Sorcerer

NWN Requirements

• None

Arelith Changes

• Spell changes, or Organized Spell Changes.
• Requires spell components to cast spells greater than level 6. Level 7 spells cost 1. Level 8 spells cost 2. Level 9 spells cost 3.
• Familiars.

Inficasting:

The Greater Spell Foci of every school that they take, additionally to the normal effects that they grant, will unlock a spell which the wizard and the sorcerer may cast freely and without limit as a special ability, that works identically as a spell casted from their spellbooks. Cannot be targeted at fixtures.

• GSF Abjuration grants Endure Elements.
• GSF Conjuration grants Melf's Acid Arrow.
• GSF Divination grants See Invisibility.
• GSF Enchantment grants Blindness/Deafness.
• GSF Evocation grants Magic Missile.
• GSF Illusion grants Color Spray.
• GSF Necromancy grants Ray of Enfeeblement.
• GSF Transmutation grants Burning Hands.

To cast the spells, look for them in your radial menu of abilities. True Flame only receive Magic Missile.

These spells are lost if they are interrupted, but they can be refreshed by casting another infispell.

Path of the True Flame

The Path of the True Flame can be chosen at character creation by sorcerers. Followers of the Path of the True Flame get unlimited spells per day, but can cast only evocation spells. This limitation includes spells cast from scrolls, wands, and items.

Mundane items, potions, restoration, dead raise and resurrection scrolls are the exception to the rule. Epic spells must also only be Evocation (this means Greater ruin and Hellball) however they can only be cast once per rest as per normal.

List of available spells:

Spell Circle	Spell name
Cantrip	Electric Jolt Flare Light
1st circle	Chromatic Orb Horizikaul's Boom Ice Dagger Magic Missile Shelgarn's Persistent Blade
2nd circle	Cloud of Bewilderment Combust Darkness Flame Weapon Gedlee's Electric Loop Gust of Wind Scorching Ray
3rd circle	Fireball Lightning Bolt Scintillating Sphere
4th circle	Elemental Shield Ice Storm Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm Wall of Fire Wall of Ice
5th circle	Ball Lightning Bigby's Interposing Hand Cone of Cold Firebrand
6th circle	Bigby's Forceful Hand Chain Lightning Isaac's Greater Missile Storm
7th circle	Bigby's Grasping Hand Delayed Blast Fireball Great Thunderclap Prismatic Spray
8th circle	Bigby's Clenched Fist Incendiary Cloud Sunburst
9th circle	Bigby's Crushing Hand Meteor Swarm Burst of Glacial Wrath
Epic Spell	Hellball Greater Ruin

Shadow Mage

For details of the Shadow Mage path, see Shadow Mage.

Roleplay Tips

Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters that have, to some degree or another, inherent magical power. The reasons for this can be varied. Sorcerers are known to be produced by magically rich areas, simply by virtue of diffusion of magic through the environment. They can be produced by having some amount of magical blood in them from a lineage that includes a magical creature. Sorcerers can also be produced as a side-effect of a parent having been a sorcerer or wizard. Essentially: exposure to magic produces sorcerers. The aptitude doesn't seem to be distilled by distance from its source. So if your hundredth relative fancied dragons and had a lovely child with one, you may as well be a sorcerer.

Sorcerers are, historically, only rarely sorcerers by choice. It's true that some cultures have eugenics programs that exist purely to produce and train inherent magical talent, and will have culturally sanctioned sorcerers. Most societies, however, don't mean to produce sorcerers, they just do.

Sorcererous tendencies tend to manifest around puberty in humanoid creatures, frequently earlier for already highly magical creatures. These powers generally begin as uncontrolled, unexpected and fairly dangerous. An average commoner has about four hit points, a ray of frost does 1d4+1. You can see how even a teenage sorcerer in a bit of an angry moment can rather painfully cripple someone. This means that sorcerers come to be feared, reviled or sequestered away. Nobody expects a sorcerer in the family, unless they're extremely stoic, or just plain not commoners.

Because magic works in an instinctive way for sorcerers, they already know how to wave their hands around and what words to say to produce magical effects. These things just happen to them, it's like figuring out you can close one eye at the same time as another. You don't forget it. Regardless of Neverwinter Nights mechanics, sorcerers also never change their spell selection. They don't have the option, as the spells are just another limb they've come into use of.

So the hypothetical "average" sorcerer would discover their powers in a fairly sequestered community, attempt to supress or elaborate upon them in secret, and entertain great dreams.

Sorcerers tend towards becoming a few things. Wizards, gaining their powers through extreme logic and merticulous practice, tend towards law. Sorcerers, on the other hand, learning that they are something greater than their community, a power unto themselves, if you will, tend to range towards free action. Most people that find they have powers their peers lack try to use them, if not to impress or defend themselves, then at least to aid others. Above all sorcerers tend not to be the careful, conservative spellcasters that wizards are. Sorcerers act, for better or for worse. They tend to live fast and die young, whether good or evil.

Lawful sorcerers, of course, happen as well. They tend to be people that have a bit of a breakdown after discovering their power, and becoming very afraid of what they can do to another person. They become conservative, then, through fear of themselves. Perhaps they were someone that just wanted to ignore their power and remain part of the community, but was forced out or away, as no other could handle what they could, and they needed to leave to defend it. Sorcerers are also, frequently, sent to wizards to be trained, the people sending them not understanding their power, and the wizard fairly ineffectually trying to channel it into more logical pursuits.

Not to say that all sorcerers are afraid of themselves. Some become rather absorbed in themselves, believing themselves somehow greater than their peers, and frequently attempting to rescue or aid people with their magical powers, becoming good-hearted but hopelessly romantic. Alternatively some could see their power as placing them above others, and decide it is their prerogative to nurse it until they can strike back against their own community for perceived slights, operating off of a false sense of entitlement to justice.

Mechanics of Sorcery

Deciding how and why your character uses its power can be one of the greatest aspects of being a sorcerer. After all, the character has, in technicality, absolutely no control over what spells choose to manifest themselves. Certainly, their power tends to be tempered by their personality and preferences, but they hardly know what's going to happen next. Not all magic is blowing things up. There are sorcerers that are naturally transmuters, who find that the natural laws governing gravity and physics don't apply to them, and they can manipulate the states of things in their own world in an entertaining variety of ways. 'generalist' sorcerers also tend to be fairly rare, as people who are completely neutral and don't care what powers they posses tend not to have the force of personality required for sorcery.

Charisma, to a sorcerer, is essentially a measurement of how overbearing their presence is to the world. How much of a dent they make in society by their existence, how much people are inclined to listen to them, and how much the weave of magic they can sink into. It is, for all intents and purposes, the "weight" of your personality. In this way, it gives sorcerers power. You can elbow a bit more compliance out of the weave with a bit more weight.

Another fun aspect of creating a sorcerer is determining the source of their power. They may not even be aware of this source, and it may not even come up, but the way in which it can influence the way your character acts can be a bit of a subtle bonus to those who figure it out.

For instance, sorcerers born on another plane tend to gravitate towards powers that would be closely associated with that plane. A sorcerer born on the Inner Plane of fire, or any genasi, really, would be more likely to harness and evocate using the element from which it is derived. Negatasi frequently become necromancers, residents of the upper planes become frequently illusionists, if chaotic, or abjurers or diviners, if lawful.

If the sorcerer's power came from a creature in their lineage, they likely will still have some traits of that creature loitering around in their bloodstream. This doesn't mean to immediately make the leap of logic to 'dragon' and make your character a dragon disciple. There are literally hundreds of creatures that humans could have cross-bred with that would produce sorcerers. This doesn't mean flip open the Monster Manual and choose arbitrarily, but certainly put some thought into the idea of what monstrous or humanoid creature could be in your bloodstream to produce a sorcerer. The creature could also influence the type of powers that choose to manifest. If one is a sorcerer derivitive of an Alcor, then have them manifest primarily frost based spells. Although Neverwinter Nights mechanics don't allow for the same plethora of spells available to a Pen and Paper sorcerer, there's still enough of a selection to show a bit of racial bias.

Specialists

Sorcerer, or innate, specialists is not a normal thing in D&D, but Arelith is not D&D! And NWN does not enforce that. One way to RP sorcerer specialists in a way of 'disciplines' they attempt to focus their powers in one way or the other. Another way is to have a focus come naturally, coming from their heritage. The possibilities are limitless.

Say a Sorcerer is getting their magic from Devil in their ancestry, they might naturally be inclined to Illusions, Enchanting, or Divination. Devil's being Charismatic Buggers that pry into the mind, which is theoretically possible with all three schools, and discover secrets to use against their enemies. And it is totally possible that a Devil ancestry can go for any other type of spells out there.

External Links

Information about default NWN class are available on NWNWiki.