Sorcerer tactics

The Sorcerer is the go-get'em, blast with everything I've got, don't care if I miss overkiller of spellcasting. Their SP pool is great enough to accommodate Maximized and Empowered spells against bosses, or just enough power to knock out a mob in 1-3 spells. The real trick is knowing which spells to learn, and when to use their awe-inspiring nukes.

The main problem many people new to the class have is which spells to learn. The only way to know what really works for you is by experimentation. There are several ways to swap out sorcerer spells at a cost, so a wrong choice doesn't mean that you have to rebuild your toon from scratch. With your small selection of spells, most of what you learn will be attack spells, because of the Sorcerer's position as the DPS nuker of spellcasting. Most of the buffs are handled by Wizards, who, by nature of their large brains and typical hauling around of tomes, have many more spells than you do.

Most Sorcerers have a few things in common, whatever way your toon is built:
 * High Charisma (Usually at least 16 for low levels)
 * Weak melee combat ( Lack of martial weapon proficiency and low Strength and few feats usable for making up your lack)
 * Low hit points (Expect a Fighter at the same level as you to have more than triple your HP)
 * High Use Magic Device- this allows you to buff yourself without using up your precious spell spots

It is recommended to master a few abilities than to be a jack of all trades, due to the limited feats/skill points sorcerers have, as well as the pros and cons given to taking a elemental prestige line.

While playing the Sorcerer, your main job in a party is hitting mobs and bosses with just the right amount of damage to keep the edge off. You won't want to use all your SP on one boss or one mob. Let the Melee DPS do their job, you keep the mobs off their back.

Of course, you might function as the DPS of the party, but that would be difficult to keep up for two main reasons:
 * You have a limited, albeit large, SP pool
 * You can't handle the aggro that that much magic draws.

(Also this depends on the quest and the mobs. Depending on your type of Sorc, in some quests your spells may do massive damage, and others foes may be resistant. Your DPS may greatly vary from quest to quest.)

Let the Tanks go in front of you; let the DPS do the hard-core whacking; don't let the healer die; kill your share; and your party will love you. Don't worry about buffing, and time your shrines to receive the max SP from each (in most quests you can go back to them).

Also, watch what mobs you target with your spells. It can be tempting to fry a mob that the buff Barbarian is fighting just before he gets the kill, but remember that it's only funny if the party doesn't die because you spent all your SP on nearly dead mobs.

One exception to the Buff rule is short duration/ often recast buffs. Wizards hate these because they are a constant drain on their SP. A Sorcerer has a greater SP pool - it also gives the party a feeling that you are contributing while you carefully husband your SP to the big nuking opportunity (Examples are Haste, Stoneskin etc)