Familiar: Hawk
0th: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Detect Poison, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Prestidigitation, Mending, Amanuensis
1st: Shield, Mage Armor, Orb of Fire, Unseen Servant, Magic Missile
2nd: Pyrotechnics, Ray of Stupidity, Resist Energy, Glitterdust, Battering Ram
3rd: Phantom Steed, Fireball, Primal Form, Haste
4th: Shadow Conjuration, Dimension Door, Dragon Breath, Solid Fog
5th: Shadow Evocation, Draconic Might, Wall of Force, Fabricate
6th: Greater Dispel Magic, True Seeing, Disintegrate
7th: Synostodweomer, Spell Turning, Elemental Body
8th: Mind Blank, Greater Shadow Evocation, Iron Body
9th: Shapechange, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Summon Elemental Monolith
I'm also interested in suggestions for good feats. This character is supposed to have a bit of a fire focus, some kind of a natural affinity for fire. They are also likely to be the primary arcane caster of the party, at least for a long time. Hawk was chosen mostly for the vision it has, and because owl seemed less in-character and I'm less concerned about night encounters. Other familiar choices might be possible though, I'm flexible on that.
Setting is Forgotten Realms, race is human, official books only, probably no Unearthed Arcana stuff. As you can probably see, I abused the Spell Compendium a bit. Not sure about stats, or how they'll be achieved, yet, but they should be decent. Character was born and raised in Neverwinter to Neverwinter natives, so no local feats for other areas. Character has at least one wizard parent.
Charcter was taught in a wizarding school, sort-of, and doesn't get along great with wizards in their history, but has to try to keep up with them to some degree, which was the reason for some of the spells chosen, particularly some of the lower level ones.
Also, given the fire love, I'd be interested in what kind of options would be availible for other party members who might want to put out fires of varying sizes, and repair the damages caused by such to property, and reduce the trouble the party gets in. I'm especially interested in how to put out blazes on larger buildings at lower levels (before level 5), although cheap and efficient ways of note at higher levels would be nice too.
PRCs might be okay (subject to my own and DM approval) so long as they don't require evil or non-chaotic alignments (character is Chaotic Neutral starting out, going towards Chaotic Good, probably), special locations, exclusive groups, or cost caster levels.
Optimize away, if you have the time and are willing.
My old party had a sorceror that would abuse the hell out of Ray of Fatigue, Waves of Exhaustion, and... something else (Cascading something, maybe?)
Wings of Cover from BoED.
(And I've seen a link to a thread showing why a sorceror is better than a Warmage, due to access to certain spells. I don't know it, though.)
What about Elemental Savant (Complete Arcane) for a PrC?
I see you want to blast for some stuff. Thats a legit thought, and I'll try not to squash it.
Changes I would make
level 1- Drop Magic Missile, Grab Color Spray/Sleep. I assume the game isn't starting at level 20, and these will help a lot in early levels.
Level 4- Drop Dragon Breath. Get wall of fire to keep the fire theme. Pretty handy for battlefield control too.
Level 5- I'd drop Draconic Miht or wall of force for teleport. (Wall of force only because i just suggested Wall of fire instead)
Level 9- Drop Disjunction, you don't want to break your treasure and its really not that helpful. You can keep the fire theme with meteor swarm, get some good utility out of gate (to fire plane) or keep your shadow theme going with shades.
Prestige class wise, anything is better than straight sorc, elemental savant is good for the theme. I like a couple of levels of fatespinner because its easy to get in and not bad.
1st: Shield, Mage Armor, Orb of Fire, Unseen Servant, Magic Missile
2nd: Pyrotechnics, Ray of Stupidity, Resist Energy, Glitterdust, Battering Ram
3rd: Phantom Steed, Primal Form, Fireball, Mass Snake's Swiftness, Haste
4th: Shadow Conjuration, Dimension Door, Wall of Fire, Solid Fog
5th: Shadow Evocation, Draconic Might, Wall of Force, Fabricate
6th: Greater Dispel Magic, True Seeing, Disintegrate
7th: Greater Teleport, Spell Turning, Elemental Body
8th: Mind Blank, Greater Shadow Evocation, Iron Body
9th: Shapechange, Reaving Dispel, Summon Elemental Monolith
Notes: Full changes marked in blue, spells that will be learned in place of forgotten spells marked in red, spells that will be forgotten to learn those marked spells in green. I kept magic misile because it is related to the character background and the awesome medium range allows you to be more distant at lower levels.
I know it might be more useful to have sleep or color spray, but all the first level spells are too tied to the character's background to get rid of for the lower levels. If it absolutely comes down to needing sleep, the character's background encourages me to have scrolls, maybe not at first level (might not be able to afford them), but the next few levels it should be affordable, perhaps even discounted if I can convince the DM. I'm not that sure of taking wall of fire, and I'm considering Summon Monster 4 instead, although looking back at dragonbreath, I agree about replacing it. Snake's Swiftness Mass was a great choice I overlooked. I can't find this Wings of Cover, I checked my Book of Exalted Deeds, but perhaps that isn't the BoED you are referring to.
I didn't want to give up Draconic Might or Wall of Force (Part of the reason I'm hesistant about Wall of Fire is because I don't want to give up Wall of Force), but I'm not fond of basic teleport in comparison to greater teleport anyway, and giving up the Synwhatever for healing isn't something I care that much about, especially with how wasteful and inefficient it can be, and numerous alternative ways to heal in a pinch if the party healers are unable to, perhaps even using a scroll or staff with Synostodweomer or emergency healing potions. So I now have greater teleport. In addition, the basic teleport isn't quite as urgent with the 4th level dimension door.
I agree in the end about disjunction, it fits the character to be able to use it, but the cost in treasure is too high. I'm considering Reaving Dispell, as you can see. I'm not really doing a 'shadow theme', I just picked those for versatility, which the sorcerer tends to suffer in compared to a wizard. There is no way I'm putting something like Gate in the spells known of a sorcerer. Sorcerer spells are meant to be spammed, things with XP costs and such are not. I'd rather get a scroll or something for spells like Gate. Abusing Gate also tends to be something that annoys DMs. I also already have summon elemental monolith, which can serve similar purposes. Shapechange is probably just as bad if abused I realize, but is easier to hold back with in some ways, and doesn't cost XP or a recurrent gold cost. Unfortunately, Reaving Dispell is little better than greater dispell magic, except in certain circumstances, and I already have greater dispel magic (before getting it I'd probably rely on other party members or scrolls of various caster levels for dispel magic). I'm considering Mass Hold Monster, Etheralness, Freedom, Foresight or Prismatic Sphere as well.
Also, instead of Wall of Fire, I'm considering Melf's Slumber Arrows, which still fatigue on a successful save.
Fatespinner looks good, but I don't like the restriction from other element spells of the elemental savant, and given the spells I already have the required feat is kind of silly. I also looked around and the unseen seer looks nice for some of the last levels, although I'll have to work up to the needed cross class skill ranks, being human should help, as I'll be able to take Able Learner. The requirements also mesh well with Fatespinner, and it will quickly make up whatever skill points I invested to get into it. I'd like some stuff to take earlier though, having trouble finding stuff with easy prerequisites that don't lose out on casting levels and fit the character. For instance, Loremaster might be nice for the skills and stuff, but the number of divination spells needed and skill focus in a knowledge skill aren't very friendly, especially to a sorcerer. Archmage doesn't really have enough to offer the character with theirspell selections for the feat requirements it has.
Again, suggestions for other party members putting out fires would be nice.
Again, suggestions for other party members putting out fires would be nice.
That's easy. Wall of Water, Create Water (if small fire), various Druid Storm-type spells.
Again, suggestions for other party members putting out fires would be nice.
That's easy. Wall of Water, Create Water (if small fire), various Druid Storm-type spells.
And once you reach higher levels Sandstorm has the 8th-level spell mass create water for clerics and druids who want to put out fires (real name: flashflood).
I love that spell.