Powergamers! Help Min/Max my Sorcerer!!

[Dragonblade]

So in our Age of Worms game the entire party was wiped out by the Faceless One and his minions. TPK. Unfortunately, we made very RPG centric characters that weren't really optimized for efficient tactics and combat.

So in turn, our group is making new characters. But this time we are going to make tactically efficient min/maxed badasses. Our new party is basically going to be the Navy SEALs of Greyhawk. Our DM has basically said bring it on and the new party will pick up where the old party left off.

I'm trying to choose the right combination of feats and spells to just kick the most tail. So help me out. Create for me the most hideously overpowered and devastatingly effective Sorcerer build you can!

Starting level is 5. Attributes are a 1 for 1, 80 point buy. We can have 5000gp of gear to start and ALL feats, spells, and prestige classes from any WotC 3.5 book (or Dragon magazine) are allowed. Though no Eberron feats or classes that use Action Points. And no setting specific classes or feats. For example, no Spellfire because it only exists in the Realms.

And if you use Dragon provide the issue number, month and year. Although I prefer builds that use WotC books over Dragon simply because I may not have the issue needed.

If you can, map out the feats and spells you would take at higher levels too. All the way to 20th if you can. There it is. Show me your best.

 

[pawsplay]

Starting level is 5. Attributes are a 1 for 1, 80 point buy.

Oh?

Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 30.

Everything else is gravy.

 

[Dragonblade]

Nice. But, you can't have more than 18 or less than 3 in a stat.

 

[Iku Rex]

What do you want to do with this sorcerer? Area spells? Rays? Melee? Party buffing?

How important is current power vs. future power?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

god, 80. thats about 3 18's and 3 16's

 

[pawsplay]

Good to hear.

Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 18

It's hard to produce too much hideousness at level 5, but I'll do my best.

Human sorcerer 5
Feats: Draconic Heritage (copper), draconic breath, draconic resistance.
Important gear: cloak of resistance +1 (1000 gp), bracers of armor +1 (2000 gp), all the scrolls you can eat.

Basically, you've got a +3 save bonus to any acid spell or any sleep or paralysis effect. Draconic resistance isn't spectacular, but it gives you acid resistance 9, making you immune to Melf's acid arrow (which is ordinarily a concentration buster). Finally, draconic breath is a supernatural ability, allowing you to deal acid damage to opponents with SR whenever other options fail to manifest, and additionally, is good as a regen stopper.

Spells
(0) detect magic, resistance, dancing lights, flare, daze, mage hand
(1st) lesser orb of acid (does 3d8), shield, magic missile, disguise self
(2nd) summon monster II, melf's acid arrow

I like the summon monster spells for sorcerers because of their versatility (you can summon virtually any damage type, for instance, and even get healing). Later on, shadow conjuration and otiluke's resilient sphere are must-takes for the same reason. Disguise self is similarly useful in a wide variety of contexts. Acid arrow is for readying to interrupt other casters; in addition to spoiling their spell, the continuing damage makes it hard for them to cast anything else. Magic missile is for incorporeals. Lesser orb of acid is for creatures high Reflexes and/or low AC, such as enemy rogues. No mage armor; cast shield, you don't want to spend more than one round prepping for a melee you don't want to get into anyway, it doesn't overlap with your bracers, and stops enemy magic missiles.

Advance to Sorcerer 8, then take four levels of Fatespinner (CA), then two more levels of sorcerer or a PrC that has full caster progression and no feat requirements.

At 6th level, take draconic power, offering a dubious upgrade to your acid spells that will pay off later. At 9th, you take Draconic Legacy for some nice bonus spells. At 12th level, you take spell focus (conjuration), at 15th spell focus (something else), and 18th, skill focus (spellcraft). You take two levels of archmage, snagging mastery of elements and arcane fire. Now you have untyped damage, and against foes that seem to lack acid resistance, you can turn all damage dealing spells to acid and get +1 DC and caster level.

Fatespinner is for capriciously causing people to fail saving throws.

Familiars are probably a liability. Unlike a wizard, you will rarely have contingencies to keep it safe in every situation. However, a well-stored Toad is good for a Fortitude bonus.

 

[Dragonblade]

Future power is as important as current power.

My current build is geared towards taking the Elemental Savant (Air) prestige class in a couple of levels. Like most arcane prestige classes, sorcerers gain a lot for little loss. At the class's highest level you become an elemental type creature. In my case, being Air based it would give me the ability of Perfect Flight as a natural movement mode among other benefits like being immune to crits, not having to eat or breathe and so on.

For spells, since I have to focus on electricity, I would take Scintillating Sphere instead of Fireball and other electric based attack spells.

I'm also thinking of taking the Celestial Sorcerer Heritage feats from PHB 2. They also give me some cool powers and add several useful spells to my spells known list such as magic circle vs. evil, tongues, and teleport.

However, there are some other cool builds as well. The Argent Savant from Complete Arcane is pretty nifty and the Spell Compendium has a large number of Force based spells.

I also think the Daggerspell Mage from Complete Adventurer is pretty cool. Combine that with Arcane Strike and or the Daggerspell Stance spell from Spell Compendium and you have a pretty formidable arcane/warrior.

Another thing I was thinking of was going with Wizard and utilizing a lot of wands. Cull Wand Essence is a badass wand feat from Eberron that basically lets you turn any wand into a defacto Eldritch Blast ala the Warlock.

But my heart is really with Sorcerer. I hate being tied down to prememorized spells. The trick is finding a sorcerer build that has the right synergy among spells and feats to kick major tail.

 

[Dragonblade]

god, 80. thats about 3 18's and 3 16's

Not quite. Its basically 4 14's and 2 12's. Not so overpowering.

 

[Rackhir]

Well with those kind of stats you can afford to do more than one thing well. Have you considered Mystic Theurge? It works a little better if you go Wiz/Cleric, but Sorc/Cleric can work as well, it just delays your ability to take MT levels.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/mysticTheurge.htm

Combine that with Practiced Spellcaster (increase caster level by 4 max of Char Lv) and it overcomes a lot of the level loss due to the multiclassing, though you will need to take it twice.

 

[Dragonblade]

Nice build pawsplay. I see you like the acid.

However, when it comes to taking the Sorcerer Heritage feats, I think the Celestial Heritage feats in PHB 2 give more bang than the Draconic ones. I will take another look. And also at the Fatespinner prestige class.

You have my interest piqued with the Summon Monster spell. What would you do with the summoned creature? Personal defense? Scouting?