So you want to be a sorcerer?

[McClintock]

Hello Playgrounders,

I am thinking of doing a sorcerer, a non-game breaking kobold sorcerer. The basic backstory is that he was sold into slavery, and throughout the course of his long life, things have just happened. Eventually he ends up being "lost" in a poker game to one of my fellow PCs and is given his freedom. AT this point he and the player who "won" him realize he is a sorcerer. Thus begins his adventuring days. I plan on playing him as later on years, but not necessarily as venerable. I am thinking of him as similar to the house elves in Harry Potter. We play 3.5, but allow pathfinder classes on an approved basis. No more than 3 classes total. any suggestions?

Thank in advance.

[nedz]

Do you want to build to a theme, or simply want power ?
Both options revolve around spell choices.
If the latter — read the handbooks, if the former — what theme will he have ?

[somethingrandom]

What sort of suggestions are you looking for?

[bjoern]

It would be reasonable to believe that he has some intangible fears due to being locked up so much and treated poorly. This could influence his spell selection. I see a lot of self defensive spells being appropriate like invisibility, teleporting spells, anything that he may have wished he had while a slave. He probably wouldn't be an offensive piece of artillery, but he would be elusive and hard to nab in combat. If the enemy zeros in on him, he would have spells to evade attacks (like wings of cover) and make the enemy look like they are chasing a chicken around the farm.

Edit --and alter self for access to ways to escape like digging, swimming, etc. Polymorph also for this purpose. So long as he stays in character and uses for elusiveness and not game breaking you should be OK, just use restraint.

[Hyena]

There's a feat called Dragonwrought in Races of the Dragon, you migth want to take a look.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Desert Kobolds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertKobolds) don't have a Con penalty. Get the Draconic Rite of Passage in Races of the Dragon to get either Nerveskitter or Benign Transposition as a 1/day spell-like ability. Take Draconic Reservoir (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) to make it usable 3/day, and at 6th level do the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a). Also don't forget to claim your free racial traits (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a), particularly slight build.

Take Ancestral Relic and make it a custom Runestaff (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4), you don't have to go full-cheese-mode with that, just keep it simple and use it to expand your limited number of spells known. As a staff it will count as a double weapon, so put two wand chambers from Dungeonscape in it. It'll be sort of like Gandalf's staff, if he's disarmed of it he's almost powerless, though it wouldn't be as significant for you to lose it.

Take two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) to get two extra feats. Traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm) can be useful, particularly Passionate in this case, but most of those are very situational.

Decide if you want to do any sort of theme. For example, I premade some characters for an adventure I was going to run and one is a Desert Kobold Sorcerer named Cyan. She has the Dragonblood Sorcerer 1 sub level for Draconic Heritage (Blue), she has the Storm Bolt reserve feat, along with Split Ray and Practical Metamagic: Split Ray, and Draconic Power for a +1 DC on electric effects. She knows Arc of Lightning, Electric Vengeance, Ray of Stupidity, Ray of Dizziness, Enervation, and a bunch of otherwise typical spells (Wings of Cover, Wall of Smoke, Web, Glitterdust, Heart of Water/Earth, etc.). Her high Dex and small size are ideal for using rays, and she really likes electricity.

I've previously recommended Sorcerer builds involving a Spellthief dip into Unseen Seer, Spellwarp Sniper, and Arcane Trickster, considering the Rules Compendium's clarification that if a special attack such as a spell takes a full-round action to cast, all of the attacks it makes get to add precision damage such as sneak attack. That means a Scorching Ray with something like Invisible Spell or Split Ray from a spontaneous caster will add sneak attack to every ray it fires, since its casting time is increased to a full-round action for the metamagic. However, such builds aren't really viable if you're limiting yourself to only three classes including prestige classes.

Most of the principles from a given Wizard Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.0) can be applied to a Sorcerer, keeping in mind the class's limitations (spells known, class skills). Generally you want a spell to target each type of saving throw (Color Spray, Grease, and Wall of Smoke at 1st, Glitterdust, Web, and Cloud of Bewilderment at 2nd, Slow, Bands of Steel, and Stinking Cloud at 3rd, etc.), though you don't really need one of each those at every spell level. You also want at least a few spells that deal a variety of damage (Scorching Ray and Fireball both deal fire, don't get both). Reserve feats in CM are particularly useful if you want to be able to spam damage without using up all your spell slots, if you take Heighten Spell you'll (arguably) be able to count your highest level available spell slot for what you have available to cast when determining the power of your reserve feat. At least one summoning spell is useful, but don't make it a 1st level spell. Alter Self can give you natural armor (Troglodyte or Crucian), flight (Avariel), a swim speed (Locathah), burrow speed (Asabi), etc., so always be sure to get it. Spells that you would cast only once each day (Greater/Superior Resistance, Endure Elements, Mage Armor) would be better left to your Runestaff.