OP, seems like the simplest fix would be to just increase damage spells by 50% since you increased monster hp by 50%. +2 damage per level works out to a little better than 50% so that should work fine. For AoE lighting bolt is just not good, you could let you player have a custom lightning version of fireball (call it lightning burst or something, does lightning damage instead of fire) or switch bloodline to Djinni to switch damage to lightning.
For demons he could just cast haste, or you could have him take elemental spell with sonic (seems thematic with a lightning sorcerer).
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18 in your main stat pre racials and a 14-18 in your secondary stat with a 14-16 in your 3rd most used stat 9-14 on all others nothing below a 9(or 10 ideally) pre racials that way your good at what you do and aren't honorably crippled in the areas you aren't specialized inwhich is why i said point buy sucks cuz you have to take from one ability score to even get a some what workable score in your main statsI'm probably going to regret asking this, but what do you class as a "workable" score at level 1?
18/16/14/12/10/9 is a 33pt buy. I'm not sure how you get all these stats determined, but like I've said, very HIGH power and definitely not the norm. So Lady-J just so you're aware, you are more of an edge case than main game, so your play advice and experience doesn't transfer to most games.
The standard from what I've seen on the boards is 20 with 25 being next most common. With a very common array before racials being a 20pt buy of 16/14/14/12/10/8 so the more your stats differ from this line, the more your advice probably wont be useful or relevant.Edit, just for reverence, the max statline following your advice is 18/18/16/14/14/14 is a 59 pt buy. basically 3 times the amount that most people have.
wizards win not cause they out damage non casters, it's that they don't need damage to win.
that and that the main point of caster/martial disparity is outside of combat.
if there's 1 enemy 10d6+20 at lv 8 is doing 55 damage to a target on a failed save, 27 damage on a success.
at lv8 a damage fighting character is doing 2d6+30 damage a swing and swinging 3 times if hasted. That is putting out 100dpr against a cr 10 enemy, aka boss. A cr10 has an average good save of 13 and a bad save of 9, cr8 is 12 and 7. So the fireball DC is going to be 10+3+5(int)+1(spell focus) = 19. the boss needs a 6 or 10 to reduce damage, cr8 is 7 or 12. Odds are in the favor of saving. But even at 55ish damage, you'll maybe help the martial character kill things by saving them round. Maybe not, especially if they save.
So that's why blasted sucks in core and needs all the tricks to boost it. If it's not competing in the realm of DPR with the DPR guys, it's going to feel like it's doing nothing, cause you can only do it so many times per day and it's supposed to be the main way you're helping the party.
In this example haste does more DPR and persists many rounds of increased DPR than you doing a damaging attack yourself. Thus "true" wizards caste 1 haste and leave the mop up to the brutes, and a "bad" wizard uses extra spells trying to play the brutes game and be overall less effective.
Have your sorcerer friend take spell focus conjuration, augment summoning, and summon monster 1-9.
He can summon lightening elementals if he wants to stay in theme, but with these abilities he is optimized.
Edit: don't nerf his blasting spells. They are already woefully weak. Casters have limited resources so they "spike" in efficacy. You may have a problem with burning hands but you probably ignore the crossbow and cantrip rounds.
and how is it that you roll Lady-J?
and how is it that you roll Lady-J?4d6 re roll 1,2 drop lowest if no 18 is rolled highest roll is an 18 this way every one is has a chance to be good at what they want to do and wont cripple themselves in areas they aren't necessarily going to be using in case they do actually need to use more than what they are good at
yeah, I'm not sure if you'd prefer rolling if you did it the way most people do.
4d6 drop the lowest. Using this normal method give stats around a 20pt buy if I remember right. But your lowest roll possible is a 9, normally the lowest is a 3. Normally average is 10-11, your average roll is 13-14. Normally 18's are kinda rare, your way they are more common, and you're guaranteed one if you happen to not get one.If you guys swapped over to a 50 pt buy I feel there's a good chance you'd prefer it over rolling.
Not saying your wrong or bad to play that way, But do you see how your advice from a SUPER high power game just wont be useful to most people playing around the average power game? When you say start with 16 minimum and be sure to reach CON of 20 quickly with con being the second or third priority, to do what you suggest would require con being the primary focus stat.
Also, don't you play as getting full HP every level?
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Precisely.
Well blasting got more powerful than it was but not more powerful than other options that exist, hence not power creep hence let him use the g+%~$~n feats.
Right. Like, Archery sucks in the Core Rulebook so they needed to add Clustered Shots and (Improved) Snap Shot to make it viable. (NOTE: THAT IS SARCASM. I AM SPELLING THIS OUT IN ALL CAPS JUST TO MAKE IT SUPERBLY CLEAR)
be more obnoxious by all means.
And no not like archery, like blasting which is what we're talking about which got buffed because it was s!++.
Can you see why I'm leery of stuff in the same "Ultimate" series as being power creep? Now, maybe in some cases (like blaster casters) it is legitimately needed...but it's kind of hard for me to tell. And keep in mind this is stuff I *experienced* -- I had the "tactical nuke" sorcerer come in and one-shot encounter after encounter.
yes the fact you make ill informed snap judgement about entire books based on corner cases is and has been clear for quite some time.
It should not be hard to tell that 1D4+1 is s#*+. You having a personal grudge against blasters is so obvious you don't need to spell it out.
The thought "In a CRB only game casters won't use Fireball or other damage spells because they're too weak" never occurred to me. In fact, all I've been hearing about in Pathfinder is the Caster/Martial Discrepancy, how casters ruled everything, etc.
yes because they can literally stop time, create demiplanes summon angels and kick your soul out of your body, not because FIRE.
Casters quite obviously don't rule by doing pitiful and irrelevantly low damage.
I did. And in my second campaign ever I saw encounter after encounter get blown up by a sorcerer doing 10d6+20 damage per Fireball at level 6 (playing, not GMing). I didn't just look at the books and say "Oh hell no" I actually saw some of it in action. And it looked crazy imbalanced.
Again I don't care about your grudge against blasters I care about you proposing a logical way to move this forward beyond screaming thats too powerful at any valid option.
it isn't crazy imbalanced things with fire immunity exist and are abundant. This with SR exist things with stealth that sneak up and stab sorcs exist.Diviner wizards that have +40 initiative and can't be suprised are imbalanced.
I suppose I'm just used to people in my campaign knowing that all the time. Several/many of my players are extremely new to Pathfinder and I've made it clear from the start that I'm fine with people redoing their characters if they're finding something isn't working. Only caveat is that if I think they're taking advantage of that generosity to game the system then I'll stop giving them that freedom.
good thing to put in the OP
A human crossblooded sorcerer has the same known spells, technically. Also, -2 Will saves is hardly gamebreaking -- especially for someone who can likely avoid a lot of Will saves.
no they don't they always have more lower level spells and less of their highest level ones.
Sorcs are not particularly gifted at avoiding will targeting effects.
Leaving Slay Living out of it for the moment, why is Finger of Death so bad, for example?
because it targets the most commonly highest save in order to do some damage.
other spells exist that target that save or easier that just incapacitate things or better yet control them, doing damage is a fools game to a caster.why kill them when I can freeze them in time/use their body to murder all their friends with.
No, I just think your point is wrong. He only needs a few feats to get that kind of damage while blasting and I'd suspect MOST arcane casters would have them. The ones who DON'T have any kind of nuking ability would be the exceptions.
blasting is one of the most feat intensive builds in the game and you are wrong most arcane casters completely ignoring blasting because it is suboptimal and requires work and investment to work. The exceptions are the ones that can nuke.
Why? 27 damage is shockingly abysmally poor and pointless.
If that's the case, why hasn't the spell been buffed directly? That's a serious question. From my perspective it looks like a few things were added to allow blaster casters to specialize and then combining a bunch of stuff got out of control.
because it doesn't kill or slow down anything relevant at the level you're casting it so it has done precisely nothing to protect yourself or your party.
The spell wasn't buffed because1) legacy hang ups from previous editions
2) changing how something in the most printed book in the series works doesn't go over well since its you know... in print and been brought
3) A whole swathe of spells are balanced around damage dice going up with caster level which happens to be extremely weak
4) buffing it with feats is easier.
Meaning Spell Specialization, Mage's Tattoo, and Blood Havoc?The reason would be that I'm trying to actually figure out a reasonable number for him to hit and then seeing what is necessary for him to get there. Aka I'm not ignoring it I'm trying to figure out the actual impact of those numbers.
well given that your sorc is casting lightning bolt and therefore doing damage to one maybe two targets at most reasonable damage would be lethal or close too on a failed saved because they will run out of damage.
Stop talking about fireball and how it can nuke encounters your PC isn't doing that.
I don't understand what this means, clarify?
what scares a party and what scares a NPC are different, damage spread among a party means all those characters are closer to dying. between NPCs it means nothing, they can still function excatly as planned do exactly as much damage as before they have not been impeded, NPCs are meant to die killing you, so taking damage isn't scary unless it stops them killing you
That's precisely the question at hand.
well make a thread asking how much damage should a blaster reasonably do at x level then not one asking us to help your blaster friend because that is apparently precisely not what you're asking.
Archers?
so combat casting is useless and irrelevant then?
He picked the wands.
guide him to less horrible choices.
The Barbarian has to get in melee range and is vulnerable with his raging, for one. It's also single target only. It's also massive overkill at level 1 meaning a lot of the damage is wasted.
the sorc is 15 ft away so in melee range and if he didn't kill the bad guy and is more vulnerable than the barb who has AC and more than twice the hit point and probably killed the thing he hit.
Meanwhile, the Sorcerer's Burning Hands is AoE. Is 1d4+1 awfully low and not very good? Yes. But 3d4+6 can sometimes one-shot entire encounters. Something between there would be fine.
if your arranging encounters in a 15ft cone thats your problem. Not a relevant complaint anyway since the PC in question is using a line spell.
I've also heard the "excuse" offered by others that casters rule the end game so they're supposed to be weak to start. The whole "Linear Warrior, Quadratic Wizard" thing.
a sorc or a oracle can rule the early game with color spray those excuses are apologist b!%%%!%s.
The whole point of maximizing PC/NPC HP (and giving a similar bonus to monsters) is to slightly tone down the rocket tag, mitigate burst, and lessen the impact of losing initiative. Giving everything 50% more HP and then giving everyone 50% more damage is pointless.
Now, if for OTHER reasons it turns out damage spells need a 50% bonus, fine, but we're looking at the damage per round aspect (or something similar) in that case.
There is no "other reason" to boost damage spells than damage spells don't do enough damages to kill the enemy quickly. Because spell slots are a limited resource for casters.
As it turns out, I start to believe that the problem is not the amount of damages. The problem is the gameplay of the sorcerer class. The player chooses to play an arcane full-caster but actually wants to (or you want him to) play a class with blasting power on par with martial classes. In this case, he has to be able to blast all day long to eliminate the need of ending encounters quickly in order to save spell slots, especially if combats last longer than usual due to the overall HP increase.
Basically, it seems to me that you (or your player) want a class with the gameplay of a warlock from D&D3.5...
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Basically, it seems to me that you (or your player) want a class with the gameplay of a warlock from D&D3.5...
Kineticist, Kineticist, Kineticist...
They're a little more complicated but definitely have staying power.
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Not saying they are, just saying that they're similar in that they can blast all day.
there's a conversion for that :D can't link it though as i don't have the link saved on this computer :(
For the records, I am not saying the OP should convert the warlock from 3.5 to PRPG or play a warlock.
I am saying he probably wants a similar gameplay.Simple modification of the existing sorcerer class:
More homebrew:
In this case, this at-will blast becomes a main feature of the class instead of just being a "sustainable but still sub-par" damage option.
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OP, you're VERY aggressive and obstinate. You've basically made it clear that you don't actually want to help your sorcerer player. If you look at ALL THE DAMAGING SPELLS you see that 1d6 per level is the best it gets, single target or AoE. Socking grasp is a single target close range touch that does 1d6 per level. So your entire concept of AoE v Single target doesn't hold up. Either you decide to help your player and let them do damage, or you don't and stop this fake thread.
Like, what kind of advice were you hoping besides the advice you've repeatedly received?
also to your hobgoblin, is that a custom made enemy? Cause the average AC for lv10 is 24 AC, 32 AC is the average for a CR17 enemy. Though his reflex is on course for being a poor save for a CR 10. So this is an enemy where the blaster caster should be doing more damage.
So the barb with +20 to hit for 2d6+23 against normal CR10 enemies Very good, against your super AC boss, of course it's going to look quite poor. DPR against more normal CR10 is about 80. Against your super AC boss, close to 40.
So if this enemy is on par for your standard fights then the sorcerer should be doing about as much as a hasted barb, so why would you come to the threads asking for help?
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If you look at ALL THE DAMAGING SPELLS you see that 1d6 per level is the best it gets, single target or AoE.
Not true. Disintegrate gets 2d6/lv.
Not helping, I know.
If you look at ALL THE DAMAGING SPELLS you see that 1d6 per level is the best it gets, single target or AoE.Not true. Disintegrate gets 2d6/lv.
Not helping, I know.
Still an awesome spell though.
As Djelai said, Disintegrate gets 2d6 (average of 7) per level. Finger of Death gets 10 per level. And Empower Spell boosts that 1d6 (3.5 average) to 5.25 average per level. So the moment you can start Empowering 1d6 spells is a huge boost (incidentally, I think it's dumb that a level 3 spell and a level 5 spell both get 1d6 per level given you can empower the level 3 spell as a level 5 spell).
Disintegrate: Requires both an attack roll to hit and offers a save (pure damage spells usually only require one or the other), and a successful save nerfs the damage down to 5d6 instead of halving it.
Finger of Death: Not usable on constructs or undead, has crap range, and a successful save reduces the damage to a mere 3d6 + 1/level. It's also a 7th level spell.
Hobgoblins are defined by their class levels. Here's the default Hobgoblin. You might notice it mentioned under "tribe" the phrase:
"1 sergeant of 3rd level per 20 adults, 1 or 2 lieutenants of 4th or 5th level, 1 leader of 6th–8th level"
But those don't exist in the Bestiary (as far as I can tell). You have to create them. This is also a warlord of several tribes (hence he's level 10 -- his "kingdom" ranges from CR 2 to CR 7 Hobgoblins plus himself). So yes, it's a custom made (but not particularly optimized) enemy. Here's his entire stat block if you're curious. And just to head this question off, the sword is plot relevant and... something he stole -- he'd actually be better off with a worse weapon and better other items.
You didn't say what class this hobgoblin chief is, but since you say he's a warlord I'll assume he's a 10th level fighter. Since he's the chief, I'll also assume he has Heroic NPC wealth available to him which gives him 12,750 worth of gear. Even with +2 full plate (5,500 gp) and a +2 heavy shield (4,157 gp) that'll put him at 25-27 AC depending on how much Dex he has, with 3 more AC from the Dodge feat and advanced armor training. So clearly this is an NPC who's focused his build on a high AC, which implies he's meant to be a challenge for martial characters and weaker vs. magic. So what's the problem with the sorcerer excelling against him?
But I don't like him feeling weak versus the spiders. But I don't want him one shotting the Hobgoblins. Hence my quandary and trying to see what others thought.
I think - and this is based on everything you've posted - you're trying to micro-manage the flow of individual battles too much. You seem to be preoccupied with specific scenarios and corner-case situations. I understand you're just trying to make sure the game is fun for everyone and trying to preemptively address possible problem abilities but I think you should consider loosening up on the reins a bit and let things fall as they may for awhile. You'll probably be surprised at how often things that appear overpowered on paper or in theoretical situations are actually not so bad once they're actually used in game.
So against the bear the hasted barb is doing 6d6+72 ~ 93 damage a round. So the sorcerer should be doing at least like 70-80 damage, at least, and more likely should be doing like 100 or more on a failed save. Which yes, means he's likely or possibly able to one-shot that hobgoblin boss. That's DPR characters, things don't live long against them.
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My blaster sorceress doesn't get to one-shot very often. I play with a big party, so I don't mind. To comfort myself, I look at how much damage I do total per round (adding up all the damage for AoE spells), not how many foes I kill per round. It's not how most people on the boards define effectiveness, I know, but honestly, this approach makes for more fun for the other players, who get to kill something I've wounded. Especially since you want combats to take multiple rounds and give everyone a chance to pile on. (A goal I'm sympathetic with when I put on my GM hat, btw.)
That said, I've ruefully learned a LOT since coming to the boards. There's some fabulous blaster guides on this board that you really need to consult. I had a lot of consternation when I read them, because I'd built my already-10th-level half-orc sorceress very inefficiently -- she has focused on fire spells, since that's her FCB and she's got an Ifrit bloodline. Ooops! All I could do was get Elemental (cold & acid) rods.
Your player can retrain now, though, and do it right. He needs the feat Elemental Spell (electricity) and a NON-electricity blasting spell per spell level -- especially Fireball. That will give him the flexibility to deal with foes not conveniently lined up or who have resistance to electricity (by not converting). Selective Spell is IMHO a must feat, too. Speaking as a GM, I don't care for the Magical Lineage trait, to be honest, but since you're so concerned, you should probably allow it in his retraining -- for Fireball! Or should I say, Voltage-ball? :)
And then you get to rods for other metamagic feats like Maximize Spell to boost the damage. (Note: Maximize Spell and a lot of other metamagic feats are IMHO not worth learning as feats, but are great as rods.) A Selective Lightning Bolt -- or Selective Voltage-ball -- given Empower or Maximize via a rod is potentially very near. That should one-shot an awful lot of mooks, even with your houserules as is. (If you want to help him out with a new houserule, simply get rid of the silly full-round action for meta-magic that sorcerers face, even with rods.)
Once he starts pulling all of this together (VSN), he should be holding his own as a blaster. But honestly, he does need a variety of spells he can draw on. He certainly needs the Dex & spells to be able to do single-target blasting -- Scorching Ray is I believe the best, after conversion to electricity, of course. And he absolutely has to start considering spells that don't involve SR -- spells that do acid damage, or physical, or that do a non-damaging effect. And then we have to indeed include some battlefield control. Wall of Current (err, Fire) is a great spell for him to look forward to, but he also needs at minimum a Fog & Pit spell in his repertoire. Really. Tell him that a half-orc mad for told him so. :)
PS: As for wands, the problem is that only wands for spells he can cast before battle are going to have an effective action economy. And Fireball is a complete waste as a wand, since he needs to manipulate it with metamagic. (To deal with action economy for all of the metamagic rods my blasty sorceress just bought, she also took Quick Draw and bought a Scabbard of Many Blades. It would be nice if you allow an Efficient Quiver to do the same things.)
TL;DR: I don't think that you have to change your houserules, beyond maybe a minor addition or two. You certainly seem to need to give your player some guidance in retraining to create a great Blue Dragon sorcerer, but I'm convinced that it can be done. And if he looks weak in action, suggest that your player add up all of the damage he just did in an AoE spell, to cheer you both up!
that npc has 6 times the normal wealth by level of an npc and 5 times that of a heroic npc
Which NPC has 6 or 5 times wealth?
Btw, thank you to those on this board who helped me put my recs together just now, by pondering my sorceress's spell-list in depth a few months ago. I appreciate you, more than I can say!
But I don't like him feeling weak versus the spiders. But I don't want him one shotting the Hobgoblins. Hence my quandary and trying to see what others thought.
Summoning! Equally effective. Always works!
Buuut, you probably should just let him deal with the consequences of his choices both good and bad while he learns the system.
One-shotting encounters with burning hands are too trivial encounters to worry about.
Thanks for your thanks! But honestly, a fair amount of what I said was already mentioned above. Err, the other comments were buried amidst all the other comments about changing your houserules.
But just when I was feeling all warm and fuzzy, I remembered something hideous about the crux of the advice I gave you. Do you see the problem here?
Elemental Spell (Metamagic)
[...] Benefit: Choose one energy type: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. You may replace a spell's normal damage with that energy type or split the spell's damage, so that half is of that energy type and half is of its normal type. An elemental spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell with an energy descriptor that matches your draconic bloodline's energy type, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled.
How about I trade you, puzzle solution for puzzle solution? :)
Rime Spell (Metamagic)
[...] Benefit: The frost of your cold spell clings to the target, impeding it for a short time. A rime spell causes creatures that takes cold damage from the spell to become entangled for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell.This feat only affects spells with the cold descriptor. A rime spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Houseruling it that Elemental Spell changes the descriptor along with the damage type makes a cold-based sorcerer milking Rime Spell even more potent than by RAW.
Phooey!!!!
{Added thought: It might be safe to houserule the arcana, though. I'm thinking of something like the following...
I'm afraid you'd have to ask for opinions on Homebrew.}
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When dealing with Demons, you may also want to consider getting an Ampoule of False Blood to change bloodline to, for example, Elemental-Air. This will let you use the 9th level ability (Elemental Blast) to add Electrical Vulnerability for 1 round before you hit them hard the next, and if you happen to select Sorcerous Bloodstrike as your 9th level feat, any corpses generated by that heavy hit gives you back your Elemental Blast for the day.
So that's an option. Not sure if anyone mentioned that one (too lazy to read). Think about other Ampoules of False Blood and how to H4X them. You might find some fun goodies.
Aside, picking a few battlefield control, debuff, or buff spells would really help your sorcerer out. Going all-blaster-all-the-time limits your options severely.
I always think of my sorcerers as Superheroes. They have the HP, skill ranks and BAB of a commoner, but they're charismatic, have better willpower, and have magical super powers. Each spell known or bloodline ability is like a new super power. If you make every super power just the same thing over and over again, your hero becomes inefficient, boring, and inflexible. Pick multiple powers within a theme. For the sorcerer you're talking about, imagine "The Blue Dragon Avenger", look at a Blue Dragon's abilities, and try to go with that feel: Fear effects, electrical stuff (duh), superhuman senses, illusions, combat buffs, desert-themed magic... there's plenty to pick.
And carry a longspear.
I always think of my sorcerers as Superheroes. They have the HP, skill ranks and BAB of a commoner, but they're charismatic, have better willpower, and have magical super powers. Each spell known or bloodline ability is like a new super power. If you make every super power just the same thing over and over again, your hero becomes inefficient, boring, and inflexible. Pick multiple powers within a theme. For the sorcerer you're talking about, imagine "The Blue Dragon Avenger", look at a Blue Dragon's abilities, and try to go with that feel: Fear effects, electrical stuff (duh), superhuman senses, illusions, combat buffs, desert-themed magic... there's plenty to pick.
And carry a longspear.
Wow, this is great! I love it!
So... what would you recommend for a half-orc Ifriti, by chance?
I always think of my sorcerers as Superheroes. They have the HP, skill ranks and BAB of a commoner, but they're charismatic, have better willpower, and have magical super powers. Each spell known or bloodline ability is like a new super power. If you make every super power just the same thing over and over again, your hero becomes inefficient, boring, and inflexible. Pick multiple powers within a theme. For the sorcerer you're talking about, imagine "The Blue Dragon Avenger", look at a Blue Dragon's abilities, and try to go with that feel: Fear effects, electrical stuff (duh), superhuman senses, illusions, combat buffs, desert-themed magic... there's plenty to pick.
And carry a longspear.
Wow, this is great! I love it!
So... what would you recommend for a half-orc Ifriti, by chance?
Hmmm...
Well, the Ampoule for Elemental bloodline Fire would be helpful for the same elemental vulnerability trick.You already have Falchion proficiency...
The only things you're missing (in looking at the monster entry) is the pyrotechnics, overland flight, invisibility and gaseous (or smoke) form. (Pyrotechnics is a great spell - I love it, especially since you have Wall of Fire too)
Personally - and I know this isn't optimal - I would take Heroism and (later) Greater Heroism, and some other buffs so I can be a big tough geenie badass. It can also be used to buff the party too. But it adds flexibility and works well with your bloodline Ifreeti form. If you take greater heroism, consider swapping out heroism.
But one theme I would go for is early "wish fulfillment" and I think that can be done best with Illusions, as well as the Shadow subschool, and other multipurpose spells like Fabricate (which of course means you have to take a couple ranks in Craft-Traps and/or Craft-Masonry, to transform dungeons on a whim).
I guess all this together would make a Sorcerer who can do the following roles:
- fire blaster
- party buffer (heroism, enlarge person, invisibility)
- battlefield control (wall of fire, shadow conjured summons, pyrotechnics)
- secondary skirmisher (Ifreeti form, flight, heroism, invisibility, falchion)
- utility (shadow conjure, illusion, fabricate)
- social & trickery (illusion, high charisma)
That would be fun to play. Add in some character background where there are mixed feelings about heritage (pride, yet also bitterness, and some unanswered questions for the GM to dramatically fill in during the campaign), and maybe a rival half-sister witch who mysteriously vanished, causing you to be blamed... there! High level character concept done.
Thanks for your thanks! But honestly, a fair amount of what I said was already mentioned above.Some of it was. On the flip side, as far as I recall, you're the first person to acknowledge that "merely" wounding a lot of targets is still valuable. Especially with a larger party (you mentioned eight, I have six). Having two blasters is a very real concern and it's hard for me to imagine them being weak if they can one-two AoE combo a group (assuming they do 50%ish HP each per spell, for example).
And "honestly, this approach makes for more fun for the other players, who get to kill something I've wounded. Especially since you want combats to take multiple rounds and give everyone a chance to pile on. (A goal I'm sympathetic with when I put on my GM hat, btw.)" was DEFINITELY not said ;)
Yeah, I picked up on that. I'm glad I could support you in your objectives. But I'm not sure what help you need in that case.
Hopefully, you have absorbed the need for a variety of spells, including one-target ranged-touch, non-SR-dependent effects, and battlefield control. And the fact that wands have good action economy only before combat begins. And the fact that ultimately it's metamagic (as feats or rods) that will push spells over-the-top. And finally, that my brilliant idea of playing Voltage-ball sucked.
I'm still bummed about that.
But seriously, check out The Inner Power. A Guide To Sorcerers. And maybe some of the other guides at Zenith Games' Guides Guide. And let me know if that gives you the help you came to the board looking for.
So... what would you recommend for a half-orc Ifriti, by chance?[...] You already have Falchion proficiency...
The only things you're missing (in looking at the monster entry) is the pyrotechnics, overland flight, invisibility and gaseous (or smoke) form. (Pyrotechnics is a great spell - I love it, especially since you have Wall of Fire too)[...] But one theme I would go for is early "wish fulfillment" and I think that can be done best with Illusions, as well as the Shadow subschool, and other multipurpose spells like Fabricate (which of course means you have to take a couple ranks in Craft-Traps and/or Craft-Masonry, to transform dungeons on a whim).
[...] That would be fun to play. Add in some character background where there are mixed feelings about heritage (pride, yet also bitterness, and some unanswered questions for the GM to dramatically fill in during the campaign), and maybe a rival half-sister witch who mysteriously vanished, causing you to be blamed... there! High level character concept done.
I'm chewing on my fingernails even more now than I had been. You're goooood! I admit, I put together my spell list on the basis of having fun rather than fulfilling a plan, and I have been having fun. But plans like yours are worth it!
Melee is out for me (others way too good at it are in line ahead of me). However, I have Overland Flight & Greater Invisibility {and Enlarge Person} now -- and thanks to you, I can cast them with greater glee than before. So do I need Gaseous (smoke) Form? And whazzat with Pyrotechnics? I looked at the spell, and didn't see the potential. {I should mention that some of those melee sorts in our party love to rush in, regardless of what the sorceress in the party might have planned.}
But I'm looking at picking up things like Greater Heroism and some spells in the Shadow subschool anyway, and thinking of it as "wish fulfillment" is fabulous. Fabricate, you say? It's nice being able to relate spell choices to my bloodline in a different fashion from my love for Fire Fire
As for the mixed feelings about my heritage, hmmm... My twin brother & I (and the party) have recently managed to slay the evil sorceress who, having failed to apprentice me, brought a band of orcs down on our village and killed our parents... So maybe it's time I started wondering about who the Efreeti was who entered our family tree (and when)... Or maybe I should just focus on the magical slavery I've been threatened with... So what IS the Efreet stance on slavery, anyway?
Again, thank you so much.
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ill state the same thing i was told when i last quoted JJ he is not a rules guy and those are just his homebrewed stuff in his own home game the official rules are npcs get npc wealth and pcs get pc wealth
Except JJ was using the CRB rules => Source
NPC Gear Adjustments: You can significantly increase or decrease the power level of an NPC with class levels by adjusting the NPC's gear. The combined value of an NPC's gear is given in Creating NPCs on Table: NPC Gear. A classed NPC encountered with no gear should have his CR reduced by 1 (provided that loss of gear actually hampers the NPC), while a classed NPC that instead has gear equivalent to that of a PC (as listed on Table: Character Wealth by Level) has a CR of 1 higher than his actual CR.
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More wealth means more resources so I think that a well planned gear for an NPC is an accurate way to increase the CR of an enemy.
Not only that character might have better attack/AC/saves but more wealth can provide new tricks, as giving boots of flying to a martial, or a ring of invisibility to an enemy.
What I don't get is why are you so reluctant about giving the enemies more equipment because of rules but then you seem to use creation rules for your characters that are definitely not covered on the rules, like ridiculously high rolls and heavy use of templates.
Giving more equipment to an enemy seems far less unbalancing for CR than buffing the PCs so much.
When did this thread become about NPC wealth?