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Anyone have any tips for playing a Crossblooded sorcerer? I've got this one here for PFS play. Orc and Red Dragon bloodline so he can blast things some nice with fire spells. A bit of a one trick pony, but I thought I'd give it a go. Built it with advice I got a while back here.
Apart from taking something like Iron Will to start, anyone have any practical advice for using this archetype? Like what bloodline mixes they find are way cool?
I also assume that Humans, Half-Orcs, and Half-Elves would make the best cross-blooded sorcerers because of the Human FCB of taking an extra spell per level below the highest level known. That would help offset the reduced number of spells known, I'm sure.
Anyway, if anyone has any experience playing Crossbloods successfully, I'd like to know about it. Looks like a cool archetype, despite the penalties.
Thanks in advance!
I had a Crossblooded Draconic/Elemental (Blue and Air) character once.
Low level is f@$~ing PAINFUL.
Never got past low level.
Sorcerers at low levels are already strapped for spells known. Crossblooded makes that even worse.
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welp Rynjin nailed one of the bigger problems with the arctype in that it learns spells one lvl later than it normally would and has less spells known which usually means less flexibility.
but it does have some positives
since it learns a spells late but still has the slot to cast it begs for metamagics to be applied to them (remember this is still a full round action)
in lower lvls I supplemented myself with wands usually infernal healing, enlarge person, magic missile. This is great for low lvls and a majority are always useful (to a degree) but in high lvls quickly becomes a gold and prestige pain. the alternate racial trait is awesome in supplementing in lower lvls.
I am wary of the fire spells as it is one of the most common resistances I personally went with ice and used the rime meta magic (mainly so I can sing ice related songs as I did it) using one of the genie bloodlines (to widen my selection of spells) combined with dragon (to up damage).
biggest thing I can suggest is plan out the spells in advance with cross blooded you can rarely afford to have a wasted spell known.
in regards to your build I would suggest a way to bump up your hp pool 7 is kinda low and it will show in later lvls
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@ countchocula:
Yeah, I was looking at those metamagic feats. You pretty well have to take them pretty early on to make up for the lack of spells. I was thinking one of the better ones, to my mind, at early level woud be the Reach Spell feat, which would work very well for touch spells like Shocking Grasp or Acidic Touch.
Thanks for the tips on best wands to have in the kit.
I'll have a look at boosting the HP some. I was trying to make this a relatively high-skill build (for a sorcerer).
I always like planning out spells for advancement with sorcerers, since they go so few. But I can see that's especially true of Crossbloods. Part of my cunning plan was to pick up some acid damaging spells to make up for how common fire resistance is. We'll see how that works out ultimately, I suppose.
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This character is a crossblooded sorcerer - Serpentine/Impossible, enchantment focused. At higher levels, she is an extremely effective controller. That said, there was a rather substantial level range that was outright painful; 3-4 was horrible, and 5-6 not too much better. I'm just finally really hitting stride and having enough spells slots available to have any utility at all outside my niche at 9. Overall, I would not recommend it and would not repeat the experience. I would have gotten more out of the spells than the second arcana (and the -2 will save has caused me grief on multiple occasions).
It partly depends on what you're doing with it. With blasting, there's always the ability to use your 'unusable' slots with Empowered spells. If you do crossblooded with elemental(cold) to exploit Rime Spell, then ditto with Rime.
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Okay … I tweaked the profile and stats and for Zájarthauk here, based on the advice everyone has given me here about him so far. The changes I made were:
• Intelligence is now 12, Wisdom is 14
He's still doing okay for skills, for a sorcerer with the Skilled racial trait
He is fairly good at Perception and Survival, his two bloodlines' skills
This also helps offset the Will save penalty a bit.
• Replaced Iron Will with Toughness for more HP to improve chance of survival
• Replaced Bestial Racial Trait with Sacred Tattoos
This too helps offset the Will save penalty some
• Replaced reactionary trait with Fate's Favoured
Initiative isn't so hot, but his saves are all pretty good now
• Replaced Burning Hands spell with Magic Missile
It's the "old reliable" spell and does 1d4+2 because of his Orc arcana, and Burning Hands won't be anything to sing about before level 3 anyway.
• Tidied up the back story to reflect these changes
I'll take a bit of a chance sticking with the Red Draconic bloodline, instead of something like Silver or White. Partly because Red is a wee bit more thematic to my mind and mostly because there seems to be more fire blasty spells instead of cold. However, as I see it, I could always take a feat like Elemental Spell to change a fire spell's type to something else if needed.
I think the Touch of Rage Orc bloodline power should help him buff some of his chums in battle enough to make up slightly for his lack of spells. I hope.
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@ strayshift:
Thanks for that. I plan to take the human FCB for each level for extra spells to offset the Crossblood penalty for spells known. Pretty well a must with this archetype!
Those are all pretty good ideas for bloodline combos. I'll try this one out, though with the Orc & Draconic just to see how well (or badly) it works out. Might make him a real one trick pony with fire spells and all, but I just want to see for myself.
I think a Genie/Draconic would be a good mix.
I also think Arcane/Undead or Arcane/Ghoul would be, well, weird. But could be fun, if the other players aren't all stodgy!
I definitely plan on taking the Reach Spell Feat. That would totally make spells like Shocking Grasp or Chill Touch way more fun! Especially since the spell casters are never meant to be in the front line anyway.
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@ kestral287:
Thanks for that. Sounds like an interesting Tiefling you've got there. I'm kind of partial to Half-Orcs myself (just because).
Agreed, if he can live long enough to get Fireball, he'd really be able to make that one hurt!
As I mentioned in my other post today, I swapped Iron Will for Toughness and boosted his WILL penalty with a higher wisdom score, the Half-Orc sacred Tattoos alternate racial trait, and Fate's Favoured faith trait. That all adds up to a better than normal will save, as well as bolstering his fortitude and reflex saves. Iron Will would still be an option later on, though.
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@ Akari Sayuri:
Thanks for the tips. I'll keep in mind that levels 3-4 tend to be pretty painful with this archetype. But, as I am a sucker for punishment, I'll try giving it a go myself to see just how bad that can be. :o
That -2 hit is painful from the get-go, no doubt about that. That's why I'm trying this on a Half Orc with higher than average Wisdom, Sacred Tattoos, and Fate's Favoured to offset that. It meant his initiative kind of sucks, but oh well. Can always grab Improved Initiative as a bonus bloodline feat, I suppose. If he lives that long, of course.
Interesting mix you've got there, though, with Impossible and Serpentine.
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@ BadBird:
Thanks for that. That Rime thing does sound like a cool way to do things. But I'll keep this character with the Fire thing for now, for the sake of being thematic. But will try the Rime and cold thing later, which sounds like fun.
I was wanting to try a shameless one-trick pony blaster type with this character. Just because it looks like fun. I thought a Half-Orc would be the most likely to pull off the -2 will save penalty. I hope.
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@ Akari Sayuri:
Thanks for the tips. I'll keep in mind that levels 3-4 tend to be pretty painful with this archetype. But, as I am a sucker for punishment, I'll try giving it a go myself to see just how bad that can be. :o
That -2 hit is painful from the get-go, no doubt about that. That's why I'm trying this on a Half Orc with higher than average Wisdom, Sacred Tattoos, and Fate's Favoured to offset that. It meant his initiative kind of sucks, but oh well. Can always grab Improved Initiative as a bonus bloodline feat, I suppose. If he lives that long, of course.
Interesting mix you've got there, though, with Impossible and Serpentine.
Lily is a controller/enchanter where it helps to have a bit more variety for different opponent types. Levels 1 and 2 were fine because Sleep is like a tactical nuke at those levels, but for 3 and 4 where everything tends to be immune to Sleep all I had was the rather mediocre Lesser Confusion bloodline spell, and for the entire time between levels 5 and 8 I've been primarily using a single level 2 spell for my offense, Oppressive Boredom, casting it out of level 2, 3, and sometimes 4 slots (you can cast a spell in a higher level slot without metamagic, you just don't get any benefits for it). 2nd and 3rd level bloodline spells were mediocre, and I took Haste as my first 3rd level spell so I had some utility outside compulsions. It's not nearly as bad for a pure blaster, as your spells will scale with you long enough to gain new ones.
The goal of this particular bloodline combination is to enchant the everything! I can turn random animals into my allies and talk to them, including magical beasts (I once charmed a Basilisk and had it run around with us turning enemies into stone, although that idea sounded better than it actually ended up being), as well as constructs - when Lily is in the party, it's like robots have off switches. You can also use a metamagic rod to get undead, such that there's pretty much nothing but oozes and vermin that are immune to your charms. It really covers for one of enchanting's big weaknesses, limited target selection.
Lily also has a kind of crazy initiative score - *without* Improved Initiative or a familiar, I'm usually running around at a +17 initiative [1], and I've only failed to go first twice in the last 3 levels, generally due to me rolling a 1 or 2. But that's because Noble Scion of War is broken :)
[1] +8 Cha, +3 Circlet of Persuasion, +2 Trait, +4 Heightened Awareness
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@ Rory:
Wow! Quite an extensive list there! Thanks for all the ideas. Especially the shopping list! Makes sense, though, since when a sorcerer gets well minted after a good adventure he can't really splash his cash on arms and armour.
I was a little confused about the acid flask thing at level 1, since I'd not seen that before. Looks like it's in the Advanced Armory supplement. So, that just means you can use some as an add-on material component to give the acid splash spell a wee bit more "oomph", right?
And you find the Colour Spray is good vs fighter types at low levels, since it requires a Will save?
Anyway, thanks for that list. I've copied it to see if I can tweak this character a bit more. And/or use something similar as a basis for other crossblooded builds.
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@ Akari Sayuri:
That does sound like a fun combination! I've got a Nagaji Serpentine sorcerer (it's thematic) who often a number on the opposition with the simple Daze cantrip in combat by gumming them up a round. Being able to control constructs sounds way cool (having had fun with those in the past).
I'll have to look into that combination a bit more.
Thanks for the ideas there!
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@ Rory
I hadn't had a close look at Colour Spray before because it "only" stuns enemies. Not such a bad spell at lower levels at all, actually. Taking enemies out of the fight like that at lower levels is a good thing!
The Advanced Armoury bits are cool too. Those are PFS legal are they? Interesting idea, though.
Thanks for the list of useful scrolls. I'll keep that list handy, for sure! As with your suggestions of cool magic items too.
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@ Doctor Love & Akari:
That Mystic Theurge looks like it would've taken a good long time to build up. Interesting idea, though. Except for the PFS thing.
I would've thought a bard/sorcerer or skald/bard multiclasss would make a good combination with a 'blasty' crossblood like this. But that's my way of thinking, since it would require one real good stat (charisma) for both of the classes.
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It is no longer legal as a casualty of the evangelist pretige class. I have played one to level 10 and he has 6 scenarios to retirement. Bye bye doctor love.
The orc dragon build is a classic, but many people progress as a wizard rather than fulfill the sorcerer side.
Late entry therurge is avail, but not high on my list of things to play.
Or as another poster mentioned be a human and get a spell/level...its not bad at all.
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I prefer sorcerers and bards over wizards. Partly because I like making use of Charisma skills. But mostly because there's less paperwork involved with keeping track of spells A wee bit lazy, I know...
I also like some of the bloodline powers of the Orc bloodline. I thought the Touch of Rage buff ability was better than draconic claws, since sorcerers are usually poor combatants anyway.
I think Elemental/Draconic or Genie/Draconic (with matching energy types, of course) would make good combinations too. I decided on the Orc/Draconic combo because the Orc part gives a bonus to any type of damaging spell cast.
I also went with the Orc bloodline because a Half-Orc can trade darkvision with the Skilled alternate racial trait, and still get darkvision because the Orc bloodline arcana. The light sensitivity bit of the Orc arcana sucks a bit, but oh well. Can't have everything!
I like playing Half-Orcs (and sometimes Half-Elves) because they can choose between the feats favoured class bonuses s of either 'parent' race. Which can make things more interesting in the long run, I reckon.
The Fey Bloodline has really great stuff in it, including a very handy shut-down with Laughing Touch and a really great arcana. With +2DC to enchantment and Persistent and/or Heighten Spell, Hideous Laughter and Confusion are golden.
Well one of the most entertaining characters I have was a Crossblooded Draconic/Fey Barbarian/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple who used Fey to keep up decent DC in enchantment and Draconic to keep up good blasting power while being more strength oriented. But for more mundane purposes Fey just makes some of the best control spells more powerful, which goes with anything really. Something like Orc/Fey (which is gross, but whatever) means having a power-up to both blasting and control, and versatility is a good thing to have.