Advice on Making my Sorcerer a Better Demon Hunter

[kronovan]

Yesterday I played in my 1st PFS adventure that involved demons. They all had DR 10, DR Cold, Fire and Electricity 10 and decent Spell Resistance scores.That made my Gnome Sorcerer with Elemental(Air) bloodline very challenged to do any damage against them, as his Burning Hands and Elemental (Ray) were more or less useless. As well, being only level 4 it also made it quite a challenge for Magic Missile as my PC had to initially overcome their spell resistance. The only other attack my PC has is a light Crossbow, which with only the potential to do max damage of d6+1, was useless. From my understanding, those DR abilities are fairly common for demons.

This was an all around bad adventure for my Sorcerer as when we arrived at an adventure point where there was some cold iron weapons, but there were no cold iron bolts to be had. What I'm wondering is what I can do moving forward to make my Sorcerer better at attacking demons. I know I can purchase Cold Iron bolts, but as stated above for my PC they would only do 2-7 damage. My PC has Dex 14, Point blank + Precise shot, so he's decent at ranged attacks. He also has a good rank (+12) in Use Magic Device, Ok in Spellcraft (+8) and next level (1 adventure away) I'm planning on taking Magical Aptitude and spending a point in each, so they'll respectively increase to +15 and +11. I'm also taking Knowledge(Planes)by dumping 2 points into it, which will give me a starting skill of +7.

My Sorcerer does fairly well on defence against demons, as he has Mage Armor, Mirror Image and carries a wand of Expeditious retreat to get his speed to 50'

Any suggestions on how I could make my Elemental Sorcerer better at dealing damage to demons would be appreciated.

[Douglas Muir 406]

First off, those sound like serious demons. I'm guessing their CR was well above your level. So it's not surprising you had some problems. Second thing, an air bunny sorceror is always going to have some trouble with demons. Your particular schtick is electricity, and all demons either have resistance to electricity, or full immunity. And they're usually not much worried about your bloodline spells, either.

"Dealing damage to demons" is probably not the right way to think about this. It's obnoxiously hard for a sorceror (especially an elemental bloodline, double especially an air bunny) to deal direct hp damage to these guys.

If this was a one-off, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But if you think you'll be fighting these things regularly, then stare hard at your spell list. You want to concentrate instead on indirect attacks -- controls, debuffs, and harassment -- especially ones that ignore SR. Create Pit, for instance, will take a demon without a flight speed right out of combat -- it targets Reflex saves (usually the demon's weakest) and ignores SR. One level up, Black Tentacles is everyone's go-to anti-demon spell; the tentacles ignore SR, inflict damage, and can attack multiple opponents at once. Illusions -- including Silent, Minor, and Major Image -- usually are unaffected by SR, so demons are just as vulnerable to them as anyone else. At all levels, summoned monsters with the Celestial template and can smite for you (and soak up demonic actions and attacks). And so forth.

Doug M.

[Feak]

Ditto to Douglas, I would consider the Spell Penetration feat. I would research ray attacks with your feats like acid arrow.
Next level get haste, buff the front line and make a cup of tea.

I think also demons at low levels are kind of rare.

[calagnar]

I will add a few things as well. Some higher CR Demons have True Seeing up at all times. That makes them immune to all illusions. So Mirror Image will do you no good some times. Debuff and crowd control spells are your best options vs. Demons. Pick up Spell Penetration, and Greater Spell Penetration as soon as you can. As this will go long way to helping vs. SR most demons have. The last high tire game I ran the sorcerer, and oracle wasted 6-8 spells each to SR. Season 5 is full of demons. I have even encounter demons in T1-5 scenarios so you will be seeing a lot more of them. If you think the low CR demons are bad. The higher CR have greater teleportation at will. Try fighting something that can go any where any time it wants to.

[Douglas Muir 406]

calagnar wrote:

I will add a few things as well. Some higher CR Demons have True Seeing up at all times. That makes them immune to all illusions.

True, but most of those are CR 12+ -- not something you're likely to encounter in PFS play.

If you think the low CR demons are bad. The higher CR have greater teleportation at will. Try fighting something that can go any where any time it wants to.

But note that this takes a SA. It's more of a PITA in campaign or scenario play, where things are more flexible. In PFS the antagonists are more likely to be programmed, and less likely to get horribly creative with their SLAs.

Doug M.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Feak wrote:

Ditto to Douglas, I would consider the Spell Penetration feat. I would research ray attacks with your feats like acid arrow.

Next level get haste, buff the front line and make a cup of tea.

I disagree on rays because demons are resistant or immune to all four of the most common energy forms. (They do take full damage from sonic and force attacks. Yeah, good luck with that.)

On haste, yeah, dropping a haste on your frontline fighters is one of the most effective things you could do. Whether you *should* do it depends on how you feel about buffing.

Doug M.

[RainyDayNinja]

Since your blasting won't be as useful, you should pick up some spells that will let you take a support role. Things like Glitterdust or Web that ignore SR, or buff spells like Haste, or Suppress Charms and Compulsions.

[strayshift]

I would also look at your melee characters and what you can do to assist them. Enlarge, Protection from Evil, True Strike, Magic Weapon, etc are the sort of 1st level spells which can help them out in melee combat.

[calagnar]

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

calagnar wrote:

I will add a few things as well. Some higher CR Demons have True Seeing up at all times. That makes them immune to all illusions.

True, but most of those are CR 12+ -- not something you're likely to encounter in PFS play.

If you think the low CR demons are bad. The higher CR have greater teleportation at will. Try fighting something that can go any where any time it wants to.

But note that this takes a SA. It's more of a PITA in campaign or scenario play, where things are more flexible. In PFS the antagonists are more likely to be programmed, and less likely to get horribly creative with their SLAs.

Doug M.

I have run T5-9 scenarios where the BBEG has True Seeing. There are more then a few high Tire 7-11 where this is the case. It dose not happen all the time. However you need to be prepared for it when it dose happen.