Wizard Or Sorc.

[pogre]

Sorcerers are much easier to run. I think that is the main advantage. They also can be played like a weapons platform, which is a good thing!

 

[Nightfall]

Pogre,

Normally I'd agree with that but mostly right now (thanks to Warlock), it's more the fact sorcerers are easier to run than a weapons platform.

 

[MerricB]

Eh?! Metamagic feats with a sorcerer?! Why? I mean sure they can apply it post casting and all...but that just seems like a waste of an action that they might need later. (moving wise I mean.)

I don't really see why taking a full-round action to cast a spell (and only moving 5') is bad, when you have the ability to spontaneously apply metamagic to your spells, and thus have the option.

(And with Complete Arcane, PHB2 and other sources, you can now ignore that restriction as well).

Cheers!

 

[Victim]

Nothing kills a sorcerer faster than a theme. With a decent spread of known spells, a sorcerer can cover most of the bases needed. While a wizard can use items to increase his spells known (via scribing extra spells), and spells per day (via wands and such), a sorcerer can also pick up wands and scrolls to cover spells he doesn't know. But overloading on spells of a certain type compounds the lack of spells known. A sorcerer can do the generalist caster thing.

The main tradeoff is between the wizard's unlimited spells known and the sorcerer's spontaneous casting. It sucks to have so few spells known, especially as cool new spells come out. But it also sucks to have the wrong spells prepared - or just not enough of the right ones. There's a huge difference between having 1 or 2 Greater Dispels prepared and having the 10+ that a high level sorcerer can throw when needed. A wizard can spread himself awfully thin, especially when buffs are taken into account. All the other marginal differences pale in light of that difference. If you want the spontaneous casting, there's really no substitute.

Some people are just going to swear by one class or the other based on that difference.

 

[Nightfall]

Victim,

I only swear by Warlocks and Death Masters.

Merric,

Yes, yes I'm aware of that now. Even so, spending a full round casting a spell can be counter productive, especially in the face of charging minotaurs for example...

 

[Li Shenron]

I think that in 3.0 the two classes are very much on par. At 1st level the Sorcerer has a slight edge, while at 2nd/3rd level the Wizards has a slight edge instead. Afterwards they are quite well balanced.

But in 3.5 I think the Sorcerer got weaker. Not underpowered, but still the 3.5 changes hurt the Sor more than the Wiz: not stacking of the same metamagic, spell focus bonus halved, some multipurpose spells divided into many... None of these changes individually are significant, but altogether they hurt more those casters which can only cast the same few spells over and over.

Also the supplements always seem to give more options to the Wiz rather than the Sor... particularly because it isn't easy to design new good metamagic feats.

 

[MerricB]

Yes, yes I'm aware of that now. Even so, spending a full round casting a spell can be counter productive, especially in the face of charging minotaurs for example...

That's what fighters are for: to stand in the way.

Cheers!

 

[Felix]

Even so, spending a full round casting a spell can be counter productive, especially in the face of charging minotaurs for example...

Any full caster who finds himself the target of melee attacks, unless he has chosen to get into melee, just isn't trying hard enough. It is so easy to get out of reach it's laughable.

And like Merric said, there's a reason they're called, "Meat Shields".

 

[icedrake]

It seems one of the wizard's main advantages would be having scribe scroll, but what happens when they chose to specialize? Do they lose significant power due to sacrificing two schools? What about the UA specialist sub class features? Many of these replace scribe scroll and the other feats a wizard would get with fixex specialities. Does this nerf the wizard at all?

 

[Li Shenron]

It seems one of the wizard's main advantages would be having scribe scroll, but what happens when they chose to specialize? Do they lose significant power due to sacrificing two schools? What about the UA specialist sub class features? Many of these replace scribe scroll and the other feats a wizard would get with fixex specialities. Does this nerf the wizard at all?

A Wizard can use Scribe Scroll as a HUGE advantage.

But then, a wizard who didn't get SS as a bonus feat, can still take it as a regular feat, and it'll still be worth the cost.