If you had the powers of a 1st level Sorcerer....

[Lysander]

Fate has decided to gift you, in the real world, with the magic of a level 1 sorcerer. Nobody else in the world has magic and you have no way of increasing your level and gaining more spells.

So you know 4 cantrips you can cast 5 times a day, and 2 level 1 spells you can cast 3 times per day. And you get a familiar. What do you pick?

My choice:
0 - Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Mending, Prestigitation
1 - Charm Person, Silent Image
Talking Raven sidekick

Hello indie film career. They'll never guess how I create my special effects.

[Elfin]

Grease might be a good one.
Think of the fun at parties!

[Pharaoh's Fist]

0 - Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Mending, Prestigitation
1 - True Strike, Silent Image

Join the military as a sniper.

Grease might be a good one.
Think of the fun at parties!

And in bed!

[Sinfire Titan]

0: Amunisis (or whatever that cantrip is called, the one that writes things), Daze, Mage Hand, Detect Magic

1: Blockade, Grease

2: Glitterdust (because I abuse Precocious Apprentice )

My familiar would be a rabbit. Or a mouse, don't know which.

[rezplz]

0 - Mending (tired of my stuff getting broken :\)
Message (Freak people out ;D)
Light (Never need a flash light!)
Ghost sounds. (It'd be hilarious.)

1- Charm person. (Don't think I need to explain this one ;) )
Tenser's floating disk. (Make moving easy! ;D)

[arguskos]

0 - Amananeuesis, Presdigitation, Light, Mage Hand
1 - True Strike, Master's Touch
2 - Eagle's Splendor (lol Precocious Apprentice)

With this, my life is easy. I can use True Strike+Master's Touch to automatically hit basically anything with anything. Splendor helps me land interviews, a movie role, whatever I need to get money in life. The cantrips let me have a good time off the screen/stage/whatever.

[Optimystik]

0 - Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Mending, Prestigitation

Those, but for my 1st Level spells: Comprehend Languages, Endure Elements (I'd never need a sweater again!)

[quick_comment]

0 - Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Mending, Prestigitation
1 - True Strike, Silent Image

Join the military as a sniper.

I would probably replace mage hand with no light.

[Elfin]

Those, but for my 1st Level spells: Comprehend Languages [...]

You could definitely land a job as a translator with that one.

[Sinfire Titan]

0 - Mending (tired of my stuff getting broken :\)
Message (Freak people out ;D)
Light (Never need a flash light!)
Ghost sounds. (It'd be hilarious.)

1- Charm person. (Don't think I need to explain this one ;) )
Tenser's floating disk. (Make moving easy! ;D)

Oh, wow. Can't believe I forgot about that! We could get a job repairing XBoxes with that!

[Thespianus]

Some first level spells would be amazing:

Scholar's Touch: Read one touched book per round. WIN!
Identify: Never need a manual ever again! ;)
Sleep/Color Spray: It...well.. it would just be SO COOL!
Comprehend languages: Would make things easier.
Endure Elements: Beachwear - All. Year. Round.

Some would be weird:
Enlarge Person, Fist of Stone, Reduce Person, Mount, Summon Monster, Hail of Stone.

Some that would be useless:
Locate City: I got a magic item to do this (GPS)
Detect Magic: Uhm.. Ok, I'm the only magic source in the world. No fun.

[Thespianus]

You could definitely land a job as a translator with that one.

But you could only work 30 minutes / day. ;)

The problem with being first level is that all the durations suck.

[woodenbandman]

Animate Instrument - true 1 man band
Mending - Never break a string, get free stuff and fix it, etc.
Prestidigitation - party tricks to impress the chicks
Message - "Maybe you should sleep with him" directly into their mind.

Silent Image
Expeditious Retreat

I think those last 2 are fairly obvious.

I could get an amazing gig as a light/sound man for a band, and even play all the instruments. I'd be a goddamn rockstar.

EDIT: For precocious apprentice... Alter Self. for 10 minutes a day, I can fly, or just look REALLY COOL.

[valadil]

My pizza would never want for grease again!

Seriously though, prestidigitation, light, mage hand, ghost sound, enlarge person, and comprehend languages.

[Civil War Man]

Level 0: Mending, Prestidigitation, Open/Close, Touch of Fatigue

Level 1: Enlarge Person, Feather Fall

Some of these because they are useful, the rest for giggles.

[Optimystik]

But you could only work 30 minutes / day. ;)

The problem with being first level is that all the durations suck.

Screw Vancian casting, I'd be using the Recharge Magic system!

[Temet Nosce]

Lets see...

0 - Amanuensis, Mending, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand

1 - Charm Person, Cheat (Yeah, I have a life as a professional gambler ahead)

2 - Chain of Eyes (I was tempted to take Entice Gift, but this will be more useful in gambling)

Edit: Nevermind I think I'd take Alter Self.

[Sinfire Titan]

EDIT: For precocious apprentice... Alter Self. for 10 minutes a day, I can fly, or just look REALLY COOL.

I thought about that too, and then remembered that I'm afraid of heights and have a poor grasp of time. I'm not gonna risk flying around only to run out of time mid-air.

[Jack Zander]

0-Level
Light (For the visibility)
Mage Hand (For the awesome)
Mending (For all my broken stuff)
Presto (For the lawls)
1st-Level
Feather Fall (For the fun of climbing up buildings and jumping off of them)
Unseen Servant (For chores)
Familiar
Toad (I like toads, and having +3 HP could be really awesome sometimes)

[Lysander]

Some first level spells would be amazing:

Scholar's Touch: Read one touched book per round. WIN!
Identify: Never need a manual ever again! ;)
Sleep/Color Spray: It...well.. it would just be SO COOL!
Comprehend languages: Would make things easier.
Endure Elements: Beachwear - All. Year. Round.

Some would be weird:
Enlarge Person, Fist of Stone, Reduce Person, Mount, Summon Monster, Hail of Stone.

Some that would be useless:
Locate City: I got a magic item to do this (GPS)
Detect Magic: Uhm.. Ok, I'm the only magic source in the world. No fun.

Man...taking both Comprehend Languages and Scholar's Touch would be a great combination. You'd be able to instantly read two books in a foreign language each day. I think I might actually prefer Scholar's Touch over Charm Person....I mean, there are non-magical ways to get people to like you. Reading any book instantaneously has very deep potential.

[The Dark Fiddler]

0 - Mending, Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost

Should be pretty obvious, except for Ray of Frost. I'm sure being able to shoot ice from my fingers would be incredibly useful, especially in the summer.

1 - Feather Fall, Endure Elements

Feather Fall would be very helpful with my fear of heights, and Endure Elements makes the summers and winters much more bearable.

Rat familiar - I REALLY need better fortitude saves.

[Ormur]

Prestidigitation, mending, mage hand and daze for cantrips. Unseen servant would be neat to have and disguise self. Comprehend languages would be really nice for my studies if only lasted longer.

[Sinfire Titan]

Man...taking both Comprehend Languages and Scholar's Touch would be a great combination. You'd be able to instantly read two books in a foreign language each day. I think I might actually prefer Scholar's Touch over Charm Person....I mean, there are non-magical ways to get people to like you. Reading any book instantaneously has very deep potential.

Until you read something like Aspho Fields. Or anything by Karen Traviss, if her reputation on TV Tropes is to be believed.

[Keshay]

Keep in mind that with Comprehend languages you would be an instant millionare. There are instutions out there with ancient scripts that would pay handsomely for someone with the ability to read ANYTHING for 30 min a day.

Depending on how well the spell works, maybe the caster could interpret all the wall paintings in Pyramids and similar.

Also, we'd finally find out if the Voynich Manuscript was anything but an elaborate hoax.

Also, the intelligence community would be highly interested in your knack for decoding.

For real-world applications, you really can't beat it.

[Drakefall]

0 - Mending, Mage Hand, Light, Prestidigitation

1 - Scholar's Touch (So much of win), Expedious Retreat

Mostly pragmatic choices for me. I'm not so sure about expidious retreat, but I'm not particularly knowledgeable on 3.5 spells so I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Oh, and I think a rat would make a charming, little familiar. Though I do have a soft spots for cats...

[Fax Celestis]

0th: Prestidigitation, Mending, Mage Hand, Amanuensis
1st: Charm Person, Sleep
2nd (Precocious Apprentice): Scorching Ray
Arcane Disciple: Fire (Burning Hands, Produce Flame)

[Elfin]

[Comprehend Languages] For real world applications, you can't really beat it.

True, although Feather Fall is pretty nice...never worry about falling off a cliff again!

[Jack Zander]

True, although Feather Fall is pretty nice...never worry about falling off a cliff again!

Because that comes up so often in real life.

[deuxhero]

Prestidigitation, mending, mage hand and uh... *skims over cantrip list* Detect Poison, I could be a safety inspector!
Scholar's Touch and Comprehend Languages

For my familiar I take Raven, for the fun of a talking animal.



Where is Scholar's Touch from anyways?

[Blackfang108]

0: Mending. I'm tough on my possessions.
Prestidigitation.
Ghost Sound. (Provisionally)
Light.

Level 1:
Charm Person
Scholar's Touch. Save me a LOT of money on textbooks. And after a few days at Border's...

Hawk Familiar. (It'll be easy to feed him. I live in a city Plagued by Pigeons.)