3.5e mid-optimization Chaos Gnome Sorcerer

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Hello guys, I finally choose my race and class and I want your help with feats and spells and a PRC to go to.

I am starting at level 3 with 2250 gp and 32 point buy and I am CG.
I chose:
6 Str
16 Dex
14 Con
12 Int
10 Wis
20 Cha

All 3.5 books are allowed and some Magazine stuff.

I have 2 Flaws so 2 extra feats.
I remember I saw a feat that make all my spells into a Chaos spells and I thinking on taking it(If I will find it).
I am taking Ancestral Relic(Rune Staff).

This PC will get to LV7.

I don't know if I want to save or sell my familiar, I will like your advice.

I want to do summons, buffs and BFC.

We have a Half-Minotaur Fighter and a Draconic Elan Erudit (BFC and healing, no spell to power).

This is my first time playing a caster and I will like to get some advices.

[Kaiwen]

Maybe give up your familiar for Metamagic Specialist from PHB2? Metamagic without increased casting time 3+intmod per day. What is your familiar anyways?

Also, what's the fighter like? He might need some help, and I think 2/3 of the party being focused on the same things (BFC, buffs) might be too much. Maybe focus mainly on summons?

[Eldariel]

Familiar would get good later on up for now it can only do minor stuff. It might help with skills though and you have a decent Int so it might be fine to keep it. You won't have the higher level slots to make the best of Metamagic Specialist for a while anyways, possibly not for the whole duration of your career. Thus it might be in your interests to just keep your familiar.

If you want to summon, do pick Augment Summoning. It's a huge improvement in Summon power. On low levels, Summon Desert Ally [Sandstorm] is by far the best summon; lots of HP from the Construct type and bonus Strength for them to hit harder. Serval from Summon Desert Ally I is very, very scary for a level 1 Summon for instance, at 20 Str with Augment Summoning (+4 Dustform, +4 Augment). And Spell Focus: Conjuration conveniently improves all the best low level CC abilities in Grease, Glitterdust, Web & Stinking Cloud. A win-win, really. You could also consider Beckon the Frozen [Frostburn], which is pretty nice early on but loses importance with levels. The Chaos thing is probably Chaotic Spell Recall [Fiendish Codex I] but that takes a bunch of Abyssal Inheritor feats to make good and is more of a Wizard-thing anyways. I'd recommend heading into Sandshaper but the game will probably end before you get there.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Maybe give up your familiar for Metamagic Specialist from PHB2? Metamagic without increased casting time 3+intmod per day. What is your familiar anyways?

Also, what's the fighter like? He might need some help, and I think 2/3 of the party being focused on the same things (BFC, buffs) might be too much. Maybe focus mainly on summons?
I don't have a familiar yet.
The fighter just moving around killing stuff with THF+big Str and Power Attack.
I wanted to give him flanking buddy for extra attack bonus for easier Power Attacks and BFC will help him kill all our enemies, I think I will make BFC last.

Familiar would get good later on up for now it can only do minor stuff. It might help with skills though and you have a decent Int so it might be fine to keep it. You won't have the higher level slots to make the best of Metamagic Specialist for a while anyways, possibly not for the whole duration of your career. Thus it might be in your interests to just keep your familiar.

If you want to summon, do pick Augment Summoning. It's a huge improvement in Summon power. On low levels, Summon Desert Ally [Sandstorm] is by far the best summon; lots of HP from the Construct type and bonus Strength for them to hit harder. Serval from Summon Desert Ally I is very, very scary for a level 1 Summon for instance, at 20 Str with Augment Summoning (+4 Dustform, +4 Augment). And Spell Focus: Conjuration conveniently improves all the best low level CC abilities in Grease, Glitterdust, Web & Stinking Cloud. A win-win, really. You could also consider Beckon the Frozen [Frostburn], which is pretty nice early on but loses importance with levels. The Chaos thing is probably Chaotic Spell Recall [Fiendish Codex I] but that takes a bunch of Abyssal Inheritor feats to make good and is more of a Wizard-thing anyways. I'd recommend heading into Sandshaper but the game will probably end before you get there.

I will not get to the latter level so I don't think I will get to the time it becomes better.

The chaos one was something that give all the spell the chaos tag.

Do you have any nice low level PRC?

[Eldariel]

I will not get to the latter level so I don't think I will get to the time it becomes better.

That's just the thing though. Neither option does much early on but Familiar does something (gives you Alertness, can easily Aid Another you with basically all skill/combat rolls, doubles as a scout) so I definitely recommend it of the two options. I recommend getting some high Spot familiar like Hawk, or something with unusual senses like Bat (Blindsense). Flight is nigh' obligatory; it goes great with spells "Benign Transposition" and "Baleful Transposition" [Spell Compendium].


The chaos one was something that give all the spell the chaos tag.

Not a feat but an ACF in Dragon Magazine #357 that gives up familiar to align all your spells except spells of the opposite alignment. Pretty solid.


Do you have any nice low level PRC?

Sorcerers have much worse PRC access than Wizards. You can't really get into anything pre-6 without cheesing things out and in many cases level 7 is the earliest. Some of the ones that can be useful on level 6 (you'll be Sorcerer 5/PRC 2 by the end):
Mindbender [Complete Arcane] - Gets you Telepathy 100'.
Mage of the Arcane Order [Complete Arcane] - A bit tricky to qualify for (you need Arcane Preparation), but it allows you to call any level 1-3 spell once per day as a full-round action.
Wild Mage [Complete Arcane] - A bit tricky but presumably you can take Practiced Spellcaster to make up for the lost -3 caster levels casting at ECL+1d6 for the rest of your life.

Incantatrix [Player's Guide to Faerun] doesn't get the really good stuff until later and you'll only qualify for one level of any class that requires casting 3rd level spells due to the delayed Sorcerer progression. Sandshaper [Sandstorm] at level 7 is actually not horrible since you aren't missing out on a spell level anymore (it loses caster level at 1st but since you'll never hit level 8, you'll be fine) and it adds a ton of spells known to your list.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Not a feat but an ACF in Dragon Magazine #357 that gives up familiar to align all your spells except spells of the opposite alignment. Pretty solid.

THAT is solid, considering Spell Focus (Alignment) is a thing thanks to Complete Divine and Ur-Priest. This allows you to pick Spell Focus (Chaos) and Greater Spell Focus (Chaos) and they'll always apply to every spell you cast unless it was already a lawful-aligned spell (summoning a lawful creature and protection from/magic circle against chaos are about it). Aligned Spellcaster is on page 88 of Dragon 357, for anyone wondering.



Since you'll be taking Ancestral Relic you'll need to be good aligned, so no Mindbender dip. The sixth level of any class gives you +1 to all three saving throws and to BAB, so going Sorcerer 6 into a prestige class isn't the end of the world, but if you'll only reach 7th level it's a bit disheartening. I'd pick up Paragnostic Apostle in Complete Champion, or Ruathar in Races of the Wild, or really anything else you can qualify for that advances your spellcasting at the first level.

Normally I'd recommend making that Ancestral Relic Runestaff an Elvencraft Longbow (RotW), so it counts as both a quarterstaff and a longbow, masterwork three times with three wand chambers. However, since you're not going past 7th level and won't be able to make all three portions +1 Defending and use Greater Magic Weapon to make all three +3 or higher each day, you should go with something cheaper. That item costs 1,575 gp all by itself, but you can get a normal quarterstaff with only one end masterwork and two wand chambers for 500 gp. Don't invest too much into it with your starting money, get some Incense of Consecration in BoED and plan to sacrifice loot the party finds into it. You can even sacrifice expensive traps, big statues, and other fixtures you find in a dungeon crawl into it and get their full value. When the party would sell junk loot for half value, buy it from the party pool for that price and get a third of that back when cash is split. You can then sacrifice that loot's full value into your relic, so this way you'll be upgrading it for only about a third the normal cost not counting dungeon fixtures that wouldn't have been looted.

For your starting feats, definitely get Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus for Chaos, that's almost too good for practical optimization. I would also get Versatile Spellcaster in Races of the Dragon to turn two 0-level slots into a 1st level spell, two 1st level slots into a 2nd level spell (on your runestaff), etc. This can even allow you to qualify for prestige classes sooner. Consider picking up some low cost metamagic feats, like Fell Weaken in LM and Sculpt Spell in CA, Invisible Spell in Cityscape is also fantastic but the latter two require you to already have a metamagic feat before taking them.

Pick spells that attack each type of saving throw. At 1st level you have Wall of Smoke (Fort), Grease (Reflex), and Glitterdust (Will). At 2nd level you have Cloud of Bewilderment (Fort), Web (Reflex), and Glitterdust (Will). That should cover it, just keep a note card with what each creature type's naturally weak saving throws are (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#types) and make an educated guess for each thing you run into. Color Spray is mind-affecting but Glitterdust isn't, most oozes and elementals and other formless foes can ignore Reflex crowd controls, undead and constructs are outright immune to Fort save effects, etc. Just be careful not to hit your party members with anything nasty. If you want to have a few spells that deal damage, Power Word: Pain in Races of the Dragon is fantastic if they're not immune to mind-affecting, Ray of Flame catches stuff on fire, Ray of Stupidity will outright disable any animal you hit with it, Command Undead doesn't have a saving throw when targeting mindless undead, etc. I wouldn't bother summoning anything unless you're using a 3rd level spell for it, the exception being Summon Undead at 2nd level. Summon Undead has the evil descriptor, adding the chaos descriptor won't change that, but ask your DM and stick to mindless undead if you use it.

For items, get a Healing Belt and try to pick up some cheap Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items), like a Wand of Nerveskitter, an Amber Amulet of Vermin: Giant Wasp, an Anklet of Translocation or Wand of Benign Transposition, etc. It's also good to pick up a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend, you can get a partially charged Wand of Wings of Cover for emergency situations or in case you're out of spell slots, and Tanglefoot Bags are good to have on hand.

[Eldariel]

Well, I'd still go Augment Summoning over Universal Spell Focus since Spell Focus: Conjuration already hits Wall of Smoke, Grease, Cloud of Bewilderment, Glitterdust, Web. The Universal Spell Focus critically affects Color Spray but other than that, you're fine without it and if you want to use summons on levels 1-2, you do need Augment Summoning. The difference between a Dustform Serval at +4/+4/-1 for 1d3+3/1d3+3/1d4+1 vs. +6/+6/+1 for 1d3+5/1d3+5/1d4+2 is just pretty massive. It goes up to average damage of 10,47 from 6,16 vs. AC15, suddenly easily able to one-round kill most CR½ things (indeed, either of the Claws tends to be enough to drop Goblin or Orc Warriors in one hit, which is pretty crucial in a world of misses). Its damage output is almost doubled. Similarly, a Summon Desert Ally 2 Medium Monstrous Scorpion goes from +4/+4/-1 at 1d4+3/1d4+3/1d4+1 to +6/+6/+1 for 1d4+5/1d4+5/1d4+2. Though you're generally better served with 1d3 Servals unless you need Tremorsense; the dustform breath is still pretty niche at 1d6 for an area.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Guys, tnank you for the help :)

The first time with this girl was so fun.

The Erudit is going into more BFC/Damage so I will go to BFC+Debuff and maybe a wand for summoning or using the Runestaff for it.

I got myself:
Aligned Spellcaster - all spell are Chaos spells and +1 CL VS Lawful and +2 CL VS Lawful Subtype.
Spells:
0:
1.Mending 2.Read Magic 3.Detect Magic 4.Light 5.Message
1:
1.Color Spray 2.Charm Person 3.Orb of Sound, Lesser

Flaws:
Wild
Love of Nature

feats:
LV 1 - Versatile Spellcaster 2 spell slots -> 1 spell slot+1
Flaw 1 - Spell Focus (Chaos) +1 DC
Flaw 2 - Greater Spell Focus (Chaos) +1 DC
LV 3 - Ancestral Relic(Runestaff - Spell level*Spell level*400+Spell level*Spell level*200+Spell level*Spell level*200)
Web 2/D + Wall of Smoke 2/D
items:
Wand of Nerveskitter 750gp 50use-49
Hand of the Mage 900
Wand of Protection From Law 375 25use
Spell component pouch

I am thinking on going to Ruathar at level 5 and Wild Mage after in order to max the Chaos(next level we all get one skill focus or +2/+2 to skill feats for free because we always do that and I will trade a feat a metamagic one).

Any more ideas for Chaos maxing?