Sorceror or Wizard

[WattsHumphrey]

IMHO it's all about being a Wizard (preferably a specialist).

Pros: Wizards get more spells. I personally prefer the utiliity gained by knowing a lot of situational spells to the versatility of casting a few a lot of times. Wizards also get Scribe Scroll, which allows (me at least) to have enough spells to back up the group for relatively little cost. Wizards get more class skills. I like planning for prestige classes later, and class skills often prove a must (plus, with Int as the skill that governs spellcasting, you get a lot more skill points). Finally, the extra feats Wizards get can be put to a lot of uses.

Cons: In addition to not being as combat intensive spellwise as Sorcerers are, Wizards don't get the simple weapon proficiencies. The biggest con the way I look at it is the roleplaying side. I prefer the sorcerer "the magic's in my blood"/charismatic way of thinking to the bookish ways of the Wizard.

 

[Clumsy Bob]

Okay so both Wizards and Sorcerors have their plusses and minuses.
It says in the rules that Wizards need a good nights sleep and one hour to prepare their spells. What if they cant get sleep and in the middle of a stressful situation (siege for example) they need to replenish some of their cast spells. Could a wizard just not spend one hour and fill up his empty slots.
Sorry if this is already covered in the rules but I am at work right now filling up some time

Bob

 

[Crothian]

Neither is better. Each fills a nicht and it's really up to personal choice and character comcept.

 

[Zhure]

Okay so both Wizards and Sorcerors have their plusses and minuses.
It says in the rules that Wizards need a good nights sleep and one hour to prepare their spells. What if they cant get sleep and in the middle of a stressful situation (siege for example) they need to replenish some of their cast spells. Could a wizard just not spend one hour and fill up his empty slots.
Sorry if this is already covered in the rules but I am at work right now filling up some time

Bob

No. The 8 hours rest is required. Each disturbance adds an additional hour of rest needed. Sorcerers are the same way. Clerics are FAR more useful in a siege.

Greg

 

[Zhure]

IMHO it's all about being a Wizard (preferably a specialist).

Pros: Wizards get more spells....

Lots of good points in the rest of the post, but I'd like to disagree here. Wizards get circa 7 1st level spells at 1st level then get 38 more over the course of their careers, for 45 base spells known, not counting cantrips. Sorcerers get 34, not including cantrips, so it's fairly close to the Wizard's complement.

While the Wizard is spending money on adding to his fragile and easily stolen spellbook, the Sorcerer is buying wands and scrolls.

Don't sell the Sorcerer short.

Greg

 

[LokiDR]

IMHO it's all about being a Wizard (preferably a specialist).

Pros: Wizards get more spells. I personally prefer the utiliity gained by knowing a lot of situational spells to the versatility of casting a few a lot of times. Wizards also get Scribe Scroll, which allows (me at least) to have enough spells to back up the group for relatively little cost. Wizards get more class skills. I like planning for prestige classes later, and class skills often prove a must (plus, with Int as the skill that governs spellcasting, you get a lot more skill points). Finally, the extra feats Wizards get can be put to a lot of uses.

Sorcerers cast more spells, so in a sense they get more spells

If you are in a very low magic or low money game, sorcerer is the way to go. No money, no ink, no scrolls for wiz boy. The more time you spend in large cities, the better wizard gets. If you never have a few days to scribe into your spell book or onto scrolls, the wizard is worse than the sorcerer by far. This may come up if you constantly have to travel. I don't think you can scribe scrolls on the back of a horse or riding dog.

In short, wizard is much more at the mercy of the game world. If the game world is nice, wizard is usually better. Never count out the versitility of the sorcerer.

 

[TroyXavier]

The wizard of course gets better feats and better use of MM feats.

 

[ThePsionicist]

I agree with James that it's largely a point of what kind of campaign world you are playing in. If you are playing in a standard, dungeon crawl world, the Sorcerer generally is at least as good as a Wizard, and often times better.

However, if you are playing in a world with just one big encounter every session, or even every two sessions, the Wizard is by far the best. If you know what situation is going to occur, and you don't have to worry about having more spells later on in the day, since you know there will be only one truly threatening encounter, it's a no brainer to choose the Wizard. In a "balanced" campaign world, the classes are equally appealing, but those campaigns are rare.

 

[KingOfChaos]

I prefer wizards myself. I like specialization, the extra feats, the flexibility of being able to memorize any spell I find, access to any knowledge skill under the sun that I can make up..

 

[Brian K. Moseley]

Sorcerer vs Wizard. The pros and cons have been very well covered in these posts. A lot of great advice.

I played the same mage through 1st and 2nd edition for over 12 years. Had a lot of fun with him. He started with a 14 int (the highest stat of straight 3d6) and I felt 9 spells per level was pretty rough. He improved to 17 int before his heroic demise, which gave a lot more spells to choose from. I did a lot of looking at spells that were highly flexible, moreso than specializing or choosing multiple ways of killing things. I planned out which spells I wanted to (hopefully) learn.

The sorcerer is very similar in this regard. If you're interested in playing a sorcerer, I suggest taking a sheet of paper, and graph out when you get to know new spells, to whatever level is most appropriate for your game (I'd suggest no lower than 12th). You'll see a pattern emerge of when you get new spells known, and how many you get. Five spells per level is not very many, but you can be very effective with them, especially if augmented with potions, scrolls and other assorted magics.

A good sorcerer tactic is to choose at least one offensive and one defensive spell per level, and alternate the damage type between levels. Don't completely ignore the massively useful spells either, but try not to duplicate effects if you can help it. You'll have hard choices to make. Other gamers in your group may have insight that is particularly helpful for your campaign.

I'm playing a sorcerer now. For the in-game daily memorizing of spells, I find a great freedom with playing a sorcerer versus the mage. But if you want to play the sorcerer, do yourself a favor and plan the character out. You might even chart several progression routes, and can plan initial spell selections that will compliment most if not all of these possibilities. That way you can still modify your character plan farther down the road. Good luck and have fun!