5th Level Sorcerer Spell Choices

Mortianna

After a long break, I've taken up another "Insane-no-extra-damage" SoD run with my favorite Necromancer PC and cast of (mostly) evil party members: Viconia, Dorn (I had M'Khiin until I reached Bridgefort), Safana, Edwin, and Baeloth. I've found that I really enjoy having the versatility of having three arcane casters in the party.

Baeloth just reached 10th level and now I'm faced with choosing his first 5th level spell. In the past, I've chosen Cloudkill as his first spell, and Lower Resistance for his second (which I think is vital later on in the game). However, from my previous run, I found that Lower Resistance could have come in handy at least a couple of times if I had taken it first, so I'm considering doing that this time around. As for Cloudkill, I can think of no other spell that would be more useful, given its recurring damage and insta-kill for lower-level mobs.

So my question is, which 5th level spells do you choose for your PC sorcerer or Baeloth? Why?

Mush_Mush

Hm well for effective powerful spells I'd say:

Cloudkill
Breach
Animate Dead
Lower Resistance
Sunfire

Spell Immunity is also good but more so for solo and I've always had a fondness for Cone of Cold but not overly party friendly. Chaos is not bad either especially when used with malison.

It's tough to decide which order to take them as they are all very useful in a variety of situations. Kinda depends on what you can compensate for with other party members.

Animate dead can wait till you get decent level s. warriors and lower resistance would most likely be mid choice too I'd probly go for cloudkill first. Breach is also a godsend but if you have that on a mage that can wait.

Sunfire is loads of fun too although annoyingly susceptable to MR now still good though especially when used in conjunction with contingencies or alacrity. Also casting mislead and nuking a room is a "blast."

Iglosnof

Feeblemind is ridiculously powerful, I always take it on my sorcerer. Doom + greater malison + feeblemind is the most powerful disable in the game that I can think of. Once a target is feebleminded they're practically done for. Liches are immune to it but I'm pretty sure almost no one else is.

jinxed75

Iglosnof said:

Feeblemind is ridiculously powerful, I always take it on my sorcerer. Doom + greater malison + feeblemind is the most powerful disable in the game that I can think of. Once a target is feebleminded they're practically done for. Liches are immune to it but I'm pretty sure almost no one else is.

Chaos works against groups and comes with -4 save.

Iglosnof

Yea chaos is in my opinion also very powerful and I'd certainly take it instead of Cloudkill. But feeblemind kills bosses.

Mush_Mush

Cloudkll and Chaos have different uses but both are pretty powerful spells. Chaos is best when you're already in the mix and can't use AoE dmg spells. Cloudkill is more of a trap/nuke from afar type spell - requires a little more micro.

This was about 5th level spells but personally for crowd control I prefer...

Greater Malison -> Emotion Hopelessness -> Popcorn

Mortianna

@Iglosnof I ended up picking Feeblemind and it's made a noticeable difference in taking out more dangerous enemies in some of the battles so far. It's nice having the ability to cast it again if it doesn't work the first time, as opposed to my PC or Edwin only getting one try (since I usually only have them memorize one to make room for other 5th level spells).

JuliusBorisov

Interesting;)

These are the spells I now tend to take:

Spell Immunity
Spell Shield
Breach
Chaos
Lower Resistance

I guess that is the choice for a "surviver sorcerer"

alceryes

I wouldn't get animate dead.
Better to use Viconia's 3rd level divine spell slot than an arcane caster's 5th level.

Mortianna

@alceryes Although the Skeleton Warriors you can summon at 11th level are significantly better than those at 7th. Since clerics can only reach 10th level in SoD, choosing Animate Dead for a sorcerer's first 5th level spell might not be that bad.

alceryes

@Mortianna Well, if you want to go for the 'top shelf' stuff, sure

caves_of_steel

having bg 2 and tdb in mind (so this only applies to charname) i'd say there are two obvious pricks and some debatble ones:
you should under any circumstances take:
1. Breach
if you dont take breach mages are just to hard to hit breach is THE most self explenatory pick on 5th .
2. lower resitance
in tdb everybody and their mom has somekind of magic res

optional picks:
1. Animate death
first really useful summon you get your hands on. since it also is a 3rd clecric spell you dont have to take it if you rely on your clerics to do it for you
2. sunfire
good spell but gets a bit lacluster in the highest levels also immunity to fire is arround
3. spell immunity
very good for solo runs still a good pick with groups but nothing too fancy
4. Chaos
works a long time in soa but dont expect it to do anything on legacy of bhaal or in tob
5. shadow door
i like it but in soa it becomes useless when you get your hands on the staff of the magister
6. cone of cold
weaker than sunfire but different creatures resist it. overall i think sunfire is the better aoe dmg
7. Spell shild
ah well i see potential uses but somehow i didnt really bother to use it that much

rest of 5th doesnt really seem worth much
cloudkill would be good but you find so many wands in soa that you dont really need to pick it up yourself
feeblemind sounds cool but if you want to take one enemy out of the game i'd go with 1st lvl spook

Grond0

Your choice should reflect your own preferences and game play. I see breach being heavily recommended here and it's a reasonable choice for a party, but I normally play solo and don't find it worthwhile. Conversely animate dead would normally be my first pick, although that spell is not as useful in EE as vanilla.

Cloudkill can kill huge numbers of enemies without you using any other aggressive spells, but you may find that a cheesy or uninteresting way to play.

Of other spells, no-one has mentioned protection from normal weapons - I wouldn't normally take it, but it can be surprisingly useful for a solo player. Other picks that are perfectly decent are hold monster and domination - if you've experimented much with nymphs summoned by your druid / shaman you will have seen what havoc those spells can cause to groups of enemies. For RP purposes I've sometimes also gone for protection from acid and / or electricity. However, they are rarely needed and if you don't object to using items taking them as a spell isn't worth it.

Gallowglass

JuliusBorisov said:

These are the spells I now tend to take:

Spell Immunity
Spell Shield
Breach
Chaos
Lower Resistance

I heartily agree: that's exactly the same as my own list for a general-purpose Sorcerer.