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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sinjin the Rogue" data-source="post: 825146" data-attributes="member: 2288">I don't understand why people refer to energy Substitution (sonic) as being cheesy. It offers a spell caster the ability to use the damage spells in his/her arsenal an intelligent means of doing damage to a wider array of creatures.My 15th level wizard just took the feat and chose sonic as the substitute energy type. The question is, what would a high level wizard with an enhanced intelligence of 24, a knowledge arcana skill of 25 and a knowledge of the planes skill of 25 choose to do? Without question, the most intelligent thing to do is to choose the energy type that would affect the largest array of potential foes. This is certainly not a "cheesy" choice, but one made from careful consideration.Wizards already have a lot to overcome from the foes they face at high level. In my current adventure, we are facing a plethora of creatures with a spell resistance of 25 or greater. Roughly 50 percent of the spells my wizard casts on enemies have no effect, but the spells get used-up nevertheless. The enemies also have fairly high saving throws, so even when spell resistance is overcome, the enemy still only takes half damage (or no damage if the enemy has evasion) from most damage dealing spells. Some might argue that save-or-die spells would be better suited to these foes, but when luck-of-the-die causes a caster to waste his/her high level spells from an enemy's spell resistance, he/she has to fall back on mid to lower level spells to make a difference.Then too, the enemies at high level generally have more intelligence, and those with spells or magical aids typically have spell selections or items that negate their weaknesses. New creature templates also combine monster types so that one type's strengths overcome the other type's weaknesses. A recent example is the fire giant we fought, which turned out to be a 1/2 fire giant/ 1/2 fiend  that was immune to cold based attacks. Just when a wizard thinks he/she is going to unleash a good double-damage cold based spell, he/she discovers that the spell was all for naught.Given all that an arcane caster faces, energy immunity sonic is a very logical choice. Why would anyone characterize this choice as "cheesy", when all it does is provide a caster with the ability to have a greater impact on the success of his/her party? I certainly wouldn't characterize those who do not choose ES sonic as "cheesy" simply because they play a certain way.</blockquote>

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