Sorceror spell selection

[Fat Daddy]

Okay, so I know that this has probably been covered before but I need some help choosing spells known for a level 2 Sorceror (thats 5 0-level and 2 1st level spells)

I can choose from PHB, Spell Compendium, Complete series and any FR book.

Suggestions?

[Solo]

http://boards1.wizards.com/wotc_arch...x.php/t-183763
Should help.
Tell me more about your specific role in a party, and I'll give you some more advice.

[DaMullet]

Prestedigitation. Best Cantrip ever.

Mage Hand, Read Magic, and Acid Orb are okay, too.

Also, Solo, what, if anything, did that movie have to do with Spell Selection?

[Dhavaer]

0 - Prestidigitation, Light, Acid Splash, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand
1 - Colour Spray, Mage Armour

[lacesmcawesome]

0 lvl-
Mage hand (very useful in combat)
Message (great spell too)
Prestidigitation can be alright, I lik eit at leas
Acid splash for some direct damage
Disrupt Undead

1 lvl-
MAGIC MISSILE (I can't *not* suggest that), but only if you're into direct damage and cliches
and summon monster 1 is cool too.

if you opt to not do magic missile, you should do shield or magic weapon.

yay sorcerers!

[Fat Daddy]

I am the only caster in the party. We have a 'ton' of heavy hitters so I would like to stay away from damage dealing spells. I am looking more at utilitarian type spells or basically just anything other than damage dealing.

[Solo]

For first level spells, color spray/sleep, and Reduce person/mage armor

Armor is nice, but you should be using your teammates for cover ;)

reduce person gives you +2 to armor and a bonus to attack.

[Innis Cabal]

higher levels....fire spiders and fireburst.....awsome spells

[Fat Daddy]

Okay thanks for the input so far.

This is what I have so far:

0-level) Prestidigitaion, Mage Hand, Ghost Sound, Detect Magic, Undecided?

1st-Level) Mage Armor, Undecided??

Not sure about Color Spray. Was looking at benign transposition or perhaps rope trick. Thoughts?

[lacesmcawesome]

Okay thanks for the input so far.

This is what I have so far:

0-level) Prestidigitaion, Mage Hand, Ghost Sound, Detect Magic, Undecided?

1st-Level) Mage Armor, Undecided??

Not sure about Color Spray. Was looking at benign transposition or perhaps rope trick. Thoughts?

rope trick/animate rope are awesome spells, and probably worth it, if you plan to carry a rope. Not useful when you've got no rope

[Dhavaer]

Rope Trick is second level. Maybe Inhibit?

[Fat Daddy]

rope trick/animate rope are awesome spells, and probably worth it, if you plan to carry a rope. Not useful when you've got no rope

Yeah. I would pretty much count the rope as a 'material component' for those spells.

Though I did think about rope trick/animate rope without carrying a rope. Thought he could hang out with the Greataxe specialized fighter who carries a dagger.

@ Dhaever - Doh! Thanks. Let me look up inhibit. I have to go grab my book again.

[Lemur]

Grease is a good control/utility spell.

You might not want to take it yet, but Enlarge Person is a useful buff spell if you've got multiple melee oriented types in your party.

Ray of Enfeeblement, or Ray of Clumsiness are also decent spells, although you'd probably only want one of them.

[Fat Daddy]

I'm liking these suggestions

So here is what we're looking at:

0-level)Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Ghost Sound, Detect Magic, Read Magic
1st Level) Help me choose

Mage armor / Shield (which one?)
Inhibit / Ray of Clumsiness / Enlarge Person / Benign Transposition (which one?)

Thanks

[Dhavaer]

I'd say Mage Armour and either Inhibit or Enlarge Person, depending on if you want to buff or save-or-suck.

[ImperiousLeader]

I'd take Ray of Enfeeblement or Ray of Clumsiness. If you want to negate the enemy's hitting potential, Enfeeblement, Clumsiness to help your friends hit the enemy.

[Variable Arcana]

Definitely Mage Armor over Shield (it's hour/level, Shield is minute/level).

Then... I like Color Spray -- but not if the party fighters will be in between you and the baddies. The party thief will love you if you take Grease. The party fighters will love you if you take Enlarge Person.

[Tor the Fallen]

Level 0: Read magic (for scrolls you find), Detect magic (since you say you're the only caster, you damn well better be able to know what's magic!), Prestidigitation (endless uses), Light (you probably don't have darkvision, always a useful spell), then either acid splash, ghost sound, mage hand, or disrupt undead. I'd say ghost sound, as acid splash is only good if you take levels of rogue, and disrupt undead will be ungood when you have all those tanks smashing at 1d8+str damage/round. Ghost sound is useful, mage hand is more so.

Level 1:
Mage armor. Hour/level, so it scales with levels, and gives you as much AC as a 16,000 gp item.
Sleep. Good range, and you can cast it beyond the fighters. Color spray has the annoying problem of blasting your friends when cast from behind them. Problems: only affects 4HD of creatures, many creatures are immune.

However, you can opt at level 4 to forget a spell an learn a new one in its place. Drop sleep for Ray of Enfeeblement. Pick up Charm Person and Grease along the way. Magical missile may be a good choice, as it scales with levels, and if you ever run out of high level spells, you can fall back on spamming magic missile. Not terrific damage, but it doesn't miss.

[Jacob Orlove]

Actually, you can only replace a level 0 spell at level 4. He'll have to wait until level 6 to replace any level 1 spells.

What feats do you have/are you planning to take? It's super important to coordinate your feat selection with your spell selection, because you *will* want metamagic feats, and those need to go with specific spells.

For example, Sculpt Spell is incredible if you have Grease and Glitterdust, but merely okay with Color Spray (it still has a 15' limit to the range), and worthless if you have no AoE spells at all. Split Ray is excellent if you have some of Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, and Enervation, but not very good with Scorching Ray, and worthless if you don't have any rays at all.

Extend Spell is nice with Daze at low levels, and has some good uses later on, but won't add much to your average spell list. You can just cast Mage Armor twice, for example; you've got spell slots to spare.

Since metamagic essentially gives you more spells known, you want to get as much use out of it as you can; that means coordinating your spell and feat selections. I would take a look at what metamagic feats are available, which ones you like (try to stick to +1 and +2 adjustments), and then figure out a few key spells to go along with those feats.

Also, at low levels, don't forget your crossbow and alchemical items. They give you something to do when you're conserving spell slots, and help you cover for an extremely limited set of spells known. By level 6 or so, though, you should have a broad enough selection that you won't need a fallback plan, especially if you have a good metamagic feat or two to work with.

[deadseashoals]

Color spray at level 2 is pure win. And ray of enfeeblement is always good.

[Tor the Fallen]

Color spray is no good if you're in an enclosed area with your party's tanks filling the choke.

[JaronK]

Take one of Sleep, Colorspray, or Grease. Very useful area save or dies. Is Glitterdust level 1? Because that would do it too.

I'm not as sold on Mage Armour, as you can get that on a wand if you want. You want your spells known as a sorcerer to be flexible, and to be spells you'd want to cast many times per day. Mage armour is neither.

JaronK

[kpenguin]

I take shield over mage armor. armor bonuses are easy to come by (twilight mithral shirts, bracers of armor, etc.), but shield bonus are harder to find. Plus it blocks magic missiles.

[Tor the Fallen]

Mithral buckler + shield AC enhancement. 1000 + armor bonus squared gp.

The nice thing about mage armor is you cast it once, and it's up all day. Casting shield at the beginning of a battle is a waste of a turn.

JaronK is right that sorcerors should know spells that are good for spamming. A wand of mage armor... that's casting the damn spell every hour if you don't want to have to cast it in battle.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Consider taking the Precocious Apprentice Feat with a Second Level Fire Spell like Scorching Ray along with the Fiery Burst Reserve Feat from Complete Mage.

This is No problem if you are a human but most DMs would let you swap out the Summon Familiar feat to make the character build) In low level campaigns this is really Sweet for a always on, undending short range 30' 2D6 5' Radius magic fire blasting attack as long as you keep one second level fire spell open to fuel it (Only !D6 with a First Level Fire Spell).

It depends on your campaign and your play style but it's tough to go wrong with:

Read Magic (Reading a Few Emergency and General Purpose Party Funded Backup Scrolls (Generally First level like Identify, Animate Rope and One or Two of the Useful Spells like Grease, Ray of Enfeeblement or Sleep you don't know as spells)

Prestidigitation (General Versatility and Usefulness)

Dancing Lights (Scouting out passage ways, spaces or temporary lighting)

Detect Magic (Finding Valuable Magic Treasure)

One of the following Ray of Frost (Chilling Things or Making Ice or Killing Vermin to Impress the Locals without damaging Anything), Mending (Nice for a Downtime Craftsmen or Travelling Tinkerer for bartering with travellers or a little pocket change travelling) or Mage Hand (Duration Concentration) for general versatility and fluffling our character Think about the things you could do with moving 5# around with your mind.

Color Spray is really sweet and levels up a little better than some of the other spells

Sleep (Dropping a 4HD BBEG or a few other lesser HD creatures can be pretty sweet)

Grease can be pretty sweet but I prefer learning the level 2 Sculpted Grease Spell from a scroll for more versatility and usefulness without burning a feat.

Magic Missile (For a Sure Strike Force Attack each round particularly useful against High AC and Incorporeal besides at level 3 you get a 2nd missile and sometimes doing some damage every round aiding the fighter is the best thing you can do to survive an encounter)

Orb of Acid (or Fire (Not really recommend and Only as a backup to fuel the Reserve Fiery Burst Feat)

Ray of Enfeeblement is nice.

(Possibly Charm Person or Silent Image depending on your playstyle and the campaign type and I would save knowing Shield as a known spell until you can know a few more spells in a few more levels).

I'm not a big fan of Mage Armor particularly at low levels due to the duration of the spell. Consider the Battle Sorcerer Variant or take an armor wearing feat or option and Wear some armor that doesn't expire and won't be dispelled and get another spell you can use and blast things with your reserve feat.

Hope that helps.

[Fat Daddy]

Thanks everyone for all your advice and suggestions.

I am going with [drum-roll]

0-level
Read Magic, Detect Magic, Prestiditation, Ghost Sounds, Mage Hand

1st-Level
Mage Armor
Ray of Clumsiness