creating a 1st level sorcerer in a high level party

[demon_jr]

some of you may have read my posts regarding what spells i should pick as a first level sorcerer.

to those who are interested, this is something i had in the back of my mind that may make my choice of the sorcerer class less useful than i first imagined.

one of the checks-and-balances for the sorcerer class is the limited amount of spells for increased spells per day.

that being the case, a player within my party has the create wand feat and offerred to create a wand using the spells i have. now, say i choose shield as one of my spells as a 1st level sorcerer. as a first level sorcerer, i can normally cast it 3 times per day, no including any bonuses for high stats. next, i get my friend, the cleric, to make me a wand of shield as a 1st level caster. the wand starts of with 50 charges. i do the same with my second sorcerer spell, which i get at 1st level.

i'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

there are pros and cons to be sure, but this is something to keep in my mind for anyone who wants to pick up a level in sorcerer at high levels.

i still plan to get a level of sorcerer, however.

 

[Fenes 2]

Why a wand of Shield? Do you encounter so many combat situations that the normal slots are not enough? I would not aquire wands of spells the PC can cast already, but other spells on the wizard/sorcerer list that the PC does not know. Wands of Fireball, Web, invisibility etc. make much more sense, imho, than a wand of shield. Or just go for scrolls.

 

[Destil]

If your intent is to provide the spells you learn as a sorcerer to someone who will make spell trigger / spell completion items, you'd be far better off with wizard (as long as you have 11+ Int). You would have a far more vast selection of spells you could potentialy learn this way.

 

[Voadam]

Can you get scrolls of spells you do not know and use those with the cleric to make wands of things that might be useful (charm person, invis, fly, dispel magic, etc.) That would probably be a better tactic than duplicating your own spellcasting abilities.

I'm not sure off the top of my head if sorcerers can do this.

 

[AuraSeer]

Can you get scrolls of spells you do not know and use those with the cleric to make wands of things that might be useful (charm person, invis, fly, dispel magic, etc.) That would probably be a better tactic than duplicating your own spellcasting abilities.

I'm not sure off the top of my head if sorcerers can do this.

Yes, this works, as long as your DM allows you to buy the scrolls. Note that your caster level must be sufficient to cast the spell. Also, note that for third- and fourth-level wands, it's not really cost-effective.

For a first-level spell, a wand costs 750 gp, which you can get done in one day. You use up one casting per day, so you only need a single scroll, at 25 gp. Add the cost of raw materials, and you get the wand for 400 GP (plus XP).

A third-level sorcerer's wand has a 13,500 market price. Creation requires 14 scrolls at 375 gp each, for a scroll cost of 5250. Total creation price: 12000 gp. Because of the XP cost, you're probably better off just purchasing the wand in the first place

If it's a 3rd-level spell you'll use very often, to the point where you need multiple wands, you can buy one wand and use it to craft others. The wand is more cost-effective than scrolls, and you save money over the long term.

For 4th-level wands, I think it's always cheaper to buy retail.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The wand of shield is an excellent idea whether or not it's one of your known spells (see the creating wands using a scroll post earlier). That will enable you to get all of the usual milage out of Shield while still wearing whatever armor you have now and not suffering arcane spell failure.

 

[demon_jr]

good insights everyone

however, my main concern is why wouldn't i want to take advantage of having wands made with 50 charges, even though it duplicates the only 2 1st level spells i would know as a sorcerer?

i understand at higher levels it wouldn't be cost-effective or practical, but at lower levels, for 1st level spells, i think it is a fairly good deal. as a 1st level sorcerer, i would be sorely tempted to have my friend make a wand that can cast one of my spells 50 times in comparison to the 3 times a day i could cast it. plus, at high levels, it would be fairly cheap to make a first level wand.

but then, do i really want to do that and make my character not cast any spells himself and resort to using wands? if i was a wizard, this wouldn't be so much of a dilemma for me, since i have a wider spell selection than the sorcerer.

on another note, our party has discovered the usefulness of creating 1st level wands of cure light. with 50 charges of 1d8+1 healing, it is very useful. it takes only one day to create, minimal xp, and is much more cost-effective than a potion of cure light.

in regards to scrolls and spell-trigger (i'm not sure if this is what i mean) items, i forget, do you need to be able to CAST the spell or can the spell just be on your spell list?

i was planning to buy a scroll of teleport with 1 level of sorcerer. would my character be able to use it?

 

[James McMurray]

From th SRD:

The creator must have prepared the spell to be stored (or must know the spell, in the case of a sorcerer or bard)

Scrolls and wands do not work for creating magic items.

I think I've read somewhere that people can work together to create items, but I'm not sure where that was, and I can't find it in the SRD.

 

[James McMurray]

You could probably use the scroll, but:

she has to make a caster level check (DC = scroll’s caster level + 1) to cast the spell successfully. If she fails, she must make a Wisdom check (DC 5) to avoid a mishap (see Scroll Mishaps, below). A natural roll of 1 always fails, whatever the modifiers.