Please give me fluff ideas for a sorcerer in an all sorcerer party

[ericgrau]

I am looking for general idea spam for a sorcerer character concept in an upcoming campaign. Initially only the Player's Handbook is available but more may open up as time goes on, and maybe even on day one. Starting level probably 3ish. Race TBD but probably the same for all party members. Probably not human. Probably not small sized. Not necessarily a PHB race. Build must be mostly sorcerer which isn't strictly defined yet. Eldritch knight and arcane trickster will probably become open for example.

We are about half veterans and half noobs. I think the DM is afraid of the veterans breaking things. We intentionally aren't getting much character creation info ahead of time. I am looking more for interesting, cool, or unusual ideas rather than strong ones. Mechanical ideas are helpful to this end but I am mostly looking for style. You may want to keep it general since everything is up in the air. I appreciate lots of different ideas and then I can throw something together on the fly after the session starts.

Thanks to all ideas.

[morkendi]

Venerable dragonwraght kobold sorcerer/druid/ arcane herophant. With loredrake if allowed. I did this and it was fun in optimized party.

[ericgrau]

Venerable dragonwraght kobold
Daaang lol. The level of optimization in this group is a bit low. I still appreciate the arcane hierophant idea though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spellthief or Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) or Rogue 1/ Sorcerer 4/ Unseen Seer 2/ Spellwarp Sniper 5/ Arcane Trickster 8, get Invisible Spell and use Scorching Ray. According to the Rules Compendium any type of special attack that makes multiple attacks, including spells, which takes a full-round action to activate still deals precision damage such as sneak attack on every attack. Psychic Rogue is preferable so you can use Dorjes (psionic wands) of powers on that class list, such as Chameleon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/chameleon.htm).

I'd make him a Desert Kobold (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertKobolds), do the Draconic Rite of Passage for something like Benign Transposition or Nerveskitter and get Draconic Reservoir for the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a). Dragonwrought is optional, but if you do get it you can start out venerable age with no penalty to your physical stats for it.

Also consider picking up the Acidic Splatter reserve feat in CM so you have an at-will ability that can sneak attack. Take two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) if possible, I'd go with Noncombatant and Vulnerable or maybe pick from these (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30). Get Versatile Spellcaster and Heighten Spell, so you can spend two 1st level spell slots to cast a Heightened Acid Splash as a 2nd level spell to qualify for Acidic Splatter. You need a metamagic feat anyway to be able to get Invisible Spell, and Heighten also works for other reserve feats such as Summon Elemental.

Definitely go with the Ancestral Relic Runestaff (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4) trick if possible, it significantly increases your effective number of spells known. You could actually recommend that to everyone in the group if you're all playing Sorcerers.

[ace rooster]

Given the noobs I would assume fairly low op, which opens up many possibilities. If you get spell compendium then a heroics based gish can be fun, while not overpowered. With combat expertise, mounted combat, and point blank shot, the feats you can get with heroics can make you any kind of fighter you need to be.

A monk (shock horror!) sorc can flurry chill touch, and if you get comp adv (I think) then you can cha to AC. Together with mage armour you can be a decent low level front liner.

Get someone else as front liner. A summon monster based sorc has good options, and if you focus on buffs you are a good party player. A summon undead necromancer could also be fun.

A Gnome illusionist is a classic, and illusions reward good imagination so are fun to play.

None of these are hugely op, mostly flavor based.

[Inevitability]

Take an unusual heritage feat, roleplay your powers coming from that heritage. Take thematically appropriate spells.

For example, take Illithid Heritage (using a psionic dip/hidden talent to qualify), then pick spells like Charm Person, Daze, Preserve Organ (I will harvest your brains and put them in my lunch box!), Telepathic Bound...

[Red Fel]

Go thematic. Heck, go elemental.

Become the Mighty Thunder Sorcerer. Grab Energy Substitution, Energy Admixture and Born of the Three Thunders. Any spell with an energy descriptor can be cast as an Electricity spell with no adjustment, or can be cast as a BotTT spell, also no adjustment. (Or you can double the pain by using Energy Admixture to deal double-Electricity, then BotTT to split that evenly between Electricity and Sonic.) Take levels in Stormcaster to play up the "Lord of the Storms" angle. Go nuts.

Become the Terrible Coldheart. Take Snowcasting, along with all of the Frostburn Cold-metamagics. Crank down the thermostat and crank up your CL and DCs. Thanks to Energy Substitution, any spell with an energy descriptor can be a Cold spell. Thanks to Snowcasting, any spell without a descriptor can be a Cold spell. They're all Cold spells now. Grab Lord of the Uttercold and deal half of your Cold spells' damage as negative energy. Cast Fimbulwinter, and turn the entire region into a frozen wasteland, where you are a god.

[morkendi]

If it was me though, i would take all the summon monster stuff and go VoP into malconvoker just for flavor. Let the new people take the gear if they can use. Something about a exalted caracter summoning demons and devils and forcing them to fight for good. Sorcerer can go VoP easy and should be no problem for experienced player.

[ericgrau]

Awesome ideas guys keep them coming. I may end up memorizing the gist of a few concepts and initial related spells. If I bring anything written the DM might think I have some OP build preplanned when we're supposed to be starting fresh together with the noobs.

[Psyren]

You can use Bloodlines (the thematic ones from Dragon Compendium, not the more-or-less broken not-leveling system from UA) to differentiate single-classed sorcerers. These were more or less the precursor to Pathfinder's Sorcerer Bloodlines.

[PaucaTerrorem]

You say it's about half noobs? Bet you'll see more than one blaster. And how new are they? To the point where you should "show" them how it's done, or do they have a basic grip on the system and you could sit back as the buffer type?

[Emperor Tippy]

Go with an old school Sorcerer, one who is all about summoning and binding extra-planar entities to his service.

Refluff a lot of spells as the Sorcerer binding some entity to his body temporarily so as to gain some benefit. Could be interesting and fun.

[ericgrau]

You say it's about half noobs? Bet you'll see more than one blaster. And how new are they? To the point where you should "show" them how it's done, or do they have a basic grip on the system and you could sit back as the buffer type?
2 have played in 1-2 short campaigns. Know how to play but not build well. I assume the third, the DM's boyfriend, is brand new. 3 veteran players including me but we still prefer a bit lower op than what tends to appear in these forums.

Support is certainly an option but I'm not sure if it would be buffing when everyone is casting. Maybe mage armor and mass reduce person (another +2 AC, +2 attack bonus).

[avr]

A noble sorcerer from a line of noble sorcerers. The family Fireball has a certain style, see the purple fringes?

A failed wizard apprentice who developed sorcerous powers after a magical accident. Or similarly, if a forbidden cult captured people to sacrifice and a group of heroes burst in just in time to stop the ritual, the sacrificee might have picked up magic from the interrupted ritual.

A nomad whose magic originates with horse spirits. Quite possibly multiclassed and heading for eldritch knight, certainly with the Mount spell.

[Teh_das]

If you go buffing, look at abjurant champion. Pick a weird deity, take the domain access and spirit acf from complete divine, and claim to be a Paladin of your god.

I'm playing this under Fharlanghn. I took improved familiar for a mount, and spellthief for fueling abjurant champion and arcane strike. So fun.

[VoxRationis]

A whole group of allied sorcerers, a class which gains its power via bloodline? They could well all be siblings or other family members. Try working together with the other players and seeing if you can be related to at least one of the other PCs. Work your spell selection around the relative personality archetype, or in intentional opposition to it.

[Sith_Happens]

Is anyone else already making a fabulous Sorcerer? Because Sorcerers are possibly the most fabulous class after Bards, so if the rest of the group isn't going to be sufficiently fabulous then you have a lot of slack to make up.

First off, you have to be an Elf. Elves are the most fabulous race in the game, no exceptions.

For spell choices, this obviously means Color Spraying the heck out of everything at low levels (and upgrade to other Pattern spells later), and Grease, Glitterdust, and Pyrotechnics will be mainstays throughout your career (especially if you take Heighten Spell, which you should). On the damage front, Fireball is by far the most fabulous blasting spell in Core, so learn it and never look back. The Summon Monster line is of course a grab bag of tricks, so grab some of those too. Similarly, Phantom Steed, because a fabulous Sorcerer needs to ride in style. And whatever you do, do not forget Silent Image or Prestidigitation, the two most fabulous spells in all of D&D. In fact, if your DM lets you put at-will Prestidigitation on an item (which should cost 900 gp to match the Hand of the Mage), go for it, because that ****'s great at parties, not to mention you can instantly clean yourself up whenever you want to make sure you're always at your most fabulous.

Sadly, the Core feat list is distinctly lacking in fabulousness, with two exceptions: Improved Familiar and Leadership. Every fabulous Sorcerer needs an equally fabulous familiar, along with a horde of fabulous groupies if your DM allows it (given it's a low-OP group probably not, but it doesn't hurt to ask). If the Completes and/or the full SRD open up, your first picks should be Energy Substitution (Acid) and Sculpt Spell. Why? So you can apply them both to Fireball and say you dropped acid on all your enemies, of course. Not to mention Sculpt Spell goes fabulously with Grease and Glitterdust.

Gear choices aren't much of factor here... unless the Magic Item Compendium opens up. That whole book is so fabulous I don't even know where to start.

In short, be the guy (or gal, or V, you are an Elf) who puts the "party" in "adventuring party."

[CommandTortoise]

The newer players are pretty likely to go a blasting route or maybe make some sort of gish. Seems to me that the all Sorcerer party is probably going to be pretty squishy. Summoning things to stand between the enemy and you would help but there's a risk that they might show the newer players (who are probably going to be using damage as the measure-stick) up. But by the same they're probably much less likely to notice if you're making the battle much easier for them with save-or-sucks and BFC spells.

I'm picturing some sort of extremely flighty sorcerer-***-artiste more concerned with aesthetics than the immediate life-threatening danger. Battling a bunch of enemies in a drab, entirely undramatic area? Fog Cloud should give it just the air of gravitas it deserves. And a Wall of Stone would completely change the flow of the room for the better and would also conceal those ghastly oafs that keep staring unpleasantly at you. And perhaps you cast Blur on an ally so you're spared having to look at the rather ugly ensemble they call clothes for a while. And of course it makes perfect sense for you to have Glitterdust and Color Spray, if you're starting low and feel like going down that particular dark path.

Edit: Ninja'd by Sith. And what a fabulous ninjaing it was.

[Ellowryn]

Well, Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0020.html) are already pink/purple, add Spell Thematics to also make sparkly and fabulous?

[Thanatosia]

Gish!

Dip a level or two into monk, then get the Aescetic Mage feat to use your cha for your ac bonus, and add your sorceror + Monk levels together and get a monk ac bonus based on the total. Dip 2 levels into paladin to add your cha to your saves (and attacks when smiting), and get all your weapon proficiencies for other gish friendly PRCs. Go into abjurant champion early on, and once you have haste, go into swiftblade to add your cha to your initiative too! Cha to everything! Pump that Cha, more CHARISMA!!!!!

At some point pick up arcane strike and smash things with your spell slots. Also, if you do go the full blown swiftblade route, going Cobra fighting style ACF lets you get the pre-req feats (dodge & mobility) from 2 monk levels (and evasion too!).

[Vaz]

Blasting is something "noobs" like to do.

Being the fall guy, and taking a less well optimized school (sans Evocation) and proving that there are times when you can't do something will be a decent way of introducing them to the idea of how Sorcerer's are "supposed" to play.

Dragon Compendium has Fey Bloodline which is fantastic for this purposes. I like Enchantment or Necromancy for this purposes, although in a beginner party, Enchantment is possibly the better. A Sorcerer 5/Wild Soul 10/Shadowcraft Mage 5 is no Beguiler, but it allows you some later flexibility. Pick up things like Bind Vestige (Naberius: Silver Tongue) for being a party face when not in combat, with all of the Social Skills and have those skills be used not in combat to prove there are workarounds. The major problem with this is that you lose a Caster level, which puts you 2 levels behind a Wizard of the same level, and if you consider that a CR appropriate caster is around 2 levels higher than the party, they are throwing around 5th level spells while you've just learned a 3rd level spell.

Alternatively, a Gish-type - picking up Spellsword, and Dragonslayer dips on a Battle Sorcerer ACF (low Op isn't such an issue) followed by Abjurant Champion nets you a decent front-liner which can support itself. Taking things like Celerity without the removal of the downsides gives you the ability to function well without breaking things right open.

[Kaeso]

A monk (shock horror!) sorc can flurry chill touch, and if you get comp adv (I think) then you can cha to AC. Together with mage armour you can be a decent low level front liner.

Add the Enlightened Fist prestige class (one of the complete books, complete mage I think) and you have a flavorful mystical fighter. You can pretty much play low-power Dragonball Z with it.

[ericgrau]

I was already leaning towards summoning and enchantment (hypnotism probably) to start. I may go with an old school calling forth the dark energies vibe there. Maybe some thematic showy illusions like magic mouth or pattern spells. I'll get more specific once I learn about the campaign world. Knowing the DM there is a 103% chance it includes something about where sorcerer magic comes from.

As I level up and books get added I can look back at other ideas.

Thanks everyone.