Help with Sorcerer & survival!

Well, it seems you've already started playing, thus suggestions about changing your race or stats aren't very useful. So, really, what you need are suggestions that can be implemented going forward. However, since you're new to playing a sorcerer, I would suggest that you ask your DM if you can switch Combat Casting for Skill Focus (Concentration) as has been previously suggested. It's not a radical rebuild, and it's really just a matter of a lack of familiarity with spellcasters.

Going forward, you need to look to the same things that everybody else does, for survivability. Either don't get hit, or learn to take a hit. The only difference between you and the fighter is how you accomplish those two goals.

In general, your AC probably won't be that high (there are arcane builds with ridiculous AC, but for a relatively straightforward sorcerer, you won't be one of them). So, to avoid getting it you need to either make the attacks miss some other way such as by blur, displacement, invisibility or mirror image, or not be there to take the hit in the first place as with fly, dimension door, and so forth. For taking at hit you need the same things as everybody else, saves and hit points, and beyond casting False Life, you get them the same way as anybody else - constitution, feats, and class levels. Not much can be done about that.

In the immediate future, you've got your 3rd level feat to work with, and some second level spells, and you can potentially get some gear. The problem with your second level spells is, as a sorcerer, you only get one second level spell to pick from at first. Spending it on something purely defensive keeps you from contributing to the group. Consider glitterdust, which is a great combat spell, and blinded enemies are much less likely to be able to hurt you. And nearly everything in the game is vulnerable to it (blindsight helps, but not much else). For feats, consider Improved Toughness (+1 hp/level). The easiest way to improve your defense is gear, but at low levels that's not as easy for arcanists as it is for fighters - think scrolls. Mage armor, shield, invisibility, and such are all useful, and you can get scrolls of them to save your valuable spell slots - especially since at higher levels you won't need them as much.

One option you may wish to consider is going Eldritch Knight/Spellsword. You'd have to give up some spellcasting levels (2), but you'd get some good defense in return. To do this, take your next level as fighter (pick dodge as your feat - hopefully you have a 13 Dex). Then make a point of beating up some hapless goblin or such with your sword, to qualify for Spellsword and its ability to reduce the arcane spell failure of armor. When you qualify for Eldritch Knight, take that and take mobility as your bonus feat. Advance all the way with Eldritch Knight, making good use of ray and touch spells to utilize your strong BAB, and soak up the bigger hit die and the ability to wear a mithral chain shirt without trouble, picking up Elusive Target as a regular feat choice (dodge and mobility were the prereqs) to negate power attack against you and make those precious hp stretch a little further.
 

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Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated.

I think my DM may let me drop the elf half and swop the feat. What would you suggest as the bonus human feat if he agrees? Toughness looks nice but what book is Improved Toughness in?
 

OK he has agreed to the changes :) as we have only just started a preliminary scenario to the campaign proper. What a nice DM we have. My CON is only 12, not much I can do about that. My DEX is 17 which is cool. I put a 15 in WIS for the will save but in retrospect I probably should have put it in CON.
 

Comp Warrior.

But you need a higher Fort save to take it.

Honestly, I would have gone with the halfelf and tried to survive. It's more fun in case you manage it and he'll get a heroic death if not.

I like challenging chars. Go, kobold barbarian!

Edit: Yeah, that 15 would rock in Con. That's actually more important than going human.
 


My recommendation...Sorcerers work better as combat casters. Forget about the general use spells and leave them for wizards. Focus on combat spells and a few defensive ones.

And after last night's game, getting a wand of Expeditious Retreat might not be a bad idea. :p
 

In general I like to put my highest or second highest stat in con for arcane casters, and either the highest or 2nd highest in Int/Cha depending on how I roll. Your will save will already be good as a caster and doesn't need the points in WIS. Your Fort save and hitpoints do need help. Dex would usually be 3rd on my list for stats, but it depends on what you like to play.

As far as feats Toughness is good in the first few levels and then is really bad later on as it does not scale with level. @ 1st +1 hp with your con is a 60% increase, and the pay off is less and less as you level up. If your dm would let you switch out CON and WIS you could take Improved toughness when you get +2 in your FORT save as a prereq. You would qualify at 6th. This gives you +1hp/lvl and is in complete warrior.

In the Complete Mage there is a stalwart sorcerer varient you give up 1 known spell of your highest level (So 1 level one until level 4 then you get the 1st level spell but loose the 2nd so that at all times you have 1 less known spell of your highest level, but eventually get the lower level ones) This gives you 2x's your sorc level in hitpoints. 2 @ 1st. 4 @ 2nd, 6 @ 3rd etc.

As for feats to take as a human everyone has their own favorite. The best advice is to take something that lets you do something you can't do now, or something what scales with level or is usefull nomatter what level you are. ALso try to decide what PrC you want to go into and use your feat for the prerequisits. ANY PrC that gives you a full caster level is better than the sorceror. There are NO class abilities and even the dumbest PrC will have some. There is no reason to stay in sorceror past 5th or 6th level (6th gets you +1 BAB and +1 to all saves)

If you want some other build advice here is a thread from the wizards board: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=239207
 

Stalwart Sorcerer from Complete Mage is better than Toughness or Improved Toughness, but it comes at the cost of losing one of your highest level known spells.
 


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