Spell list for a 10th-level sorcerer Neutral Evil overlord?

[BOZ]

(scroll down before you respond - i've made several changes already)

How does this look? I’m not terribly well-schooled in the workings of magic… Suggestions to add/remove? He also has Quicken and Maximize Spell and Combat Casting if that helps, and ability scores of Str 12, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 18, Wis 16, and Cha 18. Also, permanent Darkvision 60 feet, and spell resistance 14 if that matters. Also carries a number of magic items which I haven’t decided on yet (but spell selection might help that). Defensive spells are important, but I don’t want to overlook offensive spells – PHB spells only please.

0 – dancing lights, daze, detect magic, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, ray of frost, resistance, touch of fatigue; (9)
1st – expeditious retreat, protection from good, ray of enfeeblement, reduce person, ventriloquism; (5)
2nd – darkness, invisibility, mirror image, spectral hand; (4)
3rd – dispel magic, displacement, nondetection; (3)
4th – crushing despair, enervation; (2)
5th – baleful polymorph. (1)

 

[Pyrex]

How did he rise to power?
What is he overlord of?
Are you house-ruling 'Quicken Spell' so it's useful to sorcerers?
Given your 1st & 2nd level spells, why take 'Maximize' instead of 'Empower'?
Given that you're leaning heavily into Necromancy anyway (and already have Spectral Hand), have you considered Bestow Curse?
How about Dominate Person?

 

[BOZ]

I’ll confess that I didn’t put a great deal of thought into that list, and rebuilding it from scratch is not out of the question.

As for how the metamagic feats work, same thing – I was mostly guessing, and your suggestions might convince me to replace them as well.

I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to the background yet either, but I can tell you that this guy is a subterranean slavelord who enslaves other creatures to provide him with a life of leisure. Ineffective thralls are put to death instead. He is also a sadist who encourages his slaves to torture the condemned. He is a coward though, and depends on spells, magic items, and slaves to keep him safe from enemies.

Dominate person sounds like one I should have thought of in the first place. D’oh!

 

[Pyrex]

If you're putting the useless ones to death anyway, you may as well Animate Dead them and get some mileage out of their corpses.

And Jedi Mind Trick (a.k.a. Suggestion) is an excellent lower-level companion to Dominate.

 

[BOZ]

Ok, switched out enervation for animate dead, baleful polymorph for dominate person, and displacement for suggestion.

0 – dancing lights, daze, detect magic, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, ray of frost, resistance, touch of fatigue; (9)
1st – expeditious retreat, protection from good, ray of enfeeblement, reduce person, ventriloquism; (5)
2nd – darkness, invisibility, mirror image, spectral hand; (4)
3rd – dispel magic, nondetection, suggestion; (3)
4th – animate dead, crushing despair; (2)
5th – dominate person. (1)

That’s a bit better now! any more ideas? I’m not that keen on spectral hand (or any necromantic spells, but whatever works is OK), and any of those 0 and 1st level spells can go for all I care.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Looks like kind of an evil necromancer/enchanter type, which I think is cool. I'd recommend getting rid of reduce peson, can't see how that fits, and replacing it with a more useful spell that fits like either charm person or shield.

You don't seem to have any touch spells so i'd also get rid of spectral hand. Perhaps replace with Hideous Laughter, blindness/deafness or false life.

Nondetection is cool, but if your guy is gonna be evil necro type what better way to inspire the slaves than to vampire touch one of the ones who aren't working as hard as you like? Now that's a necro spell

Enervation is a great way to chap your enemies, every time you hit they get a comprehensive debuff. Is this character for a PC or are you a DM and need this as a bad guy?

5th level is tough, baleful polymorph and dominate are both great, but sounds like dominate would go with the character better.

 

[BOZ]

Is this character for a PC or are you a DM and need this as a bad guy?

He’s a bad, bad, bad, bad boy. definitely not a PC.

He’s not really supposed to be a necromancer, so I’m going to reduce the necromancy spells a bit to change that image. Enchantment, however, fits him much better.

Here’s what I’ve got for him right now:

0 – acid splash, dancing lights, daze, detect magic, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, ray of frost, resistance; (9)
1st – expeditious retreat, protection from good, ray of enfeeblement, shield, ventriloquism; (5)
2nd – darkness, invisibility, mirror image, resist energy; (4)
3rd – dispel magic, nondetection, suggestion; (3)
4th – animate dead, crushing despair; (2)
5th – dominate person. (1)

Any idea what would be good metamagic feats to replace Quicken and Maximize with?

 

[Pyrex]

If you plan on using your Ray of Enfeeblement a lot I'd go with Empower.

If you're planning on focusing on Enchantment spells, I'd go with some combo of (Greater) Spell Focus, Heighten and/or Extend.

Around 12th or 15th level you should also consider either Twin Spell or Chain Spell.

 

[Tyrol]

FYI, The Quicken Spell feat is utterly useless to Sorcerers unless you decide to house rule it. I would switch this out for Heighten spell, which is one of the best feats a Sorcerer can take.

Question: Are you looking to make this sorcerer as challenging as you can for your PCs, or are you trying to fit his spells to a particular background (perhaps a highlighted school of magic?) for flavor. The only flavor hint you provided was Overlord. If you're looking for effectiveness, there may be "better" spell choices.

Slow is more effective than Crushing Despair (and is a lower level spell). They're both will saves, but Slow has a better range/target (30 ft cone emanation vs slow's 50 ft range affecting up to 10 targets within 30 ft of each other), and harsher penalties (limit to a standard action per round and half movement are the killer's here...). Heighten Spell can be used to make their save DCs equal. Crushing Despair is Enchantment/Mind Affecting, which some races/classes get immunity or bonuses against. The only possible 'meta-game' reasons I could see for casting a Crushing Despair over Slow are duration in a battle that is going to be very lengthy... 10 rounds vs 10 min (but most battles don't last that more than 10 rounds)... or perhaps to specificly lower their saves to hit them with other spells. However, Crushing Despair requires very close proximity and has a save... and Enervation would likely be more effective for the purpose of lowering saves (and it has no save, just touch attack), though it is single target only.

It also appears you don't have any damaging spells; if that is intentional, that's fine. If not, you might want to throw in Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Magic Missile, etc.

Lastly, how do you plan on using Maximize spell? It raises the spell slot used 3 levels, which for a 10th level sorcerer limits it to being used with level 1 and 2 spells. Empower spell might be a more useful choice, as it only uses a spell slot 2 levels higher.

 

[Gizzard]

Assuming the PCs are the same level as this NPC, then he will need some way to deal with Invisibility, such as See Invisible. If he is outdoors he will need a way to deal with Flying. (This could be handled by items or by spells I suppose, but you don't get to 10th if you can't deal with invisible foes. ;-)

Animate Dead is kinda cool in theory, but it's rather expensive in practice; the obsidian gem material component is consumed. It's hardly worth Animating your dead slaves at that cost. But coolness could override practicality here.

Quicken is disallowed for Sorcerer, but Maximize is fine. Maximizing the Ray of Enfeeblement for instance is quite good. It's sort of an expensive single trick though. Silent is very good metamagic for Sorcerers, especially invisible Sorcerers. Spell Focus to bump up the saves against the primary combat spells is good too.