NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wish" data-source="post: 3301523" data-attributes="member: 13404">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.</blockquote>

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