Divine Soul Advice, or How Important is Lesser Restoration?

[NecessaryWeevil]

Hi Playground,

I could use some advice on my Divine Soul Sorceror. I'm a CG Tiefling with stats 8/14/14/12/11/16. Other party members are a Paladin (Devotion or Ancients I think), a Fighter, a Fighter/Rogue I think, and a Draconic Sorceror. I just hit level 4; the other party members are all level 3 but on the cusp of level 4 because reasons.

Current spells known are Thaumaturgy; Guidance; Spare the Dying; Firebolt; Mage Hand; Healing Word; Cure Wounds; Sanctuary; Suggestion and Enhance Ability. Metamagic: Twinned, Subtle. We just found a wand of Magic Missile and it's been handed to me because the other sorceror is already a blaster.

I've just hit level 4 and am wondering what to do with myself. In the past we've had some deadly fights and I've felt good about my self-assigned role as primary healer, picking people up off the ground including two at once with Twinned Healing Word. But lately we've been a bit more resilient, and other party members have ended up doing much of the talking so Subtle Suggestion / Enhance Ability hasn't gotten as much use as I'd hoped, although I have done some supporting with that if we've seen a social situation coming up in advance.

Basically I still want to be a decent healer but I wouldn't mind doing more in combat than just spamming Firebolt while I wait for allies to fall down. What would you do with my ASI, what new spell would you learn, and which if any spell would you switch out? I'm contemplating picking up Lesser Restoration and switching out Cure Wounds for Bless; Bless is powerful, but with it taking up my concentration slot, I'm not (for example) doing any crowd control. And how important is it that someone in the party (it will have to be me at least until the Paladin hits level 5) has Lesser Restoration? Currently we've been facing a wide mix of monster types but the campaign antagonists seem to be a dragon cult, so mostly kobolds and humans so far, with some goblinoids thrown in I believe.

Thanks!

[noob]

Well against poisons you will be very glad to have lesser restoration(after the poison was cured) and poisons can happen at any moment(unless poison stopped hitting stats)
Stat drain is uncommon but when it happens it is really horrific.
Do diseases still drain stats in 5e?
Then there is meta gaming maybe the gm is avoiding to hurt stats because the team have few efficient ways to counter that in which case avoiding to take lesser restoration would help.

[Fryy]

I would replace Cure Light Wounds with Guiding Bolt. Twin guiding bolt does good damage and could provide your teammates with advantage on the next attack on the targets you hit.

Your in combat concentration spell 'could' be twinned suggestion to cause up to 2 enemies to 'flee'. It costs 2 sorc pts to twin. Bless might be more universally useful for your combat concentration spell and only costs 1 sorc pt to twin.

Subtle enhance ability to charisma should make you the best at persuasion or deception if you took those skill proficiencies. So, you could step in to talk if your Paladin or Sorc fail in their dealings with NPC's.

[Xihirli]

Bless already targets 3 people and cannot be twinned.

[Guy Lombard-O]

I'd go with Spiritual Weapon for your new 2nd level spell. No concentration, gives you bonus action attack when not Heal-Wording. Switch out something for Bless - I'd get rid of Lesser Restoration. Because, Paladin.

Oh, and I'd just pump up the volume on Cha.


EDIT: By "paladin", I mean Lay on Hands, which covers most of what's important all on its own.

[solidork]

You're fighting a lot of Humanoids, so Hold Person could be great. I wouldn't worry about Lesser Restoration. I would definitely swap out Cure Wounds.

Have you considered Command? It was a favorite of mine from my Cleric, and it would be an interesting thematic choice since you've got a (accidental?) little theme of spells where you tell people what to do and it just happens. Up-casting and Twinning Command are both reasonable, at the very least denying multiple enemies their turn and potentially setting up your melee allies for advantage attacks. Definitely talk to your DM about what they think is reasonable for the spell though, since it is up for interpretation.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Great suggestions everyone, thanks.

Right now I'm leaning towards Bless and Command. Any other input?

[jiriku]

In a melee-heavy party, command is almost comically good. Ordering an opponent who is engaged by several of your opponents to "grovel" or "approach/flee" can grant them all advantage on their attacks or provoke several opportunity attacks (potentially granting the fighter-rogue an off-turn sneak attack, which is especially brutal). I use it in a group with a hexblade who uses booming blade, and it rarely fails to be a great source of damage.

[Pex]

Depends on the campaign. My paladin game started at 6th level. I'm currently 12th level. I've always had it prepared. I have cast it exactly 0 times. In my old cleric game from levels 1 to 9 I had cast it exactly 1 time. Ask your DM. Without giving away the campaign plot he can tell you whether it's worth having.

[Fryy]

Bless already targets 3 people and cannot be twinned.

Oops. Thanks. I knew that. I just got carried away comparing Bless vs. Suggestion.

[8wGremlin]

Get spiritual guardians when you get to 5th level...
Honestly, I feel it is one of the most OP spells, my 3 DMs all hate me when I use it. and have asked any new characters I make not take it.

[Sindal]

Lesser restoration, while it can definately save someone lifegood, should only really be taken by a divine soul if the rest of the party has no access to it (no other druids or clerics or paladins etc) and you KNOW your going to poisons or blind central. Otherwise there just isnt space for a sorceror's spell known to waste on something they will "maybe" use.

Aid is a pretty worthwhile option if no one else has it. 5(and 5 more for every spell level above it) max hp to 3 targets for 8 hours without concentration will fell nice to give out. If you know troubles coming you can slap it on people to give them more to work with while freeing your actions up for combat contribution.

The nice thing about it is that you can use it to stablise people in a pinch, since it gives "max AND current hp"

Healing word to pump a person up. Aid to get lotsa people up or keep them stready.

"My current divine soul has (lvl6)
O - thaumaturgy, prestidigation, mage hand , ray of frost , sacred flame
1 - bless, healing word , magic missle, mage armour
2- Aid, spiritual weapon (stab when you aint healin)
3- haste, counterspell( you could replace counterspell with fireball if you want to make sure your a threat)"

He's designed as a response unit.