Favored Soul/Battle Sorcerer

[Jon Potter]

I never play spellcasters (well, almost never) but I'm toying with the idea of a Favored Soul/Battle Sorcerer (from UA, for those not familiar) for an upcoming one-shot adventure. Most WOTC books are on the table, and we're playing at 7th level. Can anyone offer me some pointers on implementing this particular concept?

I see lots of synergy with these two since:

a) they both use Charisma to determine spells
b) they can both wear light armor without risk of spell failure (and with the Battlecaster feat that can be upgraded to medium armor)
c) they both inhabit the "fighting spellcaster" niche

Obvious feat choices seem to be Practiced Spellcaster (x2), Battlecaster, and I'm quite partial to the Versatile Spellcaster feat (which will pull double duty here with two spontaneus spellcasting classes). I'm thinking of playing human to get an extra feat to play with - maybe even taking the human paragon racial class to squeeze out another.

So... this is what I'm leaning toward so far:

Level 1 Human Paragon (Practiced Spellcaster/Practiced Spellcaster)
Level 2 Favored Soul
Level 3 Battle Sorcerer (Battlecaster)
Level 4 Favored Soul
Level 5 Human Paragon, applying the "+1 level of existing class" to Battle Sorcerer (Versatile Spellcaster)
Level 6 Favored Soul (Extend Spell?)
Level 7 Human Paragon, again applying the "+1 level of existing class" to Battle Sorcerer

Is there a better way to go (bearing in mind that I'm 99% set on Favored Soul/Battle Sorcerer)? Does anyone have spell suggestions - particularly on the Favored Soul side?

Help would be appreciated.

 

[Engilbrand]

Ignore Wisdom. For the Favored Soul, only pick up utility/buff/healing spells. Don't worry in the least about save DCs. Favored Soul for that stuff, BS for damage and other buff. Then go good Con and Dex. You don't even really need much intelligence to pull this off.

 

[Ilium]

I'm not familiar with the Paragon classes. Do you get that "+1 level of existing class" every time? If so, it seems like you should not take Paragon at first level, so you can squeeze out yet another Battle Sorcerer level. That would give you access to 2nd level sorcerer spells, so you can drop Scorching Ray death on the infidels.

 

[Jon Potter]

I'm not familiar with the Paragon classes. Do you get that "+1 level of existing class" every time?

Nope, it's only the 2nd and 3rd levels that add to spellcasting.

It's a varient from Unearthed Arcana, but you can read about it here.

 

[Ilium]

Nope, it's only the 2nd and 3rd levels that add to spellcasting.

It's a varient from Unearthed Arcana, but you can read about it here.

I see. I forgot those are OGL, I could have looked it up myself.

Wow. Your Will save is going to be obscene. Favored Soul has a good Will save, too, right? So it'll be +8 before your Wisdom mod. Nice.

Looks good.

 

[rgard]

I never play spellcasters (well, almost never) but I'm toying with the idea of a Favored Soul/Battle Sorcerer (from UA, for those not familiar) for an upcoming one-shot adventure. Most WOTC books are on the table, and we're playing at 7th level. Can anyone offer me some pointers on implementing this particular concept?

I see lots of synergy with these two since:

a) they both use Charisma to determine spells
b) they can both wear light armor without risk of spell failure (and with the Battlecaster feat that can be upgraded to medium armor)
c) they both inhabit the "fighting spellcaster" niche

Obvious feat choices seem to be Practiced Spellcaster (x2), Battlecaster, and I'm quite partial to the Versatile Spellcaster feat (which will pull double duty here with two spontaneus spellcasting classes). I'm thinking of playing human to get an extra feat to play with - maybe even taking the human paragon racial class to squeeze out another.

So... this is what I'm leaning toward so far:

Level 1 Human Paragon (Practiced Spellcaster/Practiced Spellcaster)
Level 2 Favored Soul
Level 3 Battle Sorcerer (Battlecaster)
Level 4 Favored Soul
Level 5 Human Paragon, applying the "+1 level of existing class" to Battle Sorcerer (Versatile Spellcaster)
Level 6 Favored Soul (Extend Spell?)
Level 7 Human Paragon, again applying the "+1 level of existing class" to Battle Sorcerer

Is there a better way to go (bearing in mind that I'm 99% set on Favored Soul/Battle Sorcerer)? Does anyone have spell suggestions - particularly on the Favored Soul side?

Help would be appreciated.

I'd skip the Human Paragon. It is good if you want to wield a longsword or some other martial weapon, but battlesorcerer already does that for you.

Thinking some more...

You lose a level of BS, but gain better skill ranks, bonus feat, and I think +2 to one stat.

Personally, I'd take BS 4/FS 3 for your build. Eh, maybe not, I do like your pc build.

Gee, that's definitive!

Good luck!

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I would agree with the above poster, and drop the Human Paragon. It is good, but right now your build only has 1st level spells on each side, in a game where a straight caster is throwing 4th level spells. That is a huge difference. I would probably go Battle Sorceror 6 Favored soul 1 or some such to get 3rd level spells. Losing 2 levels of FS will not hurt much as they only get a few extra spells from 1st to 3rd.

 

[nittanytbone]

As with most dual-casting "Mystic Theurge" type combos... ITS A TRAP!

What would you prefer?

Level IV spells... or Lots of Level I spells?

Divine Power... or Divine Favor?

Empowered Scorching Ray... or Magic Missile?

I'd suggest sticking with one or the other, using wands, use magic device, or Arcane Disciple to expand your class spell list, and throwing around some more potent spells.

 

[Jon Potter]

Wow. Your Will save is going to be obscene. Favored Soul has a good Will save, too, right? So it'll be +8 before your Wisdom mod. Nice.

Actually, Favored Soul has three good saves, like the monk.

 

[Jon Potter]

As with most dual-casting "Mystic Theurge" type combos... ITS A TRAP!

What would you prefer?

Level IV spells... or Lots of Level I spells?

Divine Power... or Divine Favor?

Empowered Scorching Ray... or Magic Missile?

I'd suggest sticking with one or the other, using wands, use magic device, or Arcane Disciple to expand your class spell list, and throwing around some more potent spells.

I agree with you whole-heartedly... if this were an ongoing campaign. For a one-shot, I'm willing to be a little sub-par. I just want to be the optimum sub-par character I can be. ;-)

Your point is a valid one, however. I'll have such a limited draw of spells (and relatively weak ones at that) once the dice start rolling that I'm more than a little gunshy about picking them.

And, BTW, originally, the Mystic Theurge PrC was the reason for looking at this combo; I wanted to see how it would look with something other than cleric/wizard or cleric/sorcerer. Unfortunately, it looked pretty bad since Knowledge (religion) is cross-class for both FS and BS and you need 6 ranks to qualify for Mystic Theurge. The Human Paragon's adaptive learning ability was my original reason for looking at the racial class.