[D&D 3.5] The Fun, Powerful Sorcerer (FPS) seeks critique!

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I put this on a Google Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qtn0MDtFABUY9upKwTZlzd9SOeNPF7DHfzv4DsAmaNQ/edit?usp=sharing) for ease of data entry. Remember, there are tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet! The first tab is a length explanation I won't reprint here.

Yes, this Sorcerer is more powerful than the PHB one. It's meant to be - and is more fun in general for being that way! It's also meant to avoid Monk Syndrome - conflicting abilities that should synergize, but don't due to poor authorship.

I'm looking for specific critique on what's too powerful, what's too weak, and what abilities we can add and tweak to make this more magnifique! (Level 13 & 14 feel light on class features, but at least every level gives something.) My benchmarks are what I commonly saw people do with Sorcerers and Wizards - enter Incantatrix ASAP and stay there for 10 levels, then hop to Archmage to finish their builds. It's not what WotC had in mind when making Sorcerers and Wizards originally, but it's how people dealt with what they were given and had fun along the way.

Version 1.1 - May 22, 2015
-I revamped the Fun, Powerful Sorcerer. Things look better, make more sense, and may be better balanced! I still seek your opinions!

-Thank you to everyone who contributed feedback! I considered it when making this version!

[DeAnno]

I'm a sucker for these, I'm reading through it now.

Do you want commenting directly on the googledoc or in this thread? (enabling global commenting in Share-Advanced can be useful for something like this.)

Initial Thoughts:

6) You should maybe explicitly say what level of Sorcheese is "banned" from

combination with this class. I think a reasonable list probably includes anything involving:

-True Dragon Cheese
-Dragonspawn Templates
-MAYBE Kobold Greater Right of Passage. Losing a feat is harsh though, especially

since by not being human you sort of lost a feat already. I tend to think this one

is fair, though maybe less so without being a spell level behind and with having more free feats.

11) I don't even know how to Pathfinder but I heard the Paragon Surge thing got erratted somehow to not work anymore.

SpD/Spells Known Tables look good. I like the clean progressions.

You may want to include language in the spell swapping per day where if you Know a spell lower than you were supposed to for some reason in a spells known slot you arent locked into it forever.

Eschew Materials normally doesn't affect foci in 3.5e, you may want to add that as a separate feature or something for clarity's sake.

Maybe merge the Bonus Metamagic feat into the usual Bonus feats, or do something else with it. It feels pretty kludgy alone at 3 alongside a 5/10/15/20 progression of bonus feats.

Why does Versatile Sorcery say "at the levels listed"? It only happens once.

Wouldnt the fireball example deal 12d6 due to the 2 extra slots?

I think clustering the High Arcana at the top is a little questionable. I know youre trying to simulate late archmage but sometimes a sim can go too far.

Probably clarify Arcane Ray counts as if it were an 8th level spell for the purposes of SLA Metamagic feats.

Charismatic Defenses, probably split this up into two abilities.

Balance wise, unsure. There is just a LOT, and in a bit of a messy way. I think it might pay to offer more uses or more efficient use of less abilities in general, as there is a lot to juggle here. Ideally, I think you want one Class ability on most levels, or perhaps two if both are very simple and that not often.

Imagine a repeating cycle of:
1) Bonus Feat
2) Expanded Sorcery
3) Sorcerous Spell Focus
4) High Arcana
Starting with the bonus feat at level 5, and repeating four times.

Many esoteric abilities such as Extrapersonal Metamagic, Reserves of Sorcery, Adaptive Metamagic, Charismatic Will, Metamagic Improv, Sorcerous Conversion, Recurrent Conversion could all be worked into High Arcanas (the X/day ones could have the number of uses per day scale with class level, number of arcanas, or just be normalized to 3). For High Arcanas that you think are too powerful for level 8, you could add minimum level requirements. This makes for a cleaner progression, more feeling of choice, and less of a spammy character sheet full of abilities the player might forget or not like using due to playstyle.

[Endarire]

Thanks!

The fireball Reserves of Sorcery example is correct. The caster level and max caster level increase by 2 (from 9 to 11), but the current caster level is merely 11 - not enough to grant 12d6 damage on its own.

I already have a system in mind for revising this, using the term 'Common Arcana' to denote the smatterings of abilities. I'll make a bonus metamagic feat one of those options.

The Charismatic Defenses High Arcana is fine or weak as-is, considering I expect people to be using polymorph and co to boost their stats. Note that a Paladin2 gets a debatably better ability (Divine Grace: +CHA bonus to all saves) than Charismatic Defenses.

Spell swapping as a correctional measure: By the current and intended FPS, the only way this might happen is via Expanded Sorcery, choosing a buncha spells of undesired levels. I'm also trusting that people will choose things they want that will work well for them.

[pi4t]

11) I don't even know how to Pathfinder but I heard the Paragon Surge thing got erratted somehow to not work anymore.

It was: the spell grants you a free feat of your choice for 1min/level, chosen when you cast the spell. There's a feat that gives you extra spells known, of your choice. The new errata says that if you cast the spell again on the same day, you get given the same feat. I'm not sure how many groups are aware of/take any notice of that errata, though.

[Endarire]

Updated! See first post's link for details!

[Endarire]

Updated again! Now it looks prettier, has fewer bugs (none that I noticed upon review), and has more abilities!

Whatchya think of things now?

[Fizban]

I somewhat question the wisdom of making a base class out of the best build available, but I do follow the logic and have made some similar feature additions in other cases. The very nice thing about doing it this way is that if there's a particular ability the DM doesn't like, they can just toss or modify that and keep the rest. Unfortunate that you had to jack up the spells known and spells per day numbers so much to get ahead of the power creep but it did the job. There's certainly enough ways to burn slots and the class shifts from being clever in the build to being clever in slot mileage vs. the perfect spell.

So, on the High Arcana page we have, "these spells are not longer affected by antimagic, such as. . . Antimagic field. . . " Followed by, "Antimagic Attunement has no effect on. . . Antimagic Field." If this is a dig at how Antimagic Field has always been broken then bravo sir, but I think that is not what you intended. Maybe you meant it doesn't work if you're prevented from casting because you're in the field? I'd err on the side of "screw it it just works," since trying to layer another set of exceptions on the already impossible to agree on Antimagic Field is a bad idea. Or maybe you meant that you can't attune an antimagic spell to penetrate antimagic, which is silly on multiple sides.

On the Common Arcana page under Signature Sorcery, there's a line that runs off the side of the page. I also think "affecting new abilities each time" is a bit off and should say spells instead of abilities. Then back to the Antimagic Attunement High Arcana, it should also use and/or to be perfectly clear.

Aside from non-functional Antimagic Fields and editing I'm not sure if mine is the opinion you want. I would not be allowing Incantatrix in the first place, so naturally I wouldn't allow Extrapersonal Metamagic. I think adding +cl on every type of energy in the spell including "untyped" with Energetic Sorcery is overpowered and could then force the banning of spells that were otherwise completely fine (Rainbow Blast, Energy Spheres, even the example of Flame Strike gets a bit huge). I think 1d12/level, no SR, at-will is bananas even without long range and +cl damage (and +cl damage again from Energetic if you have it) for Arcane Ray, which only seems to be there because it was an Archmage ability (it's just supposed to be a bad wizard crutch and no one took it anyway). Getting up to +6 DC with Reserves of Sorcery, or +12 with Deeper Reserves just polarizes rocket-tag even more than it already was, except that with changeable spells known they can try to find a save/die spell you haven't prepared for. Day of Sorcery I think is a fun reference to Might and Magic (haven't played but read some LPs) and is a pretty common homebrew metamagic, while Living Arcana I think is a reference to a crazy broken spell I saw in a 3rd party book once and is even more broken here (just axe the whole thing, all of it, every line).

I'm mostly fine with the various metamagic abilities aside from the Incatatrix stuff (Common Signature Sorcery good, High Improved Metamagic less good), and I'm also fine with changing some spells known or feats each day or paying a ton of spell slots to get a spell you don't know right now. Fat charisma bonuses don't fit it when other classes don't get similar options and give even more ceiling on spell DCs. Skillful Sorcery is so much better than the feat I would assume inspired it but I still wouldn't bother on principle when I could have real spells. Extrapersonal Sorcery is fine, Shared Support Sorcery is fine. If I were actually going to allow it then there'd need to be a full list of metamagic and casting modifier feats to compare to, eg: with Signature Sorcery there should not be an Arcane Thesis feat to stack.

While I know well the pain of being stuck at the same level for weeks I don't necessarily agree that every level has to have an ability on the table to look pretty: casters get new spell tiers every odd level already. That said, I only see a total of six Common and five High Arcana, which is not too much I think.

There is a significant limitation this class lacks compared to the builds it's based on: no prohibited schools. Enough spell slots to beat a focused specialist wizard, able to change one or more spells known each day, and take them from any school compared to the FS's 5/8. The Incantatrix bans another school, or the commonly suggested Bloodline feats for fixing spells known prohibit a set based on spell descriptors. Ignoring the individual Arcana, this is where the class is most overpowered, since a wizard build trying match it will find themselves playing with only half a deck.

[Endarire]

Greetings, Fizban!

Thanks for combing through the FPS. It's good to hear from voices that say, "That's just so cool!"

Points of Agreement
-The damage for Arcane Ray was a bit too high. I removed the High Arcana boost to CL and the default +1 damage per CL. It's still dealing lots of damage as a standard action.

-The damage boosts for Energetic Sorcery and Mastery of Energy were much higher than I expected for rainbow blast, etc. Now the bonus damage is divided as appropriate among the relevant energy types, such as half fire and half untyped for flame strike.

-The DC boost for Reserves of Sorcery was too high. It's now +1 per spell slot spent instead of +2.

-If you were to allow this class, you can still ban or alter its class abilities for anyone who would play it.

-I agrree thatt there werrre sooome tyypoz and awkwardly worded things. I fixed the ones I noticed. Which remain?

-The focus of the FPS is less on having the perfect build, but on adapting in small ways (and sometimes small but very powerful ways) to each new day.

Points of Disagreement
-Living Arcana was meant as the signature ability. Yes, I was inspired by the third party Book of Eldritch Might many years ago for an epic campaign. Please tell me in more detail why you believe Living Arcana should be completely scrapped.

-Arcane Ray makes the old Arcane Fire ability usable. The numbers may need tweaking (and I already have toned it down slightly) but how much of a threat is it considering what other abilities a Sorcerer has at level 16+? A fully powered up with Energetic Sorcery, Reserves of Sorcery, Deeper Reserves, Mastery of Energy, and Spell Power at Sorcerer20, that's a caster level of 29. On average, I deal 6.5+4 HP/CL, or 304HP. That's a lot - enough to 1 shot a Solar with average HP or 3 shot a Great Wyrm Red Dragon. With just Arcane Ray, I deal an average of 159 damage (6.5+1 HP/CL). That's now 'meh' as a high level ability. It'll one-shot weak and damaged minions, yes, but it's more for saving spell slots.

Points of Mystery
-What spells and feats seemingly inspired Skillful Sorcery? Is it listening lorecall, etc.?

-How many base spell slots per day and spells known is 'fair' compared to a Wizard? Based on my theoretical builds, I still couldn't learn every Sorcerer spell I wanted, while a my sample Wizard had a similar number of level 1+ spell slots which, via Uncanny Forethought and Practiced Spellcaster, he could spontaneously access. Oh yes, Faerie Mysteries Initiate and Collegiate Wizard added to Domain Wizard and Elven Generalist substitution levels (I assume they stack - let's please not debate this in this thread) were very helpful additions. I agree that the FPS favors all but the league of the most seriously optimized, but non-theoretically optimized, Wizards. I agree that Wizards and Sorcerers (even plain 3.5 Sors) are powerful and spiffy and fun if properly built.

[Endarire]

I updated the document.

How does this FPS compare with an ahead of the curve Sorcerer - a Dragonwrought Kobold with all the trimmings, able to cast as a Sorcerer 3-4 character levels higher?

[Fizban]

Points of Disagreement
-Living Arcana was meant as the signature ability. Yes, I was inspired by the third party Book of Eldritch Might many years ago for an epic campaign. Please tell me in more detail why you believe Living Arcana should be completely scrapped.
The original spell was already broken due to allowing embarassingly easy infinite spell loops. Since the base class has built in expanded learning features that can get healing spells and there's still no line preventing you from using magic to heal the damage, infinite loop is even easier. As for the rest of it, True Seeing is a 6th level spell, Greater Arcane Sight is a 6th level spell, Ghost Form is an 8th level spell, and the elemental like qualities are also a 6-8th level spell. So the signature ability is a ton of high level buffs available as an immediate action 24/7, and a blindingly obvious infinite spell loop. That's why I consider it unsalvageable.

-Arcane Ray . . . it's more for saving spell slots.
This I think we will disagree on, since even though the sorcerer is supposed to have more spells per day more does not equal infinite. A spellcaster is supposed to pay for their nigh-unstoppable power with the fact that they can't do it forever, and abilities that mimic level-appropriate spells at-will break that limitation. Your own example, with just the base ability you can two-shot one of the most powerful monsters in the book at-will (a monster 3 levels higher than you which should be appropriate for a mid-boss). Increasing the damage so it's as good as a spell would be fine if it still cost a spell slot to fire, but note that there aren't any spells that deal 1d12/level with no save even to a single target.

-What spells and feats seemingly inspired Skillful Sorcery? Is it listening lorecall, etc.?
I was thinking of a couple of feats that let you burn a spell slot for +x on the next skill check, but I just went looking and it may have been homebrew. Or in a setting book, I don't feel like searching that hard since it wasn't very good anyway.

(wizard vs sor builds)
I'm not sure if we're hitting the same point. A Focused Specialist Wizard/Incantatrix has 4 prohibited schools of magic, while an FPS sorcerer has more spell slots, access to Incantatrix, and no prohibited schools whatsoever. In this comparison the FPS's class spell list is twice the size of the control build: the wizard is less versatile regardless of spellbook size simply because there are things they can't do. I think you're saying that the wizard build you used had enough slots to rival the sorcerer without specializing at all. I don't remember what Faerie Mysteries Initiate did except that I would not allow it, and if there's a potential conflict between your class substitutions then I'm afraid yes we will have to argue it: if the comparison build relies on a shaky premise then it shouldn't be used for balancing a new base class (though I don't see Domain Wizard increasing spells per day so it shouldn't matter anyway). Thus I assumed Focused Specialist was the reason sorcerer spells per day needed to go up further, and from there the FPS sorc has what I would call quite an unfair advantage.

Wizard/Incantatrix build build has some number of spells per day less than FPS sorc (1-3 total when they pick up a new tier, note FS is only getting one school for those 3), some number of banned schools (1- 4), and some number of spontaneous spells out of their spellbook depending on feats (I should probably note that I've banned Spontaneous Divination, it's laughable). FPS sorc with X or Y Conversion has more spells per day at the same point (4 as of writing), no banned schools, and either any number of spontaneous spells (max 1/3 original spells per day, or 1/2 with Efficient) or just 3 with no surcharge, and they cast spontaneously out of any book ever instead of their individual spellbook. Actually now that I've gone that far I'll have to back out of my original stance of "I'm fine with the spontaneous stuff," and switch it to "nope," even without counting the banned schools part.

[Endarire]

For the Wizard, I assumed Gray Elf Generalist Domain Wizard5/Incantatrix10/Archmage5 as the baseline with the possibility of minor tweaks to taste. Gray Elf can take the feat Faerie Mysteries Initiate for +INT mod instead of +CON mod to HP/level.

The Elf Wizard sub level only works for generalists, but gives +1 spell known per Wizard level (or effective Wizard level advanced via PrC) and +1 spell slot of the highest spell level the Wizard can cast. There was debate over whether a character can have both since the Elf sub level is for generalists only and the Wizard Domain ACF is for Wizards but prevents specializing in a school of magic. I assume you pick a domain you like (such as Transmutation or Conjuration).

Regarding opposed schools, in this situation an Incantatrix will oppose something he didn't plan to use much anyway.

The Living Arcana and Arcane Ray SLAs I was considering transforming into spells that required the respective High Arcana each to learn - level 8 for Arcane Ray and level 9 for Living Arcana.

Living Arcana is about extending the stamina, especially the high level spell slot stamina, of the Sor and getting some other thematic and spiffy abilities to boot. Incorporeality is optional for this. How would things change if this ability required a standard action to toggle? What sort of duration is appropriate? (I'm considering 1 minute/CL.) A Druid at this point has Wild Shape (another signature class ability for them) for an hour per class level with 5+ uses per day, and, assumedly, Natural Spell. Another question that needs answering is how many spell slots of what level a Sor is likely to gain from spending HP. Once we determine that (and I'm taking suggestions here), we can better balance this. Assuming a Sor learns heal for example, he's still spending an action in combat (and perhaps HP) to heal himself that way. Between fights, I see your point about the Sor having full spell slots and HP if he's allowed to keep Living Arcana up all day.

Arcane Ray: I lack the first-hand experience of tremendous amounts of level 12+ play. (I've played approximately 3 campaigns in this level range.) From what I've heard is that spellcasting stamina doesn't matter so much because it's already so high. This is a fallback option. What about dropping the damage to d6/CL but otherwise leaving it as-is?

Spontaneous Conversion: I see your point about this being quite powerful. What if it were limited to the Sor spell list only? How often should this ability be usable?

Metamagic Improvisation: To me, at present, this seems OK.

[madock345]

Arcane Ray seems kind of OP. If you compare it to the Warlock's eldritch blast, AB is clearly better, but Eldritch Blast is supposed to be a major Warlock class feature. I would drop the damage down significantly, or require the sacrifice of a spell slot.

[Fizban]

Apologies if I'm starting to sound harsh or repetitive, I spend quite a while editing my posts and the tunnel starts to echo. Specific changes are given just above the last quote block.

How would things change if this ability required a standard action to toggle? What sort of duration is appropriate? (I'm considering 1 minute/CL.) A Druid at this point has Wild Shape (another signature class ability for them) for an hour per class level with 5+ uses per day, and, assumedly, Natural Spell. Another question that needs answering is how many spell slots of what level a Sor is likely to gain from spending HP. Once we determine that (and I'm taking suggestions here), we can better balance this. Assuming a Sor learns heal for example, he's still spending an action in combat (and perhaps HP) to heal himself that way. Between fights, I see your point about the Sor having full spell slots and HP if he's allowed to keep Living Arcana up all day.
Standard action to activate doesn't matter unless it also has a very short duration. Wild Shape is no comparison to incorporeality and a suite of buffs that are perfect for fighting high level magical foes. Any infinite spell loop is inappropriate, it doesn't matter how much time it eats up in combat.

I lack the first-hand experience of tremendous amounts of level 12+ play. (I've played approximately 3 campaigns in this level range.) From what I've heard is that spellcasting stamina doesn't matter so much because it's already so high. This is a fallback option. What about dropping the damage to d6/CL but otherwise leaving it as-is?
Honestly you have more experience than I do* but as you say the general consensus is that spell stamina at high levels is already more than adequate, so why does Living Arcana even need to exist? Arcane Ray at 1d6/level at-will is the most I would consider for a main class ability without spellcasting, and still invalidates plenty of spells on your spellcasting class (a conflicting ability like the monk, which you want to avoid). If the FPS is based on making sure a sorcerer can compete with an optimized wizard that's fine, but what wizard build has this ability?

Regarding opposed schools, in this situation an Incantatrix will oppose something he didn't plan to use much anyway.
Spontaneous Conversion: I see your point about this being quite powerful. What if it were limited to the Sor spell list only? How often should this ability be usable?
Again I think you misunderstand me. It's not that you can get spells from other class lists, it's that you can get any spell from the sorcerer list. From any splatbook allowed, which here is presumably all of them, while a wizard still has a spells known limitation. It doesn't matter if the wiz build is getting 10 spells known at each spell level without spending any money, because the sorcerer effectively has dozens and dozens of spells in his "spellbook" at each level. It doesn't matter that many of those spells are redundant for the FPS, because having a limit means there will be spells the wizard doesn't know, and if any of those turns out to be the better spell for a situation then FPS wins because he knows it. While you may intend to be balancing against a practical rather than theoretically optimized wizard, you seem to be assuming that a wizard already has every spell in the game.

Further, even if an Incatatrix bans "a school he wasn't planning on using anyway," the fact that the FPS is an Incantatrix without that restriction means that it is more powerful because he can go back and choose to use those spells anyway. Illusion, Enchantment, Necromancy, Evocation: the usual suspects for "eh I wasn't gonna use it," and each has spells that are impossible to duplicate if banned. If the DM is doing their job right there will be encounters where those would have been more useful even if not required, and in those situations the FPS with all spells known also has all schools available, compared to the wiz build that does not have all spells known.

If we assume that Elven Generalist is okay (I actually don't like that one either) then we currently have the sorcerer at twice the base spells for top level (not counting all the extra lower level spells they can trade up with Versatile. . .) which seems reasonable so long as the wizard has actual advantages to compensate. So I won't compare to the Focused Specialist/Incantatrix who only has 4 schools, but even then having to ban a school for Incantatrix is a cost for which they are no longer gaining any advantage. At this point we're looking at wizard builds and needing to remove restrictions to compete: the Recurrent Conversion+Extrapersonal Metamagic FPS should be banning a school since he can otherwise cast any spell, while the wizard has limited spells known and thus does not need a banned school just for taking Incantatrix.

Basically you've turned the tables: FPS once it hits a certain level has all spells known, with a spells "readied" list that costs half as much to cast and changes slowly, while a wizard build has a limited number of spells known based on their spellbook even if they can cast them all spontaneously somehow. It used to be that wizards could theoretically know every spell (but actually didn't) and could cast a few spontaneously, but now an FPS actually does know every spell and can cast several spontaneously. There are plenty of features and options here that would be fine on their own but they're all jacked up so that any one feature would be good enough to consider sorcerer over wizard, and instead you can have all of them. Increased spells per day to keep the gap between Generalist and sorc and the ability to change a spell known every day is enough, maybe some 5/10/15/20 bonus feats for symmetry. Plus a bunch more bonus feats disguised as features, plus free entry into Incantatrix, plus other options good enough to put the best wizard builds to shame, including more powerful versions of PrC abilities that are not necessarily available to all, and now there's no reason to play a wizard.

Specific changes then? Remove Living Arcana entirely, make Arcane Ray burn a spell slot and deal something like 1d6/2cl +1d6/slot level, remove Recurrent Conversion and consider reducing Sorcerous Conversion to 1/day (Alacritous Cogitation is only 1/day, and Uncanny Forethought was written by an idiot). I also hadn't noticed Spell Power, even better than the old 3.0 version with free scaling: axe that too, and the charisma bonuses, neither of those are available to any build without cost. I'm not convinced High Mastery of Energy needs a damage bonus either. If you absolutely must have Living Arcana, make it 1 minute 1/day, which is probably worth at least 6 more slots of your highest level and is completely unnecessary.

Metamagic Improvisation: To me, at present, this seems OK.
Yeah, pretty much. It has the clause where you can't exceed your normal effective spell level so it's really just extra ammo, upgrading 3 lower slots for free. Sudden Maximize and Sand Shaper are good for exceeding your limits, and Residual Metamagic can stretch your limited feats (and metamagic rods should never have existed), but right now Improvisation just gives you a bit more ammo or options. It's fine as long as there aren't any metamagic feats that just give you a whole new effect. . . like Fell Animate. Also shouldn't work with the Banemagic feats, but +2d6 3/day is far less than other options here.

*That said, in what most people consider a normal party (average tier 3, usually multiple tier 4's), I have seen what a simple barrage of Maximized Fireballs can do, without any extra +cl bonuses or free at-will blasting or even having a proper allotment of spell slots. With a tank, a rogue, a bard, and me, just a standard maxed fireball at 12th was still enough to throw off the game (I'd been able to do it for ages, but 12th is actually sorc level without reducers). Obviously this class is meant for more optimized play, but as-is right now there's no reason to even play a wizard.

[Endarire]

Fizban, I modified the FPS further as inspired by your critiques. (Thankee!)

Version 1.4
-Nerfed Spell Power (High Arcana) to a flat +1 caster level and +1 DC.
-Tweaked Arcane Ray (High Arcana) to be usable at will for 5d6 damage with the ability to invest a single Sorcerer spell slot for +2d6 damage per slot level.
-Nerfed Living Arcana's (High Arcana) duration to 1 round per Sorcerer level. The ability now requires a swift action to activate and an immediate action to deactivate.
-Fixed bugs, but that's not why you're here.
-I added a general rule to the Sorcerer section (before the Class Features section) about the required action and side effects of investing extra spell slots to fuel Sorcerer stuff.
-Nerfed Sorcerous Conversion to be usable 2/day (down from 3). It can only convert spells from other arcane classes, such as Wu Jen and Bard.
-Removed Sorcerous Conversion. The ability to spend spell slots to cast from -any- spell list is probably an Epic ability. (Yes, Epic!)
-Added Previously Personal Sorcery (Common Arcana).
-Sorcerer-granted spell-like abilities can be affected by metamagic feats, but not by feats that only affect SLA, like Quicken Spell-like Ability. (Balance reasons.)
-Extrapersonal Metamagic (Common Arcana) is now 2 separate Common Arcana, Ongoing Metamagic and Synchronized Metamagic.
-Added a Credits section.

[Fizban]

Fizban, I modified the FPS further as inspired by your critiques. (Thankee!)
Version 1.4
-Nerfed Spell Power (High Arcana) to a flat +1 caster level and +1 DC.
-Tweaked Arcane Ray (High Arcana) to be usable at will for 5d6 damage with the ability to invest a single Sorcerer spell slot for +2d6 damage per slot level.
-Nerfed Living Arcana's (High Arcana) duration to 1 round per Sorcerer level. The ability now requires a swift action to activate and an immediate action to deactivate.
Much more reasonable. I still say Living Arcana in any form is OP, but with a duration you can always try running away until it runs out. Could add a drawback where being dispelled or disjoined deals massive damage just because.

-Nerfed Sorcerous Conversion to be usable 2/day (down from 3). It can only convert spells from other arcane classes, such as Wu Jen and Bard.
-Removed Sorcerous Conversion. The ability to spend spell slots to cast from -any- spell list is probably an Epic ability. (Yes, Epic!)
I think you meant to say you removed Recurrent Conversion. I don't understand your second example, on what list is Trancend Mortality a 5th level spell? This directly contradicts the previous paragraph. Spontaneously casting from any list is indeed epic, if not deific. Do you use epic spell crafting, or an epic tier metamagic system as some have suggested to replace it?


-Added Previously Personal Sorcery (Common Arcana).
-Sorcerer-granted spell-like abilities can be affected by metamagic feats, but not by feats that only affect SLA, like Quicken Spell-like Ability. (Balance reasons.)
-Extrapersonal Metamagic (Common Arcana) is now 2 separate Common Arcana, Ongoing Metamagic and Synchronized Metamagic.
-Added a Credits section.
Ah, turning personal spells into proper buffs, that's a good idea (aside from it being difficult or impossible for other builds to match). The only SLAs I see are Arcane Ray and Living Arcana, I don't see much need for them to be metamagicked but it's not a problem. Splitting the Incantatrix metamagic is a good idea, hadn't thought of that but they're clearly strong enough there's no reason to bundle them besides legacy. Thank you for the credits, this is the second time someone's put me on one of those :smallredface:

Still too strong for any of my actual games, but it's reached a point where I think I'd allow it in place of a high op wizard for a high power game (if one actually has enough players of that skill level, I haven't). PrC abilities that the FPS buffs (mostly Archmage) would be mirrored back to their original classes and if there were both an FPS and a wizard I'd be watching them carefully to make sure they both perform without shutting out the other. Since the FPS is blatantly grabbing every good PrC ability and then some I'd take requests for shopping those around (like Previously Personal). This still leaves the "ToB effect" that you're aware of, where it's kinda unfair that this base class is so much easier than plotting a build, but I think that can be compensated for in other ways such as making wizard guilds important (with statted affiliations if necessary) or simply doing the same thing for other classes.

Hmm. I wonder what a divine version of this would look like? There aren't really any super divine caster PrCs everyone always takes, they're either deity or build specific (which is actually how it should be anyway). A smattering of Divine Oracle, Contemplative, Thaumaturge, and Heriophant abilities might fill out the lists.

[Endarire]

Greetings, Fizban!

Thank you again for your help! I fixed the typos.

I agree with the Tome of Battle effect. This FPS is basically a class-in-a-can: It doesn't require multiclassing to be effective. It also has a bit of the Druid effect, where any PrC that would improve its chassis has to be tremendously powerful to be worth considering, and is therefore probably not welcome.

I also feel that the FPS is an example of a solid class that gets something cool every level. It doesn't require players to have a college minor in D&D 3.5 system mastery. Present someone with this class and, so long as they're paying attention and want to learn and use it well, they'll probably do just fine. Want to blast? Class features support it. Want to buff? Class features support it. Want to summon? Class features (in the form of bonus feats) support it. And so on.

As for divine casters, there are 4 main types: Druid-like and Cleric-like. In each, there's a caster-focused one (Oracle) and a martial-focused one that also casts (Favored Soul). I generally don't like playing Clerics. I feel they exist to heal and buff others, though they can make spiffy Cleric Archers. I've tried Clerics in 3.x, but I always felt shoved into the "Heal us and buff us well or we all die" role. Druids, however, rock. They're one-man parties from level 1! They benefit from having others around, but don't require them nearly to the degree that any other official base class does.

[Fizban]

So Antimagic Attunement can't be used to cast your own antimagic effects, I'm curious as to why? I could come up with a few ideas but none of them strike me that hard.

Clerics are indeed the buff and heal class, which while unexciting is definitely powerful, especially in an otherwise low-op game. I tried to run clerics a couple times but the games never panned out, by the time I got to play it was either gestalt multi-class or I just forced in a homebrew class worth playing. Divine Oracle not really a casting focused class, it's just that it has a focus anyone can use so it'd get ripped, but neither of us really wants to write the FPC.

[Endarire]

Greetings, Fizban!

Antimagic Attunement: It struck me as odd that someone would want to cast antimagic field in an antimagic field. It just felt... wrong to me.

The Fun, Powerful Spontaneous Divine Caster: Perhaps focus them around domains. I never much liked D&D 3.x Clerics, though I've played some. They felt too defense-focused and martial-focused for my liking. They were a class that benefited the group, but I've always favored my Black Mages more.

Version 1.6 is up. More clarifications and tweaks.

-Changed Expanded Sorcery and Vastly Expanded Sorcery (High Arcana) to allow switching spell levels within range. Read the full descriptions for more ideas.
-Added the Common Arcana Extra Expanded Sorcery. It's another floating spell known for those who pick it!
-Fixed the wording on Metamagic Improvisation (Common Arcana) to remove references to Extrapersonal Metamagic, an ability which has been split into 2 abilities and renamed!
-Did some other minor bug fixing and cleaning.
-Added DeAnno to the credits. His idea of floating spell levels for Expanded Arcana, upon reflection, just makes -sense!-
-Made it unmistakably clear that Eschew Material Components also applies to focuses of 1GP or less
-Sorcerers can now, by rules as written, learn and cast Corrupt spells (Book of Vile Darkness) and Sanctified spells (Book of Exalted Deeds).