I wanted to put my concerns together with regards to the various bloodlines in one place. I'm going to start with the aberrant bloodline and work my way through them.
Overall concerns:
I like the bloodline powers but one thing that concerns me overall about "at-will" 1st level abilities and cantrips overall is they increase the appeal of a class for level dipping.
To me 15th level is just a little too high level for those powers to be very significant. My group is generally winding down at this point and for that matter this is where most APs end and high level modules are few and far between. A 12th or 13th level power instead would be much more interesting for us. (I know this isn't every group but I think there are plenty of groups this applies to).
I am not even commenting on the 20th level power because generally I will never use them.
Aberration:
Feats: Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Improved Disarm really don't make sense since the long reach is only useful for delivering 'touch attacks'. Alternately perhaps the 3rd level power should be reworded to include the possibility of making unarmed strikes?
1st level power is odd but I guess thematically consistent I might give my sorcerer a venom sack and have him spit the acid instead but I don't think that needs to be in the rules. It's also in line with the power level of most first level powers.
Freakish Reach... this power pretty much places the aberrant bloodline caster squarely in the role of king of delivering touch spells. In all honesty my casters avoid using melee touch attacks because they don't want to get into melee so I think it's a legitimate strategy. Perhaps the class bonus spells should reflect this role? Also, see my comment about feats and unarmed strike above.
Unusual Anatomy: This is an interesting and bloodline appropriate power but personally... underwhelming. By this level the sorcerer should have at least one way to pretty much neutralize sneak attack damage in any case via mirror image, blur, invisibility, etc. Compared to the other bloodlines this is weak.
Alien Resistance (Su): This is a great power and appropriate for the bloodline.
The Reach ability is interesting only for delivering touch spells but the bloodline spells do not really reflect this. Some suggested alternate bonus spells which would leverage this ability might Include:
- Ghoul Touch (2nd level)
- Touch of Idiocy (2nd level)
- Poison (3rd Level Druid Spell)
- Enervation (4th Level)
Overall Aberrant Thoughts
The aberrant bloodline is a very interesting bloodline but weakened by a mediocre 9th level power and a poor synergy between it's feats, bloodline powers, and spell selection.
Unusual Anatomy: This is an interesting and bloodline appropriate power but personally... underwhelming. By this level the sorcerer should have at least one way to pretty much neutralize sneak attack damage in any case via mirror image, blur, invisibility, etc. Compared to the other bloodlines this is weak.
Actually, I think it's one of the better 9th level bloodline abilities since it's a permanent bonus, not like a once-a-day blast of energy which is pretty underwhelming (IMO). Most of the 9th level abilities are pretty weak, except maybe for Fleeting Glance and (to a lesser extent) Wings of Heaven and New Arcana.
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The thing with 'Aberrant' as a bloodline is, which aberration creature are you wanting to emulate? As a creature type, it's a wierd grab-bag of creatures, not all of which are wiggly-squiggly-diddly, octopoid freaks with readjustable organs.
In fact, taking a good look at the index in the MM, it's clear that even the original designers may have had a hard time deciding what was an 'aberration', and what was a 'magical beast'. Some of the entries I could have sworn were other types. (Why is a centaur a monstrous humanoid, but a drider an abberation? Assuming, of course, that you lose the world-specific fluff about being an altered creature, rather than breeding true?)
The thing with 'Aberrant' as a bloodline is, which aberration creature are you wanting to emulate?
The acid-shooting kind, of course. :-)
you know a 'warping touch' might be a better option for an aberrant sorcerer. It could debuff in some way, maybe shrinking the enemies reach by one step, or reducing movement speed...
Just an idea.
Abyssal
Feats:
While I am Ok with the melee oriented feats in general some of them just don't make sense for the sorcerer to take.
The sorcerer's low BAB makes Power Attack a very questionable investment of a feat. Cleave doesn't make any sense at all for the Abyssal bloodline. The sorcerer already gets two attacks at full BAB, why would he sacrifice one of those attacks for the 'chance' at a second? Improved Sunder and Improved Bull Rush seem pretty questionable as well and also requires Power Attack which makes it doubly weak.
Some possible suggestions for melee oriented feats that would be much more likely to benefit the sort of striker melee combatant the sorcerer is likely to be: Improved Natural Attack, Weapon Focus (Claws), Weapon Finesse, and Dodge.
Claws: Overall though for a 1st level power these are pretty decent and they do scale in damage. My only complaint I brought up elsewhere they seem to taper off in usefulness unless you go into a PrC.
Demonic Resistance: While the resistances are appropriate for the bloodline they appear to be fairly specialized and not common enough in my experience to be really appealing when compared to the other claw based bloodlines such as the draconic one which offers the much more general purpose natural armor.
Strength: I kind of wonder if this isn't a case of too little too late. By 9th level the sorcerer has likely moved away from his melee role. This is nice for occasional attacks but the low BAB makes it tough for this to be relevant.
Extra Summons: This is an excellent high level power. It also plays well with the Augment Summoning class feature.
Spells:
I think the spells for the Abyssal Bloodline are Ok.
Overall Thoughts
Abyssal bloodline is generally a melee bloodline but the 3rd level power doesn't support this role very well. Overall this bloodline is Ok but not particularly compelling.
The thing with 'Aberrant' as a bloodline is, which aberration creature are you wanting to emulate? As a creature type, it's a wierd grab-bag of creatures, not all of which are wiggly-squiggly-diddly, octopoid freaks with readjustable organs.
I agree. But this interpretation is as valid as any... mostly my comments are focused on what would make this choice more appealing for a sorcerer player.
Arcane
Feats:
This is a pretty decent set of Bonus Feats considering the bloodline. My only comment is that Scribe Scroll is nearly worthless as a feat for sorcerers. He can already cast his few spells per day a lot... scribe scroll doesn't address his weak points at all, if anything it just highlights them. Another meta-magic feat would be a better choice.
Arcane Bond: This is a great call for backwards compatibility or to get the sorcerer a nice focused magic item without a huge investment in feats.
Metamagic Adept: The limit on per day uses seems a bit constrictive but overall this is a nice power choice. Also, how can the sorcerer use this ability at third level since the sorcerer has only 1st level spells.
New Arcana: This is a decent ability which touches the sorcerers weak point, it's a great 9th level ability.
School Power: I assume this also stacks with Greater Spell Focus? If so... a whooping +4 to the DC of all spells in a school is pretty potent and I think a nice touch.
Spells:
Probably one of the best sets of bonus spells of all the bloodlines. Not particularly 'themed' spells but these are all good solid spells.
Overall Thoughts
This is a great bloodline for someone who wants to just be an arcane caster. It has the most spells known, and likely the best general purpose bonus spells. The bloodline is probably the best pure caster of the bunch and that's pretty appropriate. I might suggest opening up the third level power a little bit more... an make it so you can use the third level power at third level.
Celestial
Feats:
Heavenly Fire: I like this power a lot. I find it odd that this is fire damage considering it only damages certain creatures. The fact that it heals 'good' characters is a nice touch but also makes the fire damage type questionable.
Celestial Resistances: About in line with the rest of the 3rd level resistances.
Wings of Heaven: This is probably the best 9th level power of the bunch, very nice power.
Conviction: Never have a freak saving throw fail again. This ability is nice but rather lackluster compared to some of the other 15th level powers. Reasonable considering the 9th level power is really good.
Spells:
The spell list is decent. It's nice to see some cleric spells in there which gives this bloodline a bit more of the celestial feel.
Overall Thoughts
Celestial Bloodline offers a decent fairly well rounded set of powers.