Looking for Spell List Advice

[Demonicheart]

Hey there,

I am playing a wild mage sorcerer (9)/bard (1) character and as the title suggests, I'm looking for ideas for how to proceed with my spell choices both for this level and beyond. To give you a better a understanding of my situation, I'll explain a few things about my GM's world. First, magic items are scarce so one shouldn't count on them to supplement abilities. We have to scrounge around just for healing potions and magic shops are almost non-existent (I.E. the few that exist sell trinkets, not practical things). Second, any enemy with an intelligence of 11 or higher will prioritize the spellcaster. The GM has told me this upfront and this has occurred in game. As soon as they see a single cantrip, they will fly, burrow, teleport or outright charge through the front line taking multiple attacks of opportunity to reach you. Hiding in the rear is not an option so expect to be on the forefront regardless of placement. The party consists of a barbarian, a rogue, and (due to character deaths) the last two players are currently hovering between two classes. One is considering going paladin or monk while the other is leaning towards pact blade warlock or fighter. Finally, if anyone does have any other advice for increasing my character's survival outside of spell lists, feel free to mention it.

Current spell list with Quicken spell and empowered spell metamagic.

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mending, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Shocking Grasp, Blade Ward, Vicious Mockery

1st level: Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield, Cure Wounds, Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Heroism

2nd level: Mirror Image, See Invisibility

3rd: level: Counterspell, Fireball, Haste

4th level: Banishment, Dimension Door

[sophontteks]

You can quicken spell and take the dodge action. With mage armor and some dex on top of it, you are already a very hard target and the DM is only making the encounter's easier. Taking the dodge action essentially replaces blade ward. Much nicer to significantly reduce the chance of the enemy hitting you at all.

With things as you described you are missing the single strongest metamagic ever made. Subtle spell. If the enemy can't see you casting, they won't be attacking you. Its cheap so it alone pretty much wipes out the DMs plan entirely. Just subtle in the first round, no need wasting slots and concentration on multiple defensive spells.

The DM made a mistake IMO in that he made intelligent opponents predictable (and kind of stupid) you can take advantage of that, making the enemy run through hazards and reactions by casting without subtle when its advantageous. Maybe stinking cloud and the like would go far as a result. You can easily corral intelligent enemies right into it. You can really game this and the DM will probably have to reconsider how they are playing intelligent enemies.

[Crgaston]

Sophontteks gives great advice.

See if one of the new characters can pick up Spiritual Guardians, and the other Spike Growth. Anyone charging into those overlapped is in for a bad day.

I notice that although you say you’re a 9th Level Sorcerer, you don’t have any 5th level spells listed? May I suggest Animate Objects?

[Demonicheart]

I have to admit that I feel like kicking myself for not thinking about quicken spell + dodge. That's a really great idea. Subtle metamagic is also a good idea though I do fear the DM might pull a "good for the goose, good for the gander" situation and add enemies that also can cast with subtle and say I can't counterspell since I don't see or hear any casting. There were one or two past battles where the enemies were pretty much immune to force damage rendering magic missile useless. As for the enemy patterns, the DM reasoned that an enemy that gets hit with a high damaging attack like fireball would see that the source was a threat to take out immediately and would be willing to take hits to deal with the problem.

As for the comment about 5th level spells, you are right that I don't have them. When I would have gotten my first one, I took that level of bard to help with survival and emergency healing. As for the second level I could have chosen it, Dimension Door got picked because the enemies kept trying to grab me before pummeling me. Most of the spell choices were reactions to ingame occurrences. See invisibility was due to lots of invisible imps. Banishment since every other fight we encounter at least one large sized creature. You get the idea. At least the DM said he doesn't mind optimization since he admits he likes to give us a challenge.

[Crgaston]

By the book you get a new one when you level up, and you also get to swap out one you know already for a different one, so you could have picked up dimension door and a 5th level one. Unless your dm has ruled otherwise, of course.

[Galactkaktus]

Maybe you could use the fact that they rush you and takes attacks of opportunities, by using something like misty step in conjunction with dsah to make them take another dose of attacks of opportunity. Since they seem so intent on rushing you no matter what.

[Vessyra]

Web and grease can be good low-level spells to stop the enemies from reaching you. The best thing about grease is, it doesn't have concentration. Web is concentration and fairly situational, but it can be great when it works. Also, I hope that one of the characters that re-rolls has the sentinel feat

[Demonicheart]

I'm aware of the swapping spells feature when leveling but I've already done that. Haste came into play when I finally dropped sleep since the enemies hp was getting so high I could only ko 1 if I was lucky without burning a higher level spell slot. I'll definitely have to consider grease next level and I think I can get creative with animate objects. Also, while I don't have everyone's sheets on hand, I'm fairly certain none of the melee characters in my party bothered with the Sentinel feat or else I would have less headaches than I do now.

[KillingTime]

Your DM sounds like a metagamer...