Sorcerer with FREE LA! Help me!

[Seriah]

Our DM is giving us 3 free levels to play with for races/templates. Im going to be the party blaster. Could really use some ideas what to use my LA on.

The only caveat is that I cannot be an evil character, so if i use white dragonspawn or unseelie fey, i also have to use something that removes the evil restriction.

[PrismCat21]

Tell us what level you're going to be, the materials you're allowed to use, and the basics of the world you'll be playing in.
Letting us know what you want from your character other than blaster will also help.
Without any of that, there's not much we can really do.

[Seriah]

O, sorry. We will be starting at level 4, standard WBL, almost all 3 and 3.5 books are allowed.

As far as my character build goes, im looking at incantatrix. Maybe metaphysical spellshaper as well.

[ayvango]

The only caveat is that I cannot be an evil character, so if i use white dragonspawn, i also have to use something that removes the evil restriction.

Templates does not restrict alignment, they only states typical or starting alignment. There was a famous dark elf that overcame racial alignment.

So venerable dragonwrought kobold white dragonspawn is obvious.

Since you are sorcerer and not wizard, your spell known are limited, so you could get your fly ability from the half-fey template (+2 LA) instead of spending slot to hold fly spell. Other option is to take mulhorandi divine minion of Thoth (+1 LA) for infinite out-of combat healing and flying form plus vecna-blooded to avoid scrying completely.

[Seriah]

Sorry, I forgot, the DM has also asked us to steer away from racial flight.

[Telonius]

If the LA is free, the Draconic Creature template (Races of the Dragon p. 74) is definitely worth considering at LA +1. Bonuses to two stats you care about (Con and Cha) and one that you probably dumped anyway (Str). It also opens up a whole bunch of options by making the character Dragonblooded. Practical Metamagic, in particular, can be a very nice feat for Sorcerers who qualify. If you're playing lower levels (i.e. won't get up to the level 12 that Rapid Metamagic requires) then Accelerate Metamagic is decent.

Half-Fey is another interesting one. +4 to Charisma, +2 to Dex and Wis, though -2 to Con. Immune to Enchnatment, Charm Person at will, a bunch of SLAs (very useful to a limited-list caster), a means of flight, DR/cold iron, and type changes to Fey.

Lesser Aasimar is a LA 0 version of the race, that omits the Outsider-ness but keeps the stat changes.

So, if you make a Half-Fey Draconic Aasimar, besides having a head-scratcher of a family tree, you'd get a total of +8 Charisma; Fey type; Dragonblood subtype; and a cartload of abilities.

EDIT: hadn't seen the "no flight" thing before posting. Offer to make it a flightless version; it'll still be nice.

[Seriah]

I appreciate the suggestions. Good stuff here, definitely enough to build on. TYVM everyone that responded.

[Covenant12]

Phrenic is high potency if you can counter the LA like this:Phrenic

Draconic gives +2 to both cha and con for +1 LA, plus minor bonuses.

If you are avoiding flight, phrenic, draconic lesser aasimar should be quite effective.

[chimaeraUndying]

It's a shame you're supposed to steer clear of flight, because the Wendigo template would be hilarious to have access to. You could always start cheesing Tauric and Symbiotic Creature templates, but your GM might death glare you for it.

Perhaps the Primordial Giant template (from Secrets of Xen'Drik)? You'd probably want to cheese the prereq for it somehow, since anything that "naturally" gives you the Giant type is gonna be somewhat bad for Sorcerering, but the template itself nets you +4 INT & CHA, and invisibility as a spell-like ability.

Are you just using 3.5 material, or are Pathfinder templates also available? Its got some... interesting... templates you might be able to make good use of.

[Noldoran]

If you're still looking for a base race, a Lesser Cansin (Dragon #297) might be a good choice as an alternative to Aasimar. It gives +2 Int & Cha, plus some resistances/skills and a semi-useful SLA for LA +0.

For templates, if you/your DM doesn't mind excessive stacking, you could add on Spark/Unseelie Fey for +4 Cha, among other benefits. (Both at LA+0)

An Unseelie Primordial Phrenic Half Fey Spark Half Giant would have +12 Cha, +6 Int, +0 Wis, -4 Str, -4 Con, and +2 Dex, with a whole host of other benefits. Assuming it can all be stacked like that.

Or there's always a kobold.

Edit: If you want to remove the hurt caused by -4 Con/Str, consider being animated as a Necropolitian, by a powerful necromancer in a desecrated area with an altar. Using the Corpsecrafter feat chain from Libris Mortis, you can gain a ton of benefits, including 1d12+4 hit points, +10 speed, +4 initiative, and +4 Str/Dex. (Plus more immunities.)

[Rebel7284]

The best race is still a Dragonwraught Kobold (Desert of Jungle Kobold for more Con is good). There is nothing any race can offer that beats the ability to get +1 casting progression. The potential to start older for more Cha is nice too.

I will second Phrenic, a great template that gives you some nice secondary utility and a boost to Cha. Remember that PLA's are auto-augmented to HD!

If you are allowed to use Dragon Magazine, you could consider Fire-Souled from DR314 p23. For +3 LA, you get 4 Cha and the Leadership feat! At level 4, your followers may end up being the same level as you! Once you gain a few levels, immunity to Daze makes for some really silly Celerity abuse.

Saint is an amazing template, but has somewhat awkward roleplaying requirements and possibly feat requirements.

Radiant Creature has +4 Dex, +6 Cha for +3 LA and the same immunity to Daze as Fire-Souled in addition to DR/Fast Healing and SLAs

Shadow Creature gives you Shadow Blend for +2 LA. Being completely untargetable outside of full daylight is nice.

Dark Creature has some nice bonuses if you need to fill up that +1 LA. Hide in plain sight is useful.

[Barna13]

I third Phrenic. The PLAs are quite strong and scale reasonably well, and the SR and powerful stat boosters are the icing on top. As for a +1 template to go with it, I might nominate the dark template(it's 3.0, but works pretty much perfectly with 3.5). It gives hide in plain sight(an awesome ability), +10 to speed, cold resistance 10, and +8 to hide and +6 to move silently. All in all it's a nice package if you want to supplement your sorcerer with some sneaky bonuses. If you really want to go all in on the sneaking you could play a whisper gnome, though they take a CHA hit and therefor aren't for everyone. Another option is the strongheart halfling, the small size boosting hide and the lackluster speed being made up for with the dark template.

[Inevitability]

Primordial Half-giant? Gets even better if your DM goes by the (web article) rule that the same template can be taken multiple times.

[Feantar]

O, sorry. We will be starting at level 4, standard WBL, almost all 3 and 3.5 books are allowed.

As far as my character build goes, im looking at incantatrix. Maybe metaphysical spellshaper as well.

I might just be an idiot for saying this, but has anyone noticed the OP mentioned Metaphysical Spellshaper? Because if that's in, then the 3 & 3.5 books umbrella includes third party. Wasn't there a big book of templates or somesuch?

[Nifft]

The best race is still a Dragonwraught Kobold (Desert of Jungle Kobold for more Con is good). There is nothing any race can offer that beats the ability to get +1 casting progression. The potential to start older for more Cha is nice too.

If you can get a significant portion of the relevant cheese to be legal, then Dragonwrought Kobold is probably your best base race.


Other interesting races:

- Feytouched (here) - Immunity to mind-affecting effects. All of them.

- Fire Gnome (Planar Handbook) - Caster level +2 for [Fire] spells, which is nice for a Blaster character; also a Gnome so you have access to Shadowcraft Mage at the levels where [Fire] spells stop solving your problems.

- Dream Dwarf (Races of Stone) - Caster level +1 for Divinations and [Earth] spells, plus you can see Ethereal critters (which are normally invisible).

- Nixie (SRD) - LA +3 (so no template for you) but +8 Charisma is nice, and DR 5/cold iron doesn't hurt. Nixies can't fly, but they can swim. Nixies also get SR which might scale like a Pixie's does, ask your DM about that.

[Mr Adventurer]

Spellwarped!

[ericgrau]

Starred the good ones.

Race

• death-touched: +4 cha, -2 con, +2 wis, 1 LA
• drow/umbragen elf: 2 LA, +2 int, +2 cha, +2 dex, -2 con, SR 11 + CL
• wild elf: la 0, +2 dex, -2 int, elf traits
• *whisper gnome: LA 0, small, +2 dex, +2 con, -2 str, -2 cha, 30', silence 1/day (self)
• gnome: +2 con, -2 str
• I'll 2nd fire gnome too.
• water mephling: LA 1, +2 con, +2 cha, -2 int, small, swim
• fire mephling: LA 1, [fire] spells +1 CL, +2 dex, +2 cha, -2 int
• grimlock: 2 LA, 2 HD, blindsight 40', 4 NA, scent, +4 str, +2 con, +2 dex, -2 wis, -4 cha.
• grab any outsider race for the outsider type (good for alter self/polymorph)
• *pixie: is amazing in several ways, you could ask for a flightless one maybe
• *nixie: 3 LA, small, -4 str, +6 dex, +2 int, +2 wis, +8 cha, weapon finesse, DR 5/cold iron, SR 16, swim
• half-orc, desert: +2 con, -2 int
• *water halfling: +2 dex, + 2 con, -2 str, swim, small

Template:

• half-nymph: +2 LA, +2 dex, +2 int, +2 wis, +4 cha
• radiant: +3 LA, outsider type, fast healing 2, dex+4, cha+6, DR 5/magic, ok SLAs (color spray, blur, mirror image, searing light, freedom of movement, etc.)
• * shadow creature: +3 LA, +50% move, total concealment most of the time. DR 5/magic, later +2 to saves, later evasion.
• vivacious (planar handbook) is good but has flight
• * mineral warrior: +1 LA, always one of the stongest templates even when it has nothing to do with sorc.
• * woodling: +3 LA, +7 NA, DR 5/slashing, vulnerable to fire, plant traits (ton of awesome immunities), entangle, other ok SLAs. Awesome array of defenses overall, just do something about fire.
• * fire-souled: +1 LA, leadership, +4 cha, haste 1/day, allies get +1 attack rolls and skill checks.
• * saint: +2 LA, another famous strong template but with fuzzy backstory requirements

My vote is for woodling whisper gnome. Good stats (incl +2 to ray attacks) and crazy good defenses: +9 AC (you can hit 26-27 at level 4 with ease), DR 5/slashing, +2 con, immune to most common special attacks including all mind affecting and sleep/stun/paralysis. Just get your fire protection as soon as reasonable. Though the +2 con and hardly taking HP damage from anything else helps before then. For now just a scroll or two works for the unlikely emergency. -2 cha is a small bugger but just pick spells without saves. Or do woodling water halfling to keep your cha but get 20' move speed. Also you don't sleep, so keep watch.

Or fire-souled half-nymph water halfling to pile on the cha plus other nifty bonuses. Not as useful for a blaster but nice.

Or nixie for the +4 to hit on rays, +8 cha, +4 touch AC, DR 5/lol-who-has-that and good SR (not sure if scales?). Just pick up CMW/CSW potion(s) for emergenc(y/ies).

You may want to check with your DM on power in case some are too strong for him: saint, mineral warrior, whisper gnome, water halfling, fire souled, maybe woodling. The gnome and halfling only because they're almost strictly better than their PHB counterparts. Saint and mineral warrior are the only 2 crazy ones here.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Race: Hellbred, Spirit type, Fiendish Codex II, +0 LA. An evil character who repented as he died, so after being condemned to the lower planes he was taken back to the world and given a second chance. This gives you +2 Cha, darkvision and eventually the ability to see in magical darkness, and even telepathy, among other benefits.

Template: Necropolitan, Libris Mortis. No LA, but gaining it removes a character level, so count it as one of your free levels. This puts your ECL one point below the rest of the party, so you should get more xp per encounter until you're a level ahead of them, if everyone's LA is counted when determining xp rewards, since that's how it was intended to work. If you won't eventually make up the lost level from gaining more xp per encounter, then you could say that already happened and this doesn't cost you any levels at all. After returning to the material plane he began doubting whether he could redeem himself, and decided it would be better to live forever as an undead than to be judged and possibly condemned to the lower planes again. He's not necessarily evil, and is probably still seeking redemption after all this time.

Say the person who made you a Necropolitan had Dread Necromancer 8, Wizard (Necromancer) 1 with Enhanced Undead, all of the Corpsecrafter line of feats in LM except maybe destruction retribution, and did so in the area of a Fell Energy Desecrate spell with an evil altar present. This gives you +12 hp/level, a permanent +4 enhancement bonus to Str and Dex, +2 natural armor, an extra +4 turn resistance, any natural weapons you have add +1d6 cold damage, +2 natural armor, +4 initiative, and +10 ft. land speed. These benefits require zero investment on your part.

Template: Evolved Undead, Libris Mortis, +1 LA, taken twice. You're much older than anyone realizes and you've grown in power by virtue of age alone. Each time you take this, you gain +1 natural armor, Fast Healing 3, +2 Str and Cha, and a 1/day spell-like ability chosen from a set list. The spell-like ability chosen must be one that a caster level of your current HD can cast, but spell-like abilities have no minimum caster level so you should be able to pick any of them. So taking this twice means +2 natural armor, Fast Healing 6, +4 Str and Cha, and two 1/day or one 2/day spell-like ability. If your Necropolitan template doesn't cost you a level, gain this a third time.

Also, get the venerable age adjustments: -6 Str, Dex, Con (undead are immune to penalties to their physical stats) and +3 Int, Wis, Cha.

[2gig]

I think ericgrau and some other people already recommended more powerful stuff, but a fun one I haven't seen mentioned yet is the Chaos Gnome at +1 LA. A fairly unique thing about this race is that it can boost caster levels.

+2 Dex/Con/Cha, luck reroll/day, confusion immune, other minor bonuses, and +1 to caster level on [Chaos] spells. There's not a lot of race-based ways to pump caster level. Combine this with Aligned Spellcaster ACF from Dragon Magazine #357 (p88) to add the [Chaos] descriptor to all your spells and gain additional CL bonuses vs lawful enemies, at the cost of a familiar. Then, at level 5, you can take the Domain Access ACF from Complete Champion to gain the Chaos domain power for +1 caster level. Spell Focus (Chaos) lets you pump all DCs.

Although to be honest, if the Aligned Spellcaster ACF is allowed, you're probably better off just going for Aligned Spellcaster adding [Good], pick up the Words of Creation (BoED) feat for +CL (deals small amount of non-lethal damage to you) and free Extend on Conjuration [Creation] spells. You're much more likely to get Aligned Spellcaster's built-in CL boost for good-aligned, since there are way more evil enemies than lawful ones. Then at level 5, you can take the Good domain, for +1 caster level, and it has better spells than the Chaos domain. Spell Focus (Good) to pump all DCs. Flavor win with the Saint Template, at least.