How to do a Divine Soul Sorcerer well?

[EkulNagrom]

Hello! For my next campaign, I am planning on being a Divine Soul Sorcerer. I'm choosing Divine Soul for character reasons (I'm a Teifling who loves to hand out candy to children.) but I don't know how to play one well.

From what I saw when I read their abilities, the Divine Soul gets Cleric Spells and some better healing. While I like the idea of getting Cleric spells, I've never actually played a Cleric before and don't know which spells to pick.

I will be the only true spell caster in the party, so I want to be able to do some ranged damage and heal (depending on the situation). The other "spellcaster" is a bard, and he's mostly being a bard for aesthetics (College of Whispers! You get a psychic "sneak attack" and a better disguised self. The bard is probably going to use most of his spell slots on Dissonant Whispers.)

Thank you!

[Blood of Gaea]

What do you want to focus on with your spellcasting? Or are you just asking for generally good spells?

[Unoriginal]

I'm a Teifling who loves to hand out candy to children

Just to be sure, before I post the rest of my answer: is that an indirect way to say your character sexually abuse children?

I'm not trying to be rude or sound as if I'm assuming the worse, but in my country the turn of phrase "hand out candy to children" is generally tied to those who do that to kidnap them (kind of the like the "free candy windowless van" stuff).

[Citan]

Hello! For my next campaign, I am planning on being a Divine Soul Sorcerer. I'm choosing Divine Soul for character reasons (I'm a Teifling who loves to hand out candy to children.) but I don't know how to play one well.

From what I saw when I read their abilities, the Divine Soul gets Cleric Spells and some better healing. While I like the idea of getting Cleric spells, I've never actually played a Cleric before and don't know which spells to pick.

I will be the only true spell caster in the party, so I want to be able to do some ranged damage and heal (depending on the situation). The other "spellcaster" is a bard, and he's mostly being a bard for aesthetics (College of Whispers! You get a psychic "sneak attack" and a better disguised self. The bard is probably going to use most of his spell slots on Dissonant Whispers.)

Thank you!
Hi!

Hmmm... This one may be a bit tricky actually.
Sorcerer is a great caster, but the fact he has lesser spell known than others make him best as the "magic specialist" in one particular area (buff/AOE/control/utility), the one that is predictable and reliable for the party.

When you want to make a generalist Sorcerer, without multiclass nor feats, you end shoehorned most cases in the same selection as other players in the same situations.

Divine Sorcerer makes it "worse", because now you get two spell lists from which to choose, and both get a heap of good spells.

I see four ways to go.

1. Your party is actually pretty balanced, so many areas should be pretty well covered already.
Rogue? Expertise in most important skills should cover the whole matter, although Enhance Ability is always worth.
Single frontliner? You may want Aid or Warding Bond to help him stand. Oppositely, if you have at least 2 strong frontliners (Paladin / Barbarian / EK), you may rely mainly on healing potions or other people's abilities.
Plus you have a Bard: he should at least agree to use Healing Words.
I'd say you should be fine just tacking one damage AOE that you "upgrade" by swappping (Burning Hands/Shatter/Fireball), one mass-control (Hypnotic Pattern/Fear/Slow) and one single-target control (Blindness/Hold Person/Phantasmal Force).
Beyond that, try to find spells that could synergize with party or focus in one particular area and let party accept there is overall one kind of encounter they will be weak against.
Ex: DEX Fighter or Paladinthat wants to tank (aggro enemies)? (Careful) Web should deal a great help. It's instead a Barbarian with 18 CON? (Careful) Stinking Cloud should do the trick.

2. You want to be versatile without feats/multiclass?
Healing Words, Enhance Ability, Fireball, Polymorph are the mandatory ones (you'll *always* have a use for them). Then you'll have to pick the others depending on your choice of metamagic, but still trying to target different ability scores and getting a mix between buff damage and control.

3. You accept feats?
Two options.
- Boost your WIS to 13 and pick Ritual Caster: Wizard (yeah, it works by RAW). Will require your DM to work with you here, otherwise utter waste of a feat.
- Pick Inspiring Leader and make it your main "heal", disregarding any other heal spell beyond Healing Words.
- Pick Healer feat and make it your main "heal", same as above.

4. You accept multiclass?
a) Boost your WIS to 14, pick one level of Life Cleric immediately after Sorcerer 1, pick one level of Druid after Sorcerer 5 if possible, before if surviving is hard.
You'll get armor and shield, many interesting cantrips and great interchangeable utility and buff, so you can focus on taking damaging spells for awhile. And you get Life Goodberries, which is the best out-of-combat healing you can hope for at low levels.
b) Boost your WIS to 14, pick one level of Tempest Cleric immediately after Sorcerer 1, another once you got Lightning Bolt (Sorc 5) or Chain Lightning (Sorc 11) depending on how bad your party needs AOE.
That early investment immediately pays off in armor and Cleric spells as above, the 2nd level will be worth it imo because you get it after learning spells that could make it as good in clearing mobs as a Fireball.

And there is always option 5: pick a Druid, Tempest Cleric or Light Cleric instead if that is compatible with your character concept. Much less hassle in deciding how to build your character level after level. ;)

[EkulNagrom]

Just to be sure, before I post the rest of my answer: is that an indirect way to say your character sexually abuse children?

I'm not trying to be rude or sound as if I'm assuming the worse, but in my country the turn of phrase "hand out candy to children" is generally tied to those who do that to kidnap them (kind of the like the "free candy windowless van" stuff).

Ha. This is exactly the kind of thoughts I'm trying to provoke, but not anything I'm ever going to do.
My character going to be genuinely nice. He will actually carry around candy to give to children in the towns he visits, and if he has time, he'll play a game or tell stories too. But, unfortunately, he's a Teifling. So he'll walk into town, smile, walk towards the children with his arms wide and get tackled by the city guard. At least, thats the plan.

@Citan thank you for your very thorough reply!
Luckily, Divine Sorcerer starts with Cure Wounds (Or, well, I will. Good alignment) so I will have a healing spell to start. The party is going to be a Paladin (Conquest?), a Fighter (Undecided), a Rouge (Mastermind) and a Bard (Blades. He changed his mind from Whisper). And if the bard uses Healing word, we should be fine with healing. The problem now is that I will be the ONLY person standing far away, unless the Rouge decides to use a bow. So I'm going to make sure to have burning hands/shatter/fireball and some other attacking spells along with Enhance Ability or something similar.

[Willie the Duck]

Ha. This is exactly the kind of thoughts I'm trying to provoke, but not anything I'm ever going to do.

So you want to... troll the rest of your gaming group into expecting your character to be a pedophile, but then subvert those expectations by never following through? That's... interesting. Mind you, dedicating an entire character to a single twisted joke could get old in about 2 1/2 minutes, but whatever.


Luckily, Divine Sorcerer starts with Cure Wounds (Or, well, I will. Good alignment) so I will have a healing spell to start. The party is going to be a Paladin (Conquest?), a Fighter (Undecided), a Rog[u]e (Mastermind) and a Bard (Blades. He changed his mind from Whisper). And if the bard uses Healing word, we should be fine with healing. The problem now is that I will be the ONLY person standing far away, unless the Rouge decides to use a bow. So I'm going to make sure to have burning hands/shatter/fireball and some other attacking spells along with Enhance Ability or something similar.

This works, but what does this character do that a Light Domain cleric couldn't also do, but with medium armor, guidance cantrip, better hd, and ability to switch out spells in the morning? What are you intending to use your metamagic on? What sorcerer-only spells will they use to greatest effect? Knowing this will tell you which of your precious spell selections to spend of sorcerer vs. cleric spells.

[LtPowers]

So you want to... troll the rest of your gaming group into expecting your character to be a pedophile, but then subvert those expectations by never following through?

I don't see any indication of this. EkulNagrom wants to create a character whose benign intent is misunderstood by NPCs. No mention of fooling fellow players.


Powers &8^]

[Citan]

Ha. This is exactly the kind of thoughts I'm trying to provoke, but not anything I'm ever going to do.
My character going to be genuinely nice. He will actually carry around candy to give to children in the towns he visits, and if he has time, he'll play a game or tell stories too. But, unfortunately, he's a Teifling. So he'll walk into town, smile, walk towards the children with his arms wide and get tackled by the city guard. At least, thats the plan.

@Citan thank you for your very thorough reply!
Luckily, Divine Sorcerer starts with Cure Wounds (Or, well, I will. Good alignment) so I will have a healing spell to start. The party is going to be a Paladin (Conquest?), a Fighter (Undecided), a Rouge (Mastermind) and a Bard (Blades. He changed his mind from Whisper). And if the bard uses Healing word, we should be fine with healing. The problem now is that I will be the ONLY person standing far away, unless the Rouge decides to use a bow. So I'm going to make sure to have burning hands/shatter/fireball and some other attacking spells along with Enhance Ability or something similar.
Hmm...
I'd suggest you ask your DM as soon as you can "to explain to you how Careful metamagic works, for example with a Web spell".
If he goes with "well, it makes your allies auto-save for the duration", then you have your defining Metamagic: pair with what you want among Web, Stinking Cloud, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern, Sleep etc...
Otherwise, you'll just have to avoid using spells with possible collateral when you're unsure of yourself.

If you intend to stay at range (which is actually a good idea considering your frailness XD), I wouldn't bother with Burning Hands at all. You having a chance to use it means you have at least 3 enemies close to you: better Dash and run for your life really. Learn Magic Missile (sure-hit is good) or Ice Knife (decent AOE for the level) instead, which you'll swap for Shatter when available.
And learn Shocking Grasp in case an enemy comes close.

In fact, barring the aforementioned Careful metamagic, I'd consider Distant spell, unless you're planning on using a familiar consistently by grabbing Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster later.
It's cheap, would allow you to get a twisted version of Healing Words for emergencies, a way to help someone escape from an enemy (Shocking Grasp), a way to make debuff stick durably and more generally be effective even from at least more than 100 feet away from the fight, meaning that enemies would have trouble rushing to you or hitting with ranged attacks.
(Of course, this also means that against smart enemies, if you stay too far away some could manage to sneak around and ambush you, with nobody being able to help except by attacking from range).

Or you could go with Twin, and choose one buff spell you'll use as often as possible on two friends: Shield of Faith would always be nice on Rogue and Bard, Dragon's Breath would be perfect on anyone (check with DM if allowed) as well as Enhance Ability, until you get Haste which would be perfect for Paladin (one more possible smite) and Rogue (one more chance at Sneak Attack), or Protection from Energy for your Rogue and Bard.

Or go with Extended, for Mage Armor (yourself and anyone who wants), (upcast) Aid (great way to help your party live through), Invisibility (same), Enhance Ability (sometimes you don't know when you'll suddenly need to rock), Silence (same), Warding Bond (when you know you'll have several encounters shortly after one another), Magic Circle (nice way to ensure you get strictly more than 1 hour of safety although DM keeping a strict clock on this kind of rest should be talked to imo), Death Ward (one of the top 5 buffs ;)) etc...

Or go with Empowered because you realize you and your group are good at creating "friendly blasting" opportunities.

All this may be overwhelming, so I'd also suggest you kindly ask your DM if he'd allow you to change one Metamagic every level. It does not breaks anything at all really, and would allow you to try things without remorse. :)

[EkulNagrom]

@Ltpowers Yes, this is basically it. Confusing the NPC's, who are probably expecting me to throw fire, by handing out candy and playing hop-scotch.

@Citan Thank you for all of that metamagic help. And to be honest, the only reason I'm not being a Life cleric is because I want more damaging spells than helpful spells (and you know... character background, stuff). But, seeing as how everyone but me is trying to DPS, I might as well be the best healer/support I can be. And grab a few damaging spells in case we run into something with resistances.

I'll probably take Twin and Careful, at least. Can't go wrong with those (I hope). Luckily, this is my DM's first DMing, and everyone in the party (except the rouge) has never played their respective class before. So it'll be mistakes all around.

[Citan]

@Ltpowers Yes, this is basically it. Confusing the NPC's, who are probably expecting me to throw fire, by handing out candy and playing hop-scotch.

@Citan Thank you for all of that metamagic help. And to be honest, the only reason I'm not being a Life cleric is because I want more damaging spells than helpful spells (and you know... character background, stuff). But, seeing as how everyone but me is trying to DPS, I might as well be the best healer/support I can be. And grab a few damaging spells in case we run into something with resistances.

I'll probably take Twin and Careful, at least. Can't go wrong with those (I hope). Luckily, this is my DM's first DMing, and everyone in the party (except the rouge) has never played their respective class before. So it'll be mistakes all around.
My pleasure. ;)
Don't forget to ask your DM about how he rules Careful though, if he'd follow the (imo nerfing for no good reason) twitter ruling that says it only affects the initial cast, it becomes much less interesting.

And really, ask him to allow one metamagic chance per level up. Sorcerer build is not mistake-friendly per RAW, this would help greatly.

Have fun!

[Avonar]

My recommendation would be to fill in the blanks of the party. I'm currently playing a Divine Soul and they work well for building them around your character. Currently the party has two members that will stay out of combat and do ranged attacks, so my character is now one that will go in, can do some alright damage using shadow blade and can heal himself and the other melee fighters who are taking the most damage.