HOF sorcerer spell grades (Updated! Includes all spells now.)

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I always used Wall of Fire to good effect. Damage type is fire, and it's usualy the first to get upgraded with elemental feats - Spirit of Fire, so it gets a little extra kick.

The main thing is not for creeps to walk through it, but rather stand there, burning, while attacking the decoy. The damage isnt all that phenomenal, but when you gain it at lvl8, it does 10-30x5 damage to at least three monsters in a row. At that level, definitely not a thing to discard easily. Reaching maximum, the damage still isnt anything great, but with proper use, builds it up to heights.


Shroud of Flame

It's pretty much useless. First, the damage is very low. Second, most importantly of all, every flame goes out in about 5 rounds. Even with the elemental mastery and greater spell focus in it, it doesnt repay being a lvl5 spell.

EDIT: nevermind about the shroud comment, i see it's already been updated and justly judged with an F.

 

I'm surprised that "Sleep" gets such a low rating by everybody. I know it's useless later on, but your Sorcerer will gain more learned spell slots. Since there aren't too many spells at first level that are awesome, I think "Sleep" is a great choice as it helps a lot in the Prologue and Chapter 1.

 

This was a thread about spells chosen for an HoF only game. That is why spells like Fireball and Stoneskin didn't get A rating. Obviously, Sleep is utterly useless in HoF.

As far as a Normal game goes, I would have my sorcerer choose spells in this order.
L1 Shield (+7AC), Chromatic Orb (strong right from the start)
L3 Grease (snatch some extra time for free ranged attacks)
L5 Magic Missile (mimimum x3 chance of disrupting spellcasters)
L7 Burning Hands (Troll killer) or Charm Person (if I'm taking GSF:Enchantment)
L21 Ray of Enfeeblement (make use of GSF:Necromancy) or Shocking Grasp (very powerful but touch spell)
L25 Identify (at that level, why not)

I have more important spells to take early on and later Sleep just not a useful enough spell.

 

Magic Circle of Protection from Evil is a great spell because you can cast it from start of maps. its duration is 10rounds/level, so you should have it still when you engage the enemies. Casting it in battle is bad pre-buff procedure.

Even with HoF, its duration ensure its rating.

For pre-buff, your best casters are fine. For casting inbattle, your paladin or your F/C should be enough.

 

Shouldn't you have the party cleric take care of casting Magic Circle of Protection so your Sorcerer can take something else?

 

At 3rd tier, other than Skulltrap, haste, ghost armor, MCPE is the best of the rest. Sure, if your cleric can have spare slot for a MCPE, it's fine. But from my Cleric spellbook: AnimateDeadx2, GlyphWardingx3,Prayerx2 is standard requirement.

 

You forgot Slow, which is more useful than grease. It drastically reduces the number of enemy attacks per round and works for crowd control.

 

What does Grease, a 1st tier spell, has to do with a 3rd tier slot? We are comparing MCAE and Slow.
But whatever~ If you feel like your party has not enough divine slot for MCAE, then a sorcerer can choose it.

Slow, I feel it's too much of a situational tool. In the few case of boss, they might just saving throw through it, or worse, spell resistance their way out. And if you use it against the mobs, dangerous though some of them maybe, it's not very much of a reliable tool.

 

Grease is much useful in HoF thanks to the no-save slow moving effect. Casting two, three Grease can create a patch of really hard to move in front of enemies. Even if they have big number and want to swarm over us, they got slowed waaaaay down. That way they lose the tactical mobility.

A great use considering web, stinky cloud are uneffective.

In fact, Grease might well consume your 6 slots of 1st tier spell. Each battle you need to cast two grease, that mean you fight 2-3 battle before stopping to rest.

The biggest problem of HoF is not just the HP buff, saves buff, but the maximum number of spawns. Web and Stinky Cloud are saved right through, so they can no longer denying passage. Entangle might work if you choose Druid. But without Druid, arcane spell Grease might as well your only choice to prevent enemy horde from breakthrough and surround your party.
(Wand of Entanglement might work if you remember to bring it through, although the recharge cost can eat you alive so early in the game)

 

A side note:

Entangle does work in the form of wands. My rogue fighter cast it down, and the combat log show that while most save successfully, some enemies still can fail the save. And ALL hostiles are slowed down by the vines.

So yeah, while Entangle is not in a sorcerer's spell book, the wand of Entanglement should still work effectively in his hands (or others').

 

Grease is excellent. It has effects even if the save is made.
IIRC 66% slowed if save failed, 33% if saved.
Bypasses spell resistance! No one is immune!
How many level one attack spells can do anything other than piddly damage in late game?
Even Chromatic Orb and Magic Missile have an effectiveness cap.

I throw it onto chokepoints where I cast Web, Entangle or Spike Stones, it keeps enemies from escaping too easily if they saved against area spell effects. Often Grease's 33% slow effect will delay them enough to force another saving throw, take a bit more dmg from firestorms etc.

 

Something to consider for other builds other than a pure sorcerer is Ghoul Touch. For a pure sorcerer such a touch spell is probably suicide, but for a spellsword build, or something like a rogue/sorcerer assassin type, Ghoul Touch might be worthwhile. It's a save-or-die spell that paralyzes the target. Once that is done even a pure sorcerer or wizard can then kill them in melee (while your spellsword moves on to occupying active enemies).
Again, this is a suggestion for a HOF spell pick for a mixed build, rather than a pure sorcerer (a 1-level dip to paladin does not count).

 

Nooooooo! Not ghoul!

Ghoul Touch require a melee touch attack that use BAB and Str to calculate. A Spellsword might still have too low accuracy to hit target in knife fighting range. Paralyze is nice but if it doesnt hit it doesnt mean much.
And once it hit target must make a FORTITUDE save or be paralyzed. Except in HOF they are more likely than not to make the save.
And once it was paralyzed it affect every CREATUREs around, friend or foes, with stench that -2 attack. Again, if our spellsword can make a Fort save, which is probabbly, we can proceed as usual. But if the save cant be made, like spellsword go away and our squishy casters go up to finish off that paralyzed target... they would suffer -2 to their meager BAB.
And in HOF mode, casters have more things to do than get into melee range to attack paralyzed targets. Like casting Firestorm, Horrid Wilting, Delayed Blast, SkullTrap etc..

1/5*, would not pick under any circumstance.

 

I specifically said it was NOT for full time casters capable of casting things like Horrid Wilting. I was saying something like a Sorcerer (5)/monk(x) that has enough to get Mirror Image and Blur, and maybe decided to later go for Sor(10)/Monk(20) after reaching monk level 20 and has another level 2 slot available as well.
Just an example, as I believe there was a patch to let monks & sorcerers multiclass.

Change Monk to Paladin as I KNOW there is one that lets Paladins of Mystra take sorcerer instead of wizard.

 

I've used Shield before. It's basically Armor bonus, when most of what mages can wear just grants deflection bonus to AC. There's only a few items granting Armor bonus on the body slot without interfering with spellcasting, and there are some good bracers you become free to use, if you don't need the bracer slot to boost AC. If you have many casters in the team, you may find Shield worth casting one one or two party members. At least until you get Chain of Drakkas. And possibly beyond.

Hour per level, just like Bull's STR and Cat's Grace, and cheap to cast. Few enemies dispel your buffs, so if Cat's and Bull's are viable, so is Shield.

--

"See Invisibility...... [-] I've never met any invisible creatures."

How would you know?

 

Well, as far as the party is concerned, as long as they aren't attacking or stealing they don't really matter. Most of the time they don't care about mere scouts and spies doing recon.

 

Shield is useful in their abilities to deal with missiles, aka the things that burn our stoneskin/ironskin charge, or disrupt our casters' casting. It's not rare that hostile mage/shaman cast magic missile or force missiles on our own casters, notably later stages of insane difficulty.

Note: my F4Cleric has ironskin on before charging into the melee fray and still got hurt . Why? Because 8 charge per ironskin is not that many in a HOF melee fight, let alone missile attacks. One round and it exceed capacity~ Maximum 8 hit? 2 melee and one ranged combatant can get it exhausted in one round. WIth Shield on at least we can eliminate arrow hit.

See Invisibility case:
1. In insane nonHOF mode, I notice that quite a few underdark creatures like duegar, dark elf is invisible. Location: from underdark onward. Specifically, the duegar fortress, the elderbrain's maze. After we kill off the initial wave of attackers, if we left web/cloudkill/grease on the ground we can see the combat log some buggers get caught.
2. Obviously that we wouldnt memorize it even so. There are so few enemies using Improved Invisibility that merit this specifically sub-Dispel. if there's mods that add more enemies in stealth mode, and every arcane caster started with Improved Invisibility on, then maybe this merit a slot in memory.

 

Well, I would consider having a wizard memorize detect invisibility in those areas, but I would not take it as one of my sorcerer spell picks.
That is the wizard's advantage, the ability to swap spells easily when needed. Drawback is you have to pick them in advance in precise detail and fewer castings overall.

 

Heh, Shield's protection vs Missile magic is practically a gimmick. I nearly forgot about it. I used it mainly for the AC bonus. I rarely worried about Missiles.

A lot of the valuations change when going into Heart of Fury mode.

Direct damage spells become a bit less relevant, buffs and debuffs have far more importance.

Interference spells become absolutely vital to manage large mobs.

 

Missile from 2 archers (two different packs) can be ignored. Missiles from 8 archers (max spawn rate in HOF) become something else. If 8 archers attack you in a round, which at least 16 hits, 1/16 chance to interrupt you is not that high a rate (6.25%).

It's not often that you meet packs with that high number of archers who focus on your casters. But it's those rare packs that kill you and force a reload.