Sorc 17 / Lock 3 with no 7th or 8th level spells?

[Dalebert]

I earned the opportunity to rebuild my drow gold draconic sorlock and I find myself choosing no 7th or 8th level spells. Since I started, I've since gained Inspiring Leader feat so the 9 temp hp from fiend lock is less appealing. I switched to GoO lock and learned comprehend languages. I figured that would serve me really well since (damn it) the telepathy is one-way.

I'm just not that impressed (for this build at least) with the 7th and 8th level options. I figure I'll just upcast other things or (less likely) use those for spell points. Anyway, am I nuts for this?

lock spells
1st: Hex, Dissonant Whispers (both twinnable)
2nd: Phantasmal Force (twinnable), Misty Step

Sorc
1st: Shield, Comp Lang
2nd: Invisibility, See Invisibility
3rd: Fireball, Counterspell, Haste, Blink
4th: Polymorph, Banishment
5th: Telekinesis
6th Investiture of Flame (great with the red dragon mask!), Mass Suggestion, Disintegrate
7th: ???
8th: ???
9th: Wish (duh! Why are any other spells even options?)

Racials: Faerie Fire, Darkness

I also have a Staff of Power that fills in a lot of gaps like Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Cone of Cold, Wall of Force, Globe of Invulnerability.

[MidgetMarine]

I'm doing the same split with my current character except I'm doing Pact of the Blade Hexblade/Stone Sorcery.
I think it's best to pick well scaling invocations and a relevant pact boon at 3 and then scaling up Sorcerer to abuse Metamagic with Eldritch Blast and Warlock's natural magical stamina, especially with Agonizing Blast.
It's not crazy to often reduce high level spells, but in my opinion the ability to convert multiple lower level spells into a Twinned higher level spell (even the marginal ones) is one of Sorcerer's highlights.
Things like Power Word: Stun & Dominate Monster can be seriously nasty when you can break Concentration rules and cheat out the extra copy at the cost of a Fireball or two, so I think it's worth considering using Metamagic on the larger spells, since the Spellslot-Metamagic point conversion rate gets less efficient in terms of lost power as you go up in spell level.

[Dalebert]

I went chain lock this time around for the imp and took Agonizing Blast and kept Disguise Self at will. I gave up Elemental Adept for Resilient wisdom (with 14 wis now). Now if something is fire resistant, I'll just EB it whereas Firebolt has been my standard goto dmg cantrip, often twinning it. Now I can Hex and even Quicken an EB and it's brutal. Hardly anything is force resistant so Elemental Adept felt less crucial.

I did have Power Word Stun, but it felt hard to justify that vs. just upcasting Disintegrate. I was trying to picture a case when I would want to auto-stun a creature with 150 or less hp. I can't help thinking I'd be better of just killing it with my crazy dmg output. I could EB it for 4d10+24 and follow with a Quickened Disintegrate (DC 20) at level 8 for 16d6 + 40. That's an average of 140 dmg. Now, let's say it had 150 hp. It's damn near dead and it may well be dead if I rolled on the higher side.

It's not clearly superior to PWS which has no save. PWS feels like something to use on glass cannon creatures when you REALLY don't want them to get off something horrible--high level spellcasters, maybe a beholder, a mind flayer. I acknowledge it's not perfect, but this character had PWS and had yet to use it. His dmg output even before being further optimized by this rebuild has thus far made it seem unneeded. Sorcerers have so few spells that I feel like having Disintegrate up to three times a day (6th, 7th, 8th slots) is better than the option for PWS only once a day.

Disintegrate has the added benefit of being near auto-kill after POlymorph and being a makeshift Passwall or destroy any non-magical item kinda thing.

Dominate Monster was seriously appealing but I ultimately didn't want the hassle when I took into account several limits that made it harder to use effectively--adv on the save if in combat, concentration, gets a save every time it takes dmg.

[MidgetMarine]

I certainly err on the side of Sorlocks real strength being abuse of lower level spells (My build is build around using metamagic on Booming Blade & Greenflame blade to get rid of Sorcerer's attack cap, but the sheer versatility of being able to twin these higher level spells means they shouldn't be discounted at all.
PWS has saved my ass a bunch of times when encounters have gotten hairy, buying time on the two best enemies below a certain HP treshold can really turn a fight.
Not to say that Disintegration isn't great, just that the option of higher level spells still holds enough power to be tempting (But i'm also spending all of my high level slots on Curse Bringer smite attacks so I can't talk too much)

[Byke]

I'm with you on 8th level spells being mediocre....but 7th level does have some gems.

Plane Shift can be used as transportation or a save or die spell.
Reverse Gravity is an excellent AOE control spell

[imanidiot]

You can just use you 7th or 8th slots for sorcery points and ramp up how much metamagic you use. At 17-20 you could conceivably use metamagic on every spell in an adventuring day.

[sithlordnergal]

Prismatic Spray and Reverse Gravity are good choices for a 7th level slot, especially reverse gravity. As for level 8 spells...ehhh, nothing really sticks out at me. Maaaaybe Dominate Monster, but honestly you should be able to take care of that with a properly worded Suggestion.

[TheUser]

Prismatic Spray and Reverse Gravity are good choices for a 7th level slot, especially reverse gravity. As for level 8 spells...ehhh, nothing really sticks out at me. Maaaaybe Dominate Monster, but honestly you should be able to take care of that with a properly worded Suggestion.

Some monsters don't speak common or bave any linguistic capabilities at all.

[Degwerks]

Animate Objects is a great spell. The object have blindsight which is really handy. Keep about 10 arrow heads in a clay pot filled with poison. Open the pot and cast the spell.

Teleport is a good choice too.

[Dalebert]

I had teleport for a long time and never had a use for it. Just doesn't come up much in AL.

Prismatic Spray seems underwhelming for the level. I'd just as soon fireball.

[sithlordnergal]

Animate Objects is a great spell. The object have blindsight which is really handy. Keep about 10 arrow heads in a clay pot filled with poison. Open the pot and cast the spell.

Teleport is a good choice too.

Animate Object is only 5th level, not 7th or 8th. =o That said, it is grossly over powered for a 5th level spell. Heh, my bard always made sure to keep bags of ball bearings to toss on the ground. I basically beat a giant, flying Rhemoraz to death with ball bearings because there were 1,000 of the little things on the ground. X3 Burn up the first ten? Doesn't matter, I have 990 more.

[djreynolds]

every short rest, turns your pact magic into spell points for your metamagic

[Degwerks]

Animate Object is only 5th level, not 7th or 8th. =o That said, it is grossly over powered for a 5th level spell. Heh, my bard always made sure to keep bags of ball bearings to toss on the ground. I basically beat a giant, flying Rhemoraz to death with ball bearings because there were 1,000 of the little things on the ground. X3 Burn up the first ten? Doesn't matter, I have 990 more.

Yeah I think I had the spell level confused with telekinesis.

[Dalebert]

every short rest, turns your pact magic into spell points for your metamagic

Of course. That's a big motivation for the build.

Animate Objects is a great spell but I ultimately chose Telekinesis for my one 5th level spell for its versatility. Anyway, we're digressing from the topic which is about not choosing spells for certain levels and if that's a horrible thing.

I'm curious whether everyone tries to learn at least one of each level or have you allowed yourself to do as I have?

[Foxhound438]

etherealness gets you past any OOC obstacle short of a permanent wall of force at 7th, which isn't bad, and for 8th level sunburst is pretty good. Very large AOE with a powerful status on a failed save (blindness prevents most spells from working after all).

[Dalebert]

etherealness gets you past any OOC obstacle short of a permanent wall of force at 7th, which isn't bad, and for 8th level sunburst is pretty good. Very large AOE with a powerful status on a failed save (blindness prevents most spells from working after all).

Those are spells I seriously considered. Etherealness just seemed like something I would hardly ever use and so is hard to justify as a sorcerer. It's just one of those that's really perfect for the situation when you need it but it's a pretty limited situation. I try to think back to a situations when I would be so happy to have had Etherealness through my career and I'm hard pressed. Sunburst is great and my yuan-ti wild mage will almost certainly take it but there's no way this one would take it as a drow.

[Foxhound438]

there's no way this one would take it as a drow.

definitely a fair angle

[Dalebert]

It was painful not taking Sunburst because it's damn good but I just couldn't justify it from a role-playing angle.

I did, however, decide Plane Shift was worthwhile, particularly since I can cast with Distant Spell (30 ft range) and not need to make the melee touch attack. Not only that, but if I want to teleport my allies out of a desperate situation, I can bring them without linking hands as long as they're within 30 ft!