The "dcollins' poll" sorcerer

[Thanee]

Just for fun, I was looking through the various "what xth level spells should any wizard have" polls and thought, why not take a look at the whole in the form of a 20th level sorcerer who learned the spells strictly following the poll results (I did replace obsolete spells, though):

0th - (9) N/A
1st - Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Shield, Identify, Charm Person (replaced Sleep/Color Spray)
2nd - Glitterdust, Web, Invisibility, Scorching Ray, See Invisibility (replaced Alter Self)
3rd - Fireball, Fly, Haste, Slow (replaced Dispel Magic)
4th - Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Polymorph, Stoneskin
5th - Wall of Force, Hold Monster, Cloud Kill, Feeblemind (replaced Teleport)
6th - Greater Dispel Magic, True Seeing, Disintegrate
7th - Limited Wish, Greater Teleport, Spell Turning
8th - Mind Blank, Horrid Wilting, Polymorph Any Object
9th - Time Stop, Shapechange, Wish

Not too bad.

Bye
Thanee

 

[the Jester]

That's a pretty reasonable spell selection.

 

[dcollins]

Maybe that's my next character, you think?

 

[Li Shenron]

Considering the practical differences between a Wiz and a Sor, it's somewhat surprising that the best selection for the Wiz also seems to make such a perfect Sor

Does someone want to make the same with the LEAST voted spells and see what comes up?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think that the lack of surprise is probably down to the fact that a wizard would probably have a lot of one-off use spells in his spellbook that he carries around on a scroll (useful when you need them, not so useful the rest of the time) and thus his "generic" spell choices are very similar to what a sorcerer would choose - after all, this is a wizard choosing for general applicability of spells to adventuring.

One potential problem with this list from the sorcerers point of view - it is light on spells that attack Will saves (capping at Feeblemind and hold monster) or Reflex saves (capping at Fireball (!)). It also doesn't have many options at high level for SR bypassing spells.

Heighten Spell, Empower and Maximise are obvious feats for this sorcerer to take to overcome some of those saving throw based limitations.

Cheers

 

[Gort]

They're pretty obvious choices for ANY sorcerer, really

 

[Thanee]

Well, maybe 9th level will add Dominate Monster (tho there is some competition, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Gate, Shapechange, Time Stop).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Lamoni]

I think that when you look at the entire list at 20th level, that it makes a pretty good sorcerer, but I believe the polls would turn up different results if they were specific to a sorcerer rather than wizard. I am sure that at least one shadow spell would have turned up. Thanks to the sorcerer's swap spell ability, the end result at level 20 would usually end up pretty close to a wizard's. Of course, most sorcerers try to have a few general purpose spells, but focus mostly on their specialization (at least in my group).

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, as I said, it was mostly a fun exercise.

But I think it shows that picking the best spells from each level is a good strategy for a sorcerer. Well, doh!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Seems solid!

There's probably only 2 changes I'd make:

Switch Fireball to Lightning bolt... cos' I like them!

Stoneskin I'd switch for Solid Fog - I love that spell... among other things, it's great for keeping large dumb opponents busy for a long time