(Not again!) How's this sorcerer's spell list look?

[DWARF]

For a friend of mine:

I will play the only arcane spell caster, but we will have a sort of cleric/wizard custom class in the party.

I have a 28 point buy and am playing a human. Starting at 5th level with 9000gp to spend on magic items from DMG.

I am only allowed spells from the PHB, and perhaps TaB.
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 16 (+1 at 4th)
Max skills: concentration, spell craft, arcane knowledge
Spell selection:


0th
detect magic
read magic
ghost sound
mage hand
daze
prestidigitation
dancing lights
ray of frost
light

1st
magic missile
shield
true strike
color spray
grease

2nd
web
glitterdust
mirror image
alter self
knock

3rd
lightning bolt
suggestion
haste
greater magic weapon

4th
enervation
dimension door
polymorph other
improved invisibility

5th
wall of force
Hold Monster
telekenesis
dismissal

6th
eyebite
greater dispelling
chain lightning

7th
spell turning
teleport without error
limited wish

8th
mind blank
mass charm
maze

9th
time stop
dominate monster
gate

Feats
extend spell (1)
improved initiative (1)
spell focus: evocation (3)
energy substitution: sonic(6)
spell penetration (9)
greater spell penetration (12)

 

[DM with a vengence]

This looks pretty good. I have just two changes, and they're more style than anything else.

I would dump color spray, as it has little effect on high level creatures, and either get sleep, for when you have to deal with the town watch without killing them, or mage armor. It'll let your save cash for Bracers of Armor for a few levels, and it'll make everybody your friend when fighting incorpreal creature.

For second, I do not find knock very useful, especially if you have a rogue or high strength fighter.

For third, I'd take Fireball, even though Lightning Bolt is more controllable, and more useful in certain situations, it requires that your move out from behind your comrades, which could be dangerous.

Another choice is to trade Haste with Dispel Magic and Greater Dispelling with Mass Haste, get Wands of Haste, and then get Mass Haste at the appropriate level. You use Haste only once each encounter, so this won't be too expensive, and Mass Haste dramatically increases the effectiveness of your party.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

Get rid of Extend Spell and pick up Still Spell. If you can manage to rid yourself of another feat, pick up Silent Spell. Still Spell has saved me more than a few times from improved grab monsters.

Knock is a useful spell. You never know when the rogue is going to die or be trapped. A rogue can't pick arcane locked or barred doors either.

Get rid of color spray and pick up Protection from Evil. Protection from evil is one of the most useful 1st level spells you can pick up and will be even more useful at higher levels for its ability to block mental control alone.

Get rid of glitterdust and pick up see invisibility. See invisibility allows you to see ethereal and astral creatures. It works continously.

Other than that, your list makes for a unique sorcerer. If you were using the Magic of Faerun, I would recommend some other spells, but it doesn't look like you are using MoF. In MoF, casters are king and the spells reflect this reality.

 

[Drew]

I would not recommend picking up mage armor as someone suggested. You really only need to cast it once a day. Buy some scrolls.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Get Identify. People will not respect you otherwise. Believe me.

 

[Numion]

I wouldn't take true strike; magic missiles are more useful most of the time. (doable once / round + probably more damage. True strike + attack you can use only every other round.) Take for example .. argh, I've loaned my PHB, and can't think of a better spell..

Endurance for 2nd level spells is pretty good, but then you'd have to take mepower spell feat, to empower it (multiple times in higher levels.) Or cat's grace.

Chain Lightning is also worse in use than on paper. I'd suggest Disintegrate. That's a good offensive spell that works vs. undead, and also has some utility. (As a supercharged knock, for example.)

Empower spell might be a good choice, even if it takes a full round to cast the spell. Empowered Endurance or even mirror image might be useful.

 

[Tzarevitch]

For a friend of mine:

I will play the only arcane spell caster, but we will have a sort of cleric/wizard custom class in the party.

I have a 28 point buy and am playing a human. Starting at 5th level with 9000gp to spend on magic items from DMG.

I am only allowed spells from the PHB, and perhaps TaB.
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 16 (+1 at 4th)
Max skills: concentration, spell craft, arcane knowledge
Spell selection:


0th
detect magic
read magic
ghost sound
mage hand
daze
prestidigitation
dancing lights
ray of frost
light

1st
magic missile
shield
true strike
color spray
grease

2nd
web
glitterdust
mirror image
alter self
knock

3rd
lightning bolt
suggestion
haste
greater magic weapon

4th
enervation
dimension door
polymorph other
improved invisibility

5th
wall of force
Hold Monster
telekenesis
dismissal

6th
eyebite
greater dispelling
chain lightning

7th
spell turning
teleport without error
limited wish

8th
mind blank
mass charm
maze

9th
time stop
dominate monster
gate

Feats
extend spell (1)
improved initiative (1)
spell focus: evocation (3)
energy substitution: sonic(6)
spell penetration (9)
greater spell penetration (12)

Your list looks good to me. There isn't anything on it that screams "poor choice." I do have some minor suggestions though.

I'd probably swap mass charm or maze (depending on your preference) for Horrid Wilting or some other high-level damage spell. Otherwise the highest level directed damage spell you have is Chain Lightning at 6th lvl and it doesn't do that much. Unfortunately, most of the 6th lvl damage spells aren't any better. Disintegrate is good bit it is single target leaving you with zero true multiple target spells.

Another possibility is to take Empower or Maximize so you can get more damage out of your 6th lvl Chain Lightning, that way you can keep your 8th lvl slots for what you really want. You might instead want to consider dropping whichever of your 7th level choices you like the least in favor of Delayed Blast Fireball (which you can substitute using your feat if you choose.) This goves you a real high-level damage spell.

You also might want to dump the Spell Focus: Evocation feat as you don't actually have that many evocation spells that have saves and unlike Wizards, you don't get very many feats. I'd probably take another Energy Substitution (perhaps Acid) or Energy Add-Mix for added damage on the evocations you DO have.

Also, check and see if you are likely to be fighting a lot of creatures with very high SR. If not, dump Greater Spell Penetration in favor of a meta-magic feat of your choice. I have found 3e SR to be much easier to tackle than 2e MR ever was so I am not a fan of the spell Spell Penetration feats. On the whole, I think your choices are sound. Remember, sorcerers can get a lot of added flexibility with a good selection of metamagic feats.

Tzarevitch

 

[Astragoth]

another list

I posted this in the D&D rules section under a sorc thread but I assume it's better here. So once more with a feeling:

new sorc suggested spellist.
I'm building a human sorcerer. The campaign will start at 4th lvl and will go on untill AT LEAST 12th lvl. the campaign will run in the forgotten realms setting (although I suspect we will end up un a entirely different world)

here's a bit of background. I originate from the Thay region, where I was born inside the bureaucrat class, wich meant a safe childhood inside the bureacracy of the church of Kossuth. The believes and dogmas of Kossuth were feeded to me from birth, and the truth of it was obvious to me, as I was a member of a wealthy and succesfull family. My believes in Kossuth was fanatical, and my family planned a future for me as a cleric of Kossuth.

Alas. I showed signs of sorcerous talent. It turns out that the regular checks of the red wizards had already proven I was developing talents at an early age, but somehow the records of my tests were lost inside a mass of bureaucracy (well how would that be possible?).

As you perhaps know.... the red Wizards despise sorcerers, and the ever increasing rate at wich minor magical effects showed up around me made it even for my family impossible to hide my talent from the red wizards. I was discovered, captured and tortured. The fears and frustrations forced me to master my talents, and consiously casting spells for the first time in my life I escaped the dungeon. With a minor starting fund provided by my family and a letter of reccomendation signed by the high priest of Kossuth in Eltabbar, I fled the country and headed west. I immediatly recognized my misfortune as a challenge by Kossuth and I have sworn to rise above it. I will oppose the red wizards wherever I can whenever I can, and if Kossuth blesses me, will rise to great power and fame.

there ya go. I plan to have the following feats and spells at 20th lvl. I would appreciate your comments on both the roleplaying aspect and versatility and scalability of the character. A bit of powergaming is allowed... I don't mind beating the **** out of the baddies I meet. In fact... Kossuth will appreciate it.

allignment: lawful neutral

feats (not in specific order):
spell focus evoc
empower spell
energy substitution: fire
chain spell
extend spell
spellcasting prodigy
great fortitude
lightning reflexes

spells (not in specific order):
lvl 1:
1 magic missile (evoc)
2 expeditious retreat (trans)
3 mage armor (conj)
4 shield (abjur)
5 protection from evil (abjur)

lvl 2:
1 resist elements (abjur)
2 eagle’s splendor (trans)
3 levitate (trans)
4 melf’s acid arrow (evoc)
5 see invisibility (div)

lvl 3:
1 dispel magic (abjur)
2 fireball (evoc)
3 fly (trans)
4 haste (trans)

lvl 4:
1 stoneskin (abjur)
2 improved invisibility (illu)
3 phantasmal killer (illu)
4 electrical orb (evoc)

lvl 5:
1 feeblemind (ench)
2 cone of cold (evoc)
3 ghostform (trans)
4 teleport (trans)

lvl 6:
1 disintegrate (trans)
2 geas/quest (ench)
3 chain lightning (evoc)

lvl 7:
1 prismatic spray (evoc)
2 power word: stun (conj)
3 Banishment (abjur)

lvl 8:
1 greater planar binding (conj)
2 horrid wilting (necro)
3 polymorph any object (trans)

lvl 9:
1 timestop (trans)
2 mordekainen's disjunction (abjur)
3 wail of the banshee (necro)

 

[Vanye]

Re: another list

energy substitution: fire

Quite honestly, given the spell list you've provided, this feat is nearly useless for you. You have four spells that you can use it on:

lvl 2:
4 melf’s acid arrow (evoc)
lvl 4:
4 electrical orb (evoc)

lvl 5:
2 cone of cold (evoc)

lvl 6:
3 chain lightning (evoc)

Not exactly the best bang-for-your-buck feat that you could have.

Frankly, if I were you, I'd take either Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, or Heighten Spell. Or possibly the feat that increases the area of effect of a spell, that might be useful, too...

 

[bret]

For a friend of mine:

I will play the only arcane spell caster, but we will have a sort of cleric/wizard custom class in the party.

I have a 28 point buy and am playing a human. Starting at 5th level with 9000gp to spend on magic items from DMG.

I am only allowed spells from the PHB, and perhaps TaB.
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 16 (+1 at 4th)
Max skills: concentration, spell craft, arcane knowledge
<snip>

Without an Int bonus, you can't max three skills. You only get two skill points per level.

I would drop Con two points and raise Dex and either Wis or Str. At an 8 Strength, you aren't going to be able to carry very much.