How is sorcerer ?

[Wacman]

Hey guys !

For my first playthrought i would like to play as a Charisma caster, Wyll will probably be in my team so warlock is redundan, bard is really fun out of combat but in combat (wich is like 50% of the game) he's kinda meh.

So how is sorcerer ? I know in DnD 5e he's underwhelming a bit like a worst wizard because he has less spell known and less spell to cast per day. Does it affect his performance in game ? Can you do a long rest regulary to regain his spell ? How does he perform in game for those who play it ?

[sevensided]

While sorcerers have less spells known, they don't really have fewer spell casts per day than a Wizard. I'm not sure why people think that.

So the gist of Sorcerer vs Wizard is you generally have to focus what you're good at with spell casting, while Wizards can go "IDGAF, I cast what I want". This is counterbalanced by the presence of metamagics for sorcs, which can be used to severely turn the action economy into your party's favor. And action economy is the key part of combat. In effect, Sorcerer's are combat powerhouses, though you can sprinkle in just enough utility to be useful outside combat.

[Ozius]

Sorcerer is my favourite class at the moment in EA. They are a little slow to start but quickly ramp up with metamagic.

It is worth being careful with the cantrips you pick as you will often rely on these if you burn through spells so you need some damage dealing cantrips to fall back on, getting a free Fire Bolt cantrip from certain races can definitely help.

Also need to be careful with the spells you pick as you can only swap one out and replace it during levelling up so you are fairly committed to the spells you have chosen, unlike other casters who can swap out spells by preparing them.

Currently in EA you can find so much food and camp supplies that you would find it hard to run out and not have access to Long Rest but don't know if full release will be the same.

[Ginkgo Biloba]

Originally posted by Wacman:

Hey guys !

For my first playthrought i would like to play as a Charisma caster, Wyll will probably be in my team so warlock is redundan, bard is really fun out of combat but in combat (wich is like 50% of the game) he's kinda meh.

So how is sorcerer ? I know in DnD 5e he's underwhelming a bit like a worst wizard because he has less spell known and less spell to cast per day. Does it affect his performance in game ? Can you do a long rest regulary to regain his spell ? How does he perform in game for those who play it ?

The sorcerer is probably the best class in the game. Haste is imo the best spell in the game, it gives you advantage on attack rolls, it gives you more movement which help you select the target you need to bring down fast, it gives you one extra attack and two ekstra armor class, if i remember right. A sorcerer can use the meta magic twin cast and haste two party members, do that on say lae zel and karlach and you wreck the first act easy.

You can also haste yourself and with the meta magic quicken cast 3x fireballs in one round on top of the haste.

Create water is an awesome spell as it can make targets wet and then you can twin cast cromatic orb with lightning and deal a ton of ekstra damage. It also makes the target take ekstra damage from cold, giving the cold cantrip a boost to damage. You can cast it on party members to make them take half damage from fire.

Twin cast hold person, so the targets become paralyzed which guarantees that your warriors will deal critical hits which is basicly a death sentence, especially when your warriors are hasted.

The cantrip necrotic touch also prevents that a target regens HP, so if you meet an enemy that heals alot, you can counter that with this cantrip.

Sorcerer also has proficiency in constitution, making it harder for enemies to break your concentration which is required to keep haste up.

If you take draconic - copper as a sub class you get tashas hideous laughter which is a really good control spell, and the draconic is giving you 13 armor + dex, the same as mage armor, so you can skip mage armor and free up one lvl 1 spell slot.

If you take the good spells, the sorcerer becomes a control monster that can also nuke the ♥♥♥♥ out of enemies, and provide crazy support with double haste.

[ash0787]

Would be cool if you can solo this game like you could BG2, I don't know if thats possible im just thinking it might make the game easier to play because I have to wrestle with the camera controls a lot and also switching party members isnt easy, and in general its hard to tell whats going on in combat.

[Arani]

Originally posted by Wacman:

So how is sorcerer ? I know in DnD 5e he's underwhelming a bit like a worst wizard because he has less spell known and less spell to cast per day. Does it affect his performance in game ? Can you do a long rest regulary to regain his spell ? How does he perform in game for those who play it ?

Sorcerers aren't underwhelming at all. If anything they're Wizards on easy mode. The new 5e system of mixing known spells & spell slots & prepared spells (with feats, sorcery point & metamagic interactions etc. thrown in) is surprisingly confusing, but the gist of it is the same it's ever been:

Wizards:
Their primary stat being intellect, Wizards are mechanically based on learning, knowledge, planning and preparation. The only spells they "know" and can cast naturally are cantrips. Every non-cantrip spell they use comes from spellbooks. So to acquire new spells you either transcribe them from scrolls or other people's spellbooks onto your own, or just find and take new spellbooks with you. You also learn I think 2 spells on your own every time you level up,

As a Wizard you can potentially have dozens of spellbooks and know over a thousand more spells than a sorcerer ever could. But to cast them, you need to first prepare them after a long rest. You cannot cast any other spells except what you prepared. So if you're caught in a situation where you need a specific spell but you never prepared it? Tough luck. Your spell slots act as a kind of "fuel" that simply indicate how many spells you can cast on that level, but the spells you cast can only ever be what you prepared.

Wizards also get:

• Arcane Recovery
  
  • Once per day when taking a short rest, you can recover used spell slots worth half your level rounded up. So at level 4 you can recover two lvl 1 spell slots, or one level 2 spell slot.
• Arcane Traditions
  
  • You can specialize in a long list of stuff each giving you unique bonuses.

Sorcerers:
Their primary stat being charisma, Sorcerers are mechanically based on intuition, presence, willpower and improvisation/adaptability. As for their magic, they are by far the easiest caster to understand. They have the same number of spell slots per level as a Wizard, and know 1 more cantrip than a Wizard of the same level. They start with 2 known spells, and learn 1 more spell every time they level up to lvl 10. In BG3 they learn their last spell on level 12. But they have no preparation system. Instead, they can cast any spell they know, for as long as they have slots for that level.

Sorcerers also get:

• Sorcery points
  
  • You get 1 sorcery point (SP) per level (starts at lvl2), and can trade them for spell slots or the other way around as a bonus action, giving you tons of flexibility.
    
  • So you can for example burn some lvl 1-2 slots for SP, then trade the SP for extra lvl 3 slots, and cast extra Fireballs per day. Or the other way around to spam ton of lvl 1 spells like Magic Missiles.
    
  • Creating slots costs more SP than you gain by trading away slots for SP. So they are not interchangeable, and at higher levels it gets more expensive. For example to create a lvl 5 slot you need 7 SP, but if you burn a 5 lvl slot, you only get 5 SP from it.
• Metamagic
  
  • At level 3 you can pick two from a list of metamagic options that can dramatically enhance a spell. At level 10 you get one more pick.
    
  • You can apply the metamagic effects on any spell by burning SP.
    
  • For a few examples: Quickened Spell metamagic lets you burn 2 SP to turn a "1 action" spell, into a bonus action, so you can spam something like 2 Fireballs in a single turn. Twinned spell lets you duplicate a single target spell onto another target at the cost of spell lvl * SP, so you can cast Haste on 2 ppl at once while only using a single spell slot. Empowered Spell costs just 1 SP and lets you reroll Charisma modifier * damage dice, so you can almost guarantee that a crucial cast will be doing good damage.

tldr; Mages are all about preparation and planning, where Sorcerers are flexible but always limited to the spells they know, and they can only swap out a single spell to something else per level up. In terms of raw power, it will always be: Prepared Mage > Sorcerer > unprepared Mage.

Edit: In terms of spellcasting, at BG3 max level of 12 Wizards and Sorcerers with 20 int/cha will have the same number of slots per level. A Wizard can prepare (lvl+intmod) 17 spells per day from every spell they've ever collected. A Sorcerer knows only 12 spells, and at level cap can never change them again (without respec), but they also have 12 SP they can use with the slots and metamagics to add significant flexibility and extra power to those spells.