Would you go sorcerer or wizard?

[lazarusblack]

So I'm curious, which kind of arcane caster, would you go for and why?

I've always liked saucy, for when I have a specific build that does very specific things. But Wizard's are awesome if you want a bit more flexibility in your casting role.

What are others preference.

[Stink Bug]

Arcanist for those who can't choose and want the best of both worlds (while also getting the worst). But Arcane Reservoir is a fantastic feature even without exploits. Although the lack of School Savant or Blood Arcanist is very disappointing.

[lazarusblack]

Gotta be honest, never played arcanist. It felt it shaved off the benefits of each choice and made the whole abit meh.

Would you say that was inaccurate?

[Esperiano]

Not an expert but sorcerer, even if a 1 level slower in the progression, being charisma based, and being able to min/max element and elemental penetrations (probably minor spoiler ahead ) (I heard this game is full of fire/electricity resistant foes? dunno if that's the case tho)
I would say sorcerer > wizard if you don't intend to arcane trickster, and if you do probably still better...

[Stink Bug]

I played one through kingmaker (CotW mod) and the benefits outweighed the cons IMO, especially later levels compared to sorcerer when you already have a load bunch of spells per day anways. Could change out spells instead of being stuck like sorc yet still having the flexibility to cast whatever amount of what you had memorized you wanted.

[Northern]

Lots of cool stuff wizard can do not work well otside of tabletop with human DM.

As spell throwing glass cannon for PC RPG sorcerer is superior

[Ruinous]

Arcanist is a wizard / sorcerer hybrid, you've the flexibility of a wizard with the spontaneous casting ability of a sorcerer. Ofc there are some drawbacks to that.

Sorcerer has an interesting synergy with the lich path in that not only can you merge the spellbook (as can a wizard), but charisma is used in place of constitution for undead... so theoretically on completion of becoming a lich your hp becomes derived from your skyhigh charisma and not dumped con making an already fearsome lich truly scary ;) Note we didn't actually get to transform in the beta, so this may or may not be a thing, just theorycrafting.

[lazarusblack]

Yeah, demons have high fire/electrical resistance in this game, most people know about the fire, it's the electrical that catches people unawares.

I was leaning saucy here too. Was hoping for a compelling arguement in favour of wizard though, beyond the expanded spell selection.

[Ruinous]

As for resistant enemies, on the mythic paths there is an ability to make your spells of a particular energy type ignore enemy resistance. Still subject to spell resistance though, but there are other ways round that.

[JonWoo]

I would. But it sounds like you want something more specialized which is probably why you don't like the arcanist. They're better at flexibility than even wizards are which is kind of their thing.

That said, their ability to increase the DC or spell level of a spell they're casting is great. Though they're kind of hindered here with not having the Metamixing and Quick Study exploits. Last time I checked out the beta it looked like Owlcast went the route of adding a lot of their blasting exploits and not as many of their utility ones which is one of their best features.

[lazarusblack]

Originally posted by Ruinous:

As for resistant enemies, on the mythic paths there is an ability to make your spells of a particular energy type ignore enemy resistance. Still subject to spell resistance though, but there are other ways round that.

Yes I recall seeing a feat that could also turn all elemental damage to a specific element, including negative energy... that could have potential, especially given the liches buffs to negative energy attacks.

[Seizure Storm]

sorcerer for sure

[Homer Morisson]

Sorcerer all day!

Spontaneous casters are best casters in videogames.

[lazarusblack]

Seems like the consensus is sorcerer lol

[Kissamies]

I've never been the biggest fan of the Vancian system, so I tend to lean towards Sorcerer. However, I like having intelligence and Wizard is more adaptable when I can be bothered to tackle the whole memorizing thing. Arcanist seems like a fine compromise and I can't wait to play one.

[Homer Morisson]

Originally posted by lazarusblack:

Seems like the consensus is sorcerer lol

The thing about the Wizard's flexibility in videogames is that it's mostly theoretical... the flexibility would be nice IF you knew beforehand what kind of encounters you'd be, well, encountering next, because only then could you actually sensibly use your larger pool of spells to prepare an appropriate response.

Since you can't know that however, and especially since there is no such thing as free resting in Pathfinder, especially WotR, that one big benefit of the Wizard is rendered utterly moot.

The Sorcerer on the other hand becomes that much more flexible by comparison, as they can use all of their currently known spells and thus react immediately to any developing situation, as long as they still have spell slots left.