Con vs Dex

[cbaidchris]

I am rolling up a sorcerer for an campaign starting at level 7. It will be a sorc/wild mage/fatespinner. I have two stats to play with from my rolls, 12 and 16 one for dex and one for con. my question is from a survivabilty stand point which would be more beneficial? I don't plan on spending any time in reach of melee but the AC would help for ranged attacks where I feel like con would help with overall damage. then of course reflex and fort saves as well as initiative and concentration checks come into play with the stats. any guidance?

[TheOneHawk]

You're missing a huge point in favour of Dex. Casters love initiative. +2 to your init is a pretty big deal.

[eggynack]

Shooting folks in the face with rays and other ranged touch attacks is also nice. I'd probably go with constitution though, because having fourteen or more is so important. Sorcerers just don't have much HP without it.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Con.

No matter how high your AC is, no matter how often you go first in combat, no matter how accurately you can shoot down the opposition, you -will- be hit sooner or later. When that inevitable eventuality comes to pass you want to be able to soak the hit. On saves; fort save effects are usually dramatically worse for your health than ref save effects. You've got poor saves in both so you might as well give up on reflex saves and boost that fort as high as you can.

Unless, of course, you're planning to go undead. In that case, screw con. You're not going to have it that long anyway.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Con. Grab nerveskitter and some miss chance and you won't miss Dex.

[Thanatosia]

Con also helps your Concentration checks. +3 is almost equivilent to combat caster, saving you a feat slot unless you need it as a pre-req to something.

High dex is nice, but I'd personally go with the CON.

Also, REF saves tend to be 'save for half damage' type effects - so more hp can help pad up that deficiency. FORT saves tend to be more 'die or suck horribly' - no amount of dex can pad that.

[137beth]

If it were a choice between 14 dex, 16 con or 16 dex, 14 con, I'd say go with the higher dex.

However, 12 con is really too low for a sorcerer IMO, so in this case I'd put the 16 into constitution. Just be sure to learn (lesser) celerity, get a miss chance, and make sure you can almost always hit with ranged touch attacks and you should be fine. You'd want to do all those things even with a 16 dexterity, and the extra four points in dexterity won't help you much with touch attacks at level 7.