Spell selection at 14.

[Taishi]

My sorcerer has just become 14. I took feats and spells as follows.

Feats.
MT, heighten, SF(illusion), spell penetration, maximize.

Spells.
1 MM, hypnotism, jump, charm person.
2 web, scorching ray, resist energy, hypnotic pattern.
3 protection from energy, haste, suggestion, displacement.
4 PK, enervation, fear, wall of fire.
5 hold monster, cone of cold, mind fog.
6 symbol of fear, fresh to stone.
7 finger of death.

About enhancements, I focus on fire/cold, SP and spell penetration.

I am thinking of dropping some feats(I keep heighten at least) and take IMT or GSF(illusion) or GSP or extend. For spells,
1 charm person or another, 2 HP or (blur, command undead, knock, glittur dust), 4 fear or (solid fog, stone skin), 5 mind fog or (ball lightning, dismissal, CK), 6 SoF or disintegrate, 7 FoD or sphere of dancing.
My charisma is 32 and I dont think I can get +2 or higher tome. I mainly do instant kill(mostly PK) and CC(web, fear, SoF, FtS) and maxmized WoF(only in boss fight).
The problems are I cannot do damage to those immune to fire/cold and MM, dropping maxmize decreases damage seriously against fire resistant monsters, lack of good CC(dance ball, solid fog), dropping SF and spell pen decreases the chance of successful PK and CC.
If anyone has advice or experience, would you please teach me? Thank you.

[CSFurious]

first, 32 chr is good

level 1, i have nightshield instread of charm, you also need magic missile

level 2, replace scorching ray with blur, i would also got rid of hypnotic pattern for false life

level 3, i have the same exact spells

level 4, stoneskin instead of fear

level 5, dominate person is a great spell, cone of cold is also great, i have ck still because there are some uses for it still, but i might get rid of it

level 6, you need greater heroism, might be the best buff in the game, & it is mainly for you

level 7, i would submit that right now, otto's is more valuable as cc than fod

as to feats, heighten is important, and you need either empower or maximize

peace

[Rilen]

This is all subjective - I dont believe there is any right or wrong combination - whatever works for someone can be sane.

Celana

Feats:
Mental Toughness, Improved Mental Toughness, Heighten, Extend,
Skill Focus: UMD

L1: Hypnotism, Mage Armor, Shield, Magic Missile
L2: Blur, Ottos, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray
L3: Fireball, Haste, Magic Circle v Evil, Suggestion
L4: Enervation, PK, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire
L5: Break Enchantment, Cone of Cold, Hold Monster
L6: Flesh to Stone, Ottiluke's Freezing Sphere
L7: Finger

Enhancements (applicable)
Lineage of Elements I, II, III (fire/cold)
Lineage of Deadly Elements I, II (fire/cold)
Elemental Manipulation I, II, III, IV (fire/cold)
Improved Spell Penetration I, II

Focus Gear (always on)
Spectacles of Spirit Sight (Necro & Enchantment Spells, +1 DC)
Black Scale Robe (Evocation Spells +2 DC)

Focus Gear (situational)
- Spell Pen 7 + Transmutation/Illusion Scepter (+1DC) [default]
- Superior Fire Lore Dagger + Superior Potency V Scepter
- Superior Glaciation VI Scepter + Superior Ice Lore Scepter

Some of the Arcane Scrolls I keep handy:
Greater Heroism
Greater Dispel Magic
Waves of Exhaustion
Symbol of Stunning
True Seeing
Disintegrate
Chain Lightning
Enervation
Dim Door/Teleport/Greater Teleport

So, fire/cold spec'd similar to the OP. Cels is for certain an insta-kill arcane, crowd controller second, elemental damage dealer last. I hear ya on mobs that are fire/cold immune .. but for certain, that is not the majority of foes in game right now. I'll go to wands or scrolls for those if I absolutely have to put damage on target. Even without Max/Extend I dont find I have a problem making solid damage contributions to a party. The items I have listed (fire/cold spec) stack with enhancements and I see crits often enough for my taste. That being said, this build is due to take Maximize when the level cap increase goes live. I play without it but there are certainly situations where it would be handy to have.

Heightened Hypnotism might surprise folks .. same for Ottos and Suggestion. With the meta magic changes that are coming, these become even more affordable.

Extended GH is a beautiful thing, but I dont feel I can give up a spell slot for it .. so my groups get it off scroll, same for True Seeing. Refreshed as often as required.

Waves of Exhaustion is in my opinion under-rated. No save so long as you get through the mob's SR. Same for Enervation off scroll. Totally situational - knowing which mobs you can land these on via scroll makes a difference.

Anyway, just my .02.
-Ril

[MrWizard]

My sorcerer has just become 14. I took feats and spells as follows.

Feats.
MT, heighten, SF(illusion), spell penetration, maximize.

Spells.
1 MM, hypnotism, jump, charm person.
2 web, scorching ray, resist energy, hypnotic pattern.
3 protection from energy, haste, suggestion, displacement.
4 PK, enervation, fear, wall of fire.
5 hold monster, cone of cold, mind fog.
6 symbol of fear, fresh to stone.
7 finger of death.

About enhancements, I focus on fire/cold, SP and spell penetration.

I am thinking of dropping some feats(I keep heighten at least) and take IMT or GSF(illusion) or GSP or extend. For spells,
1 charm person or another, 2 HP or (blur, command undead, knock, glittur dust), 4 fear or (solid fog, stone skin), 5 mind fog or (ball lightning, dismissal, CK), 6 SoF or disintegrate, 7 FoD or sphere of dancing.
My charisma is 32 and I dont think I can get +2 or higher tome. I mainly do instant kill(mostly PK) and CC(web, fear, SoF, FtS) and maxmized WoF(only in boss fight).
The problems are I cannot do damage to those immune to fire/cold and MM, dropping maxmize decreases damage seriously against fire resistant monsters, lack of good CC(dance ball, solid fog), dropping SF and spell pen decreases the chance of successful PK and CC.
If anyone has advice or experience, would you please teach me? Thank you.

My 14 sorc
Feats: Spell Pen, Greater Spell Pen, heighten, Maximaize, Enlarge.
With the +4 to spell pen, I can use other items instead of holding a pell pen item, and for tough elite stuff, I can land very well with spells.
Heighten makes spells work awesome, most important meta to my sorc next to enlarge.
Maximize just for sh@ts and giggles as most mobs can be meleed anyway, even red named...I picked it up cause the new meta system will allow low cost use..right now it is not worth it spell point wise at all...imho

Enhancements: usual stuff..you might want to respec for acid/elec in the new mod though.....works real well and the acid fog is pretty awesome on a crit when all primed up. Spell pen enhancements A+

Spells
1st - hypno, jump, mm, niacs...except for jump, I seldom ever use 1st level spells.
( I selected dominate person at a higher level and switched out charm person.)


2nd- Blur, command undead, resist, scorching ray...use all a lot. Scorching ray when melee is having an issue.

With web and hypno nerfed by saves and time constraints, I do not use them anymore at all...command undead still works wonders at elite 16th level dungeons...

3rd- halt undead, haste, lightning bolt, fireball... gonna turn out halt undead due to the fact it does not work at all anymore (I assume heighten is not affecting it...but it never works ever anymore in high level dungeons..)

4th- Charm monster, enervate, pk, wall of fire...would pick fear, but people have a crazed fit if you do not have firewall...so instead of monsters running from us, we have to fight them....c'est live.


5th - cone of cold, dominate person, hold monster..dominate person works awesome and I find it better than charm person in duration...

6th Flesh to stone, disintigrate. Flesh I love...whoo hoo...Disintigrate cause when soloing it is the only thing to work on a golem/construct. For the max/emp people...try max/empower and speccing for force spells...and an item or two.... 2d6 per level of damage....28d6... max/emp triples that to 84d6.... add 100% for enhance and items...168d6..... then crit for 2x damage.....336d6..... can break over 2000 points in damage to one critter...on a save...well... a lot less.....but still **** cool amount of damage.

7th - Fod.. only because many things can't be killed by pk...like those dudes in bam, the ancient spiders, etc..and the cool graphic...many good spells at this level..


I would suggest, if you are not having issues with spell pen saves or dc checks, drop your mental toughness and keep max while picking up enlarge or GSF...

Enlarge is not used by everyone, but those that do swear by it and some take it as their first meta feat.... try it, you will love it...

[Taishi]

For spells, I wasnt thiking of taking dominate person, but I consider taking it. I dont know well about acid fog and how much damage it does. I will try with my wizard.
For feats, my wizard sometimes uses enlarge, and I find its very useful in several situations. I dropped maximize and used WoF on fire resistant boss, but it did only a little or no damage unless crit. I dont want to lose SP by dropping MT, but I might have to drop it. I am thinking of taking heighten, then 4 of 2 spell pen, 2 SF, maximize and enlarge.
Thank you for advice.

[Pyromaniac]

For your level 7 spell, it more depends on what you want to do.

I've run with Finger, Otto's and currently Delayed Blast Fireball. All are useful in different ways. Finger is good for solo killing, Otto's is useful if you run with solid DPS barbarian/fighter types, and DBF is great against tougher bosses.

With Mod5, I'm going to be trying to be a relatively pure nuker with the Max/Empower changes so we'll see how it goes. So DBF is staying up right now for me.