Best arcane spells per level for a Mailman build

[Yenner]

As the title says I'm looking for a list of the best of arcane spells both for "DPS" and utility/defense. The PC is a Sorceress Mail(wo)man, so you can get why there are orbs and lot of non-AoE spells.
My list so far (in no alphabetical order):
0- Amanuensis, Arcane mark, Detect magic, Detect poison, Ghost sound, Launch item, Light, Mage hand, Message, Prestidigitation, Read magic,
1- Alarm, Alter self, Benign transposition, Comprehend languages,Enlarge person, Grease, Identify, Lesser orb of xxx, Magic missile, Mount, Nerve skitter, Protection from xxx, Ray of enfeeblement, Remove scent, Skillfull moment, Summon moster I, True casting, True strike, Unseen servant, Ventriloquism, Wings of swift flying
2- Combust, Detect Thoughts, Glitterdust, Gust of Wind, Invisibility, Knock, Locate object, Mirror Image, Rope trick, Scorching ray, See Invisibility, Shatter, Web, Wings of cover
3-Alter fortune, Dispel magic, Fireball, Fly, Heart of water, Magic Circle against xxx, Protection from energy , Shivering touch, Shrink object, Sound lance
4- Assay spell resistance, Black tentacles, Celerity, Dimension door, Doom scarabs, Enervation, Greater invisibility, Orb of xxx, Primal senses, Resilient sphere, Ruin delver’s fortune, Vortex of teeth
5- Arcane fusion, Baleful polymoph, Cloudkill, Fireburst greater, Permanency, Telekinesis, Teleport, Undying vigor of the Dragon Lords, Wall of force
6- Contingency, Disintegrate, Freezing sphere, Geass, Greater dispel, Ruby ray of reversal, True sight
7- Arcane spellsurge, Avasculate, Finger of death, Forcecage, Limited wish, Reverse gravity
8- Greater arcane fusion, Horrid wilting, Mind blank, Moment of prescience, Prismatic wall
9- Foresight, Mage’s disjunction, Shades, Timestop, Wish


I didn’t add some combo spells like Starmantle & Ironguard, Karmi spells because they are some of the target of my Permanency in the future :D

[RNightstalker]

I must confess that I'm not aware of the mailman build but I'm wondering if that's the reason your PC is way over the spells known limitation for a sorcerer?

[MisterKaws]

Yeah, you got it mostly right, but are you planning on spending your entire WBL on Siberys Dragonshards for all those known spells?

[RNightstalker]

Yeah, you got it mostly right, but are you planning on spending your entire WBL on Siberys Dragonshards for all those known spells?

Would you be able to fill me in or refer me to a source that actually tells me what Siberys Dragonshards do? All I've found so far is how they're found and where they come from.

[Jack_Simth]

Maybe it's a 3.PF game? Between bloodline spells and the human alternate favored class bonus for Sorcerer, you could get close to that, and need only a relative handful of Pages of Spell Knowledge.

[MisterKaws]

Would you be able to fill me in or refer me to a source that actually tells me what Siberys Dragonshards do? All I've found so far is how they're found and where they come from.

Eberron's Explorer's Handbook, under Drake Helm, page 151. They are each attuned for a specific spell level, and come storing different spells, which can be changed by casting a spell targeting them. You can insert them into a Drake Helm to grant you those attuned spells as known spells, and they're very fast to change (a move action to insert or remove). By casting spells from Scrolls on them, you can drastically increase your versatility as a Sorcerer/Bard. They're basically the Sorcerer/Bard equivalent of the Cleric's Nightsticks, in that it wouldn't be a necessarily bad investment to spend half or more of your WBL on them.

[Troacctid]

I'm a fan of force hammer and shockwave as a middle ground between blasting and debuffing. The Rules Compendium update for multi-attack spells also made chill touch and its ilk (corrosive grasp, parching touch, storm touch, scalding touch) into incredibly potent damage-dealers by putting all the attacks as part of the standard action to cast the spell. Mark of the enlightened soul automatically empowers lower-level spells even if you cast them out of higher-level slots with metamagic. Spell haven is really good if you have the dragonmark to support it.

[Deadkitten]

I'm a fan of force hammer and shockwave as a middle ground between blasting and debuffing. The Rules Compendium update for multi-attack spells also made chill touch and its ilk (corrosive grasp, parching touch, storm touch, scalding touch) into incredibly potent damage-dealers by putting all the attacks as part of the standard action to cast the spell. Mark of the enlightened soul automatically empowers lower-level spells even if you cast them out of higher-level slots with metamagic. Spell haven is really good if you have the dragonmark to support it.

Wait a second....REALLY!?!?!?!

Good lord that annoys me for soooo many reasons, if thats how milti attack spells are supposed to work than good lord.

I dont want to have to deal with a player making +10 or more attacks in one standard action and then having to make +10 successive fort saves that are only gonna get failed on like a one. Geeze.

[MisterKaws]

Wait a second....REALLY!?!?!?!

Good lord that annoys me for soooo many reasons, if thats how milti attack spells are supposed to work than good lord.

I dont want to have to deal with a player making +10 or more attacks in one standard action and then having to make +10 successive fort saves that are only gonna get failed on like a one. Geeze.

It's a contested rule to say the least. Doing it with melf's arrows, searing ray, or whatnot is fine. Doing it with hand-touch spells(which are usually incredibly powerful) is very not fine.

[Troacctid]

It is quite unambiguous. Here's the text so you can judge for yourself, but I personally don't see any other way to interpret it.

Casting time takes precedence over normal rules for attacks, unless a spell’s description says otherwise. If a spell allows its caster to make multiple attacks and has a casting time of 1 standard action, all those attacks occur during that standard action. The caster uses the highest applicable attack bonus for each attack in such a case.
How exactly did you think chill touch worked, anyway?

[MisterKaws]

It is quite unambiguous. Here's the text so you can judge for yourself, but I personally don't see any other way to interpret it.

How exactly did you think chill touch worked, anyway?

Wait, I mistook it for Shivering Touch again. Internal facepalm.

Oh yeah that's pretty okay. Though it feels weird having a Wizard able to do 20+ palm slaps in one second while the monk is bragging about doing it five times.

[Thurbane]

Wait, I mistook it for Shivering Touch again. Internal facepalm.

Oh yeah that's pretty okay. Though it feels weird having a Wizard able to do 20+ palm slaps in one second while the monk is bragging about doing it five times.

Those particular rules are downright comical.

[remetagross]

Wow, that's a super strange rule right here! Never noticed it! I honestly don't understand why it's here...did the devs mean Chill Touch to work that way, or were they thinking about stuff like Scorching Ray, that requires multiple attack rolls within a single spell that do happen in a single standard action, and spells like Chill Touch hopped on the train?