The "Everything Sorcerer" Thread

[DanMcS]

This is NOT a complaint thread.

I'm going to be playing my first sorcerer in 3.5 soon. I'm starting at first level, and I'll probably been the primary arcane caster (There is a cleric/wizard/mystic theruge, but he's starting at 1st level as cleric).
Below is what I'm looking for:
* Best spell choices to take (including spell swaps)

In addition to stuff mentioned earlier:
Alter self: good for getting natural armor (lizardman or troglodyte), aquatic mobility (merfolk or locanth), disguise, and even flight (avarial if nothing else, I can't remember what humanoids have wings at the moment).

Later on, Polymorph is good for pretty much the same reason.

Greater Mage Armor is in Complete Arcane, is 3rd level, and gives a +6 instead of a +4. Replace your mage armor with it.

Cat's Grace doesn't hurt if you end up with a spare second level slot, since it will help your AC, reflex saves, and ranged touch attacks.

With Shield, Greater Mage Armor, the Altered Self of a lizard man, and a potion of SoF (costs 50 gp, +2 deflection bonus), you'll have an armor class of 27 before any dexterity bonuses. Not bad for a 6th level sorceror.

Some utility spells are good to have, stuff that rarely comes up so the wizard won't likely have it prepared, but is invaluable if you can toss it out at a moment's notice. Featherfall is a great example; as a 1st level spell, you're not going to do much useful with that slot at high levels anyway, but even high level characters can always find something to fall off of, and then you featherfall and save the day.

Detect Magic and Light are the kinds of things you'll cast over and over and over in a dungeon, and are therefore perfect for a sorceror.

I like to have Dispel Magic and later the Greater version, since they're occasionally crucial and often make a good volley on bad guys to take down some of their buffs. Plus, if I lack anything useful to do, I can ready to counterspell with them.

I also enjoy the Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation series, since those give great flexibility for a sorceror with very limited spells known. Shadow Conjuration alone is the equivalent of adding about 15 1st-3rd level spells to your repetoire.

 

[Deset Gled]

* Feats to grab.

* General Sorcerer Themes to thing about (Summoner, Fire Mage, etc).

One sorcerer build that I came up with recently (but have not had a chance to play) is a character who focuses on his draconic heritage. This relies heavily on the Draconic feats in CA, and the Draconomicon.

The Draconic feats in CA are really fun. My favorite is the one that grants you a breath weapon powered by spell slots (spend one spell slot, breath weapon does (level*2)d6 with a save of 10 + spell level + Cha). For a sorcerer, this is especially good because it gives you the equivalent of an energy damage spell at every level. This gets even better when combined with the Meta-Breath feats in the Draconomicon, which will let you heighten, maximize, and quicken the breath weapon (but not all at once) without sacraficing higher level spells. Finally, there are spells in the Draconomicon that have a breath component and enhance your breath weapon.

The weakness of this route is that it requires a lot of feats. The area that I find it helps the most is spell selection, as the Draconic feats really help by removing the need for a number of spells.

 

[Thanee]

It's not merely the saving throw that matters. Glitterdust is useful regardless of level (since the blindness effect is secondary). Slow I might see, but I think it would still be better to use a spell of the intented level (even if it doesn't have the same effect as slow )

Sorcerers don't have many spells of the intended level... that's the point! And there is no way around it, you simply don't get anymore than 1, then 2, later 3 different spells.

And being able to use a heightened Slow instead of a near useless (in the situation) 6th level spell is a huge option, really.

Especially Slow is a spell, that becomes very handy at higher levels, with increasing attacks, but without scaling the DC it grows weaker and weaker in proportion. Heighten Spell fixes that.

Glitterdust is especially useful as a counter against Invisibility, but the blindness is everything but secondary. It's as much a primary effect as the other one, and I at least have used it to great effect already at levels above 3rd or so, thanks to Heighten Spell, of course. Pretty nice against spell resistant opponents, like a bunch of drow fighters.

There are plenty other spells, which have a negating save and are very nasty at higher levels still, like Command Undead, Charm Person/Monster, Hold Person, etc.

Heighten Spell makes all those spells into spells to use instead of the single 6th level spell you know at 12th level, for example. Maybe they are not as effective as other 6th level spells, but that's a moot point, if you do not have those other 6th level spells.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Blaque]

Would it be weird to suggest the battle sorcerer variant from UA for some neat variatiosn on sorcerers as well?

Personally, I'm a big fan of this variant, as it adds a bunch of neat little options. You do take an even-greater hit to your spells (one less per day, one less known (min 1)), but the trade-off for a martial weapon proficiency, light armor casting, and a d8 will giive a lot in the way of options, I think, to use your spell list to usefulness.

With all the swift spells in Complete Adventurer, I think it can get pretty damned potent. And with utility spells ala whirling blade, well, the options are pretty spread-out I think

Ummm, and stuff.

 

[Cabral]

I would take Dragonbreath from the Draconomicon at 6th level (3rd level spell) since it gives you a nice variety of effects for one spell known. Also, a fair few of the spells in Draconomicon, including dragonbreath, are cast at +1 caster level for sorcerers.

Apart from that, Energy substitution is one of the best sorcerer feats as it makes your energy (Fire,Acid,Sonic,Cold,Electricty) spells do double duty. (It's like the extra spell known feat but it effectively gives you an extra spell for each energy spell you know or will know.) It also, makes your energy spells more adaptable to a foes energy resistance or immunity.

Also, I think the 29th anniversary issue of Dragon Magazine had an option in the variant class section for a Sorcerer replacing the Obtain familiar ability with Draconic Rays (Su).

 

[Infiniti2000]

If you don't have a decent spell on that level, Empower spell is still better than Heighten.

Only on damage dealing spells. Empower is completely useless in many situations. Heighten is almost never useless and frequently as good or better than empower (for sorcerers), particularly with the changes to spell focus and greater spell focus.

 

[Zephyrus]

If you are pushing DC's as hard as you can for an energy type based caster. I had a build a while back for a 3.0 build Fire Sorcerer (A strongheart Halfling Sorcerer with Bloodline of Fire and Spellcasting prodigy) named Simon Pheonix. I made sure all his spells were Fire and Evocation spells (even if the fire descriptor had to come from energy substitution). Then with Elemental Savant and Spell Focus [Evocation] (and Energy Focus [Fire]) feats you could really push the save DC's. 3.5 prolly nerfs this build big time though (spellcasting prodigy doesnt grant a bonus to the save DC's anymore and I Dont know off the top of my head what they did with bloodline of fire).

Alternatly have a look at the Argent Savant (Complete Arcane) and Force Missile Mage (Dragon Magazine. However, I'm not sure off the top of my head if the FMM pclass is designed specifically for wizards or not). Taking either or both pclasses make for a impressive FORCE themed caster. I have a build for a Wizard that makes use of the Arcane Manipulation feat to break spell slots up into multiple lower level slots to give him extra magic missiles.

Lastly, their are a fair number of Bloodline feats out their that make for a fun way to add flavor to a Sorcerer as well as give them bonus spells known. Most of these I belive are from Dragon Magazine.

 

[Mistwell]

First, I agree with Thanee that Heighten Spell is a good feat for a sorceror. At higher levels, it's not a matter of if, but how often, you encounter targets that you MUST crank up that DC for your spells to have any effect. And, as mentioned, Earth Spell is a great combo with it, as you can punch through spell resistance better and scale your spells better.

Second, the Arcane Preparation feat combined with the Mage of the Arcane Order prestige class is very good for a sorceror. I wish people wouldn't get so caught up on the changes between the 3.0 and 3.5 version of this prestige class, and just look at it fresh for what it is in 3.5. You get massive versitility with this class for a sorceror. It's well worth it.

Third, Shadowcraft Mage is worth looking at (from Races of Stone). I've never planned one out for a sorceror, but I think it can be done. You need to be a Gnome of course. But with their ability to turn a simple first level spell like Silent Image into a shadow conjuation or evocation of almost any kind (even spells not on your spell list), and combined with heighten spell to make the silent image any level, you can gain MASSIVE spell versitility (which is always a good thing for a sorceror).

 

[Cabral]

Third, Shadowcraft Mage is worth looking at (from Races of Stone). I've never planned one out for a sorceror, but I think it can be done. You need to be a Gnome of course. But with their ability to turn a simple first level spell like Silent Image into a shadow conjuation or evocation of almost any kind (even spells not on your spell list), and combined with heighten spell to make the silent image any level, you can MASSIVE spell versitility (which is always a good thing for a sorceror).

Not having the book, I can't say for certain, but it sounds like you can duplicate any 1st level effect with Silent Image and then Heighten it to treat it as a 2nd or higher level spell thus giving a higher DC but not effect.

 

[Mistwell]

Not having the book, I can't say for certain, but it sounds like you can duplicate any 1st level effect with Silent Image and then Heighten it to treat it as a 2nd or higher level spell thus giving a higher DC but not effect.

Not quite.

The third level ability of the class allows you to turn certain Figment spells (Silent Image, Minor Image, Major Image, etc...) into a Shadow Evocation or Shadow Conjuation, just like the spells by those same names.

It duplicates any Sorc/Wiz Evocation spell, or and Sorc/Wiz Conjuation (Summon or Creation) spell. Even spells not on your spell list. That's the big advantage for a sorceror.

The disadvantage is that it only duplicates a spell of one level lower than the spell slot used to cast the figment, and it adds an additional will saving throw to the spell.

So for example if you cast Silent Image heightened to a 4th level spell, you could duplicate a fireball with it (a 3rd level spell). The fireball would have two saves - a special will save to disbelieve the illusion, and then a reflex save for half damage as normal. Both saves are made against a 4th level illusion spell, not a 3rd level evocation spell.

If that special will save is sucessful, then the spell is less real than normal. However, the percentage reality if the target makes thsat special will save is equal to the level of spell slot used to cast the spell (or +20% higher if you get to the 5th level of the prestige class). So for example it is equal to 40% in the fireball example above (or 60% if you are a 5th level Shadowcraft Mage). There are other ways to get that percentage reality up even more, but I don't want to confuse things even more at this point.

BTW, you get the benefit of Spell Focus: Illusion for all these spells, and the gnome +1 DC to illusion spells. The material componants and casting time is that of the Figment Spell as well (so you can avoid long casting times and expensive material componants, though I am not aware of many situations where this would be very helpful except for a couple of spells like Minor and Major creation).