A beginner's guide to playing a sorcerer
Sorcerers are one of the four pure spell-casting classes in GemStone. The class is a hybrid of spiritual and elemental magic, and the only one with access to the Sorcerer Base circle. While sorcerers have an array of utility spells and skills, they mainly focus on slaying their enemies in combat, most often via warding spells, although a few maneuver spells and bolt spells are also available. Thematically, much of sorcery is tied in with necromancy and demonology.
Racial Selection
Historically in Elanthia, sorcery was largely discovered and developed by the dark elves—specifically the Faendryl—which came to prominence particularly during the Undead War. Mechanically, dark elves have an advantage, as the CS for sorcerous warding spells are influenced by both Aura and Wisdom statistical bonuses, which are the highest for this race. Thus, from both a roleplaying and mechanical perspective, it is not overly surprising that a plurality, if not a majority, of sorcerers are indeed dark elves.
However, there are many other facets to the decision, and it must be stressed that any race can make a good sorcerer. The advantage in CS is an important factor, but certainly not the only one. For example, unlike many forms of attack, CS and maneuver spell power are not penalized for low spirit (although other unrelated penalties still apply); as there are methods to trade spirit for mana, such as the class-specific sacrifice as well as the Sign of Wracking from the Council of Light, races with high spirit regeneration have a different advantage. An important point to note here is that aura bonus and spirit regeneration are anti-correlated racial properties; that is, typically the higher a race's aura bonus, the lower their spirit regeneration (see the image to the right). All other things being equal, it is not possible to have a high bonus to CS and a good spirit regeneration; the exception is forest gnomes, partly from their wisdom bonus (which has no correlation with spirit regeneration).
It is probably most pertinent to select the character's race based more on how the character will be roleplayed than the mechanics. However, the racial selection can be influenced by their respective bonuses, and certainly the statistics should be selected in accordance with the racial selection. It should also be pointed out that races vary in many other ways, such as their innate resistance to diseases and poisons, their natural encumbrance, maximum Hitpoints, different innate bonuses to TD, and so on; although these factors are certainly not irrelevant to sorcerers, they should not play a decisive role in character creation.
Below is a table of selected differences resulting from racial selection and possible offsets available to sorcerers.
| Racial bonus | Offset available from sorcery |
| Decay Timer | None. |
| Max Health | Desire not to be hit; high DS from buff spells; typically in stance guarded. Blood Burst (701) and Ensorcell (735). |
| Encumbrance Factor | Knowledge of Phase (704) and possibility to train further in Demonology. |
| Maneuver Bonus | None. |
| Target defense | Access to spiritual, elemental, and sorcerer TD buff spells. Knowledge of Corrupt Essence (703) and Limb Disruption (708). |
| Poison and Disease | Access to Disease Resistance (104), Poison Resistance (105), Undisease (113), and Unpoison (114). |
Statistics
There is a general guide on statistics for new players which is worth reading for the general points. However, more can be stated as is particular to sorcery.
(Hold over note from previous section: Although sorcerers pale in comparison to wizards in their ability to cast bolt spells, they are reasonably as good at hurling bolts as the other pure classes. As bolt AS is affected by Dexterity, this can also play a small, but not irrelevant role, in racial selection.)
Skill Selection
The selection of skills will vary somewhat by the type of path preferred by the player. Although it is possible to create a sorcerer that does not primarily rely on magic for their offensive capabilities, this is certainly not a typical approach to the profession, and its discussion will be left for more specific guides on mutant builds. As such, it is generally assumed that the sorcerer will use a runestaff along with spells for their defenses, and various spells for their offensive capabilities. For proficient runestaff use, a character should have a training including at least 8 Magical Skills per level. It is also typical that a sorcerer will quickly begin converting physical to mental Training points, so do not worry about this inevitability.
Core Skills
Below are the core skills for any standard sorcerer (trained on a per-level basis):
| # | Cost | Skill | Reasoning |
| 1x | 8/0 | Physical Fitness | Necessary to firstly attain full Hitpoints and then as one of the few defenses available to sorcerers against maneuver attacks. |
| 2x | 0/24 | Spell Research | Learning new spells, increasing CS, and various increases to spells, such as AS, DS, TD, and general power. |
| 1x | 0/4 | Harness Power | Required to gain mana. This should normally be at exactly the character's level, then giving 3 mana per rank. |
| 1x | 0/2 | Arcane Symbols | A cheap magical skill, particularly useful with Scroll Infusion (714). |
| 1x | 0/2 | Magic Item Use | A cheap magical skill, useful for using wands at low level among other uses. |
| 1x | 0/3 | Elemental Mana Control | A cheap magical skill, giving benefits to a number of sorcerer spells and sharing mana. |
| 1x | 0/3 | Spiritual Mana Control | Ibid |
| 8/38 | Total |
Note that only 7 magical skills per level are included here, but that the total number of training points allocated is not exhaustive.
Threshold Skills
Some skills only need to be trained to achieve a certain threshold. Although in certain cases the thresholds may slowly increase with time, these are anyway basic skill levels that should be attained by every sorcerer.
| # | Cost | Skill | Reasoning |
| 0, 4 or 8 | 15/0 | Armor Use | Up to 8 ranks for double leathers, 4 ranks for full leathers, or no ranks for robes. |
| 0-3 | 15/10 | Multi-Opponent Combat | Several ranks goes a long way for some crowd control spells. Also an ideal use for Adventurers Guild badges. |
| 10+ | 4/0 | Climbing | To get around the environs up to level 20-30. May depend on region. |
| 5+ | 3/0 | Swimming | To get around the environs up to level 20-30. May depend on region. |
| 10 | 0/3 | Perception | To get around the environs up to level 20-30. May depend on region. |
Additional training
The way to use the rest of the points will depend on the player.
| # | Cost | Skill | Reasoning |
| 2.5-3x | 0/32 | Spell Research | To increase Sorcerer Base CS, or learn more Minor Spiritual and/or Minor Elemental spells. |
| 2x | 9/3 | Spell Aiming | An "all or nothing" skill. Bolting (Fire Spirit (111), Web (118), Balefire (713)), Limb Disruption (708), Energy Maelstrom (710), Implosion (720). Cheap magical skill. |
| 1x | 0/3 | Perception | Creature maneuver defense, Illusions, Foraging, Popping boxes. |
| 1-2x | 0/6+ | Sorcerous Lore | 1 rank of Sorcerous Lore, Necromancy to unlock Blood Burst. Various benefits sorcerer spells. |
| 2x | 0/4 | Arcane Symbols | Longer duration for buff spells from scroll invokes. Greater ease in unlocking scrolls with Infusion. Cheap magical skill. |
| 10-40 | 0/7 | Elemental Lore | Up to 10 ranks of each lore for Dark Catalyst (719) |
| 20+ | 0/7 | Summoning | Minor benefits early on to Curse (715). Unlock the bolt for Web. Increase targets and DF for Fire Spirit. Locate Person (116) benefits. |
See Also
- Sorcerer (main article)
- New Players' Guide (a comprehensive beginner's guide for new players of any profession)
- Sorcerer Guild
- Whirlin's Sorcerer Guide
- The Art of Roleplaying in GemStone IV (guide)
- Player Guide Contest
References
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