Opinions on my sorcerer build...
Hi Guys,
Second question here. I realise I'm jumping in at the deep end, but also I like doing that so please don't flame me
In parallel with my first "good" play through of baldurs gate 2, I am sort of "following in my own footsteps" with a solo chaotic evil sorcerer play through. That, or I might recruit Edwin only and then fill everyones face with fireballs. Two evil mages killing anything that dares to insult me seems like a good fun way to play.
I realise that what I am doing will start out very tricky, I am no stranger to the tactics though (Albeit from other games)
My initial wish for this play through was to do a "blaster mage" style play through. Someone that blows everything up with fireballs or similar, largely before the target even realises the mage is there. another game I played this style, once you levelled enough you could use a few spells that basically allowed you to run faster than everything in the game, and have an AOE attack that really hurt everything with fire; And this is what I'm largely going for here.
However, looking around the internet, there seems to be many different opinions on how you should build a solo sorcerer, and not many agree. Most of them however, do not agree with how I have built my character, and I worry that I have gimped my character more or less before I've begun.
So far I have escaped the Dungeon, met with the shadow thieves, and killed everything in the back of the copper coronet on my own (I used Imoen during the dungeon but I don't think you can get away from that can you?)
I am level 10 now shortly after coming out of the dungeon (Already higher than my 5-in-a-party game that i've been playing for about 20 hours!!) and my spell list is as follows:
Level 1:
-Charm Person
-Magic Missile
-Chromatic Orb
-Shield
-Sleep
Level 2:
-Horror
-Melf's Acid Arrow
-Web
-Mirror Image
Level 3:
-Fireball
-Haste
-Skull Trap
Level 4:
-Greater Malision (helps me milk those stuns from my chromatic orbs and holds from my webs)
-Minor Sequencer
Level 5:
-Spell Immunity
My engagement tactic consists generally of either skull trapping on sight, fireballing from around a corner, or webbing and fireballing groups of enemies. For lower level "cannon fodder" stuff I use sleep/horror and then hit them with my quarterstaff or sling. Charm person is quite handy but doesn't tend to work will with my AOE style.
My questions are as follows:
1. Is Haste necessary? Its very handy for running away and setting up fireballs / defensive webs; However most of the solo sorcerer builds I seem to see have more summoning spells, which would make haste a great deal more useful on a summoned party.
2. Leading on from this. Is playing a TRUE solo sorcerer viable? (i.e no summons)
3.I feel like I made a mistake not taking knock at level 1. Opinions?
4. Lots of builds i see list protection from evil; Have I made a mistake not taking this? Example http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20764 post #3 by earl grey.
5. Should I just re-roll a new character with a new spell list and do you think Earl Grey's is a good list if I chose to do that?
6. Can I change my spells somehow? I don't like to "cheat" but for the purposes of not having to re-play the dungeon on a new character I'm happy to do it once. I'm playing BG2:EE bought through steam on Mac OS X.
Thanks in advance guys!
Second question here. I realise I'm jumping in at the deep end, but also I like doing that so please don't flame me
In parallel with my first "good" play through of baldurs gate 2, I am sort of "following in my own footsteps" with a solo chaotic evil sorcerer play through. That, or I might recruit Edwin only and then fill everyones face with fireballs. Two evil mages killing anything that dares to insult me seems like a good fun way to play.
I realise that what I am doing will start out very tricky, I am no stranger to the tactics though (Albeit from other games)
My initial wish for this play through was to do a "blaster mage" style play through. Someone that blows everything up with fireballs or similar, largely before the target even realises the mage is there. another game I played this style, once you levelled enough you could use a few spells that basically allowed you to run faster than everything in the game, and have an AOE attack that really hurt everything with fire; And this is what I'm largely going for here.
However, looking around the internet, there seems to be many different opinions on how you should build a solo sorcerer, and not many agree. Most of them however, do not agree with how I have built my character, and I worry that I have gimped my character more or less before I've begun.
So far I have escaped the Dungeon, met with the shadow thieves, and killed everything in the back of the copper coronet on my own (I used Imoen during the dungeon but I don't think you can get away from that can you?)
I am level 10 now shortly after coming out of the dungeon (Already higher than my 5-in-a-party game that i've been playing for about 20 hours!!) and my spell list is as follows:
Level 1:
-Charm Person
-Magic Missile
-Chromatic Orb
-Shield
-Sleep
Level 2:
-Horror
-Melf's Acid Arrow
-Web
-Mirror Image
Level 3:
-Fireball
-Haste
-Skull Trap
Level 4:
-Greater Malision (helps me milk those stuns from my chromatic orbs and holds from my webs)
-Minor Sequencer
Level 5:
-Spell Immunity
My engagement tactic consists generally of either skull trapping on sight, fireballing from around a corner, or webbing and fireballing groups of enemies. For lower level "cannon fodder" stuff I use sleep/horror and then hit them with my quarterstaff or sling. Charm person is quite handy but doesn't tend to work will with my AOE style.
My questions are as follows:
1. Is Haste necessary? Its very handy for running away and setting up fireballs / defensive webs; However most of the solo sorcerer builds I seem to see have more summoning spells, which would make haste a great deal more useful on a summoned party.
2. Leading on from this. Is playing a TRUE solo sorcerer viable? (i.e no summons)
3.I feel like I made a mistake not taking knock at level 1. Opinions?
4. Lots of builds i see list protection from evil; Have I made a mistake not taking this? Example http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20764 post #3 by earl grey.
5. Should I just re-roll a new character with a new spell list and do you think Earl Grey's is a good list if I chose to do that?
6. Can I change my spells somehow? I don't like to "cheat" but for the purposes of not having to re-play the dungeon on a new character I'm happy to do it once. I'm playing BG2:EE bought through steam on Mac OS X.
Thanks in advance guys!
3
Comments
2- Yes it is. A few mordenkainen swords are always good to have... ah the sound of the mordy slicing echoing in the dark.
3- Knock is lvl2 and you can still buy scrolls to open the few interesting doors/containers.
4- There is a staff to help you get the protection. Do you want to summon/gate a demon ?
5- No, that sounds ok (there is no "best build" anyway. You have to pay great attention to your high level spells though.
6- EEKeeper is your friend.
Playing a solo Sorcerer without summons is viable but it's a pain - consider the Illithids and the Drow. And the fact that you don't have area lower resistance spell
I take it when an image casts a spell it doesn't take it out of your own "spell pool"? If this is the case, do your clones get your current spell pool upon spawning? E.g if I use project image when i have no level 1 spells left, I assume my image will have none either?
In line with your question on the demons...no probably not. I just want this play through to be me myself and I
I'll look up EEKeeper, thanks very much.
Planetar is a level 10 spell according to what I can find? It'll be a while until I get those!
Also when you refer to the Illithids and the Drow, bear in mind I've not seen them yet haha. I don't know what to expect there.
Ok, joking aside - Planetar is a level 10 spell but you are soloing so you will get there quickly. If you do every bigger quest in Chapter 2, you can get it by Underdark I think.
HLA is the acronym for High Level Ability = level 10 spells (Planetar, Dragon's Breath, Improved Alacrity etc.)
Drow and Illithids as well as Golems (those you will encounter much sooner) have very high or 100% in some cases magic resistance. Your tactic will do nothing to them. You will have to employ Lower Resistance spell but it's a single target and therefore might be a pain when fighting 4 Illithids at once.
Golems might be even a bigger problem, because you encounter them much sooner.
Of course you can always...avoid them. Improved Invisibility will help you a lot.
There are three other HLAS which increase the number of spells you can cast per day. You will get them first. Fireball is a spell I never select because there are many wands which do the same job.
Yes project image will cast its own spells (a replication of your current catalog). Simulacrum is a bit different, the image can "see", physically attack but it is created with a level lower than yours (60% of your experience IIRC).
If you do not use summons then you are likely to use spells from the necromancy school. You may also abuse the polymorph abilities. Spells based on saving throws will become less and less effective as you progress through the game.
Playing a sorcerer is a nice idea. However if you never developed a sorcerer before, perhaps it is better to start a game with a sorcerer AND a party. Just to get used to the mechanics and options.
After your first run, you will quickly come to the conclusion that a solo sorcerer requires a more challenging game and you are likely to install mods. Stratagems/SCS is the king's choice in this area.
True, they use the same pool as 9th level spells but since you start HLA when you reach level 18 and that's when you get only 9th level spell, it hardly matters in the beginning. One hardly needs 3 uses of just time stop.
With one major exception, the first three lvl 9 spells come very quickly : lvl 18 - 19 - 20. You will quickly have another lvl 9 spell in your catalog (assuming you picked time stop first).
Furthermore time stop is something I rarely cast while playing a solo sorcerer (battle with several major and mod enhanced enemies).
I've swapped some spells now, as I wanted knock and protection from evil.
My list is now:
Level 1:
- Magic Missile
- Identify
- Friends
- Protection From Evil
- Spook
Level 2:
- Mirror Image
- Knock
- Web
9 Melf's Acid Arrow
Level 3:
- Melf's Minute Meteors
- Skull Trap
9 Haste
Level 4:
8 Improved invisibility
9 Stoneskin
I won't be modifying it again though, and I haven't touched anything else about my character. Mobs of people are tricky (Just did the slaver quest) but a quick horror, web and skull trap combo works wonders.
Quick question - is Skull trap triggering really broken or do i just misunderstand it? It seems to trigger randomly.
Nevertheless if you really want to have a nice experience let's not spoil the entire game for you.
I don't understand wish, it seems to be far too random to be useful?
Limited wish is required to trigger an "easter egg" quest, therefore keep/buy a scroll for that purpose.
You may want chromatic orb back, you can get some cheap kills with chromatic orb, after a greater malison, ofcourse.
Your sorc looks fine, not every sorc needs to be the exact carbon copy of each other. There are good spells and bad spells to pick, but players tend to evolve their own style of gameplay they enjoy. And that's the most important thing.
I was planning to play a random sorc, who picks up spells by rolling a dice at every level up. I chickened out in bg1. The thought of rolling badly and getting crap like clairvoyance or contagion really scared me.
very few (none?) spells are mandatory anyway
skull trap will get extremely strong once you have some way to get immune to magical damage. Then you will not have to worry about targeting and triggering issues.
A sorc will no summon will be significantly harder at lower levels (until 16) but remains viable.