Cantrips scale with level in 5e, so casting a leveled spell + a cantrip can be quite powerful (though obviously not as powerful as to full spells). For instance, at level 6 a dragon sorcerer adds charisma bonus to damage of type that matches their origin. So a red dragon sorcerer casting firebolt will do 1d10+cha damage. Even better, starting at level 5 the firebolt cantrip generates TWO bolts, so the damage is really 2d10+2*cha (assuming you hit with both). This is not a negligible amount of extra damage! With 20 charisma each bolt is doing on average 10.5 damage (and you get even more bolts at higher level).
Wizards changed this from the 3e and 3.5e version which DID allow an extra full spell to be cast in order to allow non-casters to participate in combat at high level. Ending every encounter on turn one via a burst attack from mage is boring for everybody else.
With that said, I think you can often find better use of the sorcery points than casting an extra cantrip. That's fine... it shouldn't be the only reasonable option by virtue of being the strongest option bar none...
Last edited by dwig; 16/09/22 06:01 PM.
