| kelluser |
Talking about a new niche for the sorcerer is ridiculous. Having a special mechanic that gives them some new abilities does not create a new niche for it. Bloodlines give them flavour and variety. That's all.
Just because the wizard is an older class than the sorcerer does not mean that one is inherently more sacred and untouchable than the other. The only way a fair adaptation of the 3.5 rules can work is if every class is treated equally. Wizards cannot get special treatment if this project is going to succeed with its vision.
Spontaneous casting alone gives them a niche different than the wizard, that of an arcane caster who's 'pick up and go', as it were. They're a much more brute force class by design. Whereas the wizard has versatility, the sorcerer has lots of spell slots. But this doesn't mean that the sorceror needs to be a level behind every other full caster in the game. People play sorcerers because they're easy. This is neither here nor there, but a sorcerer is a much simpler character to play than a wizard. This doesn't mean that the player with a sorcerer should be penalized for his choice.
Higher level spells are, plain and simple, better than having lots of lower level spells. There is no denying this. Spells increase in power exponentially as the spell level increases. If you're going to insist on staggering the progression, the sorcerer should get way more spell slots than he does right now. He should have 8 or even 9 spell slots per level at level 20. That's how you give him a 'niche', by making him into an arcane battery that can go far longer than a wizard before he needs to rest. With school specialization, there's not really a noticeable difference in the number of spells per day between the two as it is.
Or you could just play it clever, and not cripple the sorcerer so that he can't compete with other full spellcasters at about half of the levels in the game, that is, whatever level a different full spellcaster would have access to a tier of spells substantially more powerful than the sorcerer's.