This might be useful, especially to those who think that the sorcerer is underpowered.
Let us compare two borthers, Wally the wizard and his twin Sol the sorcerer. Wally has an 18 INT and Sol has an 18 CHA.
If we assume they have the same wealth and have each aquired magic items they deem most necessary based upon their available monies. Further, let us assume that at level 6, each brother has two metamagic feats, one that increases a spell by one level and one that increases a spell by two levels. Finally, let us ignore cantrips for this comparison.
Wally started with 7 spells, gained 2 per level so he now has 17 in in spell book, plus any he otherwise aquired. For the sake of arguement lets say that Wally has 30 spells in his spell book, 10 of each level 1, 2 and 3, this is intended to be very generous. Because of high int he casts 4 1st level spells, 4 2nd level spell, and 3 3rd level spells each day.
When Wally sits down to fill his spell slots in the morning he has
43,200,000,000,000 (43 trillion (US))
different possibilities for his spell selection. It is entirely possible that one of those combinations is EXACTLY the perfect combination of spells for the upcoming day. Hey, there might be 5 million very nearly optimal possibilites, but he has to do his best guess right then, that morning.. While this 43 Trillion looks impressive, if Wally fills all of his spell slots for the day, he is choosing exacly one of 43 trillion possibilities.
By comparison, Sol knows 4 first level spells, 2 second level spells, and 1 third level spell. He has slots for 7 first level spells, 6 second level spells, and 4 third level spells, which seems a bit paltry by comparison. Given that he can cast spontaneously his spell casting possibilites are
1,835,352,981,504 (1.8 trillion)
The thing is, he is Mr. 1.8 trillion all day long. Wally becomes one of 43 trillion by 8am.
Now as our adventurers go on a dungeon crawl, they encounter a Lizardfolk fighter:
Wally looks good with his fireball, average damage 3.5 * 6 or 21 save for 10
Sol casts an empowered magic missle average damage 15.
If instead they encounter a slamander:
All of a sudden Wally's fireball is pretty much useless. So is his flaming sphere, and scorching ray. (If Sol has either of those spells and Energy Substitution he could energy substitue it for scorching ray (acid) or Freezing Sphere, and he could do it RIGHT THERE.)
Wally has a magic missle memorized but it is not empowered. He casts it using up his ONE for the day, 10.5 damage.
Sol casts an empowered magic missle for 15. He could have 16 more Magic Missles, 4 of which could be empowered today.
Throughout the day they use their spells, lets say they each use 2 level 1 spells, 2 level 2 spells, and 2 level 3 spells. The wizard has 2 level 1 spells left, 2 level 2 spells left, and one third level spell. I hope that fireball/lightning bolt/dispel magic is exactly what you need my firend. For comparison sake, Sol still has every one of his spells available to him, 65 million different possibilites, he has seven different spells he could cast in that third level slot alone.
If we assume that each brother has exhausted all but one of his spell slots for the day, that would mean that Sol actually cast 14 spells and Wally cast 8 on that day -- sounds like Sol did more work. Anyway with one spell slot of each level left for each brother Sol still has 7 different spells to cast, and Wally has at most 3. Here Sol clearly looks like he is better able to handle something that might come up.
The biggest problem I have with sorcerers is that they too often become one trick ponies. Empowered MM is ,however, effective. So is Web +grease, so is spectal hand and shocking grasp, so is True Strike +crossbow bolts, so is sonic scorching rays.
Needless to say I think sorcerers are not underpowered as is. That does not mean that I dont think they could use a little change though.
