Good Feats for a Sorcerer

[Jimp]

I'm looking to build a Human Sorcerer/Mage of The Arcane Order/Archmage. What kind of feats would be good choices? I have already decided to take Heighten Spell, Co-operative Spell (for MoTAO), Split Ray and Skill Focus: Spellcraft (for Archmage). Any other suggestions?
Also, I'm using the PHB2 variant of the Sorcerer that swaps a familiar for metamagic use. Would it be a good idea to take the Obtain Familar feat (Complete Arcana)?

[Maclav]

More metamagic is never a bad thing, especially for the PHB2 variant... which is just simply awesome. Leadership if your into it and you'll need Arcane Spell Prep to get into MotAO.

[Pegasos989]

With the variant, quicken spell is a must. Also, if you concider doing any blasting, energy substition (acid) is a very useful feat and empower spell is also normally worth taking.

Thus, you have 2nd level (scorching ray as acid), 3rd level (fireball as acid), 4th level (empowered scorching ray as acid) and 5th level (empowered fireball as acid) blaster spells right there with few spells known used...


EDIT: as sorcerer, you have 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th', 12th, 15th, 18th and human feat slots, so 8 feats, With heighten, skill focus, split ray, co-operative and arcane preparation (the ones you have chosen or need to get to PrCs) you have already spent 5, so only three left. I would go with quicken, empower and energy substition or quicken, empower/maximize/extend and leadership.

[Amiria]

Unless you need it also as a prerequisite for another feat, you shouldn't waste a feat on Energy Substitution. The archmage's Mastery of Elements is much better then Energy Substitution.

[Doc_Outlands]

What is your "concept" or role for this character? Self-propelled artillerty? Sage? Give us/me some more details to work from.

[Jimp]

Mostly using control/effect spells with the obligatory blasters like Scorching Ray, Fireball

[Mike_G]

Unless you need it also as a prerequisite for another feat, you shouldn't waste a feat on Energy Substitution. The archmage's Mastery of Elements is much better then Energy Substitution.

Energy Substitution is awesome for a Sorcerer.

That way, you only need one line effect, one ray effect and one AoE spell, then substitute any energy you want, on the fly, tailored to the enemy's weaknesses. No need to clutter up your Spells Known with a Fire spell, a lightning spell, a cold spell, an acid spell, etc, or to plan ahead for what energy the bad guys will be vulnerable to.

[The Demented One]

Complete Mage has a feat that lets you ignore the casting time increase from metamagic. Definantly worth getting if you want to use a lot of metamagic.

[Jimp]

Complete Mage has a feat that lets you ignore the casting time increase from metamagic. Definantly worth getting if you want to use a lot of metamagic.

That's pretty much the same as the PHB2 Sorcerer Variant, except it uses up a feat slot :smalltongue:

Also, which energy type would be best for the Energy Substitution feat?

[Gorbad the Limb Rippa]

Sonic is best,very few things have reistance to sonic

[its_all_ogre]

arcane thesis (phb2)is awesome so long as your dm lets you use feat retraining, just retrain the feat to a different spell once you get a new higher level spell, great for blasty spells mostly and reduces metamagic costs too.
cannot get it till your level 6 though(same time as fireball)and treats that one spell as you being two levels higher.

[Leon]

That's pretty much the same as the PHB2 Sorcerer Variant, except it uses up a feat slot :smalltongue:


Except that the Feat has unlimited uses per day compared to the Limit on the class feature (3+Int Mod /day)

[Jimp]

Except that the Feat has unlimited uses per day compared to the Limit on the class feature (3+Int Mod /day)

And the Feat forces you to prepare the spell in advance. The advantage in the class feature is that it allows you to keep to spell choice spontaneous, which is the advantage that the Sorcerer gets when it comes to metamagic.

[Jimp]

Sonic is best,very few things have reistance to sonic

According to the feat description in Complete Arcane you must choose one energy type from acid, cold, electricity or fire. This is why I asked, since otherwise Sonic would be the winner by a mile :smallsmile:

[Gorbad the Limb Rippa]

He He ...Oops:smallbiggrin:
shoulda read the feat first,oh well.
In that case...lightining.
If im not incorrect less things are immune to it than fire,cold or acid,
though there are alot of cold/fire subtypes so taking one of thoose could give you a potential 50% damage bonus.
Hope that helps.

[Toliudar]

I'd say that the feats are more likely to be determined by whatever prestige class you might be aiming towards.

Depending on the style of play, craft miscellaneous magic item (and a few scrolls to cast the spells into the item being created) really helps round out the power of a character - and his group.

[Falrin]

Quicken Spell.


As you already need Arcane Preparation for MoTAO, why not take the spell every caster wants?

[Fizban]

First of all, the feat in Complete Mage, does not require you to prepare the spell to be metamagiced in advance. However, you'll already have 3+int mod per day and Arcane Preparatation for any other you need, so don't get it.

Sculpt Spell is a much better idea than trying to get a whole bunch of different area spells, as it allows you to take any spell that affects an area and change it into a ball, cone, line, or 4 (non-contiguous) 10' cubes , for just a +1 adjustment to spell level. For low level spells such as color spray/grease/burning hands you get a huge area increase, and the line and cube versions are great for sculpting around your allies, while mastery of shaping only allows one 5' hole. Mastery of Elements beats Energy Substitution hands down, but if your DM will let you retrain the old feat, get Energy Substitution [Sonic]. It won't reduce your damage, and it's the least common energy resistance (why do you think all the sonic spells deal less?).

Other good feats include Spell Versatility from Dragon Magic, which allows you to sacrifice two spell slots to cast a spell one level higher (great if you run out of you highest slot but really really need another), and Residual Metamagic from Complete Mage. Residual Metamagic lets you re-use the metamagic you put on a spell: if you cast the same spell again next round you can keep one metamagic you put on it last round for free. I haven't tried it, but on paper it looks quite awesome.

In general, a Sorcerer needs tons of metamagic feats, and you've selected a very feat-intensive build, so good luck. IIRC, MoTAO gets some bonus metamagic so that'll help out at least.

[fireinthedust]

And the Feat forces you to prepare the spell in advance. The advantage in the class feature is that it allows you to keep to spell choice spontaneous, which is the advantage that the Sorcerer gets when it comes to metamagic.

Sorcerers never prepare spells. The feat doesn't force them to do so. they can use the special ability from the ARchmage, or they can use the feat;either one's ok. If the limit is int modifier +3, note that for sorcerers it would be Cha modifier+3. By the time someone's an Archmage sorcerer they likely chose to raise their cha score, and they have amulets of charisma to up their bonuses.

I'd say go for the Exploding spell feat. Pick different ARchmage abilities than energy substitution and go for the feat.

Also: any PrC for sorcerers is a bonus, as they only get spells (so PrCs that don't block that give them bonus abilities).

[Winged One]

Reserve feats from Complete Mage seem perfectly suited to a sorcerer whose spell list qualifies them for it. In fact, I've got a new question for the RAW Q&A thread...

[ilovefire]

i don't beleive anyone has mentioned this, but... Archmage requires spell focus in two schools of magic.

My suggestions are Evocationa nd Illusion.

[TheOOB]

Leadership if your into it.

Suggesting leadership for build advice is rather pointless, the leadership feat is a tool of the DM to increase the number of characters in a party without having to have a DM controlled NPC. Player can't just take leadership, they need a DMs expressed consent.

[Jack_Simth]

Energy Substitution is awesome for a Sorcerer.

That way, you only need one line effect, one ray effect and one AoE spell, then substitute any energy you want, on the fly, tailored to the enemy's weaknesses. No need to clutter up your Spells Known with a Fire spell, a lightning spell, a cold spell, an acid spell, etc, or to plan ahead for what energy the bad guys will be vulnerable to.
Oh, it's definately a handy feat for a Sorcerer.... but Mastery Of Elements, the Archmage ability, permits the Sorcerer to replace the energy on the fly, not just for one type of energy, but for acid, cold, fire, electricity, and sonic. The feat would only permit a single element. Further, the feat is metamagic - it takes extra time / must be prepped in advance / uses up one of the fast metamagic uses per day, while the Archmage ability is just something done at casting, with no increase in time, and can be done on any spell the Archmage casts - so those Called up from the Spellpool, for instance.

Let's see... the build requires:
Arcane Preparation
Cooperative Spell
One Other Metamagic Feat
Skill Focus (Spellcraft)
Spell Focus (Some School of Magic)
Spell Focus (Some other school of magic)

Assuming you're human (so you can get into Mage of the Arcane Order at the earliest opportunity), you've got 8 feats, plus the two MotAO bonus feats (unless they were revised out in 3.5). So one metamagic, two metamagic or item creation, and two generic feats unspecified by the listed PrC's.

[Gorbad the Limb Rippa]

Spell penetrarion is always useful,
low level party comes across drow,
without it low levels you can regret not taking it

[Ali]

Exactly, you wouldn't want to be defeated by drow, would you?

That would just be humiliating.