GameBanshee Forums

Maybe this is asked before, but what's the difference between a sorcerer and a wizard?

Just like in BG. A wizard must learn his or her spells from scrolls, whilst a sorceror is allowed to choose theirs in advance. A wizard therefore can choose to learn more spells, as long as they find the appropiate scrolls that they are looking for.

mmmm, that makes me think witch one is better (at low level)
I think I'll try them both when the game comes out, and then see witch one i'll pick!

If you've done your homework, then obviously a sorc would be better at higher levels. However both would be quite vulnerable at low levels.

I tend to prefer sorcerors, they dont know much different spells but can cast them much more times a day. Wizz's however can learn from scrolls which will come in quite handy sometimes, but he has to prepare his spells which is unbelievably irritating (I play a wizz in DnD). But a wizz will obviously receive much more skill points (a wizz casts on intelligence so if you're smart you get him a high ability modifier, opposed to a sorceror who needs high charisma).
In my BG2 party I've included both, I like a magic punch and some spells come only in scrolls.

Another crucial difference between sorcerors and wizzies is that sorcerors can chose what spells to cast on the fly as the situation dictates, but a wizard must plan his selection ahead of time; if he bumps into a monster for which he has an inappropriate selection, he's screwed. If you're a patient and meticulous planner or want to try out all the possibilities of magic for an anticipated encounter, then be a wizard. If you want a feeform experience, go-as-you-like person, be a sorceror; as long as you don't screw up your selection of known spells as you level-up, you should be able to handle any surprise.

Originally posted by Johnny
Another crucial difference between sorcerors and wizzies is that sorcerors can chose what spells to cast on the fly as the situation dictates, but a wizard must plan his selection ahead of time; if he bumps into a monster for which he has an inappropriate selection, he's screwed. <snip>

So would a sorcerer that have concentrated on "fire spells" when he incounters a fire-immune monster

Both Wizard and Sorcerer have to do their bit of planning. The Sorcerer when he levels up and gets to choose new spells, the Wizard when he prepares his spells for the day. A Sorcerer with the right selection of spells has an advantage over a Wizard, since he can decide on the spot which spell to cast. A Sorcerer with a wrong selection, on the other hand, is hampered for life. Because of this, in my humble opinion, Sorcerers are better suited for experienced players that know which spells to pick.

Sorcerers get more spells, but Wizards get more powerful spells sooner and have loads of metamagic (not sure if that's in NWN).

From my experience, the most important thing for a sorcerer is to pick the spells right, in such a way that he is prepared for any possible situation coming his way. Once the sorcerer chooses his spells right he's a much more versatile character than the wizard. Of course, he can screw his spells when he picks them (once and for all ) just as well as a wizard can choose to memorize the wrong spells for the coming day.

I read somewhere that the extra power the sorcerer can have will be balanced by the bigger number of feats the wizard can choose. But, as someone said, from a role playing point of view, being able to use any spell you know at any time is a great advantage.

Sorcerer also gets to adjust spells using metamagic feats on the fly.

crappy thing about them is they gain new spells VERY slowly compared to wizards and are capped at 5 spells per level which sucked in bg2 and will probably suck even more in NwN.

Originally posted by CYzada
Sorcerer also gets to adjust spells using metamagic feats on the fly.

Yup, and that's super-usefull! There is a drawback, though... casting time is increased to a full round if metamagic is applied on the spot.

The drawback of the Sorcerers (compared to 3E) is that they can't cast lower level spells in higher level slots and there is no Heighten Spell feat. Another problem is that the spell system is quite structured: spells won't level up well, instead there are multiple spells of the same type at different leveles with different effectiveness.
Their advantage is (compared to 3E) is that only a small subset of spells are implemented, so they may not loose too many important spell types.