Just as it says. I'll be picking one to play in a game this Sunday.
Depends on what you want to do. I like Wizards myself. More spells and I can change them if I don't like them, and the school abilities are definitely icing on the cake. Int based means you get more skillpoints than most of the party.
Sorcerers supposedly do better at specilizing in a few select spells however. I haven't played one or with one to see it in action though. Since they're Charisma based they can certainly talk better than almost any of my wizards can.
I like sorcerers but then again I find prepared casters to be tedious.
To reiterate - What do you want to do? Blast? Control? Even these can be subdivided, you have rays or AoEs for blasting. For control you have things that affect the battlefield like Grease and Pit spells or control with things like enchantments. You can even mix it up in melee with a sorcerer bloodline like Draconic.
If you are unsure than the best thing I can recommend is to read through the bloodlines of the sorcerer and the school powers of a wizard. See if anything stands out that would be interesting to play. There are very few 'useless' ones.
I'd argue some bloodlines and schools are downright awful, with few good options but many flavorful ones. Full spellcasting is amazing though, and enough power on its own.
Do you have OCD?
If not, play a sorcerer. :)
Build is a more difficult question. Has the GM decided on what guidelines he/she want for the campaign?
Yes, we need to know who is already in the party, point buy, what books are allowed, what level, etc.
Generally, I’d say a Sorc is a little bit more fun. While a Wiz is a little harder to play but can always have the right spell- tomorrow.
Hawktitian has a good idea- read thru them, see if any pique your interest and then let us know.
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Ya is this for PFS or Homebrew? This maters btw because some archetypes like Crossblooded are not allowed in PFS. Also if crossblooded is allowed the sorcerer becomes one of the strongest casters u an have with great versatility on par with that of a wizard. Example if u picked up a single fire and frost blast spell for 1-9 spells and got both the Djinni and Shaitan Bloodline then u can cast a fire/cold/acid/electrical spell allowing u to not worry about resistance/immunity since u can over come it with the same spell but different type of energy damage. The rest of ur spells then can be god/environment/buff/ext what ever u decide to specialize in.
Crossblooded is legal last I checked. And its has the horrifying downside of one less spell known per level, which means you get access to 2nd level spells at 5th and 3rd level spells at 7th. You get access to both arcanas, but you don't get twice as many powers/feats/spells. You also get a -2 willsave.
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Crossblooded is legal last I checked. And its has the horrifying downside of one less spell known per level, which means you get access to 2nd level spells at 5th and 3rd level spells at 7th. You get access to both arcanas, but you don't get twice as many powers/feats/spells. You also get a -2 willsave.
Im familiar with the drawback but could of swore it was not allowed in PFS that is my bad. Btw the whole less amount of spells known is easily countered by being a Human.
Humans only get a bonus spell of one level lower than the highest you can cast. Metamagic helps, or putting spells of a lower level into the spell slot, but if I love my create pit I want it at 3rd level, not 5th. Also hurts DCs.
Human sorcerer bonus is amazing though, I can never argue against that. Adds to the versatility greatly.
It depends on how you want to build, roleplay, and play out your character. Sorcerer is excellent if you're looking to cast the same spells over and over again. Wizard is great if you want to be a walking swiss army knife. The big difference is that a Wizard has to choose his spells carefully upon preparation. A sorcerer, however, has to pick the spells they learn very carefully. If you make your sorcerer learn spells they never use, you're essentially gimped.
Just as it says. I'll be picking one to play in a game this Sunday.
Elven Void Mage and Spellbinder. Seriously.
In addition, I reccomend specializing in necromancy spells like Blindness/Deafness, False Life, Vampiric Touch and Suffocation as all fit the 'void' theme nicely and are devastatingly effective. We had a character with this build at high levels using Reveal Weakness and a Quickened Spell-Perfected Suffocation to pretty much take down any threat they came across. Reveal Weakness is pretty much the best Wizard school power you can get, and elves get additional uses of them as a favored class option.
Spell perfection doesn't come up until lvl 15+. We still havent' found out if this is a level 1 in pfs, or an evil lvl 20 homegame.
Spell perfection doesn't come up until lvl 15+. We still havent' found out if this is a level 1 in pfs, or an evil lvl 20 homegame.
Spell Perfection isn't the core of the build, just a nice option to build towards. Elven Spellbinder Void Mages offer the strongest school abilities and the most versatility among prepared casters. I generally prefer Sorcerers and have several I could reccomend - when I play a Wizard, that's the only one I would consider.
Conjuration and Transmutation, both of which in 3.0 and onward own a very large portion of the spell list and in many cases have many options in a single spell.
Void and the elemental schools are kinda small from what I can tell. Not that they're bad, but they just look oddly small.
I have always had a preference for Wizards. I have certainly never wanted to be swayed to the dark side of the Sorcerer. I am a traditionalist. Well, all that being said, in my home-groups current campaign I really wanted to play a Gnome. And I really wanted to play a Wizard. The only problem was that I couldn't find a Gnome variant that gave me INT bonus instead of CHA. And I REALLY wanted to play a Gnome Wizard. So I began looking at the Sorcerer (I felt dirty and ashamed) and I actually didn't have to look very far at the Bloodline powers before I found an intrigueing one--Arcane Bloodline. I liked it so I just went with my Gnome being from a traditional Wizard family, but he has manifested his abilities differently. He actually does think that he is a Wizard. I have him even try to use spell components and he has his spellbook. It is great fun and good role-playing material. His parents sent him on a LifeQuest to 'find his own way in the arcane'--whatever that means.....lol...but Theodore Samuel Walden Glitterfounder is now at 7th level realizing that he doesn't seem to need his pouch or his book.....
I like being a Transmutation/Conjuration focused caster. That can blow stuff up with bombs. With out blowing up my web's I leave all over the place. It is great fun to web in place and bomb.
** spoiler omitted **
For someone not sure what class to pick, choosing arcane bomber isn't a good idea. It really gimps your versatility. You give up cantrips, which means you can't detect magic at-will, identify magic items, counterspelling, and all of the usual things that any spellcaster would be expected to do.
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Sorcerers supposedly do better at specilizing in a few select spells however. I haven't played one or with one to see it in action though. Since they're Charisma based they can certainly talk better than almost any of my wizards can.
Keep in mind that wizards can take Spell Specialization and Greater Spell Specialization to be able to cast a particular spell spontaneously and at a higher level. They also get higher level spells 1 level earlier, and can Scribe Scroll to have random other spells prepared.
On the other hand, if you routinely have no idea what you're going to be facing before you face it, a sorcerer is a bit more flexible when you get into sudden combat. Usually I have a pretty decent idea of what I'm going to be fighting, though.
That being said, if I were to try to do a melee arcane caster, it would be a really tough choice between Transmutation Wizard/Eldritch Knight and Draconic Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple...
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If you are looking for premade builds, here is the Guide to the Builds There's 11 different sorcerer or wizard builds on there.
i like an elven spellbinder blaster, its a lot of fun to play
take the admixture subschool for evocation
make sure you have magical lineage (fireball) and take split spell, as well as rime spell, or make sure you get metamagic rods of rime spell
depending on the interpretation, you can prepare a fireball with rime spell even though it wouldnt have an effect on it, much in the same way you can prepare a maximized divine favor, but it wont have any effect, then using versatile evocation you switch your fireballs to cold damage and can entangle a large group of enemies
this has questionable legality tho, the best way to do it is rather than preparing it with rime on it knowing its ineligible, prepare it, and use both versatile evocation and a metamagic rod of rime spell (a lesser can cover most of what you need)
you can split slot your 4th and higher level spells to give you more spell slots than you know what to do with for the sole purpose of lobbing more fireballs
if you dont want to fireball, thats okay, because spellbinders dont prepare fireball in all those slots, they replace them to cast spontaneously, its a full round action, but unlike preferred spell you dont have to waste 2 feats to do it
typical build:
Fleet-footed Elf (replace weapon familiarity with +1o move speed and +2 Initiative)
Admixture Evocation Specialist Wizard
20 point buy:
STR 7
DEX 16(18 with race)
CON 14(12 with race)
INT 18(20 with race)
WIS 7
CHA 7
feats:
traits)Magical lineage(Fireball), Warrior of Old(+2 initiative)
lvl 1)Improved Initiative, Scribe Scroll
lvl 3)Spell Focus(Evocation)
lvl 5)Spell Penetration, Rime Spell
lvl 7)Greater Spell Focus(Evocation)
lvl 9)Dazing Spell
lvl 10)Split Slot
lvl 11)Intensify Spell
lvl 13)Quicken Spell
lvl 15)Greater Spell Penetration, Split Slot
lvl 17)Split Slot
lvl 19)Split Slot
the build is very straight forward which is nice because a lot of wizarding can get very complicated, the best part imo about this build is that you can choose not to prepare any fireballs at all, or even any of your evocation spells (save for your school slot) and you can in theory, still prepare all of the battlefield control conjuration and summoning spells, as well as the transmutation buffs if you want to, and spring your blasting on your enemies at the turn of a hat
if you find something you like better than split slot at any level, well consider them open feat slots for whatever you want
at lvl 1 you start out with +12 initiative, and later on you should plan on upping that with magic items to at least +15, and you should pretty much always open with a metamagic'd fireball that either freezes or dazes the majority of the enemies and ideally gives your team 3 free turns to buff and position themselves
Fleet footed gives you the run feat and +2 init. You have you got the fleet feat confused with the fleet footed racial trait somewhere. If you happen to get a familiar with a wizard you can get one of the +4 init ones to really push that initiative up. +19 initiative sounds ridiculous.
Fleet footed gives you the run feat and +2 init. You have you got the fleet feat confused with the fleet footed racial trait somewhere. If you happen to get a familiar with a wizard you can get one of the +4 init ones to really push that initiative up. +19 initiative sounds ridiculous.
warrior of old is the character trait for the elf race, fleet footed is the racial trait
While all elves are naturally lithe and agile, some also are naturally speedy and have a strong desire to rush into situations rather than worrying about looking ahead. Elves with this racial trait receive Run as a bonus feat and a +2 racial bonus on initiative checks. This racial trait replaces keen senses and weapon familiarity.
Warrior of Old is the trait and they stack, race bonus + trait bonus
the elf spellbinder variant replaces the familiar, otherwise if the only thing you care about is going first i would say get a compsognathus familiar and take the divination school, you start with a +17 initiative at lvl 1, and it scales with your level
i should also add that the elf favored class option for wizard lets you admix up to 10 more times by 20th level, its kinda good, assuming you dont care about HP, which is debatable in a well rounded party
I know they stack, but you stated you had a +10 movement speed in the build, next to mentioned you were a fleet footed elf.
I know they stack, but you stated you had a +10 movement speed in the build, next to mentioned you were a fleet footed elf.
right, run, +10 to move speed, tomato, tomato
...that expression doesnt really work on the internet
The run feat doesn't give you a constant +10 movement speed last I checked.
The run feat doesn't give you a constant +10 movement speed last I checked.
well, if thats all im being nitpicked on, then im okay with it
[EDIT] there are a few things i missed, like Spell Perfection (Fireball), so you can pass on one of those Split Slots for that, most likely forge the lvl 17 one, and take Spell Perfection at 15, and GSP at 17[/EDIT]