Sorcerer

Class Summary
Alignment: Any

Hit die: d4

Class Skills

 * Skill points at 1st level: (2 + Intelligence modifier) x4
 * Skill points at each additional level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies



 * Feat simpleweaponproficiency.png
 * Simple weapons (All simple weapons)
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No armor proficiencies, as armor of any type interferes with a Sorcerer’s movements, which can cause their spells with somatic components to fail.

Paths

 * Arcane Cannon
 * The Dynamic Hand
 * The Voice of Power

Prestige Enhancements

 * Air Savant
 * Water Savant
 * Earth Savant
 * Fire Savant
 * Eldritch Knight

Advancement table
A Sorcerer also gets bonus spell points from his Charisma modifier. Sorcerers also gain double the spell points from items. However only pure sorcerers get this bonus. Multi-classed sorcerers get a percentage of the bonus based on how pure they are. EG: a 18/2 Sorcerer/Paladin will get only 190% from SP items.


 * Includes Base SP from Spell point table plus 80 SP from Magical Training free feat.

Level 1

 * Arcane Lore (passive): Represents your knowledge of the arcane. This feat is received once for every sorcerer level.


 * Dismiss Charm (active): Activate this short-ranged ability while targeting a charmed, commanded, controlled, or dominated enemy that is under your control to dispel the controlling effect.

Spells

 * Sorcerers cast arcane spells.
 * Sorcerers cast spells faster than other spellcasting classes - This functions like having the Quicken feat for free, but also stacks with the quicken feat. They also have reduced cooldown on most their spells - Generally 50%-100% faster then a wizard, but it varies from spell to spell. Check the cooldown page for a generic table that applies to most spells, and check individual spells to see which ones vary from that formula.
 * See also spell usefulness.

Notable differences from other D&D based games
No familiar.

Playing a Sorcerer
"Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories—just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards, and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more quickly and more often before resting and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level she can cast." (DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: STORMREACH™ instruction manual page 62)

If the Wizard is the Kung Fu Master applying pressure as necessary, the Sorcerer is the Eight Foot Tall Barroom Brawler with a chip on his shoulder. The Sorcerer always fires for effect, similarly to the Wizard, but the Sorcerer has the ability to do this much more frequently throughout the course of an adventure, and much more often during a single encounter.

That being said Sorcerers tend to favor spells that can be used frequently, rather than spells that can be used only in certain circumstances. Suggestion and Charm Person will serve as examples. Suggestion has a set duration that allows you to charm virtually any creature that can be charmed. Charm person, though it has the potential to last longer and is cheaper in terms of SP, it works only on those of the humanoid type. Consequently, although Suggestion costs more, its range of effect is greater and is therefore a superior spell for a Sorcerer.

Of all the feats available to a Sorcerer two staples tend to be Empower Spell Feat, and/or Heighten Spell Feat. These two feats largely define where you are going with your Sorcerer. A Nuke-based Sorcerer (with high HP damage output) will be more interested in the Empower Spell Feat, whereas the Crowd Control Sorcerer would be more interested in the Heighten Spell Feat as this it increases the Difficulty Check (or DC) of the spells the Sorcerer casts.

Focusing a Sorcerer's Spell Selection
Because there are both action points and feats to consider one could plan out a sorcerer to select spells from mainly one school of magic. For more information on feat selection and starting attribute for Sorcerer focused on some of the Schools see:
 * Sorcerer Necromancer - Sorcerer focused on Necromancy spells
 * Enchanter - Sorcerer focused on Enchantment spells
 * Evoker - Sorcerer focused on Evocation spells
 * Conjurer - Sorcerer focused on Conjuration spells

Sorcerer's Elemental Savants'
A Savant specializes in one elemental type: air, fire, earth or water. They are weaker in the opposite element. At levels 6/12/18 the 3 tiers of the savant grant an SLA (spell like ability), which allows the sorcerer to cast a specific spell with a reduced sp cost including all (appropriate) metamagics. At levels 12 and 18 additional benefits are bestowed such as Awaken Elemental Weakness which makes an enemy take more damage from the particular type, and other benefits.

The various elemental schools vary in effectiveness given the content you are playing. This means it is in your best interest to build up a secondary line of spells to cast if the primary element is useless (water savant going against ice creatures). In general electricity and acid are more effective against more opponents then ice and fire. Electricity is a good choice for the secondary line, except for earth savants who have it as their weakened element (take cold).

Fortunately the savant classes do not require disparate feats so the player can switch their enhancements over to try playing a different savant. This is easier then an Archmage attempting to switch schools, who quite often would need to swap feats out. The savant prestige class requires empower or maximize and a spell focus in evocation or conjuration. Any Sorcerer should be taking empower, maximize and evocation spell focus as feats anyways. Obviously this would require massive spell swapping which is expensive as a sorcerer. This can be done painlessly after one acquires Blood of Dragons. This can be taken as a favor reward if one has the Ruins of Gianthold adventure pack.

See the related savant pages for more information:
 * Air Savant enhancements - Sorcerer focused on electricity spells
 * Earth Savant enhancements - Sorcerer focused on acid spells
 * Fire Savant enhancements - Sorcerer focused on fire spells
 * Water Savant enhancements - Sorcerer focused on ice spells

See the related wizard pages for more information:
 * Archmage enhancements - Wizard focused on a particular spell school
 * Pale Master enhancements - Wizard focused on necromancy spells