Kerrick said:
I think what you folks are missing is the different roles sorcerers and wizards can have (and may have been intended to have). Sorcerers are blaster mages - they have a limited number of spell slots, which they usually fill with combat-type spells (offensive/defensive effects), with some few utility-type spells here and there to round out their arsenal.
Most Wizards fill out their spell slots with offensive/defensive spell effects too. Sure, they'll carry staple utility and Combat Control spells, but depending on the campaign, the Wizard will mostly focus on combat in one form or another, just as most Sorcerers.
Of course, the Sorcerer only needs to fill 4-6 spells known and one feat for offensive type spells:
Heighten Spell
One good Reflex spell (E.g., Resilient Sphere)
One good Fort spell (E.g., Flesh to Stone)
One good Will spell (E.g., Charm Monster)
One good no-save spell (E.g., Scorching Ray)
One good no SR spell (E.g., Black Tentacles)
One good spell with persistent effects (E.g., Web)
And note that some spells can overlap - Black Tentacles has no save, no SR, and has Persistent effects.
With a little work, you can get all of those in with just five or six of your spells known. And you can cast them every battle, if need be.
In terms of Combat Control, the Sorcerer only needs one or two to be a master at it, simply because he can spam it out as needed (Wall of Stone/Iron/Force/Ice/Prismatic Wall, to taste and area).
Defensively, the Sorcerer needs to know:
One good long-running spell (e.g., Mage Armor)
One good avoidence spell (e.g., Fly, Invisibility)
One good grapple-enabled retreat spell (e.g., Dimension Door, Teleport).
A couple of decent debuff spells.
A couple decent buff spells (e.g., Protection From Energy, Enlarge Person, Haste, Greater Invisibility; Polymorph, but that's dripping with cheese)
Outside of combat, many of the combat selected spells are still useful - Charm Monster, Fly, Invisibility, Dimension Door, Teleport, Wall of Ice/Iron/Stone (and Polymorph, but that's dripping with cheese) can all be very useful in getting past assorted non-combat challenges. Especially when you can spam them to everyone in the party. Need across a chasm? Four Fly spells, or just Dimension Door everyone across, or Polymorph everyone into something that can fly (cheesy), or build a bridge from a Wall. Door in your way? Well, Acid Arrow will get through a lock. Guard in your way? Charm Monster. And so on.
After picking up a good assortment of the above, there's still room on a reasonably leveled Sorcerer to specialize in something. Planar Binding, maybe. Shadow magic. The not-worth-most actions Evocations.
Of course, if you pick up Limited Wish, and have enough sources handy, Magic-Psionics Transparency will will the Sorcerer trade a 7th level spell slot and 300 XP for switching the last six levels worth of spell, skill, and feat selections......
Kerrick said:
Wizards get a lesser number of spell slots, but can fill them with spell they want - offensive, defensive, utility, you name it, and can rotate them out on a daily basis, whereas the sorcerer's stuck with the spells he's got - he can change 1 spell every other level. Sorcerers can apply metamagic on the fly, which, yes, makes them far more poweful in combat situations with their evocation spells, but with their limited spell selection, the wizard becomes the party's technical expert - need to get that door open? No problem, I've got a knock spell! Want to see what the duke in the next city over is doing? Sure thing, scrying coming up!
Sorcerer doesn't need Scrying. The Cleric gets it for free; and can use it cheaper, too (100 gp focus vs. 1,000 gp focus).
Kerrick said:
Sorcerers and wizards should be like clerics and druids in terms of their roles - clerics deal with the gods; druids deal with nature. They're both divine casters; they cast some of the same spells; but they're not the same. I lay this fault squarely at the feet of the designers, who gave us the sorcerer without fully thinking through its concept ("Ooh, let's make an arcane caster class that can cast spells on the fly! And, and, they'll have dragon blood in their veins! Yeah, that's it!") and this crap they're trying to peddle about dragon blood or celestial blood or whatever just doesn't fly. Wizards get bonus feats, but sorcerers get.... a familiar. Whoopee. What sorcerer player wouldn't give up the familiar for normal metamagic, given the opportunity? Or take a PrC as soon as possible? How many alt sorcerers have we seen just on these boards alone, many of which grant sorcerers bonus metamagic feats?
No lo contandre.
