Generalist Sorcerer

[Asmotherion]

This is a practical build for a Sorcerer that is relevant from levels 1-20.

The Build:

Sorcerer 5; Our base class. Does not give us much, so we're going out of it as soon as possible.
Mage of the Arcane Order 7; We NEED Spellpool III Access. It's the Reason we can be considered a Generalist at all. Plenty of Spells we can get.
Incantatrix 8; The Bread and Butter of the Build.



Race: Silverbrow Human (We need the Bonus Feat).

Flaws: We take 2 flaws we can live with. Which ones you take is up to you, but I personally use Unatentive (You're probably not the most attentive PC in the party anyway) and Vulnerable (You're not the tank to worry about 1 AC lost anyway)

Feats:
Level 1: Precocious Apprentice; This gives us a 2nd Level spell, for which we take Scorching Ray/Flaming Sphere. The reason we're doing this is to get Fiery Burst as our Human Bonus Feat.
Level 1 Human Bonus Feat; Fiery Burst. We now have a 5 foot radius AoE that Deals 2d6 Fire Damage. It's amazing at First Level, and a good fall back if you are ever low on spell slots at higher levels.
Level 1 Flaw Bonus Feat; Arcane Preparation; Crucial not only to meet the Pre-Reqs of Mage of the Arcane Order, but also to control which spells we prepare with Metamagic.
Level 1 Flaw Bonus Feat; Extended Spell; Great Metamagic in itself, but we need it to Qualify for Persistant Spell.
Level 3: Iron Will; Feat Tax that we will need latter to Qualify for Incantatrix.
Level 6: Cooperative Spell: Feat Tax of Mage of the Arcane Order, but the Benefits are too Great to Ignore.
Level 7 Bonus Metamagic Feat: Heighten Spell. Lets you Juggle Spell Slots, and gives you an extra bonus of Making your DCs harder to resist.
Level 9: Fell Drain Spell; Excelent Metamagic that can be given to an AoE (?). Even if not (ab)used to it's full extend, it's still a nice thing to have, except if you intend to stay away from dark magics. In which case I suggest Still Spell, just in case you somehow end up in a Grapple. Or there's always Versatile Spellcaster, to make more use of your Lower Level Spell Slots at High Levels. Item Familiar is your Best Option though, as it gives you a HUGE bonus on Spellcraft Checks.
Level 12: Chain Spell; Thanks to the wording of the Feat, you can Chain Buff your Entire Party and potential Followers. I don't know if this is RAI, but it's certainly RAW.
Level 13 Bonus Metamagic Feat: Twin Spell: What's Better than 1 spell? If your answear is 2 spells, then Twin is for you.
Level 15: Persistant Spell; Bread and Butter of Buffing your whole Party. And with your Incantatrix Levels, you're Absolutely Amazing at doing so.
Level 17 Bonus Metamagic Feat: Occular Spell (Synergy with Chain Spell).
Level 18: Quick Recovery; Allows us to Spam Celerity and potentially not face the concequences on a successful save.


If your DM is OK with High End Optimisation (And if he Allows Incantatrix, he probably is), take the Feat "Item Familiar" at level 9.

Stats:
Give this priority to your stats:
Cha>Dex>Int>Con>Wis>Str. Depending on your preferences, you might want to Swap Con with Int, but since you'll be making a lot of (Ranged) Touch Attacks, I suggest prioritising Dex.

Spell Suggestions:

Cantrips: Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Detect Magic, Acid Splash, Disrupt Undead, Resistance, Mending, Ghost Sound, Read Magic.

1st Level: Mage Armor (Your Main AC booster), Shield (Your Seccondary AC Booster), Lesser Orb of X (You may want to Swap it with Magic Missile), Nerveskitter (Because you want to go first), Strength of the True Form (For when you get Shapechange).

Spellpool: Magic Missile (Great if your DM allows rider effects to stack on each hit), Grease (Great Control and depending on your DM, might be flamable), Charm Person (Awesome Control and Utility), Disguise Self (Infiltration), Silent Image (Used creativelly can do wonders).

Low Level Spells to Swap when Higher Level: Sleep (Amazing Control/Save or Die at low levels, but the HD restriction makes it useless latter on).

2nd Level: Scorching Ray (Great Damage, but the main reason we take this is for our Fiery Burst), Ghoul Touch (Save or Die as a 2nd Level Spell? Has a lot of downsides, but it can be crazy useful), Glitterdust (Purge Invisibility AND Blindness on enemies? Gimme), Scintilating Scales (Great at Higher Levels to persist), Wraithstrike (For when you feel like doubling as a Gish; Persist and Use together with Thunderlance).

Spellpool: Basic Buffing Spells (Eagle Splendor etc... Everyone Loves the Buffer), Cloud of Knives (Can combine well with Fell Drain), Spectral Hand (In case you don't have a Familiar at the time), Detect Thoughts (Amazing Spell), Summon Swarm (Swarms can be a pain to deal with), Hideous Laughter (Great Control), Blindness/Deafness (Great Control), Rope Trick (Safe Rest), Alter Self (Huge Utility, from Flying, Swiming, Turing into a Troglodyte for extra AC and plenty of other stuff), Baleful Transposition (You accidentally end up in melee and your Fighter is far away? Fix it with this spell), Command Undead (If you feel like Doubling as a Necromancer).

3rd Level: Shrink Item (Lots of Ways to use this Spell), Shivering Touch (Aka the Dragonbane Spell), Phantom Steed (Great Mobility Spell), Haste (One of the Best Buff Spells in the Game IMO).

Spellpool: Magic Circle Against X (You get All 4 Spells, so pick whichever you need at the time), Fireball (Sometimes you just want to shout "Fireball"), Slow (Because it's a fun Debuff to deal on your enemies), Greater Magic Weapon (Your Fighter will love you for it), Displacement (50% miss chance? Yes Please), Keen Edge (If a party member focuses on criticals and doesn't have a keen weapon yet), Dispel Magic (Always useful), Deep Slumber (Great Control/Save or Die), .

4th Level: Polymorph (Opens up an entire new Casting System for you), Orb of X (Choose your Favorite Element, and let the Spellpool take care of the rest), Ray Deflection (Immunity to Ranged Touch Attacks), Ruin Delver's Fortune (Your Cha to any save you want, as an Immediate Action + other benefits).

Spellpool: Vortex of Teeth (Great for stacking damage in a Time Stop), Black Tentacles (Great Control Spell), Orb of X (The Orbs you didn't Pick), Greater Luminous Armor (Better than regular Mage Armor; Up to the DM if it's in the Spellpool though), Thunderlance (Double as a Gish when you feel like it), Dimensional Anchor (So people don't keep Teleporting Around without your Permission), Dimension Door (Can Save Lives), Solid Fog (Control), Animate Dead (Minionmancy), Greater Invisibility (They can't hit you if they can't see you), Detect Scrying (If you suspect your Enemy might pull a Scry and Fry on you), Ray of Deanimation (If you want to deal with a Golem), Spell Enhancer (Opens up Solars form at level 20 for Shapechange), Wings of Flurry (Excelent AoE without friendly fire, and dealing Uncaped Damage).


5th Level: Summon Undead V (Allips), Cloudkill (Great way to take care of living oponents), Arcane Fusion (Two Spells at the cost of 1), Overland Flight (You don't want to be in Melee, do you?)

Spellpool: Permanency (Great for saving some money on otherwise essential Items), Major Creation (Great Utility Spell), Telekinesis (Great Utility Spell, and a great way to deliver Poisons IMO), Fabricate (Way to Create Said Poisons), Dimension Shuffle (Rearange the Battlefield as you see fit), Dimension Jumper (Great Way to Escape Grapples), Wall of Stone/Force (Control the Battlefield), Lesser Planar Binding (Minionmancy is great), Greater Dimension Door (Move Action Teleport), Vitriolic Sphere (Great AoE with SR: No).

6th Level: Greater Dispel Magic (Denying an opponent his spell is always a good idea), Contigiency (You can have a teleport ready to save you from dying, among other tricks), Starmantle (Virtual Immunity to Weapon Damage as a Spell).

Spellpool: Antimagic Field (Great when the oponent is a spellcaster of a higher level than you), Planar Binding (Lets you Call Creatures and bind them at your Service for a few Days), Create Undead (For Doubling as a Necromancer/Minionmancer without dedicating a Spell Known to it), Summon Monster VI (Sweet Spot for the Summon Monster Line), Legend Lore (You may not be a Bard, but you might as well Double as one), True Seeing (Essential; You'll probably invest in an item that grants it, but it's worth mentioning anyway), Circle of Death (AoE Save or Die).


7th Level: Arcane Spellsurge (Quicken Spell as a Spell; All Sorcerers Love it), Greater Teleport (Go anywere, no miss chance), Greater Scry (Ever heard of Scry and Fry tactics? That's how you do it).

Spellpool: Finger of Death (can end a boss fight), Avasculate (Great for setting up a Power World Kill), Forcecage (Awesome Save or Suck), Similacrum (Get anything as your Pet, great for Minionmancy), Greater Arcane Sight (Great Spell), Banishment (A lot of High Level Enemies are Outsiders), Hiss of Sleep (Save or Suck/Die).


8th Level: Greater Celerity (For always going First no matter what), Greater Arcane Fussion (Cast two Spells at the cost of 1; Potentially put the Lesser Version inside, to cast 3 spells at the cost of 1), Mind Blank (Essential to make sure you're not the target of a Domination, Scry and Fry, Feeblemind and other dangerous stuff. Make it your Morning Routine).

Spellpool: Greater Plane Shift (Can be very useful, especially if the campaign goes to other planes), Create Greater Undead (If you'd like to Double as a Necromancer or Minionmancer here's how), Polymorph Any Object (Amazing Potential, but you probably won't be spamming it, so it's a good Spellpool Spell), Greater Planar Binding (For when you need the Big Guns).


9th Level: Gate (Can take care of Wish, by Calling the right Entity(ies)), Time Stop (For Stacking Maw Of Chaos, Vortex of Teeth, Black Tentacles, Cloudkill, and other Persistant AoEs that will take effect once the Time Stop ends; You can get them All thanks to your SpellPool Access), Shapechange (An entire New Casting System for you).

Spellpool: You can get Access to Maw of Chaos (If the DM allows the Spell Compendium), Wish (Although you have cheaper ways to cast Wish; See Gate and Calling Efreeti/Solar or anything else with Access to Wish), Prismatic Sphere (Great Protective Spell BTW), Mage's Disjunction (If you really need to Nuke everything), Stasis Clone (It's Great to Not Die after All), Power World Kill (Great if you first use Avasculate), Greater Dimension Jumper (Swift Action Teleport for an entire encounter), Ice Assasin (Since it's under your Absolute Command, it's safe enough to make an Ice Assasin of yourself, able to cast your own spells. This gives you 4 Times the available spells to Persist thanks to Cooperative Metamagic, and the fact the Ice Assasin has all your Abilities. Even if not allowed at your table, it's still a great spell to have access to), Mindr@pe (Perfect Domination).

Those are some suggestions, but you can always find more useful stuff depending on the Situation. With Spellpool III you basically have the Basic Benefits of Wish/Limited Wish with none of the Drawbacks (The Heavy Xp Cost). It also allows you to save tons of money on Knowstones/Helm of Dragonic Knowlage.

PS: If you feel like contributing something, feel free to do so.

PS 2: I got some inspiration from the Mailman build, but I believe this one is quite different and worth getting it's own mention.

Notes:

-Spellcraft Optimization will give us the ability to Persist more powerful spells. I won't get into detail about it, as there are already great guides on Spellcraft Opt.

-Caster Level Opt. will give us some goodies; I won't go into detail here, but Spell Enhancer should take care of most of it; Higher HD for Shapechange and Higher HD for Gate are the two main reasons I can think of as to why you would need it. Other than that, I'm not sure if you can stack Caster Level items/spells, but since their bonus is untyped, I assume you can, so here is a small (not all inclusive) list of what to buy/use for it: Spell Enhancer +2 CL, Mystic Surge +1 CL, Create Magic Tattoo +1 CL, Orange Prism Ioun Stone +1 CL. If you ever need more CL than +5, you can always Wish for a Consumptive Field (Regular or Greater), and proffit from up to +Half your original Caster Level.

Banned School: Uppon Entering Incantatrix, you need to ban a school. I suggest Evocation, as you have conjuration (among others) blasting options; If you can live without contigiency that is. Enchantment is a close seccond as the more you level up, the less creatures you'll encounter that are not immune to it.

The order of Schools in my opinion is the Following:
0 You Cannot Ban: Abjuration (And neither should you want to)
0 You Cannot Ban: Divination (And neither should you want to)
1 Never Ban: Conjuration (Personal Opinion: The Best school in the Game)
1 Never Ban: Transmutation (Close seccond to Conjuration)
2 You Can Potentially Ban: Necromancy (Necromancy is Awesome, but some RP aspects of it might not be for your character)
3 You Could Ban: Illusion (Illusions are rendered useless by True Sight, and a detect magic can see them for what they are; However it's a respectable school with nice spells)
4 You Should Ban: Enchantment (The more you level up, the less oponents are not immune to Enchantment)
4 You Should Ban: Evocation (Conjuration has better Blasting options; The only spells that are a big loss from here is Contigiency, Wings of Cover and Wings of Flurry IMO)

[pabelfly]

Some quick notes:
If you're going Incantatrix, why not go Incantatrix 10? The most busted class feature, free metamagic reduction, comes online then.
I'd also consider Stalwart Battle Sorcerer, especially at low levels. The extra 3HP per level makes you much tankier, and I think it's a worthwhile trade, especially if you're going into really low HP classes like Incantatrix.

[Asmotherion]

Some quick notes:
If you're going Incantatrix, why not go Incantatrix 10? The most busted class feature, free metamagic reduction, comes online then.
I'd also consider Stalwart Battle Sorcerer, especially at low levels. The extra 3HP per level makes you much tankier, and I think it's a worthwhile trade, especially if you're going into really low HP classes like Incantatrix.

The focus of this Build is to make the Sorcerer as Versatile as possible. This means we need Spellpool Access III at all costs.
We still get Incantatrix Level 3 Feature to persist some spells for free.

[Anthrowhale]

The planar sorcerer 5 ACF is pretty nice.

I'd be tempted to pick up Alter Self and then exchange it away when Polymorph becomes available.

Why not pick up Incantatrix 3 earlier? Sorcerer 6/Incantatrix 3 beats Sorcerer 7/PA 2.

If you aren't picking up Incantatrix early, then you could delay acquiring Iron Will. Or, of couse, you can pick up Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole.

Chain buffing works better if you have Reach or Ocular Spell to upgrade touch spells.

Cooperative Spell has a requirement of another metamagic feat.

[Asmotherion]

The planar sorcerer 5 ACF is pretty nice.

I'd be tempted to pick up Alter Self and then exchange it away when Polymorph becomes available.

Why not pick up Incantatrix 3 earlier? Sorcerer 6/Incantatrix 3 beats Sorcerer 7/PA 2.

If you aren't picking up Incantatrix early, then you could delay acquiring Iron Will. Or, of couse, you can pick up Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole.

Chain buffing works better if you have Reach or Ocular Spell to upgrade touch spells.

Cooperative Spell has a requirement of another metamagic feat.

Fixed the bold part, oversight on my part, thanks for noticing.

I thought about Ocular Spell, but didn't find space for it in the build. I'll add it as a suggestion though. EDIT: Since I figured Incantatrix 7 was possible, I added Occular Spell, as the bonus Metamagic Feat you get from Incantatrix.

I'll try to tweek the build for early access to Incantatrix, this is a good suggestion.

[Maat Mons]

Why take Sorcerer 6? Sorcerer 5 is enough to qualify for Mage of the Arcane Order.

[Asmotherion]

Why take Sorcerer 6? Sorcerer 5 is enough to qualify for Mage of the Arcane Order.

Good catch, updated it right away.

[Gruftzwerg]

Reminds me a little of my Dvati Sorcerer of the Arcane Legion build^^

Thus I would like to suggest to go for the Domain Sorcerer ACF.
Pick either Spell domain for the Anyspell line or the Luck domain if you want Miracle for endgame.
Imho to fitting to pass by for a generalist sorcerer build.

I would also consider the Shadow Evocation and Conjuration spell lines since those offer a great versatility.

[Chronos]

Quoth pabelfly:

I'd also consider Stalwart Battle Sorcerer, especially at low levels. The extra 3HP per level makes you much tankier, and I think it's a worthwhile trade, especially if you're going into really low HP classes like Incantatrix.

This is a joke, right? The buff to HP only applies for five levels, but the loss of spellcasting applies for all 20. If you really want more HP, there are spells for that.

Even on a pure sorcerer, those ACFs are sub-par, and on a heavily PrCed build like this, they're horrible.

[Anthrowhale]

I'd be tempted to go for Wings of Flurry at level 4 since a party friendly unlocked d6 + daze AoE is pretty amazing. Level 4 tends to be overloaded with good spells, but maybe this could be done by picking up Draconic Polymorph at level 5 instead of Polymorph at level 4? Or, you could drop orb of X.

There's are also a trick which helps with spell selection. There are several ways to add to your spells known with a fixed list. The fixed list typically includes a bunch of mediocre spells, so the spell changing mechanic built into a sorcerer allows you to shuffle them into more useful choices.

[Rebel7284]

Some small optimization tweaks to consider:

- Iron Will can be obtained from a magical location which is way better than spending a feat. Requires DM approval of course, but so does everything. Metamagic Storm is similar and gives you another Metamagic feat (but only for 1 year)

- Wings of Cover is an amazing spell. On par with Ruin Delver's Fortune, but it's a level 2 spell!!

- Friendly Fire (Exemplars or Evil) may be better than Ray Reflection since it can be used as an immediate action in an emergency and also works against arrows and such. Shorter duration, but you eventually get Persist.

- Metamagic specialist ACF would allow you to use metamagic in combat more easily at the cost of giving up a familiar. Familiars ARE very nifty as scouts and for skills and such, but something to consider since you have multiple metamagic feats.

- Mage Armor is nifty, but remember to upgrade to Mage Armor, Greater as soon as possible. There is also the Exalted versions with Luminous Armor, Greater being very nice, but does require a very particular alignment.

- (Planar) Touchstone -> Catalogues of Enlightenment -> Planning Domain is marginally better than Extend Spell since you can also visit the site to get secondary benefits.

- I don't like Heighten Spell unless you're using it for nefarious purposes like early entry

- Persistent Spell is indeed amazing, so you should probably take it WAY earlier than level 18.

- Craft Contingent Spell is great for someone with Spellpool access, especially if you ban Evocation.

- If your campaign has access to Dragonblood Spell-pact, you DEFINITELY want to be a Silverbrow Human. Spend some XP to pick up spells from ANY spell list from any friendly dragon. Also, Dragonblood Subtype makes Wings of Cover/Flurry even better. Pick up Heal (Adept version if possible!) and everything from Trapsmith.

[Chronos]

Quoth Rebel7284:

- Mage Armor is nifty, but remember to upgrade to Mage Armor, Greater as soon as possible. There is also the Exalted versions with Luminous Armor, Greater being very nice, but does require a very particular alignment.

Are sanctified spells even available to a sorcerer at all? I had thought that they were only for prepared casters.

Though I suppose the Arcane Preparation feat (which we need for MotAO anyway) might get around that. And there's little drawback for using it on an all-day buff like Greater Luminous Armor, since you generally know exactly how many preparations you're going to need for that each day (one each for you and for any other party member who can't wear good armor).

[Asmotherion]

Are sanctified spells even available to a sorcerer at all? I had thought that they were only for prepared casters.

Though I suppose the Arcane Preparation feat (which we need for MotAO anyway) might get around that. And there's little drawback for using it on an all-day buff like Greater Luminous Armor, since you generally know exactly how many preparations you're going to need for that each day (one each for you and for any other party member who can't wear good armor).

Good Question. I'm not sure myself; My assumption is, as you said, that Arcane Preparation would get around the restriction, and that you somehow would be able to get it via the Spellpool. However, I Guess it's entirelly up to the DM if it's available to you at all.

[Rebel7284]

Good Question. I'm not sure myself; My assumption is, as you said, that Arcane Preparation would get around the restriction, and that you somehow would be able to get it via the Spellpool. However, I Guess it's entirelly up to the DM if it's available to you at all.

I was assuming that Arcane Preparation takes care of that part, yeah, although if Dragonblood Spell-pact is allowed, then certainly finding an Exalted Arcanist 5 to teach it to you would be nifty too.

edit: another thing to note about Dragonblood Spell-pact. Polymorph gives you the type of the assumed form, so after about CL 10, Polymorph lasts long enough that you can Polymorph yourself and your target into a dragon and just trade spells that way even if neither of you would normally qualify.

[Anthrowhale]

A few thoughts:

(1) Your spell pool access is controlled by half your caster level. Hence, increasing caster level increases your spellpool access. There are many ways to increase your caster level, but allocating some build resources in this direction may be helpful. For example, 5 levels in a circle magic class (like Halruaan Elder) could be taken instead of 8 levels in Incantatrix enabling you to circle magic up to caster level 40. Reserves of Strength and Suffer the Flesh would allow you to go higher. If you used Dragonblood Spellpact, then Consumptive Field and Greater Consumptive Field exchanged with a Favored Soul could allow you an enormous caster level.

(2) For your low level spells which are persistable, relying on MotAO for access rather than putting them on list may make sense. Call them, cast them, persist them, and then extend the persist so you need only cast them once every couple days. This leaves your spells known for more heavy use options.

(3) Contingency[Celerity][Nerveskitter applied to you] is nice. Used regularly, it gives you a bonus action at the beginning of every encounter. This is obviously a high level tactic given that you are burning lots of spells just to pick up that extra action when you would otherwise be flat-footed. Unfortunately, it only works with the L4 version of Celerity and you require full daze immunity to fully leverage this.