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I made my angelic sorcerer because I'm tired of prepared casters, and wanted good on-demand healing. I get the Divine list on terms I like.
At low level the divine list is a bit slow on offensive spells. But an interesting quirk of sorcerers is that they work very well with innate cantrips, because they use Charisma as casting stat. So as a gnome I grabbed Electric Arc and Ray of Frost and from the divine list I get Disrupt Undead and Holy Lance, and now I'm ready for a lot of different things.
From anecdotal experience, sorcerers are fine. We just started our campaign, about 3 sessions in, and both the Divine sorcerer and the cleric are feeling useful. They're both still feeling out their characters and both have their issues. For example, the cleric has a hard time damaging things because we've been fighting mostly neutral enemies, while the sorcerer got Produce Flame from his bloodline. Meanwhile, the sorcerer feels like he often wastes his turn due to how much he likes save or suck spells like command, but that's more to do with his playstyle than the class itself. The barbarian is also multiclassing into a divine sorcerer, but that just happened so I can't say how that's working out yet.
Side note, both of them love their focus powers (Diabolic Edict and Protector's Sacrifice). They have no complaints there.
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The biggest problem the Sorcerer has is that a lot of the bloodlines have some pretty questionable focus spells. Whether or not your chosen bloodline's spell is worth using can have a big impact on your playability at low level.
I think in general though people underestimate spontaneous casting as a mechanic this edition. PF2 wants you to be pretty particular with your spell selection and that makes being able to pick your spells on the fly a really meaningful advantage. Theorycrafting tends to always assume the wizard or druid or cleric has the right spell prepared at the right time but that's harder to do this edition.
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And Sorcerer has Crossblooded Evolution. It's the only class who really has access to one Tradition + one spell of another tradition which can be made into a Signature Spell. That feat is for me what makes Sorcerer excellent. All other casters have limitations, not the Sorcerer. You can go Arcane and Heal like a Divine. Go Occult and blast like a Primal. Go Primal and debuff like an Occult. By just picking the top spell of the other tradition (Heal, Synesthesia, Disintegrate, Heroism, Haste... there are not that many excellent spells you could want).
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The biggest problem the Sorcerer has is that a lot of the bloodlines have some pretty questionable focus spells. Whether or not your chosen bloodline's spell is worth using can have a big impact on your playability at low level.
I think in general though people underestimate spontaneous casting as a mechanic this edition. PF2 wants you to be pretty particular with your spell selection and that makes being able to pick your spells on the fly a really meaningful advantage. Theorycrafting tends to always assume the wizard or druid or cleric has the right spell prepared at the right time but that's harder to do this edition.
It was hard to do in the last edition as well. It was exactly like you say “theorycrafting”.
In theory the new game design should allow them to just introduce other options as focus spells for each bloodline - say to the point where everyone has 3 to choose from. I hope they do this as it would take literally a page of content and be a super easy fix
Then they can also add in class archetypes for sorcerer that trades out the bloodline focus spell as well. Two fixes there that shouldn’t be too onerous on paper
It is disappointing that the power level is all over the shop for things like sorcerer , wizard and cleric focus/domain powers. Starting the game from fresh with focus spells being a new thing should have meant that didn’t happen. Variable domain powers was a big thing in 1E and unfortunately it has stayed
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Huh.
This thread makes a nice change from the "ArCaNe EVoLuTiOn mAKeS WiaZaRdS OBSolEET" posts I've waded through recently.
I think in general though people underestimate spontaneous casting as a mechanic this edition. PF2 wants you to be pretty particular with your spell selection and that makes being able to pick your spells on the fly a really meaningful advantage. Theorycrafting tends to always assume the wizard or druid or cleric has the right spell prepared at the right time but that's harder to do this edition.
IMO Cleric > Sorc > Wizard
So the idea that "sorc is poor man's everything else" feels true-ish for every comparison other than Wizard.I definitely feel that a divine sorcerer is worse than a cleric and that a bard is better than an occult sorcerer. Druid and primal sorc I don't even thing operate in the same sphere other than sharing a spell list (druids do wildshaping or animal companioning more than they rely on their spell list).
Can a divine sorcerer buff better than a cleric because they can cast the same buffs over and over and over? Sure. But that's literally the worst version of a divine spellcaster (and on healing, they're outperformed by the cleric that's using only a no-upgrades divine font) because buffs are small, single-target, and short-lived.
The forum is awash in panicky threads of people claiming class X is so hosed, for just about every possible value of X.Huh.
This thread makes a nice change from the "ArCaNe EVoLuTiOn mAKeS WiaZaRdS OBSolEET" posts I've waded through recently.
People seem to like bards, at least
An advantage divine sorcerer has over cleric at high levels as a primary healer is not needing to know what sort of enemies they are fighting. Whether curses, high level poisons, diseases, or other conditions removed through restoration or similar, the primary healer sorcerer can choose a lot of these as signature spells and heighten them to the needed level when and if they show up. The cleric has more trouble dealing with non-damage effects thanks to the changes so that counteract checks are needed - you can only prepare a few high level debuff removals, and may not pick the right ones.
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Can a divine sorcerer buff better than a cleric because they can cast the same buffs over and over and over? Sure. But that's literally the worst version of a divine spellcaster (and on healing, they're outperformed by the cleric that's using only a no-upgrades divine font) because buffs are small, single-target, and short-lived.Divine sorcerer can blast better than a cleric however... and that does matter.
With a spell list nearly devoid of blasting spells.
Yes, Heal/Harm exist, but using them for this purpose is not ideal.
Angelic line actually makes the sorcerer's heals more powerful overall (+2 healing/max spell level makes lower level heals a lot better... vs using a d10 which is effectively +1 healing/level).
Other thread did a comparison. Sorc only comes out ahead when using 3-action heals and getting maximum targets in a 15 foot radius (Angelic Halo only works at 15 feet!). Cleric otherwise ends up ahead. And oh yeah, Cleric can 3-action heal for 2 actions.
Buffs aren't really what you're looking at when you're considering a Divine Sorcerer. Sure, having one or two can help, but they're not the spells you'll be auto-heightening, and not where the advantage of going Sorcerer really figures in.
Yes. That's why I said:
that's literally the worst version of a divine spellcaster
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The only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting. If it still worked the same way it did in 1e, Sorcerers would be great.
Otherwise I think Sorcerer is pretty well designed.
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With a spell list nearly devoid of blasting spells.
You don't care, you just take the best one and make a Signature spell out of it. Fireball at low level, then Cone of Cold and finally Meteor Swarm. So your blasting's fine.
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In fairness, the thing discussed here was divine Sorcerer, and that's not on their list. Totally works for Primal Sorcerer, but that's a different beast.You don't care, you just take the best one and make a Signature spell out of it. Fireball at low level, then Cone of Cold and finally Meteor Swarm. So your blasting's fine.With a spell list nearly devoid of blasting spells.
With Crossblooded evolution, you can take one spell from another spell list. If you feel that Divine Sorcerer lacks blasting, you just take it.
Considering the quantity of spells on all spell list, and Crossblooded evolution, a Sorcerer can heal, blast, buff and debuff with all spelllists.
The only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting. If it still worked the same way it did in 1e, Sorcerers would be great.
Otherwise I think Sorcerer is pretty well designed.
Could you help clarify for me how it has changed ? I clearly haven’t looked closely enough
Could you help clarify for me how it has changed ? I clearly haven’t looked closely enoughThe only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting. If it still worked the same way it did in 1e, Sorcerers would be great.
Otherwise I think Sorcerer is pretty well designed.
In 1e, once you learned a spell, you could cast it and it automatically scaled up to your level. Take Fireball as an example. In 2e, you need to learn Fireball again each time you gain a casting level, otherwise it never scales up. In 1e, Fireball did 1d6 damage per level, so as long as you learned it once, you never had to learn it again. Alot of blasting spells were like that.
Now that I give it some thought, I think giving Sorcerers more spells learned per level than Bards would've been a good way to balance the classes. The general consensus is that Bards are better than Sorcerers, and I'd have to agree.
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Could you help clarify for me how it has changed ? I clearly haven’t looked closely enoughThe only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting. If it still worked the same way it did in 1e, Sorcerers would be great.
Otherwise I think Sorcerer is pretty well designed.
In 1e, once you learned a spell, you could cast it and it automatically scaled up to your level. Take Fireball as an example. In 2e, you need to learn Fireball again each time you gain a casting level, otherwise it never scales up. In 1e, Fireball did 1d6 damage per level, so as long as you learned it once, you never had to learn it again. Alot of blasting spells were like that.
Now that I give it some thought, I think giving Sorcerers more spells learned per level than Bards would've been a good way to balance the classes. The general consensus is that Bards are better than Sorcerers, and I'd have to agree.
Also in PF1e, if you wanted to cast a lower level spell using a higher level slot, you could, but that's not allowed in PF2e (for instance, if you ran out of 2nd level slots, but still had a 3rd level slot available, you could "downgrade" that slot to cast a 2nd level spell. Now you can't do that; if you want to use a higher level spell slot to cast a lower level spell, you have to heighten the spell to the level of the slot.).
Now that I give it some thought, I think giving Sorcerers more spells learned per level than Bards would've been a good way to balance the classes. The general consensus is that Bards are better than Sorcerers, and I'd have to agree.They do have more spells learned per level... They've got an extra spell slot, so they have one extra spell learned per level than do bards. Did you mean something else by this?
Those extra spells are chosen for you by your bloodline, and they are not always ones you want. Heck, many of the spells granted by divine bloodlines require the sorcerer to be a follower of a strongly aligned deity or they are forbidden from casting it (Divine Wrath, etc.).
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Could you help clarify for me how it has changed ? I clearly haven’t looked closely enoughThe only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting. If it still worked the same way it did in 1e, Sorcerers would be great.
Otherwise I think Sorcerer is pretty well designed.
In 1e, once you learned a spell, you could cast it and it automatically scaled up to your level. Take Fireball as an example. In 2e, you need to learn Fireball again each time you gain a casting level, otherwise it never scales up. In 1e, Fireball did 1d6 damage per level, so as long as you learned it once, you never had to learn it again. Alot of blasting spells were like that.
Now that I give it some thought, I think giving Sorcerers more spells learned per level than Bards would've been a good way to balance the classes. The general consensus is that Bards are better than Sorcerers, and I'd have to agree.
Bards can be better if you want the occult spell list and the bard playstyle but there is certainly no "consensus" that bards are better. There like 4 ppl on the forums here that claim it and assume their opinion is fact.
You seem to be leaving out Signiture spells as well when talking about highenting. You could learn Fireball as a Signature spell and then cast it using any of your higher level slots.
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It was hard to do in the last edition as well. It was exactly like you say “theorycrafting”.
This is definitely true, I just think it's even moreso in 2e because it's harder to brute force your way through encounters with ubiquitously powerful spells.
In 1e, once you learned a spell, you could cast it and it automatically scaled up to your level.
Kind of a cherry picked example there.
You could also say that in 1e a spell's DC only scaled if you took a feat and cast it from a higher level slot, while in 2e that's an automatic feature of all spells. Or that heightening a spell in 1e made the spell take longer to cast (which could lead to certain spells taking multiple turns to complete).
And regarding:
The only problem I really see with Sorcerers is that they nerfed spontaneous casting.
Spotaneous casters in 1e spent half the campaign a spell level behind prepared casters. So uh, definitely no to this.
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Not sure I understand the comparison that was done here... Sorcerer single target heal with angelic halo is better than cleric single target heal with Healing Hands.
The Sorcerer is expending a spell slot to do it. The Cleric isn't. The cleric is using their class feature free bonus extra on top of their spell slots double-plus-ultra Divine Font.
The 2 HP per target doesn't make up for the 1+CHA free casts.
Okay... I'm referring to the amount healed by the casting of a single spell. I already stated that overall the Cleric could heal more HPs than the Sorcerer given all their slots.
You said "more powerful overall." Overall means the whole chassis. Is FeatA better than FeatB? Yes. But that isn't "more powerful, overall, all things considered."
Not sure I understand the comparison that was done here... Sorcerer single target heal with angelic halo is better than cleric single target heal with Healing Hands.The Sorcerer is expending a spell slot to do it. The Cleric isn't. The cleric is using their class feature free bonus extra on top of their spell slots double-plus-ultra Divine Font.
Um, just real quick; the Cleric actually is expending spell slots. Just Bonus spell slots.
Through your deity’s blessing, you gain additional spells that channel either the life force called positive energy or its counterforce, negative energy. When you prepare your spells each day, you can
prepare additional heal or harm spells, depending on your deity. The divine font spell your deity provides is listed in the Divine Font entry for your deity on pages 437–440; if both are listed, you can choose between heal or harm. Once you choose, you can’t change your choice short of an ethical shift or divine intervention.
Um, just real quick; the Cleric actually is expending spell slots. Just Bonus spell slots.Not sure I understand the comparison that was done here... Sorcerer single target heal with angelic halo is better than cleric single target heal with Healing Hands.The Sorcerer is expending a spell slot to do it. The Cleric isn't. The cleric is using their class feature free bonus extra on top of their spell slots double-plus-ultra Divine Font.
Duh. I'm not an idiot. But that wasn't the point I was making.
Its a spell slot that the sorcerer does not have and cannot get. It may as well be a charge off a staff for all the difference it makes in the apples to apples comparison: the cleric has it the sorcerer does not.
Is it a consumable resource?
Yes.
But one class literally does not have that pool to draw on and has to use "standard" spell slots (the numerical count of which is effectively identical across the board*).
*Yes, sorcerers get "one more of each level" but "one more of each level" is hardly comparable to "six of the highest level."
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The main problem I see with divine sorcerers is the same I saw with oracles in PF1: too many highly specific spells on the list. At least if you want to be a healer.
A cleric who has an idea about what they'll be walking into can prepare ahead of time.
I don't entirely agree with your analysis, but watch the condition. What if you don't know what you're walking into?
A sorcerer is going to look really good if you get into an adventure where every monster seems to spam the same status condition. The cleric runs after the Remove That spell after two encounters, the sorcerer can keep going for a while longer.
The basic idea behind sorcerers is "what if I need a lot more of one particular spell than expected".
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I don't entirely agree with your analysis, but watch the condition. What if you don't know what you're walking into?
A sorcerer is going to look really good if you get into an adventure where every monster seems to spam the same status condition. The cleric runs after the Remove That spell after two encounters, the sorcerer can keep going for a while longer.
The basic idea behind sorcerers is "what if I need a lot more of one particular spell than expected".
That only really works if the sorcerer actually knows the spell that's needed. Otherwise, both classes are in the same boat that day, and the cleric has the advantage the next day.
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and the cleric has the advantage the next day.
Assuming the cleric knows any better what's happening on the following day. Which is hardly going to be a given, even though everyone seems to take that assumption for granted.
Of course, even if the Cleric does know precisely what's coming up ahead, they simply can't guess how often the players are going to fail their conditions and need to be cured, either.
The ability to flexibly accomplish that goal without having to worry about individual spell slot distribution is far too huge of an advantage to simply dismiss out of hand the way so many people seem to be content to do.
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Hence this quote:
I think in general though people underestimate spontaneous casting as a mechanic this edition. PF2 wants you to be pretty particular with your spell selection and that makes being able to pick your spells on the fly a really meaningful advantage. Theorycrafting tends to always assume the wizard or druid or cleric has the right spell prepared at the right time but that's harder to do this edition.
I agree with this. And the sorcerer's ability to have "almost the right thing" when the cleric (wizard, etc) don't have "anything close" is nice.
I just object to statement that "the Sorcerer is better at Heal than the Cleric."
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I just object to statement that "the Sorcerer is better at Heal than the Cleric."
That's fair. The sorcerer's advantage in flexibility doesn't matter much when the Cleric can a bunch of extra top level heals for free anyways.
Especially at low levels when Divine Font can casually double the number of spells they get to cast in a day.
Personally I was very disappointed by the elemental bloodline: blasting with fire deals fire damage, every other element deals bludgeoning damage. As if cold, acid or electricity stopped existing.
I get why they did it. The acid-earth connection was always a weird one and cold/electric turned water/air into.. well, ice and lightning instead.
I can agree though having the only other option be bludgeoning and not having any way to build off of electricity or cold or acid is a mistake though.
and the cleric has the advantage the next day.Assuming the cleric knows any better what's happening on the following day. Which is hardly going to be a given, even though everyone seems to take that assumption for granted.
Of course, even if the Cleric does know precisely what's coming up ahead, they simply can't guess how often the players are going to fail their conditions and need to be cured, either.
The ability to flexibly accomplish that goal without having to worry about individual spell slot distribution is far too huge of an advantage to simply dismiss out of hand the way so many people seem to be content to do.
What I meant by the cleric having an advantage the next day was that if you needed a spell neither had that day, say remove curse, the cleric could prepare it the next day. The sorcerer has more flexibility with the spells they know, but need anything outside of those few spells and the flexibility advantage vanishes.