Sorcerer experts get in this thread
Neeber
Member Posts: 33
So i've been thinking of doing a sorcerer play through, never tried it before. Obviously there are spells like mirror image, stone skin and the like, but anyone got a good grip on the can't miss spells/strategies. Often heard you have to have everything planned out when you start, so i was hoping some of you sorcerer gurus could give a quick synopsis of styles and stragtegies that have been effective for you
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When I create a sorcerer I usually go with the following spells at level 1:
Blindness
Find Familiar
Then I add Chromatic Orb or Magic Missile at level 3, when they start being more useful.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/466283
Details on spell progression you find here
http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Progression_Charts#Sorcerer
I would't go for DD, I don't think the increased HP and breath weapon are worth the loss of a horrid wilting and a niner. The con increase is more or less worthless since any score above 16 doesn't give HP.
Find Familiar isn't useful at all for a Sorc. You would be better off waiting to find or buy a scroll with that spell as it is a one off casting spell (unless the familiar dies) for the most part and thus isn't a good idea to waste a spell slot on it.
but as Vanilla is ridiculously powerful I wouldn't worry to much about it if u pick the DD
personally I wouldn't bother taking Find familiar either and wait to cast it of a scroll
If that's not something you're interested in, though, I would recommend Protection From Evil, Armor, or one of the other protective Level 1 spells. I go with Find Familiar because it yields bonus hit points, but a boost to AC is probably just as useful.
I don't really use find familiar, and sense you can only use it once, so if I use it I usually go with a scroll. I usually pick blindness and sleep first, for bg1, you can get blinded enemies with missile weapons if, you stand far away, because they don't attack. Next I'd pick magic missile, then this next spell can pretty much be whatever you want. shield, spook, charm person, friends, or magic missile if you want that earlier. then i pick magic missile, and then identify. people will argue with identify on a sorcerer, but in bg1 with ever memory its really great, no one else has to memorize it, and its one of the very few lvl one spells you that use for the rest of the game.
I'll post a spell chart I made in another thread here, but the only really good advice I can give for a sorcerer is that if you have a perry, it doest really matter. Pick the interesting, fun spells, read the descriptions fully, and you should be set. Don't worry about it, just play the game.
found it!
Level 1:
Magic missile (sleep if bg1)
Blindness
Armor/whatever
Chromatic orb/magic missile if bg1
Identify
Level 2:
Mirror image
Glitter dust
Horror
Acid arrow
Knock, only if solo. Blur if not.
Level 3:
Skull trap (not fireball)
Dispel magic
Ghost armor
Slow
Fire arrow, or lightning bolt maybe. Not much else left for lvl 3.
Level 4:
Stoneskin
Spiderspawn
Fireshield, red or blue.
Emotion: hopelessness
Greater malison
Level 5:
Sunfire if slolo, breech if not.
Lower resistance
Breech, sunfire if not solo
Cone of cold
Chaos, maybe spell turning. list starts to get a bit plastic from here.
Level 6:
Death spell
chain lightning
Improved haste
Invisible stalker
Disintegrate or flesh to stone, have some powermagey fun. ;P
Level 7:
Mordi's sword
Finger of death
Delayed blast fireball
Power word, stun
Mass invisibility, or ruby ray of reversal
Level 8:
Horrid wilting
Pierce shield
Power word, blind
Simulacrum
Symbol, stun
Level 9:
Time stop
Shapechange
Wish
Spell trap
Imprisonment
Level 10:
Improved alacrity
Summon planetar
Dragons breath
Level 10 "spells" are not spells, but high level abilities, and I'm not sure how many you get, but these are the useful ones.
Pierce Shield is better for normal mages, sorcerers can benefit more from Ruby Ray of Reversal + Breach.
I'm finishing up a solo Dragon Disciple run through right now. It was a long journey but a major learning experience.
I learned that melf's minute meteors are awesome. death spell is awesome.
I use chromatic orb all the way to ToB.
As a dragon disciple, you can use fire and stand in it and take little or no damage. In BG1 you need a ring of fire protection but later your immunity is naturally 100%. For hard battles I've dropped 5 incendiary clouds all around me and stood in the middle launching the firetooth dagger at people (they run after me but never get to me).
Your fire breath will level hordes of low-level monsters early. Use it!
summon skeletons are pretty good because they get stronger as you level. same with spiders. I stay away from Monster summoning 1, 2, and 3. Go instead with invisible stalkers, skeletons, and spiders. The other great thing about skeletons, they have no brains, so the pesky illithid have a real hard time against them.
cloudkills!
I could talk all day but this general strategies got me through
Start (Level 7):
Lv1: Magic Missiles, Blindness, Protection from Evil, Shield, Chromatic Orb
Lv2: Mirror Images, Knock, Web
Lv3: Skull Trap, MM Meteors
Level 8: Spider Spawn(!)
Level 9: M Acid Arrows, Slow, Stoneskin
Level 10: Sunfire (may change in BG2EE since it no longer bypasses MR)
Level 11: Resist Fear, Remove Magic, Greater Malison, Spell Immunity
Level 12: Death Fog(!)
Level 13: Minor Sequencer, Lower Resistance, Protection from Magical Weapon
Level 14: Mordy Sword
Level 15: Animate Dead, True Sight, Spell Sequencer
Level 16: Spell Trigger(!)
Level 17: Ruby Ray of Reversal, Horrid Wilting
Level 18: Chain Contingency
Level 19: Power Word Blind, Timestop
Level 20: Shapechange
Fillers:
Level 21: Pierce Magic
Level 22: Flame Arrows, Project Image
Level 23: Farsight, Incendiary Cloud
Level 25: Wish
Level 28: Breach
Level 30: Contingency
Level 31: Limited Wish
Combos:
-Web+Spider Spawn+Missile Weapons
-Greater Malison+Minor Sequencer: 2x Blindness
-Spell Sequencer: 3x Skull Trap
-Spell Trigger: 3x Lower Resistance
-Spell Trigger: 3x Sunfire
-Chain Contingency: 3x Horrid Wilting + Spell Trigger: 3x Lower Resistance
Chain Contingency has a delay in activation, so you can use the Spell Trigger: 3x Lower Resistance to target 1 foe first. It's a guarantee kill until ToB.
-Timestop+Shapechange
Stoneskin, prot from magic weapons, mirror image= invincible, get each of these as soon as you can. If you pick up polymorph self, the mustard jelly is immune to almost everything.
Sleep is the best spell for bg1 I usually take it even though it's useless in bg2.
make sure you get mirror image and Melfs acid arrow (this is really effective against demons at high levels) at level 2
Death spell great for awhile, and remains good late game as kills all summons without a save
If your soloing, sunfire is fine otherwise I don't bother as it hurts party members. Plus it doesn't ignore MR anymore as noted above.
Don't bother with any of the armor or shield spells, you can get an amulet which casts shield for you, plus the robe of archmagi eliminates the need for them.
Melfs meteors is awesome so is skull trap and horrid wilting and chain contingency. Magic middle and chromatic orb are great. The orb will petrify opponents at high level.
Lower resistance is a must.
I'd avoid minor sequencer, it's fun and useful for awhile, it it's not good at high levels and there are a bunch of other spells you should take at that level instead. I wouldn't pick up familiar either, just cast from the scroll you find.
That's about all I use.
generally speaking : save or else spells suck because they scale very poorly. Summons are very strong and mandatory if you plan solo.
Actually there is very few spells which i really need for a play-through (i play only solo)
My list is very close to bbear's
level 1 : magic missile is the only mandatory choice.
For fillers : Chromatic orb (save or die, trolls), spook (seldom used), shield, sleep (ok for 1st game)
level 2 : not picking web is a crime. with web, you can walk through the first game and early-mid BG2.
resist fear/invisibility and mirror image are also pretty much mandatory if solo.
For the last pick i take knock
level 3 : MMM is godly for BG1, early BG2. Don't miss it.
I also take haste (summons) and skull trap (good damage).
Fillers (never used) : flame arrow, remove magic
level 4 : stoneskin obviously. Spiderspawn is great with web. Improve invis is one of the easiest way to kill mages.
Fillers : minor sequencer (ok), great malison (not used)
level 5 : spell immunity is mandatory (Improve invis/SI divinition kills most mages). I also take animate dead (very strong summons). Lower resist is good for dragons.
Fillers : sunfire (not great since it does not bypass MR), chaos or breach (not used anyway)
level 6 : i prefer death spell to death fog. Both are good. true sight and prot from magical weapons are obvious choices.
Filler : contigency (nice choice) mislead (not really used)
level 7 : project image is godly to avoid resting but not mandatory. Mordy sword is a very good summon.
Fillers : Ruby of reversal and spell sequencer can be handy, limited wish (boderline useless)
level 8 : horrid witling is THE damage spell.
The rest is mostly fillers : protection from energy and spell triger are nice ones. for the 4th one take whatever you want (power word blind)
level 9 : timestop, the rest is not needed
Fillers (all very good spells) : chain contigency (not needed but good fun factor), shapechange (fun factor), wish (no need to rest anymore)
Basically you can play that way :
BG1 : either do basilisks or use sleep/wands to get to level 4. With invisibility you can pick your fights (use wands mostly). From level 6 2xweb + MMM destroys everything in the game (add spiderspawn from level 9)
Early BG2 : i use mostly MMM + summons (spiders, skellies) + web (if spiders). Improve invis/spell immunity for mages.
At level 16, i take horrid witling and the the game is almost finished
It is completely finished at 18 with timestop and improved alacrity.
With SCS melf's are nerfed down to a +2 weapon so I don't think they'll work.
Or is it best to just go invisible and ignore them, considering the effort involved.
I think mordy sword hits as +4 and is invulnerable to them so it should work marvelously(i have not tested it in a while though)
Clay golem however are best avoided using invis sincve they are a major pain to kill
lol. From now on this feat will come first when I extol your merits !
Anyway I have been playing a sorcerer in my multiplayer game, and I love the fluff for the character. But it's really frustrating me how slowly he levels up. He got lv3 spells after a dual-classed Imoen!
Also everybody says Melf's Minute Meteors are amazing... and yes they are very good... but I am really struggling to hit anything remotely tough. MMMs just don't seem as good on a sorcerer compared to the F/M Charname of my first playthrough. I suppose this has something to do with THAC0 and Dex, which was 17/18 for F/M, 14 for my sorcerer.
Oh yeah... and with 19 hp, my lv7 sorcerer died in the last session to a single salvo from a Winter Wolf, which was nowhere near him! T_T
As for your 19 hp, this is really poor. Actually the HP pool of a sorceror is not that bad :
- at level 10 -> 25 average
- familiar gives 12 more
- 16 CON gives 20 more
Total 57. More than enough to survive most direct hits (save for some spells or dragon spells)
The thing is a sorceror does not care about int at all. Therefore it is quite easy to pump dex and con which are the only 2 useful stats for them (+ wisdom if you want to use wish). But i guess you have gimp stats for RP purpose, so it's fine by me.