A moderate but interesting sorcerer

[Arkusus]

So, I'm getting a campaign going, but our party was a bit light, so I told them that either one of them could make a second character, and since EVERYONE so far in the party had a penalty to charisma, and nobody could use (non-divine) magic, a sorcerer was decided upon.


Now, this was decided late on character-creation night, so it wasn't created, and I suspect it won't get made before the first game night, so I'm making a character for it now, and got to thinking...

Obviously any magic class in the game can be really epic, but screw that... What I'd like to figure out how to do, is to make a still very useful sorcerer but focus on making them 'interesting' rather than powerful.



Currently the party is starting at level 6, we have a swordsage, a meleeing cleric, and what amounts to a ninja rouge style character (less combat power, in favor of some fancy tricks).

So if anyone knows of any neat races or templates that mix well with a sorcerer, by all means, let me know.

[nedz]

Sorcerer is pretty much a blank slate. Do you have any kind of theme in mind ?
What do you want the Sorcerer to do: Blast, Control, Buff, ... ?

[eggynack]

Sorcerer power has very little to do with races or templates. In fact, it can basically be entirely defined in terms of spell choice. However, because spell choice depends greatly on what you want to do with those spells, nedz is correct that you should tell us what you want to do with those spells. However, there are some general sorcerer spell suggestion tips. Sorcerer spells are generally more difficult to pick than wizard spells, because there're several parameters that wizards never need to really consider.

Any sorcerer spell chosen should be versatile on an individual level. The more varying purposes you can imagine for a particular spell, the better that spell is. This is also true on a wizard, but a wizard can also have more specialized spells on his list. On this note, it's wise to sharply limit the amount of direct damage spells you learn. Instead, pick up some metamagic so that the scorching ray that you spammed at second level spells is also the empowered scorching ray that you spam at fourth level spells.

This leads me to the next point, which is spammability. Sorcerers gain a lot from the ability to repeatedly cast a single spell, so it's best to have spells that you're going to want to repeatedly cast. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have any all day buffs, but I am saying that you should prioritize them a little lower than you would on a wizard.

Those are the two major sorcerer factors that don't impact wizards as much, but there's some friction between those and the ones that do impact wizards. For example, you also want spells to be as individually powerful as possible, but many of the most individually powerful spells aren't spammable in the least. The ultimate impact is that sorcerer spells are frigging tricky, and should be given the utmost thought in build.

[Eldan]

IT seems the rest of your party is very focused on hitting things in the face. The cleric can also heal and buff, probably, but you'll want to get hte rest of the party roles.

I'd recommend getting at least some of the following:
-Debuffs
-Buffs the cleric won't have
-Ranged damage. You want at least one versatile spell, so pick one with a rarer energy type. Not fire, too many things have fire resistance.
-Utility, to deal with obstacles and monsters the rest of the party can't.

Race, if you can't think of anything else: human.

[Rebel7284]

Wings of Cover. Laugh at people trying to target you with anything.

[Asrrin]

That's pretty much exactly my current party's makeup, right down to the combat rogue!

I'm a Silverbrow Human with a focus on self sufficiency. I've taken Eschew Materials, Still/Silent Spell, and focus on very general use spells like alter Self, Grease, ect. My build from 1-20 is going to focus on always being able to act, either through initiative or metamagic, in any situation, and use battlefield control to prevent my opponents from doing the same.

As someone else said, Wings of Cover is the best "No" spell in the game for a Sorcerer. the range of things it can stop is hilariously overpowered for a level 2 slot, and if you are dragon-blooded gets even better!

Don't forget Wings of Flurry at level 8 for uncapped force damage and a SoS all rolled into one.

[nedz]

As someone else said, Wings of Cover is the best "No" spell in the game for a wizard. the range of things it can stop is hilariously overpowered for a level 2 slot, and if you are dragon-blooded gets even better!

WoC is Sorcerer only.

[Asrrin]

WoC is Sorcerer only.

Haha, whoops, it's been a long day at work. Corrected, and thanks.

[Petrocorus]

If you don't have any other arcane caster, and you want one with high Cha to be the party face, i guess, maybe you should look the Sha'Ir from Dragon Compendium.

[Eldariel]

If you wanna be the face, you can use some feats to expand your skill list (this thread (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=9071.0) has some options on that front); you'll definitely want Diplomacy after all. Intimidate could be nice too. Bluff you've already got. You could also just take Able Learner [Races of Destiny], multiclass into Mindbender and enjoy the full list starting level 6 (and cheap cross-classing before then). This is definitely what I'd recommend. Retraining could be used to cap those skills out faster.

You'll also need some more skill points since, y'know, you still need Concentration as a caster, Spellcraft is kinda key too, K: Arcana wouldn't hurt and you're working with 2+Int. Human with Nymph's Kiss [Book of Exalted Deeds] would work really well there, at +2 skills per level and some nice Charisma-skill bonuses (12 Int would let you max out the 3 conversation skills, Concentration and Spellcraft). Of course, Mindbender requires non-good alignment while Nymph's Kiss requires Exalted Good so you'd have to discuss either with the DM at that point.

If you figure you can make do without Intimidating people, you can get by with less. Of course, your ability to actually figure out if someone is lying is null so there's that.


Other than that, yeah, spell selection is what it's all about. It just so happens Sorcs work pretty well with the enchantments, Charm Person/Monster. Certainly handy stuff to add to your repertoire. Other than that, an Illusion or two could do nicely, and then some AOE disable spells.

Oh, and 1 level of Mindbender [Complete Arcane] on level 6 is strongly recommended (makes skills a bit harder but hey, whatever) since Telepathy is so useful, and fits here so perfectly. You could add Mindsight [Lords of Madness] on top of it too for a nice'n'dandy radar + some extra information on people. After that point, Sorcerers generally want to enter other PRCs since the class doesn't give you anything. Mage of the Arcane Order [Complete Arcane] is nice for flexibility but kinda feat intensive. Ruathar [Races of the Wild] could be a nice 3-level class if you like Elves (also works with the extra skill points and stuff). Unseen Seer [Complete Mage], Fatespinner [Complete Arcane], Archmage, etc. are all convenient options too.

It's imperative not to lose caster levels in your prestige classes though due to the fact you get new spell levels so slowly, and that your Spells Known list is tied to your level too. That's why I recommend exactly 1 level of Mindbender (the class is poorly written and thus loses way too many caster levels after that point, but the first one and the class skills you get from it are great).

[Petrocorus]

Ruathar [Races of the Wild] could be a nice 3-level class if you like Elves (also works with the extra skill points and stuff). Unseen Seer [Complete Mage]

The skills requirement for Unseen Seer is tough. It's very difficult to qualify and the class will never pay off your skill points if you buy the skills as cross-class skills, so i second Ruathar which help a lot. All US required skills are class skills for the Ruathar.

[Fyermind]

It looks like your party could use someone to lay down the defense.

Get dragon blooded somehow. It doesn't really matter how.

Try to take
Wings of Cover, Ray of Stupidity, Nerveskitter, Haste, Charm Person, Silent Image

This will make you good at laying down defense with wings of cover negating a single attack to anyone with a single casting (and maybe multiple allies from AoE and the like). You can one-shot animals and some magical beasts with RoS. It's far from critical, but you won't be using whatever you have there much unless you are metamagicing it anyway (Cloud of knives is another good one to go there). Nerveskitter, Charm Person, and Silent image cover a lot of bases and mostly don't go out of style. Charm person is more for glazing over silly RP encounters with minions that real power. Nerveskitter is gold. Silent image is for versatile problem solving. Haste is a reliable way to do good things for the party that nobody minds if you spam.

If it's a secondary character I'd advocate not playing it as a high impact character. Buffs and some debuffs will keep you from stealing the spotlight too much.