anything cripplingly bad here?

[grgurius]

UMD: I very specifically did not want UMD in this build because of the lack of available skill points, and my belief that Arcanes shouldn't have to do the Healer's job in a group; however, for a number of reasons I have added it.

None of the Wf advantages outweigh that to me, except self-healing, and I don't think a sorc should be wasting time healing when they could be doing damage.

You claim that you know what you are doing, but this part tells me you do not. Keeping yourself alive is your and your only responsibility, don't expect someone to babysit you.

Drow: I took Drow for the 20 Cha and nothing more. Not even going to get into the race discussion as it is 97% moot at this point and has been done to death and resurrected innumerable times. I have switched to Human for the extra Feat and skill points, and lost 2 Cha, but I am not losing 4 just so I can waste time doing the healer's job.

Drow can get 1 point higher charisma, but since that putts them at an odd number it doesn't really matter. By switching to human you only lost 1 point of charisma, but gained 2 points in constitution and much more useful racial enchantments.

Spell Penetration: Ok, easy enough to drop, Spell Pen gear is not too hard to find, but at early levels when my current L4 sorc casting Niacs is being resisted 5 out of 7 (in one particulary annoying run of Butchers on elite) in a row by kobold shamans what am I to do? It's not like I can use the much shorter range Acid Splash or Burning Hands on mobs that are swarming the Barb sprinting 60' down the hall.

Damage spells are not affected by spell resistance, that shaman was probably saving it.

However, now that I've examined the PrEs in detail, I will be fitting Empower and Extend in, and probably Quicken too now that I have re-read the description several times over.

Empower is a smart move, since SLAs can be maxed and empowered without the extra cost, and max+emp is not that mana inefficient as you think. But why do you need extend and quicken. Extend affects buffs only since u9 spell pass, but i bet the feat description is still the old one (less then permanent, more than instant). Quicken is a complete waste of a feat on a fleshy sorc.

In short, in your first post you have asked us for advice, in your second post is painfully clear that you have no idea how many mechanics of this game work. Advice is there, take it or don't, but drop the attitude.

[Isharah]

UMD: I very specifically did not want UMD in this build because of the lack of available skill points, and my belief that Arcanes shouldn't have to do the Healer's job in a group; however, for a number of reasons I have added it.

Being able to throw scroll heals (both for self and party), restorations, and perhaps even arti buffs is one of the most underrated advantages a sorc has over a wizard.

From my experience playing sorcerers in DDO, the only important skills you need are Concentration and UMD. IMO, the occasional use of the other available skills doesn't warrant dropping Concentration or UMD.

Warforged: Never happen. Warforged defeat my secondary purpose ... main advantage of a Sorc over a Wiz, massive SP pool, by having a gimped Cha stat ...

Remember also that warforged have certain immunities. Losing a few points of charisma doesn't have a big effect on your maximum SP pool. Most of it comes from the fact that you gain x2 SP from items (i.e. Archmage gives 200x2=400 SP).

The facet that you probably want is this: the Cha penalty on WF gives you lower DCs on your spells. If you want to perform decent sorc-grade CC, you are absolutely right to not go warforged.

Drow: I took Drow for the 20 Cha and nothing more ... I have switched to Human for the extra Feat and skill points, and lost 2 Cha ...

Human also allows you to self-heal, but unlike for WF this happens much later (probably when you are already level 20 and have some decent gear on). Note also that technically, you don't get 2 less Charisma from going human instead of drow; humans are able to get a racial enhancement that allows them to get +1 to two stats. As already pointed out, with a +4 tome and all Charisma enhancements on both races, you will have an odd Charisma score on a drow and the same spell DCs between the drow and the human.

FoP: Because Wis is useless except for Will Save on a Sorc, I use FoP to bundle Will Save ... At high levels when I don't need the stat boost to Will saves I CAN do a FoP swap, after all, but not until its usefulness to me is outlived.

Justified... Please don't forget to swap out at 20.

Spell Penetration: Ok, easy enough to drop, Spell Pen gear is not too hard to find, but at early levels when my current L4 sorc casting Niacs is being resisted 5 out of 7 (in one particulary annoying run of Butchers on elite) ...

In general for DDO

• SPELL PENETRATION - only works for spells that deal an effect (ex. Otto's resistible dance, deep slumber, flesh to stone, power word: kill, etc.). Does NOT work for spells that purely cause damage.
• SPELL DC - works for many spells that either deal an effect or cause pure damage (ex. niac's cold ray, fire wall, Otiluke's freezing sphere, etc.).

Note though that not all spells that cause an effect use SPELL DC -- some use spell penetration only. Examples are the power word spells and Otto's irresistible dance.

<Isharah> I didn't take Maximize at 1, for the same reason you stated, they can be cast multiple times cheaper. For the same reason, I didn't take Empower at all, because Maximize is more SP efficient than Empower.

However, now that I've examined the PrEs in detail, I will be fitting Empower and Extend in, and probably Quicken too now that I have re-read the description several times over.

It's pretty standard for sorcerers in DDO to take both empower and maximize, since this class characteristically has the highest DPS output among all others.

Regarding SP efficiency, I suggest you select your "normal damage" spells and keep empower permanently off on them, and another "all-out nuking" set of spells and keep both empower and maximize permanently on for them. This way you can dish damage efficiently when you have the luxury to do so, then when things go wrong or suddenly you need to nuke all-out, you can use your more expensive nuking ones.

Extend isn't a must -- this is more of "I find it easier to play with extend on my sorc" than "extend is needed on a sorcerer".

Quicken isn't a must as long as you kite prudently and stay away from the jobs of a pale master or WF sorc.

The big question for me now is, do I switch from Fire/Acid to Water/Air or Water/Acid at 11 and take advantage of Water Savant + Cone of Cold, do it at 13 for Otilukes', or save it until 16 for Polar Ray?

I suggest staying fire/acid or fire/air until you are done with Necro 4, then... Well, you can find a lot of threads arguing about the best savant for the upper levels.

Cheers.