Making a Dwarven/Duergar Fire Sorcerer viable...

[Spore]

Due to the recent Hearthstone patch bringing up old lore from the Warcraft universe I wanted to recreate a famous facette of Dwarven culture. Why? Because half my table plays cliché dwarves and loves them and I can't STAND the next beer brewing drunkard to be in my group. And I wanted to create a sorcerer as well as a Dwarven character a long time ago. Now to the obvious problem:

Dwarves are TERRIBLE attribute-wise at sorcery. And if it weren't bad enough, Dark Iron Dwarves are actually Warcraft's Duergar which would mean -4 on Charisma. (netting me in a hearty Cha 14 at the game start). Now these Dwarves tried to summon and control the largest fire elemental ever, Ragnaros. And I can see why they failed such an opposing charisma check.

Still, my desire to play a working Fire Sorcerer is great. I do not like Crossblooded Empyreal/Fire Sorcerers because besides having every spell level TWO levels later than a wizard this also screws over my fluff big time. I COULD do an Arcanist as they do not suffer as hard from low Charisma (Sage bloodline is another possibility but the delayed spells are a big turnoff). Do you know a solution for my problem?

Sources: Paizo main line of books, with exceptions for D&D material as long as it's short and fits in both power and flavor.

[Kantolin]

The easiest way to be a low-casting-stat-mage is to focus on spells that don't have saves. Summons, attack roll spells (Scorching ray), buffs, walls, battlefield control in general. Calling.

Although realistically, while having a -2 to your spell DCs is clearly suboptimal compared to not, it doesn't really influence how you play.

Edit: To clarify that a bit...

While having essentially a -2 to your spell DCs vs a human is indeed a drawback, it's not insurmountable. Summarily, if you build your duergar sorceror as though he was a regular sorceror, the only time you'll really run into a headache is if you can't cast your highest level spell when you obtain it.

Sorcerors are pretty awesome - taking the 'dink' of a -2 to spell save DCs won't at all make the character unplayable or even particularly sub-par in a typical adventuring party.

[avr]

I think your Arcanist does indeed solve the problem. Presumably a Blood Arcanist (elemental : fire), though Occultist and summoning a bunch of fire elementals could work. Better than a blasting sorcerer who avoids all spells with save DCs does anyway.

If you want the nastiest imaginable fire elemental then playing a summoner and theming your eidolon accordingly is an option. Summoners don't need a lot of charisma and get a few fiery spells like wall of fire as a 3rd level spell.

You're going to want 3.5's Searing Spell feat if fire is your favorite element and you're playing an arcanist or sorcerer.

[andreww]

If you were willing to broaden your theme a little you could always go Shaman with the Flame Spirit. Dwarves make excellent Shamans.

[Spore]

Sorcerors are pretty awesome - taking the 'dink' of a -2 to spell save DCs won't at all make the character unplayable or even particularly sub-par in a typical adventuring party.

It's not only the DCs. It's DCs, spells per day and opposed charisma checks. Also I dislike a work around that essentially defeats the purpose of the character. Oh, and not being Human hurts as well because of lacking bonus spells.


I think your Arcanist does indeed solve the problem. Presumably a Blood Arcanist (elemental : fire), though Occultist and summoning a bunch of fire elementals could work.

Both are fine. Thanks for the input. I didn't even look at the archetypes of Arcanist.

[atemu1234]

Later, you can make up for the penalty with magic items.