Sorcerors in d&d

[delericho]

Anyway I have no problems with Call of Cthulhu but if you're going to run d&d with rules from the book of vile darkness I'd rather he'd remember this isn't Call of Cthulhu since if he really wanted to run that kind of game, I believe Midnight would be more appropriate,

If that's the type of game he's going to run, you might recommend Libris Mortis and Heroes of Horror to him. Although they're both 3.5 books, I've found that they complement each other (and Book of Vile Darkness) very well.

In regards to Warlocks, I have more of a problem with Favoured Souls since they're supposed to be the divine equivalent of sorcerors and that leaves me baffled as I've read a few threads about how the sorceror is suposedly broke and needs a prestige class to recover.

I have a player who swears blind that every character, regardless of base class, needs a PrC to remain competitive. I don't share that view. However...

There's a bit more to the Favoured Soul than just being a Sorcerer with the Cleric spell list in place of the Wizard/Sorcerer list. Whether it's enough for the class to be balanced, I don't know. I haven't seen it in actual use, but my gut feeling is that it is pretty good.

As for the Sorcerer, I'm of the opinion that it's the weakest class in the 3.5 PHB. Ranger might edge it out in the 3.0 version. Which is amusing, since my initial reaction to the concept was that it would be overpowered.

The problems with the Sorcerer are compounded by the existence of the Warmage, Beguiler and Dread Necromancer. I actually really like the latter two classes, and consider the Warmage to be okay, but really dull. Still, I'm leaning towards the opinion that we should see similar classes for the remaining schools of magic, and then eliminate Sorcerers and Specialist Wizards from the game. But that's just me.

(Actually, for 4e, I would include the Cleric and Sorcerer in the PHB essentially as they are now, but rebalanced a tad. Shortly thereafter, though, I would release "Schools of Magic", a book containing the Warmage, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Inspired Oracle, Simon the Summoner, and so forth, which would also advise the removal of the Sorcerer from the game. I would then release "Servants of the Gods", which would provide several different classes in the same vein, each a variant Cleric, with a similar advisory to remove the default Cleric.)

Personally increasing its hd to d6 and giving them option of 3 bonus class skills based on their sorceror's style would have been more encouraging than adding bluff and removing scry from the skill list for everyone.

The "Complete Book of Eldritch Might" contains a variant Sorcerer that I thought looked interesting. It has a lot more class features, d6 hit dice, and more skills, and balances it with a different spell list (which, primarily, increases the levels of some of the spells that are most troublesome in the hands of a Sorcerer, such as Invisibility and Fly). You might want to check it out. (That's a 3.5 book. IIRC there's a 3.0 version of the same in "The Book of Eldritch Might II")

Most of that was from those threads regarding how to make the sorceror a true character class, but I found whilst running my halfling sorceror that the only problem I had was that halflings are considered kleptomaniacs for some reason (Favoured Class: Rogue).

Rogue <> Thief. Additionally, two of the most iconic halflings in any setting are Bilbo (who was hired as a thief, regardless of his complete lack of larcenous tendencies) and Tasselhoff.

Still, I drop Favoured Classes from my game, so am hardly the best person to advocate the current assignments

As for those 3 bonus class skills, it was suggested Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate, but being able to select your own 3 class skills might make the sorceror more interesting

If you allow a class with 2 skill points per level choose any 3 class skills to add to the list, you're basically just adding all skills to the list. The player will simply choose whichever two he happens to want to increase. (Besides, the Sorcerer really needs to max Concentration, and probably Spellcraft. That doesn't leave many points for anything else.)

I was looking for spells to cover a wider range and had planned to select Ray of Frost and Knock spell for her new spells for 4th level.

Ouch. Knock is a good spell, but there's no way I would take it as my one and only 2nd level spell. I would strongly consider Scorching Ray, Mirror Image, or my personal favourite: Invisibility.

 

[hopeless]

Reg: Sorcery

The Libris Mortis, Heroes of Horror and the Book of Vile Darkness, he recommended the BOVD and I picked up the other two because I wanted to read up on fear rules before I try running Kingdoms of Kalamar since I had run a couple of linking adventures with another group (one moved to Belgium the one goes to the same Thursday club as me, currently) and intended to run another hopefully to show the Thursday group the folly of a certain paladin's player.
Unfortunately he used a pregenerated halfling rogue and went off on holiday for two weeks so i couldn't spring the rest to see if I could run it properly.
Of the group only 3 characters have reached 3rd level namely the rogue (played by another player), the female barbarian (played by the Greyhawk dm) and the ranger (played for two weeks by a new player and did well considering).

Went for the knock spell since I suspected it would come in handy but the only time it would have the dm decided to make it useless when he claimed the tomb's inner door was reinforced by bitumen requiring it to be dug out before being busted open.
Well at least I still have the scroll so if I stick around long enough to play in his next game I might actually get the spell!