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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pax" data-source="post: 324181" data-attributes="member: 6875">If hte player is an utter newbie, I'd've been aiding them in spell selection from the get-go.  If not, then they should know better (see Rel's post just above yours).So I guess my choice would be B, but not after making sure they've seen all the ramifications of their spells.  Grease can be useful for a long time; so can Glitterdust.  Magic Missile -never- loses it's potency (it's a FORCE effect spell and is therefor fully functional on incorporeal targets!).As has been observed: the lack of strategic flexibility is what MAKES a sorceror different form a wizard.Okay, anecdotal testimony time.  The first 3E character I ever played, was a Sorceror, "Jalen" (Half-elf, in a party of 6 to 8 players, including a full-elven Wizard).  The second Level-2 spell Jalen learned was Melf's Acid Arrow.The very next session after levelling up, what do we discover but a dragon.  A BLACK dragon.  Unplanned by the GM, mind, as he was running the Forge of Fury module, but, there I am, my only -damaging- second-level spell is completely pointless; acid damage is useless against Black Dragons.You know what I said in response to that?  "Oh well, such is the cost ofplaying a sorceror ... you pays your money and you takes your chances."Now, keep in mind, one of my other spells was Sleep.  By the time we hit 6th elvel, that was largely a useless spell.So what?  It was only a FIRST LEVEL spell.  Those shouldn't be the meat and bread of a spellcaster chucking 3d level spells, anyway!A subsequent sorceror (a (very) young human lad by the name of Ethen) is planned out to take a lot of elemental-damage type spells, with a few utilities thrown in here and there.And all five Elemental Substitution metamagicks.As he's just reached 3d level, he knows very few spells; Grease, Know Protections, and Ice Dagger (the latter from Magic of Faerun) constitute his first-level repertoire of spells -- selected by the player for long-term viability.With true newbies, people on their first character (or at least, first spellcaster), even their second ... flexibility in all ways increases.But once IMO a player has the proverbial "clue" on his internal equipmentlist <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  ... is s/he doesn't look ahead in each spell's case, well ... them's the breaks.  Tough luck, kiddo, pay closer attention to long-term viability later on, eh?IF someone wants to be able to change their selection of spells radically at a later date, they shoudl play a Wizard.  Otherwse they need to choose their spells with *great* care.It's just that simple; it's the difference between wizards and sorcerors.IC and OOC, Jalen and his wizard companion both agreed; Jalen had the edge in tactical flexibility and tactical endurance.The Wizard had a huge edge in strategic flexibility.  His spellcasting strategy today didn't have to bear evena passing resemblance to his spellcasting strategy YESTERDAY.  Jalen's did.</blockquote>

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