Sorcerer Spellcasting
Level 1
Your bloodline provides you with incredible magical power. You can cast spells using the Cast a Spell activity,
and you can supply material, somatic, and verbal components when casting spells (see _Casting Spells on page 302). Because you’re a sorcerer, you can usually replace material components with somatic components, so you don’t need to use a spell component pouch.
Each day, you can cast up to three 1st-level spells. You must know spells to cast them, and you learn them via the spell repertoire class feature. The number of spells you can cast each day is called your spell slots.
As you increase in level as a sorcerer, your number of spells per day increases, as does the highest level of spells you can cast, as shown on Table 3–17: Sorcerer Spells per Day on page 193.
Some of your spells require you to attempt a spell attack roll to see how effective they are, or have your enemies roll against your spell DC (typically by attempting a saving throw). Since your key ability is Charisma, your spell attack rolls and spell DCs use your Charisma modifier. Details on calculating these statistics appear on page 447.
Heightening Spells
When you get spell slots of 2nd level and higher, you can fill those slots with stronger versions of lower-level spells. This increases the spell’s level to match the spell slot. You must have a spell in your spell repertoire at the level you want to cast in order to heighten it to that level. Many spells have specific improvements when they are heightened to certain levels (page 299). The signature spells class feature lets you heighten certain spells freely.
Cantrips
A cantrip is a special type of spell that doesn’t use spell slots. You can cast a cantrip at will, any number of times per day. A cantrip is always automatically heightened to half your level rounded up—this is usually equal to the highest level of spell you can cast as a sorcerer. For example, as a 1stlevel sorcerer, your cantrips are 1st-level spells, and as a 5th-level sorcerer, your cantrips are 3rd-level spells.
Spell Repertoire
Level 1
The collection of spells you can cast is called your spell repertoire. At 1st level, you learn two 1st-level spells of your choice and four cantrips of your choice, as well as an additional spell and cantrip from your bloodline (page 194). You choose these from the common spells from the tradition corresponding to your bloodline, or from other spells from that tradition to which you have access. You can cast any spell in your spell repertoire by using a spell slot of an appropriate spell level.
You add to this spell repertoire as you increase in level. Each time you get a spell slot (see Table 3–17), you add a spell of the same level to your spell repertoire. When you gain access to a new level of spells, your first new spell is always your bloodline spell, but you can choose the other spells you gain. At 2nd level, you select another 1st-level spell; at 3rd level, you gain a new bloodline spell and two other 2nd-level spells, and so on. When you add spells, you might choose a higher-level version of a spell you already have so that you can cast a heightened version of that spell.
Though you gain them at the same rate, your spell slots and the spells in your spell repertoire are separate. If a feat or other ability adds a spell to your spell repertoire, it wouldn’t give you another spell slot, and vice versa.
Skill Feats
Level 2
At 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, you gain a skill feat. Skill feats appear in Chapter 5 and have the skill trait. You must be trained or better in the corresponding skill to select a skill feat.
Sorcerer Feats
Level 2
At 2nd level and every even-numbered level, you gain a sorcerer class feat. These begin on page 198.
General Feats
Level 3
At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, you gain a general feat. General feats are listed in Chapter 5.
Signature Spells
Level 3
You’ve learned to cast some of your spells more flexibly. For each spell level you have access to, choose one spell of that level to be a signature spell. You don’t need to learn heightened versions of signature spells separately; instead, you can heighten these spells freely. If you’ve learned a signature spell at a higher level than its minimum, you can also cast all its lower-level versions without learning those separately. If you swap out a signature spell, you can choose a replacement signature spell of the same spell level at which you learned the previous spell. You can also retrain specifically to change a signature spell to a different spell of that level without swapping any spells; this takes as much time as retraining a spell normally does.
Skill Increases
Level 3
At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, you gain a skill increase. You can use an increase to either become trained in one skill you’re untrained in, or to increase your proficiency rank in one skill in which you’re already
trained to expert.
At 7th level, you can use skill increases to become a master in a skill in which you’re already an expert, and at 15th level, you can use them to become legendary in a skill in which you’re already a master.
Ability Boosts
Level 5
At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, you boost four different ability scores. You can use these ability boosts to increase your ability scores above 18. Boosting an ability score increases it by 1 if it’s already 18 or above, or by 2 if it starts out below 18.
Ancestry Feats
Level 5
In addition to the ancestry feat you started with, you gain an ancestry feat at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter. The list of ancestry feats available to you can be found in your ancestry’s entry in Chapter 2.
Magical Fortitude
Level 5
Magical power has improved your body’s resiliency. Your proficiency rank for Fortitude saves increases to expert.