Solo Sorcerer help

[magicalmagicman]

Character is starting at level 1

All sourcebooks are allowed, but no dragon magazine

I have no idea what the DM has planned, except he told me he will be using premade adventure books, so it's going to be designed for a party rather than a solo PC, which means I will have to rely on leveling up quickly to get through the campaign.

He'll be going by wealth by level.

Prestige classes are allowed, and other classes as a dip are allowed, but sorcerer has to be the main class.

All items are for sale, but the rule of no buying an item worth more than half my wealth by level applies.

How should I build my sorcerer? Should I go a gish route? What spells should I pick?

This is a bet by the way, and I really want to win it.

[RoboEmperor]

Spells
1. Silent image
Create a massive great wyrm. Depending on your DM it is a no-save-end-encounter spell or a save-or-end-encounter spell.

2. Color Spray
AoE save-or-die

3. Arcanist Gloves(item) + summon monster I
Summon celestial dogs, and they last 3 rounds, long enough for them to do stuff

4. Arcanist Gloves(item) + Lesser Orb of ___ OR magic missile
Enough damage to kill stuff in 1 or 2 shots.

Tactics
1. Hirelings. There was a post about it somewhere on this forum. Anyways, basically for like 6sp/day you get a 1hd fighter, so hire 20 of em and take out your first dungeon. Might not be viable if it takes a few days to get to the dungeon, because you need to pay for a round trip. If you do go this route though, be sure to make them trip as many enemies as they can before attacking.

Thats all I got on the top of my head.

[GilesTheCleric]

If you're soloing, your most important challenge is to either 1) kill everything before they hit you or 2) have things not hit you. The most important resource you can obtain will be action economy (3).

Tactics for 1: Focus on AoE + single target damage (mailman + AoE). Without a second character to CdG your SoS'd foes, those SoSes don't really help much against more than one foe.

Tactics for 2: This will vary by situation. Teleportation, Mirror Image, Flying, Invisibility, Burrowing, assassinating, pretending to be the foes, etc. Having several of these available would be better than just one.

If you can find a way to get Spring Attack + burrow at level one, then that's probably the safest method, but I'm not sure if it's possible. I recall there being a very good post/handbook about burrowing, but I don't think I bookmarked it.

3: Quicken Spell, Mirror Image, Twin/Repeat spell, cohorts/ familiar/ minions/ pets/ etc, Belt of Battle, and the like will help you greatly. I recommend looking into things you can do with a familiar to make it into a combat force unto itself. You can also get a Warbeast mount or Druid's animal companion, which should be able to carry you through the early levels.

Edit: Some of the folks in this challenge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?396792-3-5e-The-Howling-Arena-Sand-amp-Glory&p=18771637) use pets, mounts, and other things to great effect.

Otherwise, I don't think pre-gen encounters are too difficult so long as you're not the one getting your face smashed in. If you go with a tank/pet, then focusing on AoOs and tripping could be a good way to go. Wolves are pretty good at that. If your tank can stop most things from getting to you, then your only fear is archers/ranged attackers.

[With a box]

have an ancestral relic runestaff at 3rd and put bazillion spells you want in it. utillity spells, mostly.
you are now have a lot of spells known.

Take Ancestral Relic (BoED) at 3rd level, and make it a custom Runestaff (MIC p224). You get to decide every spell that's on it and how often each can be used. Every time you upgrade/modify it you can completely replace its current properties with new ones if equal value. The value of its magical properties has a level-based limit, but there is no limit to the value you can sacrifice into it for later use.

When your party would sell junk loot for half price, buy it from the party pool for that price. You'll still get a fair share of that back when the cash is split, so for example in a party of four characters, 1,000 gp worth of junk loot will cost you 500 gp, and you'll get 125 gp of that back, for a net cost of 375 gp. You can sacrifice the full value of all that junk loot into your Ancestral Relic to upgrade it, so it's upgraded for considerably less than half price.
and as it have same cost, change spells in said runestaff wound't cost any. (and no time cost)

[Lvl45DM!]

Character is starting at level 1

All sourcebooks are allowed, but no dragon magazine

I have no idea what the DM has planned, except he told me he will be using premade adventure books, so it's going to be designed for a party rather than a solo PC, which means I will have to rely on leveling up quickly to get through the campaign.

He'll be going by wealth by level.

Prestige classes are allowed, and other classes as a dip are allowed, but sorcerer has to be the main class.

All items are for sale, but the rule of no buying an item worth more than half my wealth by level applies.

How should I build my sorcerer? Should I go a gish route? What spells should I pick?

This is a bet by the way, and I really want to win it.

Have you considered...not being a sorcerer? or is that central to the bet?

[Lerondiel]

Gee, it's going to be painful at first level.

If you start with sorcerer with a handful of hit points and fail a spot/listen check any stray arrow can put you down before you begin.

You'll either need to take that class dip first up or push for a racial progression like Sylph...with flight, invisibility, SR and casting equal to ECL you have a good fighting chance.

[GilesTheCleric]

Are flaws and LA allowed? Also, Evil/taint rules?

[magicalmagicman]

Have you considered...not being a sorcerer? or is that central to the bet?

It is central to the bet. I bet that a sorcerer can solo a campaign designed for levels 1 through 20.


Are flaws and LA allowed? Also, Evil/taint rules?

Everything is allowed as long as it's from a book not a magazine. Flaws are allowed, if I do go a LA race it will be using the LA buyoff rules. I don't know what evil/taint rules is, but it does remind me of the devil pact in fiendish codex II, which I should take advantage of since there will be 0 chance of resurrection for me.

[GilesTheCleric]

If you play an evil undead afflicted with lots of taint from HoH 67, you'll get some extra bonus feats for no drawback. Except that you're very, very evil.

[atemu1234]

It is central to the bet. I bet that a sorcerer can solo a campaign designed for levels 1 through 20.



Everything is allowed as long as it's from a book not a magazine. Flaws are allowed, if I do go a LA race it will be using the LA buyoff rules. I don't know what evil/taint rules is, but it does remind me of the devil pact in fiendish codex II, which I should take advantage of since there will be 0 chance of resurrection for me.

Taint refers to Taint and Depravity from Heroes of Horror, which was based on the taint rules from Unearthed Arcana, which was based on the taint rules from Oriental Adventures.

[SinsI]

He'll be going by wealth by level.

That needs some consideration. Since you have only a single character, you will receive only 1/4 of the non-XP rewards a party of the appropriate level would've received. While you receive 4x times the XP reward in each encounter, since "XP is a river", after you are 4 levels above what the party was supposed to be, you'd be gaining only the normal XP. So expect to be +3 levels or less over what the adventure was made for.

That means at low levels you will probably be about equal to a party, but at levels 13+ you will have only half of the wealth a party would've gained.

Ask him for proper Treasure per Encounter.

You are going to be really starved for actions, so get Improved Familiar - Imp ASAP and equip him with wands.

[GilesTheCleric]

Well, since you already know your class, I guess the next thing is to determine race. Here's a few options:

Spellscale: swap out a free MM feat daily
Kobold, with a side of american cheese (not too cheesy): No penalties for old age, plus Draconic Rite benefits as you level.
Strongheart Halfling: Bonus feat, bonus AC
Silverbrow Human: Dragonblooded, bonus feat
Illumian: 2/day free MM
Dragonborn: Free stats
Azurin: Bonus feat, 1 essentia
White Dragonspawn +1 LA, DCS 222: +1 sorc level, can be bought off easily
Primordial Giant template+giant base: at least +2 cha, access to Elder Giant Magic feat early (+3 DC)
Lesser Planetouched: some neat options, depending on race
Planetouched: Outsider goodness
Anthropomorphic Creature, small: most of these don't have cha penalties, but significant physical stat bonuses. They also give AC bonuses
Edit: How could I forget necropolitan? Evolved Undead can be added, too.
Also, Warforged. Talk about AC boosts, and Red Fel mentioned in another thread that it combos well with Dragonborn.

Double edit: FYI, I know little about sorcerers. However, this seems like a fun challenge, so I'll try to contribute. Also, no drag mag, but what about the Dragon Compendium?

[SinsI]

Don't forget to get a Major Bloodline (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7167) from UA.
You "buy it off" by paying XP equal to what you need for leveling up before 3rd, 6th and 12th levels to get an additional "bloodline level" that don't count towards character level but counts as additional class level for every class you have and for skill cap, allowing earlier entrance into PRCs, a higher caster level and extra progression for PRCs like War Weaver that benefit from every additional class level greatly but only have 5 levels or less.

It would be perfect for you since you would receive extra power for XP you will have in abundance without increasing your level (and thus reducing your XP gain). Anything that increases your power in exchange for XP is a very good tradeoff for you, since you don't need abilities higher level than appropriate party's.

[ExLibrisMortis]

This (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/4165926) sorcerer build was made to cover many enemy types, while remaining good at stealth and at finding traps. It's not tanky, obviously, but with the stealth it has, it doesn't have to be.

[magicalmagicman]

These are all great suggestions.

I don't know why I said wealth per level when the DM is just gonna give me all the loot from the dungeons, so he has 0 control over loot.

I guess this is the time to learn what bloodlines do, and yes I agree with what everything you said SinsI, XP for power without gaining levels is most optimal for me.

Before I pick a race, I need to decide on a style of sorcerer.

Invis+summons?
Save-or-die?
Blasting?

I have access to as many scrolls as I can afford (which should be a lot because I'll be getting all the loot), so please keep that in consideration as well.

[GilesTheCleric]

You can always make your own wealth, either with WBL exploits, or just item creation feats. [edit: actually, with extradimensional storage space and object destruction, you can harvest a dungeon for its mundane materials and sell those as well. Free gp if you're patient]

I vote for summon/ minionmancy, since they can probably go the distance most efficiently, and work best at low levels as well. They can also grant you access to things like True Seeing, flight, and healing without devoting explicit slots to those things. Having more bodies doesn't hurt, either.

[magicalmagicman]

You can always make your own wealth, either with WBL exploits, or just item creation feats. [edit: actually, with extradimensional storage space and object destruction, you can harvest a dungeon for its mundane materials and sell those as well. Free gp if you're patient]

I vote for summon/ minionmancy, since they can probably go the distance most efficiently, and work best at low levels as well. They can also grant you access to things like True Seeing, flight, and healing without devoting explicit slots to those things. Having more bodies doesn't hurt, either.

Planar binding is my end-game strategy, so I just need to survive until I reach level 10.

Knowing my DM, there will be minimal down-time, so no crafting, setting up a business, etc.

[GilesTheCleric]

With an intelligent familiar or cohort, you can still have downtime while adventuring. There's also the Diablo/Torchlight method of using Word of Recall or similar to go back and forth, so long as your haul is valued high enough to make it worthwhile. The Dedicated Wright can work, too.

If you're just trying to get to 10, then I'd still recommend summoning. At < 3, mundane pets/ mounts/ companions have a longer duration, but after that SM/ SNA/ SU can probably do the trick.

[Warrnan]

Trade out your familiar for standard action summoning then grab wild cohort and obtain familiar/improved familiar. Also augment summoning.

Being completely untargetable should be your goal. Research summons/familiar who can deal with traps. I'd say multiclass one level of rogue +able learner to grab trap finding but honestly you don't want to be anywhere traps if they accidentally go off on a nat1 or whatever.

Also. Gish just a tad for improved hit point totals. Runesmith will get you casting in full plate but you have to be a dream dwarf (no charisma penalty). sorcerorX/fighter1(other class with full plate works too)/runesmith1 asap. abjurant champion5 then optionally eldritch knight. This nets you some of d10 and d8 HD and loses you one caster level up front and one caster level if you take eldritch knight. Maybe take malconvoker class to make your summons even more awesome.

Even if you don't want armor take abjurant champion for the d10s and full casting and buff buffs. It's basically wizard/sorcerer levels 10-14.

Spells like nerve skitter, alter fortune, and moment of prescience to go first, reroll saves and add huge bonuses to anything are a must.

As much as possible, grab these defenses: %miss chance, energy resistance, temporary HP, and save bonuses. If they have a percentage to miss as well as your AC they have two chances to fail and miss. Defensive layers are great even if you are invisible/ on another plane.
At higher levels set up contingent spells such as delay death, heal, teleport, and revivify. Grab a method of healing thru either arcane disciple or find a presitige class with use magic device. Potions for a non-healer can get expensive quick.

A healing belt is also a cheap way for a non-healer to recover. Draconic aura vigor could be a great passive way to get some hp if you would wrangle a dragon blooded dreamdwarf. A custom magic item or permancied mass lesser vigor could work too for keeping yourself/cohort/familiar/animal companions alive. Also a custom infinite item of lessor vigor could work.

For your minions: all high strength (see animal companion) types should have improved trip, combat reflexes then eventually knockdown, stand still, and karmic strike.

All creatures with sneak attack dice (see familiars) should gain the feat staggering strike as soon as they can.

Between staggering strike, trip and stand still no enemy should never full attack or get near you.

[Flickerdart]

Shame that Dragon Magazine isn't allowed - you could have taken a few Extra Familiar feats and built your own party. You can still get multiples, though, because the text of the limitation rule reads like this:

"A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time."

This is obviously exploitable - as long as you only have one class that grants a familiar (and all your other familiars are granted by non-class sources) you can have more than one. Obtain Familiar makes absolutely no mention of not working if you already have a familiar, so that's two. If you feel like taking a Shadowcaster dip (maybe because you want Noctumancer?) you can take Shadow Familiar and gain a third familiar, but it's not really worth it. It'll probably be better to take Leadership and grab a proper dude instead.

Both the sorcerer familiar and the Obtain Familiar familiar will benefit from Improved Familiar/Celestial Familiar/Dragon Familiar. I recommend Celestial Familiar for Coure Eladrin - they are excellent scouts, plus they're super cute. Don't forget that your familiars can wear weapons, armour, and items, as well as use wands and scrolls if you have UMD ranks for them to use.

Sorcerers could also decently go for the necromancy route and sweep through opposition with undead hordes. At higher levels, use planar binding to get some muscle as backup - all those outsiders will appreciate your spare gold. Just because you have no party members doesn't mean you need to be lonely!

[Zaq]

If you have a good method of running away for a couple rounds, Power Word: Pain (Races of the Dragon, pg. 116) is basically a death sentence at low levels, but it doesn't work immediately. If you can survive long enough for it to do its thing, though, it's all but guaranteed to kill whatever you cast it on, and it's just a first level spell. Check it out.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Get Power Word: Pain from Races of the Dragon, it deals lethal damage to a target for quite a few levels.

Take Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) and trade your Familiar for an Animal Companion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#sorcererWizard) to get two free war-trained Magebred Riding Dogs (only Druids and Rangers are prohibited from recruiting Magebred animals as companions). Say you used Handle Animal to add the Warbeast template in MM2 to each of them, and consider picking up Natural Bond. These should carry your character for quite a few levels, and will continue being useful for his entire adventuring career. Once you get a decent caster level you should start putting Mage Armor on each of those and yourself.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Actually, warbeast is an inherited template, that cannot be added to an existing animal using Handle Animal. Vermin can be warbeasts, for example, even though they are untrainable, by virtue of not having an intelligence score. The template also mentions that warbeasts are "bred for exceptional strength" etcetera.

[jiriku]

The strongest approaches for you at low level will rely on stealth and misdirection. Choose options that make you sneaky.
Charm person, charm monster, and animate dead are powerful since you can use them to recruit damage sponges.
Battlefield control is of minimal value until you get your minionmancy started.
A healing belt will heal you effectively at low levels, but at higher levels you'll need something better. The cervidal guardinal (summon monster IV) can heal a little, removes poison and disease, and has a useful dismissal effect that is almost impossible to save against. With lesser planar binding you can get a hollyphant, which is probably all the healing you will ever need plus it can cast raise dead to bring back lost minions.

[magicalmagicman]

Trade out your familiar for standard action summoning then grab wild cohort and obtain familiar/improved familiar. Also augment summoning.

How do I trade out my familiar for standard action summoning? I thought only conjuration specialist wizards can do that.

[With a box]

Can we "dip" a druid at first level?
And take sorcerer from 2nd

[Endarire]

Dragonwrought Loredrake Earth Kobold Sorcerer3/Shadowcraft Mage5/Incantatrix10/Full Casting+X. You're going for the adaptation of Shadowcraft mage for any race. If you can also swing it, take the White Dragonspawn template for wings, a breath weapon, 7 natural AC, and an extra Sorcerer level! Yes, you can buy off that level adjustment and be one level ahead of the curve!

-=FEATS=-
1:Dragonwrought, Heighten Spell, and Spell Focus: Illusion.

3: Metamagic School Focus: Illusion

6: Draconic Rite. I recommend identify or charm person or something you need as the spell-like ability granted by this feat. This feat is useful for giving you yet another Sorcerer level!

Beyond this, I recommend studying the Shadowcraft Mage Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1065756).

-=SPELLS=-
Start with these spells:

0: Ghost Sound

1: Silent Image

Before taking your first Shadowcraft Mage level, ensure you also take the level 1 spell Net of Shadows to qualify you for the class.

-=OTHER NOTES=-
At level 1, minions are your friends. Magebred Mules are wonderful purchases for 16G each!

At higher levels, minions are still your friends. Summoning is quite useful and so are Magebred Mules - with the Warbeast template if you can also swing it.

[Warrnan]

You're right. I confused te conjurer variant with the sorceror variant rapid metamagic. My bad.

I guess metamagic rods of rapid spell would be an important investment. 3000g for the level 1-3 version.

In this case is be tempted to do an arcane hierophant for the super pet! With precocious apprentice you could theurge with only one lost sorceror level.

Also unseen seer build also sounds tempting. For trap skills and continued nearly full casting progression. Rogue1/sorceror6/unseenseer10/
Arcane trickster3 would net you lots of skills and 19 CL. Use mage hand to unlock doors and traps from far away.

[Lerondiel]

Between ACFs, feats and PrCs the character will be okay from mid levels but again that level one is a real issue.

A handful of goblins with +5 Hide/MS and ranged weapons....a trapped door doing 2d6 fire...a few skeletons...


It really has a level of warforged crusader with devoted spirit stance/strike almost falling into the essential category.

[gogogome]

I guess metamagic rods of rapid spell would be an important investment. 3000g for the level 1-3 version.


I can't find metamagic rod of rapid spell. Which book is that from? Curious because this metamagic rod seems too good to be true, like metamagic still rod.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I highly recommend White Dragonspawn (DLCS) with a negative level adjustment (PGtF). Those wings and natural armor are amazing at low levels. (The wings actually never stop being amazing.) The bonus sorcerer level is just icing on the cake.

[GilesTheCleric]

I found a method that might work, if other folks can clarify. Abyss-bound Soul (Demogorgon) allows you to summon a tanar'ri 1/day for 1 hour, with CR equal to up to 1/2 your character level.

Now, there's two problems with this. First, it doesn't say "minimum of one", so can you summon CR 1 tanar'ri at level 1? Further, the only CR 1 tanar'ri I can find, the Mane (FC1 45, BoVD 169) doesn't say anything about the Summon Tanar'ri Sp that it ought to have. If it has it and can summon additional Manes, the tanar'ri subtype doesn't say anything about the summoned tanar'ri losing that ability. However, I seem to recall that summoned creatures lack the ability to summon more creatures when it's a spell; is the same true for spell-like abilities?

Otherwise, a single Mane by itself isn't really strong enough to be a sufficient tank at level one -- a wolf, spider, or riding dog would probably be a better choice.

[Flickerdart]

First, it doesn't say "minimum of one", so can you summon CR 1 tanar'ri at level 1?
No. CR is fractional, so you can only summon a CR 1/2 tanar'ri (of which none exist, probably). Even if it wasn't, D&D rounds down, so you'd get 0.

[GilesTheCleric]

Well, I could hope. I'll be sure to post if I find anything else while I work on builds. I did note that the Combat Familiar feat gives your familiar immunity to AoOs form entering foes' squares, but I don't think any familiar's odds of winning with high AC but low damage would make that worthwhile. If there's a tiny-sized familiar that can actually kill things, then it might.

[Flickerdart]

If there's a tiny-sized familiar that can actually kill things, then it might.
Thanks to shared spells of the "1 touch attack per CL of horrible doom" variety, tiny-sized familiars are rather good at killing things.

[GilesTheCleric]

Thanks to shared spells of the "1 touch attack per CL of horrible doom" variety, tiny-sized familiars are rather good at killing things.

Hmn, that might work then. I was worried about there being enough spells per day to make it work. On a related note, Shadowform Familiar CoR 22 gives your familiar incorporeality.

[Flickerdart]

Hmn, that might work then. I was worried about there being enough spells per day to make it work. On a related note, Shadowform Familiar CoR 22 gives your familiar incorporeality.
Examples of the sort of spell you'd use start as early as level 1 (chill touch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/chillTouch.htm)). My favourite spell of this type is actually a shadowcaster mystery (Umbral Touch - 5d6 damage and save vs slow) but wizards have quite a few to enjoy as well.

[Endarire]

@OP (MagicalMagicMan): I'd like to hear more of your opalescent adventures!

[magicalmagicman]

@OP (MagicalMagicMan): I'd like to hear more of your opalescent adventures!

I won the bet, the DM gave up. Anti-climactic I know.

He decided to go with slaughtergarde campaign. I used my initial 70gp to hire a lot of hirelings and cleared half of the dungeon out and hit level 4 pretty quickly. Then I re-hired the hirelings with my loot, and with a lot of colorsprays I beat the 1st dungeon.

I then starting riding on a floating disk with invisibility on, bought two lesser metamagic silent rod an started spamming summon spells. The premade adventure was devoid of any invisible detection, and the DM couldn't find a reason for the inhabitants to get invisible detection because they don't even know I exist. After I cleared the 2nd dungeon with an army of fiendish apes, the DM gave up. I was too powerful for the rest of the module, and I would've hit level 10 before the module ended (i think) which was the "i win" point because I could planar bind a party of outsiders.

[Galvin]

I won the bet, the DM gave up. Anti-climactic I know.

He decided to go with slaughtergarde campaign. I used my initial 70gp to hire a lot of hirelings and cleared half of the dungeon out and hit level 4 pretty quickly. Then I re-hired the hirelings with my loot, and with a lot of colorsprays I beat the 1st dungeon.

I then starting riding on a floating disk with invisibility on, bought two lesser metamagic silent rod an started spamming summon spells. The premade adventure was devoid of any invisible detection, and the DM couldn't find a reason for the inhabitants to get invisible detection because they don't even know I exist. After I cleared the 2nd dungeon with an army of fiendish apes, the DM gave up. I was too powerful for the rest of the module, and I would've hit level 10 before the module ended (i think) which was the "i win" point because I could planar bind a party of outsiders.

Not to pee on your electricity, but wouldn't have activating the rods broke an Invisibility spell? (Unless you had Greater Invisibility, or course.)

[Flickerdart]

Not to pee on your electricity, but wouldn't have activating the rods broke an Invisibility spell? (Unless you had Greater Invisibility, or course.)
Why would activating a metamagic rod interfere with invisibility?

[Endarire]

@OP: What build did you use? Also, hiring hirelings at L1 is wonderful! Go, go invisibility!

[magicalmagicman]

@OP: What build did you use? Also, hiring hirelings at L1 is wonderful! Go, go invisibility!

I went summoner. I got color spray and mage armor at level 1. Then I got summon monster I at level 3, invisibility at level 4, summon monster II and floating disk at level 5, summon monster III at level 6 and swapped summon monster I out for nerveskitter, and that was pretty much it.

I was a lesser aasimar with two flaws for two bonus feats.

DM says I would've failed if he used the undermountain campaign because grells have blindsense.

[GilesTheCleric]

But he didn't use that one now, did he? So, you've won the bet. Congratulations!

[Ishimi]

Honestly I'd just say boost the crap out of hide, it's 1000000% better than illusions. Cast a hostile spell? Dispels invisibility but you can still hide, take silent casting and there's no worries of being heard. Since you're a sorcerer, you've got a decent amount of spells but I'd focus on conjuration if you do sneak often. Summon monster III and below, persistent spell (lasts 24hr) imbue summoning (for invisibility/ any other spell you want, and easy metamagic to lower the spells LA