Pathfinder a Bite at a Time: Sorceror and Wizard
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 05:40PM Hopefully by now you've already had a bite or two of U20's take on Pathfinder, but if not let me welcome you to a brief exploration of the Sorceror and the Wizard, and please be encouraged to visit the Library to read the rest.
Let's get down to business.
The Sorceror
I’ve been looking forward to the Pathfinder sorcerer because she sports my favorite new class feature of them all, and it's a doozy. Never one to break with tradition, though, let’s start by talking about what’s familiar, rather than what’s new.
The sorcerer is proficient with simple weapons, no armor, and no shields, and her primary attack and defense is still her deep but very narrow selection of arcane spells. Her skills are earned at the rate of 2+int mod per level, and Charisma still governs her bonus spells and spell DCs. Her hit dice have been upgraded to a d6, and she no longer gains a familiar as an automatic class feature (although one bloodline can grant her a familiar if that’s the path you desire). Lastly, her cantrips are now all cast at-will, so go crazy.
I figured you've all seen the PF Sorceror before, so here's Paizo's really great-looking miniature of their archetype sorceror, Seoni.
The bloodline class feature is awesome, and the defining sorceror trait, allowing you to choose from where your sorcerer gets her magical aptitude. From aberrant to infernal to draconic to fey, and several others (10 in total), your bloodline not only manifests in expanded spell lists, but feats and other bloodline powers that allow you to unsheathe burning claws or move with the burrowing speed of your elemental forebears. Your bloodline informs (but doesn’t decide) your character’s alignment, thought process, and even how you might look. The abilities your bloodline grants all follow a similar pattern, but with the exception of a few repeat offenders the majority of them are fresh, useful, and deliciously flavorful across the board. This is my model class feature.
The elven sorceress in my Pathfinder game has used her Fey bloodline’s laughing touch ability to save her life a couple of times in just a handful of sessions. Overall, I love the changes made for the Pathfinder Sorceror, and if I could cast Time Stop I would play a campaign with each of the bloodlines before moving on.
The Wizard
The few wizards I have played over a decade have been from a range of levels from 3.5E and wholly enjoyable without exception. The Pathfinder wizard is still squishy, with an extremely limited weapon selection and no armor or shields. His hit die is a d6 (there are no d4s for core class hit dice in Pathfinder), and he still casts a wide selection of spells that are memorized from his spellbooks. Cantrips are all now at-will, and he still gains a handful of arcana-related bonus feats as he levels (starting with scribe scroll).
Ezren, probably grumpy Pathfinder Wizard. School specialization is nothing new, but it is now more-or-less a requirement of the wizard at 1st level as he chooses his arcane school. The vancian favorites are all still here, and much like the sorceror's bloodline, your chosen school provides you with bonus spells in your specialization, limitations (but not forbiddance) on two other schools of your choice, and related powers ranging from a modular resistance to energy that you can change daily (abjuration), to the ability to send your weapon flying from your hand to make a melee attack up to 30 feet away (the hand of the apprentice power from the universalist school). Cool beans, and another welcome change for a class that has gotten some flack for being too weak at low levels.
Lastly, your Arcane Bond feature allows you to develop a bond with a familiar (working much like it has in the past), or a bonded object. The object—a ring, staff, amulet, wand, or weapon—can be improved like any magical item, and provides an extra free spell to be cast from the wizard's spellbook every day. I prefer familiars, but if you want something that's low-frills but undoubtedly effective, the bonded object is an excellent route to a more powerful wizard.
Conclusions
Overall I'm extremely pleased with the Pathfinder classes, and even my gripes are really merely quibbles in the grand scheme. I am pumped to run players playing these classes, and looking forward to my opportunities to roll up my own bards, druids, fighters, monks, rogues, and sorcerors in the years to come.
What's Next?
Well, there's a lot more Pathfinder to explore, and I would like to discuss the skills and feats chapters over the next days, but I think a comparison of the 20th-level abilities of each of these excellent classes is in order. And, of course, there are prestige classes and Campaign Settings to reveal!
But that's a different story. Thanks for stopping by, and I welcome your comments!
Pathfinder, Review, sorceror, wizard in Pathfinder 
Reader Comments (8)
Again, thoroughly enjoyed your Bite at a Time Series! Thanks for all the hard work! Looking forward to more Pathfinder! I love my book!
So far I have really enjoyed your detailed examination of the PfRPG. I love this game and have made it the default system for my gaming group. Of course we all liked 3.x much better than 4e anyway so I am a bit biased. Like any system there are flaws, but it still improved on the system I already enjoyed to the point the few issues I have with the system are moot.
I look forward to your next post.
Hey, muchas graçias to you both!
I've got a session tomorrow that I need to prepare for so I won't be posting for a few days, but I will continue the Bite at a Time series soon, Wrath. Thanks again for stopping by.
I have to admit a bit of a bias myself, Geek—3.5 (and now Pathfinder) simply provide me with the richest D&D experience atm. I still enjoy 4E, though, and I also have to admit that 4E's structure lends itself very well to pick-up-and-play style games, which was fun to experience at PAX a couple of weekends ago.
Anyway, good stuff, and good gaming.
Hey...
I thought I'd share a Pathfinder site with you and your readers. Its a site I started but that many now maintain. I'd love to hear what you and your readers think of d20pfsrd.com. The site has many features not available from Paizo. Check it out and please let me know what you think!
--jreyst
Oh yeah, John, I've directed my players all to check out your srd, especially as they get used to the system and wait for their print core rulebooks to arrive in the mail. It's a great resource—thanks!
If I had a dime for every time I came here.. Great article!
Haha I am really the only reply to this incredible writing?!
Super great read. Honest!