4ed Wild or storm Socerer?...

[incubus5075]

after DMing for the past several months one of my players said he wanted to give it a try. I'm trying to decide between a halfling chaos socerer and a drow storm socerer. The chaos has a lot of cool fluff I like while the storm has raw power. I'm torn between the two. Suggestions? Also any good builds for the two? Items? Feat selection etc...We are lvl 13 so help me out plz....

[Guinea Anubis]

I am a fan of the wild magic just for the fun random stuff that happens.

[Starsinger]

Level 13? Storm Sorcerer, yeah Wild has cool fluff, but the Storm Sorcerer only PP is tasty. Furious Bolts is a nice level 11 encounter power, especially if you can clear a bunch of minions and rack up a tasty attack bonus for your attack next turn.

Of course, my largest issue with Storm Sorcerers is that they tend to ignore the fact that Sorcerer has the (so far) largest variability in damage types available to a single class/build by focusing on Lightning (And Thunder) damage. So if you want to embrace that aspect of Sorcerer, then Wild is definitely the source for you... plus Chaos Bolt is almost chain-lightning at will...

[incubus5075]

Here is another question. With a frost weapon you can change all damage done to cold right? So lasting frost and wintertouched plus frost weapon means I get CA every round and a nice 5 extra damage due to vulnerability. Add in Nimble blade and I will have a +19 to hit NADs. At 13th lvl this is great right? Though a loophole this shouldn't be 'cheating' right?

[Guinea Anubis]

As far as I can tell no thats not cheating.

[Kurald Galain]

Here is another question. With a frost weapon you can change all damage done to cold right?
Opinions differ in whether that works on implement attacks. According to the most recent Dragon magazine, the answer is yes; but according to a more recent Custserv answer, the magazine is incorrect. Make of that what you will.

Regarding build advice, I find that MC'ing to wizard for the Enlarge Spell feat is very much worth it.

[Awesomologist]

It's been a few months since I played a wild sorcerer for a delve. We recently had one of our players play a storm sorcerer after he read what they could do in the character op forums.
Short answer is Wild Sorcerers deal great damage and have a certain unpredictable and fun factor to them. They are wild, so you never know what extra effect you're getting sometimes. You also don't know which two resistances you're getting either.
Storm sorcerers also do great damage (with the potential to deal awesome damage) and are more focused on their effects and power riders.

In the end I'd go with whatever feels more fun for you.

[incubus5075]

Awesome, what exactly makes the storm sorc do alot more damage? I liked the idea of having a Dragon Mark of Storm and sliding enemies with every hit but nothing I seen allowed much more dmg than a wild sorc. Though KNOWING what you resist is always good. But a utility lets a wild change his resistance anyway. As for the frost+winter+lasting frost I think I'll go with it can change implement powers also. Otherwise what good is the frost weapon?

[Kurald Galain]

Though KNOWING what you resist is always good.
Yes, but knowing it is thunder+lightning makes it less good. What you usually need is necrotic, fire, poison and psychic, more or less in that order, and a wild mage has more chance of getting those :smalltongue:


As for the frost+winter+lasting frost I think I'll go with it can change implement powers also. Otherwise what good is the frost weapon?
Otherwise it is good for weapon users but not implement users. It is up to you whether you consider that fair or not. I'm sure WOTC will release an update somewhere in 2012 to clarify it, though.

[incubus5075]

2012... HEHE yea clarification on certain things are always good to have. Another question along these lines. If it DOES affect implement powers is ALL the damage cold or does cold just get added? For instance Chaos bolt is Physic dmg, if used through a frost dagger is it now a 'frost bolt' or a chaos bolt with cold added to it?...

[Tiki Snakes]

Yes, but knowing it is thunder+lightning makes it less good. What you usually need is necrotic, fire, poison and psychic, more or less in that order, and a wild mage has more chance of getting those :smalltongue:


Otherwise it is good for weapon users but not implement users. It is up to you whether you consider that fair or not. I'm sure WOTC will release an update somewhere in 2012 to clarify it, though.

I wasn't personally aware that there was still a customer service line answering these kind of things. I think Dragon, given that it is indeed edited especially in compiled versions, takes precedence in this case, given the official stance of 'Dragon is Core'.


[edit] I think depending on the wording, it would simply be cold in addition.
The specifics of how that interacts with immunities and resistances is a bit fiddly for me to remember off the top of my head, though.

[OMG PONIES]

My first few 4E characters were sorcerers, because blasting is actually FUN now. The most lethal one was my Halfling Storm Sorcerer; for flavor he had taken Arcane Familiar and fluffed the familiar as a raincloud that always hung over his head (instead of a bird).

A solid damage dealer, and hard to hit.

[Hzurr]

Here is another question. With a frost weapon you can change all damage done to cold right? So lasting frost and wintertouched plus frost weapon means I get CA every round and a nice 5 extra damage due to vulnerability. Add in Nimble blade and I will have a +19 to hit NADs. At 13th lvl this is great right? Though a loophole this shouldn't be 'cheating' right?

This is a common trick for super-optimized rogues. It's not cheating (although it is firmly in the "cheap" category, with occasional forays into the "abusive" and "douche" camp depending on how you use it). I feel like it's a bit overkill, could be annoying to the DM, and that you could use the feats for much more interesting things; but RAW I believe you're correct.

[Mando Knight]

I like the Storm Sorcerer over the Chaos one, mostly because of its affinity for flight.

[KillianHawkeye]

I like the Chaos sorcerer with plenty of prismatic X powers, because with all the randomness you'll never be bored.

[NeoVid]

They're both really good and you can't really go wrong. Taking one of the best PPs with a Chaos Sorc (Demonskin Adept) fixes your problem of having the wrong resistance for the situation.

Also, Wild Sorcerer is the only class I've ever played where I've saved party members by rolling a 1 on an attack.

[The Glyphstone]

Any reason why not Dragon Sorcerer? Flexing your biceps to make enemies take extra damage from spells is fun, and actually being able to hurt people with opportunity attacks is a nice bonus.

[incubus5075]

Reason I'm not a big fan of the dragon/cosmic sorc is simply my play style. I am usualy the sneaky, smooth talking rogue. So now i'll be the sneaky, smooth talking, and completely chaotic sorc :) Thank you eveyone, I have decided on the chaos sorc halfling with wild mage PP (just for fun :) I have also decided not to do the frost+winter touched+ lasting frost combo. Witth a +16 at lvl 13 I should hit most creatures with a 5-9 or higher on a d20 so thats not bad. Plus like someone had mentioned there are alot of cool other feats I could take, like white lotus master riposte!!!

Any good weapon ideas? I already have a displacer leather and chaos cloak. Ideas for weapons or boots, hands, etc?