Sorcerer Spell Advice

[Master O'Laughs]

In one of the campaign's I play in I had a fighter die and have decided to roll up a sorcerer. My DM has made some custom spells and classes and I plan on using one for sorcerer which makes heavy use of the firebolt cantrip. As such I was planning on taking Elemental Adept at lvl 4 to help increase low rolls and prevent fire resistance (we have run into it already).

What would be a good secondary damage type cantrip? I main fear are enemies that may be immune to fire and then resistant or immune to other forms of damage. Would Psychic, Acid, Lightning, Cold, or Necrotic be the best damage type in a cantrip?

For leveled spells I plan on spreading things out between fire and all other types and picking different saving throws. I will probably focus on damage and utility.

I am thinking of subtle and empower for my meta magic choices.

[Man_Over_Game]

In one of the campaign's I play in I had a fighter die and have decided to roll up a sorcerer. My DM has made some custom spells and classes and I plan on using one for sorcerer which makes heavy use of the firebolt cantrip. As such I was planning on taking Elemental Adept at lvl 4 to help increase low rolls and prevent fire resistance (we have run into it already).

What would be a good secondary damage type cantrip? I main fear are enemies that may be immune to fire and then resistant or immune to other forms of damage. Would Psychic, Acid, Lightning, Cold, or Necrotic be the best damage type in a cantrip?

For leveled spells I plan on spreading things out between fire and all other types and picking different saving throws. I will probably focus on damage and utility.

I am thinking of subtle and empower for my meta magic choices.

Frostbite is a great secondary option. Not only does it cover the opposite element of Fire, but it also uses a Saving Throw and inflicts a debuff on the target. However, Necrotic damage would also serve nearly as well.

[Wryte]

Frostbite is indeed pretty sweet, but the drawback is that it's a Con save, which depending on the nature of your campaign could be one that a lot of enemies do well at.

I'll always put up for Shocking Grasp. Some nice lightning damage, but the real gem is that it denies the target their reactions, giving you a free disengage if a melee enemy gets past your frontline to you.

[sithlordnergal]

Personally, I would take Chill Touch. Its riders are extremely useful when they come into play, it does Necrotic damage which usually isn't resisted, it has the same range as Firebolt, it does a respectable d8 of damage, and usually when it is resisted you're facing undead. Which brings both of its riders into play.

Outside of that, Ray of Frost is pretty good. 60 foot range, d8 cold damage, and lowers the target's speed by 10 feet. I'd personally advise against Frostbite, mostly due to how high monster's Con saves tend to be.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Shocking Grasp!! Its a melee touch spell, so if you do ever end up with someone in your face you can attack with that and escape.

[Master O'Laughs]

Cool, so my DM has made some custom spells which I could select and I will give the rough bones of the options to see if they are worth selecting over an official choice:

-30 feet ranged attack, d4 acid damage, target takes damage again on following round

-10 foot cone, wis save, d4 psychic damage, target is pushed 5 feet

-30 feet ranged attack, d6/d8 lightning damage, can target 2 creatures within 5 ft. if both hit the damage is d8 instead of d6

Of the Official cantrips I am leaning towards chill touch or shocking grasp. I would prefer a ST based cantrip for melee purposes and targeting a different defense but agree targeting CON isn't ideal.

[MightyDuck]

Cool, so my DM has made some custom spells which I could select and I will give the rough bones of the options to see if they are worth selecting over an official choice:

-30 feet ranged attack, d4 acid damage, target takes damage again on following round

-10 foot cone, wis save, d4 psychic damage, target is pushed 5 feet

-30 feet ranged attack, d6/d8 lightning damage, can target 2 creatures within 5 ft. if both hit the damage is d8 instead of d6

Of the Official cantrips I am leaning towards chill touch or shocking grasp. I would prefer a ST based cantrip for melee purposes and targeting a different defense but agree targeting CON isn't ideal.

I mean these all look pretty powerful, presuming they scale like most cantrips, they are definitely more powerful than the official ones that's for sure. The 10ft cone psychic one in particular looks amazing, giving you AOE, limited CC and and easy way to escape combat, the lightning one also looks pretty powerful, its basically a better in everyway acid splash. I'd take firebolt for range and then the psychic AOE as a back up, maybe pick up one of the others later if you have space.

[Brotherbock]

Not a lot of things have resistance to psychic damage, iirc. That's why Dissonant Whispers is so good. There are more likely to be things resistant to more than one element (things made of rock, for example) than resistant to both fire and psychic, I'd guess.

[Master O'Laughs]

Cool. Sounds good. And yes all the cantrips scale.

I will pick the psychic one then and look to one of the others later.

[Master O'Laughs]

Another spell question, this time about leveled spells. The character would be coming in at lvl 6 so lucky me I know all of 7 spells!

I was thinking:

Lvl 1: Mage armor, Catapult (seems like a fun damage spell)
lvl 2: Levitate, Enlarge/reduce, Suggestion
Lvl 3: Fireball, Haste

Party has an illusion wizard already but focuses on crowd control type spells.

My character would be a dwarf who owns/owned a tavern/butcher shop. I figured Levitate would be useful for carrying large shipments into storage or cleaning high corners too soiled for prestidigitation, enlarge/reduce would be useful for intimidation if multiple trouble makers showed up and suggestion if just a single bad egg was causing people grief.

Fireball would be the last spell I picked up as I was getting called awsay from my tavern to deal with the issues the group is involved with.

Meta-magic @17 would be: Empower, Quicken, Subtle, Twin

I plan on taking Subtle first and I am debating between the other 3. Thoughts?

[Crucius]

I plan on taking Subtle first and I am debating between the other 3. Thoughts?

Currently I am only seeing two damaging spells so empower would be best reserved for later (although it is a great metamagic).

Twin works well with the spells you have chosen but is hella expensive, but subtle is super cheap so there is a nice balance there.

Quicken is always good and fun, especially if you have some concrete ideas about your action economy/combos.

So subtle and twin/quicken is my advice.

Bonus: Guru's Advanced Sorcerer Guide (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxHRu80oFd2iSkNLeVBISzZxMzQ/view) has some great advice on the metamagics, I recommend reading that article.

[sophontteks]

Another spell question, this time about leveled spells. The character would be coming in at lvl 6 so lucky me I know all of 7 spells!

I was thinking:

Lvl 1: Mage armor, Catapult (seems like a fun damage spell)
lvl 2: Levitate, Enlarge/reduce, Suggestion
Lvl 3: Fireball, Haste

Party has an illusion wizard already but focuses on crowd control type spells.

My character would be a dwarf who owns/owned a tavern/butcher shop. I figured Levitate would be useful for carrying large shipments into storage or cleaning high corners too soiled for prestidigitation, enlarge/reduce would be useful for intimidation if multiple trouble makers showed up and suggestion if just a single bad egg was causing people grief.

Fireball would be the last spell I picked up as I was getting called awsay from my tavern to deal with the issues the group is involved with.

Meta-magic @17 would be: Empower, Quicken, Subtle, Twin

I plan on taking Subtle first and I am debating between the other 3. Thoughts?

Subtle and twinned.

Subtle is actually great with catapult because you are not the origin of the attack. I would swap suggestion for PF. Suggestion requires you to make the request in the description. This requirement is not removed by subtle and really gives the spell away. Its still not a bad combo, but PF is worth considering because the spell would be completely hidden.

Twinned on enlarge/reduce and haste is about as good as it gets and well worth the cost. You have levitate to ke p yourself out of trouble too.

[Master O'Laughs]

Subtle and twinned.

Subtle is actually great with catapult because you are not the origin of the attack. I would swap suggestion for PF. Suggestion requires you to make the request in the description. This requirement is not removed by subtle and really gives the spell away. Its still not a bad combo, but PF is worth considering because the spell would be completely hidden.

Twinned on enlarge/reduce and haste is about as good as it gets and well worth the cost. You have levitate to ke p yourself out of trouble too.

Yup, definitely going subtle and twinned after remembering @ 7th level I could twin polymorph!!! 2 Giant Apes FTW!

[Petrocorus]

What subclass are you selecting?

For the best energies for damages, look in my sig.

Force and Radiant are the best energies, followed by Psychic and Thunder. Lightning is good candidate for Elemental Adept.
Note that Fire is the second most resisted and ignore energy and the second worst candidate for Elemental Adept.

[Crgaston]

I would prefer a ST based cantrip for melee purposes and targeting a different defense but agree targeting CON isn't ideal.
Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade use your attack stat and are on the Sorcerer list.

[Master O'Laughs]

What subclass are you selecting?

For the best energies for damages, look in my sig.

Force and Radiant are the best energies, followed by Psychic and Thunder. Lightning is good candidate for Elemental Adept.
Note that Fire is the second most resisted and ignore energy and the second worst candidate for Elemental Adept.

My DM made a custom bloodline based around the firebolt cantrip.

1) you learn the firebolt cantrip and if you hit a creature within 10' of you it does 2d6 damage/tier instead of 1d10.
2) you can create a totem that uses your reaction to fire a firebolt at a target within 30'. It recharges on short or long rest or if you expend a hit die.
3) at lvl 14 the totem gets its own action and reaction so I would be able to fire potentially 4 firebolts a turn and have a bonus action free to quicken a spell.

[ImperiousLeader]

Another spell question, this time about leveled spells. The character would be coming in at lvl 6 so lucky me I know all of 7 spells!

I was thinking:

Lvl 1: Mage armor, Catapult (seems like a fun damage spell)
lvl 2: Levitate, Enlarge/reduce, Suggestion
Lvl 3: Fireball, Haste

Party has an illusion wizard already but focuses on crowd control type spells.

My character would be a dwarf who owns/owned a tavern/butcher shop. I figured Levitate would be useful for carrying large shipments into storage or cleaning high corners too soiled for prestidigitation, enlarge/reduce would be useful for intimidation if multiple trouble makers showed up and suggestion if just a single bad egg was causing people grief.

Fireball would be the last spell I picked up as I was getting called awsay from my tavern to deal with the issues the group is involved with.

Meta-magic @17 would be: Empower, Quicken, Subtle, Twin

I plan on taking Subtle first and I am debating between the other 3. Thoughts?

Haste is great, but I've gotta put a word in for Counterspell. It has saved my Sorcerer's behind more times than I can count. And if you're already planning to be the party buffer with enlarge/reduce, there's overlap with Haste. It also cuts down the number of concentration spells you have.

My Sorcerer has Subtle and Twin and been quite happy with both. Twin is not as expensive as everyone thinks. Put it this way, you can twin a 3rd level spell for 3 sorcery points, or regain the spell slot for 5. Cast the same number of 3rd level spells.

[Master O'Laughs]

Haste is great, but I've gotta put a word in for Counterspell. It has saved my Sorcerer's behind more times than I can count. And if you're already planning to be the party buffer with enlarge/reduce, there's overlap with Haste. It also cuts down the number of concentration spells you have.

My Sorcerer has Subtle and Twin and been quite happy with both. Twin is not as expensive as everyone thinks. Put it this way, you can twin a 3rd level spell for 3 sorcery points, or regain the spell slot for 5. Cast the same number of 3rd level spells.

There is a wizard in the party and I think he has the spell already. Not that multiple counter spells are a bad thing. I am also trying to approach the list from the thematic/role-play perspective for when I first introduce the character.

I can see the thematics of counter spell preventing shenanigans in my tavern.

Enlarge/reduce while possibly being used as a buff, I am also looking at it as a utility spell (reducing a locked door or enlarging something to block a path).

[ImperiousLeader]

The other option, Dispel Magic, is also solid. Though I'd sooner have the Wizard use that spell. A Subtle Counterspell cannot be countered as there is no trigger, no one sees you cast the spell.