Is Telekinesis as good as it sounds?

[Hiro Quester]

building a sneak-stacking sorcerer6/Swiftblade9/Unseen Seer5/Epic Swiftblade1. main role would be self-buffing front-line Damage-dealer, with a little BFC on the side.

Thinking about spell selection.

At 5th level it's hard to choose. I have already chosen
Wall of Force
Baleful Polymorph
Arcane Fusion

I have swiftblade class ability that serves pretty much the same function in terms of miss chances vs. spells and attacks. That and greater invisibility (and a ghost touch weapon crystal) have made Greater Blink relatively unnecessary.
I can know one more. Considering Telekinesis. It seems versatile, useful, vaguely advantageous for long-distance tripping, disarming, or grappling, bull rushing, etc., as well as having combat applications (launch 15 daggers or arrows at a target; one of which also sneak-attacks --another of which is secretly silenced ;-).

It it as useful as it seems? What other 5th level sorcerer spells might be better for front-line (sneaky) damage-dealer?

[Eldariel]

Yes, it's very good and more importantly a rather unique effect that you can't easily replicate with higher level spells. Also really strong with the Violent Thrust, control functions and all that. I wouldn't necessarily pick Arcane Fusion if I had Greater available. There's redundancy there. Greater Arcane Fusion + Celerity is all the action nonsense you'll ever need. As for 5th level spells you should know...Greater Blink [Spell Compendium] is still really good (walking through objects and such). Magic Jar for Grand Theft Body/permanent takeover and just a simple non-mind affecting repeatable save or die where you make enemies kill each other is very useful. Major and Minor Creation can both create among other things any Plant-based poisons (to not even mention all the general utility that having access to basically anything in 10 mins bestows) so that's nice.

Contact Other Plane is the most powerful divination quite possibly, bypassing Mind Blank and the like and allowing you to find out literally anything. And by level 20, simple 36 casting stat + Luckstone + Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone gives you 13 + 1 Luck + 1 Competence = +15 on the Casting Stat Check enabling you to trivially ask Greater Deities with 0 chance of failure. Permanency is a nice spell but probably not a spell to know more than one to get to permanency Arcane Sight/See Invisible/etc. and then trade away (or one to Scroll).

Oh yeah. Then, Draconic Polymorph [Spell Compendium reference/Draconomicon]. Too good stat buffs to pass up on if you're doing any shapeshifting.


Remember Rune Staves/Drake Helms/Knowstones for knowing more than just your basic allotment of spells; you have more than enough spells per day to make use of a broad range of buffs and powers.

[Hiro Quester]

I just finished playing a wildshaping Druid. So while drqconic polymorph looks fun, I’m trying to mostly stay myself.

That said, magic jar is worth considering. hHmmm. I’m investing heavily in hide (incl in plain sight). So sniping magic jar to take over enemies, while leaving my body invisibly hidden in the shadows, is an interesting possibility.

Arcane fusion is for dealing with SR, mostly. Pairing true casting with another spell, or assay spell resistance with a low-level buff before trying something like bal ful polymorph. I’m also learning the greater version, though.

But I am also specializing in divination. So contact other plane has a useful resonance. I’ll look closer there too. Thanks.

Edit: Yes, custom runestaves for all-day buffs, and special situations.