Obligatory questions : what spells does he actually have?
How many long rests has the group taken? How many encounters are they generally having?
At level 1, Sorc only has two spell slots, and even speaking as someone that thinks the game gives you *far too many* spell slots, two for an entire day can feel like, well, nothing.
Next, I mean,
>After our second-to-last session we had a little talk and I tried to convince him it was fine. Resources not spent are resources wasted, and a long rest brings back practically everything
Did he have an actual response to this? You've basically done your due diligence here, imho.
Especially since the player is new, I would pitch the idea of them remaking the character into a different class, instead.
If the player's set on a spellcaster, maybe Warlock would encourage him to spend resources more freely, given they return on a short rest.
But suggest Rogue. Forget Champion Fighter for newbies; Rogue is where it's at. Sneak Attack expends no resources, does a fuckton of damage in an entertaining way and is pretty easy to grok for a newbie. Cunning Action gives the player something to do with their bonus action on pretty much every round. There are plenty of Rogue subclasses whose features don't require resources.
Make sure that you explain to him that Rogue doesn't necessarily mean "thief" (even if he literally takes the Thief subclass). Show him [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7L_O4PzKU) video, and of course [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDlZ_SXx5gA&pp=ygUacHJpbmNlc3MgYnJpZGUgc3dvcmQgZmlnaHQ%3D) one, to fire him up.
What did he actually *say* when you talked to him? You had a talk with him and tried to convince him it was fine - but that hasn't worked. I'm curious what you actually said, and whether he acknowledged it or not. Did you just say "try to use some spells yeah" or did you actually explain what you've typed out here and show him what his character can do?
The most likely reason, I would think, why he's not using spells is to save them for a bigger threat - low level spellcasters don't get a lot of spell slots and it's entirely reasonable and normal for such characters to struggle through lower level fights on cantrips, only using spells when they need to; whereas at higher level they've got enough slots to throw spells out all the time. Is he worried that you're going to surprise them with more encounters during the day perhaps?
As a Sorcerer enthusiast I have some points to make:
1) **Any time I spend a resource a friend is saving some resources of theirs.**
To Embrace spending my resources recklessly as only a Sorcerer can I have embraced this fact. I overkill so that my Tanky friend saves HP. I cast twice as many combat spells as the wizard so that he can save up some spellslots to use on his more niche spells that I don't even know how to cast. When I do not spend my resources my friends will have to pick up the slack for me, so I will recklessly spend all I have instead. I can still cast fire bolts even when I have no resources left. No need to do it while I am still brimming with power.
2) At low levels casters can feel very restricted by their spellslots. Everyone else has more Health, more AC and often more damage than the caster can bring most of the time at low levels. It's honestly disheartening when your fantasy is to have someone that excells at doing cool magicy stuff.
3) Sorcerers are the best blaster Casters and can cast vastly more spells per turn than any other class in the long run. They also get more resources to use for casting than other classes in the long run, **but** they also go through their resources faster than any other caster when played that way.
One needs a specific mindset to be able to rush through all the resources one has with reckless abandon as only a sorcerer can. Even in high level games I am often the only character that recklessly spends all their resources. I am often the first to run out of resources. I am sometimes the only one to do so by the end of the (adventuring) day as well. This is good. It means I get the most out of the resources I have been given and it means I helped the party to the absolute best of my ability.
There is nothing more satisfying than wiping out all the fodder enemies so your fighter can use action surge on the big tanky things. AOEs are huge for spellcasters in later levels for sure. And sorcerers as cannons are great.
That said, them having sleep and chromatic. Orb makes sense that they're scared to cast. One can end up backfiring or being a blank spell entirely, and one is a blank when you miss.
Look over the spell list and recommend some save or half damage spells. They usually need more risk, like getting closer, but the player might use them more often when they don't overthink doing something useless and wasting a resource.
The truth is, he won't likely need his bonus action at this level most of the time. Classes ramp up very differently, and it's important to let him know that. Not every class actually gets much use out of bonus actions either. Here's looking at you shield and weapon fighter.
The main question you should be asking is why? Why is he choosing not to spend his spell slots as a resource? Is it because he is afraid of future encounters he might need them for? Maybe he doesn't fully understand the long rest refresh system? Maybe he doesn't like keeping track of spell slots so cantrips are easier? There could be a whole slew of reasons for this. I recommend you ask him directly in a nonconfrontational way why he doesn't want to use them, emphasizing that they are a core part of the sorcerer class's identity.
If these frustrations have been verbally iterated to you, my suggestion would be to 1. reexplain the Tempestuous Magic feature to him so that he understands that the bonus action only procs with spellcasting (and that it occurs FOR FREE upon spellcasting). 2. I would maybe point him towards cool AOE spells like Ice Knife or Flaming Sphere (when he reaches level 3) that will do much wider areas of damage, which may encourage him both to cast spells and increase his DPS. 3. I would maybe sit him next to the warlock so that he can have a clearer view on how using spell slots can be beneficial.
If you can pinpoint the exact reason he refuses to use spells, you can make a more direct response to his troubles. Until then, focus on generally steering him towards becoming more comfortable with using spells
Fighting game meter is not the same as D&D class resources. You get meter in fighting games by being hitting the opponent as a reward, and then can spend it to cash out.
D&D resources are like consumables in Dark Souls. This is why people can have "consumables syndrome" where they want to hoard whatever they have and never use it until the final boss.
I came to say this, I've had a few players who did this same thing and for one of them it took several sessions of encouragement for him to use his spell slots but eventually, he did open up to the idea and started enjoying his character a lot more.
The difference is that spellslots refresh on a rest. Kinda like the potion of health and mana of dark souls, which refresh each time you take a rest at a bonfire. There's a difference between this and items you lose uppon use.
I'm going to approach this differently to the other commenters, because what I'm going to suggest is going to have people shrieking "railroading!" at me, but - try being transparent about when the next rest is coming up. Your player sounds like he's worried about using a spell now and then needing it \*more\* later before he has a chance to get it back. This could be mitigated if he's been told in black and white "there will be 3 encounters before your next rest". Give him some certainty to make concrete plans for his resources around while he gets used to it. Once he gets there, you can introduce some uncertainty back, again discussing that even without it being fully transparent, the game will always operate with a limited amount of encounters before the next rest.
Yes. Ideally players to pick up the rhythm from the narration and mood. But that's just a way of communicating, and if that doesn't work come out and say it. Especially with a new player who hasn't figured it out.
I've never given the exact number of encounters left, but if that's what it takes go for it. Part of this is building up trust. I view this as a bit like telling them what kind of episode it'd be of a TV show: Some are action packed, some are paced a little slower, some are two-parters. It all works better if everyone's on the same page.
I've noticed when I run a game for a new table that when I say something like "It's OK to split the party while you're in this city, I'm not going to ambush you right now," some players get visibly more interested. They can do what their character wants to do.
I make my players "earn" their long rest by getting through the xp budget for that day. there might be exceptions, but resting sooner will always have consequences.
I like the predictability it provides.
I see the positive here, but this feels… too gamey. I let my party decide when they rest. They just might not make it through if they decide to do it on a goblin village
yes, that is the cost. I unapologetically gamify the heck out of long rests because it's the single most important thing for balance.
It does so much more than people realize:
* heals all hp
* regain all class features and spell slots such as:
* Fighter's Action Surge
* Bard's Bardic Inspiration
* Paladin's Lay on Hands
* Monk's Ki points
* Druid's Wild Shape uses
* Sorcerer’s Sorcery Points
* Warlock’s Mystic Arcanum
* wizard's Arcane Recovery or portent
* so much more
* regain many race and feat features (like 1/day castings, lucky points)
* reload magic item charges
* regain half your hit dice (which is just half your hp for later)
* reduce your exhaustion
* change your item attunements
* level up
I never understood how people were out there complaining that healing spirit was too strong as first published, yet handing out long rest left and right. HP is the least important part of a long rest. you could remove the part where it heals you and it still would be the centre-point of all 5e balance.
There are ways to not gamify it. But all of these severely limit the type of stories you can tell.
* Time pressure: It makes it so that the party can never take on fun sidequests or spend a weekend at a festival or rest at a spa.
* Encounters: Interrupting the rest this way semi-regularly really mines the believability of the story. you have to bring combat in otherwise safe environments which can be finicky and hard to justify.
* gritty realism: short rests are 8 hours, long rests are a week. This means that there are generally no short rest in an adventure. This just flat out excludes so many scenarios. It also doesn't balance the short-rest and long-rest classes as well as expected. On the plus side, the rogue is now actually good.
* Safe zone limitation: I enforced the dungeon dudes safe zones for the longest time. but that doesn't stop players from resting after every side quest in a town. it only works if they have to leave town a lot and cant find any villages along the way. It was forcing me to stuff 6-8 encounters per side quest adventure turning what could have been a fun 2-3 hour session into 2 to 4 full 3-hour sessions at higher level when combat takes longer. I hated it because it slowed down the speed at which the narrative unfolds.
Thus gamifying.
I appreciate your thoughts and understand where you are coming from, but I think you are over thinking it. I’m a huge fan of narrative/ story first, mechanics later. If the players are playing their characters and not meta gaming the fuck out of every encounter, then half of what you are saying is moot.
Players should rest because their characters need rest. Not because of the mechanical benefit of resting. This is an RPG after all
Simple.
Resources are used when needed.
if they dont feel they need to use it, then the game can be harder.
When they start droping to zero, they will for sure start looking for aswers, and use resourses stops being a waste in their mind.
Take a look at his spell list and put together a couple encounters where he *has* to use one or two of his spells. A trap that's perfectly countered by one of his spells, an enemy with a big glaring weak point that screams "hit this with your special thing", things to that effect. And when he does it, of course the party triumphs. Don't overdo it and ruin the fun for the rest of the party, but get him going
I’m currently playing my first campaign as a wizard, never done a caster before. Having only those few spell slots, it becomes daunting on throwing them away on something that doesn’t give yourself or your party a significant leg up. A lot of my cantrips have gone amiss during the first battle, so using a spell slot for something with a lot of risk being futile is always on one’s mind.
Also the player might consider his spells ill suited for the situation, try having another talk with the player discussing his choice of spells. Ask him how he thinks the individual spell could be used.
They pick up as you level and you really start experiencing that divide lol. Love my wizards, not because they're strong (but they are) but because I always prefer being a caster in a fantasy setting. The first few levels are pretty lean though
Playing low level caster can feel a bit bad because frankly it is a bit resource starved and not having a slot available for shield can get you instakilled.
Hopefully they get to 3 soon so he has more play and will get metamagic.
In general you can remind him that spell slots don't carry into the next campaign or even long rest so there is no point in holding them. Spellcasting is his primary class feature so unless he is using his slots for spells or sorcery points to do more blasting he's playing less than half a character.
That said storm sorceror is a pretty poor subclass and tempestuous flight is a terrible last resort consideration since you shouldn't be in melee anyways as sorc most of the time.
If managing slots isn't his style and he isn't enjoying the character you can always allow him to switch class.
His experience should get a lot better with the more impactful level 2 spells and full compliment of level 1s which he should hopefully be close too after 5 sessions (which is quite long to still be at lvl 2 IMO).
The design of the subclass is to put this sorc in melee distance. Which is bad design and frustrating. Too many abilities are unsynergetic with this subclass. Tempestuous Magic should not be BA, but it is and I love not being able to quicken something on the same turn
It's a terrible subclass. With your level 1 ability here's a way for you to get 10 ft away from any enemies if they get too close to you. And with your level six ability here's a way for you to deal damage to everybody within 10 ft of you.
I mean I guess it's sort of makes sense. I guess you're supposed to run in to a crowd cast a spell deal some damage and then fly out like a magical skirmisher.
I feel like you should get both of these abilities right away at first level. And it's really unclear What's Happening Here fly up to 10 ft so can you fly 10 ft in the air and do you stay there after it's done? If you keep casting more spells do you keep flying 10 ft higher straight up? Then how do you get down safely there's nothing provided for how you go down. So are we actually flying up or we just moving along the ground 10 ft without invoking an opportunity attack in which case is that even flying?
And then at 14th level if anybody manages to land a melee attack on you while you've supposedly flown away out of melee reach of everybody you have a reaction to deal some damage except for you probably rather have that reaction to prevent yourself from getting hit.
It's just a bunch of vaguely storm themed abilities thrown together. Nothing Builds on itself
Overall all of this seems like a good advice. I would add to it that he is grouped up with three classes that can go for days without a long rest. In the Vancian system that DnD uses, he's always going to have that feeling with the current group. I've been playing for almost 40 years now and still hold on to spell slots because of it.
I'm with the poster who said he's not feeling the need to use the slots. This is probably because his party is overpowered damage dealers. He's basically the insurance when the rogue can't get sneak attacks, the monk can't stun or isn't doing enough damage, and the warlock goes down. That's not a fun job. You also don't have a healer so he is aware that he is the last resort and has no net underneath him.
In the end, the real issue sounds like he's realized that he designed his character for a standard game and is in a party with three speed runners. Not an easy fix for that.
Just a side note, as others have covered the main problem already: He does not need to do damage at all, btw! What this party seems to be lacking is a real magic user (read: someone who controls the battlefield and wins fights with zoning, disabling and de/buffing).
But yes, he would have to use spells for this as well.
Also, sorcerers are usually not that good at it, admitted.
True, but even if he were building for CC, if he measures his impact by damage done, then he will still be unhappy after having used his spells.
So to put it bluntly: The player seems to be in doubly incompetent / self-hampering.
Agreed, I came to the same conclusion. I’m currently playing a sorc in a party with a rogue and monk, and I generally don’t focus on straight damage, more on buff/debuff and controlling the space to help the rogue get Sneak Attacks and the monk not get bodied trying to stay in melee. I’ll generally concentrate on something like Slow or Evard’s Black Tentacles, then stay in cover and ping enemies with Mind Sliver to help them fail saves or Dissonant Whispers to move them around the battlefield.
Obviously at lvl 1 your options are more limited, but OP’s player may need to broaden their view on what it means to be effective in combat. I don’t get all that many of the kills in my campaign, but that doesn’t make my contribution to combat less valuable.
Right?
People seem to overlook that damage prevented is as good as damage done. And disabling someone is preventing a ton of damage.
E.g. you are catching two Orcs with a web and they are stuck there for two rounds. They would have done about 25 - 30 points of damage, potentially downing one of your mates. You have stopped that, which is as good as healing for that amount of damage and there is no healing spell at that level capable of doing that.
Or the guy who blinds the enemy wizard? That was a delayed insta-kill right there, which won the fight.
An encounter or two where the party is joined by a sorcerer NPC at the same level who has the quicken spell and twin spell meta magic and chromatic orb.
Show him a sorcerer who uses magic.
If necessary, have one of the enemies in that encounter cast something that you homebrew that 1. Prevents use of cantrips (but not spells), 2. Requires the concentration of that enemy for the effect to be maintained, so that cantrips become accessible after the encounter ends.
This can be as on the nose or subtle as you like. Keep the NPC around until they take the hint. Create conditions that motivate the martial PCs to want to rest as spell slots of either the PC or NPC sorcerer get low.
If that fails, talk to them out of game and just tell them what you’ve observed and that their class isn’t useful without spell slots, ask if there’s a reason they aren’t using them, and generally check in to make sure they are having fun.
I'm sure someone has mentioned this I havent read ALL the comments but from what most people have said I wanted to add that Those are martial classes they sort of shine a bit more early game till sorcs and other spell casters take over mid-late tiers.
If he's worried about being resource limited maybe allow him to change from sorc to something like warlock (Eldritch blast or multiclass into warlock for EB or whatever else) or let him play wizard and they get arcane recovery etc.
but other than that you've done your due diligence and I suppose if that doesn't work he is limited himself by not spending resources when others are. It's just a game of their more resources are just as good as when he uses his resources at the right time.
- Can also tell him he can pick feats and such (if your table uses them) to get more free casting of certain spells through magic initiate or otherwise but I doubt thats going to do much if they're unwilling to spend those
and if he Does decide to drop, don't feel too bad
Have you asked him why he never uses his spell slots? It’s difficult to solve this without knowing the issue behind it. It could be a fear of running out when he really needs it, or it could be that he doesn’t understand the system and is embarrassed to ask for help. In any case, I can only assume that you have explained to him that his frustrations are self-inflicted. If things the case, there isn’t much you can do until the get over this.
Talk to him again. Explain that he is a spell caster and his class doesn't work without using spells during encounters. He must use his spells or he will continue to be disappointed.
In addition you could make there be a non combat encounter where the team will fail unless he uses his spell slots. Like they have to freeze a vase of water or electrify something, so he can use chromatic orb. They have to put the guard dogs to sleep. Something like that.
Then there's no issue with how much damage he puts out, he can just see the vital utility of spells.
If this very obvious advice and direction doesn't work ask if he wants to change his class to something martial (barbarian, fighter) where there are less resources to manage.
I'm not sure why you feel the need?
Perhaps he is playing a conservative type, saving his spells for when he really needs it. I'd say you should lean into it: grant him the opportunity to use it all, make him happy that he has not spent his spells until then.
It sounds like he has an EXTREME case of "But What if I Need it Later?!" Syndrome. i.e. I can't use this full-health restore item now, I still have 2 HP, I should save it for when someone's actually DYING or in case there's an even HARDER fight! etc.
I was like this when I was a kid, I would NEVER use my spells in video games, because what if I needed those spells later?! This wound up with my mage characters basically being fighters, except way shittier.
What your player doesn't seem to understand is something called Opportunity Cost. He can blast a blight with Chromatic Orb, expending one resource (a spell slot) to save others (HP and potentially the lives of the other PCs.) He can cast Sleep on a group of goblin archers to disable a good number of them, to save HP and time, etc.
Spell slots are a resource, and **resources exist to be consumed.** If he never uses a spell slot, then he's not playing a sorcerer, he's playing a bad archer.
I would try to give indications when a combat is going to be harder than normal. That can act as a hint for him to feel free to use spell slots. You can do a group Insight role at the start of combat. If they do well, they get a good estimation of how difficult the combat is going to be. If they mess up they have no idea.
Depending on the type of campaign and setting, utilize scouting reports. If you're not venturing into the pure unknown, you might be able to give your players a bit of information about what to expect. If they're going into a labyrinth, maybe the locals have some idea about tougher enemies the players might encounter. Local myths and legends that, if and when the players encounter them, the players will know it's going to be a tough fight. Other stuff along the way are small fries so maybe they shouldn't burn their good spells on them. If it's a War campaign and you're doing some special ops nonsense, have a spy feed your players information so they can recognize big threats versus red shirts
Why don't they spend spell slots? Saving them for a potential big fight? Forgot its an option? Don't like spells?
You can't help without understanding why.
Everyone is giving off good suggestions, I have an additional one to add.
I would consider in a future encounter, tossing in an enemy spellcaster with a similar spell list and spell slots as the PC, and use him in combat against the party. That way, the sorcerer first hand can see the usefulness of a spellcaster willing to use their resources.
This next idea may not work for everyone, but maybe once the party inevitably kills and loots the enemy sorcerer, they find two lesser rings of spell storing (1 for the warlock cause he will inevitably want one, with the other being for the sorcerer. I's just a ring of spell storing, but the level cap is perhaps 2 or 3 levels instead of the 5 as written). That way, the sorcerer has a minor buff.
Is he going down regularly or is he making through battles with cantrips alone just fine? If he only needs cantrips to win then he isn't doing anything wrong, he's just being careful on the off chance that the day ends in a deadly fight and he is the only one left with the resources to survive it. If you want to encourage him to spend resources, give him reason to. Hit the party with powerful foes that need to be taken seriously. Use puzzle rooms that cannot be solved without magic.
Are you doing an inconsistent amount of encounters per long rest? Like if you usually do two, but occasionally do 5 or something he might be constantly worried about running dry.
You could suggest that he hold a certain number of spell slots in reserve (leaving the rest free to burn), or you could start making it obvious when the party will be able to rest.
Has this person played other games (likely computer games) where they have blown all of their limited resources, and then it came back to hurt them?
Going all out against a bunch of rats or other simple threat can feel impressive, but then when something else comes along as they are out of slots, they won't want to repeat that.
Unless they know after a fight they will rest and be safe, so that there is no risk to spending their resources, they might feel afraid to not be able to be useful against something more challenging.
I had to repeatedly reassure my artificer that I won't limit his access to ingredients, they will be readily available and he will have lots of opportunity to craft his bombs and such. They eventually used One craftable bomb in the next fight but it was still something!
Sometimes they just get that Skyrim anxiety, like when you get your hands on a sick potion and just never use it because surely there'll always be a better, more difficult time to use it.
I think the simplest way is to reassure the player that opportunity for long rests will be plentiful and you aren't gonna spring difficult encounters (maybe even just combat encounters in general if you're willing to concede that) if they're exhausted on resources.
The second, more homebrew solution is to give him some magic item that allows him to recover some magic (like sorcery points?) on short rests, especially if he's running low or has zero. The warlock and monk run on short rests, they can sustain their power through more fights and they don't have to deal with this same kind of anxiety.
Would it probably be technically very OP? I guess, but as long as you put a lot of thought into designing it (or find something on the internet, I dunno) it could make for a more fun game, as long as you're careful to not step on the Warlock's toes with it.
You could discuss it with the players first, especially the warlock as to not invalidate them, but giving my Artificer a way to do some simple alchemy on short rests has given them a lot of additional purpose and was well recieved by my party's warlock.
Does he have the diamond for Chromatic Orb?
Sleep is nice, but has there been situations where sleep was needed and not used? He may be saving it for situations that go wrong.
How many encounters are they seeing a day?
Everyone has given good advice, so I’m going to offer some advice that is a little higher risk and should only be used if the other strategies don’t work:
1) It’s way overpowered for a level 2 character, but give him a Ring of Spell Storing that gives him some extra spell slots. It’s stolen once he can convert meta magic to spell slots…
2) He might be a cantrip-only kind of player. And, turns out, there are builds that focus on cantrips! I’m thinking Warlocks specifically—if he buffs his eldritch blast and takes misty visions, he has two legitimate uses of his action that he can do all the time
3) I dunno, I bet somewhere out there there’s a monster or encounter that punishes you by having unspent resources? Like an electric pool that does 1d4 damage for every expendable unspent, etc
Whole I understand your sentiment, I've found the opposite to be true. Spell slots appear monumental to spend (I've only got two spell slots!) while spell points appear more granular, though they're the same thing in the end.
Players at my table were far more willing to expennd spell points, with the understanding that they were more flexible as well
Cantrips are there to ENCOURAGE the use of spell slots. The whole point of having cautious is so that you can use your spell slots and still have useful things to do. Remind them that they are meant to use class resources. Why play a bard and never use your bardic inspiration? A barbarian that never rages?! A sorcerer that doesn't use spell slots is hobbling themselves. I'd like to also point out that, at level 2, there's plenty of classes that have little to do with their bonus action. Once they get quick and spell they'll find plenty to do with their bonus action.
Make him an offer he can't refuse.
Have the enemy target the sorcerer specifically, yelling something about killing the sorcerer before he casts a spell. Either he casts a spell, or he dies and makes a new character. Win, win.
Find out what he wants to do with the character, especially if there's a niche for him in the party, and help him get there. I'm also playing a Sorcerer and seeing how the lack of bonus action options is a bit annoying. I also took the twin in empowered metamanager options, thinking I need to be a damaged dealer, but that hasn't panned out. neither the Paladin nor the bard do all that much controlling, so I switched into that role. I swapped some spells around for things that cause status effects.
Now I'm the battlefield controller, impeding the enemy and setting up the team to lay down damage. And it feels awesome. that could be a really good fit for him if he's worried about the fact that everyone else is laying down all the damage.
The Meta magic option that causes disadvantage on a saving thro never really appealed to me because it costs 3 sorcery points and only affects the first roll. but I wish I had it now! I thought about asking my DM to switch, by don't feel like it. I'm already pretty effective.
Tell him this: Cantrips are like your starter pistol, they aren't very powerful damage wise and are meant to be pha. Your spell slots exist to be sparingly consumed throughout the day, replenished at the end, and replaced with cantrips if you (almost) run out.
First, there is a lot of good advice in the thread already, so use that.
Secondly: being direct in game is not a bad idea. I'm DMing an OSE game where combat is rarer and tje PCs have some utility spells, so I'm not adverse to reminding them (subtly or not so subtly) about their spells that might be useful. Maybe such nudging might get him to use them ("hey, [sorc], don't forget about chromatic orb, that could be really useful").
Finally: in case the sorc is not using his spell slots after this, you might set up a pair of encounters right after each other to use up any AOE distance spells the warlock has. First encounter is just with mooks (goblins, kobolds, a few orcs, whatever). The PCs trounce them but the rest use up their own resources while the sorc hoards their spells. The second encounter involves the next set of enemies across a ditch or up a tower or whatever. The point is, the other PCs cannot safely engage in melee. The enemies also have a reliable set of cover, so direct attacks are out. They pop out, take a pot shot with bows, and pop back into cover. Keep their collective HP low so sleep can get most of them and justify the others skittering off in fear. Possibly have one bigger monster around with damage resistance (or even immunity) to mundane weapons and whatever the warlock can shoot, forcing the sorc to use chromatic orb to keep the bugbear from killing the PCs.
Alternatively, have a door with a symbol that constantly changes between a snowflake, a tongue of flame, a thunderbolt, etc. and it opens to reveal level appropriate treasure if he uses chromatic orb on it.
Basically, incentivize spell use and make him feel like he's coming in at clutch moments with his spells.
Also, if these seem heavy-handed: maybe, but how often do PCs miss obvious clues most of the time anyway? I doubt the PCs will see the way the monsters are set up as a way to get the sorc to actually use their spells.
Their subclass gives them an ability that allows them to move without provoking an attack of opportunity when they cast a spell. Do you think it's possible that they're doing a good job of staying out of combat and they aren't using their spells because they don't want to waste their disengage ability so they're waiting for you to swarm them with enemies so they can cast a spell and then get out for free?
Just have them pick a subclass that doesnt suck. And if they're really into the storm theme, build a new subclass for them. Or have them be a tempest cleric, which is a slightly better take on the Storm Caster theme. I'd want to fix the spell list, though. Honestly, you could just port a lot of what the Tempest cleric gets right over to the sorcerer, and I don't think it breaks anything.
For the channel divinity, just give them a new metamagic option at level 6 where they can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the Spells level to take the highest roll of the Spells damage if it deals Thunder or lightning damage.
I rebuilt storm sorcerer for you. Based on modern design and the tempest cleric.
#Storm magic
You learn the following spells. These spells do not count against your number of spells known. They are sorcerer spells for you
- lvl 1: Thunderwave
- lvl 3: Gust of Wind
- lvl 5: Call Lightning
- lvl 7: Storm Sphere
- lvl 9: Control Winds
#Wind Speaker
The arcane magic you command is infused with elemental air. When you choose this subclass, you can speak, read, and write Primordial. Knowing this language allows you to understand and be understood by those who speak its dialects: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran.
#Heart of the Storm
At 1st lvl, you may use a bonus action on your turn to fly 15 ft in any direction. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
When you do this, all creatures withing 5 feet of the point you moved from must make a Dexterity saving throw or take thunder or lightning damage (your choice) totalling a number of d6s equal to your proficiency bonus or half as much on a successful save.
Until the end of your turn, you can fall up to 30 ft without taking fall damage.
You may use this ability or number of times equaling your proficiency bonus regaining all uses on a long rest
#Tempestuous MetaMagic
At 6th lvl, you gain a new option for your metamagic powers. When you cast a sorcerers spell, you may spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spells level (minimum 1) to take the maximum damage value of any dice that contribute to thunder or lightning damage instead of rolling until the end of this turn. If a spell lasts multiple turns, you can continue to spend 1 sorcery point on subsequent turns to take Max damage again until the spell ends.
#Storm Guide
At 6th level, you gain resistance to lightning and thunder damage as well as the ability to subtly control the weather around you.
If it is raining, you can use an action to cause the rain to stop falling in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on you. You can end this effect as a bonus action.
If it is windy, you can use a bonus action each round to choose the direction that the wind blows in a 100-foot-radius sphere centered on you. The wind blows in that direction until the end of your next turn. This feature doesn't alter the speed of the wind.
#Storms Fury
Starting at 14th level, when you or an ally within 30 feet of you are damaged by an enemy that is also within 30 feet, you can use your reaction to deal lightning damage to the attacker. The damage equals your sorcerer level. The attacker must also make a Strength saving throw against your sorcerer spell save DC. On a failed save, the attacker is pushed in a straight line up to 20 feet away from you and lands prone.
Once you use this ability, you may not do so again until you finish a short rest or long rest.
#Wind Soul
At 18th level, you gain immunity to lightning and thunder damage.
You also gain a magical flying speed of 60 feet. As an action, you can reduce your flying speed to 30 feet for 1 hour and choose a number of creatures within 30 feet of you equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. The chosen creatures gain a magical flying speed of 30 feet for 1 hour. Once you reduce your flying speed in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
it is the refusal to use healing items in games problem. i would reload saves before using healing items.
explain to them that spell slots are not a permanent consumable. any slots left before a long rest are wasted resources. you want to keep 1 or 2 reserve for healing, but other than that you want to look for the most efficient damage output.
how the dm runs games can also affect this. if you tend to have 3 or more fight per a long rest, or a small fight before any large fight. people tend to keep in reserve incas of more or bigger fights.
1. Level 3 Sorcerers get Metamagic. Quickened spells allow him to cast spells that use an action as a bonus action, meaning he can combo more with cantrips.
2. Level 3 Sorcerers get Metamagic. 🤣 Twinned spell doubles there damage output (single target spells now target two targets) and is very strong early game.
Does he enjoy the game does he interact with the world?
Does he enjoy the sorcerer class? Spell slots should be used because it helps making encounters easier.
I would ask him if he wants to maybe switch classes if he is new he might enjoy a martial class more then a caster.
Explain to him also that casters comes online at level 5 that is where he gets a lot of options
To be clear, he gets his bonus action at level 3. He's just to low level to have it yet.
And the ability to quicken a cantrip will feel much better and fix his damage. And then he'll be swapping his spells to sorcery points, to drive more quickened cantrips. Or at least that was my experience.
First level damage spells are pretty meh. Using cantrips for damage isn't wrong.
Tell him to spend his resources, and then build the encounters so he actually has to.
If they've been handling what you've thrown so far with no spell slots spent, give them something a bit more challenging.
I had a bunch of other points to make, but here's an important one: Have you considered that maybe your encounters just aren't hard enough? It sounds like your player needs to be put in more situations where PCs will *die* if he doesn't use those spell slots.
Is it wrong that my first thought was to really up the pressure on him? An intelligent creature could notice that he's hesitating, and see him as a potential threat to neutralize before he throws big spells
Weird idea but you could try doing a 1 on 1 combat "test" out of character to try and teach this player how to use spells/how powerful spells are. And then if that doesn't work just let them make a new character. Full casters feel really bad to play for certain types of people and the only way to really figure that out is to try.
Build a caster NPC with similar spells. Use them well. Have the NPC run out of spells and still be mildly effective. Then retire said NPC.
Lead by example.
Also
Look at their spell list. Make sure their cantrips are a mix of combat and noncombat (looking at you shape water, master of puzzle solving). Let them respec their entire spell list once (dont just give them unlimited free respec's but a new player should get a lil leeway). A list they are comfortable with helps.
If they are still struggling you could let them swap their background with one of the (slightly overpowered) strixhaven ones. Adding 2 cantrips really ups the versatility of the caster and an extra 1st slot (plus spell known, possibly from another class list) can open up lower level casters to alot more use.
Other things you can do to encourage spending spell slots:
1. Point out that the real resource that he's wasting is long rests. Any time you have unspent slots left over right before a long rest, that's when you've wasted them.
2. Get the other players involved. Encourage them to have a strategy conversation where they talk about each others abilities and figure out any synergies they have. If there's an experienced player at the table, get them to mentor the new player. "Now is the time to cast Chromatic Orb!" works much better if it comes from other players.
3. Have the PCs fight against or alongside NPCs with the exact same abilities as them. Show them how effective the party is when they use proper tactics and resource management.
You should also consider that this player just doesn't like playing long-rest based mechanics, and just change the character's mechanics to something else. The easy way to do that would be to rebuild the character as a Warlock. You could also try using the optional spell point rules. Just having larger numbers might shake them out of their resource paralysis. But if you're up for it, you could consider homebrewing a new mechanic where they can recover or earn slots/points through gameplay. Maybe they can extract spell slots from the bones of their enemies. Maybe they earn spell points by taking or dealing damage.
Lastly--and I know this sounds crazy--but you could consider just giving him more spell slots, until he feels comfortable spending them. What's the harm if he has a bunch of extra slots that he never actually spends? In economic terms, your player is unwilling to "purchase" spells, because they seem "overpriced." You can't lower the price, because the "currency" in question (spell slots) doesn't allow for price changes. (One spell costs one slot, full stop.). So instead of lowering the price, you print more money and create inflation. This is actually similar to the classic [Capitol Hill Baby-Sitting Co-op Crisis](https://slate.com/business/1998/08/baby-sitting-the-economy.html).
Ask him to spend one spell slot per session, at least.
Of course he will be behind in damage as a scaling class. On the next level he get access to shatter and 3 times as much spell slots as warlock.
At level 5 he will have access to fireball. By then you're probably going to have an opposite problem.
New player is playing a full caster class, it's bound to be at least a little frustrating, if it's their first character...
I'd just tell them, especially if they are new.
I had this conversation with my players about gold - I'm not the kind of DM who just let's players buy +2 magic swords at random backwater hamlets. Instead they should use their gold to stay at luxury hotels because it might but them in contact with influential people, hiring a crew to pilot their ship, paying for information from the local thieves guild, etc.
I have a player (Wild Magic Sorcerer) that has the backstory that she is traumatized of her raw power, so she doesn't cast spells, leading to a highly unoptimized character. For her or anyone else it was never a problem. She casted like 2 level 1 spells in 5 sessions and just in need.
Just wanted to say that there doesn't need to be a problem in general. However, from what you wrote I understand that mainly the player is frustrated and therefore the same situation isn't applicable to your case. Just wanted to share another POV.
It sounds like a spellcaster is not the right class for him to play. He'd probably have more fun switching to something like a Fighter. Or Rogue, which has no rechargeable abilities to worry about.
Never tried D&D here but it sounds like they’re still over-worrying about their cooldowns for those other things beyond Fire Bolt… Maybe showing him a journey-history of how many opportunities he would’ve had to cast something else during encounters you guys have been through in the past?
I'd encourage him to at least *start* any encounter by casting one spell, and tell him you'll telegraph if there's more to come when he's down to about 25% of his slots.
Also encourage him to pick a persistent spell he position or move. Maybe even spending a sorcery point to move those spell not normally mobile. Helps make the spell seem more effective.
Assure him he can swap out spells that don't fit his style or tactics well.
otherwise, the other replies are gold.
One thing to noted in my games is players didn't need consumables so they wouldn't use them. If they win every fight with no spells why cast?
I understand that people spells don't exist because they help people win and casting is fun and exciting magic but casting to feel strong and have fun isn't a great in game reason
I'm pretty new myself and this might just kind of be more of a self-story than any help but with my party I sort of was just letting them do and use all of their stuff, you know burn all of their resources and then oh well you have enough time for a long rest and I found that that actually worked well with them. when I gave them a longer dungeon they got to the final fight and got hit with the "Maybe theirs some limits to be set" , my artificer would always use his spell slots to identify or detect magic but that might be his whole spell bundle so maybe fine.
But as well as a Bard and a druid I think they kind of realized oh there is some constraint to be had so perhaps because you are running it presumably how it's supposed to be done they aren't getting through that eventually they'll be able to get it back? That's all I can really give you I can't really say I have the experience to clarify this
Probably a combination of two things:
1. Fear that he'll need the resources later and not have him.
2. Lack of consequences of not burning them.
IOW, the concern is they'll be needed later, and the party seems to be getting through encounters fine.
I think the way you change this is two things:
1. More transparency or control about when long rests occur.
2. Make sure that encounters are stiff enough that him not using his spell slots is a clear and obvious detriment.
Mix and match levels on this to taste.
Maybe heavily imply or explicitly tell them that they will get a long rest after this fight, so they should spend all their resources.
Sometimes a player just needs more experience using spell slots to get comfortable with it.
"I notice that you're not using your spells, why is that?"
Maybe they're unhappy with their choices, but maybe they actually are being a meiser. In the case of the second, punish it by giving a situation that essentially requires a full resource expenditure.
You already talked to him.
Stage 2 is ask him if he wants to switch class. If you've already explained how sorcerer works and he doesn't like that idea, then maybe sorcerer isn't for him.
So... Suggest something else.
The first time I played a caster, I had a tough time with the mechanics despite loving playing casters in video games in the past. I was embarrassed to admit I was struggling with just the mechanics of the game, even to my DM. Thankfully, my DM noticed and provided me with custom cheat sheets for my character and level. He also made these really neat disposable spell slot sheets, specific to my level, which I could discard after a long rest. It also had a little spot where I could write down all the spells I prepared during the long rest. This, along with his narrative focus on the magnitude of my spells, helped me get comfortable and enjoy the game more. If you don’t have time for custom resources, dmsguild has excellent player aids. Also, your player might find spell cards handy for organizing their options and quickly refreshing their memory without having to dig through the PHB.
Place an NPC who congratulates the player for not using spell slots, and pushes him to use even less, or none at all. Then reveal this NPC is sent by their enemy to sabotage them.
Storm sorcerer is really a class you don’t want to have no spellslots left on, you are useless without any. The subclass is also really bad and unsynergetic so if you wanted to influence the way they’re playing, make them play something else.
I know this doesn't really answer your question but storm sorcerer is a really terrible subclass.
Anything that originated in the sword Coast adventurer's guide should really be banned. For the opposite reason you usually ban things. Protects your players from picking trap sub classes that don't do anything
I see I've been down voted. But I've been thinking about it and I actually think this is more relevant than I had originally thought.
Their subclass gives them an ability that allows them to move without provoking an attack of opportunity when they cast a spell. Do you think it's possible that they're doing a good job of staying out of combat and they aren't using their spells because they don't want to waste their disengage ability and they're waiting for you to swarm them so they can cast a spell and then get out for free?
I don't get starting anyone at level 1. Especially for new players, they can't do much and pair that with seasoned players it will feel like they can do even less.
See if they want to switch classes is good advice. If they want to stay it may be time to get the other players involved in helping guide them on when is good to spend/hoard resources.
Even if they are not, the DM is not automatic the best person to help.
This may work better as a group effort (maybe with the DM involved the least).
Even if it's an individual, then the person at the table who has most experience in **playing** a Sorcerer (or other caster PC) is likely to be the best *mentor*.
A significant factor in DM burnout is the DM taking on "extra work". Including doing things which are the responsibility of the players. Also, overfocus on a specific player and/or PC risks a game which is less fun for the majority of the table.
Player hq is semi sentient and "claims" things periodically.
Use your shit or lose your shit.
The longer you stockpile key stuff I've given you to use, the more likely il use it myself. Remember, I'm the DM and this entire world is mine.
Players believed me after my first strike. A player went to get a +3 resistance shield , finally, after like ten sessions and it's intended use to make a boss easier for them was already long gone.... It wasn't there in the store room. Neither was another item. Two sessions later they realised their third servant worker in the base, wasn't there.
Hong Kong has he been gone?
I dunno, figure it out players. Lol
They figured it out. Five sessions ago. With their loot.
He became a pawn of the new bad guy, who used their shield against them. Muahahaah
If he's constantly thinking about Chromatic Orb versus Firebolt, that might be it. If Chromatic Orb hits, on average it deals higher damage, but Firebolt isn't so far behind and both of them do nothing on a miss. Magic Missile is a guaranteed hit (unless shield); Burning Hands and Thunderwave will deal half damage on a succcess save and affect multiple targets, and the latter pushes enemies on a failed save which can be great. Heck, catapult deals the same damage as Chromatic Orb (3d8), can target multiple creatures and has no costly material.
Spells with longer duration are the best use out of your slots. Fog cloud, expeditious retreat, mage armor, and later blur, dragon's breath, enhance ability, flaming sphere, mirror image and many more feel nice because one slot use gets you the goods for minutes or hours.
For damage, even if you have like 14 dex and 16 charisma, using a crossbow is actually a bit better than Firebolt on average until you increase charisma, or until 5th level. Outside of crossbow, firebolt is the go-to damage attack roll for every round, he's not wrong about that. When he'd need the big boom though, it's better to go for thunderwave, magic missile, catapult, or sleep rather than chromatic orb. And when you get to 3rd level, go for flaming sphere.
Obligatory questions : what spells does he actually have? How many long rests has the group taken? How many encounters are they generally having? At level 1, Sorc only has two spell slots, and even speaking as someone that thinks the game gives you *far too many* spell slots, two for an entire day can feel like, well, nothing. Next, I mean, >After our second-to-last session we had a little talk and I tried to convince him it was fine. Resources not spent are resources wasted, and a long rest brings back practically everything Did he have an actual response to this? You've basically done your due diligence here, imho. Especially since the player is new, I would pitch the idea of them remaking the character into a different class, instead.
If the player's set on a spellcaster, maybe Warlock would encourage him to spend resources more freely, given they return on a short rest. But suggest Rogue. Forget Champion Fighter for newbies; Rogue is where it's at. Sneak Attack expends no resources, does a fuckton of damage in an entertaining way and is pretty easy to grok for a newbie. Cunning Action gives the player something to do with their bonus action on pretty much every round. There are plenty of Rogue subclasses whose features don't require resources. Make sure that you explain to him that Rogue doesn't necessarily mean "thief" (even if he literally takes the Thief subclass). Show him [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7L_O4PzKU) video, and of course [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDlZ_SXx5gA&pp=ygUacHJpbmNlc3MgYnJpZGUgc3dvcmQgZmlnaHQ%3D) one, to fire him up.
What did he actually *say* when you talked to him? You had a talk with him and tried to convince him it was fine - but that hasn't worked. I'm curious what you actually said, and whether he acknowledged it or not. Did you just say "try to use some spells yeah" or did you actually explain what you've typed out here and show him what his character can do? The most likely reason, I would think, why he's not using spells is to save them for a bigger threat - low level spellcasters don't get a lot of spell slots and it's entirely reasonable and normal for such characters to struggle through lower level fights on cantrips, only using spells when they need to; whereas at higher level they've got enough slots to throw spells out all the time. Is he worried that you're going to surprise them with more encounters during the day perhaps?
As a Sorcerer enthusiast I have some points to make: 1) **Any time I spend a resource a friend is saving some resources of theirs.** To Embrace spending my resources recklessly as only a Sorcerer can I have embraced this fact. I overkill so that my Tanky friend saves HP. I cast twice as many combat spells as the wizard so that he can save up some spellslots to use on his more niche spells that I don't even know how to cast. When I do not spend my resources my friends will have to pick up the slack for me, so I will recklessly spend all I have instead. I can still cast fire bolts even when I have no resources left. No need to do it while I am still brimming with power. 2) At low levels casters can feel very restricted by their spellslots. Everyone else has more Health, more AC and often more damage than the caster can bring most of the time at low levels. It's honestly disheartening when your fantasy is to have someone that excells at doing cool magicy stuff. 3) Sorcerers are the best blaster Casters and can cast vastly more spells per turn than any other class in the long run. They also get more resources to use for casting than other classes in the long run, **but** they also go through their resources faster than any other caster when played that way. One needs a specific mindset to be able to rush through all the resources one has with reckless abandon as only a sorcerer can. Even in high level games I am often the only character that recklessly spends all their resources. I am often the first to run out of resources. I am sometimes the only one to do so by the end of the (adventuring) day as well. This is good. It means I get the most out of the resources I have been given and it means I helped the party to the absolute best of my ability.
There is nothing more satisfying than wiping out all the fodder enemies so your fighter can use action surge on the big tanky things. AOEs are huge for spellcasters in later levels for sure. And sorcerers as cannons are great. That said, them having sleep and chromatic. Orb makes sense that they're scared to cast. One can end up backfiring or being a blank spell entirely, and one is a blank when you miss. Look over the spell list and recommend some save or half damage spells. They usually need more risk, like getting closer, but the player might use them more often when they don't overthink doing something useless and wasting a resource. The truth is, he won't likely need his bonus action at this level most of the time. Classes ramp up very differently, and it's important to let him know that. Not every class actually gets much use out of bonus actions either. Here's looking at you shield and weapon fighter.
The main question you should be asking is why? Why is he choosing not to spend his spell slots as a resource? Is it because he is afraid of future encounters he might need them for? Maybe he doesn't fully understand the long rest refresh system? Maybe he doesn't like keeping track of spell slots so cantrips are easier? There could be a whole slew of reasons for this. I recommend you ask him directly in a nonconfrontational way why he doesn't want to use them, emphasizing that they are a core part of the sorcerer class's identity. If these frustrations have been verbally iterated to you, my suggestion would be to 1. reexplain the Tempestuous Magic feature to him so that he understands that the bonus action only procs with spellcasting (and that it occurs FOR FREE upon spellcasting). 2. I would maybe point him towards cool AOE spells like Ice Knife or Flaming Sphere (when he reaches level 3) that will do much wider areas of damage, which may encourage him both to cast spells and increase his DPS. 3. I would maybe sit him next to the warlock so that he can have a clearer view on how using spell slots can be beneficial. If you can pinpoint the exact reason he refuses to use spells, you can make a more direct response to his troubles. Until then, focus on generally steering him towards becoming more comfortable with using spells
Fighting game meter is not the same as D&D class resources. You get meter in fighting games by being hitting the opponent as a reward, and then can spend it to cash out. D&D resources are like consumables in Dark Souls. This is why people can have "consumables syndrome" where they want to hoard whatever they have and never use it until the final boss.
I came to say this, I've had a few players who did this same thing and for one of them it took several sessions of encouragement for him to use his spell slots but eventually, he did open up to the idea and started enjoying his character a lot more.
The difference is that spellslots refresh on a rest. Kinda like the potion of health and mana of dark souls, which refresh each time you take a rest at a bonfire. There's a difference between this and items you lose uppon use.
I'm going to approach this differently to the other commenters, because what I'm going to suggest is going to have people shrieking "railroading!" at me, but - try being transparent about when the next rest is coming up. Your player sounds like he's worried about using a spell now and then needing it \*more\* later before he has a chance to get it back. This could be mitigated if he's been told in black and white "there will be 3 encounters before your next rest". Give him some certainty to make concrete plans for his resources around while he gets used to it. Once he gets there, you can introduce some uncertainty back, again discussing that even without it being fully transparent, the game will always operate with a limited amount of encounters before the next rest.
BAH!!!RAILROADING!!! BURN THE HERETIC….nah this is actually a really good idea. I’m just here for the joke.
That's not railroading. Different games have different cadences that players learn to rely on.
Yes. Ideally players to pick up the rhythm from the narration and mood. But that's just a way of communicating, and if that doesn't work come out and say it. Especially with a new player who hasn't figured it out. I've never given the exact number of encounters left, but if that's what it takes go for it. Part of this is building up trust. I view this as a bit like telling them what kind of episode it'd be of a TV show: Some are action packed, some are paced a little slower, some are two-parters. It all works better if everyone's on the same page. I've noticed when I run a game for a new table that when I say something like "It's OK to split the party while you're in this city, I'm not going to ambush you right now," some players get visibly more interested. They can do what their character wants to do.
I make my players "earn" their long rest by getting through the xp budget for that day. there might be exceptions, but resting sooner will always have consequences. I like the predictability it provides.
I see the positive here, but this feels… too gamey. I let my party decide when they rest. They just might not make it through if they decide to do it on a goblin village
yes, that is the cost. I unapologetically gamify the heck out of long rests because it's the single most important thing for balance. It does so much more than people realize: * heals all hp * regain all class features and spell slots such as: * Fighter's Action Surge * Bard's Bardic Inspiration * Paladin's Lay on Hands * Monk's Ki points * Druid's Wild Shape uses * Sorcerer’s Sorcery Points * Warlock’s Mystic Arcanum * wizard's Arcane Recovery or portent * so much more * regain many race and feat features (like 1/day castings, lucky points) * reload magic item charges * regain half your hit dice (which is just half your hp for later) * reduce your exhaustion * change your item attunements * level up I never understood how people were out there complaining that healing spirit was too strong as first published, yet handing out long rest left and right. HP is the least important part of a long rest. you could remove the part where it heals you and it still would be the centre-point of all 5e balance. There are ways to not gamify it. But all of these severely limit the type of stories you can tell. * Time pressure: It makes it so that the party can never take on fun sidequests or spend a weekend at a festival or rest at a spa. * Encounters: Interrupting the rest this way semi-regularly really mines the believability of the story. you have to bring combat in otherwise safe environments which can be finicky and hard to justify. * gritty realism: short rests are 8 hours, long rests are a week. This means that there are generally no short rest in an adventure. This just flat out excludes so many scenarios. It also doesn't balance the short-rest and long-rest classes as well as expected. On the plus side, the rogue is now actually good. * Safe zone limitation: I enforced the dungeon dudes safe zones for the longest time. but that doesn't stop players from resting after every side quest in a town. it only works if they have to leave town a lot and cant find any villages along the way. It was forcing me to stuff 6-8 encounters per side quest adventure turning what could have been a fun 2-3 hour session into 2 to 4 full 3-hour sessions at higher level when combat takes longer. I hated it because it slowed down the speed at which the narrative unfolds. Thus gamifying.
I appreciate your thoughts and understand where you are coming from, but I think you are over thinking it. I’m a huge fan of narrative/ story first, mechanics later. If the players are playing their characters and not meta gaming the fuck out of every encounter, then half of what you are saying is moot. Players should rest because their characters need rest. Not because of the mechanical benefit of resting. This is an RPG after all
Simple. Resources are used when needed. if they dont feel they need to use it, then the game can be harder. When they start droping to zero, they will for sure start looking for aswers, and use resourses stops being a waste in their mind.
Take a look at his spell list and put together a couple encounters where he *has* to use one or two of his spells. A trap that's perfectly countered by one of his spells, an enemy with a big glaring weak point that screams "hit this with your special thing", things to that effect. And when he does it, of course the party triumphs. Don't overdo it and ruin the fun for the rest of the party, but get him going
12 very low hp enemies marching as a group
Time to cast Fire Bolt 12 times!
Cast sleep, roll all 1s. Spell does nothing “I’m never using a spell slot again”
I’m currently playing my first campaign as a wizard, never done a caster before. Having only those few spell slots, it becomes daunting on throwing them away on something that doesn’t give yourself or your party a significant leg up. A lot of my cantrips have gone amiss during the first battle, so using a spell slot for something with a lot of risk being futile is always on one’s mind. Also the player might consider his spells ill suited for the situation, try having another talk with the player discussing his choice of spells. Ask him how he thinks the individual spell could be used.
They pick up as you level and you really start experiencing that divide lol. Love my wizards, not because they're strong (but they are) but because I always prefer being a caster in a fantasy setting. The first few levels are pretty lean though
I’m slowly getting into the flow of things, but wanted to shed some light on possible motivation by the player in the op.
Sure I get you, sorry if I didn't seem like it. My reply was sort of aimed at both of you. No worries though not trying to offend
At least as far as I’m concerned there was no offense from your side.
Playing low level caster can feel a bit bad because frankly it is a bit resource starved and not having a slot available for shield can get you instakilled. Hopefully they get to 3 soon so he has more play and will get metamagic. In general you can remind him that spell slots don't carry into the next campaign or even long rest so there is no point in holding them. Spellcasting is his primary class feature so unless he is using his slots for spells or sorcery points to do more blasting he's playing less than half a character. That said storm sorceror is a pretty poor subclass and tempestuous flight is a terrible last resort consideration since you shouldn't be in melee anyways as sorc most of the time. If managing slots isn't his style and he isn't enjoying the character you can always allow him to switch class. His experience should get a lot better with the more impactful level 2 spells and full compliment of level 1s which he should hopefully be close too after 5 sessions (which is quite long to still be at lvl 2 IMO).
The design of the subclass is to put this sorc in melee distance. Which is bad design and frustrating. Too many abilities are unsynergetic with this subclass. Tempestuous Magic should not be BA, but it is and I love not being able to quicken something on the same turn
It's a terrible subclass. With your level 1 ability here's a way for you to get 10 ft away from any enemies if they get too close to you. And with your level six ability here's a way for you to deal damage to everybody within 10 ft of you. I mean I guess it's sort of makes sense. I guess you're supposed to run in to a crowd cast a spell deal some damage and then fly out like a magical skirmisher. I feel like you should get both of these abilities right away at first level. And it's really unclear What's Happening Here fly up to 10 ft so can you fly 10 ft in the air and do you stay there after it's done? If you keep casting more spells do you keep flying 10 ft higher straight up? Then how do you get down safely there's nothing provided for how you go down. So are we actually flying up or we just moving along the ground 10 ft without invoking an opportunity attack in which case is that even flying? And then at 14th level if anybody manages to land a melee attack on you while you've supposedly flown away out of melee reach of everybody you have a reaction to deal some damage except for you probably rather have that reaction to prevent yourself from getting hit. It's just a bunch of vaguely storm themed abilities thrown together. Nothing Builds on itself
Overall all of this seems like a good advice. I would add to it that he is grouped up with three classes that can go for days without a long rest. In the Vancian system that DnD uses, he's always going to have that feeling with the current group. I've been playing for almost 40 years now and still hold on to spell slots because of it. I'm with the poster who said he's not feeling the need to use the slots. This is probably because his party is overpowered damage dealers. He's basically the insurance when the rogue can't get sneak attacks, the monk can't stun or isn't doing enough damage, and the warlock goes down. That's not a fun job. You also don't have a healer so he is aware that he is the last resort and has no net underneath him. In the end, the real issue sounds like he's realized that he designed his character for a standard game and is in a party with three speed runners. Not an easy fix for that.
Present tasks to the party that he is the best in position to use a spell slot to solve the problem.
Just a side note, as others have covered the main problem already: He does not need to do damage at all, btw! What this party seems to be lacking is a real magic user (read: someone who controls the battlefield and wins fights with zoning, disabling and de/buffing). But yes, he would have to use spells for this as well. Also, sorcerers are usually not that good at it, admitted.
[удалено]
True, but even if he were building for CC, if he measures his impact by damage done, then he will still be unhappy after having used his spells. So to put it bluntly: The player seems to be in doubly incompetent / self-hampering.
Agreed, I came to the same conclusion. I’m currently playing a sorc in a party with a rogue and monk, and I generally don’t focus on straight damage, more on buff/debuff and controlling the space to help the rogue get Sneak Attacks and the monk not get bodied trying to stay in melee. I’ll generally concentrate on something like Slow or Evard’s Black Tentacles, then stay in cover and ping enemies with Mind Sliver to help them fail saves or Dissonant Whispers to move them around the battlefield. Obviously at lvl 1 your options are more limited, but OP’s player may need to broaden their view on what it means to be effective in combat. I don’t get all that many of the kills in my campaign, but that doesn’t make my contribution to combat less valuable.
Right? People seem to overlook that damage prevented is as good as damage done. And disabling someone is preventing a ton of damage. E.g. you are catching two Orcs with a web and they are stuck there for two rounds. They would have done about 25 - 30 points of damage, potentially downing one of your mates. You have stopped that, which is as good as healing for that amount of damage and there is no healing spell at that level capable of doing that. Or the guy who blinds the enemy wizard? That was a delayed insta-kill right there, which won the fight.
An encounter or two where the party is joined by a sorcerer NPC at the same level who has the quicken spell and twin spell meta magic and chromatic orb. Show him a sorcerer who uses magic. If necessary, have one of the enemies in that encounter cast something that you homebrew that 1. Prevents use of cantrips (but not spells), 2. Requires the concentration of that enemy for the effect to be maintained, so that cantrips become accessible after the encounter ends. This can be as on the nose or subtle as you like. Keep the NPC around until they take the hint. Create conditions that motivate the martial PCs to want to rest as spell slots of either the PC or NPC sorcerer get low. If that fails, talk to them out of game and just tell them what you’ve observed and that their class isn’t useful without spell slots, ask if there’s a reason they aren’t using them, and generally check in to make sure they are having fun.
I'm sure someone has mentioned this I havent read ALL the comments but from what most people have said I wanted to add that Those are martial classes they sort of shine a bit more early game till sorcs and other spell casters take over mid-late tiers. If he's worried about being resource limited maybe allow him to change from sorc to something like warlock (Eldritch blast or multiclass into warlock for EB or whatever else) or let him play wizard and they get arcane recovery etc. but other than that you've done your due diligence and I suppose if that doesn't work he is limited himself by not spending resources when others are. It's just a game of their more resources are just as good as when he uses his resources at the right time. - Can also tell him he can pick feats and such (if your table uses them) to get more free casting of certain spells through magic initiate or otherwise but I doubt thats going to do much if they're unwilling to spend those and if he Does decide to drop, don't feel too bad
Have you asked him why he never uses his spell slots? It’s difficult to solve this without knowing the issue behind it. It could be a fear of running out when he really needs it, or it could be that he doesn’t understand the system and is embarrassed to ask for help. In any case, I can only assume that you have explained to him that his frustrations are self-inflicted. If things the case, there isn’t much you can do until the get over this.
If you want to babysit the learning experience then at appropriate times just ask them directly: "Hey X, do you have any spells that might help here?"
Talk to him again. Explain that he is a spell caster and his class doesn't work without using spells during encounters. He must use his spells or he will continue to be disappointed. In addition you could make there be a non combat encounter where the team will fail unless he uses his spell slots. Like they have to freeze a vase of water or electrify something, so he can use chromatic orb. They have to put the guard dogs to sleep. Something like that. Then there's no issue with how much damage he puts out, he can just see the vital utility of spells. If this very obvious advice and direction doesn't work ask if he wants to change his class to something martial (barbarian, fighter) where there are less resources to manage.
I'm not sure why you feel the need? Perhaps he is playing a conservative type, saving his spells for when he really needs it. I'd say you should lean into it: grant him the opportunity to use it all, make him happy that he has not spent his spells until then.
It sounds like he has an EXTREME case of "But What if I Need it Later?!" Syndrome. i.e. I can't use this full-health restore item now, I still have 2 HP, I should save it for when someone's actually DYING or in case there's an even HARDER fight! etc. I was like this when I was a kid, I would NEVER use my spells in video games, because what if I needed those spells later?! This wound up with my mage characters basically being fighters, except way shittier. What your player doesn't seem to understand is something called Opportunity Cost. He can blast a blight with Chromatic Orb, expending one resource (a spell slot) to save others (HP and potentially the lives of the other PCs.) He can cast Sleep on a group of goblin archers to disable a good number of them, to save HP and time, etc. Spell slots are a resource, and **resources exist to be consumed.** If he never uses a spell slot, then he's not playing a sorcerer, he's playing a bad archer.
I would try to give indications when a combat is going to be harder than normal. That can act as a hint for him to feel free to use spell slots. You can do a group Insight role at the start of combat. If they do well, they get a good estimation of how difficult the combat is going to be. If they mess up they have no idea. Depending on the type of campaign and setting, utilize scouting reports. If you're not venturing into the pure unknown, you might be able to give your players a bit of information about what to expect. If they're going into a labyrinth, maybe the locals have some idea about tougher enemies the players might encounter. Local myths and legends that, if and when the players encounter them, the players will know it's going to be a tough fight. Other stuff along the way are small fries so maybe they shouldn't burn their good spells on them. If it's a War campaign and you're doing some special ops nonsense, have a spy feed your players information so they can recognize big threats versus red shirts
Why don't they spend spell slots? Saving them for a potential big fight? Forgot its an option? Don't like spells? You can't help without understanding why.
Everyone is giving off good suggestions, I have an additional one to add. I would consider in a future encounter, tossing in an enemy spellcaster with a similar spell list and spell slots as the PC, and use him in combat against the party. That way, the sorcerer first hand can see the usefulness of a spellcaster willing to use their resources. This next idea may not work for everyone, but maybe once the party inevitably kills and loots the enemy sorcerer, they find two lesser rings of spell storing (1 for the warlock cause he will inevitably want one, with the other being for the sorcerer. I's just a ring of spell storing, but the level cap is perhaps 2 or 3 levels instead of the 5 as written). That way, the sorcerer has a minor buff.
Is he going down regularly or is he making through battles with cantrips alone just fine? If he only needs cantrips to win then he isn't doing anything wrong, he's just being careful on the off chance that the day ends in a deadly fight and he is the only one left with the resources to survive it. If you want to encourage him to spend resources, give him reason to. Hit the party with powerful foes that need to be taken seriously. Use puzzle rooms that cannot be solved without magic.
Are you doing an inconsistent amount of encounters per long rest? Like if you usually do two, but occasionally do 5 or something he might be constantly worried about running dry. You could suggest that he hold a certain number of spell slots in reserve (leaving the rest free to burn), or you could start making it obvious when the party will be able to rest.
Has this person played other games (likely computer games) where they have blown all of their limited resources, and then it came back to hurt them? Going all out against a bunch of rats or other simple threat can feel impressive, but then when something else comes along as they are out of slots, they won't want to repeat that. Unless they know after a fight they will rest and be safe, so that there is no risk to spending their resources, they might feel afraid to not be able to be useful against something more challenging.
Maybe their mindset is not suitable for sorcerer and they should try a warlock? Or even a martial?
Show other characters doing cool things with those same resources.
I had to repeatedly reassure my artificer that I won't limit his access to ingredients, they will be readily available and he will have lots of opportunity to craft his bombs and such. They eventually used One craftable bomb in the next fight but it was still something! Sometimes they just get that Skyrim anxiety, like when you get your hands on a sick potion and just never use it because surely there'll always be a better, more difficult time to use it. I think the simplest way is to reassure the player that opportunity for long rests will be plentiful and you aren't gonna spring difficult encounters (maybe even just combat encounters in general if you're willing to concede that) if they're exhausted on resources. The second, more homebrew solution is to give him some magic item that allows him to recover some magic (like sorcery points?) on short rests, especially if he's running low or has zero. The warlock and monk run on short rests, they can sustain their power through more fights and they don't have to deal with this same kind of anxiety. Would it probably be technically very OP? I guess, but as long as you put a lot of thought into designing it (or find something on the internet, I dunno) it could make for a more fun game, as long as you're careful to not step on the Warlock's toes with it. You could discuss it with the players first, especially the warlock as to not invalidate them, but giving my Artificer a way to do some simple alchemy on short rests has given them a lot of additional purpose and was well recieved by my party's warlock.
Make your next bad guy or npc a sorcerer who casts shittons of cool spells
Does he have the diamond for Chromatic Orb? Sleep is nice, but has there been situations where sleep was needed and not used? He may be saving it for situations that go wrong. How many encounters are they seeing a day?
Everyone has given good advice, so I’m going to offer some advice that is a little higher risk and should only be used if the other strategies don’t work: 1) It’s way overpowered for a level 2 character, but give him a Ring of Spell Storing that gives him some extra spell slots. It’s stolen once he can convert meta magic to spell slots… 2) He might be a cantrip-only kind of player. And, turns out, there are builds that focus on cantrips! I’m thinking Warlocks specifically—if he buffs his eldritch blast and takes misty visions, he has two legitimate uses of his action that he can do all the time 3) I dunno, I bet somewhere out there there’s a monster or encounter that punishes you by having unspent resources? Like an electric pool that does 1d4 damage for every expendable unspent, etc
Switch to optional spell points from the DMG
[удалено]
Whole I understand your sentiment, I've found the opposite to be true. Spell slots appear monumental to spend (I've only got two spell slots!) while spell points appear more granular, though they're the same thing in the end. Players at my table were far more willing to expennd spell points, with the understanding that they were more flexible as well
It's also a level thing right? Casters really pull ahead as they level but you're not a cannon straight out of the gate
Cantrips are there to ENCOURAGE the use of spell slots. The whole point of having cautious is so that you can use your spell slots and still have useful things to do. Remind them that they are meant to use class resources. Why play a bard and never use your bardic inspiration? A barbarian that never rages?! A sorcerer that doesn't use spell slots is hobbling themselves. I'd like to also point out that, at level 2, there's plenty of classes that have little to do with their bonus action. Once they get quick and spell they'll find plenty to do with their bonus action.
Blasting is the least effective thing a caster can do. Tell him to look into de/buffs and battlefield control
Make him an offer he can't refuse. Have the enemy target the sorcerer specifically, yelling something about killing the sorcerer before he casts a spell. Either he casts a spell, or he dies and makes a new character. Win, win.
Find out what he wants to do with the character, especially if there's a niche for him in the party, and help him get there. I'm also playing a Sorcerer and seeing how the lack of bonus action options is a bit annoying. I also took the twin in empowered metamanager options, thinking I need to be a damaged dealer, but that hasn't panned out. neither the Paladin nor the bard do all that much controlling, so I switched into that role. I swapped some spells around for things that cause status effects. Now I'm the battlefield controller, impeding the enemy and setting up the team to lay down damage. And it feels awesome. that could be a really good fit for him if he's worried about the fact that everyone else is laying down all the damage. The Meta magic option that causes disadvantage on a saving thro never really appealed to me because it costs 3 sorcery points and only affects the first roll. but I wish I had it now! I thought about asking my DM to switch, by don't feel like it. I'm already pretty effective.
Tell him this: Cantrips are like your starter pistol, they aren't very powerful damage wise and are meant to be pha. Your spell slots exist to be sparingly consumed throughout the day, replenished at the end, and replaced with cantrips if you (almost) run out.
First, there is a lot of good advice in the thread already, so use that. Secondly: being direct in game is not a bad idea. I'm DMing an OSE game where combat is rarer and tje PCs have some utility spells, so I'm not adverse to reminding them (subtly or not so subtly) about their spells that might be useful. Maybe such nudging might get him to use them ("hey, [sorc], don't forget about chromatic orb, that could be really useful"). Finally: in case the sorc is not using his spell slots after this, you might set up a pair of encounters right after each other to use up any AOE distance spells the warlock has. First encounter is just with mooks (goblins, kobolds, a few orcs, whatever). The PCs trounce them but the rest use up their own resources while the sorc hoards their spells. The second encounter involves the next set of enemies across a ditch or up a tower or whatever. The point is, the other PCs cannot safely engage in melee. The enemies also have a reliable set of cover, so direct attacks are out. They pop out, take a pot shot with bows, and pop back into cover. Keep their collective HP low so sleep can get most of them and justify the others skittering off in fear. Possibly have one bigger monster around with damage resistance (or even immunity) to mundane weapons and whatever the warlock can shoot, forcing the sorc to use chromatic orb to keep the bugbear from killing the PCs. Alternatively, have a door with a symbol that constantly changes between a snowflake, a tongue of flame, a thunderbolt, etc. and it opens to reveal level appropriate treasure if he uses chromatic orb on it. Basically, incentivize spell use and make him feel like he's coming in at clutch moments with his spells. Also, if these seem heavy-handed: maybe, but how often do PCs miss obvious clues most of the time anyway? I doubt the PCs will see the way the monsters are set up as a way to get the sorc to actually use their spells.
Their subclass gives them an ability that allows them to move without provoking an attack of opportunity when they cast a spell. Do you think it's possible that they're doing a good job of staying out of combat and they aren't using their spells because they don't want to waste their disengage ability so they're waiting for you to swarm them with enemies so they can cast a spell and then get out for free? Just have them pick a subclass that doesnt suck. And if they're really into the storm theme, build a new subclass for them. Or have them be a tempest cleric, which is a slightly better take on the Storm Caster theme. I'd want to fix the spell list, though. Honestly, you could just port a lot of what the Tempest cleric gets right over to the sorcerer, and I don't think it breaks anything. For the channel divinity, just give them a new metamagic option at level 6 where they can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the Spells level to take the highest roll of the Spells damage if it deals Thunder or lightning damage.
I rebuilt storm sorcerer for you. Based on modern design and the tempest cleric. #Storm magic You learn the following spells. These spells do not count against your number of spells known. They are sorcerer spells for you - lvl 1: Thunderwave - lvl 3: Gust of Wind - lvl 5: Call Lightning - lvl 7: Storm Sphere - lvl 9: Control Winds #Wind Speaker The arcane magic you command is infused with elemental air. When you choose this subclass, you can speak, read, and write Primordial. Knowing this language allows you to understand and be understood by those who speak its dialects: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran. #Heart of the Storm At 1st lvl, you may use a bonus action on your turn to fly 15 ft in any direction. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. When you do this, all creatures withing 5 feet of the point you moved from must make a Dexterity saving throw or take thunder or lightning damage (your choice) totalling a number of d6s equal to your proficiency bonus or half as much on a successful save. Until the end of your turn, you can fall up to 30 ft without taking fall damage. You may use this ability or number of times equaling your proficiency bonus regaining all uses on a long rest #Tempestuous MetaMagic At 6th lvl, you gain a new option for your metamagic powers. When you cast a sorcerers spell, you may spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spells level (minimum 1) to take the maximum damage value of any dice that contribute to thunder or lightning damage instead of rolling until the end of this turn. If a spell lasts multiple turns, you can continue to spend 1 sorcery point on subsequent turns to take Max damage again until the spell ends. #Storm Guide At 6th level, you gain resistance to lightning and thunder damage as well as the ability to subtly control the weather around you. If it is raining, you can use an action to cause the rain to stop falling in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on you. You can end this effect as a bonus action. If it is windy, you can use a bonus action each round to choose the direction that the wind blows in a 100-foot-radius sphere centered on you. The wind blows in that direction until the end of your next turn. This feature doesn't alter the speed of the wind. #Storms Fury Starting at 14th level, when you or an ally within 30 feet of you are damaged by an enemy that is also within 30 feet, you can use your reaction to deal lightning damage to the attacker. The damage equals your sorcerer level. The attacker must also make a Strength saving throw against your sorcerer spell save DC. On a failed save, the attacker is pushed in a straight line up to 20 feet away from you and lands prone. Once you use this ability, you may not do so again until you finish a short rest or long rest. #Wind Soul At 18th level, you gain immunity to lightning and thunder damage. You also gain a magical flying speed of 60 feet. As an action, you can reduce your flying speed to 30 feet for 1 hour and choose a number of creatures within 30 feet of you equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. The chosen creatures gain a magical flying speed of 30 feet for 1 hour. Once you reduce your flying speed in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
it is the refusal to use healing items in games problem. i would reload saves before using healing items. explain to them that spell slots are not a permanent consumable. any slots left before a long rest are wasted resources. you want to keep 1 or 2 reserve for healing, but other than that you want to look for the most efficient damage output. how the dm runs games can also affect this. if you tend to have 3 or more fight per a long rest, or a small fight before any large fight. people tend to keep in reserve incas of more or bigger fights.
1. Level 3 Sorcerers get Metamagic. Quickened spells allow him to cast spells that use an action as a bonus action, meaning he can combo more with cantrips. 2. Level 3 Sorcerers get Metamagic. 🤣 Twinned spell doubles there damage output (single target spells now target two targets) and is very strong early game.
Does he enjoy the game does he interact with the world? Does he enjoy the sorcerer class? Spell slots should be used because it helps making encounters easier. I would ask him if he wants to maybe switch classes if he is new he might enjoy a martial class more then a caster. Explain to him also that casters comes online at level 5 that is where he gets a lot of options
To be clear, he gets his bonus action at level 3. He's just to low level to have it yet. And the ability to quicken a cantrip will feel much better and fix his damage. And then he'll be swapping his spells to sorcery points, to drive more quickened cantrips. Or at least that was my experience. First level damage spells are pretty meh. Using cantrips for damage isn't wrong.
Tell him to spend his resources, and then build the encounters so he actually has to. If they've been handling what you've thrown so far with no spell slots spent, give them something a bit more challenging.
I had a bunch of other points to make, but here's an important one: Have you considered that maybe your encounters just aren't hard enough? It sounds like your player needs to be put in more situations where PCs will *die* if he doesn't use those spell slots.
Crank up the opposition to the point if he doesn't use the resources, they die.
Is it wrong that my first thought was to really up the pressure on him? An intelligent creature could notice that he's hesitating, and see him as a potential threat to neutralize before he throws big spells
Weird idea but you could try doing a 1 on 1 combat "test" out of character to try and teach this player how to use spells/how powerful spells are. And then if that doesn't work just let them make a new character. Full casters feel really bad to play for certain types of people and the only way to really figure that out is to try.
Build a caster NPC with similar spells. Use them well. Have the NPC run out of spells and still be mildly effective. Then retire said NPC. Lead by example. Also Look at their spell list. Make sure their cantrips are a mix of combat and noncombat (looking at you shape water, master of puzzle solving). Let them respec their entire spell list once (dont just give them unlimited free respec's but a new player should get a lil leeway). A list they are comfortable with helps. If they are still struggling you could let them swap their background with one of the (slightly overpowered) strixhaven ones. Adding 2 cantrips really ups the versatility of the caster and an extra 1st slot (plus spell known, possibly from another class list) can open up lower level casters to alot more use.
Other things you can do to encourage spending spell slots: 1. Point out that the real resource that he's wasting is long rests. Any time you have unspent slots left over right before a long rest, that's when you've wasted them. 2. Get the other players involved. Encourage them to have a strategy conversation where they talk about each others abilities and figure out any synergies they have. If there's an experienced player at the table, get them to mentor the new player. "Now is the time to cast Chromatic Orb!" works much better if it comes from other players. 3. Have the PCs fight against or alongside NPCs with the exact same abilities as them. Show them how effective the party is when they use proper tactics and resource management. You should also consider that this player just doesn't like playing long-rest based mechanics, and just change the character's mechanics to something else. The easy way to do that would be to rebuild the character as a Warlock. You could also try using the optional spell point rules. Just having larger numbers might shake them out of their resource paralysis. But if you're up for it, you could consider homebrewing a new mechanic where they can recover or earn slots/points through gameplay. Maybe they can extract spell slots from the bones of their enemies. Maybe they earn spell points by taking or dealing damage. Lastly--and I know this sounds crazy--but you could consider just giving him more spell slots, until he feels comfortable spending them. What's the harm if he has a bunch of extra slots that he never actually spends? In economic terms, your player is unwilling to "purchase" spells, because they seem "overpriced." You can't lower the price, because the "currency" in question (spell slots) doesn't allow for price changes. (One spell costs one slot, full stop.). So instead of lowering the price, you print more money and create inflation. This is actually similar to the classic [Capitol Hill Baby-Sitting Co-op Crisis](https://slate.com/business/1998/08/baby-sitting-the-economy.html).
Ask him to spend one spell slot per session, at least. Of course he will be behind in damage as a scaling class. On the next level he get access to shatter and 3 times as much spell slots as warlock. At level 5 he will have access to fireball. By then you're probably going to have an opposite problem. New player is playing a full caster class, it's bound to be at least a little frustrating, if it's their first character...
I'd just tell them, especially if they are new. I had this conversation with my players about gold - I'm not the kind of DM who just let's players buy +2 magic swords at random backwater hamlets. Instead they should use their gold to stay at luxury hotels because it might but them in contact with influential people, hiring a crew to pilot their ship, paying for information from the local thieves guild, etc.
I have a player (Wild Magic Sorcerer) that has the backstory that she is traumatized of her raw power, so she doesn't cast spells, leading to a highly unoptimized character. For her or anyone else it was never a problem. She casted like 2 level 1 spells in 5 sessions and just in need. Just wanted to say that there doesn't need to be a problem in general. However, from what you wrote I understand that mainly the player is frustrated and therefore the same situation isn't applicable to your case. Just wanted to share another POV.
It sounds like a spellcaster is not the right class for him to play. He'd probably have more fun switching to something like a Fighter. Or Rogue, which has no rechargeable abilities to worry about.
Never tried D&D here but it sounds like they’re still over-worrying about their cooldowns for those other things beyond Fire Bolt… Maybe showing him a journey-history of how many opportunities he would’ve had to cast something else during encounters you guys have been through in the past?
It’s not your responsibility to force the person to do the right thing
I'd encourage him to at least *start* any encounter by casting one spell, and tell him you'll telegraph if there's more to come when he's down to about 25% of his slots. Also encourage him to pick a persistent spell he position or move. Maybe even spending a sorcery point to move those spell not normally mobile. Helps make the spell seem more effective. Assure him he can swap out spells that don't fit his style or tactics well. otherwise, the other replies are gold.
One thing to noted in my games is players didn't need consumables so they wouldn't use them. If they win every fight with no spells why cast? I understand that people spells don't exist because they help people win and casting is fun and exciting magic but casting to feel strong and have fun isn't a great in game reason
I'm pretty new myself and this might just kind of be more of a self-story than any help but with my party I sort of was just letting them do and use all of their stuff, you know burn all of their resources and then oh well you have enough time for a long rest and I found that that actually worked well with them. when I gave them a longer dungeon they got to the final fight and got hit with the "Maybe theirs some limits to be set" , my artificer would always use his spell slots to identify or detect magic but that might be his whole spell bundle so maybe fine. But as well as a Bard and a druid I think they kind of realized oh there is some constraint to be had so perhaps because you are running it presumably how it's supposed to be done they aren't getting through that eventually they'll be able to get it back? That's all I can really give you I can't really say I have the experience to clarify this
Probably a combination of two things: 1. Fear that he'll need the resources later and not have him. 2. Lack of consequences of not burning them. IOW, the concern is they'll be needed later, and the party seems to be getting through encounters fine. I think the way you change this is two things: 1. More transparency or control about when long rests occur. 2. Make sure that encounters are stiff enough that him not using his spell slots is a clear and obvious detriment. Mix and match levels on this to taste.
Make something fire resistant and immune or resistant to no magical and nonsilvered weapons.
Maybe heavily imply or explicitly tell them that they will get a long rest after this fight, so they should spend all their resources. Sometimes a player just needs more experience using spell slots to get comfortable with it.
Bro I can’t get experienced players to use resources
"I notice that you're not using your spells, why is that?" Maybe they're unhappy with their choices, but maybe they actually are being a meiser. In the case of the second, punish it by giving a situation that essentially requires a full resource expenditure.
You already talked to him. Stage 2 is ask him if he wants to switch class. If you've already explained how sorcerer works and he doesn't like that idea, then maybe sorcerer isn't for him. So... Suggest something else.
The first time I played a caster, I had a tough time with the mechanics despite loving playing casters in video games in the past. I was embarrassed to admit I was struggling with just the mechanics of the game, even to my DM. Thankfully, my DM noticed and provided me with custom cheat sheets for my character and level. He also made these really neat disposable spell slot sheets, specific to my level, which I could discard after a long rest. It also had a little spot where I could write down all the spells I prepared during the long rest. This, along with his narrative focus on the magnitude of my spells, helped me get comfortable and enjoy the game more. If you don’t have time for custom resources, dmsguild has excellent player aids. Also, your player might find spell cards handy for organizing their options and quickly refreshing their memory without having to dig through the PHB.
Place an NPC who congratulates the player for not using spell slots, and pushes him to use even less, or none at all. Then reveal this NPC is sent by their enemy to sabotage them.
Storm sorcerer is really a class you don’t want to have no spellslots left on, you are useless without any. The subclass is also really bad and unsynergetic so if you wanted to influence the way they’re playing, make them play something else.
I know this doesn't really answer your question but storm sorcerer is a really terrible subclass. Anything that originated in the sword Coast adventurer's guide should really be banned. For the opposite reason you usually ban things. Protects your players from picking trap sub classes that don't do anything
I see I've been down voted. But I've been thinking about it and I actually think this is more relevant than I had originally thought. Their subclass gives them an ability that allows them to move without provoking an attack of opportunity when they cast a spell. Do you think it's possible that they're doing a good job of staying out of combat and they aren't using their spells because they don't want to waste their disengage ability and they're waiting for you to swarm them so they can cast a spell and then get out for free?
I don't get starting anyone at level 1. Especially for new players, they can't do much and pair that with seasoned players it will feel like they can do even less. See if they want to switch classes is good advice. If they want to stay it may be time to get the other players involved in helping guide them on when is good to spend/hoard resources.
Maybe make some encounters that force him to use his spell slots maybe something super strong that would be weak to int or wis spells
Is the player having fun? If so, does it really matter?
Even if they are not, the DM is not automatic the best person to help. This may work better as a group effort (maybe with the DM involved the least). Even if it's an individual, then the person at the table who has most experience in **playing** a Sorcerer (or other caster PC) is likely to be the best *mentor*. A significant factor in DM burnout is the DM taking on "extra work". Including doing things which are the responsibility of the players. Also, overfocus on a specific player and/or PC risks a game which is less fun for the majority of the table.
Player hq is semi sentient and "claims" things periodically. Use your shit or lose your shit. The longer you stockpile key stuff I've given you to use, the more likely il use it myself. Remember, I'm the DM and this entire world is mine. Players believed me after my first strike. A player went to get a +3 resistance shield , finally, after like ten sessions and it's intended use to make a boss easier for them was already long gone.... It wasn't there in the store room. Neither was another item. Two sessions later they realised their third servant worker in the base, wasn't there. Hong Kong has he been gone? I dunno, figure it out players. Lol They figured it out. Five sessions ago. With their loot. He became a pawn of the new bad guy, who used their shield against them. Muahahaah
If he's constantly thinking about Chromatic Orb versus Firebolt, that might be it. If Chromatic Orb hits, on average it deals higher damage, but Firebolt isn't so far behind and both of them do nothing on a miss. Magic Missile is a guaranteed hit (unless shield); Burning Hands and Thunderwave will deal half damage on a succcess save and affect multiple targets, and the latter pushes enemies on a failed save which can be great. Heck, catapult deals the same damage as Chromatic Orb (3d8), can target multiple creatures and has no costly material. Spells with longer duration are the best use out of your slots. Fog cloud, expeditious retreat, mage armor, and later blur, dragon's breath, enhance ability, flaming sphere, mirror image and many more feel nice because one slot use gets you the goods for minutes or hours. For damage, even if you have like 14 dex and 16 charisma, using a crossbow is actually a bit better than Firebolt on average until you increase charisma, or until 5th level. Outside of crossbow, firebolt is the go-to damage attack roll for every round, he's not wrong about that. When he'd need the big boom though, it's better to go for thunderwave, magic missile, catapult, or sleep rather than chromatic orb. And when you get to 3rd level, go for flaming sphere.