Need Advice for Low Epic Levels....

[Iskajir]

I would drop Archmage entirely myself, if your going Sorcerer then I suggest looking into Battle Sorcerer Variant (DMG) or Stalwart Sorcerer (Complete mage).

Also I might add with Wish, its better to get shapechange (if they didnt nix the spell too much), you can change into an Effreeti and give yourself Wish all you want without the 5k Diamond Dust or whatever the price is.

I suggest also looking into Book of Exalted deeds and look at Exalted Arcanist.  It might prove to be something good?, Its a 4/5 spell casting but its easily fixed if you go Kobold and take the ever so awesome stuff you can do with it.  Draconic Resivoir and the other goodness stuff.

The Abj Champ I would nix that myself, if your going into a Arcane Gish type build I could understand it but Abj Champ isnt all that great.  Your best bet is to go for things the sorcerer is good at.  Get a high arse Dex and Int and your set.

Or look into the Warmage Base class out of Complete Arcane, get some of the goody stuff spells it grants and get Int Mod to Damage.  Problem is the Warmage has no versatility.  Things to think about.

Retraining, as I said, isn't an option.

 I would think that noble Djinn's Wish is Sp not Su, honestly. Besides, considering the rest of the party, it's overkill. I want to cover all my bases, not make anyone less relevant. Kobold-dragon cheese would likewise be overkill, even if this DM did use the web supplement for RoDr, which he doesn't.

BoED is not one of the few allowed books in this campaign, and even if it were 4/5 spellcasting, and a high feat tax would kill any appeal this class had, even if my character was that sparkly good. Most (but not all) of the exalted spells are crap that's hardly worth casting anyway.

I think you missed the boat on Abjurant Champion though. Combat Casting is a crappy little feat, but free Extend on a whole school of magic is pretty good. Abjurant Armor is nice enough. And free Quickens? As a sorcerer?? Seriously, this is  worth the moderately crappy prereq feat. Having a good swift action every round is vital to mastering the action economy. Arcane Spellsurge does it better, sure, but it wasn't allowed here. With 5/5 casting, and nice perks, it's not just a gish class, even though it sports a d10.

I get the high DEX (AC, and REF saves, as well as ranged touch attacks), but other than skill points, I'm not sure why you think a high INT is vital to a sorcerer...?

Warmage, Battle Sorcerer (UA), and Stalwart Sorcerer all give up flexibility of spellcasting for hp, AC, etc. Losing flexibility or options is the last thing I need... but again, no retraining, so it's moot. INT mod to damage (even if it was a +10) is really not worth anything at 17th level, btw.

[betrayor]

How much downtime are you guys having?
If you have enough(one day at least) you can craft Epic spells that will help immensly..

[Dawnmor]

I actually read the Abj Champ and have read it time and time again, my suggestions were to focus your character, otherwise a Wizard would be best if you want versatility or a Cleric is the supreme versatility class role.

If you have access to Races of Ebberron, look into the changling, then go and look at the RECASTER PRC out of ROE I believe.  You want good stuff to affect your spells, thats your best bet as the PRC and race requirement says, VERSATILITY, which the Recaster possesses.

[Endarire]

Given your tight restrictions, Sorcerer seems best off the top o' me head.

[SorO_Lost]

Just chiming in, Empower Spell is awesome.

EMPOWER SPELL [METAMAGIC]
You can cast spells to greater effect.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half. An empowered spell deals half again as much damage as normal, cures half again as many hit points, affects half again as many targets, and so forth, as appropriate. For example, an empowered magic missile deals 1-1/2 times its normal damage (roll 1d4+1 and multiply the result by 1-1/2 for each missile). Saving throws and opposed rolls (such as the one you make when you cast dispel magic) are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Of course, the PHB's Examples tend to be pretty off the wall.

Does the damp power psionic power (Complete Psionic, page 82) trump an effect that empowers or maximizes a spell or power?
Yes and no. An empowered fireball affected by damp power would deal 1 point of damage per die, plus 50%. A 6th level sorcerer’s empowered fireball would thus deal 9 points of damage. A maximized fireball, however, no longer has variable, numeric effects (because they’ve been maximized), so damp power would have no effect on its damage.

But here the FAQ is applying Empower after the 'effective' die rolls as well.

Means if your using something like Raging Flame with Fireball to gain +1 per die, it's effect is applied before Empower, or 2~7 per caster level and then +50%. It gets pretty silly when you start talking about stacking stuff until you get like +7 per die as you're looking at a minimum of 12 damage per CL...

[Captnq]

Just chiming in, Empower Spell is awesome.

As a side note, I just discovered I've been doing all my averages wrong over on the What can you do with... thread. For example:

Normal 1d6:
1d6 = Avg 3.5

Empowered 1d6:
1d6 x 1.5 = Avg 5.0

or
Normal 6d6:
6d6 = Avg 21

Empowered 6d6:
6d6 x 1.5 = Avg 31.25

Apparently, there is a 0.25 lost, regardless of the size of the random die pool. So when calculating averages for empowered random totals, the correct formula is:

([Avg Damage] x 1.5) - 0.25

At some point I need to go back an recalculate.

[darqueseid]

Empower is as meh, as blasting is meh.  Empower + Ennervate = good. 

Seriously, its not the metamagic as much as what you use it on.  if your DM doesn't let epic spells fly, then I've been a fan of improved spell capacity with my characters.  its nice in that you just get some extra spell(s) per day out of the bargain. though it's probably not as good for a sorcerer as it is with a "focused specialist" wizard for example.  You do get spots to cast those metamagic empowered or extended 9th level spells for instance.  So with your build it seems like it makes sense to take it at least once.

The sad truth is there aren't alot of epic feats that are "spellcasting" in nature out there for a sorcerer(esp not a blasting sorcerer), until you get to a higher spellcraft (30 ranks).  if you intend to blast forever (which is meh, but hey do what you enjoy), then you may want to pick up maximize spell at 18 so you can look to getting intensify spell as your 27th level feat.  Variables are maximized then doubled. -an 11th level spell slot could be used on ennervate to auto-assign a creature -8 to attacks saves and damage for instance...  or change a fireball into a 120point blast....

An optimal use of epic feats for a sorc probably would include something like permanent emanation with a sufficiently good list of broken auras... 

The worst part about your build is that your not really gonna be very good at blasting either... no wings of flurry?? 

Can you abuse the orb of fire with GAF? maybe you can get some targeted damage traction ) out of there, but it likely won't be with the metamagic route, and won't be best by far (you won't be breaking records, but it may be enough to kill whatever you need though)... 

Your 9th level spell needs to be versatile.  I don't think I can give you a better option than shapechange.  especially if you can extend it sufficiently long.   being able to freely shift into any monster ever is nice.  if your DM allows all monster sources go chronotyryn.

if your limited to just MM1 its still a great versatility spell, because you can still use that spell to cover multiple things, darkvision, immunities, any movement type you want, earth glide, flight, etc etc etc.  you really can't go wrong with extended shapechange.

Monster summoning x is alright too, its not shapechange, but you can summon a huge list of things to do stuff for you, including open traps carry you around and scout stuff.

if your blasting, go ahead and get shaping, powerful magic, and energy substitution from archmage.  all are decent abilities, and don't cost you much.  The others are pretty meh for you imho.  the reach ability is good, but not really for a sorcerer (not like it is for an incantatrix-chainer). 

If you could get into initiate of seven fold veil I'd say do that, but at this point I don't think you can...

[Endarire]

As for L9s, time stop is also handy.

[darqueseid]

Totally agree there, timestop IS awesome.  Shape change is just... Broken... It's just better than any 9th level spell, by miles.

[nijineko]

No setting-based material.

this means that you are not allowed to use core, races, or completes.

they are all setting-based in greyhawk.





just saying......