Firbolg are an innately magical people, with a tie to all things natural. But some take that further, their arcane bloodlines manifesting in displays of incredible power. 

This short guide will show you how to build and play a Firbolg Sorcerer, breaking down stats, subclasses, and other considerations.    

How to Make a Firbolg Sorcerer

The base structure of almost every Sorcerer is going to look exactly the same. When assigning stats, max out Charisma, as it dictates Sorcerous spellcasting, as well as many of the skills that the class is good at, and should be brought to 20 as quickly as possible. 

Put every other point you have into Con and Dex, to try and die less. The Sorcerer is an alarmingly squishy class, with a D6 hit die, zero armor proficiencies, and a distinct lack of meaningful defensive options in its spell list and most of its subclasses. 

Unfortunately, there’s very little you can do about this, save multiclassing into something funky or invest serious resources into toughness. Most Sorcerers are going to instead rely on the party to keep them out of danger and on their feet if the worst happens. 

This means, for most Sorcerers, gear is almost a non-entity. You wear no armor, will probably never swing a weapon, and past the early levels will solve almost all of your problems using magic. 

Skills, on the other hand, are important to many Sorcerers. High Charisma naturally leans the character toward social skills. Persuasion is the most important, followed by Deception. Intimidation rarely comes up in a meaningful way. 

Stealth is also useful, especially with a few points in Dex, backed up by spells (and abilities…) like Invisibility. Perception is near essential, even though you won’t have the stats, but just having a positive score for the roll is handy. Any free skill points can be thrown into knowledge. 

So what does the Firbolg racial archetype add to the build? A significant amount, as it happens. 

Firstly, Firbolg have two magical abilities available to them. Number one gives two spells to the character, Detect Magic and Disguise Self. These are both handy spells to know but generally are a little too niche for a Sorcerer to waste valuable spell slots on. However, Firbolg gain a single free cast of each per day and can continue to cast them with spell slots if necessary. That’s incredibly handy to have in your pocket, especially for a character who’s probably expected to handle the magical load. 

Secondly, all Firbolg can turn invisible until their next turn as a bonus action, multiple times per day. This is incredible. As we’ve mentioned, Sorcerers are a class that’s very vulnerable if they find themselves in the wrong place, and the ability to escape, especially as a bonus action, on a class that also doesn’t find itself needing to use those often, is fantastic. 

The Firbolg race also gives you a carrying capacity ribbon, a language, and finally the ability to speak to animals and plants, with advantage on checks. Sorcerers naturally want high Cha, and while the Speak with Animals spell that allows these creatures to talk back to you isn’t on your spell list, you can easily grab it with a feat or multiclass, or simply make do without. While getting the answer to the quest from the local pigeons might not always come up at the table, your fellow players will certainly remember the time it did.   

How to Play a Firbolg Sorcerer

A Sorcerer’s role is heavily dictated by their subclass. But before we break down subclasses, it’s important to touch on a difference between the latest subclass releases (Abberant Mind, Clockwork Soul, Lunar) and everything else. 

All three of these newer subclasses bring one important thing to the table: bonus spells known. The Sorcerer is a class that’s incredibly starved on spells known, having only 15 available at max level. Each subclass gives at least 10 more spells known, which could mean as much as a 66% increase in spells the character has available at every level. 

This is such a genuinely powerful buff to the class that we would recommend talking to your GM about bonus spells known if you’re taking any of the older subclasses that don’t offer it as standard.  

In terms of subclasses, the Dragon Soul is the premier blaster among Sorcerer subclasses, and a great class for newbies to the game. Far tougher than a standard Sorcerer, the Dragon Soul focuses on a single elemental damage type, boosting damage to all their spells, and gaining resistance in that damage type, as well as gaining bonuses like permanent flight at higher levels. Any choice from the list of elements is good, except poison; which both lacks spells to cast and enough enemies that deal reliable damage of that type for you to be concerned with. 

As you level, Transmuted Spell Metamagic lets you shift the damage type of spells to benefit from your buffs. Empowered Metamagic and the Elemental Adept feat keep building on what you want to do, ignoring resistances so you can punch through the big damage numbers. 

The Sorcerer can also make for an effective controller. The Aberrant Mind Bloodline is very very good at this, as well as fun outside of combat situations. The subclass has a powerful bonus spell list that it can cast cheaply using Sorcery Points, meaning far more spells per day. 

Spells cast this way also have no verbal or somatic components, meaning they can be safely cast in social situations with a very low risk of discovery. That’s some fun mechanical and RP interaction, right there. Taking the Heighten and Twin Spell metamagics allow you to spread the love, keeping lower-level spells relevant right up until the end game.  

Choosing Divine Soul lets the character splash into healing and support by stealing all of the best spells from the Cleric list. Bonuses on save rolls and healing spells, as well as permanent flight, are also heady boosts. 

However, if there is a subclass that suffers most from a lack of bonus spells, it’s this one. Choosing spells from not one but two spell lists is harsh, especially for newer players. If you want to play a Divine Soul, it’s worth talking to your DM about gaining free spells as any newer subclass would. 

Outside of combat, the Sorcerer is most comfortable as a Face, mixing social skills like Persuasion and Deception with spellcasting, perhaps backed up by a Subtle Metamagic to keep things secret. 

How to Roleplay as a Firbolg Sorcerer

A big chunk of the RP potential for a Sorcerer is their bloodline, and everything contained therein. The cold, reserved Clockwork Soul Sorcerer that is obsessed with order and logic is going to feel completely different in concept and execution from the loud, bombastic Storm Sorcerer. 

So step 1 is to look at your character sheet and ask what your choices mean, and how they fit the idea of the character you wanted to build. 

Are you comfortable playing a character who wants to be at the forefront of all social challenges, lying through their teeth when they’re not conjuring magical fire? You can play that. 

Would you rather be the master manipulator, lurking behind the rest of the party both in and out of combat, using your powers to shift the flow of every encounter, always untouched and unknown? You can play that too. 

Then add in a sprinkling of what makes the Firbolg unique. A sprinkle of Celtic, almost druidic flavor. Innate magical talent and a love for nature. Maybe a touch of awkward ignorance to common niceties, as Firbolg tend to be insular and secretive. 

But don’t be afraid to make your character yours and play with archetypes. Sorcerers are already outliers, and the powers that make your character distinctive would more than likely make them much quirkier than … well, most others of their kind.