Shattered Kingdoms

Hey folks,

I first tried out SK about six months ago, played for a few weeks, and then moved on in life. But I'm recently thinking of playing again, and am looking at trying another sorcerer. My first "real" character was a human sorc but this time I'm considering sprite, gnome or d-elf. Would any of these be ideal or better than human for a good PvE experience? From what I can glean:

-Dark-elf: Most potential with high int but some glaring weaknesses and everyone hates you.
-Sprite: Flight is handy with new flight code? Dodge penalty something? Not sure. Seems like lots of weaknesses too.
-Gnome: High wis sounds interesting.

Any and all feedback on races is welcome.

With my human sorc I found it helpful to have two charmed NPCs to fight while I explored new areas. Are Sprites/Gnomes going to be completely unable to hold two charms? Also, some polymorph questions: If I polymorphed into d-elf, would I get the benefit of 25 int (assuming int mods)? Is 25 Int minus polymorph concentration close to 23 int naturally? Is it possible to be a "white aura" d-elf while polymorphed?

Thanks in advance!

Why not just polymorph into a griffon or something while "adventuring" , throw on strength mods, and beat the love out of everything?

>.>

Explorer? Probably a sprite

Could you elaborate a bit?

I prefer not to, but I can for a small fee.

Alright, the three top choices for a sorc IMO are. Human, sprite, Deep-elf, elf, gnome.
They all have a good amount of intelligence, the sprite however can naturally fly so you wont have to cast it on yourself.
Others will say, 'use flight staves' which is another option to save yourself some concentration cost.
There are however, penalties to magical flight. That main one being cast time, and the other, reduced dodge chance.
I personally feel that sprites make the best sorcerors because of this.
Exploration should be a non-factor regardless of the race you choose. As a sorcerer, you could be a deep-elf, polymorph into an elf, and explore areas that are normally off limits to that race. And fitting into smaller crevices should not be a factor due to the fact that you can shrink yourself.

One, two, three... ermm... top three?

Can you give me a relative idea of how polymorph concentration works? i.e. if I polymorph into a deep-elf, what sort of concentration do I have to work with? Similar to human's natural concentration? More? It seems if I was a sprite and polymorphed into, say, an elf, that I'd be hurting in the concentration department to do much else.

For exploring and PvE, it is a close call between deep-elf and sprite. Innate flight is really powerful with the new casting time penalty to magical flight, but I think deep-elf has a slight edge with being able to hold two charms at once.

Both races have a weakness to iron, which should never be a factor. You should be third row with mirror images up in most situations, and if you are taking hits - you should either use a recall potion or use a wand to go ethereal. Same reasoning for deep-elf vulnerability to light-based spells. Deep-elf will also be able to take better advantage of giant strength to carry stuff around - just keep in mind that even though it won't fatigue you when self-cast, it does lower your mana regeneration considerably.

Only other consideration is alignment. As long as you don't mind playing miscreant/aberrant/diabolical - go with deep-elf.

When you polymorph, you take on the stat maxes of the race you polymorph into. So as a delf, if you poly into a human you have human max int less what it takes to hold poly (which is a low-to-middle concentration cost spell).

I personally think the natural flight advantage outweighs the multi-charm advantage, if exploration and PvE is your primary purpose. Given that sorcs have shrink/enlarge in their spell set already, size isn't the consideration that it is with classes like shaman for sprites.

Finney's right that racial weaknesses to iron/light are not really something you should be too concerned about as a sorc. Wands of Etherealform, mirror images, constant ability to be third rank all basically negate those as far as PvE is concerned.

The all-around best for raw power is, by far, is deep-elf. If you put a decent amount of trains into mana you'll be able to hold two charms which is absolutely huge. Just be prepared to die if you explore into a null-magic room. The only other casters that can carry 2 charms without being totally crippled are humans and/or <INSERT CABAL HERE> sorcs, as every other caster will be practically unable to use two charms. However, one really important thing I'd like to bring up is that I wouldn't recommend, even as a deep-elf, using two charms while exploring. One charm is generally plenty for exploring, and as a general rule if you're exploring you'll be better off being able to cast acid blast/sleep/color spray in fights as opposed to having the extra physical damage. When I played my deep-elf sorcerer, I never held two charms in PvE unless I already knew the area which I was exploring and just really needed that extra punch to get through it, like soloing Radi Kenga's chambers.

That said, while deep-elf is the highest raw power you'll get in a sorc, deep-elf is obviously going to be innately controversial, so if you want to play a sorcerer that isn't shoe-horned to be at odds with at least half the playerbase, I'd suggest sprite. The innate flight and tiny size is really helpful, and their INT is still reasonable. Human isn't a bad choice either, but playing a non-magically resistant race for sorcerer is really rough as you can get 1 shotted by magma spray.

Gnome isn't a bad choice for the big mana pool, but pales compared to sprite IMO. While that huge WIS is nice, you shouldn't run into mana management problems as long as you put at least 5 points or so into mana (Unless you're holding two charms, which again isn't a good idea as a non deep-elf anyway). Also, gnome sorcs will get 1 shotted by magma spray. Innate magical reduction is huge on casters.

Polymorph, as everyone has stated, immediately moves your stat maxes to the new race's maxes. Also, as a general note, the concentration cost and mana drain on holding polymorph itself is noticeable, enough so that if you poly into a deep-elf and hold two charms, you'll be unable to do anything else at all, even if you can do that. That said, polymorphing into a deep-elf is still a great idea in a lot of situations, you'll just want to scribe it first. Polymorph scrolls/wands last a decent amount of time.