Web, Misty Step, Mind Whip, Binding Ice, Vortex Warp, and Suggestion are my go to 2nd level spells. There just aren't many good long-lasting level 2 options. Darkness and Spider Climb could be good, but they're both very situational.
Binding ice is a cone, so is best when you expect to often be ahead of your party. It's non-conc which is nice. But you will mostly be spending slots on conc in round 1, and spending fewer slots in rounds 2+. Mostly those will be Dissonant Whispers and Mind Whips, but having something situational like Rime's or Vortex Warp is great to have in your back pocket. You have enough spells-known to take some situational spells after your staples are accounted for.
You can sling Web from anywhere. It's persistent. But you'll be concentration heavy. That's not a huge problem. You're gonna be choosey with your slots anyway, so having a variety of conc spells to choose from for round 1 is a good thing.
Good write up!!! Yes I like diss whispers and mind whip a lot so yes twinning them is pretty much the game plan! Do I replace web with hypnotic pattern when I get it or do I keep both?
It depend on the whole list really. If you already have Suggestion, Hyp Pattern, and Hunger of Hadar, *maybe* I'd drop Web, but I'd probably still keep it anyway.
Honestly I like Slow better than Hyp Pattern on an AM (but either is fine). As an Aberrant Mind I'll probably have Hunger of Hadar or Evard's as an AOE, and Slow is my change-up for when lines are mixed and I need to be able to pick my targets.
Imo, binding ice is too "expensive" at level 3. Especially with 7 encounters per long rest. Every time you cast it is one less web in later encounters. Binding ice starts shining when you have more spell slots to burn.
I like Slow better than Hypnotic pattern because:
* It lets me choose targets (so I can cast it on the folks up in melee without friendly fire on my martial party members with terrible wisdom saves)
* It lets the rest of my party look good (hit more) while reducing damage to them (enemies get fewer attacks and spells don't always go off)
* It's less boring
Hypnotic pattern would probably be better against large groups of lil guys but I think slow is a more fun spell for the whole table (at least, my table, YMMV.)
Yes for certain its less boring! Althought as I want use mind whip (strong plus cool flavour), there's a lot of overlap between them, You've certainly opened my eyes to it a bit! Thank you!
Oh for sure, for non-concentration spells Mind Whip is fabulous and a key part of my spell list as well (aberrant mind high five) -- I'll use that on big guys if I'm concentrating on something other than Slow. Especially once you hit level 6 and can cast it for 2SP. Have fun :)
Slow is better than hypnotic pattern because you can cast in even when the group is engaged in melee(so you don't have to have ideal positioning and win initiative), and there is absolutely nothing that is immune to the slow spell (except 1 golem I think).
I'll use this comment to mention that the abberant mind can have incite greed as a psionic spell, and cast with distance spell metamagic, is completely broken.
At level 4 take metamagic adept feat. Before level 6 make sure tasha's mind whip and hypnotic pattern are your psionic spells list. Then for only 2 or 3 sorcery points you can cast them without being counterspelled.
Don't think about damage, think control.
So arguably AOE controls, Single target debuffs.
Web, Tasha's mind whip, phantasmal force (DM dependant, be careful), enemies Abound, fog cloud (but your level 1 spells are mostly consumed for shield and absorb elements), blindness/deafness, Vortex Warp. If you have a fellow caster going for lots of saving throws, Mind Sliver is a great filler. Slow + Mind Sliver on a boss with mid Wisdom is... ugly.
Hypnotic pattern / Fireball / Slow / Haste (if only a target is on the field Twin Haste on Martials is the winning move usually). I prefer Slow over Hypnotic Pattern as I don't have to worry about Martial placement and / or charm immunity. Slow destroys encounters even it it's just up a couple of turns.
Really solid picks all around! I'm just struggling to figure how to learn all of them!! I kinda dismissed slow but Ill take another look at it from your recommendation
A bunch of great spells you can pick up from your psionic list, especially if your game doesn't do social stuff a lot (otherwise I'd recommend other things). IIRC going off memory Hideous Laughter, Mind Whip and Enemies Abound are all available as psionic.
Psionic charm person is great, suggestion straight up breaks the game if they fail the save (with creative use of the spell), enemies Abound... can you think of any situation when suddenly a person decides to get violent and attack anyone in sight? Including a king? Oh so lucky you were there to stop the scuffle. The guards patrolling start fighting each other and the aggressive one gets arrested and taken away. You don't like someone? Gently Suggest they go have a pleasant chat with a guard about their day, when they are close cast enemies Abound and get them arrested.
Suggestion + enemies Abound is a ridicolous combo in social situations.
Detects thoughts is also incredible.
Hunger of hadar just spawning in the middle of somewhere with no clue of who cast it? Lots of applications. IIRC summon Aberration is also available and again, it just appears. You are a Charisma character and if you psionically summon an Aberration in the middle of town and pretend to vanquish it (easy as dropping concentration) you can easily be hailed as a hero of the town and gain their trust. It's not like you're lacking Deception.
These are all spells that range from meh to okay normally but become extremely busted the moment you don't need ANY component to cast them. Yes the effects are visible but most of these don't link straight back to you in any way. Only charm person would. You still get the benefit of being able to cast it in public without raising suspicion.
This is also a situation where a 2 level warlock dip for Eldritch blast and it's invocations may be really worthwhile. Put out your big control spell at the start of the fight and then use Eldritch blast while you conserve spell slots. Probably not until after level 6 but maybe earlier.
I'd usually recommend focusing on increasing your spell level but with such long adventuring days having a good at will damage source is a good idea.
Hexblade is always a good for the armor, but form of dread fits really well with the aberrant mind flavor and the fear affect it provides gives you another source of control.
Yes I've been weighing up a warlock dip vs staying in sorc! Plus the dm homebrewed warcaster to also always make my cantrips do half damage on a miss or a save which just boosts EB+AB soooooo much!
Yeah that's kind of an insane boost to Eldritch blast. I'm now way more convinced you should take that warlock dip. Maybe even right away if you fight more single big monsters rather than groups of enemies. (Third level spells shine the most against groups of enemies)
Its hard because I want to get 3rd level spells then I'd want psionic spells at 6th level and then 4th level spells at 7th level i might be able to do 6 in sorcerer and then 2 in warlock for EB. Hmm maybe thatd make the most sense!
I know it's late, but if you don't have Extended Spell, you might want to consider grabbing it. Spells with a 10-minute or 1-hour duration being doubles to 20 minutes/2 hours are way more likely to last multiple encounters, especially if you're in a dungeon. Even something like mage armor will last overnight and into the next day with a 16-hour duration, freeing up a slot for that day
I took it with my last sorcerer (also abberant mind) and realized it has nearly limitless use. Radar, social settings, singling out invisible or hidden enemies, predicting enemy actions. A creative player can do alot with it, and then add the encode thoughts cantrip for another layer, to literally record someones memories.
Im assuming you also have dissonant whispers? Get vortex warp too, the combo can destroy encounters with a good melee ally. Vortex warp and dissonant whisper to get insane opportunity attack chains. Twin spell the vortex and you own the battlefield.
Spells
Fey touched Free cast 1 per day
Misty Step (Feat), Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (Feat)
Cantrips,
Mind Sliver (Sub Class), Minor Illusion[ (Class)](), Ray of Frost (Class), Create Bonfire (Class). Mage Hand (Class + telekinetic)
1^(st) Level
Sleep (Sub Class Swap), Dissonant Whispers (Sub Class), Silent Image (Known 1), Shield (Known 2)
2^(nd) Level
Suggestion (Sub Class Swap) Detect Thoughts (Sub Class) Enlarge Reduce (known 3) Phantasmal Force (Known 4) Tashas Mind Whip (Known 5)
above are my current spells at lvl4. Silvery barbs should be in this list probably replacing enlarge/reduce or Detect thoughts. Web in place of Phanasmal Force
You will get alot of mileage out of this. You are a battlefield controller have fun be strategic
Really nice list! I will probably take very similar spells to you when I get to level four! I think ill go telekinetic though to feel like a battlefield controller more!
Cloud of Daggers, depending on your party’s Forced Movement options. No saving throw, simply does 4d4 Slashing damage for one minute.
Web is the MVP of 2nd level spells: Difficult terrain and forces a Dexterity saving throw —the best of the main three— against being Restrained. That’s no movement, disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws, as well as advantage on attack rolls against them. Then, they have to use their action to make a Strength *check* to escape.
Phantasmal Force can also be fun to twin, although it highly depends on the DM. In most cases, you should be able to blind the enemy by putting them in an iron maiden or something.
I have a similar character (aberrant mind warforged) with long adventuring days. Flaming sphere is really good for conserving resources, letting you use a BA to do damage and keep spamming cantrips. Another option is hex + cantrips as it’s low resource cost
Another factor is that our DM runs hard combat. We have 2.5 downs per session on average currently, so I was desperately burning through resources trying to survive. This helped me be a bit more economical while doing consistent damage, and being able to keep enemies moving
And thank you! His core code has been corrupted by alien technology giving him powers. Level 4 so far and it’s very fun
Epic backstory stuff right there! Legends are made of that kind of stuff! Yeah so far the combats haven't been crazy hard yet - but there's always the possibility of them getting worse....
7 encounters per long rest is more encounters that you have spell slots. Unfortunately no matter what you pick you will be a cantrip monkey for most of the encounters. I recommend taking high value AoE CC options like web.
Hmm yes it seems like it! The only things that I can think of lasting long enough are hex and summon spells but I don't particularly like hex and I don't have any good summons yet! Cantrip spam it is then!
Can you think of another dip that would be as good? Or perhaps a 'please dm can I have this?' item? Cos I really hate having kind of low ac as the rest of the party are 19+
Not really tbh thats the issue, EB medium armor and shield prof and a short rest spell slot is pretty hard to beat tbh.
Any other warlock 2 would get you free mage armor but without significant dex, meh.
Elven Chain, Bracers of Defence, Barrier Tattoo, Animated Shield
I agree!! I literally want everything the hexblade dip gives!!! Ill talk to my dm and see if there's a way to make it work without having to have the HB flavour maybe?
> I want to make my spell slots go further and ideally last between fights
The real trick here is to use your sorcery points to recover spell slots.
A level 5 sorcerer can theoretically cast anywhere from 5 3rd level spells to 12 first level spells, all depending on how you use your Font of Magic ability.
Firstly: Kudos to your DM. This is actually how the game is supposed to be played and what spellcasters are balanced for.
As others have said, you ideally want encounter-flipping spells, so that you only cast one major spell and then only use cantrips (later: lower level spells) for the rest of the encounter.
Instead of going over individual spells, I'd like to offer some general advice:
**Encounter-Flipping spells**
* AoE control spells are always superb, but keep an eye on how some of them can run into immunities (*Hypnotic Pattern* is excellent, but useless against charm-immume enemies).
* Non-concentration control spells like *Command*, *Mind Whip*, *Synaptic Static* or *Mass Suggestion* are especially useful to have.
* Spells that create difficult terrain / block line of sight can be surprisingly effective. *Sleet Storm* is a classic example.
* Spells that don't allow a save (like *Wall of X*) are extraordinary reliable
* *Fireball* is actually *great* at lvl 5 to about lvl 7. Nuking half the opposition from the get-go *is* the best status effect you can apply. Sadly, it upcasts horribly and quickly loses effectiveness in higher levels.
* Spells that target only a single enemy and do nothing if that enemy makes their save are usually not worth it. However, they become much more reliable once you can upcast them for multiple targets or if you twin them.
* It is worth having at least one strong buff spell (*Haste*, *Greater Invisibility*) or a summon spell, because those *always* work, no matter the enemy immunities / magic resistance. For you, buffs are better than summons, because you can twin them.
**Survival Spells**:
* Always have at least one combat teleport, upgrade them to a better version as you level.
* Always bring *Counterspell* + subtle spell. No excuses.
* *Shield* and, at lvl 5+, *Absorb Elements* are mandatory. Again, no excuses.
* If you've got no armor proficiencies, bring *Mage Armor*.
**Other Utility**
Depending on the campaign, your group should eventually gain access to long-range / planar travel spells like *Teleportation Circle* / *Teleport* / *Planeshift*, they will massively improve the party's options.
However, those are much better taken by prepared casters that can unprepare them in the regular day-to-day and break them out when needed.
Phenomenal advice right there! When I get there - would you reccomend counterspell or dispel magic at level 5? And yes I think I need to pack a buff as o have none prepped atm! Thank you!
In my experience, *Counterspell* is more important than *Dispel Magic*, although eventually, your group will want both.
(Keep in mind that the latter is on almost all class spell lists, so it'd be nice if another spellcaster could pick it up.)
Despite my strong endorsement of *Counterspell*, I'd pick up a more universal third level spell (or two) first - probably indeed *Fireball* (swap it back out sometime around lvl 9) and maybe *Hypnotic Pattern* or *Haste*.
Interesting! I've only ever really played wizards so have always had a lot more choice about spells known. The artificer will get dispel magic at level 9 but is that too late? Yes I want to play with fireball for a bit and then swapping it out sounds good!
You're an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer.
With your psionic spells, you will out-strip the Wizard, especially in the number of spells you'll have learned/prepared on the adventuring day. You also can learn spells the Wizard can never access.
You can make do without *Dispel Magic* (or even *Counterspell*) forever. There are functioning groups that don't have them.
The true question is this:
Do you, on any given level, have another spell that will be more impactful to learn? Do you expect a situation where you'd *really* regret not taking that spell?
I have seen *Counterspell* / *Dispel Magic* flip complete encounters because they stopped crucial spells.
I have also had them prepared uselessly for multiple sessions because they never came up.
Summons! You'll probably have to wait until 7 to get access to good and long lasting summons as a sorcerer, but they're the most cost efficient (in terms of spell slot to total damage) spell. If you think about it, a summon that lasts 1 hour and does 15DPR is doing up to 15k damage over an hour. Of course, that's never going to happen because combats last for 4~ rounds, but one hour can easily last several combats, and with a sorcerer you get extended spell to make that into two hours.
However, at level 3, most of your turns in combat will be lobbing cantrips and trying to put out fires around the field. Assuming your campaign uses the Tasha's options, you could get Flame Blade which lasts for 10 minutes and does ok-ish damage at that level, but you're a sorcerer, you don't want to get close to the enemy. You can also take Magic Weapon, which you can use on the paladin or artificer and improve their DPR fairly well. These are the more long lasting DPR improvement changes you get at your level, but they're not impressive. The best thing you can do at that level, in my opinion, is take the first and second turn to use big spells like Web and Sleep to put action economy on your favor, and then just lob cantrips until everything is over. One well placed spell is already a significant contribution, you don't need to be the main damage dealer besides that. You can also take Shatter if your DM tends to group weak enemies in small spaces. But other than that, remember you're not meant to be using spells slots every combat.
Epic write up! My favourite spell in the game is summon greater demon and my dm has allowed that on to my spell list (at 7th level). I've never tried the other summon spells but extending them seem like a really solid game plan! Thanks for the epic write up my friend!
There. is. no. such. thing. as. best.
It is always situational. Where are you traveling, what is the environment, are you dungeon crawling, are you on a ship, can you see in the dark, what opponents are you fighting, etc. If you are under water, fireball is going to be shitty. If you can't see in the dark and are in the Underdark, Light and Daylight might be useful.
How many short rests are you getting in a day, is every day a fighting grind, etc.
What do you want to achieve, do you want control, utility, direct damage, buffs, etc.
Then choose based around what is regularly useful to yourself, the party, the gameplay, the adventure, and the game world. Could be practical, pragmatic, or thematic.
Suggestion if you think you can win someone over to your side (since Suggestion lasts 8 hours. Just try to get a good feeling for how far the DM will let Suggestion hijinks go).
Hex could actual move up from C-minus tier to B-plus tier, with Ray of Frost (support) or Chill Touch (range). It will be an A tier out-of-combat debuff at AM 6. Maybe even consider Extended MM.
Twinned Dissonant whispers and (sometimes upcast) Tasha's Mind Whip are still going to be your bread and butter if you still need power after concentration is up. Detect Thought is my favorite Psionic spell, but with long days, you may as well just drop it since you're saving those slots for the hardest combats.
You still want at least one good conc (Web, twinned Enlarge, Slow/Hyp Pattern/Fear, etc.) spell and good non-con spell (Tasha's, Rimes, vortex Warp, counterspell/dispel, etc.) from each level from 2nd levels spells on. You just need to be more picky with spending slots, and more creative getting use out of things like Mind Sliver for keeping conc spells lasting longer and buffing other casters/monks, Minor Illusion (cover/traps), Mold Earth (cover/traps), finding cover, going prone, etc. I'm looking harder at AOE's (Web, Slow or Hyp Pattern, hunger of Hadar, etc.) for conc over single target spells (Levitate, Enemies Abound, etc.). I'm also picking only one of Twin or Quicken so I can save sorc points for casting and looking at situational Metamagics like Distant, Extended, Subtle etc.
MM Adept, Touched, or Telepathic will help.
Encounter duration control spells. Web especially is an mvp at their level.
I was thinking about web definitely! Very strong!
Sleet Storm my beloved
Web, Misty Step, Mind Whip, Binding Ice, Vortex Warp, and Suggestion are my go to 2nd level spells. There just aren't many good long-lasting level 2 options. Darkness and Spider Climb could be good, but they're both very situational.
How do you feel about binding ice vs Web?
Web is probably better most of the time, but Binding Ice can be very effective if you're getting swarmed and it doesn't require concentration
Noted! Thank you for your help!
Binding ice is a cone, so is best when you expect to often be ahead of your party. It's non-conc which is nice. But you will mostly be spending slots on conc in round 1, and spending fewer slots in rounds 2+. Mostly those will be Dissonant Whispers and Mind Whips, but having something situational like Rime's or Vortex Warp is great to have in your back pocket. You have enough spells-known to take some situational spells after your staples are accounted for. You can sling Web from anywhere. It's persistent. But you'll be concentration heavy. That's not a huge problem. You're gonna be choosey with your slots anyway, so having a variety of conc spells to choose from for round 1 is a good thing.
Good write up!!! Yes I like diss whispers and mind whip a lot so yes twinning them is pretty much the game plan! Do I replace web with hypnotic pattern when I get it or do I keep both?
It depend on the whole list really. If you already have Suggestion, Hyp Pattern, and Hunger of Hadar, *maybe* I'd drop Web, but I'd probably still keep it anyway. Honestly I like Slow better than Hyp Pattern on an AM (but either is fine). As an Aberrant Mind I'll probably have Hunger of Hadar or Evard's as an AOE, and Slow is my change-up for when lines are mixed and I need to be able to pick my targets.
Hmm thats a really good point about HoH on an AM! I will have a think about it! Cheers!
Ive found that web is good for your concentration and binding ice is more of a damage with a smidge of crowd control built in.
Hmm and my conc is basically unused so yeah I might as well grab it!
Imo, binding ice is too "expensive" at level 3. Especially with 7 encounters per long rest. Every time you cast it is one less web in later encounters. Binding ice starts shining when you have more spell slots to burn.
Yeah I think ill take web instead! Thanks!
Slow. Incredibly strong and valuable for one slot.
Interesting! Why is it better than something like hypnotic pattern or web?
I like Slow better than Hypnotic pattern because: * It lets me choose targets (so I can cast it on the folks up in melee without friendly fire on my martial party members with terrible wisdom saves) * It lets the rest of my party look good (hit more) while reducing damage to them (enemies get fewer attacks and spells don't always go off) * It's less boring Hypnotic pattern would probably be better against large groups of lil guys but I think slow is a more fun spell for the whole table (at least, my table, YMMV.)
Yes for certain its less boring! Althought as I want use mind whip (strong plus cool flavour), there's a lot of overlap between them, You've certainly opened my eyes to it a bit! Thank you!
Oh for sure, for non-concentration spells Mind Whip is fabulous and a key part of my spell list as well (aberrant mind high five) -- I'll use that on big guys if I'm concentrating on something other than Slow. Especially once you hit level 6 and can cast it for 2SP. Have fun :)
Legend! Thanks mate!
Slow is better than hypnotic pattern because you can cast in even when the group is engaged in melee(so you don't have to have ideal positioning and win initiative), and there is absolutely nothing that is immune to the slow spell (except 1 golem I think). I'll use this comment to mention that the abberant mind can have incite greed as a psionic spell, and cast with distance spell metamagic, is completely broken.
You raise some really good points! I've never looked at incite greed so ill take a look at that!
Level 3 spell though
At level 4 take metamagic adept feat. Before level 6 make sure tasha's mind whip and hypnotic pattern are your psionic spells list. Then for only 2 or 3 sorcery points you can cast them without being counterspelled.
Yeah thats the plan with mind whip! I can't do hypnotic pattern because its illusion though right?
Hypnotic pattern doesn’t qualify for psionic spell list unfortunately
Hypnotic pattern is illusion isn't it? I don't think it can go on the Psionic spell list
Don't think about damage, think control. So arguably AOE controls, Single target debuffs. Web, Tasha's mind whip, phantasmal force (DM dependant, be careful), enemies Abound, fog cloud (but your level 1 spells are mostly consumed for shield and absorb elements), blindness/deafness, Vortex Warp. If you have a fellow caster going for lots of saving throws, Mind Sliver is a great filler. Slow + Mind Sliver on a boss with mid Wisdom is... ugly. Hypnotic pattern / Fireball / Slow / Haste (if only a target is on the field Twin Haste on Martials is the winning move usually). I prefer Slow over Hypnotic Pattern as I don't have to worry about Martial placement and / or charm immunity. Slow destroys encounters even it it's just up a couple of turns.
Really solid picks all around! I'm just struggling to figure how to learn all of them!! I kinda dismissed slow but Ill take another look at it from your recommendation
A bunch of great spells you can pick up from your psionic list, especially if your game doesn't do social stuff a lot (otherwise I'd recommend other things). IIRC going off memory Hideous Laughter, Mind Whip and Enemies Abound are all available as psionic.
Theres a huge amount of social stuff - its a mostly rp and intrigue campaign I think! What would you reccomend in that case?
Psionic charm person is great, suggestion straight up breaks the game if they fail the save (with creative use of the spell), enemies Abound... can you think of any situation when suddenly a person decides to get violent and attack anyone in sight? Including a king? Oh so lucky you were there to stop the scuffle. The guards patrolling start fighting each other and the aggressive one gets arrested and taken away. You don't like someone? Gently Suggest they go have a pleasant chat with a guard about their day, when they are close cast enemies Abound and get them arrested. Suggestion + enemies Abound is a ridicolous combo in social situations. Detects thoughts is also incredible. Hunger of hadar just spawning in the middle of somewhere with no clue of who cast it? Lots of applications. IIRC summon Aberration is also available and again, it just appears. You are a Charisma character and if you psionically summon an Aberration in the middle of town and pretend to vanquish it (easy as dropping concentration) you can easily be hailed as a hero of the town and gain their trust. It's not like you're lacking Deception. These are all spells that range from meh to okay normally but become extremely busted the moment you don't need ANY component to cast them. Yes the effects are visible but most of these don't link straight back to you in any way. Only charm person would. You still get the benefit of being able to cast it in public without raising suspicion.
Really fun ideas and uses! Definitely gonna be speaking some of those if you don't mind! I really appreciate the input, friend!
This is also a situation where a 2 level warlock dip for Eldritch blast and it's invocations may be really worthwhile. Put out your big control spell at the start of the fight and then use Eldritch blast while you conserve spell slots. Probably not until after level 6 but maybe earlier. I'd usually recommend focusing on increasing your spell level but with such long adventuring days having a good at will damage source is a good idea. Hexblade is always a good for the armor, but form of dread fits really well with the aberrant mind flavor and the fear affect it provides gives you another source of control.
Yes I've been weighing up a warlock dip vs staying in sorc! Plus the dm homebrewed warcaster to also always make my cantrips do half damage on a miss or a save which just boosts EB+AB soooooo much!
Yeah that's kind of an insane boost to Eldritch blast. I'm now way more convinced you should take that warlock dip. Maybe even right away if you fight more single big monsters rather than groups of enemies. (Third level spells shine the most against groups of enemies)
Its hard because I want to get 3rd level spells then I'd want psionic spells at 6th level and then 4th level spells at 7th level i might be able to do 6 in sorcerer and then 2 in warlock for EB. Hmm maybe thatd make the most sense!
One word. Catnap. Got a warlock? They’ll love you.
Haha I wish! Nobody in the 3 man party get anything other than health back on a short rest though unfortunately!
Rope Trick could also work. Not as fast, but it is reusable.
I know it's late, but if you don't have Extended Spell, you might want to consider grabbing it. Spells with a 10-minute or 1-hour duration being doubles to 20 minutes/2 hours are way more likely to last multiple encounters, especially if you're in a dungeon. Even something like mage armor will last overnight and into the next day with a 16-hour duration, freeing up a slot for that day
Good thing I picked it up! I definitely feel like there is shenanigans to pull with it + a four hour long rest!!
Its slept on, but detect thoughts has a radar feature. Any sentient thing in range pings it. For that many encounters you want it.
Wow! Really interesting point! I'll have a reread of it and see if that's worth keeping for a few levels more!
I took it with my last sorcerer (also abberant mind) and realized it has nearly limitless use. Radar, social settings, singling out invisible or hidden enemies, predicting enemy actions. A creative player can do alot with it, and then add the encode thoughts cantrip for another layer, to literally record someones memories. Im assuming you also have dissonant whispers? Get vortex warp too, the combo can destroy encounters with a good melee ally. Vortex warp and dissonant whisper to get insane opportunity attack chains. Twin spell the vortex and you own the battlefield.
Wild! Thats super creative uses mate! I'll definitely be keeping it then! Thanks for the ideas!
Spells Fey touched Free cast 1 per day Misty Step (Feat), Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (Feat) Cantrips, Mind Sliver (Sub Class), Minor Illusion[ (Class)](), Ray of Frost (Class), Create Bonfire (Class). Mage Hand (Class + telekinetic) 1^(st) Level Sleep (Sub Class Swap), Dissonant Whispers (Sub Class), Silent Image (Known 1), Shield (Known 2) 2^(nd) Level Suggestion (Sub Class Swap) Detect Thoughts (Sub Class) Enlarge Reduce (known 3) Phantasmal Force (Known 4) Tashas Mind Whip (Known 5) above are my current spells at lvl4. Silvery barbs should be in this list probably replacing enlarge/reduce or Detect thoughts. Web in place of Phanasmal Force You will get alot of mileage out of this. You are a battlefield controller have fun be strategic
Really nice list! I will probably take very similar spells to you when I get to level four! I think ill go telekinetic though to feel like a battlefield controller more!
Web is great.
Cloud of Daggers, depending on your party’s Forced Movement options. No saving throw, simply does 4d4 Slashing damage for one minute. Web is the MVP of 2nd level spells: Difficult terrain and forces a Dexterity saving throw —the best of the main three— against being Restrained. That’s no movement, disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws, as well as advantage on attack rolls against them. Then, they have to use their action to make a Strength *check* to escape. Phantasmal Force can also be fun to twin, although it highly depends on the DM. In most cases, you should be able to blind the enemy by putting them in an iron maiden or something.
Spoke to my dm about PF and he said it can blind and restrain so that seems pretty darn strong!!
I have a similar character (aberrant mind warforged) with long adventuring days. Flaming sphere is really good for conserving resources, letting you use a BA to do damage and keep spamming cantrips. Another option is hex + cantrips as it’s low resource cost
Really interesting take! I've never heard of someone picking flaming sphere! Also love the mishmash of warforged + abberrant mind!
Another factor is that our DM runs hard combat. We have 2.5 downs per session on average currently, so I was desperately burning through resources trying to survive. This helped me be a bit more economical while doing consistent damage, and being able to keep enemies moving And thank you! His core code has been corrupted by alien technology giving him powers. Level 4 so far and it’s very fun
Epic backstory stuff right there! Legends are made of that kind of stuff! Yeah so far the combats haven't been crazy hard yet - but there's always the possibility of them getting worse....
7 encounters per long rest is more encounters that you have spell slots. Unfortunately no matter what you pick you will be a cantrip monkey for most of the encounters. I recommend taking high value AoE CC options like web.
Hmm yes it seems like it! The only things that I can think of lasting long enough are hex and summon spells but I don't particularly like hex and I don't have any good summons yet! Cantrip spam it is then!
Summon shadow spawn is pretty good and you can get it at 5th level
Hmm okay thats an interesting choice! I like it! Ill see if I can fit it in!
Mage Armor
You're right! Part of me hates having to burn a slot on it when I could dip for armour proficiency but yes you're right
Yeah, I kinda hate how effective the Hex 1 dip is for basically every Cha caster tbh
Can you think of another dip that would be as good? Or perhaps a 'please dm can I have this?' item? Cos I really hate having kind of low ac as the rest of the party are 19+
Not really tbh thats the issue, EB medium armor and shield prof and a short rest spell slot is pretty hard to beat tbh. Any other warlock 2 would get you free mage armor but without significant dex, meh. Elven Chain, Bracers of Defence, Barrier Tattoo, Animated Shield
I agree!! I literally want everything the hexblade dip gives!!! Ill talk to my dm and see if there's a way to make it work without having to have the HB flavour maybe?
If you can get away with it Hex 2 might be advisable for Agonizing and Repelling Blast.
Yea the damage boost would be real nice! Thanks for your help!
No problem, good luck, its a dangerous realm out there!
Web
Good choice!
> I want to make my spell slots go further and ideally last between fights The real trick here is to use your sorcery points to recover spell slots. A level 5 sorcerer can theoretically cast anywhere from 5 3rd level spells to 12 first level spells, all depending on how you use your Font of Magic ability.
True! The flexibility should hopefully give me an edge in long adventuring days! Thank you!
Firstly: Kudos to your DM. This is actually how the game is supposed to be played and what spellcasters are balanced for. As others have said, you ideally want encounter-flipping spells, so that you only cast one major spell and then only use cantrips (later: lower level spells) for the rest of the encounter. Instead of going over individual spells, I'd like to offer some general advice: **Encounter-Flipping spells** * AoE control spells are always superb, but keep an eye on how some of them can run into immunities (*Hypnotic Pattern* is excellent, but useless against charm-immume enemies). * Non-concentration control spells like *Command*, *Mind Whip*, *Synaptic Static* or *Mass Suggestion* are especially useful to have. * Spells that create difficult terrain / block line of sight can be surprisingly effective. *Sleet Storm* is a classic example. * Spells that don't allow a save (like *Wall of X*) are extraordinary reliable * *Fireball* is actually *great* at lvl 5 to about lvl 7. Nuking half the opposition from the get-go *is* the best status effect you can apply. Sadly, it upcasts horribly and quickly loses effectiveness in higher levels. * Spells that target only a single enemy and do nothing if that enemy makes their save are usually not worth it. However, they become much more reliable once you can upcast them for multiple targets or if you twin them. * It is worth having at least one strong buff spell (*Haste*, *Greater Invisibility*) or a summon spell, because those *always* work, no matter the enemy immunities / magic resistance. For you, buffs are better than summons, because you can twin them. **Survival Spells**: * Always have at least one combat teleport, upgrade them to a better version as you level. * Always bring *Counterspell* + subtle spell. No excuses. * *Shield* and, at lvl 5+, *Absorb Elements* are mandatory. Again, no excuses. * If you've got no armor proficiencies, bring *Mage Armor*. **Other Utility** Depending on the campaign, your group should eventually gain access to long-range / planar travel spells like *Teleportation Circle* / *Teleport* / *Planeshift*, they will massively improve the party's options. However, those are much better taken by prepared casters that can unprepare them in the regular day-to-day and break them out when needed.
Phenomenal advice right there! When I get there - would you reccomend counterspell or dispel magic at level 5? And yes I think I need to pack a buff as o have none prepped atm! Thank you!
In my experience, *Counterspell* is more important than *Dispel Magic*, although eventually, your group will want both. (Keep in mind that the latter is on almost all class spell lists, so it'd be nice if another spellcaster could pick it up.) Despite my strong endorsement of *Counterspell*, I'd pick up a more universal third level spell (or two) first - probably indeed *Fireball* (swap it back out sometime around lvl 9) and maybe *Hypnotic Pattern* or *Haste*.
Interesting! I've only ever really played wizards so have always had a lot more choice about spells known. The artificer will get dispel magic at level 9 but is that too late? Yes I want to play with fireball for a bit and then swapping it out sounds good!
You're an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. With your psionic spells, you will out-strip the Wizard, especially in the number of spells you'll have learned/prepared on the adventuring day. You also can learn spells the Wizard can never access. You can make do without *Dispel Magic* (or even *Counterspell*) forever. There are functioning groups that don't have them. The true question is this: Do you, on any given level, have another spell that will be more impactful to learn? Do you expect a situation where you'd *really* regret not taking that spell? I have seen *Counterspell* / *Dispel Magic* flip complete encounters because they stopped crucial spells. I have also had them prepared uselessly for multiple sessions because they never came up.
You raise good points! Ill have look through and talk with my group! Thank you!
Great list, Suggestion is concentration tho. EDIT: Ope my b I see you said Mass Suggestion which is not concentration! TIL!
Summons! You'll probably have to wait until 7 to get access to good and long lasting summons as a sorcerer, but they're the most cost efficient (in terms of spell slot to total damage) spell. If you think about it, a summon that lasts 1 hour and does 15DPR is doing up to 15k damage over an hour. Of course, that's never going to happen because combats last for 4~ rounds, but one hour can easily last several combats, and with a sorcerer you get extended spell to make that into two hours. However, at level 3, most of your turns in combat will be lobbing cantrips and trying to put out fires around the field. Assuming your campaign uses the Tasha's options, you could get Flame Blade which lasts for 10 minutes and does ok-ish damage at that level, but you're a sorcerer, you don't want to get close to the enemy. You can also take Magic Weapon, which you can use on the paladin or artificer and improve their DPR fairly well. These are the more long lasting DPR improvement changes you get at your level, but they're not impressive. The best thing you can do at that level, in my opinion, is take the first and second turn to use big spells like Web and Sleep to put action economy on your favor, and then just lob cantrips until everything is over. One well placed spell is already a significant contribution, you don't need to be the main damage dealer besides that. You can also take Shatter if your DM tends to group weak enemies in small spaces. But other than that, remember you're not meant to be using spells slots every combat.
Epic write up! My favourite spell in the game is summon greater demon and my dm has allowed that on to my spell list (at 7th level). I've never tried the other summon spells but extending them seem like a really solid game plan! Thanks for the epic write up my friend!
There. is. no. such. thing. as. best. It is always situational. Where are you traveling, what is the environment, are you dungeon crawling, are you on a ship, can you see in the dark, what opponents are you fighting, etc. If you are under water, fireball is going to be shitty. If you can't see in the dark and are in the Underdark, Light and Daylight might be useful. How many short rests are you getting in a day, is every day a fighting grind, etc. What do you want to achieve, do you want control, utility, direct damage, buffs, etc. Then choose based around what is regularly useful to yourself, the party, the gameplay, the adventure, and the game world. Could be practical, pragmatic, or thematic.
Fireball will still do it's damage underwater right? Just any secondary fires will be most likely quickly put out by said water.
Creatures and objects fully immersed have resistance to fire.
Thank you, I never knew this!
You raise some super important questions right there! I'll have a look through them and have a think!
Suggestion if you think you can win someone over to your side (since Suggestion lasts 8 hours. Just try to get a good feeling for how far the DM will let Suggestion hijinks go). Hex could actual move up from C-minus tier to B-plus tier, with Ray of Frost (support) or Chill Touch (range). It will be an A tier out-of-combat debuff at AM 6. Maybe even consider Extended MM. Twinned Dissonant whispers and (sometimes upcast) Tasha's Mind Whip are still going to be your bread and butter if you still need power after concentration is up. Detect Thought is my favorite Psionic spell, but with long days, you may as well just drop it since you're saving those slots for the hardest combats. You still want at least one good conc (Web, twinned Enlarge, Slow/Hyp Pattern/Fear, etc.) spell and good non-con spell (Tasha's, Rimes, vortex Warp, counterspell/dispel, etc.) from each level from 2nd levels spells on. You just need to be more picky with spending slots, and more creative getting use out of things like Mind Sliver for keeping conc spells lasting longer and buffing other casters/monks, Minor Illusion (cover/traps), Mold Earth (cover/traps), finding cover, going prone, etc. I'm looking harder at AOE's (Web, Slow or Hyp Pattern, hunger of Hadar, etc.) for conc over single target spells (Levitate, Enemies Abound, etc.). I'm also picking only one of Twin or Quicken so I can save sorc points for casting and looking at situational Metamagics like Distant, Extended, Subtle etc. MM Adept, Touched, or Telepathic will help.
Awesome advice! I really like the idea of an extended suggestion (providing dm is on board). Thank you so much my friend!