building my first sorc

[skaught78]

Just finishing up my first wizzy life. I'm very new to casters, have always done melee. I really enjoyed wizard! Now gonna try Sorc. Have a few questions:

Most people I've talked to in game have said to go warforged. They say sorcerers are even more squishy than wizards, and going warforged will help immensely with this. Any truth to this?
If I do go warforged, do I need to have a deathblock item? a fortification item? A negative energy absorption item?

I tried a warforged wizard once, and really didn't like it (deleted it by level 11). It was nice to self heal, but i found that my SP went down so fast, it was hard to really do anything else. I'm also not particularly good at remembering to heal, it's my greatest weakness in the game, so if I go warforged, I'm afraid that party healers wont heal me, and I'll die a lot. So, just having good defense to begin with is always important to me in all my builds.

Those are about all the questions I have for now. Thanks in advance!

[UrbanPyro]

Sorcerers are no more squishy than Wizards, as they have the same Hit Dice per level. It all depends on which race you choose. Warforged and Dwarves have racial enhancement points that allow for easier access to a higher Constitution score, and Racial Toughness (more hit points). Warforged are valued as the easiest to level for an arcane life due to their racial traits, and reliable means of self-healing through use of repair spells.

Any well prepared character will want to include items of Deathblock, and Heavy Fortification (100%). Warforged are the exception with the necessity for a Negative Energy Absorption item, as they are immune to being Energy Drained.

Lastly, you could consider mixing the best of both worlds of being melee, and a spellcaster with the new prestige class Eldritch Knight.

[thesnoman]

A few points to make.

1. Warforged are no less squishy than other races, HOWEVER - they are immune to negative levels and energy drain, while still being susceptible to spells like Ray of Enfeeblement and other Stat draining effects. Warforged also have base fortification of 25% and are immune to sleep, exhaustion, paralysis, and sickness.
2. Your base Arcane Spell Failure is 5%, so you'll need to take an enhancement that reduces it or slot it on a piece of equipment.
3. You have the ability to self-heal, but you'll still rely on wands and pots until you can take Reconstruct. The rest of the Repair spells are a waste of a spell slot.
4. You are limited to spells you take while you level - there is no sorcerer spell book and no changing spells between quests or at rest shrines. This requires you to specialize in a specific element to maximize your damage potential. You'll want to take a few spells in a different element to use against creatures immune to your primary element. The most common combinations are: Fire/Air, Fire/Earth, and Air/Ice.
5. The Socerer capstone is utterly worthless to a WF. When in elemental form you can no longer self heal and you lose out on any spell that isn't your elemental form's element. Some favorite splits are 18 Sorc/2 Paladin for saves, 18 or 16 Sorc/2 or 4 Favored Soul for damage, 18 Sorc/2 Monk for evasion, 16/2/2 with Sroc/Monk/Pally or Sorc/Fvs/Pally, and my favorite 14/4/2 Sorc/Fvs/Pally. You really should look into these forums for ideas on Sorc Builds and how to maximize your potential.
6. If you have access to Bladeforged, it's a better choice than Warforged for Sorcerers since they don't have a penalty to Charisma like base Warforged do. (If it's your first Sorc Life I wouldn't recommend this, especially since you said you didn't care for caster builds. You really need to LEARN to play a Sorc before jumping in at Level 15.)

I'm sure I could add more - look down to the "Sorc Build" thread and I have an 18/2 Sorc/Pally build that's pretty easy to follow and is really easy to level once you have Fireball. Give it a look - there;s lots of good information in that thread.