Sorcerer spell picks (3.5) & stronghold planning

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What spells are good choices for a PnP 3.5ed Sorcerer? Pre-planned spell choices up to Sorcerer level 20 or so would be good.
Is it viable to include spells which are useful in stronghold construction or will that dilute the "adventuring power" of this character?

The reason for my interest in this type of character is that I am interested in planning the construction of a stronghold with a potential level 20 sorcerer in a pnp campaign.
(Maybe via the Sunless Citadel to the Bastion of Broken Souls series of adventures.)

A direct link to discussion on the subject would also be nice.

 

The Sorcerer is like a machine gun. You can (or in my opinion, should) be able to do the most effective things over and over again. So spells like Guards and Wards is not as useful in the long run as is, say, Cone of Cold.

My advice would just to get another spellcaster to do the right spells for you. Or scrolls.

 

I know about sorcerers from BG2 and IWD2, but not from pnp. What I want to see is a list of spells picked by a pnp sorcerer.

 

For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to put 4 spells for spell levels 1-3, 3 for 4-6, and 2 for 7-9. Here is what I would suggest:

1: Expeditious retreat, mage armor, magic missile, sleep
2: Bear's endurance, cat's grace, invisibility, mirror image
3: Dispel magic, fireball, fly, hold person
4: Charm monster, phantasmal killer, polymorph
5: Cone of cold, persistent image, wall of force
6: Greater heroism, mass suggestion, summon monster VI
7: Finger of death, greater teleport
8: Mind blank, power word stun
9: Dominate monster, weird

This should fill out most of the gaps: buff spells, mass damage spells, Will save spells, kill-a-single-creature-spells, etc. There are some things you can't do, like resist fire or banish demons, but that's what a Cleric is for.

As you can see, a lot of these spells don't help to construct a stronghold, but are useful when fighting monsters, exploring dungeons, saving the world, etc. You can take Craft Wondrous Item or Craft Rod to assist building your place, though.

 

I would replace the phant killer with stoneskin, and weird with wail of the banshee, but that is just me.

 

@Oaz
List seems reasonable. Now some alternative lists, please.

Oh, just a quick comment: Finger of Death?
Fort save and spell resistance. I didn't like FoD before 3rd ed and I still don't like it. What about Power Word Blind as an alternative or is the 200 HP limit too low to be useful?

 

Power Word Blind is a good spell - in fact, lots of high-level monsters have less than 200 hp. It does seem like an advantage over Finger of Death. The problem is that you are stuck with a no single-kill spell (and some monsters have blindsight, like dragons).

If you want an alternative list, trying going with various themes that your Sorcerer can do: area of effect spells, buff spells, summon spells, etc. Your metamagic and magic feats, if any, should hopefully augment whatever spells you opt to take.

 

Because a Sorcerer's powers are intuitive and not learned, I personally think that the Sorcerer randomly stumbles across the spell. Therefore, for spell selection, roll some dice to see what you get.

But thats just me personally

 

I like choosing an offensive spell, a defensive spell, and a utility spell for each level, in that order.