Sorcerer's got the Shaft! (reprise)

[Tony Vargas]

After nearly a year and a half under 3E what is your experience. Are sorcerer's the weaker cousin of the Wizard, do they hold their own, or do they actually surpass their less flashy cousins.

My experience has been that Sorcerers work very well. They never find themselves sitting in the back of the party, wondering what to do. They rarely run out of spells, and usually have at least one known spell that's useful in a given situation. Wizards seem anemic by comparison.

 

[Moleculo]

I just started playing a sorcerer. The two things that really irked me about them were 1. That 2nd level Sorcerer is quite possibly the worst level ever, and 2. That it is virtually impossible to get most of the tome and blood prestige classes. See, almost all the prestige classes need 8 ranks in two knowledges, which sorcerers dont have as a class skill, and 3rd level spells, which don't come for another level after the wizard. The earliest most sorcerers can become almost any prestige class is to take a level of any class that has a knowledge skill, put 4 points in, and then suck it up that you have to wait to multiclass into most of the classes at level 8, as opposed to level 5 for wizard, or even an absurd 13 or 14 for a normal sorcerer.
The upsides are oodles of spells. Also i took Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus, combined with my 18 charisma gives me a DC 19 on my sleep spell (yup i am playing a sleep and then slay sorcerer shut up ) I can't wait until hold person heh.

they are fun to play i think. they seem more like customizable super heros with weak hp i think than spell casters to me.

jake

 

[Hypersmurf]

See, almost all the prestige classes need 8 ranks in two knowledges, which sorcerers dont have as a class skill

Have you checked out the Education feat from FRCS?

-Hyp.

 

[gfunk]

One of the things about my Sor 12 that made my gameplay much more enjoyable is skill swapping. When I started, I asked my DM to swamp Alchemy for Knowledge (The Planes) as a class skill. I tried to make my Sor a PC with extraplanar blood running through her veins (as opposed to dragon blood). The advantage is that I could take a lot of PrC in Tome and Blood at a reasonable level. I just hit level 4 of Alienist and am looking forward to role-playing my "Mad Certainty."

I do agree with the others that spell selection is critical. I wasn't as far-seeing as some when it came to my spell selection so many of my 1st and 2nd level spells are virtually unused. I tend to take what's useful or fun at the moment.

 

[Gromm]

They play balanced when played well.

sorcerer is a jackhammer.

wizard is a tool kit.

Well said and I agree.

 

[Moleculo]

Have you checked out the Education feat from FRCS?

-Hyp.

Don't have the book and dm is basically limiting it to the core books and the support books (like tome and blood). He's prolly open to options though. It like gives knowledge as a class skill right? Thanks anyway


jake

 

[Hypersmurf]

Don't have the book and dm is basically limiting it to the core books and the support books (like tome and blood). He's prolly open to options though. It like gives knowledge as a class skill right?

+2 bonus to 2 knowledge skills, and all knowledge skills as class skills, yeah.

-Hyp.

 

[Arabesu]

They play balanced when played well.

sorcerer is a jackhammer.

wizard is a tool kit.

I agree to some extent except I'd liken it to the following:

There both toolkits.

The one gets only a few tools but can carry them all with them. Aka a swiss army knife.

The other has the full "snap-on" catalog inventory at home but a really crummy tool belt. Thus she's gotta know what kind of job she's doing (well in advance) or the tools she's got are likely to be useless.

As a rule, the best tool in either tool box has gotta be Dispel magic. All of my sorcerors take arcane preparation and a quickened or stilled dispel magic when they can. My Wizards have the signature spell feat from FR, for Dispel so that they can burn other slots if they desperately need to dispel something.