Sorceress spell selection

[Thanee]

Hiyas!

I have thought about what spells my sorceress might choose and wrote them down. Here's a quick writeup of her and what I plan to choose (of course this is subject to change due to what's happening in the campaign - maybe she'll find herself in need of choosing a special spell or anything... you never know - it's just a plan, not set into stone).

Rahja - Human Sorceress (Incantatrix) - CG - Patron Deity: Sune
S10 D17 C15 I17 W12 C18 (that's 4d6 drop lowest )
Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (planes), Spellcraft, Spot, Use Magic Device plus some Listen, Perform (dance), Ride and whatever else seems appropriate
Languages: Common, Celestial, Abyssal, Infernal
Feats: Spellcasting Prodigy, Education (planning to take 3: Iron Will, 6: Silent Spell, 7: Empower Spell, 9: Spell Focus: Enchantment (+2 DC, no GSF available), 11: Quicken Spell, 12: Arcane Preparation, 15: Spell Penetration, 16: Heighten Spell, 18: Improved Initiative or Greater Spell Penetration)
Background (very short): Rahja has been born under a promising sign and her magical talent was discovered early. She was sent to a powerful wizard for training, but she somehow didn't seem to get along with wizardry very well, manipulating the arcane energies more intuitively than how she was told. Still, she gained a lot of knowledge during her training and a special interest in the outer planes arose during this time. At some day it became obvious that this wasn't the right way for her; her teacher realized, that he didn't do much to further her talent altho it had been grown stronger and stronger over time. That was the time, when she started to go adventuring, practicing her magical talent and experimenting with new and interesting ideas.

At 7th level she will become an Incantatrix, thereby specializing in Abjuration and dropping Evocation and Necromancy (she will keep some low level spells from these schools, the ones she has learned until then).

Ok, so much to have a better picture of her, now on to the spell plan...

We'll only use 3.5 spells (so only PHB for now, only exceptions are some special domain spells, but since our Cleric has Luck and Travel domains, it didn't come into play anyways), altho Feats and Prestige Classes from 3.0 are available still!

1) Detect Magic, Read Magic, Daze, Prestidigitation, Shield, Color Spray
2) Light
3) Ray of Enfeeblement
4) Mage Hand, Scorching Ray
5) Mage Armor [was Magic Missile], False Life
6) Message, Fireball, Mending (swap out Daze)
7) True Strike [was Reduce Person], Invisibility, Suggestion
8) Open/Close, Polymorph, Featherfall (swap out Color Spray)
9) See Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Dimension Door
10) Arcane Mark, Telekinesis [was Hold Monster]
11) Resist Energy [was Knock], Magic Circle against Evil, Dimensional Anchor, Dominate Person [was Telekinesis]
12) Planar Binding
13) Charm Monster, Hold Monster [was Dominate Person], Summon Monster VI [was Disintegrate]
14) Limited Wish, Displacement (swap out Dispel Magic)
15) Persistant Image, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Teleport
16) Greater Planar Binding, Disintegrate [was Mass Suggestion] (swap out Planar Binding)
17) Spell Turning, Greater Shadow Evocation
18) Dominate Monster, Wall of Stone (swap out Dominate Person)
19) Otto's Irresistible Dance, Shapechange
20) Summon Monster IX, Mass Suggestion (swap out Summon Monster VI)

She'll try to get a scroll of Arcane Sight and Tongues to make permanent (through another scroll or Limited Wish). Permanent spells are a bit more resistant against dispelling in our games, they must be targeted specifically to have any chance of dispelling them!

That's my plan for now (it's still subject to change, i.e. maybe she'll swap out Fireball at some point to get Phantom Steed or Protection from Energy).

Anyways, how do you like this spell selection?
Anything you don't like at all?
Anything you feel is missing completely?

Any comments appreciated!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Larcen]

I am not a sorcerer expert (I play clerics usually) and so probably cannot offer any good advice in your situation, but I would like to ask a favor of you. It appears you are a fan of Planar Binding spells. Can you check out my thread below and give me some advice in that area?

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63550

Thanks!

 

[Magic Slim]

Questions / Comments:

1) Why Iron will? Is it an Incantatrix Prereq?
2) No damage spells until lvl4? Very very few damage spells after that? I understand that that's not the orientation you want to give to your character, but is the rest of the party equipped to dish out damage?
2b) What IS the rest of the party?
3) How can you plan up to 20th level like that

Slim

 

[Thanee]

I am not a sorcerer expert (I play clerics usually) and so probably cannot offer any good advice in your situation, but I would like to ask a favor of you. It appears you are a fan of Planar Binding spells. Can you check out my thread below and give me some advice in that area?

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63550

Thanks!

Well, I can try... but to be honest, I've never ever (ok, I'm lying, I used it once in another campaign to get some celestials help fighting a really nasty demon) used that spell in the past, but I thought it would fit into the concept I have in mind, so will try to give it a go!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Questions / Comments:

1) Why Iron will? Is it an Incantatrix Prereq?
2) No damage spells until lvl4? Very very few damage spells after that? I understand that that's not the orientation you want to give to your character, but is the rest of the party equipped to dish out damage?
2b) What IS the rest of the party?
3) How can you plan up to 20th level like that

1) Indeed
2) Yes. Yes. I guess so.
2b) So far... Human Bard, Aasimar Cleric, Hobgoblin Fighter ... still to come Human (<- my guess) Fighter/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple and maybe one more.
3) Uhm... I took a sheet of paper (during a boring train ride, where I happened to have my PHB3.5 with me), started by writing down numbers from 1 to 20 downwards along the left border, then I looked up what new spells a Sorcerer gets for each level and wrote that next to the numbers, then I moved through the levels and decided on spells to choose (sometimes editing out something I noticed later), starting with my spell selection already chosen for the first and second level (she is level 2 currently).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Psiblade]

In my opinion, sleep is better than color spray at low levels. You are planning on swapping it out anyway. I would also pickup a couple more of no save and no SR spells. Higher level creatures will either evade or walk through fireballs in my experience. Knock is only a good choice if the party does not have a rogue and if you do not have a rogue you will need it much sooner. Sorry, I had to edit post. I just saw 3.5 tag.

-Psiblade

 

[Thanee]

I like Color Spray better, as the usefulness of Sleep wears off extremely fast! Color Spray has disadvantages for sure (shorter range, easier to spot), but the advantages make up for it in my opinion.

Knock was more of a "dunno what to take here" choice, but so far we have neither another wiz/sorc nor a rogue, so it might be ok.

I'm not sure about the new Cat's Grace and the like... don't know, if they are worth it now, there are just too many spells to cast at the start of encounters, so these will be used rarely if ever, I suppose... and I havn't found many other 2nd level spells of interest (maybe Levitate? Rope Trick?).

Fireball is only there, since I noticed a huge lack of multiple target spells (might have to do with the Enchantment focus ) and it's mostly meant for the middle levels, where it is surely a very effective spell. It won't be a killer spell later on, but an empowered fireball will still be able to deal some area damage, if needed, and with Heighten Spell the DC can be raised as well.

There are a few no save spells (Ray of Enfeeblement, Scorching Ray, Otto's Irresistible Dance), and with Spell Focus: Enchantment and Spell Penetration her spells shouldn't be too easy to avoid.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Velmont]

Instead of Knock, I would choose Resist Element. Now, in 3.5, it can absorb up to 30 points per attack, which can make a good difference. If I remember well, incantatrix is a outsider hunter of some kind, and if I'm right, many outsider have many attack with the same element (thinking of elementals, genie, demons...)

Color Spray, great choice. Still usefull in high level (which is not the case for sleep), and it is only 1 action to cast (sleep is now 1 full round, which make him weak with his affact only 4HD). Personnally, I would prefer to keep Color Spray ionstead of taking Reduce Person.

Summon Monster IX, it is not a very good choice for a 20th level caster. You can summon low EL creature, which will help no very much. They will be only a hp buffer to take hits and give brakets. If you want to summon, Gate would be an idea. Ok, it cost 1000XP to summon a creature, but you can summon a Solar (which is pretty damn powerfull), and you can use it for no XP cost to travel between planes (a good way to flee too).

Personnaly, I would switch Dispel Magic as soon as I have Greater Dispel. The maximum +10 make it impossible to dispel spells cast by level 20, and hard for high level caster, and you could take Protection from Elements (instead of Resist element).

I would suggest you one other spell. MAZE. This spell is a real killer against low and middle intelligent creature. It can keep someone out of battle for up to 10 minutes. Even a dragon would have hardly more than a chance on 2 to get out of the maze, and when he reappear, you have a full round to attack him before he can act, as it is a full round action to get out of the maze (less if he use a spell like gate or planeshift to get out, but still, it cost him a standar action and can hardly do more).

 

[Larcen]

... Summon Monster IX, it is not a very good choice for a 20th level caster. ...

Your suggestions are all excellent, but I wouldn't discount the versatility of Summon Monster IX, both inside and outside of battle. There are a lot of special abilities to choose from there, such as healing, etc. And for sorcerer spells versatility is what you want to look for. Besides, that 1000 XP is gonna start to hurt after a while, I'm guessing.

 

[Thanee]

Resist Elements is a good idea. Some protection against elemental damage is surely useful.

I don't see her using Color Spray much, once she gets more useful spells, therefore I will swap it away as soon as possible. Reduce Person has some good potential, but later on it will go away to get True Strike (for those touch attacks).

Summon Monster IX can be used a lot, whereas Gate costs 1000 XP each time. And she already has Greater Planar Binding, so the difference is rather minor.

Yep, thought about dropping Dispel Magic, too. Might drop that for Phantom Steed or any other useful spell at 14th level.

EDIT: Actually, now that I look on my sheet of paper again... I have somehow forgotten to list the above change (swap out Dispel Magic for Displacement at 14th level).

Maze is too similar too Otto's and I prefer the latter.

Bye
Thanee