Following @Fardragon's good point, it might not be a bad idea to have a tip somewhere (in the manual or tutorial, or during character creation) advising new players to avoid Sorcerer until they've played through the game with a Mage in their party, so as to learn more about the spells. Getting it all horribly wrong on a first playthrough can be so discouraging that some players never try again, and there's probably more danger of that with Sorcerer than any other class.
Making sure you take Blindness and Sleep instead of Find Familiar and Magic Missile is important.
As your initial selection at character creation, that's sensible advice. But Magic Missile is a pretty good choice for a Sorcerer after s/he's got a few levels - we shouldn't leave newbies reading this with the impression that Sorcerers should never learn Magic Missile at all. Unlike Find Familiar, which of course they should never learn.
Agreed on all counts! Sorcerors are definitely not newb-friendly, and there's plenty of room for pitfalls if you don't know the spells. Imagine, for example, not taking Breach or Stoneskin through simply not thinking them useful!
Magic Missile should be taken at level 3 at the latest to be honest. It's not useful at level 1, since Imoen starts with a Wand of Magic Missile, but I still tend to take it anyway. My sorceror can do exactly nothing at that level, so at least being able to do some damage is better than nothing.
Find familiar is still pretty useful at level 1. It's a huge boost in hitpoints, plus the familiar itself is pretty decent in combat for a while.
It's really not that easy finding a scroll of Find Familiar.
The problem with taking Find Familiar is that you only ever have to cast it ONCE. It makes no sense whatsoever to take up one of your 2 1st-level spell slots with this spell, which you would only ever cast once. Then you are stuck with a spell slot that you never use.
Rather than the hitpoints from Find Familiar, the ability to reduce your chance of getting hit, through spells such as Shield or Armor, or indirectly through Sleep, Spook, or Charm Person, seems much more useful to me.
It's really not that easy finding a scroll of Find Familiar.
So far as I'm aware, there is precisely one scroll of Find Familiar in the whole game.
You get it from Nimbul, the assassin who tries to kill you early in Chapter 3.
But that's fine, you should only need it once in the whole game, so you wait until you've got that scroll and then cast it from the scroll rather than learning it.
A Sorcerer can learn only a few spells, but his strength is being able to cast those few spells lots of times. Probably hundreds of times by the end of the game. Using up one of his precious learning slots for a spell he'll use only once is depriving him of the chance to cast something else hundreds of times. It can't ever make sense for a Sorcerer to learn Find Familiar.
Find familiar is still pretty useful at level 1. It's a huge boost in hitpoints, plus the familiar itself is pretty decent in combat for a while.
It's really not that easy finding a scroll of Find Familiar.
The problem with taking Find Familiar is that you only ever have to cast it ONCE. It makes no sense whatsoever to take up one of your 2 1st-level spell slots with this spell, which you would only ever cast once. Then you are stuck with a spell slot that you never use.
Rather than the hitpoints from Find Familiar, the ability to reduce your chance of getting hit, through spells such as Shield or Armor, or indirectly through Sleep, Spook, or Charm Person, seems much more useful to me.
On the whole I would agree, though of those spells you listed I would prioritise Shield and Spook, as these stay useful even into BG2
Sorry about the eight month bump, but I didn't want to make another thread. Anywho, quick question regarding the Slow spell: do enemies still take the -4 penalty when saving against it in EE? It's not listed in the spell desciption, but most sites make reference to the save penalty.
Her CHA is 17, her initial spells were (still are) Sleep (pretty awesome) and Magic Missile,
Sleep is not a good spell for a Sorcerer to have. It's only useful for a short period of time, against low level enemies. So once you get beyond those, the spell will only take up space and have absolutely no effect on your enemies. You need to consider spells that will be useful for the entire game, not just the early parts.
Her CHA is 17, her initial spells were (still are) Sleep (pretty awesome) and Magic Missile,
Sleep is not a good spell for a Sorcerer to have. It's only useful for a short period of time, against low level enemies. So once you get beyond those, the spell will only take up space and have absolutely no effect on your enemies. You need to consider spells that will be useful for the entire game, not just the early parts.
honestly though it doesn't matter that much with first level spells as most of them become obsolete at higher levels anyway aside from magic missile in a spell sequencer for a handy interrupt (that many missiles fired one of them will hit and disrupt casting)
honestly though it doesn't matter that much with first level spells as most of them become obsolete at higher levels anyway aside from magic missile in a spell sequencer for a handy interrupt (that many missiles fired one of them will hit and disrupt casting)
There's enough 1st level spells that remain relevant that you don't need to get stuck with Sleep. Like Reflected Image, Identify, Grease, Chromatic Orb, and of course Magic Missile. Even Shocking Grasp remains useful. While they may not compare to the higher level spells, they don't become completely useless like Sleep does. It's a good spell for regular Mages who can swap out the spells they use later on, but it's not a good choice for a Sorcerer.
Sleep is one of the best starting spell for a sorcerer. It allows you to walk through the early game. As wubble said there is anyway not that much great spells and anyway none of them are of significance at later levels (like sleep):
Reflected Image: useless once you get mirror image. sleep is a much better protection until then Identify: quite useless. Will only save a few thousand golds over the course of the game. Friends is actually a better (not much more) choice to save money Grease: ok but web is much better -> useless quite early Chromatic orb : ok MM: ok Shocking grasp : ???? How does this remain useful? It never is (unless for cheesing with polymorph)
The only spells that keep some usefulness IMO are: spook (-6 to save) MM (interruption) Chromatic orb (killing trolls, lucky insta kill) Shield (Good AC, immunity to MM)
Therefore, choosing sleep does not penalize you later on and is a hugely useful spell early on
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Magic Missile should be taken at level 3 at the latest to be honest. It's not useful at level 1, since Imoen starts with a Wand of Magic Missile, but I still tend to take it anyway. My sorceror can do exactly nothing at that level, so at least being able to do some damage is better than nothing.
It's really not that easy finding a scroll of Find Familiar.
Rather than the hitpoints from Find Familiar, the ability to reduce your chance of getting hit, through spells such as Shield or Armor, or indirectly through Sleep, Spook, or Charm Person, seems much more useful to me.
A Sorcerer can learn only a few spells, but his strength is being able to cast those few spells lots of times. Probably hundreds of times by the end of the game. Using up one of his precious learning slots for a spell he'll use only once is depriving him of the chance to cast something else hundreds of times. It can't ever make sense for a Sorcerer to learn Find Familiar.
I checked the Slow spell in BG:EE (v1.2) with NearInfinity and the -4 penalty to saving throws is still there.
As wubble said there is anyway not that much great spells and anyway none of them are of significance at later levels (like sleep):
Reflected Image: useless once you get mirror image. sleep is a much better protection until then
Identify: quite useless. Will only save a few thousand golds over the course of the game. Friends is actually a better (not much more) choice to save money
Grease: ok but web is much better -> useless quite early
Chromatic orb : ok
MM: ok
Shocking grasp : ???? How does this remain useful? It never is (unless for cheesing with polymorph)
The only spells that keep some usefulness IMO are:
spook (-6 to save)
MM (interruption)
Chromatic orb (killing trolls, lucky insta kill)
Shield (Good AC, immunity to MM)
Therefore, choosing sleep does not penalize you later on and is a hugely useful spell early on