1. Sorcerer / Barbarian
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Sorcerer and Barbarian is an odd-duck mix. Like many odd mixtures, Sorcerer and Barbarian doesn’t work out well unless you’ve got some important ingrediants to add in to gel the mixture together. Namely, the key skill of the barbarian says “If you are able to cast spells, you can't cast them or concentrate on them while raging.” Which puts us up for a bit of a non starter to be sure, but just because it is low on the rankings doesn’t mean it can’t work.
Unlike previous editions, 5e at this time does not have a feat or ability that let’s Barbarian’s spellcast while raging, which very much weakens this build in terms of raw power. It does however, give us some incredibly interesting flexibility and unique moves. The key is that while you can’t CAST spells, spells that are already active still effect you. This also includes abilities that the Sorcerer picks up that can be super helpful.
Why Sorcerer/Barbarian Is Great
- Many Sorcerer spells include long durations and abilities that provide plenty of protection after they are cast. For example, Protection spells like stoneskin and protection from elements tend to last about an hour. Casting these spells on yourself frees up the party from having to buff you.
- Barbarians are straight forward, but splicing with a sorcerer gives you some options you might have considered otherwise. For example, our caster can use their sorcerer Extended Spell metamagic feat to make their 8 hour spells last a full 16 hours, or at the very least get more wiggle room on our 10 minute tighter spells.
- Sorcerer Bloodlines are what make the class sing, but we won’t get access to the most powerful abilities because of our multiclass. I particularly like the Storm ability “Tempestuous Magic” because it let’s us cast one of our low level prep spells at the beginning of battle as well as get close to our enemies without provoking attacks.
Choose This Multiclass if
- You want to hit stuff, hard, but want to have lots of flexibility. You’re not as strong as a full barbarian, but your versatility helps fill in the gaps.
- You want to play a prepared barbarian. You’ll do all your thinking before battles, and then once in them, swing for the fences.
- Your tired of dying as a sorcerer. At the end of the day, that increased health, constitution, and damage resistance will go a long way to keep your sorcerer from dying because a light breeze blew the wrong way.
2. Sorcerer / Bard
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A great class combo, both bards and sorcerers draw their power from their personality, AKA their charisma. This means that you can mix and match and combo your spells to great effect and really get some great support builds going. As with all multiclass options throughout this list that both have spell lists, restricting you from your higher level spells is going to be a tough hurdle to overcome, but not impossible.
Bards are support spell casters by nature, and mixing in the sorcerer adds a jolt of electricity (Sometimes literally!) to your build by improving your abilities and widening the array of spells you cover to just about any situation. And because both classes use charisma as their primary attribute,
Why Sorcerer/Bard Is Great
- Sorcerer’s biggest downside is that your spells known list restricts you terribly on what spells you can cast. Bards however know an very different list of spells they can know, and their own “Known spells” amount.
- By using the Sorcerer’s spell points, you can give yourself important bard spells back or manipulate your sorcerer spells across the two classes to grant you even more flexibility in spellcasting.
- Running out of spells stinks. Getting more spells per day even if they are of lower levels is nice, and having the bardic inspiration is a nice fall back once you’ve
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to have a skill or a spell for any and all occasions.
- You want to focus more on being the face of the party, but you don’t want to give up on power completely.
- You want to use meta magic and spell points to keep your spells variable and malleable, even with two classes that are limited by “Known” spells.
3. Sorcerer / Cleric
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Cleric’s are the divine spellcasters of the gods, and they have the divine spells to back them up. The cleric solves the sorcerer’s lack of spells known problem with a simple answer of “Divine Spell List”. Cleric’s are already known for their potent healing, and mixing that with the healing supercharging of the sorcerer’s divine soul abilities gives you a shocking amount of healing. Power by allowing you to reroll badly done healing rolls at the simple cost of a spell point.
Clerics are a powerful class, and you are giving up some of the most powerful spells in the game by multiclassing instead of sticking to a single class. But the sheer number of healing spells that a divine soul sorcerer cleric gets access to at each level is simply mind boggling. Combine that with the ability for clerics to cast their divine spells in medium armor to make you a little bit tougher and more resistant to getting knocked out of the fight.
Why Sorcerer/Cleric Is Great
- Sorcerer and Cleric both have the option to expend secondary resources, channel divinity and spell points, to gain more castings of their spells. You’ll just be able to cast so many heal spells that so long as you have the time to keep casting, you’ll be able to heal almost anything.
- Sorcerers are known for being fragile, but mixing it with the higher defense and healing powers of the cleric, your sorcerer’s chances at living a long life suddenly become much better.
- Clerics have some of the most overpowered spells in the game. Mixing them with easily fueled metamagic is a recipe to do strange, powerful, and usual things with your magic.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You’re tired of your sorcerer dying, your friends dying, the npcs dying, honestly if your GM is a little blood thirsty this is a great multiclass to build.
- You’ve ever rolled a massive heal spell and turned up almost all ones and it shattered you a little inside. The big cleric heal dice rolls combined with the sorcerer reroll abilities are an excellent combo.
- :You really wanna focus on being the face of your god as a cleric, using sorcerer spells to provide access to personality enhancing arcane spells as well as illusions for the occasional miracle….
4.Sorcerer / Druid
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Druid’s can either be pretty interesting mixes with sorcerers, or can be a completely conflicted mess depending on how you build the character. The big thing to beware is that if you choose to focus on wild shape, when you are in that wild shaped form you will not be able to cast your sorcerer spells. This runs into the same problem found with the barbarian, in that it really just makes both classes weaker. However, if you instead choose to focus on the druid’s spell casting abilities, there opens up more interesting possibilities.
Druid’s are nature casters and have no “Spells known” restrictions for their spells. This automatically creates a huge level of versatility for our dear sorcerer, who once again can use their spell points in flexible casting to pump out more druid spells than a druid of similar level might be able to. Numbers and flexibility is a great move, and mixing the abilities of polymorph and wild shape as needed to gain different abilities is a fascinating route.
Why Sorcerer/Druid Is Great
- A druid’s ability to wildshape into quick animals is a boon to a trapped sorcerer who might not otherwise be able to escape.
- The druid has a suite of powerful defensive and healing spells to add to the sorcerer’s primarily offensive armaments.
- Mixing the charisma of a sorcerer with the wisdom of the druid means that your character will be a party face that is good with interactions and reading people.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to fufill the “Wise old sage” Archetype, using your charisma and wisdom and associated spells to improve your persuasive abilities and ability to read others.
- You want to spend a lot of time as an animal. Hey, no judgement, some of us just want to play stray in D&D and spend as much time as possible as cute animals.
- You want to be able to cast druid spells even more often by channeling spell points into even more casting of druid spells.
5. Sorcerer / Fighter
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Sorcerer and fighter is a unique combo, but one that makes sense from a purpose of class perspective. Sorcerers are the aggressive focus version of a arcane class and fighter is the aggressive focus version of a martial class. Being a fighter will grant you access to the impressive Heavy Armor set as well as martial weapons. Since 5th edition doesn’t have a chance of arcane spell failure, that means that you can wear plate as a sorcerer when you cans spells without any negative penalties. A single level dip alone is worth it for that perk.
Unlike many of the builds, I feel that this multiclass selection does better as a small dip into one or the other. I think that primarily being a sorcerer and dipping into the fighter class to gain access to action surge and additional weapons and armor. The increased defensive capabilities will turn you into a turtle soldier capable of unleashing multiple spells in a single turn.
Why Sorcerer/Fighter Is Great
- Being able to wear plate makes your sorcerer automatically way tougher to kill. Giving them to ability to wield martial weapons also means your sorcerer will be able to deal out more damage.
- Arcane enchantments to empower fighter weaponry is always a coveted ability. Being able to cast those spells yourself will make you a very effective magical fighter.
- Action Surge is one of the only ways in the game to take multiple turns, and since Sorceror spells tend to pack a punch, being able to unleash multiple of them in the same turn can be devastating.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want a magical tank character that can shrug off damage, but can also blast out powerful spells like a cannon.
- You want your sorcerer to be able to swing a sword as hard as they do a lightning blast, and you want them to be able to hold their own in combat.
- You want to able to wield magic without being completely at the protection of the other party members.
6.Sorcerer / Monk
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The Sorcerer Monk is a difficult multiclass to make work because it’s spread across so many different stats. You need to be able to fill your charisma, wisdom, constitution, strength, and more than likely dexterity to meet all your class abilities! Yikes, you can probably already see the problem with this situation. There is some power available in using unarmored defense to help protect you, but your so dependent on so many scores you won’t see much use out of it.
Despite it’s mechanical deficiencies, the sorcerer monk has a special place in my heart. Why? Because it’s the best way currently to fake being a avatar style bender in D&D. After choosing appropriate spells of the correct element, you can match it up to your fighting style to give yourself a cool suite of elemental abilities. While this isn’t strictly speaking the mechancically best option, it’s a great way to roleplay a character concept and a ton of fun.
Why Sorcerer Monk Is Great
- The monk often struggles with fighting multiple smaller opponents. Being able to shoot a fireball out to deal with a swarm of kobolds is a distinctly appealing option.
- The Sorcerer obviously struggles when confronted face to face with an enemy. The Monk’s abilities and fighting styles allow the sorcerer to be able to stand up to the opponent.
- The sorcerers magical abilities and bloodline powers provide a really rich environment for roleplay and neat ideas. Whether that be avatar style elemental monks, or some other amazing idea you’ve thought of.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to imbue your monk with magical abilities to really enhance the flavor of the class.
- You want to make sure that you can handle situations that can only really be handled by magic while being able to use the monks unique fighting skills.
- You want to be a monk, but still be able to handle flying targets without falling back on a bow or javelins.
7. Sorcerer / Paladin
(Image Credit: Daniel Martin)
Paladin Sorcerer is a unique combination, as it combines the powerhouse of spells that is the sorcerer with the damage wielding holy justice of a paladin. How this works it that Paladin grants the Sorcerer access to heavy armor, greatly protecting the squishy sorcerer. But the biggest effect is the interaction between a paladin’s smite evil and a sorcerers touch spell.
The paladin’s most powerful and well known ability is Divine Smite. Divine Smite can use any spell slot, yes, including the ones from sorcerer class, to add a extra d8 damage to your attack for each spell level used. This ability is strengthened when combined with the fact that spellcasting touch spells count as melee weapon attacks, allowing you to channel your divine smite through your spells. Combine this with the fact that smite only needs to be triggered after you know whether or not the hit is a crit, plus the high damage potential of spells, means the paladin sorcerer can do some insane numbers.
Why Sorcerer/ Paladin Is Great
- Divine Smite allows you the option to add up to 5d8 worth of spell levels, which your sorcerer spell casting will still allow you to do even though you can’t reach level 20 as a paladin for fifth level paladin spells.
- With that 5d8, plus the powerful spell Steel Wind Strike allows you to do 6d10 force damage against 5 targets, carrying with it that radiant 5d8 with each. If triggered for a critical hit, this spell can do a astounding 12d10/10d8 damage.
- The paladin’s powerful armor and weapon loadouts provide a lot of protection, as we once again take advantage of the lack of spell failure in fifth edition to armor up our sorcerer for a higher likely hood of surviving.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You love the idea of casting spells enhanced by the power of the gods against evil.
- Want to stay armored and with a high AC so that you can handle more deadly situations and want to get into combat.
- Want to lean heavily into the luck of crits to roll an absolutely obscene number of dice.
8. Sorcerer / Ranger
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The Sorcerer and the Ranger seem like an odd combination at first glance, but the Ranger does allow the Sorcerer to well, do something when they run out of spells for the day. It also opens up the fun choice for either spell enhanced arrows or spell enhanced animal companions to attack your enemies.
While this does put us in the difficult position of needing to spread our ability scores around to cover, the additional spells added by the ranger which can be powered by our flexible spellcasting in a pinch can lend us some serious staying power in a pinch. You can also summon smaller creatures to assist your animal companion which will do quite well in many situations.
Why Sorcerer Ranger Is Great
- Any class which also has spells is going to be improved by the existence of the sorcerer’s flexible spellcasting. Being able to exchange spells and get more of the ones you need is absolutely invaluable.
- One viable method for a sorcerer ranger is to use your animal ally to aid you so that your spell attacks have advantage to hit. Considering spells tend to have a higher damage ratio at each level for balance reasons, ensuring that hit can be important.
- Being able to add magical effects to your arrows or animal companions can lead to a massive increase in versatility, and can help compensate for lack of mobility in some animal companions who may otherwise have difficulties in dungeons.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to ensure that even when out of spells you remain able to engage and support in combat.
- You want to mix and match combat styles with magic, allowing you to both fight up close as well as blast at a ranger.
- You want to enhance your animals or arrows with additional magic. Sorcerer spells have important utility and power that can become more likely to hit with your animal companions using the help actions.
9. Sorcerer / Rogue
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Sorcerer Rogue seems like an odd combination at first, until you realize that Sorcerer doesn’t have to mean “Flashy” and rogue doesn’t have to mean “Sneaky”. Sorcerer spells have a wide array of applications, and granting yourself invisibility, shape changing, illusions, and other built in distractions without having to rely on other party members is an incredible boon.
Importantly, sorcerers are very good at casting the same spell multiple times in a day. When that spell is the tools of the rogue trade with things like invisibility, glamour, and other enhancements, you can use your sorcerer abilities to free up the other party members from needing to provide those enhancements for you.
Why Sorcerer/Rogue Is Great
- One of the most viable ways to make a ranged rogue is not to focus on bows and arrows, but to use ranged spells instead. Since many spells also give you advantage on your attack rolls as a benefit, this will automatically trigger your ability to sneak attack.
- There are always jokes about magic users being better thieves because they can turn invisible, but now you get the best of both worlds. Remember, unless your enemy can see through it, you automatically gain advantage on your attacks, which will automatically trigger your sneak attack.
- Spell utility can make a rogue’s job much easier, from “Knock” opening doors across the hall, to distractions made by mage servants, to phantom illusions, there are so many ways that a rogue can use the access to magic to improve their odds against their opponents.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to be the quintessential magic thief, with a impressive array of spells to enhance your roguish abilities.
- Your tired of not being able to activate your sneak attack without help and instead move on your own with the help of your own magic.
- Want to try using magic in unique and interesting ways.
10. Sorcerer / Warlock
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Sorcerer and Warlock is a often cited broken combination of classes, so be sure to check with your GM before you dedicate your planning to this build to make sure they haven’t banned it. What makes the Sorcerer and the Warlock such a powerful combo? Well, it’s all thanks to our old friend, Flexible casting. As established previously, any spell type can be used for abilities for classes, and Warlock is the only class that regains it’s spells on a short rest, not a long rest.This means that multiple times in a day you can turn your warlock spells into sorcerer spells or vice versa as needed.
Sorcerer and Warlock is a powerful combination, and the warlock’s rapid refreshing of spells will let you feel more like a endless battery of power than most other spellcasting classes will let you feel like. Warlock pacts also unlock a incredible mix of new spells and abilities that mix and match beautifully. Thankfully, since both classes use Charisma as their base stat you won’t need to divide out your stats across to many abilities.
Why Sorcerer/Warlock Is Great
- Warlock allows for multiple spell refreshes during the day, and there are even walock pact of moon warlocks who never need to sleep, which technically can net you a permanent way to refresh your sorcerer spells without ever sleeping. :
- Sorcerer blood lines and Warlock Pacts both tend to be front loaded with some very powerful effects. Having access to these base powers at the same time can make even the early game much easier
- Warlock spells scale with the warlock, granting you access to larger pools of spell points every time you level it up for use for your abilities.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You like the idea of front loading several unique and powerful class abilities in a incredibly versatile mix and match system of bloodlines and pacts.
- You want to choose a multiclass that doesn’t force you to split much focus between your stats and abilities.
- Want a absolute fountain of reoccurring spells that can be changed into useful abilities and other spells at will.
11.Sorcerer / Wizard
(Image Credit: Brad McQuaid)
Sorcerer and Wizard is a pretty classic combination. It’s all about the young adventurer who was gifted with magic from birth finally learning how to control magic through books and wise teachings. The wizard and sorcerer also double up on lots of spells meaning that you can effectively cast double the same number of lower level spells.
In practice however, wizard and sorcerer are fairly bad mixture in dungeons and dragons. Both classes do similar things, but the sorcerer focuses on having more casting of spells for knowing less, while the wizard has incredible versatility but must prepare and learn their spells the hard way. You basically trade in the ability to cast 5 fireballs instead of ever being able to cast a level 9 spell, and that just robs you of the best abilities of both classes, without providing enough of a difference to justify the combination.
However, let it never said that creative combinations can’t be found or made, and perhaps there are clever metamagics to be used or applied, or some other tactice. We also shouldn’t discount the joy of choosing things purely for roleplay reasons, as both classes are ripe for roleplay opportunities.
Why Sorcerer/Wizard Is Great
- Despite my personal opinion, quantity has a quality all it’s own, and there is something to be said for being able to detonate 6 fireballs in a day, even if they aren’t fully powered ones.
- Sorcerers give up a lot of basic utility spells in return for their abilities. A great idea is to simply do a small dip into wizard to grant yourself access to those basic utility spells, then focus primarily on sorcerer beyond that.
- You can also take wizard to get yourself access to important abilities you might not otherwise have, such as the Evocation’s school’s sculpt spell, which will allow you to carve holes out of your own sorcerer spells as well to protect allies.
Choose This Multiclass if...
- You want to play a sorcerer but you don’t want to completely give up on the wizard’s flexibility.
- You want a specific bloodline ability or wizard school enhancement to help you complete a particular spell.
- Want to be able to drop more fireballs than a critical role tavern.
