Critique sorc spell list please

Question said:
New list, thoughts?
A couple of spells that Thanee already mentioned also work great in combination -- Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability and Magic Jar. Let your familiar use the Magic Jar and leave its body lifeless in a Familiar Pocket or something. Or just use Imbue by itself to save yourself valuable rounds -- have your familiar cast haste, fly, dimension door, etc. for you in combat.

Scrying can be hugely important. Normally I'd say leave it to the Clerics and don't waste a spell known on it, but you can only teleport to a scryed location if you were the one doing the scrying.

Another nice 4th-level spell is Ruin Delver's Fortune. Potentially huge bonus to saves and handy stuff like evasion as an immediate action.

Limited Wish is probably the best spell around for a utility sorcerer. It does cost 300XP a pop, but the flexibility it allows is amazing. You can use it for an emergency Heal or Revivify, or just for rarely-needed spells that you couldn't fit into your list -- or that the Cleric/Druid/etc. didn't know would be needed when they were choosing spells for the day. A nice side benefit is that you can use it for Permanency at no extra XP cost.

Polymorph Any Object is great, too -- you can use it like Polymorph but with a duration of usually a week or permanent. e.g. permanently turn the whole party into War Trolls. Or if you have any way to change your type to Outsider (e.g. Shapechange or Fiendform), you can lock it in by using PAO to turn yourself into a Planetar or Kelvezu or something for a week at a time. This also obviates many uses of Fabricate -- for example, PAO can permanently turn a scrap of metal into an adamantine bridge in one standard action.
 

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Question said:
It says it doesnt stack with haste though? And the nat armor bonus from spiderskin is 1/3 levels. thats +10 nat armor at CL 30 o.O

Yes, but depending on the situation, having the whole party suddenly playing Whack-a-Mole with snake's swiftness could be better than casting Haste and letting them figure out how best to use it. Hmm, +10 Nat? I guess I didn't read the spell all the way through... I figured it have a cap on it.

Edit: Upon further reading of Spiderskin... to Touched creature: +10 Natural Armor, +10 Hide, and +10 on Saves vs Poison... for 300minutes. You're right, this is worth keeping.
 

kerbarian said:
Scrying can be hugely important. Normally I'd say leave it to the Clerics and don't waste a spell known on it, but you can only teleport to a scryed location if you were the one doing the scrying.

Good call! I'm sure that by level 30, Scry and Fry should be a required tactic.
 

Question said:
Why is shapechange such a good spell?
Take a look at the solar and what you get in the new form. Incredible fly speed, natural armor, ability scores, DR, SR, regeneration... the list goes on. And you can change form at will if you should need some special power. (I'm sure there's a list somewhere.) Having trouble with a spellcaster? Change into an iron golem and become immune to magic. Need some healing? Change into an avoral and heal your full normal hit points with lay on hands. Need to lift something heavy? Change into a titan. And I haven't even looked into what you can do with epic monsters (gloom?).
 

I went with metamagic specialist from PHBII......the ability to quicken sorc spells is pretty good, so no familiar.

Hmm question : Does moment of prescience allow me to add the +20 insight bonus to init checks?

Scrying.....hmm the problem is if i were to take it, im not sure what to replace it with. Assay spell resistance perhaps? Anyone else got any comments?

0 : Detect magic, read magic, light, dancing lights, mage hand, message, mending, arcane mark, presdigition

1 : Benign transportation, targetting ray, expeditious retreat(swift), ray of enfleebement, nerve skitter

2 : Rope trick, false life, knock, baleful transposition, mirror image

3 : Fly, haste, spell vulnerability, spiderskin

4 : Assay spell resistance, Dimensional anchor, stoneskin, dimension door

5 : Blink(greater), wall of force, teleport, fabricate

6 : Dispel magic(greater), true seeing, contigency

7 : Anti magic ray, spell turning, stun ray

8 : Mind blank, moment of prescience, invisibility(superior)

9 : Timestop, Gate, Efflugent epuration

I went with gate after finding the rod of excellent magic(once per day substitute up to 2000 xp as spell component), which lets me cast gate once per day and call up to a 60 HD monster for free. Crazy.

Edit : Just saw rex's reply. Hmm that sounds nice. But timestop, gate and efflugent epuration are all excellent level 9 spells as well.
 


Question said:
Why persistent image?

It isn't necessary, but it is a good utility spell that can be put to all sorts of nonstandard uses (since it follows a script and can include various senses).

-Stuart
 

Hmm i thought it could. Thats why i took it actually.

So replacing it with polymorph any object. Can someone please explain just how shapechange + polymorph any object works for duration? Getting confused with the description.
 

There's two biggies missing: Wish and Limited Wish. Both are vastly useful spells. Both will allow you to cast almost any spell available.
 

I'll reiterate that shapechange is not only the best utility spell, it is also the best offensive and the best defensive spell. It will increase your AC by 20, give you scads of immunities, movement modes, lots of attacks, and let you cherry pick supernatural abilities. Against inflexible foes, shapechange will be the only spell you need the entire combat.

Forms like the solar are good, but lack the offensive punch you might like. My favorites are the Kelvezu demon for tons of 8d6 sneak attacks and huge defensive boosts, the Hullathoin to "summon" bloodfiend swarms that deal negative levels, and the ghost template to get incorporeality and ability drain attacks. Especially at high/epic levels, enemies will have good saves and lots of hp, but if they are vulnerable to ability drain and you can guess their low ability score, or if they are vulnerable too energy drain, you can incapacitate them without punching through their formidable defenses.

Also, if you have a familiar, share spells lets you both benefit from buffs like shapechange simultaneously. Since you will be level 30, you might even want to cast shapechange on your familiar separately from you so it doesn't need to stay within 5'. One hullathoin summoning bloodfiend locust swarms is good, but you and your familiar both summoning them during a time stop might net you 10 swarms in a single round. That's a lot of negative levels. And two kelvezu flanking, two-weapon fighting, arcane striking, sneak attacking, and poisoning can be pretty nasty as well.
 

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