Choosing sorcerer cantrips...

[craig234]

I get 4. Leaning 'friends' - char wants that benefit - acid splash, get a damage and this one has a little AOE - minor illusion, give party advantage attacks, and light.

Some more would be nice, like poison spray or fire bolt, but I get stronger damage spells... I think blade ward would use a turn for a turn of reduced damage... mage hand...

[Rabbit]

You do not want 'Friends' if you're playing on the higher difficulties. It's hostile once the 10 turns run out.

Firebolt is very useful when you don't want to use a spell slot, and poison spray can be good if you already have firebolt (Use it when you're close enough already/poison works but firebolt otherwise for the range and that a lot fewer enemies are fire immune)

[Kafik]

Fire so you can blow up barrels, oil, etc. Burning Grasp to hit monsters close to you. Light if you don't have darkvision. Anything else isn't as useful imo, played twice through with sorc.

[craig234]

Thanks, I'm playing on normal; it's not that fire bolt isn't very nice to have, just that I'd like other cantrips and will get other damage spells. It's acid or fire, damage or AOE.

[Hobocop]

Ray of Frost can put out fires and freeze blood/water surfaces. Comes in handy sometimes, and can often get some enemies prone for free.

[craig234]

Those are good points for fire and ice (they should make a book about that). I think I'm traumatized by the spider matrichiarch wanting aoe to kill the eggs.

[Kaisha]

Ray of frost (if specced correctly) is the single highest damaging cantrip (even higher than EB on a blaster sorlock) and can even be the single highest damaging spell in the game...

I know, weird right? BG3 is a bizarre game.

I like ray of frost, firebolt (simply because you need to light things on fire), electrocute (good up close to prevent reactions) and light. Acid is rarely used and doesn't really synergize with any gear. Poison is ok if you're regularly up close, but most casters want to stay at range. I like friends as well, I've never had them turn on me using it.

[craig234]

OK, I'm considering replacing minor illusion, which seems a bit tricky, with either cold or fire...

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by craig234:

Choosing sorcerer cantrips...
I get 4. Leaning 'friends' - char wants that benefit - acid splash, get a damage and this one has a little AOE - minor illusion, give party advantage attacks, and light.

Some more would be nice, like poison spray or fire bolt, but I get stronger damage spells... I think blade ward would use a turn for a turn of reduced damage... mage hand...

Mage hand can be useful situational. Very situational, therefore very rare. In most cases an arrow will do.

Minor illusion is quite useful, but same as mage hand situational.

Acid reducing enemy AC is not to be underestimated.

Blade Ward is not as good as it sounds.

The best combo for starters is probably Firebolt, Ray of Frost, Bone Chill, Acid Splash and later on Light and Shocking Grasp.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Acid Splash is fun, but it's not as effective as you might think because there aren't a lot of boosts to acid damage and nothing is vulnerable to acid, plus there isn't much metamagic you can use with it (maybe Distant Spell).

Ray of Frost is great simply because you can dbl it's damage with the Wet condition and also Twin Spell cast it, dealing up to 12d8 at max level for 1 Sorc Pt, plus it occasionally leaves an ice patch that causes enemies to fall prone.

Minor Illusion is awesome (so much so that I make entire builds around lvl 2 Illusionists) because you can get enemies to bunch up in a group and nail them with AoE spells before the battle begins. This is way more effective than you might think at first.

Mage Hand is kinda meh because Larian nerfed it, but if you have an extra cantrip to choose it's not the worst.

Blade Ward isn't that great if you are spending an action on it, and there are items that can apply it's effects when triggered so I wouldn't bother choosing it as one of my base cantrips.

Friends of course is great if you plan to bluff your way past a lot of guards.

Light can be good if you have a melee warrior who wants to make sure they're never hitting anything in shadows, but rarely is it good for the Sorcerer themselves (unless you just want a free 'torch' that never goes out).

Out of that list, if I had to pick four, it would be Ray of Frost, Minor Illusion, Friends and Light.

[Boss]

Firebolt is is useful for blowing up stuff, but Ray of Frost is more value with the debuff and easy vulnerability from Wet. You definitely need at least one of these 2.

After that, depends. If you're going all in on offense, Acid Splash for the odd AoE (but you should definitely grab it if you didn't take both of the above). Alternatively, Poison Spray or Shocking Grasp for melee situations (I prefer SG).

Minor Illusion for sneaky/crime, friends is still useful if you do it on people you intend to kill anyway, light isn't useful until Act II, so no need to start off with it.

[Lans]

Originally posted by Boon: Safeword:

You do not want 'Friends' if you're playing on the higher difficulties. It's hostile once the 10 turns run out.

Firebolt is very useful when you don't want to use a spell slot, and poison spray can be good if you already have firebolt (Use it when you're close enough already/poison works but firebolt otherwise for the range and that a lot fewer enemies are fire immune)

Friends works like pickpocketing, if you're out of range when the spell wears off they have no idea who cast it on them & forget about it after walking around a bit

Friends is a 10/10 cantrip and anyone who is capable should get it