Arcane focused sorceror.

[Shoobinator]

Are they ( force focused) still viable with the prestige classes the way they are now?

[Mastikator]

With Shiradi Champion, yes. Pre-epic they're viable but subpar compared to Elemental Savants.

[Tid12]

Nvm

[Inouk]

Are they still viable with the prestige classes the way they are now?

Arcane focused as opposed to......? One of us is confused as to what that means.

[Therigar]

Arcane focused as opposed to......? One of us is confused as to what that means.

More than one of us. :(

[Dandonk]

Are we talking about insta-kill necro focused? Or what do you mean? /confused

[HastyPudding]

Maybe he means force-based? I'm sure you could do an ice savant with some force spells thrown in, they tend to mesh well together, but a lot of sorcerers carry force missiles, anyway. If you really wanted to go force spec, it's probably best to go wizard and be an archmage; their force SLA's are actually stronger than you'd expect.

[FestusHood]

I sixth that confusion thing. Mastikator seemed to know what he meant. Enlighten us Mastikator.

[Shoobinator]

My apologies I did refer to force focused as on entirely thought tge levels.

[Jaid314]

viable? well, you could probably make it work. it would be painful though.

is it a good idea? no. having force as a secondary element is great. but it won't qualify you for a PrE (and trust me, the PrE is worth it), and your damage will be substantially lower. you'd probably have to rely on ice storm for DPS, and having tried that personally... ice storm is not exactly a high DPS spell. it kills things much much much slower than acid rain or wall of fire.

i really strongly recommend you go with a savant. make force your secondary element, and use it whenever your main element isn't working. you'll probably have a lot more fun with a highly effective character than you will with a moderately effective character.

[Kinerd]

It should be possible for you to max the force line and get a savant. I threw a build together just now that had...

7/6/6 Force (I don't like 6/6 over 5/5, but it's proof of concept)
7/5/5 Cold
3/1/1 Acid
1/1/1 Electric
1/0/0 Fire, Repair

Cold Savant 3
Cha 3
Inscribed Armor 1
Healer's Friend 1

No spell pen enhancements, but you should be able to work around that if you care to.

[Inouk]

From my experience force has always been subpar for a primary "element", not just because of the PrE boosts, but also just base damage and due to a lack of mana efficient spells like single target DoT (Niac's, Eladar's), area DoT (ice storm, firewall, acid rain), high damage nuke (polar ray). The nice thing about force is that very little is immune to it (other than magic missiles), so it makes a great secondary "element". Archmage gets an obvious advantage since they can have 4 force SLAs. In short, while a force spec sorcerer is probably playable they are probably far from optimal.