you got:
- a racial spell like ability? Good!
- a caster who likes to blow things up? Good!
may i offer you one of the few teamwork feats that you can use all by yourself and be awesome?
take this and you can cast fireballs at point blank and not worry about the blast (or any other area of effect spells actuly ;)
wonder it it will also work with pit spells...
Well, a fire damage specialist spellcaster does have that problem. Against a not-insignificant number of enemies all that specialisation in fire goes out the window as you scramble to use something else instead. If you specialise in fireball in particular you may find that a lot of battlefields make it difficult to use - close quarters where you'll catch some/all of your friends, flammable surroundings that you don't want to set on fire, hostages, being underwater where it's hard to cast...
For any blaster rather than empower spell and elemental focus you may prefer the spell specialization feat and spell focus/GSF. It increases the damage near as much and also helps with SR, and doesn't increase the casting time.
One level of Crossblooded (Dragon/Orc) Sorcerer, then go into School Savant Arcanist and take the Bloodline exploit. Get the Penumbra Tattooes to deal with the Orc crap if it's a problem.
For Racial Traits I am planning to take WildFire Heart to increase my Initative
That's a very good idea. You should also take the following alternate racial traits:
Mostly Human: Humans are the übermensch race and it's always great to count as a human. As a sorcerer you will love the human Favored Class Bonus much more than the useless Ifrit FCB. This makes you affected by humanoid-only spells (Charm Person, Hold Person, Reduce/Enlarge Person, ...).Efreeti Magic: You will learn Burning Hands anyway, making it useless as a spell-like ability.
I want her to to be a powerful blaster but I'm Worried that specializing in fire base spells will Screw me over in the long run.
There are many ways around this problem, some at a small price, some at a high price.
Learning Spells: You can always learn other elemental damage spells. However, it's usually much better to focus on a few strong ones, and adapt those. Price: Likely loss of bonus damage when wrong element (except Orc bloodline & Blood Havoc); precious Spell Known expenditure.Metamagic Rods: If you mainly rely on non-Heightened Fireball spells, then 1 or 2 Lesser Elemental Spell Metamagic Rods will cover you (1 acid, 1 cold/lightning). Higher spells will require more expensive rods. It's all about cash, cash, cash with this method.
Metamagic Feats: If you learn the Elemental Spell metamagic cold, you're covered for pretty much all eventualities. The best thing about this method is that Elemental Spell does not change the energy descriptor of the spell, so your Fireball (cold) still benefits from your fire bonus damage abilities. The price: higher spell slots for your spell, increased casting time, and a feat.
Party composition: The most elegant way is having an Oread, Sylph, or Undine party member (or someone who counts as such). At 1st level you take the Adopted social trait and choose the Undine Loyalty as your race trait; once you take the Flow of Elements teamwork feat you're set: Free Elemental Spell [Oread=acid, Sylph=electricity, Ifrit=fire, Undine=cold] without any increase in spell level or casting time. Low price: 1 trait, 1 feat.
I am planning to take blood Havoc to increase my damage. My plan forma bloodline is Red Dragomm to increase my damage as well.
I am looking to Make my fire ball spell as strong as I can get it. High Damage and High DC.
There are a lot of good bloodlines to choose from, but most of them have weak bloodline powers and mediocre bloodline spells. I absolutely recommend taking the Crossblooded archetype, so you can benefit from both bloodline arcanas and can always take the better bloodline power.
If you're looking to increase damage, then do as VoodistMonk said and take Crossblooded Dragon/Orc, however I am no fan of MAD builds (although 32 point-buy probably off-sets this). Also, being locked in to one magic school (evocation) and having 2 opposition schools is bad for versatility and spell selection. His advice is a bit more generic, not adapted to your race, in my opinion. For example, instead of using Penumbra to deal with the Orc bloodline's light sensitivity (Dazzled condition), just take the Ifrit's Firesight racial feat, which makes you immune to Dazzled (weak condition anyway) but also allows you to see through fire & smoke; the latter is powerful combined with spells like Pyrotechnics or Obscuring Mist (s.b.), but it very much depends on your party, as it imposes similar party problems as the (Deeper) Darkness darkvision builds. [kineticists, shamans, oracles, and some others have "smoke-sight" abilities; a Goz mask, Rod of Spellsight, or a Volcanic armor/shield allow "smoke-sight" too].
However, if you instead seek to increase the DC of your spells, I recommend something entirely different:
Crossblooded Arcane/Salamander and the feats Eldritch Heritage (Elemental Fire & False Focus.
Optionally, having the Elemental bloodline instead of Arcane allows you to replace your spells' energy damage to fire damage and the descriptor to fire; but having it as a feat is sufficient to trigger the racial Fire Affinity ability, adding +2 to your character's Charisma score (which increases ALL your spell DCs by +1, adds more bonus spells per day, etc.pp. as usual).
The Salamander arcana adds +2 DC to all of your spells against enemies that take ongoing fire damage. In order to trigger the ongoing fire damage we use Alchemical power components which are additional material components, that enhance your spells. The False Focus feat is used to avoid up to 100gp in material costs for each spell cast. For example, adding Alchemist's Fire (20gp) to your Fireball has the following effect:
Fireball (M): One target per caster level that fails its Reflex saving throw (your choice) catches on fire as if it has been struck by alchemist’s fire.
Alchemist's Fire: A direct hit deals 1d6 points of fire damage. Every creature within 5 feet of the point where the flask hits takes 1 point of fire damage from the splash. On the round following a direct hit, the target takes an additional 1d6 points of damage. If desired, the target can use a full-round action to attempt to extinguish the flames before taking this additional damage. Extinguishing the flames requires a DC 15 Reflex save.
So it will add +1d6 fire damage to everyone that failed their saving throw against your Fireball (up to caster level enemies) when you cast it, and they will suffer from ongoing fire damage for 1 turn, inflicting another 1d6 fire damage. Since these are spell effects (not alchemical effects), they benefit from your bonus damage to dice rolls (Blood Havoc, ...) and metamagic feats (Empowered, Maximized, ...).
Alchemist's Fire has pretty much the same effect used on Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, and Flaming Sphere, thereby adding a lot of damage and effect.
You can also use many other alchemical components to enhance spells, especially the Fire Fragment as your False Focus - adding +1 to caster level (and the Flaring metamagic) for free. Black Powder adds +1 flat damage, Saltpeter +1 fire damage, Flashpowder for Pyrotechnics, Smokestick to turn Obscuring Mist's fog into smoke, Liquid Ice (Ray of Frost, Cone of Cold), Itching Powder on Glitterdust, and Tanglefoot Bag (Slow, Web), Brimstone & Darkwood & Acid & Alchemical Grease for acid spells and Grease.
Most of these mentioned spells either add cold/acid damage options or impose DEX penalties (enhanced Glitterdust, Slow, Web) reducing the enemy's Reflex save on subsequent Fireballs. When you turn the acid damage from Grease into fire with the Elemental bloodline arcana, it counts as taking ongoing fire damage as long as the enemy ends their turn inside the area.
As for bloodline powers: None of the Salamander's or Elemental's powers are awe-inspiring, unlike the great Arcane powers, though I would consider the Salamander's 3rd-level power:
Forge and Fire (Su):
At 3rd level, you gain Craft Magic Arms and Armor as a bonus feat. In addition, whenever you cast a nonpermanent, noninstantaneous spell that improves or enhances a manufactured weapon, you can also give that weapon the flaming special ability for the spell’s duration. (This has no effect if the weapon already has the flaming special ability.)
If you learn the spell Reinforce Armaments (single or communal) you can enhance one (or many) weapons substantially by adding the Flaming ability at level 3 - your party will love you! - and getting a great item creation feat; the Flaming ability might even work with other spells (Penumbra, Light, Disguise Weapon, ...) depending on what counts as "improved weapon". If you don't have a cleric (or oracle/shaman) in your party, make sure you take the Magic Vestment bloodline spell at 7th level - seriously, your party will love you.
Instead of the Arcane bloodline: Standard Dragon or Solar for damage bonus, Imperial Dragon when the party reliably imposes fear debuffs, or both (replacing the Orc bloodline) when your GM allows the Ifrit's Solar Affinity racial trait to work with the Solar bloodline.
And since your GM is so nice to offer 3.5 stuff, the Bloodflame Ring is very fluffy and opens the possibility of taking a Fire Wysp as an Improved Familiar; it's a very sub-par familiar compared to the other options (Imp, Azata, Dragons, ...), unless you can make use of its Resonance ability.
With alchemical power components, Spell Specialization & Spell Perfection, the possible Arcane bloodline's School Focus, the racial Fire Affinity, the Salamander arcana, the Magical Lineage and Metamagic Master (Wayang Spellhunter) traits² on your Fireball, it should really be the strongest it can get. And since it's still a 3rd-level spell, you can use Lesser Metamagic Rods to add more oomph to it.
[²: Take a drawback to get 3 traits when you went with the Adopted (Undine) option above.]
DC: 10 [base] +3 [spell level] +1 [Fire Affinity] +2 [Salamander arcana] +1 [Arcane arcana] +1 [Elemental Focus] +1 [Elemental Focus, Greater] +2 [School Focus] +2 [Spell Perfection: Elemental Foci] = 23 + CHA modifier
which is very nice, especially since most enemies don't have high Reflex saves.
Damage is not easily comparable between the pure damage build and the DC build, but it tends to go along those lines:
- more dice rolled significantly elevate the damage build over dc build
- higher dice favor the dc build (e.g. ~ same damage at 10d10 rolled)
- the more evasive/resistant the enemies, the better the DC build
- Empowered favors the damage build, Maximized favors the DC build
- flat damage and control metamagic (Dazed) favors DC build
This tends to make the DC build stronger at lower and low-mid levels [<10], weaker at mid/high-levels [<15], and strong again at endgame (Intensified Empowered Ascended Fireball uses a 4th-level spell slot for 15d10 dmg). Basically, once you can make use of Intensified the damage build is stronger, only to be reversed again once you get Spell Perfection for free Maximized.