Which Is The Stronger Character Class - Sorcerer or Wizard?

Well, which one do you think is stronger? And why?

Personally I had always though that the Wizard was the stronger class. However, last night in our session the Sorcerer cast 3 Fireball spells in the space of 2 combats. That in itself is not that impressive. What was though was that he could still had another 2 to spare if he needed them.

A Wizard of the same level would have been all out of 3rd level spells at that point. Even if he hadn't been, chances are that he wouldn't have just prepared Fireball for all his 3rd level spell slots.

This made me realise that a Sorcerer could do that with any spell, not just Fireball. Any spell that is useful to cast multiple times is extremely useful to a Sorcerer. Of course a Sorcerer doesn't have the utility of a Wizard, which is one disadvantage. However one of my players strongly believes that there aren't that many useful spells available each level anyway. He thinks that there are a few spells that are "better" than the others in most situations so the Sorcerer isn't disadvantaged by a narrow spell selection at all.

Personally I'm undecided now.

Olaf the Stout

Quoting myself:

Lord Tirian said:

For everyone who care 'bout the balance between Sorcerers and Wizards, the sorcerer is indeed worse, because he has delayed spells, and even on higher levels he only tops out at two spells more than the Wiz (and a specialist is even closer)... and look: A sorcerer gets on fourth level 3 x 2nd level spells, the specialist wizard has 3 x 2nd level spells as well at this point, making the difference quite small.

If you leave half of your top-level spell slots open as a wizard and may face a threat, take a lunch break and fill your slots... instant flexibility.

Hence the opinion that Sorcerers are bad... and not only the staggered spell progression, they also suffer the lack of bonus feats (whopping five, if you count Scribe Scroll as bonus feat)... you see the line of argumentation?

However, if you're game table isn't filled with a crowd of optimizers, you'll see that the sorcerers are worse, but not fighter-worse, just... not wizard power.

Click to expand...

However, if you don't know how to prepare your wizard very carefully, the spontaneity of the sorcerer will win (and it's fun not to worry 'bout your daily spells, so sorcerers are indeed a fun class).

It's the being behind one level, in terms of ability to cast higher-level spells, from class levels 3 to 17.

If it wasn't for that, they might be much of a muchness. I think.


edit --- as was quoted from another thread, above, in fact.

Olaf the Stout said:

However one of my players strongly believes that there aren't that many useful spells available each level anyway. He thinks that there are a few spells that are "better" than the others in most situations so the Sorcerer isn't disadvantaged by a narrow spell selection at all.

Click to expand...

Buy the Spell Compendium, and he'll change his mind. Don't even get me started on if a wizard starts taking exaulted spells (BoED) or vile ones (BoVD).

Also, wizards get the next level spell faster. And their extra feats means that a wizard is more useful than a straight sorcerer at high levels. There really isn't a great reason for sorcerors not to take a prestige class that fits ASAP.

I think Sorcerer is a bit more stronger, as in more powerful in combat, but the Wizard's a lot more versatile and useful all around.

It depends... If we take one vs one after the mid lvls the wizard will be better...
But if we would like to multiclass a sorceror rules!

There are really 3 classes to compare:

Generalist Wizard
Specialist Wizard
Sorcerer

I think they're all balanced. Sorcerer is generally better in combat, Wizard generally better in problem-solving.

Cheers!

I personally prefer the wizard. Mostly because if I were to find a scroll I can transcribe the spell into my book and use it forever, as opposed to the one time. I like knowing that if I so chose my wizard could have every spell available to him.
But in the end I think it come down to play style, and there is no clear victor, which is how it should be.

gweinel said:

It depends... If we take one vs one after the mid lvls the wizard will be better...
But if we would like to multiclass a sorceror rules!

Click to expand...

Actually, the wizard is a better multiclass-class, because, well it gets the useful spell levels earlier...

Oh, and I forgot to mention it earlier: They cannot quicken spells.

Sorcerers are unable to quicken and need another non-core feat for it (despite having five feats less than the wizard), and quicken is quite a good metamagic.

Sad thing for the "dragonblooded masters of magic"

mkb152 said:

Buy the Spell Compendium, and he'll change his mind. Don't even get me started on if a wizard starts taking exaulted spells (BoED) or vile ones (BoVD).

Also, wizards get the next level spell faster. And their extra feats means that a wizard is more useful than a straight sorcerer at high levels. There really isn't a great reason for sorcerors not to take a prestige class that fits ASAP.

Click to expand...

I have the Spell Compendium and he still thinks that there aren't that many spells per level that you absolutely need.

Olaf the Stout