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Umm. Target and Pew Pew. He'll probably die within the first 2 rounds, maybe the first round if your Wolf reaches him too. Your reach with that Bow is pretty ridiculous, afterall.
His AC will be abysmal to start, making it stupid easy for you to hit. If you win the Initiative and get to act first, you've got this in the bag.
If he survives somehow or gets to act first... you may be in trouble. Though, it's technically 2 vs 1 since you have a Wolf. I hope your Will save is up to par.
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Prepare Resist Energy. Use it, preferably prior to combat since it lasts half an hour. Scorching Ray becomes...less than stellar vs. Fire Resistance. If done pre-combat, use it on your wolf, too.
Other than that, yeah, just shoot him full of holes until your wolf melees him, then join it in murdering him with whatever melee weapon you favor.
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I would assume that an intelligent spellcaster has effective tools for dealing with ranged attacks and surprise attacks. He probably tried dealing with surprise via a high perception score and then a high initiative to maximize his hp and minimize enemy threats. With that said, you're tied here so that part is a toss up.
Due to only being sixth level, the advantage is likely yours. You have more ac and hp as well as an easier chance to hit. As a sorceror his options are more limited and likely not utility like wind walls and such. His gear options are probably stereotypical and not particularly thematic (so cloak of resistance, stat boosting headband, etc) meaning that if he beats you on initiative and doesn't stick a spell ends the fight, you should come out ahead.
In essence, the burden of proof is on him. You should have no trouble defeating him if you go first. If he goes first, he still has to get you to make saves, etc and cannot adapt his spells to the current threat. Preparation is not beneficial to him like it is to a wizard so the odds are in your favor. But I do not know his build. Maybe his sorceror is built interestingly.
Umm... Have your wolf grapple him?
If your wolf doesn't have improved grapple it will provoke an AoO, but from a gnome sorcerer, who cares?
I'm betting your large wolf will have a relatively easy time of doing it. When he succeeds, it makes him easier to hit, gives him a -2 to attack rolls (which scorching ray is), and requires a decent concentration check to even cast a spell.
If he doesn't manage to escape, pin him the next round, suddenly no more spells with somatic or material components (scorching ray has a somatic).
Proceed to Pin-Cushion him.
Don't forget that you can ready an action to shoot him if he casts a spell. Concentration DCs for taking damage while casting are very difficult to make!
Also, this.
I could totally see the sorcerer cheesing out with vanish / invisibility and summoning critters until you lose.
Scent from farther than 5 feet does not pinpoint where the scent is coming from, only that the creature is within 30 feet of the smeller.
CMD of 11? CMB of -1?
Unless you pop that vanish first, you are screwed. Even if you do, wolf has speed 50 and range of scorching ray is 40 feet at level 6. Sorcerer reappears, wolf uses readied action to charge and grapple. Wolf's BAB is +4 with strength of at least 15 (23 if the dire form gives it the large wolf animal companion bonuses) assuming also the ranger had boon companion. So wolf has a CMB of +10?
If he flies, he has to get in within bow shot range. With fire resist running, my money is on the ranger. Especially when he readies his action to shoot the gnome when the latter starts to cast.
Also, Tanglefoot bags. He should fail his save a little less than half the time (assuming a decent dex and some magic items). It won't prevent his magical flight if he is already airborne, but if he is on the ground he gets rooted, plus a penalty to attacks and concentration checks to cast spells are fun. It's a ranged touch, so even a few range increment penalties don't hurt too bad. There is no way he is making the strength check to break free, and it will take at least 2 rounds (probably much more) to cut himself free with a slashing weapon (assuming he even has one).
You are correct, ready doesn't work, but delay would.
Ready is a standard action, afterwards you may use a standard, move or swift when a specified event occurs. When limited to a standard action, you may charge but may only move one movement speed and may not draw a weapon without the Quick Draw feat (One could argue you are limiting yourself to a standard action and could have made a move or swift action before the ready, but so long as the PC doesn't take such actions, such an argument is pretty cheeky). You may perform many combat maneuvers as an attack action. Unfortunately, where it falls apart is that grapple is not one of those maneuvers (missed that before).
So delay instead. The gnome gets his spell off (which he would have anyway being invisible and the readied action being for becoming visible which occurs only after casting an offensive spell), so nothing lost there. End wolf's delay, move 50ft and grapple. Or if levitating, end your ranger's delay to immediately ready an action to shoot the gnome when he starts to cast. Now he has a hefty concentration check to cast anything, offensive or defensive.
I'm not saying there is no way for the ranger to lose, but the odds are mightily in his favor.
In any PVP duel there are only 3 things that matter, Preparation, Initiative, and Terms of the Fight. If you can both prepare, the better plan will win out. Initiative is probably about 80% of who wins, sadly. If one of you has some gimping disadvantage because of the terms of the fight that is really important too.
Level six duels are usually initiative, but if you plan to use lots of consumables or Undead/Planar Allies/Golems/Simulacrums/Clones you can pull out a win even losing initiative.
If the ranger delays you use a scroll rather than casting. Well done you just wasted your turn.
If you take any offensive action, to include, but not be limited to, casting a spell, swinging a sword, or even casting an offensive spell from a scroll, you become visible. I admit, against a summoner sorcerer with invisibility it would be very different. I appreciate that you want the sorcerer to be better in this match-up than he is, and I've no doubt that against a sorcerer of your design it would be a much tougher fight. But in this case, against a blaster sorcerer without fly, it's strongly in the rangers favor.
I'm not a fan of tanglefoot arrows. They deal no damage and have a easier save versus a weaker effect. The only advantage is the range (which is still half of your normal bow range). Since your opponent specializes in a close range offensive spell, I'd stick to tanglefoot bags. However, investing in thistle arrows may be worthwhile. If you win initiative, either hit him with a tanglefoot bag (my preference) or load him up with four thistle arrows that deal their damage as a bleed over 1d6 rounds. Without healing or a heal check, he'll bleed to death whether invis or not.
The early sorcerer depends on a group for support. Use that to his disadvantage.
Certain items and conditions depend on a group's support to get you out of a bad situation. Use that to your advantage.
Getting a permanent See Invisibility is something the Ranger should look into here. Bonus in that it would probably be really useful in a campaign too.
For a PVP duel at level 6, hardly any chance at all of dispelling. For campaign use I agree, hire the highest level caster you know of or save your money.
Ah yes, there is a good chance the sorcerer has magic missle known, even if he isn't optimized for it as andreww's sorcerer could be. I suggest getting a couple potions of shield for 50g each. I suggest at least two so if he dispels it you can reapply it. Magic missile is now negated.
Along that thought, maybe get some smokesticks as well. If the gnome surprises you with a tactic you didn't expect, you can give yourself concealment for very cheap (20g each). His scorching rays are ranged touch so he'll suffer miss chances even if he knows what square you're in.
Of course he could fireball or burning hands the location. Have we mentioned the importance of resist energy (fire)?
Protection From Evil potions will ruin a summoning sorcerer's day.
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Quite probably although 5000gp is nearly a third of your welath at level 6. Given it is very likely to be at a caster level of 9 it is also susceptible to dispel. Thats a lot of money to spend on something which may not stick around.
Bah, A standard ranger will simply burn a couple hundred gold for a scroll of Bloodhound, Acute senses (8th level) and hunter's eye, pop them before the fight (they last a LONG time), mount his wolf and have it seek the non-flying caster. As long as he can stay downwind it's an auto that the wolf will find the gnome. With no ranks in it the wolf should be rocking a +50 perception bonus right now and simply taking 10 should find the gnome.
With it's standard action it moves to where the gnome is and the ranger's scent kicks in and pinpoints the gnome and grabs him. The following round is dead gnome.As for the greater invis, go for it, that makes the fight easier for the ranger. The duration of that spell is 5 rounds and with the rangers decent stealth he can simply hide until it wears off and then pepper the gnome with arrows from 100 feet away.
This is straight ranger win unless everything possible goes wrong.
This is where the conditions of the fight matter. I've seen too many people claim victory over a wizard this way when in reality, it was the conditions of the fight that crushed the wizards perfectly legitimate strategy of teleporting.
Might I suggest Hunter's Eye as your second level spell then?
I don't see charm helping to much. The spell causes you to see him as an ally, which you already do. You are engaging in a friendly, non-lethal duel. You are not dominated, cannot be forced to harm yourself, and any attack breaks the effect. If you are really worried though, and if he is evil, good, chaotic, or lawful, get a potion of protection against that alignment for 50g and be immune.
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If the fight is going to take place in a swamp that's just an extra win for you. You can skip most of what I said simple and simply buy a few cheap scrolls of Feather Step and Resist Energy and memorize Entangle twice. Cast feather step on the wolf and resist energy on you both and wait. As soon as he throws the first Scorching Ray at you (resist energy is all you need), suck up the pathetic amount of damage (4D6 -10 averages 4-7pts of damage a cast) and then hit the area the spell came from with an entangle and ride the wolf in.
Gnome will inevitably get entangled held in place and DC 19+ concentration checks will really cut down on all his go to tactics. Follow that up with pound of flour and an angry wolf will kill that gnome in 2'ish rounds of combat.
This should probably cost you about 105 gold to win.