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Excession
2010-03-26, 02:43 PM
I'm looking for some crunch reason to use a staff as a 4e dragon sorcerer. A lot of stuff seems to favour using daggers and having the Dex to back them up: Sorcerous Blade Channeling, Nimble Blade, Dual Implement Spellcaster, Light Blade Precision, Rogue multiclassing.

Is there any reason to build a Str-based Sorcerer who uses a staff instead? I know there's the Staff of Ruin but it just doesn't feel like enough.

tcrudisi
2010-03-26, 03:19 PM
I'm looking for some crunch reason to use a staff as a 4e dragon sorcerer. A lot of stuff seems to favour using daggers and having the Dex to back them up: Sorcerous Blade Channeling, Nimble Blade, Dual Implement Spellcaster, Light Blade Precision, Rogue multiclassing.

Is there any reason to build a Str-based Sorcerer who uses a staff instead? I know there's the Staff of Ruin but it just doesn't feel like enough.

A crunch reason? Well, the Staff of Ruin is crunch enough. It's that good.

The advantage to the Staff Sorc's is in their defenses. They won't do quite as much damage (for the reasons you stated above), but they do good enough. I always start with Dex 12 so that at level 11 it gets bumped up to 13 -- which is perfect. That means that at level 11 I can take DIS. Also, it opens up Light Blade Precision. Sorcerous Blade Channeling is overrated when you are playing a Str-based Sorc, as your defenses are plenty high enough and they tend to be more front-line characters (so close blasts tend to get higher priority over ranged attacks). Nimble Blade is a trap, even for Dex characters, as a +1 when you have combat advantage doesn't come into play much... since it's hard to get C.A. as a ranged Sorc.

So really, you can get the best of both worlds. There are some really good staves, too, but you are right that SoR is the cream of the crop. (Okay, and admittedly the dagger does outshine the staff). But you can play a Str Sorc and be just as good as a Dex based one.

Kurald Galain
2010-03-26, 06:25 PM
I'm looking for some crunch reason to use a staff as a 4e dragon sorcerer.
Magic staves tend to have better properties and daily powers than magic daggers. Staff of Ruin is a good example, but so is e.g. Staff of the Warmage, and Staff of Light.

Critical
2010-03-26, 06:44 PM
Use it TO WALK.