Best race for a sorcerer?

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I'm tossing up between human, aasimar and drow. Discuss.

 

Aasimar:

* +2 to Wisdom and +2 to Charisma
* Acid, cold, and electrical Resistance: 5 points
* Sunscorch 1/day
* Darkvision

Enough said.

 

Human for the versatility. It has 95% of the effectiveness of an Aasimar, with much better life stats. But I won't deny that Aasimar gets the best 'Ultimate Powergaming' results, but at a high price in versatility. So it depends on your criteria, and playing style.

 

Human. The faster you get the high level spells, the better.

 

Totally agree with Silvershield. The advantages to an aasimer are fabulously handy

 

But the drow get +2 to intelligence, dexterity and charisma. They also get innate magic resistance, immunity to sleep, and +2 on saves against enchantment spells.

Who cares about wisdom for a sorcerer? Yeah, the acid, cold and electrical resistance is a nice perk, but it doesn't compare with the gamut of resistances the drow get.

And sunscorch and darkvision? Hah.

 

Human. extra skillpoints, and 1 extra feat. Plus you don`t suffer from that anoying level adjustemt thingy. Wich means you get better spells alot quicker than Aasimar and Drow.

 

All of the sorcerers that I've ever used were wild elves. I tend to just try to get through combat with weapons and only start using spells if I really need them. With the wild elf, I get free proficiency in bows. Usually my wizard and sorcerer just use ranged weapons (bows, x-bows) while my other characters engage in melee.

The reason I do not like using spells that much is the continuous, real-time movement of the Infinity game engine. I just find it a pain to target my area effects so they hit opponent only and miss my party.

I also do not play in HoF mode. In normal mode, I just cannot stand having any LA for my spellcasters. I do not worry about the elemental feats for my sorcerer in normal mode. They do enough damage. If not, I still have a wizard who can take those feats.

 

I tried a Drow Sorcerer for the first time a while back and was incredibly impressed with the innate MR that keeps growing as you level up. Generally, I used 1 Hu and 1 Aas in any of my parties. Now, I'm thinking I might just add a third sorc each time as well.

 

I voted human, on the assumption it's your typical 6 person party and the sorcerer is just cowering at the back. I think it's the best powergaming choice. Levels are all important, both for spell level and the number of spells per level. You may lose 4 ability points but you gain 7 by being able to dum INT to 3. I'm assuming you'll want at least 2 skill points per level up for concentration and to get the powerful elemental feats.

That said, I'm playing an Aasimar at the moment and I wouldn't swap him. He makes a great spokesperson, especially if you want to raise Int and Wis for more dialogue options whilst still keeping Cha maxed. They wouldn't be far behind humans.

It's hard to see Drow being optimal. They have great bonuses but -2 levels is surely a killer. Sorcerers already have the slowest spell progression of all the main spellcasters. They also suffer from both favoured classes being a poor multiclassing choice, especially lacking paladin. Although I wouldn't choose to drop spell levels for this until you're beginning to max out.

I'd struggle to see how any other class could be best, although they'd still be perfectly fine once you max Cha. The humans free feat could be used to replicate the wild elves' free bow feat.

 

Deise:

Yes, levelling up faster is in itself a bonus.

How do you work this out? And wouldn't you want INT 13 for the expertise and dodge feats?

Yes, definitely. Doesn't a drow of INT 10 get two skill points per level? And why would a human get two skill points per level, if they have an int modifier of -4?

So does being an Aasimar make you a better sorcerer than human? Is the trade off of one level, one skill point and a feat, worth the perks that they receive in return?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that if you're going to sacrifice levels, you might as well get a bargain for it.

Yeah, being unable to multiclass to paladin without an XP penalty is a bit rough. Is it worth taking a class in paladin, do you think?

 

Expertise and Dodge are useful but there's little point in increasing a Sorcerer's AC since you'll never get it high enough as the game progresses anyway.
They can be dead useful at the early stages of the game though especially if you start low on fighting classes.

Humans gain levels very fast, +1 feat; Aasimar have +2 Cha and can safely multiclass to Paladin (= charisma saving throw bonuses), slow level speed; and Drow get +2 Int/Cha and MR, very slow level speed.
I usually pick Drow because what I need is a late game nuker who could safely fling spells about while he himself is in the middle of a magical fireworks display (I'm not terribly fond of anything that can't cast a divine/arcane spell past lvl 5). I also usually bring along classes that do very well early in the game (ie, the Druid) and a Sorcerer in my party should rarely find himsef drawing aggro for long.
I'd advise against Drow if you're gonna be depending on him to be the main nuker for around half of the non-HoF game though (in reference to Silvershield's post below - I've been through something similar). HoF-wise, unless you intend to start from scratch then Drow is just godly.

 

For the poll, I DID choose an Aasimar, however in my current party I have a Drow Sorcerer X/Paladin 1 and let me tell you; he's struggling. A 20% exp penalty may not seem like much, however with my current party (2 deep gnomes and 4 drow), it's just disastrous.

The only reason I took a Paladin level was for Cera Summit and to be honest, I’m not sure that it was such a wise choice, even after acquiring it. It just feels like HELL for the first 5 chapters

 

One important thing I forgot to mention about the human, is that it can take more than one mix-in class. Hear me out:
I know that at low level you really don't want to waste levels, but at higher level, it becomes worthwhile.
IMO the human sorcererX/paladin1/monk1/ranger1 is the cheesiest character imaginable. At high level, your sorcerer suddenly gets monk Evasion to combine with his sky-high saving throws. And as a ranger he/she can dual wield weapons effectively (if you consider that at all important).

Spoiler

So in Heart of Fury, your sorcerer can dual wield both of the paladin swords, to also get a very high magic resistance 32+16=48, maximum is 50. This character has three layers of protection against spells: The paladin's high saving throws, the monk Evasion + high reflex save, and the SR from the swords. So cheesy it's just wrong. Keep him/her from melee, and you get a near untouchable build!

 

The party is in dire straights indeed when even the Sorcerer has to drop his spells and go melee.
Then again, that might make a good solo. I wonder where Find Familiar went in IWD 2.

 

The base is two skill points per level and then the INT modifier. You must get at least one skill point. Humans get an extra skill point every level and this is added AFTER the INT modifier i.e. their absolute minimum is two, even if their INT is 3. This means you should have enough to get 10 spellcraft for the elemental feats (very powerful) and the rest can get you a decent concentration score. My human cleric went down this route.

This is why I say humans get more ability points to play around with. Aasiamar and Drow both get 4 bonus points but must keep INT at 10 or else they'll have low concentration and no elemental feats. As sorcerers don't use INT this means humans can add an extra +1 modifier to an ability score. The only snag is that they can't raise Cha to 20, which is obviously the most important for a sorcerer.

I wouldn't bother with expertise for a sorcerer. As has been pointed out they're best staying at the back at all times and their AC is probably so low that even with the bonus they'll still get hit. Mirror image etc. are good if they get into a situation they can't get out of and the feat would be better off spent on something to help spellcasting.

My sorcerer wasn't designed to be the absolute optimum. I wanted 20 Cha and then a high INT and WIS for lots of dialogue options as he does all the talking. Plus I thought being an Aasimar sounded cooler, which quite frankly was the deciding factor from the outset. I'd say the most powerful is a min maxed human but an Aasimar wouldn't be far behind. The poll is for the 'best' sorcerer. That doesn't mean it has to be the one you want to play.

Level is all important for spellcasters. You get more spells and higher level spells as you go up and all a sorcerer is there for is to throw spells around. Most spells improve as your levels do too (D6 damage per level etc.).

A paladin level is tricky. Personally I'd go with increasing levels but the bonus to saving throws is enormous, and proficiency with weapons is a nice touch even if you're still not much good with them (bows are useful though). I certainly don't see an argument for anything other than one paladin level though, unless you hit around level 20 when your spell progression slows dramatically (only a consideration for HOF or small parties).

 

In normal, human.

In HOF, drow.

 

Stuntman, you know you can set Auto-Pause: Spell Cast in the game options menu? This makes spells less awkward to cast, and your spellcasting more efficient.

 

It gets a bit like that sometimes, although after awhile you get used to the spells' area effect

 

Perhaps there is some happy medium where you can have a spellcaster which levels up at the same rate as human, but is also sturdier? What about a Gold Dwarf? You can max your constitution to 20, which means extra HP and +1 to concentration. You also get a +2 to save against spells, which is pretty good.