Introduction

Back in 3rd edition DnD, the Sorcerer was a twist on the Wizard, trading the Wizard’s spellbook for the equivalent of a Spell Repertoire. We’ve come a long way since then, and now the Sorcerer is a go-to option for a spellcaster of any spell list. With a well-curated Spell Repertoire and access to a spell list of your choice, the Sorcerer is a diverse, capable, and exciting class capable of filling any spellcasting-based role in a party.

Since the Sorcerer is Charisma-based, they make a natural Face. Beyond that, their capabilities are defined by your choice of spell list and your choice of spells.

After reading this article, I recommend reading my Sorcerer Bloodlines Breakdown.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Sorcerer Class Features

Key Ability: Charisma is the Sorcerer’s Key Ability Score.

Hit Points: 6+Con hit points. Fortunately you have plenty of room to boost your ability scores so your Constitution bonus can compensate.

Initial Proficiencies: The Sorcerer’s proficiencies are terrible. Except to get by on spellcasting and charm.

  • Perception: Start at Trained, and one of the worst Perception proficiency progressions in the same.
  • Saving Throws: Your best save is Will, and the Sorcerer’s Will save progression is still below average.
  • Skills: One or more skills from your Bloodline, plus 2+int Trained skills at 1st level, for a total of at least 3+. That’s standard, but with no other need for Intelligence you may find that you’re short on Skill Increases. Every bloodline in the Core Rulebook provides two, so it’s likely that you’ll get 4+ unless Paizo comes up with bloodlines that don’t get two skills.
  • Attacks: Only Simple weapons, and among the worst proficiency progressions in the game. But you’re going to use spells, so it’s no great loss.
  • Defenses: No armor, and the worst unarmored defense progression in the game.
  • Spells: Standard progression for every full spellcaster with the exception of the Warpriest Cleric.

Bloodline: See my Sorcerer Bloodlines Breakdown.

Sorcerer Spellcasting: The Sorcerer’s spellcasting is unique in several ways. The Sorcerer gets one more leveled spell slot and one more spell known of each level than other full spellcasters at each spell level except 10th. Considering that most spellcasters get just 3 spell slots at each spell level, that’s fully a third more spells than anyone else.

  • Heightened Spells: Heightening spells is an important mechanic in Pathfinder 2e. Many spells scale them. Since sorcerers use a Spell Repertoire, you need to learn spells at multiple levels to highten them in most cases, though Signature Spells are an exception.
  • Cantrips: Fantastic every time, on any character, in any amount. Sorcerers learn 5 cantrips at level 1 and never get more, but you can replace them by retraining or when you gain a level so you’re not locked into whatever you pick at first level.

Spell Repertoire: Spell Repertoires are less versatile than spellcasting like the Cleric’s or the Druid’s. You know a fixed number of spells which grows as you gain levels, and while you don’t need to prepare your spells ahead of time you also lose the flexibility of changing your spells every day. You also need to learn the same spells as multiple levels if you plan to heighten them, which is a difficult cost to pay. Fortunately, the Sorcerer’s Signature Spells feature (see below) allows you to heighten some of your spells without learning them multiple times.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Sorcerer Feats: See Sorcerer feats, below.

General Feats: Standard.

Signature Spells: A powerful and important feature, this allows you to heighten a small set of spells without learning them multiple times. As their name suggests, these spells will be your go-to options in most situations, and choosing good spells will be absoutely crucial.

Skill Increases: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Ability Boosts: Standard.

Ancestry Feats: Standard.

Magical Fortitude: More saves is always great, but this is as high as you ever get.

Expert Spellcaster: Standard and essential for spellcasters.

Lightning Reflexes: More saves is always great, but this is as high as you ever get.

Alertness: Perception is absolutely crucial, but this is the best you will ever get without spending General Feats.

Simple Weapon Expertise: You should never need this.

Defensive Robes: More AC is great, but this is the best you will ever get.

Weapon Specialization: You should never need this.

Master Spellcaster: Standard and essential for spellcasters.

Bloodline Paragon: 10th-level spells are crazy. You can spend a class feat to get another, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever cast more than 2 10th-level spells in a day.

Legendary Spellcaster: Standard and essential for spellcasters.

Ability Scores

Str: The Sorcerer has no meaningful use for Strenght. Dump it to 8.

Dex: With no armor proficiencies and poor Reflex saves, Dexterity is important if you want to survive.

Con: Sorcerers get just 6+ hit points and have poor Fortitude saves. Constitution is essential.

Int: Sorcerers get 3+ (realisitically 4+) Trained skills, so a little Intelligence helps if your party needs more skills.

Wis: Perception and Will saves.

Cha: Your Key Ability Score. Charisma will define what you do both in and out of combat, including both your spells and your most viable skills.

Ancestries

Charisma boosts and boosts to the ability scores which support your defenses are all great, and with low hit points it can be helpful to pick an Ancestry which gives you high starting hit points. The Sorcerer is also uniquely suited to explore innate spellcasting due to their ability to pick their own spell list and becuase the Sorcerer is Charisma-based, making innate spellcasting essentially an extension of their class-based spellcasting.

CatfolkAPG: The Ability Boosts/Flaws work great, but the only appealing Ancestry Feats are the Cat’s Luck feat chain.

DwarfCRB: The Dwarf’s ability boosts and high hit points, coupled with feats like Mountain’s Stoutness, do a lot to address the Sorcerer’s poor Defenses. Unfortunately, The Dwarf also comes with a Charisma flaw which will be expensive to offset.

ElfCRB: The Elf is frail and offers little that directly complements the Sorcerer. The Ancestral Longevity feat chain might help compensate for the Sorcerer’s poor skill options.

GnomeCRB: Perfect Ability Boosts and Flaws, and several options for innate spellcasting. You can start with two additional cantrips at 1st level (though they’ll be from different spell lists). You can get a familiar to save yourself a class feat. Energized Font and First World Adept are both great additions as you gain levels.

GoblinCRB: The goblin makes a decent blaster thanks to Burn It, and their Ability Boosts/Flaws work reasonably well, but the Goblin’s 6 hit points won’t solve the Sorcerer’s frailty problems. Goblin Song is a helpful way to lower foes’ save DCs, similar to Demoralize.

HalflingCRB: The Ability Boosts/Flaws work great, but the only appealing Ancestry Feats are the Halfling Luck feat chain.

HumanCRB: Easy to fit to any build. The Adapted Cantrip feat chain is a great way to get some extra spellcasting, and Multitalented can help you multiclass into other classes to expand your spellcasting.

KoboldAPG: Hard to match for sorcerers with the Arcane spell list, the Kobold gets access to innate spellcasting, can complement their cantrips with Kobold Breath, and has options like Cringe to defend them. The Kobold’s Ability Boosts are excellent, but a Constitution flaw is hard, especially when paired with 6 hit points from the Ancestry.

OrcAPG: The Orc is too locked into melee combat.

RatfolkAPG: The Ratfolk makes a passable sorcerer, but all the things that make the Ratfolk appealing for the Sorcerer can be done better by the Gnome.

TenguAPG: The Tengu’s two Ability Boosts work fine, but your feat options are very limited. I recommend the Skyborn Tengu heritage, Storm’s Lash, and Soaring Flight as go-to options, but you may want to take Adopted Ancestry to broaden your options.

Backgrounds

All that you need from your background is Charisma, and since every background includes a Free Ability Boost, you can always get the Chasrima boost. Look for backgrounds with useful skills or which get you a skill feat that you had your eyes on.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

  • Barrister
  • Emissary
  • Gambler
  • Merchant
  • Noble
  • Warrior

Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

  • Acrobatics (Dex): Surprisingly important because it’s used for maneuvering while flying.
    • Cat Fall: Being knocked prone while flying is an easy way to counter flying creatures, and enemies can do it just as easily to you as you can do it to them. Cat Fall will reduce the effective distance you’ve fallen, allowing you to take less damage from a fall. However, the effects of Cat Fall scale based on your Proficiency level, so it may not be worth the skill feat unless you plan to increase your proficiency in Acrobatics.
  • Arcana (Int): An essential knowledge skill, and it makes sense that the Sorcerer would be proficient, but without high Intelligence you may not be very effective with it.
    • Arcane Sense: Getting Detect Magic as a regular cantrip will be both easier and more effective. If you’re having trouble fitting Detect Magic into your 5 cantrips, consider getting more as innate spells from your Ancestry or take the Cantrip Expansion class feat.
  • Athletics (Str): You have little use for Athletics. Most problems which you might be forced to solved with Athletics can be solved with spells.
  • Crafting (Int): You don’t have the Intelligence to thrive with Crafting, and you won’t depend enough on items that require repair to make Crafting necessary.
  • Deception (Cha): An essential Face skill.
    • Lie to MeCRB: The Sorcerer’s Perception progression is bad, so Lie to Me will make you much harder to lie to.
  • Diplomacy (Cha): The king of Face skills.
  • Intimidation (Cha): An important Face skill, and Demoralize is very appealing in combat.
    • Battlecry: Demoralize for free when combat starts. It might not be a good option if you’re hiding, but otherwise it’s a free debuff at the beginning of every fight.
    • Intimidating GlareCRB: A frustratingly large number of enemies won’t understand Common, so removing the Auditory trait makes Demoralize much easier to use.
    • Terrified Retreat: Counting on a critical success is hard, but if your Charisma is very high it might work.
    • Scare to Death: Spend one Action to pick out the creature in the room the lowest Will save and kill them or send them fleeing. Repeat until the room is cleared. At this point you only need weapons for things that are strong enough to threaten your whole party on their own, and even then this can still replace the Demoralize action almost entirely.
  • Lore (Int): Lore skills are too vague and too numerous, and you likely don’t have enough skills to throw about to justify going beyond Trained.
  • Medicine (Wis): You don’t have the Wisdom to make Medicine appealing, and you don’t have the abundance of skills to make it effective. If you need healing, you’ll need to do it magically. Someone in your party should be good at Medicine, but it likely shouldn’t be you.
  • Nature (Wis): A helpful knowledge skill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Wisdom to back it up.
  • Occultism (Int): A helpful knowledge skill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Intelligence to back it up.
  • Performance (Cha): Too situational.
  • Religion (Wis): A helpful knowledge skill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Wisdom to back it up.
  • Society (Int): A helpful knowledge skill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Intelligence to back it up.
  • Stealth (Dex): The Sorcerer isn’t built to be a Scout, but using Stealth can keep attention away from you and your small pool of hit points, and with poor Perception you may find that Stealth is a better option for Initiative.
  • Survival (Wis): Too situational.
  • Thievery (Dex): Solve these problems with magic, or leave it to someone who focuses on Dexterity.

General Skill Feats

  • Recognize Spell: Helpful if you have the skills to back it up, but you won’t be as capable with knowledge skills as a wizard, so this won’t be as reliable.
    • Quick Recognition: Using a Free Action means that you can identify spells multiple time between turns, which is crucial against multiple enemy spellcasters or if you need your Reaction for something else.

Feats

sorcerer Feats

1st Level

  • Ancestral Blood MagicAPG: For ancestries which provide abundant access to leveled spells, this can be very effective. But unless you’re planning to spend your Ancestry Feats on spellcasting to the exclusion of anything else, I don’t think that you’re going to get much use out of this, and even then it may be difficult to benefit from this feat often enough to justify the cost. The Kobold is a good example of an Ancestry which would do well with this feat, but even then I’m not sure that the benefits are worth the feat. This eventually gets you access to Ancestral Mage, which will allow you to expand your spell repertoire a bit, but it’s still dependent on your pouring Ancestry Feats into innate spells.
  • CounterspellCRB: Countering enemy spells is great, but you need to have that same spell prepared just to have the opportunity. It’s hard enough when you have a spell repertoire and can burn an appropriate spell slot, but when you’re a prepared caster your ability to counter spells drops precipitously as you go through the day casting spells.
  • Dangerous SorceryCRB: Essential for blasters. This is a small damage boost per spell, but the total damage over the course of your career will be considerable. Spellcasters not planning to focus on blasting likely won’t get enough out of this to justify the feat, and even blasts might wait a few levels since you’ll have so few spell slots at low levels.
  • FamiliarCRB: Familiars are really good. For help with your familiar, see my Practical Guide to Familiars.
  • Reach SpellCRB: Wonderful if you like touch spells, but there aren’t enough touch spells to justify the feat when you can choose Familiar and use the Spell Delivery ability to accomplish the same thing.
  • Widen SpellCRB: Essential for blasters. Even a minor boost could mean one or two additional targets with a single spell, which can dramatically improve how much you get out of your spell slots.

2nd Level

  • Anoint Ally: Potentially useful for bloodlines which get a benefit which they can’t use to great effect or for bloodlines which provide things like an AC bonus which will be more useful on your party’s Defender. The 1-minute duration will theoretically limit you to using this as-needed in combat, but since there’s no usage limitation you can repeatedly apply the rune while you move through dangerous areas so that you have it running when combat starts.
  • Cantrip ExpansionCRB: You only get to prepare 5 cantrips, and at low levels that’s not a lot of options when you only have a few spell slots to throw around. At higher levels you might retrain this when you’ve got more leveled spells to rely on.
  • Enhanced FamiliarCRB: Familiars are really good, and expanding their limited number of abilities can make them even better. For advice on what to do with the extra abilities, see my Practical Guide to Familiars.
  • Entreat With ForebearsAPG: The utility of this feat varies wildly depending on your choice of bloodline and on the campaign you’re playing. In a best-case scenario, you might get these bonuses frequently so the +1 bonus will be worthwhile, but if you can’t guarantee that this will be frequently useful I recommend skipping this feat.

4th Level

  • Arcane EvolutionCRB: (Bloodline with Arcane Spell List) The wording of this feat is brief and precise, but it may be difficult to grasp exactly how it works until you’ve got your head around your Spell Repertoire, your Signature Spells, and how the two features work together. The feat gives you a spellbook as its first function, and in addition after completing your daily preperations you pick one spell in your spellbook and gain one of two benefits.

    The spellbook itself works much like the Wizard’s. As you gain levels and add more spells to your Spell Repertoire, they’re added to the spellbook for free. In addition, you can use the Occultism skill to add additional spells to your spellbook. Just like the Wizard, you need to add the spell at each spell level that you want to be able to cast that spell. For example: If you wanted to add False Life to your spellbook, you could use the Occultism skill and the “Learn a Spell” activity. This spell is not added to your Spell Repertoire when you learn it this way.

    Once you have spells in your spellbook, during your daily preparations you can pick on spell in the spellbook and gain one of two benefits. If the spell is already in your Spell Repertoire, it becomes a Signature Spell for you for the day. This allows you to Heighten the spell without knowing the spell multiple times at different spell levels. For example: If you has False Life in your Spell Repertoire as a 1st-level spell, you could select it from your spellbook and it would become a Signature Spell. This would then allow you to Heighten it to any level of spell which you can cast.

    If you instead choose a spell which is in your spellbook but not in your Spell Repertoire, you add the spell to your Spell Repertoire for the day, effectively learning one extra spell. For example: If you added False Life to your spellbook as a 2nd-level spell and did not also have it in your Spell Repertoire, then selected that spell from your spellbook, you would be able to spend spell slots to cast False Life as a 2nd-leve spell.

    Oh, and you become Trained in one skill.

  • Bespell WeaponCRB: This would be a decent feat on a gish character, but sorcerers get no meaningful capability with weapons, so they have no meaningful way to make this useful. You might use this in multiclass builds, but spending a spell slot to activate it for just 1d6 damage will become both expensive and ineffective as your level advances.
  • Divine EvolutionCRB: (Bloodline with Divine Spell List) If you’re going to heal someone in combat, you need the Action cost to be justified, which means that you’re going to use a high-level spell slot. This removes that cost once per day. You won’t be able to match the capabilities of a high-Charisma cleric, but this is still a decent source of healing.
  • Elaborate FlourishAPG: Too situational and the Action cost is too high. Most enemies won’t be able to identify your spells, and even when they can they may not have a specific way to apply that knowledge. If you want something similar and less costly, consider the Bizarre Magic skill feat.
  • Occult EvolutionCRB: (Bloodline with Occult Spell List) The flexibility offered by this feat is enticing, but remember that it’s limited to mental occult spells, which means spells that are on the Occult spell list and have the “Mental” trait. There are several such spells, generally from the Enchantment or Illusions schools, though there are some other options like Bane and Bless. Occult Evolution is great for getting access to situational spells within those narrow restrictions, somewhat expandng your spell options beyond the usual confines of a Spell Repertoire.
  • Primal EvolutionCRB: (Bloodline with Primal Spell List) Summon spells are reasonably effective, but since they only last a minute and they’re Sustained, they’re costly to cast. Giving you a free spell slot and your choice of two sets of creatures offers an easy, reliable option in most combat situations.
  • Split ShotAPG: Unless you have some external damage boost which isn’t going to be split by Split Shot, there is rarely a reason to use this. It’s much more effective to use the qualifying spells to focus on a single target and eliminate them before switching targets.

6th Level

  • Advanced BloodlineCRB: Another Focus Spell and another Focus Point. The Focus Point is universally good, but how good Advanced Bloodline is will depend on your bloodline.
  • Diverting VortexAPG: Raise a Shield provides double the bonus at the same Action cost (though it’s a different bonus type, which matters sometimes), doesn’t require you to cast a leveled spell to have the option to use it, and applies to all attacks rather than just some ranged attacks (Diverting Vortex doesn’t work against spell attacks). Sure, maybe Bulk is a problem so you’re using a buckler and only getting a +1 bonus, but at that point consider casting the Shield cantrip. Situations where Diverting Vortex is a better option than a physical shield or the Shield cantrip are basically non-existent.
  • Energetic ResonanceAPG: Too situational, too costly, and not effective enough to justify the cost. Use that same spell slot to make the caster regret their life choices on your next turn.
  • Spell RelayAPG: In the right party, this can be very effective. If you have one or two other spellcasters, this can dramatically simplify positioning for your party by allowing your allies to cast spells from either of two places.

    This is especially exciting for multiclass builds who are primarily built for front-line melee combat. Imagine this spell on a Champion with an allied spellcaster who has powerful spells with Touch range or spells that have an Emanation as their area of effect. Casting those spells from a safe distance (you’ll need to be within Touch range of the Champion in this example, but that’s not necessarily within Touch range of your enemies) makes those spells much more appealing since they’re not so risky to cast.

  • Steady SpellcastingCRB: The Flat Check is too difficult to make this feat an easy choice. You have a success rate of just 30%. If you’re in a situation where you might lose a spell, cast a cantrip so that losing it won’t cost you anything.

8th Level

  • Bloodline ResistanceCRB: Spells and magic effects, when taken together, are very common. A +1 Status bonus isn’t much, but it will apply freqently and at no further cost.
  • Crossblooded EvolutionCRB: Most bloodlines will have some spells which aren’t great, and the ability to trade one for one from another bloodline allows you to replace the worst spells on your bloodline’s spell list or to replace spells which have become obsolete as you gain levels.

    Unfortunately, if you want to change the spell level at which you use Crossblooded Evolution, you’ll need to do it in two steps. If you have a crossblooded spell, you must first retrain it back to your own bloodline spell list. You can then retrain again to get a crossblooded spell of a different spell level.

  • Safeguard SpellAPG: This is obviously tempting for blasters, but the effects go far beyond dropping a fireball on your own feat. You are not affected by the spell for the entirety of the spell’s effects. If you drop an area control spell, you’re free to walk through its affects unhindered. It’s not clear how this works with things like Fog Cloud (are you somehow visible to everyone? can you see through the fog?), so talk to your GM about how to handle those situations before you take this feat.
  • SoulsightAPG: An excellent counter to stealth, invisiblity, and a bunch of other sneaky but less-common things like Project Image. You’re a sorcerer, so once you find creatures you’re well-equipped to drop AOE spells on them rather than suffering through a series of ill-concieved checks to Seek the creature.

10th Level

  • Ancestral MageAPG: If you’re investing a lot of feats to make Ancestral Blood Magic work, this is a huge asset. Your innate spells can offer access to powerful spells outside of your spell list, diversifying your spellcasting options considerably. More spells in your Spell Repertoire also helps address the biggest limitation of Spell Repertoires.
  • Energy FusionAPG: The additional damage is far too small to use this on instantaneous damage spells like Fireball, which are also the most obvious use case. Let’s say that you cast Fireball at 3rd level, dealing 6d6 damage. You decide that you want some extra damage, and you know Lightning Bolt at 3rd level. You spend an Action and a 3rd-level spell slot to add 3 damage to your fireball. Sure, the damage applies to all of the targets, but if you can’t get more than 3 damage per target out of that same spell slot you’re not trying hard enough.

    This might be worthwhile for certain area control spells like Wall of Fire and ongoing spells like Flaming Sphere, as it appears that the damage applies to each damage roll. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many of those spells, and even for the ones that qualify it’s almost certainly more effective to use the spell slot to case a spell.

  • Energy WardAPG: Not a ton of damage resistance, but it’s still useful and the Action cost is basically free. Unfortunately, creatures which deal energy damage are frequently resistant or immune to whatever damage they deal (e.g. red dragons and fire damage), so this is most useful against enemies who can deal multiple types of energy damage, such as other spellcasters.
  • Greater BloodlineCRB: Your final Focus Spell and your third Focus Point. It’s usefulness depends on your bloodline.
  • Overwhelming EnergyCRB: Crucial for blasters, but you can always change tactics and cast spells which don’t deal energy damage.
  • Quickened CastingCRB: Even though it’s only once per day, this is still really good. Most spells have a 2-Action casting time, so getting two spells out in a single turn means that you’re doing the most important part of two turns in a single turn.
  • Signature Spell ExpansionAPG: Signature Spells are a huge asset and you get very few of them. This allows a great deal of additional flexibility, allowing you to more easily capitalize on low-level spells which scale well like Heal and Fireball, leaving more room in your spell list for spells which are less consistently important.

12th Level

  • Blood Component SubstitutionAPG: Too situational. Even without the hit point cost, this isn’t useful often enough to justify such a high-level feat.
  • Bloodline FocusCRB: If you’re relying on Focus Points in any significant way, you need this. The rules for Refocus are written specifically so that you can’t Refocus multiple times in succession: After you regain a Focus Point by any means, you must spend a Focus Point again before you can Refocus. So: If you have a Focus Pool larger than one point, you almost certainly need this feat.
  • Greater Physical EvolutionAPG (Arcane or Primal): Effectively makes polymorph spells which grant you a battle form into signature spells. Polymorph spells can be very powerful, but you generally need to cast them with your highest-level spell slot to be consistently effective, so making them signature spells guarantees that you can use the best spell slot available at any given moment.
  • Greater Spiritual EvolutionAPG (Divine or Occult): Too situational unless you’re in a game which features ethereal creatures or haunts frequently.
  • Magic SenseCRB: Situational. In most situations, you can rely on casting Detect Magic normally. It’s a cantrip.

14th Level

  • Consume SpellAPG: Too situational and the effect is too small.
  • Interweave DispelCRB: Situational. The vast majority of enemies won’t have ongoing magic effects which you can dispel. Against enemies who do have such spells, the Action savings is nice, but likely not enough to justify the feat.
  • Spell ShroudAPG: The effect is good if you need to defend yourself or nearby allies. The feat doesn’t list a duration and we haven’t seen errata for the Advanced Player’s Guide (as of July 5th, 2021) so it’s not clear when the effect expires. RAW you’re stuck in the shroud forever, but I imagine that it’s supposed to last one round.
  • Reflect SpellCRB: If you’re going to counter spells, you’re probably countering something offensive and dangerous enough to justify spending a spell slot to counter it. If that’s the case, turning it back on the caster is really great. This doesn’t fix any of the problems with Counterspell, but it makes it considerably more exciting to use.

16th Level

  • Effortless ConcentrationCRB: If you rely on spells which require you to sustain them as an Action (entirely possible at this level), this could be a free action every turn. Get a bunch of spells going, sustain two or three, then roll them into a fight and wreck things without casting more spells.
  • Greater Mental EvolutionCRB: A significant improvement to your number of known spells. Sorcerers know more spells than most other Spell Repertoire users, but since your number of spells known is the biggest limiting factor of a Spell Repertoire, improving that number is powerful.
  • Greater Vital EvolutionCRB: Realistically this means two spell slots of your highest-level spell slots. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with 10th-level spells because the rules for 10th-level spells (see Bloodline Paragon) specifically say that you can’t cast 10th-level spells with options which allow you to cast a spell without spending a spell slot.
  • Scintillating SpellAPG: There are a ton of excellent spells which qualify for this, including cantrips like Electric Arc. Dazzled imposes a 20% miss chance (see the Concealed condition), and if you get lucky and blind your target(s) you’re at a massive advantage.
  • Terraforming SpellAPG: Situational. You might be able to use this effectively in conjunction with polymorph spells which give you a combat form, but otherwise you’re just leaving a donut of difficult terrain in some random spot.

18th Level

  • Bloodline WellspringCRB: If you’re relying heavily on your Focus Spells, this is essential.
  • Echoing SpellAPG: Similar to Bloodline Conduit, but less flexible. The obvious use case for this is to cast an echoing version of some combat spell like Fireball or something, but be sure that you’re using a spell which will still be tactically effective on the next turn or you may find that you’re chosing to fireball your party or let the echo go to waste. Also be cautious about spells which must be Sustained since they’ll eat into your Actions severely.
  • Greater Crossblooded EvolutionCRB: Trade some of your own bloodline spells for the best options from other spell lists. Three is fully a third of your bloodline spell list, so this is a ton of flexibility, and you’ll want to spend some time exploring other spell lists to see what your options are.

20th Level

  • Bloodline ConduitCRB: Out of combat, you can use this to cast Heal or similar spells to heal yourself and your allies. This also turns your spells at 5th-level and below into a bottomless well of utility. Given a few minutes and a diverse Spell Repertoire, there are few problems that you can’t solve at almost no cost. This isn’t as flashy or exciting as a 10th-level spell slot, and it won’t be so effective in combat, but the ability to cast spells of up to 5th level at functionally no cost makes you incomparably powerful anywhere outside of the narrow confines of combat.

    In combat, a free 5th-level slot once per minute likely only matters once per encounter, but a 5th-level fireball is still a decent source of AOE damage even at high levels.

  • Bloodline MutationAPG: You can get the same benefits from spells when you need them.
  • Bloodline PerfectionCRB: The coolest thing you will ever do is to cast a 10th-level spell. You get one slot, so this doubles how many times you can do the coolest thing your class is capable of doing.
  • Metamagic MasteryCRB: Really tempting, but there just aren’t enough good metamagic feats to make this worthwhile.

General Feats

  • Adopted AncestryCRB: Numerous Ancestries offer access to innate spellcasting, which is a great fit for the Sorcerer.
  • Armor ProficiencyCRB: The Sorcerer’s AC is awful. Each step up in armor proficiency increases your AC by 2 and reduces your reliance on Dexterity. Unfortunately you’ll never advance past Trained in the additional proficiencies, but the Sorcerer never gets past Expert in Unarmored Defense, so if you take Armor Proficiency twice you’re in medium armor with +2 more AC than any other sorcerer. Take one more feat and you’re in heavy armor with +4 AC compared to other sorcerers. If you spend all of your General Feats on armor, you can get heavy armor at level 11 (7 if you’re Human), several levels before the Sorcerer’s proficiency in Unarmored Defense advances to Expert and makes light armor unappealing.

    Of course, investing feats is expensive, and using manufactured armor means spending gold to enhance the armor. That’s very expensive compared to casting Mage Armor, but a suit of armor that’s several levels below your actual level may be well worth the cost compared to spending one of your highest-level spell slots on Mage Armor.

  • Canny AcumenCRB: Sorcerers have poor saves and poor Perception. The only problem with this feat is that you can’t take it more than once.
  • Incredible InitiativeCRB: Casting an area control spell before anyone else acts can win a fight before it begins, so rolling well on initiative is often crucial for spellcasters.
  • ToughnessCRB: Sorcerers have few hit points, so more never hurt, but you should also be working really hard to avoid being targeted by things that deal damage.

Weapons

Weapons

  • Crossbow (Any): Crossbows are expensive, you’re not very good with them, and it takes ate least one Action to load so you can’t fire them every round while casting spells in most cases. Cantrips are a much more appealing offensive option for the Sorcerer, and if you have an extra Action to spend you’ll often do better to use something like Demoralize.
  • Dagger: Your best weapon option, but do your best to never actually use it.

Armor

  • Explorer’s Clothing: Basically just a fancy outfit that you can apply magic runes to. Mage Armor is probably enough, but if you want property runes you’ll need a permanent suit of “armor”. Don’t worry about the Dexterity Cap, either; if you’re exceeding 20 Dexterity you’re probably doing something unusual.