Spells for a Stormcaster?

[NeoSeraphi]

So I'm pretty stoked. I picked up my copy of Stormwrack and was flipping through it, and I found the Stormcaster PrC. I know that sorcerers are generally viewed as a 6-level class, but personally, I don't really care for the fluff that most prestige classes for sorcerers have, if any. Full-casting PrCs is all well and good, but most of them feel either too generic or too wizard-centric.

But the Stormcaster! Oh, the stormcaster! A powerful evoker who commands the sea, the wind, and the sky! This is exactly what I was looking for! (It helps that I pulled out my playlist and put Fury of the Storm on in the background while I was reading its class features) This class has a primal feel to it, like the barbarian of casters. And that primal feeling, it definitely gives me a more sorcerer than wizard perspective.

So, I want to make one! The only question is, what spells should I pick to lead up to it? I want to plan up to 6th level, the last level of sorcerer I'd take (I'll wing it after that)

Thing is, I don't want utility. At all. I want to be the lord of nature. I want every spell to either have the [air], [water], [electric] or [sonic] descriptor, or be somehow related to a storm, sky, or sea. (Fly would be an example of a spell that relates without having the appropriate descriptor)

The lack of call lightning hurts, but I plan to CC Use Magic Device and get a wand of it. Charisma is good for many things.

So, what are all your favorite storm spells of 3rd level and lower?

[Thespianus]

While I'm not great at finding fun, cool Electricity/Thunder/Storm spells, apart from the low level spells of SpC ( Electric Jolt, Sonic Snap, Lesser orb of Electricity, Wall of Smoke (flavored as a Wall of Stormcloud) , etc, I would suggest that you'd ask your DM to allow one spell for fantastic flavor:

Refluff/Change Fireburst (SpC) into Lightningburst. Turning yourself into one big, beautiful Tesla Coil is so awesome. The spell sucks to high heaven, but it would be beautiful. :)

For battlefield control, use the Fog-line of spells but flavor them as Stormclouds, stuff like that.

[NeoSeraphi]

While I'm not great at finding fun, cool Electricity/Thunder/Storm spells, apart from the low level spells of SpC ( Electric Jolt, Sonic Snap, Lesser orb of Electricity, Wall of Smoke (flavored as a Wall of Stormcloud) , etc, I would suggest that you'd ask your DM to allow one spell for fantastic flavor:

Refluff/Change Fireburst (SpC) into Lightningburst. Turning yourself into one big, beautiful Tesla Coil is so awesome. The spell sucks to high heaven, but it would be beautiful. :)

For battlefield control, use the Fog-line of spells but flavor them as Stormclouds, stuff like that.

Lightningburst...:xykon: Oh, there will be lightning-based blood. *rubs hands together evilly*

Thank you Thespianus.

Another question for the Playground (though I still would like more input about spells): What race would be the best stormcerer(TM), fluffwise?

[Zaq]

Well, raptorans can fly and get a bonus to [Air] spells. Anything dwagon-related could fit the bill if you align yourself with the right kind of dwagon. Warforged can take a feat to burn their HP to sheathe their fists with electrical discharge (not that you should take this feat, mind you, just that there's precedent for a connection). Air goblins are in the SRD and are pretty fun. Aventi are basically underwater humans, so they fit the "sea" aspect of it. Maenads are a seafaring/coastal people with stormy tempers. Any of those sound good?

[NeoSeraphi]

Well, raptorans can fly and get a bonus to [Air] spells. Anything dwagon-related could fit the bill if you align yourself with the right kind of dwagon. Warforged can take a feat to burn their HP to sheathe their fists with electrical discharge (not that you should take this feat, mind you, just that there's precedent for a connection). Air goblins are in the SRD and are pretty fun. Aventi are basically underwater humans, so they fit the "sea" aspect of it. Maenads are a seafaring/coastal people with stormy tempers. Any of those sound good?

Argh...some of those sound great, but the game I'm making it for is in the Scarred Lands Campaign Setting...I should probably stick with a race or fluff from that book.

[noparlpf]

I played a Sorc 6/Stromcaster 10 in several one-shots last semester. I love the Stormcaster. Let me dig out the character sheet...

Race: Human
Feats: Water Bloodline, Storm Magic, Craft Wand, Metamagic Spell Trigger, Maximize Spell, Energy Sub (Electricity), Energy Admixture (Electricity), Easy Metamagic (Energy Admixture, Maximize)
Flaws: Phantom Sparks (refluffed to be electricity crackling across his body every so often), Claustrophobia
Traits: I was considering Spellgifted, but I think there's too much variety in his spells to use that. It can be handy; depends on your spell selection.
Equipment/Permanent effects: Permanent Cloud Winds (may or may not be legal, but was allowed), Casting Glove w/ Rod of Many Wands w/ Wands of Orb of Sound, Orb of Cold, Orb of Electricity (mostly just for the ability to hold out one hand and have a miniature storm shoot out of it without dealing with arguments about Quicken Spell, Arcane Spellsurge, and Arcane Fusion all at once because in the original 3.5 PHB Quicken uses a free action whereas later it was changed to a swift action), Cloak of Cha +6, Ring of Protection +5, Vest of Resistance +3, Ring of Feather Fall, Red Ioun Stone, Orange Ioun Stone
Variants/ACFs: Electricity Sphere (electricity spells +1 CL, acid spells -2 CL), Bronze Draconic Ray, Metamagic Specialist
Spells: (7) Control Weather, Elemental Body (and we houseruled to have one for storm elementals), Arcane Spellsurge, (6) Control Water, Extract Water Elemental, Chain Lightning, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, (5) Lord of the Sky, Moonbow, Arcane Fusion, Acid Sheathe (Energy Sub), Transmute Rock to Mud, (4) Quench, Greater Invisibility, Orb of Electricity, Orb of Cold (Energy Sub as desired), Orb of Sound, (3) Water Breathing, Fly, Lightning Bolt, Hailstones, Sound Lance, (2) Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Electric Loop, Binding Winds (Druid spell, but I was allowed to use it), Ice Darts, Stormrunner's Ward (it was a seagoing campaign and we needed something nautical in our backstories anyway, so it fit), (1) Expeditious Retreat, Magic Missile (a must-have for any caster, duh), Lesser Orbs (excluding Fire), (0) Electric Jolt, Sonic Snap, Ray of Frost, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Ghost Sound, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic

Yeah, in retrospect not totally optimal, but I think I was looking more for spells that were already electricity, sonic or cold rather than good spells I could Energy Sub to electricity.
Some of the equipment could have been better, too.


He'll probably be making a reappearance as an NPC (maybe benign, maybe malevolent) in the game I'm running to teach my sibs how to play, but he'll be better then. Also maybe a generic divine spellcaster, so that he can get Call Lightning and Binding Winds legitimately. I don't want too much homebrew stuff because they're just learning and I don't want to confuse them.

[NeoSeraphi]

Wow, thank you so much noparlpf. That character looks like a real lord of the storm alright.

I had completely forgotten about the Bloodline feats. I wish there was a storm one, but looking over it, the Air Bloodline would be perfect, giving me a bunch of great evocation storm spells, including gust of wind, which you need to get into the class anyway, and shout which is always fun.

I'll see if my DM will let me refluff the orb spells into evocations, if he does, I'll probably take Spellgifted (Evocation).

Pardon for asking, but what book are the Sphere variants from again? I know what you're talking about, but I can't remember the source material.

And who cares if your character was optimized, as long as he was fun to play, right? In my opinion, it doesn't often matter how strong the character is in combat as long as his fluff is actually thought out and he has a fun theme. (Like being a storm elemental in a human's body*)

*sometimes (You use elemental body to "go back to normal" lol)

[NeoSeraphi]

Okay, so glancing over the SRD and the Spell Compendium, I think I've got a good list for a level 6 sorcerer

Feat- Air Bloodline (For our purposes, it gives obscuring mist, gust of wind, and wind wall)

0th level spells

detect magic, sonic snap (SC), electric jolt (SC), message, read magic, caltrops (SC), light

1st level spells

obscuring mist, shocking grasp, sonic blast (SC), thunderhead (SC) (for abusing the stormcaster's Thunderbolt save-or-stun ability), lesser orb of electricity (SC)

2nd level spells

gust of wind, electric loop (SC) (Haven't got the last 2nd level spell yet...possibly lightningburst, but any suggestions?)

3rd level spells

wind wall, lightning bolt

Additionally, I'll be taking Spellgifted (Evocation), to grant me a +1 CL when casting evocation spells, the Lightning Sphere sorcerer ACF, to give me a +2 CL when casting lightning-based spells, and I'm considering taking Storm Bolt (Reserve Feat, Complete Mage) as my 6th level feat.

If I did take Storm Bolt as my 6th level feat, I could gain the ability to fire a weak, short-ranged version of lightning bolt at will. The benefits include a +1 CL bonus to electricity spells, as well as the storm bolt not allowing a Reflex save or SR.

But...on the other hand, while Reserve feats are usually good because they allow a caster to deal damage or some other effect without actually using a spell, almost all of my caster's spells deal electricity damage. So would I actually use Storm Bolt? It only deals 3d6 electricity damage, but granted, it ignores the possibility of evasion...

At 7th level, combining Storm Bolt, the Sphere, the Spellgifted, and the Thunder Power class feature, my total CL for casting evocation lightning spells would be 12. Problem with that is that all of my evocation lightning spells have such crappy damage caps.

So what does everyone think? I value Storm Bolt simply because of the pure flavor, but I might need that feat for something else...Also there aren't really any damaging sonic or water spells that I could find at this low level (which is fine, I really prefer electricity anyway, but the sonic damage will come in handy when I need to kill demons or plants)

[noparlpf]

And who cares if your character was optimized, as long as he was fun to play, right? In my opinion, it doesn't often matter how strong the character is in combat as long as his fluff is actually thought out and he has a fun theme. (Like being a storm elemental in a human's body*)

*sometimes (You use elemental body to "go back to normal" lol)

I totally don't remember where the Spheres are from, but I think they are in the Crystal Keep index of base classes.

He was pretty fun to play. He flies up and lightning crackles through the sky as he incants arcane words of power. Stuff like that is fun.
And yeah, the idea was that his Sorcerer abilities came from nonhuman lineage, and that he had always had an attraction to storms. He went into Stormcaster after encountering a storm elemental. (In one potential build I had actually put two feats into gaining a storm elemental familiar, but decided against it.) He used Elemental Body every day when he woke up to become a storm elemental.

[NeoSeraphi]

I totally don't remember where the Spheres are from, but I think they are in the Crystal Keep index of base classes.

He was pretty fun to play. He flies up and lightning crackles through the sky as he incants arcane words of power. Stuff like that is fun.
And yeah, the idea was that his Sorcerer abilities came from nonhuman lineage, and that he had always had an attraction to storms. He went into Stormcaster after encountering a storm elemental. (In one potential build I had actually put two feats into gaining a storm elemental familiar, but decided against it.) He used Elemental Body every day when he woke up to become a storm elemental.

I just looked up the index, the spheres are in Dragon 330. I must have read your post wrong, I thought the spheres granted a +2 CL to the chosen sphere and a -1 CL to the tossed away sphere, but your way makes much more sense (Dunno why I thought casters would get something that nice)

So...in that case, my CL bonuses are +1 from sphere, +1 Spellgifted, +1 Storm Bolt and +2 Thunder Power

And Elemental Body every day? What bonuses did it give you? (You made a homebrew one for storm elementals, right?)

[Madcrafter]

Another player in my campaign is playing a wizard stormcaster. He uses mainly orb spells, and fireball, all using the born of three thunders metamagic (IIRC that's what its called). That worked very well, but mainly because he was a construct and immune to dazing. Otherwise I don't know how viable a strategy that would be, especially for a sorcerer. It also made most of his spells have the sonic/lightning subtypes so he could focus a lot more on those rather than have to pick spells that already had them.

[noparlpf]

Yeah, it's just one 7th level slot, and with my 7th level spells being Elemental Body (duration hours/level), Control Weather (casting time 10 minutes) and Arcane Spellsurge (used in the first round each combat, roughly 2-4 combats per day) it works out alright. If you get a chance to get Control Weather going ahead of time (which I often did), then you could flavor Arcane Spellsurge as a lightning bolt striking him and energizing him or something like that as long as it's outdoors.

Let's see...Storm Elemental is MM3, page 48, I think.
Elemental Body:
-You have the benefits of the attune form spell (page 17) with respect to the appropriate element. If you choose a water body, for example, you can breathe normally on water dominant planes.
-You are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, and stunning, and are not subject to extra damage from critical hits or flanking. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet.
-Your creature type remains unchanged, so you are unaffected by spells that target elementals, but you gain the air, earth, fire, or water subtype depending on the elemental substance you chose.
In addition, you gain the following exceptional abilities according to the element chosen:
Storm:
-Fly at your normal speed (perfect maneuverability).
-Gain air mastery (airborne creatures take a –1 penalty on attack rolls and damage rolls against you).
-Gain the Shock supernatural ability. Once per round as a free action, a storm elemental can deliver an electrical shock to a single opponent within 10 feet. This attack deals nonlethal electricity damage to living opponents (Fortitude half). The save DC is constitution-based. (It deals 2d4 damage for a medium creature.)
-Gain the Electrical and Sonic Healing extraordinary ability (instead of taking electricity and sonic damage, heal 1 point of damage for each 3 points of electricity or sonic damage you would have taken).

That's what the DM thought sounded fair for it. After all, by the time you get 7th level spells, 2d4 damage with a save for half is trivial, and you have ER 30 against electricity and sonic already.

[NeoSeraphi]

Another player in my campaign is playing a wizard stormcaster. He uses mainly orb spells, and fireball, all using the born of three thunders metamagic (IIRC that's what its called). That worked very well, but mainly because he was a construct and immune to dazing. Otherwise I don't know how viable a strategy that would be, especially for a sorcerer. It also made most of his spells have the sonic/lightning subtypes so he could focus a lot more on those rather than have to pick spells that already had them.

Born of the Three Thunders only affects sonic or lightning spells (He must have been using his Energy Subsitution feat to cast Lightningballs and stuff)

I like Born of the Three Thunders, it's definitely a powerful ability, but that penalty for dazing is pretty harsh, and Energy Substitution (Electricity) is a feat tax for me since most of my spells are electric already.

Thanks for your suggestion though. I wouldn't have looked at BotTT otherwise.

[noparlpf]

If you'd like I could ask a friend of mine about a character of his. We're meeting for his game tonight, and a few weeks ago he played a Sorcerer of some sort who specialized in electricity. If he can email me his spell list I'll post it.

[NeoSeraphi]

If you'd like I could ask a friend of mine about a character of his. We're meeting for his game tonight, and a few weeks ago he played a Sorcerer of some sort who specialized in electricity. If he can email me his spell list I'll post it.

That'd be very helpful thank you.

[herrhauptmann]

I wonder how useful the Calishte Elementalist from Races of Faerun would be for you.
I know it's useful for wizards because it gives them free spells in their book, don't know if it would give a sorc an extra spell known or not.

[Darrin]

I like Born of the Three Thunders, it's definitely a powerful ability, but that penalty for dazing is pretty harsh, and Energy Substitution (Electricity) is a feat tax for me since most of my spells are electric already.


You can mitigate the dazing a bit with the Quick Recovery feat (Lords of Madness), which allows a Will save as a move action to recover from a daze/stun effect, but that's another feat you probably don't have room for. Something else you don't have room for: adding Iron Will, Cumbrous Will (Savage Species), and the Dream domain (via Planar Touchstone feat). Cumbrous Will gives you a +6 on any Will save you decide to use it on, but it makes you shaken, which is a fear effect... that you are immune to via the Dream domain power.

[NeoSeraphi]

You can mitigate the dazing a bit with the Quick Recovery feat (Lords of Madness), which allows a Will save as a move action to recover from a daze/stun effect, but that's another feat you probably don't have room for. Something else you don't have room for: adding Iron Will, Cumbrous Will (Savage Species), and the Dream domain (via Planar Touchstone feat). Cumbrous Will gives you a +6 on any Will save you decide to use it on, but it makes you shaken, which is a fear effect... that you are immune to via the Dream domain power.

Savage Species is 3.0. I never use that book. (Even though some argue it could be transferred to 3.5, I don't.)

But it doesn't matter, my DM doesn't have a copy of Stormwrack so he disallowed the class and this is all for naught.

[noparlpf]

What? That stinks. I even got the spell and feat list from my friend last night.

[Andorax]

Complete Champion alternate class feature (L5)

Domain Access: Gives up your new 1st and 2nd level spells at 5th level.

Gain: Choose one cleric domain, you gain the granted power of that domain and the ability to cast one domaion spell of each spell level abailable to you per day from that domain.

Windstorm Domain (Spell Compendium). Perfect compliment.

Plus, it's all compatable with taking the Air bloodline.


Regarding the Storm Bolt Reserve Feat: What's the playstyle like? Do you ever have to conserve spells, or can you nova four rooms and throw up a rope? Reserve Feats are of greatest use (perhaps only of use) in campaigns where your adventuring day actually extends past those first four encounters.

[Raezeman]

If you're going for a raptoran stormcaster, with sorcerer as starting class, you might want to consider the raptoran sorcerer substitution level 'command the winds'. When reaching sorcerer level 5, instead of getting the normal lv 2 spell, you get 'gust of wind', 'wispering wind' and wind wall.
Gust of wind is needed for stormcaster, so you'll have to take it anyway.
Wispering wind could be handy in situation, but normally not really worth it in my opinion.
Wind wall is good, and with this substitution level becomes a lv 2 spell for you, instead of level 3.

Next to adding these to your spells known list, a couple of other spells become considered to be on the sorcerer's class spell list for you:
4th level: air walk
5th level: control winds
7th level: wind walk
8th level: whirlwind

So really, since you have to have 'Gust of wind' anyway, i don't see why you wouldn't take this...