
Improved unarmoured resilience: Before, you had an unarmored AC of 13+ your dexterity modifier, now it’s 10 + your dexterity modifier and your charisma modifier. Since your charisma modifier should be at least +3 and eventually reach even higher, this represents a decent buff.
Resistances no longer cost sorcery points: This was always quite a wasteful use of sorcery points. Instead, you choose a resistance and that is always working.
Faster flight: Your dragon wings will now let you travel 60ft instead of your typical speed.
Summon a dragon: At level 18, you can summon a dragon without using material components, spell slots or concentration allowing for even more carnage.

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Draconic sorcery features

Sorcerer DND 2024 — Human sorcerer: Wizards of the Coast

Draconic spells – Lv3

How it works

You get the below spells as prepared spells.

Sorcerer level	Spells
3	Alter self, chromatic orb, command, dragon’s breath
5	Fear, fly
7	Arcane eye, charm monster
9	Legend lore, summon dragon

Tactics

You get a combination of damage dealing spells and utility options here.
Chromatic orb is an excellent damage dealer, especially for a sorcerer with innate sorcery and metamagic for increased accuracy. When upcast, this spell can become devastating.
Fear and dragon’s breath are solid AoE spells. One for damage and the other for debuffing.
You get some strong utility options too. Fly is great for staying safe and accessing difficult areas. Alter self will help you swim and works well for impersonations (which complements your charisma nicely). Arcane eye is a great information gathering tool.

Draconic resilience – Lv3

How it works

Gain an extra HP per sorcerer level and gain a form of unarmored defence where AC equals 10 + your dexterity and charisma modifiers.

Tactics

This is the equivalent average HP of a 1d8 hit dice which is a solid improvement.
On top of that, unarmored defence means you essentially boost your AC by 3-5 depending on your charisma (which should eventually become +5). This is a huge boost!
This is actually slightly better than the unarmored defence from a monk as you can still wield a shield. Of course you need proficiency with a shield which can be grabbed through the lightly armoured feat or by multiclassing.
Remember though, that tough for a sorcerer isn’t actually that tough. You’ll still want to keep yourself away from danger. But at least now you can survive a few attacks.

Elemental affinity – Lv6

How it works

Gain a damage resistance of your choice and add your charisma modifier to one damage roll from a spell that does that damage type.

Tactics

The challenge here is picking the right damage type. You want your resistance to count, but you also want enough spells that can be enhanced and that won’t be resisted by enemies.
While poison is a common damage type so works well for a resistance, it’s also often resisted or has complete immunity from monsters. Fire damage is both commonly used and resisted (but less so than poison). There are a lot of powerful spells with this damage type though (including dragon’s breath) making it a strong contender. But look at the spells you want to be using and that will help you determine your damage type.
Handily, chromatic orb can change its damage type making it a convenient option for any of these, but be aware that you’ll only get the damage boost on one target per casting.
You might want to consider the transmute spell metamagic option which would allow you to change the damage type of a spell you cast. This means that if you want to use fireball, but don’t want to be lumbered with a commonly resisted damage type like fire, you could change it to lightning damage instead and make that your elemental affinity.
To maximise damage, you can use AoE spells as the damage isn’t limited to one target but to one roll of the dice. However, it won’t deal extra damage to multiple targets when separate rolls are made for different beams like with scorching ray (or chromatic orb’s subsequent bounces).

Dragon wings – Lv14

How it works

Use a bonus action to gain flight for an hour with a 60ft speed. You can use this once per long rest (or use sorcery points to use it again).

Tactics

You actually already have access to flight from level 5 with the fly spell making this less exciting.
Fly has the same speed but only lasts 10 minutes, takes an action to activate and requires concentration making this feature a more convenient source of flight. Though fly can be used on another creature.
At the cost of 3 sorcery points, it’s considered the same value as the fly spell (which is a level 3 spell). With this being a little better than fly, this economically makes a better use of your spellcasting expendables, especially as you can easily fly in combat and cast concentration spells.
I’d mainly use this in tough battles where you need some height to stay out of danger. But scaling buildings and exploration are great times to use flight as well.

Dragon companion – Lv18

How it works

Cast summon dragon without needing material components, spell slots or concentration.

Tactics

This essentially lets you have 2 concentration spells running at once; though one of those spells is predetermined.
Still, you can summon your dragon for the carnage it brings while causing other problems for enemies with something like fear. This essentially magnifies your impact in longer combat encounters significantly.

How good is the draconic sorcery subclass?

If you want a resilient sorcerer that also deals more damage, then the draconic sorcery subclass is your best option.

Between a much higher AC, more hit points, damage resistances and flight, you have the most durable sorcerer available. Extra elemental damage makes you hit just that bit harder. And at high levels, being able to summon a dragon and concentrate on another concentration spell means even more extra damage.

Add onto this a decent amount of utility through spells like alter self, fly and arcane eye and you have a strong and well-rounded subclass.

4/5

Building an optimised draconic sorcerer

Dragonborn sorcerer: Wizards of the Coast

Although draconic sorcerers are more durable than most sorcerers, you still don’t want to be changing your tactics too much. Tough for a sorcerer does not mean a tough character generally.

This means that much of the advice below will be similar to that of other sorcerers, but there are a few tweaks to consider which I go into below.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Charisma: Your most important ability score. You’ll need this for casting spells. It also enhances some of your metamagic options and can be used for face skills too. It will also enhance your AC and extra damage from elemental affinity.
Dexterity: This will enhance your AC and I’d focus on this over constitution as avoiding getting hit in the first place is better than surviving more hits. Focus on charisma first as it will help your AC just as much as dexterity with many other benefits too. Once charisma is +5, get this as high as you can for 20AC.
Constitution: A boost to your hit points and concentration is always going to be useful, but this only comes 3rd in your list of ability scores to improve.

Options to avoid

Strength: Dump, you’ve got no use for strength.
Wisdom: Only useful for some skills and saving throws.
Intelligence: You don’t need intelligence, you cast spells with your charisma.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	15	15

Skills

Recommended options

Deception: Important face skill, especially if your party often gets in sticky situations. If you’re using alter self to pretend to be someone else, you’ll likely need this a fair bit.
Insight: Your intelligence may not be high, but if you’re going to be the party face, you might want this to be decent.
Intimidation: Less important than your other face skills, but still a decent option.
Persuasion: Your most important face skill. Again, using alter self for disguises will require a persuasive persona to make it work.

Options to avoid

Arcana: Not a bad option, but you won’t be investing in intelligence. Only go for this if you have another party face and no one else to take this in the party.
Religion: Also a decent option, but not as important as face skills and you don’t have the ability scores to support this so only take if you’re the only option for religion proficiency.

Species/race

As a potent spellcaster but also a fairly vulnerable character, you’ll want a species that helps with the following:

Resilience: This could come in the form of more hit points, but also in being more evasive like through teleportation. I wouldn’t bother with flight traits. You’ll have this by level 5 with a spell and a level 14 feature for this too.
Damage dealing: Often, you’ll be tasked with dealing big damage with enhanced spells. Anything that can aid this will be handy.
Innate spellcasting: More spell options is always handy, and you should get some free uses too.

Recommended options

Elf (2024): An extra skill and darkvision are both helpful. You’re mainly here for the innate spellcasting though. High Elf is a good option for misty step and an extra cantrip (you could go for a spell with your chosen elemental damage from elemental affinity). Drow is good for buffs and debuffs with the likes of faerie fire and darkness.
Gnome (2024): Extra magic resilience is great as you’ll undoubtedly be the target of some spells. Minor illusion and speak with animals are better options than the Rock Gnome has, especially as a charisma-focused character (you may need to get persuasive with some beasts).
Human (2024): An extra skill can help round out your face skills. You can also pick up another origin feat. If you want to be extra hardy, you could go with something like tough as it’s only available with backgrounds that don’t work well for a sorcerer. I’d probably go for something else though as you’re probably tough enough. Something like lucky or musician. The consistent supply of heroic inspiration is helpful as well.
Tiefling (2024): 4 extra spells known is mainly what you’re after here. I’d favour the infernal legacy.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a sorcerer, I’d prioritise charisma and then one of dexterity or constitution with the below being your best options:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One kind of musical instrument
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Wayfarer	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Lucky	Insight, stealth	Thieves’ tools

I’d probably favour the charisma then the dexterity increase. With alter self, you may want to involve yourself in some subterfuge, in which case, charlatan is your best option. Otherwise, I’d probably favour wayfarer.

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for a draconic sorcerer:

Alert: Unless you’re using careful spell, you may find it useful to take your turn early in combat before those pesky martials get in the way of your AoE spells. This is especially the case for a draconic sorcerer as your AoE spells are the best way to take advantage of elemental affinity. It also gives you a chance to thin the herd early on.
Lucky: Advantage on d20 tests and disadvantage on your aggressors is universally useful.
Magic initiate: Grab some extra spells known from another spell list. You could go for spells that work with your elemental affinity here.
Musician: A generally excellent origin feat for helping your allies out with some heroic inspiration (kind of like a slightly better lucky, you give to your friends).
Tough: Extra hit points is always nice. Personally I think you’re tough enough for a sorcerer, but I certainly wouldn’t say no to being tougher either.

General feats

Actor: Can be a good option for a party face if you want to do a lot of impersonations. Works nicely alongside alter self.
Fey touched: Misty step is great for staying safe. Plus you get more spells known. You can read my fey-touched guide for more advice.
Inspiring leader: Temporary hit points after every rest for your whole party is very handy. Just make sure you’re increasing your charisma for this feat.
Lightly armored: You don’t need the light armor proficiency, but you might want the ability to use a shield. This works with your draconic resilience so you can potentially get up to 22AC with a shield and +5 on both charisma and dexterity. That’s one tough sorcerer!
Mage slayer: Great for disrupting mages and gives you something similar to legendary resistance.
Ritual caster: If you’re lacking a wizard, you might want to consider this for a bunch of utility spells you often can’t afford to invest in otherwise (like find familiar or detect magic). You can check out my full guide to ritual casting for more tips.
Shadow touched: Invisibility and another spell are great for a caster class. You can read more about tactics and spell choices in my shadow-touched guide.
Skill expert – Get really good at a face skill (or any other skills).
Spell sniper: Great for bypassing cover and getting some extra range on your spells.
War caster: Great for better concentration and it stacks with constitution proficiency.

Weapons

Really, the only reason to go with weapons over spells is if you happen to be caught in an anti magic field, a silence spell or something similar. Grab a light crossbow and dagger just in case.

It’s possible at early levels, with a decent dexterity, that a light crossbow might slightly outperform your cantrips. By level 5 though, your cantrips will definitely be outperforming any weapons and with metamagic and innate sorcery, you might hit that point earlier anyway.

Armor

Even if you do decide to get proficiency with armor, it still won’t exceed the AC you can get from draconic resilience (at least not with an optimal build). You could add a shield to this though by taking the lightly armored feat or multiclassing for shield proficiency.