alternative sorcerer

[Le Noir Faineant]

As a short 3-4 hours long adventure he/she should work fine. About the name don't worry too much about it. I sometimes make the "A" error myself.

Thursday is my weekly DL group... Let's look if I can insert him there as a special *misty encounter*.

[alhoon]

Be careful! A sorcerer all alone is vulnerable. A failed spell roll and the fighters are upon him. Followed by a backfire and he is dead. Use bodyguards.

[Le Noir Faineant]

He's gonna be the leader of a goblin tribe.

But I'll have to be careful... The only real monster they met until now (from my PoV) was a Vrykolakas(?), you know, that nasty Vampire from DoD, and he wipped them out because THESE PLAYERS ARE SO DULL.

Then I thought: Let's do something easy for the next session. Try out alhoon's Dinner...

[Jester of the FoS]

Looking at it I’m curious how you got the numbers for the skills. They seem to break the cap on the skill point level limit. They could ‘break’ that rule but it should be mentioned.
The number of skill points devoted for it does mean the character only has to roll a 5 to duplicate any spell from the enchantment school (1st level). By devoting only a couple points at every level this could be maintained. That mean absolutely no chance for a backfire. And there’s only a 5% chance of backfire for Necromantic spells.

I do like that the sorcerer can only make items using the spells chosen at each level. That balances out one problem.

The semi-unlimited knowledge is still problematic, a sorcerer is never unprepared at a given situation, but that’s one of the strengths of the class. And it’s not entirely unlike the cleric class which has unlimited knowledge. I’d still prefer there to be some limit to the number of spells. Something to prevent or encourage them to rely on their chosen spells rather than cast only form one or two schools.

Here's a question, since there's the chance for backfire shouldn't there be a chance for super-success. A magical ‘critical hit’?

[alhoon]

Looking at it I’m curious how you got the numbers for the skills. They seem to break the cap on the skill point level limit.

They seem right to me.

1. At 3rd level the sorcerer has 2 x6 = 12 skill points to be used only on "school skills". Max class skill = 6 ranks.
2. divination [5] = 5 ranks + 0 (wis)
3. enchantment [12] = 6 ranks + 2 (cha) + 4 (school focus)
4. Necromancy [7] = 1 rank +2 (cha) + 4 (school focus)

So that totals 12 ranks. At levels 1-2 she got only divination/enchantment and had to use all her ranks on them, without breaking the lvl cap. That means that div/ench get maxed out.
At 3rd level, she chooses necromancy and uses 1 skill point to buy the 6th ench rank and another 1 to buy the first necro rank. Then she alotates the feat to school focus (necromancy).

Here's a question, since there's the chance for backfire shouldn't there be a chance for super-success. A magical ‘critical hit’?

A good point. I'm open to suggestions. Would that be overpowerful? Would that be interesting?
What to you prefer on the following?
- +1 caster level
- +2 save DC
- The spell doesn't use a slot of the spell level that originaly was, but one lower

Personaly I prefer option 3 as the others seem a bit . . . blant.

[alhoon]

Something to prevent or encourage them to rely on their chosen spells rather than cast only form one or two schools.

Let me answer with another example:

Sorcereress level 10:
At this point the sorceress possess knowledge of the abjuration school to better protect herself (and dispel magic) and the transmutation school to fortify herself and her thralls better and give her access to everyday useful spells and also a school that helps her as an alchemist.

Str 8 dex 12 con 13 (14) int 14 wis 10 cha 17 hp 47
Feats: eschew materials, spell focus (enchantment), brew potion, craft wondrous items, scribe scroll, school focus (enchantment, necromancy, transmutation)
spell skills: abjuration +6, divination +5, enchantment +17, necromancy +10 (12), transmutation +8
Skills: . . .
Items: Belt +1 con, gloves of black magic (+2 necromancy "skill").
scroll of detect thoughts, scroll of bestow curse, scroll of protection from arrows, scroll of dispel magic.
Potion of protection from arrows, potion of endurance.

spells known:
1st: comprehend languages, shield, enlarge person, negative energy ray, ray of enfeeblement
2nd: detect thoughts, protection from arrows, bear's endurance, blidness/deafness
3rd: dispel magic, hold person, vampiric touch
4th: charm monster, bestow curse
5th: dominate person

Spells/day: 7/7/7/7/5/3 DC 13 +1 for enchantment
DC to succesfuly cast: 15/17/19/21/23/25

As you can see, the sorceress has far less than complete knowledge. Since she chose to follow many schools instead of sticking with a couple or three, she gets:
Can cast an "unknown" enchantment spell of 5th level (like hold monster) succesfuly 65% of the time. Reliable
Can cast an "unknown" necromancy spell of 4th level (like animate dead or enervation) 50% of the time. Not reliable
Can cast dispel magic successfully 50% of the time. She can cast protection from elements 40% of the time with a 15% chance of backfire
Can cast Lesser globe of invulnerability 30% of the time with a 25% of backfire. Unusuable.

So the sorcereress at this level must abide by her chosen spells at higher levels or suffer failure. On the other hand she could have speciallized in 2 schools only and be very powerful with them, but almost unable to use anything else.

PS. Items that gove bonus on school "skills" cost 500 * bonus ^2 that means that a +1 items costs 500 gp, a +2 2000 gp, a +3 4500 gp, a +4 8000 gp etc.

PS 2. The sorcerer can change spells as usual in the 3.5 edition

[alhoon]

Any comments anyone? Any ideas?