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View Full Version : Player Help Lvl 5 Wild Sorcerer Advice for Horde of the Dragon Queen



Pefgis
2017-02-12, 01:31 PM
My group have been informally playing Horde of the Dragon Queen for over two years now, meeting once a month with plenty of gaps. Since we are only at fifth level just now, obviously we are not in this for speed or anywhere close to optimization. It's the journey, not the destination. We just like getting together when we can, drinking, joking, and pretending to kill giant spiders.

That said, the informal play style and long gaps between sessions make focusing on a character build, especially spell selection, difficult. Not bad difficult, because the stakes are so low and so fun, and our dm is permissive, flexible, and forgiving. We've all realized Horde of the Dragon Queen, design wise and execution...isn't that great, but we are having too much fun to stop and like our characters too much to abandon them.

Regardless, I'd like advice for spell choice for fifth level, and maybe some interesting tactics or strategies to employ. A do-over on meta magic choices is also permitted.

The details:
Galena-lvl5 Wild Magic Sorcerer- chaotic neutral with a heart of gold female Half Elf entertainer stage magician/burlesque dancer
1O,14,14,1O,12,18 ac:12 at 32 hp
My character concept is a stage magician's assistant that uses magic to augment her performance.
I've got magehand,ray of frost,prestidigitation, dancing lights, and minor illusion.
I've got shield, scorching ray, mirror image, misty step, and need to learn some third level spells. I just dropped a first level when leveling up so i have an extra spell to learn.

Right now I've got quickened spell. I had empowered but have permission to swap. I'm thinking subtle would suit my concept better.

I have a wand of detect magic, a pearl of power, and wand of the warmage +2. I also have some daggers and a crossbow I barely use.

My party includes a sneaky human rouge who non-fatally takes out enemies, so we end of with a lot of prisoners, a silver dragon born vengeance paladin named Cletus who talks in a southern accent and protects my character diligently, and a war forged life cleric named Frank who is always bad cop and usually deals with our prisoner problem.
We've handled ourselves pretty well so far. My character acts as the party face and magic damage dealer with some control and protection for myself, as I'm by far the most vulnerable in the party.

Any ideas for spells? Fireball, haste, and/or counter spell are on my short list. Again, I have the option to take twinned spells.

Any advice or input would be appreciated.

Pefgis
2017-02-18, 09:54 AM
To summarize, should a wild sorcerer reaching level five focus more on damage dealing spells, or control? I enjoy both. My dm is trying heroically, but horde of the dragon queen is very much on rails. Should I , for example, take suggestion and other tricky spells to, one by one, diminish the numbers of the cult caravan by convincing them to leave so they are more manageable later when we inevitably fight them in whatever hidden base they are headed to? Or would the whole story fall apart and I should just enjoy the ride and blow stuff up when the events that are supposed to happen happen? Also, any ideas for a team name are appreciated, we still haven't really come up with one yet. I assumed an inside joke would inspire us, but so far, nothing yet.

Ninja_Prawn
2017-02-18, 10:28 AM
Any ideas for spells? Fireball, haste, and/or counter spell are on my short list. Again, I have the option to take twinned spells.

These are all great spells (as is Suggestion, though that's second-level obviously). You say you're a "damage dealer," but I suspect twinning Haste for the rogue and paladin is a more efficient use of resources in that regard. Also you don't have any other concentration spells, so it probably makes sense to pick at least one of those - concentration is a resource too!

Given that there's no wizard or warlock in the party, you'll probably want Counterspell at some point too, though that can probably wait until next level.

Also, Mage Armour might help with the squishiness a bit.

Pefgis
2017-02-18, 10:37 AM
Thanks!
I have been back and forth on mage armor versus shield. Since I'm a wild sorcerer using tide of chaos as much as I can with a lot of dm support for maximum craziness, I have found that triggering mage armor preemptively, because it lasts so long, is sometimes a waste of a magic surge opportunity, and doing it in the middle of combat is too little too late sometimes, whereas shield, being a reaction, can be a nice way to trigger one where I want to. But it's something I always overthink and go back and forth on.