Sorcerer advice for a novice player

[EphU437]

A friend of mine is playing a sorcerer (I'm also playing a PC). He is new to 3e. I'm not very familiar with sorcerers having mostly played fighters and wizards, and I'm not able to give him the best advice. I'd appreciate any suggestions form the lists here, especially regarding spells.

At present he is an Elf, 7th level sorcerer. He has several draconic heritage feats (the basic one, scales, and draconic breath) and is VERY into that aspect of the character. he originally wanted to be a half-dragon, but the DM nixed it. His draconic heritage is Red. One thing he wants to do is take Dragon Disciple, mainly for the wings. Is this a good idea?

campaign is low magic. He will probably take searing spell at 9th level. What other feats are recommended. He wants fire spells at every level for the fire breath.

Spells:
1)
Deep Breath
Lesser Fire Orb
Magic Missile
Mage Armor
Breath Flare
Ray of Flame (Item gives him 1 extra spell known)

2)
Combust
Scorch (not Scorching Ray)
Command Undead

3)
Dispel Magic
Fireball


So, what would you recommend to him? Which spells should he get rid of? I've told him some things to look for - spells that can be cast over and over, avoiding duplicative spells, look for buff spells that can be cast on himself and the party., take spells that remain useful at higher levels. Some particular ones I am recommending are:

Shield, Blur, Resist Energy, Fly, Improved Invisibility, Lesser Shadow Conjuration, Spell Enhancer (4th level), Dispelling Breath, Prying Eyes, Dim Door, Greater Dispel Magic (is it better than dispelling breath), Evard's black tentacles, false life, greater magic weapon, orb of electricity/acid, chain lightning, and the feat energy substitution (fire). Are there any good fire attack spells levels 4, 5, and 6?

He is very interested in taking Wings of the Dragon (4th level)

Advice?

Thanks,
Eph

[Vortling]

I suggest you read this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74801). That thread covers most of what you need to know about sorcerers.

[valadil]

I really want to say that he should take unique spells that each serve a distinct purpose while being something that is useful every turn of every combat and then pointing at your friend's list and laughing at all the monotonous fire spells. But I won't. He has a concept for the character and wants to run with it. Let him do that and don't worry about whether it's effective.

For more burnination, there's a version of grease that does damage when lit on fire. Wall of Fire and Incendiary Cloud will let him get some fire based crowd control. Might he consider the summoning line of spells to get him some fire elementals? Burning Blood will give him fire and acid damage for those times when fire just isn't enough.

[Mr. Friendly]

So, I am guessing this character is still in the "construction" phase?

Why not have him be a Dragonfire Adept (www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=2) instead? (Dragon Magic)

Aside from that, it looks like he has a good enough list for a campaign that you describe as "low magic".

[Keld Denar]

Why not have him be a Dragonfire Adept (www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=2) instead? (Dragon Magic)


+1

DFAs are INCREDIFUN to play. All the dragony burnination, lots of utility, and overall a well balanced class. You can play one from 1-20 too, with no need for multiclassing. Also, other than Entangling Exhalation and possibily Abilty Focus (Breath Weapon), all of your other feats are open to take whatever you want.

JanusJones over on the CharOp boards posted a REALLY well made guide to this class. Take a looksie.

[EphU437]

As I mentioned in the original post, he is already 7th level.

Thanks for the advice so far.

[Reel On, Love]

Taking Dragon Disciple is great...

...if he wants to never contribute to the party in any way ever again.

[Keld Denar]

Yea, then do what some others have said. Have him use his sorcerous spell swapping ability to start phasing out the lower level nukes in favor of utility spells. Grease, Benign Transposition, Nerve Skitter, See Invisible, etc. There are numerous guides here and on the CO forums that detail all of the most powerful lower level spells that sorcerers should take to be diverse and effective.

When he hits 8th level, next level, take Blinding Breath(SpC wiz/sorc4) as a spell. It augements your Draconic Breath into a powerful save or lose. Blinded means everyone around you is considered Improved Invisible. For a 9th level feat, I'd highly recommend then Ability Focus(Draconic Breath) as this will increase his DCs by 2 and make it a more viable means of blinding foes.

Also, avoid Dragon Disciple like the plague. Its so bad, even most builds built to optimize its strengths and weaknesses are often better off without it. Haphazardly tacked on to a full caster is pretty close to character suicide by this time. His casting will lag badly, making him less effective at that, and the minor melee abilities he'll get will make him want to get into melee combat to claw/claw/bite, and promptly get DESTROYED by any CR appropriate monster. Its just that bad.

[Kurald Galain]

Well...

I would advise splashing some other elements as well, just in case you run into anything immune to fire (such as, oh, about half the things in the monstrous manual :) ) He can get rid of half his arsenal, since it duplicates the other half. The fun point of being a sorcerer is that you need only one fire spell at each level in order to cast over and over again.

Don't take Shield if you've got Armor. You don't need Shadow Conjuration if you can take actual conjurations. Don't take both Dispel Breath and Greater Dispel. I don't think False Life is worth the slot for a sorcerer. Otherwise your suggestions are solid. For level 5 I'd suggest Flame Strike, even though it's technically a cleric spell.

[mabriss lethe]

Well...

You don't need Shadow Conjuration if you can take actual conjurations.

The line of Shadow spells are still a solid choice for a spontaneous caster, since you can mimic several different spells for the price of one. The catch is, if you know you're going to rely heavily on a spell that can be copied by shadow, you're better off taking the real thing even if you have the shadow version already at hand.

... Unless you're a bard, then Shadow is your only access to certain spells.

Even if you don't take the spell itself, a wand of Shadow Conjuration is a must have. One item that can deal damage, summon creatures for either battle or mounts, cast protective spells, be used for crowd control, and create traps. (that's just from the stuff in the SRD...) It's not the best choice for any one of them, but it's a nice backup, just in case.

[Triaxx]

Interestingly, the fact that the Sorceror gets more spells per day means that with all the shadow line, it can out do a batman wizard.

---

Rather than dropping the fire spells, he might consider taking Energy Admixture, or Energy Substitution, to give him more than one element out of those spells.

[greenknight]

The Mage of the Arcane Order PrC (Complete Arcane) is an excellent choice for any Sorcerer, so I'd suggest your friend try to qualify for that.

But if your friend really wants a Fire specialist, you might want to steal a few ideas from Ro-gayn, one of the characters from Another Gaming Comic (http://agc.deskslave.org/). I copied and pasted his character sheet, which you can look at below:

Ro-gayn Level 9 Wizard(Evoker, FocusedSpecialist) 5/Elemental Savant 4

STR: 16 +3 BASE: +4
DEX: 9 -1 Init: -1 REF: -1 1 1 /+1
CON: 16 +3 HP: 55 FORT: +3 1 1 /+5
WIS: 8 -1 WILL: -1 4 4 /+7
INT: 17(19) +4 Skills: 5/lvl
CHA: 3 -4 Speed: 15

AC: 10/14 (10 -1[Dex] +1[Def])/+4 MageArmor

To-Hit: +1 Flaming Dagger +8 1d4+3+1d6

Skills: Knowledge[Arcana] 8(11), Knowledge[the Planes] 4(7), Spellcraft 12(16),
Concentration 12(15), Appraise 6(10), Tumbling 6(5)
Traits: Spellgifted [+1 CL Evocation, -1 CL others]
Flaws: Inattentive(-4 Listen/Spot), Slow(1/2 movement)
Feats: EnergySubstitution(Fire)[CArc], ElementalSpellcasting[Fire][Planar],
MetamagicSchoolFocus(Evocation)[CMage], EmpowerSpell,
FieryBurst(CMage)[5d6,Ref19], ExplosiveSpell[CArc],
EasyMetamagic(Empower)[DR325,p62], ArcaneThesis(GreaterFireburst)[PH2]
Mods: FocusedSpecialist (CompleteMage), EnergyAffinity:Fire (UA, costs familiar)
Abilities: FireResistance 5, ImmuneToSleep, EnergyPenetration +2 (Fire)

CasterLevel: 9 (Evocation 10/FireEvocation 13) -1 for non-Evocation
BARRED SCHOOLS: Enchantment, Necromancy, Transmutation

Default Memorizations:
Level 1(3+3+2): MagicMissile(Fire) x4, MageArmor x1, UnseenServant x1,
BenignTransposition x2
Level 2(3+3+1): EmpoweredMagicMissile(Fire)(x1.5) x3, SeeInvis x1, MirrorImage x3
Level 3(3+2+1): EmpoweredScorchingRay(12d6 x1.5) x3,Displacement x1,DispelMagic x2
Level 4(3+1+1): ExplosiveFireball (10d6+, Ref 17) x2,
WallOfFire x1, DimensionDoor x1, ImprovedInvis x1
Level 5(3+0+0): MetamagicSchoolFocus[-1] Empowered[0] Explosive[+1]
GreaterFireburst(15d10x1.5, Ref 19) x3

Selected Gear: Headband of Intellect +2, Glove of Storing,
+1 Flaming Dagger, Ring of Deflection +1


NOTES: The EnergyAffinity Evoker power (for which he traded his familiar) and the ElementalSpellcasting and FieryBurst feats, each give Ro-gayne +1 caster level for all Fire Spells (for a total of +3), and this combined with the Spellgifted Trait and ArcaneThesis gives him +6 caster levels to max out his 15d10 GreaterFireburst spell (from the Spell Compendium), while Arcane Thesis and Metamagic School focus reduce the cost of metamagic feats on that spell, and EasyMetamagic (from Dragon Magazine) make his Empower feat 1 level cheaper on ALL spells.

You should probably add the (Lesser) Orb spells to that list from Spell Compendium, since they are about the best of the damaging energy type spells. But in general, if you're going to specialize on an energy type attack, Fire is the worst you can choose, with Sonic being the best. And having a good Force type spell as a backup wouldn't hurt either.

[Xuincherguixe]

Blasting is a suboptimal route, but it's less of a problem for Sorcerors than it is for Wizards.

And lets face it, it's fun to DESTROY.

Keep a variety of useful spells. Other posters have a better idea what those are than I do :P

[Solo]

Blasting is a suboptimal route, but it's less of a problem for Sorcerors than it is for Wizards.

And lets face it, it's fun to DESTROY.

Keep a variety of useful spells. Other posters have a better idea what those are than I do :P
Rayman: Killing it with lazers (http://www.thetangledweb.net/ttw/addon.php?addon=Profiler&page=view_char&cid=11312)

[Xuincherguixe]

... I see why so many people think you're awesome

(Because it's a fact!)