I've been planning to create a Sorcerer character (as a player, not a DM), and I noticed that the Wild Magic subclass seems to be uniquely unbalanced compared to the Draconic Bloodline subclass:
- The "Wild Magic Surge" ability only seems to be used at the DM's discretion (according to RAW).
- Some of the Wild Magic results can easily result in a TPK (randomly dropping a Fireball centered on the caster).
- At least one of the Wild Magic results is capable of rendering a character unplayable (age alteration, with no mention of how to reverse the affects).
I have seen some of these individual issues mentioned in other questions here, but I haven't been able to find any mention of balance between the two subclasses. Compared to every other class' subclass options, a Wild Magic sorcerer seems to be the only one with potentially campaign-derailing features.
My question is: Are these two subclasses as unbalanced as they appear (thus leaving only one "real" subclass option for sorcerers), or do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of the subclass?