A few of you might remember a thread I had up here a very long time ago. I was complaining that sorcerers were underpowered and needed some extra oomph to match the other classes. I also stated in the thread that I have not played one yet but planned to so I could back up my arguments with experiance.
So I played one..... and now I love sorcerers.
There I said it. They aren't underpowered, they are plenty useful and fill a niche in any party.
note: this does not include sorcerers with draconic heritage feats, I mean scales? What the F*&^!. I don't care how high you're F&*%$#@ charisma is every conversation you will ever have if you are a human covered in scales will start with, "Hey are those scales?". And they will all end 13 seconds later with a, "Eww!, Holy $#@! this dude is covered with scales!
I agree completley. Who needs wizards when there are sorcerers. I have found that in most encounters the sorcerer ends up saving the party's collective butt.
Could be worse than scales. You could be covered with cillia. Let me tell you, brother, it helps a lot when I'm stuck in cramped dark places and need to feel my way around (which happens surprisingly often) but it isn't getting me any dates.
Sorcerers are really cool. I tried to persuade some of my players to give the class a shot since they rarely altered their spell lists as wizards, but getting fireball a level later somehow drove them nuts, never mind that they would be able to use it constantly.
I'm with you here.
Not sure if you where using the PHB2 or not. I'll note that PHB2 makes a potent class very potent indead. Spells like Hesitate and Electric Vengence with their ability to allow you to cast out of sequence really play to the Sorcerers strengths. Sure a Wizard can take them but their very circumstantial spells that might be useful this session or might not come up at all.
Another advantage of the Sorcerer that is often not recognized is that they don't need to spend their treasure on their spell book and can therefore concentrate on using their treasure to increase the number or power of their spells.
People often don't realize the nuances between the sorcerer and the wizard, as Jeremy pointed out a bit. Some people seem to look at sorcerers and just think that they are a wizard with slower spell progression and less spells known. Sure, you get a few more per day, but big whoop, they seem weak at the onset.
Then comes the obvious realizations that the increased number of castings, and the spontaneous nature, makes an unbelievable difference. As someone was saying in the dragonslayer thread, "Enervation, Enervation, Enervation, I can do this all day." That gets nasty. Sure, a wizard could prepare that many spells of that kind, but they almost never would (and if they did regularly, they should be playing a sorcerer). The end result is that sorcerers are always much more certain of what they are going to do in any given round, similar to a fighter, and aren't nearly as ponderous in decision as a wizard often is. It's a very easy, carefree class. I definitely recommend them for newcomers to the "caster" archetype.
As Jeremy pointed out, sorcerers don't have to spend on spellbooks. I'm not sure many people realize how much money a competent wizard invests into his spellbook, especially at lower levels. It's a lot. Sorcerers can free this up for more magic items, particularly fun wands and scrolls and wondrous items that let them expand, at least temporarily, their list of abilities.
In the end, the are so many subtle and pronounced differences that occur between wizards and sorcerers that it's hard to list them all. People who decry sorcerers just need to play one or DM for one for a while, and my guess is that they will come around.
That's what makes me so angry about things like the beguiler and warmage. They are stealing a role from a core class that is fun and balanced, and when people say that it's needed because sorcerers are just poorly designed and crappy to begin with, I am forced to disagree.
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People often don't realize the nuances between the sorcerer and the wizard....
In the end, the are so many subtle and pronounced differences that occur between wizards and sorcerers that it's hard to list them all.
The flavor of the differences is much more interesting to me than the mechanics actually. You have two casters similar in power, yet one has arcane energies coursing through their body that they have learned in a haphazard way to shape and control, while the other has spent years of their life pouring through dusty texts and studying with other masters to learn how to shape and control arcane energies - then they have to remind themselves every morning.
I know that was terribly general, but I do like the social interactions between sorcerers and wizards.
I had a sorcerer in my slavelords campaign, and never found them to be weak at all. From the outset, the character made heavy use of his spells in combat, to good effect. Even the lowly "Daze" spell can win your day if you can cast it four times in a row.
Later on, with access to 3rd level spells, he was the heavy artillery - he and the druidess eradicated a whole tribe of goblins: he fireballed them, and the druidess ice stormed them, each casting four or five of these spells in a row. The result: several dozen slain goblins and a tribe that effectively ceased to exist.
So, no, I don´t think that sorcerers are weak - they may be less versatile than a wizard, but if they can make use of their spells, beware.
Stefan
And don't forget the added versatility of metamagic feats when you don't have to prepare them ahead of time.
Dude I love this class My Sorcerer is my best character and I love him he is a freaking NUKE! man way better then our wizard
It is good that you have seen the light.
Sorcerers kick ass, just select the "right" spells that work for you and start slaughtering npc's.