Sorcs and playing blind

Myrr

Ive been a long time fan of DnD and have had the BG series for years but have a bad case of the rerolls during most of my time with the game. having recently (and finally) beaten bg:ee , im considering starting a sorcerer and taking him all the way trough the series. my question is how bad of an idea is it to run blind through the whole series with that class? considering you can't ( legaly anyways) respec your spells?

Heindrich

I personally wouldn't recommend it, because if you are playing blind, it's hard to plan out a magical strategy from the beginning, and you cannot rectify any mistakes made like with a mage.

At the very least I'd recommend that you have another dedicated arcane caster in the party (maybe Neera) so you can experiment with as many spells as possible, and plug any gaps you might have left with your sorcerer spell selection.

If you do go ahead, this thread contains some good advice.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/28439/sorcerer-guide-for-starting-bg2/p1

But remember that it is just advice. I think a huge part of the fun is developing your own strategies and magic style.

This is good too, though not specific to sorcerers.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/29061/how-to-use-a-mage-sorc-effectively/p1

Myrr

i was planning on playin it similar to how i've played sorc in DnD( tht being raging torrential damage cannons)

Heindrich

Well if you are a D&D veteran, it won't be as bad as a total beginner to the game and setting like me when I made my first blind playthrough.

And Sorcerers really are powerhouses, and certainly up there as one of the most powerful characters you can use. And of all the spellcasters, the sorcerer is the most capable of being an 'arcane cannon'.

It is not the most efficient arcane strategy, but then the game does not demand absolute efficiency to win, which I think is great. I do still recommend having a second arcane caster though, particularly for BG 2, where magic dominates most of the tough battles, and missing a few specific spells can be problematic.

Myrr

i guess the term "Blind" is misleading. i mean it in the sense that im not going to have experience with bg2s high level spells and magic encounters. im more of a role player than a power gamer anyways. but my main fear is investing so much time into something that may eventually become a flop

Heindrich

A sorcerer will never be a flop.

Unless you picked like the worst spell selection possible "Infravision sounds amazing!", then a sorcerer is always going to be a powerhouse.

Myrr

ive decided to run a F/M instead. to get a better understanding of my play style and the spell system. i want a better understanding to create a true " arcane cannon"

golingarf

That's probably wise. My experience with PnP magic was radically different from Baldur's Gate. (But my experience with PnP was also that sorcerers were pretty lousy, and all of my players quit them before figuring out how to make them work.)

Skaffen

Actually from a tactical pov a sorc is much better suited to a blind run since you

a) are much more flexible to cast depending on the circumstances - no need to memorize those fire spells because you know that trolls are coming etc.

b) you are not restricted in choosing your spells by sometimes really hard to find scrolls.

The difficulty is the strategic part: which spells to chose. But again with a bit of study of the spell descriptions and planning ahead it's difficult to fully ruin the character. As long as you skip complete duds (no, sleep will not be useful in BG2, nor will Monster Summoning I) and take a mix of offensive & utility spells at each spell level you'll be fine. Defensive except for Stoneskin is optional IMHO unless you play SCS which I would certainly NOT reccomend

I think the only "must have" spell you will probably miss is Breach and True Seeing. Otherwise if you go with Classics like Magic Missile, Acid Arrow, Skull Trap (better than Fireball), Stoneskin, ... you will be fine. Take Melfs Minute Meteors as one of your thirds, it's awesome and will be able to hit any enemy in the game.

Prioritize on spells that scale well (e.g. Animate Dead), have a saving throw penalty (e.g. Slow, Chaos), are party friendly (e.g. Glitterdust, Horrid Wilting) and are always useful no matter what the enemy (e.g. Stoneskin, Improved Haste). Also you will get so many high level spells that even a few low level spells that shine in the beginning but are not so good later on don't matter in the big picture (e.g. Spider Summoning)

You can always have a second caster in the party to cover those few situations where you must have something.

The only downside in playing a sorc is that you get completely spoiled and will find it difficult to play a normal mage afterwards with all that memorization hassle and half of your spells not cast at the end of the day

Myrr

Heindrich said:

A sorcerer will never be a flop.

Unless you picked like the worst spell selection possible "Infravision sounds amazing!", then a sorcerer is always going to be a powerhouse.

all i could think of was rolling an elf sorc and picking infravision " i can see!!!!!!" lmfao

Myrr

golingarf said:

That's probably wise. My experience with PnP magic was radically different from Baldur's Gate. (But my experience with PnP was also that sorcerers were pretty lousy, and all of my players quit them before figuring out how to make them work.)

i found sorcs to be power houses in PnP. what edition are we speaking of?

Myrr

Skaffen said:

Actually from a tactical pov a sorc is much better suited to a blind run since you

a) are much more flexible to cast depending on the circumstances - no need to memorize those fire spells because you know that trolls are coming etc.

b) you are not restricted in choosing your spells by sometimes really hard to find scrolls.

The difficulty is the strategic part: which spells to chose. But again with a bit of study of the spell descriptions and planning ahead it's difficult to fully ruin the character. As long as you skip complete duds (no, sleep will not be useful in BG2, nor will Monster Summoning I) and take a mix of offensive & utility spells at each spell level you'll be fine. Defensive except for Stoneskin is optionsl IMHO unless you play SCS which I would certainly NOT reccomend

I think the only "must have" spell you will probably miss is Breach anf True Seeing. Otherwise if you go with Classics like Magic Missile, Acid Arrow, Skull Trap (better than Fireball), Stoneskin, ... you will be fine. Take Melfs Minute Meteors as one of your thirds, it's awesome and will be able to hit any enemy in the game.

Prioritize on spells that scale well (e.g. Animate Dead), have a saving throw penalty (e.g. Slow, Chaos), are party friendly (e.g. Glitterdust, Horrid Wilting) and are always useful no matter what the enemy (e.g. Stoneskin, Improved Haste). Also you will get so many high level spells that even a few low level spells that shine in the beginning but are not so good later on don't matter in the big picture (e.g. Spider Summoning)

You can always have a second caster in the party to cover those few situations where you must have something.

The only downside in playing a sorc is that you get completely spoiled and will find it difficult to play a normal mage afterwards with all that memorization hassle and half of your spells not cast at the end of the day

originaly i was gonna try out the Dragon Disciple ( im aware it differs greatly from PnP) for an interesting CN roleplay.

wizzywazzo

My advice to a new player who wants to play a sorcerer is to go for it! I have played the class too exhaustion and at times I have been to concerned about picking the right spells to handle everything and still be a power gaming boss. I would not recommend being concerned with picking the "right spells", I would suggest picking spells that would fit whatever style you want from a RP perspective. For example if you want study the dark arts of necromancy- pick up most of the necromancy spells even if that means not taking some of the better direct damage spells or cheesy stuff. And just roll with it!

SirK8

wizzywazzo said:

My advice to a new player who wants to play a sorcerer is to go for it! I have played the class too exhaustion and at times I have been to concerned about picking the right spells to handle everything and still be a power gaming boss. I would not recommend being concerned with picking the "right spells", I would suggest picking spells that would fit whatever style you want from a RP perspective. For example if you want study the dark arts of necromancy- pick up most of the necromancy spells even if that means not taking some of the better direct damage spells or cheesy stuff. And just roll with it!

I fully agree with this advice. Playing through for the first time you should not worry about things like that. Just play the character you want to play and make your choices based on that instead of meta-game knowledge. You can have 5 other members in your party and that is more than sufficient to make up for any shortcomings you might have. Not having exactly the right spells/equipment, etc can lead to fun and present a challenge where there might not be one otherwise (this is a good thing).

If you are playing a solo run, that might be different since you would only have yourself.

abacus

wizzywazzo said:

My advice to a new player who wants to play a sorcerer is to go for it! I have played the class too exhaustion and at times I have been to concerned about picking the right spells to handle everything and still be a power gaming boss. I would not recommend being concerned with picking the "right spells", I would suggest picking spells that would fit whatever style you want from a RP perspective. For example if you want study the dark arts of necromancy- pick up most of the necromancy spells even if that means not taking some of the better direct damage spells or cheesy stuff. And just roll with it!

I think you've just inspired my next run!
A sorcerer whose abilities flow from the forces of death.

Restrictions:
~Cannot select spells from any other school until all Necromancy spells for that particular level are taken.
~Cannot select any spells from opposition school (Illusion).

I'd expect the first restriction to actually hurt more than the latter.. Being forced to wait for Stoneskins/True Sight/Web/etc will be quite tricky... Although so will the loss of Imp.Invis/Mirror Image/Simulacrum.