I could see someone building a bad-touch sorc with aberrant bloodline.
Also, it's not that every other bloodline sucks, it's usually that most powers dont mesh well from an optimization standpoint, usually in comparison to the "better" bloodlines, like arcane and orc.
I'd wager that any bloodline can be feasible with the right build, it just wont be "The Best Build" for the class (from an optimization perspective).
My first sorcerer experience in Pathfinder was the Aberrant bloodline sorcerer. The 10ft reach on those touch spells while standing behind the party's fighter characters was a potent combo.
With that said, I'd like to agree with this statement:
I'd wager that any bloodline can be feasible with the right build, it just wont be "The Best Build" for the class (from an optimization perspective).
I'm sad to here that many people are displeased with the other bloodlines presented for the sorcerer class. Especially when those bloodlines are the sorcerers number one way of distinguishing themselves from amongst their fellow casters.
But after all, these bloodlines are merely tools to help create the character in your head. And I'm sure you will find a good bloodline to make what it is you seek.
You can still get your image with fire shield spell.
Elemental form does prohibit spell casting.
I don't think non-druids can take natural spell, but I'm not sure. Can't look it up right now.
I think of elemental form as more of a defensive/utility ability or a fallback if trapped at close range.
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I haven't seen many saying "every other bloodline is useless except arcane." But alot of people do like it. I think it is boring.
I actually see more people saying that blaster is much less useful than many other types of builds, but I haven't tried it.
But if you do want to go blaster, there are quite a few that will bump up specific elements.
Personally, I prefer giving conditions. Slowed, tripped, bullrush, fallen into a pit, stunned, staggered, diseased, cursed, blinded, poisoned, held, asleep, facinated, charmed, dominated, etc... I just love those types of spells.
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I don't think you can actually get Natural Spell without some serious rule shenanigans.
I like the Aberrant bloodline; those long fingers at level 3 are really nasty. Shocking Grasp becomes a pretty potent attack spell, since you start making Touch attacks with +3 against metal-carrying opponents.
Elemental bloodline is pretty okay too; you get a respectable amount of resistance, so you can even throw fire at point-blank, because you yourself can stand the heat. If your group will get to use the APG later on, the Cold bloodline arcana is nice for use with the Rime Spell feat.
Celestial bloodline isn't bad either, the Heavenly Fire functions as a sort of alignment litmus test and it's always fun to play an arcane caster that can heal himself.
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When i first created the fire elemental sorcerer, my image was a man that was wreathed in flames, fireballs forming on his finger tips ready to be launched at unsuspecting foes. That is until I read in the guides that spells cant be cast while in elemental form. which kind of blows in my opinion. Though if I took natural spell feat that lets druids spell cast in beast form. would it work while in elemental body form?
Or would you guys advise that be avoided?
He's wreathed in flames and has fireballs on his fingertips and you think his foes are unsuspecting? The only out of body casting that is widely accepted is that of a wild shaped druid. Elemental form, shadow projection, magic jar, etc. are all subject to DM interpretation.
There are lots of good sorcerer bloodlines, I have had good success with Fey, Serpentine and Sylvan. I'm not a big fan of elemental because it's not too long before you start running into fire/cold/electric resistant or immune foes. You're a one-trick pony and intelligent enemies will be able to prepare for you.
The guides are one person's opinion. They are a valuable service and helpful to the less experienced, but copying the "build of the week" isn't all yet need, you need to understand what you are doing, why you are doing it, and when you need to do something different.
You also need to understand your DM(s) and your play environment. It may be cool to cast in Elemental form, but if the rules say you can't then you need to look at alternatives. Possibly your DM would allow an Ifrit so you can get the visual you want.
And if you have fun playing it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
Generally with sorcerers, the idea is "pick a theme, stick with it, and address the weak points." A fiery sorceror is great fun, but has some weaknesses, like fire-resistant foes. Just have a plan, and at least a few of your spell selections, for what you do when you run into those foes.
Draconic or elemental bloodlines would see to fit the bill quite adequately,though there are some others that work well with fire.
If you want pinpoint spells, like scorching ray, take feats like Point Blank Shot or WeaponFocus (ray) that makethemmore effective; if you want area blasting spells like fireball take feats like Spell Focus that raise the save DC, since that's one of the main ways opponents lower damage from those spells. But don't just blast -- consider spells like wall of fire to hinder foes' movement and block their vision. Still within your theme, but doing different things.
The OP asked about core. If you're limited to core only, arcane is the best. For flavor, I like aberrant or draconic.
You don't need the arcane bloodline to make a good sorcerer. It is one of the better bloodlines, but not that only usable one. It is easier to pick a theme, and then find a bloodline that matches it.
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Well if ur going for an all out casting character, which i dont advise since u only have a limited amount of spells, the cross-blooded archetype with the red dragon Draconic Bloodline and fire Elemental Bloodline as a half-ork will get the job done. When choosing ur spells dont chose any fire damaging spells since thanks to the blood line combo any energy spell u cast can be a fire spell. Doing this all ur spells that do fire damage will do an extra 20 points from half-ork favored class and an extra point of damage per die rolled. True u can only effectively use 1 meta magic feat at a time on ur spells since it will increase the casting time but it wont stop u from doing a 2nd spell in the round as a quicken meta magic spell.
I'm personally chomping at the bit to play the Imperious bloodline (ARG).
I wish they'd publish the stats on the missing bloodline spell (Pure Strain) *hint hint hint
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@ Cuchulainn
the problem though is the Chthulhian imagery. After all u still have to interact with others npc and pc. From a gm's point of view if i had a local farmer notice u im running to the local authorities or getting a lynch mob together to hunt u down. Looking like a monster or undead will get u hunted down like a monster or an undead. Which is good and bad depending on how u look at it.
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What Helaman said.
There's nothing in the description that says your outward appearance changes to anything monstrous. When I said Chthulhian, I was referring to freaky abilities. I can't imagine villagers would be more afraid of a guy with stretchy arms than, say a guy with claws and glowing eyes, or scales and wings. Anyway , if your GM plays that way, just make sure one of your spells is alter self, or wear a big robe with long sleeves and a hood. Peasants know guys in long, hooded robes use magic, and generally try to avoid upsetting them.
I have an Air-Elemental bloodline Sorcerer. It gives you the ability to fly up to 60ft as your move action. At 1st level. You're pretty much immune to melee attacks.
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Elemental Movement (Su): At 15th level, you gain a special movement type or bonus. This ability is based on your chosen element, as indicated on the above chart.
flying at 1st ....me please
we have banned anything that allows flight at first level, as the 'game' cant cope
^^ Welp.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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I am trying to create a sorcerer that one doesn't terribly suck and two isn't a glorified wizard with the arcane bloodline. I have read every guide in the 'guide to guides' thread for sorcerers and it is annoying how everyone say that each and every bloodline is useless except the arcane.
I initially created a Fire Elemental bloodline sorcerer and I thought he was pretty good but apparently I was dead wrong.
Is there a core bloodline that is useful as a magic assault bloodline that I can take? And by assault I mean one where I can cast serious offensive spells and utterly destroy my parties enemies.
I would strongly recommend that you check out my sorcerer bloodline guide. I hit all of the bloodlines, core and otherwise. Magic in the Blood
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The wizard is the master of strategic flexibility, but the sorcerer is the master of tactical flexibility. Your ability to just spam the same spell over and over again because it's working well is your strength, but that means you need to have a sufficiently diverse selection of abilities that you're reasonably assured one of them is the right spell for the job. Redundancy is your worst enemy.
The big problem with most bloodlines, particularly core, is that they offer abilities that can be easily replicated with spells known. The elemental bloodline, which you mention, is particularly bad since its bloodline spell list pretty much just duplicates its bloodline powers. The only thing that's really useful here is the bloodline arcana, allowing you to spontaneously change a spell's elemental subtype. That's not enough to redeem it; in my eyes it's an elementalist archetype that doesn't actually provide a boost to your elemental spells.
The draconic bloodline is much better; it has a relatively low amount of duplication and what's in the offering is pretty potent. If you're stuck between draconic and elemental, I'd definitely advise to take draconic.
Your most important concern is spells known. Focus on spells that can be used in different ways in order to stretch that limited spells known list. Use metamagic to allow a single spell to utilize spell slots across multiple levels more effectively; that will free up spells known for other purposes. In general, sorcerers have more leeway with feats than spells known, so always be willing to sink a feat if it gives you more flexibility with your spell list.
Grease and Enlarge Person are both superb picks for 1st level characters these reasons. Both are great metamagic candidates and have a wide range of applicable uses. At each level, you want to have at least one spell that can help you or your allies and one spell that can hinder your enemies. Avoid picking combinations of spells that do similar thing. Try not to pick two spells with overlapping purpose (unless they stack, of course) at subsequent spell levels.
For a 3rd level draconic sorcerer, I'd say that grease, magic missile, enlarge person, and mage armor (bloodline) would be a great combo. This gives you a spell to disable enemies, a spell to damage enemies from afar, a spell to bolster allies, and a spell for protection. That lets you cover a wide range of roles, and at any moment you could fulfil any of them.
Try to repeat patterns like that with higher-level spells while avoiding direct overlap with lower-level ones. For instance a 7th level sorcerer might have 2nd level spells known in pyrotechnics, invisbility, scorching ray, and resist energy (bloodline). This gives you an entirely different range of options that complement that 1st level list I gave earlier. Scorching Ray is a little too similar to magic missile for my tastes and I normally wouldn't have two such similar spells at consecutive levels, but if you have your heart set on a direct damage role then this one will offer you some elemental damage type and a range touch attack for versatility.
i didn't know that elemental form precluded spellcasting.
i guess your gear and spell components would meld, but you can just take that off first and then put it back on.
elemental can have any form they want (i.e. humanoid form is fine),
but i definitely haven't seen anything saying you can't manipulate items the same as a humanoid...??????
i would say that serpentine and undead have some good stuff going,
especially with their opening of enchantments to new enemy types.
serpentine getting a familiar is nice as well.
abyssal is nice for summoners, as is celestial, destiny has good possibilities well,
it's karmic variant has a cool ability with failed concentration checks triggering an AoO on the enemy,
empyrial is an awesome wildblooded variant of celestial, using WIS (great will saves) and getting a channel energy.
aquatic is kinda cool with very early blindsense that scales up, and abilities to create water that you thrive in,
deep earth is nice with seeing thru solid objects and earthglide, it's wildblooded variant bedrock has nice DR for summons,
shadow is nice with always-stealth, shadow swap, and entangling deeper darkness,
starsoul is nice with no breathing, fascinating wall of cold, breaching the gulf, and deeper darkvision,
the void-touched wildblood variant is also cool with the silence evocation effect and deeper darkness icestorm.
stormborn is fun times with ride the lightning, and gets 'mist sight'
rakshasa is interesting if niche with hide aura and ability to choose what others think you are casting...
I actually really enjoy the elemental bloodline.
I don't understand why people are saying that you can't cast as an elemental. They are not animals - elementals have a language and they can speak so no natural spell feat required.
First - when polymorphed you can't use spells with spell components. No big deal (for most spells anyway, just keep a note of the ones you can't use). You are a sorcerer and Eshew Materials is free! Elementals have wildly varying shapes so a humaniod shape should suffice for spells with somatic components. I've already gone over that elementals can speak so verbal requirements are a non-issue. Any DM saying elementals can't cast is being stupidly harsh and hurts elemental sorcerers and fire oracles (and possibly other archetypes as well).
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/elemental.html
Primal gets +1 damage per die but you lose some versatility, and the primal level 9 bloodline power only affects summons - not really a blastly thing. Not to mention summons slow down the game (can become a time problem depending on the size of your party). When I played the elemental bloodline I didn't want to deal with summons. The elemental bloodline's level 9 power is pretty nifty and causes vulnerablility so you can get some nice on demand burst damage.
Also if you want a focus on blasting and want to get some mileage out of rays and blasting here is what you do (assuming human for an extra feat).
Level 1 - Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Level 3 - Arcane Strike
Level 5 - Weapon Focus Ray
Level 7 - Expiramental Caster (if allowed)
Level 9 - Sorcerous Bloodstrike (depending on bloodline, but good for a blastly elemental bloodline sorcerer)
This actually adds some nice scaling to your bloodline ray and later to scorching ray, increasing the damage by 1 every level until level 7 (level 1 point blank shot, level 2 natural scaling, level 3 arcane strike, level 4 natural scaling, level 5 arcane strike scaling, level 6 natural scaling). It never becomes amazing but it's far better then 'I shoot a crossbow'. If you happen to have a bard in your party the damage becomes even better.
Another neat trick that your DM may or may not allow - learning words of power. If allowed take the Experimental Spellcaster feat at level 7 and learn either the Lightning Burst or Fire Burst word. This will net you a surprising amount of blasting versitility - giving a cone, ray and a burst AOE with a single spell as needed. And with an elemental bloodline you get two elemental types in one! It's almost like having the selective spell feat. (If you are air bloodline choose Fire Burst and if you are fire bloodline choose Lightning Burst, earth or water it doesn't really matter. Remeber you can change spell elemental type with your bloodline. With this word you also get super AOE rays as a level 6 spell, probably not that important but remember - versatility. Also remember that rays are pretty good with this build.
As elemental bloodline Sorcerous Bloodstrike basically gives you another use of your level 9 blast+vunerability power.
Of course nothing stops you from picking up some control and defensive spells (and you most definately should!). Using your elemental bloodline to change the damage type you deal so you (hopefully) never get stuck against something you can't hurt. Diverisfy your spell list as you level. All blasty spells is pretty stupid. When leveling try and do the following - one defensive spell, one offense spell, one ulity spell, and one battlefield control spell. Of course this varies, but if you keep that as a guideline you should do fine.
Words of Power definitely synergizes with alot of Bloodlines,
e.g. Rime-Blooded (Boreal) has a Slow effect on any Cold spell,
pretty much all of their 'specialized bonus' can be combined with other spell effects with WoP.
I agree but I personally hardly ever see it used. I still mention it hoping that more people will understand the system and let it be used :)
I don't know, I think in answer to the OP's question:
...the following stuff I previously mentioned definitely can apply:I am trying to create a sorcerer that one doesn't terribly suck and two isn't a glorified wizard with the arcane bloodline.
Is there a core bloodline that... can cast serious offensive spells and utterly destroy my parties enemies?
i would say that serpentine and undead have some good stuff going,
especially with their opening of enchantments to new enemy types.
serpentine getting a familiar is nice as well.
abyssal is nice for summoners, as is celestial, destiny has good possibilities well...
...The above poster mentioned a bunch of non-Core stuff for an Elemental Sorceror, which isn't Core,
but I suspect that the OP's bad experience with an Elemental Sorceror was also due to weak choices distinct from the BL.