What it says in the title. I'm a brand new player looking for advice on how to plan out a Sorcerer with a focus in Necromancy, and perhaps some illusory or charm magic on the side, something that will assist her in deceiving or manipulating people. From the preliminary research I've done I know the sorcerer spell list is very limited compared to other caster classes and Wizards or Clerics of certain domains tend to be more effective at the whole raising the dead shtick, but this is a flavor thing.
Light overview of the character is that she's somewhat obsessed with the restorative properties of necromancy, and is less about commanding legions of ghouls (though I'd like that as part of her repertoire) and more about mastering it as a way to save herself from death. Mechanically I'm looking for anything that would allow her to heal herself (and sometimes others) especially if that healing comes from draining others of their life. The illusory or charm angle would similarly tend towards protecting herself or putting others between her and harm's way.
I've committed to Divine Soul for access to the cleric spell list, and I'd like her to be a Tiefling, but all advice is welcome. Spell lists, tiefling bloodlines, metamagic choices, possible multiclassing, etc. I'm also curious about how futile it would be to try to give her some kind of martial prowess, since from what I understand sorcerers work better as specialists and that would probably be me trying to do too much at once, but I'd be happy to be wrong.
Well depends on the level you are at, what you should know is that thanks to font of Magic, you can potentially cast your necromancy spells more times per day than other casters, this is especially useful for animate dead. Aid is an cleric spell that enables you to make you, your undead thralls or your friends harder to kill, life transference is the Only healing spell that works on undead (works on the living too) but drains your health, if you want ghouls you Will need the create undead spell, something you Will not get for quite some time, anyone you kill with the finger of death spell permanently rises as an zombie under your controll, and with twinned spell metamagic you can subject twice as many People as normal to this horrible spell. Before that Twinned spell is also an useful spell since many enchantment spells Only Target a single creature when cast at their lowest level, as do many low level healing spells and the mighty life-draining eneveration spell, so you Will defenetly find twinned spell a useful metamagic option. Dominate person and geas are fantastic options for forcing People to do your bidding in combat. You might also find sanctuary to be a fun option, forcing your opponent to Change their behavior and not attack you
Other than eneveration, vampiric touch is the Only necromancy spell that harms others and heals yourself, so you Will have to rely on the normal healing spells instead. Healing word is generally more productive than cure wounds since healing word can be cast from further away and let's you heal without interupting your attacks, pick up whatever extra healing spells you might want to have, having cure wounds and prayer of healing anyways is Good once combat ends, cure wounds is by no means a bad spell to cast in combat ether
The tiefling subclasses Only really differ by their innate spells and none of them would help you that much, possibly a fierna tiefling might be a Good option for you
One or two levels in cleric might be the best multiclass choice for you, life domain clerics gain proficiency with all armor in the game and some weapons and get to heal better, death domain clerics (not to be confused with the completely different grave cleric), gain proficiency with most armor and all weapons and you can Target multiple creatures with cantrips
Creating an martial weapon focused sorcerer is not impossible, but a Bit tricky since you have to consider that you have no proficiency in armor, barely any weapon proficiencies and have the lowest hit Dice possible of any class. By taking a level in cleric you gain more armor and weapons and a tiny bit more health, and the cantrips booming blade and green flame blade can be used to weild weapons more effectively in melee combat (when fighting at a distance you ought to use cantrips like fire bolt instead of ranged weapons), taking the war caster feat can also be incredibly useful in these martial endeavors as can aid and false life help you stay alive longer, but you might be better of trying to avoid melee combat in favour of more magical endeavors, but it is still possible for you to have an martial focus
Lastly, if your character has an truly tainted soul, you can use the planar ally spell to gain the service of an demon, specifically you should try to gain the service of an dybbuk or maurezhi demon, one can posess corpses and the other can create ghouls, raise ghouls back to undeath and impersonate corpses they have eaten, morbid stuff and expensive but mighty allies should the demon lord orcus allow it
Edit: oh yeah and phantasmal force is a really fun spell for ******* with People, make them are ghosts and hear stuff that is not there, just dont expect it to deal much damage
To give her some melee ability (and it's not much) take the Shocking Grasp cantrip, and Mage Armor (of course) so you don't get splatted too easily. Remember that it's just for an emergency. I would go Glasya Tiefling for the free Minor Illusion (plus Disguise Self and Invisibility) and the +1 to Dexterity. Starting with five cantrips is pretty good.
FIrebolt is the strongest ranged cantrip, but Chill Touch is necrotic damage which might fit the Necromancer theme better. It's also resisted less than fire, which might be a concern somewhere along the way. Toll the Dead is another necrotic spell, and the D12 is nice, but it is short ranged and relies on your target failing a Wisdom save. Also three damage cantrips may be too many. Probably Chill Touch/Firebolt and Shocking Grasp is enough. That leaves three (including Minor Illusion). Mage Hand is really helpful, and I do like Prestidigitation for general utility.
In my view the only way to make a semi-competent melee sorcerer (which it still really won't be good) is to start with a race with melee weapon and armor proficiency of its own.
The Mountain Dwarf is, I think, the best candidate. If you start with 17,14,12,8,8,15 stats, and bump strength and charisma at level 4, you'll have workable melee stats. You'll need the SCAG cantrips (at least Booming Blade) in order to get bonus damage at levels 5, 11, and 17. Nonetheless I still don't think it's a good option.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
What it says in the title. I'm a brand new player looking for advice on how to plan out a Sorcerer with a focus in Necromancy, and perhaps some illusory or charm magic on the side, something that will assist her in deceiving or manipulating people. From the preliminary research I've done I know the sorcerer spell list is very limited compared to other caster classes and Wizards or Clerics of certain domains tend to be more effective at the whole raising the dead shtick, but this is a flavor thing.
Light overview of the character is that she's somewhat obsessed with the restorative properties of necromancy, and is less about commanding legions of ghouls (though I'd like that as part of her repertoire) and more about mastering it as a way to save herself from death. Mechanically I'm looking for anything that would allow her to heal herself (and sometimes others) especially if that healing comes from draining others of their life. The illusory or charm angle would similarly tend towards protecting herself or putting others between her and harm's way.
I've committed to Divine Soul for access to the cleric spell list, and I'd like her to be a Tiefling, but all advice is welcome. Spell lists, tiefling bloodlines, metamagic choices, possible multiclassing, etc. I'm also curious about how futile it would be to try to give her some kind of martial prowess, since from what I understand sorcerers work better as specialists and that would probably be me trying to do too much at once, but I'd be happy to be wrong.
I am but a lost lamb, please guide me.
Well depends on the level you are at, what you should know is that thanks to font of Magic, you can potentially cast your necromancy spells more times per day than other casters, this is especially useful for animate dead. Aid is an cleric spell that enables you to make you, your undead thralls or your friends harder to kill, life transference is the Only healing spell that works on undead (works on the living too) but drains your health, if you want ghouls you Will need the create undead spell, something you Will not get for quite some time, anyone you kill with the finger of death spell permanently rises as an zombie under your controll, and with twinned spell metamagic you can subject twice as many People as normal to this horrible spell. Before that Twinned spell is also an useful spell since many enchantment spells Only Target a single creature when cast at their lowest level, as do many low level healing spells and the mighty life-draining eneveration spell, so you Will defenetly find twinned spell a useful metamagic option. Dominate person and geas are fantastic options for forcing People to do your bidding in combat. You might also find sanctuary to be a fun option, forcing your opponent to Change their behavior and not attack you
Other than eneveration, vampiric touch is the Only necromancy spell that harms others and heals yourself, so you Will have to rely on the normal healing spells instead. Healing word is generally more productive than cure wounds since healing word can be cast from further away and let's you heal without interupting your attacks, pick up whatever extra healing spells you might want to have, having cure wounds and prayer of healing anyways is Good once combat ends, cure wounds is by no means a bad spell to cast in combat ether
The tiefling subclasses Only really differ by their innate spells and none of them would help you that much, possibly a fierna tiefling might be a Good option for you
One or two levels in cleric might be the best multiclass choice for you, life domain clerics gain proficiency with all armor in the game and some weapons and get to heal better, death domain clerics (not to be confused with the completely different grave cleric), gain proficiency with most armor and all weapons and you can Target multiple creatures with cantrips
Creating an martial weapon focused sorcerer is not impossible, but a Bit tricky since you have to consider that you have no proficiency in armor, barely any weapon proficiencies and have the lowest hit Dice possible of any class. By taking a level in cleric you gain more armor and weapons and a tiny bit more health, and the cantrips booming blade and green flame blade can be used to weild weapons more effectively in melee combat (when fighting at a distance you ought to use cantrips like fire bolt instead of ranged weapons), taking the war caster feat can also be incredibly useful in these martial endeavors as can aid and false life help you stay alive longer, but you might be better of trying to avoid melee combat in favour of more magical endeavors, but it is still possible for you to have an martial focus
Lastly, if your character has an truly tainted soul, you can use the planar ally spell to gain the service of an demon, specifically you should try to gain the service of an dybbuk or maurezhi demon, one can posess corpses and the other can create ghouls, raise ghouls back to undeath and impersonate corpses they have eaten, morbid stuff and expensive but mighty allies should the demon lord orcus allow it
Edit: oh yeah and phantasmal force is a really fun spell for ******* with People, make them are ghosts and hear stuff that is not there, just dont expect it to deal much damage
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
To give her some melee ability (and it's not much) take the Shocking Grasp cantrip, and Mage Armor (of course) so you don't get splatted too easily. Remember that it's just for an emergency. I would go Glasya Tiefling for the free Minor Illusion (plus Disguise Self and Invisibility) and the +1 to Dexterity. Starting with five cantrips is pretty good.
FIrebolt is the strongest ranged cantrip, but Chill Touch is necrotic damage which might fit the Necromancer theme better. It's also resisted less than fire, which might be a concern somewhere along the way. Toll the Dead is another necrotic spell, and the D12 is nice, but it is short ranged and relies on your target failing a Wisdom save. Also three damage cantrips may be too many. Probably Chill Touch/Firebolt and Shocking Grasp is enough. That leaves three (including Minor Illusion). Mage Hand is really helpful, and I do like Prestidigitation for general utility.
In my view the only way to make a semi-competent melee sorcerer (which it still really won't be good) is to start with a race with melee weapon and armor proficiency of its own.
The Mountain Dwarf is, I think, the best candidate. If you start with 17,14,12,8,8,15 stats, and bump strength and charisma at level 4, you'll have workable melee stats. You'll need the SCAG cantrips (at least Booming Blade) in order to get bonus damage at levels 5, 11, and 17. Nonetheless I still don't think it's a good option.