Brand. New to pathfinder help me make an amazing sorceress :D


Advice

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I have never played pathfinder before but a friend of mine wanted to get me into it at his local comic store . i love magic users but i have only ever played them in video games so i have no idea what i am doing on building this character . the character is based of an npc twin sister that the rogue of our group has . the are dhampires and the campaign is the mummy's mask or something like that .so someone please help me make an amaxing magical nuke sorceress? I have no idea where to start


Which do you see your character doing?

Blowing stuff up with magic,
Supporting the party so they do their job better,
hindering the enemy, either by spells that delay them or make them weaker.


Chess Pwn wrote:

Which do you see your character doing?

Blowing stuff up with magic,
Supporting the party so they do their job better,
hindering the enemy, either by spells that delay them or make them weaker.

im stuck between blowing stuff up and buffing the party >-<;;;


Did you get told any character creation details? Like Rolling for stats? Point buy? Anything like that?


Azih wrote:
Did you get told any character creation details? Like Rolling for stats? Point buy? Anything like that?

oh yes !!! Point buy ... I believe its a 20 point buy out


Any limit on source materials? Which books you can use stuff from?


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There are a lot of ways you can play sorcerers. If you are focused on being able to be a 'team' with the rogue I would recommend focusing on supporting the party (support) and hindering the enemy (control) primarily via summoned monsters.

The thing about the rogue class is that they can do some pretty amazing damage if they have a teammate to flank with. The problem for the rouge class in this, is that in order to get this nice bonus they have to maneuver into vulnerable positions and then they do a lot of damage, which often prompts them to be attacked (and killed) in turn. A friendly spell caster can help them out tremendously by summoning a creature (or creatures) in advantageous positions so that the rogue a) doesn't have to maneuver around to get his sneak attack, and b) so the creature, not the rogue, is the one out in front of the rest of the party.

Summoned monsters are also generally extremely useful in hindering the enemy greatly. The can block off enemy attackers, slowing them down and every swing against a summoned monster is a swing that isn't damaging one of your party member. For a sorcerer, the fact that each single summoned monster spell has a variety of things that it can summon also help out with your versatility.

If this is interesting to you, the abyssal bloodline has some decent benefits for summoning focused sorcerers, but really any sorcerer can use this tactic to good effect.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

There's a variety of "Class Guides" across these forums that might help you get better acquainted with the game's various options.

Here's one for the sorcerer class.

Liberty's Edge

It would also be totally in character to take the undead bloodline, allowing you to as well enchant undead you encounter (vampires, mummys, skeletons, etc.) that used to be humanoids.

Are you starting at level 1?

str 8
dex 16
con 12
int 12
wis 10
cha 18

undead bloodline http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines -from-paizo/undead-bloodline/

feat: toughness (up to you but man first level sorcerers go down fast_
traits: pick the coolest campaign trait, and something fun like princess

spells: repair undead and sleep

HP: 11
AC 13
etc
skills: use magic device, bluff, diplomacy


Advance players guide and players guide are the only limitation. ... As for the sorceress rogue team up ... Never thought about it ... The guy playing the rogue likes to be very lone wolf when he plays ... Thats why he wants someone else to play his sister


What level are you starting at? What race's interest you? You mention Dhampyr are you intent on playing one? Do you have any thematic preferences?

As some general advice on sorcerers:

Sorcerers key ability score is Charisma. They get extra spells per day for having a high charisma score and their spell save difficulty classes are set by their charisma score. Many of their class features are often effected by charisma as well. So you want to prioritize that.

Sorcerers don't have access to good armor and they can't make excellent use of it so dexterity is usually important for them as well.

Sorcerers have a chart in their class write up that tells them how many spells of any given level they know at a given character level, there are very few ways to modify this number which means that they are fairly limited in the number of spells they can pick up. While normally referenced as a disadvantage this can actually prove somewhat advantageous because it means you'll know exactly what you're capable of at any given moment and you'll get to know your spell selection very well.

Sorcerers get more spells per day than most other casters which means they have an easier time "spamming" spells and this can be a strength.

As a beginner you should definitely ask advice every time you add new spells to your list of spells known. A lot of spells that seem good aren't and quite a few that seem dumb are actually amazing.

Bloodlines are great ways to theme a character but their abilities can be quite useful as well, much like spells some bloodlines that seem dumb are actually quite good and some that seem cool might be bad, although more often than not the usefulness of a bloodline is highly dependent on the play style of the user.

So I know all of this is very general but I hope it's useful, Sorcerer is a very fun class that can be a lot different things and it really depends on what you want out of them.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Tri Edge Kite wrote:
Advance players guide and players guide are the only limitation. ... As for the sorceress rogue team up ... Never thought about it ... The guy playing the rogue likes to be very lone wolf when he plays ... Thats why he wants someone else to play his sister

So you're limited to the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Race Guide (since you're playing dhampir), and the Mummy's Mask Player's Guide?

That's not too bad actually. There's plenty more options out there, of course, but the Advanced Player's Guide is chock full of great stuff!


Hopefully this isn't a spoiler but: I would say steer away from spells and abilities that are "mind effecting", my witch had a hard time in Mummy's Mask.


Lol guys thank you so much !!! And i was going to start at 1 but i guess in the module everyone automatically goes up to 2 so i would be starting at 2 and yes i plan on asking here because .. My gosh all this help is so amazing


For Sorcerers I'd say look up all the bloodlines available to you and see if something looks like it'd be fun to play and fitting the campaign. For me it really helps fire the imagination reading the different options available .

Go here:

Link to d20psfrd and check out the 'Bloodlines from Paizo'. When you click on the link right at the bottom it'll say what book it came from so you can filter out which ones aren't available (or just ask your GM for an exception). In any case they're a ton of fun to read.


I have read them ... And i dont know ehat to go with ... I just kinda want something that walks into a room and everything goes boom and cries in agony.. .. And i mean the bad people lol ... But i dont really know what i am looking into other then its a mummy mask thing. .. I dont know what spells would be good in it or what blood line would be most sufficient


Any race you particularly want to be? Humans are a strong choice for anything.


See if you can talk your GM into allowing the Solar Bloodline from Qadira Jewel of the East Campaign Setting. Your first bloodline spell will be Searing Light (3rd level Cleric spell, but your Sorcerer gets it as a 1st level spell when they reach 3rd level!) ...no kidding! Might be handy for Mummy's Mask.


The character is a female half vampire . its an npc that i am making into an actually character


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Then Dhampir would be the race to go with, if you can handle the drawbacks of that race.


Fourshadow wrote:
See if you can talk your GM into allowing the Solar Bloodline from Qadira Jewel of the East Campaign Setting. Your first bloodline spell will be Searing Light (3rd level Cleric spell, but your Sorcerer gets it as a 1st level spell when they reach 3rd level!) ...no kidding! Might be handy for Mummy's Mask.

ill see if he would let me ... He is a stickler for basics but he keeps things fun


David knott 242 wrote:

Then Dhampir would be the race to go with, if you can handle the drawbacks of that race.

yes that race .... I have no idea how to make this work xD ... Thank you for the info tho


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Fourshadow wrote:
See if you can talk your GM into allowing the Solar Bloodline from Qadira Jewel of the East Campaign Setting. Your first bloodline spell will be Searing Light (3rd level Cleric spell, but your Sorcerer gets it as a 1st level spell when they reach 3rd level!) ...no kidding! Might be handy for Mummy's Mask.

This is an awesome bloodline. I highly recommend it!

Liberty's Edge

It's funny if you blind yourself though. Might take the sun exposed trait!

Note that the undead bloodline removes a lot of the mind affecting problems. Confusion? Yes. Dominate Person? hell yes.

There are a bunch of disabling spells that make people cry. Alternatively, take evocations spells and tack on toppling spell, dazing spell etc. metamagic, perhaps with the arcana bloodline.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

If I remember correctly, the sun bloodline negates blinding effects from light.


Not finding the 'sun exposed' trait. I did forget the character is dhampir...still, role-playing opportunity with such an oxymoron going with being part vampire and having the Solar Bloodline.


Lol that would be amazing xD ... Would i be resistance to light ? That would make things so much easier.. . if i cant take this blood line ... Any other ideas on how to make a very OPOP sorceress ?


I was looking at tye dragon bloodline and thought it would be so cool to be a dragon and fight that way ... But i would not know what abilty to put points into because i would like to do damage then with the claws and be all in your face ... But i think that would be difficult to do and some how make the character less powerful and more spread out


Any idea about dragon bloodline? Is it a yay or nay situation? I wanna real have fun with this character i wanna make her super powerful but helpful


Just remember: Sorcerers are fragile and should not be in anyone's face. They would likely go down pretty quick. A meat-shield and range are your friends.


Fourshadow wrote:
Just remember: Sorcerers are fragile and should not be in anyone's face. They would likely go down pretty quick. A meat-shield and range are your friends.

I agree . so what else could i choose for a bloodline to make a powerful sorceress


Draconic Bloodline is good for blasting a chosen element because you'll get bonus damage. Although some of it's powers are melee and you should really try to avoid being in melee.

For point Buy I think you should go with the following array:

10, 14(which racials will make 16), 14 (racials will make this 12), 10, 10, 16 (racials will make this 18)


I would take the feat life dominant soul and the alternate racial trait: dayborn to help mitigate your racial disadvantages but many wouldn't bother.


Orc bloodline is honestly really good for you, although the roleplay might be a stretch


Tri Edge Kite wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Just remember: Sorcerers are fragile and should not be in anyone's face. They would likely go down pretty quick. A meat-shield and range are your friends.
I agree . so what else could i choose for a bloodline to make a powerful sorceress

Anything you like.

Or, to put it another way: sorcerers are powerful. They're 9th level casters. That means they get access to the highest level* spells in the game. 5th level spells include important, high-fantasy magic like near-constant flight, teleportation and brining people back from the dead (though the last thing is for clerics). It goes up from there, up to the world-rewriting powers of Wish and the world-creating Create Demiplane. Even if sorcerers didn't have bloodlines, they'd still have access to some of the most powerful stuff in the game. As long as you have good ability scores and choose decent spells (and use them), you'll be useful to your party and feel powerful.

Bloodlines basically gives you five things. It gives you a class skill and a list to choose bonus feats from (at 7th, 13th and 19th level). These are generally not that important. Skills don't make or break characters. The feats come on late (Mummy's mask only lasts till about 15th level, so you won't get the third feat within the scope of the campaign) and pretty much every bloodline has some useful feats in their list. The more important things are the bonus spells, the arcana and bloodline powers. These are the things that makes bloodlines powerful or lackluster.

So let's take a look at the Draconic bloodline (I'm linking to it at Archives of Nethys, so you'll get antiquated with another common site to find rules at). The class skill, Perception, is great. The bonus feats has useful options, like Great Fortitude and Improved Initiative.

The bonus spells, at least the low-level ones, are nice. Mage armor (gained at 3rd level) and Fly (at 7th) are superb options that most sorcerers pick up. Resist energy (at 5th) is a decent buff when if you know what you're fighting. All these spells continue to be useful throughout your adventuring career. Fear (at 9th) and the later spells are a bit lackluster.

The arcana is decent. You do more damage when dealing damage related to your dragon type, and damage is useful. But there are plenty of monsters that are resistant or immune to specific energy type (cold immunity is common among undead), so sometimes you'll have to choose spells dealing damage which isn't boosted by your arcana.

The bloodline powers are a bit all over the place. Claws is almost a trap. You might one day end up in a situation where you're surrounded and can't escape, you've expended all your spell slots, your damage dealing cantrips aren't effective due to resistance and non of your allies are adjacent so you can't use the Aid another action. Then, I suppose, it's better to have claws than to not have them. But most of the time, you're way to fragile to be in melee and pretty much every other action will be more effective than a claw attack anyway.

Dragon Resistances is good. Not great, you might not be targeted by attacks you're protected from that often. But it will happen eventually, and then you'll take less damage.

Breath weapon is good. It's damage will most likely be high enough to be relevant, which is rare for these types of abilities.

All together, the Draconic bloodline is a decent choice.

I agree with blashimov that the undead bloodline is good. Some mind-affecting spells can be real powerful, but without this bloodline (or other special abilities), undeads are immune. I do, however, think it's a boring choice from a thematic point of view. You're a dhampir, the offspring of a vampire. And your bloodline contains the taint of a powerful undead creature. Well ... duh.

I once GM'd a fetchling sorceress with the shadow bloodline. Fetchlings are ancestors of humans living on the plane of shadows. So she was a shadow creature with blood of shadow creatures! In the end, she ended up an interesting player character, but her bloodline didn't really help that happen.

Unless you really want to push home the point of being related to a vampire, choose something that gives a bit of character depth. Something that makes one ask - who are your ancestors? Now, you're playing a written campaign rather than some homebrew so your GM might not have time to focus on the quirks of the PCs, but if he/she does, the origin of your bloodline can be really rewarding to explore in game.

Oh, and lastly, two different points.

For all that is holy, suggest to your GM to allow the Unchained rogue and suggest it to your fellow player. The core rogue is notoriously underpowered, to the point of being redundant - there's plenty of classes that outshines the core rogue at being a rogue (you know, the stealthy, dexterous guy who picks locks, finds traps and is generally skillful). So in Pathfinder: Unchained, Paizo gave us a rewrite of the class to make it more playable. Unless your fellow player is experienced, he/she risks be utterly disappointed by the performance of the core rogue. And that's fun for exactly no one.

And, if you want to be a real combat powerhouse, serving as a flanking buddy to the rogue and tearing up enemies in melee, consider the bloodrager. It's like a mix of sorcerer and barbarian. Great, fun class. You get a bloodline and some spells, along with Rage and other abilities to make you excel at melee combat. If you really want to maul enemies with your claws, you could even take the bloodrager's variant of the Draconic bloodline and then at level 6 start taking levels in the Dragon disciple prestige class.

*back when design paradigm Pathfinder is based on began, there where apparently a lack of thesauruses. As a spell casting character gains levels in a class, that class grants her new levels of spells. At level 1, a sorcerer only has access to 1st level spells and cantrips ('level 0'). At level 4, he gains 2nd level spells. At every even level there after, he gains access to a higher level.


Blymurkla wrote:
Tri Edge Kite wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Just remember: Sorcerers are fragile and should not be in anyone's face. They would likely go down pretty quick. A meat-shield and range are your friends.
I agree . so what else could i choose for a bloodline to make a powerful sorceress

Anything you like.

Or, to put it another way: sorcerers are powerful. They're 9th level casters. That means they get access to the highest level* spells in the game. 5th level spells include important, high-fantasy magic like near-constant flight, teleportation and brining people back from the dead (though the last thing is for clerics). It goes up from there, up to the world-rewriting powers of Wish and the world-creating Create Demiplane. Even if sorcerers didn't have bloodlines, they'd still have access to some of the most powerful stuff in the game. As long as you have good ability scores and choose decent spells (and use them), you'll be useful to your party and feel powerful.

Bloodlines basically gives you five things. It gives you a class skill and a list to choose bonus feats from (at 7th, 13th and 19th level). These are generally not that important. Skills don't make or break characters. The feats come on late (Mummy's mask only lasts till about 15th level, so you won't get the third feat within the scope of the campaign) and pretty much every bloodline has some useful feats in their list. The more important things are the bonus spells, the arcana and bloodline powers. These are the things that makes bloodlines powerful or lackluster.

So let's take a look at the Draconic bloodline (I'm linking to it at Archives of Nethys, so you'll get antiquated with another common site to find rules at). The class skill, Perception, is great. The bonus feats has useful options, like Great Fortitude and Improved Initiative.

The bonus spells, at least the low-level ones, are nice. Mage armor (gained at 3rd level) and...

i would change the character if i could but since she already existed the limitation was the fact she is a Dhampir and a sorceress. The GM does not like home brews or the unchaind stuff he likes close to the original stuff as he can get which i am not mad at because just from watching the game he really made it fun and made sure everyone had a good story part nothing on rails . so to meet him at the half way mark is alright in my opinion. .. And the guy playing the rogue ... Well he likes his rogue for more fun and character play then combat and stuff like that so he wont change anything about him i tried talking to him :c ... So now my job and i believe it would be a lot of fun is to now make the sorceress come to life. .. I now need a build and blood line for her with the limitation that she is going to start at lvl 2 and everything is sticking to core and advance players guid .... But i love your suggestions. .. I may need to see if i can seek out another local game on top of this one so i can try this new stuff to :D


Tri Edge Kite wrote:


i would change the character if i could but since she already existed the limitation was the fact she is a Dhampir and a sorceress. The GM does not like home brews or the unchaind stuff he likes close to the original stuff as he can get which i am not mad at because just from watching the game he really made it fun and made sure everyone had a good story part nothing on rails . so to meet him at the half way mark is alright in my opinion. .. And the guy playing the rogue ... Well he likes his rogue for more fun and character play then combat and stuff like that so he wont change anything about him i tried talking to him :c ... So now my job and i believe it would be a lot of fun is to now make the sorceress come to life. .. I now need a build and blood line for her with the limitation that she is going to start at lvl 2 and everything is sticking to core and advance players guid .... But i love your suggestions. .. I may need to see if i can seek out another local game on top of this one so i can try this new stuff to :D

If you truly feel a sorceress isn't for you, wouldn't your GM allow you to redo your character? It seems hard not to, especially since you're a beginner. But if you're just trying to get more powrful options or try some shenanigans it is of course right of your GM to rein you in. And I understand your GMs wish to stay close to core.

As for the rogue issue: with a competent GM who has everyone's fun in mind, not much is impossible. I do think it would be a good thing to allow the urogue, but you'll be all right anyway.

For bloodline, how about Elemental or Stormborn? Those are both good. Or Arcane? I think it's a bit dull thematically but its undoubtedly one of the best mechanically.


Oh ? Arcane ? .... Never really thought about storm born or elememtal ... That sounds interesting. There is already a good number of characters that play so he was not gonna let me in but i when i said i do not mind playing an npc you guys have even if i am just a shop owner the rogue handded me his sister's character sheet and said i dont wanna play her i just want my rogue lol ... The character sheet is just the name and the class so far .. Oh and the race other then that its blank so i thought i would come and ask because i heard pathfinder has an amazingly supportive community so why not try my best to make the best character i can for the party ... I dont really play people that buff so i never thought about it . i was just gonna try and blow things up and stuff the best i can xD ... I am truly excited on building this character and everyone here has been nothing short of awe inspiring

Grand Lodge

You could go for a tatooed sorcerer archtype to trade out the claws of the dragonic bloodline and get a cool familiar instead.
Or go dragon disciple prestige class to develope into natural weapon/sorcerer beast.


*Khan* wrote:
You could go for a tatooed sorcerer archtype to trade out the claws of the dragonic bloodline and get a cool familiar instead.

wha ? I need to check that out i have never heard of tattoo archtype


Tri Edge Kite wrote:
*Khan* wrote:
You could go for a tatooed sorcerer archtype to trade out the claws of the dragonic bloodline and get a cool familiar instead.
wha ? I need to check that out i have never heard of tattoo archtype

Here is the tattooed sorcerer. At the bottom of the page you can see that's it from Inner Sea Magic, so it's not for you.


Blymurkla wrote:
Tri Edge Kite wrote:
*Khan* wrote:
You could go for a tatooed sorcerer archtype to trade out the claws of the dragonic bloodline and get a cool familiar instead.
wha ? I need to check that out i have never heard of tattoo archtype
Here is the tattooed sorcerer. At the bottom of the page you can see that's it from Inner Sea Magic, so it's not for you.

oh ... Well that was atleast a fun read xD


My two bits would be don't get stuck in analysis paralysis and don't get too fancy since this is your first game!

You really seem to like the idea of blasting so just pick an element you would like to blast with, pick that Draconic bloodline, and start the rest of your build!

Your stat distribution should have high cha, dex next, then con and you don't need strength for a blaster. I'd say put in at least 12 for wis because it bumps up your will save.

If you don't start putting something down on your character sheet you'll never get it done!

And what you really need to do is pick your spells known!

I like using this website to make point build distribution super easy.

Maybe use the following spread as a suggestion?

STR: 8 DEX: 16 CON: 12 INT: 10 WIS: 12 CHA: 18


Azih wrote:

My two bits would be don't get stuck in analysis paralysis and don't get too fancy since this is your first game!

You really seem to like the idea of blasting so just pick an element you would like to blast with, pick that Draconic bloodline, and start the rest of your build!

Your stat distribution should have high cha, dex next, then con and you don't need strength for a blaster. I'd say put in at least 12 for wis because it bumps up your will save.

If you don't start putting something down on your character sheet you'll never get it done!

And what you really need to do is pick your spells known!

I like using this website to make point build distribution super easy.

Maybe use the following spread as a suggestion?

STR: 8 DEX: 16 CON: 12 INT: 10 WIS: 12 CHA: 18

you are absolutely right ... I wish there was a light or radiance elemental then that would be so wonderful to take on undead and i think a flashy light based vampire would be amazing .... No one please make a twilight Edward collin shiny disco ball vampire joke >~<;;;


Maybe celestial bloodline then? Heavenly Fire is pretty flashy.....


Wait thats a elemental that i can take ? D: !?!?!?


Look at the celestial bloodline, it's not a part of draconic.


Azih wrote:
Look at the celestial bloodline, it's not a part of draconic.

where can i find this at ? What book or link or something. .. This sounds awesome


Tri Edge Kite wrote:
Azih wrote:
Look at the celestial bloodline, it's not a part of draconic.
where can i find this at ? What book or link or something. .. This sounds awesome

Here. It's a decent bloodline. Some nice bonus spells, arcana makes summoning even more useful (though I think summons can be a bit overwhelming for beginners) and some decent bloodline powers. Heavenly fire is much like Draconic claws - lackluster. The damage scales way to little to be useful beyond say level 3.

Grand Lodge

This is easier than Nethys to navigate in:
Sorcerer

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