Balancing Sorcerer (and Bard) dedication spellcasting to Cleric and Wizard dedication (v1.3)

[Balacertar]

The Reference In Pathfinder the main advantage of Sorcerer spellcasting when compared to Wizard (or Oracle to Cleric) has been the flexibility on the use of your spell slots to keep using your best spells in each situation, and to apply metamagic on the fly to your spells.

The What As of v1.3 the Sorcerer (and Bard) dedication feats have been released. With Basic Sorcerer Spellcasting you get to know and cast one 1st level spell. At 6th level you get a 2nd level spell. At 8th you get a 3rd level spell. Each of these ones you can only use 1/day. The problem when you compare to the Cleric or Wizard dedication is you cannot change the spell you know. So while the multiclassed Cleric or Wizard character can swap each day her prepared spell, bringing some utility and flexibility to the group, in comparison the Sorcerer (and Bard) are locked with their spell repertoire while they do not have more spells to cast per day or more on-the-fly flexibility (because they only know 1 spell).

The Aggravation Because how Heightening works, the Cleric and Wizard can prepare their 1st level spell in their 3rd level slot, whereas the Sorcerer (and Bard) have to learn it heightened into their repertoires if they want to use it heightened, except for 2 spells they can freely heighten through Spontaneous Heightening class feature. Because the Sorcerer dedication (and Bard) feat does not give Spontaneous Heightening, multiclass Sorcerers cannot even get some flexibility on the use of their higher level slots by heightening their lower level spells.

The Proposal At level 4 give them their bloodline 1st level spell and 2 level 1 slots per day in addition to the 1st level spell. At level 6 give them Spontaneous Heightening in addition to the 2nd level spell and one 2nd level spell slot. At level 8 give them an extra 2nd level slot and their 2nd level bloodline spell in addition to the 3rd level spell and slot. Consider giving them the opportunity to swap an old spell each time you learn a new spell level (not the bonus ones from their bloodline).

For the higher level spellcasting feats a similar progression solution would be developed

The Alternative If you do not want to give them Spontaneous Heightening (which I do not think is a great bonus because their slower progression is already severely crippling the usefulness of most spells), you could at least give them a Spell Point pool they could use to heighten their spells to their highest spell level (or half their level rounded up if they need more punch). Well, maybe this Spell Point ability to heighten any spell could be a good idea for all the Spontaneous Casters anyway.

[Tusk the Half-Orc]

Adding insult to injury, the sorcerer archetype multiclass feats available do not even include something like the Arcane Breadth feat for multiclass wizards, which increases your wizard spell slots by one per level for your lower level spells.

[Thaliak]

Tusk, that is incorrect. Page 7 of the Multiclass Archetype document gives us:

Quote:

BLOODLINE BREADTH

Prerequisite: Basic Bloodline Spellcasting
Your repertoire expands, and you can cast more spells of your bloodline’s tradition each day. Increase the number of spells in your repertoire and
number of spell slots you gain from sorcerer archetype feats by 1 for
each spell level other than your two highest spell levels.

Personally, it doesn't bother me that sorcerers have less flexibility than wizards. If I'm taking Sorcerer Dedication over a prepared caster dedication, it's likely because I enjoy spontaneous casting, value Charisma more than Intelligence or Wisdom, or want the skills the Bloodline provides. I've also considered taking it to give a martial access to the Demonic bloodline's life-draining bite.

Having said that, I find Bloodline Breadth's progress extremely slow. It feels silly to spend a feat at 8th level for a single Level 1 spell slot when I could get an action I can use every round. But that is true for the prepared casters as well. I wish all the breadth feats gave more slots, but they can't give too many or dabblers would overshadow full-class casters.

I agree that it would make sense for multiclass sorcerers and bards, like their full-class counterparts, to be able to swap out spells as they level.

[Dasrak]

Currently it's not too bad. Wizard Dedication is incredibly hard to qualify for since 16 intelligence is completely unaffordable on most builds, whereas 16 charisma is quite affordable for a number of classes. As far as the cleric goes, the divine spell list is the least attractive of the bunch so people usually don't multiclass cleric for the spellcasting. However, I do agree that in principle that the prepared/spontaneous multiclass options are a bit off.

With regards to spontaneous heightening, I feel the restrictions are completely unnecessary in the first place. Just get rid of the restrictions and allow people to freely heighten their spells.

As for the spells per day, I feel that the solution is to eliminate breadth as a stand-alone feat and just work it into the spellcasting progression. Getting two spells per level should be the norm for multiclass spellcasters.

[Starfox]

Dasrak wrote:

Currently it's not too bad. Wizard Dedication is incredibly hard to qualify for since 16 intelligence is completely unaffordable on most builds, whereas 16 charisma is quite affordable for a number of classes. As far as the cleric goes, the divine spell list is the least attractive of the bunch so people usually don't multiclass cleric for the spellcasting. However, I do agree that in principle that the prepared/spontaneous multiclass options are a bit off.

With regards to spontaneous heightening, I feel the restrictions are completely unnecessary in the first place. Just get rid of the restrictions and allow people to freely heighten their spells.

As for the spells per day, I feel that the solution is to eliminate breadth as a stand-alone feat and just work it into the spellcasting progression. Getting two spells per level should be the norm for multiclass spellcasters.

This!

[Tusk the Half-Orc]

Thaliak - you’re right, I missed that, thanks!