Sorcerer Extra Spells per Round: Quicken Spell vs Celerity vs Arcane Fusion vs Else

[Endarire]

Intro
Greetings, all!

I'm currently in a campaign where the Fun, Powerful Sorcerer (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qtn0MDtFABUY9upKwTZlzd9SOeNPF7DHfzv4DsAma NQ) homebrew class is allowed. The short answer is that, once I reach a high enough level (as I'm presently only level 1), I'll be able to use the spells celerity (Player's Handbook II) and arcane fusion/greater arcane fusion (Complete Mage) and the feat Quicken Spell - all with the goal of getting more spells per round. Action economy advantage, in short.

(Yes, this homebrew Sorcerer fix can use Quickened spells. Metamagic specifically does not increase casting time. This is contrary to the normal 3.5 PHB and SRD rules. I know that.)

My Current Campaign
My character is an Aasimar Sorcerer (starting at ECL1) on a mission from the Upper Planes to observe this Material Plane and determine which parts of it are worthy of saving and judgment.

The campaign is done in a "Living Greyhawk" style with a variety of characters and GMs. Party members are subtly encouraged to stay together, but not required. GMs adhere to a common set of rules, and discuss things among themselves if there are any questions. (This is not actually Living Greyhawk or RPGA material.)

The allowed sources are all first party 3.5 material, as well as "Dragon" magazine. Homebrew is scrutinized more heavily, but is considered. The GM can veto or permit anything, though.

The characters and players determine what sort of campaign they're most interested in. My party (a heavily templated Goliath Fighter of Lolth and my Aasimar Sorcerer) left the slums of a major city due to being solicited for assassination, went to the guards, and told them what happened. They're hunting animals and such in a nearby forest for food, parts, and pets. And EXP. We each have goals of exploring the world and enjoying life along the way - for different ends.

Action Economy Enhancers
Celerity is most famous for being the "I act out of turn and I win if I can survive the Daze effect afterward" spell. It's also a way to burn through level 4 spell slots quickly to get these extra actions. Celerity was super powerful when I ran it strictly as a swift action - so much so that I banned it from the campaign because I was GMing. The rest of the players were OK with this. Since I'm not GMing right now, I ask for y'all's advice.

Arcane fusion and its greater version are kinda like WotC saying, "Sorry Sorcerers! You can sorta Quicken after all! Let's just make it specific to these circumstances." Assuming I'm not using Sanctum Spell for arcane fusion loops (because that's just abusive right now), how does this compare to the other options?

Quicken Spell is more general. It doesn't let me act out of turn, but it doesn't have the nasty Dazing side effect either. It also lets me cast spells of different levels - like a level 2 web followed by a Quickened level 3 haboob. My GM has allowed Practical Metamagic (Races of the Dragon) and Easy Metamagic ("Dragon" Magazine). Rods of Quicken Spell are also options, but those are 3/day.

Arcane spellsurge (Dragon Magic) is a handy way to cast a standard action and full-round action spell per turn, but its effects can't be suppressed. Sorcerers commonly used Sanctum Spell or Invisible Spell on certain spells to just cast 2 spells per round for arcane spellsurge's duration. I can take the Common Arcana Slow Sorcery, but I'm hesitant to do so for just this spell. Besides, arcane spellsurge is a level 7 spell!

I'm open to other options. Remember, I have all of first party and "Dragon" magazine tentatively available to me!

Closing Thoughts
This is a discussion for me, but also in general. Which of these options (or another) do you believe is best overall if you can only focus on one? What's your second favorite? Third favorite? Why?

[Âmesang]

This thread is making me wonder why I seem to be actively avoiding these options. :smalltongue: Like I'm well aware of arcane fusion, arcane spellsurge, Rapid Metamagic/Quicken Spell goodness… and I just don't care! I guess not being able to cast multiple spells a turn never really bothered me (at least not before picking up SRD Automatic Quicken Spell), especially if it required other spells to do it.

Okay, okay… arcane spellsurge is definitely the one that grabs my attention first, since I imagine a caster utilizing quickened regular spells and standard-action metamagic spells each turn. With a daze-less celerity that'd keep you set for the turn without needing to use higher spell slots via Quicken Spell, right?

Greater arcane fusion crossed my mind, too. I'm not sure how to explain my thoughts on the whole thing, though; I mean, I understand that the more spells you can cast the better… but at the same time I think I'd be afraid of running out of spells slots when I'd need them later, even with all the extra spell slots a sorcerer gets over a wizard. Yeah, it's total paranoia, but I like to think I try to take a whole day into account, not just an encounter or two. I guess, maybe, I want to make the most out of the spells I do cast, even if only one per turn, especially in conjunction with team tactics. Then again none of the referees ever played enemies to their full potential, so I guess it never mattered. :smallannoyed: So I'm probably not the best person for this (then why I am posting, right?), but arcane spellsurge is definitely the one I'd focus on… 'course that'd still be "late" in the game, being a 7th-level spell. Hmm.

As an aside I tried reading through the "Fun Powerful Sorcerer" variant, and am I the only one who's tired of the whole "dragon ancestor" explanation for a sorcerer's magic? :smallconfused: That's why I've been trying to co-opt GHOSTWALK'S sherem transformation for use with a WORLD OF GREYHAWK® character, essentially doing a find/replace between Bazareene and Suel (a pretty close match between 'em in many ways, and kind of lets me make a twisted sort of Anakin Skywalker mirror).

[DeAnno]

Arcane Spellsurge can be good if you have another reason to cast 1 round action spells a lot, such as Summoning. It's easy to imagine a Sorcerer taking Spellsurge at the first level available and simultaneously retraining a highish level spell into a Summon, even if they didn't dabble in Summoning before. There are some other really useful 1 round action spells like Dominate Whatever, Blizzard from Frostfell (a Druid spell but well worth an Expanded slot), Hail of Stone from Spell Compendium. I would even argue just with a single midlevel Summon, Blizzard, Hail of Stone (plus metamagic), and Dominate Person, that's more than enough reason to have Spellsurge on your spells known without any other means to use it at all. Even more importantly without Spellsurge it's impossible to jam any of those spells into a Fusion of any kind.

It really shines over Celerity and Quicken if you have long adventuring days full of long battles where spamming Celerity again and again or forcing through the Quickens is going to drain your resources dry very fast. Spellsurge lets you get a lot more actions into a turn for a much more controlled cost, and without the complications of Celerity.

Somewhat paradoxically in terms of resource consumption, it's also kind of good for Reserve feats. You can blow a 7th at the start of combat to basically get your Reserve feat every subsequent turn as well as a normal spell. It can be nice for a laid back combat to cast spellsurge and spend the whole fight using a Reserve feat and low level spells.

[Endarire]

Were I running a Sorcerer-based gish at that level, arcane spellsurge still lets me full attack or single attack while swift action casting. Cool! Thankee!

[daremetoidareyo]

spell flower allows you to hold one touch spell charge per arm, thus allowing a pre-arming if you have a round, or a 4th level touch spell...