Sorcerers: Most underpowered class?

[MethodicalMeat]

Maybe it's just me, but the sorcerer seems...lackluster when compared to the other classes. Is it the slow spell progression? Or the token simple weapon proficiency that they never really use? Any suggestions or balance tweaks people?

[Fax Celestis]

Yes.

Use the Battle Sorceror variant in UA, but subtract the loss of spells.

Or, use the spell point system in UA for sorcerors only.

[MethodicalMeat]

Cool, I'll have to check that out.

[Bears With Lasers]

Underpowered? Heck, no. The sorceror is still a full arcane caster. He's not quite as overhwlemingly mighty as the wizard, but he can still do a bunch of the same stuff.

Lackluster? Yeah. All they get is their familiar. That's it.

[Merlin the Tuna]

The Sorcerer is still a full spellcaster. Ergo he is still sitting pretty on the power curve. Now, could the class use some features? Certainly. Is he as powerful as his brethren (Cleric, Druid, & Wizard)? Definitely not. But he's no Fighter or Monk, that's for sure.

[martyboy74]

What? No, Sorcerors aren't underpowered! Compared to a Cleric/Druid/Wizard/Artificer, sure, but not against some of the other classes. They're still full casters!

[Innis Cabal]

healer....that is the most underpowered class

[MethodicalMeat]

I was more thinking core classes.

[Reinboom]

I avidly adore the sorcerers now, though I agree completely with the whole lackluster thought given here.
More love to Sorcerers!
edit - still as full casters they are still better off than most other classes

[Truwar]

The term “lackluster” hits the Sorcerer squarely on the head. Although are fairly powerful, there is absolutely NO good reason for them not to take a PrC that grants full spell progression as soon as they can.

[DaMullet]

I love Sorcerers, even without a houseruled larger hit die or Eschew Materials for bonus.

Why? Spontaneous casting. If I want to cast Tenser's Floating Disk, but I need to cast Spider Climb or Enlarge Person instead, I can. I don't need to say, "Well, crap. I can cast TFD, will that help your climb checks any?"

While there is much to say about the ability to learn new spells off of scrolls while Wizarding, there is even more to say about the ability to cast anything you know, any time, without any issues as far as what you thought you'd need that morning are concerned.

[kpenguin]

The term “lackluster” hits the Sorcerer squarely on the head. Although are fairly powerful, there is absolutely NO good reason for them not to take a PrC that grants full spell progression as soon as they can.

Unless you want a full familiar progression.

[Aquillion]

Honestly, someone should make some sort of cross between a sorceror and a warlock. The warlock has all the flavor; the sorceror has (enough of) the power. I think they were both originally aiming for roughly the same thing, but they both failed in different ways.

[MethodicalMeat]

Typically I give the sorcerer a d6 hit die, just to allow him to make slightly better use of his simple weapons proficiencies.

[Reinboom]

To take advantage of his weapon profs, I would recommend you also allow an average BAB and give them armored mage for light armor.

[martyboy74]

Unless you want a full familiar progression.
As he said, there is NO good reason for them not to take a PrC that grants full spell progression as soon as they can.

[Zincorium]

Unless you want a full familiar progression.

Frankly, a sorceror is much better off trading in the familiar for the ability to use metamagic without increasing casting time, from the PHB2. Every time I've seen someone actually attempt to get some use out of their familiar, it ends up being an easy target with serious consequences if it dies. Seriously, sending in your familiar to cast touch spells is going to make it as much of a target as you would be.

Granted, there are feats and spells which dramatically improve the familiar's abilities, but PrCs with more personal abilities are definitely more to at least my style. If I wanted something to sic on people I'd go with the paladin/beastmaster/halfling outrider cheese.

[Bears With Lasers]

Getting use out of your familiar is as easy as taking Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability as a spell known.

[kpenguin]

I'm not saying that taking further levels in sorcerer for a familiar is a good idea, but I can see someone doing it for flavor reasons or because they actually need the scouting ability. I'm surprised there aren't any familiar based PrCs.

[Rad]

one cool thing about them though is that they can freely multiclass to PrCs, since they have really nothing to lose.
If I were to play one I doubt how I could use the familiar, however.

[martyboy74]

Getting use out of your familiar is as easy as taking Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability as a spell known.
But do you actually need progression for that? Nope. Just get a lizard, or something inconspicuous, and occansionally let it out to buff you. After all, IFwSA onlt lets your familiar cast spells of fifth level or lower. I guess you could get some Cloudkills into it.

[MethodicalMeat]

To take advantage of his weapon profs, I would recommend you also allow an average BAB and give them armored mage for light armor.

That's actually a pretty good idea, I think I'll run that by my DM next time I play a sorcerer.

[Bears With Lasers]

But do you actually need progression for that? Nope. Just get a lizard, or something inconspicuous, and occansionally let it out to buff you. After all, IFwSA onlt lets your familiar cast spells of fifth level or lower. I guess you could get some Cloudkills into it.

You can get five or six spells, I forget which, of fifth level or lower. That's like quickening five or six spells for a single sixth level slot. Even better, since your familiar can cast, say, Quickened Ray of Enfeeblement + Split Ray of Exhaustion in one round.
You don't need familiar advancement for this, but I was talking about trading your familiar out for other abilities vs. keeping it, not staying as a pureclassed sorcerer.

[Zincorium]

You can get five or six spells, I forget which, of fifth level or lower. That's like quickening five or six spells for a single sixth level slot. Even better, since your familiar can cast, say, Quickened Ray of Enfeeblement + Split Ray of Exhaustion in one round.
You don't need familiar advancement for this, but I was talking about trading your familiar out for other abilities vs. keeping it, not staying as a pureclassed sorcerer.

So you're saying it is in fact better to be using a known spell and spell slots on imbue familiar, as opposed to trading it out for the ability to use metamagic on spells as a standard action? I can see how it could go either way. The familiar is still rather vulnerable as it stands.

[McDeath]

Look, there is something wrong with a class when you don't lose anything if you enter a prestige class. I just kinda wish sorcerers had something to gain from their own class - anything! But that doesn't make them underpowered. They can still tell the laws of physics to sit down and shut up.

[Reinboom]

Look, there is something wrong with a class when you don't lose anything if you enter a prestige class. I just kinda wish sorcerers had something to gain from their own class - anything! But that doesn't make them underpowered. They can still tell the laws of physics to sit down and shut up.

That's one of the major basis of my sorcerer modification attempt.

[Bears With Lasers]

So you're saying it is in fact better to be using a known spell and spell slots on imbue familiar, as opposed to trading it out for the ability to use metamagic on spells as a standard action? I can see how it could go either way. The familiar is still rather vulnerable as it stands.

There are various ways to make the familiar more survivable. The Familiar Pocket spell is one of those; it taking cover in your robes is another. You can take Rapid Metamagic to avoid the casting time increase instead of the substitution feature.

IFwSA works wonders. We all know how good Quicken is; IFwSA is like a bunch of almost-free slightly-worse (no personal spells, the familiar will be casting them) Quickens.

[Indon]

I do believe the PHBII, or perhaps the DMG, has an Improved Familiar feat, which lets you get something more... not-dies-in-one-shotish.

I seem to recall there are other feats to let you improve your familiar. I think there's one in the Book of Exalted Deeds, though that may have been for animal companions.

[JaronK]

Sorcerers aren't underpowered... they're still pretty much A listers, as they have access to all the top Wizard spells. They're just weaker than all the others who have full casting and a large spell list, because they can never access that whole list and have to give up chunks of it.

But yes, they're very boring with their class. You can get the Obtain Familiar feat and then you can PrC out without losing anything, including familiar benefits.

The problem with powering them up in any way to make them more interesting is that they're already stronger than any class that's not a full caster (except of course the Artificer, who can fake being a full caster).

JaronK

[Cruiser1]

The most common (and simplest) methods one hears of to balance Sorcerers are the following:

Get Eschew Materials as a bonus feat.
Get Rapid Metamagic as a bonus feat.
Get a bonus metamagic or item creation feat every 5th level like Wizards.

Give them all the above, and they're much improved. I actually like playing Sorcerers. Spontaneous casting means they take much less effort to play, since you're not fantically trying to figure out what to prepare each morning. They're good for NPC casters too, since the DM doesn't have to figure out their spellbook or what spells they have prepared.

[selfcritical]

Give them heritage feats at the rate that the Wizard gets metamagic feats. Have them pick a track(celestial, fey, dragon, infernal) at character creation

[Kalirren]

Don't forget that Magic Item Compendium introduced runestaves, which really help with increasing a sorceror's versatility.

Runestaves = 3/day trade an arcane spell slot of nth level to cast this nth-level spell instead.

[Miles Invictus]

I'd convert Sorcerers into a Bard-style variant. More skill points, better class skills, marginally higher hit die, improved weapon proficiencies, and an average attack bonus. Oh, and Eschew Materials for free.

[storybookknight]

Sorcerers do get access to a number of feats and advanced benefit from spells that wizards don't. While that's not really the same thing as having many interesting class features, it's also true that none of the full casting classes except for Druid really do.

[Dhavaer]

I do believe the PHBII, or perhaps the DMG, has an Improved Familiar feat, which lets you get something more... not-dies-in-one-shotish.

It's Complete Warrior.

[Wystrell]

I may be ignorant, but unless it's a bonus feat, what's the point of taking Eschew Materials? A spell component pouch only costs 5gp.

[Jacob Orlove]

one cool thing about them though is that they can freely multiclass to PrCs, since they have really nothing to lose.
Not so much, actually, because so many arcane PrCs are designed for Wizards. If you're aiming for a PrC with feat or skill prerequisites, it can be difficult to impossible for a sorcerer to enter on time (Loremaster is an extreme example: you can't get 10 ranks in two knowledge skills until level 17!). Even for a class that "just" requires a couple feats to enter, you have to weigh that against getting some useful metamagic, like Sculpt or Heighten or Empower, early enough to matter.

Sure, Sorcerers don't lose out on anything once they're in a PrC, but the upfront costs are a bigger chunk of their (seriously limited) resources than for almost any other class.

That said, Sorcerers are really good at levels 6+ (and not bad at 4-5). They don't really need a power boost, especially if you allow any of the quicken-lite stuff from splatbooks (watch out for Arcane Spellsurge, though). All they need is flavor, which you can develop through careful spell and feat selection. Moreso than any other (core) class, two sorcerers can be completely distinct from one another. Use that to emphasize your character, and you'll be fine.

Levels two and three are pretty depressing, though.

[Dhavaer]

I may be ignorant, but unless it's a bonus feat, what's the point of taking Eschew Materials? A spell component pouch only costs 5gp.

Because it doesn't make sense to many people that someone innately capable of casting spells needs bat droppings to throw fireballs.

[martyboy74]

I may be ignorant, but unless it's a bonus feat, what's the point of taking Eschew Materials? A spell component pouch only costs 5gp.
Plus, if your DM likes taking your stuff away from you, you can still cast the majority of your spells.

[MethodicalMeat]

Hey, does anyone know which book(s) has/have the heritage feats?

[Dhavaer]

Hey, does anyone know which book(s) has/have the heritage feats?

Complete Arcane and Complete Mage.

[MethodicalMeat]

Thank you.

[Tor the Fallen]

On the familar thing:
PHBII, trade in familar for using metamagic in a timely fashion
Get a familiar with the feat Obtain familar as your third level feat.


I think the psion is what the sorc should be.
Most spells a sorc learns at level one or two aren't that useful at, say level 10, without the use of feats, which make casting the spell a full round action. Even then, their save dc remains low. Psions, on the other hand, can augment a bunch of their powers, which typically boost both utility and their DC, augmenting doesn't take a full round, and they also get to use metapsionic feats, and they also get free feats.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Underpowered?

Sorc5/MotAO4/Iot7v7/AM4.

I cast spontaniously as a 20th level caster. I can pull any spell of 6th level or lower out of thin air, provided I pay it back with an equal number of spell levels later. This pretty much negates the Sorcerer's main weakness of not having every spell for every situation. With the expenditure of a Feat for Arcane Preparation, I can enter MotAO at 5th level (since it only requires 2nd level spells), which is quicker than any other PrC a Sorc can get into. MotAO 4 also lets me access any 5th level spell in the book to help me qualify for Archmage as well. Iot7v has almost identical prerequsites as AM, and gives me the ability to survive anything. AM for Arcane Reach, Mastery of Shaping, Mastery of Elements, and probably Spell Power, since Sorcerers really don't get much out of the Spell-Like Ability (unless it's possibly getting an extra time stop per day).

Sorc5/MotAO4/Incantatrix10/AM1

This is the offensive version. Arcane Reach FTW. PhB II variant, of course, since it'll be using Metamagic on nearly every spell cast. As above, only it trades supreme defensive power of Iot7V with the offensive and utility might of Incantatrix.

I defy you to call either of these builds sub-par.

[Tor the Fallen]

Neither of those are actually sorcerors, schneeky. You have to multiclass 3 times to achieve, more or less, what wizard 20 gets.

[AtomicKitKat]

Give them heritage feats at the rate that the Wizard gets metamagic feats. Have them pick a track(celestial, fey, dragon, infernal) at character creation

I had written up the preliminaries of that, but I think it was lost in the transition to the new forums. If someone is interested they could try digging it up. I still have a copy of the initial post in my hard disk somewhere, so if it's wanted, I could put it up again.

[Jacob Orlove]

Those builds are outrageously sub-par at low levels, where you effectively have no feats whatsoever. If the game goes to high levels (10+), great, but until then, you're far worse off than a normal Sorcerer, since you don't even have Metamagic to expand your spells known.

In some campaigns, those will work fine, but in a lot of them, they're trading away valuable utility now for future power that you're just not going to see.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Neither of those are actually sorcerors, schneeky. You have to multiclass 3 times to achieve, more or less, what wizard 20 gets.

To get more than what a wizard gets, actually. More spells per day. Metamagic on the fly, choosing exactly the right metamagic at the right time without any penalty (if I ditch my familiar). I don't need to know which spells I need to have metamagic'd... I just apply a given metamagic as needed.

Arguabally, a Sorc build like this is more powerful than a Wiz build with the same PrC's...

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Those builds are outrageously sub-par at low levels, where you effectively have no feats whatsoever. If the game goes to high levels (10+), great, but until then, you're far worse off than a normal Sorcerer, since you don't even have Metamagic to expand your spells known.

In some campaigns, those will work fine, but in a lot of them, they're trading away valuable utility now for future power that you're just not going to see.

By level 6 I am able to cast any 1-3rd spell in the PhB whenever I want to as a Sorcerer. This is hardly underpowered.

[Tor the Fallen]

To get more than what a wizard gets, actually. More spells per day. Metamagic on the fly, choosing exactly the right metamagic at the right time without any penalty (if I ditch my familiar). I don't need to know which spells I need to have metamagic'd... I just apply a given metamagic as needed.

Arguabally, a Sorc build like this is more powerful than a Wiz build with the same PrC's...

So there are two builds out there for sorc to get what a wiz 20 gets. How many books do you need to pull that off, including books for all the nifty feats/spells that bring the sorc up?
And still, only two options for sorc to be as good as a wizard, and 3/4 the levels non sorc?

That just goes to show how weak the sorc is.

[Jacob Orlove]

By level 6 I am able to cast any 1-3rd spell in the PhB whenever I want to as a Sorcerer. This is hardly underpowered.
Yeah, once a day. By level 6, I can buy scrolls. Or take Sudden Maximize if I want a crazy 1/day ability. More importantly, I can use Sculpt Spell.

[AtomicKitKat]

Sorcerors shouldn't even be allowed into Mage of the Arcane Order. Stupid mechanics going against the fluff. *headdesks the person who failed to proof-read it*

[Fax Celestis]

Metamagic on the fly, choosing exactly the right metamagic at the right time without any penalty (if I ditch my familiar). I don't need to know which spells I need to have metamagic'd... I just apply a given metamagic as needed.

...unfortunately, Metamagic Specialist is only usable 3+Int mod times per day. I think you'll probably be casting more spells than that, no?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

...unfortunately, Metamagic Specialist is only usable 3+Int mod times per day. I think you'll probably be casting more spells than that, no?

Nope. PhB II variant has no limitation on how many times per day it can be used.

[Dhavaer]

Nope. PhB II variant has no limitation on how many times per day it can be used.


Yopu can use this class feature a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Int modifier (minimum 1). This is an extraordinary ability.

This is at the very top of the second column on that page.

[Bears With Lasers]

People talk up the MotAO's Spellpool ability WAY too much. You can only get so many spell levels a day. 1/class level, I think.
Being able to cast 10 spell levels from the PHB every day is far from the same as a wizard's versatility.

[Dhavaer]

People talk up the MotAO's Spellpool ability WAY too much. You can only get so many spell levels a day. 1/class level, I think.

Close. Half caster level.

[CASTLEMIKE]

The Generic UA Spellcaster gets Extra Bonus Feats at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20 for forfeiting a single highest daily spellcasting and the Best Spell from All Spell lists and a variant skill choice list, Int or Char for Primary.

Consider making a UA Battle Spellcaster instead of Battle Sorcerer: D8, No ASF in light armor with light armor proficiency, single hand held weapon proficiency, Rogue BAB some loss of daily spellcasting but not progression.

Now add in some of those PHBII and Complete Mage or Alternate source book Feats.

Now that is starting to look like a Suel Arcanmach D8, 4SPs, +6 Spell DCs, Freebie +0 Meta Extended Personal Spells Increasing Negative ASF Modifier from 5% to 20% over 10 levels.


You might model it on the Favored Soul "Template" for Known Spells and give a Bonus Feat where a Favored Soul gets some special ability.

Model it on the Beguiler "Template": D6, Beguiler weapon proficiencies, more skill points and choices, No ASF in light armor, bonus feats at 1, 5, 10,15 and 20 like the UA Spellcaster Variant (I'd have them keep the summon familiar though not let them swap it out for Eschew Materials since they would be getting the level 1 Bonus Feat) keep standard sorcerer known spells and spellcasting.

Now there is something to lose PRCing as many of the "Best" arcane PRCs are D4 for hit dice and have fewer skill points per level in those PRCs (Important in a skill based campaign) plus losing an "Open" Generic Bonus Feat at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20.

I would like to see the Collegiate Sorcerer Feat akin to the Collegiate Wizard Feat from Complete Arcane or the Educated Sorcerer akin to the Educated Wilder Feat.

[Roderick_BR]

I'd say that sorcerers are a good option for DMs that find wizards too overpowered, but the player still wants to play a arcane caster. Do the familiar/fast metamagic switch, to trade an mostly useless class feature for a way to reduce a limitation, and you're golden.
Maybe allow him a better spell progression, tough it doesn't matter once he's higher level, but keep the limit of known spells. He stll can cast way more times than a wizard, and can get most any itens, feats, and PrCs that wizards can.

[ravenkith]

Sorceror = 2nd worst class straight out of the PHB (the honor of first goes to the bard).

Of course, this is just my opinion.

With the expanded playset, however, the sorceror starts to become a more viable option.

Trading in the familiar for the ability to apply metamagic on the fly is almost a must. (PHBII)

MOTAO & Incantatrix & Archmage build is very good.

Especially if you take reach spell and go for touch save or sucks.

But strictly speaking, wizards will always be better than sorcerors, at least until wotc starts coming out with sorc only prcs that don't blow goats.

Until that happens, Reserve feats kick much ass for the sorceror. (Complete Mage)

Think about it: a smart sorceror need never run completely out of power, and if you take a mix of reserve feats, you can provide yourself with at least a modicum of versatility as well.

But as I said, Sorcs need some prc lovin.

[AllisterH]

AS others have pointed out, sorcerors are STILL full casters. Way better than anyone not named cleric or druid or wizard from the core classes.

Of the 40+ base classes released since 3.0, the only base classes I've seen on WOTC's CO board they consider "STRONGER" than the sorceror would be the psion, the artificer, the favoured soul AND maybe the archivist (depending on how lenient the DM is about divine spells & domain spells).

When you still outclass more than 90% of the official classes released, no way can you be called "weak".

The problem with the sorceror is that they are flavourless (and yes, it seems like the warlock got all the flavour). Compare the sorceror to its direct divine analogue (the favoured soul) as well as the newer spontaneous casters (dread necromancer, beguiler etc) and you can see that WOTC has learned that spontaneity can be balanced as long as it isn't too large a choice.

Remember, the sorceror was a new concept for D&D and the old TSR/WOTC designers wanted to err on the side of caution (and they didn't playtest high levels enough as well) so thus we have the flavourless sorceror.

[Jacob Orlove]

Nope. PhB II variant has no limitation on how many times per day it can be used.
You might be thinking of Rapid Metamagic, from Complete Mage. It's an excellent feat that Sorcerers can pick up at level 9 (requires 12 ranks in spellcraft), assuming they haven't spent all their feat slots and skill points elsewhere to qualify for PrCs. It's also a lot more useful if you already have some metamagic feats, and especially if your build lets you take Quicken at level 12, which is excellent.

At lower levels, Metamagic Specialist is nice (probably better than the familiar), but you can usually afford to spend a full round on metamagic'd spells. It's only with Quicken that you really *need* something to speed up the process.

Edit: and that "flavorless" argument is still bunk. You get to choose literally dozens of class features, sometimes as many as 3-4 per level. There's nothing that says "all sorcerers are like THIS", but that's, in my opinion, a good thing. I'd rather have a character who is a complete blank slate than one who is pigeonholed into only a few possibilities, thanks to "flavorful" class features.

You just have to be willing to do the work of creating a spell and feat selection that is not only effective, but makes sense for your character. I always play out the development of new spells for my sorcerers--it's a good way to emphasize the character's flavor, and to make sure you don't grab effective spells that you can't justify.

[CASTLEMIKE]

The UA Generic Spellcaster made some nice changes to the Sorcerer and no so great for the Favored Soul in comparison by giving it open bonus feats at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 access to All Spells Arcane and Divine and Choice of Int or Char for Arcane Casters and Wis for Divine and a few open skill choices.

Between the generic spellcaster taking the Battle Spellcaster variant and some of the other variants it's not to bad. I'd like to see something like the Collegiate Sorcerer Feat comparable to the Collegiate Wizard Feat or the Educated Wilder Variant picking up 4 New Powers (From Any List not just the Wilder list) in addition to the standard 11 for giving up the Volatile Mind Special.

[Talya]

Why does the far more powerful wizard get bonus feats while the sorceror gets nothing? Would it create balance issues to give a sorceror everything a wizard gets in that regard?

[Person_Man]

Dessert Kobold Sorcerer

Take Greater Draconic Right of Passage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) which raises your caster level by one, including your spells per day/known/etc.

Take the Kobold Sorcerer substitution levels, allowing some of its spell slots to be cast as Spell Like Abilities three times per day. Take Quicken Spell Like Ability feat.

At 9th level, you cast as a 10th level Sorcerer, and can cast 3 Quickened 4th level Spells per day.

Viola.

[JellyPooga]

Dessert Kobold Sorcerer

Take Greater Draconic Right of Passage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) which raises your caster level by one, including your spells per day/known/etc.

Take the Kobold Sorcerer substitution levels, allowing some of its spell slots to be cast as Spell Like Abilities three times per day. Take Quicken Spell Like Ability feat.

At 9th level, you cast as a 10th level Sorcerer, and can cast 3 Quickened 4th level Spells per day.

Viola.

Does he taste like cake or something?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I completely fail to see how anyone can call the Sorcerer the second worst class in Core... there are Fighters, after all.

Heck, I'd put Sorcerers just under CoDzilla and Batman. Even over Barb. Too many Will save or suck/loose spells out there (Slow being one of the more popular, as is Confusion, Fear, and Feeblemind) for a Barb to have any kind of chance at beating a Sorc in combat unless for some unforseen reason he manages to make it into melee without the Sorcerer DimDoor'ing out of the way.

[Aquillion]

Of the 40+ base classes released since 3.0, the only base classes I've seen on WOTC's CO board they consider "STRONGER" than the sorceror would be the psion, the artificer, the favoured soul AND maybe the archivist (depending on how lenient the DM is about divine spells & domain spells).I'm not so sure about the psion (or the favoured soul, really.) Psions are a lot like sorcerors. They have a less restrictive spellcasting model in some ways, and can cast their 'spells' at different powers to increase their versitility, but they pay for this by learning fewer 'spells' overall, having a generally worse and smaller list to choose from, and having the equivilent of less magic per day to draw upon (their PP pool, converted, comes to far less than even a wizard's daily spells, much less a sorcerers'.)

[Dausuul]

Why does the far more powerful wizard get bonus feats while the sorceror gets nothing? Would it create balance issues to give a sorceror everything a wizard gets in that regard?

The sorceror gets nothing because, in the transition from AD&D to D&D 3E, WotC overestimated the value of spontaneous casting and 1 extra spell slot a day (2 extra if comparing to non-specialist wizards) and underestimated the cost of limited spell selection.

I guess you could give the sorc a wizard's bonus feats, but that seems like the wrong angle to be working... instead of bringing the sorceror power level up, wouldn't it make more sense to bring the wizard/druid/cleric power level down?

[Aquillion]

The sorceror gets nothing because, in the transition from AD&D to D&D 3E, WotC overestimated the value of spontaneous casting and 1 extra spell slot a day (2 extra if comparing to non-specialist wizards) and underestimated the cost of limited spell selection.

I guess you could give the sorc a wizard's bonus feats, but that seems like the wrong angle to be working... instead of bringing the sorceror power level up, wouldn't it make more sense to bring the wizard/druid/cleric power level down?The problem there is that that power level is really, really heavily engrained in the system--every PRC for those classes essentially acknowledges how powerful they are and makes it worse, so if you (say) took away a wizard's bonus metamagic feats you'd just be making a PRC even more attractive to them.

[Jack_Simth]

Dessert Kobold Sorcerer

Take Greater Draconic Right of Passage (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) which raises your caster level by one, including your spells per day/known/etc.

Take the Kobold Sorcerer substitution levels, allowing some of its spell slots to be cast as Spell Like Abilities three times per day. Take Quicken Spell Like Ability feat.

At 9th level, you cast as a 10th level Sorcerer, and can cast 3 Quickened 4th level Spells per day.

Viola.
Don't forget the Mage of The Arcane Order prestige class, so you can Call up any PHB Sor/Wiz spell on a round's notice (with some caveats) for enhanced flexibility. You'll end up looking a lot like a Wizard: new spells at the same level (at 6th+), the perfect spell for the job... in just a minute, and so forth. In qualifying, you have a way to use Quicken Spell (Arcane Preparation - although not the best route if you have all sources available, is quite effective).

If available, also take one of the Dragon Magazine bloodline feats for bonus spells per known (I suggest Draconic bloodline, just for thematic purposes with the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage).

Edit: Oh - and two little nitpicks: First, you can Quicken one spell three times per day; the Quicken Spell-like ability feat specifies that you have to pick a particular spell-like ability. Second, the feat puts a cap on the spell's level, based on your caster level - which, interestingly enough, happens to be 8 caster levels over the minimum Sorcerer level to learn the spell (mostly equivalent to a spell slot 4 levels higher). When you get your 15th level feat with that build (at effective Sorcerer level 10), you can use it to Quicken a 4th level spell. Using the 9th level feat, at effective Sorcerer level 10, you can Quicken a 1st level spell - Like, say, Shield, Obscurring Mist, Expiditous Retreat, or Ray of Enfeeblement (you know, the ones that are still useful at 9th).