Killing Them in One Shot: Enervation vs Mailman

[Endarire]

Intro
I recently started a campaign. The GM has encouraged us to play characters we want to play and is a master at making scenarios. (He's been at this longer than I've been alive!)

My character is a Savage Aasimar (LA0 version of the Aasimar with +2 CHA and slightly weaker racial stats - otherwise mostly the same as the Monster Manual version) Fun, Powerful Sorcerer. I'm level 1 right now, but the GM encouraged me heavily to plan my build so we all know what to expect in ages to come.

The character concept is an angel of judgment who worships Pelor, the Burning Hate. (We reflavored deities in this campaign to be about the power level of cosmic generals and generally much less powerful than the standard printed versions.) The character has gotten tired of the wickness of this plane and votes to destroy and reform it. Those with the power to decide have not fully committed themselves to the task. Thus, Antavius Fin (the character) is sent down to the prime material plane once again to provide information about the situation firsthand.

Character Mechanics
The Fun, Powerful Sorcerer is MUCH different than the PHB Sorcerer! It's more fun and more powerful, just as the title says. Basic changes from standard Sor are gaining spell levels at the same level a Wizard would; more spells known and per day than a Sor; a very small amount of daily spell swapping; actual class features; more skill points; and spiffy class features that made me not want to multiclass ASAP.

I'm curious whether HP damage or negative levels are the way to go. Mailman relies on orb of fire (often with the energy type changed), orb of force, or/and wings of flurry to deal damage and Searing Spell does guaranteed fire damage. Enervation relies on hitting things not immune to negative energy and has no guarantee to get past hostile Constructs, Undead, or death warded creatures, but has the advantage of buffing my Undead troops.

The GM has ruled that Split Ray and Chain Spell work on Mailman orbs and enervation.

Other character plans are the locate city nuke (Fell Drain version) and generally being versatile. Crowd control spells (web, grease, stinking cloud, Evard's black tentacles...) generally don't need metamagic feats to succeed. Spells that deal killing blows may.

I'm OK with having permanent minions (animate dead, planar binding, simulacrum...), but generally in small quantities due to tracking everything.

Expected Party
-Human Druid5/Planar Shepherd of Lamannia10/Druid+5 or thereabouts. A level of Contemplative after Planar Shepherd may be worthwhile. She's going Hi Welcome with a Magebred Warbeast Riding Dog animal companion to start and a Warbeast Fleshraker animal companion later.

-Whoever we hire, bribe, mind control, summon, planar bind, etc.

Notable House Rules & Assumptions
-No EXP for kills. We gain levels when the GM says so. Crafting EXP is handled by the GM.

-If it seems against the rules in the post, the GM has already permitted it.

-This is probably a high-power game, but it's also wish fulfillment. I at least have had many desires for D&D campaigns thus far that I've not been able to enact due to games dissolving or perceived party balance.

In Short
Enervation or orb (which orb?) or wings of flurty or otherwise? Why?

[Cerefel]

You get multiple spells known, so why not more than one? Which one is more effective entirely depends on what you're trying to kill. Some things have a lot of HP and few HD and some are the other way around.

[Eldariel]

Enervation is so very commonly resisted. Ray (things can have ray resistances), negative energy (a huge blanket), negative levels (few things have negative level immunity not related to negative energy immunity), spell effect (SR/antimagic field/spell immunity/etc.), etc. Meanwhile, Orb of the appropriate type (particularly Fire) can be made to even pierce immunity making it much harder to resist. It's not even a Ray so only ranged touch attack immunities work and even those can be planned around. Thus, if you only get one, Orb of Fire (plus, Burning Hate, Fire, duh). Otherwise, both.

[Zanos]

Orb of fire + searing spell with sufficient metamagic will kill pretty much anything. Enervation is going to run into immunities pretty frequently.

Also that fun, poweful sorcerer home brew is hilarious. Strictly better than a wizard, pretty much.

[Rebel7284]

I suggest Ray of Stupidity as backup for flavor reasons. Nothing like killing the opposing wizard by making him too dumb to cast.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I try to avoid doling out negative levels because I want to avoid the wightocalypse.

[Endarire]

Likely tangent ahead!

Zanos: The FPS (Fun, Powerful Sorcerer) was made because of my frustrations of Wizards getting everything good. The assumptions (first tab) say what the class is balanced around. I'm not sure how powerful it is compared to a Sor6/Incantatrix10/Archmage4, but that was a benchmark.

[Zanos]

Likely tangent ahead!

Zanos: The FPS (Fun, Powerful Sorcerer) was made because of my frustrations of Wizards getting everything good. The assumptions (first tab) say what the class is balanced around. I'm not sure how powerful it is compared to a Sor6/Incantatrix10/Archmage4, but that was a benchmark.

Yeah, the base sorcerer is obviously not as good as the wizard, but I feel like the FPS kind of flips that. On any table the FPS is allowed, it outclasses the Wizard in pretty much every scenario.

[Anthrowhale]

It's better to "specialize" in Arcane Fusion and Greater Arcane Fusion.

For example Twin GAF[Twin AF[Enervation, L1], Enervation] which pumps out 6d4 = expected 15 negative levels... not much remains a threat with a -15 to everything.

And Twin GAF[Twin AF[Orb of Fire, Lesser orb of Fire], Orb of Fire] pumps out 20d8+90d6 = 405 damage... not much remains a threat after taking that kind of damage.

Also, check out the Tome Dragon in Dragon #343. It's a decent form for polymorph (Fly 90' good) but the real win is taking Assume Supernatural Ability to get "Free Metamagic". This is like Rapid Metamagic + a variant Improved Metamagic 1 to 3 times (depending on age).

[ace rooster]

I try to avoid doling out negative levels because I want to avoid the wightocalypse.

My first thought too. Anything killed by negative levels rises as a wight about 12 seconds later, which doesn't really fit the fluff. It amused me. They are not under anybody's control, so a bit double edged at the best of times. Funny if you have hide from undead up though.