D&D 5E The God Sorlock

[Flamestrike]

Would a switch to Spiritual Weapon enable me to handle the 8 encounter day with only 3 short rest? I had initially thrown it out because the Nova attack sequence was bonus action starved. I thought by level 7 I would have enough spell points to quicken most rounds. But it seems that 3 encounters back to back is a common design pattern in campaigns.
Perhaps trading out Scorching Ray altogether? This trades frontloading damage for endurance.

At level 7 (presuming Warlock 2) you can Quicken twice per encounter without having to use a bonus action (and dump a 2nd level spell slot) to create more SP.

You dont roll from encounter to encounter either. In a typical ruin or dungeon environment you'll explore, trigger an encounter, explore some more, trigger another encounter, explore some more etc etc before hitting the BBEG at the end of it all, usually as your final encounter. In that time (in your standard dungeon level) you'll probably deal with around 6-8 medium-hard encounters (between long rests), and have around 2-3 short rests.

The above mirrors your typical dungeon, and adhering to the DMG median for the expected adventuring day.

Also note, an adventuring 'day' isn't a literal day. It could be a week of game time, or a month or whatever. It's the arbitrary amount of time between long rest resource recharges. Even in games that use the default long rest rules (8 hours of quiet rest) your long rests could easily be broken up by an encounter, or you might be racing against a 'Doom clock' and have temporal limitations and not have time to Long rest. Your DM could also be using a rest variant such as the Gritty realism long rest variant (making them a week long). In the latter case you could easily go a whole month without getting those Sorcerer slots and SP back.

Personally I use 5 minute short rests (a quick breather) that only let you spend half your level in HD each and cant be taken more than 1/ hour, and you can take no more than 2 per long rest, and I also use 8 hour long rests that do not recharge any HP, but do recover half level in HD (which can be instantly spent with no limit).

Some DM's like Rocket tag (they only run 1 encounter between long rests). I avoid these games like the plague becuase it's just a giant game of 'win initiative and mash the nova button'. I personally find them boring as heck, with no resource management and wildly imbalanced classes. But YMMV.

 

[borg286]

I've swapped Scorching Ray for Dragon's Breath. You've all helped me better understand how long days are composed of multiple encounters with only a few short rests to break them up. This made me rethink what endurance looked like and I think the build is better for it.
I've added endurance sections under the striker heading in level 4 and 5 which outlines my plans.
The tl;dr
Scenario: encounters 6,7,8(boss) of the day with a short rest to prepare, 4 rounds in each encounter.
Twin Dragons Breath + 2x (Quicken Eldritch Blast + Eldritch Blast)
We come out to 60% as good as the fighter.

Edit: flamestrike posted at the same time as me so I haven't accounted for his reply

 

[FrogReaver]

I have a thread on Nova damage. I feel like you are undercounting what a fighter is capable of. I think you might find that thread interesting.

No Prebuff - Round 1 - Damage Rankings

 

[FrogReaver]

To put things in perspective -

A level 6 BM fighter going full out Nova with GWM feat is capable of a 78 DPR turn (@ 65% chance to hit due to having 20str)

 

[Mistwell]

Doesn't really feel much like a God-wizard type build. You're not really helping others in the party quietly from behind the scenes as much as a God-wizard would be. Seems much more weighted on the direct damage dealing and a lot less on the buffing and control?

But maybe not. I bet @Treantmonklvl20 would comment on this if you asked him to?

 

[borg286]

I've been given some food for thought that has caused me to reevaluate many spells.
I thought that KPR was a great way to abstract damage dealers into an easy to compare number, regardless of level. But the discussion here has made me look at the minimization of total monster actions as a more worthy optimization goal. Using this measuring stick I can now compare damage spells with control spells. In some way I've seen the light.
I don't think I've built this character with the same design goals as the God Wizard, namely bypassing damaging spells in favor of buff/control spells.
Instead I've approached the "win the encounter" not from the striker's "look at my glorious dice" but from "assuming there is a tank and striker available, would a fireball, levitate, or polymorph reduce enemy actions quicker?" This is a harder optimization problem as there are more variables, but still doable.

Currently I'm finding that Twin Levitate is stronger than Scorching Ray by a long margin, and seems to be way more effective than a fighter. I'm hoping that I work it all out before Treantmonk sees it.

 

[borg286]

I have a thread on Nova damage. I feel like you are undercounting what a fighter is capable of. I think you might find that thread interesting.

No Prebuff - Round 1 - Damage Rankings

I've read over that list, which is a great list for maximum possible damage. However my intent was to compare myself with a standard fighter not with the DPR king that you cited. I would have preferred to have some standard for how much damage a DM could expect from a player trying to optimize for damage. Instead I just went for a raceless fighter with a 'good' selection of maneuvers. The fighter I quoted at level 5 got damage that ranks #5 on your list is pretty stinking good. I realize I'm comparing my best nova to the nova of a 'pretty darn good' fighter, but I was going for showing that it defies the standard trope that casters only do real damage when they fireball.

But as I've been thinking about things, in the spirit of following the God Wizard, I will be reanalyzing my choices from the perspective of monster action minimization. Novas accomplish this through HP reduction. Casters have more direct ways of hitting similar marks through things like Levitate, Command, and Sleet Storm. Both result in some number of fewer actions the foe gets to take for the encounter. The Nova builds must get into melee and their action denial is permanent. Casters action denial is temporary, but if joined with the DPR of the team results in massive reduction in enemy options.

 

[Var]

I guess that depends on how often you plan to buff or heal. Since most buffs are concentration that's one reaction attack a fight.

Healing word sounds nice - but that assumes you use a cantrip that turn - which means you are using say firebolt + healing word + allies reaction attack. Is that actually better than EB + Agonizing blast + Hex?

Since every buff Spell "does damage" when cast by an Order Cleric (by triggering a Reaction), non Concentration Buffs like Warding Bond and Aid turn into pretty effective use of your action. With the Sorcerer opening up Twin, Quicken or Extend for more efficient use of Spellslots.

Regarding your particular example: Blade Ward (reducing the damage you take from hits/Warding Bond) + Healing Word to pick up a downed ally or top off some health + Reaction Attack only takes a single first level Spellslot for a pretty good turn.

Was about to go into too much detail, to avoid derailing this thread... here's the build instead:

D&D 5E - SOS - Soul Order Sorcerer

Rather than derailing another thread, here's something I pieced together when looking for a couple answers to some questions that weren't related at the time. Can I play a dedicated Healer/Mitigator that can outperform adding yet another DPS character to the party? Notably not a controller by...

www.enworld.org

 

[Guest 6801328]

I think you should play the game first. But that's just me.