Hello! Long time lurker but first time poster here. I need some advice on creating a new Halfling Sorcerer please. I plan to take the arcane bloodline and have pretty much selected my feats and spells but my question is on what gear I should get. My DM is letting me start at level 6 and is giving me 4,650 gold to start with. I have yet to roll stats and my feat/spell selections are not set in stone as of yet. I have until this coming Thursday night to get everything ironed out. My DM is notorious for being very old school and challenging so any help I could get from you all would be greatly appreciated. Along with gear, any advice on spells or feats will definitely be taken in to consideration. Other party members include an Aasimar Paladin, Dwarven Fighter, Gnome Rogue, and an Elven Wizard. Everyone just hit level 6 at our last session. As far as the RP perspective goes: Finn Miro is a young charismatic Halfling that has always had an affinity for magic. Thus far, he has used his magic to woo the ladies and acquire free drinks at the local tavern. His wanderlust has gotten the best of him though and he has decided to venture out into the world to embark on a grand adventure hoping to stockpile tales of peril and heroism so that he can......woo the ladies and acquire free drinks at the tavern XD Thanks in advance guys!
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Kinda depends on what you wanna do with your sorc. I've seen a few different builds, and they are mostly good.
4,650 isn't a whole lot of gold to play with, so I'd suggest getting mage armor as a spell, and getting a cloak of resistance +1 or 2. As a sorc, your major issues are going to be saves. Charisma doesn't give you a bonus to saves, and Will is your best save, but since most Sorcs dump Wisdom, it still isn't that great. Unless you spec into it, your AC is never going to be great, but having high saves is essential.
Other than that? Work towards a belt of constitution as your measly d6 hit die can put you in the ground after just one or two lucky hits. A lot of people will try and sell you on headbands of charisma, but a rod of splendor works really well too, and frees up your headband slot for either wisdom (for saves) or Int (for skills.) You may also want to save up for robes of arcane heritage, they are pretty awesome, but are pretty far off.
Other than that? Hmmmm. I know most sorcs want to go blasty, which can work, but I find the buff sorcs work out better (if you have fun playing the support role.) if you know your party well. Some monsters are just straight up immune to fireball (like salamanders) or magic in general (like Golems) but far more rare is the monster immune to an enlarged hasted barbarian. Your Arcane Bloodline already leans towards support (True seeing, invisibility, Dim door) so it seems like he is leaning that way anyway.
So yeah, I recommend a few offensive spells (Magic Missle is a safe choices, as is acid arrow) and then go the rest into support stuff. Look hard at cloaks of resistance . . ., then start saving up for some of the big expensive items. Then play buff and debuff removal. Use dispel magic (which you get at level 7 for free) to remove enemy buffs, haste the party . . . etc. That's how I would play it.
Sorcerers are the best when they specialize in one thing and be the best they can at that, with supplemental spells known to fill in any gaps or add utility outside that specialization. What do you want to specialize in? The common picks are: blasting, enchanter, battlefield control, illusion, summoning. Unfortunately, while arcane is a great bloodline it's power comes from overall generic power and not specializing in anything in particular. It isn't a bad choice but once you figure out what you want to specialize in there may be other good choices as well.
Thank you for you input. I did plan on taking mage armor and magic missile along with some battlefield control spells like grease, glitterdust, and create pit. Any advice on feats? I'm going with a familiar for the arcane bloodline and was thinking of taking a bat to make use of it having a natural sonar and being able to pinpoint invisible creatures that I can then douse in glitterdust. As far as feats go right now I'm thinking toughness to bump up my health a bit, improved initiative to get the spells flying early and then maybe spell focus or iron will to bump up the always important will save.
As far as specialization I guess battlefield control and buffing would be my thing but I don't want to lack in the blasting department too much. I plan on taking improved familiar at level 7 so that I can get a mephit to fly around with a wand or 2.
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Thank you for you input. I did plan on taking mage armor and magic missile along with some battlefield control spells like grease, glitterdust, and create pit. Any advice on feats? I'm going with a familiar for the arcane bloodline and was thinking of taking a bat to make use of it having a natural sonar and being able to pinpoint invisible creatures that I can then douse in glitterdust. As far as feats go right now I'm thinking toughness to bump up my health a bit, improved initiative to get the spells flying early and then maybe spell focus or iron will to bump up the always important will save.
I hadn't thought about using a bat's blindsense, but remember that the bat has half your hitpoints, so if he gets hit, he's probably dead. Most GMs rule that for a familiar to interact with the world, they have to become a viable target.
As for feats, you've named some solid ones. Improved init can help you get haste off before the rest of your party spreads out to much, toughness . . . good stuff. It all seems reasonable.
I'm going to disagree with VampsByDay and say if you ever intend to cast a spell with a DC, which you do, glitterdust for example, then getting a headband of wisdom before a headband of Charisma is not the way to go. The rod isn't a bad suggestion leaves you without a boost to Charisma for a very long time, I think it means level 10 is the earliest following the guidelines of not spending more than half wbl on any one item.
If you're concerned about will saves don't take iron will, take steadfast personality it gives you Charisma to mind affecting will saves, which is most of them and the ones people are most scared of.
We do have a 6th level Elf wizard in the party as well that usually casts haste to start off an encounter. He has a wand of lightning bolt and countless scrolls as well. I'll be hopping on the scroll train early on for sure. This is the first full caster class that I've played so I'm a little in the dark when it comes to some things like feat selection and traits. I do realize that I need to buff up saves so I'll be getting a cloak of resistance and probably taking protection from evil as one of my spells for the +2 to saves. That's also one of the reasons I chose Halfling. That Halfling Luck was pretty attractive. As far as traits go I'm leaning toward indomitable will and reactionary for obvious reasons but if their are more effective magical traits for a battlefield control/buffer please let me know.
Your chosen spells are mostly from the conjuration school - I'd be tempted to snag spell focus (conjuration) and one of the feats for which that is a prerequisite. e.g. Greater spell focus, augment summoning, varisian tattoo, spell specialization etc.
If you're considering using metamagic - and with the arcane bloodline you should be - then the traits magical lineage and/or wayang spellhunter (aka metamagic master) are worth considering. Also you'll need to actually get a metamagic feat like persistent spell or reach spell or something in order to use the abilities of the arcane bloodline.
I would rank noble scion > improved initiative. Hopefully your cha ends up >+4
Also true
EDIT: also, you're not building a blaster, doing a blaster by halves in the road to no-where special, the arcane bloodline is actually possibly the third best bloodline for blasting, but sadly unless you're top two you'll probably still find yourself doing underwhelming damage.
Your build is more of a general god wizard controller type character, which is really powerful anyway, just thought it was worth mentioning.
Ok so spell selection is going to look something like this: Mage Armor, Protection from evil, grease, color spray, glitterdust, scorching ray, hold person. I'm going back and forth on what spell to take with magical lineage. Right now it's going to be either grease or color spray so that I can combine it with persistent spell and they'll be treated as level 2 spells which I can use 6 times a day (I'm assuming my CHA will will be high enough for an extra spell per day) My DM has nixed the magical lineage+wayang spellhunter combo and honestly I can't blame him for that. Is it worth taking scribe scroll if we already have a wizard in the group? Wizards make Scrolls cheaper than sorcs so the only benefit would be to cut down on time it takes I guess. As far as feats right now I'm thinking toughness, persistent spell, and steadfast personality for CHA to will saves against mind affecting effects(thank you Chromatic Dragon) Oh yeah and I'll also have identify and invisibility from the bloodline.
For your other trait I would grab reactionary or one that gives perception as a class skill
I would recommend glitter dust for your magical lineage
Scribe scroll does seem kind of lacking. If you want a craft feat Craft wondrous items would save you more money while providing a new benefit
Lastly I would move steadfast personality later in your build and take Noble Scion
If sorcerer is not 100% set in stone, I'd recommend thinking about Oracle instead. It would help you party more, and in a lot of ways it is like a Sorcerer except with Clerical spells instead of Wizard spells.
If you like color spray, a Heavens Oracle can be impressive with that spell....
For your other trait I would grab reactionary or one that gives perception as a class skill
I would recommend glitter dust for your magical lineage
Scribe scroll does seem kind of lacking. If you want a craft feat Craft wondrous items would save you more money while providing a new benefit
Lastly I would move steadfast personality later in your build and take Noble Scion
All this.
Craft wonder is great because if you do not have the spell add +5 to the DC to craft which is super low anyways. Usually, you can easily craft anything you want. My favorite craft feat hands down, on anyone who qualifies. It is usually my 3rd or 5th level feat.
Edit: You can probably take persistent spell at 5th with Magical lineage Glitterdust for a Brutal AoE control spell.
So does persistent spell affect the subsequent saves they have to make for a spell like glitterdust or is it only the first save? I would argue that it affects all subsequent saves because they are still part of the persistent spell.
So does persistent spell affect the subsequent saves they have to make for a spell like glitterdust or is it only the first save? I would argue that it affects all subsequent saves because they are still part of the persistent spell.
every time they roll a save and pass they must roll again...if they fail then it acts as if they failed the save. It applies to all saves made against the spell. Initial and subsequent.
Very good to know. Thanks for the clarification! Thanks to everyone who provided insight for me. Very much appreciated