Sorcerer Handbook: Pathfinder Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

The Sorcerer is the spontaneous caster equivalent of the Wizard. Much like the Cleric and the Oracle, the classes fill the same roles with a distinctly different feel. Because they are spontaneous caster, Sorcerers have a limited number of spells available to them. This can be supplemented with Pages of Spell Knowledge, but no Sorcerer can match the versatility of a Wizard. Sorcerers also receive new spell levels one level behind other full casters. Sorcerers make up for these shortcomings by being able to cast considerably more spells in a day.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Sorcerer Class Features
• Abilities
• Races
• Traits
• Skills
• Feats
• Weapons
• Armor
• Magic Items
  • Rings
  • Staffs
  • Wondrous Items
• Permanent Spells

Disclaimer

We support a limited subset of Pathfinder’s rules content. If you would like help with Pathfinder options not covered here, please email me and I may be able to provide additional assistance.

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Sorcerer Class Features

Hit Points: d6 hit points is a huge problem,especially with no armor.

Base Attack Bonus: 1/2 BAB and nothing tohelp it, but fortunately very few spells require attack rolls and the oneswhich do are almost exclusively touch attacks.

Saves: Good Will saves, but no dependency onany ability which improves saves.

Proficiencies: No armor or shields, andsimple weapons.

Skills: 2+ skill ranks and a very sparseskill list.

Spells: The Sorcerer’s spells are their bestasset. With access to the best spell list in the game and tons of spells perday, the Sorcerer can do a lot of things and do them frequently.

Bloodline: Sorcerer bloodlines offer bonusspells, bonus feats, and cool abilities which supplement the Sorcerer’s spellsnicely. For help with Sorcerer Bloodlines, see mySorcerer Bloodlines Breakdown.

Cantrips: Fantastic and versatile.

Eschew Materials: The flavor makes sense,but it’s easy to replace Eschew Materials with a 15 gp item.

Abilities

As a full caster, the Sorcerer’s casting ability is key.

Str: Dump to 7 unless you plan toPolymorph.

Dex: AC, saves, and touch attacks.

Con: Essential to supplement that d6 hitdie, and for the Sorcerer’s poor Fortitude saves.

Int: Only needed for skill ranks.

Wis: Good for Will saves. Even thoughSorcerers have good Will saves, it’s still important to have a bit ofWisdom.

Cha: Sorcerers are all about Charisma.

Races

Charisma bonuses are essential, and small size is nice because it helps the Sorcerer’s garbage AC and attacks.

Dwarf: Charisma penalty.

Elf: Despite some nice abilities whichhelp spellcasters, the Elf’s abilities don’t work for the Sorcerer. The Elffavored class bonus offers additional uses of first-level bloodline powers,but first-level powers taper off very quickly.

Gnome: Small and bonuses to Charisma andConstitution. The Gnome’s affinity for illusions works for illusion-heavySorcerers. The Gnome favored class bonus offers additional uses of first-levelbloodline powers, but first-level powers taper off very quickly.

Half-Elf: Flexible ability bonus, but theHalf-Elf’s racial traits don’t offer anything useful for the Sorcerer. TheHalf-Elf favored class bonus offers additional uses of first-level bloodlinepowers, but first-level powers taper off very quickly. Instead, take the Humanfavored class bonus to learn extra spells.

Half-Orc: Flexible ability bonus, but theHalf-Orc’s racial traits don’t offer anything useful for the Sorcerer. TheHalf-Orc favored class bonus adds additional fire damage to fire spells, whichcan be nice for blaster builds, but will take a long time to add up toanything significant. Half-Orcs can also take the Human favored class bonus tolearn additional spells.

Halfling: Small and bonuses to Charisma andDexterity. The Halfling’s affinity for stealth can be helpful for sneakSorcerer builds. The Halfling favored class bonus offers additional uses offirst-level bloodline powers, but first-level powers taper off veryquickly.

Human: Flexible ability bonus and a bonusfeat. The Human favored class bonus allows you to learn additional spells,hugely expanding the Sorcerer’s versatility.

Traits

• Deft Dodger (Combat): +1 to a weaksave.
• Reactionary (Combat): +2 initiative ishuge. Combined with Improved Initiative you’ll go first much morefrequently.
• Resilient (Combat): +1 to a weaksave.
• Dangerously Curious (Magic): You have thecharisma to back this up, and access to divine spellcasting via scrolls andwands can help solve a lot of problems for your party.
• Arcane Temper (Magic): A bonus toinitiative and a bonus to Concentration checks. If you already took a combattrait and didn’t take Reactionary, this is a good option.
• Resilient Caster (Magic): Toosituational.
• Shrouded Casting (Magic): Buy a spellcomponent pouch.
• Volatile Conduit (Magic): 1d4 damage onceper day is nothing.
• Life of Toil (Social): +1 to a weaksave.
• Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): Identical toReactionary.
• Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial):Identical to Reactionary.

Skills

• Appraise (Int): Too situational.
• Bluff (Cha): Important for any face, butyou will need to spend a trait to pick up Diplomacy if you want to be aFace.
• Fly (Dex): 1 rank will be plenty.
• Intimidate (Cha): Important for any face,but you will need to spend a trait to pick up Diplomacy if you want to be aFace.
• Knowledge (arcana) (Int): One of the mostimportant Knowledge skills.
• Spellcraft (Int): Helpful for identifyingspells and magic items.
• Use Magic Device (Cha): Sorcerersalready get the best spell list in the game, but UMD can let you use thingslike Wands of Cure Light Wounds.

Feats

This section does not cover metamagic feats or bloodline-specific feats. For help with metamagic feats, see my Practical Guide to Metamagic.

• Combat Casting: A +4 bonus to yourconcentration checks when casting defensively is tempting, but you shouldnot be casting defensively often enough to justify spending a feat on it.Optimizing Concentration is very easy, and you can do it with traits anditems instead of wasting a feat.
• Eldritch Heritage: It’s unlikely that youwill see a lot of benefit from most low-level Sorcerer abilities, but thereare a handful of extremely powerful options, like the Arcane bloodline. Ifyou want the higher-level abilities from a bloodline with a poor low-levelability it may be a good idea to delay this feat as long as possible so youcan use your feats on more important options,
  • Improved Eldritch Heritage: Thebetter Bloodline powers offer better options, but not all options areequally good. Remember that you only need to take this feat once to getGreater Eldritch Heritage, so if you’re adding a bloodline with only onegood mid-level ability you can skip the bad one.
    • Greater Eldritch Heritage: Thebest Bloodline powers are often very tempting, but by this level youcan often replace them with spells.
• Improved Familiar: If you take afamiliar, Improved Familiar can get you some interesting options. For helpwith familiars, see myPractical Guide to Familiars.
• Improved Initiative: Go first, and getcontrol of the combat early.
• Spell Focus: If you emphasize a specificschool, this is essential.
  • Greater Spell Focus: Another +1 toyour DCs means you are 5% better at every spell you cast from thatschool.
• Sorcerous Bloodstrike: Some high-levelSorcerer powers have very limited uses per day, and an extra use istempting. However, you should generally be able to do better withspells.
• Spell Penetration: At high levels SpellResistance will become increasingly problematic. You may be able to get byon options which don’t allow spell resistance, but if you can’t this is agreat idea.
  • Greater Spell Penetration: Another+2.
• Spell Perfection: Fantastically powerful,and possibly a great option for a class which needs to rely on a smaller setof available spells than a wizard. Unfortunately you can only take the featonce, so you need to be really sure about the spell you choose. Irecommend selecting a spell of 5th level at most so that you can quicken it,but 6th level has some great options for Maximize Spell. Be sure to pick aversatile spell that you can reliably use in almost any situation like oneof the Shadow Conjuration/Evocation spells or Summon Monster.

Weapons

• Light Crossbow: A decent backup weapon atlow levels when you run low on spells, but you will be more reliable withcantrips because your attack rolls will be so low.

Armor

If you need AC, you’re doing something wrong. Still, it doesn’t hurt to get
some cheap protection. Keep in mind that Mage Armor is generally your best bet
when you need AC, but Mage Armor isn’t always on.

• Haramaki: +1 AC, no arcane spell failure,and at 5 gp you can afford it at first level.
• Mithral Buckler: +1 AC, no arcane spellfailure, and cheap to enhance.
• Silken Ceremonial: +1 AC, 4 pounds, noACP or spell failure. Plus, it’s a sweet ceremonial robe. Haramaki isstrictly better, but it’s not a super cool robe.

Magic Items

Rings

• Ring of Spell Knowledge: The usefulness ofthis item is wholly contingent on whether or not you can replace the spellthat you “taught” to the ring. I believe can that you can replacethe spell with reasonable certainty. Page of Spell Knowledge has largely thesame function, but costs much less and is slotless. If you use the custommagic item rules, the effect of Page of Spell Knowledge has a base cost of500 gp for 1st-level spells, just a third of the cost of Ring of SpellKnowledge I. Being rewritable would justify that cost difference. With thatestablished, this is an amazing item. There is no limitation on the spellbeing on your spell list or even whether or not it’s arcane or divine! Wantto learn magic missile? Go for it. The rings go up to 4th level, but I thinkthe peak usefulness is 3rd-level because that gets you access to most of theimportant healing/utility spells on the cleric/oracle spell list.

  How you teach spells to the ring is also important. The item descriptiondoesn’t specify an action, so I would default to either a standard actionor 1 hour to match the rules forSpells Copied from Another’s Spellbook or a Scroll. The easiest way to get access to spells is in “written form”. Thistypically means a scroll or a spellbook, so if the spell isn’t on thewizard spell list you’ll need to get a scroll. A generous DM might let youcopy the spell from an Alchemist’s Formula Book, but I don’t think thatmakes sense. Alchemists can learn wizard spells from spellbooks, butwizards can’t learn spells from formulae books. The item description alsodoesn’t specify what happens if you fail the spellcraft check. I woulddefault to the Spells Copied from Another’s Spellbook or Scroll rules,which means that using the scroll to teach the spell discharges thescroll. If that’s the case, it’s cheaper to pay an NPC to cast the spellonce than it is to buy a scroll, though it’s obviously less portable. Theend result is that a wizard’s spellbook becomes a treasure trove ofutility. Spend an action or an hour, learn a spell out of the spellbook,cast it as needed, then trade it out later.

Staffs

It’s difficult to recommend specific staffs without knowing your individual character, so instead I want to make a general endorsem*nt of the concept of magic staffs in Pathfinder. If you are a 3.5 native, go read Pathfinder’s rules for staffs because they have improved dramatically.

Staffs are a reliable, rechargeable source of extra spellcasting that can give spellcasters easy and reliable access to spells from their spell list which they might not want to learn, or which they might like to use so frequently that they can’t prepare the spell enough times in a given day. On days when you’re not adventuring (traveling, resting, etc.) you can easily recharge any staff even if you can only cast one of the spells which the staff contains.

Wondrous Items

• Cloak of Resistance: Too crucial toforego.
• Headband of Alluring Charisma: Get itearly, enhance it often.
• Mnemonic Vestment: Allows you to cast onespell which you don’t already know from a written source, such as aspellbook. Conveniently, you share a spell list with wizards, who tend toenjoy spellbooks. This item, combined with a spellbook, massively improvesyour versatility. All of those spells that you almost never need and neverneed more than once a day can go into a spellbook which a friendly wizardwrites for you, and you can cast spells out of it as needed.
• Page of Spell Knowledge: A great way toget extra spells known. I think Ring of Spell Knowledge is better foranything that you can find in a Wizard’s or Magus’s spellbook, but fordivine spells that you might need on a regular basis Page of Spell Knowledgemakes more sense because you don’t need to pay NPC’s to cast the spell foryou and you don’t need to consume scrolls.
• Robe of Arcane Heritage: Many high-levelSorcerer bloodline powers are excellent, and getting them 4 levels earlyoffers a huge power boost.
• Sorcerer’s Robe: Unless your 1st-levelbloodline power is truly amazing, this just isn’t good enough to justify thecost with only three uses per day.

Permanent Spells

• Reduce Person: Reducing your size offersseveral useful benefits. Dexterity improves your poor Reflex saves, you geta size bonus to AC, and you get a net +2 to your ranged touch attacks forgreat spells like Disintegrate. The Strength penalty doesn’t matter. Youcould reduce your size to tiny if your race is normally small, and it stillwon’t have a significant negative effect. Even if you like to use polymorphspells, this won’t handicap you since most of your polymorph forms aren’thumanoid and thus won’t be affected by Reduce Person.