Sorcerer - Beastsouled Origin
Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir, by Lorenzo Mastroianni © Wizards of the Coast LLC
The Beastsouled Origin is a sorcerer in tune with nature, whose bloodline has been touched by animal essence and granted them a deep connection to beasts.
Broadly, Beastsouled sorcerers function a bit like a pet subclass - but instead of a dedicated pet feature, they instead focus on every possible way to summon or create beasts within the existing spell corpus. They work in tandem with a summoned familiar, animal spirit, or other friendly beast, bringing the wrath of the wilds to their enemies.
Design-wise: This one was a bit tricky, but made sense once I found the right angle to bring to bear. The Origin Spells are entirely oriented around beast magic - special interactions with wild beasts, summoning your own, and adding a couple of new beast-themed spells at higher levels because the base game's spells just have holes there. The level 1 feature is Animal Companion, which grants you a buffed-up familiar, which gets extra hit points and a natural weapon, and the ability to attack as a bonus action for a sorcery point cost. Sorcerous Shepherd at 6th gives your summoned beasts some pack tactics, and lets you spend sorcery points to help them survive AoEs. Natural Senses lets you pull some of that beastly influence into yourself, gaining a special sense from a friendly beast (blindsight's a standout, but depending on what beast you're working with, even Keen Senses is pretty nice). And One With the Wild at 18 lets you apply a big mutual buff to yourself and one beast, as long as you both stay on your feet.
As a bonus, the sub comes with two new spells! Lion's Roar is a bit of an upgrade to Fear, providing a circular AoE instead of a cone, exempting allies, and adding a modicum of damage. Eagle's Wings is a powerful and flexible buff, granting an ally a long-duration flying speed, with a gust ability and a dive attack for bonus damage.
As always, you're invited to come discuss and offer feedback on Discord!
