Sorcerer Spells with a Theme

[malien]

Sure, go for elemental spells and then go elemental savant.

I love your sig, btw.

Hehe, thanks!

 

[atom crash]

A Class Acts article in a recent issue of Dragon (#330 or #331?) had variant rules for sorcerors who specialized in spheres of magic -- which were based on different elements or themes -- in much the way wizards can specialize in a school of magic. I found the article interesting, and it may be a step in the direction you want to take.

 

[Jack Simth]

Another option is to not pick all your spells based on the theme - just one per spell level - thus, you could have a "necromantic" sorceror that always tries to have at least one necromancy spell of every level where he has spell levels - so sure, that Sor 6 has Flare, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, and Fireball (Fire Theme) - but he also has Shield, Mage Armor, Magic Missle, and Spectral Hand (as well as a 6 unlisted cantrips). He is still a "Fire Sorceror", but he isn't quite a one-trick pony. Of course, you only want to have someone do this voluntarily, not force them. Forcing them is bad, as it reduces the relative power of the class, and needs re-adjuesment of the rest of the class (or all the other classes) for re-balancing.

 

[Celebrim]

It's not something I enforce, but it is something I strongly encourage. For example, because I don't run Psions in my game, if someone wanted to play a Psionic character I would encourage them to play a Sorcerer with a Psionicly themed spell selection.

I also make use of Bloodline feats that give Sorcerers a set of themed bonus spells known. Since they eventually give the sorcerer a precious 9 more known spells, they are pretty much too attractive to turn down. And I'd be perfectly willing to workup a new bloodline for any character that wanted to have a particular theme, so if you wanted a sorcerer that was a master of water magic or something I'd be more than happy to work up a list of bonus known spells for someone with an Aquan bloodline.

Also, I have several homebrew arcane feat paths available which greatly empower spells of particular theme that I felt was in practice neglected by the current rules (Abjuration, Conjuration [Summoning], Evocation, etc.). It hasn't come up yet, because noone has taken more than a couple levels of sorcerer, but presumably if someone wanted to play a character who was primarily a sorcerer, the the feat paths combined with canon things like Spell Focus would encourage some degree of specialization as well.

 

[JoeBlank]

Yeah, IMC Sorcerers do not get a Familiar, instead they get 1 (cleric) domain of known spells. The do not get the domain's granted power, just get to know the spells as a bonus when they can cast them. These are in addition to the spells they get to know.

I like that a lot, cool idea.

As Jack Smith and others noted, you don't have to feel constrained by your theme. You can just try to pick at least one spell for level that fits the theme, and maybe modify some special effects of spells to make them consistent with your character concept.

 

[Templetroll]

It's just hard for me, I suppose. I play D&D more for the roleplay than the rollplay, to borrow an overused term, and it just isn't made to favour one over the other. I've been wanting for the last day and a half to build an Aasimar Paladin/Sorcerer/Exalted Arcanist to be like this sort of... crusader-mage, but the build just feels so impractical. If I want to be a decent warrior, I need more paladin or maybe eldrich knight, but then I sacrifice getting Exalted Arcanist until almost the end. So, then I turn back to just being a sorcerer... and I want my spells to have some unified theme, so I can stick with the whole crusader-mage thing.

I dunno. Sometimes, no matter how much I like D&D, it feels too limiting. Not that I know how I'd fix it, though. Heh.

I had a dwarf wizard who was working on force magic as a specialty. Take a look at Mage Armor, Shield and Thunderlance. The Lance can be any size from dagger, through sword to lance. Use Mount to get a proper mounted knight but all done with spells. That would be cool.

Usually, I've worked out some development for a character concept that is power-gamed and then one that is roleplay-gamed. See which works for you, how much you can cover effectiveness and facilitate roleplay with each.

The game can be anything, you just need to be able to convince someone else (the DM) to let you do it. Beer helps. Another technique is to ask for something really odd, like that flumph paladin, then when you talk about what you really want it sounds so reasonable. Just be wary of the GM who might like flumph paladins.