Sorcerer Stat and Proficiences Distribution
nexiros
Member Posts: 5
I rolled a 96 for my Archer yesterday in a few hours. I just rolled another 96 for my Sorcerer in like 2 minutes and was wondering apart from Strength 18, Dexterity 19, how should I distribute the other stats? I so far have it set to Constitution 14, Intelligence 18, Wisdom 18, Charisma 9.
How would each of those (particularly Wis) affect a Sorcerer?
Also, if you could let me know the best proficiences to select first, that would be amazing!
Thanks in advance.
How would each of those (particularly Wis) affect a Sorcerer?
Also, if you could let me know the best proficiences to select first, that would be amazing!
Thanks in advance.
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As for stats...15 con, 15 wisdom, 17 charisma, rest in int. Use all the stat manuals on yourself. (get con and charisma asap), and then steal algernon's cloak for 20 charisma (max usable for shopping).
you want 18 wisdom by the time you hit level 18 (but don't go over, since it's wasted otherwise), so you can cast Wish and not get screwed over..as badly. Int is worthless to a sorcerer...so..shoot for 10+, if you can spare it, just so you don't get messed up by mindflayers later.
(Did some digging, Wish only checks Wisdom, and 18 is the highest amount that affects the responses)
might as well dump it in charisma/strength depending on whether you want another pack horse or a buyer/seller/interacter
11/18/16/15/18/18
I'd cap Strength for carrying capacity, Dex for Dart Thac0, and Wis for Wish. Use the 16s in Int and Con for HP. Low Cha, but Ring of Human Influence is right out of Chateau Irenicus in bg2.
Dart Proficiency for early game BG1. Dagger later (you might not actually use it in BG1, except for meleeing the Greater Wolfwere with the SilverSticker or w/e).
If you want to Wish once you've reached level 9 spells, you'll want 18 wisdom. That means starting at 15 and using tomes to increase stats. Otherwise, the stat is worthless.
16 Constitution is the max a non-warrior can benefit from, unless you want passive natural regeneration at 20+ con. Start at either 16 con, or 15 and use the tome.
With such a high overall stat roll, there's no reason not to have 18 strength and 19 dexterity, and you might as well take 18 charisma as well.
Strength 14
Dexterity 19
Constitution 16
Intelligence 11
Wisdom 18
Charisma 18
I get the impression that this is nexiros's first time playing the game, so I should explain my thinking.
Strength determines how much weight a party member can carry. A Strength score of 16 or more would also improve melee combat, but a sorcerer probably won't be in melee combat enough to make such a high Strength score worthwhile.
A high Dexterity score reduces the chance of getting hit by an enemy and increases the chances of hitting an enemy with missile weapons, so this score should be maximized.
A Constitution of 15 or more gives a character more hit points, but sorcerers (unlike warrior classes) don't get more hit points from a Constitution above 16. Some races (dwarf, gnome, halfling) get a saving throw bonus for every 3½ points of constitution, but that doesn't apply to elves, so a score of 16 is best for an elf sorcerer.
Sorcerers don't have to worry about a spellbook, so for them Intelligence only affects Lore and the chance of dying from a mind flayer's Intelligence Drain. Lore is almost worthless (it's used to determine if a character can identify a magic item without having to use an Identify spell), but an Intelligence of 10 or more will prevent a Lore penalty. Mind flayers are an enemy species in Baldur's Gate 2 who can temporarily drain 5 Intelligence by hitting a character in melee. It's temporary, but multiple hits are cumulative, and if a character's Intelligence gets reduced to 0 they immediately die.
Wisdom determines Lore along with Intelligence, but as previously mentioned Lore is a rather unimportant ability. Other than Lore the only reason for a sorcerer to have a high Wisdom is the Wish spell. Wish is a very powerful spell that summons a genie who will immediately give the sorcerer a choice of five different effects from a list of 37, some good, some bad. High Wisdom increases the chance of getting good choices, with Wisdom 18 needed for the best odds. Note however that Wish is a 9th level spell, so a sorcerer needs to reach 18th level before they can add it to their repertoire, at which point the player has already completed all of BG1 and the greater part of BG2. And while the good choices from Wish can be very good (the party regains all spells and abilities as if they had rested, the party is fully healed, etc.), not everybody considers the spell to be worthwhile because of its randomness. There are also potions that will temporarily set Wisdom to 18.
Charisma affects shop prices (with a Charisma score of 20 or more giving the best results) and sometimes quest rewards, so usually the higher the better. There is an alternative though. The 1st level spell Friends temporarily adds 6 points to the caster's Charisma score, so a sorcerer with that spell can have Charisma 14 and still get the best shop prices. Note that shop prices are determined by the Charisma score of the party leader, so to get the best prices the portrait of the character with the highest Charisma has to be placed on top before talking to the merchant.
BG:EE has several tomes that permanently increase an ability score by 1 (there are three tomes for wisdom and one tome for all the other ability scores), but I don't think a sorcerer with a 96 point total should change their point distribution because of them. In my opinion tomes of Wisdom, Constitution, Strength and probably Intelligence (depends on if the party has a mage or not) are better used on other party members, even if those increases may not be imported to BG2:EE.
@faeriehunter @Madhax @Kushu @mjs @ZanathKariashi
I read your posts gang, I have a slightly different take...where you don't take any ranged proficiencies at all. And quite a low STR-but I'm an advocate of 18 CON minimum for using the Klaw of Kazaroth.
Take:
8 Strength (13 if you intend to use the Friends Spell on a regular basis) - Do Rassad's quest and take the cursed Strength Belt if you want to go to 19 Strength. Otherwise this stat is meaningless, you aren't going to melee and your NPC's can be the pack mules. (Also because there's a story point where you have to choose a stat to lose a point from...you leave things open for STR to be the stat you can dump since items totally replace it)
IN BG2 there are several items that can bump your STR...also there are Gauntlets which will bump you to 18/00 too in BG1.
Don't give your Sorcerer the Strength Tome, give it to a tank. Totally a waste to keep it to yourself! Plus there's a STR spell if you really need it at times!
18 Dexterity (19 if Elf) - Only give the DEX tome to him IF he's an elf with 19...bumping to 20 at that point will give you an AC bonus. Otherwise find someone else who needs it for tanking.
18 Constitution (17 if Elf) - So you when you use the Klaw of Kazaroth you don't lose HP bonus with the -2 Con from the curse. (Leave the CON Tome to someone else who's tanking for you if you're human, take it and bump up to 18 if you're an Elf to negate the curse) The main thing is to have 18 in this stat because the Klaw is a FANTASTIC ring for the bonuses to saving throws, and this way you always can get the max HP.
16 Intelligence - This way you can withstand THREE hits from a Mind Flayer in BG2. Each MF hit saps 5 INT until you die, and those suckers are dangerous. Otherwise this is actually a meaningless stat for the sorcerer other than identifying objects with lore...but that's what the Identify spell is for.
Also give the INT tome to another caster who needs it to Memorize more spells. It's a complete waste on a Sorcerer!!
18 Wisdom - For the Wish Spells in BG2. Save your WIS Tombs for Clerics (Vicky / Jaheria, or even Xzar if you wan to dual class him at the right time) They are also worthless to you since 18 is all you will ever need for Wish.
18 (13 if you intend to use Friends Spell) Charisma - So you can bump it to 19 with the tomb. (14 if you use Friends Spell) High Charisma is awesome but not that important...still it's a perk of your class that you can have it without really roughing your numbers up.
@faeriehunter is right about the Friends Spell, so you can bump it down to 13, give yourself the Tomb and go to 14, which with Friends would give you 20 Charisma. This gives you 5 points you can put into STR.
Also you can get a +1 Dagger right in Candle-Keep with a score of 18.
Personally I'd rather not have to cast Friends all the time, I forget to do it a lot...plus you can't always cast it when you want a high Charisma for Story Purposes or Morale boosting to save Vs Horror. I prefer going with the High Charisma score...and using the Strength Spell when I need to melee.
The Elf Version should look like this after tome use:
8 STR (Or 13)
20 DEX
18 CON (Cursed to 16 by the claw)
16 INT
18 WIS
19 CHA (Or 14)
The tomes you used should have been DEX, CON and CHA.
The Human version should look like this after tome use:
8 STR (Or 13)
18 DEX
18 CON (Cursed to 16 by the claw)
16 INT
18 WIS
19 CHA (Or 14)
You should only have used the CHA tome at this point. The rest should be for your party.
The Elf version will have some better resists and room to get better stats overall with bonuses...but the human version can play it a bit more tactical with the tomes for his/her party.
I would take these proficiencies:
+ Staff (To fight Clay Golems and other creatures you need blunt for)
+ Dagger
+ Darts
As decent as darts are you're not a good ranged combatant with weapons...your THAC0 is always going to suck. There's far too many easy to get wands AND you know every spell as a sorcerer. So stocking up on wands for ranged attacks is key. It can seem expensive at first but if you sell a wand and buy it back for a higher price from a vendor it's charges will INCREASE...I have a Magic Missile wand with 100 charges that cost several thousand gold to buy back, but it's a lot stronger than a dang dart or a sling.
Darts might be best as a final slot for a Black Pits made Character leveled to 10 in order to have options in BG1 for ranged. (Darts of Wounding, etc) But really that's a choice you should make around play style at that point. As I would almost never need ranged weapons with wands and Skull Trap I'm not sure I would bother Vs a boost to melee when it counts. Though if it was my first play through maybe for Darts of Wounding...and I'd just give myself Two Weapon Style in BG2 for The Staff of The Magi. Either way you'd import to BG1 at level 10!
AND IF YOU ARE SMART YOU WILL HAVE CHOSEN SKULL TRAP OVER FIREBALL AND BOUGHT FLAME WANDS!!!!!
Using the Claw and a Robe of the Arch-Magi, plus a high DEX...you'll have a great AC in no time.
But some creatures are weak to blunt weapons so keeping a staff around is great for those times when using Stoneskin and trying to melee are your best options.
If that's how things go, a STR boosting item is beneficial since you will have a small penalty to damage with 8 STR.
BUT...in BG2 you'll be strong to Mindflayer attacks which is totally worth that small penalty of having to use a STR boosting item. So the seemingly useless INT becomes an extremely defensive stat.
Sorry had to edit this...I'm an idiot I was acting like you could pick single and two-weapon style!!!! I always forget spell casters can't get a + in those.
For the Wish Spell, potions of insight are abundant in temples. Frankly, I would swap charisma and wisdom. Who cares about stores when you have so much money.
The only other use for Int for a Sorcerer that I can think of (other than lore) is to be able to survive multiple Mind Flayer attacks.
BTW in BGEE one can get away with 15 (or 17 if wanting to use the Claw) Con, if really pushed, as the Con tome can be obtained pretty early on
18 str is nice for throwing daggers and slings because they get bonus damage from it. 9 int for wands / scrolls. More int against mindflayers in BG2. 18 charisma for cheaper prices, but you can really just use NPC with higher charisma to fill in.
BTW for the defence against MindFlayers, how does this work i.e. how many Int do you lose for each attack and what's the minimum Int you can have before dying? Might be worth putting some effort into Int, but not 18 perhaps?