Seek advice for Sylvan Sorcerer

[Madscientist]

In my first game I used the dragon tank and it was not very good.
When I play the game again I want to use a simple single class, no weird multi class stuff.
I wanted to play a caster and I thought sylvan sorcerer might be good.
I want to play on normal difficulty, no reason to make my life harder just for the sake of it.

The idea is that I focus on hindering enemies while my pet and the other party members deal damage.

Race: muse touched aasimar (+dex, +cha, +persuation, some resistances)
stats: str 8, dex 16, con 14, int 10, wis 10, cha 20
animal companion: smilodon for damage
skills: persuation and use magic divice (use scrolls, including scrolls for clerics)

feats: (* sorc/bloodline bonus feat)
lv1: combat casting, *spells focus conjuration
lv3: greater spell focus conjuration
lv5: skill focus persuation
lv7: highten spell, *quicken spell
lv9: spell penetration
lv11: greater spell penetration
lv13: blind fight, *point blank shot
lv15: spell focus X
lv17: greater spell focus X
lv19: XXX, *precise shot

Blind fight is against gaze attacks, skill focus because there are several hard skill checks later, I am not sure about X at lv 15, 17 maybe evocation for sirocco?, Other bloodline feats would be dodge, improved initiative and reflex bonus

Spells:
I want to take them in the order written below:
I tried to avoid anything with a HD limit or that requires an attack roll, but I could not do it completely.

1.) grease, mage armor (for pet and monk), magic missle or snowball, enlarge, true strike

2.) web, mirror image scorcing ray, blur, glitterdust

3.) haste, stinking cloud, slow, heroism

4.) dimension door, animate dead, greater invisibility, obsidian flow or vulcanic storm

5.) hungry pit, cloudkill, summon monster V, ???

6.) sirocco, undead to death, chain lightning

7.) waves of exhaustion, legendary proportions, firebrand

8.) sunburst, seamantle, horrid wilting

9.) tsunami, energy drain, heroic invocation

The spell list is from the wiki, not sure if this is complete.

Party:
- me to control enemies, pet for damage
- Valerie as tank with armor and shield
- Single class monk merc (see buildmaker thread) as second tank and damage
- Harrim as druid (defender of the true world) with leopard pet, uses party buffs (delay poison, protection from energy, stoneskin), heals and summons
- Ekun for damage
- Jubilost, I found several enemies with high AC and spell resistance but rather low touch AC, maybe bombs are good here, he has to work as rogue too (traps and locks)

I never had an arcane caster as main char so I have some questions:
- I tried to avoid spell that require an attack roll. Is it OK not to have point blank shot and precise shot early and should I take different bloodline feats?
- I tried to focus on spells that disable a large group of enemies. How can my party members kill them without being hit by my spell too?
- Are there spells that disable a group of enemies that targets will? Most of my spells target fort or ref.
- The most importent thing for a sorc is spell selection. If you have any advice that I should take diferent spells or take them in a diferent order, please tell me.

[Der Mentat]

My MC is a Sylvan Sorcerer too, so just some thoughts:

I think combat casting is a wasted feat if you’re not planning to use your Sylvan Sorcerer in melee. I can’t remember that my MC ever failed a concentration check. Instead you could take something like Augmented Summoning and include some summon spells in your build. As you’re choosing some damage spells I’d also suggest to pick Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot earlier.

Spells:

Consider Bulls Strength and Cats Grace at level 2 unless you have a companion to cast it. Both are useful buffs for your pet.

Chains of light on level 6 is a very important spell for a CC sorcerer, especially if focused on conjuration.

Constricting Coils is a decent CC spell at level 5 if you need to target will saves. (I don’t remember any AoE spells against will saves that completely disable enemies though. )

Animal Growth is essential too but you can of course use the Druid for that spell.

[Madscientist]

Thanks a lot.

I cannot change spells, so I was looking which ones may be good from beginning to end.
The +4stat spells are useless later because everybody will have an item for the importent stats, but I did not think about the pets. A druid can cast them too.

Chains of light was not in the wiki as sorc spell. If undead to death has an HD limit I would remove this and add CoL.

There is still one place at lv5, so I can take constricting coils.

I want to give improved summuns to the duid. A defender of the true world can transform each memorized spell to a summon.
I chose conjuration for stuff like grease, web, glitterdust, stinking cloud and so on.

If I take point blank shot and precise shot at lv 1 and 3 ( lv. 1 bonus feat can only be magic) I have to delay everything else by 2 levels. I play only on normal so it should be OK to have 1DC less. The last bloodline feats would be improved initiative and +reflex save then. 1AC from dodge seem useless for a char without armor and without monk.

With 3 pets (me, Harrim, Ekun) and Harrims spiritshift we could call ourselves the travelling zoo.

How do you manage that your party members are not CCed by your spells?
Giving everybody ranged weapons is not great, only Ekun deals good damage this way.

[Blood Flowers]

Since you are not going Arcane Trickster, there is little reason to use ranged touch spells (and by extension the Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot feats).

I like to go (Greater) Spell Focus in Evocation and Conjuration on my Sylvan Sorcerer.

I don't tend to pick up any transmutation spells as I use Octavia for those.

Here's a list I would use if I were playing on Normal:

1. Grease, Mage Armor
3. Burning Hands
4. Burning Arc (better than scorching ray because no touch attack required meaning you get to save on feats)
5. Expeditious Retreat, Mirror Image (You could take Web here, but I tend to avoid it since its transmutation in PK and I don't usually go any other transmutation spells).
6. Fireball
7. Stinking Cloud, whatever tier 2 spell you want at this point, Magic Missile.
8. Animate Dead (if you don't have a cleric that picked up this spell at level 5) or Dragon's Breath (if you do have a cleric with AD already)
9. The spell you didn't pick up at level 8 and whatever you want for tier 3/2 spells (personally I tend to pick up displacement here on Unfair, but normal gives you lots of options).
10. Cloudkill
11. Whatever spells you want (I usually opt to pick up Constricting Coils since it's a will-save for some variety or Fire Snake for more damage).
12. Sirocco. You don't really need any other spells at this point. Just heighten Sirocco.
13-20: whatever you want.

Originally posted by Madscientist:

How do you manage that your party members are not CCed by your spells?

One character/pet is the tank. You put them in place and cast all your AoE spells directly in front of that tank. Other melee characters use reach weapons (6ft weapons such as Glaive or Fauchard). Arcane tricksters use ranged touch spells (Octavia loves her acid splash). Ranged characters just do their thing. Other pets/tanky characters are placed slightly behind the primary tank to absorb aggro of any enemies that randomly decide to switch targets and aren't being crowd controlled.

[Tiltowait]

Augment Summon is about the highest blue recommendation you can get for a conjuration arcane...it’s so blue that even a druid who has to waste a feat (Spell Focus Conj) to get it, does so.

Your Summoned Monsters will thank you.
I would probably add a few more SM spells as you level. Say every other spell level (3, 5, 7, 9)
That said you don’t have to go the SM route...but it sure makes for a handy backup blockers when you get attacked by mass waves.

That said the rest of your lineup is pretty solid. Good control / buffs / save or suck.