D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Quicken spell and Sorcerers

[hong]

Re: Sorcerers

There's a 14th level sorceress in my group. She can cast FIFTY spells a day. Last night she was incredible - chain lightning/cone of cold/prismatic spray over and over and over.

14d6 equates to an average of 49 points of damage per round, before the save. There is a 9th level barbarian IMC who can already top that when raging.

With her Rod of Empowerment she was empowering/maximizing magic missles on top of that ("35 damage no save!" "35 damage no save!")

I must be missing something here. How is 35 points of damage per round, even with no save, comparable to the 100+ points that the barbarian and archer must be churning out at that level? Heck, even a 14th level monk could do 35 points of damage.

 

[ForceUser]

Re: Re: Sorcerers

14d6 equates to an average of 49 points of damage per round, before the save. There is a 9th level barbarian IMC who can already top that when raging.

Yeah - on one or two opponents at most, not multiple targets.

I must be missing something here. How is 35 points of damage per round, even with no save, comparable to the 100+ points that the barbarian and archer must be churning out at that level? Heck, even a 14th level monk could do 35 points of damage.

Regardless of what others can do, 35 freebie damage ain't bad. That's a fireball, sans the save. YMMV.

 

[jgsugden]

Big point: Quickening spells is not the only way to get the effects of multiple spells in a round. Spells with a duration also have an effect during later rounds.

So, a wizard might be able to cast a quickened fireball and a delayd blast fireball in the same round. On the other hand, a sorcerer using up the same percentage of his spells for the same combat might have cast 2 summon monster VII spells before the combat and one delayed blast fireball spell during combat.

The sorcerer can get more use out of his spells because he has a higher quantity of spells to use. It just takes a little preparation to make use of those spells.

If you need to rely upon instantaneous spells, sorcerers may not be the way to go, but if you need to rely upon total spell power, the sorcerer has more to throw around.

 

[Darklone]

IMC, I have a wizard and a bbn1/sorcerer in the group. The wizard had a lot of time lately, talked the rest of the group into giving him a lot of the loot and was able to do what every wizard dreams about:
- Write all available spells into his book (even some newly acquired ones, usually he can't buy scrolls)
- Have at least one scroll/wand of each spell that he usually does not prepare daily.
- Start a second spellbook (just in case)

The sorcerer is one level behind due to multiclassing and it's player is ... much more lazy. He doesn't really care about effectivity or whatever.

Still, the group considers the sorcerer as more useful than the wizard. (Honestly, they underestimate the last three times when the wizard saved all of them... IC, their chars didn't notice)

Sorcerers don't need Quicken to be useful. A wizard could dish out two spells per round with Quicken in the big boss encounter (if he didn't waste them sooner), but the sorcerer roasted the 1001 henchmen on the way to that combat.