PF Sorcerer

[andreww]

Ok, I am currently putting together a PF sorcerer for play later in the year and thought I would look for some advice on his spell list and equipment, in particular consumables. Level 9, PFS limitations (so no crafting) and I have about 4k left to spend. Have I missed any particular crucial spells? Yes I know about Paragon Surge but I am still waiting for the PFS ruling on half races gaining human FCB's. If they do allow it he will become a half elf and Surge will make life much easier.

Human Sage Seeker Sorcerer:

Sorcerer (Seeker, Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 9th; concentration +21):

4th (6/day)—dimension door, elemental body i, greater invisibility, emergency force sphere

3rd (8/day)—aqueous orb (DC 23), communal resist energy, daylight, dispel magic, fireball (DC 21), haste, stinking cloud (DC 23), suggestion (DC 21)

2nd (8/day)—command undead (DC 20), create pit (DC 22), darkvision, glitterdust (DC 22), invisibility, mirror image, pilfering hand

1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 19), grease (DC 21), identify, liberating command, mage armour, magic missile, protection from evil, silent image (DC 19)

0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, detect poison, ghost sound (DC 18), mage hand, message, open/close (DC 18), prestidigitation (DC 18)

Feats: Eschew Materials, Expanded Arcana (2x3rd), Spell Focus (conjuration), Greater Spell Focus (conjuration), Improved Initiative, Persistent Spell, Focused Study: Skill Focus (Disable Device),(Perception)

Traits: magical lineage (glitterdust), reactionary

Gear: +2 mithral buckler, belt of mighty constitution +2, cloak of resistance +3, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +4, ioun stone (clear spindle), ring of protection +1, sleeves of many garments, vest of escape, wayfinder

Consumables: Potion of Air Bubble (2), potion of cure serious wounds, potion of delay poison (2), potion of gaseous form, potion of magic circle against evil, potion of remove blindness/deafness, potion of restoration, lesser (2), Scroll of Comprehend Languages (2), Scroll of Detect Secret Doors (2), Scroll of Endure Elements (4), Scroll of Mount (2), Scroll of Obscuring Mist (2), Scroll of Protection from Good, Protection from Law, Protection from Chaos (2), Scroll of See Invisibility, wand of infernal healing (50 charges)

[Zionara]

Drop buckler and grab the Shield spell instead, and that should allow you to buy Mnemonic Vestmens, so you can cast one spell per day from a scroll without spending the scroll..
And thats a lot of evil spell scrolls you have there..that might be an issue wth some GMs.

[Spuddles]

Why are you buffing int and not cha? Int based sorc casting or does vast int mean something else in PF?

Do you have UMD? If you do, you may want to turn some of those potions into scrolls. A wand of CLW is dirt cheap and a great way to patch up out of combat. At DC20, it's fairly easy to use by level 9, and you get an average of 20 uses out of it before you roll a nat 1. Actually, I think you can take 10 on UMD checks if it's out of combat.

I would consider going human and using your bonus feat to count as a race that qualifies for paragon surge. Then use the human favored class bonus to get extra spells known. Typically you get a spell one level lower than the highest you can cast, but if you were to use heighten spell and magic lineage, you would get a spell known at level. If you used wayang spell hunter on top of that, well who knows what would happen ;)

Lastly, I would trade out one of your 4th lvl spells, maybe elemental body, for a bf control spell, either solid fog or black tentacles. They took nerfs in PF, but that just means they're good not omgwtfbbq.

[Drachasor]

Why are you buffing int and not cha? Int based sorc casting or does vast int mean something else in PF?

The Sage Archetype uses Int for casting instead of Cha.

[andreww]

Sage sorcerer switches the primary casting stat to Int allowing for a lot more skill points. It also allows me to dump Charisma into the ground which makes UMD less appealing. Also you can never take 10 on UMD, with few exceptions like the Rogue talent but that means being a rogue and therefore sucking.

I have a Wand of Infernal Healing which is better out of combat healing (10hp per charge) and doesn't require UMD. Racial Heritage doesn't work for getting stuff in PFS.

Solid Fog was beaten into horribleness in PF but Black Tentacles is OK, although it doesn't scale terribly well. However I already have multiple AoE control spells targeting each defence while Elemental Body brings Fly, Earth Glide and Swim along with some decent stat buffs.

[khachaturian]

sage archetype

swordsaged

[Drachasor]

Seconding Solid Fog in PF being essentially useless. Halving movement in a 20' radius is just not very good in the vast majority of circumstances -- and when it is good Web is better.

[Zionara]

Then use the human favored class bonus to get extra spells known. Typically you get a spell one level lower than the highest you can cast, but if you were to use heighten spell and magic lineage, you would get a spell known at level. .
Do you actually know what these things do, or are you just dreaming up stuff as you go along ?


Also the use of Infernal Healing; If i was DMing I would make sure that the 40th time you used it, a few zealous paladins would come and smite you just because, or ban you from entering a church or something.

I dunno what a Seeker is, I only have Core books, but Im pretty sure you cant have several archtypes.

[andreww]

I dunno what a Seeker is, I only have Core books, but Im pretty sure you cant have several archtypes.
Seeker is from the Pathfinder Field Guide. It gives trapfinding, bonuses to Disable Device and Perception, concentration bonuses, SR penetration and a few other things.

You can combine archetypes provided they do not modify the same thing. Sage modifies the Arcana and Level 1 Bloodline ability. Seeker modifies Eshew Materials and the Level 3 and 15 bloodline abilities so they are compatible.

The Paladin smiting thing is just weird. How would they even know?

[andreww]

And thats a lot of evil spell scrolls you have there..that might be an issue wth some GMs.
There is one single evil spell scroll, Protection from Good. What others are you seeing?

[Zionara]

Its mostly the Infernal Healing wand im refering too, also you radiate evil for that whole minute. Prot Good scroll seemed to show a pattern really.

Also didnt know that about the Archetypes, cool stuff, I have to look it up :smallsmile:

[CigarPete]

Infernal Healing is a nice spell regardless, especially on a wand. Better than a CLW wand.

If you want to add spells to your spells known list, I would suggest either being human or buying pages of spell knowledge rather than spending feats.

Also, what metamagic are you using to modify glitterdust that you need magical lineage on it? You have no metamagic feats, so why use the trait on it at all?

[andreww]

Infernal Healing is a nice spell regardless, especially on a wand. Better than a CLW wand.

If you want to add spells to your spells known list, I would suggest either being human or buying pages of spell knowledge rather than spending feats.

Also, what metamagic are you using to modify glitterdust that you need magical lineage on it? You have no metamagic feats, so why use the trait on it at all?I am already Human and Pages of Spell Knowledge get expensive fast. 9k for a single level 3 spell means spending a 3rd of my WBL to get what Expanded Arcana is giving me and it can be retrained to retain relevance.

He currently has Persistent Spell for metamagic and will be adding Quicken at 11. Ideally I would want it at 10 when 5th level spells come online but I wasn't prepared to have a useless feat for the entire level.

[andreww]

Its mostly the Infernal Healing wand im refering too, also you radiate evil for that whole minute. Prot Good scroll seemed to show a pattern really.

There are certain things you need to prepare for in PFS games. Invisible enemies, swarms, deeper darkness, harpies, incorporeal enemies and enemies summoning good aligned outsiders. The latter isn't common but it is worth the small cost to have something to help with it.

[Karoht]

I thought you had to have the arcane bloodline to take the Sage Archetype.
Wildblooded (http://www.pathfindersrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/archetypes/paizo---sorcerer-archetypes/wildblooded) Sage (http://www.pathfindersrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/archetypes/paizo---sorcerer-archetypes/wildblooded/sage) Arcane (http://www.pathfindersrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/arcane-bloodline)
Also, consider taking the False Priest Archetype as well. It stacks nicely, and 9 levels is all you need to make it good before checking out the prestige class called Arcane Savant (a 3 level dip is all you need). Which does let you take 10 on scrolls, and considers them to be your caster level when you cast from them. False Priest will let you do that with Divine Scrolls, not just arcane. Divine covers a LOT of territory, you really want to give False Priest a very solid read. You might have to spend a few skill points on UMD, but not many if you plan on just using it for buffs and such.

There is also a further bit of cheese involving scrolls and the False Priest Archetype but I'll see if you can figure out out.

EDIT: I just noticed the PFS tag on there, not sure if my advice applies now.

[andreww]

I thought you had to have the arcane bloodline to take the Sage Archetype.Yes, his bloodline is Wildblooded Sage Arcane. He loses Metamagic Adept which is very annoying and School Power (which is unlikely to come up in PFS) but gains Int based casting which has meant he has ended up with 10 fully trained skills and bunch of single points to activate class bonuses (mostly non ID Knowledges). He also loses a familiar for the utterly ****ty mind bolt but I just couldn't manage a PFS character with the terrible skill numbers a charisma based sorcerer gets.

False Priest is great but it conflicts with Seeker as both modify Eschew Materials and it really relies on UMD which I am avoiding due to dumping charisma to 7 although it would add half my level to the checks. I would still only be looking at +14 at level 9. I could make it +17 with a free Skill Focus from Focused Study but even so a level 3 cleric scroll would need to hit DC28 to emulate a 13 Wisdom followed by DC25 to actually use it.